Foster Theory

[black-sasuke]

Very relevant for the tumblr leftist crowd

[black-sasuke]

!!!!

[fostertheory]

One of the US' most significant exports is culture, and anti-blackness is very much a part of that. Those in other countries who are concerned about outsized US influence should scrutinize their cultures for such anti-blackness.

[black-sasuke]

I will be so honest antiblackness inception was before the creation of America there was many books by Europeans, and other groups who wrote famously of how low and animal they thought of Africans, many of these readings were quite popular and spread to every country you can think of as “knowledge “ of Africans. So that combined with the colonization and inescapable European influence it couldn’t be more silly to act like any country isn’t corrupted by antiblack thought and structure

[fostertheory]

This is also true.

[sometiktoksarevalid]

[fruitcakebro]

Holy moly they're GOOD. The music is fucking FIRE, and the outfits??? They're all so PRETTY???

[snoodly-boop]

Does anybody know who these are??? Do they have albums!! 🤩🤩🤩

[raspberryslut]

I was so curious that I had to go find this band. They're called Fortress Dwellers and they have a website with all of their socials!

They released an album too! I don't think this song is on it but the rest of their stuff is SO GOOD !!

MUSIC | Fortress Dwellers

Step into the fantasy world of Fortress Dwellers. A fantasy Renaissance musical collective blending epic original music, immersive performan

[fostertheory]

The song appears to be entitled "I'll Take Your Soul". My guess is that they are doing a cover, since there are many, many shorts on their YouTube page of them showing a segment of them performing the song live. But as the previous poster noted, there's no video of them performing it all the way through. I couldn't find who the original artist was, though.

I did find this, which you may also enjoy:

[fostertheory]

I spoke too soon. It would seem the song is called McFerrin. Here is a complete performance, starting at 3:51.

[fostertheory]

It turns out they are siblings!

Sibling Group Unites Music and Swordplay at Renaissance Festivals Nationwide

‘The Fortress Dwellers’ are taking Renaissance fairs by storm—blending powerful harmonies, faith, and swordplay.

[byjove]

it’s really interesting how the guys that fight against paying child support the hardest are the ones that could afford to do it. these dudes will quit their well paying salaried job with benefits just to avoid their pay getting docked and potentially going to reimburse the mother of their child for buying their kid new shoes. they’ll leave their child without health insurance and work under the table jobs because they really hate their child and former S/O that much.

[earhartsease]

men who have been conditioned to believe that having kids and caring for them is somehow emasculating

[byjove]

they swear it is a man’s role to provide and protect but they’re going out of their way to deprive and endanger

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

They believe that their role is to provide and protect the ones they choose to; it's not a responsibility (though they'll frame it like it is to sound better), but a power that they hold over others. Child support is emasculating because they see it as being forced to provide for someone who isn't "theirs" any more. They don't see it as supporting a child that they have ongoing responsibility for because they believe that they should have the right to withdraw that responsibility at any time, that unconditional responsibility for a child is the woman's role. They see it as being financially cucked.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

#these men like the power that being a provider gives#they like the idea that you are dependent on them and that they could take it away from you at any moment#but mandatory child support doesn't really give you that choice or any power over the child/ex#you can't leverage it the same way to get what you want

[wholeheartedsuggestions]

reblog to reassure the next person who reads this that everything is going to be okay and it’s all going to get easier soon

[fostertheory]

There will be better days.

[normal-with-adhd-is-a-joke]

Conservative beauty standards are back with a vengeance which means it's especially important to go out this summer with bellies out and bodies unshaved. Also be unapologetically disabled with mobility aids and wearable medical devices and stim toys and ear defenders and all that stuff. You need it. People need to see it. Everyone needs to be reminded that life is unquestioningly more enjoyable when you're not living inside an arbitrary set of rules created by people who are offended by all the wrong things.

[sometiktoksarevalid]

[fruitcakebro]

Holy moly they're GOOD. The music is fucking FIRE, and the outfits??? They're all so PRETTY???

[snoodly-boop]

Does anybody know who these are??? Do they have albums!! 🤩🤩🤩

[raspberryslut]

I was so curious that I had to go find this band. They're called Fortress Dwellers and they have a website with all of their socials!

They released an album too! I don't think this song is on it but the rest of their stuff is SO GOOD !!

