Untitled

[goldensunset]

>‘this thing is too generic and tropey’

>look inside

>forefather of that genre

[firestorm09890]

[frankbelloriley]

[titenoute]

Ok so stop me if I'm wrong but

... If the basics of Greek\Roman mythology is taught in schools in some countries in Europe, the same is probably not true in the US.

Like, as Europeans, we are a bunch of countries which got invaded by Romans way back when and therefore, their culture had an impact ours.

So knowing that the US history probably start closer to the creation of their country, they probably don't really touch the subject all that much...

[sandrimeth]

Greek and Roman myth are absolutely taught in US schools, usually as part of literature education (or were; it has been a while), and from a young age. Understanding the basics of classic mythology (and the Bible, if approached correctly) are absolutely critical for understanding basically the entire English literary canon.

This doesn't mean that people will retain all that information. I had definitely forgotten about the character Mentor.

[titenoute]

Okay! So you guys DO study it. But then maybe it depends where you are? In my case for example (I'm European, but hear me out), we were supposed to study the Odyssey in class but never did (I was in a very shitty school) So I never learned that Telemachus mentor's name was Mentor. Would it be far fetched to assume the same can happen somewhere else?

[sandrimeth]

Yeah, that's accurate. In the US, as with I assume any nation, YMMV on the quality and contents of your education.

[goldensunset]

>‘this thing is too generic and tropey’

>look inside

>forefather of that genre

[firestorm09890]

[frankbelloriley]

[titenoute]

Ok so stop me if I'm wrong but

... If the basics of Greek\Roman mythology is taught in schools in some countries in Europe, the same is probably not true in the US.

Like, as Europeans, we are a bunch of countries which got invaded by Romans way back when and therefore, their culture had an impact ours.

So knowing that the US history probably start closer to the creation of their country, they probably don't really touch the subject all that much...

[sandrimeth]

Greek and Roman myth are absolutely taught in US schools, usually as part of literature education (or were; it has been a while), and from a young age. Understanding the basics of classic mythology (and the Bible, if approached correctly) are absolutely critical for understanding basically the entire English literary canon.

This doesn't mean that people will retain all that information. I had definitely forgotten about the character Mentor.

[theotherendcomics]

[sandrimeth]

I don't particularly care about AIPAC, but I'm at the point that if your fundraising message to me mentions how much you are against them, you've lost my vote in the primary. Jesus Christ we have bigger problems and your dog whistle has become a foghorn.

[maswartz]

This is the man the democrats sold our souls to defend because he was "the only one who could win us Maine"

[sandrimeth]

We've really got to start respecting things like experience and time in the public eye again. Sure the blue collar (not really though) white dude looks chummy, but he had literally zero political experience before central casting found him. A known quality in local or state politics would have gone through some vetting and you'd be less likely to see this.

Or we could, I don't know, look at the fact that he had a frickin' Nazi tattoo and have assumed there was more shit to come. That could work too.

[jet-dawnbringer]

Hey, this one goes out to Imani.

12 skulls Imani. The first example of "it might get worse before it gets better." Queen of "They will not break me." He might not even realize it, but Carl's ideals were demonstrated and reinforced by Imani. Maybe the most important woman in the series? (I love her)

Meeting all of Meadow Lark was clearly deeply formative, but meeting Imani? Imani, who loved her people enough to mercy kill them? Imani, who loved her co-workers enough to take that decision off of them? Imani, who physically left behind the bloody choices of the first two floors and the pvp tickets, and chose a race and class that let her go back to healing? (I love her)

All my homies love Imani. Three cheers for Imani.

[mariacallous]

[hyperrbolic-orange]

I do think the Dems need to collectively refocus on optimism and progress. Maybe I'm biased (actually it's likely because I only ever see what people post online and people only post select things online so take all of this with a grain of salt) but it seems like so much of the strategy has been like, "we're not the Republicans," or people like friggin Graham Platner trying to beat them at their own game with dirtbag left politics (fuck no), and too much focus on like, "here's how we fight the Republicans," which inherently focuses on so much negatives and just makes people feel hopeless because it feels like an unwinnable fight. And the Dems are BAD at snowboating about their wins! And they HAVE wins! Trump will brag about having meetings to discuss ideas he's had to one day submit a law and he'll boast about it so hard everyone thinks it's set it stone, and once people start accepting shit as inevitable in their minds that's half the battle one. Meanwhile democrats make quiet progress and improvements with no fanfare and no one notices and no one realizes they DID SOMETHING.

This needs to be their stance. Over and over. Here's how weve made the nation better. Here is how your lives are better because of us. Dont give into despair, fight with us. Things have gotten better, dont lose sight of that. With your support, we can continue to progress, we build toward a future that has all this great stuff (these would be campaign promises, which ideally should be backed up by things that were passed during Bidens term).

They should tie it in very briefly that Trumps WHOLE THING is anti progress. He wants to take America back to time when there was less rights and protections ‐ not just for women, people of colour and immigrant, but also for unions and workers, for safety in things like food safety and manufacturing. Corporations that make the food your children eat and the cars you drive everyday, he's taken away laws meant to ensure corners cant be cost in the interest of saving a few bucks.

He is anti progress through and through, he has no interest in making the lives of American citizens better. The Dems need to position themselves as the ones who are going to give Americans the future they were promised.

[sandrimeth]

It will never not be amusing to me to see nudity as a content warning for an AO3 fanfic that is entirely text. Especially "non-sexual nudity." Oh no. My virgin eyes. I read that someone... Took off their clothes to take a bath. I will never recover.

Reminds me of that puritan parent when I was in high school who complained about the 'pornography' in "Cold Sassy Tree." For your knowledge, the pornography in question was a teenage boy dreaming about a girl he knew undressing... And then getting hit by a train because she was on the tracks in his dream for some reason. (There are deeper metaphorical reasons, but the point holds that it was super tame by the standards of all us high schoolers in the early aughts).

