#100% true and verifiable fact

[echofades]

"I fucking love you. I love everything about you, I always have, and this is what I want for the rest of my life."

SHIRA BOLITAR & HANNAH TAYLOR HARLAN COBEN'S SHELTER (Season 1)

[carnivore-voyeur]

Fun Ghoul Fact: When he’s getting angry, Dewdrop starts physically steaming and whistling like a kettle. The closer he is to his breaking point, the stronger the reaction. Whenever this happens, Swiss goes “the tea is ready!” which does not, in any way, help the situation. Also, Dew’s voice goes high pitched and he squeaks uncontrollably. It is mildly entertaining.

[sillysparklecare]

OMG!

[carmypen]

WIP WEDNESDAY-“Now that’s a bird fact!” Edition.

[eightyonekilograms]

I turned off reblogs on this post because it was about to breach containment in a way that looked unpleasant, but I did want to provide one bit of followup for those of you fortunate enough to not be following Twitter drama. You'll want to follow this bit though, because it's really funny.

The second bit is, as Matt says, that because a lot of leading figures in tech have gotten so annoyed at their treatment in the press recently, they've conjured up this theory about how journalists attach tons of status and self-worth to their blue check marks. And Matt is saying, no, this really isn't true at all: the fact that journalists all get blue checks by default is more of an implementation quirk of Twitter and nobody really cares. I have no reason to doubt him on this. So what's sort of funny is that apparently Elon got caught up in the same hatejerk as the rest of tech, and thought that "bluechecks" really did put tons of value on their verified status and could be extorted out of money for it. Which is probably a mistake, and one that's going to cost him literally billions.

At the time I thought this might have been a little uncharitable, but it turns out it was completely correct and, if anything, did not go far enough.

Today was the day that "legacy" blue check marks got turned off, and so now only the people paying Twitter $8/month get to have one. And this is absolutely hilarious, because now suddenly the blue check mark is a strong signal that you support Elon Musk and his Twitter machinations. So it went from being something which was free and had maybe slightly positive "eh, sure, I'll take it" valence, to something which (for most former bluechecks anyway) has strongly negative associations and costs money to boot. So they are, overwhelmingly, declining to pay. In fact, Twitter can't even give them away: LeBron James said he wouldn't pay for a check, Elon offered to give him one for free, and James refused, because the association is now so toxic. ell, em, ay, oh.

And this is absolutely infuriating the Elon fan crowd, because they never understood the indented paragraph above, and really did think that people valued the status of their blue check mark, instead of it being a "eh, whatever" thing that was barely worth it when it was free and certainly isn't worth $100/year. So you're getting deranged takes like this:

You can find thousands of these I'm-not-owned corncob posts, along with even more posts in the replies of people going "no thanks", cajoling and begging them to buy a blue check.

Sociologically, it is frickin' fascinating that this symbol just overnight had a complete valence inversion (and also that, despite this flip, the word "bluecheck" still refers to somebody just as insufferable as it did before).

[headspace-hotel]

I am looking back on older news articles and accounts of the Israeli military targeting medical personnel. I am using mainstream USAmerican news articles because I feel that in convincing other Americans in real life situations, it greatly strengthens the case that even sources ranging from disinterested to propagandistic in favor of Israel show the evidence of war crimes and, indeed, genocide.

The defense that everyone says is "Hamas uses medical infrastructure for military purposes." But it looks like in many cases, no real evidence ever emerged for the government's claims of hospitals and ambulances being used for Hamas military operations. This article is an example

The simple fact of a government saying something is not evidence that something is true. The only way it could be evidence, is if we think governments never lie and always tell the truth. That is, of course, silly.

This is important because: under the rules of war, medical personnel are to be protected. If an ambulance is being used for military purposes and is thus considered a military target, it is not so simple as just saying with no evidence "They were using the ambulance for military reasons," There has to be proof. There is no proof at all for most of the cases.

Similarly with the bombing of al-Shifa hospital, supposedly there was going to be proof released that there was a Hamas command center, but there was never any proof, and CNN investigated the footage they released of supposedly weapons found inside and found discrepancies.

The American media is normally really biased towards the Israeli government so it's a pretty big deal that CNN was like "Hey...somethings up with this video."

Folks keep saying "Well Hamas used hospitals as bases/command centers!" My friends, just saying this is not a blank check to do whatever you want. There needs to be solid proof. And there hasn't been solid proof, just unverifiable claims. Even CNN (again, a very mainstream USAmerican news network) says the claims cannot be verified.

The Israeli military took reporters to the hospital and showed them...the entrance to an underground shaft of some sort. That is very different from a "command and control center," and doesn't indicate the hospital was being used for military purposes.

USAmericans, listen to my words. All the arguments on the side of the Israeli government, require that the Israeli government is operating 100% in good faith and with good intentions.

I don't think that governments do that. I think that governments operate to protect their own interests. And consider this: If the USA government is going to defend the Israeli government no matter what—which is our policy—what would motivate the Israeli government to operate in good faith?

Biden says he is encouraging the military to minimize civilian deaths. Why would they try to do this, though, if USA will continue supporting them the exact same way with no consequences no matter what? (And does it look like they are trying?)

The truth cannot be denied no matter what skepticism or attitudes you have.

[the-daily-dreamer]

I love how HOTD’s logic is just anything in the book bad about team green is 100% true, even the claims that were only mentioned by people who were verifiably not there. They are all true. In fact, not only are the worst things true but also the most sympathetic parts of them? False. Lies. Slanderous propaganda.

And anything bad about team black are lies and propaganda. And the things that aren’t lies are totally acceptable and justifiable! It’s like dealing with a narcissist telling you “I didn’t do that and if I did it’s not my fault”.

