~Follow for more soft grump~

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See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

Sounds perfect Wahhhh, I don’t wanna
closet-keys
bebsi-cola

disabled people are worth whatever cost or resources is needed to keep them alive. disabled people are worth it even if they don't live long. they're worth it even if they will need extra support and resources for every day of their life. they're worth it even if they spend all they life indoors. none of it is wasted. none of it is in vain. time, effort, money, resources spent on a life are not wasted. these things have served their purpose. the joy of someone's existence is not undermined by not lasting forever. there's no meaningful point, some threshold where you can say "okay this is enough. after that it's not worth it." it's always worth it.

visenyaism
visenyaism

say what you will about political genius cersei lannister but history will remember her progressive reforms (inventing the idea of firing the kingsguard, elevating bastards to the small council, probably like doubling the funding to STEM research between qyburn and the pyromancers, setting the tower of the hand on fire, etc.) thats the first queen of westeros and its first ever ruler to not have any targaryen blood (unless).

visenyaism

she handled the faith militant situation so badly that she created a martyr in margaery tyrell that is turning the whole reach against the sparrow which is either going to resolve in significant weakening of the nobility of westeros in the face of an insane popular reactionary movement OR said insane movement being shut down for good. either way that’s progress. thanks cersei

asoiaf thanks cersei
lakesbian
lakesbian

the thing about people accusing el-shab-hussein and nabulsi and other palestinian bloggers of running a scam ring that's really bizarre to me is that it's just so completely thoughtless. and i don't mean that in the sense of "inconsiderate," it's far too dangerous to be called just "inconsiderate," i mean in the sense that it demonstrates that literally not a single second of meaningful thought was put into the purported "scambusting." the bloggers vetting have been openly palestinian and openly talking about palestinian politics and culture for an extended amount of time--you could literally go to, e.g., nabulsi's blog right now, open up the archive, and scroll to see posts about palestinian politics, muslim character headcanons, etc., from as far back as 2021. the idea that any of these people would be...what, successfully pretending to be palestinians for years online? prior to launching their scam ring is so ridiculous it beggars belief. and the fact that the people making the scam accusations started with implying that the palestinian bloggers responsible for the vetting spreadsheets were running a scam ring, and only later backpedaled to "well, i guess they're real people, but they're probably still bad at vetting and verifying scammers" (which is still, to be clear, a deeply uninformed and dangerous accusation to make) is extremely indicative of how little thought or care was put into the accusations. if the people making the accusations couldn't even take thirty seconds to check that the people they're accusing of being scam ring leaders have been openly palestinian for years online prior to insinuating they've been lying about literally everything, there's 0 reason any other 'investigation' they post about doing should be taken as intelligent or useful. completely callous and negligent behavior

lakesbian

like there are multiple things i think were oversights or bad practice for doing vetting for fundraisers--the whole "we didn't want to post about how the vetting process works publicly until now because it would make it easier for scammers to fake it" statement makes no sense to me, because the process involving looking at government IDs/doing phone calls/speaking in a specific palestinian dialect of arabic/etc should mean that it's not easily bypassed by scammers no matter how publicly known the process is. and processes have to be known publicly if you want people to be able to trust your vetting and confidently donate when you ask. (i'm not going to donate to verified anything if i don't know how you verified, because i have Limited Money and i don't know for sure that you didn't fuck the verification up!) nor does "what else do you want us to do, post the man's ID online?" make sense as a response to accusations--people needing to know that you are looking at things like IDs prior to trusting your verification is a very different thing than people wanting you to actually post the IDs online.

but the thing is that if you want to see these concerns addressed, you could very easily reach out about it or make a querying post without immediately escalating to the most suspicious possible option of "i think this Entire Thing is a scam ring, and none of the people doing the vetting are real." because once you've called that shot and missed--a shot which you would've known made no sense if you spent 30 seconds checking that the vetters are, in fact, obviously real people with a real internet history as palestinians--the main thing you've done is cause an absurd amount of stress and pain for people who are obviously genuinely putting massive amounts of time & effort into trying to help save their community from ongoing genocide. which is a shitty thing to do, and also really really counterproductive to getting ideal clarification or transparency. because falsely accusing marginalized people of taking advantage of the genocide of their own people while they are actively trying to help tends to, you know. result in those marginalized people becoming rather stressed and upset and overwhelmed. which makes it a lot harder for people to communicate with optimal clarity and forethought.

all this like they jumped immediately into blase accusations zero actually looking into things no good faith attempts at contacting palestinians who do the vetting and like the fucking tone! the smarmy smug glee of it all! ehehehe nigerian princes belgian scam ring little peanuts lemme teach you about scams like even if you were 1000% sure you're talking to a bot how could you talk like that about genocide scams how fucking ghoulish
visenyaism

