#Supporting child’s cognitive development | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

skaldish · 1 year ago

Text

Alright folks. Here it is, my theory of what Ragnarok actually represents. It is very messy and I'm not sure I'm going to be able to actually convey my understanding clearly like I try with most things, because genuinely this is shit I would write a doctorate-level thesis on.

But we're going to try anyway.

So. After doing a lot to try to replicate animistic thinking, as well as taking a VERY deep read of the Norse myths, my theory is that Ragnarok is specifically allegory for societal collapse—the "end of the world" imagery and such is meant to convey what this feels like.

Recall what Odin says in Grimnismal. It goes something like this, since I can't be arsed to find the exact quote:

Huginn and Muninn fly over the world every day; while I fear Huginn ("thought") may not return, I fear Muninn's ("memory's") absence most.

When a society collapses, so does it's memory. It loses its technology, its methodologies, its paradigms, and everything it has learned about the world up to that point. Gone. Entire chapters of history erased.

What causes societal collapse is not always a conquering force, but is oftentimes the result of circumstances that a society orchestrates for itself. Think Rome.

People who have gone through societal collapse will probably develop an invested interest in figuring out how to prevent it entirely, so they don't have to start society all over again.

It's one thing to preserve the memory of "things collapsed and here's why" using a story. But it's another thing to do what apparently the Norse people did, which is cultivate a methodology for cognitively hardening their own society against collapse, using stories as a way to do it.

Like...I'm not kidding when I say they legitimately knew how the human mind works, and then built an entire system of stories and narratives that intentionally support the mind's freedom, cultivation, and agency. I can only convey a fraction of how this works in this post because the rest requires a deep-dive into behavioral psychology and neurological development.

All the tales leading to Ragnarok demonstrate various instances where the gods choose to follow their own agendas at the expense of the real people and forces in the world. All of these little things contribute to the magnitude of the event that is Ragnarok.

The tales represent these transgressions using allegories rather than literal events. This is because these stories were designed for children, who don't process information through a prefrontal cortex like we do as adults. They don't have them yet. But this gives kids an intuitive understanding for how circumstances of collapse feel, so they can recognize them in all their forms.

Loki is an allegory for the mischief we feel as children, and for the behaviors we demonstrate before we get to the age where we start valuing cooperation. In the myths, every time Loki causes mischief in ways that creates problems, the gods get mad at him and threaten Loki's life until he fixes his mess. Loki eventually becomes vindictive, kills Baldr in a jealous fit, and then is punished by being bound and buried beneath the ground, only to fight against the gods in Ragnarok.

The surface-level takeaway is a lesson in parenting: If we punish kids for their mischief, they're going to become vindictive adults, and these adults are going to have it out for the rest of society because they've been disenfranchised.

But it doesn't just end here. Consider how we punish ourselves for our own sense of mischief, beating ourselves up for having "problematic" thoughts and trying to bind and bury those thoughts in the depths of our mind.

These thoughts come from a place our mind known as the limbic system, which is focused on avoiding pain and seeking pleasure, and—most importantly—does not understand the world or make decisions using logic and reason, but in terms of what feels enjoyable and what doesn't.

We tend to call this system our inner child.

When we punish our inner child, that child starts doing exactly what Loki does and resorts to malicious and petty tricks. We can hold this behavior at bay until something causes us to "snap" (like Jörmungandr's tail does) and out comes the malice of the disenfranchised inner child, which creates a terrible cascade of social consequences for us.

Now, if we were to listen to these stories as kids, we would naturally be very upset whenever Loki was threatened of punished, because we think out of the limbic system at that age and Loki is meant to represent us—specifically, the state of being a kid. We would see what comes to pass, with Loki being imprisoned and fighting the gods against Ragnarok, and it would become clear to us that there's consequences for punishing mischief AND also causing too much of it.

Now I don't know about you, but I was very motivated by a sense of justice as a kid. Hearing Loki's arc would have inspired me to learn how to be friends with my sense of mischief while also learning to use it in ways that were cooperative and social, because this would have been how I could right the wrong I felt was done to Loki. It would also mean my own limbic system will not fight against me in the future, but be a modality of thought I can always access. (This is the beauty of the way the Norse myths are crafted; they are designed to instill knowledge of the world using mechanisms that reinforce one's own sense of agency and competency, so rather than being told the moral of this tale, it sets me up to run right into the conclusion it wants me to draw, but in a way that makes me feel smart and therefore inspires me to value it.)

The binding of Fenrir serves a similar allegory. When we become explosively angry in the way that Fenrir represents, it consumes our wisemind the same way Fenrir consumes Odin during Ragnarok. But this only happens if we bind Fenrir/our anger. By demonizing this nature of ours simply for existing, it will not only refuse to listen to us, but also turn against us. Remember that Fenrir was willing to socialize and cooperate with the gods before his betrayal.

(Honestly, I believe this is why ulfheiðnar existed the way they did. Even though the animalistic rage of ulfheiðnar was too terrible for domestic society, it was not demonized, but instead given a social function. People would learn to understand and partner with their own sense of rage, and I'm guessing this is also how they were able to keep their sense of reason and priorities straight even while going berserk from psychoactives.)

These two examples serve to illustrate how societal collapse stems from binding or punishing our own natures. But also fearing our own nature as mortals factors into it.

For example, Naglfar. This is a ship constructed of dead people's fingernails, and its completion is part of what signals the beginning of Ragnarok. But as the story goes, we can delay Naglfar's construction by trimming the nails of the dead before we bury them.

Naglfar represents "neglect for the dead," and this is significant because the act of no longer viewing the dead as people is sort of like the canary in the coal mine for no longer view each other as people...and no longer seeing people as people is what defines Ragnarok.

A society is at peace when its people have no fear of death, and having no fear of death comes only by incorporating death as a normal and familiar part of life, just like we do with birth. Our relationship with death is a litmus test for our relationship with our own humanity—if we fear the dead and cannot see them as human beings, then we are always going to fear a part of our own humanity, and be at war with it. The simple act of keeping the nails of the dead well-groomed because it stalls Naglfar's construction was a way to remind people why such a simple act was profoundly important.

And these are just the things that I can think of off the top of my head that are the most obvious examples. There are—and I shit you not—multitudes of these things laced within the Norse myths.

(I haven't even gotten to the part about how the Norse creation myth uses what the womb feels like to characterize it. Telling this story to very little children helps them establish a sense of familiarity, belonging, and secure attachment with the entire world from the get-go. If they learn the world is everything they've already experienced, then their bodies will never be afraid of it, because nothing about it will feel unknown or unknowable. Like, how fucking dope can you get.)

So here's where we get to the really dense irony of all this: Why we don't pick up on all these nuances as Westerners and have so far missed this entirely.

It is for two reasons.

The first is because our society values the things that the Norse people identified as contributing to societal collapse—namely, the act of conquering/competing against other forces and conquering/competing against our own natures. The transgressions of the Aesir are not things we register as problematic because to us they're normal.

The second is that we don't think animistically. The way we are taught to convey, interpret, and transmit information is designed PURELY by and for the prefrontal cortex, with neglect to everything else (if you ever wonder why Americans look weird in how we behave, this is why). But because we only prioritize communicating this way, we're missing out on all the context added within the Norse myths. These myths function the same way Old Norse kennings did, in that they are designed to speak to ALL areas of the brain at once and in tandem, but if we only engage with it using one part of the brain, we're only going to get a small piece of the picture and the rest is going to look weird.

(Little experiment for you: Try to logic something out in your mind or think through a complex problem without using words or sentences to do it. Use any other kind of thought-process besides language. I promise you that not only is this possible, but it yields a completely different kind of experience and conclusion than you might otherwise reach.)

Honestly, I don't even think Snorri himself fully understood what he was looking at when he was recording the Norse myths. I think he was just writing them down according to how they were told, word-for-word. But his cluelessness is our good fortune now, because he not only preserved the cultural stories, but also what I consider an entire cognitive technology.

And every time I look at it, I can't help but think about the generations of people who sat around the fire in the dead of winter, weaving, crafting, and figuring out better ways to fortify their society, raise kids so they became fine and truly fearless people, and conserve information. This is, as far as I'm concerned, real magic.

They knew some shit.

#ragnarok #zan speaks #norse paganism #I'm sorry if this is incomprehensible #I tried

571 notes · View notes

raven-at-the-writing-desk · 1 year ago

Text

food likes and dislikes + why

Consider this part of the Twisted Wonderland food lore series, I guess? Part 1 and part 2 focus on compiling food culture and related world lore; I will keep adding to them as new information is released. This part expands on the reasons for why each character likes and dislikes the food that they do. Please note: THIS DOES NOT COVER ALL CHARACTERS, only the characters we have official profiles for! The staff do not have least favorite foods listed + other characters like Neige and Che'nya lack profiles, so they are not addressed here.

