#secular stuff

[farsight-the-char]

Thinking about how the terms "X% Hitler" and "Hitler Particles" technically could mean similar things, but have such a vastly different users and context.

The "Percentage" usually being used to rationalize fascist action and/or policy to "prevent worse fascism", siding with a theoretically lesser evil.

While the "Particle" is inspired by a Trotsky quote:

Not every exasperated petty bourgeois could have become Hitler, but a particle of Hitler is lodged in every exasperated petty bourgeois.

About noting the tendency for certain political groups to align to fascism.

...

I find the contrast interesting and also morbid.

[farsight-the-char]

this is why you Need engineers at philosophy conferences.

[delusionalbitchinthehouse]

So are we going to make Haze a freak or not because I want her to collect bones from suspicious origin and wear them as jewlery.

Also I want her to know a lot about watch/clockmaking. I want her to have a collection of watches she either made, fixed or customized. Some of them have too many hands and seem to show anything but the time, but whatever logic there is behind it, Haze understands it and checks them regularly. Some are intricate and beautiful, with details painstakingly arranged so the watch becomes a literal work of art.

I want her to be a ghoulette summoned around Secondo's time, who was initially just there to take care of the many ancient clocks around the Ministry.

Idk I have many thoughts about my girl.

[stormofdefiance]

I wanted to share some wee thoughts about Ratio’s E6 art & why I believe it is a symbolic parallel to Michelangelo’s David. This speaks to both Ratio’s humanist beliefs and possible future plot points.

Ratio’s E6 is Vincit Omnia Veritas or Truth Conquers All. I’ve heard it claimed (although I have no idea if it’s explicitly stated anywhere?) that the character’s E6 art represents them at their innermost core, an honest and deeply vulnerable shard of themselves. Evoking David here is an interesting choice; the biblical figure who, using nothing but a stone and sling, took down the tyrannical Goliath. The parallel is perhaps as simple as this: Ratio views himself - and by extension the truth - as the underdog, someone never accepted into the Genius society, forever to be kept from Nous and THEIR gaze, but nonetheless will, in the end, prove himself the final victor. Truth will topple the seemingly unconquerable, whatever that might be.

But I also think Michelangelo’s David is a specifically interesting parallel to draw on from a historical perspective. Ratio is pretty much the textbook definition of a renaissance man - he is a philosopher, a scholar, interested in medicine and science and the vast array of human achievement. He speaks in Latin (the language of education during the renaissance in Europe that allowed the transmission of information without having to rely on translation) while heavily styling himself on Ancient Greek symbols and drawing from Greek philosophy (often seen at the time as more ‘sophisticated’ and interested in ‘wisdom’ than the contemporary ‘militaristic’ Romans).

Michelangelo’s David was the first colossal marble statue to be carved since antiquity, and it came to be a symbol of the renaissance itself. This is interesting to me for Ratio and what I believe are his humanist beliefs. Humanism was an ideal that propagated during the renaissance that championed the belief that man had beauty, dignity and worth that deserved as much respect and adoration as any deity. Keep in mind this philosophy was emerging following the Middle Ages and at a time where religious institutions across Europe held exorbitant and sometimes absolute power. David as a statue is an ode to the sublime beauty of the human body, completely unashamed and uninhibited in his gigantic nakedness (Doctor! You’re huge!) retaliating against the idea that prominent idea at the time that man’s body is inherently sinful. The humanists sought to recenter humanity, and David became a symbol of man’s independence against the seemingly unconquerable might of the Church.

Consider how Ratio centres humanity in his Simulated Universe project, how he values every life, how interested he is in constant self-improvement. How this symbol - of not just the renaissance but of the re-centring of humanity itself - becomes an echo of an effigy fixed in the centre of his soul.

Ratio has never - as far as I’m aware? - stated or hinted at any desire to overthrow the Aeons or even disparage or rubbish them, but it is clear to me that he believes in the strength man can draw on despite them, through sheer force of intelligence and clever planning and fiercely independent thought, the weak can ultimately overcome, or at least stand shoulder to shoulder with, the strong. Perhaps this will become a more pertinent plot point in the future - who knows? - but this was fun to chew through nonetheless 🫶

[malefixium]

White women, please listen up.

[farsight-the-char]

This is like a Doctor Who episode, a bad one.

It would make an okay Star Trek episode, though controversial.

They've managed to automate heresy now!

[internetgiraffekid1673]

Some Boy-Scout-isms

Home from work sick today, and I wanna share something with ya'll that I feel is a fairly unique experience: My scout-isms. SO many of the things I say is language I picked up in Boy Scouts, but it's subtle enough that I don't think people realize that's why I'm saying it.

I'm an eagle scout, right? I was in the BSA for 5 years, all throughout middle and high school. I made some of my closest life friends there, was mentored by a ton of truly incredible people, had some of the worst challenges and experiences of my life, and ultimately came out on the other side as a better and deeply changed person. It was critical to my development as a human being, to the point that the name I use online (Abby) is my nickname from scouts.

It was also a BLAST. My patrol was like my second family and we were all a bunch of chaotic little shits who spent WAY too much time around each other. The BSA organization in general is also just a great structure to do a lot of really fun things.

One of those really fun things is the BSA vernacular. This is one of the things that is SUPER off putting to "outsiders." It's sort of like walking into a tight knit group of friends who speak in a lot of movie quotes, but you haven't seen any of the movies.

Today, I am here to "show you the movies" or let you all in on some of the jokes that you can find in scouts. While some of these are found in hust about any troop, some of them are inside jokes that were specific to my troop.

This will be subsectioned and cut because it will get long, since I'll have to explain scouting culture along the way. This is also by NO MEANS a comprehensive list because HOLY CRAP there's a lot.

Call and Response:

Being an organization that had it's roots in military training, there are a lot of call and response phrases in scouting. The typical way you're introduced to these as a new scout is simply hearing everyone say the response in reaction to the call phrase without telling you anything. Eventually you'll catch on and start adding your own phrases. Here are some of the most common ones from my troop:

Call: "Everybody stand up!"

Response: "STAND UP? I LOVE standing up! It's my favorite thing to do!"

Common Permutations:

"STAND UP? I LOVE standing up! It's my THIRD favorite thing to do! After laying down and sitting!"

"STAND UP? I HATE standing up! Screw you [caller's name]"

"SIT DOWN? I LOVE sitting down! It's my favorite thing to do! No seriously, thank goodness!"

Call: "I liked it"

Response: "WE liked it! A lot!"

Call: "Fashion Show! Fashion Show!"

Response: everybody joins in on the chant, but half the group inevitably splits off into "SHOW THE FASHION! SHOW THE FASHION!"

Call: the buzzword "delegation" which would inevitably get interrupted with

Response: "DICTATORSHIP! In fact---communism! The best choice I ever made!"

Response to the response: "No, you mean the best choice WE ever made!"

Notes: This one is troop specific and part of an ongoing and long-winded series of jokes about whether our scout troop was a democracy or a dictatorship and whether or not delegation was code for "I don't want to."

Call: "We're gonna sing a song!"

Response: "A song! A song! We're gonna sing a song, HEY!"

Notes: almost always immediately followed by the "stand up" call

Call: You are all "DIS---"

Proper Response: "MISSED!" This makes it so the full phrase is Dismissed.

Common Permutations:

"MISSED SIR!"

"MISSED MARCY!"

". . . ." ". . . ." "StrACtEd sIr!" *voice crack required*

"ASEMBLING!" Followed by running in different directions like a rat swarm.

"MEMBERED!"

"COMBOMBULATED!"

Honestly anything you could add a "dis" prefix to, but my favorite is definitely the one I always used when I was in charge directly after a campout:

"GUSTING all of you go shower!"

Call: "Ooooooh!"

Response: "Aaaaaaah! Neato!"

Alt Response: "Aaaaaaahhhh! Dang, that's a hot unit!"

Call: "SHHHHHH"

Response: *rhythmically, while holding a three fingered scout salute up to your mouth with each beat* "SH SH SH SH SH SH"

Notes: Only ever employed by my patrol (the girls patrol). One time, when the whole troop was getting lectured by the scoutmaster, the 7 year-old younger sister of one of my patrol members (who was also the scoutmaster's daughter) took it upon herself to keep us all shut up. She did so by holding the Spirit Stick and marching up and down in front of us going "SH SH SH SH" with the scout sign to her lips like some sort of drill sergeant. It was so cute we all started doing it, and also really distracting from the whole lecture.

Patrol Cheers:

So for those of you who don't know, this is how BSA is structured:

Every subset of scouts in the same geographic area with the same chartered organization functions as a big group called the "unit." You all share the same number on your uniforms, and it includes the cub scouts, the boys troop, the girls troop, the venture troop, and the sea scouts (most places only have the first three). You'll all usually attend awards ceremonies and expos and parades and whatnots together, but each group usually doesn't interact much beyond that.

This is with the exception of the girls troop and the boys troop. While most locations that have a girls troop usually also have a boys troop, that's not true 100% of the time. It's up to each unit's discretion on how much the boys troop and the girls troop interacts, and it usually depends on how big those troops are. My girls troop had an average of 5 members and never had more than 8, so we functioned as just a patrol of the boys troop.

Patrols are what the troops break down into. These are smaller groups, usually sorted by age and skill level consisting of 3 to 8 members (hence why the girls troop was just a patrol of the boys one). These are the people you share tents with, share meals with, attend merit badge classes with, buddy up with, do skill levels and breakout groups with and are generally just Your People while in your scouts.

Generally, a troop will hold annual re-elections of their leadership. This re-election time also gives the patrols an opportunity to shuffle around in reaction to gaining or losing members or changing skill levels and whatnot. So like, if you got 10 cub scouts who graduated to the main troop that year, you're gonna have to make some new patrols. Similarly, if 5 of your members just graduated high school and aged out of scouting, you're gonna have to merge some patrols.

Whenever a patrol is formed, it needs a name! This name can be pretty much whatever you want, and lots of times, the patrol will get renamed at re-elections, even if the members don't change. The name is usually accompanied by a patrol patch though, so they can also stay fairly static throughout the years, so that the patch can be reused. It also comes with a patrol cheer and a patrol flag. While our troop never got around to making flags, we DID do cheers. You would yell your cheer whenever your patrol name was said in a meeting. These were all the patrols and all the cheers throughout my years in scouting:

The Book Thieves Patrol:

My patrol/the girls patrol! We made this name in honor of fact that we were all avid readers when I was 12, and it stuck. For all I know, it's still the name for the girls patrol even though all the original members have graduated!

Our cheer was a chime-in style with specific parts assigned to specific members. I'll just use their scout nicknames for this. Perhaps someday I'll explain them all.

Bob: "WE'LL STEAL YOUR BOOKS!"

Whole patrol: "AND YOUR MONEY!"

Me: "AND YOUR LEFT SHOE!" (Lilo and Stitch reference for those of you who are lost)

Eventually, the boys decided to get in on the action, and added their own parts:

South: "WHAT ABOUT THE RIGHT SOCK?"

Human Garbage Disposal: "YOU'LL DO YOUR BEST!" always followed by my patrol-mate:

Eugene Fitzherbert: "I'LL DO MY WORST" in the cowboy gun duel stance.

The Pakana Patrol:

This was always the name given to the oldest and most experienced boys patrol. They're named after the world war ii rescue tugboat that was operated by our founder's great grandfather. Subsequently, their cheer was:

"Pakana Pakana PAKANA PAKANA GUIDING YOU TO SAFETY!" Followed by a foghorn sound effect.

Eventually, because our scoutmaster's name was Karl, which led to copious quoting of the "KAR-EL that KILLS people" line, South (you're gonna notice him popping up a lot in my scout stories) would swap the foghorn for "KAR-EL"

The Fallout Duckies Patrol:

Not in formation for a particularly long time, and very seldom employed their cheer. This is because their cheer was a bomb sound effect and then dropping on the floor like they'd just died, which nobody has the energy for like 90% of the time.

The Samurai Patrol:

This patrol was "the other boys patrol" for my majority of time in scouting. They named themselves this in reference to getting their original scout skit "Mortal Kombat" banned---it was a truly riveting number where they just had a lightsaber fight with very big sticks for like 10 minutes.

Anyway, their cheer was to the tune of the Bill Nye Theme song and they'd all go: "Bill Nye the Samurai! BILL BILL BILL BILL BILL BILL BILL BILL---" and they'd keep chanting Bill until whoever was leading the meeting cut them off like a conducter.

The Airborne Patrol:

This is what the Samurai renamed themselves to about halfway through my scouting tenure. This was around the time the Book Thieves had the startling revelation that we had surpassed the Samurai in terms of experience and skill, even if we were still behind the oldest Pakanas.

Their cheer was "Tally Ho and look out below!" Which was very cute and fun.

The Crispy Bacon Ninjas or the CBN:

This is what the Airborne patrol became after pretty much all of the Airbornes had graduated to Pakanas and the patrol was now populated by 10-12 year old recent graduates from Cub Scouts.

They were also colloquially referred to as "The Beans" by my beloved patrol mate Captain Jack Sparrow, since they were all but 3 apples tall, which eventually caught on with other troop members.

Their cheer was "CRISPY BACON NINJAS! *ssssssss*" However, there was a running gag amongst other patrols where we came up with other things CBN could stand for. Since we were a bunch of teenagers, a lot of them were cannibalizm or dead babies jokes (or both), but the one that was used the most got it's own response to the regular cheer:

*stage whisper* "Creepy backyard neighbors! Shhhhhh!"

Odds and Ends:

Some other scouting vernacular that doesn't really fit into the call and response category.

The Announcements Song:

I think this is probably the most widely known outside of scouting. Basically, the word announcements reached such copious overuse in meetings that the BSA made a little annoying song to react to it. And then we added more verses. And then more verses. Someday, I will sing it in it's entirety. That will be the same day I get a good microphone and camera and can con like 4 or 5 other people into helping me sing scout songs, which I will record and publish for posterity.

Anyway, the first verse that everyone knows goes:

Announcements, ANNOUNCEMENTS, A-NOW-OUNCE-MENTS!

A horrible way to die!

A horrible way to die!

A horrible way to be talked to death, a horrible way to die!

Announcements, ANNOUNCEMENTS, A-NOW-OUNCE-MENTS!

It should be known I am INCAPABLE of hearing the word announcements without singing all 7 verses in my head. Thanks for nothing scouts!

Karl's Death Marches:

This one is troop-specific. Basically, the first time our troop ever went backpacking, there was rain and snow and hail and there wasn't a trail where there was supposed to be a trail. It was in the middle of July. It was a bona fide disaster that left us all completely worn out physically and emotionall. No, we did not get where we were supposed to be going.

Eventually, South started calling it "Karl's death march 1.0," and the name stuck. When we attempted the trip again the next year with MUCH better planning, that one was "Karl's death march 2.0." Subsequently, any time we went backpacking, we started referring to it as a Karl Death March. Karl's Winter Death March, Karl's Black Mountain Death March, Karl's Death March Day Hike, etc.

This got to the point where scoutmaster Karl actually carved us little turtles with custom shell patterns for each of us, strung them on paracord, and rewarded us with a skull bead for each death march we'd survived. Which, yes WOW, that was amazing! This is mine:

(It's got a giraffe with a music note because he knows me Very Well).

Various Scouting Cheers:

Instead of applauding like regular human beings, scout troops employ various hokey cheers instead, which is usually dictated by the Cheermaster. Some of the most common ones:

The ROUND of appluase: clapping your hands in a big circle

The Big Hand: Shoving your hand forcefully in front of you

The Clap and a Half: self explanatory

The Watermelon Cheer: You take your imaginary watermelon slice, you suck up all the fruit, and then you spit out all the seeds

The Banana Cheer: A little chant accompanied by miming the actions. The chant goes "PEEL bananas! PEEL PEEL! Bananas! EAT bananas! EAT EAT! Bananas! GO BANANAS! GO GO BANANAS!" and then the cheermaster runs off stage like a hooligan.

"RA RA REE! KICK EM IN THE KNEE! RA RA RASS! KICK EM IN THE OTHER KNEE!"

That's all for now! Like I said, this is far from a comprehensive list and have SO many fun scouting stories I could tell. Come and pester me about it on this post or anywhere else you like, and please chime in with some of your own troop vernacular!

Praying I get better, and peace out!

[kick-a-long]

Oooh boy.. . First Passover since I was 10 years old, run by me with just my husband and a rabbinical assembly Haggadah with no Hebrew phoneticly written. It’s a dress rehearsal for when we’re raising our kid but we probably should have called around to join an experienced one.

I misinterpreted the take a sip directions badly. We are somehow on both cup 5 and 2. The Seder plate has been eaten but we still have matzah and too many bitter things to go.

I’m a bad, more drunk than I’m comfortable with while pregnant even tho I’m still on glass two, Jew. I need a redo.

Any recommendations for half hour Passover Seder books I remember from my youth with all the parts written out?

[farsight-the-char]

I don't trust Priests (or other religious officials) similar way I don't trust Cops.

Even if they are a "good priest/cop", they are still complacent in the system of abuse.

[tomswifty-fr]

in all seriousness i am a complete and total christmas hater. wretched miserable farce of a pseudo-secular holiday.

the chairs my only solace

[chilope]

CONTENT WARNING: ME BEING AN UPPITY JEW. THIS IS THE ONLY CHRISTMAS GRIPE POST I WILL MAKE, THIS IS THE ONLY ONE, AFTER THIS I WILL STOP.

europeans saying its weird that theres a cultural debate in america about christmas celebrations, because in europe christmas is just a wintertime celebration, we're all in agreement over here, theres no need for debate, christmas is the default and everyone likes that! [so why are the jews and the atheists in america so damn uppity? why cant they just go with the flow? why do they have to make everything so annoying and difficult by acting like we're unreasonable for expecting everyone to celebrate this holiday? yes its literally called Christ-Mass but i dont see why you cant just look past that i mean come on, why do you have to be so *difficult*? no one else minds! why cant you be cool like the nice, chill jews* over here?]

*america is home to the largest population of jews in the world outside of israel as a result of europe doing a genocide. but im sure thats unrelated.

[fennthetalkingdog]

I'm just figuring out how important music is in my life! This is coming from a long while trying to cut down on my music use, mostly because I was listening to it so much that it felt more like I couldn't do anything without popping in some earbuds, and partially because of other personal reasons. Some of my routines changed, forcing me to not listen to music while doing certain things, and it ended up becoming that besides working on homework or drawing, I didn't listen to music at all. But I've given myself a break today since I have nothing to do and since, for reasons, I'm feeling just a lil crappy today—and boy, I'm starting to realize again just why I love music!!

I love the diverse music taste I've developed over the years! My family is not only big about music but big about listening to it loud, so the majority of my music taste for most of my life has just been Christian hiphop (Lecrae, KB, Andy Mineo, Trip Lee, and ironically Tonex, whose album where he was struggling hard with his gayness has been my favorite concert movie since I was 5) and gospel music (Kirk Franklin, Tye Tribbett, etc.). And music was one of the few connections between me and my race (I grew up feeling pretty estranged from my blackness as a kid, but the popular songs they played at the YMCA in the 2010s were some of the few things I could use to feel more connected) and between me and my classmates/friends at the Y (I still have fond memories of playing FNAF songs in mat forts and reciting lyrics at pool parties). But I got tired of knowing I could never bond with anyone besides family friends music taste-wise when I was in high school, and so I started listening to secular music on my own time. And that's how I first found Ghost and Pals, a vocaloid artist and one of the first secular music folks I listened to as a kid (can you smell the religious trauma yet? Lol), and that's how I bonded with one of my best friends in early college (ironically, also my first time being publically queer). Now I listen to Kpop, anime songs, songs from warriors MAPs, songs from musicals (Hamilton and In the Heights <3), latin songs, metal songs, and even some secular songs young me would've been too scared to listen to.

And music has always been one of my biggest sources of stimming! I can't dance to save my life, but music will sure get me to flick my fingers and hit my fist against my shoulder furiously. Music was one of the first clues that I like stimming with vibration too (since I love laying against the car door and turning up the music loud enough to feel the world shake around me). And music was one of the first things that made me look into ADHD or autism (specifically, listening to Ghost and Pals songs for a month straight and getting my friend at early college [who also has ADHD] to start looking at me funny when I was discovered doing chores and listening to one of three songs for the fifth time). Music is so cool it'll get me to wax poetically. It was one of the things that kept me together during my roughest times and soothed me during my best. I listen to it while I write, while I cry, while I hang out with my friends and family and while I chill by myself. It's how I relax after a long day, and it's how I feel safe. I feel kinda emotional finally having music hit that spot in me without feeling like I need it to do stuff.

[aropride]

it is 12:43 on a saturday im sorting beads on my floor and coming to the realization that i think i was raised fundamentalist???

[morgenlich]

the main thing that does keep me hesitant about whether or not i have ocd is that, while i absolutely have obsessions, and they are frequent and distressing enough they significantly impact my qol and make me genuinely suicidal, i have never really had compulsions. i know there’s like a thing where you can be diagnosed w ocd when you only have the obsessions, but ehhh it at least makes me wonder how likely i am to find a therapist who will take me seriously about it

[bioethicists]

turning off reblogs for this bcuz i want to keep it close to home but have u guys noticed how much ed recovery content is created by + for xtian white women? like they are super overrepresented in most of these spaces + outside of the obvious reasons that affluent white women are overrepresented in recovery spaces, i'm genuinely curious if y'all think it's 1) there are just more of them in the world than i thought/most affluent white women are xtian 2) xtianity's obsession with femininity + purity engenders the specific type of disordered eating which gets you clicks 3) xtian white women are attracted to the concept of a public (like insta tiktok inspo blog type) recovery more than most (but i've also experienced this in clinical spaces???) 4) disordered eating causes a form of suffering which affluent white women are most likely to respond to with xtianity 5) the personality types associated with the type of disordered eating which gets you clicks are also the types that make u more likely to be xtian