#They both have been accused of abusing others but then claiming they were the victim

[digital-roots]

Coming as someone who was in both the mcyt(mainly dteam) fandom and the hazbin hotel/helluva boss fandom, dream and vivziepop are eerily similar in how cult-like and defensive their fanbases are

[k9emote]

My final response to every accusation made about me.

Hi. As basically, the entirety of emoteblr knows, I have had a lot of hatred, misinformation, and vague angry paragraphs thrown towards my community and me. Barely anyone has communicated what they're so mad about, but I'll try to stitch it all together from a few people who've spoken to me and answer the best I can. "You spread misinformation about number names! Not all number name trauma is RAMCOA!"

You're right! I misworded that because I hadn't known that RAMCOA wasn't the only source of number-name trauma. Because no one told me. I am a RAMCOA victim and have only heard of number-names related to RAMCOA. I didn't know other forms of abuse used number-names. I know that now thanks to a kind person who opened a ticket in my server, and I will edit my server rules accordingly. My opinion stays the same; people who haven't been abused/tortured etc with number names should not use them. I have met countless other victims who agree with me. You can call that an opinion of mine, sure! If you disagree, kindly block me. I am sorry to anyone I said "You can only use number names if you're a RAMCOA victim." to, I had meant that only people with number name trauma can use them to reclaim the name, I assumed RAMCOA was a broad enough term that it covered all types of number-name trauma, but I was mistaken. I'm sorry. That's all I will say on that matter.

"There was a misinformative carrd in your server that didn't explain RAMCOA correctly!" It's been spread that the carrd was mine! that is not true AT ALL. It was taken down a long time ago and replaced with a much better resource. I hadn't personally looked at the carrd because topics of RAMCOA often trigger me, my partner was the one to send the carrd. My partner had seen the carrd sent elsewhere and had no idea it had misinformation. It was used as a quick resource for someone to know what RAMCOA was, and as soon as a kind server member pointed out it wasn't a good resource literally minutes after it was posted, it was taken down and replaced. People make mistakes, and my partner fixed his almost immediately. If you are angry at that, then I'm sorry but you are REACHING for things to hate me for. "The guillotine (public ban) channel you have in your server encourages hate and death threats!"

I am deeply sorry to anyone who recieved any threats/hate/harassment from my public bans. I have always stated to never contact the people I ban , and it was listed in the channel description as well.

No one had EVER told me that they were receiving hate or threats after being banned, otherwise, I would've taken this channel down much sooner. I have yet to receive any proof of these claims or even speak to the victims themselves. I have only heard this passed around from outside people. When I have asked, I am refused evidence for the "sake of anonymity" which I respect but unfortunately cannot ban any individuals without user IDs or genuine reasons. The only thing I could do in response to this is take the channel down, which I have done.

On the topic of death threats, people have claimed that one of my mods was sending them... but refused to show any evidence or tell me who it was. I have spoken to my mods and all of them have said they would never, so I genuinely have no idea what to do. If anyone has further evidence, please contact me. Most of my mods don't even have an active account on tumblr.

A trend I am seeing with the people who are typing up long paragraphs on how I am toxic and immature are people I've banned for going against my boundaries, reposting hate towards me even after said hate was asked to be taken down by both me and the person I had wronged, and other vile behavior in my server. I have not been given descriptions or details on who feels wronged, so I can not apologize for any actions because I genuinely have no idea what I did. I have not come out to say anything not because I am hiding, but because I am lacking SO MUCH evidence or even witness testimony on what I've done wrong. I have no issue apologizing to people I might've hurt, but I cannot do so without a proper conversation with said people. The one person who offered to tell me things refused on multiple occasions to give me evidence, screenshots, direct conversations or any other sources of people explaining why they hate me. I was only given vague reasons and "maybes" To some individuals I know are spreading the hate about me; To Proxy. You were banned from my server because you were creating a story incredibly similar to RAMCOA experiences while not being a victim of any sort of torture yourself (which you stated.) You said you were allowed to have an OC with a number name because it was based off a media that did the same, and that it was a "lab rat character" and therefore didn't count. When I, a victim of the torture you were using for roleplay, tried to educate you on why it was still wrong no matter your intent, you threw a tantrum and refused to listen. You were clearly uneducated on all forms of numbername trauma and refused to understand when not only I, but multiple other victims were trying to explain why it was wrong. Your roleplay OC was more important to you than a victim asking you to stop. The way you spoke to me was vile, invalidating, belittling and triggering. I am not sorry for the anger I displayed when I was spoken to like my own abuser would speak to me. I had a right to be angry and I started off extrememly understanding and polite despite your actions. Your OC was also affiliated with Nazis and the holocaust, which is fucking disgusting. I don't care what comic/media/etc it's based off of. I don't care if it's fiction or if you don't intend to base it on real life matters. Fictionalizing things that are rooted from real trauma and genocides as someone who has not experienced either is a horrible thing to do. I hope you realize how sickening you've acted.

Proxies messages were accidentally deleted when we banned them, but heres a screenshot my partner took during the arguement. Oh and before I forget, Proxy claimed to be "proshipper neutral" because it was "just fiction." despite knowing what it entailed. They have since been educated, but I wanted to share that their opinion on "fiction does not equal reality" mind set is extremely harmful.

Their reasoning on why they thought it was fine! (both is proxy) ^ Proxy also sent something in my inbox that I responded to publicly, ignoring all that they had done and completely going against my DNI of them. You can see that on my blog. To Alexfroppy. You were banned because my mod pointed out to me that you had reposted a tumblr post promoting the hatred towards me and my community, between an issue I had with another creator who has since forgiven me. Both me and Lemon (the creator) asked the Original Poster to take it down. You still reposted, directly supporting something going against the boundaries of both creators involved. You say "well I also posted something against the threats." Great! That's the bare minimum and resposting something that got me threats in the first place completely contradicts and cancels out you discouraging it. We pulled you into a ticket and tried to politely explain what you did wrong, to which you replied carelessly and with an incredibly dry tone. It was clear to me you didn't care when you stated "I'm only here for the emojis" and never apologized. That is why you were banned.

This is the entire ticket conversation. They were not banned for "just liking and reblogging a post". They were banned for purposely reblogging something that went against both creators boundaries which inherently encourages threats and hate towards me no matter your intent. People say "Hey your guillotine/public ban channel is getting people threatened!" and I apologize and quickly take down the channel. I say "Hey your reblogs are getting me threatened" and I don't get an apology, nor did they take down the reblog and ended up joining the hate train and calling me immature and toxic for being terrified for my safety. To FleurDeMort / Pierce. I don't know if you're directly involved in any of this, but with how open you are about hating me and claiming I ban unfairly, I think It's safe to assume you are. You were originally banned for being involved in a drama that was making me break down and shut down as quickly as I could. I apologize for acting quickly out of fear, that is my fault, and I would've been more than happy to apologize to you directly just like I did the other person involved. However. I, after calming down, apologized for my passive agression and panicked actions a day or two afterwards. I unbanned the person I had directly spoke harmfully to, and apologized as did they. You typed out a message for the other person fighting me to send. It was filled with misinformation, was invalidating, ignored all my points in the debate, and was disrespectful.

If anyone wants more information on my view of this, I made a post here stating all the points that I made in this ticket that they completely ignored. You are an adult. You can be mad at me for being immature, but what does that make you? You , afterwards in anger, claimed that my ADULT MOD was "Jacking me off" for defending me.

That is fucking disgusting NO MATTER YOUR INTENT. I could give less of a fuck if that's an expression. I am an AMAB 16 year old and commenting that an adult who defended me was "jacking me off" at your grown ass age is fucking vile. There were a MILLION different expressions you could've used, but you chose that one. You have not apologized, you've only defended yourself in my friends servers and claimed that I am taking things out of proportion. Instead of apologizing and realizing that your angry statement was weird and sexual no matter your intent, you've chosen to defend yourself and throw a tantrum in partnered servers of mine about how you did no wrong.

Here's them opening a ticket in another server and defending themselves, so that people don't claim I'm not showing the full story. I acknowledge me and my mods didn't handle the situation correctly, I was dealing with a lot of stress and made bad decisions. That's my fault, and I am sorry. I have been forgiven by the person I hurt ( V ). They have forgiven me and are a happy active member in my server, and one of my main defenders. Here is all context provided to the "jacking k9 off" statement, just incase anyone wants to claim im not giving """Full context""" like Pierce has claimed.

This conversation wasn't even about me. They brought me up in a single sentence to say that my mod was "jacking me off" for not siding with them. I don't care what emotional state you were in, you're 19 saying that about an 18 and 16 year old. You should be ashamed. "It's an expression" does not give you an excuse to say that about a child just because you're angry. I am an AMAB 16 year old. Imagine if the roles were reversed and you were to say "They'er fingering k9!", you would get a lot more hate. My body as a male should be held to the same standard, expression or not. I make mistakes and apologize for them. You make mistakes and defend yourself. That is the line of difference.

Here's them being manipulative to V after V had forgiven me, and trying to excuse saying sexual things about a child because it was "taken out of context". Saying sexual things about an adult and minor is pedophilic. I know that's a heavy word. I mean it. Your intent doesn't matter. Think before you speak.

