Fear can make you kind.

http://www.indigenousaction.org/rethinking-the-apocalypse-an-indigenous-anti-futurist-manifesto/

“When I was 26, I went to Indonesia and the Philippines to do research for my first book, No Logo. I had a simple goal: to meet the workers making the clothes and electronics that my friends and I purchased. And I did. I spent evenings on concrete floors in squalid dorm rooms where teenage girls—sweet and giggly—spent their scarce nonworking hours. Eight or even 10 to a room. They told me stories about not being able to leave their machines to pee. About bosses who hit. About not having enough money to buy dried fish to go with their rice.

They knew they were being badly exploited—that the garments they were making were being sold for more than they would make in a month. One 17-year-old said to me: “We make computers, but we don’t know how to use them.”

So one thing I found slightly jarring was that some of these same workers wore clothing festooned with knockoff trademarks of the very multinationals that were responsible for these conditions: Disney characters or Nike check marks. At one point, I asked a local labor organizer about this. Wasn’t it strange—a contradiction?

It took a very long time for him to understand the question. When he finally did, he looked at me like I was nuts. You see, for him and his colleagues, individual consumption wasn’t considered to be in the realm of politics at all. Power rested not in what you did as one person, but what you did as many people, as one part of a large, organized, and focused movement. For him, this meant organizing workers to go on strike for better conditions, and eventually it meant winning the right to unionize. What you ate for lunch or happened to be wearing was of absolutely no concern whatsoever.

This was striking to me, because it was the mirror opposite of my culture back home in Canada. Where I came from, you expressed your political beliefs—firstly and very often lastly—through personal lifestyle choices. By loudly proclaiming your vegetarianism. By shopping fair trade and local and boycotting big, evil brands.

These very different understandings of social change came up again and again a couple of years later, once my book came out. I would give talks about the need for international protections for the right to unionize. About the need to change our global trading system so it didn’t encourage a race to the bottom. And yet at the end of those talks, the first question from the audience was: “What kind of sneakers are OK to buy?” “What brands are ethical?” “Where do you buy your clothes?” “What can I do, as an individual, to change the world?”

Fifteen years after I published No Logo, I still find myself facing very similar questions. These days, I give talks about how the same economic model that superpowered multinationals to seek out cheap labor in Indonesia and China also supercharged global greenhouse-gas emissions. And, invariably, the hand goes up: “Tell me what I can do as an individual.” Or maybe “as a business owner.”

The hard truth is that the answer to the question “What can I, as an individual, do to stop climate change?” is: nothing. You can’t do anything. In fact, the very idea that we—as atomized individuals, even lots of atomized individuals—could play a significant part in stabilizing the planet’s climate system, or changing the global economy, is objectively nuts. We can only meet this tremendous challenge together. As part of a massive and organized global movement.

The irony is that people with relatively little power tend to understand this far better than those with a great deal more power. The workers I met in Indonesia and the Philippines knew all too well that governments and corporations did not value their voice or even their lives as individuals. And because of this, they were driven to act not only together, but to act on a rather large political canvas. To try to change the policies in factories that employ thousands of workers, or in export zones that employ tens of thousands. Or the labor laws in an entire country of millions. Their sense of individual powerlessness pushed them to be politically ambitious, to demand structural changes.

In contrast, here in wealthy countries, we are told how powerful we are as individuals all the time. As consumers. Even individual activists. And the result is that, despite our power and privilege, we often end up acting on canvases that are unnecessarily small—the canvas of our own lifestyle, or maybe our neighborhood or town. Meanwhile, we abandon the structural changes—the policy and legal work— to others.”

- Naomi Klein

This is why the media keeps pumping out articles about plastic straws and avocados that focuses on what we, individually, are doing to destroy the environment, when really the most pollution comes from multinational corporations and the only thing that will save us is global collective action.

people are still patriotic in 2020? grow up? do not ask for what you can do for your country but what human rights violations they are currently committing and why you should hate them. 

do not ask what you can do for your country

ask instead what your country has done to you

(- jean tong, playwright)

Not saying the movies did Hermione wrong (which they did) but I love how utterly and completely insensitive Hermione can be in the books. Like literally, in book three: 

Ron: My uncle, my actual blood family member uncle who I knew, clearly cared bout and am named after, saw a magical creature that is said to cause death and died one day later. Cause of death not specified. Could have been natural causes. Could have been hit by a freaking bus for all you know. 

Hermione: Yes, well our good friend harry is clearly not as stupid as those wizards who ‘died of fright’. He isn’t going to die. Your dead uncle is an absolute moron. Go what was coming to him. 

Yet it’s Ron who had the emotional range of a teaspoon🤡

Lavender: My beloved childhood pet died while I was away at boarding school. I’m literally holding the letter in my hand now! It’s just like Professor Trelawny predicted.

Hermione (pulling on Sherlock Holmes hat): Okay, I’m going to need the name, age and cause of death of the rabbit. Stop crying Lavender! I’m trying to prove somebody Wrong!

