orpheuslament:

orpheuslament:

yeah im still thinking about the minotaur sorry but just . imagine youre born wrong. imagine your entire existence is a punishment from the gods. for something you had no control over. imagine your mother holds nothing but contempt for you. she wont even look at you, not really, & she keeps crying & you keep crying & reaching towards her with your little arms & someone drags you away from her. & they keep you hidden & alone & a stranger comes & builds an impenetrable prison around you so youre doomed to forever haunt these endless corridors & youve never known kindness or companionship or love. & when they call you a monster. well. you believe them

babe you reblogged orpheuslament minotaur post 23 times are you okay

dduane:

rosenkranz-isnt-dead:

gun-witch:

casual-mitosis-collective-deact:

herlockshlomes:

thesituation:

NATIVE CARBON DIOXIDE FOUND ON JUPITER’S MOON EUROPA

James Webb Space Telescope detects 1st evidence of carbon on Jupiter’s icy moon Europa

HOLY SHIT, IT’S HAPPENING! EVERYBODY STAY CALM!

For those confused, this combined with liquid water being there makes this the strongest evidence of alien life to date.

These are conditions shockingly similar to earth.

Keeping an eye on this… 😀

juno-infernal:

juno-infernal:

juno-infernal:

my little brother & i are having a scholarly debate about mornings

he’s like if an enlightened sage was a 22 year old metalhead who likes to rollerblade in the house

let-them-fight:

TAYLOR SWIFT vs HATSUNE MIKU

ATTACK!

Taylor Swift

Hatsune Miku

See Results

a-method-in-it:

wonderfulworldofmichaelford:

wonderfulworldofmichaelford:

Lilo & Stitch is a great example of a story that has no villains. It has antagonists, sure, but most of them are well-meaning. The worst person in the film is that little shit Myrtle, but she’s not in the film that much anyway.

Since this post is getting traction I want to clarify how not-villainous the antagonists are:

• The Grand Councilwoman is literally just responding to what she sees as a threat to the galaxy and is extremely reasonable.
• Gantu is much the same. He’s a bit overzealous, yes, but he thinks he’s saving the galaxy from stitch.
• Cobra Bubbles is literally just doing his job, he’s obviously not happy about it but he is doing what he feels is best for Lilo. And much like the Councilwoman, he is extremely reasonable.
• Myrtle is, again, just a little shit. She’s a schoolyard bully and is truly small potatoes.
• Jumba calls himself an “evil scientist,” but literally nothing supports that. His only onscreen crime is creating a bunch of Pokémon that have powers that will mildly inconvenience people and can be persuaded to be nice over the course of 22 - 90 minutes, to say nothing of himself seeing as he decides to change his ways at the softest bit of persuasion.
• Pleakley is literally just gay.

The “villain” of Lilo and Stitch is, rather directly, societies and social systems that write people off and do not provide support and care.

It is obvious to the audience – and deliberately presented this way by the film – that it is better for Lilo to stay with her sister, even if her sister is a bit of a mess and not financially stable. Mr. Bubbles is not evil. He is there because he wants what’s best for Lilo, and he is not unreasonable to think that the sister without a job who leaves the stove on and whose house nearly burned down two days later is not it. The solution is not to “defeat” Mr. Bubbles; the solution would be for society to help Nani succeed, rather than watch as she fails.

Similarly, no one provided any help to Stitch when he was created and discovered. They wrote him off as an abomination, something too dangerous to be destroyed. They weren’t evil, and it wasn’t unreasonable to think that the experiment created to be an agent of destruction would be better off scrapped. But what would have happened if they had at least tried?

Lilo and Stitch are two characters who were caught in systems that were cold, uncaring, and unsupportive, even if the people in them were not evil and were, in fact, just doing their best.

