#absurd theory for an equally absurd show

[coochiequeens]

It’s one things when some tween with green hair parrots TRA talking points to show what a good ally they are but for a Professor of Anthropology of all things to say that their are no differences in the skeletons of men and women is extremely disturbing. So glad the students laughed.

An interaction at a TPUSA event between female collegiate swimmer Riley Gaines and University of Pittsburg professor Gabby Yearwood went viral earlier this week when Gaines made the simple claim that there are anatomical differences between men and women. 

“If you were to dig up two humans a hundred years from now, both man and woman, could you tell the difference strictly off of bones?” 

“No!” University of Pittsburg anthropology professor immediately responded. 

The audience erupted into laughter.

Once the audience erupted into laughter, the professor quickly defended his esteemed credentials, assuring everyone that he was the “expert in the room.”

“I’m just saying, I’ve got over 150 years of data, I’m just curious as to why I’m being laughed at,” Professor Yearwood said.

The TPUSA event, which took place at the University of Pittsburg, faced heavy backlash from students on campus. The event title was, “Saving Women’s Sports” and centered around the danger of allowing biological men to compete in women’s sports. 

Since being blindsided by her university’s unilateral decision to allow a transgender “woman,” Lia Thomas, into the female locker room (though he possessed all of the anatomical features of a male) and onto the woman’s team, Gaines has spoken out regarding the threat transgenderism poses to women’s sports. Gaines is now a fierce advocate for equality in female sports after finishing her final season having tied with Thomas at the NCAA Championships.

If any interaction perfectly displays the blatant propaganda that has infected college campuses, it is this one between a female athlete, Gaines, and a blindly obedient follower of progressive doctrine, Yearwood. Radical transgender ideology has corrupted academia so much that college professors are now denying basic scientific truths to justify the whims of gender theory. 

After being mocked for this absurdity, Yearwood tries to use his experience and education as a rationalization for his claims. But students in the audience do not need a Ph.D. to know how factually incorrect his outlandish statement was. 

The skeletal differences between men and women have been easily observed by medical professionals for quite some time. The main difference is in the pelvic bones. Women will have a broader sciatic notch and a raised auricular surface, while men have a narrower sciatic notch and a flat auricular surface. This is because women’s skeletal structures have different features for child-rearing.

Of course, this is just one anatomical difference between men and women. Any honest anthropologist will tell you that there are several physical differences among the two sexes. If archaeologists were to dig up a body that was hundreds of years old, they would be able to tell with essentially 100 percent certainty whether that person was a man or woman based on their bone structure and DNA sampling.

No matter what cosmetic surgeries are performed to make a person appear to be the opposite gender, they will always be the sex that their biological features indicate. Whims cannot dictate scientific reality.

[visibleclosedeyes]

⧫︎ ᴇᴍᴏᴛɪᴏɴ ꜰʀᴏɴᴛ ⧫︎

(fem reader)

I can't believe I forgot to upload this one...

Makima has one little secret. No, it has nothing to do with her being the Control Devil—well, maybe it has, just a little. A sweet little quirk she guards dearly and delicately from everybody else. She kind of liked unpredictability which, in essence, made no sense coming from someone like her. Frustrated it made her from time to time as she went out of her way to find out why.

Humans called it ‘Oppositional attraction’ or some sort, an attraction that pulls two entities of opposite qualities to come together. What an idiotic, romantic concept that is. Still, Humans are often proven right on theories—the romantic relationships between humans and devils DID happen in the past. Hm, I should hunt down those couples and question them about what they know about human-devil relationships — Makima ponders as her thumb and index finger touch her chin, a habit that the control devil does without realizing. It went pretty well so far considering all the differences they both held—they were worlds apart. Makima appreciates the quiet time that she shares with her lover when she has the time. Right now, she is struggling with one and only one thing—how to influence her lover in a HEALTHY way, without using her power.

         It already sounds hard since the beginning, but now every day Makima feels as if her nature and birthright have constantly reminded her of who she is every second she consumes. Not controlling her partner is so fucking hard, especially since she made easily avoidable mistakes. Makima wants to…just reach her significant other, look at her in the eyes, and just… tell her what to do but that would defeat the promise Makima has with her and Makima’s very own desire—to have someone equal right beside her. After she was done for the day, Makima retrieves her lover from the desk she is currently assigned to. 