Harry: My one non-abusive legal family member who I clearly loved and trusted and cared about immensely was brutality murdered in front of me in a way which is arguably my fault and which I am definitely blaming myself for and still highly traumatised by. 

 Hermione: Just saying. I told that guy to be kinder to his house elf. Did the house-elf represent Sirius’ abusive past, yes. And was Sirius incredibly messed up from spending years in prison trapped in his worst memories and escape, only to be immediately trapped in a house filled with constant reminders of his worst memories, one of which being the house elf spewing the same racist, bigoted, abusive, retoric Sirius had to deal with his entire childhood? Sure. But I told that guy to be nicer to his damn house elf. 

Harry: Oh my god, I nearly killed a student with a spell from the potions books! His blood is on my hands and I am riddled with guilt about it and shaken to my core about it. 

Hermione: I won’t say I told you so… BUT I told you that book was bad! And I was right! You can’t stick up for the book now, can you? It’s ridiculous, and not you have a reputation for potions brilliance you don’t deserve, which is the thing that’s most important now to bring up.

Women in Restoration by Isabella De Maddalena

the last panel always hits me

I’m seeing stuff in the notes about “Miles would do this” and I just want to say: you’re absolutely right. All Spider-folks across all universes share one (1) singular brain cell and most of the time it’s Gwen’s.

As the current author of Spider-Gwen, I can attest that Gwen has not seen the brain cell in years.

I FOUND IT

I finally lay my eyes upon this glorious post myself

this is an england hate blog

HOW IS THIS EVEN REAL? WHAT DID MY COUNTRY EVER DO TO ANYONE?!

oh sorry sweetie, i didn’t realise you still lived in the 1800s…🙄🙄

I’ve been thinking about this for days. The 1800s??? The 1800s????

The 1800s ???????????????!

Hey guys I just found out in this class that during the Black Death, aka The Great Mortality, the gravediggers guild in Florence negotiated themselves a higher salary and political power because they were suddenly the unexpendable laborers supporting society....Just An Idea from 700 years ago

when parasite said the rich can afford to be kind, when parasite said global warming is most catastrophic for those least responsible, when parasite said the rich are the ones with access to sunlight, when parasite said the efforts of the working class are invisible to their exploiters, when parasite said water only ever flows from the rich down to the poor and never in reverse, when parasite said the rich are the real parasites for leeching off of their workers’ labour

Prediction for other Americans: In a year or two when COVID-19 is winding down either just due to burnout or a vaccine there will emerge a narrative that it was tragic, and sad, but unavoidable, and people did what they could in the face of overwhelming odds.

This will be false.

The US has been far, far too slow in responding. Contrast our response with South Korea's, with their aggressive testing, containment, and mitigation. Notice how slow we have been in implementing measures that can slow the virus's spread. Notice how lack of insurance, paid time off, and a robust safety bet will speed the virus's spread. Notice the lack of testing, and the spread of misinformation. This was, perhaps, not something that can be prevented, but it is absolutely something that can be mitigated, and our leaders and our country failed and continue to fail to take actions that can mitigate it.

Vietnam had eliminated all cases until 35 infections were caused by European travelers.

Leaving Healthcare up to the market literally can only increase disease rates among the poor. Capitalist Accumulation cannot outpace herd immunity.

Single Payer Now, or else.

Medievalists of Tumblr: what inaccuracies annoy you the most in movies set in the Middle Ages?

Mine is probably the 'everyone was constantly caked in mud and only wore grey and brown' aesthetic.

Same. Also the idea that “women were property so they did nothing but sew and have babies and the time was inherently backwards and violent”

the complete absence of christianity from pop culture perceptions of the medieval period really bugs me (or it being relegated to the fringes and a few monks somewhere)

like... this was a major part of most people’s daily lives even if it didn’t necessarily look like christianity as we know it. also medieval theology is fucking wild! where are all the debates about cannibal babies in pop culture medieval stuff? WHERE is the twelfth century werewolf renaissance? the fuckign infancy gospels?? give me weird medieval theology you cowards

A lot of them had already been mentioned, so may I add

"The dishes were only bland soups and maybe some moldy bread"

I'm studying English language and literature, not History, but like... Pork vs Pig... Deer vs Venison... Cow vs Beef... May give you the idea THEY FUCKING ATE MEAT AT LEAST GODDAMIT

And not even like we do

Where's the feast with venison? The ridiculous amount of salmon and other fishes? The little gardens full of spices? Or the trade of exotic foods? Slaughtering season was celebrated in some places not that much ago (like... I saw one when little), why not portray one?

And more importantly

WHERE'S THE CHICKEN WITH HELMET???

GIVE ME CHICKEN WITH HELMET OR GIVE ME DEATH

Yeah, and for better or for worse they were much less picky about which animals they ate than we are. Porpoise, anyone?

Medieval people loved their spices; The Forme of Cury has a lot of flavours I'd associate more with Indian food than anything else. Even if you weren't a wealthy seasoning-loving king like Richard II, you could still have garlic, onions, and herbs.

Also please link me a picture of the chicken with helmet if you can, I need to see this.