It’s a movie about people who have been written off finding one another and building a found family where they can get and give the support and care they didn’t get from the people with authority and I love it so much.

mechanicalinfection:

BEHIND THE WATERFALLS.

tfemteach-deactivated20231124:

tfemteach-deactivated20231124:

tfemteach-deactivated20231124:

tfemteach-deactivated20231124:

ed dissociates, hallucinates the love of his life screaming for help, strangles two men to death for the first time since killing his dad, dives to the bottom of the sea to get his discarded blackbeard look, emerges from the sea like a kraken– and then walks directly into written evidence that he is loved. a few minutes later he gets to tell that man that he DOES love him and kiss him on the face and hear that someone KNOWS he, ed, is capable of love. hello can anyone hear me

the i know actually hits so hard with all of this. i need a fuckijg minute. i KNOW. I KNOW THAT. HE KNOWS

because the first time he was this scared he was alone he had to build blackbeard to escape the kraken and keep himself safe and he was alone. and the second time he thought he was alone and wanted to die from it only to be dragged back out of the depths by the hand of a man who loves him. and this time he walks up out of the depths on his own two feet to go get that man and tell him he loves him too. and it’s OKAY this time because he loves stede and stede KNOWS

also that he kills and comes up from the sea like a kraken and puts on the blackbeard clothes all to go be edward with his love. synthesis. for which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me? for them all together.

hungry-skeleton:

Skytober Day 27: Element Change!

Dark astroblast >:)

Reblogs > Likes

dykemcqueen:

comic i made for my wife

mermazeablaze:

koicifer:

feywildwest:

feywildwest:

employees should be allowed to steal, actually

idk. yesterday was a slow day and at the end of it, I still stared into a cash drawer, one of three, that had more than my rent in it, even if you only count the 20s. I spent a lot of that day trying to calculate in my head how many hours of work equal one pair of pants, let alone how many hours of work equals the fun thing I want to do next month.

I feel a cough coming on, because I work in a drug store, and all of my customers are sick. I always feel a little bit sick, now. I can’t afford to eat well enough to keep my body healthy. Cough medicine is worth two hours and 20 minutes of work. Our store probably bought a case of cough medicine for they price we’re selling one box. If this cough gets worse, I might have to call out, which will cost me more than the medicine in the long run- but that doesn’t give me the money to buy the medicine right now. I stock a case onto the shelf. I don’t buy any.

A mom wrangling three crying, sick kids enters my line and sets two types of children’s medicine down, says they’re both on sale and thank god for that. I ring her up, and she gets very quiet, because she misread the sign, and her total is twice as high as she was expecting. Her youngest screams in the cart, because she’s burning up with fever. Her mother very quietly asks, please, she’s so sorry, if I could please take the more expensive one off her total.

I agree, I move the box below the counter, and when she’s not looking, I slip it into her bag. I pray as hard as I can that if she notices the “mistake” she says nothing, because I so desperately want her to have that medicine. The store has lost profit at the cost of a child’s health. I don’t bat an eye. This is a terminable offense. If I’m presented with the same situation tonight, I’ll do it in a heartbeat.

The myth of evil employees stealing from the company falls apart the second you realize the company would shoot you dead to make a profit. This isn’t two equal players, one of whom is stealing from the other. This is someone fighting for survival versus someone fighting to make an extra million. It’s not equal.

Employees should be able to steal, actually.

Bro I teared up oh my god bro

When I worked at Walmart as a cashier almost 20yrs ago. A guy came in with his obviously sick 5yr old son. & all he was buying was a bottle of medicine for his kid. He was short a dime. A fucking dime. 10 cents. I had a dime & pulled it out of my pocket & helped pay for the medicine.

My manager comes over in a huff & angrily says, “What were you thinking?! How could you do that?! What if he expects you to cover him every single time he’s short on money??? He could be a meth addict or something.”

Me, “I’m not going to lose any sleep over helping & being out a dime. I would do it again.”

This guy comes in a day or two later, holding a dollar in the air & running towards me. He gives me the dollar & says for me to keep it. He wasn’t there for anything else, just came in to give the dollar.

When it came time for me to quit. It was still during the time a cashier didn’t need an override to discount items. I had HAAAADDD it with Walmart’s bullshit. & so EVVVVERYYYYONE got discounts over the course of a week.

