#<i should not do this it was literally psychological warfare like it was self harm. seriously

[alexanderpearce]

i’m signing you all up for 120 days of sodom daily

[things2mustdo]

The people of a nation must have common ideological, economic, political, and social ideas they agree upon or the nation, the civilization, will eventually die. Civil war is coming to the United States. Division, contention, fear, and silent invasion are being used to “reshape America.” The civil war that will emerge in the United States will not be like the previous one. This war will be for the mind and heart of the United States. It will be for the soul of the United States. What will we do when this occurs and what will be rebuilt.

In 2016 Roosh wrote an article titled, The Culture War Is Being Transformed Into A Hot War. Roosh discusses the methods that are being used to transform the culture war into a hot war. Even the Huffington Post ran an article in 2016 titled, The Coming of America’s Second Civil War. The author, a Rev. Dr. Susan K. Smith, paints the coming civil war as the result of white Americans. While she may believe the lies she is speaking and writing, more than likely she failed to realize she is part of the elitist machine which is being used to create contention and divide the United States.

Civil wars are over ideological and social issues. Economic and political issues are extensions of ideological and social issues. As real men, we will continue to have less and less in common with soy boys and progressives. The divide between the people that support the U.S. Constitution and those that want a New World Order is growing.

What does this have to do with us men? Men are the ones that establish order. Men establish civilization and build complex civilizations. Women have a much harder time establishing and completing group functions and tasks without 100 percent consensus within the group. As our civilization crumbles and eventually falls, new order will come primarily from the masculine, from men.

The Election of Donald Trump and Abraham Lincoln

In the years before the 19th Century U.S. Civil War, there were constant clashes between pro-slavery and anti-slavery forces. We are seeing constant clashed over what is termed Pro-Trump and Anti-Trump forces. Brietbart News has a list of over 500 acts of MSM sanctioned violence against Pro-Trump supporters.

In 1860 free state voting populations were larger than those of slave states so these states, as a total, had more Electoral College votes than slave states. One of the catalysts to the U.S. Civil War was the election of Abraham Lincoln over John C. Breckinridge. Lincoln took office in January 1861 and the war started in April of 1861. Abraham Lincoln was not on the ballot of ten slave states but still won the election of 1860 because he won the largest number of Electoral College votes. Seven of these slave states, unwilling to accept the results of the election, decided to secede from the United States.

Several states considered seceding from the United States over the 2016 presidential election. Oregon, California, and Silicon Valley threatened to secede after Hillary lost. Texas was discussing secession if Trump lost. Canada offered to make several U.S. States part of Canada if they left the United States.

Since the election of Donald Trump to President of the United States, we have seen an escalation of violence. Therapists have increased business because progressives did not have their way in the 2016 election. Many progressives are unable to cope with reality and instead choose to live in a fantasyland. Even before the 2016 election, we witnessed how nasty, aggressive, despicable, and violent progressives have become and these behaviors have escalated since Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 election.

The election of Donald Trump has brought to the fore the stark difference between ideological, economic, political, and social ideas. His election exposed many politicians as the traitors they really are.

We are seeing more and more allegation of electoral fraud. Several U.S. Cities are allowing non-citizens to vote in local elections. Giving non-citizens the ability to vote in U.S. elections is the same as allowing a foreign power to elect government officials. A foreign nation could easily flood the U.S. with people to vote for certain candidates drastically reshaping the U.S. political landscape. The Department of Justice recently filed charges against 19 people that were not U.S. Citizens for voting in the 2016 federal election.

Providing non-citizens the ability to vote also makes it easier to commit electoral or voter fraud. Judicial Watch is currently suing or has sued California, Maryland, Florida, and eight other states over dirty or inaccurate voter records. These states have areas with more voter registrations than eligible voters. The National Voter Registration Act of 1993 requires states to take steps to remove ineligible registrants, to protect the voting process, and to turn over relevant records and information for inspection upon request. Several progressive groups have sued in some states to prevent the implementation or execution of those steps stating the requirements to clean up voter registration rolls is harmful to minorities.

Contention as a Destabilization and Fear Tactic

The elite are working hard to divide people along every possible factor. Sex, race, religion, wealth, speech, education, “equality”, and any other factor that can possibly be exploited to divide the people are being used. The goal is the complete overthrow of all liberties of all nations, and for that to happen the U.S. must be fundamentally be reshaped or destroyed. History is and will be rewritten to attain this goal. The deep state, the mainstream media, and other elite outlets, organizations, and front men and women are being used for this purpose.

We can see forces that are seeking to divide and conquer. Forces that teach men to be weak and women to be whores. This is a strategy of contention, of never-ending conflict. These same forces seek this division to control the people and reshape the United States eliminating all of our freedoms. In the words of Barack Obama, to “Reshape America”. The removal of due process, the attacks on free speech, and the right-to-bear arms are steps in the direction of reshaping of the United States. Economics will one of the primary forces used to reshape the United States.

There are more divisions now and larger divisions in the United States than in the 19th Century. The philosophical lies of progressives did not have a strong following until the 20th Century. We are witnessing the division and the weakness these progressive ideologies create. Progressive ideologies make people weak and afraid.

One of the goals of the division is the elimination of due process. The elimination of due process subverts justice. The elimination of due process creates an environment where someone is guilty until proved innocent. The #MeToo movement, political correctness, the Title IX tribunals on college campuses, the passing of judgement in the court of public opinion, and the idea that a woman should automatically be believed because she is a woman are all designed to undermine justice for everyone.

During World War I, Germany offered financial and military support to Mexico to invade the United States to keep the U.S. out of the war and act as a mediator between Germany and Japan. Mexico rejected the proposal because of Mexico’s own inner turmoil and because the Mexican leadership realized they would not be able to control a population armed better than many other populations.