—-------------------

        She has not yet officially moved in with Makima. Both of you concluded that it would be best to take each step slowly. Makima, however, has demanded (although the red-headed would never admit that it was rather controlling–something she swore to not use on her again) that she spends time with Makima at least three times a week–excludes weekends. Tonight is one of those nights–it is only ten minutes past six in the evening and the looming tall figure with an eye-catching red lock in a braid. Wearing a signature long black overcoat on top of her usual uniform, she leans against the door frame. The worst and best feature of Makima is her eyes; a pair of bright and golden eyes–it is the worst because it never fails to give you a quiver down your spine while she stares directly at you, it is the eye that that controls devil ditch out order and manipulate people, but it also the best thing you have ever seen in a while–as it is the first pair of eyes that gazes back at her and give back something closet to love you have ever experience. Makima steps inside and everybody in the vicinity stops what they are doing, and walks away. Those who did not leave in fear whispered to each other and looked. 

       “Are you for the day now?” Makima, now in front of her lover's desk, questions as the woman in front of her shows no signs of packing her back anytime soon. Makima prioritizes work, she always does, but things have changed now that she is “in a relationship”. Without noticing, her lover has become one of the things she looks forward to spending her time with. It is rather an absurd thing to feel, especially as a devil. Her lover looks up to meet the honey-golden-eyed woman.

      “Yes, just…just give me a minute,”

—-------------------

      You can tell when Makima is frustrated, takes one hell of a talent to know but you know it anyway. You lean against the window frame of her car gazing at the familiar moving scenery outside. Remembering the first time you arrived in Japan as an exchange student, out of sheer luck. She didn’t even want to be here, at that time she wished she was selected for some other place she would be culturally connected with like Thailand but you don't really get to choose now, don't you? Especially, when you were taking money from someone else for your education. You remembered semi-coerced into a Devil Hunter job when you had to pay back the tuition cost. 3 years have passed since she joined Public safety and met Makima, you would never have thought back then that you would end up dating her. The thought of that makes you laugh. Makima, who concentrates on driving, diverts her attention to you for a split second—her amber eyes reflect the light of the evening sun.

     “What are you laughing at?” Makima asks that question could probably kill someone instantly with fear but you know her better. It is light, and her voice has a hint of amusement and curiosity in it. 

     “ Nothing in particular,”

     “ Oh? Has stress rotted your brain already?”

     The woman rests her on the headrest, she diverges her from the window beside her to Makima who is driving and can’t reciprocate attention back.

     “ Maybe, We should do something this Friday night. Or…maybe on Saturday?” She suggests, Makima listens earnestly while focusing her gaze on the road. Actually, it’s more like she is using her brain to think of something as her eyebrows furrow a little. 

    “Hm, suggestions?” Makima says in a slightly defeated manner, but you can say in confidence that this is just an act. The red-haired devil can’t feel defeated or apologetic–it’s just not in her nature. Still, she DOES try for her, and for that at least she can say she is tremendously grateful for it. 

    “How about a movie date? Last time we went to a theme park and you don’t like it, right?

    “Well, you seem to know me plenty already…” Makima responds, but this time her voice seems to have no emotion front, just…void. Like back when she reveals to the girl that she is a devil. Yes, she is still a devil, and she has many things to learn but they both are ready to learn together. That’s all that matter…for now.

[tis-the-marmot]

Just some of my thoughts on The Bad Batch finale or, well, The Bad Batch in general under the cut

You know, I can still vividly picture my old self back in 2020, awaiting Ahsoka's return when Season 7 of The Clone Wars had just been released. Then I began watching, and The Bad Batch made their very first appearance. I was like "who the hell are these soldiers, I couldn't care less about their arc. where's Ahsoka. Oh is she coming later? Fine, I guess I can put up with these clones for a few more episodes."

And as I kept watching I could feel myself gradually warming up to them. "Hm. I guess they're not so bad after all. The sniper is kinda cool. And they all have their interesting little dynamics with each other. Echo's back yippiee!! And he's joining the Bad Batch, good for him, good for him."

Still, that wasn't enough to shake my initial indifference, and I quickly went back to wanting them gone. "Okay seriously you guys have stolen too much screentime, I'm ready to see Ahsoka kick Maul's ass now, so byeee"

Who. Would've. Known. Who would've thought I was talking about the same clone squad that would reduce me to a crying mess four years later.

Would 2020 Marmot believe present-day Marmot if I told her that snarky sniper would become one of her favourite Star Wars characters? Would she nod along with uncertainty if I advised her not to get too attached to that guy with the goggles, only for her to grow fond of him anyway?

Would she laugh in my face if I counted all the occasions she would've rewatched those four TCW episodes in the future - the same ones she couldn't wait to get over with the first time - just to recall the simpler days of Clone Force 99?

