#(...though this really only happens with intellectual intelligence. because of course.)

[revanentredux]

LIGHT SPOILER WARNING: The Winter Soldier by Daniel Mason

This is the first fiction book I’ve read in probably 4-5 years. I’ve been caught up in studying war history, medicine from combat casualty care to psychology, political science and philosophy, and so on that I just haven’t had time for fiction. I think this was the right book for me to read first.

The Winter Soldier is a historical fiction about a third-year, Polish medical student named Lucius Krzelewski (ksh-eh-LEF-skee) who enlists in World War I as a result of romanticization of what medics truly experienced. He is sent to an isolated field hospital in the Carpathian Mountains plagued by louse (lice) which were notorious for spreading typhus and trench fever during WWI.

I am only about a fourth of the way through since I started the book recently. Already I am captivated by the way Daniel Mason writes Lucius’ perspective. I am fortunate to already know many of the medical terms used throughout the book and when a surgery or procedure is depicted I can really understand what is actually happening.

The book never shies away from the grim and gory truth of medical practices both in general and in war. It’s something that may not seem to significant but is incredibly so to me. I leave very soon to become a combat medic and too often I see very romanticized versions of it. Not every medic is Desmond Doss, as amazing as that would be. So to see what feels like an accurate depiction of the horrors of medicine is oddly refreshing. Of course modern medicine is very different now as opposed to 1914, as is the way wars are fought.

Now this is more personal and less about the book itself. As I’ve been reading more these past few months I’ve noticed that not only has my memory improved but so has various other brain functions.

I have always liked to consider myself an intelligent person but these past years my memory has been deteriorating and I felt “intellectually inadequate” because dumb doesn’t seem to be the right word. I just knew that I was capable of much higher thinking. I attributed the symptoms to the progression of ADHD. Now that I’m reading more again and considering what I read more closely, I’ve found that my memory and wit have returned! Of course, I may sound beyond crazy to say this so confidently as though it were a unique and undocumented experience. I know well that stimulating the brain improves overall brain function and development. Though unless you have also experienced a similar situation, it’s reasonable to not understand my excitement. I do think though that many “gifted kids” understand the situation.

Note: After rereading this to check for grammar and spelling mistakes I understand now what my friends mean when they say I type like a lecturer. I can promise this is not how I sound out loud, it’s just much easier to articulate my thoughts through text! I speak faster than my brain can write my conversational scripts. :’) I hope that this blog entry or whatever it’s called does not sound nearly as pretentious to you, the reader, as it does to me while I spell-check.

[antisolararc]

1, 6, 13, 31 for Vita ?

1. What’s the lie your character says most often?

That she is confident, in-control, and never all that scared, only inconvenienced. Well, she doesn't say that exactly, but it's always what her demeanor implies.

Vita would never, ever admit how insecure they are about their powers. Even though she uses her powers to, ah, "conduct business," this utilizes her ingenuity more than anything, and she is rather physically vulnerable. This terrifies her, but she hates to show weakness, so you'd never guess from the way she carries herself.

None of this is really a surprise, though. Almost all of Aloysius Caturnon's children have a some sort of complex surrounding their magic. If you know much about him, it's probably not hard to imagine why.

6. What’s their favorite [insert anything] that they’ve never recommended to anyone before?

She loves shitty pulp novels, mostly mysteries. I can't name a specific title, because I don't know what shitty pulp novels exist in this world. But I do know Vita would try to present herself as too intellectual for this type of media.

13. When do they fake a smile? How often?

Usually, Vita is straightforward about their displeasure to the point of just being rude, but they can pull a real smarmy grin when they're trying to sell their services to someone. It happened pretty often in Valonvyr but less so now.

31. When do they feel the most guilt? How do they respond to it?

They secretly feel unbearably guilty about everything that happened to Ivrel, even though none of it was directly their fault. Her default response to this is, unfortunately, avoidance and and anger. She's not really sure how to handle her feelings, and she hates that she's so uncertain about them! And she absolutely can't understand how Ivrel herself seems so casual about the terrible thing that happened to her.

Of course, Ivrel doesn't think it's Vita's fault - she hasn't considered such a thing at all. That's ridiculous, they weren't even there, and, besides, she'd figure they were too logical to develop such an irrational guilt. Ivrel is upset about the circumstances of their relationship and how it ended, though, which Vita struggles to pick up on. Can't really blame them, though, because their dynamic hasn't really changed that much after all.

Deep down, I'm sure Vita does actually feel guilt about her relationship with Ivrel, but it's easier to project it all onto the unrelated event that followed it. Vita is smart in a lot of ways, but they aren't exactly emotionally intelligent... Ivrel is the opposite.

[loominggaia]

What if Soverain and Mr. Ocean's parents were never assassinated?

Now that's an interesting question...There are so many factors at play here, it's impossible to say what would really happen. But I can say two things for sure:

1 ) The Aquarian Alliance either wouldn't exist, or it would look very different than it does now.

The Tekeetian King and Queen were very strict about staying out of Terrian affairs. They believed that Terrians were too primitive-minded to interact with cecaelia in any meaningful way, so there was nothing to gain by provoking them or trying to form an alliance. They didn't exactly hate Terrians, they just thought of them as victims of their own ignorance; like stupid, savage apes that should be left alone in the wilderness.

After their deaths, Sovereign took this mindset to an extreme. He escalated this superiority complex into a genocidal rampage against the Terrians, believing they were too stupid to govern themselves at all, and they would eventually destroy the world if they were left to their own devices. He believes that cecaelia are the only species intelligent enough to govern a functioning society, so it's the cecaelia's responsibility to govern Terrians and everyone else.

If Sovereign's parents were still alive, they wouldn't have let him escalate to that point. They would have kept his aggressive behavior in check, and probably found alternative ways to solve the pollution crisis that Terrians were causing.

In the current timeline, Sovereign tried to solve this crisis with violence, and it failed. Mr. Ocean tried to solve it with peaceful activism, and that also failed. Given their isolationist mindsets, I think their parents wouldn't have approached the Terrians at all, believing they can't control the actions of others.

Instead, they would have been proactive about changing what they actually could, by starting in their own back yard. Rather than trying to make the Terrians stop polluting, the King and Queen would have promoted research to deal with this pollution so it didn't affect Tekee. They wouldn't care what happened to other Aquarians or the Terrians themselves, their concerns lied only with themselves and their people.

So, if the Aquarian Alliance did form, Sovereign wouldn't be the one to form it. It would be some other pissed off Aquarian(s) who want the Terrians to stop polluting the sea.

2 ) Mr. Ocean never would have met Solveig. In fact, he probably never would have interacted with Terrians at all.

Mr. Ocean claims he was "a slow child", and his tribe considered him intellectually disabled. Now, if you've read the series then you know Mr. Ocean isn't stupid. He's actually brilliant, but he is really quirky, and it's clear that his people didn't understand his unique way of thinking. They mistook his uniqueness for some kind of mental defect. They did not try to understand him, they only tried forcing him to conform with everyone else and act like someone he was not. Of course he struggled to do this, so they just wrote him off as "slow-minded".

After their parents died, Sovereign started experimenting on Ocean to "cure" his disabilities, but these treatments just made him sicker and sicker, until Sovereign just kinda banished him to a cave in the wilderness because he didn't know what else to do with him.

If the King and Queen were alive, they wouldn't have let those experiments happen, and they certainly wouldn't have banished their son. Mr. Ocean's parents did not understand his quirks any more than the rest of his tribe did, but at least they had genuine love for him. His mother was especially protective of him, and though her efforts to "fix" him were misguided, her heart was in the right place. She just wanted him to be healthy and happy.

To her, that meant keeping him away from anyone who might exploit his disabilities. She certainly wouldn't have let Mr. Ocean interact with Terrians, so he never would have fixated on the Blackoak Tribe, and never would have met Solveig.

With his parents still on the throne, Sovereign probably would have become a military general at some point, or maybe the tribe's head sorcerer. The point is, he would have been too busy to play mad scientist with Ocean. I'm sure he'd still be a narcissist, but instead of fucking with his brother's head and slaughtering innocent Terrians, he would have been forced to touch grass and get a life. By the time his parents died of old age and relinquished their thrones to him, he'd be married, more mature, and more chilled out. He wouldn't have as much opportunity to stew in anger and hatred as he did in the current timeline.

As for Mr. Ocean's fate, I think it would actually be a lot more tragic. His parents feared for his safety and didn't let him leave the palace much. They knew he would be bullied and exploited by others in the outside world (which was true, and unfortunately came to pass in the original timeline...)

This sheltering would have continued for as long as they lived, well into his adulthood. They wrote him off as a simpleton and greatly underestimated what he was capable of, so they wouldn't have invested much in his education or experiences. He would have been cooped up and coddled for most of his life, never challenged or encouraged to grow. In this way, I think he would have never reached his brilliant potential at all. He would have remained dim-witted and childish until the day he died, never knowing romance or adventure or anything beyond his backyard.

Honestly I'm not sure which timeline is "better"...In the original, Sovereign is out of control and entire kingdoms are at war, but Mr. Ocean has at least made a happy life for himself. But this alternate timeline is like the exact opposite; the world has more peace, but Mr. Ocean suffers.

That's really sad to think about. :( But very interesting nonetheless!

*

Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

[thedawningofthehour]

so do the mercs just hang around kidnapping people? how would that even work? is there really enough demand for that to happen?

They're mercenaries, so they do pretty much anything people are willing to pay them for. The dog guys in the pilot were mercenaries hired by Draxum to get his empyrean back. Those guys were basically freelancers-there are larger companies that work more like an actual business. They all vary in morality codes as well, a lot of them don't get into kidnapping or trafficking. Of course, we don't see those guys, we're only seeing the ones willing to kidnap a fifteen-year-old. (or saw the bids and decided their morals had a price)

Kidnapping, assassination, arson, beating someone up, standing around looking tough, those are all things you'd contact a mercenary company for if you didn't want to get your hands dirty. Mercenary work is technically legal in the Hidden City-it's just all the stuff that they're normally contracted to do isn't. What they probably do most often is take part in gang shenanigans, but the gangs themselves have a lot of contempt for them. Especially the ones that are trying to kidnap Gale. They have standards.

