The Desolation of Scorch

THIS GUY DID THAT ????????

not to sound like a high school english teacher, but i actually think it's really interesting looking into authors backgrounds and seeing how their past has influenced their storytelling, especially as a scifi/fantasy reader. like, it makes so much sense that leguin was an anthropologist and arkady martine has a doctorate in comparative history and seth dickinson did research on racial bias in policing. just look at what they made!!

the fact that ann leckie used to be a lunch lady may not seem relevant, but you have to remember the song about the thousand eggs

centrist guy in 1970 seeing university anti-vietnam war protests in the news

The difference, of course, being that university students in the 1970s stood a good chance of being drafted, and therefore had a direct material interest in opposing the Vietnam war, because the war’s continuation could very well get them killed.

These students, by contrast, are taking a conflict that fundamentally isn’t about them and doesn’t involve them (with the exception of Palestinian-Americans and others with familial relationships in the conflict area), and using it as an excuse to play-act their revolutionary fantasies in a setting they know they’re safe to do so in, secure in the knowledge that push won’t come to shove in the form of something like a draft.

It’s also worth pointing out that the Vietnam protests could legitimately be described as anti-war. Judging by the tenor of these particular protests (and rhetorically analyzing the content of chants, posters, signs, etc.), this round of protest could, at best, be described as a mixed bag: in a “some of them are anti-war, for sure, but a non-insignificant number of them are really just fine with war, they’re only upset their side isn’t winning” way.

Here at Kent State the survivors of the 1970 shooting are going out of their way to support the student protesters. Keep their name out of your mouth.

If anything is "privileged," it's acting superior to an anti-war protest from the sidelines.

Drafting was not the only reason people protested. In the vietnam war, like now, universities were outsourced by the US to develop weapons. Agent Orange was developed in part by several major US universities. Students are protesting the use of their educational funds for military occupation. This makes complete and total sense, there is absolutely no justification for a University to supply resources for the destruction of lives and homes- doubly so when Israel has been bombing Gaza's schools while occupied.

fellas is it privileged to care about genocide even if you aren't directly impacted by it????

#I am losing my entire mind #'don't take part in protests against things that don't directly impact you' BROTHER YOU HAVE LOST THE PLOT

“we need to teach media literacy in schools” guys was i really the only person paying attention in english class bffr

Also "I never use the math I had to learn in school, why didn't they teach me something more useful instead"

@swsource star wars week DAY 4 – I HAVE SPOKEN

i sorta kinda waited for a reason to post this, and today seems to be perfectly reasonable :D

Mace Windu can do whatever he likes with whatever attitude he wants actually cause he's in charge of wrangling a group of superpowered, psychic adreneline junkies who like to have heated academic debates using laser swords in their spare time. and then. AND THEN!! he has to regularly talk with politicians too??? disgusting. awful. my man is so tired.

Rapper Macklemore is releasing a track called “Hind’s Hall”, speaking out on the genocide of Palestinians, and the United States complacency in this ongoing violence. Macklemore has stated that once the track drops on streaming, all proceeds from streams will be going directly to UNRWA— the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East.

The new tracks namesake Hind’s Hall echoes the honours that Columbia University encampment protestors bestowed the Morningside Heights campus’ Hamilton Hall— in memory of Hind Rajab, the 6 year old Palestinian girl in Gaza who was shot by Israeli soldiers after being trapped inside a vehicle, with her dead family. She had begged to be rescued as tanks closed in on her.

Macklemore using his platform to vehemently speak out against genocide, the Israeli occupation and United States-led violence is what every single artist should be doing right now. The power of art should not be underestimated. Macklemore started out in the Hip-Hop scene within communist circles, namely working alongside Blue Scholars, and has never neglected his Leftism through out his career: the artist has spoken on issues regarding mental health, addiction, racial profiling and police violence, Capitalism, women’s rights, LGBTQ+ rights and toxicity of American culture.

“The Nakba never ended, the colonizer lied” Hind’s Hall, Macklemore, 2024

I hope everyone understands, when I say “most endangered habitat on earth”, I mean temperate grasslands.

They’re more endangered than tropical rainforests, coral reefs, the arctic tundra, all of those go-to environments that get more of the spotlight.

Where I live, maybe 25% of the prairie remains in a natural state and that number is dropping. Even these fragments are mostly missing the keystone species that maintain their health, like bison, wolves, and prairie dogs. I know this is the case for other grasslands like the pampas and steppe as well. Vast lands empty of many species that used to call them home.

