Young Writers Society

Could we have a pronouns section under the About Me part of people's profiles or is there already something for that that I forgot

Right, so there’s been a lot happening around the US elections and I just wanted to talk about it a bit. I’m not an American citizen, but I’ve been following the election fairly closely for quite a while. Even so if I make any mistakes or say something you disagree with, feel free to discuss it with me.

To address the elephant in the room: yes, it’s terrible to see a convicted felon, a deranged lunatic, elected as the president of the world’s most prominent nation. It’s horrible to think that he will undoubtedly implement extremely harsh policies on women’s rights, the LGBTQIA+ community’s rights, and freedom of speech. He is a terrible person and a worse candidate.

But from my view as someone in a third world country, the real tragedy is in the manner of his victory rather than his victory itself. The real tragedy is that the uncommitted movement failed, and that no third-party candidate was responsible for the Democrats’ loss.

The US needs to change. The two party system needs to change. Most of all, the Democrats need to change. I’m so utterly sick of seeing centrists and moderate leftists insist that Harris was a good candidate, or that even if you disagreed with the democrats’ pro-Israel stance, choosing Harris was the lesser of two evils. Harris is part of the administration sending arms to Israel. Harris has expressed solidarity with a war criminal and enabled a horrific genocide. What right do liberals have to say Trump will be worse for Palestine? Worse how? The people affected by this genocide are already experiencing the worst outcome possible. There is no lesser evil here: there is just evil. When the rights of millions of Americans are threatened, people flock to the democrats and bleat about human rights: what about the rights and lives of the thousands of children murdered in Gaza? What about the rights of Mohammad Bhar, Hind Rajab, the countless innocents killed in cold blood?

I suppose it’s only natural that when your own rights are threatened that you stir with all your strength? I am angry, beyond angry, that people chose to vote for Harris over candidates like Stein or De la Cruz. Of course they wouldn’t have won, but that isn’t the point. This entire debate about choosing the lesser evil completely misses the fact that American democracy is a sham. Americans have been conditioned so long and so hard that their only role and only choice is to vote for one of two options and fully accept whatever that person goes on to do for the next four years. Most of the arguments I’ve seen online seem to assume that once someone becomes president there's nothing you can do to stop them, whether they’re Democrat or Republican. This is NOT TRUE. I live in a nation run by fascists. Despite coming to power for a third time with a significant majority, they have not been able to do everything they want to: because people fight. People resist. Governments should be afraid of their people, as the saying goes.

The purpose of an election in a representative democracy is not to choose which dictator you would rather rules you for the next four/five years. The purpose of elections is that they are supposed to be the primary way the people can pressure politicians to truly represent them. Election time is the moment when the political class are at their weakest, when they are forced to listen to their supporters the most, and threatening to deny them your vote if they don't represent you is how you make democracy work, at least in theory. Of course, what usually happens is politicians make promises that they have no intention of following through on once they're elected. But in America, they're not even doing that. If your politician isn't willing to listen to you even during election time, when are they going to?

The uncommitted movement is how you do democracy. Threatening to withhold votes unless the genocide stops is how you do democracy. But as long as there are thousands of scared liberals and centrists who buy the Democrats' fear-mongering, and let's be honest don't care about the lives of brown people outside the USA, willing to not just vote for the Democrats but to freelance for them in shutting down the voices of anyone who protests or criticises the Democrats or talks about not voting for them, THAT is a direct assault on democracy. The act of the Democrats, launching a legal campaign to ban any third party from running against them, is a direct assault on democracy. And none of the centrists are going to do anything to stop Trump's fascist takeover, because they’ve been conditioned to believe there’s nothing they CAN do.

And I'm sorry, but all of this should have happened long before issues reached this point. Vote-striking to break the monopoly of the two party system is something that Americans should have done over healthcare and unemployment, and selling arms to Saudi Arabia. Genocide is past the point where you should be actively overthrowing your government.

I know a lot of you are sick at heart and worried about what may happen now. And my sympathies are with you. But I’ve been afraid too. Every third world country has been afraid of what the US will do. Whether it’s the Democrats or Republicans controlling the White House, we’ve been suffering for decades either way, because America launches coups to topple other governments, instigates catastrophic regional wars, and expresses empathy towards the downtrodden while stepping on them.

Remember that the fight for democracy did not begin the day Trump won. It has been going on for far longer. Don’t give up now.

Hey Lee it's probably been YEARS! how are you how is life treating you

Well folks it seems I'm actually remembering to come on here once in a while, so- what are y'all working on at the moment?

It's been forever since I RPed on YWS but I'm afraid to commit because chances are I'll forget and then vanish for the next few weeks before panic-remembering

I'm currently doing an internship with this energy-based company and god this has only reinforced my love for the arts.

I feel like the difference between the arts and the science/tech fields is that... the latter is like food that is made to purely serve the function of food: providing nutrition. It's bland, colourless, uninteresting and sticks so strictly to what it has to do that cooking is a task and not a joy.

Meanwhile the arts take those same components and go a little further. Instead of just sticking to the role, they try to make it better even if it isn't strictly necessary. Add a dash of colours to the food to make it appear interesting. Throw in some flavourful spice that has no nutritive value but improves the taste. Present it elaborately, making it visually appealing even though it doesn't have to be more than grey sludge.


apologies for the sleep-deprived rant, i just hate technical writing so so so much

god i'm so old and tired and why must i go to work every day

dude i missed your cake day!

Happy Birthday, Lee!

Happy birthday BigLee

"You cannot have my pain." - Dalinar Kholin

I think the weirdest thing about growing up is realising everyone's just winging it. At 12, 16 year olds seemed so confident and self assured. At 16, people in their 20s were so wise. And now, at 20, I have no idea what's happening and neither does anyone my age xD

It's disconcerting to come back and recognise only a bare handful of people ;-;

welcome back c:

DAMN IT I NEED TO REMEMBER TO VISIT YWS MORE