hey you ever think about how the Cullen's love-bombing eventually replaced Bella's personality?

She mentions multiple times in the books that she despises expensive gifts, and the ones that actually leave an impact on are her Chevy and the wooden wolf bracelet Jacob gives her. The Chevy is second-hand from Billy, and the bracelet was carved by Jacob. They hold value to her because they have personality; they speak to her tastes and were given to her with those tastes in mind.

She loves her Chevy, but it is eventually replaced with a sleek, expensive designer car gifted to her by the Cullens. She adores the bracelet but Edward puts an designer charm on it to remind her of him.

Even her clothes, which she insists are fine and suit her, are replaced with branded sweaters, dresses and heels.

She hates the idea of any kind of marriage but Edward holds vampirism over her head to get what he wants. Even when she agrees to marry him (against her will) she wants to keep it simple, wanting to simply drive to Texas and get married via a drive thru- Alice begs Bella to allow her to plan the wedding and it's easily more ostentacious and expensive than her birthday party in New Moon, which she describes as "a hundred times worse than I'd imagined"

They get rid of her preferred aesthetics in hopes that their consumerist one will stick, and one of the last things they do to her is literally strip her of her humanity.

She becomes a cold, perfect creature and as a result, is no longer allowed to have ties to her father, mother, her best friend or the interests she had before. She's converted into a Cullen and this shit is supposed to be romantic.

#oh hey it really is mormon (via @quasi-normalcy)

Reblogging for consumerist Cullens.

I can clearly remember the moment I first realised my mother and I were living on completely different planes of existence. I was 7 years old and I came home from my school's first track and field day having placed second or third in every event. the teachers had been making jokes all afternoon about how many times they had to call my name. my friends thought I was cool as shit. my enemies thought I was cool as shit too, come to think of it. I was proud as hell. so I get home with the entire front of my shirt covered in ribbons like I was a military dictator who'd awarded himself every medal, I walk into the kitchen and tell my mum all about my day, and she goes "oh, that must be disappointing not getting any firsts." and I'm like no?? first of all the first place ribbons are red and I don't like red. second of all look at me. there's literally nowhere left on my body for accolades. I am fucking Jacked of All Trades. how could this possibly be a disappointment.

I know I haven't posted regularly on this blog in years but I'm not seeing a whole lot of posts on this site about what's happening in Minneapolis right now. And the posts I am seeing are not covering the scope of it. I'm genuinely surprised because tumblr is usually where I find out about things organically through my feed. So I'm making a post about it.

A brief summary of events, from someone who pays attention and also lives here, best taken with a grain of salt and some fact checking:

2020: George Floyd is murdered by Minneapolis police. There are weeks of protests about it. It makes national news. Protests happen in DC. The infamous Trump and his bible photo shoot happens.

2024: Gov. Tim Walz is Kamala Harris' running mate in the presidential election. He starts the "they're just weird" thing. Is folksy, Trump personally hates him.

November 2025: ICE starts showing up to "crack down" on "illegal immigrants" in our Somali community. I may remember the numbers wrong, but something like 90% of our Somali neighbors are either naturalized or were born here. People distribute ICE whistles and are on high alert. Localized to the twin cities.

December 2025: Nick Shirley is paid by a bunch of MN Republicans to do an exposé on daycare fraud. I didn't hear much about this. All I really know is this was an ongoing investigation that MN officials were already taking care of and some of the guilty parties have already gone to court from a COVID era food assistance program. Mostly, if not all, legal US citizens. He did a really bad job at doing journalism and just showed up to day cares with a camera crew and went "YUP nobody's here" as if they weren't in lock-down procedure because some fuck ass white men showed up with camera equipment that could easily be mistaken for guns. I believe. I will fact check all of this and will correct myself in a reblog if necessary. (source but not all the details that I remember hearing about but they said there was no recorded evidence of fraud)

Conservative internet explodes. Kristi Noem sends a mess of agents. I know it's more than a thousand more. They call it Operation Metro Surge. They are going everywhere. There are protests. People try to interrupt the arrests. It's a lot.

1/7/2026: Renee Nicole Good is shot by an ICE agent in the middle of a protest. A few blocks away from where George Floyd was killed. Broad daylight. In front of a crowd. While she was following instructions to turn her vehicle around. Jonathan Ross, the piece of shit Nazi who did it, was recording on his phone the whole time, switched his phone to his non dominant hand so he could more effectively shoot her in the face from 2 feet away. Claims self defense, several angles immediately disprove him. He releases his video, he calls her a "fucking bitch" as her corpse drives away. Does not help him at all. (source) He has not been seen since. Some photos/reports exist of a bunch of agents showing up to his house and taking some tubs and art away. His wife is an immigrant. (source but it's the daily mail so grain of salt.)

Not hours later they go raid a school and tear gas a bunch of kids. (source). Minneapolis has switched to distance learning. I'm not sure about St. Paul.

The last week: There are up to 3,000 ICE agents here. Keep in mind Minneapolis and St. Paul only have 600 or fewer police officers each. So these dudes are roaming in packs. It's 2-4 dudes to a car and 2-5 cars per pack. People are "commuting with" ICE agents to honk and alert people that they're there. People are going on patrols with their neighbors.

ICE is no longer asking "are you a citizen." They are simply walking up to you and taking you into custody. They are going door to door. They have started just breaking the door down if you don't comply. They are driving recklessly to just grab pedestrians and drivers alike (source). People are afraid to go get groceries. It's all over the state. I am learning names of cities in places I thought were just factory farm land and I've lived here my whole life because they're doing raids there. I had to text my family in the suburbs because I saw reports of my small little hometown an hour away getting door knocks today.

It's insane and I am not doing it justice. There are thousands of masked federal agents roaming around all of Minnesota with no warrant or specific goal. They are just trolling around looking for people. They are detaining anyone and everyone. They are beating people. They are pepper spraying people. They are kidnapping people. They are acting unconstitutionally, aggressively, and unpredictably. They are creating situations that are dangerous so that they can try to justify beating or shooting their way out. I will run an errand and then get fed a tiktok that was shot from the Cub Foods that I just left and there's 20+ ICE vehicles parked there now. They're taking people from work, from day care, from schools, from shopping centers.

Iceout.org tracks ice sightings. This is a screen shot with the date set to 12/1/2025.

And from today.

They have cut off SNAP and WIC benefits. Just for us. Not any other state, just Minnesota. They're saying it's because of fraud but I think it's because they hate that we use federal funds to give free breakfast and lunch to every public school student.

And this is breaking just now, 1/13/2026: the DOJ is trying to investigate Renee Good's widow. 4 people have resigned about it. (source). I don't even want to read the article to see what they're saying.

So that's a brief history.

Unicorn Riot is doing a lot of good reporting and they don't seem to have the spin that a lot of local news stations will have where they downplay everything. This article specifically goes into a lot of the specific instances of brutality.

It's also a rumor on TikTok that all of the videos of ICE and protests and the such and the like are being geo locked. So my feed is all footage of people being detained and talking about the "commuting" they're doing and what they're seeing but people outside of the state are not seeing it. So if you're also on that infernal app, try searching for Minneapolis or Minnesota and see what you see. I'm kind of curious if this is true. Because I've been living and breathing ICE and doomsday prepping content for a week. I'm sure those two topics aren't connected.

I don't really know what my goal with this post is. I'm tired. I'm in the first ring of suburbs, so it's been pretty quiet. But I have friends in south Minneapolis. And I'm worried for them. And I know it's a matter of time before my quiet pocket is affected. Because they're coming door to door.

Pay attention to Minnesota, I think an example is being made of us.

“No one remembered my birthday-” Well, but did YOU tell anyone it was coming up and you wanted to celebrate it with them?

“I wish someone would see through it when I tell people I’m fine-” Well, but have YOU considered not lying when people ask you how you’re doing?

“I am so resentful of my friend because they keep doing this thing that really bothers me-” Well, but have YOU directly communicated that the thing is bothering you?

“I am burning out because my friend keeps expecting me to help them with serious struggles-” Well, but have YOU tried to establish the boundaries you need to feel okay?

“No one ever asks me about this thing I really care about-” Well, but have YOU brought it up yourself?

“I miss my friend but they haven’t texted me-” Well, but have YOU been reaching out to them?

Sometimes people are mean, uncaring assholes, in which case you get to be mad. But sometimes you just need to communicate better. Try communication before you assume someone doesn’t care!

Having someone who knows you on such a deep level that they see past your mask, or sense you need a check in is such a deep satisfying fantasy. It’s up there with living in a cottagecore farm, or buying all your friends houses when you win the lottery. But you have to make peace with the fact that this is also a fantasy. It is unfair to expect people to “just know” when to respect your boundaries or to push them.

Being cared for is not a fantasy. But you have to let people know you need it. And you have to understand that sometimes they will let you down. Just like you totally could live in a cute farm, but you still have to shovel shit, and the crops sometimes die anyway. Or maybe you win the lottery, but you still have to manage your money and learn real estate law.

The fantasy isn’t the caring, the fantasy is not having to do the work. And it sucks. It’s embarrassing. But like the meme says, it’s not rotten if it’s YOU. So do it for yourself.

“The fantasy isn’t the caring, the fantasy is not having to do the work”! Thank you for that addition. Because it’s not a naive expectation to want someone to care to treat you right. But it requires communication and mutual effort to actually get there

the good news is that while it is vulnerable and embarrassing and painful- having someone listen to you fumble through what you want, someone who remembers your boundaries and trust you enough to set their own- becomes its own kind of joy and magic.

white americans when you tell them that the idea of climate change as an impending disaster is a reductive first world perspective because it’s a tangible reality for many in the global south already:

maybe if you see south and southeast asians dying in the heat and latin americans dying in floods and all you think of is imagining a reality where YOU are affected, then you should rethink how you see people of color. if you cannot see climate change as a real disaster until it is other americans dying in the heat and the floods and not just black and brown people, then don’t talk about climate change until you can acknowledge the grim reality of climate change for everyone.

nimble, a border collie-papillon mix, wins the 12” class in the 2024 masters agility championship. the first time a mixed breed has won at westminster ever.

context explaining why the announcer is screaming, this is supposed to take a high level competitive agility dog 40 seconds

This video makes me cry every time it’s on my dash and I can’t even iterate why.

Like the dog doesn’t even know it’s a competition and she’s made history. She(?) just is happy and knows she made her owner happy too.

The face of a being with only a wind storm between their ears, moments before unleashing it unto the world

re-posting bc reblogs got turned off etc

Trevor Dubois, an indigenous man who was in the hospital for chemo following a brain cancer diagnosis, was murdered by Saskatoon hospital security via. forceful restraint on Friday over a plastic lighter that police are publicly calling an “imitation firearm”. The cops are now trying to make it seem like Trevor had methamphetamines and drug paraphernalia in the hospital room with him after security murdered him to justify what took place.

here’s the saskatchewan health authority’s most recent statement regarding the incident. there’s a lot of talk but nothing of substance is being said. his family just wants answers and yet they haven’t even been told his time of death. his family also believes that the “imitation firearm” in question is a bright pink and green cigarette holder/lighter, but police refuse to release a photo of it.

according to those who knew him, he was a kind person who always went out of his way to help the less fortunate. he was seeking certification as a social worker and was heavily involved in his community. his family also says that he was against anything that has the potential to cause harm to people.

lastly, here is a quote from his brother, ryan (from this aptn article):

I'm going to be scratching at the surface of this, but when I use the term "calculated" when describing Israel’s genocidal tactics, I'm not using it arbitrarily. Military violence is in fact based on a lot of calculations, and here I don't mean figurative estimations but rather actual mathematical formulas.

The first example that comes to mind is from the Iraq war, where "the number of anticipated civilian deaths was carefully appraised beforehand in a calculation known as the collateral damage estimate".

A mathematical calculation was needed in order to determine the extent of casualties following US attacks. "The magic number was 30", meaning if the number of expected civilians killed in a US attack was ≥30, Rumsfeld or Bush had to sign off on the attack. Whereas if the number was less than 30, it was an automatic go-ahead.

This degree of dehumanisation is basically seen as setting a threshold so that military lawyers and humanitarian law can be able to determine what's “lawful” and what's "collateral civilian death".

Now of course this is something applied by Israel as well, where, for instance, formulas are created to predict the number of people necessary to be killed by Israel in order for a Palestinian organisation to be eliminated. One equation was created by Itzhaq Ben Israel, then chairman of Israel's space agency, in 2002. It goes: Q=1–(q ln q + 1/q ln 1/q), where Q stands for the probability of the collapse of the Palestinian organisation and q is the percentage of killings necessarily done by Israel. You can find the breakdown of it here.

Israel doesn't stop there. With its siege on Gaza since 2007, it relied heavily on daily calculations to enforce its blockade. You've likely heard about the Red Lines documents, in which Israel calculates the amounts of food allowed into Gaza through rationing calories using the following formulas:

These calculations usually use a "humanitarian minimum" threshold determined by lawyers, scientists, engineers, humanitarian experts, etc. Based on these thresholds, the formulas and equations also seep into things like the amount of electricity Gaza would receive. For example, in 2008 Israel would reduce the current supplied by each powerline by 5% every week for months to test how low the minimum threshold can be.

When Gaza's power plant required 3.5 million litres of diesel to work at full capacity, Israel's high court decided that the "humanitarian minimum" was 2.2 million litres, reducing the plant's operation to 68%, forcing Gaza to undergo routine blackouts (details here). Israel then reduced it to 1.5 million litres which affected fresh water supply, crops, and decreased sewage pumping, resulting in the sewage treatment plant to overflow and for millions of litres of raw sewage to pour into the Mediterranean for days, after which of course Israel decided to increase the amount of diesel allowed in as that started to affect Israeli beaches.

So yea, they may call it "calculating the economy of the violence" or "proportionality principles". But it's murder. It's genocide. It's incremental and it's grotesque.

Didn't even get out of my alley on the way to work before ICE tried another major assault in my neighborhood this morning. Spent two hours plus chasing ICE around the neighborhood. Got my first taste of tear gas and handed out a bunch of my KN95 masks to other folks for next time. It's nasty shit but it can be survived.

Also saw officers shooting at people's feet to make them move not once but twice. Given that the bullets didn't bounce and left small holes in the asphalt, I think that might have been live rounds (please correct me if someone knows better). Didn't catch it on video, I'm not great at recording yet but I expect to get a lot of practice in the next few weeks.

My poor furious neighborhood. I ran into someone who had been on her way to lay flowers on Renee Good's grave when she heard the whistle and showed up. That's where we are today. Can't even grieve without having to stand up and fight again.

@rammyrue’s tags because holy shit this is so accurate and important

I know I've said it before but every rewatch I do cements this thought further - elijah wood's performance in LOTR is absolutely insane, they really had a character whose name means "wise by experience", hired an 18-year-old to do it, and he delivered so much that not only is it a beautiful and moving role on its own, it's a performance equal to those of the absolute powerhouses he played side by side with like ian holm and ian mckellen. to name just a few

apparently it's not common knowledge that he was 18 at the time (insert that xkcd comic, you know which) but. yeah

"let's task this teenager with the monster assignment of portraying trauma of war in a quiet and subtle way. what can go wrong" and then somehow nothing did. because he killed the role

"Friends outside of Minnesota please read. I'm sharing a post written by a personal friend and medical doctor: Friends outside MN, you need to know what is happening here. Everyone knows that ICE shot and killed a woman here on Wednesday. But that’s not the only thing that’s going on:

Here's an AP news brief with a little more info. It's limited in the way major news outlets are right now but provides context that supports the personal account shared.

i had a dream this morning that the newest thing was that when you changed the channel on the TV you'd get a text that said "we noticed you changed the channel! would you mind giving us a rating?" with a link and then if you turned off the TV you'd get another that said "did you mean to turn off the TV? we miss you!" and i really don't think we're far off from that

I say this every time, but people Do Not Realize just how short the timeline has been on gay people in kids’ media. And it’s an ongoing fight, but this was 10 - 15 years ago.

I'm not in the Steven Universe fandom. I don't really even know the show. But the story she's telling here is important to remember. What feels like small snippets of representation took a lot of fighting to get and it wasn't as long ago as you think.

Anyways, I'm thinking of all of the people who went fucking nuts after 9/11, Covid-19, etc., like, it completely destroyed their worldview and left them weird, reactionaries. And I think that such transformations are pretty clearly driven by some sort of death anxiety, but that just raises the question of why other people aren't affected in that fashion. And I'm not actually sure what the answer is, but I'd like to think that having a worldview grounded in something deeper and more historically rooted than one's ego and the 24-hour news cycle would help.

It's not quite the same thing, but I'm thinking about all of the celebrities who have gone of the deep end and become weird Internet reactionaries, and (without actually wanting to necessarily draw equivalence between them) they're all names like: Kanye West, J.K. Rowling, Richard Dawkins, Scott Adams; and what they all seem to have in common is that they were reputed to have serious egos on them even before they got lost in the sauce of tweeting out vile bigotry all the livelong day. Like, there's definitely a bit of a selection bias here because I think that celebrities in general aren't exactly known for their humility, but I still think that basic arrogance is a major pivot point for adopting far-right ideas.

I think there is something about a person who has not heard the word "no" for a long time, suddenly experiencing a life changing moment like that which can put them on the path to become a far right reactionary.

The personal-life version of this is men whose wives divorce them and send them spiraling. Scott Adams is a great example of this but there are a lot of ordinary dudes who were certain their wives would never question or expect anything from them, and when it turned out that they not only expected things but were willing to leave if those expectations weren't met, it drove them out of their minds.

I say "men" because as far as I know there isn't a corresponding phenomenon with women whose husbands divorce them. Which is not to say they can't also be fucked up about it, but that far-right recruitment doesn't resonate with them in the same way. If your husband has just rejected you, do you want to hear about how the problem with the world is women not being dutiful and submissive enough? Probably not. Whereas that message has an obvious appeal to men who can't cope with women deciding they'd be better off alone.

(There are plenty of women who've gone far-right, of course, but this doesn't seem to be one of the ways that happens.)

Also how often the turn is made after a public humiliation of some kind (e.g., Naomi Wolf going full alt-right loon after it was pointed out that the thesis of her latest book was based on a basic error of interpretation of historical documents); but again, all of these are affronts to the ego.

Narcissus taking a selfie is the ACTUAL best.

These are REALLY cool

These are art in themselves, in a some of them point out what lockdown was like for us, they’re expressed themselves in a really cool way. But I think these are going to be talked about in the future.