Bat Wing Tiaras

Diamond Wing Tiara by Mellerio, 1905

Diamond Wing Tiara by Henri Vever, circa 1910

Ida Rubinstein Tiara by Axenoff, 2013

Remember when the left was all about saying that liberals would ally with fascists against them, when it turns out that, thanks to antisemitism, they're allying with fascists against everyone?

I think these two should work with Musk (who they probably love now) and be on the first mission to mars.

And that whole "the liberals always ally with the fascists!" thing? Straight up Soviet propaganda. See the thing about the ideologies derived from Marx's writings is that Marx had a deterministic and very simplified view of history that allowed him to make predictions about how the future would play out. And the ideologies based on his writings, take his analysis of history and his predictions as truth, and see the truth of his views, and their own ideology, as confirmed or refuted by those prediction's coming true or failing to. but actually, when his predictions don't come to pass, because he did not actually have a crystal ball, instead of really seeing their ideologies as refuted, they come up with reasons why the prediction was right, and the works just got gummed up for some reason.

And one of those times was that according to the Soviet reading of Marx, the Weinmar Republic was supposed to have a glorious Communist revolution at exactly the moment it instead fell to the Nazis.

So Soviet academics after World War II came up with the justification that the German liberals used fascism to stop the revolution and therefore betrayed the revolution, and underneath their fake liberalism, they're really just fascists, and all they really care about is capitalistic greed and keeping the proletariat down. This had the lovely side effect of being very useful to paint the US led Cold War "free world" as all secretly fascist and just like Hitler.

The tragic irony is that the exact opposite happened from what the Soviet academics claimed. In the years leading up to the rise of the Nazis, the Marxist political associations had splintered into two groups, a liberal wing that was pro-democracy and sought electoral success in the new Weinmar government, and a wing that was still holding out for a glorious Communist revolution that would sweep all aside, and leave them in power. This split was deeply acrimonious, and the more radical wing especially saw the pro-liberal democracy wing as traitors and sellouts. They felt even angrier when that pro-liberal democracy wing actually did achieve quite a bit of electoral success. The revolutionary wing did not achieve electoral success, but they did have street gangs and a sense of grievance and moral purity, so who were the real winners?

But then came the depression and the resurgent Right, and a rise in street violence, and the pro-democracy faction found themselves alone, trying to hold the state together. And when pro-democracy politicians reached out to the Communists, the Communists laughed at them and refused to help. They didn't care about democracy, or preserving it, and these right wing movements, especially the Nazis, looked a lot like the proletarian revolution they were waiting for. So almost all of the communists either stood back or outright allied themselves with the Nazis, and even joined the party, in the hopes that they would guide this revolutionary movement into being the proper Communist revolution they were certain it would become.

And then once Hitler was firmly in power, he purged them from the ranks and had them arrested and/or killed, along with the liberals who tried to warn them.

And it's happening again. The same people who kept insisting that "scratch a liberal, find a fascist," and "the liberals always side with the fascists to betray the revolution", are cheerfully sitting back as the liberals try to hold a democratic government together, and falling all over themselves to welcome our new fascist overlords.

Reminder that ocasio-cortez and bernie sanders, the faces of the "progressive left" movement, launched their last speech tour (March 2025) with an interview with piker up there. He was their very first pick to speak to.

Apparently all it takes for a neonazi to pass as a leftist these days is to say he also hates Jews, cough, sorry, Zionists. Then the leftists welcome him with open arms and throw away any and all principles they claimed to stand for.

I think the fall of the clerical fascist regime in Iran would be good in and of itself but I really hope it won’t end up with the monarchy being restored. Imagine risking your life against one of the most oppressive states currently only for some unemployed zionist from Maryland and his comprador bourgeois buddies to take over

Hey so, as an Iranian in the diaspora who has family in Iran and keeps track of what's going on Iran, Reza Pahlavi is more than that for us. Protesters in Iran have been chanting his name overwhelmingly in the street and responded to his calls to action in large numbers. Chants include:

There is obviously diversity of thought, but he is the most popular opposition figure. In fact, he only wants to come in as the transitional leader, and as an advocate of secular democracy, believes that Iranians have the final say in what a post-IR Iran looks like. There's a sizable number of Iranians who aren't even pro-monarchy who still support him for this reason. (He's on camera saying that he wants people to have the right to vote against him.) More than that, he has a thorough, viable plan for helping Iran recover in all aspects (human rights, economy, environment) that has been made with a group of experts. He has been consistent in his views, and is far from being some unemployed person who just wants to benefit a small group of wealthy friends. And while you might find Israel controversial, there is a deep history and friendship between our people that spans millennia, and Jews and Israelis have been consistent allies of the Iranian people in their fight for freedom, which Iranians are grateful for. This all may be different than your views and expectations, but this is just a bit of the context and history for us Iranians.

Instead of regurgitating what the Islamic Republic is saying, you should listen to the actual Iranians.

"From Maryland" is also a wild statement to make when the man was born in Tehran and lived in Iran until he was 19 and had been living in exile from his home country.

I'm still thinking about the phrase "from Maryland."

Reza Pahlavi spent more time living in Iran as a child (19 years) than Mahmoud Abbas spent living in Palestine (13 years). But it would be frowned upon to say that Mahmoud Abbas is from Qatar, right?

And Mahmoud Abbas is actually a perfect comparison.

Reza Pahlavi has been in exile from Iran for 46 years, since leaving in 1979.

Mahmoud Abbas spent 47 years outside of Palestine after his family left Safed in 1948 for fear that Jews would take revenge for the 1929 massacres of Jews during the 1948 war. He returned in 1995.

Reza Pahlavi is apparently some "unemployed guy" with comprador bourgeoisie buddies — which of course is completely different from Mahmoud Abbas... who had been an unemployed guy with comprador oligarch buddies and who had a KGB codename.

By OP's own logic, Mahmoud Abbas is basically "some guy from Qatar" who took over as President of the Palestine National Authority, and overstayed the end of his elected term (2009) until the 2010 elections — where he then got re-elected indefinitely by the PLO Council (not election by citizens).

But this is different because being elected by council as president indefinitely is not at all being a King or a monarchy — and Palestinians stay Palestinian forever whereas Iranians, apparently don't. According to OP.

not my labyrinth not my minotaur

walky pink shark

I still think it’s objectively fucked how the world is built for morning people and if you wake up later than everyone else you’re seen as a malicious aberration of some sort. I am that but it’s not because I wake up at 11 fuck yourself

Sudan is currently experiencing the largest and worst humanitarian crisis on the planet due to the ongoing civil war - hundreds of thousands dead, millions displaced, unspeakable atrocities including ethnic cleansing and mass rape. It is estimated more than 30 million people are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance.

Type of shit your grandparents tell you that is categorically unconvincing

I enjoy chocolate and liver. And they do hit a similar sensory experience of luxuriant rich flavour.

But I also am entirely confident when I say the children do not in fact yearn for raw liver. Chocolate is what you get when every instinct that makes someone like liver gets targeted, with the addition of sugar. Chocolate will always win this contest.

Opal and glass gold-mounted pendant by René Lalique, c. 1900.

every so often i like to trot out this quiz again so:

Viktor Lyapkalo Artwork: 'Blowing bubbles' & 'Evening' Painted 9 years apart.

Same woman

This is the most disgusting, exploitative shit I've seen from ICE since last week. They will consume a culture, literally, at the expense of those who produce it, and then prevent it from being reproduced.

From Mother Jones "More Immigrants Detained by ICE Recount Harsh and Cruel Treatment" by Katie Herchenroeder, January 18th, 2026

Link to the article here