Oh well. I’m going down with the ship lol

[lukolabrainrot]

I am going to talk about some of my thoughts about why I believe N's behavior changed as the PR tour progressed. I am also going to talk about my thoughts on if L&N ever got "jiggy with it" 😂 I'll try to get to my thoughts on Toronto and Ireland tomorrow.

Before I start though, I want to mention that I am trying to come to my theories/opinions based off of things I have been able to observe, and verified information online. Obviously though, I don't actually know any of these people irl, so I am never going to understand the full story of what is going on between L/N. All of this is just my thoughts and theories on what is going on based on what has been put out to the public. There has been a lot of speculation online about everything, but I am going to try and not give that information too much weight when coming to my conclusions here. I am interested in hearing everyone's thoughts/opinions though, since this story has a lot of moving parts. Just wanted to put this disclaimer out before moving forward with more of my thoughts/theories.

Alright, on to the main course (this is going to be a LONG post btw)...

N on the PR Tour

I want to start off with the following that we know to be fact about N:

She is INCREDIBLY private about her personal life, especially her dating/romantic life (the same isn't/hasn't really been true about L). In fact, I don't believe N has ever publicly come out as being in a relationship with anyone since she entered the entertainment industry/been in the public eye (although I can't 100% confirm this, so please let me know if there are any articles/or something on her SM where she has publicly confirmed she was in a relationship at some point)

She is VERY online, and very careful about controlling her public narrative

She is a naturally touchy and affectionate person with people, but she seems to hold her true feelings a lot closer to her heart, and it seems to me, that she is kind of "on" in public (which is actually an important skillset to have as someone in the entertainment industry because you really need to know how to stay in control of your public narrative--your fans are your livelihood)

She LOVES photography/taking photos (it is one of her love languages I believe)

Now as I mentioned, L was always a lot more of an open book on the PR tour about his feelings for N (refer to my post here). N seemed to be a lot more reserved/gaurded during the tour when it first started in January, but everything shifted in like April when the world tour started. Below are my thoughts:

N started to become a LOT more obvious through her nonverbal cues about her genuine feelings for L as the tour unfolded. I will say that I believe PART of it probably had to do with getting a little "lost in the sauce" with the energy of the tour. However, I think the larger factor was that L & N were pushed together for many months (in close quarters), and were therefore forced to have conversations about their feelings for each other that I think they had been tiptoeing around for quite a while. From what we then saw from like the middle of Italy (I'm an Italy truther), there was more of a confidence, security, and contentment in how they interacted with each other that signaled to me feelings were shared and reciprocated.

Like I mentioned, she is a PR queen and very, very private about this part of her life. Therefore, why would she decide to be so obvious about her feelings on such a public stage when she knows people analyze everything? Well... I believe this is her way of publicly acknowledging their romantic feelings for each other without ACTUALLY publicly acknowledging anything more than "work besties" is going on with them. Which totally makes sense when you think about it because 1) The fandom would LOSE IT rn 2) That would put a LOT of public pressure on them, and I think these feelings they have shared with each other are very new (but had been brewing for a long time), and I don't think they are confident enough to go public. There is also, of course, the A of the whole situation, which L needs to figure out how he wants to move forward with that. TLDR, the situation is very messy, and I think there is a lot that L/N need to process in private regarding each other out of the public eye. I am pretty confident though that this tour put them in a situation to confront, clarify, and establish what their romantic feelings are for each other outside of the show (and they were reciprocated), and they are taking the space right now to explore that privately.    

Lastly, because I really like analyzing photos and N loves taking pictures, let's talk about those "boyfriend pics" of L she posted since the world tour started. Yes, she was promoting the show, but a lot of those pictures (especially recently) have a very specific vibe. She wants the world to see him the way she sees him. She loves that man, clear and simple. He shines around her, and she knows that. I think it’s also especially telling that she posted the most recent boyfriend pic of her last day of filming (which was the most obvious one in my opinion) now that A is publicly connected to L. It was a statement in my opinion, that regardless of all the drama unfolding, her and L have a really deep and meaningful connection that is special to her. I think it also served as a message that we don’t know the full story, which I think is a positive thing for us Lukola fans. Now I can’t predict the future with these two, but I am fairly certain we wouldn’t have been seeing the type of behavior we saw from them on the PR tour, and the types of photos she has been posting of him lately, if they weren’t confident in moving forward with their romantic relationship in the near future (especially since A has been in the picture for quite some time). I think these pics serve as another crumb that they are a little more than just work besties.

One last note, I think the reason our PR queen started slipping up and changing her answers to certain questions on the tour is because SHE WAS REALLY HAPPY WITH HIM. This can be a whole separate post at some point if people are interested, but I am almost certain from everything I have observed regarding N, that she is quite jaded when it comes to finding a romantic partner, and has been hurt in romantic relationships in the past.  I feel like L is the more sweet, hopeless romantic between the two. I think he allowed her to heal some of her relationship wounds. I think there is something about L and the experiences they’ve shared together that has reignited something within N to make her feel more hopeful about having a deep romantic connection while she can still be very independent and successful in her field. And I think it specifically has something to do with who L is when he is with her and how he treats her. I get the impression he has really altered the way she sees certain things related to romantic relationships. My whole point is that I think they both know what they have, and they know that if they can get on the same page, this relationship would get serious pretty quickly. Therefore, even though N is really private with this part of her life, for L, I think she would publicly acknowledge their relationship, but only when/if they are able to get to a point where they feel confident enough that their relationship would be able to withstand the pressures from the public. They just aren't there currently because of all the other confounding factors, but I don't think that necessarily signals where they will be in like 6 to 8 months imo...

Have L/N ever gotten freaky deaky irl?