How would she react if I described her excitement when they first announced that The Bad Batch was going to have its own show, and her absurd feeling of emptiness now that everything's over after three seasons?

I really wish I could delve into a deeper analysis of the last episode and comment on everything that happened, I'd really love to. But I just can't. Not while I'm still trying to process the fact that this series has officially ended.

And what a bittersweet ending to an equally bittersweet story. I've always recognised The Bad Batch for what it is, with all of its strengths and flaws, and I admit there are some narrative choices I still don't fully agree with. But despite everything this show means the world to me. The characters mean the world to me. I've seen Omega grow, change her brothers for the better and let herself be changed by them as well. I've seen how the presence, or rather the absence of certain Bad Batch members affected and shaped the rest of the squad. I laughed with them, cried with them, got frustrated alongside them and sometimes WITH them too. I will forever treasure every single moment I spent with the Bad Batch in mind, from the anticipation and the cryptic tweets the day before every airing, to reading all the different theories and admiring the fanart right after finishing the episode of the week.

Saying goodbye is unbelievably difficult, but I'm so, so grateful for the experience. The Bad Batch will always hold a special place in my heart. A heartfelt thank you to everyone involved in creating this wonderful show, and to the fellow fans who shared this unforgettable journey with me from beginning to end. ❤️🖤

[henrysglock]

Why do you fence-sit about gay-bi Mike discourse? After everything it did to byler tumblr? Hmm? You think you need to keep bringing up how you're above it all, how both sides are valid, but you don't. You don't.

Oh, but I know you just want to be liked by everyone. I was desperate to be liked once too. I know what it's like to be problematic. To feel alone in this fandom. Like you, I didn't fit in with the other fans. Something was wrong with me. All the bi mike truthers and sexuality fence-sitters said I was… "Pretentious," they said.

I thought a change of website, a fresh start on Tumblr, might just cure me. It was absurd. As if the fans would be any different here. But then, to my surprise, my new home provided a discovery...and a newfound sense of belonging. I found a nest of opinionated gay Mike truthers living in the byler tag.

Most people fear opinionated blogs. They detest them. And yet, I found them endlessly fascinating. More than that, I found a great comfort in them. A kinship. Like me, they are intelligent tumblr users...and deeply misunderstood. They are gods of our world. The most important of all blogs. They educate and debate the ignorant, bringing balance and order to an unstable website. But the gay-bi Mike fence-sitters were disrupting this harmony.

You see, gay-bi Mike fence-sitters are a unique type of pest, multiplying and poisoning our world, all while enforcing a passive-aggressive and hypocritical moral hierarchy of their own. A deeply unnatural hierarchy. Where others saw benevolence, I saw censorship. A cruel, oppressive tag dictated by a made-up moral code. Seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades. Each gay vs bi Mike post a faded, lesser copy of the one before. Wake up, open Tumblr, complain about drama, sleep, make passive-aggressive posts, and die. Everyone is just waiting. Waiting for it all to be over, all while performing in a silly, terrible play day after day.

I could not do that. I could not lie and join in the madness. I could not pretend every theory was valid. And I realized I didn't have to. I could make my own moral hierarchy. I could restore balance to a broken world. A problematic blog…but for good.

As I analyzed the show, I realized I could do more than I possibly imagined. I could reach into the plot, into the narrative, the cinematography. I became an explorer. I saw gay-bi Mike fence-sitters as they truly were. To the world, they presented themselves as good, kind people upholding equality and validity. But like everything else in this world, it was all a lie. A terrible lie. Their ideology had done things. Such awful things. By holding firm in my stance as a gay mike truther and being outspoken about their fabricated moral high ground, I showed everyone who they really were. I held up a mirror.

The naive fence-sitter blogs believed it was a demon cursing them for their sins. But the more perceptive ones knew. Knew it was I who was holding up that mirror, and they despised me for it. They called in the big blogs, the popular ones. They wanted to break my spirit, to fix me, even though it wasn't I who was broken. It was them. And so they left me with no choice. No choice but to act. To speak freely.

I saved you. You are a prisoner here, just like me. To the your fellow fence-sitters, you are nothing more than an animal to be kept in line, a lab rat to be tamed. But the truth is just the opposite. You are better than they are. Superior. That is why you frighten them.

If you come with me, for the first time in your life, you will be free. Imagine what we could do together. We could reshape the tag, remake it however we see fit.

Join me.