Anonymous asked:

They butchered Alicent so bad

visenyaism answered:

oh i LOVED her this episode. some of the execution was a little clunky in places but moving the blood and cheese “pick which of your kids are dying” moment to be a conversation between rhaenyra and alicent was sooo fucking choice in a way i really found compelling.

like aegon this episode, alicent has been realizing she doesn’t know what the fucking point of all of this has been. again like aegon because they were raised in a deeply ableist society she cannot conceive of aegon where he isn’t the king she cannot wrap her head around what he’s supposed to be now all of the suffering she bore to get him to this point was for nothing. aemond is acting scary and out of control to the extent that he is an active threat to her and her other children she does not know him anymore.

she gets out loud explicitly asked by rhaenyra to resolve the dilemma that has been her entire character: she either has to choose her children or her relationship with rhaenyra. otto has been drilling this into alicent’s head since she was a child, alicent has been drilling it into her children’s heads since THEY were children. rhaenyra was the only one who pretended that wouldn’t be a choice forced on alicent! so then rhaenyra is the one to demand this of her it’s CRAZY. and alicent, who has been trapped for almost her whole life who has done everything expected of her and has been left with what? so much blood on her hands, everyone hates her, no one listens to her,and the children that she had to bear the conception and raising of against her will are unrecognizable to her. this war is transactional and will not stop until everyone is dead.

and alicent does something fundamentally selfish and cut them loose in the name of all of this just being over. she wants to be a person again. she can’t tell the difference between being her own and being rhaenyra’s those are the same to her. and then she steps out to look at the wide open sky, out of her cage for the first time ever while rhaenyra settles deeper into hers. that’s so interesting. 

the consequence being that she never had control of the narrative! but she’s still punished for this in how this story is told. she’s largely written into the background of the historical record and when she’s there she’s a caricature of a cold ambitious stepmother-queen. they’re trying really hard to reckon with the historical record as history is happening.

overall, I think I can understand why people are upset about this, but I loved it. I thought it was really compelling and there could’ve been a bit more buildup to that moment for her but I don’t think it’s that far out from her previous characterization at all.

dayneonychus

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Once again, please do not leave the gold in the tags!

Also of note: she’s not rejecting all of her children. She is actively choosing Helaena. She is choosing the girl, the one whose use society tells her is lesser. She is choosing the one innocent child that is still left to her. She is making the chose she wishes she had made back when Otto sent her to Viserys chambers, when Viserys ordered her not to tell Rhaenyra.

Helaena is a victim like she is a victim, like all women are made victims in this regime. Helaena is the girl Alicent was when she was left friendless and alone and with only the crown as consolation. It is no coincidence that she chooses to go to Rhaenyra after Aemond threatens Helaena with mental and bodily harm.

The boys, for all she loves them—because if she did not love them there would be no sacrifice to make—are extensions of Viserys, extensions of Otto, children that were not only forced on her body but that in becoming men have also become unrecognizable to her in their quest for pleasure and power, who are willing to step over so many just to keep it.

hotd yeaaah execution is shake as hell tho
thewitchqueenofharrenhal
thewitchqueenofharrenhal

I’m kind of enjoying Rhaenyra’s “I’m ordained by the Gods, I cannot fail, I must make any sacrifice necessary to win vibe she’s getting - it’s paternalistic and unhinged in a “no why are you disagreeing with me? don’t you understand I’m not the bad guy I just know better than you”.

“ I don’t want war or needless bloodshed!!! I don’t want anyone to die!!! I’m trying to save the most lives possible, I don’t want the throne for selfish reasons, I’m doing it to save everyone!!!

Locks a bunch of innocents with the “right blood” and watches them burn and get eaten alive while they beg to be let free but it’s okay because I got 2 new dragonriders so clearly the Gods ARE on my side and all those deaths were a NECESSARY sacrifice.

hotd yeah i was sus on the prophecy but it do be fun how shes turning into cult leader and like completely believes it herself
maxknightley
afloweroutofstone

Isaac Chotiner, arguably the best interviewer in US media, recently did a short interview with one of the leaders of the extremist Israeli settler movement occupying the West Bank. I was surprised to hear exactly how far her definition of Israel's borders reaches: it includes not only Palestine, but large swathes of territory from 3-6 surrounding nations.

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image
afloweroutofstone

Worth keeping this in mind when remembering that Israel has bombed three regional neighbors (Iran, Lebanon, and Syria) in the last year. There is a not-insignificant portion of the Israeli population who believes that Lebanon and Syria belong to them.