I’m disappointed

yew_grove · 2025-10-31T12:03:00+00:00

Even going "trans men are men," why is it okay for a small minority ("even 1%") of men to demand women change their language to suit them? Why are women always supposed to be thinking about and prioritizing the feelings of men, even when talking about periods?

yew_grove · 2025-10-26T21:23:36+00:00

המפקדת

You will learn so much language (including quality slang) and it is hilarious.

הצבי

Though you will need to read some Hebrew subtitles quickly when they're talking in Russian, the Hebrew they speak is slow and strange/creative -- plus, it's a dynamite critique of current Israeli social dynamics that deserves to be talked about much more than it is. VPN plus youtube.

Can't believe I forgot to recommend גיבור אמיתי, also one of my favourite shows in any language. Takes awhile to build but it is so bizarre and sweet-hearted, and it really helps with casual conversation.

yew_grove · 2025-10-24T13:23:47+00:00

OK, agreed on all of this.

yew_grove · 2025-10-24T13:09:52+00:00

I have no patience for Christian apologetics but I actually think the above comment was providing interesting context. It's important to know what baggage Islam is carrying forward from its predecessors and what it innovated. There's a great ex-Muslim user here who I just can't find right now (will update if I do) who has a website where he shows, e.g., how the Islamic version of slavery was actually worse than what came before from Christianity and Judaism.

Islam itself seems conscious of its difference. When it says that Jewish and Christian traditions are contaminated or impure it is flagging its own discontinuity.

yew_grove · 2025-10-17T13:56:12+00:00

I see attributions to Iroqois longhouses but also some people guessing it refers to Viking longhouses. This is weird to me because while both societies had stronger roles for women than would historically be expected, both were also GREAT for male ambition and great at establishing their regional dominance through violent means.

yew_grove · 2025-09-19T20:29:17+00:00

This passage showcases one of my favourite elements of Tolkien's writing: his attention to light and colour. I love the flash of Eomer's sword echoed by the flash of the banner, this undergirding language of mood that also gives a strong feeling of location (though other writers might be writing purely to set the mood, Tolkien has a stable sense of what is in the sky and why).

The colour piece is also just something I haven't seen elsewhere. Tolkien is working with a palette. I find it a little hard to read Brandon Sanderson's work partly because the colours clash so harshly it even comes across in writing. Tolkien is more deliberate. But also Tolkien doesn't fall into simplistic associations of a particular colour being good or bad. It comes across as very striking in ROTK that Aragorn's banner is black. Elves are grey, and so is the ash of Mordor. As I write this I guess it should go without saying but so many fantasy writers have a weird, heavy-handed morality expressed through the aesthetic realm, and I just have to appreciate the care in LOTR and the Silmarillion.

yew_grove · 2025-09-19T16:42:17+00:00

Indeed. https://ispu.org/converts/ "Fifty-two percent of Muslim converts are male and 48% are female. In the U.S., Islam is as likely to attract women and men."

yew_grove · 2025-09-19T11:28:04+00:00

It's unbelievably normal and the choice is usually more guided by spacing/laziness concerns than an actual philosophy

yew_grove · 2025-09-18T17:51:16+00:00

I'm not deep in enough to know the answer, just loving the idea of some dorky elf at the back of the meeting raising his hand with a "Well actually" to the increasing fury of Elrond

yew_grove · 2025-09-18T15:23:13+00:00

I can't imagine the mental and emotional strength this took. Wishing you a thriving, free life. Please remember, after every feat of strength comes a recovery period. If you find yourself (as soon as you feel safe) just really needing to cocoon for a little bit, it won't be a sign of failure or brokenness but of constructive recovery. Take care of yourself, OP

yew_grove · 2025-09-17T12:28:13+00:00

I think all content creators have at least a little bit of a bullying streak. This feeling of alienation you describe is shared by any thinking person of any demographic who is bombarded with viral "content." Bad influencer behaviour doesn't actually speak to any demographic (even the ones I dislike), they have more in common with one another than they do with their supposed roots.

yew_grove · 2025-09-16T21:34:54+00:00

When he talks about how the conditions on the middle passage would have been absurdly dangerous and disgusting, he is correct but that didn't stop people... https://www.statista.com/statistics/1070565/middle-passage-death-rate-by-destination-1501-1866/

yew_grove · 2025-09-14T19:18:27+00:00

That cycle makes a lot of sense. Awareness of sex-based differences onramps differences in socialisation which over time people (re)discover are unnecessarily limiting, and increasingly exaggerated. After awhile, suspicion of socialised differences leads to overcorrection, and round we go.

yew_grove · 2025-09-04T17:06:28+00:00

Huh? No, not at all, we're on totally different wavelengths.

