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That is, when an official told you, a rice farmer, that you owed more taxes than you really did, it was very useful if you were good enough at math to know he was lying (and could prove it) and if you were good enough at writing to write a letter to your government defending your case.

"The America I loved still exists, if not in the White House or the Supreme Court or the Senate or the House of Representatives or the media. The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries."

i don't think this writing on the show is necessarily a representation of how the writers themselves thought, or their morality, but i think it's a really good parallel to reality? of the standard that's used to measure a person's worth by observing whether they want to atone for their perceived sins (spike) by letting themselves be controlled and stepped on by their "betters" (the scoobies) or by actively trying to be better than they were with actions and organized critical thought and sensitivity, which would maybe go against expectations.

like i think the difference between spike and angel & anya is that spike introduces himself as a soulless murderer because that is the persona that he's living within and feels most comfortable in. angel introduces himself as someone already in the process of atoning and performing the broody self-aware lowlife. we don't ever see in real time the atrocities that he commits in all their glory. there's only one time we really see it with anya and we see it a loong time after she's introduced as a character, when we and the scoobies already know her and like her, and she's introduced as a character that's kinda silly too because how bad can a woman demon that fulfills woman-related wishes against men really be? women, am i right?! spike, on the other hand, is introduced as the villain and we see him doing villanous things for many many seasons before we get to anything redeeming about him. and then he tries to rape our protagonist which is the cherry on top. so already the audicence has different expectations for them just based on what they see on screen, not on the actual history of each one.

and i think the name dichotomy is the same thing. angel/angelus and anya/anyanka get the privilege of rejecting their demon selves and being embraced by the scoobies because what the scoobies haven't seen with their own eyes won't hurt them right? spike does have a human name, it's william. but spike is a villain and since he spends most of the show being the villain(ish) that's then more like a reluctant ally he stays spike. and when he gets his soul i think he has this very angel-like stretch of time where he doesn't fit in either name, especially while he's being controlled by the first but then he has that awesome scene with robin where he becomes himself again with that absolute banger "i don't give a piss about your mum." in which he's not william because he fully lets go of that scared boy that was devastated by the loss of his mom and he's not spike as he used to be either, because he doesn't feel beneath anyone anymore, not this slayer's son or the slayer herself. but spike is still who he is because his essence remained the same when he had a soul, when he lost it and when he regained it. and i think that goes against every nerve ending and self-righteous high opinion of themselves that the scoobies have, because how dare you not beg and grovel for my forgiveness? even worse if there's one member (buffy) of the group that fully sees this thing as a human being deserving of love and respect and hope and treats him accordingly because how dare you question and make me question if my thoughts and actions are not as morally sound as i thought?

Northern Hog Badger (Arctonyx albogularis), family Mustelidae, Kaziranga Tiger Reserve, Assam, India

Once considered to be a subspecies of the Greater Hog Badger, A. collaris, which has now been split into 3 species.

I made one comment, and it was this:

But somewhere along the line they just… Disappeared. My mom says they’re not being paid and they’re not in collections. It’s almost as if someone out there did…exactly what Parker did.