For my final message about this drama; The amount of hypocrisy in the accusations about me is hilariously pathetic. I am not here to defend myself, I am here to state the facts of what happened, to share my story with these banned members, and to state that still even after all the hate sent to me, I do not understand what I've done wrong besides ban people who have wronged me without remorse and make a few accidents in my communitcation. I have not ever used my age or mental state as an excuse for my actions. There is a huge difference between "I'm not sorry, It's not my fault, I'm a child and I'm mentally ill" And "I'm really sorry. I never meant to hurt anyone, I am still growing and not in a good place mentally. My actions have been influenced my by current mental health and I've made mistakes. I have apologized and will try my best to grow" which is my statement and what I've stated in the past. If anyone who I have wronged wants to DM me on tumblr or discord to explain their side of the story and be apologized to, I am completely open for that. I want nothing more than to fix my mistakes and make people happy. That has been my wish from the start. I never act on malicious intent, I've never encouraged threats towards those who have hurt me, and I will never do either of those things. I have over 1,000 members in my server who are constantly telling me how safe they feel in my community, how it's the only place they've actively spoken, how much they love my art and me, and I love them back. To all that have treated me like human and been unbiased in your view of the drama thrown at me, thank you. I love you all. You uplift my life and I couldn't possibly express my gratitude in words. I will continue making emojis for verbal accessability and I will continue to grow, be better, and mature in my responses to threatening or scary situations. You say I'm toxic for being confused and angry, for not reacting well to proofless accusations of my character as a person, of ignoring people who have no evidence or who wont even mention what I've directly done wrong. Yet you chase after my every mistake, you grab at my flaws that I work on every day to improve, and you use FORGIVEN ISSUES against me. This community is toxic because of people like you.

How hard was it for a single one of you to politely DM me and inform me on what I was doing wrong? How hard was it to maturely speak to me about what you think isn't okay? You call me immature yet you spread lies about me like a childrens game of telephone. I am sorry for anyone who I've hurt. I am not sorry for being human. Do not harass anyone I have mentioned in this. I do not condone hatred, even if they have encouraged it towards me. I am sorry if anyone takes what I've said as hostile. I am tired and angry of people demonizing me with little to no proof of what they claim. I am tired of sleepless nights wondering if someone is going to send me more threats or dox me. I am tired. /nav Thank you for reading.

[theinfernalcollective]

RAMCOA and SRA

This is a very long post so we apologize in advance.

Do we believe in RAMCOA? no. And no this is not saying we don't believe that the people saying they went through RAMCOA is lying. We simply do not believe in it because of how suddenly is had just shown up. The title satanic and ritual abuse has been around since the 80s. However it was also satanic panic. And while even SRA is very exaggerated. RAMCOA is the rebranded name for SRA.

RAMCOA stands for ritual abuse, mind control, and organized abuse. However the name RAMCOA doesn't get used in clinical settings. And after discussing this with both our therapist and psychiatrist neither have even heard of it, or RSA.

Cults and trafficking are most definitely real, and those affected by their actions are also real. We're not invalidating victims by saying this but none of the cults that SRA/RAMCOA were believed to come from in the 80s and 90s even existed. They were fears and conspiracy theories. Otherwise meaning not real. unfounded conspiracy theories of Satanic ritual abuse (SRA) as a cause of mental illness – particularly dissociative identity disorder (DID), formerly known as multiple personality disorder (MPD).

The problem

Satanic Panic — broadly, the fear that devil-worshiping Satanists engage in criminal, antisocial acts on a massive scale – exploded in the 1980s, primarily in the United States. During this time, a fear that Satanists were sexually abusing and sacrificing children in bizarre rituals gripped the nation. For many, skepticism regarding these invisible crimes was tantamount to complicity, fostering a situation in which even the most improbable of claims went unquestioned by jurors and the public at large. Individuals were imprisoned for crimes stemming from unsubstantiated SRA allegations – often the product of recovered memory therapy techniques. Families were torn apart by gruesome and impossible accusations. Some were repaired after supposed victims learned they were suffering from false memories; others remain destroyed to this day. This moral panic over nonexistent Satanic cults arose out of an unholy alliance between well-meaning but misguided mental health professionals, law enforcement, prominent feminists, and Christian leaders. And it was catapulted into living rooms across the country by credulous television hosts – such as Geraldo Rivera and Oprah – who platformed self-proclaimed survivors, opportunistic “ex-Satanists” who asserted past involvement in Satanic crime, and reckless therapists who demanded the public believe these strange accounts.

Although Satanic Panic began to dwindle by the mid-1990s, the mental health field has not entirely rid itself of this plague. In fact, many of the same licensed therapists who contributed to Satanic Panic during that time continue to do so today, including as members of respected professional societies – such as the International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD). These professional organizations sponsor conferences – eligible for continuing education credit – featuring presentations that promote pseudoscientific recovered memory therapy and SRA. We refer to licensed mental health professionals who practice recovered memory therapy and/or promote Satanic Panic conspiracy theories as “conspiracy therapists.”

The International Society for the Study of Trauma and Dissociation (ISSTD) is a mental health organization for professionals and students. The organization focuses on psychological trauma and the dissociative disorders, including dissociative identity disorder (DID), formerly known as multiple personality disorder (MPD). The ISSTD has held annual international and regional conferences since its founding in 1984, with most presentations rewarding attendees with continuing education credits required to maintain clinical licensure. The organization promotes pseudoscientific recovered memory therapy, other dangerous treatment techniques, and fictitious conspiracy theories including ritual sacrifice, cannibalism, and widespread, abusive, Satanic cults. ISSTD members, speakers, researchers, staff, and board members continue to promote the long-disproven notion that these Satanic conspiracies have caused mental illness in thousands or even millions of people. As such, the ISSTD is the primary structure around which conspiracy therapists organize. But contrary to their assertions that they are healing the abused and traumatized, many prominent ISSTD members – including its founders and presidents – have been the subject of disturbing misconduct allegations and lawsuits from former patients.

Two issues after the publication of the Goodwin and Hill article, Dissociation printed a scathing letter to the editor from Richard Noll, a psychologist and historian of science. Noll charged that the Goodwin and Hill article relied on weak sources, ignored important context, and evaded the fact that their examples were almost invariably hoaxes, rumors, and forgeries. ”The truth of the matter is this: distinguished historians of witchcraft and of ritual magic… do not find evidence that satanic cults practicing the Black Mass, with cannibalism, ritual murder, worship of Satan, etc., have ever existed.”

bipolar disorder. Objectives of the presentation include being able to identify “at least five presentation clues that indicate a possible diagnosis of ritual abuse, mind control, or organized abuse” and “describe some hallmark features of Monarch mind control.” Danylchuk’s lecture covered how to recognize patient “patterns” that indicate ritual abuse victimization and how to identify “the most common role reenactments that emerge during therapy.” Salter’s lecture explained how “dissociative symptoms and traumatic attachments can be manipulated by perpetrators to coerce vulnerable people into organised abuse.” Though Salter’s presentation denounces “simple dichotomies of ‘real’ and ‘imagined’ abuse,” his constant references to perpetrators and survivors lay bare his allegiance to believing alleged victims no matter how self-falsifying the narrative.

- Vayu

Source and half of the post is directly from greyfaction.org

[femsolid]

TW: Trans activists

For more than a decade now, trans activists have been harassing those who belong to a feminist philosphy we call radical feminism or the women’s liberation movement.

Radical feminists, like most feminists, believe that men use sex to oppress women. Meaning they oppress women through sexual exploitation and by perpetuating sexist discrimination towards those who belong to the female sex. They were the first to research and expose violence against women as endemic and traumatizing, and to create shelters for rape and domestic violence victims. Those shelters are now being vandalized and defunded by trans activists.

Because radical feminists don’t believe in gender identities, gendered souls, gender roles or any form of innate personality based on sexist stereotypes, they have been receiving rape and death threats on a daily basis. The acronym “terf” was soon invented and is now used to describe any person who doesn’t support the trans movement, even if they’re not feminists, just as long as they're women, though lesbians and feminists tend to be the primary targets.

As a whole, the trans movement claims that its biggest enemy and threat, its most pressing matter, its most dangerous opponent is the women’s liberation movement or what they call “radfems” or “terfs”. This is where their energy and anger is directed, typically in the form of sexist and sexual harassment, intimidation techniques, violence, censorship and social isolation. So let’s talk about that.

From the book Hate Crimes in Cyberspace:

Cyber harassment involves threats of violence, privacy invasions, reputation-harming lies, calls for strangers to physically harm victims, and technological attacks.

Victims’ in-boxes are inundated with threatening e-mails. Their employers receive anonymous e-mails accusing them of misdeeds. Even if some abuse is taken down from a site, it quickly reappears on others. Victims’ sites are forced offline with distributed-denial-of-service attacks.

While some attackers confine abuse to networked technologies, others use all available tools to harass victims, including real-space contact. Offline harassment or stalking often includes abusive phone calls, vandalism, threatening mail, and physical assault.

The Internet extends the life of destructive posts. Harassing letters are eventually thrown away, and memories fade in time. The web, however, can make it impossible to forget about malicious posts. And posts that go viral attract hundreds of thousands of readers.

Online harassment can quickly become a team sport, with posters trying to outdo each other. Posters compete to be the most offensive, the most abusive. An accurate name for such online groups is cyber mobs. The term captures both the destructive potential of online groups and the shaming dynamic at the heart of the abuse.

Cyber harassment disproportionately impacts women. The U.S. National Violence Against Women Survey reports that 60 percent of cyber stalking victims are women, and the National Center for Victims of Crimes estimates that the rate is 70 percent. Of the 3,393 individuals reporting cyber harass-ment to WHOA from 2000 to 2011, 72.5 percent were female. The most recent Bureau of Justice Statistics report found that 74 percent of individuals who were stalked on or offline were female, and 26 percent were male.

Researchers found that users with female names received on average one hundred “malicious private messages,” which the study defined as “sexually explicit or threatening language,” for every four received by male users.

According to the study, “Male human users specifically targeted female users.” By contrast, men are more often attacked for their ideas and actions. John Scalzi, a science fiction author and popular blogger, has found online invective typically situational. When he writes something that annoys people, they tell him so. People do not make a “hobby” out of attacking his appearance and existence as they do female bloggers.

The nature of the attacks similarly attests to bigotry’s presence. Hate expresses something uniquely damaging. It labels members of a group as inhuman “others” who do not possess equal worth. It says that group members are inferior and damaged. Bigotry conveys the message that group members are objects that can be destroyed because they have no shared humanity to consider.

Cyber harassment exploits these features by exposing victims’ sexuality in humiliating ways. Victims are equated with their sexual organs, often described as diseased.

Once cyber harassment victims are sexually exposed, posters penetrate them virtually with messages that say “I will fuck your ass to death you filthy fucking whore, your only worth on this planet is as a warm hole to stick my cock in.” 