From before the PR tour, I just don't have enough information to confidently say yes or no. A lot of people have different opinions on this, and some people think they casually dated near the end of filming season 3/sometime last year (but we don't have any proof of that). This is what I will say:

N still follows J (and vice versa I believe, please lmk if I'm wrong?), so I don't think there is any bad blood there. This makes me pretty certain that L/N never acted on any physical feelings for each other until after that relationship was completely over. I do think though that L/N have had a spark for a while (and tbh, I think L has kind of had a thing for N since they met, and his feelings for her have always been stronger). Therefore, this likely played a part in him emotionally distancing from his relationship with J when season 3 started filming, but at the end of the day, we will never know the specicifics of why they decided to part ways. My guess is that there were a lot of reasons that relationship did not end up working out considering how serious that relationship was.

Considering how WILD L/N's sexual chemistry is, it wouldn't surprise me if they hooked up at some point before the PR tour. But considering L was on Raya by February/March 2023 (from my understanding?), and the fact that N was SUPER busy last year and traveling a bunch, I just don't think there was any time for them to have anything more than something super casual/no commitment (if anything). Even if they did maybe hook up some, I don't think they really directly addressed the depth of their feelings for each other, which is why we saw all that behavior between them on the tour, because I don't think any clear boundaries had been put up and their feelings came flooding back.

Now I feel a lot more confident that somethingggg intimate happened at least once between them on the PR tour. Here are my theories:

I don't think things were great between them at the beginning of the tour (like January) because feelings I think started popping up again for these two during the reshoots in December 2023, and then the NYE kiss comes out, and N and L are feeling disconnected and aren't really on the same page about the tour.

I think they had some conversations in private, because by the VDay event, they seemed a lot more on the same page (and L was giving N those total heart eyes). The extra layer is that (I believe?) A accompanied L to the city the event was in (I think NYC?), but even though A was staying with him, L was STILL looking at N like THAT during the event (which I think speaks VOLUMES).

I think though there were a lot of things they still weren't talking about, and everything came to a head when they got to Italy, which is why the vibes were off at first and it seemed like there was tension between them. This also occurred soon after the Instyle stunt, so I feel like N probably had some feelingssss about that.

I have recently been converted to an Italy truther, so I believe that Italy was where L/N finally addressed/readressed some of their feelings for each other, and N was trying to get some clarity on WTH was going on with A, and making sure it wasn't going to mess anything up with the tour. But I think they "kissed and made up" 😉 and got back on the same page. Which is why there was the shift in Italy, and why we saw what we saw for the rest of the tour.

Not sure exactly what happened of course, but I get the feeling something physical happened after they started having some BIG conversations about each other that they had needed to have for a long time (and I think they continued to have these conversations with each other as the tour progressed). Let's also remember that these are two very non-confrontational people, so I feel like there must have been a LOT of pent up feelings/emotions for them to publicly show that they weren't super happy with each other/beefing during the beginning of Italy.

I also definitely think they physically acted on their feelings in Brazil (like they just had the "glow" imo 😂). And the eff me eyes, c'mon. Like Brazil continually reminded me of that New Girl quote "The stench of filth and lust is all over this room." It just seemed pretty obvious to me 😂 Especially considering the events that transpired right after that with A, and between L/N for the rest of the tour.

Lastly, I know a lot of people believe that L/N didn't physically act on their feelings because the tension would go away. However, I actually think it's a good sign that tension is still there, because I think it shows that there is a pretty deep connection between these two, and they are still feeling that pull/sexual energy after having sex. They kind of remind me of like two friends in a friend group who just admitted their true feelings for each other but aren't ready to go public, but are also having crazy good sex, so they are super obvious and can't really hide it when they are together LOL Regardless if they had ever physically acted on their feelings before the tour, I think these experiences (IF they did indeed occur), helped L/N get clarity if their strong feelings and attraction for each other went past the show and their characters. And I personally think they got that clarity 😉

Wowww okay that turned into an essay LOL, but I think the TLDR is that the situation seems very complicated right now, and I think there is a lot that L/N are needing to figure out in private. But I don't think that negates or invalidates what we saw between them on the PR tour, or that they were "faking" their feelings. Human beings are messy and imperfect, and that is okay. I think the part that still really confuses me is the whole A of the situation, because I just can't wrap my head around it. I would love to hear other people's opinions though on how she factors into all this, so if you have theories/questions you would like to add to that discussion, drop them in my asks. Because I have thoughtssss 😂

[infriga]

To add to the discussion about plagiarization and misinformation, one thing I know that can contribute to complacency is how much time and effort it can take to fact check everything you watch. That's daunting for most people, let alone people who don't have as much experience with it or who deal with disabilities and executive dysfunction.

But there are some things you can do to minimize damages that are easier to manage on a more individual basis.

You don't have to necessarily fact check every single thing every creator says in every video in order to make sure they're 100% legit every time. I know not everyone has the mental bandwidth to do that sort of thing constantly. Generally it's okay to just practice some mindfulness and not blindly trust someone if you haven't vetted their claims personally.

What you can do is fact check yourself. Don't repeat stuff you hear from a video as if it is a fact unless you have looked into it yourself first to confirm that what the video said about it is true and that their sources are good. And if you source someone make sure you've vetted them specifically and checked their own sources on that particular topic or bit of information (and check that they even HAVE sources to begin with and aren't just copying their sources verbatim). You can't source every video essay you ever watch or check every single one for plagiarism, but you can source yourself and what you say, and make sure you're not spreading bullshit or citing the wrong person. If you find that you don't have the energy to do even that much in a given moment, then just keep the information in question to yourself for the time being until you do have the energy to verify it.

And some stuff that's generally just good practice: if it's a topic that you're particularly interested in, it's a good idea to seek out more than one video about it from more than one creator. The more diverse your sources of info on the topic the better, especially if you seek out more than just the popular stuff. Get a broader picture of it from a wide variety of people from a wide variety of demographics. It's a lot easier to spot stuff like plagiarism if you're looking at more than just one or two channels, and even if you don't spot it, because they're often good at hiding it, you at least can make sure that you're giving more obscure creators the same attention as well instead of only defaulting to the most popular wide-spread creators and content.