A woman comes in with a couple thousands dollars worth of stuff to redecorate her house. She probably paid $300.

Moms with a basketful of groceries. 75% off.

I even told my husband (they didn’t know he was my husband) to come in when he got paid & to get as many groceries & hygiene & cleaning products as he could fit in a basket. & whatever else he wanted. & I discounted TF out of it.

I didn’t care anymore & I wanted to save everybody in my checkout money.

& to this day, working the odd jobs in retail - I internally snicker at loss prevention. Fuck that. You want to steal something? Babes, I didn’t see shit.

theshampyon:

liberalsarecool:

Fascism sells a synthetic nostalgia.

As good a time as any to remind folks of the 14 properties of “ur-fascism” (described by Umberto Eco, who grew up in Italy under Mussolini, in his 1995 essay Ur-Fascism). Not all need be present for single regime to be fascist, but a Venn diagram of all fascist regimes will cover them all.

1. CULT OF TRADITION. The old ways are best. The New is not worthwhile.
2. REJECT MODERNISM The development of Western philosophy post-Enlightenment is seen as a descent into depravity. See also : Reject post-modernism, which is seen as an even greater descent into irrationality.
3. ACTION FOR ACTION’S SAKE. Action is to be taken without reflection or introspection - that’s for weaklings and degenerates. Often seen in a derision of “intellectual elites”.
4. DISAGREEMENT IS TREASON. Analytical criticism cannot be allowed. A pantomime of discourse may be allowed, but only within the accepted framework and only if reaching the foregone conclusion.
5. FEAR OF DIFFERENCE. Outsiders are your enemy. Those who are different are evil and want to corrupt you and destroy all you hold dear.
6. APPEAL TO A FRUSTRATED MIDDLE CLASS Capitalising on genuine frustrations by pointing them toward convenient scapegoats. Real concerns used a recruiting tools.
7. OBSESSION WITH A PLOT. There is a conspiracy run by THEM. You are besieged by THEM. THEY are behind all your ills. THEY are working in the shadows to enslave and destroy you.
8. THE ENEMY IS BOTH STRONG AND WEAK. When rhetorically convenient, THEY are all-powerful. When rhetorically convenient, THEY are feeble, stupid, weak. The rhetorical focus shifts regardless of self-contradiction, because all that matters is positioning the enemy where the speaker’s goal requires them to be at any given moment.
9. PACIFISM IS THE ENEMY. LIFE IS ETERNAL WAR. There must always be an enemy to fight. When that enemy is defeated, another must be found. When they cannot be found, they must be created, even from within. There is always the promise of a Final Solution bringing Ultimate Triumph, but it can never be achieved.
10. CONTEMPT FOR THE WEAK. Elitism disguised as populism. Everyone of US is superior to THEM, cockroaches and drains on society that they are. But people are sheep who require strong leaders, who are by their nature superior to others.
11. EVERYONE IS TAUGHT TO BE THE HERO. A CULT OF DEATH. Where in myth the hero is exceptional, in fascism everyone must be the hero. They crave heroic death, the reward for heroic life. In seeking it, they send others to die. (See also: Militarism).
12. MACHISMO. Disdain for women and femininity. Intolerance of non-standard sexuality and gender expression.
13. SELECTIVE POPULISM. The People are viewed as a monolith with a single will, as interpreted (in reality, determined) by the leaders. Democratic institutions are viewed as illegitimate because they run counter to the narrative of the existence of a single Voice Of The People.
14. NEWSPEAK. Vocabulary cannot expand. If anything, it must shrink. Variation and nuance in dialogue means variation and nuance in thought. This cannot be allowed. Therefore categories must be binary. Definitions are simple and limited. If it cannot be boiled down into snappy catchphrase it does not exist.

theshampyon:

liberalsarecool:

Fascism sells a synthetic nostalgia.

As good a time as any to remind folks of the 14 properties of “ur-fascism” (described by Umberto Eco, who grew up in Italy under Mussolini, in his 1995 essay Ur-Fascism). Not all need be present for single regime to be fascist, but a Venn diagram of all fascist regimes will cover them all.