Rape threats profoundly impact women: over 86 percent of rape victims are female. Virtual elimination may follow the imagined penetration: “First I’ll rape you, then I’ll kill you.”

One woman who faced online abuse noted, “Someone who writes ‘You’re just a cunt’ is not trying to convince me of anything but my own worthlessness.” Despite the gravity of their predicaments, cyber harassment victims are often told that nothing can or should be done about online abuse. Journalists, bloggers, lay observers, and law enforcement officials urge them to ignore it. Victims are called “whiny baby girl[s]” who are overreacting to “a few text messages.” Often victims are blamed for the abuse. They are scolded for sharing their nude images with loved ones or for blogging about controversial topics. They are told that they could have avoided the abuse had they been more careful.

A related message sent to victims is that the benefits of online opportunities are available only to those who are willing to face the Internet’s risks. They are advised not to expect anything different if they want to make a name for themselves online. The choice is theirs: they can toughen up or go offline.

The Internet is governed by society’s rules. Life online bleeds into life offline and vice versa. The notion that more aggression should be tolerated in cyberspace than in real space presumes that virtual spaces are cordoned off from physical ones.

Most victims do not report cyber harassment to the police because they assume that nothing will be done about it. Sadly, they are right. Law enforcement frequently fails to act on victims’ complaints even though criminal law would punish some of the behavior. Victims are told to turn off their computers because “boys will be boys.” Online harassment victims are told that nothing can be done; they are advised to ignore rape and death threats. During the summer of 2013, high-profile women were subjected to a torrent of online threats. The feminist activist Caroline Criado Perez received hundreds of graphic rape threats via Twitter after her successful campaign to feature more female images on British banknotes.

Members of Parliament and female writers who publicly supported Criado-Perez faced the same, including bomb threats. One tweet featured a picture of a masked man holding a knife with the message, “I’m gonna be the first thing u see when u wake up.”

Because the Internet serves as people’s workspaces, professional networks, résumés, social clubs, and zones of public conversation, it deserves the same protection as offline speech. No more, no less.

Without doubt, the free speech interests at stake are weighty. Free expression is crucial to our ability to govern ourselves, to express our thoughts, and to discover truths. For that reason, government cannot censor ideas because society finds them offensive. Truthful speech must not be banned just because it makes people uncomfortable.

But credible threats, certain defamatory falsehoods, social security numbers, and nude images posted without consent contribute little to discourse essential for citizens to govern themselves and discover truths. Their net effect is the silencing of victims. Victims could blog, post videos, and engage on social networks without fear of destructive cyber harassment. They could raise money using networked tools unencumbered by rape threats, reputation-harming lies, and distributed- denial- of- service attacks. They could take advantage of all of the expressive opportunities available online. Protecting against online harassment would secure the necessary preconditions for victims’ free expression.

With the help of law and the voluntary efforts of Internet intermediaries, parents, and teachers, we might someday achieve a free and equal Internet. We need to take action before cyber harassment becomes a normal feature of online interactions. A hostile online environment is neither inevitable nor desirable. We should not squander this chance to combat discriminatory online abuse; it is early enough in our use of networked tools to introduce equality of opportunity as a baseline norm of interaction.

[taureleni]

The accusations against Galaxia by Kallulily and others

Hello, this is @julicity posting this on behalf of Galaxia/Taureleni. There was a callout post made by @kallulily on both Tumblr and Twitter last year falsely accusing Galaxia of emotional manipulation, abuse, and grooming.

This is Galaxia and Keeby/@dalmun, Dee/@solardee, Plasma/@akumrak and my personal responses to all of the accusations.

Kallulily had addressed her callout to all of the Kirby community and friends and associates of Galaxia. I also address this to the community as well as friends and associates of Kallulily.

Galaxia's issues were only with Kallulily, but because her friends @magicantare / @aeonhero , @magoloranlaunch, and @kirbypurrs (who's deleted on tumblr) also made public accusations against them, we unfortunately also had to respond publicly.

Kallulily has tried to silence us from the start, telling everyone that we are going to make claims about how she takes things out of context and that they aren't going to be true. She tried to make it out on Twitter that because we did not respond immediately, our silence was an admission of guilt, which is extremely manipulative.

Galaxia has been has been gaslighted and manipulated by Kallulily and her friends since 2018, and lied to by Kallulily even before. Kallulily has also continued to be hypocritical and ableist towards Galaxia, as well as using them for a scapegoat for any of the problems they have with Galaxia's friends.

Please help spread awareness to this issue. We know people have blocked/muted our accounts because they have jumped to conclusions from the beginning. Kallulily has always tried to play victim when she was the one that had been spreading lies and talking trash starting back in 2018. All of these lies are an act of defamation. She will continue to try to silence us unless we speak out about this once and for all.

We expected Kallulily and everyone else who had made false accusations against Galaxia to publicly rescind their statements and apologize for the years of harm they have caused.

[diaryofafeministbw]

EXCERPTS:

As thrilling as it is to participate in the shared experience of watching two titans of their industry challenge themselves to a gladiator-style conflict with impressive skill and turnaround, their tracks also expose a long standing tradition in battle raps: using women as pawns and fodder for slinging insults. When the battle is arguing over who’s the bigger misogynist, does anyone really win? The women in these rappers’ lives sure don’t. 

Kendrick fans have resurfaced interviews disavowing abuse and support from Alford’s brother; Drake’s supporters have been circulating quotes from young women rejecting claims that their relationship with the superstar was inappropriate. As the dust settles from the battle, you are left to contend with two realities. One, artists are engaging in a speculative exercise of bloodsport where the ultimate crime is violence against women and girls, a frame that is tragically not reflected in present-day society. And the other, these are sincerely held positions by each artist against their opponent, suggesting that both legends associated as colleagues for years despite being aware of purported harm that their respective crews were responsible for, and said nothing publicly. In either scenario, fans and consumers are left to reconcile a contradiction between the conviction in Drake’s and Kendrick’s lyrics and the artists’ present-day behaviors. The women, girls, and children affiliated with them are left to deal with the fallout in the public. Despite what their raps may claim, the safety of these alleged victims isn’t the priority: it’s ego. 

Objectively, both men are trading in moral inconsistency. Kendrick can barely purport to have a moral brightline around abuse and parental neglect when he has collaborated with serial deadbeat baby daddy Future, claimed alleged abuser Dr. Dre as a mentor, and heavily featured convicted sex offender Kodak Black on his most recent album. Drake’s accusations against Kendrick fall apart in kind; he declares Kendrick an abuser in the same track as he shouts out alleged chronic abuser Chris Brown. This inconsistency is not contained to this conflict, either: in a recent spat between Chris Brown and Quavo, both artists weaponized documented physical incidents with women against the other in a twisted race to the bottom. In Drake’s response to Kendrick’s accusations, he spent the bulk of his song “The Heart pt 6” denying any accusations of sexual misconduct – claiming he was too rich and famous to be culpable – as well as alleging that Kendrick’s focus on the topic was due to his own childhood experiences with sexual abuse.  It ultimately becomes irrelevant whether the artists committed the alleged acts of violence or not, because what is ultimately revealed is that the trauma the women around them have experienced is accepted, until it’s time for a rap battle. These artists may be willing to weaponize cruelty against women as a critique, but fall short of committing to rejecting abuse around them as a sustained principle.

At battle rap’s inception, women became disposable currency for sensation, with no consideration for fact or fiction, legend or myth – and  young women were left to deal with the fallout. In the ensuing weeks, the women around Kendrick Lamar and Drake are going to be thrust into an unprecedented level of scrutiny – their social media exhumed and pored over, every statement and response dissected – in service of a conflict they never signed up for. While the war of words may be over (for now), the effects against the women involved continue to linger with a level of invasiveness that they never consented to. Abuse and grooming are now spectacles for consumers to gossip about rather than structural problems that need dismantling. The care for all parties involved is not prioritized, instead it’s about who “won” a rap beef. Regardless of whether or not the accusations are merely speculative, the sensationalism  continues to harm everyone involved. It is an ongoing shortcoming that cannot continue to be maintained in hip-hop’s next 50 years; it is tragedy enough that it dominated the first 50.

Written by _ShamGod 🙏🏾

[anonymoushouseplantfan]

By Camila Tominey,

“Just as I have always admired the seamless way the Duchess of Sussex’s truth has sometimes clashed with fact, so too do I have a grudging respect for Omid Scobie.

"Lest we forget, this is a man who spent a decade raking over celebrities’ private lives for US Weekly, only to brazenly tweet in 2021: “Privacy means freedom from *unauthorised* intrusion. It is the right to choose what you share with others and what you don’t. That’s it!

"At the time, such outbursts left journalists like me in disbelief. Wasn’t this the guy whose entire career was built on analysing snatched paparazzi images of the rich and famous? Imagine our incredulity when Scobie launched into repeated attacks on the very royal press pack he followed around like a puppy. I saw with my own eyes how he tried to muscle in on the rota system in a bid to gain access to the very members of the Royal family he now seeks to trash in his second book, Endgame, which hit bookshelves on Tuesday.

"You have to admire the brass neck of the bloke, you really do. I remember one incident on a royal tour when he was literally begging me to tell him the sources of my various royal scoops. And to think he’s now so reluctant to discuss his own! Who on Earth could they be, I wonder?

"Perhaps the most amusing thing about Endgame is how much this fearless journalist gets wrong in his tireless pursuit of Meghan’s truth. “Palace aides were racking their brains to remember the ‘five’ private secretaries who have come and gone from the Duchess of Cambridge’s office (there have been three). And contrary to the claim ‘you’d be unlikely to read about it in any British newspaper’, The Telegraph reported on exactly that staffing issue last week.

"Hey, but why let facts get in the way of a good story? In one passage, I am described as The Telegraph’s Royal Editor – which I’m not and never have been. Referring to a piece I had written about the now infamous dog bowl incident, in which I suggested that it showed how much love William has for his little brother that he felt the need to physically wrestle him to the ground, Scobie comments that I sound like the “excuses of domestic abusers everywhere.”