As far there actually being a market for people like Gale, it all kind of plays into a lot of the greater world-building and 'capitalism is fucking with everything' theme. A lot of the very wealthy, upper crust people in the Hidden City are from wealthy, powerful families, and they have been wealthy and powerful for generations. Times are changing though, and they need to change with them if they're going to hold onto that wealth and power. They're going to need to do stuff. Be extraordinary, if they're going to make money.

Thing is, people aren't extraordinary just by virtue of being born into a rich family. Yeah, people who don't have to work a real job, have servants to do all the cooking and cleaning and caring for their every need, those people have ample time and energy to focus on their educations and learning valuable skills. But most of them just aren't going to distinguish themselves, because they're not distinguished individuals. And that won't do.

And besides, why would they bother with all that work when they could just kidnap a turtle and pass his inventions off as their own?

A lot of the powerful families in the Hidden City have highly skilled individuals 'working' for them, whether they be Yokai, humans, or mutants. (humans are often mutated to extend their lifespans and potentially increase productivity as well) This extends to both creative and intellectual pursuits, (and, realistically, sex reasons, but we're not getting into that) there are definitely books written by Lady McDickface or whatever that was typed out by some poor human chained up in her basement. They trade them, force them to have children that would theoretically inherit their parents' talents, and scout for new workers that wouldn't necessarily make a huge wave if they were to disappear. (so the same people targeted for human trafficking, except demand is much lower and they have a set of standards they look for) Draxum's mutant outbreak was actually great for them because suddenly there were a ton of people who weren't protected by the Hidden City but were already missing/assumed dead by the human authorities-this is one of the things that got cut with Todd's Mutant Town stuff, but Rockwell narrowly escaped this fate himself. He's living up there because safety in numbers.

I didn't make any of this up, by the way, this is how slavery functioned for much of world history. In many cultures, highly educated and skilled slaves were prized and very lucrative for their owners. (I've mentioned the most expensive slave ever sold before, and he was incredibly valuable because he was highly intelligent and educated from a young age) The only difference here is the need for secrecy. Because, you know, this is all illegal.

It's not worth the risk or the operating cost to do this for low-level workers because their labor is already cheap and easy to come by-which is also historical, most societies didn't 'end' slavery so much as outsource their own upkeep onto the peasants while keeping them trapped in a cycle of labor. And they could theoretically just pay Galois to invent stuff and sell it for him, they'd make money off of that...but they could make more the other way. Plus if they were contracting Gale to build stuff, then he could stop working if he wasn't happy with something, go to someone else to fund him if he had a problem, and also he'd have all these pesky rights saying they couldn't just beat him and force him to build whatever they want. Then he'd be the one with the real power, and that scares people like this.

Why doesn't this happen irl? Bro, if you told me today that Elon Musk had someone in his basement making all of his decisions for him, the only thing I'd be surprised about is that the real Elon Musk would be even dumber than that guy. But for real, I probably shouldn't give the rich ideas, they've already talked about putting bomb collars on us to serve them through the apocalypse.

...Fuck, I did it again.

[2ndfamily]

can u please talk about ur hope lupin headcanons…

YAY why yes of course i can 😼 welcome to my twisted mind..... This is long asf im sorry LMFAO

Basically i have this huge story in my head for her where she was this like young poor muggle with dreams of being a scholar and studying literature but was fairly difficult for her being poor and a woman in the 50s/60s so shes kind of resigned to the fact that this will probably never happen for her, but still does what she can to save money and read as much as possible, etc.

Enter lyall 😯 i think at the point that they meet he is maybe in his early 30s and she is like 19ish (so theres already a power dyanmic + i see him being a pureblood wizard w little to no contact with muggles up to that point) and i think he just becomes like totally enamored with her and her intelligence and promises her all these incredible things, since hes already working for the ministry at this point and is doing well for himself financially, and not only offers to help her pay for her studies but opens her up to the wizarding world, essentially giving her a whole new universe to learn and be curious about. So she obviously falls head over heels for this strange curious man and all the things he wants to do for her, and thus of course says yes when he asks to marry her.

This is where things start going down hill lmaooooo. Hope becomes sort of estranged from her muggle family when they get married because they cant understand Lyalls eccentricities and think shes crazy for marrying him. Now hope and lyall are also both going into this marriage with different motivations, hope is wanting financial security and a partner who will challenge her intellectually, someone who will help her with her studies. Lyall wants a wife. So when hope gets pregnant lyall decides that they should put her studies on hold to focus on the baby. I dont think hope ever really seriously envisioned herself having kids before this point, but agrees even though she's mourning having to put off her education.

So hope becomes a stay at home mom. While she absolutely loves remus with all her heart, i do not see motherhood coming easy to her. I think post partum hits her pretty hard, and things just go from there. She doesn't understand children shes exhausted lyall is always at work and hes so stressed about the damn werewolves and remus just wont go to sleep and she hasnt read a book in a month. (And i think the timeline on this is very fast like they meet when shes 19 get married and then shes pregnant at 21)

And by the time remus gets bitten the one thing she knows more about than anything else in the wizarding world is werewolves. So shes terrified. And then lyall kills himself or abandons them or whatever hes just not in the picture. I think at this point she developes some serious anxiety/ptsd type stuff like not only did a dangerous criminal break into her home in the middle of the night but also attacked her child in his bed and changed him irreparably and now shes all alone. And theres almost nothing she can do for her son, she can only lock him up once a month acutely aware of the amount of hatred hed face from wizards, how it looks to the neighbors to hear that kind of screaming in the middle of night, etc. and i think she never tries going to wizard officials for help just because shes so terrified of the idea of them trying to take remus away.

All the money shed saved for her education goes towards all the moves she and remus end up having to make to keep from questioning neighbors. When remus is about 7/8 hopes parents die and she inherits their discreet cottage in rural wales, with a large cellar, where they make their permanent stay. I think things do look up for her around this point like she and remus are very very close, being the only people that the other has, and she homeschools him and they acrew a very large collection of second hand books and anthologies and theyre ok.

I do think she and remus have a very complicated relationship with one and other largely maintained by both of their inabilities to talk about their issues. Remus can never really forget the image of how absolutely wrecked his mother was in the months following his being bitten, and blames himself for her never being able to fully realize her dreams. Shes still endlessly paranoid about anyone finding out remus is a werewolf, and never fully works through how everything affected her or her complicated resentful feelings toward lyall.

There is sooo much gut wrenching fear in her when remus is offered to attend hogwarts but more than that she still feels that bone deep regret about not being able to fully pursue her academic dreams. She couldn't do that to her son too even though it kills her. She still holds a lot of resentment and distrust toward wizards from what she went through and from what she learned about the ministry through lyall, but she wont let herself be the reason that remus doesnt get to pursue his ambitions the way she never did.

Shes just a really complicated person whos constantly caught between her nature (curious, ambitious, intelligent, driven) and her trauma that makes her soooo paranoid and scared. Which sometimes makes her a bad mom. But shes doing her best ok

Me talking about the character that i made up almost everything about

[queersatanic]

The Church of Satan can't admit Anton LaVey was a plagiarist

Or: "Boy, a hit dog will holler, won't it?"

Let's just be up front that despite referencing mainly Church of Satan apostate and Temple of Set founder Michael Aquino, it's obvious that the "Magister Kevin L. Slaughter" article "Anton LaVey and the Right of Might" was written and published to the Church of Satan website now only as a response to our own piece last month — just too cowardly to reference it directly, much less hyperlink to it for people to examine the criticisms and underlying evidence for themselves.

We would say that Slaughter goes well out of his way to invent a bunch of things to argue against, but feel free to read it in full for yourself first before you come back here, including just to yell at us for being unfair to him and/or his reasoning in some way. (Sincerely.)

We think we can actually reply to all his article pretty succinctly, though.

Anton LaVey plagiarized Arthur Desmond’s Might Is Right. You can skip the whole first section of Slaughter’s defense because the claim that contemporary intellectual property protections made it legal in 1966 in ways it wouldn’t be today isn’t what’s at issue: copying someone else’s work word-for-word and presenting it as your own without credit is what’s at issue. To make this more clear, copyright law is not what makes it plagiarism when you copy someone else’s homework for class and submit it as your own. Putting your name on a public domain bit of poetry and submitting it as if it’s yours to a collection is still plagiarism. Again, copying word-for-word at length while presenting it as an original work is demonstrably what happened with the “Book of Satan”. You do not need to take our word for it; you can use your own eyes for that.

Look at the dedication for yourself. There’s reason the official Church of Satan response on this for years has been to claim and claim and claim that the wrongly-removed dedication at the front of The Satanic Bible would have solved all of this misunderstanding from jump — rather than just show people the referenced dedication. Because this is not how a citation works. No reasonable person would say that sandwiching “Ragnar Redbeard, whose might was right” in between 18 others including Rasputin and Fritz Lang would lead one to believe 5 percent of the book that is to come — its entire first section! — would be the guy named 7th of 19 in the “To” section, with more “And to” people listed after. It is an insult to your intelligence that this is still the excuse being trotted out, and it’s embarrassing if you are a Church of Satan member who repeats this claim without seeing for yourself what they’re talking about. Please, talk to any professional writer or academic about this if you think this is standard or sufficient considering the scale we’re talking about. It is not.

Finally: LaVey is not being criticized for being a hypocrite; the Church of Satan is. To be clear: LaVey is criticized for being an intellectually lazy mediocre writer whose best “work” had to come from pillaging someone else, having his wife type and edit it for him, and presenting it without credit as if it were his own. Really, all of this stuff about how the true Satanists SEIZE, etc., etc., is pretty fucking rich from the same Church of Satan that at least as of a decade ago, didn’t even want PDFs of LaVey’s writings being shared. Of course, if the claim being made nowadays is that LaVey taking Desmond’s writing without pay or credit is even more justified because Desmond was also a plagiarist and unoriginal thinker, well, you’d think it’d be pretty obvious where this reasoning would go as far as people treating LaVey’s work as fair game to take for themselves, too.

