#a lot of times bigotry comes from straight up not knowing

[the-kneesbees]

omg transphobic kid had a civil conversation with trans kid AND asked for their pronouns?? character development

[jellybeanium124]

being a white passing american jew is a perspective worth talking about, I think. because on the one hand I'm not a person of color. I've been treated as if I am white by society my whole life. I have access to white privilege as long as I keep my true ethnic identity a secret. and because of all this I internalized racist ideas same as white people did, which are now baked into my head, and I have to unlearn them. on the other hand, I am part of a racial/ethnic minority that is on the receiving end of a lot of bigotry, especially right now. so I know how it feels to be on both sides of this.

and as I'm sure everyone knows bc white people love being guilty and crying in public, unlearning racism is uncomfortable. catching yourself thinking something racist is uncomfortable. you want to believe you're a good person but then you think or say or do something that really isn't okay (and if you say or do something, you fucking apologize, because you're a grown up). it's that squirmy feeling in your chest, that guilt in your stomach. and something a lot of white people have trouble with is the fact that your discomfort is 10 million times less important than being antiracist. it's human to put your comfort first, but it's wrong, and as long as a white person values their personal comfort above being an antiracist ally, they aren't an antiracist ally.

the thing is most white people on tumblr are at least... vaguely aware of this. at least aware that they have internalized racism they need to work through. but for some ~magical~ reason goyim do not seem to realize that they maybe just might have some internalized antisemitism to work through. so when they get that squirmy feeling that comes from being called an antisemite, they lash out (not that white people don't lash out when they're called a racist, because of course they do). I think a lot of goyim on here just straight up aren't thinking that there's any possibility they may have internalized antisemitic ideas.

so to any goy reading this: you grew up in an antisemitic world. you have antisemitic ideas baked into your head that you need to unlearn. you might have to apologize for something you say or do. and as long as you prioritize not feeling uncomfortable over being a jewish ally, you're not an ally to the jewish people.

[utilitycaster]

Unpopular opinion: parts of the cr fandom are really dismissive/ reductive of Travis’s characters. It feels like it’s due to Travis being seen as THE cis het man of the group, and by extension his characters must be heteronormative and bad, despite the fact that you could have queer interpretations of his characters. At the very least, Travis’s characters explore masculinity and the different ways it might look. It’s like the people who are all “ew men are gross and shitty” and act like that’s an absolutely normal reaction to a man just existing.

So this is another one in that I agree with the initial statement, but I'm actually not sure re: the reasoning why. I think it's possible but I could not tell you for sure.

I used to, again, think this was people carrying through Campaign 1 elements well beyond the point where C1 had ended, and so Grog having an intelligence of 6 was being applied to Travis; and this definitely does come through to an extent when people treat Fjord (objectively as smart as Beau without her circlet) as stupid or act shocked that Chetney is the brains of Bells Hells or that he can play a Cerrit, Fjord, or Nathaniel. However, again, I think this is one of those opinions that pops up among people who weren't around for Campaign 1 (or early enough in C2 to be exposed to it regularly) so I don't know if that's the case anymore. It could still be - it could be that Approved Fandom Opinions get passed down even when the logic behind them has long since been lost; that's a really common thing in institutional memory. But I can't say for sure.

I also have in the past credited it to, as you said, people assuming his characters are the cishet guys and then writing them off. That's still possible - I've seen both Fjord and Chetney called "token straight" despite considerable evidence of bisexuality, and they also paradoxically are both commonly headcanoned as trans while still getting called "token straight," which sort of ties into a post I would need to find from someone else from quite some time ago about which cast members are granted agency by the fandom in their choices vs. which are assumed to be the victims of circumstance. And I do think that there are people in fandom who have decided men are icky or whatever, and I used to think this came from a place of bigotry and a slide towards t*rf ideology but I now do genuinely think it's just idiots who don't grant interiority to characters outside their own limited understanding.

But I think it's also useful to consider a few things, most of which I've brought up before:

Travis is extremely offline. He is not here to entertain your headcanons; he has been politely but openly dismissive of some (imo, really fucking dumb) fanon/fan theories. I think the cast frequently talks about how it's their table, and I think that's valid and correct, but Travis is one of the players who lives it the most. He is playing this game with his friends, and he'd like it to be a good story, but if you don't like it, he is not here to make you like it. I think that really fucks with the parasocial connections some people desire with the cast.

Travis's characters tend to examine masculinity as a performance but also the general performance of the self, and the fact that you cannot in the end control how you are perceived entirely, and I think that really unsettles people who have equated presentation with reality and are again, looking for external validation of the self.

Travis can play it big but he's often extremely subtle, especially with his more serious characters, and he's not as easily quotable out of context as some others at the table. I think because he is a lot more naturalistic than dramatic at times (Chetney notwithstanding) and isn't as pithy and quotable in his characters as many of Taliesin's PCs are, and a lot of the strength is in the delivery, he gets overlooked despite being very good with words on the fly.

And finally: this would be a whole post on its own but people are still very foolishly wed to this idea that pressing the big red button in D&D is Wild and Chaotic and haha Big ADHD Man when it's actually how you play D&D if you're not a coward; the button is where the story is stored, and a lot of Travis's strength is that he is extremely good at understanding what the GM wants and supporting it with sufficient grace that it's only visible if you know what you're fucking doing.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

My IRL ex who lives abroad now is dating my online friend who also lives there and I am deceiving them, AITA?

All of us are Asian, 29. Fake names are used.

My ex (Fred) was my childhood best friend, we grew up together in the same conservative society, people expected to see us marry since we were kids, all that jazz. At 18, we both moved away and kept up LDR. Moving meant big changes of course, I was in a huge city and I had internet access for the first time. I became a BTS fan in 2013, I started creating and reading a lot. I joined tumblr, made friends from all over the world. I was being radicalized rapidly, and I figured out I was bi too. My world was suddenly a million times bigger.

He however, didn't change much. He was scientific minded unlike most people here and his friends were all STEM kids but they were still functionally right leaning. He was racist when it came to BTS or East Asians in general. He was ignorant and happy to ignore queer existence, he used to say things like queer people needed to be shown the right path. We were turning out to be quite the opposites. Eventually we broke up. He was heartbroken, he tried to drag me back in many times and I avoided him like plague. I managed to ditch him completely when we were about 23. He left for USA to study.

Around the same time I befriended one of my closest online friends, Daphne. We lived in the same state but she was always traveling so we never got to meet. We're both hellsite veterans and keep our identities under lock & key so we don't know our real names or exact place of work, but we know each other's deepest kinks and childhood traumas, and stories about our exes. We both had the same kind of interests, politics, and fandoms, we're both bisexual. I've also come out as a trans man a few years ago and I go by a masculine name online, can't transition IRL. Daphne's known me since my girl era. Daphne left for USA last year for her Masters.

Now the wild part, by some twist of fate, Daphne met Fred who's also working on his Masters in an adjacent field. It is by no means a niche subject and USA is the fourth largest country, they still found each other. He sang in our first language at some party, he's very hot, and... he's into BTS like her. Wild. So they're now dating.

They started following each other on twitter and he followed a bunch of her friends including Me! We have exchanged pleasantries and while on his account he has his real name and location, mine is a mixed bag account with my fake name and my (sfw) queer creations all over it.

I know who He is but he doesn't know who I am, he thinks I'm just one of Daphne's dudes, and Daphne doesn't know that she's dating my ex who she had promised to drop into the Challenger's Deep (joke). My reasoning for hiding the truth is-- It's still not safe for me to be out IRL and he can mess it up. I remember his bigotry, I hate him, I have every right to avoid him and here that means not revealing my identity. But it's been years so maybe he has changed, and Daphne is my friend. So, I feel like a massive ahole for not telling her at least. At the same time she really did hate my racist homophobic right leaning ex a lot, so knowing the truth will make things awkward and I don't want to lose my friend.

So, there you have it. AITA?

BTW, no I'm not into BTS ships or reader insert fantasies, that's not what I create. I know someone would ask about it so there. I'm also Not attracted to Daphne, if I was I'd have asked her out straight away, I don't play around about my crushes.

What are these acronyms?

[stellae-de-baphometis]

An Ultimate Revise: Who Or What Is Satan?

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Okay... So I have a lot to say before I get into this post, because the original blog post I made was extremely problematic and I would like to address it, first and foremost.

My original "Who Or What Is Satan" post that I wrote was meant to be an educational and historical post, but it ended up being far from historically accurate whatsoever. It was full of errors and antisemitism, and I had absolutely no idea what I was talking about.

And so I've decided to completely rewrite and revise the entire post from scratch. It's something I've been wanting to do for a while now, because I really hate how my original post turned out and how antisemitic it was.

So without further ado, here is the revised and rewritten version of my original post, minus all the bullshit lol. Strap in, because this is gonna be a looong post! Full blog post is under the cut. ↓

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So here's a little more info and backstory on the original "Who Or What Is Satan" post, before we get into the revised version;

⚠️ - TRIGGER WARNING: Antisemitism - ⚠️ About a year ago now, I wrote a blog post of the same title under the username of @/thebaphometicforest. At the time of writing that post, I was extremely uneducated and new to Daemonolatry, and I had also been almost fully indoctrinated into a Ne0-Naz1 cult on Reddit without realising it (cough cough the fucking cesspit that is r/DemonolatryPractices cough). The blog post I wrote was full of misinformation and antisemitic propaganda, and I'm really not proud of the fact that I used to hold such antisemitic beliefs surrounding Judaism and cultural appropriation in general. I have since deleted the post, though I believe there are reblogs of it that exist, for those who wish to seek it out for further context, or whatever other reason you may need it.