"Domestic abuse? Is that what we are calling sibling rivalry these days? We are now being asked to believe that it was a “translation error” that the names of two “alleged” royal racists had been left in the now-pulled Dutch copies of Endgame – even though they were completely absent from the English version. And we’re supposed to accept this narrative even after Scobie had bragged on US television that he knew the names of both alleged racists?

"You know, I really thought I’d seen it all when Meghan told Oprah, with a straight face, that the Archbishop of Canterbury had married them three days before their official wedding ceremony; that she’d had her passport confiscated only to jet off on multiple holidays; that Kate had made her cry and not the other way round.

"I thought I’d heard it all when “sources” close to these two multi-millionaires (who were still receiving a £700,000 allowance from the King after Megxit) revealed the couple were so “desperate” they had no choice but to sign deals with Netflix et al – even though we know they were speaking to streaming companies as early as 2018, a whole two years before they stepped down as “working” members of the Royal family.

"I thought I’d heard it all when Scobie, of all people, claimed to be both a champion of privacy and an accountable press, only to publish not one, but two completely unauthorised intrusions into the lives of the Royal family so lacking in balance as to be laughable. We must believe all victims of bullying, insists Scobie (who was comforted by Meghan when he copped the kind of flak we all get, day in and day out on social media), except when they’re accusing the Sussexes of it. You really couldn’t make it up."

Thanks!

[the-final-sif]

Listening To A Potential Victim Does Not Mean Disregarding Critical Thinking or Evidence

So, I've been avoiding a lot of the stuff regarding Dream on twitter, mostly because I thought a lot of it was dumb, and being handled poorly. However, now that things have cooled off a bit, I want to discuss something.

To summarize the situation for those unaware, on twitter, a person made an accusation that when they were 17/"18 soon", they had flirty conversations with a then 20 year old Dream. The person did not allege any form of grooming, coercion, actual relationship, sexting, nudes, etc. The evidence of this they provided is sketchy at best, they claimed to have evidence that was more definitive and then backtracked, and overall it's just been weird. I think people on reddit/here have already done enough to debunk a lot of it or point out how things don't add up. That's not what I want to talk about right now.

What I want to talk about is the narrative of "believe the victim" that has sprung up in these discussions. People casting doubt or pointing out holes in the story presented have received hate/been accused of "defending an abuser" under this assumption that you are supposed to "believe the victim". This is an incredibly dangerous and easily exploitable mindset. It is dangerous both for innocent parties that may get accused, and also for actual victims. I honestly do not like to say "believe the victim". Instead, I prefer to say "listen to the victim".

Now, when someone comes forward to make an accusation against someone, you absolutely should listen to them. You should hear the person out with an open mind, and not instantly jump to discredit or dismiss them regardless of what they say. You should remain respectful, and not engage in any form of harassment toward the person speaking out, even if you don't believe what they are saying. This is a healthy mindset. This is what "listen to the victim" looks like.

HOWEVER

"Listen to the victim" does NOT mean you should treat everything the accuser is saying as empirically true. You should consider it. You should look at the evidence that they present. You should use critical thinking skills and discuss the evidence as well as the weight of the accusation in question. The other side of the story should be heard and discussed as well. And then you can come to your conclusion based on everything that is presented to you.

"Listen to the victim" also does not mean that you should not ask for proof, particularly if the person in question is a stranger. It is on the accuser to provide proof of the claims that they make. It is on them to provide evidence as best they can. This can be hard, and it can feel unfair, but it's a vital part of addressing situations like this.

Part of why this is so important is because people can lie. If an abuser knows that a victim may speak out against them, they can come out and accuse the victim of abuse in order to discredit them. If you blindly "believe the victim", you may end up participating in furthering the abuse of someone and prevent an actual victim from speaking up.

The mindset of "believe the victim" when applied as "do not critically examine any of the evidence or doubt the person accusing" ends up actually turning into "believe whoever you hear say something first". This is incredibly dangerous, very unhelpful, and a mindset that is used to shut down and shame critical examinations of evidence. It is can and has been used as a tool by abusers or those looking to harass people to shut down anyone questioning what they say.

If you don't feel confident that you understand the evidence of a situation, or that you have had the time to process and evaluate it, do not spread that information or those accusations uncritically. Take your time, see things for yourself, come to your conclusions based on what you feel comfortable trusting.

You should always remain respectful, you should keep an open mind, and you absolutely should listen to people when they speak up about serious issues. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't also think critically about the situation, examine the evidence put out, and take your time before making a decision on how you feel.

[litnerdwrites]

Let's get a couple of things straight. Lately, I've been seeing more posts with comments from Nesta antis saying the vilest things. From wishing SA onto Nesta (a fictional character), to actually saying to a victim of abuse, that they don't believe they were abused, but if they were, then they don't blame the abusers and that they should've 'ended' the victim.

To a person. Not a fictional character. A real life person.

Saying such vile things to fictional characters is fucked up, and honestly, if you do then you need therapy. However, saying these things to a real life person, a victim, none the less, goes a bit too far in my opinion.

Now, I don't care how you feel about Nesta or Mor or Rhysand. My posts have made my opinions on these characters clear, and if I haven't, allow me to make them clear now; I am a Nesta Stan, and anti IC.

If you're that bothered by that, then just block me. Please. For both of our sakes.

However, no matter who's side you're on or who you support, there are certain lines you don't cross and wishing harm on victims, fictional or real, is definitely crossing the line.

There are victims who don't like Nesta, and say that she reminds them of their abusers, and that's fine. That's valid. Their opinions and thoughts on this matter are valid.

There are victims who love Nesta and relate to her, because they relate to, or empathise with her pain and that's also fine. That's also valid. Their opinions and thoughts are valid.

The victims know themselves and their trauma well enough to decide how they feel about her, so claiming that a victim can't be a victim, or that they deserve it, or even that they're abusers, is not okay. Calling anyone an abuser is a pretty serious accusation, and shouldn't be used likely. Similarly, I feel as though some members of this fandom weaponise statements from real victims, as if they're some grand 'gotcha!' moment to prove their point on both sides, which I don't think is okay either.

Some people here need to learn how to treat others with respect and basic decency before they begin going off about feminism and justice for victims or anything else.

If you aren't capable of ignoring content you don't agree with, you shouldn't be on the internet. If you can't have civil discussions then don't interact with people you clearly don't agree with. If you are chatting with someone and the conversation looks like it's going to break into something less civil, end it. Spare yourself, and others the drama, no matter what side of the fandom you're on.

I really want to think that people are better than this, but that's obviously not the case. Anybody who can so confidently say such vile things should be called out and face the consequences.

[partsofapuppy]

(his post is made by an endo neutral, anti leaning, cdds first alter who is critical of both pro endos and anti endos.)

i do have a problem with the... hypocrisy of syscourse.

the amount of things anti endos do that would get death threats sent to pro endos if they did the same is WILD.. and i think some of you need to take a step back. what happened to treat others the way they want to be treated?

1. hiding responses debunking information

yeah i think everyone knows who im talking about. you make a post with faulty sources and when someone makes a post debunking your sources and information, you hide it. that's blatant disinformation at this point.

it's Okay to be wrong by the way. you don't have to be right.

2. wishing death upon endogenic systems

ive seen NOBODY talk about it but there's an art piece going around depicting someone holding a sword, with the text "death upon endos" (paraphrased.) and for this one i KNOW people would react badly because i remember the kill the anti endo inside of you merch. that was HEINOUS. but this is fine? i dont know how to break it to you guys but wishing death upon people is not. the leftist take you think it is. id say its actually pretty ableist. i wouldnt call it fascistic because that's a bit extreme (for both pieces of artworks) but Dear God

3. infantilization (for lack of better terms) of pro/endos

assuming endogenic systems or even pro endogenic (cdd) systems are being groomed or are just misinformed or what not. these are people. ive said it before and i'll say it again but people have the right to have different opinions. than you. it doesn't mean they've been groomed, it doesn't mean they're idiots, they are autonomous human beings who have decided, "hey, i think pro endos exist."

4. accusations of grooming

im really upset about this one. as a survivor of grooming i really think you guys need to learn what grooming means. grooming is inherently sexual.

"One tool common to those who sexually abuse kids is grooming: manipulative behaviors that the abuser uses to gain access to a potential victim, coerce them to agree to the abuse, and reduce the risk of being caught." from RAINN. stop flippantly using such words. as a grooming victim it genuinely grinds my gears that you are watering this term down. imagine if someone said anti endos were grooming people into thinking endos weren't real.

5. invasion of tags

this one i also know you'd be upset about because ive seen endos invade tags and they (rightfully so) get called out. i dont quite like how it's okay to do this for anti endos.

6. claiming singlets can't be in syscourse

this one especially makes me mad. i know if a singlet said "endos aren't real" a lot of anti endos would be leaping for joy. but when a singlet says "endos are real" it's all "singlets need to stay out of syscourse." i hate to break it to you. i really do. but singlets are autonomous people who, regardless of whether you like it or not, have the right to an opinion. especially because fused systems may count themselves as singlets.

please think before you do something. please put yourself into other people's shoes.

[matan4il]

Just wanted to send some love your way 🩵 Im a left-ish diaspora Jew who had, up until really recently, taken the stance that the conflict between Israel and Palestine was too complex for me to fully understand. I appreciate blogs like yours because they have genuinely helped me understand and see through the narratives that both sides are equally at fault, or that Israel is some colonialist war machine bent on gobbling up all available territory at the expense of everyone else’s lives.

It’s kind of frightening for me to have a stance at all, when the people around me were all silent on October 7th but have no issue hanging Palestinian flags outside their homes and filling their social media with slogans that they claim are simply “anti Zionist” but are absolutely anti-Semitic.