1. CULT OF TRADITION. The old ways are best. The New is not worthwhile.
2. REJECT MODERNISM The development of Western philosophy post-Enlightenment is seen as a descent into depravity. See also : Reject post-modernism, which is seen as an even greater descent into irrationality.
3. ACTION FOR ACTION’S SAKE. Action is to be taken without reflection or introspection - that’s for weaklings and degenerates. Often seen in a derision of “intellectual elites”.
4. DISAGREEMENT IS TREASON. Analytical criticism cannot be allowed. A pantomime of discourse may be allowed, but only within the accepted framework and only if reaching the foregone conclusion.
5. FEAR OF DIFFERENCE. Outsiders are your enemy. Those who are different are evil and want to corrupt you and destroy all you hold dear.
6. APPEAL TO A FRUSTRATED MIDDLE CLASS Capitalising on genuine frustrations by pointing them toward convenient scapegoats. Real concerns used a recruiting tools.
7. OBSESSION WITH A PLOT. There is a conspiracy run by THEM. You are besieged by THEM. THEY are behind all your ills. THEY are working in the shadows to enslave and destroy you.
8. THE ENEMY IS BOTH STRONG AND WEAK. When rhetorically convenient, THEY are all-powerful. When rhetorically convenient, THEY are feeble, stupid, weak. The rhetorical focus shifts regardless of self-contradiction, because all that matters is positioning the enemy where the speaker’s goal requires them to be at any given moment.
9. PACIFISM IS THE ENEMY. LIFE IS ETERNAL WAR. There must always be an enemy to fight. When that enemy is defeated, another must be found. When they cannot be found, they must be created, even from within. There is always the promise of a Final Solution bringing Ultimate Triumph, but it can never be achieved.
10. CONTEMPT FOR THE WEAK. Elitism disguised as populism. Everyone of US is superior to THEM, cockroaches and drains on society that they are. But people are sheep who require strong leaders, who are by their nature superior to others.
11. EVERYONE IS TAUGHT TO BE THE HERO. A CULT OF DEATH. Where in myth the hero is exceptional, in fascism everyone must be the hero. They crave heroic death, the reward for heroic life. In seeking it, they send others to die. (See also: Militarism).
12. MACHISMO. Disdain for women and femininity. Intolerance of non-standard sexuality and gender expression.
13. SELECTIVE POPULISM. The People are viewed as a monolith with a single will, as interpreted (in reality, determined) by the leaders. Democratic institutions are viewed as illegitimate because they run counter to the narrative of the existence of a single Voice Of The People.
14. NEWSPEAK. Vocabulary cannot expand. If anything, it must shrink. Variation and nuance in dialogue means variation and nuance in thought. This cannot be allowed. Therefore categories must be binary. Definitions are simple and limited. If it cannot be boiled down into snappy catchphrase it does not exist.

doberbutts:

mulberryash-deactivated20210723:

dontmeantobepoliticalbut:

Got pulled over because he “saw someone flash their lights at me” and it made him “think something was going on”. After he ran my paperwork and did multiple full walk-arounds of my car, he decided everything was in order and I was free to go. I just wanted to get home from work.

Living in MD got pulled over when I pulled into my landlady’s [100%, rich, suburban] community and questioned what my purpose was there. “I live here” was not an acceptable answer and I ended up needing to call my landlady to talk to the officer and convince them that I really did live there, in her basement inlaw apartment, courtesy of her granddaughter. When he finally let me go he told me he “actually” pulled me over because he “thought [my] headlights were out” but on “second glance” they were just fine. Dunno how you can mistake headlights being on or off.

And I know I’ve told the story of when one of my elderly white neighbors called the police on me for training my dog in a public use field and how even the cop that showed up thought the call was stupid and racist.

