ACT NOW, BEFORE ITāS TOO LATE!!
[The Stages of Genocide]

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ACT NOW, BEFORE ITāS TOO LATE!!
[The Stages of Genocide]
I love Solarpunk so fucking much. Itās the most late 2010s ass genre humanly possible. A genre consisting entirely of Pinterest concept art boards and a yogurt commercial. Aggressively political with no actual political stance or statement other than āclimate change is bad.ā genuinely incredible levels of sucking
Solarpunk started out as a concept of imagining a sustainable future without capitalism cooked up by Brazilian anarchists, to my understanding. (There's a whole timeline I found here if anyone wants to flip through it.) Something of a humanist/naturalist contrast from transhumanist and singularity/"rationalist" views of the future. And, of course, contrast from the gritty dark hypercorporate crapsack worlds of cyberpunk. A few novels were written, but overall the literary movement fizzled out because it turns out writing compelling stories in utopian settings with solely interpersonal conflict is pretty hard, actually.
From there the political aspect of it got picked up by climate doomerist types who pushed it as an antidote to the impending apocalypse. Alas, being fanatically worried about climate change seems to have fallen out of fashion since COVID for whatever reason. I believe a lot of these people have moved on to walkable urbanism and anti-AI movements.
And the aesthetic side of it started off with a particularly influential Tumblr post from 2014 that had quite a few neat ideas. All of those were sanded down over time into a vision of skyscrapers with moss and solar panels, coupled with some recycled cottagecore material and a bunch of Ghibli screencaps.
And then Chobani comes in and makes a yogurt commercial that's just futurist luxury automated cottagecore in a Ghibli aesthetic, complete with some vague handwaves at a spunky DIY attitude and a whole bunch of small-scale renewable electric generators. And from there the movement, whatever it was, merged with "Frutiger Aero" and completely fell apart into bland nothingness.
I suspect the Brazilian anarchist sci-fi writers who were hoping for some kind of cultural counterpart to thinking that Isaac Asimov's "The Last Question" was literally going to come true are rather disappointed in this turn of events.
It turns out that praxis leading to solarpunk future and solarpunk presence is million skills with million names and acquiring and practicing these skills don't look particularly like solarpunk aesthetic. It looks punk. But to give it a distinct visual language, both consistent and recognizable at a glance, you need to put a strictly aesthetic effort on top of everything else.
Praxis itself? It looks like disability activism. It looks like attending local town council meetings. It looks like diving into super specific debate on local law requirements on water-permeable surfaces percentage. It looks like keeping in contact with local priest to snoothly distribute furniture from well-off middle class finishing renovation to 18yo orphans ageing out of the system. It looks like negotating with local cultural activity center how to organise half-illegal craft workshops because paperwork for fully legal ones excludes the most neglected demographic. It looks like lobbying for health insurance to put "replacing batteries in the implant surgery" on the list of covered medical services, so people don't need to surgically replace whole implants. It looks like million other specific things.
People who got inspired by solarpunk tend to spend some time looking at art, then turn around, ask "okay but what can be done now that I can engage with" and then go do it. And then what they do stops looking like solarpunk aesthetic.
Of course there's also that thing that before Covid, lots of climate collapse containment issues were literally "we know that business-as-usual is cheapest short-term but can we focus on how it's killing us long-term". Covid era showed that business-as-usual is unsustainable now, mid-term and short-term and today and yesterday; and also that goverments can simply decide to act and it create tangible effects. Suddenly, it wasn't "solar would be better if your gas import was ever endangered", it's "we build all the solar for yesterday because we cannot afford keeping to gas". Creating inspiring narratives is optional when cost of business-as-usual is visible to naked eye. Lots of people who used to share inspiring pictures of solar on background of green hills either went to install solar and negotiate specifics of grid inclusion, or moved on to the next issue.
Central idea of solarpunk aesthetic was to give people tools to imagine sustainable future; to create visual and narrative shorthands allowing people to engage with vision of non-apocalyptic future.
Central idea of solarpunk philosophy is that apocalypse is anything but inevitable and the main challenge isn't lack of means and tools, but widespread cultural pessimism. You cannot change anything if you believe change is impossible. Therefore, for change to be possible, you need to envision the world that can be changed.
Basically, if solarpunk art convinced anyone that there is achievable alternative to doom, it have already succeeded.
You absolutely can merge in one all the issues ever discussed in context of exploring how sustainable climate-proofed non-capitalistic world can work and how it can be achieved, with the attempt to design a distinctive and consistent visual language for it.
And you absolutely can blame whichever aspect of that merged entity for the fact that detailed fact-based solutions are difficult to derive from visual language or using visual design tools.
You can! Totally! You're just going to sound silly.
