#deprogram

[netscapenavigator-official]

Watching Marques Brownlee get crucified for posting a video of himself doing 90+ in a 35 mph zone, when I’ve had all of his channels on “Do Not Recommend” for years:

[aryanvieon]

sylveon is a libertarian

[jaynasti69]

Reprogram Visualizer Video

[omegaversereloaded]

my parents, who have been calling me a delusional terrorist for my socialist views since high school, told me yesterday that i'm being brainwashed into believing that corporations are bad by "extremist podcasts"

[freakoutgirl]

said this in the tags of my post before but I feel like it's worth repeating. the thing about this argument that leftists (and specifically feminists) being mean to cishet white men is what's driving them to the alt right is that it's ignoring the fact that these men have women in their lives who are already nice to them. they have mothers, sisters, aunts, coworkers, neighbors, even sometimes girlfriends and wives. there are very, very few men out there that are totally isolated from women that will treat them with kindness. and yet these men will still not see these women as people. they still vote to ban abortion, they will still feel entitled to women's time and bodies, they will still insult perceived "beta males" for not exhibiting their same behaviors. women's kindness does not have a significant material effect on their politics. as long as women will get jobs over men, as long as women are able to say "no" to men, as long as women assert they are people, there will be those men who choose (and I specify choose so people don't misinterpret this as saying it is an "immutable trait") to turn to patriarchal supremacy, and specifically white patriarchal supremacy as long as people of color also make any social headway. that's why the term "reactionary" exists.

[shen-jius-zoloft-prescription]

I love Shen Yuan as much as the next guy, but I think we in the fandom spaces give him a little too much credit sometimes. He's not Shen Jiu levels of absolute bastard, but he's also not great. And this is not me criticizing him!! I just think more people should love him for being the little brat that he is rather than the heroic, universally-kind saint that he decidedly is not.

He was a full-time internet troll whose main hobby outside reading web novels was going on rants in the comments. He uses slurs. Did we all just forget about the slurs? He did not grow out of that, or see the error of his message-board-harassment ways, he just lost his Internet connection. (He probably would have gotten points for being in character if he'd kept it up, though.)

He bends over backwards to protect Binghe, but he doesn't go to those lengths for literally anyone else, ever. He neglects his other students outright in favor of focusing solely on Binghe. He's not great with the disciples, he's just better comparatively enough to make you think he is.

He's amiable enough to build friendships as Shen Qingqiu, but he's not Miss Fucking Congeniality. He's just polite, and passively friendly in super normal ways. "Be nice to martial siblings," and "Don't kill that snake, it's not bothering anyone," are very normal levels of decency, and he gets SO MUCH CREDIT for it, mostly because the expectations for him were set so damn low by Shen Jiu.

I think my main evidence of "Shen Yuan is an asshole, actually" is how he continues to treat Shang Qinghua after finding out they're transmigrators together. Shang Qinghua is just as doomed by the narrative as he is, just as controlled and manipulated by the System as he is, but he's so fucking mean to Shang Qinghua about it, even though he couldn't have possibly known they would end up transmigrated and certainly wasn't responsible for putting them there. He has no empathy whatsoever for the fact that Shang Qinghua was forced to make his magnum opus into porn-riddled slop because he would otherwise have literally starved; spoiled rich boy meets his friend's "I would have starved!" explanation with a very [image of Paris Hilton wearing a shirt that says "Stop Being Poor"] energy. And he just never stops being so fucking mean all the time, about everything, to his best friend. I would not be friends with Shen Yuan if that's how I could expect him to treat me.

(side note that will get its own post: I also think the portrayal of Shang Qinghua throughout SVSSS is an example of Shen Yuan's unreliable narration.)

All this to say, he's a sheltered, spoiled rich boy with layers on layers of issues, who still managed to be exponentially better at his job than the guy who'd earned it in the first place.