My dad got pulled over when I was still in a carseat because they thought it was “suspicious” that a grown man would have such a young child with him on a school day. He was driving me back to school from a doctor’s appointment. They made him get our of the car, lean against it, and searched both him and the car because they “smelled something” while he did his best to keep me calm and tell me that it was going to be okay. I was too young to understand what happened at the time. I just remember he was furious the entire ride back to school, and he was still mad when I got off the bus that afternoon.

It really is just Like This, being black in this country.

fluffffpillow:

philomenacunt:

wheelchairs and canes and glasses and hearing aids and every single other disability aid should be free btw and if you disagree i hate you

moderatelyscared:

ozi-uwu:

kira-serialfaggot:

the-lumpfish-king:

kira-serialfaggot:

theinquinnsitor:

sexy-reaper:

When I first heard the term CIS being used on Tumblr, I didn’t know it meant being comfortable with your assigned gender. I thought this whole site was talking about the Confederacy of Independent Systems. As in

the Sith’s droid army, and when everyone was saying “CIS scum” they were calling people out on being Sith

Every so often this post dies out and then spikes my activity again

I’d have absolutely disgusting freak sex with a Droideka

Milf

Milf, would, and reblog

MTT my beloved (so sad I never got the like 2011 lego set)

mayhem-moth-deactivated20250415:

Wan som mustard?

\(’<’)/

Its for u

queersatanic:

queersatanic:

aleatoryw:

chazymandias:

kittykatninja321:

My hypothesis is that in like 10 years gen z is gonna have a big cult boom the way the boomers did in the 70s

It’s already happening on tik tok. There’s a fun new thing going round that’s citing common symptoms of depression and anxiety as signs you’re about to have your awakening and that you are actually an alien and the reason you don’t feel right is because you’re home sick for your own galaxy. So that’s fun.

agreed, and i don’t mean this in a “haha gen z is so dumb they’re gonna join a tiktok cult lmao” i mean that conditions are perfect for the formation of cults right now.

• high unemployment and a lot of underpaying, pointless jobs = people are looking for things to do with their life, a purpose
• skyrocketing cost of living = most young people will not be able to live on their own, meaning some will end up in a group living situation with people interested in recruiting them
• it’s a time of great cultural and political upheaval, nothing feels real, people are desperate for meaning and human connection. cults promise that
• there is a new wave of acceptance and understanding for ways of life outside the norm, which is great! …except for when cult leaders tell you abusive and controlling practices are just their culture, their religion, their lifestyle, their beliefs, their tradition, and if you disrespect it you are the problem
• social media influencers have already shown us how easy it is to build a cult of personality and attract people from anywhere in the world who are interested in the exact brand you are selling
• spirtuality is having a boom, as are things like astrology, crystals, tarot, meditation, energy… those things aren’t bad on their own but they are often used as tools of cult spaces
• wellness. i think a lot of people are already in wellness cults. you can make people do a lot of things in the name of “wellness” and a big factor of maintaining a cult is keeping members in a state of decreased cognition….. like say, with regular fasting
• i think people are just unaware in general of how cults function, especially because the satanic panic was a big stupid false alarm that convinced the youths that dungeons and dragons or doom were gateways to cults, which are scary evil child murdering, satan-worshipping gangs. people don’t know how to spot them in real life.

[ID:  Spongebob wrestling meme format. Buff Patrick labeled “predatory cult” flexes and growls in a wrestling ring at a stern, buff Spongebob labeled “my intelligence”. In his corner Mr Crabs is labeled “my education”. Final panel shows Patrick and whistling Spongebob walking out hand-in-hand, both labeled “rationalizing why this isn’t really a cult” /ID]

(This is actually more relevant here than standalone.) 

Our popular media has tended to portray people in cults as ignorant or as losers when that’s really not how they work. Cults don’t want dead weight they have to support; they want talented, clever, energetic people they can exploit to siphon wealth and labor out of.

Some are religious, but some are political. You find yourself moving into a house full of Maoist revolutionaries because capitalism really is that awful and ecological collapse is imminent—but for some reason, the leader of the self-crit sessions is also the person everyone else in the house is in a polyamorous relationship with, and they can’t see anyone else outside of the house without her approval. Or you need a little extra money and you get told you’d be so good at selling Keto products. You’re a natural, and after you get through these first tough months, the leg under you will be developed enough you only have to work if you wanna hit bigger goals. Etc.