Additionally, the reasoning behind some likes/dislikes are speculation or implied rather than outright stated as canon. I will indicate when these instances crop up.

Riddle

Favorite: strawberry tarts

Riddle has been fascinated with strawberry tarts since he was a child, as he would see them in the window of the local cake shop. He lovingly describes the bright-red fruit on them as "[shining] at [him] like forbidden jewels", as his mother would liken the sugar content in sweets and pastries to poison.

He tastes his first strawberry tart after meeting Trey and Che'nya. Trey is the one who offers him a slice from his family's bakery. Riddle is entranced by its look and taste. "A bright-red strawberry tart on a white plate. To me, it shined more brightly than any gem could. That first bite was so sweet. It tasted like nothing I'd ever eaten before. With each bite, I became more entranced..."

SPECULATION: The implication, as I read it, is that strawberry tarts fulfill a desire he has long since had but has seldom acknowledged. They are also tied to the positive experience of the intimacy and the first friends Riddle ever made, as well as a symbol of his own agency.

He seems to regularly offer and eat cakes and other sweets at unbirthday parties, as they are a must-have at these events. Other foods he intakes typically adhere to the rules of the Queen of Hearts, even if he has different preferences (such as preferring honey to sugar cubes for his tea, and preferring milk tea over lemon tea).

Riddle thinks that food must be nutritious. He calculates what he eats and ensures that he makes up for any deficits at the NRC cafeteria's buffet.

SPECULATION: His idea that food must be nutritious may come from seeing food as fuel for the brain. It's something he may have picked up from his mother, who is seen giving him food that will (according to her) help his developing cognitive functions.

Least Favorite: junk food

SPECULATION: While we aren't given an explicit reason for Riddle's stance on junk food, it's implied that his mother ingrained in him a sense of which foods and amounts are "right" and 'wrong" to have. He likely still takes her teachings to heart.

Riddle tried fast food for the first time at age 17 and declared that he doesn’t like it and won’t have it again. This supports the idea that he has avoided this kind of food for a long time—again, something instilled in him by his mother.

He tends to get the daily special at the NRC cafeteria not because he likes them but because it’s easier him to calorie count that way.

Trey

Favorite: candied violets

Trey started eating candied violets before he started elementary school. He was so impressed by the concept of edible flowers that he went around trying to eat flowers and weeds he found in the wild.

Trey states that he loves how the flower's aroma overtakes his senses and makes him feel as though he's lying in a bed of violets. He cites this as being the "real appeal" to him.

Trey also says that he gets bad cravings for candied violets and would even snack on his parents' stash (which they prepared for their bakery's cakes). This however did not stop Trey, so it led to his parents setting aside some candied violets specifically for him. In fact, they still send care packages to NRC which contain candied violets. Trey snacks on them on study breaks.

He suggests using candied violets as a sugar substitute. It changes the color of the milk, and he finds that interesting.

Trey also enjoys the NRC cafeteria’s hamburger steaks. He says they’re so good he could eat them every day. He also eats many sweets made with pie dough.

Trey thinks it is important to have foods that require chewing. This is because chewing is important to maintain the health of one's jaw and teeth.

Least Favorite: mustard

Che’nya and Trey played Russian Roulette with six cream puffs. Five had regular cream filling and one had mustard.

Trey had bad luck and ended up biting into the one cream puff with mustard inside. There was no water to wash down the flavor, and Che’nya was of no help because he was laughing too hard at his friend’s demise. Trey reports that he “seriously almost cried”. It is this bad experience that bred his dislike of mustard.

Cater

Favorite: spicy ramen

Cater says that a "capsaicin kick" from spicy food "lights a fire under [him] when [he's] feeling out of it" or feeling down in the dumps.

Additionally, ramen pics are "GREAT for [social media] engagement". He usually places a lot of importance on a dish's appearance when judging it.

SPECULATION: Our body interprets spiciness not as a flavor, but as a pain reaction. Knowing that Cater is secretly very gloomy and sad, he may eat spicy food as a way to just “feel something”.

Least Favorite: anything sweet

When Cater was 10 years old, his mother and two older sisters were into making sweets. Back then, Cater was actually excited for extra desserts. However, they continued to make more sweets every single day. It got to a point where Cater started to have a hard time eating them.

According to Cater, his sisters in particular made things worse. They would pile more sweets onto his plate and tell him there's plenty more where that came from. If Cater said he didn't want any, his sisters would give him puppy dog eyes and he would relent. This would ruin Cater's taste for anything even remotely sweet.

He loves visiting cafes, but the most photogenic items tend to be desserts. Cater has the dilemma where he will order something cute but then can't eat it because of his aversion to sweetness. (The problem is solved if he invites someone to come with to be his human garbage disposal.)

Cater says he prefers his coffee with less acidity, so he takes deep roasted beans.

Trey is, so far, the only person who has been able to immediately sus out that Cater doesn't like sweets. Cater usually has to dance around this fact about himself and find roundabout ways to avoid eating sweets (such as suggesting to Trey that he show us UM to the first years so Cater can avoid tasting a sweet chestnut tart).

Ace

Favorite: cherry pie

Ace says cherries are his favorite fruit. There is no further explanation given for why cherry pies in particular are his favorite.

He prefers fresh fruit in his pies as opposed to the “canned stuff”. Ace finds the flavor to be a lot more robust in the former. He also likes his cherries "nice and tart".

Ace likes junk like candy bars, chocolate cake, apple pie, etc. He gets in trouble for eating Riddle’s tarts in book 1 and trying to sneak Trey’s baked goods in book 5.

He states another favorite food of his is hamburgers. Sometimes goes to Foothill Town to chow down on them, inviting others to come with.

SPECULATION: The meta reason for Ace's favorite food may be because the Drink Me potion from Alice in Wonderland is said to taste like "cherry tart, custard, pineapple, roast turkey, toffee, and hot buttered toast". The "tart" was probably changed to "pie" to help differentiate Ace's favorite food from Riddle's favorite food (which also involves a red fruit in a crust).

Least Favorite: raw oysters

When he was a kid, Ace read a book that involved oysters. He can't stand raw oysters because they remind him of that story.

SPECULATION: This is likely a reference to the story of "The Walrus and the Carpenter", which involves a walrus tricking and eating sentient baby oysters in Disney's Alice in Wonderland. It probably traumatized kid!Ace xnsbdkwbiwcnks

Deuce

Favorite: anything with eggs

Deuce comes from a single parent household, so their budget is usually tight. Eggs, being a cheap staple food, was something his mom often prepared for him. They are also simple and versatile enough for even his mom and himself to learn how to cook a variety of ways.

Deuce remarks that he likes his omelets "extra fluffy". It's how he always orders it at the NRC cafeteria. He also says he prefers his eggs soft-boiled. After studying, he likes to have an egg cake.

Least Favorite: pepper (ie the more bitter green ones; JP)/bell peppers (ie red/yellow ones EN)

No matter how small they're chopped, Deuce has never been able to eat (bell) peppers. He says the flavor and the smell are too overpowering for him.

SPECULATION: Pepper is a commonly disliked food among young children in Japan. It’s similar to how broccoli is disliked by children in the west. The implication may be that Deuce is still immature like a little kid that hates peppers.

Leona

Favorite: meat

The only reason Leona provides is pretty vague; he says he needs the protein so he can perform to the best of his abilities in magical shift/spelldrive.

Least Favorite: vegetables

He claims that if a carnivore is eating greens, then it's sick. Therefore, there is "no reason" for him to eat any. He's perfectly healthy!

SPECULATION: Given that Leona also refers to others as "herbivore" in a derogatory sense, it's possible that he views those who eat plants as weaker than him. He, with the DNA of a carnivore, is technically "above" them in the food chain and doesn't deign to "lower" himself to their status by eating vegetables. This implies that a lot of his tastes essentially boil down to "I'm a lion, lions don't eat vegetables (heavy sarcasm)."

Ruggie

Favorite: donuts

Ruggie's family struggled to put food on the table, so they couldn't afford birthday cakes. Instead, Granny Bucchi would make simple donuts for him. He loves the warm and fluffy insides and crispy outsides.

Once Ruggie started earning income through various part-time jobs, they could afford ingredients to make fancier donuts with different toppings such as chocolate dip and almonds. Even though Ruggie can now afford to get himself a birthday cake, he still craves his grandma's homemade donuts.

Least Favorite: anything rotten

When Ruggie was younger, he got a nasty stomachache from eating old bone-in steak. He learned from that experience that if food rots, it's ruined and he can't shouldn't eat it for his health and safety.

He will basically eat anything as long as it isn't rotten though. This includes bones, as hyenas have strong jaws and are able to munch on them.

Jack

Favorite: pear compote

The pear is Jack's preferred fruit. He specifically likes compote because it is sweet. Jack says that a good compote will help melt exhaustion and restore lost carbohydrates after a workout.