That’s all it takes to unravel 4400+ words of pretentious slop.

Of course, Slaughter prolly didn’t want to link to our article for his audience to examine for themselves because rather than any argument about “uncomfortable ideas,” as he characterizes it, we made all this explicit: it was people like him, not LaVey, being mocked.

In this context, the sanctity of The Satanic Bible and rejection of ILLEGALITY(!!!) as represented by Church of Satan members is even sillier. Their book literally exists thanks to public domain and not paying for shit…

Like lots of Church of Satan members, Magister Slaughter is a master at making up arguments and calling himself superior to things he hallucinated in order to vanquish, but he is really, really bad at actually being persuasive or making sense except to his own choir. Even then, he can’t trust that his own choir might not utilize and trust their own lying eyes about this stuff.

The fact that the Church of Satan increasingly has to retreat behind Internet architecture hierarchies and annoying social media reply-guys rather than, you know, actually being a force of intimidation or even relevance in the world means that if we are to weigh and measure them by the standards they claim the world is run on, what are we left to conclude about them?

People aren’t talking about what’s permissible to Satanism and saying LaVey is illegitimate, we’re all just saying that LaVeyan Satanism is legitimately bad. That is: Anton LaVey was politically, personally, and literally odious as a person. We criticize and mock him because deserves it, as does anyone who has devoted their lives to apologetics of him.

The reason that nobody gives a shit what the Church of Satan says is permissible and impermissible as True Satanism™ is because it is irrelevant what they say. We have already taken what we please, what little there was to please us, and it is ours to use to our own ends including toss into the fire to our pleasure.

Magisters are free to see this and screech, “No! Everyone else but us are fake Satanists! They’re appropriating our culture!” — but when you say that without a ban button behind you, who listens? Be honest. The reason this is an article instead of just a Reddit comment reply is simply that Church of Satan Rev. Rob Leuthold is so sensitive he blocked our account before sharing this to a curated audience of sycophants, and r/satanism mods cling to one of the last places anywhere that LaVeyans can pretend their Social Darwinist philosophy rewards them: a subreddit hierarchy for posting pictures of tattoos and altars and talking about how no one else is Satanists the right way but the eight of them. When you take survey of it, the whinging and the whimpering and the whining — while simultaneously bemoaning victim culture, naturally — are all that’s left. And boy, it is tiresome. If you’re a Church of Satan official, you can’t even be confident enough to link to what you’re responding to because you’re that frightened of someone seeing for themselves your irrelevance and realizing it. And what would you have left then? An all-black wardrobe, some nifty candles, and a wasted life?

For what it’s worth, Anton LaVey is mainly a coward and a hypocrite because of how he lived his life, the way he moaned constantly about how badly mistreated he was despite being coddled and handed everything his entire life, how things weren’t good like they used to be when he was a kid, and how the actual end of his days was as a sick, smelly, broke man, whose sugar daddy was a real-estate developer and convicted sexual predator of children.

We look forward next to the Church of Satan article defending LaVey’s choice of child bride and all of that stuff, of course, whether from Leuthold or Slaughter or whomever. Maybe they’ll even link back to what they’re talking about. But probably they will be too intimidated by these “fake Satanists” to do even that and just declare victory to no one and basking in imagined glory.

Ave Satanas.

Anton LaVey plagiarized* "Might Is Right" for "The Satanic Bible" — here's the proof

Anton LaVey, founder of the Church of Satan, directly lifted passages from the 19th century proto-fascist book "Might Is Right" by “Ragnar Redbeard” (Arthur Desmond) and did so extensively and without credit to produce a substantial part of LaVey’s most famous and popular work "The Satanic Bible".

This has been known for a very long while, although most Satanists tend not to be aware of just how shamelessly and thoroughly this work was done.

In fact, the Church of Satan sometimes tweets out passages from Might Is Right while supposedly praising LaVey.

To have quoted LaVey there, the Church of Satan would have had to tweet just "on the other".

And this is not a stray, incidental unattributed line that LaVey could have argued his readers ought to have immediately been familiar with as a sort of homage.

This was part of a wholesale, uncredited and unacknowledged ransacking of another person’s writing in order to create another, ostensibly-original book and sell it for profit. For example, here is how much from one particular section of Might Is Right ended up making it into LaVey’s book:

This is what LaVey and his partner Diane Hegarty, who also served as his typist an editor, used to introduce people to The Satanic Bible in its opening section the "Book of Satan". This isn't in some appendix or footnote; this is the first thing people reading the book were shown.

The "Book of Satan" portion of The Satanic Bible is essentially identical to parallel lines in Might Is Right: www.diffchecker.com/ppXjtPGV/

If you strip out differences in punctuation(!) and Capitalization and compare them, it's even more shameful: www.diffchecker.com/td0vLevN/

Depending on how you want to count, about 85 percent of this opening can be identified as directly copied, which still includes Americanization of spellings, leaving words out from the original, and a handful of words substituted within much larger phrases and ideas that were retained fully intact.

Only two of the 53 statements of the “Book of Satan” appear to be original creations of LaVey and Hegarty: Book III No. 5 and Book V No. 13. Feel free to check out the full comparison for yourself here:

[selormohene]

day 12 (saturday, july 15th 2023)

I've come to realise that something I'm scared of is being objectified, not my body (which is of course in part an object, and partly has its social meaning in terms of the purely objective appeal it has for other people, in spite of the autonomy I have in moving and using my body) but rather my mind, that is to say my personality or mental qualities. For instance if I have a certain personality trait or quirk, being indulged when I express it while the other person is really just taking it as “just one of those things about me”. This isn’t just a matter of people knowing or noticing particular things about me that I don’t, but rather of people recognising (or taking themselves to perceive, since they could be wrong) flaws in my personality that are systematic and long-standing, and rather than taking them as flawed outlooks on the world for which I can be criticised and which I can correct, taking them as objects in themselves, things about me that nothing can be done about — this is manifested in merely smiling and nodding politely when I exhibit behaviour that expresses those flaws. Not engaging with me as a person in those aspects, that is.

This has to do with intelligence as a capacity with an objective telos, rather than as a skill which is indifferent to its content. Like practical wisdom is different from mere calculation, there’s no such thing as equally intelligent people, one of whom just happens systematically to be oriented towards good ends and the other towards bad ends. The person whose actions are oriented towards good ends is more intelligent in the practical domain, full stop. I think the same thing is true of theoretically wise or smart people and cranks, who would be the analogue of mere calculators — people with high data-processing capacities who are focused on the wrong things, or who have other intellectual vices like biases or lack of intellectual charity or an increased sense of self-satisfaction or whatever. People want to say “these people are smart but this shows that being smart isn’t enough” whereas I want to say no, if they were smart (or smarter) they would not do all these things, because these things are getting in the way of their achieving the ends that one’s capacity for theoretical thought is meant to enable one to achieve.

On biological normativity and personality differences between men and women. The debate about whether we should take gendered norms (or gender norms) as genuinely normative. I don’t think all gender differences are merely due to socialisation, some are of course biological. Of course you could also think that despite being biological the fact that we are self-conscious creatures means we aren’t determined to biological personality differences, merely subject to biological influences on personality, albeit perhaps strongly, and/or without much hope of significant resistance, and/or with good reason. Even if we couldn’t change them it wouldn’t make them normative of course, they could just as well be anti-normative, not an ideal to embody fully but a predicament we have to adjust to as best we can. In any case I don’t think it’s true that biological differences are inevitably or entirely normative, in virtue of being biological, though I do think they are normative to some extent; they’re part of a longstanding social division of labour which is obviously imperfect but can probably only be counteracted properly by longstanding cultural scripts to the contrary. Part of what makes the fact that they’re longstanding an argument in favour of them is of course an evolutionary argument; they will have been engineered to be robust if they’re old enough, and perhaps not if not. However, part of the issue is that we cannot reproduce all of the inherent normativity of our biological (or social!) norms, because given how complex we are as beings to do so would require nothing less than reconstructing all of the evolutionary history of humanity (plus cultural evolution) down to the toenails. We can’t do that, and thinking our incomplete models of why things are the way they are are actually complete is itself incredibly risky. So the point is that we shouldn’t ignore what seem like longstanding gendered differences that may be due to biology but we shouldn’t take them for granted either. Which would seem obvious to anyone who takes both sides of the debate seriously, I guess, but I’m mostly just trying to explain what I currently take to be the best reason for occupying that middle ground.

[widonotts]

just realized how much essek reminds me of the Gifted Kids i grew up with who only talked to other gifted kids because they thought nobody else was smart enough to understand them, and wow it all makes sense now! essek levitating to impress older, more established kryn is the exact same thing as 12-year-old gifted kids posturing in their 11th-grade math class trying to make the kids four years older than them think they’re cool, and you can’t convince me otherwise

[dyns33]

Flufftober 18 - Enola Holmes

Sherlock Holmes x Reader 

It was a game between them, even if they had never talked about it.

Ever since he'd met her during an investigation that she'd helped him solve, impressing him with her intelligence and thinking skills, Sherlock Holmes and Y/N Y/L/N were seeing each other regularly.

There had been some rumours about their relation, since it was not proper for a young lady to find herself so often alone in a man's house, to walk down the street with him and accompany him on dangerous adventures, but none of them were paying attention, too busy having fun together.

For his part, Sherlock liked to test the intellectual capacities of his young friend. Y/N did her best to surprise him. To say or do something that he did not know or that he could not guess thanks to his science of deduction.

Until now, if they had counted the points, which they were not doing, Sherlock won largely, because despite all her goodwill, Y/N did not always find the solution to the questions, riddles and investigations he gave to her, and she absolutely never managed to take him by surprise.

           "You'll never guess who I saw this morning."