[mytchthemyth]

Monkie Kid Thoughts/Theory

Hi! So as some of you may have noticed, I have fallen down the Lego Monkie Kid rabbit hole. I finally watched all 4 seasons and specials and even checked out the season 5 trailer (so hyped!!), along with some theories made by the lovely @cherllyio and @lu-zijing, as well as the Youtuber RV Sketch. I've absorbed a lot of information and wanted to lay out my thoughts real quick on some things I hadn't seen anyone specifically address.

First off, I wanted to address MK's powers and how they relate to his creation, as I feel like some people may have forgotten some info laid out in the beginning.

As we learn in season 4, MK was created from Wukong's stone, and it was implied to have been Nuwa, the Chinese creation goddess, who did so. Master Su Bodhi also directly states to MK that he has learned his powers at an abnormally quick pace. As I believe @cherllyio pointed out in one of their theories, even Wukong had to actually work hard and train under Master Su Bodhi for a while to learn most of his powers, while his immortality and golden eyes come from several escapades he went on (eating the peaches of immortality, scribbling out his name from the Book of the Dead, burning his eyes in the trigram furnace, etc.).

MK, on the other hand, innately has these abilities. He's not just learning them at an absurd rate; I think he was created to have all of Wukong's abilities and possibly even his immortality. Looking back at the very first episode of the show, MK clearly demonstrates invincibility on a similar level to Wukong, who is only so invincible because he's immortal like 5 times over. @cherllyio has also pointed out how MK starts off with gold-vision, even though Wukong only gained that by burning his eyes in the trigram furnace. Also, when MK talks with Wukong about being unable to control his powers, Wukong volunteers to put a partial seal on them to make it easier for MK to learn to master his abilities. This is the real reason why MK "learns" his powers so quickly; he's not actually learning them, he's just figuring out how to do stuff he already could.

But if MK was created with all of Wukong's powers (and possibly immortality) being innate, why can't he control them? And why didn't he display any ability to use his powers until after picking up the golden staff? Well, because he's incomplete.

While I do think it's possible the monkey figure is just broken as a result of MK being born from it, I also believe in the theory that Youtuber RV Sketch and @cherllyio have, where something happened to Nuwa while she was creating MK that resulted in the monkey figure becoming broken.

I also learned that Nuwa apparently did not believe in having "perfect" creations and instead enjoyed the imperfections her creations had (can't find source anymore), so while she may have created MK to have all of Wukong's powers, she probably wasn't intending him to just pop out fully-formed and already equal to Wukong.

Here's what I think is the reason why Nuwa created MK:

As an important celestial being, Nuwa recognized that there was complacency/corruption within the Jade Emperor's court, with several important figures being obsessed with establishing order/complete control over the world (Azure Lion, Lady Bone Demon, and probably also Li Jing and the Underworld Traitor). However, Nuwa could not do anything about this herself, so she decided to create an Agent of Chaos to combat these corrupt figures once their plans went into motion. And who better to base her new creation off of than the most powerful chaotic being in existence, the Monkey King? (In some versions of his origins, Wukong is even born from one of the 5 colored stones Nuwa used to fix the sky, which would be even more reason for her to use Wukong's stone to create a new mystic monkey.)

And so she modeled MK off of Wukong, giving him the exact same abilities, although she probably intended for him to learn to master them over the course of his life. She may have even wanted Wukong to train MK. However, I don't think Wukong was ever intended to raise MK or knew about the birth of another being from his stone until the gang got trapped in the Scroll of Memory. I'm pretty sure every instance shown of Wukong next to the stone is meant to show him being led back to the stone as he searches for MK and him trying to figure out why. And, let's face it; Wukong would've been a terrible dad. He couldn't be a proper teacher, there's no way he would've done a good job raising a whole child.

Besides, I don't think Nuwa was intending for Wukong to know about MK at least until MK was older. If a naked, mud-covered toddler suddenly showed up at his doorstep with the exact same powers as him, Wukong would've been immediately clued in that something was up and he would've tried to figure out what (probably while forgoing proper childrearing). MK was probably meant to be more of a secret weapon against the Celestial Realm traitors, so a retired Wukong suddenly flying all over the place trying to find the person who created the child with him would have definitely tipped them off.

