#Online Expert Empire

[arc-misadventures]

So, for your consideration for the VTuber line. VTubers tend to have their specific circles, their regular collab groups. In every group, there is always one in particular who just can't help but suffer from scuff almost every stream, and there is always the one who fills the role of group tech support. I feel like Jaune would absolutely be the tech support for his circle. If that's the case, then who'd be your scuff queen/king. Someone we've already met? Or somebody who has yet to be introduced? Maybe I'm wrong, and Jaune is the scuff king. I'm curious to see what you'd do with this thought.

The VTuber: Circles Within Circles

Among the vast, VTubing community there tending to be many circles of, VTubers that tended to exclusively interact with one another, be this because of similar interests, or from hailing from the same academy, or in some occasions being a part of the same family. There was always a circles one could find someone being apart of.

Such as the quartet that was, CookieMonster, SushiandShibari, DraGunShow, and IHateMyDad2.0. While Cookie, and DraGun were half-sisters, the four of them all hailed from, Beacon Academy, both the agency, and fictional academy, and were once part of the same Huntress team back in the day.

This was just one of many examples of circles being formed, and made by the various, VTubers. However, there was always the outliers of this trend. Then again, he was always the outliner of any particular group.

But, what would one expect from the lone wolf of the VTubing community: ErrantyPaladain.

If the circles among the VTuber community were to be made into a Venn diagram, Errant would be smack dab right in the middle of all of them. Just like when he played, 'The World of Remnant: Hunter's, and Monsters.' A Huntsmen of no, Academy nor a single nation. The vagabond of Hunters' as he was sometimes referred to as.

ErrantPaladin would, as he often still does, would join any VTuber for the occasional collab if asked to, regardless of which VTuber, or agency asked him to. But, in the end just as always, he stood alone.

Some may see this as a weakness that. ErrantryPaladin possessed. But, many would see this as a benifit for one to gain his unique perspective that others often overlooked, or never saw.

The Genshin Impact update was one such example:

~~~

SushiandShibari: I don't understand why they couldn't just add more diverse characters to this latest update!

DraGunShow: What are you talking about; The latest update added some pretty interesting roaster of characters, what's wrong with the new characters they added?

SushiandShibari: They didn't add any diverse characters! Look at them, that's basically a tan! Why not add some black characters to the game? It should have more diversity in it!

DraGunShow: I wouldn't mind seeing some more diverse characters to the game. I mean, they all look pretty similar to one another.

SushiandShibari: Exactly! This is what many of the, English voice actors have been saying! There should be more diverse characters, then it just being a bunch of white people!

DraGunShow: Okay...? Look, Sushi, I'm not really sure about what should be done about this, and I don't really think I'm an expert on... any of this. Why don't we ask someone else, and get their opinion on this?

SushiandShibari: Fine. But, who are you going to ask?

DraGunShow: Let's see who's on...

DraGunShow: Hmmm...

DraGunShow: Ahh! Errant's online! Let's ask him!

SushiandShibari: Do you seriously want his opinion, or do you just want to talk to him?

DraGunShow: Don't you?

SushiandShibari: ...

SushiandShibari: Call him.

DraGunShow: I've already done it~!

...

...

...

ErrantryPaladin: Hello, DraGun. May I be of some sort of service?

DraGunShow: Hi, Errant! Is this a bad time?

ErrantryPaladin: No, I was just playing a few rounds of, Sins of a Solar Empire 2. But, I can pause it.

DraGunShow: Oh good! Sushi, and I have been having this debate, and well... I don't know much about it. So we were wondering if you could add your two cents to it.

ErrantyPaladin: Possibly. What is this debate about?

SushiandShibari: We're debating about how the latest update to. Genshin Impact isn't diverse enough, and that they should be more inclusive, and add more characters of more diverse back grounds. A lot of the, English voice actors are in agreement that, Genshin should add more diverse characters, and how the game should be more inclusive!

ErrantryPaladin: Ahh, that pointless argument.

SushiandShibari: P-Pointless?

DraGunShow: What do you mean by that?

ErrantryPaladin: What I mean is the, Genshin Impact is a, Chinese game made by a, Chinese company. They do not give a damn about inclusivity. And, the complaints people are making about that will only fall upon deaf, and uncaring ears.

SushiandShibari: What? What do you mean, surly they care what their player base thinks?

ErrantyPaladin: Not really, no. Listen, this isn't a western game company where a dozen people on, X can complain about something, and cause the game studio to change everything about it just because their encouraged to do to some higher ups being detached from reality, and being swayed by cheap coin.

ErrantryPaladin: This is a Chinese company, they are going to do things their way, and their way only.

SushiandShibari: But, they already have so many white characters, why can't...?!

ErrantryPaladin: Whoa whoa whoa! Did you say, 'white?' Sushi. they're, Chinese. Everyone in the game is based off of, Chinese characteristics. There is nothing 'white' about any of them.

DraGunShow: What are you talking about, a lot of their character designs look... white?

ErrantryPaladin: Pale would be the correct term you're looking for. Okay... Look, look up, 'Chinese movie stars,' and you'll get a wide array of skin tones, and facial features. Of which you will find that many of the, Genshin characters, both male, and female adopt. And, for the record, slim, pale skinned with angular jaws seem to be their standard of beauty. At least I believe that to be... seems evident.

DraGunShow: Whoa... there is a lot of skin tones here, Sushi.

SushiandShibari: Okay... I conceive the point to you... But, couldn't they still add more diverse characters to the game?

ErrantryPaladin: By 'diverse' you no doubt mean that white savior complex argument of adding black people to every, and any game. Of which they won't do, regardless of how much people whine at them to.

SushiandShibari: Why not?

ErrantryPaladin: Nor denying that one, eh? Okay, the reason why they will never add any 'diverse' characters is for one simple reason: The, Chinese are really, really, racist.

SushiandShibari: Eh?

DraGunShow: What?

SushiandShibari: They're racist, what do you mean by that?

ErrantryPaladin: I mean exactly what I said; The Chinese are really racist. Well, most people in, Asia are really racist actually. But, the, Chinese are no exception to this rule. They are racist towards, Americans, towards the, Europeans, towards the, Africans. They are particularly racist towards the, Japanese, that's a whole can of worms right there as to why. But, they are even racist to themselves!

ErrantryPaladin: So that's why I consider it a pointless argument. You're trying to force, Western ideals on a nation, that is actively fighting against them on a global scale. It doesn't matter what you do, nor say, they will not give a damn about any of it.

SushiandShibari: Oh... I see...

ErrantryPaladin: Now, I'm not saying for certain that I'm a hundred percent accurate. There are no doubt gapes in my memory, or I misinterpreted things. But, I am sure, that no matter how much anyone complains about inclusivity to the creators of, Genshin Impact, they will not give a damn. Honestly, I would advise the voice actors who are making these complaints to shut up; They are after all... replaceable.

ErrantryPaladin: Now, does that answer your question, or is there something else you'd like to ask?

DraGunShow: No.. I think that answer it... Sushi?

SushiandShibari: I... I need to do some research... Thanks Errant.

ErrantryPaladin: My pleasure! Now excuse me, I have some heathens to cleanse.

DraGunShow: ...

SushiandShibari: ...

DraGunShow: So...?

SushiandShibari: Shut up.

DraGunShow: Okay.

~~~

Sometimes people found his opinion, and thoughts to be rather controversial, and counter to most peoples beliefs, and often caused a mild controversy. But, ErrantryPaladin, stuck to his convictions, and paid them no mind.

He was asked to express his opinions and he did just so. If people got upset by them, then so be it.

Other times, people went to, ErrantryPaladin for simpler things. His opinions on games, sports and the likes. He was often asked by a fellow, Vtuber who hailed from the, Beacon VTuber Agency name, MochaFashionista for his advice on woman's fashion. Something many found to be quite odd that Vtubings fashionista would ask someone else, much less a guy for his opinions on woman's fashion.

That was until he gave his reviews, and opinions on woman's fashion with her, and everyone came to the same conclusion: 'This guy knows what he's talking about.'

When asked why, and how he knew so much about woman's fashion he simply replied: 'I have a lot of sisters.' And innocent, and simple answers that once again lead to speculation among his fans as to how many sisters did he really have, and if that was the sole reason he knew so much about woman's fashion.

But, being a fashion commentator was an occasional activity he almost exclusively did with, MochaFashionista. What he often did with other VTuber's was something he began to regret having to do. Less so with him being the only one capable of helping with other, and no one else was seemingly capable of fixing their problems themselves. And, more so how they managed to develop such problems.

What were those problems, ErrantryPaladin was so capable of helping others fix you ask? Simple really:

Tech support.

~~~

Fall4Me: Shitshithsitshitshit!

Panic coursed through, Fall4Me's voice as she looked at the bugged out screen before her. She was about to do a co-op game with several of her fellow streamers. But, her screen had begun to glitch out before she even started. She had to fix this before...

ErrantryPaladin: Hey, Ember, ready to play?

Fall4Me: Hey, Errant~! Yeah, I'm totally ready to play, just give me a moment!

ErrantryPaladin: ...

ErrantryPaladin: Haaa...

ErrantryPaladin: What is it this time?

Fall4Me: ...

Fall4Me: My screen is bugged out...

ErrantryPaladin: God dammit...

~~~

DraGunShow: Okay, I'm ready to play!

ErrantryPaladin: Are you sure, because it says you're not live?

DraGunShow: What? I'm totally online! It says so right here.