           "My sister." he answered without looking up from his newspaper.

           "... Possible. But you'll never guess what happened."

           "You had a chat, she offered you to work with her on a case, you followed your prime suspect to find out it couldn't be him as he was going to his mistress, only to find out the culprit was obviously the butler."

           "... You are not funny." she mumbled, sulking as she sat across from him. "Anyway. Anything new ?"

           "Can't you guess ?"

           "I repeat, you are not funny."

Trying to hide his smirk, Sherlock told her about his new investigation, eager to get her opinion. Of course, he already had an idea of ​​who had committed the crime, why and how, he wanted to see her think. Unlike most people, she knew how to use her brain, although she still needed a little practice. It was pleasant to see her face light up and her eyes sparkle when she found the solution.

It had nothing to do with romantic feelings though.

Not at all.

Sherlock often repeated it to himself when he took her arm not to lose her in the crowd, when he was composing a fiddle tune for her, or when he was worried that she was not arriving on time at a meeting.

A simple meeting between friends and work colleagues, of course.

Sometimes he suspected that Y/N loved him more than just a friend. But it embarrassed her and he didn't want to embarrass her.

After all, even though he came from a rather noble family and with money, he was not the eldest son, and he had a very particular way of life. Not really the ideal husband. She had seen him in many situations that would have scared off intelligent men and women.

If Y/N hadn't left yet, it was because he offered her a freedom that she didn't have as a woman in this society.

Sherlock understood this matter quite well thanks to his sister and his mother, and although he unfortunately did not have the solution to this problem yet, he was happy to help Y/N flourish as she deserved.

           "I'm sure you already know who stole that diamond." she sighed, rolling her eyes. "I don't even see why you need an assistant."

           "I never said I needed an assistant."

           "You said I was very useful for your investigations !"

           "Not exactly. I said you help me stay focused and eliminate leads faster. You're also good at following people, acting as a witness when Lestrade isn't listening, and responding to reporters who ask too many questions."

           "... So I'm here... To be a secretary ?"

           "... Again, that's not what I said."

           "What you just said is more or less the definition of a secretary, or an idiot who spends her time with a man who uses her."

Despite all his intelligence, Sherlock Holmes was not very good at talking with his peers, even those he cared about.

Especially those he cared about.

He knew all the same that he had just hurt Y/N, her grimace and wet eyes not leaving too much room for doubt, and he stood up quickly to prevent her from leaving, grabbing her hand.

           "That's really not what I meant." he repeated apologetically.

           "You don't have to talk, I get it. I'm really stupid. I thought we had fun together, that we were equals, that we... I was stupid."

           "What ? That we what ?"

           "Oh please, Sherlock, you know that very well !"

           "No I do not know."

           "That I love you !" she exclaimed, looking at him in the eyes, beautiful and furious. "We have been working together for months, having dinner together, spending several hours in your apartment, by the fireplace, and I know very well that the great Sherlock Holmes has long guessed that it was not simply because I love adventure !"

This, he could not deny.

However, Sherlock remained silent, because not for a single second had he imagined that she loved him so much, and especially he would never have thought that she would confess her feelings to him.

It was a real surprise.

And Y/N read the shock on his face perfectly.

           "... You did not know ?"

           "I... Of course I did. Well, I was hoping. I mean, I was suspecting. I didn't have all the...."

           "You were hoping ?" she repeated, slowly approaching him, her eyes becoming sparkling again. "Sherlock ?"

He could have said nothing, lied, run away, but that would have hurt her again, even more, and he didn't want that, so Sherlock didn't move, staring at her for a long time, before biting his lip.

           "I think wedding is a totally useless and absurd thing. But if it was necessary, I'm not against it."

           "... Should I see this as a marriage proposal ?"

           "What do you think ?"

           "I think you are panicking about the situation, that you are unable to tell me that you love me too, at least not right now and not in these terms, but you want to make me understand that my feelings are shared, that I don't have to be ashamed of my confession, and that if one day my father comes screaming to your house, you will take a ring out of your pocket and get on your knees."

           "Wrong ."

           "... Wrong ?"

           "Or rather, almost wrong. The majority of your deduction is correct, proving your great quick-wittedness, and that's why I love you."

It didn't make her laugh, but Y/N smiled all the same, gently hitting on the shoulder.

They didn't talk about it again after, for many months, because it was unnecessary.

[voiddemon]

:) hiiiiiiiii

It's important to preempt I see 'Dreams' and 'Wishes' as connected concepts in the Kirby universe-- not the exact same thing BUT in some cases they interchangable. I also base basically all of my headcanons off of this quote from the instruction booklet of KATAM: "High in the skies above Dream Land floats the Mirror World. In this strange and beautiful land, mirrors have the power to make any wishes reflected in them come true. One day, a sinister presence invaded the Mirror World, and its mirrors could only reflect bad things. When Meta Knight discovered what was happening, he set off to save the Mirror World."

I HC that BEFORE KATAM the Mirror World was a more 'ideal' version of Popstar, built on people's collective dreams. For example if a lot of people even internally wished something was different, it would be in the mirror world. For example a lot of people wished Kirby was more mindful and didn't rush into things, so Shadow Kirby became... Mindful and patient. Dedede wished Meta Knight was a bit less selfish and more loyal (due to his own worries) and so Dark Meta Knight began to value loyalty and indulge in self-sacrificial ideals.

However since Dark Mind is most likely (to me) a reflection of Nightmare, a being who causes Nightmares, Dark Mind can inherently mess with the Dimension Mirror because it sees Dreams and reflects them. So he chose to reflect those desires of others in a way which was self serving, to take control the Mirror World. Walking back to my two prior examples: Dark Mind made Shadow Kirby hesitant to act (as well as disoriented him) so that he would not intervene. And similarly Dark Mind bumped up DMK's loyalty significantly more, but turned Dark Meta Knight's loyalties towards himself.

After KATAM though, the Mirror was irreparably damaged and could no longer reflect things. Meaning that for the most part the Dimension Mirror is not reflecting new people who did not exist outside of Popstar originally (save for a few characters depending on my mood, really, I keep it flexible), nor is it attempting to recreate any of the games. As well as this out of self-preservation it's stopped reflecting anything OFF of Popstar really (this is entirely because I'm not interested in making a Mirror Ribbon tbh). Making it so the Mirror World in reality is very very small, confusing, and it sort of loops if you attempt to go too far 'out of bounds'.

Of course for me I see the Mirror Worlders as very similar to their counterparts in some ways, but their flipped traits aren't entirely bad things. For example Dark Meta Knight values self-sacrifice very highly, and has decided to instead remain to keeping the Mirror itself from malfunctioning in the future, fearing of messing things up further. And Shadow Kirby pursues very intellectual hobbies and activities, and has become very intelligent, which Kirby doesn't have the patience for or interest in. (Not that Kirby isn't) Although of course some of their flipped or more extreme traits are bad. Shadow Kirby is a loner and is incapable of teamwork even if he tried to do so (in KF2, the game about fighting with a friend, he flies solo always), and struggles with forming bonds with others. Meta Knight's desire to best Kirby (to be the strongest) has melded with hatred and has formed a need in DMK's heart to utterly destroy Kirby, if not in combat then in another way, for killing him that one time. Dark Meta Knight also loathes Kirby (and some others, who are seen as heroes) because they have never intentionally sacrificed anything, and are entirely self-serving, and therefore cannot be real heroes. Or at least as not as real as him.

So yeaahh there's like a crumb of my mirror world headcanons. Sorry this was long. I hope you have fun creating your own Mirror World HCs. I saw from your other post you already brought up a question I'd love for honestly everyone to think about when it comes to mirror world stuff, so I'm excited to see how you interpret these characters :)!

To anyone with headcanons or theories about the mirror world (the people in it, how it used to be, etc.) please tell me I love the mirror world and its characters and just. Everything about it I wanna hear what others think

[noxiatoxia]

thoughts on kyoya and haruhi? what would happen if they were canon? or how it would've lead to haruhi realizing she likes him instead?

I do think about kyoharu a decent amount actually. I think it's a fascination concept.

Firstly, I can easily see them being attracted to each other. Kyoya likes how smart and hardworking Haruhi is, Haruhi likes the same in Kyoya. intellectual 4 intellectual.

I'm also a big fan of this image vv

they're scheming your demise.

I imagine living together they're a rather quiet couple. Neither are messy and both are hard workers, so the amount of time they actually spend together is relegated to after-work hours, usually dinner and bedtime.

Haruhi and Kyoya take turns cooking, sometimes cook together. I think Haruhi does it a little more though.

In the canon universe, I can see Haruhi and Kyoya developing a mutual fondness for each other over the course of the show. Again, they both respect the other's intelligence and wit. Both are pretty dense when it comes to their own feelings though. Haruhi would just see Kyoya as somebody she "likes" because he's "reliable" and the only one who isn't a "moron" and Kyoya likes Haruhi and "in the event" they got together, "despite" being a "commoner" haruhi would make a "good asset" to the ootori company <- always thinking about the advantages in everything.

Of course, these are very much them brushing off their true feelings. Deep down, Kyoya knows if Haruhi wasn't somebody who would be "good" for the company, he'd still want to marry her. He knows he likes Haruhi beyond what reputation she can give or what standing in the company she could have. He likes her. She is the first truly unique woman he thinks he's found. Somebody who doesn't care about reputation or financial standing. If anything, Haruhi is somebody Kyoya wants to be: themself. Haruhi is herself first and foremost. That is something Kyoya could never have. Maybe it's because she's a commoner and hasn't much to lose. Even so, she could still try to be a person she's not, probably get further that way, but she doesn't. Kyoya respects that deeply, he fell in love with that.

