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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 1h

The Azata path in WOTR is genuinely one of the most thematically effective things I’ve experienced in the genre. Where the Angel engages with the evils of the setting and emerges victorious, the Azata says wait, why are we doing this on *their* terms? And then flips the board and wins anyway.

"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 1h

One of the cleverer bits of video-game story design that always makes me smile a bit, is that in Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, the Azata's mythic theme - and only the Azata's theme - is diegetic.

Like, yeah, the heroic avatar of chaotic good gets their own in-universe theme music. Fits.

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Bill Hanstock @sundownmotel.bsky.social · 8h

ah must admit, this is certainly an intriguin’ case, mistuh … was it “louvre”

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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 8h

(not to mention the already-thriving Triangle Trade, the labor-intensive nature of tobacco farming, and the centuries of work by European thinkers to justify colonialism by constructing racial hierarchies, et cetera, et cetera)

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 8h

This idea has a fairly old lineage, cf this 1888(!) political cartoon/map. (source here: www.loc.gov/resource/g37...) Though I’d argue the roots of the Bad Tree have more to do with the Cavaliers, the English Revolution, and Bacon’s Rebellion than with Jamestown *specifically*

A 19th century map of the United States, titled “HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY.” It depicts two “trees,” shown as long arrows crossing the continent with smaller arrows branching off. One, originating at Plymouth (marked by an illustration of a Bible), is labeled “The Blessing of Liberty.” It runs straight across the continent to California, with its peak labeled “Immortality” and branches labeled things like “Benevolence,” “Philanthropy,” and “Love of Country.” The other tree originates at Jamestown (marked by an illustration of a dollar coin, symbolizing the financial motives involved in the settling of Virginia), and is labeled “God’s Curse Slavery.” It runs in a crooked course west and south, forced to turn southward by the northern boundary of the slaving states and territories, which is marked by the label “Mason and Dixon’s Line,” and it terminates in Texas. Its peak is labeled “Hades,” and it has branches labeled things like “Ignorance,” “Sedition,” “Rebellion,” and “Murder.” A series of props(?) holding up the sagging tree are labeled things like “Missouri Compromise,” “Fugitive Slave Law,” and “Dred Scott Decision.” Nevertheless, the tree of slavery is in the process of being chopped down by a giant axe labeled “Emancipation Proclamation.” The whole thing goes EXTREMELY hard.

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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 9h

I saw lots of folks choosing their flavor of organizing and signing up, whether that meant standard electoral politics for Dem candidates, responding to ICE raids, or planning for a general strike. And I bet quite a few people learned about some of these things right then and there!

Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 9h

Indeed, our local protest had booths from orgs spanning the grand coalition, from PSL through DSA and community defense organizers to Indivisible and local Democratic Party committees. And they were all busy handing out contact cards and calls to action!

Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · 9h

For the “aha, but will those protesters get involved in other organizing??” skeptics…Boston No Kings had a big row of booths providing info + sign-up sheets for a bunch of local activism and political organizations. I have seen similar at other 50501 events.

(Which you’d know if you went to one..)

Faine Greenwood @faineg.bsky.social · 9h

I think some of the people on social media sneering at the No Kings protesters are just mad that those normies with signs are way better shitposters than they are

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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 1d

Anyway, for a surely unrelated reason, here is the Virginia State Flag, which also features a fellow with a crown.

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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 1d

We had the exact same experience. (The solution, as a famous XKCD comic explains, was for me to start a fourth, completely different chant.)

Syz @syzygial.bsky.social · 1d

Important note regarding my local No Kings: we suck at chanting, especially in unison. At one point, due to the size of the crowd and people not hearing each other, three distinct chants were going at once. Total cacophony.

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Djinn & Tonic 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 🇲🇽 🇬🇱 @djinnandtonic.bsky.social · 1d

The Methodist Senior Women's Rifle Club will be, simultaneously, the most decorated paramilitary unit of American Civil War 2, and the paramilitary unit connected to the most war crimes

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Cooger & Dark’s Pandemonium Shadow Podcast @gonebabygone.bsky.social · 1d

As a longtime axolotl-head the idea of them also becoming icons of anti-authoritarian resistance solely because it was so hard to find frog costumes warms my heart

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Gwen C. Katz @gwenckatz.bsky.social · 1d

I saw a tragically AI-generated version of this poster, so I have recreated a 100% human-made version for all your protest sign needs.

The Obama Hope poster, but it's a frog and it says "Hop"

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Parker Molloy @parkermolloy.com · 1d

Scene from Barbie: She thinks I'm a fascist?
I don't control the railways or the flow of commerce!