Seeking out more than one type of medium is usually a good idea as well. I know reading stuff like written papers or essays or books on a topic can be difficult for some people, but if you can manage it even just occasionally then branching out every once in a while is still worth doing because it gets you out of one particular information sphere and into another, reducing the chances of an echo chamber effect. If you can't bring yourself to do that much homework on a topic, then again remember to keep in mind that your knowledge about it is limited and could be wrong, and don't spread that info without doing your own research first. Videos are not inherently a bad way to learn about stuff, papers or books can be wrong, and plagiarized, and badly sourced, and can spread misinformation too, my main point is that it's good to avoid having your information come to you through a single choke point if you can help it.

It can be exhausting trying to hold every online creator accountable on an individual basis, I get that, so I don't expect everyone to extensively peer review every channel they ever watch, but at the end of the day you can at least make sure to try and hold yourself accountable first and foremost.

[creature-wizard]

Hypnosis is unreliable for memory recovery, and this is one way we know.

Some of you out there might be considering hypnosis to try and recover memories, whether from early childhood or a past life. You may have already heard criticism of it, but may have also heard that the critics are just trying to shut down important discussions. You may not know what to believe because when it comes to a lot of these memories, there's no real way to either verify or falsify them. After all, if someone goes under hypnosis and seems to remember an older sibling pushing them off a swing when they were five, but nobody else seems to remember this, who's to say who's right, who's misremembering, and who's just trying to protect a mean older sibling? And most past lives people report aren't exactly easy to check.

However, there is one area where attempting to recover memories is pretty popular, and where we can be really, really damn sure that none of these "memories" accurately reflect anything that actually happened.

That area is the starseed movement.

For those who don't already know, the starseed movement is part of New Age, which came out of Theosophy, which came out of the very racist brain of Helena Blavatsky. While not every New Ager believes everything Blavatsky said 100% (if they're even aware of what Blavatsky said), New Age mythology today is fundamentally really super racist.

The ancient astronaut hypothesis, which was created for the purpose of discrediting the engineering capabilities of nonwhite people and for which there is zero evidence to support, is a huge part of it. The mythology also asserts that Earth has been manipulated by a race of reptilian aliens who feed on human flesh, blood, adrenochrome, or even fear, depending on who you ask. The reptilians, supposedly, created religious institutions to control us, control most of the world's wealth, and start unnecessary wars for their own personal gain. For anyone who doesn't recognize the tropes, they're literally just old antisemitic conspiracy theories in a new hat. Most of their material can be traced back to David Icke, who was influenced by Fritz Springmeier, a far right conspiracy theorist. Furthermore, Icke asserted that the antisemitic hoax The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion are basically true, if you make them about reptilian aliens.

There are various races of "good" aliens in this mythology, but the one that's specifically taking the lead in fighting the reptilians are the Pleiadians - beings who (at least initially) were described as tall, pale-skinned, and blond hair. In fact, another term used to describe the Pleiadians is "Nordics," because they were imagined as looking like Nordic people. And why yes, they have been associated with the swastika.

New Agers also believe in places that never even existed, including Atlantis (a fiction created by Plato), Lemuria (a hypothetical continent that was discredited by the discovery of place tectonics), and Mu (supposedly the "real" Atlantis, made up by a guy who claimed that the Maya were descended from Egyptians). Not only is there zero evidence that any of these places existed, but belief in them was often motivated by a desire to attribute the technological and spiritual developments of non-white culture to others. The Emerald Tablets of Thoth the Atlantean, a supposedly ancient book that this guy supposedly received from this mysterious Great White Brotherhood, for example, claims that that ancient Egyptians received their spiritual wisdom from Thoth, a king who fled Atlantis during its destruction.

So in short, just about everything the starseed movement believes in is total bullshit that can easily be traced back to some extremely racist propaganda or hoax. True believers claim that there's an ancient global conspiracy hiding the truth from all of us, but whether or not they realize it, they are invoking The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, that old Russian hoax.

Meanwhile, people in the starseed movement regularly undergo hypnosis to try and recover memories of their past lives. Here are some selections posted by members of r/starseeds:

"The planet had a wooden area with plants and very interesting buildings and one area that looked more desert , with construction similar to pyramids , ecc that were used as transmitters. We had a connection to Egypt . I knew we had to move planet because of a galactic war . Our enemies were reptilians , grays and these mantis beings … they were the ones that killed us in a crash while we were flying over a planet with super red sand and rocks. I’ve had this memory of the crash ever since I was a child but I thought I was imaging it. I am not into scifi movies , aliens or anything ."

"My home planet Artuvia was destroyed by negative forces (reptilian) in the orion galactic war, i left through a portal of light with other beings and came to Earth, i remember the portal, and everything around me falling apart and crumbling, the war was massive and many died, my planet was peaceful and had never known war, so when the war came most of us Mintakans perished, i believe the pleiadians tried to help us, but the planet fell, it was so beautiful there, paradise, i loved it so much it is my only incarnation outside of earth, i spent over 5000 lifetimes there before i came to lemuria, atlantis and agartha."

"Have you researched the planet Artuvia, we were destroyed in galactic wars some 75,000 years ago. Our souls came to earth in a move to protect the galaxy for we are to help create the next generations of starseeds here. From the Orion star system, powered by the star Mintaka. My memories have been resurfacing the last several days. Im getting massive amounts of incomprehensible information that I am reformatting and understanding. Its led me here. I am accessing the Akashic Records."

"Hello when i did past life regression i saw myself living in atlantis with other races, arcturians, lyran felines and others. It was futuristic and more advenced then they showing today, we had medbeds, flyng cars and spaceships, in middle was a some sort of crystal and guardians guarding it. At first i was confused what i was seeing at first i thought it was a island but no it was really atlantis, and one who created was dude named king atlant, thats why its called atlantis."

