Have you ever liked a villain more than the hero? Who and why?

Ministry of Satirical Affairs official Emblem
In fiction, identifying the villain is easy. He usually wears black, has an evil laugh, and explains his entire plan to the hero.

Real life is more complicated. A person can be misunderstood and seen as bad. A likeable person can have serious flaws that everyone conveniently ignores. There are contradictions everywhere.

We often judge the person first and the behaviour later. If we like someone, we say, “He didn’t mean it,” “She’s misunderstood,” or “He’s actually a good person.” If we dislike someone, the same behaviour may produce a blacklist character certificate from us.

The Ministry calls this Selective Character Assessment.

Perhaps being a little analytical, judgemental and introspective isn’t such a bad thing. It helps us question our own narratives, recognise contradictions and make better judgements about the people around us. The problem begins when judgement becomes a substitute for thinking.

The problem becomes even more interesting with villains. We can sympathise with a fictional villain because of his backstory without approving of what he does.

We can enjoy comic reliefs from Shyam Gopal Bajaj, aka Teja, while accepting that Teja is a villain.

We can admire Dwight Schrute without declaring eccentricity a criminal offence.

We can admire Darth Vader and his aura while acknowledging that an excellent background score is not a moral qualification.
An unusual meeting
Real-life villains rarely introduce themselves as villains. They usually have a different version of events. In their version, they are misunderstood, their intentions were good, and someone else started it.

The Ministry has therefore discovered that self-certification as “the good person” is not particularly reliable.

Everyone is the hero of their own story.
Unfortunately, the villain is writing his own story too.
And he has already cast himself as the hero.
Neither, however, is the centre of the universe.

Have you ever defended someone’s behaviour simply because you loved or liked the person?

• Travellers Maximus: The Species That Knows Everyone
• What If We Have Been Looking for Aliens at the Wrong Scale?
• The Life Skill Nobody Teaches: Not Listening
• When Virtue Becomes a Vulnerability
• Procurement Paralysis: The Ministry vs. the Fast-Food Menu

Ministry of Satirical Affairs.

2026-07-30 05:54:07

Everything Happens for a Reason. That Doesn’t Mean They’re the Reason.

Do you think everything happens for a reason?

Ministry Advisory No. 304: “Everything Happens for a Reason” Is Not a Legal Defence

The Ministry’s Official Guide to Weaponised Wisdom

The Ministry of Satirical Affairs has observed a sharp rise in citizens using the phrase “Everything happens for a reason” immediately after causing the thing that happened.

This practice is now under investigation.

According to the Ministry’s Department of Cause, Effect & Convenient Excuses:

– Every cause has an effect.
– Every effect has an after-effect.
– But not every after-effect proves the original cause was noble.

Professional manipulators have upgraded this into a premium subscription:

“I’m hurting you today for your own good. You’ll thank me later.”

By the time “later” arrives, you may have lost your confidence, your peace, and occasionally your Wi-Fi password.

Yes, difficult experiences can sometimes lead to growth. That does not mean every person who caused the difficulty deserves credit for your recovery.

A broken bone may heal stronger. We still don’t thank the person who pushed us down the stairs.

Ministry Advisory: Never confuse someone’s harmful behaviour with destiny’s grand master plan. If a person keeps insisting that all their actions are secretly for your benefit, the only thing benefiting is their ego.

Sometimes everything happens for a reason.

Sometimes the reason is simply that someone was being a narcissist.

Dateless Lively Heat Still To Endure

This ground..

an uneven place

Near the mountain

Jagged rocks like teeth

Naked

Scarred and scorched

Soaks up the drought

Though all is still,

all moves

See those clouds above the mountain?

Like memories

When we walk here, we must dance

With careful choreography

past and present

Or fall, still, still, still

–

Remember?

The boys in the neighborhood

Smashing my face into the ground

Pounding me into the dirt

Searching to find whatever

Wounds I owned

Or could offer up.

