It's sooo good

How many of the first white settlers to the US (and other settler-states of the British Empire like Canada and Australia) included the Puritans, the Irish, the Scottish etc - communities that had been brutalised at home by the English for generations - and then how those very same people blew their intergenerational trauma through the bodies of the peoples that they enslaved and colonised.*

How while those settlers are described with words such as "pioneering," ""adventurous," "industrious," and "brave" in their colonisation of the "wilds" of the New World, in reality many were actually fleeing political unrest, religious persecution and the barbarism of their places of origin.

How the oppression of the Old World followed them to the New World but how they were offered a seat at the table in exchange for their cultural and religious difference: an invitation into the decontextualised, ahistorical, transient void that is whiteness.

How in Sinners, that white void is represented by Remmick's vampire colony, with everyone doing the same jig and singing the same song as Remmick, their own individual cultures and histories be damned (contrast this to that beautiful sequence in the juke joint where a slew of multicultural ancestors and descendants commune at Sammie's call).

How the concept of whiteness has shifted over time in order to assimilate different people and communities and keep others subjugated.

How in Sinners, this shift is represented by Remmick changing his pitch to recruit others into his fellowship, depending on whose home he was trying to invade.

How legal definitions of whiteness in settler states gave the folks that they applied to more economic and social power than they ever had in the Old World. That power has flowed down for generations but it has come at the cost of connection to culture: the joy of ancestral connection, the grounding self-knowledge and communion of cultural practice (including through language, music, dance and pre-Christian religion).

How in Sinners, that cost is represented by Remmick's vampirism trapping him for eternity amongst the living, away from his people and also by the klan: folks who have embraced the void of whiteness so thoroughly that their cultural tenets are nothing more than hate, violence and destruction. Their whiteness brings them none of the joy, communion and love that we see in Smoke's memories of his community, just before his incendiary final scene.

And this is why Remmick wants Sammie, his songs and his stories. Its why his appetite for the blood and memories of others is insatiable. Remmick - as is the case with all colonisers and cultural appropriators - wants to fill the void.

Which means my grandfather's father was a sharecropper, which is within my family's oral history for why the [surname] family property and farm is the way it is and has been in the family for so long.

My grandfather died at 96 years old at the turn of the century.

Sharecropping as we know it today ended sometime in the 1930s-1950s depending on the state. Not only was my grandfather a sharecropper's son- my grandfather was a sharecropper himself during his early adulthood before he left home to join the military and later became a preacher.

My grandfather marched with Martin Luther Kin Jr and educated my father on black politics and activism. My father just turned 71, the same age as Ruby Bridges, the little girl who sparked the mass desegregation of education. She was born in 1954. There exists a photo somewhere of a little boy on a man's shoulders in the crowd at one of MLK's public events. That's my dad.

That's how close this is to the current era.

I said that once as a teenager on a forum. I was mocked and told that I am either way older than I claimed to be or that I am way off in my estimations because slavery was long ago. Slavery, Jim Crow, segregation, the Civil Rights movement itself, that is in recent enough memory to be evident in the lives of those who are alive today. My grandfather's grandfather- I'm just 5 generations removed from slavery.

does this serve any purpose other than to make the publisher feel like they're Doing Something, and to help consumers feel like their purchases are meaningful political engagement?

I’m going to tell you about how a discord banner that was put up for pride month in the Lancer ttrpg official discord was so successful at getting bigots to out themselves, that it’s been the permanent official discord banner for 4 years now.

This is the updated version. It’s animated now.

But pride month 4 or 5 years ago, somebody made the server banner a Goblin mech dabbing in front of a trans flag.

And for your average person who joined the server, they just kinda went, lol cool.

For the trans people who joined the server, it made them feel extra safe.

And for the bigots who joined the server? They’d fucking bitch about it IMMEDIATELY. And promptly get banned.

And that month saw so many bannings of dipshits that they decided to keep that banner, because every single time a bigot joins the server, there is a high chance that they will out themselves IMMEDIATELY and be promptly banned.

While including text like this in a book is different than a community space, the reality is, fascists do not like being embarrassed or confronted about their beliefs; they have fragile egos.

So imagine you are going through the book with a group of friends, and you get to this block about “fascism bad,” and somebody is like, “I don’t know how I feel about this. It seems a bit stupid,” it immediately gets to raise a red flag for everybody that maybe this person isn’t, as cool to have at the table as they thought.

Similarly, you know how many bigots went and burned their beers/hats/shoes because some corporation supported trans people/gay people/Collin Kapernick?

This is performative, yes. But it’s not performative to puff up themselves as heroes. It’s performative, aimed right at the fragile skinned assholes who will boycott Oreos and Budweiser for “supporting the gays.”

It’s one of the FASTEST ways to reduce the number of virulent bigots in a community for ZERO COST.

Like, maybe the experience of the lancer discord is atypical, and fascists are learning to have thicker skins and lie about their beliefs better.

It’s still PROFOUNDLY CHEAP AND EASY to include this blurb.

So, it’s free, zero effort nazi repellent.

Frankly with that in mind, I’d regard anybody who ISNT doing this, as maybe a tiny bit cowardly.

It may be atypical but it's certainly not unique. Another example is the Heraldry discord I'm on, with an icon that is animated to switch its original colours and two other versions, displaying gay pride and transgender pride colours.

Bigots join, bigots mouth off, bigots get banned.

Sometimes we get a different flavour of bigot, ones who tolerate us queers but are racist as hell. They tend to out themselves, too, because it's a heraldry server. That fact alone makes them assume that we're all "European culture is best" and other racist bullshit. They get banned.