Loneliness, a lack of purpose, and desperation all make you susceptible to cults no matter how smart you are. In fact, your very clever brain is also extremely capable of redirecting your thoughts away from realizing you’re being exploited and abused because, after all, you’re not some idiot, are you? 

We’ve got a ton of very clever young people fully aware that they’re going to have to suffer through decisions of the selfish dead, and they’re going to crave salvation of all different kinds because the future is going to suck, and it won’t have been their fault, and they won’t be able to do anything to stop it. 

How to spot when you’re in a cult

insufficiently-advanced:

stevviefox:

gfawkesphoenixchokingonashes:

ms-cellanies:

purple-ladys-stuff:

They also don’t belong in government positions either.

Nor as public school teachers.

Damn right.

that’s why they join those fields

to actively block access to things they think are immoral

the selfishness isn’t ‘i want to do this job but not the part i think is icky’ it’s 'this is the most efficient way i can think of to impose my religion on other people’

the-haiku-bot:

limoki:

chorby-soul:

Introducing: cursed tea “kettles” I found on google

Hal 9000 (domesticated)

The slab

Gas cans

Precambrian little guy

Nintendo wii

These all look like those fake console renders back in 2008.

These all look like those

fake console renders back in

2008.

Beep boop! I look for accidental haiku posts. Sometimes I mess up.

frankenmouse:

dadzawa-adopt-dabi:

a-boy-too-weird:

trader-j0e:

qwertyu858:

frownyalfred:

dragonpuppies:

welshronin:

thefingerfuckingfemalefury:

frownyalfred:

I love how all of the Batman villains are like “ah he’s not at the manor, it’s defenseless! and then alfred just racks an AK-47 and is like pull up bitch

Batman’s Villains: The butler will be easy prey!

He’s just an old man…he doesn’t have any of the Batman’s gadgets or training or fighting skills!

Alfred: Oh my you’re right

There’s something else of Master Bruce’s I don’t have as well

(Cocks a shotgun) A CODE AGAINST KILLING

Batman’s Villains: Wayne isn’t here to save you old man!

Alfred:

Alfred is the original “Call an ambulance — but not for me”

@dragonpuppies I spent way too long on this

Bruce: I have a code.

Alfred: And I have a gun.

Bruce: time to remove the guns.

Alfred: good fucking luck.

I’ve peer reviewed @ebonyheartnet’s addition and found that it deserves a reblog.

schrodingers-egg:

ahagia-sophia:

nutsacktorturer:

ky-ju-deactivated20231122:

ky-ju-deactivated20231122:

I feel like practicing any skill would be way more fun if I could have a lil level increase thing that pops up in front of me every time I do good like in Skyrim

“Push ups increased to level 5”

“Writing dialogue increased to level 37”

“Coping mechanisms (healthy) increased to level 18”

spoiledmik:

yeah about right

sy–kh:

octolinggrimm:

gamesoft:

yardsards:

surrounding myself with a bubble of diversity and self love and body positivity online and then being exposed to normies who actually care about conventional beauty standards feels so fucking bizarre. like you people just live like this??? are you not tired???

mademoisellegush:

Shoves this in the gortash tag.

veeranger:

fromhalcyon:

michaelgovehateblog:

I don’t think we can trust the guardian as a reliable news source on anything from now on

ok but consider this

also ratio

kateawolf13:

spaceshipsandpurpledrank:

Some people have “fuck you” money. You know, that amount you have in the bank where you can look at someone, say “fuck you, I quit” or “fuck you, I’m leaving” or anything like that.

This has now taught me that some people have “fuck you” time. and I could not be any happier with this knowledge.

mayhem-moth-deactivated20250415:

the-tired-commander:

the-tired-commander:

hey could y'all do me a favour?