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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 1d

I was in Lexington and Concord a few weeks ago and the streets were positively *lined* with the kind of signs that if I saw them on here I’d call fedposting. The spirit of the Revolution is alive and well there, I’d say.

Bill McKibben @billmckibben.bsky.social · 1d

You could plausibly say the No Kings movement started in Lexington in 1775, so it was a great pleasure to be on the Battle Green today with thousands upon thousands of good people unafraid of the fight ahead
www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

I returned to the site of the original "No Kings" protest

A letter from Lexington’s Battle Green.

www.motherjones.com

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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 1d

Yes, part of the implication of No Kings, especially repeating it, is to communicate both to wavering elites and to MAGA that the will and numbers exist to color revolution the administration if elections are subverted or cancelled.

Zoomer Antimillenarian ♨️ @surcomplicated.bsky.social · 1d

However, it's a very good sign of what we'll be able to do when he actually attempts to overtly rule by force.

Schnorkles O'Bork @schnorkles.bsky.social · 1d

The 3.5% "rule" also applies to consistent, constant protesting. Not one off events imho.

So yeah, if 15 millionesh people were in the streets every day you could see why that would be problematic for the admin.

We are certainly not there yet.

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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 1d

Agreed, and, also—if it’s quiet around you, consider starting and leading a chant. It’s fun! Gives you the chance to use your no-shit outside voice. And nobody’s mad if you only do it for a bit then stop to save your voice.

a wicked and unusual boy @myrrlyn.net · 1d

the chanting is the hardest part. kill the part of you that cringes

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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 1d

The one of Jeff Davis is exhibited exactly as it lay after being toppled by Richmonders in the summer of 2020, paint and all. Personally, it’s one of the most impactful exhibits at the Valentine and I’m glad more people get to experience it.

Lois Beckett @loisbeckett.bsky.social · 1d

A toppled statue of Jefferson Davis, the president of the Confederacy, which once stood in Richmond, Virginia, and a full-sized Dodge Charger painted like the car from The Dukes of Hazzard.

From the new MONUMENTS exhibit in LA:
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

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Sean for Congress (VA-01) @subletteweather.com · 1d

So good to be with the Real Patriots on Broad Street in Richmond this afternoon.

#NoKings

seanforva.com

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Micah @rincewind.run · 1d

Discworld QOTD, from Feet of Clay

No more kings. Vimes had difficulty in articulating why this should be so, why the concept resonated in his very bones. After all, a good many of the patricians had been as bad as any king. But they were...sort of...bad on equal terms. What set Vimes's teeth on edge was the idea that kings were a different kind of human being. A higher lifeform. Somehow magical.

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Kristen Chapman @kristenchapman.bsky.social · 1d

My favorite sign

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Surprised Eel Historian, PhD @greenleejw.bsky.social · 1d

This week on my Patreon I wrote about how different people see spaces differently, and how we map that. And I show off the maps that I did for Nicholas Trepanier's recent book on medieval Anatolia!

The post is free and public, so give it a read!
www.patreon.com/posts/it-ain...

It Ain’t Scary, It’s My Landscape: Three Ways of Seeing Space in Medieval Anatolia | Surprised Eel Maps

www.patreon.com

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Tsenacommacah Chamber of Commerce @archaeomancer.bsky.social · 1d

People give the seal flag shit but Virginia’s is the best of the seal flags because a) boobie and b) good life affirming message.

Andy Craig @andycraig.bsky.social · 1d

Lots of Virginia flags.

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Max Nichols @maxnichols.bsky.social · 1d

I saw some folks thinking that voice acting in games was objectively good, always a positive. "What kind of game doesn't have voice acting in 2025?!" sorta thing

I say that there are positive reasons why one would choose NOT to have VO.

How many design justifications we can come up with?

Join me

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Jono @jonocarpenter.bsky.social · 2d

Military history and conflict archaeology Bluesky!

Any reckons on the temperature at ground level below/in front of a muzzle of early-mid 19th C smooth bore muzzle loading ordnance, in action? Anyone seen thermally-altered soil in front of eg. 12, 18, 32 pdr or behind Congreve rocket tripods?

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James @gravitysra1nbow.bsky.social · 2d

If nothing else I find it obscene to turn governmental agencies that are meant to function as institutions in service of the entire American political community into overtly partisan propaganda mouthpieces.

It’s just such a visceral degeneration of civic life it drives me insane.

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dial “m” for marlo @marlo.ooo · 2d

bro why is a sovereign nation crashing out on here

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