The actions to eliminate the second amendment are part of the necessary steps the elite desire for control. People that are not afraid and stand up for themselves are threats to the elite and progressives. The actions are aimed at scaring the weak-minded, the emotional. Only the weak fear guns and other means of self-defense.

Mike Adams, a professor in the University of Narcissistic Criminals System (his words), wrote an article about the lack of maturity in younger generations. In this article, he also discusses how campus speech codes enable the aggressor and violence. People that are afraid of speech they do not like or with which they disagree. People afraid of ideas and of thinking and reason. Colleges and society are creating weak adults, and weak people are capable of violent and aggressive behavior because they act out of fear.

Progressives seek to literally, make people afraid of other ideas, and by extension, speech. The first and second amendments are pivotal to the United States and clearly distinguish the U.S. from other nations of the world, past and present. Words have power and ideas are much harder to kill so progressives are using their self-appointed Ministries of Truth: Apple, Google, YouTube, Facebook, Amazon, CNN, NBC, ABC, New York Times, etc. move in the direction of reshaping America.

The self-appointed Truth Ministries have become a de facto fourth branch of government. We are seeing these self-appointed Truth Ministries silence any voices with which they disagree. This has the effect of dividing people into “tribes” and “classes” based upon progressive ideological “protected characteristics.” This psychological warfare tactic effectively reduces people to mental slaves because these “protected classes” believe they will always be oppressed without progressives and the progressive ideology and thus, a psychological dependence is created. The creation of this psychological dependence is the core of progressive racism and oppression.

Destroying confidence in the U.S. Constitution destroys the effectiveness of government and the rule of law. Justice is denied to a person based upon lack of money, lack of access to inner circles, lack of “protected class” status, or perceived privilege. Without law society deteriorates to tyranny and mob rule. Without confidence in the U.S. Government, the government is effectively destroyed and will be replaced by factions that will struggle for control.

Silent Invasion

Mass immigration is being used to create additional destabilization. When speaking with American Citizens, most Americans are not opposed to legal immigration; they are opposed to illegal immigration. Legal immigrants assimilate into their host culture. Illegal immigration is being used as a way to silently invade the U.S. Many of illegal immigrants do not realize they are being used as pawns. “Refugees” can be in either category. Refugees, if willing to abide the law and become citizens, should be welcomed. If they arrive to take advantage or to plunder they are invaders.

The difference between an immigrant and an invader is the immigrant is willing to follow the laws of the nation in which he residing, the invader has no regard for law. The invader comes to exploit us, to take from us, to use us. There is no such thing as a law abiding criminal. Notice how the majority of politicians and business leaders do not advocate for illegal immigrants to learn about the founding of the U.S., the liberties afforded to U.S. Citizens, and become U.S. Citizens. When political and business leaders do not encourage immigrants to become U.S. Citizens they are importing people they want as slaves and a silent invasion force to “reshape America.”

“Catch and release” fulfills three purposes. The first purpose is to destabilize society so people will accept the elimination of liberty for security because some criminals are released into the population. The second is to ensure the illegal immigrants remain to as competition for jobs with American Citizens to drive down wages. The third is to displace U.S. Citizens and make them aliens in their own country.

Read More: Donald Trump And His Supporters Are Fighting A Rigged System

https://www.returnofkings.com/192863/how-the-second-american-civil-war-will-unfold

The coming U.S. Civil War will not have the same outcome as the U.S. Civil War in the 19th Century. As society breaks down, other parts of our economy and civilization break down. Businesses will cease to operate. General services will become unavailable, and confidence in government is destroyed. The legal framework is being destroyed because justice is denied because of ideological lies. When the legal framework is destroyed, the entitlement among the population mindset will lead to murder, rape, destruction of property, starvation for some, and cannibalism for others.

There is no civilization without law and order. A barbaric society is a society with little or no law and order. When Europeans came to the Americas, they brought civilization, i.e. law and order, with them. While there were atrocities committed, the overall effect of European influence was to civilize, to bring law and order, to the peoples in the Americas.

One of the signs of barbarity, or the lack of law and order, is the systematic killing of babies and children (this includes unborn babies). Other signs of barbarity are the lack of children born in the bulk of a nation’s marriages and the decline of marriage.

A New Civil War Will Not Have the Same Outcome

The coming civil war will not have the same outcome of the U.S. Civil War of the 19th Century. In the 19th Century, the U.S. had a more solid and cohesive ideological, social, political, and economic fabric. The people of 19th Century America wanted to preserve the U.S. Constitution. The federal government survived the 19th century civil war. The deep state did not exist on the scale it does now; nor were there so many individual factions within U.S. borders at the time with the intent of reshaping America.

The 19th Century U.S. was more patriarchal. The decline of the patriarchal influence in the 20th century with the rise and elevation of the matriarchal over the patriarchal through feminism, anti-natalism (anti-children) has created a society that lacks foundational social cohesion because the base unit of civilization, the family, has been destroyed. The rise of the matriarchal has created feminized men and angry women.

Many forces within the U.S. do not want to preserve the U.S. Constitution and its guaranteed liberties. An example is the recent anonymous op-ed published in the New York Times. The author, claiming to be “resistance” from within the Trump Administration, declares President Trump “anti-democratic”. The irony of this op-ed is the author makes the accusation “while boasting of membership in an unelected cabal that covertly imposes their own ideology with zero democratic accountability, mandate or transparency.”

The deep state certainly exists, I know people the deep state is stealing from, and the deep state has stolen from me, but consider the possibility that this specific author may be a fabrication to create further division among the people, sow division and trouble in the Trump Administration, and further destroy confidence in the electoral process.

Trump’s election to the U.S. Presidency shows that many U.S. Citizens are not on board with the progressive agenda. If the federal government cannot be changed through legal channels, then the elites and the factions they control will seek to destroy the federal government through division and the deep state and attempt to put a new government in place.