I looked at the powder on my hands

Scuffs, reddened with red streaks and

The brown stuff of soil.

They kneed me in the back

Spitting on what must have appeared

To them, a stiff unliving body

A shape familiar to them

–

Then on some other day

When my curly hair shined

kissed me

With candy breaths

And bacon and egg lives

As if nothing had ever transpired

As if time did not exist

As if memories were lost

As if the earth would dance

Like a child

heal itself

As all believed it would

If left to its own ways

–

August is crueler than April

Bare ground reveals

Dryness, truths, & harshness

the collective abjective gait

Our gangly limbs move

gather, acquire.

“You know now, you understand

That’s the way you’re supposed to walk.”

And this haze, this smoke

From the myriad fires

we kindle

We nurse

We attend to

Creeps into our lungs

“Oh, do not ask what is it”

Etherizes everyone

Into a dull wade

through shallow air.

And

Thick late summer

only promises

An upcoming layer of snow

Prayers to western rivers

–

And while dancing

In this present or past

I turn my palms upwards

Blood and dirt and all

feeling the sun’s heat

Scraping the surface

Like a reader of braille

On its way to its most

orange of hues, setting

on hills

The wavy horizons of

our furthest view

Wandering in sober desire

To be filled In,

by night..

A night…

Any night

Cobalt to licorice

–

Then

To the cool morning

Speaking

with eloquence, still

Still, still
#Art #Life #Love #Nature #Photography #Poetry #Reading #Relationships #Writing

One quarter of Australian kids are ‘developmentally vulnerable’ when they start school. Quality childcare can catch them up

"We know the first five years are a crucial time in a child’s life. Early experiences, such as family relationships or exposure to trauma, shape brain architecture, which lays the foundation for children’s learning, behaviour and health."

"Worryingly, a significant proportion of young Australians are not getting the positive early experiences they need. As of 2024, almost 25% of Australian children were identified as “developmentally vulnerable” by the time they start school. This means many children lack the self-regulation, thinking, language, resilience, and social skills needed for learning and getting along with their peers."

"Our research provides evidence that intervening early – well before children start school – has the potential to make a significant difference to children’s life trajectories." >
theconversation.com/one-quarte…
#inequality #family #children #interaction #Relationships #BrainArchitecture #ScreenWarehousing #MentalHealth #trauma #education #ChildCare #children #MinorityRights

The Old Wardrobe

Those old dresses…what you once wore and how you wore them, how you fit into things, the way they felt. There was the comfortable one and the one you had to wear on certain, special occasions. Now, just familiar strangers. That old blouse that used to be your favorite, cream colored but had that small speck, a stain you hid under a button, a brooch, or a sweater. If it was noticed, you had a few stories prepared. You had to have reasons ready.There’s the old coat with that inner lining you replaced, hemmed twice, but it kept fraying. It had such raw edges like a fringe. If the weather warmed, you had to carry it on your arm and it became a small burden. On those days, you asked yourself why you brought it in the first place. It was like two dresses sewn together when you only paid for one.On the bottom shelf of the old wardrobe, there's a newspaper lining. It's torn and faded, the type nearly gone. Within its mess of creases, folds, and holes you barely make out a number followed by the words killed in action. As you decide which clothes to keep and which ones to discard, you think about lining the bottom shelf with something different, something without ink…this time.Photo by me. #Art #Clothes #Life #Love #Photography #Poetry #Reading #Relationships #War #Writing

How We Show Up for Every Customer, at Every Step

There’s a quiet myth about the word “premium.” It brings to mind distant service, unanswered messages, and an experience that feels designed to impress rather than to genuinely help. We’ve never thought that trade-off was necessary.

Being premium and being accessible are not opposites. The best experience a customer can have is to feel like someone is paying attention to them, not just at checkout, but the whole time.

Here’s how that looks in practice, at every stage of your order.

