who painted the mona lisa?

i know everyone is sick of hearing me talk about this, but there is something so interesting about this idea that orihime is the one who witnesses ichigo's hollow transformations in all of its stages and that her pov is usually our indicator for whether or not he's too far gone. this is especially interesting when you consider the fact that the heart motif shows up repeatedly in her character arc. what is a hollow, if not a being that has lost its heart? orihime saw this happen to sora, so we can tell why it makes her uncomfortable every time ichigo loses a little bit of his. she is the 'heart' character, after all–the moral antithesis to ulquiorra's emptiness and nihilism. she believes the heart should be the foundation from which one fights, which is why she's anxious when ichigo loses sight of that and acts on his more vengeful impulses. remember, what zangetsu wants to protect is not what ichigo wants to protect, so they are constantly at odds with each other – the selfless, duty-bound human/shinigami side vs the self-protecting hollow/quincy side. it's why ichigo is so ashamed of himself when he wins his fight against ulquiorra. the only reason he even made it back to his human form at all was because he clung to the promise he made to protect orihime (a promise he made as a human with a moral purpose)

by the time horn of salvation comes around, ichigo proudly shows orihime his new form – orihime, who was traumatized by his complete loss of control (his death). orihime, whose reactions had upset him in his fight against grimmjow. he knows how important it is to her that he remembers why he fights, what impulses he's acting on, who is really the king when he wields his weapon. "this time i'm still me," he says, because he remembers how distraught she was when he was forced to throw everything away for absolute power. ichigo had never been sure about himself before, had always feared and resisted this side of himself before, but he's embraced it now and he can't help but tell her – part showing-off and part reassuring her that he will always be the guy she thinks he is (the one who wins fights and protects people and is endlessly undiscriminating about who he shows his kindness to)!!!! i am dead!!!!!

a man self immolated in front of the israeli embassy in washington dc yesterday. not just any man. an active member of the us air force. he live streamed his death, and said that he refused to be complicit in a genocide any longer. he said that compared to what palestinians were facing every day, setting himself alight was nothing.

let me reiterate. an active duty air force member burned himself alive because he was so disgusted by what the us government was openly supporting. he live-streamed his own suicide, so the whole world could bear witness as a man in his military uniform set himself on fire to protest his government’s complicity in the horrors that we have all been forced to watch happen in real time. he became a new horror. footage of the immolation blurs him out the moment the fire catches, but you can hear him. it is over in seconds, really, but you can hear him screaming. he shouts “free palestine” until his body physically cannot make any sounds other than guttural screams of agony. and then he falls silent. a police officer arrives and points a gun at his still burning body, shouting at him to get down on the ground. and it is over.

his name was Aaron Bushnell. he was twenty five years old. and he isn’t here anymore because the political ruling class has decided that genocide is perfectly fine as long as it preserves imperialism. in the coming days, people will try to discredit him. to say that he was mentally unstable. they will try to bury his actions to save face and defend israel’s propaganda. do not let them. aaron knew what he was doing. he knew what he was doing when he put on his military uniform, set up his twitch stream, and made his final walk up to the embassy. he knew what would happen to him when he flicked that lighter. do not let them forget. aaron’s blood is on the hands of the political ruling class.

"B-but Palestinians can get their freedom with peace not violence 🥺🥺" no. Screw your feelings. The armed resistance against colonizers and murderers is what will give Palestinians their freedom and what will eventually achieve real peace.

An enemy that bombs and uses white phosphorus against civilians doesn't know nor practice what your broken moral compass describes as "peace". Freedom was proven throughout history not to be achieved through kneeling and asking the oppressor to kindly stop. Freedom needs to be taken by force. Your little Utopian way of thinking doesn't work in the real world. Your feelings don't matter because you're not the one living under occupation. Your feelings don't matter because you're not one of the thousands of children who lost their limbs. You're not one of the children who became orphans due to this genocide. You're not the mother who lost her child to the carpet bombing. You're not the father carrying the remains of your child in plastic bags. You're not the newlywed woman who lost her husband. You're not the one at risk of either getting killed any second or losing your loved ones in the blink of an eye!

"Peace" is not really a thing you see during a live ethnic cleansing!

Reblogging this as a fuck you to the previous person who opposed the resistance.

Peace will never liberate oppression. It just won't, and if you think it will, you're too ignorant of history to be involved in this conversation.

Not once has "please stop oppressing us" made an oppressor go "aw, shit, my bad, sorry bro". Oppressors want power. They don't want equality. If someone is willing to murder in order to prevent you from having equality, they won't care if you ask from that equality "peacefully". They'll take it as an opportunity to murder you and make an example of you to make everyone else fear the same fate, thus allowing the oppressor to keep their power.

