08/15 blog name

it is not "misguided". it is not "sometimes necessary." it is not "the best they could do with the information they had."

it is cruel to hit children.

even if they did "turn out fine" (which they don't.)

it is cruel to hit children.

to hit a child as "discipline" is to inflict pain on a human being who is much smaller than you, cannot defend themself, and is dependent on you for their survival, simply for the act of displeasing you and not following your orders. most people would find this morally horrifying if it was done to an animal.

it is cruel to hit children.

it teaches nothing except that pleasing you is more important than their well-being, and that violence against less powerful people is an acceptable response to things not going your way.

I will also have a sorceror in my employ. When a hero or a renegade or a political rival is in a situation where I can safely kill them, they will instead be turned into a bird and added to my aviary. I would not brag about this; it would be a complete secret, known only to me and my sorceror. In situations where I capture multiple people working together, only one would go in the aviary;the others can be imprisoned or killed or whatever. If they escape and I reacquire them later, another one can go in the aviary. The point here is that nobody going in the aviary can safely assume that another bird in there is their teammate.

Because I would be trickling real birds in there, too. And I would train some of them to do 'intelligent' things like tap out prime numbers or scratch shapes into the dirt with their beaks. I would train some of them to pick at the locks and bars as if they were trying to escape. I would not train them all the same way, or train many of them at all.

Sometimes, a new bird goes into the aviary -- fellow revolutionary? Or just a bird? Is it trying to communicate to you that it's human, or just being friendly and imitating you because that's what smart friendly birds do? People would develop opinions and theories over time. They'd amass in a group of the smartest ones, pretty sure that they're closest four or five friends are humans, are using their invented little language of wing-flaps and trills with a human mind behind it... but can they ever really be sure?

Most people, when going into the aviary, would assume that all of the birds are captured enemies. So why are some of them hard to have ongoing communication with, to learn about, to plan with? Are these the natural communication barriers of someone in a bird body, or does being a bird make them stupider over time? Will that happen to them also?

Sometimes, if I capture a pair, I'll imprison them separately, then turn one into a bird and put them in the aviary at the same time as a real bird that's trained to have a couple of their partner's mannerisms.

When I interact with the birds, even in private, I won't secretly mock them or make clever veiled references to their past or act at all like I remember that they were once human. They are my birds, that I imported at great expense. And I've brought a treat for them; some fresh fruit, and another friend to share it with! A new bird!

'hey we've been spying on you and tracking your every move. it's a culmination of state of the art technology and an unprecedented invasion of consumer privacy. a room full of men with made up jobs bent their will toward decades of constructing this system, defending it in court, and tirelessly innovating new ways to aggregate more data about you'

and the end result is

'yeah so uh we saw that you recently bought a car. so here's an ad for that car'

Even this season is acting like her disinterest in Hyacinth’s etiquette lessons is her being selfish. Eloise is older than Hyacinth. Eloise has already taken these lessons.

Eloise wants to learn science and philosophy and math and history and economics. This is like watching all your brothers go to college while you have to sit in on your sister’s high school Home Ec class that you’ve ALREADY TAKEN as punishment for not wanting to marry.

Eloise is constantly treated as though she’s an immature self centered brat for not wanting to talk about dancing and hosting and fashion and marriage. The show and the fandom punishes her for feeling constrained by her life.

How is it that the show gives more sympathy to Anthony for the constraints of being the head of family, sympathy to Benedict for feeling like an outsider (which Eloise does too! He’s just allowed to pursue alternate lifestyles and SHE IS NOT), sympathy for Colin for feeling purposeless (when Eloise ALSO feels purposeless because she doesn’t WANT to just be a wife and baby machine), but little to no realistic sympathy to Eloise???

Farah Dowling lived her life measured against a rivalry that Saul Silva didn't know they were having.

OR

4 times Farah believed she was competing with Saul and the 1 time she realized there was never a competition.

Krimi

But I just saw a video of a TT user explaining that they decided to do their own little social experiment — by walking up to drug dealers on the street, telling them there's a young woman with a baby who needs help with formula, and literally all of them immediately reached into their pockets. In this story, the OP did have a real neighbor with a baby who ended up getting some much needed baby supplies. Thanks to the charity of local drug dealers.