Ok more coherent thoughts now. I can already see how this ending is probably going to be divisive and to an extent I understand why. Before it aired, I wasn't keen on the idea of the show ending like this. People don't like endings where the found family go their separate ways, except that isn't really what's happening here. And I think the way they did it was perfect.
Alison has come in and completely turned these ghosts' unlives around. She's given them purpose, connections with the outside world and each other, and above all a lack of boredom. Boredom is one of the main existential challenges the ghosts face. Alison isn't abandoning them to what they had before she came - she's leaving them with the tools to actually live rather than just exist after her.
And she's not gone forever! Families don't have to live together to be family. She comes back and visit them regularly! Maybe it's just because I moved out from my parents' in the last few years and I'm back for Christmas, but her being a regular at the hotel, coming back and visiting them at least every Christmas (maybe more) was very moving to me. Just because she's moved out doesn't mean they're not still family.
Having it become a hotel is a nice bookend and I bet it's improved the ghosts' quality of unlife a lot. As I said, their biggest challenge has always been boredom. A hotel/golf course probably isn't at all boring. How many affairs do you think Julian has watched? It's perfect for them, with all the people coming and going. I bet they even stage the odd haunting for fun. A constant, varied existence is a great fate for them.
Ending the episode with the plague ghosts was PERFECT. Obviously, it was great to see them again and it was hilarious as they always are. But it struck me just how much this decision has improved their situation - they've gone from dingy cellar to sauna. And that's the analogy of how much things have improved for all the ghosts.
Change is scary. It's sad when things come to an end. But sometimes it's for the best. And an end doesn't always mean a closed door.
I had to get your attention using unrelated tags so please listen to what i have to say.
The government of Iran is now trying to make the internet "national" in the country. That means that people will not have any access to international media such as Instagram, whatsapp, Twitter, etc. They will have little to no access to articles from international websites as well.
In Iran, people already don't have any freedom, but the only thing that people could rely on was the internet. The internet and social media are their voices and their eyes. With that taken away from them, they will have no easy way of communicating and spreading the news overseas.
And when I'm saying that they will not have any access to foreign social media and the internet, I mean that it's going to get completely shut down, so VPN will not be able to help people either.
By doing this, the government is limiting Iranians freedom even more and is also hurting the business of many people whose main source of income is from social media.
Another fact that I need to state is that currently, in many of Iran's provinces, people are protesting against the government for the shortage of water in southern provinces and mostly in Khuzestan. This water shortage is harming farmers, people with livestock, and many people living in Khuzestan. It also makes the weather quality much worse than before, which means that there is going to be more air pollution and dust and sand storms. Moreover, most of the people are still not vaccinated because the government insisted on making their own vaccine, and they obviously failed, but they wasted so much money on trying to do so that now they can hardly bring good international vaccines into the country. The covid-19 situation in Iran is at its peak and is now in its fifth wave.
With these facts, you can clearly understand that people would not have gone protesting if the situation in Iran was not difficult. Police are also killing innocent people over protesting their most basic rights: water, air, and freedom.
I know that you can't do anything to help the Iranian people. However, by just being informed about the current situation in Iran and not ignoring us, you are helping us.
Please understand that most Iranian people are good people who are fighting for their freedom and understand that the dictator government and anyone who sides with it is a problem and is evil.
These are damn difficult times for all of us but please don’t be a criminal, don’t give us ignorance. Educate yourself on everything that’s happening and advocate for human rights.
YOU ARE NOT SOLELY THE REGION WHERE YOU LIVE. YOU ARE ONE OF US. YOU ARE A CITIZEN OF THE WORLD.
I’m just super fucking bitter that once the flint water crisis got it’s 15 minutes of fame people stopped giving a shit. The water is still poisoned, people! Donations have plummeted and people have been forced back into drinking and bathing with the water! The medical effects of this are astounding, cases of legionnaires disease have skyrocketed, people are having seizures, people are having weird rashes break out over their body, people (including me!) are having their blood poisoned, and it’s not just lead! it’s coliform bacteria! it’s THMs! it’s all in the water and it gets into the bloodstream and breaks down blood vessels, causing bruising and petechiae and internal bleeding and no one gives a shit anymore and it’s only gotten worse like how many people are going to have to die until people realize this is still a problem
I would like to add that the people of Flint cannot sell their houses, because selling a house with leaded water is illegal. Additionally, households with children can’t stop paying for the water because living in a house without running water is cause for CPS to take their kids. Flint has been living this way for over two years.
The people of Flint are trapped by the legal system. And it is only the most high profile case out many cities with a similar problem.
Because the government has abandoned them, they are dependant on help from the outside. Donate here
I hate _% of people statistics being used like “oh it’s such a small number” cause 1% is a small number but 1% of 7 billion is 70 million. That’s more than the population of the UK, France or Italy.
6% of the US is 19 million, as stated above. There are only 3 states that have over 19 million people in them. 19 million is the population of the entire state of New York. That’s more than half the population of California.
Taking populations and turning them into percentages is okay until you try to say “oh that’s not a lot of people” but the reality is… That’s millions. That’s enough to be its own country. That’s fucking scary.
Like don’t get me wrong, that’s nicer than the idea that Americans are split pretty 50/50 on such issues…. but that’s still 3 neo-Nazis for every Jew in the country. 6% is a nice, softened way of saying “over 1 in 20 people”.
If you haven’t seen this story, look up his name: Francisco Galicia.