Destroying confidence in the U.S. Constitution destroys the effectiveness of government and the rule of law. Justice is denied to a person based upon lack of money, lack of access to inner circles, lack of “protected class” status, or perceived privilege. Without law society deteriorates to tyranny and mob rule. Without confidence in the U.S. Government, the government is effectively destroyed and will be replaced by factions that will struggle for control. The deliberate creation of more divisions makes it harder for the founding principles of the U.S. to survive. The U.S. Constitution stands in the way of the New World Order.

The U.S. will eventually divide into multiple factions, each claiming legitimate government, but without the liberties of the U.S. Constitution. The U.S. will have no central government. The factions may form temporary alliances but some will seek to dominate all others and impose a new government, a reformed government, upon others. There will be those individuals and areas that will continue to stand for the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law.

Today several nations would take advantage of inner turmoil in the United States. Nations such as China, North Korea, Russia, and others would most certainly take military action and invade U.S. territories, Alaska, and potentially the mainland. Most people are so oblivious that they do not potentially see the influence of these nations even now. Undoubtedly, some of these factions will be destroyed or subjugate by invading nations.

What Will Be Our Response?

Each of us as individuals has several pertinent choices to make. The preservation of our liberties will come from honorable men because typically are the ones that fight for liberty. Preservation of liberty does not come without bloodshed. ROK has articles on survival and why survival skills are important. Most people have not considered the possibility of times without gas, electricity, running clean water, or sewer treatment.

As confidence in the U.S. Federal Government declines and justice declines because of the deep state, mainstream media, and progressivism, people, already divided against each other, will form tribes consisting of family, friends, and others with similar ideas. You are probably already seeing these tribes form in a loose manner. What immediate skills and trades facilitate survival? Skills such as farming, gardening, agriculture, and other trade skills will be of value because these skills can be used to barter or used to sustain oneself and others.

The burden will fall upon masculine men, as it always does in times of war. People will revert to the most basic survival instincts. The soy boys will be busy hiding with the women in their basements or agreeing with whomever has the perceived power before proceeding to murder, rape, and loot those that disagree with them. The larger cities and the inner cities will be more lawless, chaotic, and disorderly. Weather conditions will also affect how people behave. Some people will gladly forsake liberty for food, clean water, or warmth. Some people will sell their children for food, clean water, or warmth or eat their own children.

A sound mind, which includes sound thinking, reasoning, and emotional control, are critical in survival situations. Survival chances increase when working with other people of the same mind. Live where you desire but constantly be aware of your surroundings. Create a network of family, friends, and kindred to increase your support circle will increase chances of immediate survival and the survival of others. Gather around yourself people that are like-minded, with trade skills, people that can think, reason, and are not easily persuaded by the weak-minded and emotional. Catering to the weak drags other people down to the lowest level physically, socially, intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually.

What Will Be Rebuilt?

Civilizations will rebuild, but what will be rebuilt? Most of the time, people typically recreate the society they know unless they are already thinking about things they would change. To rebuild something better we must know what to keep and what to eliminate. We must know the mistakes of the past to avoid repeating those mistakes.

The founding principles, upon which the U.S. was built (the U.S. Constitution itself), will remain. Great care must be taken on what is built upon that foundation. Only patriarchy creates civilization. Societal and government change will come.

There are pertinent questions that will need answering, such as: Should women retain the right to vote? (Women did not have the right to vote prior to the 19th amendment to the U.S. Constitution.) Should traditional marriage be the standard and gay marriage eliminated? Do we really want the society we have now? A society where men are marginalized? A society where white people are demonized and minorities are mentally enslaved by progressive victimhood? Do we want to continue to be oppressed by children and ruled over by women?

I have pondered for many years what would be rebuilt and how to rebuild after the current civilization falls. Patriarchy must assume its rightful place in society. Giving women the right to vote, the sexual revolution of the 1960s, the legalization and acceptance of abortion and the rise of no-fault divorce are pushing our civilization toward destruction.

Undoubtedly, things will be hard. Many of the immediate conveniences our civilization has access to will be gone or reduced. Patriarchy will rebuild civilization. Men will rebuild. Let us rebuild a civilization that will not repeat the mistakes of the past.

[arlingtonpark]

SNK 123 Review

Dude’s face could be green and his eyes yellow and it would not look out of place.

Also his face looks like it’s been split in two. What a weird deformity...

Attack on Titan is not a series about reconciliation. This is a series about fighting. That doesn’t tell us much though, because while SNK is about fighting, mercy, even while fighting, has also been emphasized.

So really this boils down to whether the series considers what Eren is doing to be a justified use of force.

The big worry is that it does.

The story emphasizes the need to fight and even kill people who try to harm you. Oh, and throw in some potentially nihilistic references to differing ideologies and how there are no heroes, just people with differing motives.

This would seem to be contradictory, but it really isn’t. If people who cause harm are bad, how could the series be nihilistic?

Simple: the lynchpin is that the world is intrinsically violent, and nothing else. There are no meaningful values in this world, just groups with irreconcilable ideologies, which means violence is inevitable, so it’s survival of the fittest and you have to be ready to kill to protect yourself.

So it could be that the highest value is maximizing your own happiness, AKA egoism.

You see this kind of crap often on places like Reddit and 4chan. You know what I’m talking about. Edgelords.

This kind of logic is repeated often by Eren stans and it’s annoying because it’s wrong. And if this actually is the moral of the story, then the story itself is wrong.

There are two really annoying ideas I want to tackle:

1. The Rumbling is justified because we live in a cruel, intrinsically violent world, so peace is not possible.

Whether intentional or not, I often see people arguing that the Rumbling is justified not because peace isn’t possible in this specific situation, but because humanity in general is violent and insular.

It is very common for people to believe that conflict is just a fact of life. “The world is cruel” as many people are saying. Unfortunately that is incorrect.