I don’t know how to explain to them that YES my heart bleeds for every average human in Gaza who genuinely does want to just exist, but that doesn’t meant that I think the onus for peace lays exclusively on Israel’s shoulders, and I don’t support disbanding Israel as a country. I worry a lot about being too one-sided or simplifying things too much; I still feel very much like I’m sitting in a middle position, due to those concerns. And it’s scary that it still wouldn’t be enough for people — FRIENDS, even — around me.

Sorry for the ramble. Thank you for your informative posts. Speaking as someone who finds a lot of joy in fandom stuff, I really hope the tides turn so that kind of thing can occupy more space in your mind than worrying does 🩵

Awww, Nonnie! I am hugging you SO MUCH!

My heart aches, because you're absolutely right. It doesn't matter how much we'll denounce racism, they will still call us racist. It doesn't matter how often we state that we want life and dignity for both Jews AND Palestinians, they'll still accuse us of supporting genocide. It doesn't matter if we'll criticize the government, they'll still claim we're brainwashed to silence our voices.

So if it's not about our actual beliefs and positions, what's it about?

It's about the fact that we're Jews. And we're told that we can only be "good" Jews if we throw our fellow Jewish people under the bus, even though for every other minority, solidarity is encouraged and celebrated. We're only "good" Jews if we give up our native rights by adhering to a narrative that paints us as colonizers of our own ancestral land, even as native rights are upheld as vital for every other indigenous group. We're only "good" Jews by doubting the multiple testimonies of rape and baby beheadings, even though every victim is supposed to be heard and believed. We're only "good" Jews if we agree to give up the right to self defense, which means we give up the right to live safely, to live peacefully... really, if we give up the right to live, period. All while telling us this is due to the value of all human life. They're literally gaslighting us with "All Lives Matter," and it's the same crowd who could recognize the issue with that slogan, when it was used to silence black people demanding that very same right.

We do not have to go along with this modern "witch test," where they try us by dunking us into water, and the only way to be "innocent" is to die drowning, so if we didn't, then we're witches, and we die still, because they burn us at the stake. I refuse to collaborate with the erasure of Jewish identity, history and rights, which leaves all Jews stripped of protection, vulnerable to abuse, and I will keep speaking, even if they call me every dirty name they can think of for recognizing the Jewish right to live, and to live in our historic homeland, especially as we have always been willing to live here side by side with others. Whatever they say about me, at least I won't be a tokenized Jew, that they can use to bully other Jews into silence.

We absolutely can be pro-Israeli AND pro-Palestinian, rather than turning anti-Israeli to "prove" we're good, pro-Palestinian Jews.

I'm sorry, IDK if I'm actually helping here! Just know that you're not alone in feeling this way. Actually, the fantastic Mayim Bialik also talked about this recently, so I'll give you her eloquent words:

(this is just a part of the vid, you can find the whole thing here)

Thank YOU for the kind words! And may we all get back to just being able to enjoy fandom as the fun, escapist hobby it should be. Sending you lots of hugs and love! xoxox

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[wolfiafuntime]

About The Church of Fontaine's High Priest

There's not enough Fontaine characters to make a 'About the Cultists V', so I made this instead!

For those unfamiliar- this is a Sagau! Modern Cult AU! And I recommend reading this quick brain rot that started it all.

Ft. Modern! Cultist! Neuvillette X Gn! Creator! Reader (only mentioned)

Tw: Cults, kids being in cults, murder, abuse, child abuse, grief, a descent into madness, and intentional lowercase in some parts.

Published: October 16, 2023 (posted at 12:01 am)

Words: 1,670

Pages: 5

 He was introduced to the cult via his ex-wife, whom he had a rough divorce with, Egeria Amrita, when he learned she had moved both herself and their shared daughter, Furina, to an unknown location. And he thought about joining when multiple family lawyers in the cult had brought up a loophole that would allow him to be closer to his daughter. But he didn't actually do anything until he learned who owned the mountain-bound house.

 Zhongli Xiangsheng.

 His childhood friend; who had gotten him and five others to join a group called the O-Sovereigns. A group who went on adventures everyday, sparred everyday, and traded everyday. A group who's majority never noticed that they went wherever zhongli said, always lost to zhongli, and gave nearly everything to zhongli for free. And, a group who zhongli had, without any punishment, murdered.

 And it was his fault.

 For when he awoke after spending months in a medically-induced coma, he was too afraid to testify against his former friend. And so he lied, claiming he didn't remember anything about the incident. And he continued to lie, even when he was told that he might be accused for the crime. He never was, though. And zhongli, despite all of the evidence against him, got off with only weakly therapy sessions.

 Logically, as an adult, as a former lawyer, and as a current judge, he knows that zhongli could not have been sent to jail. For Teyvat State had no laws stating that murderous children under the age of ten had to be imprisoned. But he cannot help but hate zhongli, and himself, for what they he had done.

 And so he had to join. To protect all of the innocent people zhongli had tricked. And he kept a hidden, written record of every illegal act zhongli had committed. Unfortunately, most of the crimes weren't that severe. For the people were consenting to living there, and consenting to their poor diets. The only people he could get arrested were the child abusers; which was tricky, but he managed.

 He spent his time taking care of those kids. Teaching them various things, from math to home economics. The only things he didn't teach were physical education, and the false history Zhongli had created. Still, his teachings got him the nickname 'Papa', especially from the cult's girls.

 Things stayed like that for years. Stalk zhongli (something everyone did), report child abusers (everyone thought they abandoned their grace), and teach children. Stalk zhongli, report child abusers, and teach children. Stalk, report, teach. Things got a lot harder when zhongli divided the cult into eight different compounds, though. He couldn't stalk zhongli, for he was bouncing between the temple of liyue and the adeptal domain. He couldn't report child abusers, for the church of fontaine was built to reflect 'fontaine's love-filled personality', so there were none. And he couldn't teach children, for Egeria, who had been gifted position of hydro archon, didn't want him 'ruining anymore families'.

 But he never gave up. He stuck at it, and worked his way up to the position of high priest by gaining the love of the church's victims. And Egeria, a true believer in their grace and lord fontaine, was forced to oblige. But deep down, she was seething. She hated him for divorcing her. She loathed him for moving in with her and Furina. And she resented him for making everyone believe he was a fellow worshipper.

 How could she tell? Well, the better question would be: How could she not? She had been in a romantic relationship with him for nearly two decades. They were living together for almost eighteen of them, and married for sixteen of them. It was only natural she knew all of his tells. The only thing she didn't have against him was evidence to show to her beloved Zhongli. Her beloved Morax. Her beloved Rex Lapis.

 So she started gathering it. Egeria made her own journal, and started documenting her own evidence. She used her position as Archon, and his position as High Priest to stalk him. And stalk him, and stalk him. She was determined in her faith in Their Grace, and even more determined in her love for Rex Lapis.

 Because the moment she saw him, Egeria knew she had found her soulmate. A kind, loyal man, who wouldn't dare put his job before her like her ex-husband had. One who's only dedication was spreading the love his late spouse and children had given him. And she was determined to get that same love for herself- and her daughter. And every meeting, meal, and night spent with him convinced her that she was getting closer to that goal.

 But sadly, Egeria never had the best memory, nor was she the best at multitasking. So when she took up the job of stalking her ex-husband, she started neglecting her beloved dragon. A fact that, while not immediately noticed, was still obvious fairly quickly. So, Morax and a small group of Adepti stopped by the Church of Fontaine. Morax, as he deserved, soaked up the attention and celebration, his very presence distracting everyone in the Church. Even the High Priests.

 Leaving the Adepti free to roam about. Or rather, leaving them free to search the Church from top to bottom. The first place they looked was Egeria's private room, but she was paranoid of her ex-husband to keep her journal in a place so obvious. Then they searched the High Priest's private room, and similarly, he was paranoid of anybody to keep his journal in a place so vulnerable. And so, the pair kept their journals in separate locations.

 The Adepti spent an entire day, night, and another day searching for the evidence of her betrayal, with absolutely no breaks inbetween. It wasn't until the sunset of the second day that they found one of the books- hidden in a box under a tree the High Priest visited with the church's children. But no one but the priest himself knew that.

 The journal was mistaken to be Egeria's. And upon reading it, Rex Lapis believed that the woman's sudden lack of contact was because she planned on bringing it to the police. And despite all of the believers he had in the city's police force, he couldn't risk it. In a panic, he burned the book and lead Egeria out to a nearby river, where he drowned her for her crimes against him. Ironically, the location wasn't that far from where she had kept her own book hidden.

 A place the high priest had soon searched when zhongli had announced it. Claiming that their grace, themself, had reappeared to personally take Egeria's soul to meet their family.

 He cried for months after that.

 'If only I had exposed the cult sooner!'

 'If only I had kept the book better hidden!'

 'If only I had never made the book!'

 'If only I had never joined this accursed cult!'

 'If only I had never divorced her!'

 'If only I had told the truth about Zhongli!'

 'If only I had never joined his horrible group!'

 'If only I had never met Zhongli!'

 'If only I had someone to save me from this turmoil!'

 Soon, though, he met that someone.

 He was introduced to them via his daughter, Furina, who had been appointed the new Hydro Archon for convincing an orphanage full of little girls to run away to the Church of Fontaine. This someone, of course, was none other than Their Grace, the kind and loving and just Creator of all. A being so righteous they came out of hiding to free his ex-wife from her unrecognized imprisonment. And in return, he would do all that he could to spread the justice the Creator was capable of.

 And thankfully, his eccentric daughter was more than accepting of this fact.

 Together, the pair made new virtues and sins to benefit this new belief. His daughter might of went a tad overboard, but as her subordinate, he'd have to make do. Thankfully, the majority of the people were surprisingly accepting of the sudden change. More accepting than the Temple of Sumeru's change in Archon, at the very least. Or, uh, more accepting of Lord Sumeru's rebirth. That's what he meant...

 Nowadays, The High Priest spends his time reading about the sins committed by members of the Church, and judging them for their actions. Making sure to give everyone a fair punishment, just like his Savior. Sadly, he does not have that much time to spend with the children, but he makes up for it by letting them style his hair and choose his outfit in the mornings. And by remembering the face, name, and birthday of each one.