And maybe that's what's fun to consider, as least for me, is that his goodness is assumed purely on the comparison between him and Shen Jiu; he was meant to be the Scum Villain, found guilty of all sorts of heinous acts, and therefore he's lauded as a perfect sweet baby angel because he settles for just being a little bit of a bitch, instead.

(Maybe the larger takeaway can be that PIDW is a horrible, wretched, unkind world, and therefore the bare minimum of kindness counts as being truly saint-like. 🤔 But that's also a different post, I think.)

[diningwiththeasquiths]

Need something like this to happen 😂

[kaiyax1]

I made a doc of every gravity falls au I could remember, here’s the link if you want to add any or if you know who made one of the au’s I didn’t know who made. gravity falls aus are my hyperfixation.

[strawlessandbraless]

Dean: I’m glad you’re here man

Cas: *leaves*

[ndostairlyrium]

Ankh Lavellan / Cullen Rutherford | 1616 words | Comfort not hurt | CW: depressive episode, mental health discussion, child abandonment

In which Cullen doesn't feel like going out in the world out of guilt and not feeling enough, Lav goes all the way to comfort him

Non Oggi

Laid down, eyes fixated on a small flower pot, fluffy blanket covering his waist.

He could put on the second layer of under armor, before the ennuie hit him in the shoulders. Those relaxed, along with his muscles, but as anticipated, that wasn’t the good kind of relaxation.

It simply wasn’t a good day to be a human, and Cullen felt like dropping everything he was doing and returned to bed. To stare at the void. It just happened to be manifested by a minuscule sprout of basil, cradled by a terracotta vase.

There his brain just started spinning, making every system of his body malfunction until a complete shut down.

And so Lavellan had found him in such condition, after Ser Rylen - who was expecting a report – confessed that he was worried. No sarcasm needed, and that in return worried her.

The ladder wasn’t put down as always, ceiling hatch was sealed shut, so she just went outside and climbed the wall until reaching the hole in the upper ceiling. Descending for her was as easy as climbing, due to her background of perching in the worst places at the worst timing, even though the echo of Ser Rylen’s “Can you check on him?” had reached her feet, betraying her balance a couple of times.

When she landed, Cullen didn’t even flinch.

She took a couple of seconds to observe what looked like the very depiction of Emperor Drakon on his death bed, as pictured in the vestibule of the Winter Palace. Then, her eyes wandered and found his armor, his second skin, scattered on the bed. That painted a more realistic picture of what was going on.

“Can I help?” she asked. No answer. “Hungry?” Again, no answer.

She got closer, to see if the jug of water he kept close to bed was in need of a refill, then she started to collect all the armor pieces, to place them on the mannequin near the window covered in ivy. When the time of lucidity would come, Cullen would hate himself more if he saw them scattered around so carelessly.

That kindness grabbed his attention.

“That goes on the left,” he said, voice crackling like a walk on gravel.

Lavellan rolled her eyes, then moved the arm-guard to the right place. “I was testing if you were paying attention.” “I’m always paying attention.” “Because you’re a control freak.” “Says the pot to the kettle.”

Lavellan would have loved to face him, but she forced herself not to. Instead, she just kept tidying his space like he would, because she knew that the idea of her acknowledging his malfuncioning and giving him – even if by accident – the wrong stare would break him for good.

“I warned the girls to not expect us at Council,” she explained. “Cassandra is covering for us. It’s just trivial matters anyway.”

Cullen took a few moments to elaborate an answer. “You should go back.”

Lavellan turned in his direction, putting on the most neutral face she could wear. No eye contact, just yet. “Do you want me to go back?” she asked.

His weariness looked a lot like apathy. “You need to.”

The thought of holding her back overcame his needs. Lavellan was aware of that. And that’s why she laid down at his side with no hesitation.

She glanced at his back, then sighed. “I’d rather be with you,” she said.

Cullen would usually snap back, scold her, or give whatever retort he would think would work on her. In that case, he just accepted in silence what was happening, too tired to compute.

“You’re the most annoying person I know,” he murmured after a while.

Lavellan smirked. “Ah, you like it!”

He did. Just like he liked being held, which she was, gently.

His brain didn’t stop ruminating, though. A hug was too little to make his thoughts stop. But her arm resting on his hip and her face pressed between his shoulder blades did a good deal of helping.

Lavellan made it sure to avoid being too invasive. Her presence already broke the intimacy of his pain, something he had been guarding since before they’ve met. Trying to talk things out, or force any kind of contact, would do the exact opposite of supporting the man she loved.

Luckily, he didn’t push her away.

“I’m sorry you’re here,” he said, after a full hour of silence. Lavellan explored the back of his neck with her eyes. “I want to be here, vhenas.” “I’m wasting your time.” “How come?”

Cullen paused for a moment. “You should have a reliable colleague, a decent partner, a… different person to deal with,” he explained. His voice had a little hint of frustration in its overall monotony. “And I’m just here, in bed. Avoiding… avoiding.” “You can’t work on sheer will alone, vhenas. Sometimes laying in bed is enough.” “Not that kind of “enough” I’m expected to be.” “And who set that expectation?”

Cullen had a hard time replying, even though the answer was simple as breathing.

Lavellan helped him out instantly. “Look, you’ve been working harder than anyone here, to prove you’re enough. And trust me, nobody outside your head is thinking that you don’t deserve to be here, or that your work is meaningless.” “Ask any mage I’ve hurt, or any templar that thinks I’m a traitor.” “Do you feel like one?” “It’s more complex than that, you know it.” “Yes, I’m aware,” she paused. “Look, I know you feel like you need to show you’ve learnt from your past, but you’re just at the beginning of your path. Taking a break to just exist doesn’t mean you’re not putting an effort into it.” “I know I’m not or you wouldn’t be here, trying to comfort-” “Go fuck yourself, vhenas.” He sighed. “Thanks," he said. And he meant it. Lavellan placed a soft kiss on the nape of his neck. “I got you.”

They embraced silence again for a while, only thoughts buzzing in the atmosphere. “The work we’re doing here,” Cullen resumed “we’re making a difference and I want to believe that I am different.”

“Speaking from experience, vhenas, nobody changes. Context does, our priorities do. You’re still that person, looking at the world from a different perspective,” she said, her voice calm however firm. “But you’re not entirely there, and I get why it’s so frustrating, but… vhenas, you need to give yourself some grace, or this kind of second guessing will chain you to this bed forever.”

Cullen absorbed her words partially, as he was still drowning in grey matter. He just knew she was right, but pain has pride and his happened to be very inflated.

Lavellan didn’t say a word, elaborating would give him more guilt. She just existed at his side, until he was ready to speak again.

After hours of buzzing silence, he turned around to face her.

Wet cheeks, red eyes, not a single emotion on sight. “Can you stay a little longer?” he asked. At least, that’s what she thought he said, because his voice was so distorted she couldn’t make a distinction of his words.

“You know me, I’m persistent,” she replied, with the warmest smile. That was the exact moment to keep eye contact, and she never broke it.

“Annoying,” he corrected her. “Who’s the one brooding over self-inflicting martyrdom?” “Fuck you, Lav.”

She chuckled, he gave her the faintest smile in return.

“Weird to hearing from you that people don’t change.” “Oh, we do, but not in the way that you’d think. You, for example, will always make a terrible use of irony.” “Not helping.” “And you will always have the same passion you had at thirteen. That’s something you can’t change. It’s like your curls, they’re part of you, even when you straighten them.” “But a shrub can’t become a tree.” “A shrub can’t be as tall, but it can be larger.” “You know what I mean.” “As do you.”

He sighed. “I don’t want to stick with that guy.”

“Well, I don’t want to stick with the girl I was either,” she shrugged. “I’ve been making mistakes since I was born, I myself am a mistake by being born and the only thing I can do about it is to dye my hair, otherwise I would look like my father. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to accept these things, and sometimes it gets so overwhelming I feel like every person I know would be better if I wasn’t in their life.”

