Image description: Several screenshots of Aaron Bushnell's will and testimony from his friends. The highlighted portion of Bushnell's will reads:

"I am sorry to my brother and my friends for leaving you like this. Of course, if I was truly sorry, I wouldn't be doing it. But the machine demands blood. None of this is fair. "

"I wish for my remains to be cremated. I do not wish for my ashes to be scattered or my remains to be buried as my body does not belong anywhere in this world. If a time comes when Palestinians regain control of their land, and if the people native to the land would be open to the possibility, I would love for my ashes to be scattered in a free Palestine."

Under the read more are four memorial segments by Bushnell's friends.

"Aaron Will Live Forever" by Lupe:

Aaron will live forever. I know this, because everyone who was loved by Aaron will carry a bit of him in their soul, and everyone who witnessed his sacrifice will carry him in their minds. Aaron cherished life. He knew that in giving up his own, he could give the people of Palestine a chance to keep theirs. Aaron has permanently changed the fabric of your being. You know this because for the rest of your life, you will wrestle with the thought of what you will sacrifice for the liberation of others.

My friend said that everywhere Aaron went, he planted trees. I imagine these seeds planted in our hearts and minds. They will sprout, and they will grow into giant strong trees with deep roots built to weather the many battles that lie ahead on this burning planet. They will remain upright, like Aaron did, until they no longer can, but by then their own seeds will have been planted in the hearts of our loved ones, and they will grow into trees as well. They will continue this struggle until the beautiful world Aaron knew we deserved is born.

"He Was Someone We Really Needed" by T Bear:

It seems a lot of people just saw Aaron as someone in the military. Online lefties and liberal media alike were quick to dispose of his words and actions, and choose instead to judge him based on puritanical ideals just as bad as the ones he's been trying to escape his whole adult life.

I write this knowing it will be read by comrades. I want to say something profound that can make us reflect on why we have such a tendency to be so quick to treat others as disposable, but I don't think I can. I hope that instead, you will carry the burden of finding an answer to that with me.

After a lifetime of engaging with anarchists, it was this recently radicalized, 25-year-old active-duty airman I spent two years with who showed me my chains-- long before his decision to leave this earth. Aaron had this effect on every single person he met. He was incredibly committed to developing relationships based on deep trust and understanding--and would be the first to give you the raised brows for a snarky answer to a serious question. He never let a potential harm go unaddressed. He embodied more than anyone I know the anarchist spirit, "that deeply human sentiment, which aims at the good of all, freedom and justice for all, solidarity and love among the people".

He was someone we really needed here. I encourage you remember Aaron’s words and actions the next time you’re about to flatten someone’s lived experiences. I encourage you to reflect on your relationships, and how you can reduce control and coercive power dynamics. I encourage you to build deeper, and ever deeper, bonds with your comrades. Honor them now. It’s not worth losing them.

"My Friend Aaron" by E:

My friend Aaron was kind, compassionate, and principled, sometimes to the point of being annoying, and he was incredibly reflective and willing to change to meet my needs in our relationship. He was one of my quickest and best friends.

I loved Aaron deeply. I have few regrets from my relationship with him. I was consistently vulnerable and open, which he returned in kind. I told him all the things I felt for him and often. I spent as much time with him as I possibly could and I am very grateful that I did. What I am most afraid of in this moment is that our relationship, our friendship, the deep, deep love I had for him, all of the little intimate moments, the bits, the laughs, the facts about his takes, all of it—I am afraid to be the only person holding that knowledge. I don’t want it to disappear, I don’t want it to be held only by me and my fallible memory. I just want people to know that I loved him.

Principled - segment of the article with no specific author

Aaron saw hierarchy and injustice and his role in those systems and hated it. He felt a lot of guilt because of the situation he was raised in; guilt was the primary emotion through which he engaged with most things. I feel very sad that he was not able to heal from that fully before this.

He had so much love for his cats. The contradictions of owning someone you love weighed on him heavily. He was constantly thinking of how to best accommodate them and navigate this relationship of domination, complete control of their agency. I saw how it genuinely distressed him.

Aaron refused to say words like crazy, insane, or lame due to their roots in ableism and he got on me for my use of the word lame constantly. He wouldn’t say the word fuck because he saw its roots in misogyny and hetero-patriarchy.