In 1986, a conference of social scientists was held in Seville, Spain and they released a statement on common misconceptions about human nature and violence. This statement was subsequently endorsed by organizations the world over, like the American Psychological Association and UNESCO.

That statement, which reflects the overwhelming scientific consensus, declared the following:

It is scientifically incorrect to say warfare is a natural phenomenon.

It is scientifically incorrect to say that violence happens because “it’s genetics.”

It is scientifically incorrect to say that humans are violent because “it’s survival of the fittest”/ “it’s kill or be killed” / anything to do with evolution.

It is scientifically incorrect to say humans are violent because “We have violent brains.”

It is scientifically incorrect to say that people make war instinctively.

Warfare is not a natural phenomenon because it involves tools. It is facilitated by language and institutions like governments, ideologies, and religions. Those don’t exist amongst animals.

Ducks, for example, don’t fight each other because the duck!Pope declared a holy war.

And yet the series directly draws a parallel between animals hunting other animals and slavers attacking children.

The slavers prey on Mikasa and later Eren, just like, the story claims, how a grasshopper preys on a butterfly, or a human preys on a duck.

This is not a good analogy.

The slavers were influenced by incentives and institutions that don’t exist in nature. They were going to sell Mikasa for the money, money they could then use to buy alcohol and drugs. It’s their job, they did it to earn a living.

What they did was not just inhumane, it was commerce. If there were no economy, they would not have done that. Markets are an institution that shaped their actions, as did the institution of slavery.

The grasshopper killed the butterfly because it needed the sustenance. That’s it.

This is not to excuse what they did. Humans are compelled by many factors to act as they do, but that doesn’t make anything right, or even morally neutral.

Mikasa’s father killing the duck is more analogous to the grasshopper and butterfly than the slavers and kids. There’s no through line connecting the two.

This is an example of SNK trying to be insightful and not really succeeding. It’s because of this that I’ve always been apprehensive about what exactly this manga is trying to say. There are moments like when Levi Squad took down that garrison of MPs in the Uprising arc and they didn’t kill a single person.

And then there’s shit like that slavers scene.

Excuse making is actually a common reason why people say violence is a fact of life. It’s not just nihilistic, it’s an excuse. People who say that violence is inevitable, oftentimes, are just projecting their own violent tendencies onto everyone else.

It’s a way to reconcile having violent impulses and having (a shred) of a moral compass. I’m not saying that Isayama is doing this...but it’s an attitude amongst fans that’s worth thinking about. 

It is also wrong to say that violence is favored by evolution. That is to say, “it’s survival of the fittest;” people who are aggressive are more likely to survive, so natural selection favors aggressiveness.

In reality, natural selection favors cooperation. Animals do sometimes live in groups, and there often is a leader, but leadership positions are won mostly through social ability rather than brute strength. It’s more about your ability to work with others than dominate them.

In fact, overly-aggressive animals tend to be ostracized, rather than rise to the top.

All that talk about “alpha-males” is just Red Pill propaganda.

Arguably, SNK gets it backwards. It depicts cooperation as happening in the context of a violent world, instead of violence happening in the context of a cooperative world.

People come together throughout the story, but it’s always to fight some larger enemy. First the titans and now the Marleyans.

Eren laments the lack of unity among the walldians. They’re unified now, but that’s only because they feel threatened.

To the extent there was a sense of unity among the walldians, it’s because of suppression of dissent and King Fritz’s interference.

The outside world is unified, but only because they feel threatened by Paradis.

No matter what happens next chapter, I think the series is too cynical about people.

And needless to say, vague references to “genetics” or “violent brains” or “instincts” are just gibberish that doesn’t mean anything.

So it makes no sense that Eren is allowed to do this because we live in a violent world. It may be justified for Eren to do it in the context of the SNK world, but that would just be due to Isayama constructing that world to be a place where it is justified, it wouldn’t say anything about our world or morality in general.

There are ways to avoid violence...but the story hasn’t really entertained that. SNK is more about how violence is inevitable but should be minimized, than straight rejecting violence. 

I’d like to remind the reader that the only explicit pacifist in this story is King Fritz. 

There’s also what I’m going to call the scaling problem to think about. If you can abide by the vigilantism, then Eren killing the slavers isn’t all that wrong. That makes sense.

The issue is that it doesn’t scale to the level we’re dealing with now. Whole countries of people are not equivalent to a single assailant.

A distinction is drawn between combatants and civilians in war for a reason. It is recognized that fighting destroys lives and therefore should be limited. It’s not just soldiers Eren is going to kill, he’s targeting civilians too, and that’s self-defeating.

It’s self-defeating because what does it accomplish? These people aren’t taking up arms against Eldians. They do hate Eldians, and the mainland Eldians do suffer for it. But Eren is killing them too, so he clearly doesn’t care for them.

It is stunningly hypocritical. The Fez Kid is going to die. He didn’t do anything, except be born into this world.

(Spoiler Alert: if you’re going to kill someone, then you don’t actually value their life.)

2. Eren is justified because his motives are understandable or even sympathetic, AKA the “Eren is a victim” excuse.

The basic idea here is that Eren is a victim and deserves our sympathy.

So first off, Eren may be a victim, but that’s not important right now. I’m sorry for everything he’s suffered through, but victimhood does not justify victimizing others.

We should not accept Eren’s own framing of his actions.

“If people try to take away my freedom, I will not hesitate to take away their’s.”

He’s been through a lot, but has anyone noticed the decided lack of people in our world going on killing sprees because they’ve “been through a lot”? There are millions of people in this world who live shitty lives; they somehow manage to -not- kill others.

Being made a victim is awful. This idea is founded on the notion that being harmed is inherently bad. Not you being harmed specifically is bad!

Second, Eren’s calculus here is completely selfish and self-serving. He’s going to wipe out almost all humans for the sake of his homeland. If you think the highest value in the world is loyalty to your homeland, even more than fairness, or justice, or kindness, then this is the plan for you!

