queen latifah give me strength

I need people reblogging this without context to know that this is literally a quote from the tv show Hannibal.

He is wearing himself as a hat

imagine if someone messaged you like “heads up this person made a callout post about you” and then you go to check and it’s behind a paywall lmaoooo

I should note that many of the historic non-European critics of religion and/or theism ive quoted a bunch have similar insights in which the power of religion comes not from “humans are dumb and superstitious (except me)” sentiment but the belief that the powerful use it as a tool of oppression. The Ethiopian deist Zera Yacob who saw and lived through religious turmoil described the way the Catholic and Orthodox factions in Ethiopia invoked “miracles” to justify their respective causes (which in an intra-Ethiopian sense were more low nobility supporting Catholicism as they saw a new order as a means of social advancement while the establish high nobles fought for a return to the former status quo) and summarized it as using the name of God for the purposes of hearsay. You know hearsay the thing where you invoke the words or actions of someone not present to testify so it’s inadmissible in courts yeah that’s what Yacob thought of the concept of “miracles” but it’s not in isolation but is wedded to his critique of the ruling classes

Oh yeah forgot to mention but another interesting thing about Yacob is that fascist Italian colonial officials found out an African had written texts criticizing religion, slavery and superstition several centuries ago and couldn’t process how that could be the case so they said it was a Masonic hoax so it’s really wild seeing supposed leftists do the same thing as fascist colonizers of wanting erase the history of criticism of religion outside of Europe and turn it into something that’s a particular product of nefarious European modernity rather than something that has exists for as long as religion has existed

the pride flag industrial complex

but seriously: thinking about how ppl in the west are OBSESSED with symbols and visual indicators and little markers and acknowledgement of identity as a manifestation of marketing and brand culture & as a product of this particular ‘late’ manifestation of capitalism, and how this has affected how we approach the marginalisation of LGBT people and liberation politics as a result

The ever-increasing number of ever more specific flags, the constant arguments and redesigns and all that other bullshit surrounding them has got so ridiculous, I mean I say it all the time that it seems almost completely forgotten that the central point of the communities they were supposed to represent was to unite us by the ways in which we are similarly marginalised, but the endless crap over which specifics people fall under and whether these specific microlabels are perfectly right or you’re an invader for using them and not something almost exactly the same, all this as if it’s the be all and end all of what the community is, it’s a great and terrible example of the signifier eclipsing the signified.

update: they’ve been able to secure an attorney for jess but are still working on getting one for ariston! any donation and signal boost is helpful and greatly appreciated!