ErrantryPaladin: On which account does it say that?

DraGunShow: On my other account...

ErrantryPaladin: Other account? Wait, does that mean you bought two copies of the same game?

DraGunShow: Yes...?

ErrantryPaladin: Why are you saying that like it's a question?!

DraGunShow: I don't know?!

~~~

Another usual stream from, Fall$Me, one where she'd be joined by her precious, Wolf as they played another game together.

That's if her mic was on.

Fall4Me: ...

ErrantryPaladin: Ember?

Fall4Me: ...

ErrantryPaladin: Ember you're muted.

Errant had decided to change his stream to her to see what was up, and based upon how her model was moving, he could tell she was live, however.

He saw the panic look that filled, Fall4me's face as she struggled to turn her mic on, but based on how she seemingly developed this panic complexion.

ErrantryPaladin: Is your mike on?

She shook her head as she look at him in confusion.

ErrantryPaladin: Then turn it own.

She proceeded to do so, or at least, Errant assumed she was based upon her body movements. But, since nothing was heard from her end, and how she started to panic again, Errant could only shake his head in disappointment at her.

ErrantryPaladin: Did you at least plug your mic in?

He saw her model move to the side, and then appear stiff, no doubt a sign that she was going to check her mic. She soon came back, and and her model moved in front of the camera, her body adopting a bashful, and embarrassed posture.

ErrantryPaladin: It wasn't plugged in, was it?

Fall4Me: No...

ErrantryPaladin: How the hell did that happen?!

Fall4Me: I don't know!

~~~

The amount of times, Errant had to provide tech support to his fellow, VTubers had forced him to adopt a tech support persona, that eventually lead him to getting a new, VTuber model for people to understand what he was doing, and more importantly:

To shame those that needed his help.

~~~

Fall4Me: Errant?

ErrantryPaladin: Yes?

Fall4Me: Can help me?

ErrantryPaladin: Haaa... one moment.

ErrantryPaladin: What do you require of me, a humble servant of the, Machine-Spirit this time?

ErrantryPaladin's model became that of a, Warhammer 40000, Tech-Priest. He liked using this model because it helped him better understand, and focus on helping other, VTubers with their technical problems. And, generally make fun of those that needed his assistance. Again.

Fall4Me: Nooooo! Not, the Tech-Priest! I'm not having any problems with my computer! You don't need to put that mask on!

ErrantryPaladin: Your record prompts that this form should be the natural form taken upon this devotee of the Machine God when one addresses the, Scuff Queen.

Fall4Me: I'm not a scuff queen! This has nothing to deal with my computer!

ErrantryPaladin: Records prove otherwise. Now, what seems to be the problem; Did you forget to light the sacred incense?

Fall4Me: No! And, I'm not falling for that again!

ErrantryPaladin: Have you beseeched the, Machine-Spirit?

Fall4Me: Does calling it a hunk of junk count?

ErrantryPaladin: What! You dare insult the, Machine-Spirit in such a crewel manner! You have offended the, Machine-Spirit! Light the sacred incense at once to appease it!

Fall4Me: I'm not doing that again! It didn't work that time anyway! It has nothing to do with my computer!

ErrantryPaladin: Then what seems to be the problem that requires me?

Fall4Me: Is 0/bs a bad thing, or...?

ErrantryPaladin: ...

ErrantryPaladin: Omnissiah preserve me...

~~~

ErrantyPaladin's, VTuber career has been marked with a cloister of things. His interactions with his fellow, VTubers; The good, the bad, the weird, and the confusing. The mild controversies he had seen, and been a part of. The fights that broke out between, and withing the various agencies.

Errant had seen it all with in his own little eye of the storm upon a Venn diagram that was the, VTuber community. He occasionally ventured out to experience the thrills, and parrels of the storm, but at the end of the day, he would return to the center where he chose to stay. Called out only to join his fellow streamers for some fun.

And, copious amounts of tech support.

[cosmereplay]

Kaladin Didn’t Invent Therapy (And Why That’s Actually Great)

“...You need someone to talk to, Noril, when the darkness is strong. Someone to remind you the world hasn’t always been this way; that it won’t always be this way.” “How do you … know this?” Noril asked. “I’ve felt it,” Kaladin said. “Feel it most days.” - Rhythm of War, Ch. 25 Devotary of Mercy

I’m writing as someone with a background in psychotherapy and peer support, and I'm bursting with excitement about one of my favourite topics. You can imagine why I love Kaladin’s arc in Rhythm of War so much! I actually yelled out loud when I read some of these parts the first time.

I’ve seen people online saying and making jokes that Kaladin invents therapy, and while that could eventually be true, what Kaladin actually invented in RoW is mental health peer support. Psychotherapy as most people would understand it simply doesn’t exist yet on Roshar. However, peer support is a legitimate modality for healing on its own merits. Even more importantly for the story, peer support is something Kaladin would personally really benefit from, and it fits his narrative arc way better than therapy would.

1. Therapy as we know it won’t exist for a while yet.

“We need to study their responses, use an empirical approach to treatment instead of just assuming someone who has suffered mental trauma is permanently broken.” - Rhythm of War, Ch. 25 Devotary of Mercy “Someone needs to talk to them, try different treatments, see what they think works. What actually helps.” - Rhythm of War, Ch. 25 Devotary of Mercy

Obviously, Kaladin has not been educated in battle shock or melancholia or any other diagnosis. In Alethkar there's hardly any knowledge to be had on the subject. Even now in real life, research into effective interventions for various diagnoses is still ongoing, over 100 years after modern therapy was founded.

Building an empirical knowledge base* will take time, not to mention the years it will take to train new therapists across Roshar in how to provide interventions specific to various issues. Therapy as we know it today generally includes time in mentorship with another therapist, so in a way, the first therapist isn't a therapist. 😅 In the meantime, there are people who need help today, including Kaladin.

Peer support can fill that gap because its knowledge base is different. Peers bring their expertise, which is their years of trial and error, successes and failures - their lived experience. Peer facilitators need to know the basics of managing a group, and they have to be willing to share their own experiences and learn from the group. Thus, training peer leaders is relatively quick, and incredibly scalable and adaptable across cultures and many issues/diagnoses.

2. Peer Support is a distinct path to recovery that doesn’t require an expert in therapy.

Kaladin located six men in the sanitarium with similar symptoms. He released them and got them working to support each other. He developed a plan, and showed them how to share in ways that would help...Today they sat in seats on the balcony outside his clinic. Warmed by mugs of tea, they talked. About their lives. The people they’d lost. The darkness. - Rhythm of War, Ch. 33 Understanding “While you can’t force it, having someone to talk to usually helps. You should be letting him meet with others who feel like he does.” - Rhythm of War, Ch. 25, Devotary of Mercy

Kaladin is already positioning himself to align with the values of peer support. Some of these values overlap with therapy, such as dignity, respect, inclusion, hope, and trust. What makes peer support different is a particular emphasis on equal relationships, self-determination, and personal growth (Peer Support Canada, 2022).

In peer support, the group facilitator is not considered an authority like a therapist would be. A peer leader may be further on the road to recovery, but they may not be. They are expected to listen and grow just like any other group member.

Because the leader of the group is also a learner, peer support groups tend to be more collaborative and open-ended. Everyone in the group has something they can take out of it and something to give. Everyone in the group is responsible for managing their own self care, and everyone in the group is responsible for the direction of their own growth. This is different from most therapy groups, which often have a specific focus or goal that the therapist is responsible for implementing. And speaking of responsibility...

3. Peer Support Fits Kaladin’s Narrative Arc Better than Therapy

At his father’s recommendation—then insistence—Kaladin took it slowly, confining his initial efforts to men who shared similar symptoms. Battle fatigue, nightmares, persistent melancholy, suicidal tendencies. -Rhythm of War, Ch. 33 Understanding …he’d learned—these last few months—that his battle shock could take many forms. He was getting to where he could confront it. -Rhythm of War, Ch. 39 Invasion

I think everyone can agree that Kaladin needs to participate in therapy just as much as the other battle-shocked men he finds in the Devotary of Mercy.

However, in therapy, the focus is solely on the needs of the clients. A therapist should not be distracted by their own issues (when this happens, it’s called countertransference). Further, therapy is generally framed such that the therapist is the only expert in the room, which means therapists have a higher level of responsibility for how the clients are doing (which varies depending on the issue, the therapy modality, and the circumstances).

In his own recovery, Kaladin is working on trying to take less responsibility for others, so setting him up as a therapeutic authority could be harmful for him. In a position of authority, he might be tempted to replicate the hierarchical structure he was in before (which would impede his own growth), or try to save everyone (which could impede everyone's growth). He simply doesn’t have the mentorship or knowledge base he'd need to work through those issues before leading as an expert.

In contrast, the point of peer support is the mutual sharing of lived experience. The group facilitator is expected to share their own struggles (as a model of recovery), and allow others to support them. In the context of a more balanced power dynamic, Kaladin can give the other group members the space they need to grow, and he can pursue his own recovery without feeling like he’s letting others down. Also, he will be able to leave the group during KOWT without worrying that the group won't be able to run without him. Everyone in the group carries some responsibility for each other, so group members can come and go with less stress than a change in therapist would cause in group therapy.

This is the beauty of peer support. It can happen anywhere people with similar experiences get together. No formal education is required. What is required is a willingness to know yourself as well as you can; to share your experiences; to listen to others tell their stories; to question your own assumptions as you learn how others handle things differently; to look out for each other's safety; to care.