MUSIC | Fortress Dwellers

Step into the fantasy world of Fortress Dwellers. A fantasy Renaissance musical collective blending epic original music, immersive performan

[fostertheory]

The song appears to be entitled "I'll Take Your Soul". My guess is that they are doing a cover, since there are many, many shorts on their YouTube page of them showing a segment of them performing the song live. But as the previous poster noted, there's no video of them performing it all the way through. I couldn't find who the original artist was, though.

I did find this, which you may also enjoy:

[fostertheory]

I spoke too soon. It would seem the song is called McFerrin. Here is a complete performance, starting at 3:51.

[classicslesbianopinions]

it is like. i am deliberately not posting that much about the nolan odyssey because i don't have much genuine interest and i find the whole like outrage theater people do at adaptations to be exhausting and unproductive and often misguided + i don't really care what celebrities are doing. but zendaya's 3000-year-old iranian earrings are like. such an on-the-nose fuck you. like 1. you can practically feel the stylist going "oh, it's old, it must be on-theme!" without really considering that ancient cultures are not interchangeable. but also 2. there's a very clear and important difference between ancient greece and ancient iran, in that there's a reason zendaya isn't wearing ancient greek artifacts on her ears--ancient greece has a cultural cachet that ancient iran does not, by virtue of its position as the perceived origin point of "western" (white) civilization. they are just interchangeable enough that zendaya can wear the artifacts of one civilization to a premiere of a work based on the mythos of another, but just different enough that she can get away with one but not the other.

and of course there's 3. which is that modifying and wearing a cultural artifact of dubious provenance taken from a country the us is actively bombing (and in doing so presumably destroying plenty of historic buildings/artifacts) asserts a certain lack of respect for and/or sense of ownership over that country's people and culture. and obviously this is what makes it seem like such a specifically heinous move.

[perrenlore]

Really important to note when it comes to (3) that the elite (and frankly Orientalising) appropriation of ancient Near Eastern artefacts as jewellery has a long colonial history. Cylinder seals are these little cork-shaped cylinders with pictoral or written designs engraved on them, and work the same way as a signet ring in that you could roll them over wet clay to leave an impression of the engraved relief on the clay to dry. They look like this:

(Cylinder seal of First Dynasty of Ur Queen Puabi, found in her tomb, dated circa 2600 BC, with modern impression. Inscription: 𒅤𒀜 𒎏 - Pu3-abi(AD) Nin - Queen Pu-abi. Nicked straight off Wikipedia as it's a fab comparison of seal / relief.)

In the British Museum you can find "Lady Layard's jewellery". Austin Henry Layard is a guy whose academic efforts I'm admittedly very indebted to. He was passionate about Venetian and Roman glass and did a great job re-popularising both styles in the UK, but more importantly he was the assyriologist who excavated Nineveh and the Library of Ashurbanipal—where we've found the majority of the Gilgamesh tablets. Pioneer figure in terms of Near Eastern archaeology... but check this out:

This is a necklace Layard had made for his wife. It uses real cylinder seals.

To quote the British Museum's entry on the item: One cylinder seal is Akkadian (about 2200 BC) and four belong to the second millennium BC, but eight are late Assyrian (about 1000-612 BC). Late Babylonian and Achaemenid stamp seals (about 600-350 BC) are used for the pendants and clasp.

Enid later wrote in her diary that, when they dined with Queen Victoria in 1873, it was 'much admired'.

Ancient Near Eastern artefacts, repurposed as jewellery in a set that doesn't give a single fuck about accurately dating them, let alone treating them with the sort of respect you might perhaps expect of items over four thousand years old. Instead they've become a mark of elite colonial status, an Oriental curiosity utterly separated from their historical context. They're 'old'. They're non-descriptly 'other'. Time and place dissolve into an attractive and vague exoticism.

All while the place these seals have been appropriated from is busy being exploited by the very empire this "jewellery" is being shown off to!

So to bring it back to your third point: you're absolutely right!!! And this has precedence dating right back to the start of Western study (and plundering) of the Ancient Near East. It's a carelessness, it's an ignorance of historical context, and it's explicitly colonial.

[classicslesbianopinions]

thank you for the added context!

[sometiktoksarevalid]

[fruitcakebro]

Holy moly they're GOOD. The music is fucking FIRE, and the outfits??? They're all so PRETTY???

