Not Much Going on in Here

[iamfitzwilliamdarcy]

once more, donate to organizations actually helping women

find your local crisis pregnancy center; if your diocese has other resources for pregnant women, find that too. 

and here is the national donation link for the Sisters for Life 

this is just the beginning

[catie-does-things]

The Sisters of Life are amazing. Some other good organizations to support:

Birthright International

Option Line

Standing With You

American Association of Pro-Life Obstetricians and Gynecologists

And you can find a local crisis pregnancy center using this directory.

[guns-in-the-valley-deactivated2]

Let Them Live is also a good one.

[sadsongsandwaltzes]

Human Defense Initiative helps everyone from expecting mothers to nursing homes

[keepinventory]

sees art with thick smooth line art: ah yes i want my art to look like that

sees art with sketchy thin line art: ah yes i want my art to look like that

sees lineless art: ah yes i want my art to

[keepinventory]

…… this isn’t my post. i didnt makethis post. why does it say i made this post

[faunlord]

not to be boring and solve the fun mystery but it says that bc it’s a “chat” post, not a text post. which used to not include the OP’s username, so tumblr assigned you op I Guess (source: i made this post in 2014)

[keepinventory]

thank you for giving me custody of this post 🙏 i just picked it up from elementary school and tomorrow it has soccer practice

[caesarsaladinn]

there should be a sequel poem called Ozymandias 2 where it’s revealed that the statue is actually the centerpiece of a bustling tourist town, the road to the town lies directly on top of a stone road that Ozymandias built during his reign, and that historical fiction about him continues to sell quite well in both domestic and international markets

[centrally-unplanned]

Third act plot twist when it turns out all this fame is due to the Shelley poem, and they engraved a copy of the poem right on the "pedestal where these words appeared", covering up the original text, since it had long ago faded away when the tourism boom began.

[apatheticfluorescence]

some hyper famous artists like Van Gogh transcend overratedness and become underrated because they're so normalized. Like I'll look at a van Gogh and I'm like wait this really is amazing you guys don't get it

[headspace-hotel]

Shakespeare is like this

[insufferablepirate]

Every time I see a Van Gogh that’s not one of his better known pieces it absolutely blows me away

Have you seen this shit my liege? smh unreal

[murgoten]

Harpy Knight

[finelinesignattwo]

"We have a tendency to think of just war as the normal case, and war crimes as a bizarre aberration done by monsters. In reality, the natural state of any army is to commit war crimes. Until the formation of the modern laws of war in the late nineteenth century, every army on every side of every war committed what we would think of as war crimes. As merely one example, in Europe up until the Napoleonic Wars, the socially accepted reward for taking a city was being able to steal whatever and rape and murder whoever you wanted. Today, after a great deal of moral progress and expansion of state capacity, we can produce armies that occasionally don’t commit war crimes. This is a fragile state, the product of a lot of good people doing an unimaginable amount of good work, and we should be grateful for it."

[nightmaresyrup]

Art Commission: Who is She?

She’s a nocturnal harpy! I love painting her fluffy feathers, and the overall design. I hope I captured the her unsettling expression properly. 

 Commissioned by J

[andyboops]

"The best thing we can do with power is give it away" - On the leftist critique of superhero narratives as authoritarian power fantasies:

The ongoing "Jason Todd is a cop" debate has reminded me of a brilliant brief image essay by Joey deVilla. [EDIT: I SCREWED UP! This was created in 2019 by the guy who runs the Midnighter-Core page on Facebook, and Joey just reposted it!]

So here it is, images first and the full essay text below:

"A common leftist critique of superhero comics is that they are inherently anti-collectivist, being about small groups of individuals who hold all the power, and the wisdom to wield that power. I don’t disagree with this reading. I don’t think it’s inaccurate. Superheroes are their own ruling class, the concept of the übermensch writ large. But it’s a sterile reading. It examines superhero comics as a cold text, and ignores something that I believe is fundamental, especially to superhero storytelling: the way people engage with text. Not what it says, but how it is read. The average comic reader doesn’t fantasize about being a civilian in a world of superheroes, they fantasize about being a superhero. One could charitably chalk this up to a lust for power, except for one fact… The fantasy is almost always the act of helping people. Helping the vulnerable, with no reward promised in return. Being a century into the genre, we’ve seen countless subversions and deconstructions of the story. But at its core, the superhero myth is about using the gifts you’ve been given to enrich the people around you, never asking for payment, never advancing an ulterior motive. We should (and do) spend time nitpicking these fantasies, examining their unintended consequences, their hypocrisies. But it’s worth acknowledging that the most eduring childhood fantasy of the last hundred years hasn’t been to become rich. Superheroes come from every class (don’t let the MCU fool you). The most enduring fantasy is to become powerful enough to take the weak under your own wing. To give, without needing to take. So yes, the superhero myth, as a text, isn’t collectivist. But that’s not why we keep coming back to it. That’s not why children read it. We keep coming back to it to learn one simple lesson… The best thing we can do with power IS GIVE IT AWAY." - Joey deVilla, 2021 https://www.joeydevilla.com/2021/07/04/happy-independence-day-superhero-style/

