There was this person who was expounding on the upcoming election and why he wasn’t going to vote for Hillary Clinton. It was his first time voting, you see, and he wanted someone who understood and represented his generation.
He said to me, “You don’t understand – ”
And that’s where I had to stop him. “Look, I do understand. Really.”
“How can you understand? You’re too old.”
“Do you think I was born old? Y'know, I have pictures. Here’s me at thirteen – ”
“But times were different then – ”
“Yes, they were. You could get polio and measles and smallpox. An appendectomy was a serious operation. People smoked everywhere, there was no getting away from the smoke. In school, they taught us to duck and cover in case of a nuclear attack. Whites and blacks still had separate restrooms and drinking fountains. Women couldn’t get a legal abortion. Gas had lead in it. Vegetables were sprayed with DDT. You could be arrested for being gay. Yes, times were different.”
“No, I meant that protesting was a fad, not serious like – ”
“Excuse me? Do you want to see the scar on my scalp where I was hit by a thrown bottle at the first gay rights march? We also had civil rights demonstrations, anti-war marches, and rallies for women’s rights as well. That was no fad. People were dying – ”
“No, look, man – it’s the establishment. That’s what’s wrong – ”
“And you want to replace the establishment with what? A different establishment? Listen – when I was your age, when my generation was your age, we were just as frustrated and just as impatient as you are now. Honest. Am I saying we were wrong? Hell, no. We were right. Better than that, we were so right, we were self-righteous. We went around saying, ‘Don’t trust anyone over 30,’ as if somehow when you turned 30, you became one of them. Y'know?
"You know what we missed? We missed the obvious – that there were a lot of good men and women over 30 who understood the issues, and the complexities of the situation better than we did – because they’d been fighting that fight for a lot longer. We had emotion, we had energy, we had spirit – but we didn’t have enough experience, enough history, enough of everything we needed to effect real change.
"So we didn’t turn out for Hubert Humphrey and we handed the country to Richard Nixon. And a generation later, other people didn’t turn out for Al Gore and handed the country to George W. Bush. And what was missed – both times – was the fact our impatience was the single biggest mistake we could make.
"Hubert Humphrey had experience, he had wisdom, and he shared our goals. Al Gore had experience, he had wisdom, and he shared our goals. But somewhere, enough of us decided that he was too old or too much of the establishment or didn’t really represent us enough, or would just give us more of the same when what we really wanted was more, better, and different, even if we couldn’t define it – enough of us felt that way to hand the presidency to a much worse administration.
"So, no – it isn’t that you’re wrong. It’s that there are people who’ve been down this path before. We know where it leads. And it’s not a good place. We know what this mistake looks like. Because we’ve made it ourselves – and we’re asking you not to make the same mistakes we did, because each time we make this mistake, everyone gets hurt.”
And he said, “So that’s a fancy way of saying 'suck it up, buttercup, you can’t have what you want.”
And I said, “No, but if that’s the way you want to hear it, then that’s the way you’re going to hear it. The way government works, nobody gets everything they want. The way government is supposed to work, everybody negotiates – and eventually everybody gets a piece of what they need to keep going. Nobody likes that, but consider what the alternative is – if some people get everything they want, that means a lot of people are going to get nothing at all. We keep trying that, it doesn’t work. Let’s go back to the stuff that does work.”
“But I don’t like her – ”
“I’m not asking you to like her. I’m asking you to respect that she knows how to do the job. He doesn’t. You can have your protest vote, that’s your right, but that’s letting everybody else decide who gets the oval office. And you might want to think long and hard about which of the two will build on what President Obama has accomplished and which of the two will tear it all down with no idea of why it worked in the first place. Your choice.”
And he said, “That’s not much of a choice.”
And I said, “The hell it isn’t. It’s a choice between experience and ignorance. That’s the clearest choice I’ve ever seen in an election.”
He didn’t have an answer for that.
And that’s the point –
'I might be old, but I’m not stupid. And I suspect that a lot of other members of my generation feel the same way. We remember when we were impatient. And we remember the mistakes that our impatience created.
“Old people don’t tell young people what to do and what not to do because we want to control your lives – we just want to warn you not to make the same mistakes we did.