How the fuck does one run out of missiles when they have literally a trillion dollars to spend on them
The problem is not the fact that they can't produce more missiles; they can. It's the fact that it takes a very long time to replenish equipment and munitions and sustain vital operations without disruption. Iran is producing missiles and drones at a rapid speed and at a low cost with the purpose of putting pressure on US bases and their air-defense/interceptor systems all over SWANA. However, it costs a fortune for the US to produce one missile: it is estimated that one Tomahawk missile costs 2.5 million dollars, while a Patriot anti-missile costs 4 millions dollars. Contrast this with the Shaheed drones that cost like 50.000 - 100.000 usd each. On top of that, much of the US air defense systems have already been destroyed, which means that they have to be replaced. This is why they had to pull a THAAD interceptor from South Korea and deploy it in SWANA. Second, they're also using much of their air defense and interceptor system in Ukraine, which is rapidly facing shortages.
Iran is simply waging a war of attrition, and the US can't keep up with the pressure, since these bases are far away from the imperial metropole. However, with Bibi visiting the WH tomorrow, it is likely that Trump will endorse a military campaign in coordination with the settler state.
The idea that the United States, once the most feared military power in the world, with such extensive stockpiles of arms and such a massive territory that land invasion has been considered impossible for an entire century, could in theory achieve total collapse by warmongering their entire stockpiles dry is something that had never even occurred to meā¦
Because I'm a biologist and a complete freak, I sometimes amuse myself thinking about like a super ultra advanced alien race that 'conquers' our planet, but instead of being all 'War of the Worlds' about it, they aren't even conquering, as far as they're concerned. There are no inteligent life forms on this planet, after all, just little animals, and they're clearly on the endangered species list. A perfect place to study rare wildlife on an untouched planet.
So there's an alien research station in space. Humanity's worst attempts to destroy it amount to a bear turning over the trash can. Aliens occasionally abduct people and return them with a clean bill of health and an ankle bracelet. It takes them forever to figure out those bracelets are screwing with their data because humans who carry them are curve-wreckingly popular.
Disaster strikes somewhere, I dunno, Japan, and there's an uptick in abductions, but of people stuck in collapsed buildings, and yeah the giant octopus tree that looks straight out of Call of Cthulhu is scary but it's also using tech you can't even comprehend to find survivors and teleport them out of the rubble. You see humans with absolutely 100% deadly injuries wisked away and a good number of them even return. There is now a new consent form specifying if rescuers can take you to the aliens, because they will probably try to save you but if they can't your family will never get your body back. You decide if your life or your body is more important.
Little by little, pragmatism wins out. The aliens aren't attacking, but they ARE abducting and doing weird tests. But the survivors mostly return unharmed with a Big Mac in hand and a weird piece of tech. There have been less valid excuses to miss school. The aliens are clearly researching humanity just as much as we are researching them, and until communications are established this status quo isn't the worst.
Ofc, then one of them actually attacks. Knocks the statue of liberty clean off. The military starts to deploy fast, and even wounds the attacker a lot, but before they can shoot the second missle it bounces. And it turns on the shooter. Every military person in the attack dies, suddenly and through means you cannot comprehend. The other aliens whisk the attacking one away. Construction materials appear as if in apology, but that's it.
The attacker was a hooligan who thought destroying wildlife was fun, and ran into something they can't handle. But even if the bear is perfectly within its rights to defend its territory, the ranger will atill have to shoot it to save the stupid brat, and hope the idiot learned their lesson.
But the bear is still dead. And the forest critters who had just started getting used to the ranger are now having second thoughts.
But the abductions continue. There are no hooligans for a while. And what else can you do? This is your home, but if the invaders really want to take it, what can you do?
So you try to stay out of their way, if you are in some serious trouble and your chances are already less than 50/50, maybe you seek them out. Sometimes they help. Sometimes they don't.
And sometimes the abductees catch glimpses of something that looks like it might have been human once, but eyes and skin all wrong, speaking incomprehensibly, and rubbing its head on the alien's 'knees'.
You go home to your dog and try not to think about it.
THE REVIEWS ARE IN!
And now let me bliw your mind: Alien equivalent of Steve Irwin, the one madman brave enough to go bother human wildlife in Australia.
ten-foot octopus tree holding me by the scruff of my neck after plucking me from my car:
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So back when the CW Supergirl came out I had issues with the casting of Jimmy Olsen, and mind you I only ever watched episode 1, CW was already falling off for me, but anyway my friend thought I was being weirdly out-of-character racist,
And I had to explain like, āno, I donāt have a problem with Jimmy Olsen being black. I have a problem with Jimmy being a HUNK, that is twink erasure and I will not have itā¦ā
⦠anyway My Adventures with Superman looks funā¦
Next up someone is going to claim that the Narnia series isn't kids books.
Kids books is probably not the best way to word it, you can enjoy them at every age, including your childhood, as you get older you may find new truths in them, but they're still good for any age.
