Imagine waiting for the coast guard or whatever to show up and instead a replica of 18th century merchant ship pulls up and tows you to the coast.
marxistbarbie-deactivated202109
ERASE the idea that America saved lives by dropping two atomic bombs on Japan from your minds. ERASE the idea that it was anything more than a political move to scare Russia and also to satiate US curiosity as to the true ability of nuclear weapons. Nagasaki and Hiroshima were not military bases. They were heavily populated civilian cities chosen precisely bc the U.S. wanted to see how many people an atomic bomb could kill in one go. Japan was on the verge of surrendering, the U.S. literally wanted to test out their nuclear weapons on people that they deemed disposable. That is it. If those bombs were dropped by any nation other than the US veryone involved would have been tried as war criminals.
Also erase the idea that America was the hero of WWII and got into the war because they wanted so save people. They couldn’t have cared less about the victims of the Holocaust, proven by the fact that they turned away so many shiploads of refugees that went on to die at the hands of Nazis.
yatsbr
“the us wanted to see how many people an atomic bomb could kill in one go” oh really? Source your bullshit, asshole
marxistbarbie
i left out sources bc i figured most tumblr users know how to use google but ok
- Report produced by the U.S Strategic Bombing Group (employed by Truman) to survey the air attacks on Japan concluded that:
“Based on a detailed investigation of all the facts and supported by the testimony of the surviving Japanese leaders involved, it is the Survey’s opinion that certainly prior to 31 December 1945 and in all probability prior to 1 November 1945, Japan would have surrendered even if the atomic bombs had not been dropped, even if Russia had not entered the war, and even if no invasion had been planned or contemplated.” - page 52-56
- Dwight Eisenhower future president and then Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces also said:
“I had been conscious of a feeling of depression and so I voiced to [the then Secretary of War] my grave misgivings, first on the basis of my belief that Japan was already defeated and that dropping the bomb was completely unnecessary, and secondly because I thought that our country should avoid shocking world opinion by the use of a weapon whose employment was, I thought, no longer mandatory as a measure to save American lives.” - page 380
- Admiral William Leahy, one of the highest ranking officials in the US army during WW2 wrote of the usage of the bombs:
“It is my opinion that the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. […] My own feeling was that in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children.” - page 441
- General Douglas McArthur, another high ranking US official in the war:
“[When asked about his opinion on bombing Japan] He replied that he saw no military justification for the dropping of the bomb. The war might have ended weeks earlier, he said, if the United States had agreed, as it later did anyway, to the retention of the institution of the emperor.” - page 70-71
- On September 9, 1945 Admiral William F. Halsey commander of the Third Fleet publicly quoted as saying:
“The first atomic bomb was an unnecessary experiment… . It was a mistake to ever drop it… . [the scientists] had this toy and they wanted to try it out, so they dropped it… . It killed a lot of Japs.” - online source
- The US secretary of war, Henry Stimson, speaking to President Truman:
“I was a little fearful that before we could get ready the Air Force might have Japan so thoroughly bombed out that the new weapon [the atomic bomb] would not have a fair background to show its strength.” - diary of Henry Stimson which can be found online here
- Even those deploying the bombs questioned the decision to drop them on civilian cities:
“I thought that if we were going to drop the atomic bomb, drop it on the outskirts–say in Tokyo Bay–so that the effects would not be as devastating to the city and the people. I made this suggestion over the phone between the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings and I was told to go ahead with our targets.” - online source
- Lewis Strauss Assistant to the Navy Secretary James Forrestal on the locations of the bombings:
“I remember suggesting […] a large forest of cryptomeria trees not far from Tokyo. The cryptomeria tree is the Japanese version of our redwood… I anticipated that a bomb detonated at a suitable height above such a forest… would lay the trees out in windrows from the center of the explosion in all directions as though they were matchsticks, and, of course, set them afire in the center. […] Secretary Forrestal agreed wholeheartedly with the recommendation.” - page 145
So to recap:
- A lot of American generals were against using the bomb as they felt it served an empty purpose.
- Those who agreed with its usage completely disagreed with dropping them on cities.