As for Haruhi, she knows her admiration for Kyoya stems from more than simply appreciating him for not being stupid. She can tell how much Kyoya really cares, cares more than just about money. She sees the way he does these things, selfless things, while still making himself come across as selfish and calculating. She thinks, in a way, he's one of the most selfless people Haruhi knows. Sure, he's money-grubbing, but he does so many small things because they're what's "right", never mind there's no gain for him in them. He plays it off as a tactic when it really isn't. He doesn't allow himself to take credit. In those moments, he's doing something good and he doesn't even get the reward of praise because he'll spin it in a way that makes him look like a bad guy. It's wholly selfless, if not a little asinine; Haruhi doesn't understand it. But it fascinates her. She wants to learn more, more about the man Kyoya really is but refuses to show.

I think that's how they get closer and all. They are fascinated by each other and wants to learn more. However, once Kyoya sees the way Tamaki acts around Haruhi, he...backs down.

Maybe it's Kyoya doing his backwards selflessness again. Maybe he sincerely is playing this out logistically; there are better people to get with for the company, to have an offspring with. Maybe it's both maybe it's neither. Whatever the case, he quickly notices how Tamaki is clearly in love with her, and so he lets him have her, even if...he's slightly jealous on the inside. He hides it well, though.

And Haruhi is a little hurt, begrudgingly. She doesn't understand why Kyoya is so distant now. Doesn't he know at this point it's useless to put up a front around her? She spends more time with Tamaki, she does indeed think Tamaki is a nice man, but she doesn't love him. He's her friend.

I think when it's clear Haruhi's not going to fall in love with Tamaki nor is she going to realize her own feelings (cuz she's a little dense), Kyoya steps in. He tells Haruhi the truth, albeit in a very roundabout way.

"While it would be nice to get to know each other a bit better, you'd do best to realize nothing will ever come of it. I suggest you get yourself more acquainted with Tamaki. He truly loves you, after all."

--or something to that effect. It takes Haruhi a few seconds to run that over in her head, but the meaning of it all becomes clear. And she's a little hurt. A bit hurt that Kyoya is giving up on her so easily, a bit hurt he's not really factoring in her feelings. Haruhi accepts it, though. She accepts it if it's what Kyoya really wants. if.

Because, that's what she says. "I understand, senpai. But...is that what you really want?"

And Kyoya doesn't really know how to reply; funny, as Haruhi seems to have that effect on him. He could just say "What I want has no bearing in the matter" and move on with his life. He could say "No, it isn't" and have Haruhi for himself. He says neither though, just goes quiet, and ends up excusing himself.

Because he needs to get himself together, he does. But it's...so hard. Much harder than he ever expected it to be. Because he really likes Haruhi. He does. And Haruhi likes him.

"Then, what's stopping us?" is what Haruhi would eventually ask, and Kyoya doesn't have a good answer.

For now, they'll keep it quiet, but it's pretty obvious to the rest of the Host Club there's something between them. Even Tamaki, who has politely resigned himself.

Unlike most ships in Ouran, this is one I can actually see being canon and not much changing. Tamaki may be broken up over it for a little bit, but I think he'd be happy for them eventually. Plus, Kyoya and Haruhi mesh well together, I think.

[letarasstuff]

Normal People don't know their IQ

(A/N): Inspired by me, who recently discovered normal people don’t know their IQ, while I was tested two or three times already...

Summary: A certain someone is the only way to get the UnSub. But there’s also something different that makes her special.

Warnings: Angst (fluffy end, I swear), language, mentions of rape and torture, mention of dead people, the usual CM stuff I guess Wordcount: 2.0k

✨Masterlist✨ _________________________________________

“Garcia, I need you to look into high school teachers, who are suspended or fired for inappropriate behavior towards students and live in the area of the kidnappings”, Hotch orders in a stern voice. But you can’t blame him, after all there are currently six dead teenage girls and one missing. One can only hope and work as fast as possible to get her back to her parents alive.

The team is working a case in Sacramento, California. Teenage girls get abducted on their way home from school, are held for exactly a week and are killed by a simple cut to their throat. The torture they have to endure beforehand isn’t as simple. The last two also show signs of rape.

The dumbing sites are different parks all over the city. The placing happens overnight only to have the girls found the next morning by a clueless jogger or stroller.

“Let’s go over the profile again, I feel like we are missing something”, Rossi commands. His gut feeling tells him only that much, he just has to find out what it is.

“It’s a white male in his mid thirties to late forties. He blends in, so he has to be or has been a teacher. Someone who looks like they belong into a school isn’t suspicious”, Spencer counts the facts.

“The victims all look similar, probably resembling an ex-wife or girlfriend”, Morgan adds. Before he can get into the depth of the torture a phone rings.

“My lovely crime fighters, I got an address. Charles Collins. philosophy and history. Got suspended for suggestive talk towards his female students. He is also said to stare at them and certain body parts for way too long and way too obvious. Gross. Annnd that- wait”

“What is it, Garcia?” Hotch asks after a moment of silence, which is unusual for the ever bubbly tech analyst.

“You got your profile wrong. Collins doesn’t take these girls because of an ex flame.”

The team looks at each other in confusion. Garcia always stresses how she isn’t a profiler and can’t judge over people, because she only wants to see the good in them. How is she able to tell that the profile is off?

“Shoot baby girl, we don’t have much time left”, Derek urges her. He wants nothing more than to have this SOB finally behind bars. The whole team wants that.

“He has a daughter. Technically it’s not his daughter, it’s someone else’s, but he is her foster father. Go and please save both girls!”

Penelope doesn’t have to say it twice. After a brief thank you and goodbye the team is on their way to the given address. As soons as they get there, everyone notices the absence of a car in the driveway. Hotch sends Spencer, Emily and Derek through the back door, the rest goes in from the front.

“FBI! OPEN UP!”

It’s needless to say that nobody opens up. There is no other way than kicking the doors down.

After entering the house and clearing the first floor, Rossi points towards the stairs that leads to the first story. There are only two rooms. A bathroom right hand and a closed door left hand.

Morgan counts quietly down before also kicking this door down and screaming “FBI!” But he seemingly talks with air, because there is no one to be found. Once again the team swarms out to look for evidence or clues.

As Spencer looks through the room they cleared last, he sees various things that make him smile. Several bookshelves are flooded with all kinds of genres, authors and covers. At first he can’t make out in which way they are sorted. But a closer look makes him realize that they are sorted by the author’s birth year. The doctor is kind of impressed, because that means the person knows when they are born in order to find a certain book. He likes the idea, it is a nice little challenge.

While he investigates further a sound makes him stop. He sends a text to Emily and waits for her. When she enters the room Spencer gestures to her to keep it quiet. Then he points to the bed.

They lower themselves down to the floor at the same time on each side of it. A girl, no older than 14 years, lays there shivering in angst. With big doe eyes she looks at Spencer and whispers:

“Please don’t hurt me.”

A while later the team is back at the station with the girl sitting in one of the interrogation rooms. The temperature is already set down, though Hotch feels really bad for it. Still there is another girl out there waiting to be safed.

“Baby girl, what can you give us on her?” Morgan sets his phone in the middle of the table and switches the speaker on.

“Our little girl’s name is (Y/N) (Y/L/N), fourteen years old. Parents were deemed to be unable to look after her since they are both heavy drug addicts and didn’t even register her crying for two hours straight. Since the age of six months she bounces through the system with nobody wanting to keep her longer than two years. They claim she is too smart for them and want somebody to look after her, who can challenge her intellectually.

“Collins took her in one and a half years ago. He got her signed up in several activities after school, like chess and academic decathlon. As of right now she is a junior with an opportunity to graduate next year. Her teachers describe her as incredibly bright with a complicated way of thinking.”

“Complicated way of thinking? Her intelligence was neglected for years, so she gave herself her own challenges. I found her books sorted by the birth year of the authors. She found ways of making things more difficult for herself, that’s why she fabricated strange ways of thinking. This is often found in children with high intelligence, who are not boosted enough by their environment”, Spencer explains, getting more and more furious.

His colleagues feel that this is a sensitive subject for their resident genius. JJ comfortably puts a hand on his shoulder, making the tense go away.

“Emily and Dave, I want both of you to interrogate her. We need to know where he hides the girls. JJ, try to hold the press off for a bit longer. Morgan, Reid, I want you to watch and look for tells or anything else”, Aaron orders.

Everyone works on their given task immediately.

You don’t need to be a profiler to see that (Y/N) is scared out of her mind. She has her feet on her chair and her head lies on her knees. When the two agents enter, she tries to at least fake some kind of composer. But she fails miserably at it.

“Hello (Y/N), may I call you that?” Emily begins in a soft voice. The teenager nods shyly. “Good, (Y/N). My name is Emily Prentiss and this is David Rossi. We are agents from the Behavior Analysis Unit from the FBI. Do you know why you are here?” The teenager shakes her head.

“Ok, let’s cut the chase”, David's voice booms through the small room. “You know exactly why you are here. From what we saw in your room you are an incredibly smart girl. How high is your IQ? 130? 135?”

“147 a-actually”, she nervously corrects the agent, never meeting his eye. The team notices this fairly quickly.

“Even better, normal people don’t know their IQ. So you know what your forster father does. You saw the news, you read the papers, you heard your classmates talk. In addition to that, the girls look alarmingly similar to you. And all of the sudden Charles is more often out than usual. So do us a favor and come clear.” Then he pulls out a picture from a manila folder on the table. Emily tries to intervene.

“Rossi, don’t. She is not the UnSub. (Y/N) is just unfortunate to be at the wrong place.” “She might as well be another UnSub if she doesn’t do anything to help us. Do you know how long you are going to jail for helping hi-”

“I don’t know anything. I- of course I saw what is h-happening. A-and I connected the dots a long time a-ago. You know, Charles lost his job and that’s a stressor. T-then Child Service was investigating him, because of the suspension’s reasons. I-I couldn’t do anything. I had no evidence, the police wouldn’t believe me. I asked him once wh-what he thinks about, you know, what’s happening. He slapped me and told me to not talk about it again. I’m so sorry, I wanna help. The only thing that comes into my mind is an old cabin he once mentioned when I first arrived at his. B-but I don’t know if it helps you. P-please, I don’t want to go to jail or juvenile, I-” Then (Y/N) breaks down into tears.