I would like to take the time to sincerely apologise to the Jewish community for how blatantly ignorant and disrespectful I was in my past. There is no excuse for my antisemitism; I was just stupidly misinformed. I want it to be clear though that I never intended to purposefully discriminate against Jews, I just didn't realise how problematic my views were at the time. I wanted to clarify that distinction; But the bottom line is that the intent doesn't matter. At the end of the day, I was still a dick. It is no excuse and I take full accountability and responsibility for my past actions.

Please know that my past problematic views do not represent me anymore and I have changed and educated myself since then. And with that said, I want it to be my main goal to help dispel antisemitism, ignorance, and bigotry in occult spaces as an ally, as well as advocate for the rights and wellbeing of the Jewish community not only in occult spaces, but overall. 💙

With all of that said, it's time to set the record straight and talk about who and what Satan actually is!

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DISCLAIMER: Please keep in mind that I am not Jewish or Muslim, and therefore cannot speak from those perspectives on this subject. I understand and acknowledge that the concept of Satan originates in Judaism and have no intention to be appropriative. I'm simply just going off research and from what Jewish people in occult spaces on Tumblr have said regarding this subject. I also apologise in advance for any inaccuracies in this post. Please don't hesitate to point them out and I will correct them as soon as I can! Xx

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+: GIF Credit :+

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Satan has evolved to become a very complex character in the modern day. In fact, the very concept and idea of Satan can depend on who you ask, as there are multiple different spiritual paths that interpret Satan differently nowadays. Satan's history has also been muddied quite a lot over the years.

But what are the actual historical origins of Satan, and how did he even come to be?

༺・ The Origins Of Satan ・༻

So, where did Satan even come from?

The origins of Satan can firstly be traced back to Judaism, where Satan refers to an angel (Ha-Satan) that was initially subservient to God. It was only later that he came to be known as "The Devil" in Christianity (sometimes considered synonymous with Lucifer, a bastardised Greco-Roman god) and was referred to as an evil demon, devil, and fallen angel. Later in Islam, he came to be known as an evil spirit who went by the name of Iblis or Ash-Shaytan.

The concept and role of Satan varies drastically between Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and other belief systems which may have similar figures in their mythology. Let's further elaborate on what Satan means when it comes to these three belief systems.

Note: In the Christianity section, I have added a lot of my own interpretations and personal beliefs on the subject as I used to be a Christian as a child. However, I have not done the same with the Judaism or Islam sections as they are closed practices from what I have heard, and I feel that it is not my place to have a UPG on a closed practise, especially if I am not a part of it. Therefore, I will only be including historical info I have gathered from doing research in those parts and nothing more. I wish to remain respectful by not adding my personal input on those parts.

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+: In Judaism :+

There appears to be two main accounts of Satan in Judaism. The most well-know account is that Satan refers to an angel in the Torah named Ha-Satan (literally "The Satan") who is actually subordinate to God, rather than being an opposing force of God. His role was to test the faith of God's followers by tempting them to sin. If they resisted Ha-Satan's temptations, they were proving themselves faithful and loyal to God.

Another account comes from Satanail, the Prince of the Grigori Watcher Angels. The role of the Grigori were to descend to Earth so they could guide humans and teach them. But when they began having sex with humans and producing offspring such as the Nephilim, they were cast out of Heaven and became fallen angels. Some translations suggest that the Nephilim were a type of giants, whereas other translations suggest that they were the hybrid children of fallen angels.

Sometimes the archangel Samael is also equated with Satan, however they don't necessarily have the same functions. Samael was usually tasked with destroying sinners, whereas Ha-Satan was tasked with tempting and testing sinners.

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+: In Christianity :+

Here's where things begin to get muddy. Satan is referred to in multiple different ways in Christianity, and it really just depends on the interpretations and translations of the Christian Bible. Let's have a look at Satan's multiple titles that are mentioned.

~ The Serpent ~

Satan is considered to be synonymous with The Serpent that convinced Eve and Adam to eat fruit from the Tree Of Knowledge. In Genesis 3, the serpent claimed that if you ate the fruit, you could "be like God, knowing good and evil".

+. Genesis 3 .+ ❧ Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman "Did God really say 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?" ❧ The woman said to the serpent "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die'." ❧ "You will not certainly die", the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil". ❧ When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

In my interpretation, Satan brought liberation, indulgence enlightenment, wisdom, and free will to Adam and Eve through eating the fruit. He showed them that if they open their minds and were willing to learn new things, they could grow and flourish to be wiser than they once were, as well as constantly strive to be the best version of themselves.

It was actually God that brought about consequences for Eve and Adam eating the fruit from the Tree Of Knowledge, not Satan. My interpretation is that if you choose to embrace your true and best self, there are always going to be people who will not like or approve of you; But that doesn't mean that you are doing something bad (as long as you aren't hurting anyone or doing anything immoral of course, lol).

~ The Devil ~

I think everyone is aware that Satan's most well-known title that he goes by is "The Devil". Personally, I don't like to refer to Satan using this title because the word originates from the Ancient Greek word 'diabolos', meaning 'slanderer'. This implies that Satan is a liar and deceiver, which I don't personally believe. In my experience, he has always been a bringer of wisdom and truth.

Satan is said to be the "father of lies" and that he "leads the whole world astray", but I still have yet to see any evidence of him lying or leading anyone astray. The Christian Bible says that he lies, but doesn't show how he is a liar; At least not to my knowledge anyways. However, the God depicted in the Christian Bible seems to have lied about how the fruit on the Tree Of Knowledge would kill Adam and Eve... Because it didn't. It enlightened them and opened their eyes. It helped them to see the truth.

I can't really find any bible verses that suggest Satan actually lies; Only verses accusing him of being a liar. I did, however, find evidence that God lies in the Christian Bible. (Please note that this isn't me trying to be anti-Christian or anything, I'm just trying to make the point that there isn't really any evidence that Satan is deceptive in the Christian Bible. This is mainly to point out the hypocrisy of conservative/extremist forms of Christianity.) Here is an interesting verse that I found which may prove my point that God is deceptive and does in fact lie:

+. Jeremiah 4:10 .+ ❧ Then I said, "Alas, sovereign LORD! How completely you have deceived these people and Jerusalem by saying 'You will have peace', when the sword is at our throats!"

Just something to thing about lol.

~ The Dragon ~

It is when Satan is introduced as The Dragon that the idea of him falling to the Earth (presumably from Heaven) is addressed in Christianity for the first time. In the Christian Bible, Satan is described as taking the form of a giant seven-headed red dragon, donning ten horns as well as seven crowns, one atop each head. It is described that Satan is "hurled down" to the Earth, as well as his angels that serve him.

+. Quotes From Revelation 12 .+ ❧ Then another sign appeared in Heaven; An enormous red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns on its heads. Its tail swept a third of the stars out of the sky and flung them to the Earth. ❧ Then war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in Heaven. ❧ The great dragon was hurled down - That ancient serpent called The Devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the Earth, and his angels with him.

+. Luke 10:18 .+ ❧ He replied, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from Heaven".

I personally don't really believe in angels or the Christian God, therefore I don't believe in fallen angels and I don't really buy into the divine simply being split up into "good vs evil". Instead, I believe in metaphorical fallen angels; Deities and spirits that were bastardised by Christian extremism and painted as evil, simply because they were anything other than the Christian God (e.g. Baal and Ashtoreth starting out as Canaanite deities and being demonised into the Goetian daemons that are Bael and Astaroth).

I think the whole thing of Satan being "hurled down" was most likely just a metaphor to symbolise his apparent defeat and that he had no place in Heaven, according to the Christian God.

~ The Morning Star ~

I think this is mainly where the whole idea of fallen angels came from, when Satan was conflated with The Morning Star, better known by the name of Lucifer. Funnily enough, Lucifer is never actually addressed by name in the Christian Bible; At least not that I could find. Rather, he is addressed as "morning star" and "son of the morning".

+. Isaiah 14 .+ ❧ How you have fallen from Heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the Earth, you who once laid low the nations! ❧ You said in your heart, "I will ascend to the Heavens; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the upmost heights of Mount Zaphon. ❧ I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High." ❧ But you are brought down to the realm of the dead, to the depths of the pit.

+. 2 Peter 1:19 .+ ❧ We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

These verses seem to paint Lucifer as some sort of fallen angel that was jealous of God and wanted to rise above him. However, what some may not know is that Lucifer didn't even start off as an angel at all. The name "Lucifer" is Latin for light-bearer. The Greek word for this term is "Phosphorus", which is also the name of a Greco-Roman deity!

Phosphorus was the personification of the planet Venus, which appeared as the brightest "star" in the sky at dawn, hence the term "morning star". Phosphorus was the son of Aurora, the Roman goddess of the dawn, hence the term "son of the morning". So technically speaking, Lucifer and Satan may not even be the same entity. At least, not historically. The concept of Satan originated in Judaism, whereas Lucifer seems to have spawned from the bastardisation of a niche Roman god.

However, when it comes to Luciferianism, Lucifer is seen as a guide/teacher, liberator, guardian, beacon of enlightenment/ wisdom/ truth, and even sometimes the "true god" as apposed to the Christian God. I personally differentiate Lucifer from Satan to an extent in my beliefs, but more on that a little later!

IMPORTANT EDIT: A good friend of mine has since informed me that the aforementioned bible verses weren't referring to the Roman god Phosphorus. I was incorrect about this. The term Lucifer was actually a title applied to the King that ruled over Babylon at the time, most likely Nebuchadnezzar (II) the Great. The King of Babylon was compared to the planet Venus because of his power and influence in the world. He was "cast down to the earth" because of his wickedness. In this context, "Lucifer" was a physical human being; Not an angel, nor a god.