Reblog if you’re okay with “weird” compliments on your stuff!

things like “biting this” and such

i…made this to see if my mutuals liked silly compliments

I love weird, just not sexual ones

iamnotbill:

sapphia:

autism screening quizzes will be like “do you take things too literally” and then ask fifty of the worst-worded questions ever dreamt up by man

one time one of my friends found an autism quiz on the internet in class and everybody around started taking it and i watched as all of them were given the all clear by the quiz and then when i took it i got the exact diagnosis i was given as a child and everybody saw that and then “huh thats weird” before moving on

ringtoned:

suzanne collins is such a genius… the cultural phenomena of her series leading to the hanging tree house remixes, mockingjay being milked for two (bad) movies, the capitol-inspired makeup palettes, the halloween costumes, the explosion of the market for dystopia, the butchering of her characters and removal of disabilities, disfiguration, and racial tension + representation to sell more tickets, the extra gale scenes to fuel discourse, and the audience showing up to cinemas to watch what was pretty honestly marketed to them (the jacob vs edwardification of the symbolic love story and also to watch children fight to the death) it’s just so ridiculously ironic i would say you can’t write this shit, but she did write about it… in The Hunger Games published 2008

pankendev:

every once in a while an indie game comes out that unleashes an entirely new type of trans person

mevil:

8ball-wizard:

reblog to cast Fentanyl’s Curse on a cop

sightofsea:

i’m gonna get that man pregnant and pay for the abortion

theshampyon:

liberalsarecool:

Fascism sells a synthetic nostalgia.

As good a time as any to remind folks of the 14 properties of “ur-fascism” (described by Umberto Eco, who grew up in Italy under Mussolini, in his 1995 essay Ur-Fascism). Not all need be present for single regime to be fascist, but a Venn diagram of all fascist regimes will cover them all.

1. CULT OF TRADITION. The old ways are best. The New is not worthwhile.
2. REJECT MODERNISM The development of Western philosophy post-Enlightenment is seen as a descent into depravity. See also : Reject post-modernism, which is seen as an even greater descent into irrationality.
3. ACTION FOR ACTION’S SAKE. Action is to be taken without reflection or introspection - that’s for weaklings and degenerates. Often seen in a derision of “intellectual elites”.
4. DISAGREEMENT IS TREASON. Analytical criticism cannot be allowed. A pantomime of discourse may be allowed, but only within the accepted framework and only if reaching the foregone conclusion.
5. FEAR OF DIFFERENCE. Outsiders are your enemy. Those who are different are evil and want to corrupt you and destroy all you hold dear.
6. APPEAL TO A FRUSTRATED MIDDLE CLASS Capitalising on genuine frustrations by pointing them toward convenient scapegoats. Real concerns used a recruiting tools.
7. OBSESSION WITH A PLOT. There is a conspiracy run by THEM. You are besieged by THEM. THEY are behind all your ills. THEY are working in the shadows to enslave and destroy you.
8. THE ENEMY IS BOTH STRONG AND WEAK. When rhetorically convenient, THEY are all-powerful. When rhetorically convenient, THEY are feeble, stupid, weak. The rhetorical focus shifts regardless of self-contradiction, because all that matters is positioning the enemy where the speaker’s goal requires them to be at any given moment.
9. PACIFISM IS THE ENEMY. LIFE IS ETERNAL WAR. There must always be an enemy to fight. When that enemy is defeated, another must be found. When they cannot be found, they must be created, even from within. There is always the promise of a Final Solution bringing Ultimate Triumph, but it can never be achieved.
10. CONTEMPT FOR THE WEAK. Elitism disguised as populism. Everyone of US is superior to THEM, cockroaches and drains on society that they are. But people are sheep who require strong leaders, who are by their nature superior to others.
11. EVERYONE IS TAUGHT TO BE THE HERO. A CULT OF DEATH. Where in myth the hero is exceptional, in fascism everyone must be the hero. They crave heroic death, the reward for heroic life. In seeking it, they send others to die. (See also: Militarism).
12. MACHISMO. Disdain for women and femininity. Intolerance of non-standard sexuality and gender expression.
13. SELECTIVE POPULISM. The People are viewed as a monolith with a single will, as interpreted (in reality, determined) by the leaders. Democratic institutions are viewed as illegitimate because they run counter to the narrative of the existence of a single Voice Of The People.
14. NEWSPEAK. Vocabulary cannot expand. If anything, it must shrink. Variation and nuance in dialogue means variation and nuance in thought. This cannot be allowed. Therefore categories must be binary. Definitions are simple and limited. If it cannot be boiled down into snappy catchphrase it does not exist.