Before You Place an Order

There are usually questions before anyone hits “buy.” When it comes to sizing, timelines, materials, and suitability, it’s the little things that make a purchase feel right or uncertain.

Our main priority right now is to be totally accessible. It’s not technically available, but it’s actually responsive. We’re looking for real answers, not just templated deflections.

When someone reaches out, they get a thoughtful reply that acknowledges their question as a valid and important thing to ask — because it is.

No one should feel like they need to earn the right to ask something. If you ask questions early on, you’ll be able to place orders with confidence.

When You Place Your Order

We like to mix things up.

Our confirmations are written by ourselves.

We include a real person to write back to, not a no-reply address.

This is the point when most brands stop communicating, thinking they’ve done all they can. We see it as the moment the relationship actually begins.

While Your Order Is Being Prepared

The period between placing an order and receiving it is when anxiety quietly builds. Customers don’t want to be flooded with updates — but they do want to know that someone is on top of it.

We’re pretty proactive. If something changes — a delay, an unexpected change, anything that affects your order — we’ll reach out before you have a reason to write in. We’re the first ones to reach out, and we make it clear what’s going on and how to move forward. No one should have to call us for info about their order.

Proactive communication isn’t about managing optics. It’s about respecting your time and your plans.

After It’s in Your Hands

Most transactional relationships end at delivery. We think the most important moment is just after it.

A short, unhurried check-in — not a review-solicitation blast, but a genuine enquiry — signals that our interest in your experience didn’t stop the moment the package left our hands. If something was wrong, we want to know, and we want to be the easiest possible people to tell. If something worked really well, that matters too.

Over time, this follow-through is what separates a brand that feels attentive from one that just looks polished. We remember preferences. We carry context forward. We try to get a little better to work with each time

What This Actually Means

Premium but accessible, in plain terms, looks like this: short response times, honest communication when things are delayed, packaging that shows care, messages that sound like a person wrote them, and follow-ups that aren’t fishing for five stars.

It means no customer should ever feel that their concern is too small, their question too basic, or their order too modest to deserve real attention.

The true measure of a premium experience isn’t the price point or the aesthetic. It’s whether the customer — at every stage of the journey — felt like someone was genuinely glad they reached out.

That’s the standard we hold ourselves to. Not because it’s always easy, but because it’s the right way to treat people.

theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2…

Painful reading.

My first thought before reading the article was to wonder why on earth this couple had agreed to have their couples therapy televised.

Then I read that the couple made very little money. so the offer of a free sessions with a therapist who regularly charges $700 an hour must have been difficult to resist. As the husband/author writes, "I wanted to save my marriage. I was desperate for help."

I won't dissect the whole article but will instead note a couple of more general thoughts.

Much of the unhappiness in this marriage can be traced to the continual changes in residence, prompted in turn by scarce job prospects and insecurity in employment. One of the most ugly consequences of the neoliberal political economy pushed by "family values" conservatives is not just the wreckage of marriages by economic insecurity, but the insidious pressure on couples turn inwards and blame each other for problems generated by social forces.

Contra Margaret Thatcher, there IS such a thing as society, and a deeply inequitable society can warp intimate relationships and destroy families.

Fitting in horribly with this antisocial individualism is the deference accorded to "therapy" by so many Americans . All too often a mishmash of self help nostrums, poorly grounded popular psychology, and moralistic bullying is offered as a panacea to both individual and social problems.

Of course, psychotherapists have a legitimate function in modern society, but, in the US in particular, "therapy" has become something like a religion to a significant portion of the population. Consequently I often - as I do now - feel the stirrings of the functional equivalent of anticlericalism within my breast.

I am not recommending a turn to the "traditional" way of life advocated by conservatives. I would just plead for a turn to the social rather than the constant reduction of all problems to those of individual psychology.

Here, the combination of therapy with voyeuristic TV, itself a product of a ratings chase shaped by neoliberal values, turns out to be disastrous.

#CouplesTherapy #Therapy #Relationships #USCulture #Neoliberalism