[snoodly-boop]

Does anybody know who these are??? Do they have albums!! 🤩🤩🤩

[raspberryslut]

I was so curious that I had to go find this band. They're called Fortress Dwellers and they have a website with all of their socials!

They released an album too! I don't think this song is on it but the rest of their stuff is SO GOOD !!

MUSIC | Fortress Dwellers

Step into the fantasy world of Fortress Dwellers. A fantasy Renaissance musical collective blending epic original music, immersive performan

[fostertheory]

The song appears to be entitled "I'll Take Your Soul". My guess is that they are doing a cover, since there are many, many shorts on their YouTube page of them showing a segment of them performing the song live. But as the previous poster noted, there's no video of them performing it all the way through. I couldn't find who the original artist was, though.

I did find this, which you may also enjoy:

[animentality]

[fostertheory]

Something I'm still learning.

[black-sasuke]

Very relevant for the tumblr leftist crowd

[black-sasuke]

!!!!

[fostertheory]

One of the US' most significant exports is culture, and anti-blackness is very much a part of that. Those in other countries who are concerned about outsized US influence should scrutinize their cultures for such anti-blackness.

[runawaymarbles]

Hey. Look at me. Please leave yourself a note somewhere you'll see it later that says "it is going to take years if not decades to get the United States government to the level of functionality it had in November of 2024." If we elect a democrat in 2028, we are not going to be up and running by 2032.

Please make sure you have a reminder in your phone reminding you to not look at 2028/32/36 Democratic candidates and say "why are they not promising/delivering Cool Shit?" because you are going to understand that to get Cool Shit we must have competent people running a decently funded government, and we are not going to have that.

We are not getting UBI. We are not getting single payer healthcare. We are not getting free college or free preschool. We are not redistributing wealth on a large scale. We are not getting free internet. We are not getting ranked choice voting.

If we are lucky, we are going to get an IRS that can collect taxes, qualified schoolteachers, research grants, Social Security, and a government that thinks maybe it should be a priority for people around the worlds to not have AIDS, malaria or TB.

[runawaymarbles]

To be clear, I don't mean we should forget or take our eyes off the ultimate long-term goals of getting Cool Shit, but to get there, we're gonna have to support things like "half-measures" and "small steps" and "not tearing down people who won't get us all the way there" and "understanding that they are starting from the basement basically because every government institution is being decimated"

[esgaril]

in other words: don't repeat what you just did to biden.

it happens every. single. time and not just in the us, it's happening right now in the uk: a right wing government runs a country into the ground so bad that their own voters can't support them anymore, so next time a leftist / centrist government is elected. they barely have the time to build the key institutions back up and stabilize the economy before voters who refuse to acknowledge subtle improvements or value strong foundations that can be built upon go "sure, you stopped the roof from leaking and fixed the plumbing and we have reliable electricity now, but those are not flashy enough! why didn't you bring us utopia from a rubble in 4 years?" and vote back the right wingers who of course wreck everything again as they promised they would while the same voters make the surprised pikachu face

please stop repeating this cycle

[daughterofstories]

People in the notes literally going, "I agree with all of this! That's why Biden and Harris were fucking evil and we need to vote for DSA candidates who cannot possibly win on the national scale and also refuse make the compromises necessary to accomplish something instead of absolutely nothing!"

I almost want to believe these are Russian trolls, but truth is, they probably actually just are that fucking stupid.

[darkfrog24]

Three steps forward two steps back got us antidiscrimination laws, got us the end of redlining in housing, got us the legal right for women to have their own bank accounts. It's slow. It's frustrating. It works. Evil can't always be slain. Sometimes it must be suffocated. Be the boa constrictor.

1) Start in this year's state and local elections. Vote for governor but especially state legislature. Without nationwide injunctions, we only get justice when the state governments sue the federal government. Who approves or crushes constitutional amendments? State legislatures do.

2) GET READY FOR THE PRIMARY ELECTIONS ahead of the 2026 midterms. The primary is where the action is. Show up and vote for whoever you think best. But then support whoever wins. The primary is where you send the party a message. It works! The Democrats will seek votes from whoever shows up and not from the people who don't.

3) Protest. Keep it visible. Keep the pressure on. Show Trump that we are not going away. Show the world that not all Americans support him.