Least Favorite: green onions

While Jack does not comment on green onions in particular, it is implied that he does not care for them because they are smelly. He comments that the cafeteria's soup has too many onions in it and that it messes with his sense of smell. Being a wolf beastman, his senses are heightened, so he is sensitive to smells.

Azul

Favorite: fried chicken (EN)/kaarage (JP)

No special reason is given in-game. Azul enjoys fried chicken but does not allow himself to eat it often as he is aware of how unhealthy it is.

He has tried many recipe substitutions to make his favorite food healthier for his consumption, but the flavor and texture always fall short of the real thing. Some methods he has already tried include using cooking methods other than deep-frying and using soy beans instead of meat. Azul in general has a well-trained palate.

SPECULATION: It can be inferred that fried chicken is a favorite of Azul's since childhood, and something that his mother served him in high amounts during celebrations. This may be led to his overweightness as a child, something which he holds a lot of lingering insecurities about.

Least Favorite: healthy foods (EN)/nutritionally balanced meals (JP)

Azul recalls a period of his life when he would eat mostly health food since it is an easy way to count calories. After a while, he began to dislike health food for this very reason.

Jade

Favorite: octopus carpaccio

No special reason is given in-game.

SPECULATION: The meta reason for this being Jade's favorite food is likely because moray eels (which the twins are) eat octopus. Carpaccio is a dish that is served raw, just like how real moral eats consume octopus.

Jade also enjoys tea; he brews his own blends using plants he collects while on hikes. He tends to do with same with mushrooms.

Least Favorite: conger eel

Jade says that he dislikes conger (saltwater) eels because "the texture simply does not live up to [his] tastes".

Floyd

Favorite: takoyaki

Floyd likes to put unusual stuff inside takoyaki instead of the typical octopus filling. It keeps him from getting bored. Fillings he has tried before include cheese, shrimp, sausage, oysters, tomato, broccoli, strawberries, whipped cream, chocolate, anchovies, potato salad, and konjac.

He gets a real kick out of seeing who can make the worst tasting takoyaki. No matter how bad the odd fillings taste, Floyd eats every last one. He doesn't want to get told off by Azul for wasting food.

He has plenty of practice flipping takoyaki in the pan, so it isn't difficult for him.

Floyd likes candies, though his tastes change depending on the day. He enjoys peppermint candies, a week ago, it was melon soda-flavored gummies. Yesterday, it was almond biscotti. He says he tends to go for textures over flavors, but unusual candy flavors are cool too.

Floyd says he likes "stuff you can only eat on land."

Least Favorite: shiitake mushrooms

Jade puts shiitake mushrooms in "pretty much anything". Because of this, just seeing a shiitake mushroom pisses Floyd off.

Kalim

Favorite: coconut juice

There is no clear in-game reason provided. However, Kalim likes coconut juice to the point where it's not unusual for him to order 100 coconuts from a fruit vendor in Silk City. He describes the taste as "sweet and refreshing"!

SPECULATION: Aside from being a refreshing beverage, coconut juice has historically been used to reverse the effects of poisons and drug overdoses in both India and Africa. We know that Kalim has had multiple attempts on his life, including intentional poisoning of his food, so this may be why Kalim has acquired a taste for coconut juice.

Least Favorite: curry

Kalim's dislike of curry originates from an incident in which Jamil, his dedicated food tester, fell into a two week-long coma after tasting poisoned curry intended for Kalim. He has not been able to stomach curry since.

Jamil

Favorite: curry

Despite going through a traumatic experience with curry, it remains Jamil's favorite food. It hasn't really deterred him.

He usually cooks his own food rather than eating in the cafeteria. It’s just easier for him since he is already typically cooking food for Kalim anyway.

SPECULATION: Jamil expresses interest in sampling curries from all over Twisted Wonderland, as it is different in every country. Therefore, curry may be a dish that Jamil sees as "international" and sates his yet-to-be-achieved desire of being free to travel and see the world.

He doesn't care how food looks (except when people criticize how plain and brown his own cooking is); he states that what is most important is flavor.

Least Favorite: dates

Jamil used to love eating dates as a child. One day, the dates he had bought from a fruit stall had a bug on them. He freaked out and set off a spell, setting the fruit stall on fire. Jamil has not been able to eat dates since finding that bug on them.

Vil

Favorite: homemade smoothies

Vil likes the customizability of homemade smoothies, especially seeing as he is a model and actor who has to watch his figure. Green smoothies are particularly appealing since they can be chock-full of nutritious fruits and vegetables. It's also easy to alter the flavor to your liking.

He generally enjoys eating a healthy diet consisting of things like vegetables (leafy greens), nuts, and dried fruits, which he also has Pomefiore following.

Least Favorite: mayonnaise

Vil used to have mayonnaise on his salad when he was younger. This was done almost on a daily basis. He got three pimples from this diet, which were painful and not photogenic for a child star. Vil eventually learned that mayonnaise "doesn't agree with [his] skin". Now he usually takes his salads with salt, olive oil, or vinegar.

He doesn't mind the flavor or the texture of mayonnaise. If he is given mayo in a meal, he won't let it go to waste. He just does not enjoy eating it because of the pimple trauma.

Rook

Favorite: liver pâté

Rook describes it as "a delicacy" that is "both rustic AND refined at the same time". He says he was first captivated by its smooth and creamy texture that melts on your tongue. Rook attributes the appeal of the dish as being dependent on its freshness, so he enjoys it only on rare occasions.

Least Favorite: garlic

He calls his dislike of garlic a "professional aversion". Garlic is smelly and tends to linger after consumption, so Rook worries that the aroma will alert others (whether wild animals or other people) to his presence. He wants to be able to blend in with his surroundings!

Epel

Favorite: yakiniku (JP)/grilled meats (EN), macarons

Epel loves grilled meats because he has fond memories of it from Harveston. His family and neighbors would arrange gatherings where they take big hunks of meat and grill them on a charcoal fire. He admits that it's not fancy, but it makes for a "mighty fine meal". Epel also thinks that by packing on meat/protein, he can become beefier. BBQ flavored chips are also enjoyed.

Epel loves the fresh veggies that you eat with the meat too; they have a natural sweetness to them. The veggies can be eaten straight off the grill without sauce and still be perfectly tasty.

Epel says he likes macarons "more" than even grilled meats, but this information is pretty dubious since we learn in his Ceremonial Robes vignettes that Vil seems to have instructed him to make this claim. It's sliiightly confusing because Azul seems to believe Epel does like macarons and questions if his sources were wrong when Epel looks surprised that he knows that (which seems to contradict the idea that Vil told him to lie about his tastes).

When asked why he likes macarons, Epel responds with, "They're... cute. And sweet! And they come in lots of different flavors. They're not very filling, but still." He makes a similar comment about macarons not being very filling in Glorious Masquerade.

He likes soda and chips but has to hide them in his room and sneak them late at night.

Least Favorite: nashi pear (JP)/apple pear (EN)

Epel says that while the flavor of nashi pears is not bad, he dislikes them because "they're jist pretendin' ta look like apples"! Indeed, if you google "nashi pear", you'll see that they visually resemble apples.

In Port Fest, he and Jack get into an argument over what would be a better topping: apples or pears?

Idia

Favorite: sweets (ie candies; JP)/snacks (EN)

Idia says that he likes snack foods and candies because they're easy to eat while gaming. He particularly likes brightly colored candies like gummy worms.

He also says that he loves DIY candy kits, where you can make your own cute little sweet treats using water and powder packets. "It turns snack time into a game! It's easy to get totally absorbed, too." Idia likes the idea of being able to change the color and shape of the snacks himself. He insists (unprompted) that these DIY candy kits are NOT just for kids.

Idia mainly eats junk food in general, as well as "efficient" foods like jellies, powders you dissolve in water, commercial snacks, and instant noodles. He also does not seem to care much about taste, claiming that all coffee tastes the same. This causes his peers to worry about his health.

SPECULATION: This is just a funny thought I had while reading Idia's dialogue, but I wonder if he would also pull out the L (Death Note) style explanation of "I'm a genius, so I use a lot of brain power! So the logic follows that I should eat a lot of carbohydrates/sugar to refuel."

Least Favorite: raw fish

Idia dislikes raw fish because "it stinks, it's lukewarm, it's all slimy and clingy and sticky..."

Another large part of why Idia dislikes dish is because "real" food like that requires proper tableware to eat. He thinks this just adds "pointless busywork" to meals (and has a similar attitude when it comes to cooking). "Who cares how you get nutrients, as long as you get them? Just eat an energy bar with vitamins and minerals! Bam, EZ."

Idia has also indicated that he is averse to rich foods (juicy meat, thick sauce, large portion sizes) like hamburger steaks, saying that thinking about it gives him indigestion.

Ortho

Favorite: nothing

Least Favorite: nothing

Ortho does not require nutrients to live, being that he is a technomantic humanoid. He is, however, capable of taking pictures of food and analyzing ingredient makeup.

