The sovereign

I would like to post what I said so that others can have a basis of what to say in theirs! The following is what I said in my survey.

(Warning it’s quite a lot but I wanted to make my point lol)

But like - lets look at India. India did ban tik tok mainly due to a conflict w china (which is a trade partner/adversary just like us) and let me tell you. Indians did not suddenly Enter The Monastery lol they are doing all of their misinformation, snake oil hawking, and religious extremism JUST FINE on other platforms mainly reels.

So my two cents that no one asked for is that a TikTok ban is actually Not A Good Thing. A lot of small businesses and artists (including my own band) rely on TikTok for marketing and growing an audience. TikTok is also a source of community for people from marginalized groups who might not feel safe expressing themselves in real life, especially younger folks. Not to mention the amount of real-time news we get that other sites suppress, such as the raw footage from Gaza or people organizing healthcare protests.

Does TikTok have issues specific to its platform? Undeniably. It's a digital meth house where I got flagged for the using the fuck word in a lyric. But when you find yourself dealing with a meth house, you don't take a wrecking ball to it and evict the residents. Banning Tiktok won't stop the widespread trends that other social media sites have now adopted. We still have short-form content. We still have algorithms tailoring our feed for the maximum dopamine rush while bombarding us with ads. Companies are still harvesting and selling our data. The worst people you can think of still have a Wi-Fi connection.

What are the second- and third-level consequences of dramatic climate change in a part of the world that already exists at the edge of survivability?

Not just obvious effects, but second-level ones like schools closing ever earlier, and third-level ones that examine how reduced schooling affects a culture and individuals.

Can public schooling for all exist in populous or poor cities when doing so requires the expense of powerful air conditioning in class buildings and free air-conditioned transportation? Which require a reliable power grid that can stand up to high temperatures while supplying higher capacity with reduced greenhouse emissions? How might such cities look when their residents receive reduced or no public schooling?

And consider climate refugees, which will become an increasing challenge not only for the individuals seeking refuge but also for their homeland and the places where they emigrate to. And so on, an ever-lengthening chain of cause and effect.

The future will be different, likely very different, and in unexpected ways. If your writing is set in the future, to be believable and relevant it must take all this into account.

okay this is the last time I'm gonna spell it out for yall because the last few hours have been making me want to gouge my eyes out

it's honestly insensitive to see the very tangible suffering of people and just uncritically have your takeaway be that of inspiration for a writing exercise

I deeply despise the first world posturing of global warming as something that will one day in the future happen to "us" (the us in question being the west) when the global south is the one bearing the brunt of the climate crisis. we are not a fictional exercise we are real and people ARE already dying

Let’s see what the screenshotted tags said.

‘WClimat(e) change is very real and very much there and what is happening in India for the past decade sucks.’

Nothing about that statement is hypothetical. They’re not presenting it as fictional.

they said that speculative fiction can help people imagine the greater extremes that don’t exist yet

some tips to understand this better would be:

Look at the notes. It's filled with mostly "sex based oppression is real" as if most misogynists and feminists in India don't already know this. But since some Western feminists or from other countries don't, it's important to them to tokenize our struggles so they gain a point in their political debates. I have said this a hundred times before but it's obvious how they see us as nothing but tokens. They call TRAs racist for preying on the insecurities of woc due to beauty standards imposed on us and for ignoring our oppression as women, but they do the same thing with us. They see some issue unique to a specific community of poc? They try to fit it in their arguments against the libfems. Unlike issues that they face as well, like domestic abuse, prostitution and porn. On which they write very well researched and elaborate posts. But they're completely lazy when it comes to woc especially the ones living in the global south. And that leads to their racist and classist behavior.

As for trans people- they always try to get back at radfems by saying "terfs will look at these women and say they're men" or whatever when they see a woc talk about her own issues or even when she's simply breathing, as if it doesn't cross their own mind how they say the same thing when they go "transphobia is racist" as if woc are some third gender and as if trans poc do not experience any other meaningful oppression that's distinguishable from racism 🙄

Second of all- it's obvious many of them are racist but don't explicitly express it but some on this post did-

It's so obvious that in the second screenshot what that person means by "cultures with such barbaric practices" is "brown savages". This is blatant racism. But when I pointed out on my other post how white radfems are incapable of forming any meaningful solidarity with woc if they only focus on misogyny and not racism (which most of them are guilty of) I received my first racist backlash on here. Even many woc themselves did this. But I already talked about how woc on here are like the kind of woc who take racism seriously but not sexism in order to gain validation by moc, except it's vice verse in this case. You guys can't comprehend and accept that everytime white women try to talk about issues exclusive to any race that's not white, even if it's from a "feminist" pov, then they very likely have a racist mindset behind their words, whether it's intentional or subconscious.

Anyways, nothing about this is "cultural". (And tbh even if it's cultural why do you act like culture is influenced by race itself and not many other economic, political and social factors that white people have and still influence?).

