Imagine being JD Vance, who makes such a huge part of his personality being catholic. The pope himself takes time to lecture you on compassion then promptly DIES. The pope uses one of his last hours on earth to tell you that you suck at your religion on EASTER. And then DIES. Anyway RIP Pope Francis
A hero without a cape
Her name is Theresa Kachindamoto, and she is a senior chief - political leader of a region with a population of about 900,000 people.
She didn’t run for election; she was appointed, without her knowledge, while she was living and working in a completely different part of the country. She just received a call one day telling her to come back to her childhood home, because she was in charge now.
So she did; and when she arrived, she discovered widespread sexual abuse of children. She browbeat 50 uncooperative local leaders into accepting her decision to annul all the marriages. She then fired four of them when they continued to allow children to be married off in their areas. She still faces widespread opposition from parents who consider it their right to sexually abuse their daughters if they want to; but Kachindamoto very evidently does not give a fuck, and is continuing to use political and legal means to protect children in the region.
She’s not just an anonymous do-gooder; she’s an effective political leader despite incredibly difficult circumstances. Theresa Kachindamoto.
[Image Description: a twitter post from user Al Jazeera English @ AJEnglish that reads “This woman has broken up 850 child marriages and banned sexual initiation camps in Malawi”
Below the text is a picture of Theresa Kachindamoto. She is a dark skinned woman with short hair. She is outside and smiling. End ID]
got worried checking the dates on this post and seeing 2016, knowing how risky this kind of political activism is
good news: Kachindamoto is still in office, and last year (2024) she received honorary doctorates from 2 universities and was given the African Genius Award 🙏
shit ton of people are repeating the thing about hayao miyazaki saying AI art is an "insult to life itself" and just as a reminder he was talking about the zombies that team made that were intended to be scary in how much they shook, but instead reminded him of his disabled friend. the insult to life itself was referring to the team trying to make scary real symptoms that people live with.
it was a quote about ableism. if he has said other things about AI type stuff, that is a different thing. but that specific quote was about ableism.
ALT
ALT
ALT
ALT
ALT
ALT
ALT
ALT
ALT
ALTHey here's the link to the video so people both understand this context (warning, body horror for the zombies) and something additional that he did say in the same video ABOUT AI ITSELF:
Context from 1:45 in the video:
Miyazaki: So, what is your goal?
Engineer: well, we would like to build a machine that can draw pictures like humans do
Miyazaki: would you?
Engineer: yes
Long pause
Miyazaki: I feel like we are nearing to the end times.
Miyazaki: we humans are losing faith in ourselves.
So CLEARLY Hayao Miyazaki has a distate for AI. It's in the same fucking video as the "insult to life itself" quote, just a little bit ways down from the ableism thing
He hates both the ableism AND AI.
It's BOTH.
"I have depression." - character who has been through extensive therapy.
"I feel dead inside all the time and nothing helps!" - character who does like, regular introspective thinking and is aware of the concept of mental health.
"Leave me the fuck alone I'll be fine once I get over my stupid shit." - repressed character.
"It's fine I'm just having an Empty Time. What? Yeah, empty times, you know, when everything is like bzzzzzz in your brain and you don't shower for two weeks. Why, what do you call it?" - ooooughhh now we're talkin
There's a lot I could say about The Subtance as an unflinching, gruesome close-up portrait of systemic misogyny, internalized sexism, self-hatred, and the brutality of fame, but more importantly, you know what I bet? I bet there is exactly one customer of The Subtance who is doing everything right. Week one, makes a living as a fitness influencer; week two, enjoys a lavish retirement funded by her other self's earnings. Week one, jogging, yoga, filming tiktoks, enjoying the vitality of youth; week two, Alaskan cruises, mahjong with the girls, enjoying unlimited free time and liberation from the crushing weight of the societal expectation to care what other people think of you. Keeps her other self on a nice air mattress with a quilt and always cooks a big recovery breakfast to be waiting for her when she switches. Walks out of that creepy alley every week whistling. Has no idea potential complications even exist. Every other user is living a psychedelic horror show of trauma, goop, and rage, and she's just at Barnes and Noble picking up the latest selection for book club. I know I'm alone in this, but I would happily watch that sequel.