Peer support creates a place of belonging and a community repository of shared wisdom. Kaladin almost had it on Bridge Four, but his position of authority wouldn’t allow him to grow the way he needed. Peer support is what Kaladin needs - he needs a place where he can take off his armour among people who get it because they're struggling with similar issues, and without having a position of responsibility over them. When he (eventually**) attends the groups, they help him grow!

Anyway, that's why Kaladin didn’t invent therapy, and why I think that's great.

For the men chatting together softly, the change was in being shown sunlight again. In being reminded that the darkness did pass. But perhaps most important, the change was in not merely knowing that you weren’t alone—but in feeling it. Realizing that no matter how isolated you thought you were, no matter how often your brain told you terrible things, there were others who understood. - Rhythm of War, Ch. 33 Understanding

---

*Funny enough, empirical research could lead Rosharan researchers right back to peer support. Empirical research on Earth has shown that modern therapy and peer support have similar levels of effectiveness (for example, for depression and PTSD).

**Look who’s resisting attending the groups he founded…KALADIN!! (shakes fist in the general direction of the sky) (This is the most relatable passage for me in this whole book, by the way, helper types unite lmao):

Kaladin looked down at the table. Had it? Had talking to Noril helped? “He’s been avoiding joining in,” Teft said. “I haven’t,” Kaladin snapped. “I’ve been busy.” Teft gave him a flat stare. Storming sergeants. They always heard the things you weren’t saying. - Rhythm of War, Ch. 38 Rhythm of the Terrors

Peer Support Canada. (2022). Peer Support Core Values. Accessed from https://peersupportcanada.ca/ Jun 27, 2022.

[blueiscoool]

Very Rare Emperor Constantine Silver Ingots Saved From Illegal Sale

A man allegedly tried to illegally sell three rare Roman-era silver ingots that his great-grandmother reportedly found in her garden years ago.

Three "truly sensational" Roman-era silver ingots depicting Constantine the Great were nearly sold illegally on the internet, a new investigation finds.

An unnamed man alleged that his great-grandmother found the rare artifacts buried in the family's backyard in Transcarpathia (also known as Zakarpattia), a region in western Ukraine. Later, the man reportedly tried to sell one of the silver bars online, according to Public Uzhgorod, Ukraine's public broadcast station.

However, officials from the museum intervened by reporting the attempted illegal sale to local law enforcement. When officers searched the home, they discovered two additional ingots. Because the ingots have "special cultural value," Ukraine's Office of the Prosecutor General has taken over the case, according to a translated statement from the National Museum of the History of Ukraine in Kyiv.

Each of the metal blocks, which are almost entirely pure silver, weighs more than 12 ounces (342 grams) and contains a coin-shaped impression of Emperor Constantine the Great on each side, according to the statement. Constantine, who ruled from A.D. 306 to 337, is known for ushering Christianity into the Roman Empire and moving his capital to "New Rome," which later became Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul).

The ingots would have been used during the minting process to strike coins known as siliquae. The coins with Constantine's likeness would have been issued between A.D. 310 and 313 in Augusta Treverorum, a Roman city that today is Trier, Germany. At one time, the pieces would have been batched together with a thin, silver ribbon, which has since been lost, according to the statement.

"Three ingots fastened together were supposed to be a gift for a very high-ranking person," Maksym Levada, a curator at the museum, said in the statement. "The fact that they were found outside the Roman Empire on the territory of modern Ukraine makes them an invaluable source of our past."

Experts estimate the treasure's value at 3.5 million Ukrainian hryvnia, or about $84,800.

"But what makes them unique is not the cost, but the fact that only a few similar ingots have been found in Europe to date," Andriy Kostin, Ukraine's prosecutor general, said in the statement.

There are about 90 known Roman silver ingots in existence today, with only 11 containing mint stamp impressions, making the three ingots' recovery even rarer, according to the statement.

Kyrylo Myzgin, an archaeologist and faculty member at the University of Warsaw who initially examined the ingots, said in an email that the finding "can be considered truly sensational."

"It is excellent news that they ended up in a museum rather than on the black market for antiquities," Myzgin said. "Roman silver ingots with coin die imprints are incredibl\y rare and were virtually unknown outside the Roman Empire. It is likely that these ingots reached the territory of what is now western Ukraine as a result of interactions between the local population — possibly Germanic tribes or Dacians [people in what is now largely modern-day Romania] — and the Roman Empire in the early 4th century. However, the exact nature of these interactions has yet to be determined."

The ingots are now on display in the museum's "Salvated Treasures" exhibition, which contains a collection of rescued artifacts.

By Jennifer Nalewicki.

[paingoes]

Rubies Masterpost

Rubies is a direct sequel to Destroyer. It is focused on Delta's life after captivity and deals with the aftermath of severe conditioning and abuse.

You can also read it on AO3 !

====================================

Character Overview:

Delta - living weapon whumpee with very, very powerful telekinetic abilities. was raised from birth to be a weapon of mass destruction for an evil space empire. hes killed thousands of people and hes really normal about it.

Kitty - catgirl caretaker! she works for the rebellion in infosec. used to be online friends with delta before they met irl.

Apollo - caretaker and combat medic, kitty's best friend. means well more than anyone on the planet.

Kitty and Apollo both coordinated to get Delta out of Empire and have now been made officially responsible for him in the event of snafu.

Not pictured above are:

Lun - Apollo's brother. Space vampire. (did all the real work)

Iza - Weapons expert and squadron leader (took the rap for it)

Levon - Supreme leader of rebel group Galatea (DILF)

====================================

Story:

First Night

Missed Calls

Light Show

First Base

Waiting Room

Settling

Ungrateful

Web 2.0

Terrors

Mood

Stars

Habits

Communication

Haircare

Asking

Check In

[hero-israel]

Can i just say I am so sick and tired of people claiming genocide. I mean with saying Israel is committing genocide on Palestinians right now. Every time I see it I want to scream. This is one of the numerous reasons why the pro palestine movement sucks. They can't just say something is bad, focus on real grievances. Instead they have to exaggerate and claim everything is the worst possible version. They can't just say "palestinian civilians are suffering," or even "excessive civilian deaths." No. they have to claim genocide.

it’s disgusting. they are appropriating terms and watering them down in the process. genocide is a very real horrific problem that is ACTUALLY happening to people right now... and they have to claim that term for their situation because why? to paint israel/israelis as the ultimate evil? to claim this issue is the worst ever and insist everyone else drop everything and only care about this? to add more emphasis on their lies and propaganda of israel being a colonial empire practicing apartheid? intentional flipping because they know Jews have been victim to genocide (we see this more explicitly when they compare Israel in this war to nazis)?

Maybe part of it is that if israel is responsible for genocide, then there’s no need to acknowledge how HAMAS and their actions play a significant role in palestinian suffering? (It can't be that hamas steals aid for civilians, no it must be 100% israel’s fault and only theirs! Also joe Biden I guess! /sarcasm)

No matter what, it’s a cynical ploy and absolutely disgusting.

In some ways it reminds me of how people online have taken terms like “trigger,” “gaslight,” and more, and completely twisted and watered down their meaning, turned it all into a joke ... except obviously much worse, here.

what really grinds me up is seeing how many people are buying into this. especially gen z. I am so done with my generation honestly. im ashamed to be associated with these people. part of me doesn't get it. im not jewish. and i try my best not to be antisemitic, educate myself. it does take work, but also it’s NOT THAT HARD to just NOT post completely unverified stuff, NOT absorb your news from social media, NOT give accusations of genocide without doing any research, bothering to learn about historical context, actually understanding what experts say and explanations why it is not genocide? And most of all actually LISTEN to jewish people when they talk about their own history and heritage?

Im not saying this to say im so great, in fact it's the opposite: what im doing is nothing special and amazing. it's really BASIC. yet SO MANY PEOPLE fail this??? what the fuck????

I understand people cannot educate themselves on literally very single topic. But then if they are ignorant, then they should just SHUT UP and not weigh on something they didn't take the work to understand. That is not hard!!!! NOT casually throwing around accusations of genocide should be the bare minimum and yet here we are.

All of the above. I am sorry you are dealing with this from so many among your cohort, and deeply appreciate your commitment as a non-Jew to resisting the new Christ-killer / stab-in-the-back mythology. It will continue to be difficult. For decades - for CENTURIES - all the wealthiest and most educated people in societies worldwide "knew" the Jews were guilty of these terrible things.

Derek Chauvin was convicted of the second- and third-degree murder of George Floyd. There were people at that time who were upset he hadn't been nailed for first-degree murder - he was obviously guilty! Look what a horrible thing he did! Get him for everything! But there actually really are different standards of evidence for different crimes and if prosecutors had tried to go for that one they would have lost.

I don't doubt for an instant that the IDF has committed multiple war crimes during this entirely preventable, entirely pointless cataclysm. But people are racing past the crimes that are clearly visible and could be supported by evidence because they want - need - HOPE for the very worst one to be true. It is a moral obscenity. And you can tell how much they are enjoying themselves, how fine it feels to be able to invoke genocide against Jews and Uno-reverse that nagging Holocaust card, by how quickly they revert to petty Internet slang to silence counter-arguments: "lol WELL ACTUALLLYYY, so you're JUST ASKING QUESTIONS rite, nice SEALIONING." It is meant to be an inherently, automatically truthful claim, one that the Jew has no right to deny.