Here it is

Here's a link with more info. Apparently the dish is called Singing Chicken... But that's a chicken with a helmet

This is the best thing I've ever seen.

Hollywood has a tendency to portray the past as “just like today, minus whatever of today’s things we know they didn’t have.” There’s no concept that the past had things that today doesn’t.

Like bawdy medicinal tips.

@candiceirae

The idea that people used spices to cover spoiled meat is similarly stupid and utterly infuriating.

And yes, the gaping absence of religion from depictions of the Middle Ages is jarring.

All of this, but mostly that they existed in a sepia toned world with no color, pattern, or texture.

Going off the colors of textiles, the assumption that their textiles were always crude and rough compared to today's. Think of the twills and brocades! The cloth of gold! The silks, and the wool so gauzy you could see through it! The soft wool clothing! The quality and variety of fabric we have available has plummetted since the industrial revolution.

beyond conventional spices the medieval cook and especially the resourceful housewife would have been exploiting herbs by the fistfull on a level we today cannot comprehend, like we dont even know what some of the names of herbs they used even mean anymore and they grew them like suburban homeowners today grow ugly border hedges. whatever soups they had access to had a decent chance of being something that would be 100% locally grown and every bit as flavorful as any regonal dish today withiout having to resort to saying ‘well they could possibly have been eating curry’ instead of giving them a flavor identity of their own. just because ‘spice’ isnt readily available dont assume ‘flavor’ is out of reach, the aromatics they used would be on par with the modern french concept of mirepoix but, moving past the kitchen the two things that irk me are that everyone toiled miserably and everything was grey stone, rudely carved buildings, shoddy construction unadorned well yeah, if you went to a decrepit ruin thats been abandoned for centuries it would look like that, but not when people lived there! you see the shows and movies and sweet baby cheese the kings residence looks like a dank basement and sometimes he doesnt even have a change of clothes when castles were in use they were prominent displays of power and wealth, whitewashed so that even small amounts of light reflected well inside them so that they illuminated well, paintings and murals in a riot of colors and displaying personal tastes, tapestries that may be the local lords wife, aunt, or grandmothers gift to them as tappestry making was a popular hobby at court where women gathered to gossip and giggle while making vibrantly colored decorations that are usually dismissed because the only ones that survive had endured about 500 years of sun damage, smoke damage, and uncertain cleaning history

that clearly showed the people of the time valued color, had style, and only occasionally made horses look like a dog made out of play-doh. even people who didnt live in a castle still had access to paint to liven up the plaster walls of their homes, brightly dyed fabrics and flowers were as available to them as and they sang, constantly. what we assume was a life of toiling in the mud from dusk till dawn the whole year was typically a relaxed paced life of 10 hour a night sleep in a comfortable bed where work didnt start untill you had your flagon of ale and a song with your buddies as you walked to the field, you sang as you worked, took three ale breaks from work while singing, and then you sang as you walked to the tavern so you could sing while you played nine mens morris or cheated at mancala because you thought the miller was too soused to notice. we barely know any of the songs they sang and humanity is less for it, a scant handfull of them do remain and its just beautiful to hear what a table of tavern patrons would break into song about to prove they werent too drunk for another round song and story were all day every day, theres a reason the most well known middle english text was canterbury tales- whose narrative was that a selection of travelers on the way to the same location had an ongoing bar-bet about who could tell the better story, asking bartenders to judge the complexity of these stories, all of which were absolutely valid as just shit you would say to another drunk in a tavern, would give modern soap operas a swift kick in the pants and its sad that it takes a historian to tell you just how crass and lowbrow humor they were on a similar vein to how so many people somehow forgot that shakespear was lowbrow humor for the commoner and not somehow too sophisticated for rubes it wasnt just bards who would own an instrument, instruments are wood, leather, string, bone/horn, or even clay... those are all commonly available and affordable if not straight up FREE items to someone in the medieval world so a hefty chunk of the population would have an instrument and know how to use it, anything from a wood flute to a simple drum to an ocarina. many designs were even specifically for travel so you could always have it at the ready

how about this- in all the versions of robin hood i have -EVER- seen the most historically accurate any of them got was the scene in kevin costner ‘king of theves’ where friar tuck was singing to himself while on the road ‘women wine and whoring’. not just because its one of the only times in any medieval period movie ive seen someone singing to pass the time in the mind-numbing hours of traveling before the invention of the car radio, but ALSO because they based the tune he sings off the classic ‘ Bache Benne Venies’, the oldest known drinking song we still know the words and tune of and let me tell you that song slaps talk to me about historical accuracy in movies and ill tell you that tolkein writing hobbit songs for walking, drinking, or describing what an elephant was was more historically accurate then all of GOT passed through a sieve to collect every grain of stray element of medievalness gaily dressed hobbits full of pie, sitting in a well decorated room full of beautiful hand carved furniture, on their fifth ale, and singing about the man in the moon getting shitfaced is about ten times historically accurate as most anything else i can think of if you ignored the historical accuracy of them being hobbits