memewhore:

deadmomjokes:

Took my tiny child with me to the Halloween store. Walked in and immediately realized it would be a terrible mistake.

They had those jumpscare machine things everywhere, lots of spooky noise machines, scary looking animatronic things, crazy decorations, just the whole 9 yards and then some. I immediately went to turn around and leave when I heard a noise coming from my arms.

My one year old child who gets scared if we cough…. was laughing.

She makes this precious “eee!” sound and starts vibrating when she sees something she really likes, usually an animal or a balloon, and she points right at the big zombie thing by the door and does that. I carry her in past a huge 10 ft tall Pennywise inflatable, and she smacks me to tell me to stop so she can look. She ponders him for a moment, and his glowing light-up eyes, then points at his hand and shouts “BEEM!” Which is her word for “balloon.” She made us stand there under Pennywise for at least 3 minutes, which is a really long time for a one-year-old.

Then, she begs to get down, so I let her loose and she just books it all over the store. Finds the creepy demonic looking babies and shouts “BABY!” then gets this confused look on her face and tries to wipe the “dirt” off their faces. Decides it’s not worth it, goes and picks up a severed hand decoration, hands it to me and says “hand.” Yes, my dear, it is a hand. And yes, that severed foot has “toes,” you’re very right.

Finds the wigs, runs down the aisle shouting “hair! hair!” and grabbing her own sparse little headfuzz so hard I think she’s going to rip it all out. Then she found the speaker in the wall that was blaring Monster Mash and she demanded I pick her up so we could “DANSSSE”. But she got distracted by the big spider decorations, which she christened as dogs by running toward them and barking.

She ran up and down the aisles of costumes touching the fabric and making her little “tss tss tss” giggle that she does when she’s having Much Too Good a Time. Every so often she’d stop, look back to make sure I was there, and point at something and vibrate with her aggressive “EEEE!”

A man turned a corner wearing one of the creepy latex masks. He immediately started apologizing to me, saying “I’m so sorry, I’m looking for my friend, I don’t want to scare her.” Meanwhile my child is standing there looking up at him with the most confused look on her face. Not scared, just confused, like he is so dumb and she can’t figure out why he would want to make that stupid face for so long. But he rounds another corner all hunched over, she flaps her arms and sighs, and takes off to go scream at the creepy lawn decorations.

When it was time to go, nothing could convince her to come to me willingly, so I had to promise her one last look at the balloon man while I picked her up against her will. Pennywise placated her, and we left the store with a smile on her chubby little cheeks. She demanded we wait and watch the big inflatable-flailing-arm-tube-man out front, the one that was bright orange and had a jack-o-lantern face, and she bounced and wiggled and danced in my arms despite its fan being louder than the loud motorcycles that scare her on our walks. She waved bye-bye to it as we left for the car.

Basically, that was the cutest thing that’s ever happened to me in my life, and it’s so crazy how so many things are culturally taught and kids are just… immune to that. All she saw was bright colors and things she recognized and could name, in a place she could explore and touch. She has no concept of clowns being scary or zombies being A Thing or what constitutes “creepy” and “spooky” and “gross.” To her, a severed arm with gore hanging out the end doesn’t represent pain or violence, it’s just “arm,” and it’s got some weird stuff on the end that’s funny colors. They’re just things, there’s no context for it.

The world is weird and beautiful and it’s so cool to see it through the eyes of someone who is so New to this planet and hasn’t been influenced by society and culture yet.

shutinthenutouse:

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