Idia has made an Oral-Energy-Intake Gear, which allows Ortho to eat food like everyone else. It's not clear what happens to the food Ortho eats though.

Malleus

Favorite: ice-cream

Malleus likes frozen desserts! When he breathes fire, the inside of his mouth gets very hot. Eating something cold like ice-cream helps to cool the temperature of his mouth--and this temperature contrast helps to enhance the flavor of the ice-cream.

Malleus shares an instance when he had frozen a castle and some servants in a tantrum; Lilia was able to salvage the situation by using his magearm and flavored syrups to make shaved ice, which he shared with everyone. He then used this opportunity to teach Malleus to use his powers wisely. This isn’t ice-cream, but it’s still another positive memory Malleus has related to cold desserts.

He likes to try different varieties of frozen treats and compare their flavors and appearances. Malleus doesn't seem to understand all the different nuances though. For example, he has a popsicle stick that declared that he had won something, but didn't know he was supposed to claim a prize. He does, however, understand that it is highly valuable and has it stored somewhere. He plans on bringing it home to Briar Valley when he graduated.

Least Favorite: whole/full-sized cakes

He doesn't have anything against sweets, but rather directs his ire at excess. Malleus never has people to share cakes with, so he ends up trying to eat the whole thing by himself on special occasions. He never finishes them in a single sitting and says they give him heartburn.

Malleus says he may see whole cakes in a better light once he has company to split them with.

Lilia

Favorite: tomato juice

There's not a lot in the way of the tomato juice lore. The best we've got is Lilia remarking that he has recently been into drinking and comparing different tomato juices. He claims the tastes and textures can be very different.

Lilia is also fond of berry juice, which he says is a specialty of Briar Valley. He encourages the guests at his farewell party to indulge in it.

SPECULATION: Some fans headcanon that Lilia likes drinking tomato juice because it resembles blood, and Lilia behaves in very bat-like ways. This could be the specialized traits of his species of fae.

My personal speculation is maybe the reasoning is similar to what is typically given for Jamil's love of curry; Lilia is someone who is worldly and well-traveled, so maybe he just likes tasting the local produce in an easy-to-go-down way.

Least Favorite: marshmallows

Lilia does not like the taste. Additionally, he thinks it's boring that, despite how bulky they are, they disappear as soon as you put them into your mouth. He feels like he's eating air!

Lilia also says that he doesn’t mind what he eats, as long as it is filling. Marshmallows, however, are not that.

SPECULATION: Being a war general, Lilia may be used to more filling and substantive food, not airy ones.

Silver

Favorite: mushroom risotto

Silver says that risotto was the first dish he ever cooked himself. He likes the simplicity of it.

SPECULATION: Silver may have a preference for mushroom risotto because it includes an ingredient that is easily foraged in the forest (well, granted you can tell which are edible). Recall that he spent most of his days there and had to take care of himself for unspecified stretches of time when Lilia was off on his travels. Simplicity and ease of access was a big deciding factor in what Silver prepared for himself.

Least Favorite: Lilia’s cooking

… Does this even NEED an explanation? We all know how bad Lilia’s cooking is, and poor Silver somehow grew up on it 😭

What is sort of sweet is that Silver tries to convince himself to get over the poor quality of Lilia’s food by saying that what matters the most is sharing that time with loved ones.

Sebek

Favorite: salmon carpaccio

Sebek has a memory of going fishing at the lake by his grandfather's house with his older brother and sister. His siblings helped Sebek pull a large salmon out and then prepared carpaccio from it to serve for dinner. He loved seeing how delighted his parents and grandpa were to see it at the table. His grandpa even smiled, an occurrence which Sebek notes is rare. Now when he has salmon carpaccio, it reminds him of home.

Sebek says he could have salmon carpaccio for three meals a day and still never get tired of it. Keep in mind that Sebek also has a large appetite (claiming that eating three helpings for one meal is eating light), so that's a LOT of salmon carpaccio.

He denounces the cafeteria bread, deeming it not filling enough. He does the same of nuts and berries, although he admits they are nutrient dense. Sebek would prefer to have meat.

Least Favorite: black coffee

He cannot so much as tolerate a mouthful of "that muck" because of its bitterness. Indeed, we see how poorly he takes down black coffee when he mixes his order and Malleus's up in Glorious Masquerade.

Sebek is resentful that Silver can drink many cups of black coffee (to keep awake) and that his fellow knight shares a freshly brewed pot with their liege. "IT REALLY GRINDS. MY GEARS."

People have advised Sebek to sweeten his coffee with cream or sugar. He adamantly refuses to do this, since he believes that's something only children would do. "It's mortifying!" Furthermore, Sebek hates the thought of being the "odd one out" taking his coffee differently. "I refuse to let Silver outshine me in a matter so trivial!"

Sebek has been working tirelessly to train himself to tolerate coffee, since he wants to be able to share the same experience with Malleus. Now he is able to take one splash of coffee in his milk.

It should also be noted that Sebek used to dislike vegetables that were very bitter, so it seems that he has an aversion to bitterness in general. He has conquered bitter vegetables and is smug about surpassing that challenge.

He is able to stomach food that tastes bad if he is told it is good for him/training. For example, Lilia has suggested eating red meat, fermented beans, and yogurt as a workout meal, which Sebek happily consumes.

SPECULATION: ... This gives the vibes of a child who is still immature so they hate taking down bitter things. I guess it suits Sebek's "I wanna grow up fast!" behavior.

Grim

Favorite: canned tuna

... Look at him. Is he not peak cat? 🤡

SPECULATION: I'd imagine that Grim developed a taste for canned tuna in part because that's most of what he eats on Ramshackle's measly budget. They likely cannot afford fresh fish or other extravagant meals.

Least Favorite: nothing

LISTEN. Grim literally eats ROCKS. Plus, he literally snatches others' food and is eager to try foods and started his own club that revolves around food!! I don't think there's anything he won't consider shoving into his mouth.

Grim prefers quantity over quality.

Crowley

Favorite: wild game

Crowley describes himself as an avid connoisseur of meat and will eat any meat: beef, pork, chicken, and wild game (also called gibier). He encourages the other staff members to sample new meats when they can and is a fan of the NRC cafeteria’s meat pies. Crowley frequents restaurants that specialize in game meat, even waiting hours in line for one that just opened. He’s even implied to be knowledgeable about preparation and cooking techniques for game meat.

He claims to "prefer treats with subtler flavors rather than overpowering ones."

Crowley also appears to like mangos. He was excited to try the mango juice of the southern country that he vacationed to in book 4. Crowley also brought back mango souvenirs for the staff, including a sweet and sour mango tea for Trein. He reminisces about the sweet mangos he enjoyed and the sunny beach he was on back then. Crowley likes black tea as well!

SPECULATION: Crowley probably likes wild game because he is twisted from a crow or a raven of some kind. Those birds are known to scavenge the meat of various dead animals (carrion).

Least Favorite: spicy food

Crowley does not tolerate spice well. He complains about the tomato stew at the cafeteria causing him to sweat and cry at the same time. Crowley is also hesitant to sample Scarabian cuisine since he has heard that their food is liberally spiced.

Crewel

Favorite: raisin butter

Crewel says that raisin butter pairs well with adult beverages. He finds the aftertaste of raisin butter excellent and enjoys its appearance too--its spotted look reminds him of dalmatians.

SPECULATION: It’s notable that raisins, which are in Crewel’s favorite food, are deadly to dogs. This is ironic, because we know that Crewel is an avid lover of canines—but the character he is twisted from, Cruella de Vil, loathes dogs and is rumored to skin them for fur coats.

Crewel indicates that he enjoys tea; he brews his own blends and frequents a specialty coffee stall in the Foothill Town for its tea. He has known the owner since he was a student and pals around with him.

He also says he likes meat pies, but tries to keep portion control in mind.

Least Favorite: pudding

SPECULATION: Not sure why this is his least favorite. My best guess is that it's kind of messy? I couldn't find references to pudding in 101 Dalmatians.

Sam

Favorite: chicken gumbo

SPECULATION: As far as I'm aware (and believe me, I looked everywhere I could), there's no given in-game explanation for why this is Sam's favorite. The best I've got is that chicken gumbo is a regional dish from New Orleans, the region from which The Princess and the Frog is inspired by.

Least Favorite: beignets

SPECULATION: These are Tiana's (the frog princess!) specialty. I'm guessing these are Sam's least favorite since his twisted inspiration, Dr. Facilier, served as the antagonist in Tiana's story.

Trein

Favorite: vichyssoise

Trein finds the texture of the vichyssoise served by the NRC cafeteria smooth and pleasant. The students don't have the same appreciation for it; Trein says that he is the only one that ever orders the dish.