- Truman went ahead and had them detonated in two highly populated civilian cities anyway. Two cities that had remained mostly untouched by regular bombings throughout the war precisely bc of their lack of value to the Japanese war effort.
Draw your own conclusions.
fake-magical-girl
Here’s the whole video. It’s called “Don’t Be A Sucker” and it’s 17 minutes long.
republicansareahategroup
don’t just scroll past this actually watch it, it’s only 2 minutes long. If you re-recorded this today word for word with modern actors and places, it wouldn’t even look out of place as a PSA
tebasaki-chicken
300,000 notes and i can’t find a transcript
Transcript: (sorry for the language!)
Speaker: “I see negroes holding jobs that belong to me! And you! I’ll ask you, if we allow this thing to go on, what’s gonna become of us real Americans!”
Hungarian man with clear foreign accent: “I’ve heard this kind of talk before, but I never expected to hear it in America.”
Young man: “This man seems to know what he’s talking about.“
Speaker: “What are us real Americans gonna do about it? You’ll find it right here in this little pamphlet—the truth about negroes and foreigners! The truth about the Catholic Church! You’ll find…” [audio grows quieter as camera shifts to the onlookers]
Hungarian man: “You believe in that kind of talk?“
Young man: “I dunno, it makes pretty good sense to me.“
Speaker: “And I tell you, friends, we’ll never be able to call this country our own until it’s a country without… without what?“
Other man: “Yeah? Without what?“
Speaker: “Without negroes, without alien foreigners,”—the young man is nodding, following along—“without Catholics, without Freemasons! You know these…“
Young man: “What’s wrong with the Masons, I’m a Mason.” Looks to European man worriedly, “hey, that fellow’s talking about me!“
Huungarian man: “And that makes a difference, doesn’t it.“
Speaker: “These are your enemies! These are the people who are trying to take over our country! Now you know them, you know what they stand for. And it’s up to you and me to fight them!” A bunch of the onlookers in the vicinity wave him off like he’s crazy and turn away, “fight them and destroy them before they destroy us!”
Speaker: “Thank you.“
One man in the now somewhat awkward crowd: “claps“
Young man: *is visibly uncomfortable*
Hungarian man: “Before he said Mason, you were ready to agree with him.”
Young man: “Well yes but, he was talking about… what about those other people?“ *the pair sit down on a park bench*
Hungarian man: “In this country, we have no ‘other people.’ We are American people, of course.“
Young man: “What about you? You aren’t American, are you?“
Hungarian man: “I was born in Hungary. But now, I am an American citizen. And I have seen what this kind of talk can do. I saw it in Berlin.”
Young man: “What were you doing there?“
Hungarian man: “I was a professor at the university. I heard the same words we have heard today. But I was a fool, then. I thought Nazis were crazy people, stupid fanatics. But unfortunately it was not so. You see, they knew that they were not strong enough to conquer a unified country, so they split Germany into small groups. They used prejudice as a practical weapon to cripple the nation.”
A film created for folks in case Martin Niemöller was too subtle.
“They used prejudice as a practical weapon to split the people.”
In this country, we have no ‘other people’.
90% of Denmark’s Jews survived the Holocaust, because starting at the top, Denmark’s government and prominent citizens and all the way down emphasized this.
And all this was openly supported by King Christian. He did not, contrary to popular myth, ride his horse through Copenhagen wearing the Star of David, but he did make it clear, as he wrote in his diary, that he considered “our own Jews to be Danish citizens, and the Germans could not touch them”.
Denmark had, in essence, inoculated itself against Nazi propaganda because its citizens believed that Jews were not “other people.” As Bo Lidegard writes in Countrymen:
The Danish exception shows that the mobilisation of civil society’s humanism and protective engagement is not only a theoretical possibility: It can be done. We know because it happened.
Being a Jewish Dane or a Danish Jew might have made you a little different, but it didn’t make you other people.
Unlike Niemoller, they didn’t have to see atrocities visited on a series of Other People and only start caring when it happened to themselves. They understood it as happening to themselves from the start. Because their Jewish neighbors weren’t Other People.