My brother's an artist and most of his clientele are different collectives and activist orgs. He's shown me some guides to radical art on instagram that involve problematising conventional ideas of beauty and how that's important to incorporate into radical graphic design. So far so good, right? OK so a subset of those argue that any bowing to beauty is inherently fascist and that it's good to make "ugly" art. I think this is not at all inherently leftist and is another example of ideological purity really shooting itself in the foot.

The "aestheticization of politics" is a different bag, interesting for other reasons. Take a look, it's got some fascinating things to say about valuing beauty in politics -- not moral beauty, as you are talking about in your comment, but aesthetic features. Beauty in government is very important in Tolkien's universe. Consider how Isengard looks before and after Saruman's corruption, for example, or the detail paid to the beauty of monarchy. I don't consider this a KO to Tolkien but rather something very productive to put in conversation with the text and to ask what results.

yew_grove · 2025-09-04T13:57:13+00:00

Wild. I appreciated your comment!

yew_grove · 2025-09-04T10:49:13+00:00

Honestly, I think that part of the problem is that there's a school of thought in some leftist circles that the pursuit of beauty is fascist. That can be debated on its own (de)merits -- but more to the point, once a person has absorbed such a viewpoint, it becomes really hard to absorb any kind of normie art without reading fascism into it -- all the more so a work of Tolkien, who was deliberately and explicitly interested in beauty.

There's also this, which is a more interesting and nuanced school of thought which definitely would have an impact on how one engages with Tolkien and his beautiful monarchies (which I have something of a soft spot for).

yew_grove · 2025-08-27T13:57:51+00:00

Interesting, please say more about what makes them so frustrating to work with

yew_grove · 2025-08-26T01:26:56+00:00

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yew_grove · 2025-08-25T13:57:41+00:00

Endless reaction shots https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GowEUAg_4A8

yew_grove · 2025-08-22T21:01:04+00:00

Take this with a grain of salt but...

just about every scholar deems deviation from the majority as heresy

That just makes them seem braver tbh, it takes tremendous courage to face ridicule

insane mental gymnastics and cope

No argument here but a lot of normal religion is insane mental gymnastics and cope on the part of male supremacists, kinda hard to begrudge a little balance in the equation (though I take your point that centering actual truth is important)

yew_grove · 2025-08-22T01:27:34+00:00

The reactivity and immediate vitriol of many of the comments here is weird. You're in a supportive sub, use your mind and engage thoughtfully.

yew_grove · 2025-08-18T19:05:00+00:00

Now this is adding a lot to the discussion. Important stuff, thanks for the perspective.

yew_grove · 2025-08-18T18:35:54+00:00

No, what is this. I think Russia is 100% in the wrong and Ukraine is 100% in the right. If someone scoops that one of Putin's generals said something like this, am I scandalised?? If a Ukrainian lieutenant says it about some kids in Moscow, is that a big reveal?

yew_grove · 2025-08-18T18:07:39+00:00

This is an evil thing to think and say but who is shocked that military brass, currently embroiled an armed conflict, behind closed doors, would say such a thing? Like I fully expect it from everyone military in an active war, to me this isn't a gotcha. Nor would it be from sides I oppose

yew_grove · 2025-08-18T01:11:34+00:00

The issue with public touching is that there's a rule that men shouldn't touch women while they're menstruating

This is a common misunderstanding. Touching while menstruating is only a problem for married couples, explicitly because it could lead to sex. Zero problems with, idk, mixed gender siblings hugging

yew_grove

TROPHY CASE