careful fear

And by and large US officers seem to have ignored it. We literally have the records of every flogging (the most extreme form of punishment allowed during these specific years) onboard a naval vessel for the years of 1846-1848 and almost all of the cases that involved homosexual activity "unambiguously refer to male/male homosexual activity involving attempted assaults on children, not consensual couplings between adults."* There are also multiple recorded instances throughout the Victorian Era of an American sailor coming forward with a charge of sexual assault and pulling in other sailors or even officers as witnesses who tell their captain yeah i totally saw them and didn't say anything until this sailor told me it was nonconsensual. There are even records recorded by naval recruitment officers of men with extremely explicit gay tattoos being allowed to join the navy. Why did the US navy not care enough to even include it in the regulations while the British navy literally hanged men for it??? Were we so hard up for sailors that John Adams was like bitch we need every gay sailor we can get????

And weirdly enough this was true on American Whaling ships too! In the recorded cases where homosexual activity led to sailors being disciplined (in some cases punishment so mild as just being dropped off their ship at the next port) it was usually in situations where rape was involved and/or there was a high degree of ship disruption related to it (guys getting into a public knife fight for example). Idk I just think thats so interesting especially when America and England were so similar to be so different in this particular area is fascinating

being against arbitrary prosecution seems to have been a Thing for that guy

although its not unexpected that [tumblr] finds talking about gay sailors way more fun. anyway, here's an Adams quote taken way out of context as a little treat:

"The shortest road to men’s hearts is down their throats."

“the chinese government vanishes you for saying the wrong thing!” the chinese government does indeed do things in a v extreme way, but even in america, there are lots of things you can say that will get you put on a list, that will get you investigated, visited by the secret service, maybe even arrested, etc. etc.

“chinese internet users are rabid and will harass anyone who speaks out against their country” that literally applies to americans too

“how can chinese people let themselves suffer horrible working conditions for so little pay?” that can be asked of americans too, and the answer comes down to: because the government doesn’t want to increase wages and shit

“how are chinese people content to live under such a regime?” the same could be asked of americans, but we all know the answer to that, cause here in america, protests get violently suppressed and activists get assassinated

- When you are the only one left in the subway and the timetable says it’s still 8 minutes. How long has it been marking 8 minutes? You just don’t know.

- Don’t look outside the subway windows is an unspoken rule. Abid to it.

- When the speakers announce the subway services have ended and the stairs start to stop one by one.

- When you take the bus and you sit on the back and there are always phones and bad drawn graffitis scratched in the windows and seats. Bonus: ominous messages or occult symbols.

- Don’t look outside the windows when you pass by dark alleys or highways or parks. Believe me, you might not see anything but you don’t want to risk it.

- When you pass by a construction site and it’s like 3 am and the wind howls inside. I know you want to look, but don’t. The first time you manage to not look, the second it becomes a little hard as if something called you, and the third time you rush your pace.

- When you hear whistling but there’s only you in the street. A long, illuminated, ample street with no one around.

- Cats at night might or not have only one head. Shadows can be tricky.