If you think lives matter because they were born into this world, then ymmv.

It’s wrong for the Eldians to suffer as they have because it’s wrong to make people suffer in general. But this seems to have gone completely over Eren’s head, as he’s now going to make everyone else suffer to help his people. He’s abandoned all manner of principle with rank opportunism.

Eren has fully embraced nihilism.

The contradiction here is too great to ignore. People are great because they were born à kill everyone not on my side, even people who literally were just born. This is galaxy brain level shit.

This is not self-defense. Proper self-defense acknowledges that it is wrong to harm people. Because of that, self-defense only permits actions necessary to save yourself.

You could draw a line from the extinction of the Eldian race to some dude on the street using that “devils” slur word, but that connection would be so tenuous that killing people over it would be ridiculous.

There is no real sense to Eren’s actions.

Bottom line: genocide is bad, don’t do it kids. Buy Ovaltine.

It is honestly funny how Eren keeps pulling the rug right out from under his own stanbase. It reminds me of how Republicans make fools of themselves defending Trump’s actions.

Trump: -does something bad-

Republicans: He didn’t do it.

Trump: Actually, I did do it, but [insert excuse here]

Republicans: -eats breakfast off their face-

First Eren says he’s going to “destroy this world” and the stans say he meant the PATHS realm.

Fast forward just one chapter: Eren’s decrepit face stares at the viewer and says “The Wall Titans shall trample the earth until nothing is left alive!”

How great would it be if Isayama pulls the rug out from under the Eren stans again next chapter? After a month of them rationalizing genocide, the story actually comes down -against- Eren and his plan.

And then we have Historia.

1. There was nothing.

2. There was a doppelganger with her girlfriend’s name.

3. Historia herself from the back.

Progress!

At this point, Historia is the only one who can talk Eren down from this. She and him have had an understanding ever since the cave and if anyone has the audacity to try it at this point, it’s her.

I doubt Mikasa or Armin will be the ones to try and reach him. Mikasa is already starting to accept that Eren is just like this. And Armin’s been butting heads with Eren about the Wall Titans for a while now. There’s been some friction.

How would she be able to talk to him?

Well, the PATHS realm apparently allows Eren to communicate with all Eldians. If it turned out the Eldians could talk back, it wouldn’t be surprising. Historia getting Eren’s attention could be as easy as her shouting-

“HEY, MORON!!!”

What’s interesting is that where in the PATHS realm Eldians appear depends on where they are relative to other Eldians in the Real world.

Mikasa and Armin are roughly in the same place relative to Eren as they are in the real world. Connie and Jean appear relative to each other. Reiner, Pieck, Gabi, and Zeke are the same.

So where was Historia when the Rumbling started?

She’s in street clothes. She’s obviously not on her farm; she seems to have been walking a city street at the time.

Alone.

We know she and Eren had an intense conversation earlier. So here’s a crack theory: what if Eren confided in her that he was going to use the Rumbling? And what if Historia vehemently disagreed?

The reason we’ve seen nothing of her lately is because she’s snuck off Paradis. She’s in Marley now, where she’ll die if Eren goes through with the Rumbling. She’s using herself as a shield for the whole of humanity.

Yeah, I know it’s insane, but I’m trying to salvage this character here! Historia has to do something obscenely badass at this point if her absence is going to be justified.

In any event, I’m certain that if Eren is made to stand down, it’ll be because Historia calls him a dumbass again.

SNK may or may not lean towards right-wing conservatism. The seemingly nihilistic view of human behavior tracks with right-wing thinking. But it’s hard to parse because most forms of modern rightism use obfuscation to hide their true beliefs.

It could be that the series is pushing that, or maybe it’s actually critiquing that world view.

For reference, this is what modern examples of right-wing conservatism look like.

Note the two-step sleight of hand here.

Step one: x may have been bad…

Step two: but [excuses go here].

Y was worse. There were good things about X. X wasn’t –really- that bad. You name it.

(I recommend reading the whole Twitter thread btw)

A lot of times, the better of two bad options argument is made. They try to justify their terrible opinion by making everything else out to be even worse. They build themselves up by tearing everyone else down.

It’s a bad argument because they usually have to cheat to make it work. They say, for example, that killing Native Americans was ultimately for the best because it paved the way for our more technologically advanced world.

This is incorrect, and racist, because it assumes Native Americans and their culture could not have adopted European technology.

They could have, but by and large, the Europeans chose violence.

On the subject of past crimes, the series doesn’t make excuses, thankfully. What the various King Fritzes have done in this story are not supported by the narrative. Not genociding the Marleyans, or tightly controlling the Walldians.

What’s harder to parse through is where this series comes down on nationalism as an ideology.

Grisha’s nationalist group was repudiated by the story, but only partially. It was wrong for them to dehumanize Zeke, and to buy into historical propaganda, but the central mission of the Restorationists was to get the Founding Titan out of Fritz’s hands and use it to protect the Eldians.

That’s what the good guys in this story have been doing.

And then there are the Yeagerists. Once again, they are only partially repudiated. Floch’s cruelty is condemned, but the main thrust of the Yeagerists is that peace is impossible, so Paradis needs to arm up. That notion has been supported by the story so far.

I don’t think the story will come down in favor of genocide, but that’s not the same thing as repudiating nationalism.

Nationalists have a two-step of their own. It goes like this:

Step One: Nationalism is good…

Step Two: because all the reasons it’s bad don’t count.

One common form of this trick is to say that nationalism the ideology is good, but it gets hijacked by bad people. It’s not the idea itself, it’s the people who subscribe to it. It’s the same with communism. Communism is good because every bad example of it in action doesn’t count.