[fostertheory]

I don't think people are stupid when they engage in short-term thinking. I think they feel frustrated and feel like chumps if they stay with the group currently in power. They feel like it's rewarding them somehow, not appreciating that in doing so they are rewarding the other side for having trashed things and then behaved recalcitrantly.

I underscore all the previous poster's suggestions.

[torunwrites]

For reasons that will become evident eventually in Dreamer I'm posting a Saturday list of the 10 best Ghost songs. I can tell you that it's not easy to choose just 10 songs. I would like to cram in songs like the ABBA piano heavy Spillways, the bombastic See the Light, Griftwood, Call Me Little Sunshine, the amazing theatrical There's a Darkens at the Heart of my Love and the galloping Satanized. I could really go on.

Number one - He Is

No matter what genre you like, this is an amazing song.

Number two - Zenith

I have four songs from Ghost's third album on this list and this is one of them. Meliora is such a strong album where their weird 70s inspired hard rock/metal crossed with ABBA really shines.

Number 3 - Body and Blood

It has Blue Öyster Cult vibes. It's such a good song! This was my first encounter with Ghost back in... uh (I had to check) 2013 when Infestissumam was released. I remember coming across a video from a concert in broad daylight when Papa Emeritus II (yeah yeah, Tobias Forge) strides out on stage and owns it. Did I mention it was broad daylight? You just have to love that confidence.

Number 4 - I believe

Is it a clavicord? I think it is.

Number 5 - Square Hammer

What an earworm! Yet another song from Meliora.

Number 6 - Dance macabre

The ABBA vibe is strong with this one. When the guys knock on the door and the Mayhem-inspired bloke opens the door you hear the end of one of Ghost's instrumental songs, Miasma.

Number 7 - Peacefield

I'm getting faint whiffs of Nightwish and I can't put my finger on why. Not that I care. It's a good Ghost song.

Number 8 - Life eternal

I get 80s vibes - the power ballad - the Ghost version. The video is also a sweet tribute to their fans.

Number 9 - Hunter's moon

The ABBA vibes are really strong with this one.

Number 10 - Monstrous clock

It's written as the ultimate concert ending song so it has a hook that digs into you and makes it difficult to not sing along when it comes on the playlist. It's fitting that it's the last song on this list.

[fostertheory]

Tagging @the-electric-monk because I know you like Ghost.

[partywithponies]

Strange racists and homophobes on the internet seem to have access to an alternate way cooler version of TV than me. "every white character on TV is in an interracial relationship" "every show has a gay couple in it" "main characters keep having to secretly be bisexual and nonbinary" "every show has gratuitous full frontal nudity" like damn promise?? What channel???

[urlocalpyshcopan]

as a black gay person real like where y'all be finding this stuff pass the name

[brainsforbabyjesus]

for real though, those DO NOT WATCH OR YOU'LL CORRUPT YOUR CHILDREN lists put out by conservative christian family groups is where I find all the stellar tv shows. Like, shit I didn't know half of those existed, thanks for finding them for me, gonna go watch 30 hours of gay tv now!

[infamousbrad]

I think I know how this works.

For personal context, before I went to the '98 Burning Man festival, one of the things I'd read from a couple different journalists was that "everybody" runs around naked. Which, fine by me, I'd already spent a lot of time in clothing-optional spaces, I'm not fanatic about it but it's nice.

So I got there early and set up a public shade structure on one of Black Rock City's main roads and spent most of each afternoon just watching the crowds go by. I don't remember seeing more than one actually naked person the whole week. I think a topless woman passed by my intersection maybe every half an hour, sometimes once an hour. So why in the hell were people, normally pretty smart and observant writers, coming away with the impression that everybody was naked?

Then I remembered an unrelated passage from Joel Garreau's great book about the history of the outer-ring suburbs, Edge City. Mall developers told him flat-out that they tried to keep the crowds in their malls less than 5% black. Not because they themselves were racist, but because they had determined, experimentally, that if more than 5% of the people in the mall are black, the median white shopper will wrongly describe the mall as at least half black, as mostly black. And not a few of them would describe it, at 6% black, as a mall where "only black people go." Why?

Because, emotionally, they were still upset over the last one when the next one came into view.

