The most important freedom we have ever gained is democracy and the freedom of speach.
Human rights (as of the UN convention) need to be the basis of all discussion, but as long as thease are being meet, any and all should be, needs to be free to exist.
Trans rights, in the sense of a persons right to identity as they choose and be respected as such and be given access to mediacl attention, if the person wants such, are an important part of human rights.
hot take: on the scale of energy disasters, chernobyl wasn't even that bad. and the only reason it exists in the collective awareness as this horror movie-esque experience is because it's politically and economically convenient for a lot of people. it's convenient for the capitalist powers to play up the errors and failures of the soviet union, and it's convenient for fossil fuel companies for the average person to quake in fear at the thought of nuclear power.
the death toll was bad, but nothing compared to coal mine accidents or dam failures. the cancer caused by the radiation? awful, of course... but living near an oil refinery increases the chance of cancer, too. by a lot. not living near an oil refinery that has an accident - just living near one that works perfectly fine.
not to say that chernobyl was a great thing or anything. it was definitely the most serious nuclear accident (though still not the most deadly one). but nobody makes award-winning grimdark docuseries about oil spills or pipeline explosions or the millions of people breathing and drinking poison, shortening their lifespans every day, from the use of fossil fuels.
Lmao yeah watching that series I was shocked at the bravery and obscurity of the liquidators so I googled how many died from radiation sickness and it really wasnt many. Im not saying it wasnt bad but the impression we get in America is that if youre anywhere near Pripyat even today without protection youll die immediately and thats just not the case.
The series itself is full of outright lies, pointed omissions, and exaggerations. The actual story just isn't that scary:
A freak accident caused by a combination of human error and shitty equipment caused a radioactive explosion. Some people caught in the explosion and some of the first responders died. Thousands of people immediately leapt into action to mitigate the damage and figure out what happened so it wouldn't happen again. They successfully did so. End of story.
But that's not scary enough, so instead we need to exaggerate the death count (the "Bridge of Death" wasn't a thing), create an entirely fake story about a brave man standing up to his oppressive government (Legasov wasn't even at that trial, and the scientific community was well aware of the problems with the RBMK reactors by that point), and conveniently not mention that even the UN's investigation found no evidence of increased birth defects and only a small increase in cancer rates among the most exposed populations (that might actually be attributable to increased screening, rather than an actual increase in rates - its very controversial).
But why tell the truth when you can tell yet another Red Scare story? Truth is boring. "Soviets bad and radiation scary" is interesting!
It definitely belongs in the category of American fictionalized-Russia "scenes which may be true about other things but are not true of the subject" like if it was a Chernobyl-styled fictional account of a fictional communist country I could point to Legasov's lil speech about bad science and say "oh yes. This soviet "science" did kill millions in the form of Lysenkoism" but its presented wholly as fact with the tagline "what is the cost of lies?" Like idk hbo you tell me.
That’s….the USA wear much father ahead in nuclear sience. For starters. The organisation against it stemed from activits who thoght it was bad.
The thing that cracks me up about the Addams Family is that they literally live in their own family cemetery, but no one ever asks the most important question: what the fuck kills an Addams?
Like, they literally have cartoon invulnerability. They intentionally put themselves through physical torture, electrocution, falling from ridiculous heights, etcetera, and they always come out completely unscathed. In the movies, they’re actually shown giving the baby a mixture that includes raw egg and vodka, among other things, for regular feedings, which, if you need to be told is bad then you ought to have your parenting license revoked.
So, how do all of the graves get there? What horrid fate could possibly KILL an Addams? The world may never know.
They leave when they are done
Not dead, merely sleeping. If they get bored of being “dead” they just wake up again and claw their way out. The family welcomes them back, throws them a party, and sets them up in a spare room (or possibly their old room, left untouched for their return).