SPECULATION: Like Sam, Trein is not provided with a clear reason why he favors vichyssoise. But!! If we think about the composition of the dish, it's made with very cheap and accessible ingredients--even a peasant could afford them. Vichyssoise, then, could be representative of the story of Cinderella, where a kind-hearted girl's beauty was able to shine even when she was covered in cinders. The beauty of even simple vegetables is able to shine in vichyssoise!

He tries to go for foods and portions that won't weigh his stomach down.

Least Favorite: fried chicken

SPECULATION: Not sure why this is his least favorite, but I'm guessing it's because fried foods are not healthy (Trein is careful about his health and engages in exercise to maintain his, perhaps because he lost his wife prematurely?). If I recall correctly, Cinderella raised chickens for Lady Tremaine, so this could be a callback to that?

Vargas

Favorite: raw eggs

Vargas reports eating large amounts of raw eggs (roughly 60 for a single meal). He was told by the cafeteria ghosts that it would be troublesome if he ate so many of their eggs every time he dines there, so he has since started to bring his own eggs.

Sam tries to avoid stocking perishables, but the one exception is eggs. That's because Vargas always buys his entire stock.

SPECULATION: A meta reason for why Vargas eats an absurd amount of raw eggs is that this is a clear reference to Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. In his villain song, Gaston says he eats 5 dozen eggs, which is exactly 60--the same amount that Vargas eats. He needs a lot of protein to maintain his muscles!

Least Favorite: broccoli

SPECULATION: Vargas's focus is bulking up, and broccoli doesn't provide protein for that. It's also thick and fibrous, meaning it can easily get stuck between your teeth and affect how your teeth look. For someone so focused on aesthetics, Vargas may not be a fan of that.

Rollo

Favorite: grapes

Rollo eats the same lunch 365 days a year, and prefers to take it in an area away from others. (Presumably, he does the same with his other meals.) This lunch consists of 2 croissants, a cup of café au lait (coffee with milk), and exactly 16 grapes.

He says that, with a strict routine like this, he can forgo unnecessary desires. Rollo finds it refreshing and recommends that others try it. The exception seems to be special occasions; he says he has an extra croissant on those days.

SPECULATION: No canon reason is given for why Rollo loves grapes (many fans actually thought croissants were his favorite before his SSR came out). What I believe is that Rollo likes grapes because they're easy to count and limit one's consumption of (because of how small they are). It fits perfectly into his stringent life.

Least Favorite: savarin

SPECULATION: Again, no canon reason is given. If I had to speculate based on what I know of him and how he takes his meals, then... I'd wager he doesn't like savarin because of how overly indulgent it is. It's a ring-shaped cake soaked in flavored syrup and then topped with cream and various fruits. For someone who regularly has bread and one type of fruit (grapes) for his meals, savarin is basically a sin.

Fellow

Favorite: apples

SPECULATION: This may be a reference to his character inspiration, Honest John. In the scene where he meets Pinocchio, he steals the apple Pinocchio is carrying and eats it. Notably, Playful Land also offers apple-flavored items.

Least Favorite: potatoes

SPECULATION: Potatoes are a very starchy (and thus filling) and easy to raise staple crop. I believe the implication here is that Fellow had to eat so many potatoes when he was low on other foods that he eventually became sick of them.

601 notes · View notes

maxdibert · 29 days ago

Note

Can we all collectively stop saying that 'Harry is so much like James' or 'Harry is just like Lily except he looks like James'? Harry is just Harry. He is his own person, and is way better of a person even as a teenager than his parents or any of the marauders ever were. It's honestly insulting and embarrassing when these marauders stans try so hard to point out similarities between them. Like, yeah, no shit sherlock. That's how genetics work, you get half of mother and half of father, whether it be looks or personality or whatever.

The difference, however, is that Harry went through so much hardships in his life, so much trauma, that it actually made him more emotionally intelligent than his parents ever were in their 20 years. He was able to relate to people around him and understand their point of view because of the fact that he had to emotionally mature faster for survival sake. That is what makes Harry. That is one of the many things that makes him the main character of his own story.

From a cognitive development perspective, it's very unlikely that a child who never knew or had any kind of reference to their parents (as is the case with Harry) would truly have things in common with them. There are certain aspects that are hereditary, such as health or mental health issues, but personality itself is not deterministic, it largely depends on the environment in which one is raised.

Both Lily and James were children who were deeply loved and cherished by their parents. Lily was the younger sibling and the golden child of the family, while James was an only child born to an older wizard couple who had spent half their lives trying to have children. Both grew up surrounded by love and attention, which really explains why, in some aspects, they were egocentric and had very little empathy for anything that didn’t directly affect them.

Harry, on the other hand, has trouble expressing his emotions and feels uncomfortable when others express theirs in front of him because he grew up in a repressive environment where affection, care, or emotional support didn’t exist. Accepting and normalizing his own feelings is something he’s not used to, nor is doing the same for others. This is a consequence of the kind of cognitive development he experienced.

Despite that, Harry is actually quite mature for his age in other ways, for example, in his ability to give second chances. Harry is capable of understanding the context behind people’s actions and being fair about it. He shows this by accepting Dudley’s apology, even though Dudley had bullied him his entire life. He shows it by learning to appreciate Severus despite so many years of hatred, recognizing what he did and the sacrifice he made. He also shows it by choosing not to condemn the Malfoys because of Narcissa’s gesture during the war.

When Harry isn't giving in to his impulses or stubbornness, he's actually very capable of seeing the bigger picture and acting accordingly. His parents weren’t like that, they only saw things in black and white. So yes, absolutely, Harry is Harry. He may look like his parents, but he has nothing in common with them in terms of character or personal development. Harry is a much better person than his parents ever were, and he was already better even as a child, but then again, his parents were very privileged. He had to go through a lot of suffering.

#harry potter #harry potter meta #harry james potter #lily potter #james potter #the potters

37 notes · View notes

librarycards · 7 months ago

Note

Hi! I have a question for you if that's ok. You mentioned hating places that focus on iq and I agree that iq how it is measured and thought of is incredibly flawed. But I also know that there's research that supports that the brains of so called "gifted" people work differently, and have much in common with ADHD and autism. What's your stance on that?

I personally think that "gifted" (hate that term) brains work differently and are neurodivergent but I don't think iq is an at all adequate way of measuring that. From my experience and what I've read "gifted" people are often also highly sensitive, can have difficulty finding social acceptance, have a very developed sense of justice, and have trouble functioning in the world. There's also a lot of overlap between people who are "gifted" and those who have ADHD and/or autism.

giftedness is a social construction tied, you're right, to constructions of a certain kind of 'high functioning" neurodivergent person. as someone marked as gifted and certainly framed as "highly sensitive" as a child, who received an autism diagnosis in adulthood (and should have as a child but did not due mostly to psychiatric misogyny) I'm familiar with this line of thinking.

i disagree with it. what value is there in reifying some kind of binary between the "non-gifted" and "gifted" brains, or the racist and anti-poor metric of "IQ," which is better described as a measure of certain types of reasoning and problem solving than of something as nebulous as "general intelligence"? it seems that the only value society would derive from some definite separation of different cognitive types would be to 1) better exploit them for profit and 2) better segregate the cognitive haves from the have-nots. see: special ed kids being relegated to futurelessness, whereas autistics who happen to be good at niche tasks gain conditional access to abled 'success' so long as they/we perform exceptionally.

i am not interested in the unique intricacies of my brain in comparison to some imagined non-gifted or non-autistic counterpart for the same reason i am not interested in finding imaginary genetic markers for "homosexuality" –– these ontological obsessions are actually very dark & sinister & eugenic at bottom, something you yourself refer to when you claim "autistic senses of justice" (as it were) are "very developed". (i won't go into an analysis of international development discourse in relation to individualized human development, but like....read about colonialism and so-called 'child races' ok?).

sure, i have difficulty functioning in a social world ableist by design, but this doesn't mean i am simply an alien who ought to be living in 3025. it means i share the responsibility of each person to use my unique gifts to improve the world as it is. that is how i want to think about the word "gifted." beyond functioning labels, iq, or these weird delineations between "smart kids and dumb kids". we all have gifts, abilities, and talents unique to us. we have the chance in our lives to learn to use them to build the world we want. but it's only by abolishing hierarchies of intelligence that we can each be the best versions of ourselves and show up for each other.

#ableism #ask #anonymous #eugenics

66 notes · View notes

dendriticheep · 10 days ago

Text

Just some of my thoughts on Touya. Please take them with a grain of salt.

When Touya woke up from his three-year coma, he found himself in a completely different body, at a different stage of development.

Puberty is something most people go through gradually. For Touya, it happened while he was unconscious. He woke up with a new voice, new height, a physically matured body, and on top of that, severe burn scars that permanently changed his appearance.

Waking up looking so different, even disfigured, would likely trigger body dysmorphia and identity issues. His reflection wouldn’t look or feel like “him.” It would feel like looking out through someone else's eyes.

And in his new reflection he would see reminder of the fire, of everything he lost, and a symbol of his father’s betrayal.