As Denmark’s Jewish population sprang into panicked action, so did its Gentiles. Hundreds of people spontaneously began to tell Jews about the upcoming action and help them go into hiding. It was, in the words of historian Leni Yahil, “a living wall raised by the Danish people in the course of one night.”
Many of them didn’t even see it as “resistance work” on behalf of the Jews because it was simply fighting back against an attack on their own community.
Though there was anti-Semitism in Denmark before and after the Holocaust, the Nazis’ war on Jews was largely viewed as a war against Denmark itself. After the war, most Danes refused to take credit for their resistance work, which many had conducted under false names. Ordinary people who never considered themselves part of the Danish Resistance passed along messages, gathered food, gave hiding places or guarded the possessions of those who left until they returned home from the war.
Communities in which there are no Other People save lives.
Colorized photo of Vincent van Gogh at his home in Arles in 1869.
No it isn’t you lying ass
Other ai giveaways other than the fucked up hands-
Leaves have no form or order- they’re a green mass without reasonable veins or connection points to stems. See the weird bit that crosses Vince’s arm
Same with the yellow flowers tbh they look pasted on and are all the same level of blur despite the leaves being crisply in focus, and several seem to not have stems
The metal in the window has no actual pattern and isn’t continued into the second window
The chunk of rock texture in the middle of the wood next to the window
The folds on Vince’s clothes don’t seem to fall in a natural way and seem excessive, especially on his pants.
Overall the space is… Odd. Where is he? A random corner against a plain blue wall? Why is one wall made of wood and the other has no discernible texture? Why does the stone part have that weird corner and have the foundation so high up in comparison to where Vince’s feet should be? Why doesn’t the stone wall match the geography of its base? What is the fabric thing on the lefthand side that’s conveniently the same blue as the house and jacket?
Anyway, good practice to train your eye for ai generated images
Hey non-Jewish leftists and progressives who consider yourselves allies to Jews or, at a minimum, not antisemitic: now is an exceptionally great time to step up
This is shockingly similar to Henry Ford — i.e. an automotive mogul seen as an innovator in the general public uses his fortune and outsized influence to establish a large media presence and spread antisemitism.
There are some important distinctions, but nothing that makes me feel better about the situation.
1. At its height, Henry Ford’s publication, “The Dearborn Independent,” had a circulation of 900,000. The largest circulation in America at the time was 950,000.
While it was certainly influential, it wasn’t unmatched. In comparison to Musk’s 140 million followers, Ford reached a relatively small number of people.
2. Ford marketed explicit antisemitism, which eventually led to the downfall of his publication — you’ve probably heard of “The international Jew” and “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”
However, as with most antisemites (on both the right and the left), Musk hides behind the thin veil of dog whistles and oversights, leaving a layer of barely-plausible deniability.
3. Ford was eventually forced to publicly apologize after he made the mistake of attacking Jewish attorney Aaron Sapiro for more than a year, until Sapiro eventually sued Ford for libel (i.e. he fucked around and found out lol). Ford eventually lost the case and was forced to publicly apologize (his apology was written by associates and his signature on it was reportedly forged). The magazine was shut down soon afterwards.
While I can’t predict the future, something tells me Musk’s obfuscations and the current political climate will allow him to continue to operate with impunity. Dancing around the issue allows at the very least for greater longevity of your bigotry (say it with your chest you coward).
Despite everything, Ford was able to secure his position in history, albeit with some, um, unfortunate footnotes and the occasional caveat being mentioned.*
All in all, this feels very similar to Trump copying David Duke’s run for the Louisiana legislature, but that’s a story for a different day.
* some additional footnotes and caveats:
- Hitler quoted Ford in his infamous book
- Ford was a notorious union buster
- Ford received the Grand Cross of the German Eagle in 1938, the highest honor a foreigner could receive from Nazi Germany, with personal congratulations from Hitler
- After issuing the aforementioned “public apology” in 1927, Ford said that he would like restart the publication of “The International Jew.” In 1940. 13 years later.
- It’s just my personal opinion, but we probably shouldn’t honor literal nazis, but whatever
- To this day, no one at my synagogue will buy a ford car. I don’t know if this is the norm in other places, but I imagine that it’s not uncommon.