And that is TACTICALLY USEFUL.

Because game companies spend so much money moderating chat spaces (both forums and in-game chats) and they lose so much business when dominant third party online spaces associated with their game turn toxic. Hell moderation is the big money sink for social media. Managing that cost is one of the most difficult aspects of the business.

Now imagine telling a game or social media executive that you can eliminate half of their harassment in a single honeypot operation. Imagine telling them that you have a technique which surgically targets a majority of their most toxic members and immediately gets rid of them. Because that's what this is.

You slap up a big pride or power banner and an announcement that this company stands with [insert group here], or stands against fascism, and you take names on everybody who has angry or quibbling shit to say about that. And then you ban them all. And just like that the moderation load you're dealing with gets so much lighter. Keep it up with a similar announcement whenever a topical opportunity presents itself and you clean out any new trash which walks in too.

And it just so happens that the way to do this is to clear out the bigots and make a safe space for oppressed groups.

There are so many of these companies which are worried that by taking a stand like this they will hurt their user base. There are so many forums online with volunteer moderators who reflexively don't want to wait into politics because they think that will increase their workload. Give them good solid practical examples of this reducing their workload instead, and you will get some of them onboard.

ICE is tapping into Bluetooth. Turn off Bluetooth if you are observing.

ICE is following ambulances so they can arrest people at the hospital. At this point, it is safer for people at risk to be driven to the hospital by community members.

ICE might back off if you threaten to call 911. The relationship between local law enforcement and ICE is extremely tense right now. ICE agents are cowards and will usually slink off if they know local law enforcement is watching. They know Minnesota will prosecute them if Dems regain political power.

Likewise, if you are being tailed by ICE head to your local police station or other public space with many cameras. Do NOT drive home under any circumstances. Heard directly from folks that they are being stalked by ICE and ICE will make an “I’m watching you” gesture when they find them at their homes.

Choose between delivering items to people who can’t leave their homes OR observing ICE. Do NOT do both. If you are identified while observing, ICE will log your license plate and track you to the people you are trying to help.

https://shorturl.at/8VD8B

The articles below are free to access, they cite their sources if you wanna check out the studies themselves.

Control of TikTok in the US has just been given over to Oracle, a major tech company known for its closeness with the Trump administration. Today on Jan 22, 2026, the privacy policy and terms of service for using the app changed. You are not able to open the app unless you click “agree” on a new pop up, but they do not lay out what you are agreeing to. I took the liberty of reading the new tos and privacy policy and it is FUCKED.

DO NOT AGREE TO THEIR NEW TERMS OF SERVICE!!!

I am not done reading yet but I had to make a disclaimer right now because what I have read so far is so disturbing. I will make a full update once I have finished reading it all but so far some of the biggest things that have stuck out to me are

They have a whole section about medical data they are collecting. They are collecting data from videos, comments, and private messages posted as well as IDENTIFYING THINGS IN THE BACKGROUND OF VIDEOS AND BODILY CUES that may indicate physical or mental illness

They are also using the same method of scanning videos (both posted and unposted), CAMERA ROLL, messages, and comments for a variety of things including INDICATION OF IMMIGRATION STATUS. They specifically say they are collecting “sensitive information” such as ETHNICITY, SEXUAL ORIENTATION, GENDER (they specifically mention trans and nonbinary individuals), and IMMIGRATION STATUS.

They note that not only will this information be used for marketing and analytics (meaning they will sell it to other companies), it will also be used for legal activities, most likely meaning that, as many of us feared, they will be sharing all of this readily with the government

Fragrantica: perfume enthusiast site that has a long list of scents. v helpful when you’re writing your guilty pleasure abo fics

Just One Cookbook: recipe site that centers on Japanese cuisine. Lots of different recipes to browse, plenty of inspiration so you’re not just “ramen and sushi” 

This comparing heights page: gives you a visual on height differences between characters

A page on the colors of bruises+healing stages: well just that. there you go. describe your bruises properly

McCormick Science Institute: yes this is a real thing. the site shows off research on spices and gives the history on them. be historically accurate or just indulge in mindless fascination. boost your restaurant au with it

Canine Body Language

Cocktail Flow: a site with a variety of cocktails that’s pretty easy to navigate and offers photos of the drinks. You can sort by themes, strengths, type and base. My only real annoyance with this site is that the drinks are sometimes sorted into ~masculine~ and ~feminine~ but ehhhh. It’s great otherwise.

Types of High Heels: A page describing twenty five different types of high heels. It gives a description and pictures. Shake it up from just “stilettos and kitten heels”

Random Job Generator: Exactly as it says. The site offer more generators like characters, plots, or town names.

Glossary of Hosiery Terms: Figure out what is what on a pair of stockings.

Men’s Dress Shoe Guide: A quick guide describing the eight most common types of men’s dress shoes. Pics included.

specifically what you're going to want to do is find settings.json in %appdata%/discord or the mac equivalent which is found with finder > go > go to folder. there is a setting there titled "DANGEROUS_ENABLE_DEVTOOLS_ONLY_ENABLE_IF_YOU_KNOW_WHAT_YOURE_DOING": and if it is not, copy and paste "DANGEROUS_ENABLE_DEVTOOLS_ONLY_ENABLE_IF_YOU_KNOW_WHAT_YOURE_DOING": true into the .json and then, only then you can do crtl + shift + i or command + option + i on mac.

When you've enabled dev tools and opened Discord's console, input THIS code: