Category: Uncategorized

sapphicfrostfaerie:

wodneswynn:

The Pledge of Allegiance was literally made up in 1890 as a marketing slogan for a campaign to sell flags

We make children swear loyalty to America by reciting the nationalistic equivalent of “O-o-o, O’Reilly, O’Reilly, auto parts” and that’s honestly the most American thing I can possibly imagine

Except that’s not quite the backstory.

The writer of the original pledge – Francis Bellamy – was a socialist. His original pledge read:

“I pledge allegiance to my flag and to the republic for which it stands, one nation with equality and fraternity for all.”

His intention was to motivate youth to aspire to higher values, and wrote it for the celebration of Columbus Day in 1892. Y’know, back before we really appreciated that Columbus was garbage.

He realized that he was going to have a hard time getting the pledge approved due to the whole, y’know, equality thing (”You don’t mean those…black people, right?”, which he did), so he changed “equality and fraternity” to “liberty and justice”.

Then someone else heard the pledge and was like, “That’s a great way to sell flags to schools.”

And so, it was repurposed into an advertising campaign.

So, yep, it was a form of quiet rebellion, that got cleaned up to be acceptable, and then turned into advertising.

And that, my friends, is American.

spiritualsun:

partytilfajr:

“Opposites attract” should be reserved for like “she’s messy and he’s neat!” Not like “she’s supportive and he’s a soul-sucking toxic person!”

I have never reblogged anything so fast

arythusa:

batteredshoes:

Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire. You have hoarded wealth in the last days. Look! The wages you failed to pay the workers who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord Almighty. You have lived on earth in luxury and self-indulgence. You have fattened yourselves in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the innocent one, who was not opposing you.— James 5:1-6

At first I thought this was an angry Tumblr post but then it turned out to be the Literal Bible and it got 1000x better

lezzyharpy:

lezzyharpy:

lezzyharpy:

rigid hulled airships w/ compressible ballast should come back under socialism tbh

one of few transportation methods on par w trains for efficiency and payload capacity

plus theyre cool, despite all the hard work steampunk has done to make them uncool

also trains like already make sense for a lot of (most of) land applications, but rigid hulled airships represent a pretty fucking significant efficiency bump over cargo ships, and, during a process of industrialization and building of railways, the costs of hangars and mooring towers in the interim period suddenly doesnt look so bad for overland transit

also potentially unpopular opinion but for p much anything other than military use, hydrogen is probably a better ballast choice than helium, it cant be overstated how much easier it is to get, and the dangers arent anywhere near as bad as most people think so long as the ship is properly designed

more notes on airships

• their way more efficient than HTA aircraft, the reason capitalists look at them only for cargo and not passengers is that the speed of HTA aircraft is highly valued; in a society that didnt place such emphasis on rushed travel, with short vacations and busy holidays, an airship taking longer to get where its going isnt so bad, similar to planes vs sleeper trains
• despite their massive size, they dont really require much more overall airport space because their vtol capabilities obviate the need for runways (for themselves anyways), tho they do require more hangar space
• they compare fairly well to oceangoing ships; both employ neutral buoyancy to stay afloat and only needs thrust power for moving; both have delayed reaction on pilot input so theyre steered similarly; the fundamental difference is the medium in which they operate, and air has a lot lot lot less drag than water, hence the much better efficiency
• theyre really cool and passenger airships were cool as shit and could be even cooler now