The Disputations of our time.

And as we did in the past... we must answer, because not-answering will not help.

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this story from Inside Climate News:

Most people are “very” or “extremely” concerned about the state of the natural world, a new global public opinion survey shows. 

Roughly 70 percent of 22,000 people polled online earlier this year agreed that human activities were pushing the Earth past “tipping points,” thresholds beyond which nature cannot recover, like loss of the Amazon rainforest or collapse of the Atlantic Ocean’s currents. The same number of respondents said the world needs to reduce carbon emissions within the next decade. 

Just under 40 percent of respondents said technological advances can solve environmental challenges. 

The Global Commons survey, conducted for two collectives of “economic thinkers” and scientists known as Earth4All and the Global Commons Alliance, polled people across 22 countries, including low-, middle- and high-income nations. The survey’s stated aim was to assess public opinion about “societal transformations” and “planetary stewardship.”

The results, released Thursday, highlight that people living under diverse circumstances seem to share worries about the health of ecosystems and the environmental problems future generations will inherit. 

But there were some regional differences. People living in emerging economies, including Kenya and India, perceived themselves to be more exposed to environmental and climate shocks, like drought, flooding and extreme weather. That group expressed higher levels of concern about the environment, though 59 percent of all respondents said they are “very” or ��extremely” worried about “the state of nature today,” and another 29 percent are at least somewhat concerned.  

Americans are included in the global majority, but a more complex picture emerged in the details of the survey, conducted by Ipsos.

Roughly one in two Americans said they are not very or not at all exposed to environmental and climate change risks. Those perceptions contrast sharply with empirical evidence showing that climate change is having an impact in nearly every corner of the United States. A warming planet has intensified hurricanes battering coasts, droughts striking middle American farms and wildfires threatening homes and air quality across the country. And climate shocks are driving up prices of some food, like chocolate and olive oil, and consumer goods. 

Americans also largely believe they do not bear responsibility for global environmental problems. Only about 15 percent of U.S. respondents said that high- and middle-income Americans share responsibility for climate change and natural destruction. Instead, they attribute the most blame to businesses and governments of wealthy countries. 

Those survey responses suggest that at least half of Americans may not feel they have any skin in the game when it comes to addressing global environmental problems, according to Geoff Dabelko, a professor at Ohio University and expert in environmental policy and security. 

Translating concern about the environment to actual change requires people to believe they have something at stake, Dabelko said. “It’s troubling that Americans aren’t making that connection.”

[tuurverheydepoetryandprose]

The influence of Twitter on online culture made me angry, the influence of TikTok on online culture kinda scares me. The amount of misinformation, censorship, media illiteracy, secular puritanism, revisionism, moral dogmatism… it just horrifies me.

Twitter made online culture into a sphere of perpetually pointless discourse, filled to the brim with pedantry, cynicism, performative outrage, gleeful abuse, bad faith arguments etc. It’s a world where everyone is an intellectual, an activist and a critic, no matter how incurious, inaccurate and demonstrably absurd their arguments.

TikTok is creating a world where everyone feels themselves to be historians, educators, politicians, community leaders, moral guides, experts etc. Like that woman who says the Roman Empire didn’t exist said: “some people just know more than you.” (Or something similar)

‘Just know’ is critical here: lots of TikTok influencers just confidently presume to know things without doing any real research, fact-checking and due diligence. They just act as if they are experts and will say whatever without citing anything. More than anything, they act as if their words and intuitions hold universal moral weight.

This is inevitably leading us to a path where the worst impulses of people who love attention and love to feel right no matter the cost are steering discourse standards for young people.

The result is this kind of secular dogmatism, puritanism and moral absolutism. What is problematic is immoral, what is uncomfortable is abusive, all authoritative information is untrue… People propagating all kinds of misinformation and historical revisionism, people spreading the attitude that all “problematic” media should be wiped from existence, that any expression that doesn’t meet their criteria doesn’t have a right to exist publicly, that morality is not concerned with actual interpersonal behaviour but with personal taste, preference and media consumption instead… At the centre of it is the bane of much online media “analysis”, the attitude that ‘I am the universal I. My taste corresponds with the bounds of what should exist and what shouldn’t. If I can’t relate to it, it’s irrelevant, if I dislike it, it must be morally reprehensible and should be erased.’

This will lead to more alienation, fragmentation and polarisation, but that’s not all. A lot of these misguided attitudes come clad in the language of progressive values and radical politics, but deliberately or not, they are smoothing the path for reactionary gain. People forget that reactionary ideas and attitudes don’t always have to come with explicitly right-wing conservative, neoliberal signifiers, they can just as easily be clad in the language of socialism or revolutionary values as well (just look at the Sovjet-Union or modern day China).

I do sincerely hope that the online left does something to counter this because this trend will make it incredibly easy for the right-wing to enflame the culture war and turn offline people against social progressivism and/or for red-brown goons and reactionary “socialists” to infiltrate the online left and increasingly make it more conservative and more culturally restrictive.

This finger-wagging, prudish and proudly ignorant version of progressivism will not protect anyone from anything. It will just open up online communities to more harassment, thought-policing, gatekeeping, public shaming and open the door for many cynical and unscrupulous people to gain prominence and violently enforce cultural conformity.

[foxgnomesworld]

This thread and especially the linked dissertation annoyed me so much that I decided to actually post on Tumblr for the first time.

I wanted to give this a fair shot and read the thread. While it acknowledges certain critiques of astrology, it concludes that astrology skeptics are ignorant of developments in the field and need to do more research. So, I went to the linked dissertation to learn more. Link

The problem is that the dissertation is bad. Now, it's clearly an undergraduate essay that has likely never been edited by anyone other than the author. Perhaps it is not fair to expect more. However, since it was linked as a resource, I feel critique is warranted.

First off, if you're hoping the essay addresses any of what was mentioned in the thread, you're out of luck. Notably, there is no mention of how astrologers are addressing the many concerns of skeptics.

The essay itself is poorly argued. There are many claims made with little evidence, e.g. that the practice of astrology has changed profoundly since the 70s. Obviously it's online now (just like everything else), but that doesn't prove there have been fundamental shifts in the field.

The author's claims are not explained and lack underlying logic, as in this section of the essay:

How exactly does astrology validate a person and their experiences? What if the chart contradicts a person's own perceptions? If the goal is to understand the self, why use astrology at all?

An underlying tension in the essay is the unwillingness to engage with the question of whether astrology is "real." Do the planets actually have an impact on behavior? This is critical to address. After all, why should astrology be embraced if it is based on falsehoods and might make people more willing to believe in other pseudo-scientific ideas? Self-understanding and validation are valuable. However, there are ways of attaining them that do not rely on pseudoscience.

Instead, the author fails to understand criticism, or to engage with it in good faith, as you can see here:

1) Evaluating whether people "believe" in a field is entirely separate from the question of whether or not it is empirically valid.

2) Whether a skeptic believes in astrology or not is irrelevant. The question is how the practitioners conceptualize their own field. Surely, the people who position themselves as astrological experts should be able to communicate their thoughts on how the field functions, and why their practice can reveal truth!

This leads to the most troubling part of the essay. One of the claims in the thread is that astrologers have been addressing critiques about the dangers of astrology. Fake promises of good health were given as a specific example.

Yet in the essay, the author takes a very different stance. A critic who is concerned about the growing popularity of various pseudosciences and how this might affect scientific literacy is treated with scorn and mockery.

Read that highlighted section. Do the quotes provided say anything about "doom" and "irremediable societal downfall"? No, not at all. The author's defensiveness toward criticism of astrology is on full display. There is no genuine engagement with the topic: the danger of a population that doesn't value science or critical thinking.

Instead, the critic is mischaracterized, and the author gives incredibly weak defenses. She states that astrology never negatively affected society in the past (a claim she doesn't even try to defend). Worse, she writes that people make irrational decisions anyway, so what does it matter if they believe pseudoscience?

Finally, there is this: "Never mind […] that correlation does not equal causation."

This quote is damning. It is nonsense. It showcases the scientific illiteracy of the author. In the critique given, there are simply no mentions of correlations, or claims of causation. This cute line is meant to convince you that the author understands science, but it actually betrays her lack of statistical reasoning.

Such a phrase has an actual meaning and utility. It can be employed when a researcher tries to assert a causal connection between two pieces of data that mathematically correlate, yet lacks evidence to prove one trend drives another. In this context, though, it means nothing, because the reader has been shown no statistical claims.

Frankly, I am disappointed. I did not expect the essay would change my mind about astrology as a whole. However, I had hoped from the thread that it would shed some light on why people find it compelling, and how astrologers are addressing potential problems and criticisms. Neither is true. The essay gives the obvious answer about astrology's popularity: life sucks now, so people (often marginalized) turn to things that promise them truth.

However, that alone does not mean that the rise of astrology is positive or even neutral. Rather, to someone like me, this shows that it is indeed a field that targets the most vulnerable. It convinces them to dedicate their time and energy to a practice that relies on magical thinking and might lead them to believe further pseudoscience.

Finally, if you need proof that astrology is still used to judge and insult others, look no further than the quote tweets on the post:

The original critic of astrology is unfairly labeled as someone who just hates her astrological sign, and insinuated to be a "sensitive crybaby." All of her thoughtful commentary is dismissed by these strangers in favor of making assumptions about her character and motivations based solely on her sun sign.

The most damning evidence against astrology as a liberatory practice is to simply look at the attitudes and behaviors of people who believe in it.