Equal rights are taken, not given. Peace was never an option, and that was decided the day Israel first began displacing, oppressing, and terrorizing Palestine when they took over and colonized the country for their own Zionist views.

This is not a natural disaster. This was not inevitable. They didn't grow up like this. It was inflicted on them by the vilest sadists on earth.

To me, songs are kind of like bookmarks. Have you ever listened to a song that you haven’t heard in a while, and all of a sudden, all the memories of that time period come back, and you remember what your life used to be like. They’re like milestones in your life.

That nb kid that got beaten to death in OK looks so much like a long time friend of mine that when I first saw the picture I was like "whoa that's [redacted] as a teenager" and then when I sent it to my friend her reaction was also "whoa that's me as a teenager???"

And that's the problem, isn't it. That kid looked identical to a cis friend of mine who is barely, barely, BARELY any amount of GNC. She's not hyper fem but she's also not particularly masculine any more than a typical rural Alabaman woman with too much shit to do to spend all day dolling herself up would be.

And that kid got beaten to death.

And buried under dead name and pronouns.

And I'm just kinda. Wondering where the safety and privilege is in that.

As I've said many times, I'm perfectly willing to talk about the areas in my life that have become safer as I pass with lore and more regularity. Now when are we going to talk about those who can't, or those whose gender expression isn't in passing, or those who have just begun their journey and haven't yet been able to do anything about it.

This kid looked just like my cis friend. They're dead now. If "looking cis" doesn't save you, what does?

Fontaine inspired outfit for Venti ✨

take a jacket just in case

[ID (copied from alt text): Digital painting of hands on an abstract laptop. Words say, "even though we don't talk anymore, I still call you my friend in stories, I still check the forecast for your town." End ID]

So not only we have Steam Babies (the fanon nickname for Zutara children) but also Dune Babies (a fanon nickname for Taang children) and I'm feeling so much joy rn

Friendly Reminder of Snow's inner monologue in the book:

As good as the movie was, I do think that it's at fault for so many people falling for the idea that Snow wasn't always bad. He was, but it wasn't so obvious at first. As you can see, he always thought of himself and how things would benefit him. He looked down on Sejanus and his ma even though they were nothing but kind to him. He saw Lucy Gray as his possession. He was greedy and selfish, always trying to come up with ways to manipulate whatever situation he was in to his advantage. I really wish the movie showed that more.

The rebellion would have been so much shorter if Katniss had accidentally sang Pure as the driven snow. He would have had a heart attack right there and then.

Coriolanus: no I do love Lucy Gray I do but where are we supposed to live??? a cave??? 🙄😵‍💫🤢

Katniss: 🥹 one time Peeta and I lived in a cave 🥹

I know we all love to relate to Katniss and the people in the districts who are oppressed by the capitol, and if we only ever look at the power structures within our own countries many of us are like them, under the boot of oppressive capitalist governments; however. Our countries do not exist in a vacuum separate from the rest of the world. If we want to make comparisons between our current world and the world in the Hunger Games we need to understand that we live in a global economy where the exploitation of the global south maintains the wealth and power of the global north.

The lifestyles and wealth of people in the US, Canada, Australia, and Europe are maintained by the neo colonial relationship these countries have with the countries of South America, Africa, and Asia. The same way the lifestyle of those in the capitol is maintained by the exploitation of those in the districts. We are the capitol citizens. The natural resources we use don't come from our (in some cases stolen) land. They come from the global south. These resources are mined and extracted by exploited workers in the global south. Our products are made by exploited workers in the global south. Our food is grown by exploited workers in the global south. And every time those people elect a government who promises to nationalize these resources so the people can actually benefit, our governments in the north swoop in and coup democratically elected leaders. We replace them with right wing politicians who will maintain the current order in our favour, with no regard for how those politicians will treat their citizens. There are decades of examples of this, and it is ongoing.

The poverty in the global south is not 'naturally' occurring; it is maintained actively by our governments for the benefit of the global north. 75% of the worlds mines are owned by Canadian corporations, and most of these mines are in South America and Africa. It is South Americans and Africans who are forced into back breaking labour, sowing seeds whose fruit they will never reap. These countries are rich in resources they are kept from owning. You don't go to poor countries to make money.

And when I say 'the lifestyles and wealth of people in the north' I'm not just talking about the rich and famous, I mean all of us. I know there is vast inequality here, I am part of the working poor, believe me I know many of us still face immense oppression. However the majority of us, including the poor and working class, still benefit from this exploitation. The clothes we wear, the electronics we use, the cars we drive, the food we eat, all of that comes to us through the exploitation of people we rarely see.

In a real world comparison to the Hunger Games, citizens of the global north are the citizens of the capitol. There is inequality, just like in the capitol, however we are often protected from the worst sides of our governments. That brutality is reserved for those living outside of the imperial core, outside of the capitol.