Nationalism isn’t bad (reclaiming the Founding Titan), it’s just misused by bad people. (Grisha, Floch, maybe Eren)

Or maybe the story is saying that reclaiming the Founding Titan is so obviously a good thing that even the nationalists knew to do it.

Regardless, right-wing nationalists are not fully condemned by the story and are even supposed to be sympathetic.

Meanwhile the only explicitly pacifist character is depicted as an unsympathetic, defeatist chump.

That’s quite a contrast.

This will probably be the second to last volume. I’m betting we’ll get four or five more chapters to finish the story proper, and then a couple more chapters to close it all out.

I don’t think Attack on Titan will support Eren in the end. What he’s doing is too obviously hypocritical and it’s easy to interpret the story so far as being against him in principle. What it comes down to is this: is this a story about fighting, or is this a story about how great life is?

This is a big dilemma for Isayama though. Eren is the main character, and while he may now be the bad guy, he didn’t start out that way. At the start, Eren’s roar was described as embodying humanity’s anger. In a righteous way.

Now Eren’s roar is that of a wild beast about to ravage the earth.

Eren used to be the primary vehicle for the series to convey its ideas and themes. Now he’s seemingly the opposite; someone whose ideas are anthema to the series’.

Having an epilogue would be a smart move. It’ll be necessary to clarify Eren’s relationship with the story’s themes. End of day, is his example something we should follow, or is he a cautionary tale?

(Considering the radical reinterpretation of his character happening in-story by his own friends, I suspect the latter.)

[crawldepth-blog]

Fisticuffs

You walk into a convenience store. Maybe you grabbed a six-pack or some noms to tide you over till dinner, or maybe you popped in to get some cash from the ATM and you succumbed to marketing fuckery and just HAD to grab those Altoids or a bag of Doritos.

Whatever the case, there you are in line, waiting to pay. Something happens. Maybe you see someone you know, and that person is an asshole. An asshole at the very least; perhaps a stone cold enemy at the other extreme. Considering enemies, it could be a rival gang banger, a bully who fucks with you at school, somebody of another skin color for whom you have a hidden epithet, or even someone you just don’t like and you’re at a mental boiling point to do something about it.

The recipient of your ire is unimportant. What triggers you to escalate your ire to violence is.

Something else happens. Seeing your rival triggers a physical response. Your blood pressure rises. Your heart rate increases. You feel a flush across your face and your chest. In your mind, you’re not inciting anything when you call him or a bitch or shove them or even just pepper them with the stinkeye. However it is you choose to respond to the stimulus, let’s say that your response engenders another response from your target. And the next thing you know, you’re chest-to-chest slinging insults, tightening fists, pointing fingers, and about to serve up a beat-down.

You feel every pore in your body individually light up, tingling and hyper-aware. That’s the adrenalin kicking in, revving up your sadly devolved limbic system with thousands of years of Neanderthal genes that singularly serve to get you ready to kill. The epithets you throw could be nothing more than a bulwark against this genetic disposition to attack, psychological warfare designed to show force and peacock for the audience while also delivering custom-made lyrical barbs to your adversary’s psyche.

However it happens, a punch gets thrown or hands push a body off-kilter. More fists deploy. Sweat pours. You scuffle. The Doritos fall forgotten to the floor as your rage consumes you. Blood trickles, gushes, pours. Fight.

Your descent (ascent?) into violence may tap an ages-old genetic disposition to protect your tribe or to kill your food or even to slay your rival. Those environmental norms have changed a tad in the last couple-few thousand years. You evolved into Today’s Human, streamlined for GrubHub-enabled sustenance acquistion and 911 calls to the police reporting black people in your Starbucks. Generally speaking these days, our predisposition toward violence has more to do with a political will to improve oneself than actual defense and hunting. (Sean Hannity may say otherwise, but that guy can cock-gobble himself into oblivion. Seriously, go watch the John Oliver segment on how much that guy loves to “train for a fight” in case he is “accosted.” For fuck’s sake.) Your friends take up Brazilian jiu-jitsu and krav magra to hone their minds or improve their fitness, right? Hell, even the time-honored process of “jumping in” new members to a gang - where newbies get beaten by their brethren - aims to ensure they know what it’s like to have one’s ass kicked so that it baselines a certain level of violence competence, whether it’s intended for deployment or not.

So what propels you toward violence in this seeming safe and secure civilization where we have so many options for its safe release? In that context, why are there seemingly so many outbreaks of violence these days? More to the point, why are we still so surprised by it?

Let’s think about your threshold for doing harm. “Normals” will only fight if they have to. Their threshold for violence is high. Someone literally has to punch them in the face to convince them to put up their dukes. Many will not even leap to the defense of a loved one or ally in many situations, so pussified has normalcy become. These are your “beta cucks” that alt-right, pro-toxic masculinity voices decry as contributing to the downfall of modern man. Many of these same edge-of-violent individuals have to participate in a group with others of their own ilk before they will employ violence. The Proud Boys behave this way often: getting into fights as a group against a smaller number of adversaries. Often as a group against just one adversary. Seems like pussified behavior to me, but the threshold for these folks is only a little lower than the normals. They have to physically be part of a violent group before launching a kick or a punch of their own. In-group violence. Distributed faggotry.

In another corner of the continuum, think about the threshold for you and your enemy in the convenience store. Let’s say you’re hyper-aware of others that seek to do you harm in some way, not even physically but perhaps mentally or psychologically. Public disrespect from a rival weakens your reputation in some  communities, and by not responding to the disrespect in an overmatched way, your reputation could be permanently ground into irreparable paste in a community in which trust amongst your peers is how you survive. Think about that community as any cliche of urban living on The Street, maybe where that convenience store is the same bullet-riddled shithole where drugs get sold, bangers beat on their girls, and robberies invariably take place. In that community, your threshold for violence is much lower. A disrespectful word could set off the adrenalin kick for attack or at least prompt a heightened, outrageous response to “state prime.” Even the appearance of an out-group, nonconforming individual could incite you toward a wild response of this type. People have been known to attack police merely for being police, for wearing the badge. Of course, where turnabout’s fair play, police have been known to kill civilians for the mere heuristic of being African Amercian.