- Yes, I’m aware that nobody explicitly praises Henry Ford anymore, and everybody knows what a shithole he was. While “Henry Ford hated the Jews” is a common refrain, specific knowledge of his hatred is lacking, and I think it’s important to point to explicit hatred in the past, because hatred is normally hidden nowadays and needs to be identified outside of the group receiving the hatred.
This is an incredibly important addition
"average bisexual starts 3 businesses a year" factoid actualy just statistical error. average bisexual starts 0 businesses a year. Businesses Hank, who lives in montana and starts over 10,000 each day, is an outlier adn should not have been counted
I need everybody to know that this is what's the most recent update on that website, and the person who put it there is in fact the funniest person alive
So, Boris Johnson wrote an essay in which he talked about the Sistine Chapel and then said : “There is nothing like it in Muslim art of that or any age, not just because it is beyond the technical accomplishment of Islamic art, but because it is so theologically offensive to Islam.”
BITCH
NOT TO MENTION the fact that the prohibition against direct images in Islam was actually the reason for the development of the incredible advances in higher mathematics of the Islamic Golden Age because they were required to create these structures. The Islamic World basically took the ban on images as a “hold my beer” thing and created an entire artistic culture based on mathematics and architecture where art and science fed into and glorified each other, 700 years before the Italian Renaissance.
In conclusion
i will say that islamic art drove me nuts as a kid because i did not have the math knowledge or capability to create such geometric patterns. it may have been the art of my people but by gOD it was difficult and unnecessarily difficult. however my pride in islamic art is neverending. it was frowned upon to be vain in the house, so artists would deck out the places of worship - but places of worship couldn’t be too garishly decorated, or it might detract from worship! the compromise? calm blues and greens, intricate details hidden into the complex patterns. carefully mapped out and planned patterns that were beyond complex and straight into deliberately confusing and practically impossible to replicate. not only that, but verses from the Quran were hidden along the walls, asking god for blessings and care.
muslim art is stunning and i’ll fight the bitch that says otherwise.
Also something underappreciated about the Islamic art is that not only is it geometrically incredible, but the geometry and structure of it has a purpose. In the niches and ceilings, the cascading ornamentation is used for acoustic purposes. In many of the mosques, they are so well laid out and designed that a single person standing on a specific spot can speak/sing/pray and be heard in every single part of the building.
I feel like this should be considered under the same heading as “fascists don’t like abstract art.”
Like, that’s a whole thing. If you look at the art favored by dictators and fascists, it’s almost entirely portraits and landscapes. (Nice, serene, pastoral landscapes, though. None of that war-torn realism stuff.) Rarely still-lifes, unless there’s also a person in the picture. It’s literally common enough to be considered a phenomenon. And while Islamic art isn’t abstract in the sense we usually use the word, it certainly does not include portraits or serene pastoral landscapes. Just, you know. Considering who said this. Something to consider.
I feel like this needs to be shared here (via @/thecollectress on Instagram). I also want to acknowledge the fact that, once again, a Black woman took on the responsibility of educating others who need to be introduced to other perspectives, including myself.
We need everyone's help right now to protect the rainforest and Indigenous People
The Amazon Rainforest is under a massive threat. I know you've heard this a million times, but this is different. There is a piece of legislation that will decimate the rights of Indigenous people of Brazil, who have been protecting the rainforest. It's unfathomably bad. It has majority support. And they're voting tomorrow. As reported here, the Bill allows "the Brazilian government to find energy resources, set up military bases, develop strategic roads, and implement commercial agriculture on protected Indigenous tribal lands, without any prior discussion with the affected peoples."
The thing you can do—and I know this sounds overly simple—is sign this petition—and tell your friends to do the same: SIGN HERE.
As reported here, the Bill allows "the Brazilian government to find energy resources, set up military bases, develop strategic roads, and implement commercial agriculture on protected Indigenous tribal lands, without any prior discussion with the affected peoples."
Again, this bill has majority support. You may be wondering, why will a petition signed by people who don't live in Brazil make any difference? Because it will give those opposing it political air cover. It will show the world is with them.
But we need a LOT of signatures.
Please do this simple act and spread the word.
two very related articles
If you ever needed a reason to not wear makeup (or at LEAST cut back on it significantly) this is it.
