EmJ @aureamediocritasorsmt - Tumblr Blog

Cities have largely lost the power to say yes to construction. To prevent officials from acting against the public interest, we have drained them of the power to act in the public interest. Every decision can be appealed, every complaint must be heard, every objection weighed. We are so committed to fairness that we have lost sight of the unfairness of doing nothing.

captainjonnitkessler

"But isn't it okay if people are spreading conspiracy theories about data centers as long as it gets them fired up about billionaires or the environment? Can't you just let people enjoy harmless entertainment like astrology? Does it really matter if people are using homeopathy or chiropractors as long as they're happy? Isn't it rude to call out people whose religious beliefs are obviously disproved by science because it's their faith? What's the problem with people believing in ghosts and aliens even if they have no evidence?"

How many woo-woo-to-fascism pipelines do we have to create before we accept that any system in which we agree to prioritize what makes people feel good and comfortable over objective, observable reality is inherently prone to radicalization. How many times are we going to act shocked that people who refuse to accept scientific evidence in regards to crystal energy and repressed memories then move on to refusing to accept scientific evidence in regards to vaccines and chemotherapy. How many times are we going to hold people's hands and tell them of COURSE it's okay to believe things just because they Feel Right and not because you have even a shred of evidence and then act shocked when they start believing the people who tell them that all their problems are caused by minorities?

Everyone start developing basic epistemological consistency right fucking now, I am no longer asking

kendymaycry

taking the opportunity to be the person who cares in an uncaring world is sooooo valuable like I know it’s cringe and fail and embarrassing to be compassionate and tell someone you can clearly tell is having a hard time that you hope things get better for them but i personally would rather be that over unaffected and aloof and cold….that’s just me tho….

theropoda

everytime someone says "humanity is destroying earth" an oil company ceo is leaning back in his chair in his high rise office building laughing his ass off saying "all according to plan". Just remember this

metanarrates

the slow casual creep of misogyny back into every point of our lives both digital and physical is making me feel fucking insane

hystericwaif

martindykewood

not to sound like a christian facebook mom but some of yall need to have grace in your hearts for the people in your lives or the people you pass once on the road and never see again like you literally need to stop assuming the worst of everyone and their intentions it is poisoning your brain. you can be careful and responsible without being a miserable person. it is possible i promise

quasi-normalcy

Remember today's lesson: whining alone solves nothing but whining en masse can solve a great deal

shakespearesdaughters

captainjonnitkessler

Starting to think that decades of media in which the Scrappy Young Protagonist single-handedly defeats the evil empire just by winning a physical fight against the dread emperor has done real damage to people's perception of oppressive systems of power

dykeselfcest

the real “problem with political correctness” is not that it’s considered offensive to use slurs, but that there are now many “progressive” environments where saying the right things is more important than doing the right thing. it’s why it’s so easy for abusers to gain traction in leftist circles (they learn the right words quickly and employ them to frame their own behavior as progressive); it’s why so much potential activist energy gets poured into fighting about language; it’s why moderate liberals didn’t believe fer/guson had a problem until the police emails with actual racist language were leaked. (you can do racist things, you just can’t SAY racist things.) i don’t have a neat conclusion here but a related point is that i’m so much happier since i started focusing on like, being a good kind caring person instead of trying to remove the word “crazy” from the vocabulary of everyone in my family

1dietcokeinacan

Just saying this is truly one of the best “discourse” posts on this site like……this hits the nail directly on the head re: what is going on with language right now and everyone pushing back in the notes only serves to further prove the point it’s making

free-my-mindd

Forgive yourself

oldgayjew

Very wise words ...

marvelsmostwanted

Turn this one up loud

antigoneprogone

Something I think is fascinating about Fargo is that Steve Buscemi is a woman in it. I know it's easy to read that and kind of chuckle and move on, but I'm not joking. I'm not saying this in a quirky tumblrina old man babygirl way. I think it's an actual, purposeful choice by the Coen Brothers.

Gaear hates Carl because he never shuts up. He's gabby. He's chatty. Peter Stormare's character is the silent, stoic, macho man, and Steve Buscemi is the opposite of that. People only remember Steve Buscemi for his looks. He's funny looking. He doesn't have much physical beauty to offer and is thus unmemorable. Shep comes and kicks the shit out of him and he doesn't fight back. He's defenseless. He's the battered wife, not the agitator. By the time the climax rolls around, he's shrieking while non-fatally bleeding in a very conspicuous way. And, in the end, just like he killed Jean for being a nuisance, Gaear kills him because he feels the need to control him entirely, just how he felt about her.

I've seen some people question why the whole thing with Mike Yanagita is in the movie, and this is why. Fargo is a fundamentally feminist movie. Look at Jerry's character in the movie, and then look at Marge. Jerry is trying to operate in the patriarchy and he isn't being given his birthright because he is a fucking loser. He therefore plays around with his wife's life in the same way he plays around with cars and loans that may or may not exist, because he views his wife's life as precisely that: his property. He may have loved Jean, but at the end of the day, where she lives or die is every bit his call. Even if he can't be upwardly mobile in the social class, he can still maintain dominion over his family.

Enter Marge. Marge doesn't arrive until 20 or 30 minutes into the movie. Did you know that? It's easy to forget, because from the very second Marge Gunderson steps onto the screen, it's her movie. She has top billing in Fargo. She is the breadwinner of the house. Her husband takes her calls and cooks and keeps house, and he paints birds in their spare time. She has earned the respect of everyone at the precinct, and yes, ACAB, ACAB, ACAB, but this is essentially a fairy tale, so it's allowed.

When the two clash, it's like oil and water; William H. Macy is wilting in the presence of Frances McDormand. He is dissolving. And still, he tries to cut her off and undermine her and weasel his way out of interviews, and he looks like the most pathetic man on Earth in doing so. He is imperceivable as anything except a coward. One of the most striking moments in the film, if you're watching it in a feminist headspace, is when they finally catch Jerry and he's alone and half-dressed and crying and writhing in a filthy motel room, and it immediately cuts to Marge in bed with her husband. Oil and water! It doesn't matter who does what. She has a "man's job" and protects her husband and he has a "woman's job" and quietly works alone at home, and neither one "has" to be a "man" or a "woman". They can be themselves, and they're in love, and they've risen to the top.

And this is why Steve Buscemi is so fascinating! Because he's the proof that "woman" is not a biological definition but is a social status! He's everything men hate about women, but he has a mustache and a penis and a gun, and it's not enough. They smell him out in the water. The Coen Brothers would never in a million years have put both this and the Marge/Jerry parallels in on accident. It's a movie about cops and robbers and killers up in the Badlands, sure, but it's a movie about women.

scarliefrancis

There's more to life than a little money, you know? Don't you know that?

Frances McDormand as Marge Gunderson in Fargo (1996) dir. Joel Coen

aureamediocritasorsmt

leviathan-supersystem

internet politics and real-world politics have gotten so separated, and pretty soon all this internet weirdness is gonna come crashing into real life and politicians are gonna start throwing around words like “SJW” and “anime communist” and “dark enlightenment” and it’s just gonna be the most ridiculous fucking thing