It was only until Christianity that these verses were misinterpreted (probably because of mistranslation issues, though I'm not entirely sure) and the story of the King of Babylon was twisted into the tale of an alleged angel that got his arse kicked out of Heaven for "disobeying God" or whatever lol.

You can read more about the backstory in this PDF I found that goes further into detail here.

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+: In Islam :+

The concept of Satan is also found in the Qur'an under the names of Iblis or Eblis, also known as Ash-Shaytan or Al-Shaytan. He was a djinn and the "leader of the devils" in Islam. On some accounts, Iblis actually started off as a high-ranking angel and went by the name of Azazil (not to be confused with Azazel). Iblis was assigned the role by God of eradicating disobedient and destructive inhabitants of Earth, so that they could be replaced with humans who were more obedient. But when Azazil refused to create a successor, he was punished by being cast down to Earth by God, where he then became a shaytan.

In another account, God created Iblis from the fires beneath the seventh Earth. Iblis worshipped God for thousands of years, and eventually, he ascended to the surface and continued to rise in rank until he accompanied angels in the seventh heaven.

God then created Adam from the essence of clay and breathed life and a soul into him, and ordered the angels to bow down to Adam. But Iblis refused to bow down; Being a jinn born of the essence of fire, he felt superior to Adam and refused to bow down to someone he considered to be below him. His disobedience to God and efforts to prove humans unworthy led to him being cast out of Heaven, where he earned the position of an eternal enemy of humankind.

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So with all of that said, I would now like to talk about my UPG of Satan and my personal spiritual beliefs surrounding him! :)

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+: GIF Credit :+

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༺・ What Does Satan Mean To Me? ・༻

My personal experience of Satan is that he's a very complex figure made up of many different bits and pieces from other spirits and deities. But mainly, I view Satan as being a triune godhead made up of three different beings/aspects; Lucifer, Sathanus, and Baphomet. It's kind of similar to the "Holy Trinity" in Christianity. He's a diagram I made of the "Satanic Trinity" lol.

In my UPG, I see Lucifer, Sathanus, and Baphomet as their own distinct entities, but I also see them as all being aspects of Satan as well. Think of them as being like a hydra dragon; Three distinct heads that all connect back to the same body. I also believe that other daemons can hold this title as well (Azazel, Belzebuth, Mephistopheles, and possibly many more) but I also see the term 'Satan' as just that; a title.

My best friend @sortiarus-de--naturas--daemonum has a really cool UPG regarding Satan as a title. She believes that Satan can be anyone or anything, and that it can also be a title for people who appose Christian (extremist) values. I actually really love this lol and agree with it quite a lot. ^.^

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In regards to the Satanic Trinity, the number (3) is said to historically be a sacred and magical number, revered across many different cultures and religions.

❧ In Celtic Paganism, the Earth was said to be made up of three realms/parts; Land, Sea, and Sky. ❧ In Alchemy, there were Three Primes (tria prima) that corresponded with the three aspects of human nature; Salt (body), Mercury (mind), and Sulfur (spirit). ❧ In Greco-Roman religion and Neo-Pagan religions such as Wicca, the triple goddess was a triune godhead usually made up of three different goddesses (e.g. Artemis-Selene-Hecate) and was usually also associated with the waxing, full, and waning phases of the Moon.

I view Satan in a very similar way to this. I see Sathanus and Lucifer as being almost like polar opposites, with Baphomet being in the middle of both of them.

❧ If Lucifer is Above and Sathanus is Below, then Baphomet is the middling Within and All Around. ❧ If Lucifer is the Sky (Upperworld) and Sathanus is the Land (Middleworld), then Baphomet is the Sea (Underworld) that meets and connects the two. ❧ If Lucifer is the Radiance of light and Sathanus is the Shadow of darkness, then Baphomet is the grey Quintessence in between. ❧ If Lucifer is the Sun above and Sathanus is the Earth below, then Baphomet is the Moon that middles between the two. ❧ If Lucifer is the Waxing Moon and Sathanus is the Waning Moon, then Baphomet is the Full Moon that connects the two moon phases together.

These are the correspondences I personally associate with Satan. I also have my own UPG about how Satan came to be.

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༺・ So... Who Is Satan Then? ・༻

I believe that Satan came to be through many different deities, spirits, influences, and Christian extremist paranoia throughout history. To an extent, I believe Satan to be a spirit shard of sorts. What's a spirit shard, you ask? Allow me to explain...

+: Spirit Shards :+

❧ A spirit shard is when a piece of a deity or deities breaks off and develops into its own entity that stands alone from its fountainhead deity. This is usually the result of vilifying and demonisation of gods from other religions and belief systems, primarily done by Christian extremists.

A good example of this would be the formerly mentioned Bael and Astaroth; I believe they are both spirit shards of Baal and Ashtoreth that came about because of demonisation by Christian extremists, and eventually those demonisations broke off from the fountainhead deities and became distinct daemons.

I also believe that there was some egregoric influence that aided in the creation of Satan as well. Thus, I feel that he could partly be an egregoric entity too.

+: Egregoric Entities :+

❧ An egregoric entity is a spirit, deity, or other type of entity that arises into existence from the collective thoughts, influences, and energy input of a distinct group of people.

Lord/Lady Baphomet themselves are a perfect example of an egregoric deity that arose from the collective belief in them being falsely conflated with "The Devil" by Christians. But more on their origins a little later. :)

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With all of that said, here is my take on how the three main aspects of Satan that are Lucifer, Sathanus, and Baphomet came to be! Please note that this is just my UPG and isn't meant to be presented as an absolute truth or fact; These are just my personal beliefs.

Note: In my practice, I believe in eight elements rather than just five. I believe in Fire, Air, Water, and Earth. I also believe in Spirit, but I split it into three aspects; Spirit Above (Radiance), Spirit Below (Shadow), and Spirit Within (Quintessence). Finally, I also believe in Void as an eighth element, which is represented by The Self, as you are the ultimate creator of your own personal practice. :)

.

∙---+ 🜍.~ Lucifer ~.🜍 +---∙

As previously mentioned, Lucifer seems to have originated from the Roman god Phosphorus, a personification of the planet Venus that appears as the brightest "star" in the sky at dawn, called the "morning star". Phosphorus also had a brother named Hesperus, who was basically the same but instead appeared at dusk instead of dawn, and was known as the "evening star". In some accounts, the two gods were later combined into one singular deity.

For whatever reason, this niche Roman god was then dragged into the Christian Bible with the coming of Christianity, thus demonising them and leading to an initial split of Lucifer as a spirit shard from Phosphorus/Hesperus.

Interpretations then spread of Lucifer apparently being some sort of "fallen angel" that was cast out of Heaven for wanting to "rise above God" out of jealousy and pride. They were then conflated with being an evil demon, possibly originating from the benevolent daimon/daemon that was initially a type of guiding spirit that provided wisdom and knowledge, and not actually having anything to do with being evil at all.

Lucifer then started being conflated with The Devil, The Serpent, The Dragon, and the entire concept of Satan in general, thus leading to Lucifer earning their place in the Satanic Trinity.

❧ Lucifer represents higher consciousness, wisdom, enlightenment, knowledge, spiritual liberation and freedom, a guiding light in the dark, expressing/embracing your true self, confidence, standing up for yourself, self-love, rebellion, and always striving to be the best version of yourself.

+: Other Correspondences :+ - Animals: ravens/crows, hawks, swans, tree snakes, doves - Colours: icy blue, sunshine yellow, snowy white, sandstone orange, rich golds/silvers/bronze - Element: Air & Radiance (Spirit Above) - Incense/Scents: sandalwood, lavender, juniper, amber, lily - Metal: Copper & Gold - Planet: Venus & Sol (The Sun)

.

∙---+ 🜔.~ Sathanus ~.🜔 +---∙

In my UPG, Sathanus is a complex daemon and deity that came into being via multiple sources. I believe that the concept of him spawned in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; However, he later broke off into a spirit shard and egregoric deity, and further developed into his own entity over time.

As Christianity spread and extremist paranoia began to mount throughout the years, more and more deities were demonised and vilified in comparison to the Christian God. Deities such as the Greek Pan, the Celtic Cernunnos, and the Canaanite Moloch were all conflated with "The Devil" and falsely assumed to be demons. Overtime, attributes and pieces of these gods and many other vilified horned deities began to feed into the concept of Satan; And in an egregoric fashion, Sathanus evolved into a daemon and deity of his own.

He even has entries in several demonology grimoires that were written within the past few hundred years (e.g. Livre Des Esperitz and Liber Officiorum Spirituum).

Sathanus is primarily The Serpent, The Devil, and The Dragon. In the Garden Of Eden, he showed Eve that she wasn't bound to follow the rules of God if she didn't want to. He gave her the fruit of the Tree Of Knowledge to open her eyes and show Eve that she had freewill and could be the god of her own life. At least, that's my interpretation of it anyway lol.

Some rumours suggest that The Devil appeared at Witches' Esbats as a "great black goat with a candle between its horns". In this account, he was referred to as "The Witches' Devil".

❧ Sathanus represents worldly pleasures, power through knowledge, self-leadership, ecstasy, strength, confidence, insurgence, finding/embracing the beauty in darkness, finding hidden wisdom, nature, deliverance from limitations, courage, hedonism, and liberation through "sin" and freewill.