Emily is in an instant by her side trying to calm her down, while Hotch gives the information to Garcia. As soon as she finds the location, JJ takes a seat next to (Y/N) and the rest of the team flies out.

“You don’t have to be scared of him anymore, Sweetheart. My colleagues will find him and he will be tried and convicted. He will never be a threat to you again”, the blonde tries to comfort her.

“Whenever I leave an abusive home, there will be another one that’s exactly the same. The only difference with Charles was that he seemed to understand me. He helped me. There’s nobody who is willing to do what he did for me”, she admits sadly.

It breaks JJ’s heart, because her words are true. Even though he is a killer, Collins did help her. But she is also determined to show the young girl that he isn’t the only one who can do that. That there are more people out there, who are kind and as helpful if not more.

Not long after this the team brings the man into the station, Morgan guiding him with a deadbolt-like grip.

Rossi spots (Y/N) in a break room with a hot drink in her hands. While making his way over there, Spencer follows him. He wants to talk with her as well.

“(Y/N) I’m sincerely sorry if I hurt you earlier. I didn’t intend to scare you, we just had to act quickly and you were the only source of information available. I also wanted to tell you, that your achievements are astonishing and I guarantee you a bright future, maybe even at the FBI”, he winks at the end of his last sentence.

“I understand, Agent Rossi. But doesn’t everybody know their IQ? I assumed everybody gets at least tested once in their life in some way”, she asks with surprise in her voice.

At that the older man is speechless. Of all things she could accuse him of legitimately, (Y/N) goes with the most innocent question.

“Actually, not everybody gets tested. A reliable test has to be done by a psychologist and most people don’t go to one. Furthermore there has to be a valid reason to do one, that’s why a great part of the population doesn’t know their IQ”, intervenes Spencer. He has to infodump, since the last time was over half an hour ago.

“But you also have to differentiate between the several kinds of intelligence, because intelligence is way more than being good at math. There…”

Rossi stopped listening to the excited interaction between the two geniuses. Instead he watches their body languages and facial expressions. He hasn’t seen both of them more at calm than they are now.

After all there might be a way for (Y/N) to get a little Happy End.

[happymeishappylife]

The Legacy of the Second Doctor as played by Patrick Troughton

Now I said that the show would not have happened without William Hartnell, but the show would not have survived without Patrick Troughton. Because it was an incredible risk to introduce a new actor as the face of the main character and not only allow that to be a thing the show, but for him to play the character completely different and have it work out. And not only did Patrick Troughton volunteer to take this risk, he pulled it off and made the show what we love about it today.

The Doctor was always mysterious and eccentric, but Patrick’s performance turned the Doctor from some grumpy old grandfather to an eccentric clown, with a clever mind. He brought more physical characterization to the Doctor with his brilliant facial work and also action work that brough more life and energy into the character. Often pretending to be stupid in front of his enemies or situations that he wanted to learn more about, he turned the tables on many of his foes by using this against them to learn how to defeat them. And because of this introduced a level of manipulation the Doctor possesses that later incarnations use far more craftily.

But the Doctor now truly embraces his destiny to fight evil, constantly giving speeches to those that just sit by or intend to do harm that this is something he will never let pass. In truth behind all his clowning, this Doctor truly becomes the hero we know and love about the Doctor. Plus he brings a seriousness to scientific study and invention and was the perfect actor to set up the lore the show has been missing since it was brought to television. Quite a feat for such a gamble in the world of television.

It's hard not to love the second Doctor though. And part of that can be seen through his companions eyes. Because even though he carries around a 500-year-old diary, he travels with young people only and allows them to take charge or make decisions until situations becomes too dangerous. He also shows that he can be young at heart or the father figure when needed. For instance with Ben and Polly they were truly his friends and though they were mesmerized by the Doctor’s transformation, you can tell that they took to the Doctor and enjoyed his new found energy more before they leave. With Victoria, he was able to soothe her and care for her when her father dies and with Zoe he finds a colleague who can intellectually compete on his level.

However, the second Doctor travels with one companion longer than the rest and even to this day is the longest running companion on the show. That of course is Jamie McCrimmon, 17th century highland boy who the Doctor takes along and shows the wonders and dangers of the universe. The two immediately bond and joke with each other, but ultimately they are protective of each other too. And while at times their relationship gets strained by some of the Doctor’s action, he ultimately cares for Jamie and tries to reassure him that when Jamie has to leave it will be better for him, but while he puts on a brave face, I think the Doctor is sad at the way the Timelords treat Jamie and betray the Doctor’s promise to him.

Enjoying his time while fighting evil, you can see from the Doctor’s quotes just how loveable and take charge he was:

I am not a student of human nature. I am a professor of a far wider academy of which human nature is merely a part.

When I say "run", - run!

Oh yes, I can when I want to. And that's the point, really. I have to really want to, to bring them back in front of my eyes. The rest of the time they... they sleep in my mind and I forget. And so will you. Oh yes, you will. You'll find there's so much else to think about. To remember. Our lives are different to anybody else's. That's the exciting thing! There's nobody in the universe can do what we're doing.

An unintelligent enemy is far less dangerous than an intelligent one, Jamie. Just act stupid. Do you think you can manage that?

All these evils I have fought while you have done nothing but observe. True, I am guilty of interference, just as you are guilty of failing to use your great powers to help those in need!

Taking away the feebleness and giving the Doctor more emotion adds such a richness to the character and with the great physical acting and facial expressions, Patrick Troughton elevates the character and truly paves the way for his predecessors to have their own unique spin on the character. And truly as said, the show would not have survived without him, so overall this a great era of the show and while a great many episodes are missing, I think every fan should still experience his time in the TARDIS as one of the best. Because to me, he will always be one of the best doctors.

[otnesse]

And then we get into how, despite essentially brainstorming that prisoner swap to save her father, she came across as lacking honor ultimately. For starters, she ended up, after disobeying specific orders (and out of spite based on her "So THAT'S the West Wing, huh?" remark), and when she got caught and scared off by Beast, even though she specifically promised earlier to stay forever at Beast's castle as a condition to staying at the castle, she immediately revoked the promise and tried to flee the castle (I believe her exact words were "promise or not, I can't stay here another minute!"). Had this occurred months afterwards, or weeks afterward or even days afterward, I might be a bit more forgiving because at least she could claim to have given an honest try at honoring her word even if she failed. But based on dialogue from Mrs. Potts during her pep talk to Beast, all the events from Belle making the prisoner exchange to the West Wing intrusion and the events therein took place within the span of one day, implying hours at most, if not minutes between the two events, meaning she didn't even seem to try to honor her word as a result, making her inherently untrustworthy. Heck, it gets even worse when you think deeply about it and realize that had Belle not been targeted by the wolves and fully succeeded in escaping Beast, the latter would have ended up abducting Maurice and imprisoning him again, meaning Belle in her actions just endangered her father. And as noted in the prior post, she doesn't even acknowledge ANY responsibility for what happened, instead blaming it all on Beast and actually WINNING said argument. We get to that bit again later on when she stupidly proceeded to expose the Beast to an entire lynch mob, despite deducing literally seconds before then that Gaston, her unwanted suitor, literally orchestrated said mob to arrest her father as a means to force her into marrying him. This basically meant she essentially threw Beast and his servants under the bus just to get herself out of a jam (at best to try and save her father, at its most cynical just to get out of marrying Gaston). And even when escaping with the help of Chip, her attempts at saving Beast just succeeded in getting him stabbed anyways (and the fact that it literally required her physical presence to have Beast be reinvigorated enough to actually go toe-to-toe with Gaston when he could have just tried to stop Gaston earlier and helped out his servants ends up making Beast's development look like a true waste). And for someone that fans and Disney itself marketed as the smartest Princess, she really doesn't seem to come across as being all that smart, bibliophilia aside (and quite frankly, while she was a bibliophile in the original tale, that was written more as a minor quirk to her rather than her core character, and in a sense, it actually was played rather neutrally due to one of her older wicked sisters also being an implied bibliophile as well.). The books she read in the original movie most kindergartners would have most likely read by that time, and she showed only two instances of deductive reasoning, both of which kids would have picked up on anyways (and in one case, the mob incident, she still did an utterly stupid action anyways, one that was going to predictably backfire with or without foreshadowing). And speaking from personal experience regarding my terrible time at college, being a bibliophile =/= being intelligent. Especially when the literature department professors, despite being clear bibliophiles, cared far more about pushing their sociopolitical agenda over actually teaching the course they were helming like Chaucer or American Literature. Also irritating is how Belle is treated as a moral paragon purely due to her bibliophilia. Aside from one of Belle's wicked sisters in the original fairy tale/novel being an implied bibliophile herself [marrying an intellectual who proved to be psychologically abusive to her], I can name plenty of evil people who were huge bibliophiles, like Jean-Paul Sartre for example.

This is a reply to @stupidflandersissexy's reblog to Marcia Brady's posts since I've been banned by the latter and thus can't do a direct reblog.

"

#some really interesting points here#the only thing I disagree is the little mermaid having the supposedly having lgbta subtext#there are other things people can be or feel like outsiders without being lgbt#but still good points#it's true that she doesn't have a job or anything#they were working to support their families and feed their kids

The LGBTA context is more of a yes and no,to me. I don't see it,but I can understand why people have such a point of view. Personally,Ariel comes across to me as way more of a curious,open-minded and analytical teen girl living in an intolerant society. One doesn't need to be gay to feel stiffled because of said circumstances(not to mention I've seen good cases for Ariel as an ableism allegory). Even the "turning human" can be about having the means to live a fully free life(another point towards a disability context,IMO. Accomodations,and all that jazz).

Now,onto Belle. She was supposed to be the misunderstood outcast whom people mercilessly judge due to not accepting different opinions,but she walked around the town getting lost on books while everyone else worked to make a living. Considering how Belle wasn't shown having to work,or otherwise struggling with finances,she truly came across as privileged and it gave the movie unintentional classist undertones - framing the girl who could afford to daydream 24/7 as inherently superior to the people who had to make a living generates some unfortunate implications. The worst is that said scene could be so easily changed by having Belle read while the rest of the villagers were having different ways of leisure and/or enjoying their free time,and show them bullying her(or at the very least gossiping about her) for not being as social.