Aaron also didn’t like the word democracy for reasons that are too long to explain; we would argue about it a lot, it was kind of a recurring bit.

Aaron deleted Signal before he self-immolated. A last act of security and love for his comrades.

End image description.

the gay clown from saw: your test is to go one whole day without getting mad at people for being wrong on the internet

me: easy peasy ive been online for the last 18 years i know how to control my emotions *opens tumblr* hhnnggghh.... hhggnnrrrhghh aaagghRRGGHAAAAAAHHH!!! *is devoured by beasts*

He has beasts now?

no those were unrelated

first 5 faceless emojis are how your summers gonna go

Magnus Archives fan I see

THIS IS SO FUNNY I'M SORRY

ive always thought loam was such a beautiful word. its ratio of soft consonants to vowels is incredible.

it feels in the mouth the same way cool soil feels in the hands

the fact that we as a society have the muppets and they are not everywhere in our cultural consciousness is appalling. why aren't the muppets hosting the oscars. why aren't the muppets commentating the olympics. why aren't the muppets coming to a theatre near me every year with a new adaptation of a classic novel. genuinely what are we doing.

Btw that rule about not trusting how you feel after 4pm in the winter or 9pm in the summer (really we should just say after the sun goes down but whatever) is only about negative feelings. if you are chilling with your best friend drinking hot chocolate and have never felt more loved and safe, that is 100% true and you can and should trust

rasputin didnt become a fucked up sex wizard until he was like 30. your life doesn't end at 25 <3

if you're in your mid twenties and you're reading this you still have plenty of time to inadvertently topple a dynasty just by being really fucking weird and horny. don't worry.

plz help a sick mixed queer move back to the sorrowful midwest

so my last post needs to be updated: my roommate and i were given a November 20th move out date, unfortunately due to my credit score and fucked job situation i cant move with them and their friends like we originally planned which sucks but i have a place back in Minnesota i can stay with my baby boy bathbomb(pictured at bottom)

this is the cheapest flight i could find so far around the date i need to go the pet charge is $125 and im terrified my baggage might be over so i want a cushion of $125 to align with their policy cuz idk what id do if i had to leave a bag behind in laguardia i would also need transportation $ to the airport(cuz connecticut has like no flights??? what is this place?) and i need to grab some important things from my overdue storage unit i cant leave behind(documents that prove i exist)

i can figure out my phone bill and a payment plan for backrent with my landlady(she's very understanding but i dont want to be a pos) so those wont be counted rn so all in all without food i would need

$738

most of my posts taper out around the $100 amount and im trying to get help from friends and family and take gigs but i have limited time and even more limited resources if i can get to mn i can have some time and space with a lot less financial pressure to get my life more stable i need that so plz boost plz send a few dollars me and the boy appreciate it

i am open to questions and some proof info if ur respectful just like dont push it that shit is super dehumanizing

0/738

the usamerican media (& western media more broadly) is assiduously and rabidly pro-israel. this is not because "jews control the media", it is because the usamerican media is rabidly pro-all of the usa's imperial client states and eager to fall behind the state department line as has been proven time and time again across countless conflicts worldwide. pointing this out is not antisemitic.

similarly, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with pointing out the israel lobby, which is not special or uniquely sinister and has nothing to do with judaism -- but instead simply serves the same function as the arms and oil lobbies, which is to make it politically impossible and not very profitable for usamerican politicans to take any political stance to the left of "an unlimited amount of middle eastern children should be bombed as long as it will increase exxonmobil and lockheed martin stocks by 0.3%". ironically, connecting the israel lobby to judaism or jewish people as opposed to correctly recognizing it as just another of many soft enforcement mechanisms for the us-imperialist political consensus is very antisemitic & forms one of the many many moves shared across the playbooks of both zionists and antisemites.

this week in I Am Very Smart: having enough money to go to the opera, museums and concerts correlates with having enough money for food, shelter and basic health needs

They controlled for socioeconomic factors though! The people who conducted this study knew that people with lots of money to attend the opera were also more likely to be able to afford basic necessities, so they controlled for it in their analysis. The fun thing about statistics is that you can control for different confounding factors so you can look at the effects of one independent variable (opera or whatever) on the dependent variable (mortality). Part of being critical of potential biases is actually reading the article and knowing what to look for.