"But you will. Or you won’t. Because it’s your choice. Always.”
"an incredibly stupid looking bird." This is how you get on an Australian bird's murderin' list. Just saying.
Australia is best known for animals that are needlessly good at murdering things. The country is also home to the tawny frogmouth, an incredibly stupid looking bird.
2nd day home from the shelter and he already loves snuggling up in our bed (Source: http://ift.tt/1q8Otz5)
There are rumors.
Well, there are always rumors. Whispers, stories passed from space to space, worn smooth by time. Stories deepened by the older ones, who come in bewildered and hurt by loss, or who claim they had one, somewhere in the past before it disappeared. Tales.
bruce wayne maintains a presence on all conspiracy theory boards with the screen name BruceWayneIsTheBatman and all his posts have titles like “BRUCE WAINE IS BAT-MAN INDISPUTABLE PROOF” and it’s just a picture of Bruce Wayne from the back next to a picture of Batman from behind and they both have the contours of their butt drawn on in a shitty MSPaint red line (note: Bruce is in a suit and Batman has a cape, neither of their butts are clearly discernible) and the quote “THE BUTTS MATCH!!! THE FACTS DON’T LIE!!!!!” and he makes at least three of these posts a day, and “Bruce Wayne is the Batman” becomes a meme a la “Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer” and he gets asked about it on a talk show and he laughs uproariously at the idea and Stephen Colbert just HAPPENS to have a batman mask under the desk and they do a bit together where Bruce Wayne puts on the mask and walks around saying things like “excuse me, bank robbers, can I perhaps offer you some money to stop you robbing this bank?” and “I say, cease and desist your criminal behavior or I’ll have my butler ask you to leave” and the audience is LOSING THEIR MINDS laughing at the idea of this pampered rich guy taking on the Joker on a bi-weekly basis and then anyone who suggests “Bruce Wayne is Batman” in earnest gets met with mocking “oh man do the butts match” comments
Imagine, someday, the Joker actually finding out a) that Batman is Bruce Wayne and b) that he’s spent their entire shared career being completely and utterly trolled by this stoic asshole in a bat suit and by that utterly hapless billionaire, and then Bruce-the-Batman leans in and whispers, “The butts match. The facts don’t lie,” and Jokes can only stare at him in complete and utter awe because Bruce Wayne as the Batman he can sort of wrap his brain around but Bruce Wayne and the Batman are that ridiculously wrong conspiracy theorist TOO, and he’s RIGHT?!!!
It’s the best and biggest bluecreen of the Joker’s life, and somehow, he’s never been happier.
First, MLK was relentlessly investigated by law enforcement authorities on suspicion of being a Communist. His supporters were abused and murdered by both civilians and law enforcement over the years. The FBI spent vastly more resources trying to demonstrate that he was causing riots as a paid agent of Soviet Communism than they ever spent investigating the endless murder threats to his life. And, of course, the FBI mounted multiple sting and other investigations to expose and exploit his all too human flaws, particularly his cheating on his wife. His life is hardly a good model of police-citizen relations.
Second, King faced endless, brutal criticism for the peaceful protests he led. Lots and lots of (mostly) white people insisted that now was not the time to protest, that social and political change would best happen at its own pace, over a long period. Heck, has anyone actually read “Letter from Birmingham Jail”? The whole thing is a response to a letter published in the Birmingham paper in which white ministers asked why an “outsider” like King would come to Birmingham to lead protests, leading to his famous response “I am in Birmingham because injustice is here.” There is never a convenient time for protest, or an acceptable way to demand change from majorities that like things the way they are. Martin Luther King may be an American saint now. But he wasn’t when he was alive. Let’s not kid ourselves.
Third, is it now required that we all be Martin Luther King? Is it required that we all have the patience to endure endless harassment and violence in order to be “worthy” to protest? Do remember that King himself had largely abandoned the philosophy of nonviolence at the time of his assassination. For example, he was only in Memphis in April 1968 supporting a direct action strike by sanitation workers in the city, an action LOTS of people would have called violently disruptive to the health of the community. His movement only seems beatific in retrospect, through the lens of the rioting and social chaos that ensued his marginalization in the later 1960s and 1970s. There are no perfect protestors even when there is much to protest.