The worst is that Belle could've been a great protagonist with that personality. A flawed heroine is a good way to stenghten the moral of the tale - true beauty comes from within. Then,Belle loves the Beast with all her heart,and vice-versa,making each other better people. Belle-as-a-snob also had the potential to make the point about the town being close-minded and judgemental stronger,by showing how such environment affected her. Maybe she was mistreated in some way,or whatever. To top it all,there's a parallel with Beast - there's a beautiful side in the prince,and there's a beastly side on Belle.

All the potential above was wasted on putting some girl on a pedestal."

Not to mention Ariel can also qualify as an autistic allegory as well. I know she certainly acted as one for me, at least (I need to know your secret on how you could understand how some people could view her as an LGBT allegory without agreeing with it, because I really can't understand it at all. Mostly because Ariel, heck, even her original counterpart, fell for someone of the same sex, meaning it killed any possible allegorical/metaphorical connections to that bit. Not to mention she stayed the gender she was born in, anyways. I think the closest I've ever gotten to seeing any allegory to LGBT to otherwise technically straight characters was with the protagonists from Sex and the City, and that's only because it was exceedingly transparent.). And a funny thing is, Ariel's part of the reason I converted from Episcopalean to Roman Catholicism as a kid (though unlike Ariel and Triton, my dad was supportive of it. Heck, my loyalty to Ariel and connection to her grew even stronger after a genuinely terrible College experience, one where the professors often times tried to beat my Conservativism out of me during lessons as well as brainwash me into their line of thinking. They ultimately failed, but I still carry the mental scars from it. In one sense, you could even see Ariel in the various conservatives on College campuses who are outright marginalized and not even allowed to speak and give their views on those college campuses (and you have to admit, regardless of your political views, conservatives STILL have some right to speak rather than constantly being silenced and even forcibly brainwashed).

As far as Belle... my current views on Belle are a bit more...complicated. I can't really say I'm necessarily "anti" towards her (Certainly I don't dislike or even hate her per-se. I guess the closest I can state to an actual negative emotion towards her is terror and fear, more on that later. There's still some potential to being restored, contrast with the Rebel Alliance with Star Wars, who I'm now fully anti towards thanks largely to George Lucas being a grade A idiot and boasting his pro-Vietcong credentials at their expense), but she definitely fell hard regarding likeability as of late (to give a good hint as to how far she fell for me, when I was younger, she was second place regarding the DP list, just below Ariel. Now? She's second-LAST, just barely above Merida). But I will say it's slightly closer to anti at this point. And there's a whole lot of reasons why she's a bit closer to the anti scale of things for me.

This may be multiple posts due to a text limit.

[idy-ll-ique]

Any Doctors Here?

pairing: mob boss!steve rogers x doctor!f!reader

genre: fluff, tiny bit of angst

warnings: mentions of burns and hospitals

requested: nope

summary: while visiting his favorite bar, steve stumbles upon a new bartender, but there is something off about her. after a small conversation, he finds out that she is indeed overqualified for the job; she was a jobless doctor in need of money. well, it just so happens that the last doctor that worked for steve quit, there was a slot open...

author's note: hiya peeps enjoy!

masterlist

---

Steve walked into the bar, looking around. All faces turned to him immediately. He smirked slightly when he saw everyone look away, squirming. Steve Rogers was a nationally recognized mobster boss. Sure, he was on the negative side but police had given up on him years ago. He roamed the streets freely now, much to the fear of people.

He wouldn't think of harming an innocent soul, but people didn't know that. He found their fear amusing so he never said anything. He walked up to the bartender, sitting in front of her. She gave him a smile. "What would it be, Mr Rogers?" she asked, turning back to the bottles kept on the shelf behind her.

Steve checked her out while she turned away. He decided that she was pretty, very much so. "Whiskey, please, darling," he told her, leaning against the counter. He also noticed that she was the only one not afraid of him. "What's your name?" he asked her as she prepared his drink.

"My name is no," she sang and he raised an eyebrow at her. Her confidence and sass surprised him. "I'm just kidding! I'm Y/N," she laughed, passing his glass to him. A second later, he laughed, too. "Y/N, pretty name. You aren't afraid of me?" he questioned curiously, downing the whiskey in one go.

"Not really. Why would I be?" she shrugged. "Don't you know who I am?" he asked her, shocked. "I literally addressed you by your name when you came in."

He had forgotten about that.

"Ah, right. Um, okay." For the first time in his life, he was stumped. He never had trouble talking to women, but something about Y/N was odd. He had to keep the conversation going. "So, uh, do you work here?" he blurted out. What if this was her cover and she really was someone else?

Would explain her nonchalance. "I love how you say something so obvious with such a sense of discovery," she smiled sassily, leaning on the counter in front of him. Her sarcasm was getting under his skin now but somehow, he liked it.

She was fierce. "No, I mean, do you work here permanently or is this a sort of part time job?" he rephrased, rolling his eyes. "Part time, you guessed right. I have an MBBS, no job," she chuckled. Ah, a doctor. The fact that she was well-educated sat right with Steve. She behaved like an intellectual. "Oh, that's nice." He ordered a few more drinks.

They continued talking but suddenly heard a scream.

Y/N and Steve turned around to see a man clutching his arm which had a burn visible on it. "Any doctors here?" his girlfriend screamed as the man groaned in pain. Y/N instantly ran towards him, grabbing a bottle of cold water along the way. She opened it and gently poured the water on his arm, which made the man sigh in relief.

"Call an ambulance right now," Y/N expertly told the girl, who nodded. She talked to someone on the phone as Y/N rolled up the sleeves of that man's hoodie. Steve watched all this with a slight smile on his face.

He was well used to having personal doctors and the last guy had just left the job. He felt like Y/N would be the perfect person for the job. She had an education anyway, how bad could it be? Also, he would pay her better than this small bar or any government job could ever. She deserved better pay.

Soon, the girl and her boyfriend were gone. Y/N walked back to the counter, wiping her hands on her apron. "So, uh, sorry about that," she muttered, smiling sheepishly at Steve.

"Don't be, please. You saved that man," he swiftly reassured her, shaking his head. Y/N nodded and silence fell between the two of them. "I have to ask you something," Steve blurted out. Y/N looked at him and nodded curiously. He proposed his idea to her and needless to say, Y/N was shocked.

Agreeing to work with a famous mobster was not something she expected would happen that day. She considered for a moment. Working with Steve could be nice…

He told her he would pay her well, she was already sold. She made her decision and nodded. "I agree," she smiled and Steve's eyes lit up with happiness. "Okay, here's my address, will you be able to stop by tomorrow?" he asked, jotting down his address on a tissue. "No problem. Bye!" she waved as he walked out of the bar. Y/N squealed, looking down the tissue paper.

Steve smiled as he walked back home. As he walked home, he couldn't stop thinking about the woman. Y/N. Beautiful, sassy, helpful, caring, fierce, intelligent… She was a package deal. A good one, of course. Was he getting a crush on the pretty bartender? He sighed and smiled again as he realized… he was.

Y/N's shift ended 2 hours later. She shrugged on her coat and walked outside, breathing in the outside air. As she walked home, she, too, couldn't stop thinking about the one and only, Steve Rogers.

That man oozed power and dominance wherever he went. He was a wealthy man, considering he dealt with black markets all the time. Not to mention his handsomeness. Y/N knew women who were head over heels for Steve. She used to think they shouldn't be, until she met him tonight.

Steve had been nothing but polite with her. He cracked good jokes and was really not the man Y/N expected him to be. Now that she knew that side of his, she finally acknowledged her crush on him.

Sure, she had a crush on him like the other women. But she kept it hidden given his position and job. A mobster boss? She could do so much better and safer. Y/N sighed as she reached home.

Oh, what will her feelings evolve into?

---

Y/N stood outside Steve's extravagant mansion, reconsidering her decision. She was dressed in a simple, flowy white sundress. She took in a deep breath and walked through the gates. The walk from the gates to the door of the mansion was long, but Y/N appreciated it since it gave her time to look at his pretty garden.

As soon as she walked up the stairs to the door, it opened. Steve stood there, dressed handsomely in a black suit. Steve, when he saw her, nearly choked on his own spit.

The dress she wore was damn close to being mistaken as a wedding dress. Honestly, Y/N looked like a bride to him. His bride, he thought to himself. Stop it, you met her yesterday! Similar thoughts were running through Y/N's head.

"Y/N! So glad you came." Steve smiled broadly to hide his inappropriate thoughts. "Hi Mr Rogers," she waved, letting him wrap his arms around her as he hugged her. "Steve, please." He kept his arm around her as they walked inside, towards her infirmary. Y/N noticed that there were guards outside every room they passed.

Steve, meanwhile, noticed how all the guards were smirking cheekily at him. He went a bit red and glared at them. The two lovebirds finally reached the infirmary of the mansion. Y/N gasped in awe as Steve opened the door to the beautiful room. "This will be your office," he told her proudly and she gave him a broad smile.

"I will love working here!" she squealed, jumping into his arms. Caught off guard, Steve stumbled backwards but hugged her back. After looking around the room, they walked outside. Steve led her up the stairs, where the bedrooms were.

She would be staying there, that would ensure her availability 24/7. It wasn't really a big deal for Steve, the mansion was super big and cozy. Y/N was confused, though. What could be upstairs? To her surprise, Steve showed her to a bedroom. "Um, this bedroom is nice, I guess. But why are you showing me this?"

"You'll be living here," Steve said, shrugging. Y/N's eyes widened. "And who decided that?" she scoffed. "I thought you knew," Steve narrowed his eyes, confused. "I knew that I'd be staying at your place? How?" she yelled. Didn't she wanna stay there? "Because you're working for me!" he yelled back.