Touya had already shown signs of emotional instability as a child. He was intense, and highly reactive. He lashed out emotionally and physically. He became obsessed with earning his father’s approval. He struggled to make friends and grew dependent on his younger brother for emotional support. To put that into perspective, when Touya was thirteen, Natsuo was only nine or ten. A little kid trying to carry the emotional burden of his eldest brother's breakdown.

These traits didn’t go away. If anything, they worsened. A three year coma, intense physical and emotional trauma, would all affect his ability to regulate emotion.

The part of his brain responsible for empathy and decision making may be stunted. Severe and prolonged trauma can freeze emotional growth. That means he is left with the emotional intelligence of a scared, angry and reactive teenager.

Dabi doesn’t see the world as it is. He sees it through the lens of someone who was abandoned and betrayed. That shapes everything he believes.

I've mentioned cognitive distortions in the past... here are a few examples he falls into:

All-or-Nothing Thinking People are either good or evil. Heroes are fake. His father is a monster. There is no room for nuance or complexity.

Overgeneralization Because he was hurt, the entire hero system must be corrupt.

Emotional Reasoning Because he feels unloved and angry, he believes he is unloved and the world is cruel.

These distortions form a warped worldview. In reality, he is loved by his family. Not every hero is corrupt. The world isn’t black and white. But Dabi can’t see that, because his pain filters everything.

Dabi treats “Todoroki Touya” like he really is dead. When the pain became unbearable, he built a new identity to carry that weight. He defines himself entirely by what he has lost and what he intends to destroy.

He keeps his scars visible, and even amplifies them with piercings (the ears and nose, to match the staples), and low-cut shirts-- It becomes a core piece of his identity. 

When he appears on television it's with the message:

Look what your number one hero did to me.

Look at what your system creates.

 Immediately after the coma, he wanted to go home. He wanted to apologize for the way he had acted and the things he had said. He felt bad. He regretted it.

He loved Natsuo. He leaned on him. He cried to him nightly for comfort.

But after becoming Dabi, he openly wishes Natsuo would die, just so Endeavor can suffer more. His actions are deliberate. He doesn’t lash out blindly. He chooses to hurt people, including those he once loved. He's clever and can be methodical.

He weaponizes pain. If hurting someone innocent means he can get revenge on the one who hurt him, he will do it.

He has made peace with becoming a monster, so that he can control the ending. He does not see people as individuals anymore, but as tools and collateral.

But beneath everything, he just wanted his family to see him. He wanted his father to be proud. He wanted love and approval and acceptance... But he chose to destroy himself in pursuit of what he thought he wanted.

#character analysis #sort of?#character thoughts #text post #I've chosen not to name specific conditions or mental illnesses here #though I have some ideas that I feel suit him #I thought it would be good to be vague instead 🤔#it doesn't matter what it is only the symptoms don't you think #it's difficult to touch on those topics without upsetting someone

23 notes · View notes

cree-n-jewish-thoughts-returns · 16 days ago

Text

Okay, for those of you who do not know, the recent anti vaxx movement was started with this:

Here is the full article

Jessica McCarthy started the antivaxx movement of children, endangering our public safety, just trying to blame someone for her son not being "perfect".

She says quote from the article: "Looking at milestones, he hit pretty much every milestone. It wasn’t until after the MMR [measles, mumps and rubella vaccine] he started showing some regression — meaning not talking as much as he used to. In playgroup, he was more by himself. Kids would steal toys from him, and he didn’t even know they stole the toy. And I would think I just had the most polite little boy in the world who didn’t mind people that stole toys from him. Really, those were the first kind of behaviors that I look back now noticing."

As someone who spent 8 years studying child psychology, the milestones that she is referring to is at 12 months to 24 months range. This is where testing becomes a lot more focused on cognitive skills, development of verbal skills, and fine motor skills. Whereas milestones prior to 12 months are largely focused on health and gross (large) motor skills.this is typically when many parents/ doctors start to notice symptoms of autism in general. Study found here

There was no, and there still is no correlation between vaccines and autism. You can say the movement has changed, but at the end of the day... Mumps, measles, smallpox, polio etc.. All have vaccines because the diseases were ,and again, are killing people, especially young children. So please, if you are thinking about not vaccinating your kid, there is no crowd immunity to depend on anymore. There are so many non-vaxxers, that we eradicated diseases like mumps, measles, and polio. All of these are making a comeback since the recent movement, started by a celebrity needing someone to blame.

Eradicated Diseases Data

Study "The anti-vaccination movement: a regression in modern medicine"

To be clear, crowd immunity is only when the huge majority is immune to these diseases. Our parents were vaccinated, she herself (Jenny) was vaccinated. This movement started with a woman who actually would rather her child potentially die, than have autism. A woman who needed someone else to blame for her child being autistic. Good for you! So progressive!

This society has put more confidence in celebrities than professionals in the fields of work. It sounds like we have truly hit the dark ages of science again.

I can cite studies to support any scientific part of this post, just say the words.

#anti-vaccination in children movement #opinion piece supported with studies

19 notes · View notes

mariacallous · 2 years ago

Text

For Sander van der Linden, misinformation is personal.

As a child in the Netherlands, the University of Cambridge social psychologist discovered that almost all of his mother’s family had been executed by the Nazis during the Second World War. He became absorbed by the question of how so many people came to support the ideas of someone like Adolf Hitler, and how they might be taught to resist such influence.

While studying psychology at graduate school in the mid-2010s, van der Linden came across the work of American researcher William McGuire. In the 1960s, stories of brainwashed prisoners-of-war during the Korean War had captured the zeitgeist, and McGuire developed a theory of how such indoctrination might be prevented. He wondered whether exposing soldiers to a weaker form of propaganda might have equipped them to fight off a full attack once they’d been captured. In the same way that army drills prepared them for combat, a pre-exposure to an attack on their beliefs could have prepared them against mind control. It would work, McGuire argued, as a cognitive immunizing agent against propaganda—a vaccine against brainwashing.

Traditional vaccines protect us by feeding us a weaker dose of pathogen, enabling our bodies’ immune defenses to take note of its appearance so we’re better equipped to fight the real thing when we encounter it. A psychological vaccine works much the same way: Give the brain a weakened hit of a misinformation-shaped virus, and the next time it encounters it in fully-fledged form, its “mental antibodies” remember it and can launch a defense.

Van der Linden wanted to build on McGuire’s theories and test the idea of psychological inoculation in the real world. His first study looked at how to combat climate change misinformation. At the time, a bogus petition was circulating on Facebook claiming there wasn’t enough scientific evidence to conclude that global warming was human-made, and boasting the signatures of 30,000 American scientists (on closer inspection, fake signatories included Geri Halliwell and the cast of M*A*S*H). Van der Linden and his team took a group of participants and warned them that there were politically motivated actors trying to deceive them—the phony petition in this case. Then they gave them a detailed takedown of the claims of the petition; they pointed out, for example, Geri Halliwell’s appearance on the list. When the participants were later exposed to the petition, van der Linden and his group found that people knew not to believe it.

The approach hinges on the idea that by the time we’ve been exposed to misinformation, it’s too late for debunking and fact-checking to have any meaningful effect, so you have to prepare people in advance—what van der Linden calls “prebunking.” An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

When he published the findings in 2016, van der Linden hadn’t anticipated that his work would be landing in the era of Donald Trump’s election, fake news, and post-truth; attention on his research from the media and governments exploded. Everyone wanted to know, how do you scale this up?

Van der Linden worked with game developers to create an online choose-your-own-adventure game called Bad News, where players can try their hand at writing and spreading misinformation. Much like a broadly protective vaccine, if you show people the tactics used to spread fake news, it fortifies their inbuilt bullshit detectors.

But social media companies were still hesitant to get on board; correcting misinformation and being the arbiters of truth is not part of their core business model. Then people in China started getting sick with a mysterious flulike illness.

The coronavirus pandemic propelled the threat of misinformation to dizzying new heights. Van der Linden began working with the British government and bodies like the World Health Organization and the United Nations to create a more streamlined version of the game specifically revolving around Covid, which they called GoViral! They created more versions, including one for the 2020 US presidential election, and another to prevent extremist recruitment in the Middle East. Slowly, Silicon Valley came around.

A collaboration with Google has resulted in a campaign on YouTube in which the platform plays clips in the ad section before the video starts, warning viewers about misinformation tropes like scapegoating and false dichotomies and drawing examples from Family Guy and Star Wars. A study with 20,000 participants found that people who viewed the ads were better able to spot manipulation tactics; the feature is now being rolled out to hundreds of millions of people in Europe.

Van der Linden understands that working with social media companies, who have historically been reluctant to censor disinformation, is a double-edged sword. But, at the same time, they’re the de facto guardians of the online flow of information, he says, “and so if we’re going to scale the solution, we need their cooperation.” (A downside is that they often work in unpredictable ways. Elon Musk fired the entire team who was working on pre-bunking at Twitter when he became CEO, for instance.)