[grandhotelabyss]

What do you make of the newfound ubiquity of psychobabble in daily parlance? Autism self-diagnosis is rampant - in fact, many appear eager to claim the condition - exes are being recast as narcissists, and a clinical term like "body dysmorphia“ is increasingly used to say one has appearance-related insecurities. What could be driving this? Has psychiatry really become that much of a cultural factor in our lives, or are the experts merely responding to some deeper demand that arose independently?

My impression is that this got started about 100 years ago with the rise of the consumer economy and the expert class and the concomitant decline in Christian and bourgeois values. It's been steadily spreading from the upper middle class downward for a century. The psychologist replaces the priest as guide to life. I just read Revolutionary Road and the quarreling couple in that novel, set in the 1950s, are already throwing Freud at each other. When I was a child in the 1980s, the adults would scold each other for saying certain things to me on the grounds that it might give me a "complex." I think what's new today is the decline in subtlety and intelligence of psychology itself. Instead of Freud's admittedly reductive but still poetic and imaginative recasting of myth, religion, and literature, we have this inchoate mess of an empirical science they can't seem to validate empirically, a pharmacopeia determined by avarice, and a therapeutic melange of decayed Transcendentalism, mistranslated Eastern spirituality, and sheer middle-class sentimentalism and selfishness. Then there's the online-era obsession with labeling oneself and others, derived from the gamified avatars of social-media space—whereas, as Freud's literary practice if not his medical theory demonstrated, one key to a sound mind is not crude labeling but the capacity for rich, various description and narrative of the inner life.

[claudiosuenaga]

Book Release: The Reliability of UFO Witness Testimony (With a Chapter by Cláudio Tsuyoshi Suenaga)

V.J. Ballester-Olmos & Richard W. Heiden (Eds.)

For 76 years, casual observers around the world have reported sightings of aerial phenomena unexplainable to them. More elaborate personal experiences have been reported by others whose testimony speak of close interactions with fantastic flying machines that land, from which strange beings descend, and even kidnap the onlookers. In the absence of compelling physical evidence of the reality of these narrations, how should science study immaterial observations and test these claims? The very standard of reputable witness reliability is at stake here.

The Reliability of UFO Witness Testimony is the first major book to comprehensively focus on the discussion and current views on problems and challenges posed by the reliability of UFO testimonies. This is a cross-disciplinary compendium of papers by 60 authors from 14 different countries. They are specialists in social, physical, and biological sciences, including psychology (predominantly) as well as psychiatry, sociology, anthropology, history, philosophy, folklore, religion, journalism, engineering, computing, medicine, education, analysts with experience in the critical study of UFO perceivers, and other professionals. This volume shares thematically convergent ideas about the plausibility of alternate explanations for an alleged close-range UFO phenomenon.

The 57 chapters in this book are divided into seven section headings: Case Studies, Psychological Perspectives, On Witness Testimony, Empirical Research, Anthropological Approach, Metrics and Scaling, and Epistemological Issues. There, the subject matter is analyzed from statistical work to clinical assessment, psychometrics, comparative and evaluation inquiry, and other topic perspectives.

Some extracts from the Foreword, written by Dr. Leonard S. Newman, Professor of Psychology at Syracuse University:

"The contributors to this book include some very smart people. There are all sorts of issues to which they could be devoting their intellectual energy, and all sorts of scholarly and research contributions they could make. They don’t have to write thoughtful and rigorous chapters for a book called The Reliability of UFO Witness Testimony, but this is what they have done. And so, the work continues, as attested to by the papers in this volume. I’m not sure if there exists any collection of papers on any topic that can claim to comprehensively summarize everything that is currently known about it. But this one comes pretty close."

This 711-page book has been released online in the Academia.edu portal, from where it can be downloaded for free:

Simultaneously, UPIAR Publishing House (Turin, Italy) has published two softcover, A4 format print editions, one in black & white, another in full color (ISBN: 9791281441002). The book can be purchased through this link:

Four outstanding academics have provided praise notes to this volume. This is what they said:

Elizabeth Loftus, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Irvine, USA:

"When ordinary citizens claim to have extraterrestrial encounters, such as seeing UFOs or meeting with alien beings, what should we think? Did the alien abduction really happen or was it a hoax? Is someone deliberately lying? Are they false memories? Readers will be enthralled by the fascinating case histories that are presented in The Reliability of UFO Witness Testimony*, a volume where sixty experts examine these issues with depth and insight. These cases teach us a great deal about how humans come to believe they have experienced bizarre events that may have never occurred at all."

Steven Jay Lynn, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Binghamton University (SUNY), USA:

"This captivating book will appeal to anyone interested in UFOs (and who isn’t?), the vagaries of memory, eyewitness perception and misperception, critical analysis of puzzling phenomena, and evaluating scientific vs. pseudoscientific claims. This volume ranks in the elite category of essential reading for students, scientists, and the seriously curious among us, and therefore has my highest recommendation. Bravo!"

Henry Otgaar, Ph.D., Professor of Legal Psychology, Maastricht University, the Netherlands, and Leuven Catholic University, Belgium:

"Claims of UFO sightings and experiences continue to fascinate us. This book has collected a unique and diverse set of case studies and critical articles on how such experiences unfold and what the authenticity of these claims is. The collection of these different articles is truly groundbreaking and is the first-ever complete assemblage concerning the validity of UFO testimony."

Benjamin E. Zeller, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of Religion, Lake Forest College, Illinois, USA:

"In referring to extraterrestrial contact, Carl Sagan said that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. This fine book seeks to contextualize what such evidence entails. Its contributors analyze UFO sightings and cases both famous and obscure, recent and historical, and quite international in scope. They draw from an impressive range of methodological, academic, and scientific perspectives, and consider such topics as the nature of cognition, memory, types of belief and testimony, psychology, and the rationality of belief. Skeptics, believers, and scholars of ufology will all find this book fascinating!"

For additional information please contact:

UPIAR Publisher: info@upiar.com

Editor: V.J. Ballester-Olmos, ballesterolmos@yahoo.es

The Objectivity of Witnesses and the Subjectivity of Testemonies

Cláudio Tsuyoshi Suenaga

I had the honor of being one of the select few invited by the distinguished Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, one of the organizers and editors of this impressive scientific-academic book, together with the equally distinguished Richard W. Heiden, to write a paper on the "reliability of the testimony of witnesses of UFOs", a crucial aspect of ufological research, since, in the absence of material evidence of the phenomenon, this is the primary source we deal with, the "raw material", so to speak, to permeate our analyses, even more so for those who not only deals with "second-hand" reports, but gathers them directly from the witnesses themselves, in sometimes harsh and hostile field conditions.

In my contribution entitled "The Objectivity of Witnesses and the Subjectivity of Testimonies", I carried out a critical analysis of the general reference base of the UFO problem, the testimony, seen as a cultural source authentic and indisputable, but which presents serious distortions. One of the main points questioned by me was the exact value of the testimonies, which form the basis of the reports and, therefore, of the UFO phenomenon. I tried to give an adequate scientific treatment to these data and factors relegated to the background by ufologists: the subjective observational parameters, the perceptive aspects, the language and the historical-cultural context of the witness and the psychosociological variables, that is, everything that was disparagingly called "background noise", the "sociological reject" despised in detriment of the "signal".

Consult and keep close at hand, therefore, this, the first major book to comprehensively focus on the discussion and current views on problems and challenges posed by the reliability of UFO testimonies. A cross-disciplinary compendium of papers by 60 authors from 14 different countries.

(large format, 711 pages)

You can download the full 711-page book on my Patreon:

[perryhedge]

Why Digimon Ghost Game is Episodic

Background

Note: a lot of this is sourced from @RavelMonte on Twitter, who has a lot of great translations and threads about Digimon production across the franchise.

Recently, there was a soundbite going around where the lead writer of Digimon Ghost Game explained that one reason for the episodic structure of the show is to adapt to the shorter attention spans of children these days. While I don't think that's true (well, attention spans may actually be getting shorter, I do believe that -- but at least, anecdotally it seems that people are more hungry for serialized stories, not less, and that is one of the reasons why anime is getting so popular worldwide). But as Ravel points out, there's another goal here, which is part of the Digimon Reboot project (thread linked below):

I'm no expert when it comes to these things, but one thing that's important in the media mix business model (which Digimon has always been a part of) is the term 世界観 (sekaikan = worldview). You may have heard this term used in interviews from various Japanese creators. In a media mix structure, the central element is not necessarily a fixed plot or even necessarily characters (characters can be part of a worldview, but not necessarily a specific iteration of a character -- we can see this in the 2020 Digimon Adventure series, where the 8 chosen children remain but their personalities and arcs change drastically). Contrast with something like Star Wars which is continually forced to fit everything into one consistent universe and timeline. Obviously there must be more to media mixes and I'm not an expert on the topic, but I think this video is really well presented and informative:

So anyway, to summarize Ravel's thread and its implications for Ghost Game, one of the main purposes of this show is to unite the disparate elements of the franchise (and everyone knows Digimon is all over the place, especially after the flagship game series known in the west as Digimon World vacillated between raising simulator, dungeon crawler, and musou-style action RPG in just 4 entries). The purpose of the Digimon reboot, brought on by a producer on the (formerly?) successful Aikatsu media mix empire, is not really to "reboot" the franchise and create a new worldview, but rather to slowly incorporate all the existing branches of the franchise as much as possible into one worldview.