[mariacallous]

[tallwriter]

I'm out of the loop, what are they really about?

[sandrimeth]

Authoritarianism. This type of person wants a society in which only people who agree with them on nearly everything hold power. It's the leftist counterpart to the adage that when conservatives can't win democratically it's democracy they abandon, not conservatism.

In short, the type of person who puts up a poster like this is just fine with a dictatorship so long as their guy is in power. And when that type of person gets their way, left or right, it never goes well. Ever.

[tallwriter]

What do you think they mean about Michael Parenti being right?

[sandrimeth]

On that bit I had no idea! Never heard of the dude. I was more focused on them going on about how democracy doesn't work. That said, Parenti was apparently a Serbian genocide denialist, which kind of tracks with my read on the poster (the item, not the person)

[mariacallous]

[tallwriter]

I'm out of the loop, what are they really about?

[sandrimeth]

Authoritarianism. This type of person wants a society in which only people who agree with them on nearly everything hold power. It's the leftist counterpart to the adage that when conservatives can't win democratically it's democracy they abandon, not conservatism.

In short, the type of person who puts up a poster like this is just fine with a dictatorship so long as their guy is in power. And when that type of person gets their way, left or right, it never goes well. Ever.

[bigfootin]

Erie Lake Monster from the Weekly World News

[rockshitty]

Nothing reminds me what a goddamn miracle modern medicine is more so than hearing stories about people who contracted the black plague in the 21st century and were prescribed antibiotics for it.

Like yeah man you got the disease that wiped out half of Europe, like, a couple separate times within written history, and we have no clue how many times before that. To cure it you have to take 14 pills and drink lots of juice. You’re gonna feel kind of crummy for a while. It’s vitally important you take all 14 pills.

[hummingbird-hunter]

Hello leftist american. Controversial opinion incoming: rainbow capitalism is good actually. Not even in a way that it shows public opinion of queer people yes all that but like in general. "Oh the companies don't care about gays they just want to take your money" yeah no shit they're companies. Their job is to make money. And if they don't take money from queer audiences they're gonna switch to homophobic audiences. Rainbows on businesses don't just reflect the views of society, they uphold them by showing that being pro-queer isn't a social (or business) suicide and thus letting queer acceptance grow. Like yes obviously if a business puts rainbows on store windows but then donates their profits to Gay Conversion Torment Nexus or whatever then it's bad obviously though considering that doesn't stop y'all from earing at chick fil a it looks to me like y'all think the problem is with rainbows and not the homophobia. Like man I'm ukrainian i fucking love when apps change their icon to a rainbow in June or when a store has a rainbow or some shit because that was Not fucking Common at all and is only getting more normal now in the last few years. But you freaks decided that rainbows in stores were bad so now instead of rainbows there are confederate flags. That's all folks

[espanolbot2]

The Terry Pratchett Estate (@terrypratchett.bsky.social)

#HowDoTheyRiseUp #Glorious25thMay #Discworld

[larathia]

It is important to understand that Pterry did not mean by this "don't fight". Just that it's much, much easier to destroy than it is to create, and "destroy it all" will not make "create something better" any easier to accomplish.

Harder, possibly, since if you destroy everything first you've already expended a lot of your energy to no real good.

[sandrimeth]

Agreed. You have to fight, but you have to know how and when to fight, and effective fighting can look awful slow.

Remember a couple things. First, revolutionary thinking is just a political version of messianic thinking. "When the Messiah/revolution comes, the sinners/our enemies will be struck down, and the golden ages will come!"

Second, the vast majority of revolutionaries achieve nothing or less than nothing, in large part because most people are not revolutionaries, and the mass does not appreciate being dragged into conflict.

Effective change is long, hard, and doesn't make for a good movie moment.

[sandrimeth]

I think, some time, as a gay guy and one who reads far too much fanfiction, I should write up a series of posts for fanfiction writers along the lines of: "Gay men are not women: tips and tricks to not make gay guys who find your story laugh their ass off at the unintentional humor."

And this isn't the standard topics I've seen around how gay men approach romance vs how the women and girls who write stories about them think they do. It's slightly more fundamental things along the lines of the fact that generally, a man, gay or straight, does not care even a little bit about if someone happens to see their naked chest. And yet I've seen multiple stories in which one gay man gets hyper embarrassed about being seen without a shirt, and even one webtoon where he did the crossed arms, "oh no, must hide my nipples!" pose.

My husband, when I described these incidents to him, laughed and said, "I breasted boobily!" And yeah, I thought, that's the appropriate response.

I will note that there really ARE valid reasons why someone might be doing this, but it's rare enough that it shouldn't be done just as part of a "sexy" meet cute, but instead be a significant indicator about something about them as a character. Maybe they have an injury they're hiding. Maybe they're secretly a trans male character still in the process of transitioning and this is an early clue. Point is, I can't remember even a single man I've met who would respond that way.

[fixing-bad-posts]

the nebulous "revolution" does not replace the need for immediate political activism, nor absolve anyone of civic responsibility <3

[creature-wizard]

Hmm? What's this? An anti-voter telling us our votes don't count?

Well! That's quite an opinion! Let's look at their blog, I'm sure we'll see a long history of posts there, showing us that this person is not a bot or a troll account specifically made for election interference?

...Oh?

What's this? Literally only one post?

Oh! But that post is dated to August 2013! Clearly this must be an old blog, it's not like Tumblr has a feature that lets you date posts to anytime you want- oh? They do?

Watch out, y'all - anti-voting bots/trolls are on Tumblr, and they are trying to discourage us from voting. They do this because they know that if we vote blue, we can keep Trump out of office.