Inside of Me @heyreine - Tumblr Blog

Posts

Some beauty of George Town. Penang in Malaysia. A UNESCO Heritage Site. It was my first time here and missing it already. Food here is so great! The people too!

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 2025.

✨ 𝗔𝗺 𝗜 𝗚𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗢𝗹𝗱? ✨

People say I’ve changed. They say I’ve grown quiet, distant… not the person I used to be. But I don’t think it’s age that’s changing me.

I think it’s wisdom.

I no longer live to make others happy. Now, I try to be kind to myself.

I’ve let go of things that hurt me—memories, people, and places that made me feel small.

Not out of anger, but because I deserve peace.

I don’t chase loud nights anymore.

I spend my late hours learning, dreaming, creating.

I’ve traded makeup for honesty, and empty smiles for real joy.

I don’t need a glass of wine to feel alive—I find comfort in quiet sips of coffee.

I stopped pretending life is perfect, and started loving it just as it is.

It’s not age that slows me down.

It’s the wonder of seeing beauty in small things—a bird’s song, morning light, a kind word.

I wake up early now, not because I must, but because each day feels like a gift.

I stay silent more often, not because I have nothing to say, but because I now choose words that matter.

𝗡𝗼, 𝗜’𝗺 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗴𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗼𝗹𝗱.

𝗜’𝗺 𝗯𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝘆𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗳.

𝗜’𝗺 𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴.

𝗜’𝗺 𝗴𝗿𝗼𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴.

𝗜’𝗺 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝗜 𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲—𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗾𝘂𝗶𝗲𝘁, 𝗯𝗲𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝗺𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝘁 𝗮 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲.

~Victor Hugo

tomtheripper37

I genuinely think Trump is going to win. The thought scares the shit out of me. I was never scared of elections when I was younger. This one honestly makes me wonder if we'll have any kind of country left by 2030.

From Harvard ethics professor Christopher Robichaud:

“Everyone in the days and weeks ahead will use this loss as an opportunity to seek validation for their own hobby horse complaint. Harris lost because she campaigned with Liz Cheney. Harris lost because she didn't embrace Gaza. Harris lost because she didn't choose Shapiro. Harris lost because she wasn't progressive enough (possibly my favorite one).

Take a good hard look at the map, my friends. Trump has won the popular vote. Trump ran the table. Explaining that with your hobby horse issue isn't going to cut it, tempting and consoling as it may be.

The problem isn't the electoral college. The problem isn't that we didn't have a full primary. The problem isn't Harris. The problem isn't that Dems didn't have the right message. The problem isn't even inflation or the border.

The problem is so much worse than any of those things. Those are all technical problems, with straightforward expertise fixes. If only it were so! No, our problem is not technical. It's very much adaptive. A party that embraced the Big Lie, supported an insurrection, and has been selling conspiracy-addled madness for years was widely and enthusiastically embraced. Voter turnout was profound! People didn't sit this out.

Simply put, the problem--as some of you have rightly posted--is cultural. America, culturally, has completely abandoned a politics of decency and respect and has embraced instead a politics of resentment, revenge, false nostalgia, and bullying. And if you look at the demographics, you also won't be able to comfort yourself that it's just a white thing, or a working class thing, or an education thing. It's multi-class, multi-gender, multi-educational and multi-racial. That's what winning the popular vote means. That's what running the table amounts to.

A culture that has descended to this level of debasement is not easily fixed. In fact it may not ever be fixed. The timeline for changing something like this is decades--at best--not two-to-four year election cycles. You can extend that in this case, because with the GOP likely controlling all branches of federal government and the courts, they will ensure that mechanisms are in place to keep them in power long after their popularity has waned. You can count on that.

The GOP evolved into a party of rage, lies, and revenge--and it correctly diagnosed that there was and is a large appetite for that. That's what the country wants. At least, enough of the country wants it to ensure broad appeal and widespread electoral success. The old GOP will never return, and the Dems have nothing to say to American culture at the moment. Nothing. They've been speaking to a country that's gone, like dust in the wind.

And that's my final thought, which my posts last night alluded to. The America I knew and loved is gone. This new America--nah, I won't even bother. I will say that cultural change is less likely to occur in politics, or in the academy. You're not going to get people to see how vulgar they've become through a clever argument or a nice campaign speech, that's for sure.

This would be time for the arts, broadly understood, to step in. The arts can change hearts and minds. Too bad the arts have been systematically dismantled in education in this country, and on the other end, the tech industry's assault on the arts through AI is sure to hollow out any good-faith efforts that might emerge.

And for the rest of the world, America's rightward lurch is, I'm afraid, bad news for you too. I know you know this. Because it's not isolated, is it? It's just at the moment the most prominent example of a burgeoning trend. And this will embolden others in other countries, to be sure. We need not speculate what happens when countries become mired in lies, embrace resentment, and savor bullying. We know exactly what happens. Bloody conflict and global destabilization.

The first quarter of the 21st century will therefore in hindsight be viewed as the seed-planting stage for the absolute shit show that's about to unfold globally over the next two and a half decades. Count on it.