Malcolm Gladwell has written about how the thresholds for acceptable behavior increase the more that behavior is normed. In other words, the more you see a school shooting happen, the more you come to accept that that behavior is normal, and the more normal it is, the more likely you are to adopt the behavior (given certain triggers, of course). That theory of thresholds totally works. It explains why more people commit violence-based crimes.

It may also explain why we as a society seem to be arcing toward the normalization of violent conflict. Punching a motherfucker in the face may seem like the hoi polloi’s way to respond to bullshittery, but consider other thresholds for behaviors on the same end of the violence spectrum: psychological torture, name-calling, falsified news, intentional misrepresentation, hate speech, casual racism, gender exclusion, discrimination, gerrymandering, you name it. There are more ways to attack someone than punching them despite how awesome the power of bruising someone’s ugly mug feels. How much depravity must you accept to constantly belittle someone? How much more socially turgid, or even sociopathic is it to employ power over a person or a group of people through a disparaging lexicon? If you don’t understand or even believe in that level of power, then I invite you to call the next African American you meet a nigger and see how that works out for you.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., one of the most widely-cited United States Supreme Court Justices (serving from 1902-1932), once wrote, “A mind that is stretched by a new experience can never go back to its old dimensions.” Excepting the positive notions of expanding the human mind, consider Holmes’ quote as an admonition: experience, perhaps in quantity, changes people. In the context of our little discussion about violence here, perhaps for the worse. Aggregate exprience over time creates new norms or normalizes certain behaviors, even and perhaps especially radical ones. So if the experience of violence gets normed in all its myriad forms - from fisticuffs to shootings to gaslighting to propaganda to hate speech and all ‘round the common ether - then how should we feel about that? Should we be horrified by the march of evolution, the continued genetic perforation of expectation as we discover new ways to violate our rivals? Should we become numb to it, to accept infinitely decreasing thresholds as the the propensity to visit violence on others increases? Should we rail against the march of normalization, to invoke the superhero ethic that there is always a better way? Should we dive into it wholeheartedly, not just accepting the new norms but engaging in it ourselves to understand the appeal?

“Self-improvement is masturbation,” said Tyler Durden. “Now, self-destruction...”

[addicted-to-dc]

Damian Wayne/ Robin X Reader- Murder Kitten

After this post, there will only be 2 requests left!! Yay!!!!!  Also, this was requested by @abigailredgrave, who requests some pretty awesome stuff!!! I hope you guys enjoy this and have a nice day!!!!  If I am counting this right, THIS IS MY ONE HUNDREDTH FANFIC!!!! YYYAAYYY!!!

Warning: Swearing 

Gotham was full of geniuses, but some of them were psychotic.  Psychologists say genius is related to mental illness, hell, even being crazy, but that’s why you keep it to yourself.  Most intelligent people either were like that or had disabilities.  The Riddler was an excellent example, but that would be too simple.  It bugged you to know that people don’t understand what’s underneath the super villain and superhero label slapped onto their foreheads, to not understand what their motivations were and what caused them to resort to crime.  Mister Freeze, or Doctor Victor Fries, resorted to crime to save his wife from an incurable disease.  You understood why his efforts were stopped by heroes like Batman.  He harmed innocent people, and that was not what society allowed.  Even if the people he harmed were corrupt, their influence would allow them to get away with almost anything.  Poison Ivy, or Pamela Isley, was a botanist who took Eco-terrorism too seriously.  You also agreed that something should be done to protect the Earth and the life it supported, but not as much as she did.  Most of the people labeled ‘Villains’ were geniuses, but they just used their brains the wrong way.

Luckily for you, you weren’t like them at all.  Sure, maybe you agreed with their ideas, but the less extreme versions.  You agreed that the human race needed to stop harming the planet, but not by human extinction.  Humans are capable of using renewable energy to support their electronic needs, but of course they won’t do it.  Cures could be made if scientists would focus on the diseases rather than focusing on biological warfare and creating new heroes.  Humans would be a greater race if they would band together and stop the fighting, but you knew that it would take a long time for that to happen.  People want to have a Utopia where everything would work out, there would be no war, and everyone would be equal, but there are some who are the complete opposite.  There are people who want the be the superior race with all of the power, who think their self-interests are more important than the lives of others.  The Earth’s past clearly displays that there will always be someone who does not see others as their equals, including the pompous asshats who enjoy to pester and bully you whenever you step foot on Gotham Academy’s grounds.

It’s not like your intelligence went unnoticed in the halls of Gotham Academy.  You spent less than half of the day at the Academy taking classes, and the rest at Gotham University.  Your teachers were surprised to see you, a 16 year-old, have a higher IQ than them.  After that, you were taking classes that college students could barely understand.  Out of all of the classes you took, Psychology and Criminology were your favorites.  It was fascinating to learn what the human mind was capable of, and you used that to your advantage. It was annoying that the Academy still required you to take electives, but you only had to take them this year, and after that you’d be able to go to college with a full ride.  It was easier said than done, but that didn’t mean you had to go through it alone.  Most of the students thought you were insane, but you simply understood the world more than them.  Even your humor was based upon it, but not everyone appreciated it nor understood it.  You based most of your jokes on the superheroes and super villains of the world, and knew the identities of most of them.  

“Okay, class, today is your final grade for the year,” Mrs. Merz stated calmly.  “You are going to finish making your improved cake recipes for the baking competition.  Since the Seniors are not here, you’ll be a bit understaffed, but since you prepared your dry ingredients yesterday, you’ll have plenty of time to bake your cakes.”

Turning over to your partner, Damian Wayne, you asked, “Did you bring the decorations?”