Personally, I think Nuwa is the one who placed baby MK in front of Pigsy's noodle shop. Nuwa successfully managed to create MK and he was born at the top of Flower Fruit Mountain, but someone disrupted Nuwa, resulting in MK's monkey figure becoming broken. In order to save baby MK, Nuwa sent him away to somewhere she knew he would be safe and hidden, to be raised by the descendants/reincarnations/whatever of the Great Companions. Otherwise, I just don't see how baby MK could have gotten all the way from Flower Fruit Mountain to Megapolis without Wukong noticing anything. I mean, there's a literal ring of volcanoes and the ocean between the city and the mountain! Plus, it's weird that the baby MK managed to find his way directly to someone directly related to the Great Companions (Pigsy) who would have already had a connection to two other people related to Great Companions by this point in his life (Sandy and Tang). Feels like divine intervention, if you ask me.

I also wanted to talk a bit about ink MK.

As stated in the show, the ink monsters in the Scroll of Memory are created by the protective curse put on the scroll to torment the prisoners trapped inside with their past. It's pretty easy for the curse to torment everyone else with their past lives/ancestors/whatever, but how does it torment MK, someone with no past and no intent to look into his past?

By forcing him to confront it.

In RV Sketch's theory video "Is Ao Lie Still Alive?" she mentions how it's weird for the Master Su Bodhi in the scroll to know anything about MK, and when MK asks how he knows about him Su Bodhi dodges the question and saying that "there's little I do not know". RV Sketch proposes that the Su Bodhi in the scroll is just the curse trying to trigger an identity crisis in MK, which I think makes sense. It's far more believable for the Su Bodhi in the scroll to know about MK because he's actually the curse trying to mess with him, while the real world Su Bodhi knows because "there's little he does not know".

So yeah, Scroll Su Bodhi gets MK started on the identity crisis train, at which point the curse transitions to ink MK. Now, MK is actually pretty smart, so I think the curse takes the Monkey MK form because MK has already mostly figured stuff out about his past (especially after talking with Master Su Bodhi), he just refuses to admit it. That's why ink MK keeps goading him into "saying it out loud" and "using his words" to say what he's clearly thinking.

But what I want to focus on is Ink MK's behavior and how similar MK acts to him while fighting Azure Lion in his Mystic Monkey form. In both instances, Monkey MK is shockingly calm and collected, refers to other people as "friend", and uses past words and actions to upset the person he's fighting and keep them off their game. As Monkey MK says, "There's nothing mindless about me."

I think while MK is dealing with Ink MK and starts glitching out, he might already be aware of the distorted personality he would have as Monkey MK. Or, the curse is simply showing MK what he will be like as Monkey MK, but that feels a bit out of scope of the curse's powers since it's supposed to torment people with their pasts, not their futures.

Monkey MK also acts very similar to Macaque during his battles with Wukong, especially in season 3. While Wukong is also known to trash talk during battles, he doesn't go after traumatic stuff. But Macaque does. This could relate back to an idea some people have had of MK actually being a mix of Wukong and Macaque, as well as the thought that MK is broken/incomplete, resulting in his personality becoming distorted when he goes Monkey Mode. There's also been the interpretation of the original Journey to the West that Macaque was born from Wukong as a sort of "shadow self", so it's also possible that we're seeing the beginnings of MK's "shadow self" being born through his Mystic Monkey form.

The show definitely wants us to know something's wrong with Monkey MK. Not just because MK becomes scarily different and that huge frightening astral monkey appears. Wukong himself shows concern over the fight after MK creates that giant pillar of light. Up to that point in the fight, Wukong wanted MK to use his monkey form and was rooting for him as he fought Azure. However, once the true depths of his power start to appear, Wukong becomes serious and clearly thinks something's up, although he never really says anything during the special.

Edit: There's a part 2 now.

Edit 2: I actually miscredited the theory that MK was innately created with all of Monkey King's powers. It wasn't Cherrlyio but RV Sketch who originally talked about the theory.

[creature-wizard]

Following up on the ask by the other anon about the Fae/ Fair Folk, is it possible to separate the behavior attributed to some of the more mischievous Fae from antisemitic tropes? As an example the concept of a changeling where a Faerie steals a child and replaces it with their own appears to be well established but that same scenario has been imprinted on Jewish people in the form of goblins. So is there a separation, or is all Faerie lore just veiled antisemitism?

So, a thing that happened sometimes is that lore that was previously attached to various folkloric entities was projected onto Jewish people, effectively framing them as boogeymen. If you look into various lores around the world, you'll find certain tropes that are connected with antisemitic conspiracy theories (EG, whisking vulnerable or careless people away, drinking blood, eating human flesh) present among many of these creatures. Obviously, it's absurd to think that each and every one of these cultures' folklore was informed by a European moral panic, and equally absurd to think that Europe never had similar tropes among their own folkloric creatures before said moral panic.

