The Cagèd Whale Knows Nothing Of The Mighty Deeps.

This is a very confident accusation built on a misunderstanding on how any of this is monetised.

This blog does not generate any ad revenue. Tumblr does not pay me for political writing and views on my videos here do not earn me anything. For the videos that can earn money based on views - Only TikTok, YouTube and Instagram count.

When I mark something as an Ad on Tumblr, that's me being transparent that a studio, publisher, or creator agency has sent me a key to play the game, or the video has the potential to earn money based on its performance elsewhere. I usually link those other platforms and explicitly say watching there is a way to support me financially.

Yes, some people support me voluntarily through Ko-Fi. Some subscribe to me on Twitch and I'm genuinely grateful for that support. But I also work full time - AyeforScotland is not my livelihood, and I'm certainly not making enough from it for political oppression to be some financial necessity.

Turning that into "It is in your financial best interest for that oppression to continue" is an extraordinary leap.

By this logic, journalists covering wars secretly want them to continue, foodbank workers want people to remain hungry, and climate campaigners are financially invested in the planet getting hotter.

I've been arguing for the same political outcomes since long before there was any earnings from being 'AyeforScotland'. My desired endpoint has always been the same: I would quite like the things I complain about to stop happening.

From ancient to abstract, this one sure got around.

French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Greek, Romanian: it has wonderful balance, so we will sensibly name it “level” - as in ⚖️, balance. It’s so rare that all of us come to such a nice consensus. Hopefully it’s not because, like, English rode in roughshod and -

English, spitting: dragonfly

French, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Greek, Romanian and a whole host of others: normally you’re more with us than everyone else - did you … get that from the celts, or…?

Welsh: no. Fuckoff. snake’s servant

Irish - BIG NEEDLE

Basque, supportively - witch’s needle!

Swedish - troll’s spindle

Norwegian - eye sticker

Danish - goldsmith

Croatian - fairy’s horse

Finnish: wolf’s rod (?)

Hungarian - sieve-knitter

Turkish - little Joseph 😊

It looks like the “libellule” variants swept over a lot of older regional names, themes in which seemed to be snakes, magic, horses/riders, witches and devils, and needles. Normally it’s English words that do that, but in this case, English is going 🗣️ DRAGONFLY 🗣️ in a mild eddy of independence, and is clearly not guilty.