+: Other Correspondences :+ - Animals: dragons, snakes, goats, bats, spiders - Colours: blood red, jet black, electric blue, rich golds, rosewood / dark strawberry pink - Element: Fire, Earth, & Shadow (Spirit Below) - Incense/Scents: dragon's blood, rose, cinnamon, black opium, sandalwood - Metal: Lead & Titanium - Planet: Saturn & Terra (The Earth)

.

∙---+ ☿.~ Baphomet ~.☿ +---∙

A lot of people don't actually believe in Baphomet as an existing daemon or deity, but rather simply as a symbol representing universal balance; However, from my personal experiences, they definitely are a very real entity. But how did they even come into being? Let's have a look at the history of Baphomet, and how they came to be associated with Satan later on.

Baphomet was said to have been a Pagan deity or idol that was allegedly worshipped by the Knights Templar. The name Baphomet first appeared in trial transcripts for the Inquisition of the Knights Templar starting in 1307. However, there doesn't seem to be any evidence that Baphomet was worshipped by the Knights Templar. Furthermore, it has been stated that the name Baphomet was actually a bastardisation of the name Muhammad, the founder of Islam.

It wasn't until the 19th century that the well-known illustration of the "Sabbatic Goat" was drawn by Éliphas Lévi. It was comprised of a number of binary elements in order to symbolise the "equilibrium of opposites"; Half-human and half-animal, male and female, good and evil, light and darkness, above and below, mercy and justice, etc. Lévi's goal was to symbolise his own idea and concept of balance, with Baphomet being an ultimate symbol and personification of "The Absolute".

But what many may not know about Baphomet, is that Éliphas actually drew inspiration from two distinct existing deities to create his Baphomet illustration; The Greek Pan and the Egyptian Banebdjedet. Lévi equates his image with a god that went by the title of "The Goat Of Mendes" (Mendes is the Greek name for the ancient Egyptian city of Djedet). On some accounts, it is said that Pan is The Goat Of Mendes, but it is much more likely that this title referred to Banebdjedet instead, who was mistaken to have been goat-headed instead of sheep-headed.

The chief deities of the city of Mendes were the ram deity Banebdjedet (meaning "Ba of the Lord of Djedet"), who was said to be the Ba of Osiris, as well as his consort Hatmehit, the fish goddess. In my UPG, Baphomet was partially conceived through these two deities, as well as through Éliphas Lévi's illustration.

❧ Baphomet represents ultimate balance, equity, unity of the universe and all its elements, cosmic order, the cycles of life/death/rebirth, queerness, beauty, duality, love and peace, creation, liberating knowledge, embracing/becoming your true and best self, creativity, wisdom, manifestation, and nature itself.

+: Other Correspondences :+ - Animals: sheep, goats, rams, cats, sea snakes - Colours: amethyst purple, sapphire blue, stormy grey, charcoal black, oceany blue-green - Element: Water & Quintessence (Spirit Within) - Incense/Scents: oud, patchouli, sandal rose (sandalwood and rose), frankincense, myrrh - Metal: Mercury & Silver - Planet: Mercury & Luna (The Moon)

.

+: Divider Border Credit :+

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

Please keep in mind that all of the correspondences and associations listed here are brief summaries of my UPG regarding these three deities/daemons. I will be making additional posts going into further detail regarding Satan as a triune godhead, hopefully in the near future! I'm not sure when the posts will be out though lol.

⭒☆·━━━━━━━•( 🕸 )•━━━━━━━·☆⭒

Welp, that's pretty much it for this post! Holy shit this took me so long to write. 😭 I hope this has helped you learn more about Satan origins, and Satan as a concept as well as an entity!

I wish you well on your spiritual path. :)

༺⋆✦. Ave Satanas .✦⋆༻

-Korv

[sleep-drink]

Hey Guys!!!! Actor AU ShTuuuuuff

So I wanted to add a lil lore to the Actor AU comic in terms of roles and hierarchy :)

Welcome Home as a show has a VERY large turnover rate! This is in fact not entirely due to Wally though. The company the production is under “The Playfellow Network” historically tends to not treat its actors or it’s crew very well. It pays decently in terms of its crew and because of how well the show is received it’s actors are paid even more, but in terms of things like benefits (mainly again for crew) it’s garbage. Also, because they can’t keep a whole lot of people retained, they will just kind of hire anyone. Lots of people who are in the industry have passed through Playfellow and the general consensus is “oh god, you worked at Playfellow too?”. Because of the lack of employee retention, the work environment and atmosphere is catty. at best. This makes communication between departments really difficult and very stressful. On top of that is Wally, who runs the show because he’s basically irreplaceable. As you know he’s trying to protect his loved ones and fellow actors from the terrible set and network conditions which are basically discriminatory for puppets.

The characters and their roles so far (in order of hierarchy):

Wally - Star (Lead Actor):

This is pretty straight forward. He’s mr. Irreplaceable and he doesn’t like humans. With pretty good reason :)

Susan - 2nd AD (currently acting as Key PA): Susan is the Second Assistant Director on this production and has been working here for 6 months. She works basically as a backstage manager and coordinates the call sheets and wrangles actors (when she has to). Poor Susan is actually hella overworked. So (oh no!) there is actually not currently a Key Production assistant working on Welcome Home! (I love causing my characters pain eeehehehehehehee ((we’ll see more of that soon))

The Key PA is in charge of all of the production assistants and let’s them know what to do and to keep them on schedule. The person who WAS key PA did quit (mayhaps or not cuz of something Wally did) and the company has not yet hired someone new (hooray bureaucracy).

Dolly - Walkie PA (Currently ALSO acting as Key PA): Dolly is technically the Walkie Production assistant, which means they are in charge of all of the Walkie use on set (she is actually not very good at this and it’s why she often forgets to turn her own mic off). Fun fact! Dolly’s only been on this production for like a month and a half and has outlasted most other walkie PA’s! :) She started as a costume PA and then expressed interest in other areas of production to Susan. Susan was like “Omg yes help me” and kind of forced her on Walkie PA because she has some (theatrical) tech experience in the past. Walkie PA’s can act as Key PAs but dolly has no prior experience and is kind of floundering, plus weird requests from Wally (like fixing his wardrobe sleeve length for him) take up a lot of their time. They don’t mind because it’s just a rule on set that what Wally says goes, but it makes their job just that much more difficult :)))))). Dolly is dealing with it… kinda.

Sandra - PA: Sandra is a production assistant who has been here for about 5 months. Production assistants are generally considered entry-level production jobs but she has beef with Dolly because she’s been here for longer and Dolly has been (technically) promoted before her (even though there’s SO much bleed-through between departments). She also is just a bully, she’s trying to come back from a failed stand-up career, but she’s basically been blacklisted in several comedian circles. (Gee I wonder if it’s the threats and bigotry)

Everybody else who you’ve seen so far are usually random PA’s or I haven’t assigned them a true role yet. But here’s what I got so far! I am by no means an expert. I am an actor (and a stage actor mainly at that, but I’ve dabbled in film) so not all of my info is probably truly accurate. But I try! As per the usual AU CRED: @frillsand 💗 u b! Thanks for reading my ramblings!

[hallow-witxh]

There’s so much information out there! Where do I start?? I feel really lost.

Hey you! Sorry it took so long to respond, life happened. Unfortunately.

Yes, it can be very, very overwhelming. Starting is often the hardest part of the craft. I can't speak for every practitioner, but I can speak for myself. Keep in mind I am Pagan, not Wiccan, and I firmly stand by that. My path of learning is biased toward Paganism. This also won't be a list of things I did; this will be a guidance post for your own research.

When you're looking for books, make sure to research who the author is. There are so many out there who make up information, steal ideas from others and other cultures, straight-up lie, or spread information that's been debunked.

Before you do any spellwork, research protection. You will want to know how to keep yourself safe and unbothered by outside forces.

This is a big one. When you research (absolutely anything), cross-reference at least five to six sources. The more you see it, the more likely it is to be true. If it's something niche you can't find very easily, go to more experienced practitioners and ask for further guidance. Some practitioners specialize in certain things, so choose who you ask wisely. For example, I am a Green/Kitchen Witch, so my knowledge resides in the garden and kitchen. I wouldn't come to me about divination.

Don't panic. You're going to face a lot of contradicting information. Just remember that there is truth among the misinformation, and it may take some digging to find it.

Don't lose patience. This takes time. Don't 'speed run' through studying.

Write. Stuff. Down. Write it all down. Keep notes. Write down questions and problems. This is a life saver.

Avoid practitioners who are racist, ableist, homophobic, and/or transphobic (just watch out for bigotry in general). I've noticed that these people have some not-so-great things to say and they will guide you down paths paves of their bigotry.

Avoid people who will ridicule your mistakes.

These are just the basic tips I was given when I was just beginning myself. If you want more guidance, you are free to message me again.

Blessed be.

[chosetherose]

Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus immediately hit me as being strongly sonically reminiscent of a song by The Smiths. which might just be a case of, well there are only so many chords in the world and patterns end up repeating. but I’d like to ponder what I think the connection could mean, in case it is in fact an intentional reference.

It sounds like the song ‘Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want’ which is as the title sounds, a straightforward heartfelt plea that the narrator’s luck will change for once in his life: ‘See the life I’ve had, can make a good man turn bad’. In Taylor’s song as soon as I heard the notes of the piano motif, and particularly the strumming pattern of the guitar, my mind kept itching for it to lead into the instrumental from the end of the Smiths song, as if they have a similar chord progression or something. maybe someone more musically minded can explain what I’m hearing? I looked up the chords and both songs are a lot of Fmaj, C and G, but many songs share chords and sound totally different so it feels like there’s more that I can’t articulate.