Also do people not read to their kids anymore??
a squirrel or perhaps a cardinal posted this
How about you mind your own damn business
This is the 85 year old creator of Roger Rabbit:
⦠you think Goku could take Ramiel head on?
transitioning is like putting on the They Live glasses and seeing that 90% of people looking at you are either jerking off or furiously sharpening a knife. or both. and i do not mean that in a sexy or fun way, and i dont like clarifying that, but i know there's a 90% chance you are thinking it, because i wrote it while being a trans woman.
to clarify:
when considering the sexual violence against trans women, it's important to remember that "people only view us sexually" does not mean the same thing as "people only find us attractive". it means "people can only conceptualize of our existence within a sexual light" because that's how the majority of our coverage in media has been tinged in the past century. as a result of the chaste and patriarchal nature of modern capitalism, gender and sexuality are inseparable in much public discourse by virtue of propaganda, and as a result, a trans woman is seen as sexual because efforts towards projecting specifically femininity is only categorized as sexual. and when paired with the uncharitable perception of "man", that propaganda can often evolve how people view us directly into "sexual threat" anywhere, for any reason. i could be in the freezer aisle of costco looking down at the ground while i push my cart and i'd still get dirty looks for wearing a dress (this has happened).
when i say "they're either jerking off or sharpening a knife", i mean we're either viewed sexually, or as sexually threatening, in almost all scenarios.
[NOTE: AS WITH ALL MATTERS OF TRANSMISOGYNY, THIS ISSUE IS 100 TIMES WORSE FOR BLACK GIRLS]
You know, historically there are only two ways to un-corrupt a government; a sudden violent transition of power, or literal GENERATIONS of systemic change.
We are not going to magically vote a third party leftist candidate into power overnight. Ever. It is not going to happen. If you donāt want to get violent, you have to shift the Overton Window to the left, which means supporting the leftmost option that is most likely to win, which means supporting the binary left party in a two party system even if that party is āstill too far right,ā because the window has shifted so far that everyone is too far right. The more the blue candidates win, the more the window shifts, the better candidate you can have the next time, until OVER DECADES, the leftmost binary party becomes left again, and third party candidates become more popular with the general public.
Thatās how democracy works. Thatās how the Republicans got us HERE. Slowly, over generations, gradually shifting the goalpost. The only thing slower than bureaucracy is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
If you want to pump the brakes, sorry, you have to fucking vote. And you have to fucking vote for people you donāt like, but who arenāt literal Nazis.
If you want radical change within your lifetime? Youāre going to have to get comfortable with violence, and youāre going to have to get comfortable with the reality that a lot of us are going to die, and a lot of us are already dyingā¦
But letās be clear. Inciting a revolution is LITERALLY ILLEGAL, and Iām NOT going to recommend that we violently revolt.
Instead I recommend you stop sitting around bitching about how terrible Democrats are, get off your whiny ass, and go vote against republicans in every god damn election you can no matter how little you think it matters.
Because if you donāt want to break the law, and risk getting shot down in the streets or being put in a cage for life, then the only way out of this is to help the binary opposition take power out of the hands of a party of alt-right nationalistic fascists.
Only when power is securely out of the grippy little fingers of literal fascists who are killing people in the streets can we focus on political reform.
"if there's a revolution disabled people might die" wow so glad thats not happening right now.
i just dont think communists are going to cut power to hospitals while on the other hand private equity might and quite literally "america" and its collaborators will bomb a childrens hospital
And once again for the people in the back: political revolution is about regime change - something that happens pretty regularly around the globe without massive disruption to manufacturing or trade. If you hear "revolution" and think we're going to somehow lose access to modern technology and have to go back to subsistence farming and herbal medicine, I suggest reading less dystopian YA and more history.
So the secret police are executing people in broad daylight with alarming regularity, one major political party thinks it's awesome and wants more secret policemen to perform more summary executions, and the other major political party is just sorta pretending nothing is happening. That's about where we're at on the whole "roving bands of secret policemen brutalizing and murdering people" business.
Bad times friend ahead
There are twelve black dots in this classic illusion designed by Akiyoshi Kitaoka, but due to how our neurons are concentrated in the fovea, itās difficult to see more than one at a time. Can you relax your mind enough to catch them all?
We're at the "JK Rowling is personally funding litigation to try and destroy AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL" stage of rabid UK terf brain.
Screenshot via Alejandra Caraballo @esqueer.net on bluesky
Tldr Amnesty International, global human rights organisation, published a report called 'A growing threat: the anti-rights movement in the UK'. In it is detailed, amongst others, a whole bunch of transphobic groups and organisations, including Beira's Place, JK Rowling's trans exclusionary sexual violence support service. JK Rowling threw a shit fit and got Amnesty to take the report down by threatening libel. This was obviously not enough, because you can't appease a fascist, so now she's going to bankroll a bunch of lawsuits anyway through the JK Rowling Women's Fund.*
You can read an archived version of the report here, please save it and share it.
*Not so friendly reminder there is no way to engage in the wizard books without enabling this shit.