People be like oh you’re in your 20s you have a whole life to live but I already feel as if I’ve missed every opportunity and made all the wrong decisions and it’s just fucked now
Look, I’m 62. And I’ll tell you something no one ever says out loud. Your 20’s is a shitty decade. Why? Because everyone you know is flying off wildly into different directions. It’s a decade of transition. EVERYONE is trying to find themselves. So don’t compare. Move to a new city. Jump out of a plane. Take a shitty hourly job. Pull out crayons and draw. Just go out and LIVE. It’s a time for no responsibilities so take advantage of that. NOW.
comfort character? no, im the one whos gonna give them comfort. come here, lets get you some proper love and affection
"It's ideal for Headquarters, of course. My father put every security measure known to wizardkind on it when he lived here. It's unplottable, so Muggles could never come and call — as if they'd ever have wanted to — and now Dumbledore's added his protection, you'd be hard put to find a safer house anywhere."— Sirius Black regarding 12 Grimmauld Place
It's common in fanfic to see Grimmauld Place as a magical fortress, the ancestral fortress of the Black family, with wards (I know that it's a fanon term, but it's a useful one so don't @ me) as ancient as Hogwarts itself. And that make sense, after all, doesn't Sirius tell us so in the books? Well yes and no. Sirius does say that the house is warded, and heavily so ("every security measure known to wizard kind"). Sirius is exaggerating here, since the house doesn't feature protections like the Fidelius (until Dumbledore added it), but it's meant to show that the House is heavily protected.
The bit I'm interested in is the part I highlighted in the quote above. My father. The protective spells were not modus operandi for the Blacks, they're something new. It isn't him renewing spells his father cast either, since Arcturus dies after Orion. It makes sense that they're not standard procedure, after all they're wealthy and influential in the government. As pure of blood as one can be. They consider themselves wizarding royalty. Why would they take measures to protect themselves from those they consider their inferiors? Now, the question that naturally follows is: What changed? What prompted Orion to feel threatened enough that he felt the Black family residence needed reinforcement? I have my own elaborate headcanon about this, but I'd feel interested in hearing other theories first.
Maybe a combination of fear from a more agitated social climate, increased fear of Muggelborn /Muggel and also the social climate created by that, maybe yes some before Voldemort?
“Religion must die for mankind to live. The hour is getting very late to be able to indulge having in key decisions made by religious people. By irrationalists, by those who would steer the ship of state not by a compass, but by the equivalent of reading the entrails of a chicken. […]
Faith means making a virtue out of not thinking. It’s nothing to brag about. And those who preach faith, and enable and elevate it are intellectual slaveholders, keeping mankind in a bondage to fantasy and nonsense that has spawned and justified so much lunacy and destruction.”
– Bil Maher, Religulous.
That’s wrong.
Logicaly speaking attheists also commited massmurder, slavery (albite in a diffrent form) etc..
Otherwise argumented faith made some people, for example in Nazi Germany, stand up against Hitler.
I would say rather we have to have values of freedom we can aknowlege all people to have.
I keep thinking how Severus’ Doe Patronus was so fucking strong that it burned Harry’s retina.
Though the darkness had swallowed her whole, her burnished image was still imprinted on his retinas; it obscured his vision, brightening when he lowered his eyelids, disorienting him.
Snape: doesn't often do happiness, but when he does, he burns your retinas
Sorry for the many reblogs but I found more quotes:
A bright silver light appeared right ahead of him, moving through the trees.
He screwed up his eyes as the light became blinding, the trees in front of it pitch-black in silhouette, and still the thing came closer...
And then the source of the light stepped out from behind an oak. It was a silver-white doe, moon-bright and dazzling, picking her way over the ground, still silent, and leaving no hoofprints in the fine powdering of snow.
Snow crunched beneath his feet, but the doe made no noise as she passed through the trees, for she was nothing but light.
Though the darkness had swallowed her whole, her burnished image was still imprinted on his retinas; it obscured his vision, brightening when he lowered his eyelids, disorienting him. Now fear came: Her presence had meant safety.
The imprint of the doe faded away with every blink of his eyes as he stood there, listening to the sounds of the forest, to distant crackles of twigs, soft swishes of snow.
The Doe becomes so bright that it doesn’t remain silver, it becomes white. Notice how many words focus on her light and brightness. She’s blinding. Harry cannot see anything for a time, he’s disoriented, blinded as he was by her brightness. He keeps seeing her for several moment on his retinas after she’s gone, like when you’ve been in out in the sun for long and you enter back into a dark place, seeing a greenish light everywhere instead of what’s in front of you.
Snape’s Doe may be the most powerful Patronus we’ve ever seen... or one of the most powerful at the very least.