Most of your shimmery makeups are made using Mica. Mica is often mined by young children the same way the original coal miners put kids in the tiny tunnels for coal.
These kids make pennies a day, if that, and are subject to dangerous conditions.
All for the glitter in our eyeshadows and highlighters.
most companies, even ones part of the ethical mica initiative, don’t know where their mica comes from and have no way of proving it for sure, because the bosses at these mines are known for using child labor on the side and then they tell their international clients like “yeah totally, only adults we paid fairly mined all this ;)” and then these big international companies can play dumb and be like “the mine bosses pinky promised us it’s all ethical!” when there is no way to prove it, no way of regulating it, and it’s been this specific recurring problem for years
so, here are the companies that use ONLY synthetic mica made in labs instead — this includes makeup brands as well as any company that has shimmery/glittery products:
- black moon cosmetics – also 100% vegan across all products
- hurraw! balm – also 100% vegan across all products
- jane iredale
- LUSH and all of their bath bombs!
- river organics – also 100% vegan across all products
- woosh beauty
additionally: mica that is mined can sometimes be contaminated with asbestos, while synthetic mica is made from plant cellulose. synthetic lab-made mica also has a more consistent texture and makes colors more vibrant than mined mica can.
so basically: synthetic mica is safer, purer, plant-based, a superior product, AND not mined by child slaves — the literal only downside is that it’s slightly more expensive for cheap ass companies who care more about profits than humans
micro-usb-deactivated20230625
Same shit different decade
They could just say "China caused the pandemic due to lax health and safety policies and failure to cooperate with the WHO" but no, the americans have to make every issue tom cruise mission impossible
"They could just make up a boring lie but no, the americans have to make every lie something spectacular" actually, lying openly about such a serious issue in order to manufacture consent is a bad thing even if the lie isn't very exciting lmao
It's not a boring lie it's the truth - eating bushmeat greatly increases the risk of diseases crossing from animals into human populations, and health authorities in China suppressed information about the early pandemic when they thought it was something small enough to keep under control
No, they very much did not. China was extremely quick in identifying, reporting on, studying, and implementing measures to contain the spread of the virus. They only took two weeks to sequence the virus genome and develop PCR testing.
You're complaining about Mission Impossible style propaganda but then you ignore publicly available and easily accessible information that clearly debunks the boring, bureaucratic themed propaganda you prefer.
People in every single country on earth eat wild animals. In many places people eat roadkill, so you can honestly go fuck yourself with your racist bullshit.
And before you even think of crying some bullshit about "Chinese Government Propaganda !!!! you used the Chinese State as a source so you're wrong !!!!", I'm including it primarily to show that the timeline matches the WHO's own official timeline, and besides that, you're literally parroting US propaganda. You know, the country that's just decided the virus doesn't exist anymore.
Wastewater data shows that, at the time of the first detected case, in Wuhan, there were likely already around a million cases in the USA. Similar results in Europe. The only unique thing about China is that, after SARS, China stepped up its protocols for detecting novel pathogens - the rest of the world simply wrote off an excess of pneumonia deaths without bothering to really investigate.
The first case of mystery pneumonia that Chinese doctors flagged as a potential new virus occured on 2019, December 27th. Investigation began to be carried out the same day. Four days later, on December 31st, China officially informed the WHO of the mystery pneumonia, and began sending regular updates. If the supposed 'Chinese coverup' being alleged is a four-day delay in reporting three local cases of pneumonia to a global body, then it can be dismissed out of hand. That's not what's usually being alleged, though - usually, the focus is on the 'censorship' of 'whistleblowers'. In reality, the big case is of Dr. Li Wenliang, who was reprimanded in writing after spreading misinformation that the mystery pneumonia was due to "confirmed SARS cases". Control of misinformation around novel pathogens is *extremely* important. Had baseless speculation about a new disease been spread before actual, scientific rigor could confirm it, then it would cause a very specific type of panic. People would flee the city, before a coordinated response could have been formulated, and would spread the virus across the country. Successful quarantine was only possible because hard science was leading public response, rather than 'my Grandpa heard that some doctor online said it was SARS'.
