We Wise Young Things In Daisy Fields.

The witching hour, somebody had once whispered to her, was a special moment in the middle of the night when every child and every grown-up was in a deep deep sleep, and all the dark things came out from hiding and had the world all to themselves.

Roald Dahl

Foggy memories of January by @90377

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The Black Camaro Death

I’ll have to disengage from online stuff on Ukraine for a while because although I have no intention of isolating myself from the life-changing events that are occurring in my literal backyard and are going to affect Europe for years to come, the rate at which I’ve been consuming the news cycle is starting to affect my head and that’s just not benefiting anything or anyone.

But before I do fuck off, a few words on what I’ve been noticing today. Namely that after the initial shock of seeing the terrorist gas station just going fucking mental and actually invading a sovereign country with no justification whatsoever, people (overwhelmingly uninformed Americans, as is tradition) have gone back to both-sidesing the war and sharing their dumbass radical centrist takes on how maybe Putin not good, but NATO is at fault. How NATO provoked the little fascist oligarchy into two days of nonstop war crimes. How if the evil West had just told Ukraine to fuck off, we don’t want you around, everything would have been peachy keen.

And there’s only one thing I can say to that—if you don’t support a people’s right to decide on its fate, on who it chooses to associate with; if you think that countries are by default beholden to whoever wields the biggest stick and have no right to rock the boat because might makes right, then I don’t give a fuck about how many thoughts and prayers you post—you don’t support Ukraine. You’re not an anti-imperialist and you sure as fuck aren’t a leftist. You’re a useful lapdog for the propaganda of a dying empire stuck in the 19th century notion of great powers that are somehow entitled to a sphere of influence, regardless of whatever said sphere of influence has to say about it or whether it even wants to be one. You’re showing a willingness to throw a free people expressing a desire to live in democracy to an expansionist dictatorship that’s a humans rights nightmare, simply “because that’s how the world works, nothing to do about it”. By regurgitating the Kremlin line on NATO provocation and “expansion” (i.e. Russia’s former colonies doing everything in their power to get the fuck out of Russia’s homicidal reach), you’re actively promoting colonialism and imperialism and you’re as useful to the victims of these horror shows as a soiled toilet paper.

Your “suck it up, buttercup” helps no one whatsoever. Quite frankly, it’s a part of the reason why we got here.

I implore you, read a fucking book on Eastern European history. Go into therapy with your U.S. centrism and “every conflict is like the Iraq War” because I swear, nobody in this part of the world is impressed with your main character syndrome. Grow out of the idiotic thinking that just because US BAD, an authoritarian regime automatically good.

You’re a part of the problem. Get solved, please.

夾鏡鳴琴 35. Double Reflections and the Sound of a Lute 'Forty Scenes of the Yuanmingyuan'

"Putin was wrong to invade, but Europe and US should negotiate peace instead of fueling warmongering Zelenskyy" - this is the message I've been getting almost every day. So I decided to respond with a thread.

First of all, dear peacemakers, do you have a clue what are Putin’s demands for peace? I will tell you: Russia is allowed to invade and control Ukraine’s government, resources, and legislation for an indefinite time.

Ukraine’s army must be demilitarized and almost destroyed. This means leaving no weapons, and no means to respond to any future threat from Russia. All damage Russia brought to Ukraine must be rebuilt by Ukrainians and Europeans.

All criminal accusations, all sanctions must be lifted. All crimes must stay unpunished. Territory, Russia took over by force, must stay under Russia no question. Russia does not agree to draw its forces out of Ukraine.

It still insists it is allowed to deport Ukrainians from their homeland and instead let Russians move in. Look at what is going on in Mariupol. This will be all of Ukraine.

At the same time each attack, each mass murder committed by Russians in Ukraine is blamed on Ukraine. Logic: Stop protecting yourselves, you are not allowed. We are allowed to shoot anti-ship missiles at your cities.

But it is you who’s guilty, bloody warmongers. Stop resisting. Let us turn you into the colony. Because we have the right, because we used to have you and want to have you back by force in 21st century.

Meanwhile, the ones, you call warmongers from EU and US: provide weapons on their own schedule, do not provide any means we can use to attack Russia or even Crimea. Strictly forbidden to use any of their weapons to bring war to Russia. Still are afraid of Russia losing

Agree to lift sanctions from Russian oligarchs, put Russian banks on Swift, buy Russian nuclear energy even at times Russians keep largest NPP in Europe hostage.

But let's think we agreed on Russia's peace terms after all it did to us. After it destroyed our cities, and industries, killed, raped, and kidnapped our people. Because "every war ends with negotiations", right?

NATO indeed got a boost because Russia attacked Ukraine. So they do have a plus. We got weapons to stand and retake our territory. Also a plus. But let's go into the "negotiations camp". Imagine this war ends on Russian terms, and that's the terms Russia agrees to negotiate.