- Midnighter-Core, 2019

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0bU6TrKdX6QgMLnUFk64jResHMVwiSyENASvJk7efasgZ94G4c81XJCVgGcLFPgPsl&id=594855544368212&mibextid=Nif5oz

[apilgrimpassingby]

hey thank you for that. its worded so well. sometimes i get tripped up on arguments like that (oh the aztecs did this and were bad therefore the colonial spanish were saviors!!!) so it is helpful to see someone shut that down so effectively. same with the crusades

Glad you liked it. I feel like I'm dealing with right-wing shitheads a lot lately.

It's weird because (this is a topic I've been considering for a while now) I don't subscribe to the Tumblr version of Christian history or the Christian apologist version. On the one hand, Christianity's hardly spotless in world history, on the other hand, those atrocities were almost never the caricatured version presented in pop culture.

[thathopeyetlives]

There is a certain sort of grim frustration-resentment one may feel when one looks upon the Aztecs and the self-interest of the Conquistadors and mourns that the worst foes have been vanquished by very insufficiently good vanquishers.

[apilgrimpassingby]

The thing to me that really condemns the Conquistadors is that this wasn't how Europe was Christianised.

Basing this on Ronald Hutton's lecture on Anglo-Saxon paganism (specifically, the bit at the end on how the Anglo-Saxons were Christianised), the way northern Europe was converted to Christianity was by sending monks to convert kings, in the hope that, Constantine-style, the king's courtiers would convert in order to curry favour with him, their retainers would convert in order to curry favour with them, and so on, in the process stripping the funding from the pagan priesthood and sacrificial system and thus making paganism nonviable. And it worked, in large part because northern European rulers wanted to join the "cool kids' club" of the more literate, more urbanised and more cosmopolitan Mediterranean societies and renouncing paganism helped them on the road to that.

And this absolutely could have been done with the Aztecs. Western Christian theology was a lot more systematised and had more detailed theology and apologetics in 1520 than in 520, and Western Europe had a great many goods that New World societies wanted; I can imagine an arrangement where the Spanish agreed to only sell horses or guns to Aztecs who converted to Christianity, and as a result the Aztec aristocracy scrambled to convert. But that isn't what happened, and that makes the Crusades a hell of a lot more damning.

[elbys-hysterics]

should’ve gone the China route (before all the colonization)

[70sscifiart]

Chris Foss would sometimes paint over his previous work. Here, he turns a western illustration into a sci-fi one.

[just-shower-thoughts]

Babies are socially accepted parasites.

[onion-souls]

When u read Ayn Rand 1 time

[unfitninjuh]

They’re not a parasite, they’re a potential investment

[onion-souls]

When you read Ayn Rand a dozen times

[sea--burn]

[fishing-princess]

I Defeated the Demon Lord but it Turns Out the Demon Army was Largely Unaffected and I Fell Victim to a Flawed Belief in Great Man Theory

[leftcosine]

I Executed The Demon Lord With One Flawless Strike And After A Brief Power Struggle The New Demon Government Is Substantially More Committed To The War Because Of Some Reason I Don't Know

[trollfist]

I Successfully Overthrew The Demon Lord And Instituted Demon Democracy But They Voted For A Commie So The CIA Not Some Fantasy Equivalent The Actual CIA Who Have Known About Magic And Alternate Realms The Whole Damn Time But Won't Just Unisekai Me Launched A Counter Coup And That's When Things Really Went To Shit

[brazenautomaton]

I've seen this post a few times now and, like, seriously

Do you think that believing armies require leaders to function and removing their leadership causes harm to them is "a flawed belief in Great Man theory?"

[yokelfelonking]

"Attacking leaders in leadership positions reduces the ability of an army to function" is a true statement and entirely logical and usually effective means of attacking an enemy. "I killed their top guy so now the whole thing is going to collapse" tends to be much less so.

Take a look at Iran right now. How many of their generals and presidents and ayatollahs and shieks and whatever have we blown the fuck up in the past two months? They're still shooting.

If Putin is assassinated, will the war in Ukraine necessarily stop? Or will it continue to be pushed by whichever oligarch takes his place?