Some context for those not familiar: the songwriter and lead singer of British 80s band The Smiths was Morrissey. he’s since done some imo bad solo stuff and veered alarmingly right wing as he’s aged, much to the distress of Smiths fans who initially admired him for using his cutting wit to be outspokenly left wing, pro-animal rights, anti-Margaret Thatcher etc.

For decades he didn’t explicitly come out, but was vaguely assumed to be gay because of his lyrics (e.g. songs like This Charming Man and Hand in Glove). since he wasn’t out or labelled a ’gay singer’ he was able to become this very popular symbol amongst straight men for championing an alternative, soft, intellectual masculinity for them to identify with. known for his depressing (but also clever and humorous) poetic lyrics, and performing holding bouquets of flowers. I’ve seen a video where blokes from the audience surge up out of the crowd one by one to kiss his cheek while he sings, as if he’s their deity of allowing men to get in touch with their feelings.

Around 2013 he came out as bi / ‘attracted to a small number of humans’ in a memoir. the tone of the press around it is like ‘Morrissey finally kind of admits he’s gay, eye-roll no surprise’. The thing is, he’s no one’s bi hero because by the time he came out he’d gained his current reputation as a rude dickhead whose politics have devolved into anti-immigrant bigotry among other heartless bad takes. the press like to use his song title ‘Big Mouth Strikes Again’ as a headline when he chimes off, he has the total opposite of Taylor’s cautious approach to voicing opinions publicly.

Again, I don’t know if Taylor’s making this musical reference intentionally, or if hearing the connection is just a me thing. but it’s interesting that Morrissey’s career is defined by being a beloved sexually ambiguous poet who became so different from his early persona and politics that many fans who worshipped him now talk about separating art from artist in order to keep enjoying the songs they love. both his similarities and differences to Taylor strike me as thematically relevant to our TTPD discussions.

Or perhaps just hearing the lyrics to Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want can help add a dimension of understanding to Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus. Taylor’s wistful tone of voice and longing ‘what if’ lyrics certainly fit the sentiment, and thinking about the two songs together adds to the depth of her weariness and desperation. I hope someone talented also picks up on the similarities because I’d love to hear a mashup some day.

Anon, I’m really impressed by all the thought you put into this. What an interesting back story for Taylor to potentially connect to.

It’s all way over my head though - I didn’t know of this song before your ask - so I’m hoping others will chime in.

[popculturebuffet]

Pride Month Triple Feature Finale: Rocko’s Modern Life: Static Cling (Commission for Weird Kev 27)

Well this last installment is a bit late, but any month can be pride month if you belivie in yourself, so we end this pride month trilogy with Rocko’s Modern Life Static Cling, something i’ve been wanting to cover for years, but usually something came up or I realized I forgot to include it by the time the schedule was already full up. But with violence, legeslation, and outright bigotry towards Trans Persons only escalating, it felt like the right time.

For those not as familiar with Rocko, quick refresher: Rocko’s Modern Life was one of the earliest Nicktoons, created by Joe Murray and being a hit not just with the networks target demo, but adults who related to the series, a 20 something hang out sitcom but with all the lunacy animation allows. Our Rocko, his doofy friend Heffer and nerdy best friend Philbert dealt with nipples of the future, death, time travel with the elderly, elves, and recyling. The show was very of it’s time but also timeless as MANY of the fairly adult subjects it tackled in it’s unique goofy way still resonate: the show tackled topics like your parents not approving of a mixed marriage, the struggles immigrants face, homosexuality (via clowns), a sexually unsatisfying marriage leading to a wondering eye (done ENTIRELY straight to the point the episode was banned), finding out your adopted, bosses treating their workers like a commodity instead of a person, megacorporations running our lives, credit card debt, and even sex work

It’s thanks to Rocko we have classics like Regular Show, it’s successor Close Enough and Tuca and Bertie. The kind of show that uses wacky humor while still showing some very real shit we have to deal with. 

So in hindsight. .it’s not really a stretch that with changing times, rocko would go from having to use clowns to cover queerness to doing a full coming out episode in it’s revivial special, a pogniant well done story that deeply reconteculaizes a beloved character

Pig you’ve been out since 1996. 

So let’s look at this touching tale and all the other neat stuff just in time for the show’s 30th anniversary shall we?

Static cling follows our boy, his bulbous buddy and his somethign else rhyming with b , picking up where we left off.. and the original finale to the series had our heroes shot up into space, returning as the elderly. The last part is stricken from the record Roseanne style, and instead our heroes have largely settled in: Filburt misses his wife tails, he misses her a lot, but otherwise our heroes are doing fine on fatheads reruns... till Filburt notices the remote has been jammed up Heffer’s butt for the past decade, they fight as usual and Rocko has to scream at them to “PUSH THE BUTTON”. TV’s Frank would not abide. 

SO with that our heroes return to earth. There’s also a nice small joke in that... most people really aren’t phased our heroes were gone 20 years: while we sadly dont’ get a scene with Heffer’s family , easily one of my faviorite parts of the series with Rocko’s dinner visit being one of my faviorite episodes, we do get to see his beaver hating grandpa, with all his innuendo glory, the only change being

And Filburt naturally easily reunited with Hutch because their perfect and we need that. It’s like our heroes were never gone for the most part.  The real exception is ROcko.. and i’ts easy to why: Filburt had a wife and four adoring children eager to finally get to know their dad. Heffer’s family is implictly there and his grandpa is still around only now he can posses lawn gnomes. Nothing’s really changed for either in a way that harms them. Filburt missed most of his kids’ lives, but they seem to have grown up fine.  In contrast when you think about it.. no one was really waiting for Rocko. He hit it off with Shiela well, but that was one episode towards the end. I mean he could look her up on face-o-rama, or something, so ti’s not lost, but when you think about the series with his family in australia.. all Rocko had were his friends, mrs. bighead (who warmly welcomes the guy back and gives him some needed support), and Spunky. Rocko really has nothign to come back to: his job is gone and while his friends adapt to the 2010′s really well... it’s all too much. it also makes sense: Heffer always went with the flow and while Filburt seems a bit too accepting on paper, he’ sa giant nerd in a world where he can livesteream being nauseous and blather about his opinons for an adoring public. I mean I woudnln’t of had the tools to do this when the show aired. I was two and the internet wasn’t easy to come by. Six maybe. 

While the montage of various “new” things was.. dated even by when it came out and is kinda just there outside of Schlammo, the unhealty energy drink , it hammers home that while his friends have accepted the present.. Rocko is lost in it. He was never one to easily accept new trends in the show itself, usually being pulled into things like health clubs or credit cards by Heffer, so it’s entirley in character that being stuck in a world 20 years later with nothing to really hold him there shatters his normal optimisim. I’ts pretty heartining to see rocko shattered a bit when bev finds him. It makes her trying to support him and help him heartwarming.. but it can’t really fix the problem of feeling like the world’s passed you by. It was striking to realize how deep Rocko’s story comes off, a story about nostalgia and how it can help us when we feel lost.. but how we can cling to it as our only salvation. I’ll admit to having dived into my various coping mechanisms, comics, games, tv, youtube, to escape... and to have a minor panic attack if one’s missing, so I may just relate to rocko a bit.. but it still works.  It also kicks off the plot as the fatheads is gone, and Rocko badly needs it. HIs cries for it fall on deaf ears for mr bighead though, who just oopsied at work.. and now his world is collapsing for real, with his job gone and his house soon to be gone. “A tv show won’t solve your problems rocko”. It’s a simple statment.. but one that’s true. TV can offer an escape.. but it’s not going to fix what’s wrong with yoru life. It’s the thesis statment of this special.  Granted it can at least save ed’s job and house and conglomo as the special revenue would do it. It’s heavily spoofing how much companjies rely on these revivials and nostalgia pops, with the series lovingly mocking how much money fans think a rocko special would bring nick.. and then accidnetly being accurate as while Static Cling didn’t bring in millions upon millions of dollars, it was still a success all the same. 

The problem is the head of congolmo wants the chameleon twins to make it cheap with CG. I mean grante dth eproblem is the fatheads also you know.. ende din the run of the show, but honeslty i’m willing to ignore that for what a good story it is and it could easily be said Rachel just had to go back and make more to pay the bills or something. This was also built both off the actual rumors, that later came true of a CG Rugrats reboot, which honestly dosen’t LOOK bad.  So with that our heroes decide to search for the series creator, “Ralph” Bighead, who disappeared during the time skip, as all the money, all the success didn’t make them happy. We get some fun gags including a faviorite of mine “Culturally ambgious pillows”, as our heroes tour the world to find the creator.  And thus about halfway into the special they find them int he desert.. and find out why no one had seen them. See while they last saw them as “Ralph”.... our heroes instead find RACHEL Bighead. 