 He currently works as a Judge at the Opera Courthouse, choosing punishments for abusers, assaulters, and murderers. And, despite his vow to help his fellow cultists, he cannot stop himself from punishing them harder. For those who have had their eyes opened to the truth of the universe, should know not to commit such horrible acts. And he is not afraid to state this fact to anybody within the cult, whether they be from other Churches or Temples, or even morax himself.

 Due to his position, he never had to leave the Church of Fontaine. Something he was quite happy to hear, as it gives him more time to make up for every prayer he missed or faked. And it gives him more time to prepare proper, well-thought-out sacrifices for Their Grace. His Grace. Who, unfortunately, is wed-bound to the reaper known as zhongli-- er, morax.

 'The Creator is getting stronger...' He recognizes. 'Surely, it is only a matter of time until they reincarnate and save everyone from that monster.'

 'And I will be the first to help them when it happens.'

Here's the Series Masterlist!

[florvaine]

tbh im losing my will to write bc all the cc's that i used to watch/did watch have been revealed to be terrible people that no part of me can support.

this is gonna be a bit of a rant of everything i stand on during this

support, send love and stand with shelby, alice, caiti, lexie, em, andi, moonzy and others taking a stand and finally showing the true colours of these 'men'. at the same time support, send love and stand with others that came out/were forced to talk about their experiences with this topic before such as cellbit, jack and niki. also show love for those standing up with the victims and supporting them no matter what - aimsy, billzo, max, ranboo, harry, etc. etc.

NOBODY who supports people like wilbur, illumina, george, sapnap, dream, punz, draggie and other 'influencers' who use their platforms for these horrific actions is welcome on my blog. i do not care if youre 'waiting for a response' - you have picked a side by doing that, whether you'd like to hear that or not, and it is not the victims. these 'men' are R4PISTS, ENABLERS, ABUSERS, RACISTS.

THIS ISNT DRAMA. the things these 'men' are saying theyve been revealed of doing - not accused, accused means 'claiming someone has done something wrong' - in this situation it is FACTUAL. the experiences these women have gone through do not deserve to be watered down to just 'internet drama' or 'twitter drama'. these 'men' have done ILLEGAL ACTS and deserve to rot behind bars for getting off on the manipulation, abuse and exploitation of these women, and i hope they get the justice they deserve for their actions.

a common thread between the majority of these cases is the theme of consent and alcohol. seems like the british attackers werent there for the tea video. the moment someone has alcohol in their bloodstream, they cannot consent. whether they have had one drink or 20, or if both parties are drunk, there is not consent. if there is not a clear, uncoerced, uninfulenced and solid 'yes' then there is not consent and it is assault/r4pe. this is not my opinion, this is THE LAW.

it is not your fault if you 'couldnt tell'. with wilbur, yes, he frequently used the 'tragic artist' role in his songs, but at the time it was said BY HIM to be a character, this is supported by his e-girl trilogy and the fact he said himself he was PLAYING an incel character. he is a manipulator, and the rest of the 'men' are liars too. they all sat behind screens showing a version of themselves best suited to gathering fame, and didnt feel bad about flipping completely when the streams or cameras turned off. HOWEVER, it is YOUR FAULT if you still support the 'men'. people saying 'he saved me' or 'he wouldnt do this' - MOTHERFUCKER HE JUST DID?? HELLO?? yes, it can be hard letting go of someone/something you loved, but it has to be done. i didnt want to get rid of a barbie when i was younger because playing with it made me happy, but i did anyways and guess what? i got over it. you do not know these 'men'. YOU ARE NOT LOSING A REAL LIFE FRIEND, YOU ARE LOSING A TOXIC, PARASOCIAL RELATIONSHIP.

for the (few) people who might see this and go 'whyre you so pressed' - i have experienced my own trauma in the past and that is all i will say, i do not owe it to you to go into full miniscule detail about what happened. hearing all the people i grew up watching doing the same things that i have and still am effected by today makes me feel sick, that isnt a metaphor either, it brings up bad memories and makes it even harder to detatch yourself from these situations. these 'men' have done irreversible actions. whilst it may have given them a sick minute of pleasure, it has haunted and traumatised these women for the rest of their lives. they are only 'apologising' or 'addressing' their actions because they do not want to lose their platforms. since the start their fans have only been a number, and the second that number drops they get all panicky and try do all the damage control they can. DO NOT SUPPORT THESE 'MEN'. SUPPORT THE VICTIMS. caiti shelby alice lexie em andi moonzy

i think im done with my rant. more might have to be added idk tho. bye bye

[danmei-confessions]

I honestly haven't been in the SVSSS fandom for very long but the way that some SJ fans talk about the character disturbs me, especially when they try to downplay his abusive actions or deny them. I've had disgruntled fans come onto posts I've made regarding the character's (canonical) abusive traits, claiming that I'm attacking them or just hate the character (which is not true, SJ as both victim and abuser is just an important part of his character, and it makes me really uncomfortable when vocal sections of the fandom say that SJ actually didn't abuse LBH, or that it wasn't that bad, because any abuse is "that bad" and the "it wasn't that bad compared to other things" argument gets used to discount survivors irl).

From my experience in fandom, I hadn't seen anything to the contrary so far-- SJ fans I've argued with on my posts like to demonize LBH and even characters like YQY and SY to extreme degrees, or to claim that I'm a LBH/LBG apologist because I point out that he was abused by SJ so his desire for revenge is justified... even though I never claimed that LBG was right for what he did and yes-- LBG's actions were worse than SJ's! Just as SJ's were worse than QJL's-- if we are looking at sheer scale of the actions and their affects, nothing to do with quality or morality of a person or whatever. Even writing off everything SJ did before coming to CQM because of being under duress, he still viciously abused LBH for around 5-7 years, while QJL only abused SJ for 3 years, so like it or not, there was more abuse for a longer period of time in that situation. The dilemmas of the legal and/or moral 'rightness' of either situation could be argued over forever, but the scale of SJ's abuses was larger than the scale of QJL's abuses. And of course, LBG's abuses was honestly much larger than either of theirs-- but that's laid out in his character anyway, he goes to exponential extremes.

Honestly, I haven't seen anyone say that LBG was justified in what he did and that was never what I tried to argue, because tbh I thought it was common knowledge that he was a terrible person. But people seem to misinterpret me and think that's what I'm saying anyway-- that because SJ was an abuser, he deserved what LBG did to him, and anyone who likes him is terrible as well. Which is never what I said, but what always seemed to be what people thought I was saying...

And now that I've seen things like that discord message, you know what, I get it. I understand why SJ fans have such a knee-jerk reaction to people pointing out his abusive actions, because honestly if this is the kind of shit that people give you guys for daring to like a character that just happens to be problematic, or heavens forbid liking that character and relating to him because you know what? So do I, there's a reason he's popular, he has a compelling story and he's very understandable in the way that he is!

Like on one hand, it makes me personally very uncomfortable to see people say that SJ wasn't abusive, or that he wasn't that bad, and blaming LBH for being abused. Just like it would make me uncomfortable to say any of that about SJ irt QJL/WYZ. But on the other hand, if the only way you were allowed to like a character without being harassed and attacked and having accusations thrown at you was if the character wasn't actually problematic, no wonder you don't want to hear that kind of analysis and it feels like a personal attack!

Anyway, what I want to say to the fandom as a whole is, please don't make assumptions about people and attack them for liking or relating to a character-- any character. You have no idea why they like or relate to a character, and honestly it's absolutely disgusting to make accusations and attacks on people for something like this. And for SJ fans, I'm genuinely sorry if what was meant to be character analysis posts on canonical traits of the character, as well as a reminder that victim-blaming and abuse apologism and denial are pretty not cool, was read as an attack and calling the fans bad people for it. I get you guys have had it rough and the fandom hasn't treated you well-- but also, please try to curb knee-jerk reactions, not everyone is out to get you. If you just don't like thinking about SJ's abusive traits, or prefer to write the character OOC or with different motives, then just say that. Pointing out canon is not the same as an attack. From looking at the debates on this blog, it seems like a lot of people are reading attacks into statements where there aren't meant to be any.

Not everyone who points of SJ's abuse hates the character or his fans-- some people just like to analyze the text, or find it uncomfortable when it seems like people are victim-blaming because of their own life experiences. But also, not everyone who doesn't want to focus on SJ's abusive traits and prefers to focus on other aspects of the character is excusing abuse or anything like that-- sometimes it's just not relevant to the story being told.

The answer isn't to claim your fav was never abusive when he was. the answer is for people to not pass judgment on other fans because of what they want to write about or what characters they like, and not to read attacks into statements where they're not meant. It's no one's place to pass judgement on someone else whose life you know nothing about from behind a screen-- and it's also not good to lash out at others because you've been hurt in the past.

Fandom, please stop forgetting that other fans are actual real people with real lives, real stories, and real trauma that you don't know about. There is never a reason to send hate, abuse, and death threats to anyone, no matter how much you disagree with them.

.

[queenvhagar]

What were your thoughts about Alicent hitting Aegon in season 1? In the Driftmark episode it seemed like it was just done to make Rhaenyra look like a better parent

Like here's the deal. Alicent's not a perfect mother as she lost her mother young and was forced into motherhood as a child herself by an older man who never even cared about said children, but at least she makes an effort to hold her sons accountable for their actions. Aegon's wanking out the window and putting down Aemond in front of others? She tries to make him realize the severity of their situation and the importance of sticking together. Aemond is jumped by four kids and disabled permanently while Aegon was off getting wasted? Alicent scolds him for his careless behavior and not being there for Aemond (to be fair to Aegon, Aemond snuck out and the Strong boys planned an armed ambush). A servant has been assaulted by Aegon? After Alicent makes sure she has everything she needs to get out of the Red Keep and away from her abuser and continue her life somewhere else, she goes to Aegon's and expresses her extreme disappointment in his actions, even saying he's no son of hers. Alicent can be strict and harsh in her methods, and it's certainly intended to make her look like a bad mom compared to Rhaenyra, but if you really look at both mothers, it's clear that Alicent is the only one of the two who tries to hold her sons accountable and shape their behavior in the first season.