The men who are doing this are not some unique kind of misogynistic relative to white men. Do white men not stigmatize periods? They're doing this (and I clarify I am not ok with this or defending it but I am simply fighting back against the assumption that the cause of this thing is simply cultural) because the women working on those sugarcane fields have to do extremely intensive labor for hours straight. It affects their menstrual health severely. And this is a poor country in the global south affected by economic imperialism, and therefore mostly production based with less mechanization of the agricultural industry, not like the dominant service sector in most Western countries. It's not easy for people this poor to switch to some other job with equal or better pay and better working conditions. And this particular district is especially poor. How is anything about this "cultural" and why do you think we deserve to die out because of it?

Sorry we're not as developed as Spain or some other Western country where the women here could get menstrual leaves or something and it wouldn't affect production (which is already quite low for a population this large involved in agriculture).

Instead of adopting this as a talking point against TRAs or justifying racism why don't you try to criticize both imperialism and capitalism or at least talk about the poverty and lack of resources causing these issues, if you really care for "all" women so much as you claim to. But no, you will pretend the issue is solely intentional misogyny and not involving multiple factors in it.

And btw I don't want any white woman to come in my inbox like they did last time and demand that I apologize for being rude to white women when criticizing their racism. That's never gonna happen. Especially not when most white women and even many woc don't bother with this issue. Get rid of your superiority complex this isn't the colonial era anymore.

yes palestinians are also victims of colonization, by the arabs and british and turks, NOT by israel; who aside from india is the only successful state to have fully decolonized. this does not mean palestinians are treated entirely fairly, but part of this is due to the fact that palestine has an entirely separate government, and israel has fully withdrawn from gaza aside from continuing to provide water and electricity, something they are not required to do as a separate country. egypt does not provide these resources despite also having a blockade set up.

palestine was not peaceful for jews before the establishment of israel. look up any given city or town and the word “pogrom” and you will be met with the story of a systemic killing of jews in that municipality

I’m going to have to use a few examples to explain this.

Romani people are ethnically indigenous to northern India and are currently mostly dispersed thoughout Europe, they were also victims in the holocaust and they are also heavily discriminated against in all parts of the world they live especially in Europe. If, leading up to and after the holocaust a Romani person created a Zionist-like ideology of a Romani ethnostate. If after WWII, with the help of the British they mass immigrated back to northern India as refugees and were welcomed by the indigenous Indians already living there. Would it have been okay for them to then commit their own nakba and colonise a portion of northern India and rename it Romaniland or whatever the fuck?? Start expelling and murdering the Indians that had been living there for generations who also have an ethnic claim to the land? Packing 2 million of them in a 45km squared strip of land and do to them what Israelis are doing to Gazans? Having the fucking audacity to say it’s okay because “they were here first” 1000 years ago? While also somehow simultaneously claiming that there were no people there? “a people without land and a land without people” ??

Did you know that before Zionists settled on Palestine, they also considered Uganda and Argentina for their Zionist state?? The Zionist ideology is inherent to the existence of modern Israel and is the reason it was created, the racism, colonialism, apartheid and genocide is not the fault of a bad government but the foundation of the country itself. The Zionist ideology and genocidal intentions were already in place before they step foot in Palestine and could also be happening right now in Uganda or Argentina instead so don’t try to bullshit that “they were here first” because they would be doing this regardless of the location.

Palestinians are victims of Israeli colonisation as we can see with our own eyes right this moment and literally how dare you even say that. Also you know who else is killed and discriminated against everywhere in the world they go? Women, gay people, disabled people, Romani people, this wouldn’t justify any of these groups creating their own apartheid state anywhere in the world and start doing what Israelis are currently doing.

So recently this Tweet went viral on Twitter, which is generally stating something that is rather common that I have also noticed on the app. (I will say that I do believe antisemitism and anti-black racism to also be extremely normalized as well, perhaps to an even greater extent).

That being said this was the general response (found in the quote retweet and the comments) to the above tweet:

I wanted to put this together and show it to others on here because it seems that it is strongly indicative of how hated Indian people are in progressive spaces. And before someone comes after me to say this is largely online, I will state that this rhetoric is eerily similar to the discrimination I faced growing up as Indian and that I continue to face. Additionally, people online are people in real life, they carry this rhetoric in the real world too and Indian people exist online too, we see how people dislike us.

To dissect and debunk all the sentiments in the tweets above would take an immense amount of time and energy that I do not have. Even archiving and collecting these tweets caused me to fall into a spiral of stress and tension. You don't have to go through all of it, much of what is expressed is vile, but I am trying to point out something. And it's that racism against Indians has become normalized, perhaps even encouraged, obviously in right-wing spaces but in progressive and liberal-left wing spaces as well. If you click on the accounts of many of these people, you can see them advocating against other forms of racism, homophobia, transphobia, anti-Palestinianism etc. These are progressives, not your run-of-the-mill conservative bigots. Hostility is growing against Indians, out in the open, and it seems that not many are willing to combat or acknowledge it.

The tactics are the same of course, to take a vocal minority of a group of people and paint the vast majority as the same, effectively portraying the group as if it has monolithic ideas. This is obviously a ridiculous thing to do, but even more so when one realizes that India is home to 1.4 billion people, not counting Indians living in other countries. These are all individuals who hold their own complex ideologies and beliefs, it is not possible to condense them down to one stereotype.