In addition to that very good point about controlling for socioeconomic factors, the article says a single museum or concert per year makes a difference. Most cities have free community concerts (some even have free opera performances!) and museums that are either free, pay-what-you-want, or at least have specific days/times during which they are free or at a significantly reduced cost. Many libraries (which are free) provide free museum passes to card holders. In fact, the article quotes a museum worker who works at a free art museum in Baltimore.

If you actually read the article you would also read that educators are excited about this study because it provides evidence that the arts should be made more accessible financially - by restoring arts programs in the public schools, for example.

no lie i genuinely believe brands are so behind the pleather movement bc they can just buy cheap plastic sell it as expensive 'vegan leather' and be ready for you to return in a couple years to buy another 'vegan peeta approved™ leather jacket' bc they last like 5 minutes compared to the way leather lasts decades all the while you can pat yourself and coorporate's back for being sutainable all the while pvc (what some fake leather products are made of) has been labeled the single most environmentally damaging type of plastic and while there are non pvc fake leathers such as pu leather... its not like thats much better producing plastic pollutes and the second your pleather clothes start to breakdown (which happens much faster than you think) theyll wound up on landfills for at least a 100 years...

also they love love LOVE to try and sell you "plant-based leather" that you then look at the details and it's "45% cactus" or whatever and there's no mention of what the rest of it is

it's plastic.

it's always plastic.

Let me tell you a story.

50 years ago or so a cow died. It died in a slaughterhouse after a life on a cattle ranch. It was butchered in a meat packing plant, and it's body was sent off to a grocery store where it then became an overdone steak or a dry hamburger or maybe dog food. It was the 70s and people had only recently realized that you could put food in things that were not jello. Cut them some slack.

But its skin went to a tannery. And that skin was processed in the hide and then leather. That leather was bought by a clothing company who made jackets out of it, long leather dusters for working men and ranchhands. Cowboy shit.

The dead cow that is now a leather jacket is not technically waterproof because if you stand out in the rain for 6 hours water will eventually work its way through the seams at the shoulders. But its pretty damn waterproof. It keeps off the rain and the snow and the dust and the mud and the brambles and it doesn't melt if it catches a spark. So 50 years ago a man bought one and he wore it pretty much until he died and his wife shoved it in a closet. Decades of use, from the deserts in the southwest to the arctic, because it turns out that cowboys are wildly adaptable.

Anyway, I pulled grandad's jacket out of the closet a while back and there is nothing wrong with that coat. It does have some distinctly non-modern vibes, but more importantly it is cool as hell and looks almost new. I have seen faux distressed leather that looks worse.

The cow is still dead. There will be another cow that dies tomorrow for the same reason. But there's no market for leather these days. Its skin won't be a garment that lasts 50 years. Its gonna rot in a pile with all the others. Someone will sell a "vintage" cowboycore Americana aesthetic dark academia plastic peice of shit that will be garbage in a year. And then they'll sell another one.

no one did clowns like pratchett. sure "the fool jingled miserably across the floor" but that's just the tip of the iceberg....imagine alluding to a character's tragic backstory and deep repression of his true nature and heavily implying he might be a vampire before revealing the identity he's been battling against all book is actually just a literal circus clown

like this quote is so metal considering it is yelled in a courtroom in a book about the corruption of banks but ive never been more terrified of a man in a massive red elastic nose before. one well thrown custard pie nearly brought down an entire government.

Hey i think an important addition is that in discworld, the training that clowns go through is brutal and akin to a harsh boot camp

The Fool's Guild is next to the Assassin's Guild. This is frequently used to humorously contrast the two, as one is a brutal, oppressive institution that serves questionable purpose and spreads naught but misery, whereas the other promotes tradition, innovation and artistic expression via killing people for money.

This is so dumb. Joe Biden is not invading Gaza, Joe Biden can’t just press a button and make world events end. America is not actually the main character in this situation!

he can certainly stop funneling billions upon billions of dollars into military aid to massacre palestinians and maintain a fascist apartheid state and regurgitating zionist propaganda lies and discrediting palestinians to manufacture consent for a genocide. but sure call palestinians who are watching their homeland get demolished in real time with full support from the us and their allies "dumb." eat shit and die, cunt

french jason derulo be like. jason deruleaux

wait

WHAT

Washington, DC