This year, van der Linden wrote a book on his research, titled Foolproof: Why We Fall for Misinformation and How to Build Immunity. Ultimately, he hopes this isn’t a tool that stays under the thumb of third-party companies; his dream is for people to inoculate one another. It could go like this: You see a false narrative gaining traction on social media, you then warn your parents or your neighbor about it, and they’ll be pre-bunked when they encounter it. “This should be a tool that’s for the people, by the people,” van der Linden says.

442 notes · View notes

evidence-based-activism · 4 months ago

Text

Patriarchal Culture Masterlist

To make my resources more accessible, I am now going to have separate posts linking to each of my feminism subcategories. These are intended to catalog my resource posts, not every post on my blog.

This is the masterlist for my #patriarchal culture tag, which includes (but is not limited to) posts on economic inequality, abortion, gender stereotypes, and the beauty industry.

Most of these posts are mine, but I will include the occasional resource from others.

Please see my main masterlist for other topics.

This post will be edited to include further resources, so check back on the original post link for updates. (Last update: 03/2025)

Prevalence and Impact of Patriarchy

Misogyny causes the loss of millions of women per year.

Around the world, many men endorse misogynistic beliefs and behaviors.

Economic Inequality

The gender pay gap still exists and is driven by the sexist structure of the workforce.

As women move into a field, the pay for that field drops, which is driven by devaluation of women and the sexist structure of the workforce.

Women do the majority of unpaid labor and their work is devalued and disregarded.

Women are equal or better corporate leaders than men.

Men still hold most economic power in the Western world.

There is substantial gendered economic inequality around the world.

Social and Legal Systems

Criminal justice:

There is not a criminal sentencing gap caused by sex.

Women who commit sexual assault do not get lighter sentences because they are women.

Marriage:

The benefits of marriage are much weaker for women than men, and may be eliminated by other social support networks.

Women’s career success is associated with divorce if the couple endorsed traditional views on gender or the woman is dissatisfied with the marriage, but not otherwise.

Men are more likely than women to leave their severely ill spouses.

Children/custody:

Child support and alimony are not discriminatory against men; they are simply extensions of the social contracts you agreed to.

Children raised by both parents, just their mother, just their father, or same-sex parents all have similar outcomes once adjusted for socioeconomic factors and life transitions.

Custody courts are not biased against men.

Politics:

Men still hold most political power in the Western world.

Women are equal or better political leaders than men.

There is not a sudden rightward shift in young men’s politics; men have simply always been more conservative than women.

Feminists opposed the male-specific draft.

The 4B movement is a female separatist movement, not a sex strike or political lesbianism.

Many countries have yet to ratify CEDAW: the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

Other:

There is not a boy’s education crisis.

People generally find women equally or more qualified than men to lead.

In the developing world, patriarchal religions are strongly associated with misogyny and homophobia.

Women’s mobility around the world is severely restricted either formally or informally.

Beauty Industry

Women are impacted more by body image issues and sexualization in society.

Misogyny has restricted women’s diets for millennia.

Young girls' clothes are sexualized.

There is a general attractiveness advantage for both men and women, except in some industries where attractiveness may actually harm women’s outcomes.

Women experience a general advantage when wearing makeup, except for in some male-dominated environments where it harms them.

The “choice” to wear makeup is simply acceding to the path of least resistance.

Makeup perpetuates capitalism, racism, sexism, and necessitates harm to the environment and animals.

Gender Stereotypes

Women are better drivers than men.

Women are better drivers even after adjusting for driving time/conditions.

Men do not have higher IQs than women.

Men are not better at mathematics/coding.

Men’s greater performance on cognitive tasks is eliminated when the stereotype threat against women is eliminated.

Men do not feel more sexual attraction than women.

Men’s and women’s sexual responses are more similar than commonly suggested.

Medical Misogyny

Abortion:

Abortion should be available because women have a right to bodily autonomy.

Access to abortion should not be restricted to women who have the “right” attitude about it.

There is much greater public support for abortion access now than in the past.

Forcing women to have children does nothing to address systemic issues in society.

Other:

Women are harmed during menstruation around the world.

Sexual Behavior

BDSM/Kink:

Roles in kink are heavily gendered, and men are generally more likely to engage in kink.

Submissiveness is associated with reduced sexual arousal in women.

Sexual dominance is not "biological," and such arguments are irrelevant anyway.

Sexual violence is common in BDSM.

The way society talks about sex often positions penetration as an act of dominance and being penetrated as submissive.

Consent:

Men understand nuance in consent; they simply find it convenient to pretend not to.

Incels make a choice to identify with a movement that encourages and perpetuates violence against women.

Sexual violence is not a sex act that is violent but a violent act that is sexual.

The responsive model of sexual attraction raises concerns about sexual coercion.

Other:

Men’s desire for a virgin partner is hypocritical.

The response to male and female victims and perpetrators is similar.

Birth control is more effective nowadays but still existed in history; motherhood is not a requirement of womanhood.

Commentary on the power differential in heterosexual sexual intercourse.

Biology vs Culture

There are no major differences between men’s and women’s brains.

A recent study using machine learning does not prove the idea of brain sex.

Biology does not explain gender stereotypes.

It is unlikely male sexual selection drove sexual dimorphism in humans.

History

There are many theories on the patriarchy’s origins, none of which are confirmed.

Men were not the sole builders of civilization, and such characterizations are misogynistic.

Men have erased women’s contributions from history.

Other

There is not a male-specific loneliness crisis, just a general loneliness epidemic.

Men commit suicide more often, but women attempt suicide more often; this difference is largely driven by differences in methodology.

Male circumcision is not equivalent to female genital mutilation.

All same-sex attracted people experience homophobia.

There is still child marriage in the USA.

#feminism #masterlist #patriarchal culture

25 notes · View notes

mywitchyblog · 11 months ago

Text

Shiftblr Supposed Toxicity and the Hypocrisy of Shiftok

Masterlist :

Disclaimer: It seems the "Shiftok exodus" wwhere shiftokers in fear of tiktok getting banned in the US has flocked to other platforms, tumblr included has begun, with people who haven’t been properly informed arriving from the cult-like environment of Shiftok.

Now, these individuals are attempting to declare that certain topics, like age and race changing, are fundamentally bad and are "calling us out" for discussing them. So, enjoy this essay I quickly put together in response.

If you wish to engage in discussion or debate, feel free to do so in the comments. However, if I see you resorting to insults, threats, or failing to argue without a trifecta of straw man, hasty generalization, and ad hominem fallacies, kindly get the hell off my page. I want nothing to do with that nonsense.

With that said, enjoy the essay—because I am definitely not done dealing with the mess that is Shiftok. And I would rather die than let Shiftblr turn into a Shiftok 2.0, driven by people who don’t know anything about shifting or who are trying to impose rigid, uninformed rules.

I never experienced any toxicity from shiftblr its a breath of fresh air compared to other thing.

Introduction: Understanding the Dynamics of Shifting Communities

In the world of reality shifting, there are vibrant communities across various platforms where shifters gather to share their experiences, discuss methods, and offer support.

Two of the most prominent spaces are Shiftblr on Tumblr and Shiftok on TikTok. However, these communities often clash over their views on certain shifting practices, particularly those involving age and race changing.

While Shiftok frequently accuses Shiftblr of normalizing unethical practices, a deeper look reveals a complex web of misunderstandings, double standards, and even hypocrisy within Shiftok itself.

Part 1: Shiftok’s Criticism of Shiftblr

Subpart A: Accusations of Normalizing Controversial Practices

Shiftok has repeatedly criticized Shiftblr for allegedly "normalizing" practices like age and race changing, which some in the TikTok community see as inherently problematic. They argue that by discussing and engaging in these practices, Shiftblr is promoting behavior that crosses ethical boundaries. Critics claim that age changing, especially when it involves shifting to a younger age, is morally dubious, while race changing is often labeled as cultural appropriation or fetishization.

However, these accusations are grounded in a shallow understanding of shifting and a refusal to engage with the nuanced realities of these practices. For instance, critics often fail to recognize that age changing in shifting is not about retaining adult consciousness in a younger body but fully immersing oneself in the mindset, maturity, and emotional framework of the desired age in the new reality (Desired Reality or DR). As said in my essay about age changing, maturity is linked to the brain’s development, and when you shift, your consciousness aligns with the age-appropriate cognitive functions of your DR self. This immersion means you are not simply an adult pretending to be a child; you truly embody the age and life stage of your DR self.

Similarly, race changing in shifting is not about superficial role-playing or exploiting another culture. Instead, it’s a profound experience where shifters fully immerse themselves in the cultural, emotional, and even historical aspects of the new identity. As explained in my essay about race changing, shifters experience the world through the lens of their new racial identity, gaining insights and understanding that are impossible to achieve from a distance. This isn’t about "trying on" a race; it’s about fully inhabiting and understanding a different cultural perspective, often leading to increased empathy and a deeper commitment to social justice in the Original Reality (OR).