“TT.  Of course I brought them,” Damian answered, gesturing to the bag near his feet.  “I still do not understand why we decided on the ‘Willy Wonka’ theme for this cake.”

You rolled your eyes and tied the apron around your waist, “This is supposed to be dessert, and Willy Wonka specializes in desserts.  Most of the imbeciles in this class are doing a superhero theme or something idiotic like the beach theme Tyler and his posse are making.”

Damian scowled and put his apron on, “I do detest them.”

“Yes, and their cake has more capsaicin in it than Batman’s smoke bombs,” you said and placed your improved recipe on the counter.  “They did not even test their recipe out at home.”

Damian smirked, “Not like you did.”

You scoffed, “Unlike them, I actually enjoy this class and plan on getting good grades.”

“Also, they do not have your cunning intelligence and wonderful personality,” Damian inputted while placing the dry ingredients into a bowl.  “They have no respect for anyone but themselves, maybe the occasional harlot that they have relations with, but mostly themselves.”

“I agree with that,” you said while looking at the recipe and pulling out more bowls and measuring cups.  “I’m going to go get the liquid ingredients.  While I do this, can you prepare the dry ingredients for the frosting?”

“Of course I can.”

————————————

“Ow!” you shouted, placing your burnt finger under cold water.  “That’s hotter than Superman’s heat vision.”

“How would you know that?” Damian asked, stirring the raspberry frosting.  

“Have you ever heard the wonders of over exaggeration?” you asked, still running the cold water on your finger.  “Technically, if I had a piece of debris that Superman cut with his heat vision, I could tell how many degrees it would be.”

“You are full of many surprises, (Y/L/N),” Damian said and placed the bowl on the counter.  “Do you want me to take the cake out of the oven?  I think I can do it without burning myself.”

“I didn’t know the oven mitt was wet,” you muttered and gave him the other mitt, which was dry.

“Of course you didn’t,” Damian said and lifted the chocolate cake out of the oven.

You rolled your eyes and shut the faucet off when the pain in your finger died down, “Everyone makes mistakes, so stop bickering with me and criticize everyone’s cakes as ours cools off.”

Damian rolled his eyes and took the mitt off, tossing it onto the counter, “Fine.”

———————

“Their cake is greener than Poison Ivy,” you said while making a disgusted face.  “I did not see them add any green food coloring either.”

“Tyler’s cake is supposed to be grape, but it’s bluer than Mr. Freeze’s ass,” you stated, shuddering at the thought.  “Do you think his skin is baby blue or icy blue?”

“Why is this relevant?” Damian asked, poking at the cake to see if it was cool enough to start decorating.

You shrugged, “You know that my humor is mostly based on superheroes and supervillains, so answer the question already.”

“I believe it would be lighter than Icy Blue,” Damian admitted.  “The cake is ready.”

————————

“Damian, I need you to do something for me.”

Damian stopped sparring with Dick, looking over to his father with confusion, “What is it?”

“Come over to the Bat Computer and I will show you,” Bruce said, turning his chair around.

Dick gave Damian a puzzled look before following him over to the Bat Computer, frowning when he saw your photos on the screen.

“Why do you have (Y/N) on the screen, Bruce?” Dick asked with a puzzled expression.  “I’ve seen her around the college and the only terrible thing about her is her corny superhero jokes.”

Bruce rose a brow, clicking on a video file attached to your own file. “You’ve got Teen Titans, Young Justice, and the Justice League. Whats next? Toddlers of titanium?”

“What do you call an actress whose dress goes up in flames? Starfire.”

“I’m gonna wonder woman spin my way out of this.”

“I bet Aquaman hates Spongebob.”

“Robin’s mask literally only covers a fourth of his face, how has nobody recognized him yet! At least batman covers half of his!“

“Who the hell hides themselves behind a pair of glasses and a bitch curl-ooohh..”

“That pair of pants has more pockets than Batman’s utility belt.”

The last video showed you messing around with your glasses, taking them on and off saying: "Look I’m Superman! Wait, now I’m not!”

By the end of the clip, Dick was laughing while holding his stomach, which made Bruce give him an unamused expression.  Damian read over your file and noticed that you went to the same school he did, but you go to Gotham University for most of your classes.

“She obviously knows Clark’s identity,” Bruce stated, returning his attention to the screen, “and has a high IQ.  Damian, I want to see how much she knows, and if she’ll be a threat or not.”

“Oh, come on, Bruce!” Dick said, throwing his arms up into the air.  “(Y/N) might know our secret identities, but do you realize who you’re talking about?”

“Yes I do,” Bruce responded, “which is why I think Damian would be the perfect person to befriend her, and find out if she can be trusted.”

“I can handle it,” Damian stated.  “It is common knowledge that (Y/L/N) does not have any friends at the school, and she will be hesitant, but I’m sure I will figure something out.”

“Good, because our identities are at risk.”

———————–

“So, Sherlock, are you gonna do it or what?!?!” Tyler shouted, waving his homework in front of your face.  “Or do I have to make you do it?!”

“You know, when you call me Sherlock, you’re admitting that I am smarter than you,” you smirked, not even flinching when his fist met the locker to the left of your face.

“Shut it, Watson!! If you’re not gonna do it, I’m going to kick the shit out of you, you insane freak!” he threatened.

You scoffed, “'If you’re going to insult me stick to one character per show.”

“That’s it!!” Tyler shouted, raising his fist.

Just as it was going to meet your face, Tyler was pulled away from you and thrown onto the ground.  You looked over to find Damian glaring at Tyler.

“If you ever touch her again, I swear I will-”

“Okay, Murder Kitten, I think we should get to class before we’re late,” you interrupted, grasping Damian’s hand before he murdered Tyler.

“TT, I wasn’t going to murder him,” Damian grumbled.

“Judging by your posture and feral look in your eyes, that’s a lie.”