Monsters of the Week

One more or less obvious way that this is reflected in Ghost Game (and even more so in the 2020 Adventure reboot) is the choice of monster of the week. There are a few new mons altogether, but also a lot of mons that never appeared in an anime. Of course, every few weeks there is a public update to the newly curated reference book:

I'm only 27 episodes in but let's take a look at the roster of monsters of the week.

There are a few "fan favorite" Digimon like Digitamamon, Arukenimon, Mummymon, and Vamdemon that were villains in former series.

A Deva Digimon from Tamers (Majiramon)

Bokomon from Frontier

Splashmon and Pilomon from Xros Wars

Morphomon from the epilogue film Digimon Last Adventure Kizuna

Some armored evolutions (a concept introduced in Adventure 02, though there are many mons that had never appeared in the anime). For example, Quetzalmon is an armored evolution of Wormmon (a partner in 02) that had previously only appeared in a V-Pet, the original TCG, and some video games. Fans probably do know a lot of these mons from seeing them around.

Mons like Ginkakumon and Sirenmon that were introduced in an online version of the original TCG.

Black variants like BlackTailmon and BlackAgumon.

There are still a few elements of the franchise missing, for example X Antibody Digimon from the CG film Digimon X Evolution and Spirit Digimon from Frontier (though the pre-evolutions to Spirit Digimon did appear in Adventure 2020). There's some lore like the Royal Knights, Three Archangels, Olympus Twelve, Seven Demon Lords, or Four Holy Beasts that may or may not be referenced as well. It's not likely, but it would be cool if they added in Appmon too. But for the most part, these last two anime have really drawn from the entire franchise and made an effort to feature a diversity of mons.

Themes

Despite Ghost Game being episodic, even at 27 episodes I can already see an overarching narrative emerging. I don't mean the hints that appear once every few episodes about GulusGamamon and Hiro's dad. There's another story, about all the Digimon that game to the human world and the ways in which they interact and try (and sometimes fail) to fit in. This sort of worldbuilding again draws from all across the franchise thematically.

One major element that we may worry about is, what are Digimon even, and what is the Digital World? Whereas previous series went into depth about the creation of Digimon (notably 02 and Tamers) or the structure of the world (Frontier), Ghost Game notably does not. It's entirely possible, though unlikely in my opinion, that the main trio never go to the Digital World at all. What's more important is that Digimon already exist, they're in the real world now, and though they were trapped there by some malevolent (?) force, this does not seem to be part of some coordinated assault on the human world. They're just there, living their lives. And already we see some interesting implications of this.

For one, there's our main cast, the symbol of harmony between Digimon and humans (as noted by Bokomon, this may make the main trio very important in the future). But there are also more general ideas of a "Digimon partner" (though, since it is shown that Ruri can team up with Jellymon, that concept may be more flexible than in past seasons). Take for example Ajatarmon in episode 24, who loved a particular human so badly it wanted to become one, or Koemon in episode 14, who is grieving over the loss of a human friend. There's also the scientist who we briefly see experimenting Morphomon, in a reference to Last Evolution Kizuna. These storylines usually end with some kind of compromise, though in the case of Ajatarmon we see that sometimes the alienation is too strong to overcome. This is reminiscent of the early, episodic parts of Digimon Savers which saw Digimon integrating into the real world, often as allies but not necessarily partners (my favorite is Piyomon).

Then there's Digimon that are only interested in using humans to meet their own needs, like Sistermon (need for speed), Digitamamon (sees humans as food), Arukenimon (ditto but more horrifying), Kinkakumon (desires a strong opponent), Splashmon (desires moisturizer), or Zassoumon (Gremlins from the movie Gremlins). These can sometimes be reasoned with, but more often than not this kind of encounter ends in violence. This reminds me of the early parts of Adventure, where the concern for the main protagonists was basically surviving this strange world as just another link in the food chain.

There's plenty of Digimon who want nothing to do with humans, notably Angoramon's friends and the ice Digimon from episode 17, but don't have any particular ill will towards them either, possibly unless provoked.

Plenty of Digimon try to help humans only for it to backfire, like Mummymon (wants to be a doctor), Sirenmon (cheer humans with songs), Petermon (save the children), Piximon (chaotic neutral), or DarkLizamon and Seadramon who end up desperate for a way home. Some of them can find a way to fit in, some of them can be convinced to go do something less harmful, but this category tends to be the most unpredictable.

And then there's a handful of malicious Digimon, though notably only one (Vamdemon) has expressed any interest in conquering or destroying the world as far as I can tell. The rest just want to cause mayhem or hurt humans for fun. Rarely they can be reasoned with, but mostly this ends in violence. There are lots of these types of encounters in Tamers and Savers.

Notably, all the previous series were heavily serialized, so eventually this variety of monster of the week conflicts gave way sooner or later to a big bad. Sometimes, it's revealed that all the bad guys were controlled by one super bad guy all along. Other times, like in Frontier, the stakes are clear from the start and the villains remain consistent. But Ghost Game, at least so far, doesn't seem interested in that kind of plot. Instead, it focuses on coming up with often pretty creative ways for Digimon and humans to interact, not schemed up by some genius villain but just as a result of their own desires. Notably, the one Digimon who did seem to be sent on orders by a villain (Sealsdramon), turns out to just enjoy killing for fun. This is an interesting twist on the usual structure, and I think it definitely gives this one series more room to explore those kinds of dynamics.

I've been watching a lot of episodic shows lately, such as another long-running Toei series, Precure. Compared to a lot of episodic and formulaic shows of this sort, Ghost Game really is pretty unique. There's not just one solution to every problem. When I'm watching Precure, sometimes I'm frustrated that a particular fight just seems like an excuse to show the transformation, instead of another vehicle for increasing our understanding of the characters. But I rarely feel that way about Ghost Game, even though it is true that most episodic conflicts don't have any implications for the characters really. Instead, the episodic structure is used to flesh out the world itself.

[tired-night-owl]

You know who I would love to see become the big bad guy in the future of the bad batch : this guy. I haven’t read his book but from my understanding and if I recall correctly the spoilers I’ve seen online, he was a prodigy of the empire at a very young age. So perhaps (and like I said I haven’t read the books and am no expert in the Star Wars timeline) he could be assigned to figure something out to capture omega and eliminate the batch since bounty hunters didn’t really work in season 1. Special clones calls for special mesures.

I know it’s far fetched but he was a very interesting villain in rebels that (in my opinion) we didn’t get to see enough of. Also I would loose my shit if he somehow met tech first. I think he would be the first to realize how scary thrawn is because he would see an adversary to his own intellect, perhaps even, see himself in him. He’d understand that thrawn is an incredible threat but not like the ones they or we are used to. Scary, not because they processed a godly power or an insane amount of rage, what makes him scary is his brain.

Could you imagine if it was tech in crosshair’s place in season 1. They wouldn’t stand a chance because theres nothing more dangerous than an enemy who knows too much about you and is crazy smart. That’s what made thrawn so scary in rebels. He studied them like lab rats to know their every moves. He also wasn’t after revenge, so he wasn’t angry at the rebels and it wasn’t personal, on the contrary he was too calm. He was always « polite » which made him more unsettling for me than, for example, maul.

Anyway I’m no story teller or writer so this post might be shit but I would really like to see him again. Especially a young imperial with no ranks trying to prove himself to everyone else. That could potentially make him even more of a threat and more scary than he was in rebels. It might also just be a need to see him in a new animation style or just waiting for him to show up in one of the Star Wars projects. He was mentioned in the mandalorian so I’m pretty sure he’ll show up somewhere soon and I can’t wait!

[thevibraniumveterans]

REBELS REWATCH

S1E15 — FIRE ACROSS THE GALAXY

It is evening, and at one of the Empire’s docking bays on Lothal, Sabine steps out from her hiding place: “Miss me, bucketheads?” She has her paint gun in hand. The troopers recognize Sabine and fire upon her, but she is quicker, dodging blaster fire and scaling a building. As she runs across the rooftop, she continues to draw their fire. She sasses their inability to even make a direct shot at her, saying, “Yup, you definitely missed me.” She leaps off the building and does a forward somersault, escaping. The troopers run off, and an alarm sounds off. Somewhere close by, Ezra and Zeb peek out from behind a building. Ezra notes, “Sabine’s distraction is working.” With troopers pursuing and firing at her, Sabine makes a leap no ordinary human could make and barely just catches onto a ledge nearby, swinging up and over and dodging enemy fire. Ezra and Zeb sneak aboard a ship, the teenager almost giddy with excitement. He runs into the cockpit, stretches, and activates the controls before sliding into the pilot’s chair. The ship comes online, and starts ascending. Sabine, meanwhile, continues to sass her pursuers, leaps off the building she’s on, tucks and does a backward roll, using a trooper as a springboard, and landing on a ladder leading up to the TIE fighter cockpit. The ship Ezra has stolen and is currently piloting approaches the TIE Sabine is on. She leaps again and catches onto the TIE’s solar array, stands on its edge, and salutes Zeb. He opens the landing ramp, Sabine gets into a running start, and launches herself onto the ramp, sarcastically saluting the troopers with a “Bye-bye, bucketheads!” The stolen ship swoops through the smoke of the exploded TIE fighters, courtesy of Sabine, the resident explosives expert. The smoke forms the telltale starbird symbol.