Am I denying that Indian people have our own issues and bigotry (to say the least) surrounding anti-Black racism, misogyny, islamophobia, casteism etc. Absolutely not! I have spent much of my life trying to unpack these sentiments drilled into me from a young age, and I have tried to help my peers do too. I have also spent time in real world activism combating such issues, because it is the only way forward to a more equal society.

so arcane fractured jinx is 2 models that they've marketed as 3 forms because they have different ability vfx

note how the left and right forms are the same model, just with a recoloured weapon, and they've strategically placed the form with a different model in between them lol

Lux had 10 forms, all having unique voice lines, unique VFX, a pack with icons, a ward, when you'd have her as your profile background it would be a moving image. It's still the best skin in league. You also had a mission to be able to switch between the forms IN GAME.

Dj Sona only had 3 forms but you could switch between them whenever you wanted and your whole team gets to listen to your music. 3 icons as well that, again, when you had her icon as your summoner icon it would have her moving splash.

I was never really interested in Pulsefire Ezreal or the Udyr one, but look at how it went from there: Big disappointment #1: Gun Goddess MF The splash is gorgeous, you can change forms in base instead of wherever you are with Sona & Lux, unique VO and VFX, new animations (but I feel like the walk was the same).

I remember people were really upset at this at launch and they quickly had it go on sale to the price of a legendary skin.

It only got worse from here. Seraphine's Ultimate skin. The 3 epic skins in a bundle that YOU CAN'T EVEN SWITCH BETWEEN FORMS IN GAME.

One of my biggest gripes with this skin was how it'd show up in the store. It has this HUGE textbox talking about the skin and every other skin after has just been like, "here's the skin! Have fun!"

Then there was Samira's "ultimate skin" which used the same animations as her base. It got a "pentakill" vfx but so does Battle Queen Katarina and Winter Wonder Diana, which are both legendary skins. Only I think Katarina and Diana got new animations and vfx.

It's really sad seeing the quality of skins going lower and lower while the prices are getting higher and higher. Hell, Jhin had a fucking chroma for $200. ONE CHROMA. It really makes me sad.

he's gay. he's terminally ill. he's suicidal. he's from league of legends. he's in a toxic relationship with an orb. he also might be the orb(???). he bullshitted his way into the academy by pretending he went there. he rizzed up a guy so he wouldn't kill himself. he then tried to impress said guy by breaking into his boss's lab. then when he got caught he tried to play it off by saying he thought this big intimidating door was his bedroom door and he was just trying to sneak a guy in there. he nearly died because hetero sex was happening like a mile away. kinda. he took illegal drugs. he's also the apprentice of the guy who's making the illegal drugs and never mentions it. he's inspired off of the tale of frankenstein's monster. he got shot by a missle and fucking died. when he came back to life he immediately broke up his messy gay situationship and became jesus fucking christ.

bone china is called bone china bc yes it contains bones!

i'm not saying that autistic bees exist but autistic bees exist

for 15 years sweden thought russian submarines were invading its waters; it turned out to be herrings farting

cows have regional accents

sometimes massive fields of ice eggs wash up on beaches. literally just ice shaped like eggs. that is a thing that sometimes happens and i derive joy from this peculiar world

i am delighted to report (in no particular order) that i do NOT have cancer, i have finally gone no contact with my transphobic parents, I am receiving a Good Grade in Therapy (from my nice new therapist), and steady progress has been made on the Big Shiny Mystery Project i will be shoving down your throats circa 2024.

and now let's ease back into our regularly scheduled shitposting with some more super wholesome fun facts!

the collective nouns for clowns include "trunkload"

at one point in history, billiard balls would occasionally explode during a game. tragically this was discontinued and sports have been going downhill ever since.

given the opportunity, butterflies will happily drink spilled blood

which is fine and totally less concerning than the fact some spiders nurse their young

and whilst we're on the subject of dedicated parents: adult wasps can't eat the food they feed their larvae...because their waists are too small to digest solids

last and also least: picture a kangaroo in your head.

(go on, picture it. 3D rotate it in your mind. the kangaroo is a Shrinky Dink, a perfect stationary image melting in the centrifugal microwave of your mind's eye...)

are you picturing the kangaroo?

INCORRECT that is a WALLABY

but as a muslim lesbian...it hurts. it's alienating. you're harming us when you say religion can't coexist with our identities because islam is as much a part of my identity as being a non-binary lesbian is!

there are plenty of legitimate criticisms to be made about white christianity and it's weaponization against the lgbtq+ community, but lumping muslims in with that is so harmful

the same people who persecute lgbt+ people also persecute muslim people, and if you can't see us as your allies or fellow community members, then you have some islamophobic views to work out

and before you tell me that muslims don't accept lgbt+ people, I'd like to mention that I have come out to multiple mujtahids (religious leaders at ismaili mosques) in my lifetime and they have all welcomed me

for every white lgbt+ person who doesn't accept my faith, there is a muslim who accepts my sexuality and gender identity