"The Great Galactic-War was the biggest conflict in this Galaxy. The horrible things that the Reptilians have done to my race are unforgivable, brutal and disgusting. They were eating my brothers and sisters alive. Without any remorese, brutally slaughtering everyone that was standing on their way. You could lose anyone after not paying attention. So many beautiful and precious souls that I couldn't protect were lost to their murderous instincts, so many memories, families, were destroyed. I couldn't watch no more suffering from my brothers and sisters. Blood everywhere. They are coming. Blue ground, chaos."

Oh, and by the way, there are other people who aren't even using hypnosis, apparently - some of them report intense dreams, or having "memories" just randomly come to them. So, that's definitely also a thing to keep in mind.

In any case, if somebody starts pushing you to try hypnosis to recover memories of any kind, I recommend putting some distance between yourself and that person ASAP. Because we can see from the starseed movement that this shit just doesn't work the way a lot of people want to think it does, and it can get you into some bad places.

[athene-owl]

Dream Video Followup

OK, I know I said I was done but, after a sleep and some more thinking about the video, there are a few things I really want to add before I can never talk about this guy or his fanbase ever again.

This is the one thing I'm kicking myself for not pointing out - the Pastebin stuff. So, in the description, Dream has 3 links to Pastebin posts. The first is a statement allegedly from Jamie, the second is a statement allegedly from an anonymous person in one of the burner account screenshots, and the third is for some reason a statement by an employee behind the whole Dream USB armband thing????

OK so I'm gonna go into the third statement first before getting into the other 2 more serious posts - this statement about the baby photo discourse is quite literally a short statement from a random employee of Dream's merch company saying he doesn't believe the allegations because he doesn't think there's enough facts. He doesn't even mention the baby photos which I don't think people even really cared about. I have no idea why this of all things was included but also cannot take any stock in this because this guy 1. Would have no insight into Dream's private behavior and 2. Would financially be VERY inclined to back up Dream. While researching for this I found out there's rumors of Dream's company being unethical or something? I am not getting into that can of worms my god. Here, I'll put the entire quote below to show you how ridiculous this is, yes this is the entire thing.

As for the other 2 statements, I'm just gonna say this - as far as I can tell, there is no evidence these statements are legit. In the prelude to the 'Jamie' statement, Dream tries to address this and explains that 'Jamie' wants privacy and how in private he can verify their identity. If you wanna give him the benefit of the doubt, this makes sense to me personally given my current knowledge on the situation. BUT I won't say I'm inclined the do so esp given his history and the stakes of the situation. It'll be enough for stans and will probs make him look respectful and noble for 'protecting' her but it just flat out is not convincing evidence to me. This statement is not the slam dunk people are treating it as, if it is genuine then I am sorry for Jamie for being dragged into all of this and that's all I'll say. This is speculative but I need to mention it - even if this is Jamie, this is not 100% conclusive. If she's afraid of public backlash, if she's afraid of Dream, if she never wanted this revealed, then I think she would understandably just want to say nothing happened and for people to leave her alone. We don't have a clear way of knowing. Given how much Dream bemoans fake evidence in his video, given how much he lambasts people for not fact-checking, this is a huge issue with his evidence and I am not convinced by this personally. This is also all true for the second statement from the anonymous Discord user too.

A lot of the things Dream seemingly proves don't actually matter. With the photo at the police station, Dream got his team of lawyers to use this single photo to find out the exact station so they could contact them. They seemingly succeeded at this and found absolutely no records of Dream being reported for anything. I get the feeling this is the piece of evidence Dream is proudest of and that is impressing a lot of people. Doesn't it look really convincing and impressive that Dream's lawyers went through all this trouble, sent emails, made calls - all to find no report against him? It is impressive, but it doesn't prove as much as people are acting like it does. If anything, the photo being connected to a real station proves that Amanda did at least go to the police, since this wasn't a stock photo or anything. And while I'm no legal expert and am happy for someone to correct me, you absolutely can go to the police, talk to them about something, but choose not to report it. I don't think its impossible that Amanda went to a police station, consulted them on the situation without dropping names or wanting to file a report, and then left. This evidence proves no one has reported Dream and his records are clear NOT that he did nothing. He offers 2 answers - 1. That she was lying about intending to report him which he then leads into 'why wouldn't she be lying about everything' (lots of issues with this reasoning but whatever) and 2. She told the police her story but it didn't meet the standard of proof AKA it wasn't even seen as worth filing a report on by the police. But there's a third option - she backed out due to one of the countless reasons these crimes go unreported. I'm seeing so many people treat this as conclusive evidence, proudly supporting the idea that a woman not reporting her abuse makes her a liar. As if its unreasonable for a woman to plan to report, go to the police, but then change her mind. Really disgusting ideas are being spread and popularized by this video and men online are eating it up.

He also tells Amanda to check her mailbox - he has identified her, found her address and sent something to her, I'm guessing some sort of legal notice. This makes me incredibly uneasy. All I'll say is this - if I was groomed by someone like Dream, with his resources and stans and success, I wouldn't report it.

Small thing but at 1:14:35 he mentions how people thought he admitted to the moaning audio being him because he called it "essentially unsubstantiated "revenge porn"" - people thought him calling it 'revenge porn' was him admitting to it being real while he insists he meant it was fake but being passed around like it was him. And I just need to say that he really should've just flat out denied it was him, just say 'that audio is not me' and this whole confusion could've been avoided.