What message do we send to the world: If you are a bigger power that wants to colonize neighboring countries, you can do it. You can come and kill the natives, destroy their houses, kidnap their kids, and turn them into your new citizens to replace those killed in war.

You can send natives to filtration camps, take away their property and send your own people from depressive regions to live in better conditions in the colonized country. and that is fine. You will still be at UN, still will be doing business as usual.

You might suffer from sanctions for a while, but you can always use loopholes or kill even more natives to pressure the world to lift the sanctions and let you continue your war. it will work. You will consolidate power at home, showing how strong you are.

You will use mindblowing propaganda efforts, mixing historical conflicts to get allies in modern times, making people previously colonized by others that now the sovereign state you still see as your breakaway colony, is somehow guilty for this war.

You dare to blame Ukraine, the West for this war, but not the one who actually has boots on the ground. not the one who destroys food destined maybe for your countries. This all because when you were suffering, nobody helped you. now you think it is fair for this to continue.

and the most mindblowing thing here is that if Putin's peace will happen, you will all remember us, like we now remember Syrians, Georgians, Chechens, and Afghanistan. World ignored all warnings, and kept business as usual, while one by one Russia was destroying us.

Now Putin, feeling the Ukraine fatigue and upcoming election year moods shits, feels blood and already reminds Poland that Stalin presented her lands. WEAK UP!!!!

The ones, who strip us of agency, because we need help fighting on our own with the largest army on the continent, please get a life. Read history. read about Ukraine. We have free and fair elections, even now there are openly pro-Russian lawmakers in parliament.

Yes, during the war we got a bit less democratic, but as did ANY OTHER COUNTRY during the war in history.

Our parliament still has heated debates about laws, we got rather strong institutions. We are older than Russia, we just had different names, like most of the countries in their history. Please read, and educate yourselves more. don't just write "independent thinker" in your bio

if you think that just letting Russia win will end this and it will be good, you should stop also in your daily life: standing for yourself or your loved one when someone's abusing him or her. Let bully at school to abuse your kid, and ask your kid what did he do to provoke it?

Stop writing quotes of great leaders about justice in your bios. Because you clearly are not ready to fight for justice, so be truthful. Write something about surrendering for the sake of peace. be honest to yourself. END.

Me, and many others like me probably will not survive to live in the new world, where surrendering to an aggressor who's murdering is right, cause you might get the chance that not all of you will be murdered, some might be enslaved and live happily ever after.

And honestly, I start thinking it is fine that I might not survive to live in this new "wonderful" world our place will turn if Russia is not defeated in Ukraine.

-- by Nika Melkozerova Source

look, it’s 01:32, and the notebooks in the pits of my drawers are not enough for the horror that is tropical disease biology studies…

I wonder, when you decide to voice your questions, when you send off your impressions, when you speak or write or type, out of the blue, to your unsuspecting peers, is it done with an obstinate hope that you will receive at the very least any kind of response? A measured reply, despite the overwhelming standard of there seeming to be so few who would not only appreciate the question, but would consider an answer at all. 

In a manner that is self-deprecating, I think, I have been hunting for forms of connection that are more opportune for people who would rather not engage in anything so "aggressive" if "cute" without first throwing their daily habits into disarray. For whom such randomly expressed vexations of admittedly pretentious proportions pose as minor amusements, surprising puzzles, forms of performance art, and above all, a craving for approval–the latter, undoubtedly, many of my hurriedly scribbled down remarks are, but more, I suppose, a form of reassurance to myself that it is fine if I cannot help myself. Rather that than a kind of validation that is supposed to instill in me, over and over again, my sense of self-identity and worth. That would be very silly, don't you think? But it is to be expected that more often than not we will seem silly regardless, and are loved despite of it, than seem as we want to be, and are loved because of it. So herein then, ought we not to give free reign to the expectations of others, and to our own, and tailor our contentment accordingly? 

From there has emerged, I reckon, the infamous, “Nevermind that,” for which I am chastised here and there alike. Yet it occurs to me that I do not dismiss so much myself, but what I see as the toil and burden for you to bear if I did not do so.

I have never thought of it like this before, or thought of any of it for the longest time, if only in passing sneer in relation to my own expectations of people. Suppose I have dismissed thinking about it entirely, but wouldn't that truly be considered as “settling”, after all?

If you meet the Buddha on the road, kill him.

Linji Yixuan (via nathanielstuart)

I think one of the kindest things you can do for people with various mental health struggles is just... let people back into your life after they've been absent for a while.

Making friends as an adult is so fucking hard already and isolating yourself from other people is a very common symptom of depression, anxiety, burnout, ocd, trauma, grief, etc. Which means that someone will do the hard work of recovery/healing and resurface back into a world where their previous friends have written them off because they stopped showing up.

So if you know someone where you're like "yeah we could have been better friends but they fell off the map a bit" and that person suddenly reaches out, or starts showing up to events even though you kind of forgot they were still in the group chat... well they may have been Going Through It and you don't actually have to punish them for their absence you can just be glad that they're back.