Adopt whatever coping and endurance strategies you have available. You're going to need it.

I think that's all I've left to say.”

LORD-ALPHA (JA)

Cheers to you very dear 'old man' whose inner child and child-like enthusiasm continue to shine so bright, it can fill every heart and mind with rays of hope, acts of chasing and making dreams come true and of not giving up. An old soul who considers failure as something that inspires him to continue trying and thriving in much better ways. A person so engaged in his optimism that life is ought to be lived fully and wholeheartedly, warts and all or no matter what.

As I quote him:

"Failure is what motivates me, failure is what gives me sense of achievement. For when I've failed, I've learnt, I've woken up wiser, stronger and more determined... The secret is, just try a bit harder next time, but don't give up. Failure should always be a possibility, not trying on the other hand, can really destroy your dreams!"

Thank you for always being there and for inspiring me and others too.

Thank you for that silver lining of hope that I may get to really believe in myself again.

Happy Birthday To You.

-heyreine-

©Photo: Lord-Alpha

2rats1gogh

FUCK PEOPLE WHO VOTED TRUMP. I hate you with all my heart and I hope you burn in hell.

but most importantly, FUCK PEOPLE WHO DIDN’T VOTE KAMALA HARRIS.

You thought you fucking did something by not voting, well guess what, this is partially your fault. You allowed this to happen. By not voting for Trump’s opponent, you let him win. I hope you’re fucking happy with yourself. Good fucking job.

Now everyone will suffer the consequences of your actions. Not only you americans, but people outside of the US as well.

You thought you stopped a genocide supporter, but you allowed another one, who by the way is much much worse, to come into power (AGAIN). You keep talking about how the system needs to be changed or whatever, and you joke about overthrowing the government, and that votes change nothing. Yet you don’t do anything. You want a revolution? Then fucking start one. Come on, change the system. Overthrow the government, go ahead. “Both candidates are evil and I don’t want either to be president!” THEN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT.

Oh, you don’t actually want to do that? It sounds scary and impossible to achieve? Then you better at least fucking vote next time. Make a difference.

You achieved nothing, and only made things worse.

politicalprof

On the election:

Thoughts? Sure. Lots of them:

--I have said from the beginning that this is a turnout election. Get me 2016 levels of turnout and Trump could well win. Get me 2020 levels of turnout and Harris would probably win. 2024's turnout is much closer to 2016 than 2020, so the electorate was whiter, more male, and older in 2024 than 2020. The people Harris needed to vote, didn't. Thus Trump won all or most of the swing states, and won the popular vote -- the first Republican to do so since 2004. (This is why I was a not a poll watcher: percentages in a poll do not translate directly into actual voting; in a turnout election actual voting is what matters.)

--I used to ask my classes, "will we have a Black president or a female president first? (Yes, I acknowledged the obvious "Black female" hole in that question.) The Black question was answered in 2008; we now have a further answer in that a candidate of the nature of Donald Trump has beaten two immensely qualified female candidates, one white and one woman of color -- both in low turnout elections. Apparently, America really, really, doesn't want a female president.

--Dobbs didn't matter, at least not as predicted. Women didn't "vote Harris" despite all claims they would do so, at least not at the predicted rates.

--Demography is not destiny. The Latino vote has moved toward Trump in three successive elections. I'd guess this is *because* of his anti-immigrant stances, not despite them: pulling up the ladder after you "make it" is an old part of American political life.

--[edit/added]: it's a global "throw the bums out" cycle. People are pissed for lots of reasons, and fairly or not, the "in power" people are feeling the pain. Such is the nature of political timing.

--The urban/rural split is a hell of a thing in American politics, and it's only going to get more intense over time as rural areas continue to empty but still get two Senators forever and ever and ever.

--There are a LOT of people who don't think of politics in either ideological or governance terms. They're not interested in whether a candidate means what he says or is capable of achieving the ends being promised. Rather, politics for these people is *entertainment.* What matters is the show. The "right" people need to be publicly valorized; the "wrong" people need to be attacked, humiliated, and hounded out of the public square. It's bread and circuses. As long as the entertainment continues they'll put up with the regime whatever it is doing to them in the background.

--Donald Trump remains the greatest politician in American history at dominating the news cycle, and thus feeding the entertainment machine. Every crazy, cruel, cantankerous thing he says gets re-amplified over and over again, driving everything else out of the political ecosystem. It's evil. But it's genius.

--I have long said that Donald Trump will never pay a meaningful price for his crimes, his corruption, and his cruelty. He will die in a golden bed surrounded by a harem of women and teams of acolytes singing his praises. It's not fair. But it's almost certainly true.

--A brief note on tariffs: when America relied on tariffs, the government was much smaller than it is now (meaning it needed less money to operate), and US economy activity was mostly concentrated in the US (meaning that it was hard for other countries to put retaliatory tariffs on US products). Neither of these things are true today. So, good luck with that.

I'm sure there's more. But that's a start.