Or back to fantasy: if my Dungeons and Dragons adventuring party somehow manages to permanently kill Asmodeus, the Blood War isn't going to stop. There's nine hells full of devils just itching to take his place.

[brazenautomaton]

well that's because the blood war is extremely decentralized. Iran has a functional structure to its military and state apparatus

usually the Demon Lord in the isekai has his power extremely centralized, with multiple scheming lieutenants seeking to undermine each other, and very little structure to his command structure. once he is killed, the army will collapse because he's the only failure point and it immediately launches a succession crisis and now all his night hordes are fighting each other on behalf of his various scheming lieutenants.

[cookingwithroxy]

The concept of the Demon Lord having a functional government and strong political appointments and even a valid successor that can easily take their place without a crisis?

Those tend to be the ones that are ENTIRELY based on subverting the inherent tropes. Because all those elements of stability preclude any concept that the war between humanity and the demons is a thing about the power conflicts between monsters and humanity and are instead a war between nations that can and do stand as equals.

If your Demon Lord is the Load Bearing Figure for his castle than you don't get a functional government after his death.

And as an aside? If Putin dies, it actually is far more likely that the war would come to an end, it was chosen to fit his desires rather than as a major policy decision agreed upon by all people.

[brazenautomaton]

no, if Putin dies the war won't end, because all of the people who could credibly replace Putin are also coked out on that same nationalist myth. he surrounded himself with yes-men and true believers.

[general-cerberus]

I mean the war is pretty unpopular with a lot of oiligarches in Russia since they’re the ones paying for it. One of the believers in Putins inner circle could replace him but the oligarchs could also use the opportunity to put a peace seeker in charge

[fishing-princess]

I Defeated the Demon Lord but it Turns Out the Demon Army was Largely Unaffected and I Fell Victim to a Flawed Belief in Great Man Theory

[leftcosine]

I Executed The Demon Lord With One Flawless Strike And After A Brief Power Struggle The New Demon Government Is Substantially More Committed To The War Because Of Some Reason I Don't Know

[trollfist]

I Successfully Overthrew The Demon Lord And Instituted Demon Democracy But They Voted For A Commie So The CIA Not Some Fantasy Equivalent The Actual CIA Who Have Known About Magic And Alternate Realms The Whole Damn Time But Won't Just Unisekai Me Launched A Counter Coup And That's When Things Really Went To Shit

[brazenautomaton]

I've seen this post a few times now and, like, seriously

Do you think that believing armies require leaders to function and removing their leadership causes harm to them is "a flawed belief in Great Man theory?"

[yokelfelonking]

"Attacking leaders in leadership positions reduces the ability of an army to function" is a true statement and entirely logical and usually effective means of attacking an enemy. "I killed their top guy so now the whole thing is going to collapse" tends to be much less so.

Take a look at Iran right now. How many of their generals and presidents and ayatollahs and shieks and whatever have we blown the fuck up in the past two months? They're still shooting.

If Putin is assassinated, will the war in Ukraine necessarily stop? Or will it continue to be pushed by whichever oligarch takes his place?

Or back to fantasy: if my Dungeons and Dragons adventuring party somehow manages to permanently kill Asmodeus, the Blood War isn't going to stop. There's nine hells full of devils just itching to take his place.

[general-cerberus]

I Led A Strategic Strike Against The Head of the Demon Army But They Prepared For This By Designing Their Army So That Individual Units Can Remain Operational Without Central Command For a While and Now We’re Stuck Fighting a War in Hell For The Next Few Years Until We Can Make Peace With The New Military Junta That’s In Charge

[logophilestudies]

this is the article:

Women Who Use Drugs

"Female drug use exists in diametrical opposition to male drug use: with different causes, motives for use, experiences, treatments, and pre

[hugewoman]

I have never seen a clearer argument for female drug addiction as an intentionally weaponized gateway to being sex trafficked

I could not more strongly recommend reading the entire article, it’s absolutely devastating but it’s a very important read. It’s a chilling indictment of the way drug addicted women are horrifically mistreated, exploited, and so often forgotten about if not further victimized by the very people who claim to want to help them

[itdoobielikethat]

Some of you are too young to remember this, but Amy Winehouse's husband/ex husband would habitually film himself shooting her up and then share the videos online. There was one circling before her death of Blake and another man injecting Amy while she was passed out. They were laughing.

[vomitdodger]

[womanguy]

you should get a second evening for reading fan fiction. And you should get an extra day in the week to do arts and crafts.

[general-cerberus]

I think this is what the sabbath is supposed to be kinda