I do not think the Martin Luther King, Jr., you remember is the Martin Luther King, Jr., who actually lived.
Honestly, I think I deserve a prize for working in hospitality for over a decade and never actually telling the men who told me to smile that I would smile when they did something to make me happy, like leaving.
no one is going to look at you, broken and shattered
and think -
damn, you are beautiful.
no one is going to come pick up your broken pieces off the floor and
assemble them into a beautiful whole.
hell,
you won’t even look at yourself and think -
I made broken look beautiful.
you know why?
because all those writers lied to you.
yes,
all those with their poems of scraped knuckles and
blood dripping down chins,
pomegranate songs and loves that ripped through you like
hurricanes.
liars.
so you and i,
we are going to make a plan.
you are not going to romanticize days when your brain tells you to smash that mirror,
you are not going to romanticize the lover who doesn’t understand you
but still writes about you.
here is what you are going to romanticize instead:
you are going to romanticize the first day of spring,
its gentle hands all over your body,
lifting you up until you are as light as a feather.
you are going to romanticize the tea and honey kind of love,
no hurricanes,
but sunshine that builds you up from within,
that helps you make it through the worst days.
you are going to romanticize gentle hands of a friend
in yours,
telling you that it is going to be okay.
because it is.
and don’t trust poets,
we’re no good,
we love pretending that our jagged edges tantamount to a beautiful disaster, but in reality -
there ain’t nothing beautiful about shaky hands holding a cigarette and
empty eyes staring at the cracks in the walls.
you know what is beautiful, instead?
the days when you can look at yourself in the mirror and smile,
scars and all.
music that makes your soul flow like a river,
books that offer comfort,
families flocking together like overgrown birds to keep you safe and warm,
friends that give you strength when you can find none,
lovers who make you laugh through tears.
baby,
from now on
you are going to romanticize healing;
honey dripping down your fingertips,
August nights that stick to your skin,
the day you find your purpose,
long car rides and singing so loud that no one can shut you up now.
my fav trope is like, nonhuman characters not understanding human needs/customs but still being super supportive of their human companion
“look what I found while exploring this planet’s surface!” “kilrak please I’m trying to sleep” “ah yes your human circadian rhythm. *stage whispering* I am supposed to be quiet during this time in your rhythm, yes?”
“the book I purchased on ragnok V says humans require physical touch when upset. therefore, I shall engage in a ‘hug’ with you.” *supremely awkward five-armed hug ensues*
*human sneezes* “OH MY GOD SIL'EEN GET THE MEDIC OUR HUMAN IS DYING”
“this pamphlet I received recently says that humans require companions and packmates in the form of small earth creatures. you should have told me this before we departed earth, but it is no worry. we will have to stop at the next trade planet to get you one of these ‘cats’ or ‘dogs’.”
imagine the aliens really purchasing a kitten for one of their rough and world-weary scifi badass human companions and watching in helpless wonderment what ensues
“she’s been cuddling that small animal for the past fifteen minutes just going ‘kitty, kitty’. did we - did we break our human?”
a more seasoned alien puts one of their tentacles around the younger one as the rest of the team gathers to watch their human make kissy noises.
Installation by
Shigeki Matsuyama
is inspired by the visually chaotic
dazzle camouflage
used in World War 1:
Dazzle camouflage was a type of ship camouflage used during World War
I. As its name suggests, it was meant to dazzle and confuse the human
eye. In an era where radar technology did not exist, an enemy vessel’s
range and heading needed to be visually identified for targeting. The
complex black and white patterns painted on ships with dazzle camouflage
made it difficult to ascertain whether a target was moving closer or
farther away and prevented accurate firing.