Same as the journalists describing Black Rock City as all naked. Same as the right-wing religious culture warriors describing television as entirely mixed-race and gender non-conforming. Not because it's even vaguely true, we know that, but because they haven't gotten over their discomfort over the last one by the time the next one comes along. The anger, not the stimulus, is the part that's continuous, so their mind lies to them that it's "all" the thing they can't get over.

[kagedtiger]

Similar effect for the presence/proportion of women in things, by the way: https://health.howstuffworks.com/mental-health/human-nature/perception/how-17-equals-496-the-amazing-multiplying-women.htm

[ifoundmybeatingheartagain]

Because, emotionally, they were still upset over the last one when the next one came into view.

this has rewired some neural pathways for me

[depsidase]

[bonersniper]

Here was a write up of direct results five years later (2021): Five years later, Panama Papers still having a big impact - ICIJ

Five years later, Panama Papers still having a big impact - ICIJ

ICIJ’s massive cross-border investigation remains an influence — and a catchphrase — in politics, business, academia and pop culture, half a

And a similar 10 year update from April 2026: Ten years after the Panama Papers, enablers and tax cheats are still being brought to justice - ICIJ

Ten years after the Panama Papers, enablers and tax cheats are still being brought to justice - ICIJ

A look back at a decade of changes after the Pulitzer-Prize winning investigation sent a shock through the offshore world.

And here is an article on the specific ramifications on U.S. tax law and enforcement: Panama Papers 10th Anniversary: U.S. Tax Implications, IRS Results & Compliance Lessons For American Taxpayers - Tax Authorities - United States

Panama Papers 10th Anniversary: U.S. Tax Implications, IRS Results & Compliance Lessons For American Taxpayers

April 2026 marks the 10th anniversary of the Panama Papers, one of the largest data leaks in history. The leak exposed how wealthy individua

And a BREAKING UPDATE: The trial of Yorgen Fenech, the man accused of masterminding the assassination of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia (put respect on her name) began on July 1, 2026 and is ongoing - you can go watch coverage of it.

The Degiorgio brothers pleaded guilty to carrying out the bombing and are serving 40-year prison sentences. The two suppliers of the bomb also received life sentences.

Others involved (middlemen, etc) have received a variety of reduced aentences and pardons based on their participation and testimony to take down Yorgen Fenech.

The former prime minister of Malta, Vincent Muscat, resigned and trials are ongoing.

Not to minimize how bad the world currently is, because shits not great, but don't ignore the wins when they actually exist. There ARE steps towards justice, there is still good in the world and people working to correct course. Don't let the gloom of it all jade you from seeing the action and effort that IS happening.

[jordanbolton]

The Look

Pre-order my new book here

[torunwrites]

Title: Dreamer

Chapter 16 - Go west

Summer is almost over and Tauriel is travelling to Belegost for Kili's trial.

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/85398296/chapters/235635326

Summary: After a railway bombing that goes south, Kili is on the run and ends up on the other side of Middle Earth, in the capital of Rhovanion. Back in Belegost in Ered Luin, Ori, a crime investigator, is trying to piece together what happened, suspecting his cousin's involvement. Kili meets Tauriel and embarks on a very different life than the one he had in Ered Luin. But Kili is on the run and the past might catch up at any moment. What happens if it does?

Rating: M

Fandoms: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types

Categories: F/M, M/M

Relationships: Kíli/Tauriel, Kili/Ori (past), Bilbo Baggins/Thorin Oakenshield (mention)

Characters: Kíli, Tauriel, Ori, Fíli, Thorin Oakenshield, Legolas Greenleaf, Thorin III Stonehelm, Original Elf Character(s), Original Dwarf Character(s), Original Orc Character(s), Balin, Dwalin

Additional Tags: 

Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Middle Earth Politics (Tolkien), Dwarf Culture & Customs, Middle Earth biology, Indigenous struggle, Hurt No Comfort, Breaking the Law, Starting Over, two love stories for the price of one, kiliel - Freeform, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, inspired by real life, Modern Middle-earth (Tolkien), Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Berlin's Kreutzberg + Copenhagen's Nørrebro + Malmö's Möllan wrapped into one place, That's Dol Lant, I was thinking about Kiruna when I wrote Belegost, Or Giron as it's also called

[escuerzoresucitado]

[starful02]

@ariaste

[stevviefox]

So cool.