At 1:17:42, when Dream is discussing 'false allegations' he specifically mentions that it is a current 'trend' in the Minecraft community but assures the audience it will grow and spread to other communities. Really hate how that's gonna be cited as proof of victims being fake from now on, I really must ask why Dream had to speak beyond his own situation and make wider claims about this shit because I am fucking fed up. I need random internet men to STOP positioning themselves as experts of complex issues of rape culture right now. I also have seen a lot of big Youtuber men take Dream's side in this and support this message and yeah this will make things moving forward a fucking nightmare. I want people to at least consider how hypothetical hidden abusers in an online community would react to Dream's insistence on 'false allegations' being a popular trend OK? Again, women are statistically far, far, far more likely to face sexual violence from men then men are to EVER be falsely accused so please keep this in mind and do not let your guard down because I guarantee this will have wide reaching consequences!!!! Remember how many celebrity men started suing their abuse victims after what that shithead did to Amber Heard? Yeah.

I never watched the DSMP, Dream's content, any of his Minecraft friends' content, nothing, so I have no context for the bits where he talks about those topics. I've seen people saying there's a ton to that whole side of things, a lot of complex and interpersonal drama so I wanted to mention that he does briefly talk about it if you're interested.

Even from an outside, casual perspective as someone who doesn't follow the Dream stuff closely, my friends and I know of some controversies he didn't mention and I just wanted to point that out. I'm not even saying these things are true/damning for Dream BUT these are all well-known things that he really should've addressed in a video that took over a year to make (this is not a comprehensive list, I'm sure there's more because this man is in drama every week). And before you say that he wanted to focus on the 'serious stuff' - he decided to address the speedrunning stuff, an AI video of him sucking his own dick, 10 minutes on Nick Cantu, and interviews with both his mother and an Uber driver he met once where they both wholesomely recount how funny and honorable Dream is. Anyway, here are the points:

His whole image/persona was taken from Cryaotic, a sexual predator

Him apparently supporting Trump

The drama he had with his SMP - he does briefly mention the QSMP thing but even I know there was a lot more to say on this

People in the DSMP being bigots, Dream was in charge of the whole thing and should've explained why he allowed this

Dream making sexual jokes and comments about underage friends of his (there's a whole Youtube compilation of this and it's weird as fuck)

The whole Pride month donation debacle

Dream's own bigotry towards various marginalized groups

His fans mass doxxing of multiple people - the most infamous being of Twitter user @/faerieluv, a black person who had a welfare check called on them by Dream stans for criticising him? Where they live, 'welfare checks' had resulted in black people being murdered by police before, their ADHD medication was questioned - their life was in danger due to his stans and as far as I can tell Dream has never acknowledged this. Unfortunately, it seems they have left Twitter but I don't have an account so its hard to verify. Also, I previously said they were a woman but that's not clear now so I apologize.

[bleedingcoffee42]

And here we have Dick Winters wondering if Nix actually did piss in Sobel's coffee because Lewis Nixon III is a lot of things but a liar is not one of them. Everything Nix offers Dick, he plans to make good on, and these two are besties already so Dick has already figured this out. Nix might make a joke out of things, but it doesn't make it any less true. And the thing about the headmaster was a nugget of dialogue that has proven to be a 100% verified Lewis Nixon III fact that could have only come from Richard Winters. This, was not a random line either. I refuse to believe it.

Plus we find out later on that Nix pisses like a racehorse and can't be bothered to get out of bed to do so and pees in whatever is available. So...

May I present to you in the year 2024 the theory that Lewis Nixon did piss in Sobel's coffee.

[anamericangirl]

Sorry if this has been asked before, but how do you determine which news are trustworthy? One side I hear Israel is commiting ethnic genocide against palestinians, the other side is saying that it's hamas' fault.

I'm fairly new to geopolitics so im sorry if this seems ignorant. I just dont know how to sort out which one is the truth and the lie.

It’s not always simple to make that determination and there's not any singular source I can think of off the top of my head that I would consider to be consistently trustworthy.

What I tend to do, especially with something as convoluted as the Israel and Palestine war, is make sure I look at sources from both sides of the issue. No source exists without a bias so when looking at each source you have to be aware of the bias and see which one most closely aligns with what we know to be true.

The main problem here is that news about this war has two main sources: the IDF and Hamas. The IDF is not 100% trustworthy and is always going to put Israel in a sympathetic light. Hamas is a terrorist organization that has a long history of lying so they are never trustworthy and they are always going to put Palestine in a sympathetic light. Now, I'm not saying everything Hamas says is a lie, but their habit and history of lying is so extensive that's it's best not to trust anything they say and see if you can verify it independently before taking it as fact.

One problem with that is our media tends to just parrot what Hamas says without verifying it or doing any journalism before publishing whatever it is they claimed. Most of the time when you read reports about what Israel may or may not have done it's always followed by "Hamas officials say." and if Hamas is their only source then I'm automatically skeptical of the report.

So both sides are accusing the other of genocide and to find if one or both are lying or telling the truth, you need to look at the facts surrounding the issue.

For example, we know the palestinian population has been steadily increasing over the years.

And if your population is seeing a continual and steady increase you're not being genocided. Period. That's just a fact.

We also know that Israel warns civilians and tells them to evacuate certain areas they are planning on bombing before doing anything and if they were trying to commit genocide it makes no sense to do that.

We know that Hamas uses their own citizens as human shields. Hamas has admitted that.

We know that Hamas targets Israeli civilians in their attacks. We've seen that.

We know that Hamas wants to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. They have admitted to that.

We know that Hamas brutally attacked innocent civilians on October 7 of 2023 killing 1400 people (the largest mass killing of Jews since the holocaust) raping and torturing even more.

Always go as close to the source as you can. If you read that someone said something, try to find the original video/interview or wherever it was said and read/listen to it yourself so you have the context because most "journalists" will leave context out to benefit their own narrative.

When you look at the situation yourself instead of just choosing one side to listen to then you can see that it does look like one side is attempting genocide but it's not Israel.

[jeannereames]

Do you see memes and shitposts about Alexander and his time? If yes, do you like them, you hate them? Would you change something about these memes?