Some time passes, and the Ghost is revealed to have docked with the stolen ship. Aboard the Ghost, Ezra, Sabine, Hera, and Zeb gather around the holochess table, a map suspended in the air before them. The hologram shows the red planet of Mustafar. Hera notes, “The transport you stole will get us close to the fleet over Mustafar.” The map switches out with a SSD. Hera continues, “We know they have Kanan on Tarkin’s Star Destroyer.” Zeb points out it’s surrounded by others just like it. Hera agrees, and asks, “We’ll need a distraction to cover our entry. Sabine?” Though she’s just 16, it’s evident that Sabine’s time at the Imperial Academy has come in handy for her role as a rebel Spectre. She points out, “Engine room’s here, all the power for the ship. If we could get inside the docking bay, I could rig something, black ‘em out. But our transport ship’s not gonna fit in there.” That’s very specific information, which tells us that Sabine has long known the dimensions of ships in the Imperial Navy. Hera says, “We need something small enough to get into that hangar bay. Too bad we blew up all the TIEs at that base.” Ezra thinks for a bit, and points out, a bit sheepish: “Well, uh, there is one left. But it’s not at the base.” Zeb catches on, and motions for him to not reveal its hiding place. Ezra, however, tells him, “Look, this is serious, Zeb. For Kanan.” Zeb acquiesces, and Hera wonders, “What’s going on?” Sabine glances sideways at Ezra, who admits: “The TIE we stole a while back, we uh…” He brings a hand up to his neck and nervously looks away. “We didn’t exactly crash it.” Hera asks, “And by “didn’t exactly,” you mean…” Ezra replies, perhaps a little too quickly, “We didn’t crash it. We kept it. Hidden.” Hera looks around and asks, “You all knew about this?” Zeb’s silent, Sabine has a hand covering part of her face and doesn’t make eye contact with Hera, and Ezra looks away again. Seems like they’re all guilty. Hera tells them, “I should be angry. I should yell at you for disobeying a direct order. But right now, I’m just grateful we got it.” She looks at Sabine and Ezra. Both teenagers guiltily look at each other, both bearing an expression that suggest they are trying to think of a way to explain themselves out of the situation without getting into more trouble. Sabine crosses her arms, staring blankly at the floor of the Ghost. Ezra admits, “Uh, there’s a slight problem with it.” Hera asks what it is, and Zeb, not wanting to get into more trouble, goads, “Yeah, what kind of problem?” Ezra and Sabine look up at Hera, shrug, and grin awkwardly. (In a previous episode earlier this season, after the one where Ezra and Zeb stole the TIE, Ezra was late for training because he was “with Sabine”; it’s possible that he had spent time with her painting the TIE. But it’s not confirmed, there is no proof that this is the case, that these two events are connected.)

Later, the crew arrive at the site where the TIE is hidden. Zeb looks up at the fighter craft and says, “Well, this is awful.” Sabine rebukes, “What? It’s some of my best work.” The TIE’s solar arrays are painted in geometric rectangles and stripes, the main body itself not much different. It also sports a few green stripes and two matching racing checkerboard patterns. It would be, in the Empire’s eyes, best described as gaudy, but the colors are in the Spectres’ signature orange, yellow, and green, with a smattering of red, green, black, and white. (Orange, as it turns out, would be the Rebellion’s signature color, with Sabine’s very own starbird evolving into the very symbol of the wider Rebel Alliance.) Hera notes, “It’ll have to do.” Zeb thinks she was “supposed to be the sane one” and complains about the colors. Hera notes, “Maybe you’re right. Maybe this mission doesn’t make military sense.” She walks to stand between Sabine and Ezra, and continues, “But Kanan is family. And we’ve all lost enough family to the Empire. So rescuing him makes sense to me. I’m not ordering you, any of you, to come along. But you need to decide now. In or out?” The rest of the Spectres, of course, want in. Zeb asks about the TIE, and Hera notes that it would only be scanned: “By the time the Imperials see it…” Sabine finishes the sentence: “…It’ll be too late.” Ezra shifts his line of sight from Sabine back to Hera.

Some time passes, and Hera pilots the ship that Ezra and Zeb helped steal earlier this episode. They are en route to Mustafar. True to form, several Star Destroyers guard the planet. Hera says that she would “send in our transponder code as soon as we know Kanan is there. Ezra?” The teenager agrees: “Well, here goes nothin’.” He closes his eyes and focuses on the Force, and yet again, a faint humming sound is heard. Zeb wonders if Ezra’s made any progress; Sabine responds, “Give him a minute.” Zeb disagrees, saying they “don’t really have” one to begin with. Trying not to panic, Hera asks Ezra about Kanan. For the time being, Ezra is silent, his brows furrowed further. Then his opens his eyes in surprise: “He’s there.” He turns to Hera. “He’s alive!” Hera sends the codes and the painted TIE, as promised. Once the TIE is on board the SD, Sabine - who had previously rigged it to blow (well, a pulse detonator) - sends the code to make it explode. It does, and also shorts out the armor of nearby troops as well as most of the destroyer itself. (Could this foreshadow how in S3 or 4 Sabine reveals that she had created The Duchess to fry anyone wearing Mandalorian beskar armor?)

Once aboard the destroyer, Ezra uses his lightsaber to carve a hole in a wall. He steps through, followed close behind by Sabine, Hera, and Zeb. Sabine points out, “These guys will wake up soon.” Ezra turns around and asks her, “How soon?” Zeb reckons, “Too soon.” Ezra motions for the Spectres to follow him down the corridor. As they race against time, Chopper comms them, warning them of fast-incoming reinforcements. Sabine, likely utilizing her knowledge of destroyer blueprints learned during her time at the Academy, says, “Don’t worry. On a ship this big, it’ll take ‘em a while to find us.” Spoken a little too early, Ezra and Co., round the corner right into a squad of troopers. Noting the obvious, Ezra raises his blaster combo weapon, takes aim, and lets loose. The Spectres turn to run in the opposite direction, and are cornered, again. They turn around a second time, and the troopers start shooting. Ezra whips out his saber to fend off a few shots, and Sabine fires off a few rounds herself. The blast doors close, and Ezra warns Hera to “stand back”. He stabs his saber into both layers of the blast doors, sealing off the Spectres’ escape. Behind him, Sabine notes, “Pretty clever, kid. So what’s next?” Ezra turns around and admits, “Kanan is down that hall. I just cut off our only way to get to him.” Hera disagrees, looking up briefly: “Might be our only way, but it’s not yours.” Above them are several vents. Oh, Ezra would love that. True to form, he gets up there first. And finds his way. Hera instructs Sabine and Zeb to follow her.

Somewhere in the vents, Ezra cuts loose a grate with his saber, and steps into a hallway. Cautious, he stands up and stows his saber by his belt. Sensing Kanan’s Force signature grow stronger, he turns around and opens a door. It is the cell Kanan is kept in. Ezra notes, “Turns out, you taught me pretty well.” Kanan says that Ezra should not have come to his rescue, but is nevertheless “glad you did.” Ezra points out, “You would’ve done the same for me. In fact, you have.” He unlocks Kanan from the torture rack, and helps Kanan out of the cell.

Elsewhere on the Destroyer, the Spectres are still on the run, more or less cornered by troopers at every turn. As they do, they shoot the troopers on sight. Sabine says, “I hope Ezra’s found Kanan by now.” Somewhere close by, Ezra aids a limping Kanan into another corridor, which opens into a series of walkways, the other side of which stands the Inquisitor. Kanan asks to borrow Ezra’s lightsaber; the teenager agrees. He watches as Kanan first lunges and runs, saber out, then switches to the weapon’s other use, a stun gun. Kanan switches back to the saber. Ezra is surprised: “I never thought of that.” He steps forward, while Kanan duels with the Inquisitor. Ezra spots Kanan’s saber hanging off the back of the Inquisitor’s belt, and uses the Force to call it to his hand. Determinedly, he ignites it. The Inquisitor takes notice, and thinks a duel with what is essentially two Padawans “might be worthy of” his time, and ignites the other end of his double-bladed red saber. Ezra looks past the Inquisitor at Kanan, who nods. It’s now or never.

Ezra and Kanan both rush their opponent, sabers out. Ezra positions his borrowed saber to swing, but is pushed backward. He regains his footing, and taking chances in between Kanan’s hits, manage to block the red saber. Rightly terrified, he bats away the blade, but it comes swinging back at him, and Ezra is barely able to block it in time. The Inquisitor chances this momentary lapse and uses the Force to push Ezra back down the walkway. He gets up again, igniting Kanan’s saber, and is just barely able to deflect the Inquisitor’s thrown saber. The speed throws him off balance, and he falls off the walkway.

Elsewhere on the Destroyer, Sabine, Hera, and Zeb move cautiously from doorway to doorway down the hallways. Hera notes, “The other troopers are waking up.” Sabine, meanwhile, keys a command into her wrist gauntlet, and says, “I think I have an alternate plan.” Hera is curious; Sabine lays out her plan: “Here’s part one.” She throws a smoke bomb as a distraction. (The sheer number of explosives Sabine has is starting to get a little hilarious, but given her nature, this is expected.) In the confusion, she lets out a few shots, and escapes down the hallway with Hera and Zeb, and says, “Part two, we go to Bay 5.” Hera notes that is where the painted TIE is. Sabine, giving nothing away, brushes it off: “That’s got nothing to do with it.” Hera comms Ezra, telling him that “we’re finding another way out. Ezra. Can you hear me?” Beside her, Sabine starts to get a little worried.