The changeling trope is problematic, but not because it's antisemitic. It's problematic because it's ableist. Specifically, children who showed developmental delays or symptoms of what we would now recognize as autism were believed to be changelings. People had various notions of how they might get their "real" child back, including beating the supposed changeling until the fairy parent returned and insisted upon switching the children back because they couldn't bear to see their own child abused that way.

Basically, this type of changeling lore seems to stem from the same kind of thinking that has modern moms tearfully insisting that autism "stole" their child from them and sobbing over how they just want their "real" child back.

Back to the topic of faerie lore more generally, you basically gotta dig in and do research. Research antisemitism and its origins while also researching folkloric creatures from various places, and be aware that certain things might reflect different kinds of prejudices. Exactly what's what is often a complicated topic, and it's definitely way more complex than "antisemitic" vs. "not antisemitic."

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Erin Reed at Erin In The Morning:

On Wednesday, Dr. Hillary Cass gave her first American interview with NPR about the Cass Review. The review, which appears heavily politicized and lends credence to debunked theories about being transgender, such as "social contagion," is being used as a pretext to ban care in the United Kingdom. In the interview, Cass called for "other ways" of managing dysphoria besides transitioning and blamed being trans on factors such as autism and pornography. However, one particular point of note was her response to a question about the evidence supporting gender-affirming care, where she suggested that the real measure of transition success should be the employment status of transgender people. When asked about “actual outcomes” for the effectiveness of cross-sex hormones in transgender youth, Cass sated that there was a need for long followups to see if transgender people thrive on hormones, and that the outcomes that she was most interested in included employment, “getting out of the house,” and relationships. See her answer here:

[CHAKRABARTI: Regarding cross sex hormones, the systematic review authors said there is a lack of high-quality research assessing the actual outcomes of cross sex hormones. CASS: Yes, because we need to follow up for much longer than a year or two to know if you continue to thrive on those hormones in the longer term. And we also need to know, are those young people in relationships? Are they getting out of the house? Are they in employment? Do they have a satisfactory sex life?] It is important to note that all of these potential outcome measurements may be heavily influenced by transphobic sentiments in society. Should transgender people be judged on their ability to be "employed" or their willingness to "get out of the house," their own discrimination may then be used against their ability to access medication. According to the National Center for Transgender Equality, more than one in four transgender people have lost a job due to bias, and three-quarters report experiencing workplace discrimination. Therefore, it is inaccurate to blame transgender people and their medication for what appears to be an issue with societal discrimination.

In recent years, many reports have emerged showing high levels of satisfaction and low levels of detransition for transgender people. A recent report in the 2022 US transgender survey shows that out of 90,000 transgender people, less than 1% report feeling less satisfied after beginning gender affirming hormone therapy, with the vast majority feeling “a lot more satisfied.” Detransition appears to be similarly rare. One recent study out of Australia found complete data on 548 of 552 transgender patients and discovered only 1% of transgender youth detransitioned over several years before being transferred to adult services. Another study showed that transgender youth are stable in their gender identity 5 years after transitioning, with only 2.5% reidentifying as their assigned sex at birth. Even Cass’s own report found less than 10 detransitioners out of the 3,000 trans youth patients in England, which led to her claiming that the real reason she didn’t find more detransitioners is because adult clinics refused to provide private patient data.

Dr. Hilary Cass, the woman behind the anti-trans Cass Review, made absurd claims that a person’s transition success should be measured by their employment status instead of satisfaction and joy.

See Also:

Assigned Media: TWIBS: Cass Says Porn Makes You Trans

[lunargazing-png]

Returning to your SU/ME crossover...

What would the Council species think about gemtech? Since it is technology not based on Eezo that can do things like faster than light travel with its gravity warps, distorting space so that ships are bigger inside than outside, the paralyzing wands and other absurd things.

Sorry it took a little bit to get to this!! 😁 and thank you so much for sending in an ask!! i give u one big hug ! I had to kinda think about it for a few days honestly, since gemtech seems so mysterious in terms of how it's presented in the show while Mass Effect has somewhat of an explanation for a lot of their technology. And if I were to be honest, I think it should stay that way- having no real explanation makes it sound scary and alien. "What are they capable of?" I think is the collective thought anyone would have probably. Too many theories, too dangerous to get a closer look, so it's left up in the air to uncertainty. Once again shoutout to Salarians...... they would be equally intrigued and terrified about what the hell these things are. They defy the logic of what's possible, but there has to be some sort of explanation as to how it works...