And honestly ti’s excellently done for the most part. Before we get to all the good let’s get the elephant out of the room: Joe Murray should not have continued playing rachel. Joe.. is a cis man. A cis man should nto play a trans woman. I can however accept this wasn’t done with any malcious intent, and was likelky done to hide that Rachel was trans now, as the special has it as a twist, wtih Rachel having a hat on and only revealing their trans by steping out of her fatheads foodtruck. Having a new VA might give that away. I still wish they’d swapped them but I get Joe meant well.  I mostly get that.. because everything ELSE is done well. When you look back on who rachel was.. they were miserable. They had all the money in the world, but could never find creative fufillment with the fatheads, to thepoint they tried sabotaging a followup with wacky delli. I mean we got the cheese, the best character in the show, but Rachel never found fufillment. It was only by realizing who they always were and making their body into what they truly always wanted that Rachel is happy. Said happiness.. allows her the reconciatlion with her creatoion she never got in the original show, selling fatheads freezie pops. She found a new art, the life she alwasy wanted she’s content. She even refuses to do the special, and rightfully so: while the creator SHOUDL revivie a work if possible, if they don’t want to.. they shoudlnt’ be forced to. Rachel only agrees because her parents are in danger.  I also love the acceptance rachel gets: the boys all think it’s neat and instantly accept it, as you should. The reveal itself is simply done: Rachel steps out, says “I’m rachel now”.. and the boys all think it’s neat and accept it, attaching their drone to the ice cream truck and flying off. Bev also fully accepts it, happy their daughter’s happy and even finding her some cute shoes. It makes sense for all involved: while all from the 90′s, Rocko’s group has always been an accepting bunch for the most part, while Bev was always the parent that accepted their kid more.  It’s harder for Ed.. but it’s a well done harder. He’s bigoted, and potrayed as stupidly as that sounds: he rejects the idea of the special simply because he rejects the idea he has no son but a daughter. I also like the stealth pun there: he once claimed he had no son when he disowned rachel.. and it turns out he never did. Everyone around him rightfully sees this as stupid, and it’s portrayed as such, but what i Like is that they play this realistically. Instead of Ed throwing out slurs or throwing a tantrum, which sadly could very well happen, he just disowns his child, again, and storms off. He can’t accept a trans daughter because to him it’s a change. To Rachel.. it’ sbeing who she was always meant to be. Rachel ends up still making the special, remembering her past, including biting ed’s eye as a baby.. and using that. And while Ed has to be dragged to the premiere, as many a person has to be dragged into acceptaince... it’s said work that helps Ed see what a fool he’s been. Rachel reworks the fatheads.. but now includes a baby based on themselves. It adds great new jokes to the bit.. but it’s the last one, a reinactment of her “damaging her fathers retina”.. that makes Ed realize what he shoudl have all along: this is his child and who they always were. Being a woman not only allowed them to be happy.. but it dosen’t change who they are.. because this is who they ALWAYS were. And what helps is that... Rachel didn’t NEED ed’s acceptance. Their disapointed, but when he wails no at it, she simply says yes. They do the short because, even if Ed dosen’t accept her, she wont’ leave her parents homeless and still loves them both. And it’s ED who has to come around and accept that he has a daughter, he always did.. and that’s wonderful.  We also get Rocko.. not accepting the change. A baby, how dare he.. but ed talks him down, getting to the point of the special in a truly lovely speech. 

“Rocko we can’t live in the past, we can be grateful for it, but life isn’t permenant, and if we don’t embrace what’s now, we miss out on a lot of the important stuff. “ I couldn’t of said it better myself and belivie me i’ve tried. And it’s a perfect message for this special.. and for Rachels’ story. embrace what you have, not what you thought you had. This special is phenominal, with tons of great gags, a truly amazing story at the core, and lots of great cameos in some lovely animation. Check it out wether your new to rocko or want to revisit an old friend. Thanks for reading and happy belated pride. 

[simonalkenmayer]

This is just so absurd I can’t not talk about it, so please read this short political analysis, even if you don’t usually read these, because this is…hilarious.

This election, almost 70% of the vote below the age of 21 went to democrats. Single women by a margin of 30 points voted Democratic. Minorities (particularly black women) broke for Dems overwhelmingly, black women mobilizing over 95% of their members in some constituencies.

The GOP is taking time to analyze this, running numbers, wondering how they can appeal to young people and women instead of only angry racist old white men…and these are their solutions so far as stated by multiple pundits on FOX, and why they are stupid:

Single women vote for Dems? Answer? Men, marry these women. Literally someone said “put a ring on it”. They said “it’s easy to see why single women vote Democratic—their policies keep women single”.

Why is this stupid? Well beyond the obvious misogyny of “we should just woo and marry women and then control them so they align with us politically”? There’s the fact that because women no longer need a man, to survive, men are now forced to bring character to the table, something many men (I’m thinking the alpha males of tiktok) never had to grow because of their privilege. You cannot just send men out into the world to literally conquer a woman’s heart. They’re not stupid. They can see when they’re not dating a decent guy. That’s why they stopped marrying them.

They’ve been, I kid you not,debating RAISING THE VOTING AGE TO 21.

Here is why that’s fucking idiotic, broken into many easy parts. 1. If they can’t vote, then they cannot be taxed, nor recruited for the military, nor jailed as adults. How’s that going to affect prisons, the military, taxes?

Well there’s over 600k active duty military below the age of 25 out of 1.35 million…you tell me.

16% of our tax revenue comes from the under 25 bracket

Oh right and what are they supposed to do? They can’t go to college, since….how are they going to be able to sign contracts for student loans if they aren’t being fairly represented or given adult status? Are they going to raise the legal age of adulthood since adults age 18-21 can no longer do anything of their own accord, extend high school again to stockpile them while they’re not being busy or just recruit them straight into the terrible service jobs in which the GOP hopes they remain?

I’m telling you…there is nothing to offer but no climate, rich billionaires, more debt, less freedom, less rights, and bigotry in that party. They want to destroy education to keep people stupid. They want to use religion to control. That party is not a party. It’s an evil conspiracy. Meaning the kids and the ladies will shy away. They have nothing to offer. Nothing. So they have to cheat.

Make no mistake the the abortion ban idea was specifically to encumber these two groups with crippling debt and dependency. That party has nothing to offer. Especially with trump running it. And this they well know. Most of his candidates lost. Most. And the red wave that was expected was nonexistent. One of two things will now happen:

My predictions:

Expect lots and lots of redistributing debates to cheat, I.e. gerrymandering but that’s a given.

1. Trump is a malignant narcissist. He doesn’t care about party or the country. During this election he said “if they win I should get the credit and if they lose I shouldn’t be blamed” a “head I win, tails you lose” if ever there was one. He will run again in 2024 despite the overwhelming repudiation by voters. He will (not?) win the primary, but he will take so much of the GOP base vote with him that it splits the vote and hands Dems a second Biden presidency.

Or

2. If the house is taken by the GOP, they will bargain with him to shut down federal oversight of him (including J6 hearings) to convince him not to run. He will still likely screw them in meaningful ways.

Unless he ends up in prison because of other investigations they can’t control…so the first seems most likely.

TLDR:

The kids and women are alright. Death to the Boomers. Enjoy your avocado if you can afford it. Don’t get married. Keep voting for change and keep using these platforms to educate your peers.

[eviltothecore13]

willsker (will/wesker I think?) and wenclair :3

Basically I STRONGLY headcanon that these two were in a relationship at some point, and while by the time canon starts Will is married to Annette (and I like that relationship and don't want to break it up or put actual cheating in there), Wesker and Will are still very close in a very queer way. And I alternate between yelling about how Wesker trusts Will with his life, going all "wait, technically, Wesker is the undead monster that Will the mad scientist reanimated", and writing silly ficlets with banter and Will complaining about the snow. (I haven't been through the whole ship tag in...a while...but I have done so, and there are some great ones in there but also still not enough, especially when we filter out the ones with Wesker characterisation that's very jarring to me, or the ones heavily based around cheating, and the ones where it's unrequited...)

I like their dynamic, I love how they grew closer over season 1, they're fun, I enjoy the ship... also saw a great post about the werewolf transformation+rescue scene paralleling Gomez rescuing Morticia in the first film, and there's also potential to contrast between Tyler (who transforms into a murderous monster--which would normally be something Wednesday would be into--but who kills people for motivations based in bigotry/resentment of a marginalised group and/or following orders from a bigot--very much not an Addams thing) vs Enid (who transforms into a much cooler monster and beats Tyler in a fight, and does it to protect someone she cares about, which is far more Addams)...

But at the same time, while they're compatible in some ways (Enid being kind and accepting for the most part towards Wednesday, and Wednesday encouraging Enid to stand up for herself more) and certainly have a great friendship by the end of s1, when it comes to them ending up in a long-term romantic relationship... there's definitely content I enjoy and if it happened in canon I'd be very happy about it, but I'm not 100% sure how much I definitively ship it yet. Their interests are very different, so when they're not investigating a murder I do wonder just what they'd do together. And I can also see the argument for it being a qpr rather than romantic. When it comes to my own fics, I still don't know if I want Wednesday to end up in a romantic relationship with Enid, in a qpr with Enid, with Joel, married to Lucas from the musical, married to a genderswapped version of Lucas from the musical, or what, and I'm just waiting to see how future seasons of the show develop things.

I'm also a bit...eh...about the insistence from some corners of the fandom that if they don't get together it's inherently queerbaiting (I think it would at this point be queerbaiting if they were both depicted as definitively straight and forced into boring straight relationships, and I am concerned about the possibility of that, but there are lots of ways to depict one or both as queer even without the two of them ending up in a definitively canon romantic relationship), and I'm outright uncomfortable with the "they MUST both be lesbians, if they're not both lesbians this show SUCKS AND IS HOMOPHOBIC, Wednesday could DEFINITELY never be into MEN I mean look at her she is OBVIOUSLY a lesbian and if you think otherwise you're wrong" I've occasionally encountered because like...bi people exist and depicting a character as bi isn't homophobic or "less representation" than her being a lesbian. And if anything there's more evidence in canon for Wednesday being bi than there is for her being either exclusively gay or straight (not that I really see any Addams as straight), since she's definitely interested in boys in various other adaptations but some productions of the musical have made her also into girls. The idea that she cannot be bi or it would be homophobic for her to be bi is just really uncomfortable to me.