Back along the walkways, Ezra has fallen to a lower walkway, and is unconscious for a while. His comm link chimes with Hera’s messages, and it is revealed that he now has twin scars marring his left cheekbone. A few voices, perhaps perceivable only to him, call out to the teenager. The first voice is of his mother; the second, from Kanan. A few more voices from familiar people overlap, and Ezra slowly stirs. He gingerly touches his face; it still hurts, and he winces. He sits up, grabs his commlink, and tells Hera, “I’m here.” She asks, “Do you have Kanan? Is he okay?” A few blinks and a shake of the head later, Ezra looks up to where Kanan is dueling the Inquisitor, using two blades — his own and Ezra’s — instead of one. The teenager responds, “Yeah. I think he’s better than okay.”

A blast, caused by the Inquisitor’s damaged blades dropping into the power core reactor below, rocks the Destroyer, almost knocking Sabine, Hera, and Zeb off their feet. They continue running.

Ezra calls out to Kanan, his voice echoing. Turns out, Ezra has made his way to the platform Kanan is on, and now stands behind him. Kanan says, “I thought I lost you.” Ezra responds with, “I know the feeling. Let’s go home.” He catches his saber that Kanan tosses back to him, and they both hightail it out of there.

In Bay 5, Sabine, Hera, and Zeb race toward the painted TIE, and drop into it. Hera comms Ezra: “We’re in the TIE. Where are you?” Sabine takes off her helmet. Ezra comms back, “On my way. Go!” Hera flat out refuses: “We are not leaving without you and Kanan.” Kanan, however, counters: “Will you just listen to the kid? Don’t worry, I got him.” Over the comms, Ezra adds, “You mean, I’ve got you.” Sabine, Hera, and Zeb smile. Kanan adds, “You take care of Zeb and Sabine. I’ll get him out of here. Trust me.”

Ezra and Kanan have made their way to the expansive hangar bay, and look for a way out. Kanan suggests they use the Inquisitor’s TIE, and Ezra agrees: “Well, we know he’s not gonna use it.” Kanan notes offhandedly, “You know” what, kid? You worry me sometimes.” Ezra shrugs and grins. Kanan pilots the TIE Advanced v1 prototype and flies himself and Ezra out of harm’s way. In the painted TIE, Hera keeps flying. Kanan, naturally, swoops in and clears Hera’s pursuers. Ezra comms over, “We got your back.” Sabine, in the TIE she painted, duly notes her thanks, “But without Chopper’s transport, we’re going nowhere fast.” Hera notes that there are TIEs in pursuit again. Sabine wonders how many. “Too many,” notes Hera. Zeb complains, “We’re in a bit of a tight spot.” Sabine sasses, “Yeah? Well, these things weren’t built for three.” Zeb argues back: “I meant out there, not in here!” Hera admonishes them: “Trying to concentrate!” In the other TIE, Ezra sarcastically relays, “I just want to say it was really nice getting to know all of you.”

At that moment, Chopper arrives with the transport, the Ghost, and a few corvettes. Ezra is amazed: “Who is that?” Kanan replies, “I don’t know, but I think they’re on our side.” Hera instructs: “Kanan, Ezra, dock with Chopper’s transport so we can make the jump into hyperspace.” They do, and so do Hera, Sabine, and Zeb. Ezra is still amazed at the turn of events. Safely in hyperspace, Kanan and Ezra pop out of a transfer tube on the ground, and greet Hera, Sabine, and Zeb at the other end of the hallway. Sitting at opposite ends of the hallway at the edges of their respective…holes in the floor for lack of a better word, Ezra and Sabine watch as Kanan and Hera reunite. A warm smile settles on Ezra’s face, as does a small heartfelt one on Sabine’s. As they watch, Kanan and Hera approach each other. Kanan speaks first: “I owe you all a great debt of gratitude.” He gently places his hands on Hera’s shoulders. He continues, “Even if what you did was rash and reckless.” Hera covers one of Kanan’s hands with her own, telling him, “You’re welcome, dear.” They embrace. Chopper chooses this moment to make himself known. Ezra has chosen this moment to stand up. Something puzzles Ezra; he asks, “If Chopper was in his transport ship, then who was flying the Ghost?”

The connecting doors between the transport and the Ghost swoosh open, and the Spectres stand in the doorway. Ezra is in the middle, flanked by Hera and Kanan to his sides, Chopper in front, and Sabine and Zeb behind him. Chopper rolls forward; four guards permit him entry. The Spectres think this odd, but walk through anyway. Hera and Kanan step forward. Behind them, Ezra and Sabine follow; she momentarily looks sideways at Ezra, who keeps his eyes forward and expression neutral. Zeb follows behind.

Chopper beams a live transmission. It’s Senator Bail Organa. Kanan asks about “the crews of the blockade runners”, and is told they are members of “other rebel cells.” Sabine is surprised at this revelation: “There are other cells.” Ezra, too, is astonished; neither he nor Zeb know that the Spectres, like other rebels, are a cell. Hera notes that none of the other rebel cells were supposed to meet for their own safety. “That was the protocol,” says Hera. A voice from behind Bail’s hologram makes herself known: “The protocol has changed.” The hologram switches off, revealing none other than Ahsoka Tano herself. At this point, it’s the first time the Spectres (especially Sabine and Ezra) meet “Fulcrum” in person. (It would be many, many years later that they would separate and reunite, a whole other galaxy away.) Kanan asks, “Why would you come here?” Ahsoka replies, “Because of you and your apprentice…” Ezra smiles, a little shyly. Ahsoka continues, “…many in this system and beyond have heard your message. You gave them hope in their darkest times. We didn’t want that hope to die.” Ezra asks, “So what happens now?” Ahsoka admits to not knowing, but notes, “One chapter has closed for you, Ezra Bridger. This is a new day, a new beginning.” The teenager in question grins proudly, knowing the risks he has taken so far have enabled the uprisings of other rebels around the galaxy. The weight of Ashoka’s congratulations is not lost on him.

[oliviasmith-21]

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All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (The Department of Defense)

This report represents Volume I of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office's (AARO) Historical Record Report (HR2) which reviews the record of the United States Government (USG) pertaining to unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP). In completing this report, AARO reviewed all official USG investigatory efforts since 1945, researched classified and unclassified archives, conducted approximately 30 interviews, and partnered with Intelligence Community (IC) and Department of Defense (DoD) officials responsible for controlled and special access program oversight, respectively. AARO will publish Volume II in accordance with the date established in Section 6802 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 (FY23); Volume II will provide analysis of information acquired by AARO after the date of the publication of Volume I.

Since 1945, the USG has funded and supported UAP investigations with the goal of determining whether UAP represented a flight safety risk, technological leaps by competitor nations, or evidence of off-world technology under intelligent control. These investigations were managed and implemented by a range of experts, scientists, academics, military, and intelligence officials under differing leaders—all of whom held their own perspectives that led them to particular conclusions on the origins of UAP. However, they all had in common the belief that UAP represented an unknown and, therefore, theoretically posed a potential threat of an indeterminate nature.

AARO's mission is similar to that of these earlier organizations. AARO methodology applies both the scientific method and intelligence analysis tradecraft to identify and help mitigate risks UAP may pose to domain safety and to discover, characterize, and attribute potential competitor technological systems. A consistent theme in popular culture involves a particularly persistent narrative that the USG—or a secretive organization within it—recovered several off-world spacecraft and extraterrestrial biological remains, that it operates a program or programs to reverse engineer the recovered technology, and that it has conspired since the 1940s to keep this effort hidden from the United States Congress and the American public.

AARO recognizes that many people sincerely hold versions of these beliefs which are based on their perception of past experiences, the experiences of others whom they trust, or media and online outlets they believe to be sources of credible and verifiable information. The proliferation of television programs, books, movies, and the vast amount of internet and social media content centered on UAP-related topics most likely has influenced the public conversation on this topic, and reinforced these beliefs within some sections of the population.

The goal of this report is not to prove or disprove any particular belief set, but rather to use a rigorous analytic and scientific approach to investigate past USG-sponsored UAP investigation efforts and the claims made by interviewees that the USG and various contractors have recovered and are hiding off-world technology and biological material. AARO has approached this project with the widest possible aperture, thoroughly investigating these assertions and claims without any particular pre-conceived conclusion or hypothesis. AARO is committed to reaching conclusions based on empirical evidence.

Lastly, AARO thanks all participants in this review who made this report possible, to include the interviewees who came forward with information.

Report on the Historical Record of U.S. Government Involvement with Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) (Volume I, February 2024)

John Greenwald (The Black Vault)

Breaking Down The UAP "Historical Record" Volume 1 Report (March 2024)

What's not in AARO's "Historical Record" UAP Report? (March 2024)

Matt Ford (The Good Trouble Show)

Professor Dr. Garry Nolan and investigative reporter Ross Coulthart respond to the Pentagon Historical AARO UFO UAP Report. Matt Ford reveals exclusive information on why David Grusch did not testify to AARO, and what the public doesn't know about Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick and his leadership of AARO.

Dr. Gary Nolan, Ross Coulthart: expose Pentagon UFO Report (March 2024)

Gadi Schwartz (NBC News Now)

Ryan Graves, founder of Americans for Safe Aerospace discusses the Pentagon’s UFO/UAP Report with Gadi Schwartz.

Ryan Graves: discusses the Pentagon's UFO Report (March 2024)

Average White Band - Pick up the Pieces

Sunday, March 10, 2024