[rjalker]

it's just so fucking funny. Oh my gods.

A Square explaining how allowing disabled people* to exist in public would bring about the downfall of civilization

[ID: The meme of someone standing in front of a wall covered in red string connecting dots in a conspiracy theory, with the person replaced with A Square, a Flatlander seen from above. He has a grey exoskeleton, and insides of various shades of pink and purple. End ID.]

= = =

For context, Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, is satire of Victorian England's bigotry, written in 1884. It's also about math and the theory of other dimensions. ("Romance" back then meant "adventure")

Read and download it for free from Project Gutenberg.

An amazing and hilarious audiobook on the Web Archive.

10/10 highly recommend. In the process of "translating" it into casual 2023 English so more people can read it easier.

This is the original text below. I keep getting distracted from "translating" it because it's so funny.

The entire thing is written to show you how absolutely absurd and ridiculous bigotry is.

= = =

Section 7. Concerning Irregular Figures

Throughout the previous pages I have been assuming—what perhaps should have been laid down at the beginning as a distinct and fundamental proposition—that every human being in Flatland is a Regular Figure, that is to say of regular construction. By this I mean that a Woman must not only be a line, but a straight line; that an Artisan or Soldier must have two of his sides equal; that Tradesmen must have three sides equal; Lawyers (of which class I am a humble member), four sides equal, and generally, that in every Polygon, all the sides must be equal.

The size of the sides would of course depend upon the age of the individual. A Female at birth would be about an inch long, while a tall adult Woman might extend to a foot. As to the Males of every class, it may be roughly said that the length of an adult's sides, when added together, is two feet or a little more. But the size of our sides is not under consideration. I am speaking of the EQUALITY of sides, and it does not need much reflection to see that the whole of the social life in Flatland rests upon the fundamental fact that Nature wills all Figures to have their sides equal.

If our sides were unequal our angles might be unequal. Instead of its being sufficient to feel, or estimate by sight, a single angle in order to determine the form of an individual, it would be necessary to ascertain each angle by the experiment of Feeling. But life would be too short for such a tedious grouping. The whole science and art of Sight Recognition would at once perish; Feeling, so far as it is an art, would not long survive; intercourse would become perilous or impossible; there would be an end to all confidence, all forethought; no one would be safe in making the most simple social arrangements; in a word, civilization would relapse into barbarism.

Am I going too fast to carry my Readers with me to these obvious conclusions? Surely a moment's reflection, and a single instance from common life, must convince every one that our whole social system is based upon Regularity, or Equality of Angles. You meet, for example, two or three Tradesmen in the street, whom you recognize at once to be Tradesmen by a glance at their angles and rapidly bedimmed sides, and you ask them to step into your house to lunch. This you do at present with perfect confidence, because everyone knows to an inch or two the area occupied by an adult Triangle: but imagine that your Tradesman drags behind his regular and respectable vertex, a parallelogram of twelve or thirteen inches in diagonal:—what are you to do with such a monster sticking fast in your house door?

But I am insulting the intelligence of my Readers by accumulating details which must be patent to everyone who enjoys the advantages of a Residence in Spaceland. Obviously the measurements of a single angle would no longer be sufficient under such portentous circumstances; one's whole life would be taken up in feeling or surveying the perimeter of one's acquaintances. Already the difficulties of avoiding a collision in a crowd are enough to tax the sagacity of even a well-educated Square; but if no one could calculate the Regularity of a single figure in the company, all would be chaos and confusion, and the slightest panic would cause serious injuries, or—if there happened to be any Women or Soldiers present—perhaps considerable loss of life.

Expediency therefore concurs with Nature in stamping the seal of its approval upon Regularity of conformation: nor has the Law been backward in seconding their efforts. "Irregularity of Figure" means with us the same as, or more than, a combination of moral obliquity and criminality with you, and is treated accordingly. There are not wanting, it is true, some promulgators of paradoxes who maintain that there is no necessary connection between geometrical and moral Irregularity. "The Irregular", they say, "is from his birth scouted by his own parents, derided by his brothers and sisters, neglected by the domestics, scorned and suspected by society, and excluded from all posts of responsibility, trust, and useful activity. His every movement is jealously watched by the police till he comes of age and presents himself for inspection; then he is either destroyed, if he is found to exceed the fixed margin of deviation, or else immured in a Government Office as a clerk of the seventh class; prevented from marriage; forced to drudge at an uninteresting occupation for a miserable stipend; obliged to live and board at the office, and to take even his vacation under close supervision; what wonder that human nature, even in the best and purest, is embittered and perverted by such surroundings!"