Rhaenyra is constantly affectionate with her children and never raises a hand to them, but she also never checks them on their behavior and helps them get away with stuff, defending their bad behavior. Her boys bring a knife to a four on one ambush in the middle of the night where they beat up and permanently disable another child? Well, her sons never did anything wrong, and it was entirely that child's fault for being there and insulting them, and actually he should be tortured further for it. Her sons were justified in starting violence and maiming a child, even if that child is her own brother. Rhaenyra never even brings it up privately with her sons or talks about their role in what happened. In terms of mothering, Rhaenyra functions very similarly to Cersei when it comes to her children: they can do no wrong and it is always someone else's fault when something happens, and she will weaponize her own version of the truth and terms like treason to get her way for her children and herself (also she will use them to claim thrones they have no actual right to). I do wonder what would happen in the scenario that Jace was accused by a maid of sexual assault. Would Rhaenyra really support and hear the victim out since she's apparently so feminist and cares for the cause of all women everywhere? Or would she actually refuse to believe her son would be capable of such an act and accuse the victim of making it up for money, trying to slander their reputation, or attempting to make people question the nature of their birth by accusing them of behavior befitting a bastard? I think I know which scenario is more likely, based on what I've seen so far of how she deals with her sons and issues surrounding them.

So yeah. The show wants us to believe Alicent is a terrible mom and Rhaenyra is a great one, except thinking critically about either mother or contrasting their actions reveals it's not so clear cut.

[samasmith23]

We need to talk about EssenceOfThought's ongoing bullying & slander campaign against Rachel Oates...

I normally don't make posts covering this kind of stuff since I mostly try to keep my Tumblr blog here relatively positive and cheerful. And I normally try to avoid YouTube drama in general. But recently I've become increasingly frustrated and angered by the behavior of a certain YouTuber whom I regrettably used to be a fan of awhile back known as "Essence Of Thought" (aka, Ethel Thurston), whom in the past 2 months has been continuously releasing multiple videos & shorts which slander and defame another YouTuber named Rachel Oates. I know that Rachel herself is currently trying to combat this situation and has even filed multiple claims against Ethel's videos, but I felt the need to try and show my support for Rachel by help signal-boost her story in response to Ethel's revived targeted harassment campaign against her.

Content Warning: Mentions of Transphobia, Cyberbullying, Self-Harm, Suicidality, and Child Abuse.

Also, while this post is going to be very critical of Ethel and her conduct, I will NOT tolerate any misgendering or deadnaming of her! Just because I think Ethel is a bad person does NOT excuse any transphobia that is directed at her, and I will immediately block and report anyone who engages in such reprehensible behavior!

Section 1: Confessions of a former fan, or my personal falling out with Essence of Thought

For those who are not aware, Ethel Thurston is a transgender atheist content creator who regularly produces video essays analyzing and criticizing TERFs and the broader far-right. This content greatly appealed to me as both a supporter of trans-rights and as someone who vocally opposes both TERFs and Neo-Nazis. However, exactly 1-year-ago I unsubscribed from Ethel's channel when she began made a series of videos accusing Lily Orchard of being a child groomer. While I do agree that Lily is an AWFUL person who has received multiple credible accusations of sexual abuse from both former partners and even her own younger sister Courtney, Ethel's videos which accused Lily of "grooming all minors in her audience" were actually heavily criticized by several former victims of Lily's abuse who have argued that the way Ethel & her editor "ABirdCalledLevi" (aka, Levi) presented their information against Lily was not only overly inflammatory, but only served to misrepresent and damage the testimonies of her other victims.

Specifically, critics like "Patchwork Heart" (aka, Shiloh Conner) took serious issue took issue with Ethel & Levi's constant liberal usage of the word "grooming" to describe Lily's actions towards individuals like Glade, who accused Lily of encouraging him on her Discord to watch a livestream where she repeatedly flashed her audience (Glade was still 17 at the time of this incident). Essentially Shiloh stated that while Lily was undeniably guilty of sexual harassment, neglectful misconduct, and indecent exposure, her behavior technically does not qualify as "grooming," since "grooming" is a term specifically meant describe the gradual breaking down of a victim's boundaries through manipulation and isolation from others (online it's usually conducted through private DMs rather than on public servers like Lily's channels). Furthermore, Shiloh and other fellow victim's of Lily's abuse also criticized Ethel & Levi's usage of the phrase "parasocial audience grooming" to argue that Lily was grooming her ENTIRE audience instead of individuals, as "parasocial audience grooming" is NOT a legally or medically recognized term, but was instead invented by the commentary YouTuber "Korviday" in 2020 to describe Shane Dawson's sexually abusive behavior towards several underage members of his audience. Essentially, it's impossible to groom an entire audience all at once since grooming is defined by the specific and deliberate targeting and manipulation of individuals in private or isolated settings with the intention of eventually sexually abusing them. But when criticized for the way they badly mishandled the testimonies of victims like Glade, Ethel & Levi instead doubled down by not only continuing to misuse the word "grooming" in their videos, but actively smeared and defamed their critics and other victims of Lily's like Shiloh as "abuse/groomer apologists.” Ethel even went as far as to compare Shiloh criticizing how she misrepresented Glade’s testimony to “defending Harvey Weinstein.”

Like... YIKES!

I'm not going to lie... when I saw the way Ethel & Levi actively bullied and slandered other victims of Lily Orchard, I was deeply disappointed and disgusted. While I was already starting to grow weary of Ethel's tendency to overly moralize in her arguments, and I knew she was unpopular in a lot of online spaces, for the longest time I tried to give both her and Levi the benefit of the doubt since I knew she had been harassed by TERFs like Graham Linehan past simply for being an outspoken non-binary trans-woman online. But the way Ethel bullied people like Shiloh Conner was simply inexcusable! And personally, I completely agree with Shiloh's criticisms against Ethel & Levi. Even though I dislike Lily Orchard and think that she's an abusive scumbag, spreading misinformation about issues as serious as CSA only serves to inflict further harm onto the people that Lily has hurt. Victims like Shiloh have very publicly stated that they either want their testimonies to be reflected as accurately as possible, or not at all. And I especially understand their concerns about misusing the word "grooming," especially because of how that word in particular has been so easily co-opted as an anti-LGBTQ+ slur by Republicans and the far-right in the past 2 years alone, which only serves to promote bigotry and obfuscate actual instances of child sexual abuse (Ethel claimed in their video that they "saw no harm in extending the definition of the word" BTW). Here's a link to Shiloh's video responding to Ethel if you want further details on the ways in which both she and Levi so badly mishandled the testimonies of Lily Orchard's victims BTW:

So how does Rachel Oates fit into all of this exactly? Well...

Section 2: Reevaluating Ethel's past conduct and the targeted bullying of Rachel Oates

Once I witnessed the ways in which EssenceOfThought bullied and smeared the victims of Lily Orchard's abuse, it honestly caused me to reevaluate and question a lot of their past content, especially because Ethel & Levi already had reputations of being overly inflammatory figures who've burned tons of bridges with lots of other leftist YouTubers. It was then that I was reminded of the biggest controversy Ethel's been involved in, and one I was only tangentially aware of before the Lily Orchard drama. That being Ethel's 4-year-long and currently ongoing defamation campaign against feminist and atheist British YouTuber, Rachel Oates.

The conflict between Ethel & Rachel all started back in 2019, when Rachel's friend and former atheist YouTuber "Rationality Rules" (aka, Steven Woodford), got into serious trouble when he posted a video arguing against the inclusion of trans-people in sports (which relied on heavily fallacious scientific data and even cited clips from Fox News, Ben Shapiro, and Joe Rogan). Unsurprisingly, the backlash against Woodford's video was enormous, and it even resulted in him being deplatformed from hosting a panel at an ACA conference in Austin, Texas that same year. However, a lot of Woodford's friends within the YouTube atheist community, including Rachel, argued that Woodford did not make his video out of intentional malice or bigotry, whilst fully agreeing that it was a terrible poorly-researched video that did serve to reinforce transphobic narratives even if it was unintentional. This led to Woodford not only delisting and demonotizing the original video, but also releasing both an apology and retraction video to try and help mitigate the damage his original video caused.

Ethel however, refused to accept Woodford's apology and retraction, and made several response videos accusing his apology of being fake and him continuing to spread transphobic misinformation. And while that's perfectly understandable if Ethel personally didn't find Woodford's apology to be adequate or genuine, where this crosses the line into unacceptable behavior is that Ethel then went onto repeatedly attack Rachel Oates simply because she was both friends with Woodford IRL and didn't want to get directly involved in the controversy. Essentially, Ethel is engaging in the "guilt by association" fallacy here. In actuality though, Rachel not only repeatedly stated that she disagreed with the content Woodford's original video and agreed that it was very bad and harmful, but that she is supportive of the trans community and felt unqualified to weigh in on the subject matter of trans-people in sports since she has barely any knowledge or interest about sports in general.

This response was not good enough for Ethel however, who instead misinterpreted Rachel's comments as a backhanded attempt at silencing Woodford's critics.

Things got even worse when a random fan messaged Rachel a screenshot taken from a private Facebook group from a trans-self-help group which compiled a list of public figures for the trans community to avoid following the Woodford controversy, and her name was included on that list. Rachel, not knowing that the list was from a private chat, immediately went on Twitter to defend herself, which led to Ethel accusing her of doxxing by publishing private information. This is in spite of the fact that not only did the screenshot already exist before Rachel discovered it, but she went out of her way to censor the names of the members of that Facebook group. Furthermore, Ethel had also blocked Rachel on Twitter which led to the latter asking some of her followers to show her what Ethel was stating about her so she could try to adequately defend herself, which in-turn resulted in Ethel accusing Rachel of sending her millions of followers to circumvent her block and harass her.