Subpart B: The Reality of Shiftblr’s Approach

Shiftblr is not about promoting controversial practices recklessly; instead, it’s a space where shifters are encouraged to explore their identities responsibly and thoughtfully. Reality shifting is deeply personal, and Shiftblr recognizes the importance of allowing individuals to explore different ages, races, and life experiences as part of their self-discovery and healing process.

Encouraging Ethical Exploration: Shiftblr emphasizes the importance of approaching age and race changing with respect and a deep understanding of the implications involved. The community provides nuanced guidance, encouraging shifters to engage in these practices not out of curiosity or fetishization but as a means of personal growth, healing, and empathy development. For example, age changing can help individuals relive experiences they missed or heal from past traumas by allowing them to experience life from a different perspective. Similarly, race changing can offer profound insights into the lived experiences of different racial groups, challenging biases and fostering a deeper understanding of cultural dynamics.

Criticism Stemming from Misunderstandings: The criticisms from Shiftok often stem from a failure to understand these deeper motivations. By shutting down conversations about age and race changing, Shiftok not only stifles personal growth but also misses the opportunity to engage in meaningful discussions about the ethical implications of these practices. Instead of fostering an environment of open dialogue, Shiftok’s approach often results in gatekeeping and the suppression of diverse perspectives, leading to a less inclusive and supportive community.

Part 2: The Hypocrisy of Shiftok

Subpart A: Cult-Like Behavior and Double Standards

While Shiftok is quick to condemn Shiftblr for allegedly normalizing controversial practices, the TikTok shifting community often engages in behaviors that are equally, if not more, problematic. Shiftok operates much like a cult, where popular shifters dictate what is considered acceptable, and anyone who challenges these norms is ostracized or harassed.

The Cult of Popularity: On Shiftok, certain figures have amassed large followings and set the tone for what is deemed "correct" within the community. This creates a toxic environment where conformity is enforced, and dissenting voices are silenced. The double standards in how Shiftok approaches different types of shifts are particularly glaring. For instance, shifts into fictional characters or races, even those involving ethically questionable scenarios (such as becoming a vampire who preys on humans), are widely accepted and even celebrated. Yet, shifts involving real-world races or age changes are harshly criticized and labeled as unethical.

Romanticizing Fictional Oppression: Shiftok’s hypocrisy is further highlighted by its acceptance of shifts into fictional races that face oppression or discrimination, such as the Na’vi from "Avatar" or mutants from "The X-Men." These shifts involve experiencing fictional forms of racism or societal prejudice, yet they do not receive the same scrutiny as shifts involving real-world racial experiences. This romanticization of fictional oppression trivializes real-world struggles and reveals a lack of critical thinking about the ethical implications of different types of identity shifts.

Double Standards in Age Changing: A particularly stark example of Shiftok’s double standards can be seen in their attitudes towards age changing. As discussed in my essay about age changing, there is a significant double standard when teenage shifters criticize adults for aging down while they themselves often age up in their Desired Realities (DRs) to experience adult situations. Teenage shifters frequently shift into realities where they are married adults with children and engage in mature content, yet they are quick to condemn adults who wish to revisit their youth. This inconsistency not only highlights the hypocrisy in their arguments but also exposes a lack of understanding about the nature of shifting and the fluidity of identity across different realities.

Subpart B: Judgmental Attitudes and Lack of Empathy

The judgmental attitudes prevalent in Shiftok are often rooted in ignorance and a superficial understanding of shifting practices. Many in the TikTok community are quick to condemn those who engage in age or race changing without taking the time to understand the motivations behind these practices or the depth of the shifters' experiences.

Misunderstanding the Immersive Nature of Shifting: Critics often fail to recognize that reality shifting involves complete immersion in the new reality. When a shifter changes their age or race, they do not merely adopt the appearance of a different identity—they fully embody the mindset, emotions, and cultural context of that identity. For example, shifters who engage in race changing experience life from the perspective of their new racial identity, including the societal challenges and cultural nuances that come with it. This is not a superficial act but a profound, empathetic engagement with another way of being.

Hostility Towards Different Perspectives: The hostile environment on Shiftok discourages open discussions about controversial practices, leading to a community that is less supportive and more divisive. Shifters who explore different identities or challenge the status quo are often met with harsh criticism and even harassment. This attitude stifles personal growth and limits the potential for meaningful, transformative experiences within the community.

Part III-Further Delving into Age and Race Changing: A Complex and Misunderstood Practice

Subpart A-Age Changing: The Healing Power of Revisiting the Past

Age changing in shifting is often misunderstood and unfairly criticized. Critics argue that shifting to a younger age is inherently inappropriate, especially when it involves romantic or sexual relationships. However, this criticism ignores the reality that when shifters age down, they fully adopt the cognitive and emotional framework of their younger self in the DR. As said in my essay about age changing, this process involves a complete alignment with the DR self's maturity, making the experience age-appropriate within the context of that reality.

Healing and Exploration: Aging down allows shifters to relive experiences they missed or to heal from past traumas. It offers a second chance at life stages that may have been marred by anxiety, trauma, or missed opportunities. For many, this practice is not about escapism but about gaining a deeper understanding of themselves and finding healing through immersive experiences in different life stages.

Subpart B-Race Changing: Fostering Empathy and Understanding

Race changing is another practice that is frequently misunderstood and criticized. Detractors often accuse shifters of cultural appropriation or fetishization, but this perspective overlooks the profound potential for personal growth and empathy development that race changing offers.

Immersive Cultural Engagement: When shifters change their race, they do not merely adopt the physical characteristics of another race—they immerse themselves fully in the cultural, emotional, and historical aspects of that identity. This experience allows shifters to gain insights into racial dynamics, challenge their own biases, and develop a deeper understanding of different cultural perspectives.

Addressing Concerns About Appropriation: Critics often argue that race changing constitutes cultural appropriation, but this argument fails to account for the deeply immersive and empathetic nature of the practice. Unlike superficial acts of cultural appropriation, race changing in shifting involves a comprehensive engagement with the new identity, including the challenges and discrimination that may come with it. This immersive experience fosters genuine understanding and empathy, rather than reinforcing stereotypes or trivializing cultural experiences.

IV-How Shiftok Has Harmed the Reality Shifting Community

Shiftok’s approach to shifting has had a detrimental impact on the broader shifting community. By prioritizing trend-driven, superficial practices over deep, meaningful exploration, Shiftok has contributed to the erosion of community knowledge and the spread of misinformation. As said in my essay about how Shiftok destroyed shifting, the TikTok community’s focus on popularity and aesthetics has led to a decline in the quality of information shared, with many shifters abandoning the platform in search of more supportive and knowledgeable communities.

Surface-Level Engagement: Shiftok’s emphasis on aesthetics and trend-following has reduced reality shifting to a series of shallow practices that lack depth and substance. Instead of encouraging shifters to engage with their experiences on a meaningful level, Shiftok promotes a surface-level engagement that prioritizes what’s popular over what’s personally meaningful. This shift in focus has led to a homogenization of shifting practices, where only certain types of shifts are considered "acceptable," stifling creativity and personal growth.

Toxic Environment: The cult-like behavior on Shiftok has created a toxic environment where dissenting voices are silenced, and critical thinking is discouraged. Shifters who challenge the mainstream views or explore controversial topics like age and race changing are often harassed or ostracized. This stifles open dialogue, limits the potential for collective learning, and alienates individuals seeking support and understanding within the community.

Conclusion: Embrace the Full Experience of Shifting

In conclusion, Shiftblr is not about "normalizing" controversial practices for the sake of it; it’s about fostering a community where shifters can explore the full spectrum of human experience in a meaningful, ethical, and transformative way. The accusations from Shiftok are rooted in misunderstandings, fallacies, and a hypocritical approach to shifting that fails to recognize the depth and complexity of these practices.

While Shiftok operates like a cult, enforcing conformity and punishing those who deviate from the norm, Shiftblr provides a space for thoughtful, nuanced discussions about the ethics and implications of shifting. Whether it’s exploring different ages, races, or entirely new realities, Shiftblr emphasizes the importance of respect, understanding, and a willingness to learn.

Shifting is a personal journey, one that should not be limited by narrow-minded judgments or superficial ethics. By embracing the full experience of shifting, including the challenging and controversial aspects, shifters can engage in a journey of self-discovery and growth that is truly transformative. It’s time for Shiftok to take a step back, recognize their own hypocrisy, and allow for the open, thoughtful exploration that Shiftblr encourages.

#reality shifting #desired reality #shiftblr #shifting #shifting community #shifters #shifting realities #reality shift #reality shifter #shifting antis dni #shifting reality #shifting blog #shifting motivation #shifting consciousness #shifter #Shiftok is back at it again #this aint surprising at this point

87 notes · View notes