I’m sorry. I’m just really curious about what a professor thinks about this. Do you perhaps have a favorite Alexander meme?

Well, for me there’s a big difference between memes and shitposts. The former can be rather entertaining, the latter are just trolling. Don’t feed the trolls. I realize I’m perhaps defining shitposting more narrowly than some, but there’s enough of the narrow sort out there I don’t want to confuse it with memes.

Meme are great. I have two favorites, although not about Alexander, ironically. I’ve shared them below. Both show up in my class Power-points, btw! Many of my colleagues also enjoy clever memes. My buddy Borja Antela was trying to collect some on Alexander last year. For a while, I followed Alexandergoatmemes on Instagram, but finally left because about 85/90% of them seemed to be about Alexander naming cities after himself. Sure, it’s funny maybe the first 20 times, but at 100+?

So memes are great. Shitposting and ignorant-posting, however, are annoying.

I’m deliberately creating that third category. Shitposters know they’re posting shit; ignorant-posters (usually) don’t. The latter put up videos, tweets, or blog entries about (in this case) Alexander that perpetuate a lie, a false quote, or an oversimplified-and-mostly-wrong factoid. Some ignorant-posters are just reposting what they heard because they don’t know any better and may receive correction well enough—especially if offered politely. Yet others get upset (sometimes disproportionately so) when their errors or distortions are pointed out.

This can be about controversial matters, such as Alexander’s putative “sexuality” or it can be something surprising. I once had a fellow fly off the handle when he posted that Alexander was left-handed and I (gently) corrected him.* You’d have thought I’d called his mother a whore. It seemed quite silly…except that left-handedness used to be considered a Very Bad Thing. So being able to claim famous people as lefties was apparently more for him than just leftie pride.

Aside from oddities, most of the ignorant-posting I’ve seen comes in three main types.

First, we have the religious/spiritual/life-coach sorts who usurp Alexander for a moral lesson—not unlike the orators of the (Roman-era) Second Sophistic, or both Muslims and Christians in some of the Alexander Romances. Alexander has ALWAYS been a malleable figure for lecturing. Ergo, he pops up in homilies/sermons as a parable, like his supposed Last Three Wishes. It is, of course, total bullshit, but there’s quite a lot of stuff like it out there. People read it, go “Aww,” and reblog without bothering to check if it’s correct. It has “the authority of hearsay.” These can be either Alexander-positive or Alexander-negative parables, btw.

See also: quotes attributed to famous celebrities that they never, in fact, said. Alexander gets these too. The ¡Inspirational! “Army of Sheep Led by a Lion” is especially egregious, as it’s a general proverb that appeared well after Alexander (no, he didn’t say it). It seems to be currently popular, along with, “There is nothing impossible to him who will try” (also not ATG). Yet these make great quotes for those damn “Inspirational Posters.” Here’s a whole page of them, lion quote right at the top, suitable for a Power-point!...with no attempt to verify their authenticity or say where they got them. But the image with the quote below is especially funny as they even put a date on their fictional quote. If it has a date, it must be true! Netflix, btw, used that bloody quote even though I told them not to; it was fake. Didn’t matter.

Second, we have the alt-right/white supremacist groups, or hangers-on who might reject the label (coyly or not) but embrace much of its Eurocentric thinking. These folks present Alexander as spreading good [white] Western values to the poor benighted East [brown people]. It’s essentially warmed-over Plutarch with a dash of Curtius and some Arrian. Their Alexander even sometimes has longish flowing (blond) locks and is oddly tall.** Like Thor. I stay the hell away from them but have occasionally stumbled over them on Tik-Tok.

Anyway, the alt-right crowd may have read some about Alexander, written by other alt-right guys who take material from a carefully curated set of “accepted” histories: Arrian and Plutarch, and not just Plutarch’s Life of Alexander, but his double-essay from the Moralia, “On the Fate or Fortune of Alexander.” They tend to be war/conquest-approving and see the Greco-Roman past as some pure Aryan utopia from which we’ve fallen into our “wretched age of iron.”*** Of late, a lot of their associated images are AI generated, btw. A couple examples below.

Last, and on the opposite end of the spectrum are the Alexander-was-Queer-AND-Wonderful, and oh, boy, some of them also don’t want a single bad thing said about their hero. They may know relatively little about his life aside from his putative gayness, but are just as resistant to/resentful of being corrected in their errors and romantic oversimplifications.

And that is what all of these categories share: oversimplification for the sake of a particular social and/or political agenda.****

Isn’t it, then, also shitposting? No. Because shitposters intend to stir the pot. They may or may not believe what they say, but they’re saying it TO get a reaction. Like the Tweet Heard Round the Alexander-verse after the Netflix thing (below). THAT was a shitpost. His entire goal was to go viral, and he succeeded.

By contrast, ignorant-posters usually aim for a particular audience and rarely expect to go viral outside their circle. Nor do they expect to be corrected. When they are, they react with surprise and anger. (Again, there are exceptions.)

I tend to observe these things, but rarely engage—although I did engage more when I was a young grad student. Now if I reply, it’s general (as here), not to the original post/tweet itself. TBH, I have books and articles to write, classes to teach, and papers to grade. 😉 I don’t have time for flamewars.

-----------------------

* Yes, I made Alexander left-handed in Dancing with the Lion, partly for the hell of it. But there’s zero evidence one way or the other—which I point out in my Author’s Note at the end of book 2, Rise.

** BTW, there’s a Whole Thing out there online about Alexander as tall, even Super Tall, claiming evidence which they don’t actually cite (correctly). Note the “many stories suggest….” Oh, really? These are? Anyway, I don’t think the author of that blog entry is alt-right—which is why I put it as a footnote—but dig the wacko AI white-haired Nordic Alexander at the top! And I’m still chuckling at a 7-foot-tall Alexander. Good Lord, how tall would that make Hephaistion?