If you're looking for a country that failed to investigate outbreaks of mystery pneumonia in 2019; one that, even a month after the virus was declared to be of serious international concern by the WHO, failed to treat it with gravity; and one whose pandemic response has been defined by underreporting and refusal to engage in anything more than voluntary health campaigns - you can start with the one desperately trying to point fingers at China.
I’ve never been so taken out by a response
I got to see mom do this once. It was… terrifying. I was moving into my first apartment, and my buddy had just moved into a place about half a mile away, and he was almost crying with rage because of some of the safety issues the apartment had with the wiring. There were a whole host of other problems, but that one was about safety and it should not have been a thing. Mom gathered us up, and drove to the leasing office. When we got there, she informed him (not asked. She’d walked his apartment, noted everything she disliked (she had much higher standards than he did) and she was PISSED) that he was to keep his mouth shut, make whatever expressions she cued him on, and pretend he understood whenever she and I switched languages and we’d fill him in afterwards. (I have been used as a complainant prop before. I know what my job is when she’s on this warpath; thankfully she does not use her powers for evil.) It took her all of twenty minutes to have a promise in writing from the son of the owner for everything to be fixed by a specific date and also to install a ceiling fan at no cost to my friend. In that meeting, she managed to leverage his church, his family, his reputation, the concept of a gentleman, the biblical concept of how to treat the poor, how people would treat his children, once they were grown, and the concept of a self-made man (which my friend is trying very hard to be), Christian morality, what it means to be a community institution, real estate law, and honestly, I forget what else. She’d never met him before. She does not live in our city -or state, for that matter. We’re not Christian. She did a cold-read of him based on his office, face, clothing, and posture (he didn’t give us his last name -the ‘related to the owner’ was a guess that turned out to be lucky), and hit every point of pride or insecurity she could find. When some things still hadn’t been taken care of a week later, she *called his father* and implied that he’d failed as a man and a parent since his son hadn’t yet honored his word. My friend had the fan that day, and the remaining safety issues were taken care of on top of it. No yelling, no threats, it was just a calm, ‘friendly’ conversation. My friend does not do subtext; he knew the social chess game was going on, but not how it worked. tl;dr: I’ve seen my mother do this and holy shit this really should be a thing.
my momma is a retired union lawyer. you should see her tear into landlords and rich people. it’s like watching a lion devour a zebra.
Comrade Karen
I see now…“Karen” is a power that can be used for evil or good…
Listen you are all gonna lose your shit once you find out where there’s a company where that is literally their whole business model. They are called “Karens for Hire” and their whole thing is helping out exploited people get justice - essentially complaining to the right people and making themselves heard.
no offense but if they did this i would become a terrorist
there are multiple international organizations rallying against this kind of light pollution. if you want to prevent this from happening, you can directly support them by joining iniatives such as the international dark sky association advocacy program, or the international astronautical union and their dark skies for all initiative.
this topic has also recently been introduced to the united nations committee on space affairs, so you can also reach out to your appropriate ministry to prioritize the introduction of laws against this. save the night!
The Princess (2022) is plastered all over Hulu with a cringing bad trailer and poster art implying a perfectly coifed Bad Girl (tm) will fight her way through a bunch of medieval times rejects to prove to a Guy she's just as good as the men.
The actual movie is a gem, a florid and well oiled machine for telling a very simple story about a princess at the top of a tower who fights her way to the bottom. The bad guys are over the top sneering villains, the fight scenes are much more like a screaming berserker with martial arts fluidity overlayed into the setting that makes it into a kind of fairy tale kung fu movie in the best way.
There are bombastic dramatic speeches that resonate down the line with movies like Princess Bride, and the action sequences punch with just the amount of chaos and blood and messiness. There's some terrible CGI naturally but the whole story is contained inside the single set of the tower in ways that feel ingenious. It's a low budget, low stakes, high hopes movie and watching it brings back happy memories of stumbling into something unexpectedly on a video cassette with a luridly enticing cover.
y’all want some cool, muslim-made, modest fashion ideas?
absolutely nobody asked but here, have them anyway (all via the Islamic Fashion Institute):