The most realistic depiction of Hogwarts as a school is the fact that they didnt offer replacement wands to students who couldn’t afford new ones despite wands being pretty damn essential to learning magic
Just a reminder that the James Gunn thing isn’t about “political correctness run amok” or bullshit like that, but right-wing assholes using selective outrage as a means to harass and silence their critics.
Exactly, so let’s get this straight:
What James Gunn wrote all those years ago was reprehensible and disgusting, and he should be ashamed about it. But at the same time, all of this already came out in 2012, which he already apologised for: this was all VERY public record. Disney would have been well aware of this when they hired him for Guardians of the Galaxy.
Does that make everything better? No. Does that mean that we should automatically forgive him? Absolutely not. But as someone who has also been an almighty shitlord myself in the past and posted some regrettable things to Twitter way back when, I can understand that Gunn has had time to reflect and evaluate his behaviour, and to grow and change (which, if you follow his Twitter now, it’s clear he has). And if anyone’s got time to trawl all the way through my twitter back to 2013 and find something also questionable, I’m willing to take the L for that too.
But that’s not what this is about: conspiracy theorist Mike Cernovich (who himself has been charged with rape) has made a career of feeding (and being fed by) the alt-right, from being one of the founding members of Pizzagate to appearing on InfoWars to generously labelling anyone he disagrees with as a “pedophile”. Prior to James Gunn’s firing, he did the exact same thing in 2017 with noted leftist journalist Sam Seder, having him fired from MSNBC for a distasteful tweet he posted in 2009 regarding Roman Polanski (MSNBC promptly rehired Seder after realising that Cernovich’s “investigation” would only embolden further alt-right figures to launch similar smear campaigns for disingenuous gain).
In cases like these, it’s important to answer 3 things in order to understand the context:
who said it?
what are their goals?
who benefits from it?
THAT’s what this is about: Cernovich didn’t dredge up Gunn’s old tweets out of a genuine care for women, children, or LGBTQP+ people. He didn’t write this as a feminist or left-wing activist hoping for a more productive dialogue surrounding trauma that gives these issues the seriousness they deserve; Cernovich directly accused Gunn of being a pedophile for these tweets, and Disney submissively just bent to that and fired him.
This is about fear-mongers like Cernovich, Jack Posobiec, and Alex Jones deliberately arguing in bad faith in order to exploit and derail serious conversations (eg. the incredibly important #MeToo movement), and to distract from the fake news that they themselves spread. Firing Gunn isn’t any sort of progress: Disney has simply validated these pundits and incentivised them to continue similar smear campaigns.
This whole thing is such a mess, and the only way to have avoided it is if – considering that all this was apparently public knowledge since 2012 – Disney had simply not hired Gunn in the first place. If they disagree now with what he said back then, then they should have disagreed with him when they were looking at hiring a director. It’s a huge double standard to hire him, knowing about the past tweets, but then fire him when the tweets hit the news again.
Either they can’t work with someone like that, or they can. They shouldn’t be hiring people with known scandals if they’re then gonna dump them like a hot potato when the scandal gets revised.
Pick a side and stick to it. Hire people with clean (so far as you can reasonably tell) records of behaviour, or don’t, but don’t chop and change your stance on the person in time with the media attention.
All this has done if prove that Disney doesn’t mind someone with a dirty past so long as the past stays hidden, which, the “conveniently flexible morals” attitude is a huge part of why there’s such a systemic, ingrained problem in Hollywood now.
Had they looked at Gunn way back when and gone, “yeah, sorry, but we can’t work with someone who has said these kinds of things in the past,” then that would actually set a standard. But firing someone for actions the company already knew about that have just now been reassessed by the media does nothing but establish an attitude that “it’s ok for you to be dodgy as fuck, so long as it stays a secret.”
I’ll never forget that one time I was talking to this boy and I rejected him (mind you I almost gave him my address because we were supposed to go out) and he stalked and harassed me for an entire month and put my number on Craigslist (I was getting hundreds of calls and texts every day to the point my phone stopped working).
Men are crazy.
I had one throw a water bottle at me for ignoring him as I walked down the street. I was 6 months pregnant with my daughter on my way to a doctors appointment. The bottle missed me.
He’s lucky I was pregnant. I pulled my box cutter out on a dude one night on the train when I used to work nights a few years back. I scare myself sometimes because I’m gonna kill somebody one day.
I always carry my knife with me just because dudes love to act stupid so I’m prepared to cut they ass accordingly 🙂
Omg where can I get a pocket knife?
Amazon! They have these knifes disguised as keys.
I got this on amazon. Closes up and looks like a leaf. Sits right on my key chain.
WomenOnGuard.com also has a selection, many of which you can find on Amazon – but should you find yourself spending $50 on self defense weapons, WomenOnGuard.com offers free pepper spray & free shipping (as of March 14, 2018 – in case that offer ends at some point)
As someone with limited strength and physical mobility, but who can press a button pretty easily, I recommend personal keychain alarms that are set to make a VERY loud noise (140db–about the same noise level as a chainsaw). They’re about $8 a piece usually, but you can buy 3 for 16 and split them among your family and friends. If it doesn’t startle and deter the harasser/attacker, it’ll definitely get someone’s attention.
