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@wolfsskull

julian : 30 : they/them

Yeah Mr. Darcyโ€™s proposal was a complete turd and a half but you gotta understand. You got your life together. A good career, stable income, retirement plan, all that shit together. And you meet this girl. And sheโ€™s everything. Clever, outspoken, funny, calls you on your bullshit. Grade A cutie, right? And she doesnโ€™t go out of her way to spend time with you but sheโ€™s nice, and sometimes you catch her looking your way in a way that makes you think you might have a shot.

But her family. Holy shit.

First off, itโ€™s p much ALL women, and mostly UNMARRIED women, which at this time means of something happens to her dad then youโ€™re financially responsible for like. Four grown ass adults, potentially forever

Because mom in law is DEFINITELY gonna need someone to take care of her when dad in law kicks it, and they have like. NO money. So already youโ€™re accepting that if all goes well, youโ€™re gonna be one random old bagโ€™s retirement home. Thatโ€™s expensive and exhausting, yeah? Imagine asking someone on a first date knowing that if they say yes and things go good her high-strung chihuahua mother is gonna move in with you. IMAGINE.

And girlyโ€™s other sisters. Well, one is a sweetheart, yeah, and sheโ€™s getting engaged so she probably wonโ€™t be an issue, but that still leaves two more, and those ones are INSUFFERABLE. Never went to school, dumb as rocks, spend cash like itโ€™s toilet paper

And while one of โ€˜emโ€™s young still and might grow out of it the OTHER one is actively torpedoโ€™ing her entire familyโ€™s reputation by wandering off with random dudes and chasing ass. Sheโ€™s never gonna work, she canโ€™t build connections, sheโ€™s a fucking sinkhole, and sheโ€™s being led on by the same goddamn con man ass leeching tit whoโ€™s been bleeding you dry while telling anyone whoโ€™ll listen that your family is full of ratty thieving bastards.

And if he dumps her after a week- WHICH YOU KNOW HIS BITCH ASS IS GONNA- youโ€™ve got a SECOND UNMARRIABLE GROWN ASS ADULT TO PROVIDE FOR. And you KNOW sheโ€™s gonna be a tantrum-throwing little shit about it, and itโ€™s not like you can lock her in the basement or something, youโ€™re gonna have to bring her fucking. Everywhere. And give her an allowance and shit while she contributes zero, because again, she NEVER GOT EDUCATED AND HAS NO MARKETABLE SKILLS. Sheโ€™s not even good to TALK to. FUCK

And youโ€™re looking at this girlโ€™s father like โ€œplease for the love of fuck get your spawn under control, marry them off, get them working on their rรฉsumรฉ, learning to sew or be nursemaids or manage staff or SOMETHING, yall got no money and one foot in the graveโ€ and that old man just laughs like โ€œhaha yeah, what can you do. lolโ€

So youโ€™re looking to the mom and finally itโ€™s making sense how she got that twitch in her eye and as MUCH as she is youโ€™re starting to realize sheโ€™s the SMART one, desperately throwing her armloads of girls at random men like theyโ€™re a bunch of fucking lifeboats bobbing around a sinking ship, like yes Jesus Christ sweetly that life boat IS old and ugly and kind of boring but for FUCKS SAKE PICK ONE

And you look back at this girl who is ALSO REFUSING THE LIFE BOATS BY THE WAY and god damn it sheโ€™s still the most radiant thing youโ€™ve ever seen so fine, fuck it, Christ alive, youโ€™ll do it. Youโ€™ll shoot your shot. Sheโ€™s everything youโ€™ve ever wanted in anybody abut itโ€™s not even just about that anymore, itโ€™s about being her best fucking shot at a future, and even if she doesnโ€™t like you all that much sheโ€™s still gonna say yes and that might break your heart a bit knowing itโ€™s about the money but who knows, maybe it will at least be civil, or companionable, and even if she doesnโ€™t LOVE you at least youโ€™ll know sheโ€™s well and cared for

And so youโ€™ll do it. Youโ€™ll take on the neurotic stress mess mother in law, the absent father, the broke ass wingnut no brain no money no future airhead sisters, the bad mannered relatives and the embarrassing behaviour and the impending future of sharing your entire shit with a clown parade of freeloaders, youโ€™ll risk it all and accept the absolute certainty of financial ruin and emotional exhaustion for the rest of your whole ass life and youโ€™ll make your own family deal with it too, youโ€™ll do it, youโ€™ll fucking DO IT, you stupid lovesick motherfucker

And so you go to this chick like โ€œlook. Your whole familyโ€™s a shitshow. Youโ€™ve got fucking nothing and youโ€™re gonna die on the street. But for some reason- and I donโ€™t get it either- Iโ€™ve fallen in love with you, and I wish I didnโ€™t, but I did, so Iโ€™m telling you that whether you like me or not, Iโ€™ll give you everything. Iโ€™ll give you everything even if itโ€™s the dumbest shit I ever done. Fuck my stupid Baka ass, Iโ€™ll marry you.โ€

And she looks at you- having heard or considered absolutely none of your months-long internal debate and monologue- and goes โ€œThe fuck did you just say about my family, you son of a bitch?โ€

And the shock of that is enough to jolt you back into a reality where you are able to actually hear and process what just came out of your damn mouth And yeah