The person in the room covered with dazzle camouflage uploads selfies
to social media while surrounded by a larger self representing
narcissism. In an era where much communication occurs over social media,
metrics such as likes and follows fulfill our desire for recognition;
however, the ease of which we can obtain validation from others leads to
the growth of this desire, and we attempt to satiate it using our
self-image or “larger self.” The boundary between self and self-image is
unconsciously blurred by dazzle camouflage, and as a result, we
ourselves cease to recognize our own boundaries.
i was at the zoo and just kind of vagueing out leaning on a rail and watching the duck pond and in the background a kid started yelling “he’s coming for you! he’s coming for you!!” and i thought it was some game she was playing with her family or something up until i felt a little hand grab my elbow and looked down to see this tiny wide-eyed child staring up at me with the world’s most serious expression and she said in a solemn voice
“he’s here for you”
and something reached out and grabbed my other hand
it turns out that a resident cockatoo has figured out that if it just waddles back and forth along the rail it can get the maximum amount of attention and headskritches with the minimum amount of flying and objectively this is very cute but at the same time this was very nearly the way that a grown adult died of a heart attack at the zoo
why is this cracker the main character of a movie set in CHINA
full offense but fuck this white guy lmao
“1700 years to build. 5500 miles long. what were they trying to keep out?”
the huns. they were trying to keep out the huns. the huns were what were being kept out of china via the wall that china built. that great wall, which was built by china, was made to keep out the invaders, known as the huns. it was the huns who were being blocked by the wall that china built, which was a great weall. it was the huns who
uh, no? it says on the poster Matt Damon. They were trying to keep out Matt Damon.
I know that after seeing so many egregious examples of whitewashing, it’s infuriating to see yet another movie featuring a white man as the hero in a land that is definitely not white. But let me tell you why The Great Wall is different.
Unlike The Last Airbender, Prince of Persia, Ghost in the Shell, Gods of Egypt, and Doctor Strange, The Great Wall is not inserting a white actor into a role meant for a non-white actor. This is an original story by Chinese director Zhang Yimou (famous for Hero and House of Flying Daggers), filmed in Qingdao, China, and featuring one of the largest Chinese casts ever.
Did you only see Matt Damon in advertising? That’s because the Chinese people involved with the film know that Americans will recognize an American actor. This is targeted marketing. If you actually look at the cast, Damon co-stars with Chinese actors Andy Lau, Jing Tian, Han Lu, and more.
The Chinese film industry is trying to break into the American market by featuring a prominent American actor. Don’t boycott The Great Wall for attempting to appeal to American audiences. Matt Damon’s entire purpose is to lure Americans into the theater for Jason Bourne and expose them to Chinese actors already well known in China.
A similar example to The Great Wall is the upcoming action-comedy film Skiptrace starring Jackie Chan and Johnny Knoxville. A Chinese actor and a white actor are co-starring and the film involves a road trip from Mongolia to Hong Kong. If you’re still displeased with Matt Damon, go see that.
Tl;dr if you want to support Chinese people in movies, watch The Great Wall (Feb 17, 2017) and watch Skiptrace (Sep 2, 2016).
If you do a little reading up on the film you’ll see that it’s fantasy based and there are monsters that they are fighting, this movie is not trying to rewrite history or tell fact, it’s just trying to tell a weird fantasy story rooted in China.
And the lead role was intended to be a white actor for story reasons, he’s an outsider, he was never meant to be Chinese, y’all need to chill and actually watch the films instead of getting all riled up about something you don’t want to see in the first place.
Add this to the list of things I totally get, but just don't understand
Domino master Hevesh5 spent 25 hours building this triple spiral over eight days. Despite following three separate paths at three different heights, the delicate structure takes less than two minutes to come tumbling down, creating beautiful patterns in the process.
my headcanon for startrek is that humans look, to vulcans, like a dog frathouse. like signing on to a human ship is exactly that thrillingly loud and frustrating and fast and stupid and fun. the humans are going to dash off to a new sector to see if there are friends there and then they will jump up and down with delight and stuff their faces up against their new friends’ genital array. the humans are going to bark for ten minutes at a rock. the humans want to chase things they can’t possibly catch just because they like running around. the humans are madly passionate about their arbitrary group identities. the humans can be divided into new arbitrary group identities which they will then be passionate about. the humans want to stick their heads out of the window of their starship and go ‘wheee!’. if you step on a human’s paw they will act like you just killed them for about thirty seconds and then want more headpats. the humans can be immediately distracted from crucial duties by the appearance of a small animal. if you howl all the humans in earshot will howl louder just to show off. a human just humped your leg. ‘don’t make it weird bro’ the human says. later the human will dig a weird bug out of the ground and eat it.
