A Twitter Thread That Actually Killed Me

unfortunately i do find this funny

i don’t usually bully my boyfriend on the internet but

I recently encountered our elderly neighbour's granddaughter(?) in the elevator, and learned that she's one of those people who refer to a dog as "hän". I started thinking about pronouns. While a lot of western european languages have gendered pronouns, finnish just doesn't do that. Written finnish has two separate pronouns, "hän" - he/she/they for humans and any being that can be considered a person, and "se" - "it" for objects and animals. Many finns who are awkward with the english rules startle people by referring to a beloved pet as "it", because they don't quite notice the difference in tone that it has in english - that's what they've learned in school is the pronoun for animals in written finnish, so they apply the same principle.

So while this is how it works in written finnish, very few dialects of spoken finnish actually regularly use "hän", as it comes off as far too formal, and refer to people regardless of who they are as "it". The pronoun "hän" is too formal, to the point that people don't even use it to refer to anyone as a sign of respect unless they're being sarcastically over-polite - much like one would sarcastically curtsy or bow at a person of authority they have absolutely zero respect for. As a matter of fact I've only ever seen the two gestures done in the same context. Finns can be slavishly obedient but they don't bow for anyone.

The only other context I've heard "hän" being used in a normal conversation are religious people referring to god, as a sign of reverence. God is never "it", even in the same sentence where your own mother is. And the other one is for beloved pets. Cats, however, do sometimes get the double-context, being sarcastically referred with the honorary pronoun while also being a pet. Everyone knows you're talking about a cat if you're saying something like "Hänelle ei nyt uusi hiekka kelvannut niin Hän päätti paskantaa lattialle" - "She was displeased with the new kitty litter so She decided to shit on the floor."

I’m finally reading the Accursed Kings series by Maurice Druon, I had not realized it covered the case of Marguerite and Blanche of Burgundy and ummm….. really has forcibly put HoTD back into historical perspective for me.

For those not familiar with it, the daughters-in-law of King Philip the Fair of France, Marguerite (married to the eldest son Louis) and Blanche (married to the youngest son Charles) were both caught having an affair with a pair of brothers. Needless to say, it does not end well for any of the parties involved. The men were flayed, hanged, and beheaded, and the two princesses were imprisoned, with Marguerite being murdered a year later so that her husband could remarry. And her daughter, Jeanne, who would have been the heiress of France, may or may not be a bastard, so is forcibly removed from the line of succession by the invention of Salic law, which dictates that the crown can only pass to men through the male line. (Since Louis who may or may not have been her father died without any male heirs) Unsurprisingly, this causes problems! And partly sparks (among other things) the Hundred Years War between France and England.

Having bastards is serious business with serious consequences for married women. And YES, it is absolutely unfair and ridiculous that men can do it with far fewer consequences, but the show downplayed what those consequences can be. In GoT, the whole starting point is that Cersei has illegitimate children and passed them off as her husbands, and people are killed to keep that secret. Not to mention the humiliating punishment that she has to endure, and she was only being punished for having sex as a widow!!!

My point is that Rhaenyra having bastard children is kinda downplayed in the show, and that this IS a big deal both historically and in universe was glossed over.

The student loan debt thing got me thinking. Fuck the founding fathers of course, but "I am compelled to study war and politics so that my sons might have liberty to study philosophy and mathematics" is a great line and I think about it every time some fool starts complaining that life doesn't suck as much as it used to

My good people, I give you: Amatonormativity.

if anyone else was wondering like i was, the reason people sometimes talk to wilhelm like “the crown prince will come with us” “the crown prince can do x” it’s bc it’s technically impolite to directly address royals when talking to them so you’re just supposed to use third person like that

I have the feeling that Mike would lose all respect for Eddie if he sees him together with Steve. He sees Eddie pathetically flirting with an oblivious Steve and pulls a face, then goes to complain to Will about why Eddie has to have a crush on Steve. Will gets nervous bc fuck Mike is homophobic? but Mike just tells him about That Night (the one before 'human anatomy?') and that Eddie can't be cool anymore when he likes Steve who lost any chances of being genuinely respected by Mike. And now that Eddie has a crush/is dating Steve, all illusions of Eddie's charm are lost forever (this might also lead to Will coming out to Mike when he realizes that he wouldn't hate him and perhaps Mike coming out and love confessions and-)

So, whenever Steddie do something in front of the Party Mike has his look of irritation on his face and Eddie thinks he misjudged Mike when he notices bc Mike might be a little homophobic? Which doesn't fit into the whole dynamic he has going with Will but who knows. So Eddie asks him (in front of everyone bc he's not above outing a homophobe to their very accepting friend group) and Mike pulls that face again and just seconds before he opens his mouth Eddie recognizes it as regret and realizes Mike Wheeler is a little piece of shit. "I just can't believe I thought you were cool once" and Will (who now that he heard the story would give a lot to have seen that firsthand) starts to laugh while Eddie fully realizes that he lost any cool points he ever had with Mike

In the beginning, Eddie is so confused bc this child used to admire him, listen to everything he had to say, worship the ground he walks on and now he's dragging him every chance he gets. When Eddie asks why Mike suddenly lost all interest in him Will whispers 'it's the Harrington effect', Mike just nods and that's the only answer he gets

Mike becomes just as snarky and annoying with Eddie as he is with everyone else. And every time Mike gives him that look that says 'you're as dumb as a rock Eddie how do you not know this' Eddie is incredibly close to strangling him but also kind of happy that Mike finally is himself around him and not the blind puppy he was before

Eddie is also reluctantly impressed (reluctant bc now he can't give Mike the satisfaction of being impressed, not when he's such a brat) with Mike's problem-solving bc we know it's Mike who usually figures everything out. At least now he knows why Mike was such a good strategist during their campaign

Steve gives him a pat on the back in a moment of despair and says that it's probably his fault. Hopper chimes in that Mike is allergic to any kind of father/authority figure and that, now that he has parent status in the Party, it's just a natural development. Eddie has a whole new crisis that he's now some kind of father figure to the kids

Billy did get suspended for a week, but it was so worth it.