If you live on temperate grasslands, hold onto them tight, because they’ve been exploited like no other land and most people don’t even know how far the devastation goes.

please please pleaseeee listen to this post and learn the value of temperate grasslands. it makes me very sad that not only have these landscapes been destroyed by colonizers, but even most of the people who live there now don’t see their value. when i say i love midwestern landscapes, people call me crazy just because they’ve never seen the beauty of the tallgrass prairie :(

Also, because it's Tumblr I have to spell everything out. Use your own personal definition of what constitutes a major versus a minor holiday

Why are people acting like another Trump administration couldn't possibly have any lasting consequences, when we're still dealing with the aftermath of the Reagan administration now.

As someone that has grown up surrounded by beaches and done surf life saving, I know how the sea works. Lots of people dont. Every summer multiple tourists die here because they don’t respect the sea, if you’re going to the coast, here’s a thing I saw on Facebook.

wow.

reblogging for all of us that grew up in land locked states, then visit the ocean and are used to just plunging into a lake.

These are not unique to the sea btw. Rip tides are also a danger in other large bodies of water, like the Great Lakes

I had heard of rip tides, but I would never have guessed they were the calm-looking part. If I had been looking for a safe space to wade, I would have avoided all of the white parts (turbulent! terrifying!) and gone straight for the rip.

lake michigan has rip tides and strong currents and also the highest kill count of all of them because people think of superior and huron as The Scary Ones. lake michigan has beautiful beaches along very big cities, and eats tourists like popcorn. do not underestimate lakes, but particularly not the great lakes.

Gonna need yall to stop putting Biden is Just As Bad propaganda on my dash. Had to unfollow someone because I don’t want to a start a fight with them over it, but I’m about to bite the next person who puts that shit in front of me.

If you don’t like Biden, vote in your god damn local and mid term elections for third party or further left candidates so that we get better democratic candidates for future elections. But this one is already fucking decided, and I’m NOT ending up under a Trump led dictatorship because yall value protecting your personal sense of moral purity over the collective good. Whether it offends your personal morals to vote for Biden is IRRELEVANT in the face of the alternative.

This isn’t a lesser of two evils situation. One guy sucks. The other guy is LITERALLY PLANNING TO OVERTHROW OUR DEMOCRACY AND INSTALL HIMSELF AS A PUTIN STYLE DICTATOR.

PLEASE look up Project 2025 and stop acting like abstaining is some kind of personal ethical decision!

REBLOGGING THIS BECAUSE IT FUCKING HAPPENED AGAIN.

You give me a single goddamn scenario where not voting does less harm then voting for Biden.

You give me a SINGLE goddamn scenario where Trump being elected does LESS harm than Biden.

You give me even the BAREST WHISPER of an ACTUAL, ACTIONABLE FUCKING ALTERNATIVE to just VOTING FOR HARM REDUCTION.

Jesus Christ. Even if you think Biden and Trump are 100% the same, which is a fucking asinine and ignorant goddamn position to take but sure, in that case voting, at absolute worst, makes no difference!

The ONLY reason to deliberately encourage people to NOT VOTE AT ALL is to SUPPORT TRUMP.

You are blindly spreading Actual Goddamn Propaganda for a man who is frothing at the mouth to become a christofascist dictator!!

CUT IT THE FUCK OUT.

New zine that's free for anyone to print and distribute! Read the whole thing at newlevant.com/COVIDzine or in the rest of this post.

UPDATE 4/11/2023:

I swapped out the colloidal silver nasal spray info for xylitol nasal spray info. I originally included colloidal silver spray because of the linked study and recommendation from RTHM, but I don't want to be pointing people toward something with notable health risks. Xylitol spray (Xlear) is also cheaper and more widely available!

going from the reddit star wars fandom to the tumblr star wars fandom is giving me insane whiplash. the upside is that people aren’t bitching about every single imperfect detail in the entire franchise, but the downside is that i’ve seen more fanart of obi wan and commander cody tenderly knowing each other than i have ever wanted to in my life in the last three hours and it has probably fundamentally altered the way i interact with the entire franchise

after the initial shock of being plunged into the icy cold lake of seeing my childhood action figures caressing each others sweaty chests in a gentle, hidden moment after a battle, i’ve been able to get my wits about me and realize that yeah, i’m kinda with it

happy star wars day everybody

good day to think about what it means to be a rebel ✊🏻🍉