Expect to see him come 2020, when the debates begin and the political battle heats up. Expect to see him in a suit testifying in court, or before Congress. This young man is a witness and a victim, and the fact that this isn’t a more prominent story on every news station is what truly frightens me.
Galicia says he lost 26 pounds during that time in a South Texas immigrant detention center because officers didn’t provide him with enough food.
He said he wasn’t allowed to shower and his skin was dry and dirty.
He and 60 other men were crammed into an overcrowded holding area where they slept on the floor and were given only aluminum-foil blankets, he said. Some men had to sleep on the restroom area floor.
Ticks bit some of the men and some were very sick, Galicia said. But many were afraid to ask to go to the doctor because CBP officers told them their stay would start over if they did, he said.
I would remind you that concentration camps are actually real.
“I told them we had rights and asked to make a phone call. But they told us, ‘You don’t have rights to anything’,” Francisco Galicia said.
You may have heard of what happened in Lebanon today and if not, basically, there was a big explosion in Beirut that affected many cities, destroyed shops, homes, cars, caused many injuries and deaths. The cause is uncertain.
As a fellow lebanese myself (that also lives there), today was absolutely terrifying, probably the scariest moments of my life. We heard a deafening sound as the floors were shaking. Some of us thought it was an attack, others thought it was an earthquake. As soon as it ended many expected a second one, which luckily never happened.
Here's a video of what happened that was sent to me, there are also many others that you can find online.
Windows were broken, doors wrecked, cars flipped over, buildings collapsed, people hit by flying or falling objects, and unfortunately, many didn't make it out alive.
We were one of the lucky ones, our families and friends were all safe and our homes were fine.
Some people couldn't even get out of the crumbling builings, so we saw corpses being pulled out, although some people survived the crash. But wherever we looked, there was blood, poeple were half covered in it, their shirts, pants, hair, everything. And that sight was traumatizing.
We watched the news with elders severely injured, children with blood-spattered shirts and people in pain that couldn't get in the hospitals because they were full.
Some people are missing. Just try to imagine the pain and fear their families and friends are feeling.
Articles about what happened, there are a lot more
Officials expect death toll to rise after huge blast rips through Lebanon's capital.
The explosion took place at the port shortly before 19:00 local time (18:00 CET) with a large cloud of smoke billowing over the city. Eyewit
Not only are we in the middle of a pandemic, but Lebanon is also going through a very serious economical crisis. To give you an example, before, $1 equaled 1 500 lebanese pounds. Nowadays, $1 equals more than 7 000 lebanese pounds. Not to mention that we obviously don't have any dollars at disposition, so yeah we're fucked.
People are hungry, homeless, unemployed. And even if they are getting paid, it'll be useless since the prices of everything went up because they were affected by the economical fiasco.
Important additional information
Today, I heard my 7 year old cousins scream in fear that they were going to die. I saw my aunt shaking, worried that her children won't survive. I saw my dad freak out while trying to reassure us when we both knew that we were uncertain about the next minutes of our lives. I heard the panic in the trembling voices of my family and friends as they couldn't believe what had just happened. I thought my loved ones and I were going to die in the next seconds.
I'm never forgetting those moments and feelings.
I don't think signing petitions will help, i don't even know if the following links will help either, I just know Lebanon and it's people are desperate for anything because the future of this country is extremely uncertain.
https://helplebanonnow.carrd.co/
How can you help?
https://lebanoncrisis.carrd.co/
Lebanon Needs You More Than Ever. Know more about the crisis in Lebanon, sign petitions, donate or explore volunteering opportunities.
Help families, domestic workers, and refugees in Lebanon with food and other basic needs during this economic and public health crisis
I think donating to the red cross would be the most helpful, so if you are considering it, it'd be great.
There are so many great threads on twitter about what you can do to help, just search help lebanon or something to find them. Also if you can, please donate, and as I said, the lebanese pound is pretty much worthless currently so USD is way more useful to us.
and you know what the fucking bullshit is they’re replacing it with a ~6 months free of a subscription to a third party captions provider~ which of course you’d have to pay for after those 6 months are up and you KNOW random youtuber #9039 isn’t going to bother to keep paying for that either because they won’t have the money or they just won’t care. and youtube’s going to act like that’s a perfectly fine alternative that won’t result in the majority of the site suddenly going from “more or less accessible” to “Fuck You If You’re Disabled”
“citing low usage” are you fucking kidding me nearly every worthwhile video i watch uses community captions. sometimes they’re kind of janky cuz they were made by some 14 year old who thought it’d be funny to put their own irrelevant jokes and commentary in there but that wasn’t a reason to ditch the feature entirely when its so useful and important
i’m not even hard of hearing and i rely on them to watch videos in other languages…this is literally how people have been making english subs for japanese songs and the like for years and it was great because you didn’t have to reupload the videos yourself and take away views from the original creators. many creators don’t allow reprints of their work whatsoever so if they go through with this (which unfortunately they seem pretty deadset on because lololol moneyyyyyy) it’s entirely likely that there just won’t be a way to watch that content with captions
there’s a petition to keep community captions…i don’t know if it’ll really do anything since they’re already going ~oh but we have Paid Alternatives!~ but don’t just let this pass by this should be a huge deal but i’ve barely seen anyone talking about it (not that i expect people to talk about things of any particular importance on tumblr but it’s not even getting attention on twitter beyond that one thread and like 2 other posts)
so like. sign this and shit don’t let youtube just actively get rid of accessibility features without anyone caring (though i’d say probably use twitter if you want to actually get their attention i don’t think they’d look here) http://chng.it/LN9HRNmnkg
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