Anyway it's a ship with great potential but also not one I'm insistent on as the only good option for her?

[thegoldenshi-shi]

I am having an internal crisis. Outside influence is swaying me towards drawing Sides and Sunny in tuxes/suits/dresses, and I am very much itching to do so. This itch is also making me want to pull out my patterns and start making my cosplays again, one of which is a papillon inspired dress shirt and jacket. And I haven't drawn or tailored in a /hot/ minute, not to mention that my sizes have very much changed, and aren't particularly congruent enough to make a shirt, or any form of top other than a crop top, so I am FIGHTING not to do it

Also, working on cleaning my room still, stars above was it a mess, is a mess. I have however cleared out my desk area! And my computer is back to functional cause my friend is a saint and gave me his old graphics card (sly bastard, he didn't tell me that's what he was gonna do so I couldn't refuse) so now I just need to get the fans connected to the motherboard (frankencomputer isn't a joke, they were directly connected to the psu, wherein the old psu had the wires welded into the thing so I couldn't just transfer fan wire onto new psu, so fans are dead in the water as of right now. Cause new psu doesn't have the right thing, a male plug, to be able to connect them). But! It's functional again, blessed be, and so with a lot of external things factored in, including me generally keeping my room temp at almost 60°f and two external fans that I was able to clean and set up around it, me and two friends were able to play modded mc last night! Which was fun, first time playing co-op with my friends in a month.

On other news, my desk is tiny, so with computer back I physically do not have space to comfortably art, so I am gonna see about getting some stuff set up to scooch the moniter and keyboard so I can have desk space to use my pencils and sketchbooks. Largest issue with drawing Sides in a really frilly dress is my issue of not being able to draw humanoid things. I can't get proportions straight. (Damb my useless brain, not able to have images in my mind, remembered or imagined, kills my ability to art)

And work is. Fucking awful right now, actually. We have someone that has been here for almost two months, and he is a misogynistic dirtbag. Our warehouse is severely lacking in Y chromosomes, and I am unfortunately in the closet at work due to bigotry against queer identifying folk, so I count in his mind towards the *problem*, and he won't stop flirting with me. Which is gross, he's twelve years older than me, which were I older and twelve years weren't such a significant part of my lifespan I wouldn't take issue with. But I worked retail and fastfood in places that made me feel as if I was part of the product to be sold, so people older than me, especially men, flirting with me is a really yucky feeling. Not to mention there is this thing about him, I don't entirely know what, that has me feeling an awful mix of scared and angry about him? There's just something off about him, and maybe its that he insists on trying to talk to me alone, or maybe it's that I have disliked him from when he first started flirting with me, or maybe its him triggering ma and SV's gaydars, but whatever it is is gross and I don't like it. Oh, and apparently he drives the forklift smelling like alcohol, which I wouldn't know because I try to keep one me-height away from him at all times, at least.

Happier note, with summer coming around, I will get to enjoy having ladybugs randomly cropping up in my room and eating wasps again. Which was funny as all hell to discover the first time, cause I always forget they're carnivorous and predatory, as well at that thick exoskeleton and forewings they have meaning that actually stinging them is damn near impossible for the wasp

~Smooch

Hello again Smooch~ The urge to draw robots in clothes happens to every mecha artist at some point I think… And I don't care HOW good you think you are at art, trying to slap Fortress Maximus in an evening gown or Deathsaurus in a three-piece suit is going to break your brain. I can't help you with proportions I'm afraid, since that's just something you have to learn over time. (As they say: repetition is the mother of mastery). But, I can say that dresses are easier to draw on robots than suits. If you want to draw suits, brace yourself to give them weird cutouts and things to make room for kibble. Examples A and B (with your preferred boys hehe)

Since you can sew cosplays though, that wouldn't be an issue for you I'm sure. I'm trying to fight the urge to sew unnecessarily as well. I too am an odd size so I'm always having to get my mom to tailor and/or make me clothes. I'll have to send you some pictures of my finished pieces on discord sometime~

It's good that you were able to play with your friends, a functional computer is a blessing. 60 degree bedroom is less of a good thing, but I guess it's the price you have to pay for the computer blessing right now hehe. I'm not ashamed to say that everything you listed about your computer woes flew completely over my tech-retarded head, but it sounds like you've gone through a lot to fix your problems. I wish it was as easy as replacing parts to fix your work-place issues. If you're lucky, your problem dude will get fired for being intoxicated at work or for being a butt. Me wishing won't fix your problem of course, but I really do hope that it gets better for you. In the meantime, enjoy your ladybugs eating wasps??? I didn't know that ladybugs could or would eat wasps, so when I read your ask I was flabbergasted. It makes sense that they can since, as you said they're carnivorous and heavily armored, but still…wasps?!?!

[brightbeautifulthings]

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

"'To the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure.'"

Year Read: before 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2016, 2024

Rating: 5/5

Thoughts: Can you believe in almost eight years of blogging, I've never re-read these books? There are a few significant reasons for that. The first was that I read Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, and it was so awful, it effectively killed any enthusiasm I had for this universe for years to come. The second was that J.K. Rowling has proven to be such a toxic transphobe that I simply didn't want to invest any more energy in this fandom. Generally, I'm pretty good at separating authors from their work. If we only consumed art by morally upstanding people, there wouldn't be a whole lot left, and cancel culture has had a detrimental effect on the critical thinking skills of social media users. Just because some rando on Twitter says such-and-such celebrity liked a problematic Tweet six years ago doesn't make it true (or even relevant-- character growth is a thing). But it's a little different with Rowling, who has repeated, documented, and on-going bigotry and more influence than the average B-lister.

It really killed my love for this series for a long time, and it took years and effort to come back around to it. I wasn't positive it was even possible at times, and I thought maybe Harry Potter would fade out of my life forever, which is a real shame. I have so many deeply important, happy memories based around this series. I waited every summer for these books to come out and binge-read them for three days straight with my best friend. I read and re-read them out loud to my parents before bed. I was eleven when the first film came out, just as Harry was when he first went off to Hogwarts. I saw the sequels multiple times in theaters and went to midnight showings in costume (Ginny Weasley, obvi) with my friends. I drank frozen Butterbeer and gasped over the Hogwarts castle in Orlando when the theme park opened up. I obsessed over the fact that Remus and Sirius never get together in the books, and Wolfstar was one of my first forays into fanfiction, my first major non-canon ship, and, I'm convinced, a pipeline to Steve/Bucky and Dean/Castiel shipping. Why should Rowling get to take all of that from me?

Rereading these books feels like a final step in reclaiming my love for this series, and I'm really happy that I was able to do it. I was afraid all of the above would color my opinion of them, but they're just as delightful as they've always been. These first books have a more middle grade feel than the later ones, and they're ideal for reading out loud with all the distinct character voices (Hagrid and Fleur gave me so much trouble as a kid, and listening to me try to pronounce Hermione is still a running joke in my family). I know the narration practically by heart in places, and they're well-paced for younger readers without sacrificing plot or humor for older readers. There are so many reasons Harry Potter is universally beloved, most of them well-deserved.

Not surprisingly, I adore the characters too. Harry pretty much sets the standard for main characters in younger fantasy novels. He's not the cleverest, the richest, or the most popular, but he's brave, humble, and kind, and he always tries to do the right thing. Ron is the loyal best friend, and Hermione is the know-it-all bookworm that every book-loving little girl wanted to be growing up. There's a reason they're called the Golden Trio, and their friendship sets the foundation for the entire series. The plot is fairly simple here, with the clues well-timed to keep us turning pages, but it's also nicely tied into past (the deaths of Harry's parents) and future (where will Voldemort surface next) plots. Book three will always be my favorite, but this first one has a special place in my heart.

[unboundpower]

GET TO KNOW YOUR ADMIN !!

name — Nebula, though Neb is also fine. As are any variations other people want to give me for funsies!

pronouns — They/Them or She/Her, currently I don't feel too strongly about one or the other.

preferred comms — Tumblr IMs by default. I don't readily add people on discord these days, but if I do have you added then you're always welcome to shoot me messages.

name of muse(s) — Amita (OC), Z/DBS Vegito, Z/DBS Gogeta, GT Gogeta, Goku, Gine, Gotenks, Ribrianne, Shallot, Giblet.

experience in RP — First seriously started around 2015 on this site (as a minor -shivers-), sticking closely to the Pokemon RPC. Been here on the site ever since, though I've bounced around a few different fandoms.

best experiences — Some great (albeit scattered) highs in the PokeRPC, ironically really enjoyed the brief time the Animal Crossing RPC was alive ~2016, and I've had good times here in the DB RPC. I mainly thrive off a sense of genuine community, like where people acknowledge characters of other muns in interactions, and the experiences I consider fun usually come from that. Also, some ships a writing partner and I have developed were a total blast.

pet peeves/dealbreakers — Aside from the usuals (y'know bigotry and the like), people who OOC seem like they're just...a vibe killer. Their personality rubs me the wrong way, I get the impression they take things too seriously or personally all the time, they constantly come off as wanting things to always go their specific way or else they'll whine, etc etc. The point of rping is to do it with people you actually enjoy writing with, and I for sure would rather not waste time with people I don't like even talking to. 2nd big dealbreaker are people not liking how I portray my muses whichever ways and trying to start drama over it. And I don't just mean in the personality or backstory ways either. I've been policed by someone for giving an OC certain traits / powers, and I've been given shit for muses I've had being straight or hetero in the past. It's infuriating.