I usually end up taking most my classes in evening so I can go straight to work after. For a year or so I never carried anything with me. When the security guard at my job found out he was livid. He went and got me mace and a little pocket knife.
Within the last year I’ve had a guy follow me in the parking garage when ain’t no other cars there.
I’ve had guys waiting outside my job and no one is there to walk me to my car at 3am.
Strap up ladies cause these men do note care how scary they are, they don’t care that they intimidate you into talking to you.
But also ladies RESEARCH THE LAWS OF YOUR STATE/CITY, cause some of the things you buy may get you arrested & possibly charged; even in self defence. For example: It’s illegal in NY state to carry and use a taser or possess a knife longer than a certain length. This is also very important, shitty to find out but important.
To ALL my female followers, please be safe!
hey ladies if you are going to buy and carry a knife around PLEASE learn how to use it properly it can be ridiculously easy for someone to take a knife from you and use it against you, pls, my grandparents once had a break in and my grandpa told the police the day after that he had considered going to the kitchen and taking a knife to confront the guy and they told him how in most cases the attacker manages to use the weapon against the attackee
DOWNLOAD AN APP FOR WALKING HOME ALONE!
I personally have used bSafe and Companion (this is my fave) here’s a description of each
bSafe
•allows friends you assign as “guardians” to track your trip home via GPS.
A press of a button on bSafe will simultaneously sound an alarm and send a text message alert to your friends that you are in danger.
The app will also begin recording video of the incident. Video, voice, location, and timestamps of the incident are kept in bSafe’s servers if users ever need to provide information to the police.
bSafe’s “Fake Call” feature. In case you think you’ll need an excuse to make a quick exit, the app lets you set a time when you’ll receive a fake call.
Companion
Request a “companion,” and select destination. (A friend doesn’t need to have installed the app to be a companion; in fact, the user can select several people to be their companion at the same time — in the event that some are unavailable.)
Whoever you have selected follows you on GPS in real-time and will receive alerts if there are disruptions to your journey (such as straying off a planned route, being pushed, if you start running, your phone falls to the ground, or your headphones are pulled out.)
If you don’t respond to let the app know that you’re OK within 15 seconds, the app will contact your companion and gives them the option of calling the cops.
It emits loud noises, turning your cell phone into a personal safety alarm
There is also an emergency button that can be used to call the police with one click.
lower-income people tend to be “hoarders” and richer people are able to do more “minimalist” living spaces. if u don’t have much, you will hold onto any little thing that comes across your way. you got a new tv, but you still keep the old tv because you know things can break. you keep extra boxes of macaroni and cheese lying around because there will be a week when you don’t have money for groceries. you hold onto your stacks of books and clothes for dear life. those are your assets. physical evidence of where your money’s gone. it’s hard to get rid of it. the bare wall is terrifying when you don’t have much.
Fuck. This makes so much sense and explains so much about me. I must have inherited this from my mum.
so I’d normally put this in the tags but it’s kind of a lot so just reblog this from OP to skip my commentary. But I dogsit for a family who is clearly LOADED. Their house is immaculate. High, vaulted ceilings, wood flooring, two chandeliers in one room. These things are fancy, right ?? I really don’t know, anything that isn’t tile or 30 year old carpet seems fancy to me. It also so… bare. Everything is organized perfectly, they have no excess. Their decor is extravagant and yet minimal – it is carefully and precisely executed. Nothing that doesn’t match the aesthetic sits in their living room. I tried to replicate some of it, but it’s just not possible. I have every book I’ve ever owned, my mom keeps papers upon papers, VHSs in a dresser, how do you just get rid of these things when you know you may not have the opportunity to buy them again? How must it feel to live in such orderly quarters where everything is replaceable?
This really locked into my brain when I was reading one of the declutter your space things and it suggested getting rid of duplicate highlighters and pens. /Pens/. It suggested that you needed one or two working pens, so if you had extra you should get rid of them. That was when I realized minimalist living was /innately/ tied to having spare money, because the idea was, of course you just went out and bought the single replacement thing whenever the first thing broke. You obv. Had the time and money to only ever hold what you needed that moment, because you could always buy more later.
there’s a nice article titled “minimalism is just another boring product wealthy people can buy” by Chelsea Fagan which i feel addressed lots of my problems with minimalism, you can read it [here]
A dating service where matching is based on people’s search history exists. You’re a serial killer. You go on a date with a writer.
Serial Killer: metaphorically, if you were to kill someone, how would you do it?
Writer: Air shot between the toes, it’ll look like a heart attack.
Serial Killer who is obviously in love already: *sucks in a breath* ok
Writer: how long would it take to die if you were to potentially stab someone in the guts
Serial killer: anywhere from 2 to 30 minutes
Writer, already bringing a ring out: *shaking* thanks
A++ addition
Writer: *shows the serial killer the murder scene they’re writing* babe, i’m not sure if this would actually work?
Serial killer: *kisses writer on the forehead and leaves, comes back later, a suspicious scent of blood coming off them* it works baby, you’re doing great
My favorite part is the blanket wrapped around the guy in the back because it implies that this wasn’t spur of the moment when they saw the statue, they planned this out and brought a blanket with them to the museum specifically for this photo
Artisan Scribbles 