Yeah, I think I kinda get it

There are people โ€“ some in my own Party โ€“ who think that if you just give Donald Trump everything he wants, heโ€™ll make an exception and spare you some of the harm. Iโ€™ll ignore the moral abdication of that position for just a second to say โ€” almost none of those people have the experience with this President that I do. I once swallowed my pride to offer him what he values most โ€” public praise on the Sunday news shows โ€” in return for ventilators and N95 masks during the worst of the pandemic. We made a deal. And it turns out his promises were as broken as the BIPAP machines he sent us instead of ventilators. Going along to get along does not work โ€“ just ask the Trump-fearing red state Governors who are dealing with the same cuts that we are. I wonโ€™t be fooled twice.
Iโ€™ve been reflecting, these past four weeks, on two important parts of my life: my work helping to build the Illinois Holocaust Museum and the two times Iโ€™ve had the privilege of reciting the oath of office for Illinois Governor.
As some of you know, Skokie, Illinois once had one of the largest populations of Holocaust survivors anywhere in the world. In 1978, Nazis decided they wanted to march there.
The leaders of that march knew that the images of Swastika clad young men goose stepping down a peaceful suburban street would terrorize the local Jewish population โ€“ so many of whom had never recovered from their time in German concentration camps.
The prospect of that march sparked a legal fight that went all the way to the Supreme Court. It was a Jewish lawyer from the ACLU who argued the case for the Nazis โ€“ contending that even the most hateful of speech was protected under the first amendment.
As an American and a Jew, I find it difficult to resolve my feelings around that Supreme Court case โ€“ but I am grateful that the prospect of Nazis marching in their streets spurred the survivors and other Skokie residents to act. They joined together to form the Holocaust Memorial Foundation and built the first Illinois Holocaust Museum in a storefront in 1981 โ€“ a small but important forerunner to the one I helped build thirty years later.
I do not invoke the specter of Nazis lightly. But I know the history intimately โ€” and have spent more time than probably anyone in this room with people who survived the Holocaust. Hereโ€™s what Iโ€™ve learned โ€“ the root that tears apart your houseโ€™s foundation begins as a seed โ€“ a seed of distrust and hate and blame.
The seed that grew into a dictatorship in Europe a lifetime ago didnโ€™t arrive overnight. It started with everyday Germans mad about inflation and looking for someone to blame.
Iโ€™m watching with a foreboding dread what is happening in our country right now. A president who watches a plane go down in the Potomac โ€“ and suggests โ€” without facts or findings โ€” that a diversity hire is responsible for the crash. Or the Missouri Attorney General who just sued Starbucks โ€“ arguing that consumers pay higher prices for their coffee because the baristas are too โ€œfemaleโ€ and โ€œnonwhite.โ€ The authoritarian playbook is laid bare here: They point to a group of people who donโ€™t look like you and tell you to blame them for your problems.
I just have one question: What comes next? After weโ€™ve discriminated against, deported or disparaged all the immigrants and the gay and lesbian and transgender people, the developmentally disabled, the women and the minorities โ€“ once weโ€™ve ostracized our neighbors and betrayed our friends โ€“ After that, when the problems we started with are still there staring us in the face โ€“ what comes next.
All the atrocities of human history lurk in the answer to that question. And if we donโ€™t want to repeat history โ€“ then for Godโ€™s sake in this moment we better be strong enough to learn from it.
I swore the following oath on Abraham Lincolnโ€™s Bible: โ€œI do solemnly swear that I will support the constitution of the United States, and the constitution of the state of Illinois, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of Governor .... according to the best of my ability.
My oath is to the Constitution of our state and of our country. We donโ€™t have kings in America โ€“ and I donโ€™t intend to bend the knee to one. I am not speaking up in service to my ambitions โ€” but in deference to my obligations.
If you think Iโ€™m overreacting and sounding the alarm too soon, consider this:
It took the Nazis one month, three weeks, two days, eight hours and 40 minutes to dismantle a constitutional republic. All Iโ€™m saying is when the five-alarm fire starts to burn, every good person better be ready to man a post with a bucket of water if you want to stop it from raging out of control.
Those Illinois Nazis did end up holding their march in 1978 โ€“ just not in Skokie. After all the blowback from the case, they decided to march in Chicago instead. Only twenty of them showed up. But 2000 people came to counter protest. The Chicago Tribune reported that day that the โ€œrally sputtered to an unspectacular end after ten minutes.โ€ It was Illinoisans who smothered those embers before they could burn into a flame.
Tyranny requires your fear and your silence and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage. So gather your justice and humanity, Illinois, and do not let the โ€œtragic spirit of despairโ€ overcome us when our country needs us the most.

Sources:

โ€ข NBC Chicago & J.B. Pritzker, Democratic governor of Illinois, State of the State address 2025: Watch speech here | Full text

โ€ข Betches News on Instagram (screencaps)

my friend said, "autistic people don't just like trains. you guys like other stuff too like furries and ghosts."

i said "and sonic the hedgehog" and she said "well yeah, a furry who runs as fast as trains and fights ghosts."

Divorce seems to radicalize american men in a way that needs to be studied

A divorced american man will join a right wing terror group because he didnt get custody of the kids he didnt take care of at all

An american man will have an affair with a colleague, get caught, get divorced, and join isis

Intelligent words from @junequeer

God, I love tumblr, its the only place where we can get a philosophical analysis of why divorcees crumble and it was in the tags. Like if not for the screenshot, 90% of people would miss this wisdom

To add onto these extremely relevant and well stated tags, these men have also 100% bought into the idea that they deserve to be fully in control of that family. The fact that that wife and those children could be taken from them and that there was nothing* they could do about it, is a failure and reflection upon them as a man. They weren't strong enough to hold onto that family, and this is why that messaging is so effective. Like the tags say, they get their beliefs reinforced, and The Enemy is crafted as being so powerful that it is an existential threat to the world that must be defeated. They are sold this story that they are the hero the world needs. Further it is their duty as men to save the world.

*of course, there was something they could do about it, but that would require admitting that their identity is wrong and that they needed to grow and change and see their wife and children as people rather than possessions.

Authoritarians as a rule take the easy way out, though, and try to brute strength absolutely everything because to actually strategize and carry out an effective plan would be too much work.

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