muse preference ( fluff, angst, smut ) — I have a somewhat bad relationship with writing smut in rp, but fluff and angst are great. I only like them if they serve some kind of purpose though, even if it's a small one. I will say that I'm picky with angst, because pushing artificial angst to force character conflict is a pet peeve I have when it comes to media, so there would need to be a discussion on how to tackle an angsty plot or storyline.

plot or memes — Both! Though there are pros and cons to them. Plots can be tough to set up but can have cool payoffs, while memes have a fairly simple path but the interaction can easily end up not accomplishing much. Really depends on the circumstance, the characters involved, and whatever ideas I or my writing partner(s) may or may not have.

long or short replies — Really depends on the quality. A top-tier skill to have in RP (probably in creative writing in general) imo is to know how to say a lot with as few sentences as possible. A long reply could have all the detail in the world, but if it's 5+ paragraphs (especially filled with nonsensical prose), that's just tiring to read. Don't go too short and give your rp partner not enough to work with, but also don't pad or drag things out just to increase sentence number.

best time to write — I really wish I could say. Motivation usually hits me out of nowhere and I can tackle multiple drafts at once, but that's pretty rare nowadays. I am trying to get into the habit of looking at a thread and just jotting down whatever comes to mind, then coming back later to refine it. I do tend to feel consistent motivation whenever a thread is a part of an over-arching plot or community event though (all the 60+ note threads I've ever had have been in this category), so there's that. So want me to be super active with our thread(s)? Plot something juicy out with me then 😈 JK JK, no pressure.

are you like your muse? — Some of them in some areas, hell yeah. Amita's personality is about 40-50% modeled after my own. I share Vegito's love of calling out and clowning on bullshit. I'm hella reserved and antisocial like Gogeta. Four's retreated to a quiet forest away from the chaos of civilization to live out a peaceful life; something I wish I could do. We have similar likes across the board, but I do struggle to think of anything glaring that I have in common with my other muses.

TAGGED — swiped from @ozonelasher

TAGGING —

[defilerwyrm]

Hello, thanks so much for your last post! I hope this isn't insensitive, but I'd be really interested to know: What helped you get out of right wing ideology? Do you have any advice for helping people out? Thanks!

It was a combination of things over time.

This turned out to be pretty long so I’m gonna put it under a cut. CW for discussions of various forms of right-wing bigotry within.

a) In the midst of a LiveJournal slapfight, I said something that I absolutely in no way meant or even conceived as being misogynistic, but was clearly taken as such, and was chewed out for it. I went “Tap the brakes, what are you talking about?!” and the gal I was arguing with was kind enough (not nice, but kind) to lay it out for me. And I listened. That started me thinking.

b) I realized that the far right that I vaunted literally wants people like me (queer and disabled) dead. I spent a long time in denial about this, thinking I would be an exception somehow.

c) I dug more into the true nature of white pride groups and discovered that, far from an honorable community of people who are simply proud of their heritage, groups like the Aryan Brotherhood are actually murderous, hyperviolent gangs—in some cases, literal prison gangs—of drug dealers, domestic abusers, and straight-up racists, and I couldn’t reconcile that with my notions of honorable behavior.

d) I actually read Mein Kampf. At first it was mostly curiosity and a way to keep people from talking to me in public. Book 1 (the first half) you can kinda see where he’s coming from, wanting a strong, self-sustaining domestic economy, not relying overly on imports, etc; but Book 2 is where he goes completely off the fucking rails, just utterly batshit, and you can tell it’s coming not from a place of “I want to rebuild my homeland after we were devastated by the aftermath of WWI and the Great Depression” but rather “I have a raging hateboner for this specific group of people who had fuck-all to do with that devastation and will make up just the wildest shit to justify and proselytize that hate.” I didn’t have any strong opinions on Jewish folk then so it really whipped my head back. It’s one thing to learn, in the vague terms that my Texas public school education provided me, about the surface facts of the Holocaust, but I don’t think I had any clue what the depths of the vitriol that led to that horror looked like until I heard it from the horse’s mouth. C and D were the big things that showed me that “white pride” isn’t about finding joy in your heritage—it’s about harboring a deep, dark, hideous hatred for others’ heritage. I did not like that.

e) An element that only in recent years occurred to me, but I think an extremely important one: I did not have a right-wing community. All I had in the way of friends & associates were fairly apolitical, mostly queer people who looked the other way when it came to my horrific personal politics. I think I knew at the time that they were unpopular views (or at least, they were in at the turn of the century) and mostly kept them to myself. As I came to accept and understand my own queerness more deeply, as I lived within the poor queer community of my hometown, as I made friends with more and more diverse groups of people, I found things within myself to be proud of, and those close to me—the very people whom the far right still want dead—welcomed me, guided me, supported me. No one on the right was there for me that way. I didn’t have a cluster of far-right friends beating their noxious values back into my head at every turn. The community I had vs the community I didn’t have made it a lot damn easier to make that heel-face turn.

With all that in mind, I think I can offer two pieces of advice:

Understand that far-right ideology is fundamentally built on anxiety and insecurity. Racists, misogynists, homophobes etc latch onto their identities as white, men, straight etc because it’s something they did not have to work for/on and cannot be removed from them, so they hold up these intrinsic traits as things that make them “superior” to others despite evidence to the contrary. Look at how many out-of-shape, mediocre white men brag that they could win a tennis match against Serena or Venus Williams. They don’t think they’re good at tennis—and they are absolutely not going to go through the years of extremely challenging work and practice and dedication required to get that good—they think they’re superior because they’re white men, even though factually either of the Williams sisters would destroy them blindfolded. The reason they go out of their way to make these ridiculous claims is because they feel insecure that someone who isn’t white and a man is better than them at something. This is also what’s behind the whole “Oh they just chose/should choose the best person for the job”—they’re saying they don’t believe someone who isn’t an abled cishet white man COULD be the best person for the job, regardless of what the job is. I don’t think the answer to this is just to point out the innumerable amazing achievements of people of color, queer folk, disabled folk, etc, because they’ll just go “yeah well MY people did xyz.” They’re feeling insecure. What they need is something about themselves to be proud of that they, personally, accomplished: being a good woodworker, or a talented speaker, or a whiz at math, some skill they have worked to foster. What they need is a sense of confidence that their worth is not dependent on what they were born with/as. For me, learning to value myself for who I am and who I can choose to be helped me stop looking down on others for what they are and did not choose to be, because I no longer needed imaginary metrics of superiority and inferiority to prop up a lack of self-worth and an iceberg’s worth of self-loathing.

Separate them from their herd. Understand that many will choose the security of the familiar over the risk of the new. But familiarity does not breed contempt—it opens eyes. A LARGE part of far-right ideology is made up of lies and assumptions and outright ignorance. Don’t just dunk them into the deep end right away, but exposure therapy is the name of the game. It’s a lot easier to think of (for example) Black people as being inferior to you when you don’t freaking know any, or to think of trans people as just a niche category of porn if you’ve never actually talked—and LISTENED—to us. Understand that right-wing social circles are vicious, internecine places where everyone is frothing at the mouth to pull someone down the instant they misstep, and they will expect the same from a left-wing circle. “Well actually” might be your friend here, rather than rubbing their nose in every fuckup or shitty thing they say. The goal is to, you know, teach them how to care about other people, and you have to model that for them. Offer other ways of looking at things instead of just “no, that’s wrong.” This can be an arduous and painful process for everyone, but if their mind can be pried open, it will be worth it in the end.

[multiplicity-positivity]

we're wondering if anyone else is in this situation and how they dealt with it: we have a white (caucasian) body but also a fictive of color. said fictive isnt too distressed about this but does get stuff like skin color and hair (kinky vs straight) dysphoria. we fully acknowledge as a system that we move through society as a white person, having grown up treated like a white person, etc etc. its just a little... awkward sometimes? we know its not racist, but it feels insensitive.

we dont want to say that we're seeking validation but we just have a lot of uncomfortable feelings about the matter and no idea how to begin to address them. any advice anyone could give would be greatly appreciated.

Our best advice here, especially if you’re white, is for this headmate and your whole system to learn more about race, racism, and how to actively be antiracist however you can.

It may feel insensitive to develop a headmate with a different skin tone from the body, but usually, this sort of thing is outside the system’s control. It’s a neutral thing, and it happens pretty often in all sorts of systems. But it can be awkward, a source of guilt or shame, or generally cause a headmate to feel icky about themselves.

The absolute best book we’ve ever read when it comes to learning about racism and how to confront internal biases is the book How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi. You can purchase this book right now on Thriftbooks for less than $10USD.

This book is a huge wealth of resources on racism, what it is, who it affects, and what white people can do about it. In the back, there is an awesome section with tons of books for further reading. We’ve found the best way to confront white guilt, white shame, and white discomfort, is by powering through it and focusing on educating ourselves, despite the discomfort it may cause. Maybe your fictive will find a similar solace through education.

It’s really really hard to unlearn racial biases, confront your own internalized bigotry, and try to make positive changes in yourself and your community. Lots of people start this work, then give up the moment it gets hard. But we think the best way for any white system, with or without dark-skinned headmates, to grapple with these feelings is to not give up. To push through especially when it’s hard, and to be open to listening to and learning from actual people of color.

Learning to be antiracist is a lifelong process. For white people, there will always be more to learn. We will never understand what it’s like to be people of color (ever - it’s not possible for a non-POC person to have a POC understanding of race). So it’s our job to do whatever we can to unlearn our own biases and uplift these folks however we can. And to never, ever give up on learning, and fighting against racism when we see it.

Not sure if this is the sort of advice you want to hear. But it’s what we think, anyway.

💫 Parker and Lucille