His temper snapped. "You don't own me, Rogers, I'm only working for you. You can't tell me where I'm supposed to live and where not," she spat bitterly. Steve glared at her use of his last name. "How else do you think I'm going to ensure you are available everyday?" he shouted, crossing his arms. Both of them held glares on their faces.

Suddenly, Y/N sighed. "I'm sorry," she mumbled and Steve's glare softened. "Don't apologize. I should've told you before," he said, reaching out to touch her cheek. "Do you still want me around?" she asked tiredly, looking at him.

He nodded readily, of course he did. For his sake as well. "Good. When do I move in?" she chuckled. "Any time you want," he told her, smiling. He gave her a tour of the mansion and she left.

---

6 months passed since Y/N agreed to work with Steve. And what fun those months were... Y/N loved living with the mobster boss. He brought patients nearly everyday, though. In her free time, Y/N roamed around the mansion, cooked or went to the garden to enjoy the view.

She loved the garden especially, it was filled with beautiful flowers and there was a swing, too. She and Steve did not hang out much, he was always busy some way or another. Today, that wasn't the case. Y/N had fallen for the man, indefinitely. They found out more about each other when they started living together.

She found out that he was actually a sweetheart under that hardcore facade and Steve found out that he missed being in a steady relationship. He had had girlfriends before but only for nights, or weeks, at length. Never more than that. Now that Y/N was in his life, he wanted nothing more than to be hers. They had lived together for 6 months now and Steve was sure he loved her.

He couldn't find the courage to confess. What if she didn't like him back, thought he was weird and quit working for him? What if she stopped living with him? She loved the mansion, all her needs were met here. Would she give that up just because he confessed? He couldn't risk it. Y/N was worried about the same things but from different perspectives.

What if he fired her, made her pack her bags and leave? She didn't want to go.

Y/N sighed as she lay down on the soft grass of the garden, reading a book. Steve was right next to her, picking the petals off a flower. She noticed him and laughed. "What are you doing?" Y/N asked him, smirking. "She loves me, she loves me not," he smirked back, now used to her sass. "About whom?" Y/N snorted, sitting up.

She was a bit disheartened. "This really great woman I know. She's really beautiful, you know? She's also super intelligent, by the way. And she's caring, kind, helpful… I love her." Y/N's heart shattered at his words. He loved this woman. Meaning, her feelings were useless.

"She sounds lovely," Y/N choked out, looking at her book. "She is. But I don't know if she likes me back. We've only known each other for 6 months, I met her at a bar. There are a lot of disastrous things that could happen if I confessed," Steve sighed, smiling at her. Something struck inside Y/N's head.

He was talking about her!

"Like what?" she asked, now smiling at him. "Oh, I don't know… she wouldn't like me back, move out, stop working for me, agree to never see me again… I don't want that to happen," he chuckled, looking at Y/N. She shifted closer to him, wrapping her arms around him.

"I'm pretty sure none of it would happen. She would definitely say she loves you back," Y/N whispered. Steve hugged her tightly, burying his face in her shoulder. "Do you really?" he asked softly. "I do, Steve, what's there not to like about you?" she chuckled, running a hand through his hair.

"The fact that I'm a mobster?" he chuckled into her shoulder, pulling her on his lap. "I don't care about that. You're so much more than that. You're a good man, you treat innocent people nicely… you're a sweetheart when you want to be," she giggled, kissing the top of his head.

Steve pulled away and brought her face closer to his, pressing their lips together. He had waited so long for this to happen. Y/N kissed him back, wrapping her arms around his shoulders. "I love you," Steve breathed out, smiling up at his woman. "I love you, too," Y/N grinned. They spent the rest of the afternoon in the garden together.

---

a/n: thanks for reading, leave a like if you enjoyed!

[qqueenofhades]

Hi! It’s not an ask, just read your post about whether ordinary people in Russia support the war and commented on it, hope you don’t mind.

I can recommend a Russian channel that I love where recently there have been a lot of interviews with Russian people about what’s happening. The interviews are in Russian, but some of them have English subtitles. They offer a perspective of educated intelligent people, so it’s not an opinion shared by everyone, but they try to make sense of what’s happening.

Here is a link to the playlist https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLynm3_86ldoTv06Qb-0MhzyDGgPxzZm3-

I can particularly recommend these two

https://youtu.be/8CW-WAJq0ts

https://youtu.be/vq7bAYFi-jE

So if you’re interested in this topic, you can watch them :)

Hope you have a nice day!

Thanks very much, and I'm glad to hear that you, as an actual Russian, thought that my analysis was accurate. I'll post this as future reference for me or anyone else who might be interested, though I'm still having to manage my information intake and trying not to check Twitter every three minutes. So we will see, but definitely a good resource to have, especially as the fog of war hangs heavy over much of the available information and it drags on into a second month.

As to my last post, my point was not that 1) everyone in Russia supports the war, or 2) everyone in Russia opposes the war, because clearly neither of those things are true. It's just to point out that since literally all the Russian state-sponsored information about this entire fiasco has been proven to be deeply and risibly false, we simply do not know what any kind of percentage or exact proportion of support or opposition might consist of, and there's no way to derive it from the existing numbers. One Russian sociologist estimates that only about 25% of Russian citizens are willing to talk to pollsters at all, and that they universely conclude that such surveys are conducted by the government, which in turn influences the answers they give. Besides (as you yourself already know, of course, but this is just for me to elaborate for my other followers), Russia exists, and has existed, for so long in its alternate information universe. Even a casual study of Russian and Soviet history makes plain that propaganda and ideology occupy a pivotal place in the intellectual and civic ecosystem, and that it is, to be blunt, largely or entirely fed by the dezinformatsiya of the ruling class. At least in terms of television or any other accessible media, and which obviously has an impact on shaping public mindset at the most molecular level.

I believe that two things can be true: i.e. that public support for Putin has probably ticked up to some degree, due to the Russian instinct to circle the wagons and support the leader in times of crisis, and due to the Kremlin propaganda machine's exceptional success in promoting its worldview and playing on the ancestral Russian hatred of "Nazis" (who are by now anyone that Putin and the siloviki don't like). Actual, genuine information doesn't really enter into it, and has been purposefully made as difficult and dangerous as possible to obtain. I also believe that we can't have any accurate notion of how widespread, authentic, or deeply rooted the public support for the "special military operation" actually is. If only 25% of people answer the poll at all, and then are willing to give genuinely honest answers on a topic as sensitive as Ukraine, and then you come up with 83% of 25% supporting the war, that translates to something like... maybe twenty percent of the population of a country of 144 million. Which is still a significant chunk, but not a majority, not even close to a majority, only counts the people willing to complete the exercise in the first place, and definitely doesn't count all the anti-war protesters who have either been arrested or already left the country. In short, as I said, it really doesn't ultimately tell us anything or allow us to draw informed conclusions, especially without any kind of detailed demographic breakdown or rigorous sampling method made available to check the poll's crosstabs independently. When you have demonstrably bad data from a source (the Russian government and state media apparatus) that has been proven to be manifestly and repeatedly untrustworthy, you can't just cite it as if it has self-evident authority and without extensive qualifications. This is Scholarship 101.

I do think that this war is exposing Russia's many shortcomings as a modern nation-state in all their ugly glory, and one of those is, as Anne Applebaum put it in her excellent and utterly harrowing history of the Gulag, "the political consequences of absent memory." The Russian people have simply not had a reckoning with their past the way Germany did after WWII, and which is begrudgingly happening in America despite all the kicking and screaming from the right-wing nutjobs. It's often felt that they tried liberalization in the 90s, that didn't work and led to the economy crashing, and now that Putin and his cronies are in power, it is in their interest to shut down any responsible or informed study of the past among their own people. In a sense, yes, of course the Russians support what they have been told for their entire existence is the Russian thing to do, and despite repeated sociopolitical and economic catastrophes resulting from this fact, they still have not yet been able to fundamentally change that system. It remains to be seen if they will, yet again, get away without doing so.

I can think of no more dramatic and stunning way to encapsulate this "absent memory" and its dire consequences than the reports currently coming out of Chernobyl. Literally the entire world knows what happened there in 1986, and many of us are also aware how it directly contributed to the collapse of the USSR, the polity which Putin so openly hankers to rebuild. So the fact that Russia would send soldiers in there, completely unprotected, to capture it -- and for that matter, recklessly shell the Zaphorizhia nuclear plant in an apparent attempt to force a new catastrophe -- is bad enough. This is especially the case since Chernobyl is defunct (it shut down in 2000) and doesn't actually produce power, but still requires round-the-clock monitoring. So it's not actually a valuable military or civic-infrastructure target (and this was even before the Russian forces went whole hog on the war crimes due to being unable to make meaningful progress otherwise). Why go there? Just to say you have it? Or... something?

Except now they're evidently evacuating the Russian soldiers from the Exclusion Zone, and the soldiers are -- you guessed it -- suffering from Acute Radiation Sickness, which means they will almost certainly die painfully in a short time. They were digging trenches in the goddamn Red Forest, the most irradiated place on earth where even the Chernobyl plant workers aren't allowed to go, and when the Chernobyl staff asked them directly if the soldiers had any goddamn hell idea where they were and what they were doing, the soldiers didn't know. They had no clue what Chernobyl was or why it was important. They just repeated over and over that it was "critical infrastructure." They had no idea that the world's worst nuclear accident had happened there or that it directly contributed to the breakdown of the USSR. And now, for that reason, they're all going to Belarus to probably, as I said, die painfully of radiation poisoning. That is... wow.

So yes. Until the Russian public finally comes to grips with the sheer depths of its absent memory and the terrible domestic and international political consequences, the Russian system which produced and enabled Putin and his fellow war criminals can't ever fundamentally and meaningfully change. As someone who studies Russian history, literature, and language, and is deeply interested in it overall, I sure hope it can do that, not least before it destabilizes the rest of the world. Whatever form this is going to take, who knows, but that is the Russian people's responsibility as a whole, and needs to be acknowledged.