The situation escalated even further however, when Ethel posted a now infamous tweet to one of Woodford and Oates' friends' Lizzy Lang, not only described Woodford as a "violent transphobe intent on stripping away dozens of human rights,” but called Lang and others (presumably Oates) "members of Woodford's church a transphobia" before ending the tweet with the words, "do this world a favor and exit it."

That last line in Ethel’s tweet, “do the world a favor and exit it,” got a lot of people justifiably angry since it was very easily misconstrued as Ethel advocating for Woodford's defenders to commit suicide (she claimed it was meant to say “exit Woodford’s church of transphobia”). And while EoT later apologized and clarified the incredibly poor wording of that last comment, she still refused to apologize to Rachel after several months of targeted bullying and defamation. When Rachel saw the infamous tweet, it only served to amplify her pre-existing feelings of depression since she mistaken that tweet to be directed at her instead of Lizzy Lang. And a few days later, in an act of desperation Rachel posted an impromptu unedited video begging and pleading for Ethel to stop bullying her, not realizing that she was still badly bleeding from cuts on her arm due to feeling completely hopeless and isolated (Rachel already had a history of engaging in self-harm and cutting).

But not even Rachel engaging in self-harm nor her feelings of suicidality were enough to sway Ethel, who still continued to double-down on their harassment by arguing that Rachel "weaponizing self-harm, transmisogyny, and benevolent patriarchy," and was using "upper-class cis white woman tears" (even though Rachel has openly admitted to being lower-middle class). And to this very day, Ethel still continues to slander Rachel and falsely label her as a "serial transphobe" and "abuser" all throughout her videos, even going as far as to not only claim, "Rachel Oates' [abuse] was the second most psychologically destructive thing [she's] ever suffered, only being second to being raped as a child," but that she would rather relive her trauma of "being outed as bisexual, groomed at age 15, and sexually assaulted."

Seriously... FREAKING YIKES! Those are incredibly extreme and inflammatory statements to make! I do understand that Ethel is a CSA survivor (and on that level I 100% empathize with her because that is of course absolutely terrible and is one of the absolute WORST things anyone can suffer from), but claiming that someone circumventing a Twitter Block and or begging you to stop bullying her whilst feeling suicidal is even remotely comparable to “being raped as a child"?! That is so unbelievably insensitive on so many levels that I don’t even know where to start! It’s insensitive to not only Rachel herself, but to other CSA survivors as well since it trivializes their trauma! Ethel should know better than this!

Also, that screenshot of Ethel tweeting a link to a Guardian article discussing the weaponization of white woman tears? That was literally the top pinned-tweet to her Twitter account immediately days after Rachel posted that desperate video of her pleading to Ethel to stop her harassment campaign whilst feeling suicidal. What a truly vile and unempathetic thing for Ethel to do!

Section 3: Showing support for Rachel Oates

After I did more research into the whole EssenceOfThought Vs. Rachel Oates situation, as well as hearing Rachel's side of the story, I ended up subscribing to Rachel's YouTube channel and have since become a fan of her work. Before I eventually unsubscribed from Ethel's channel due to the way she similarly bullied several of Lily Orchard’s victims, I was given the impression by her that Rachel Oates was just another garden-variety TERF YouTuber based on he way Ethel constantly talked about her. But that’s NOT accurate at all… Rachel's channel from what I’ve seen is mainly just about discussions of secularism and religion, feminism, book reviews, and cute dog videos!

Seriously, her dog Kyra is so FREAKING adorable!

Look at her! Kyra's such a good girl! She's such a cute doggy!

But yeah, this is a prime example of how Ethel’s pattern of engaging in bad-faith moral absolutism while misrepresenting events and evidence can be seriously damaging to uninitiated viewers. And I say that not only as someone who was largely unaware of the full extent of what she had done to Rachel, but also because Ethel frames her content in a very pseudo-academic/intellectual manner and uses a lot of professional sounding words to try and disguise severely misguided and inflammatory arguments. She tries to portray her YouTube videos as if they’re akin to college-level essays with lots of citations and crap, which can easily fool people into thinking that her content is well-researched and sophisticated. Except looking below the surface, in hindsight Ethel’s videos are mostly just pretentious word-salad, cherry-picking evidence, and relying heavily on academic terminology in order promote her thinly-veiled absolutist black-&-white views on morality, attacking anyone who is “not progressive enough” for her (in addition to Rachel, Ethel & Levi have also done this to other leftist YouTubers like Lindsay Ellis, Philosophy Tube, & Suris the Skeptic). According to Ethel’s logic, you’re either an entirely good or entirely bad person, and there’s zero in-between and if you dare disagree with her to even the slightest degree then she’ll automatically consider you to be just as bad as the far-right. Basically, it’s moral absolutism.

All of Ethel’s fallacious claims against Rachel Oates are textbook examples of bad-faith moral absolutism, and I deeply regret the fact that I was ever once a fan of Ethel’s content. She is a bully and a liar. And that’s a conclusion I arrived to after seeing how Rachel’s stories about being repeatedly slandered & bullied by Ethel heavily paralleled the similar experiences of individuals like Shiloh Conner, thereby revealing a pattern of toxic behavior on Ethel’s part.

Section 4: Ethel’s renewed and current bullying campaign

So why do I bring all of this stuff up?

Well, even though the worst of the harassment Rachel suffered was back in 2019 and she has since tried to move on from this whole fiasco and continues making her usual feminist book reviews and dog videos (she even deliberately avoids mentioning EssenceOfThought by name in her videos...), Ethel has not only repeatedly tried to drag all of this drama back up, but has this singleminded obsessive vendetta to defame and destroy Rachel's YouTube career at all costs. For instance, in 2022 Ethel tried to further slander Rachel by yet again engaging in "guilt by association" fallacy because notable transgender TERF YouTuber "Rose of Dawn" (aka, the British equivalent of Blaire White) once tried to befriend Rachel in 2020 after the initial harassment campaign by Ethel, and later in 2022 Rose openly defended self-confessed genocidal serial rapist Lily Cade when the latter was platformed in an infamous transphobic BBC article. What Ethel completely neglects to mention however, is that Rachel had permanently stopped interacting with Rose when several members of her audience informed her that Rose is actually a TERF (and the way Rose suddenly tried to befriend Rachel after Ethel's bullying of her strikes me as very cult-like since TERFs sadly do have a history in engaging in incredibly abusive cultish tactics to recruit new members, as many people who have escaped that disgusting hate movement have reported...) and she has since apologized for ever giving Rose any attention. Regardless, Ethel still tried to falsely implicate Rachel alongside "Rose of Dawn" in a video condemning Lily Cade & the BBC, which led to Rachel rightfully filing a defamation claim to YouTube, getting Ethel's then-latest slanderous hit-peace against Rachel blocked in the UK.

But even worse however, is that starting in August 2023 Ethel has begun releasing a constant stream of videos continuing to smear Rachel even further by both repeating all of the exact same aforementioned slanderous claims along with a whole bunch of new ones. Like, not only has Ethel already released 3 main videos out of a planned 6-part series ranting about Rachel Oates, but she has also released 24 shorts taken from the main videos!

Geez! Not only is this beyond obsessive, but this is just straight-up targeted bullying and harassment on Ethel's part! And the new claims she makes against Rachel in these videos are equally slanderous as the ones before! For just one example, Ethel & Levi’s cite a now-deleted livestream of Rachel's that they re-uploaded as a mirrored-copy to their channel, accusing Rachel of denying trans-women's existence by making the offhanded comment of, “No, the only thing a man can provide me that a woman can’t is a p*nis. Only thing.”

Except… I actually went and watched the ENTIRE 3-hour mirrored livestream myself just to see the full context of Rachel’s quote, and it turns out that Ethel took that quote completely out of context! Not only are there lots of points in the livestream wherein Rachel repeatedly states that “gender is a social construct and that trans and non-binary people exist,” but during the stream she's doing a counter-response to a Christian fundamentalist incel who once responded one of her earlier videos. And that potentially problematic quote of Rachel’s, “No, the only thing a man can provide me that a woman can’t is a p*nis. Only thing,” was actually a sarcastic response to the incel’s homophobic argument that “women don’t want to love their equals [(aka other women)] because they actually all want what only a [dominant alpha male] can provide them.”

Essentially, Rachel was criticizing the incel’s sexist & homophobic “logic” that, “all women secretly only want p*nises,” in a snarky & sarcastic manner, but Ethel took Rachel’s comment out of context to try and instead paint it as some transphobic-slip-of-the-tongue/TERF-dogwhistle, accusing Rachel of “completely ignoring the existence of non or pre-op trans women,” in order to try and support the fallacious argument that, “Rachel Oates doesn’t actually view trans women as real women, but instead as props to objectify in order to make herself look like a better ally.”

Not once does Ethel ever mention the context that Rachel was responding to & mocking a bigoted incel during the livestream... at all...

I don't have time to go into all of the other new lies that Ethel & Levi are currently spewing against Rachel Oates since this post has already gotten incredibly lengthy (for instance, Ethel also claimed that Rachel “downplayed JK Rowling’s transphobia” simply because she used the words “incredibly problematic” to describe the Queen TERF’s bigoted views; which is such a weak and pedantic argument), but it’s a whole lot…

Conclusion

Overall, I just wanted to bring attention to this situation because EssenceOfThought's harassment campaign against Rachel Oates has been ongoing since 2019 and it shows ZERO signs of stopping anytime soon. Ethel & Levi are serial bullies and liars who regularly engage in bad-faith arguments, misrepresent evidence, and engage in moral absolutism in order to paint anyone who disagrees with them or makes even the slightest mistake as the worst people imaginable. So the more people who are made aware of this mess, the better.

Please show support for Rachel, whether that be through signal-boosting this post, subscribing to her YouTube channel, or even donating to her Patreon if you so choose.

And to EssenceOfThought, aka Ethel Thurston, (along with her editor Levi...) specifically, the famed basketball player Michael Jordan would have some choice words for you:

And I mean that sincerely. Seriously... just stop this targeted bullying & slander campaign against Rachel. It's incredibly unhealthy and obsessive. Just let it go already...