*** Yeah, that’s a little bow to Hesiod’s theory of the Ages of Man.

**** Note that I didn’t include Greek Nationalists. While some of them also swing right (Golden Dawn, Front Line, National Reform Party, etc.), many are more moderate. Alexander is a Greek hero, and if what’s presented about him by some is also oversimplified to fit a national narrative, it doesn’t spring from ignorance so much as deliberate choice and what they learned in school/at home. Think about what the average (white) American knows about George Washington or Thomas Jefferson, or for that matter, the average native person about Tecumseh or Crazy Horse.

[mentallhealthmatters]

there's a new google doc that was posted on twitter about the qsmp and it has made me furious. it was posted by some person who claims to have worked on the qsmp and filled with statements they claim as facts but this is only their word to go on. one of the biggest things they keep pushing is the fact that quackity's brother worked for the project even though there is no real proof of this in the google doc, again just things they claim to be true or confirmed. they basically call q a liar several times and claim that "no money was stolen from anyone" even though q pretty much confirmed that his money was being either stolen or misused.

i am so convinced that certain people have a sick vendetta against q. like why bring this up again now after so many months? it's just to stir the pot and get people to hate on q again based on only the word of this supposed former worker who is presenting their take on things knowing that people will eat it up. a lot of people lose all capacity for critical thinking when it comes to the topic of the qsmp. they believe that q is this evil person with only bad intentions.

there is a long history of people being racist and xenophobic towards quackity. i really believe that those fuckers are using this to continue being assholes to him.

How new and is it 100% verified to be by the person they claim to be?

There is no evidence that mystery paypal dude is even his royal Quackass' brother, and im sure the orginal person behind this claim actuallt took it back with "i thought" or "going off a hunch" basically looking for excuses to bad mouth him by weaponizing his brother against him, who for unaware has been allegedly caight grooming minors.

Like i get shady stuff did happen, and itll be hard to get evidence for it, but Quackity i think said he wanted to go the legal route, which can take MONTHS with out definitive results or proper conclusion.

My personal reason to read him in good faith was that he said if he couldnt figure out a way to remedy the situation he was gonna shut down the qsmp- which he kept to his word. But also the fact unlike most youtubers who do apologies and stuff like that, he actually comes across genuine with his attempts to manage the project. People who accuations and allegtations are removed usually on sight.

I feel like if there was malicious intent we wouldnt see this happen. Hell he sounded like was crying or trying NOT to cry for wilbur and the announcing the issues. Duckbutt sounded genuine and beaten up by this.

And yeah, there HAS been a lot xenophobia and racism. I, not so fondly, remember when Lumii? Lumni? The whistler blower and Pomni's admin were being openly xenophobic to Quackity. It was mostly micro aggressions, but both are building off eachother too the point if qsmp 2 eventually comes across i dearly hope the french and their problems (not so kindly) stay out of it. Im embarrassed on their behalf for the way their union behaved and handled the mess.

Generally dont like anything to do with that whistle blower. Lady threw several of her coAdmins and her friends from the project under the bus. :/

[loruleanhistorian]

I'll say it louder for the people in the back.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild DO NOT break the timeline! They DO fit within the canon!

And yes, there's a little retroactive continuity at play. But that's ALWAYS been a thing; the series' chronology is pieced together seemingly at the random whims of the developers. Nothing I have seen is so completely incongruent with the lore we did know up until now that it breaks anything. If anything, it seems to clarify a lot more than not. Let me explain.

There's only ever been one Hyrule Kingdom, and it has been relocated ONLY ONCE as far as we're aware; that was in the Adult timeline, AFTER the events seen in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (and its direct sequel, The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass). This relocation in a new land, despite a century later (and hundreds of years since the Great Flood) still references the previous country and its heritage.

We have also known in canon that a sky civilization founded and built the kingdom of Hyrule, ever since The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. These "sky beings" had developed a highly advanced civilization, built up the kingdom and then disappeared. They were regarded as closer to the gods than the Hylians, and referred to in legend as the ancestors of the Hylians. How interesting…

Consider that the founding of Hyrule, from the perspective of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, is so far back in time its been obscured and become myth.

"The Kingdom of Hyrule has a long history, and its origins date back to a time so long ago that it’s referred to as myth. Furthermore, it has experienced a cycle of prosperity and decline, and it’s now impossible to say whether the legends are true or fairy tales. However, it is an indisputable fact that the Calamity Ganon was sealed 10,000 years ago, and that it was revived 100 years ago. But 10,000 years ago was so long ago that its story remains only as folklore. As for the 100 years before and after Ganon's resurrection, there are no detailed records because the official documents were destroyed by fire. Therefore, what is written here is the history of Hyrule as far as it can be ascertained at present." — The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Master Works (Ambit Ltd.), page 355; translated from Japanese

The rise of the Demon King in that era, and the great battle waged against him, is a story known by the royal family of Hyrule but virtually unknown to all others. In the same vein, the events of later events are passed down as legends, e.g. stories of Princess Ruto and Nabooru aiding a hero and a princess against a man with evil ambitions, a.k.a. the events of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.

As stated in the quote further above, one of the few verifiable facts from Hyrule's ancient past relates to the ancient Calamity, which occurred some 10,000 years ago! The outcome of that last conflict with Ganon, and the preparations made against him, were all recorded and passed down. The relics they made were rediscovered and relied upon (much to the chagrin of the Hyruleans) 100 years before Breath of the Wild. There's not just a legend passed down, but records and relics. These events seem to have happened well after all the other legends.

In conclusion,

The game tells us new information to clarify things we thought we knew, but had never seen before. New evidence and new information helps inform a new evaluation of the chronology, and I frankly find it ridiculous that so many are making such huge leaps in logic trying to rectify all this by trying literally everything BUT the one solution that the game tries to spoon feed to us. End rant.

—LoruleanHistorian, 2023-07-05