“That’s… absolutely not fair.”

“See? That’s the point. When thoughts like that hit, I can’t stop my brain from spiraling downwards. Eventually, it reaches some kind of climax, and everything resumes as normal.”

Cullen couldn’t hold back a giggle, that he tried to cover as best as he could. The results were horrible, of course. “So, your brain climaxes when you’re depressed. That explains a lot.”

Lavellan kicked his shins playfully. “Next time you have an existential crisis I’m throwing you a bucket of water!” “Sounds about fair.”

Cullen curled onto her, burying his face on her shoulder as he wrapped her in a hug. Something would come out of his mouth, but she wasn’t entirely sure of anything else but its practical meaning. Lavellan held him tight, as his body seemed undecided if accepting to be comforted or refusing such an undeserved favor. “Just let it spin. I’ll keep you from falling,” she said. He nodded, lightly. “I’m sor-” he paused. “Thanks for being here.”

Relieved, Lavellan let out a sigh. “Thanks for letting me in.” “You broke and entered.” “You know what I mean.” “As do you.”

She held him tighter.

[busket]

severance was pitched to me as "sci fi workplace story where the employees have different memories between their job and personal life, they just switch to a different persona at work" and that's interesting and was enough to make me wanna watch but if I had been told it was about deprogramming from a cult, and seeking the difficult truth of how you have been used i would have sat my ass down and watched it IMMEDIATELY because that is my very favorite trope

[unitedfrontvarietyhour]

"I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land."

- Mark Twain

Time for some star-spangled history lessons, comrades!

[falafels]

on my thea muldani triplet bullshit once again

[thecluelessdoctor]

He's cool I'm sorry.

[oatmealaddiction]

On the note of "I don't think this is feminists fault for being too mean" it's crazy how many people have kind of forgotten the history of Leftist Youtubers and how they were treated if they said nice things about women? Like if you're an Hbomberguy fan who knows him from his Gaming Videos, you'd probably be surprised to hear that he actually got his start with Feminist vlogging and defending feminists from insane hatemobs online—and the men who came after him were actually pretty vicious in their harassment against him, calling him all kinds of names online and making tons of videos about him being genetically inferior. Dan Olsen—of Folding Ideas—also was bullied out his job, doxxed, and accused of being a child predator because he made a video about online anti-feminists. They harassed him, his employer, and his friends for weeks. Like, these are two white cis guys who just made videos like "Hey I think harassing women is wrong," and didn't say anything about "I hate men" or "being a man is bad" and yet somehow that showed up in a lot of their critics rhetoric—particularly with how the two of them were called disgraces to masculinity. Like, IDK, to me it kinda seems like this isn't really about men feeling alienated by anti-male rhetoric, and is more about men feeling alienated by any criticism of patriarchal values and misogynist ideals.

[only-knives]

i think one of the most damaging things i was told in AA was that i was the common denominator in all my problems (i.e, trauma & injustices). i remember the first time someone said it to me. i'll never forget the feeling of heartbreak and betrayal and how it was swiftly replaced by thoughts like "i guess they're right. i am the problem." i think i just mumbled softly "yeah" or "oh" in reply.

like. they say not to wallow in pity or guilt or whatever, that addiction isn't a moral issue, etc etc. but then say shit like that. i've flat out been told that i'm the problem. and every time, it's said so happily and earnestly - as if they're just being a good, honest friend who wants to help. and i think they truly believe that's what they're doing.

but. shit, man. after my ex DARVO'd me a few weeks ago i was a sobbing mess, repeating to myself over and over that i'm the problem. now. i'm seeing how many times i used the things I learned in AA to blame myself for feeling hurt by literally anything he said or did. i thought i deserved it. i genuinely thought i deserved it. it even had me blaming myself for shit my dad does again.

fucked as hell man =/ self-empowerment is so much better than treating myself like a walking sin, inherently broken and in need of saving. i deserve better than that.