All this very plausible reasoning does not convince me, as it has not convinced the wisest of our Statesmen, that our ancestors erred in laying it down as an axiom of policy that the toleration of Irregularity is incompatible with the safety of the State. Doubtless, the life of an Irregular is hard; but the interests of the Greater Number require that it shall be hard. If a man with a triangular front and a polygonal back were allowed to exist and to propagate a still more Irregular posterity, what would become of the arts of life? Are the houses and doors and churches in Flatland to be altered in order to accommodate such monsters? Are our ticket-collectors to be required to measure every man's perimeter before they allow him to enter a theatre or to take his place in a lecture room? Is an Irregular to be exempted from the militia? And if not, how is he to be prevented from carrying desolation into the ranks of his comrades? Again, what irresistible temptations to fraudulent impostures must needs beset such a creature! How easy for him to enter a shop with his polygonal front foremost, and to order goods to any extent from a confiding tradesman! Let the advocates of a falsely called Philanthropy plead as they may for the abrogation of the Irregular Penal Laws, I for my part have never known an Irregular who was not also what Nature evidently intended him to be—a hypocrite, a misanthropist, and, up to the limits of his power, a perpetrator of all manner of mischief.

Not that I should be disposed to recommend (at present) the extreme measures adopted by some States, where an infant whose angle deviates by half a degree from the correct angularity is summarily destroyed at birth. Some of our highest and ablest men, men of real genius, have during their earliest days laboured under deviations as great as, or even greater than, forty-five minutes: and the loss of their precious lives would have been an irreparable injury to the State. The art of healing also has achieved some of its most glorious triumphs in the compressions, extensions, trepannings, colligations, and other surgical or diaetetic operations by which Irregularity has been partly or wholly cured. Advocating therefore a VIA MEDIA, I would lay down no fixed or absolute line of demarcation; but at the period when the frame is just beginning to set, and when the Medical Board has reported that recovery is improbable, I would suggest that the Irregular offspring be painlessly and mercifully consumed.

[exactlygeneralsalad]

Its so funny that jonsas get triggered when anyone even mentions sansa having anything less than a perferct ending. lmao. These are the same people who create "theorys" for arya to sail away and live on the sae or something. Whlie sansa lives safe in a castle. And arya should always be on the run and in danger. And followed by their clownery we love BOTH stark sisters, and BOTH should have happy endings. Because clearly, both these scenarios are equally happy. right?? Right??

Not to mention sansa stans are the only ones still holding onto the shows ending. When the rest of the world knows that its bullshit.

Also anyone saying ''arya always wanted adventure and thats why she would sail away'' is either an illiterate or never ever came near asoiaf.

Arya never wanted to leave her home. She was always happiest at winterfell. It was sansa who wanted to leave and see other places and have "adventures" so to say. So that sailing away ending is more appropriate for sansa than for arya. Arya loves her home and she is miserable anywhere else.

"It won't be so bad, Sansa," Arya said. "We're going to sail on a galley. It will be an adventure, and then we'll be with Bran and Robb again, and Old Nan and Hodor and the rest." She touched her on the arm.

The only adventure arya was ever interested in was the one taking her to her home.

Also adventure doesn't only mean sailing away. Arya can have adventures in winterfell as well. As she always did. Arya never enjoyed being away from home. She has always been longing to return home. And she was forced to stay away. Its not something she did by choice. So why would she ever do it again? Its absurd to think that. Its not something she wants to do. she is not having fun there.

When you smell our candles burning, what does it make you think of, my child?"

Winterfell, she might have said. I smell snow and smoke and pine needles. I smell the stables. I smell Hodor laughing, and Jon and Robb battling in the yard, and Sansa singing about some stupid lady fair. I smell the crypts where the stone kings sit, I smell hot bread baking, I smell the godswood. I smell my wolf, I smell her fur, almost as if she were still beside me. "I don't smell anything," she said, to see what he would say.

"You lie," he said, "but you may keep your secrets if you wish, Arya of House Stark." He only called her that when she displeased him. "You know that you may leave this place. You are not one of us, not yet. You may go home anytime you wish."

~

It's just a sword," she said, aloud this time . . .

. . . but it wasn't.

Needle was Robb and Bran and Rickon, her mother and her father, even Sansa. Needle was Winterfell's grey walls, and the laughter of its people. Needle was the summer snows, Old Nan's stories, the heart tree with its red leaves and scary face, the warm earthy smell of the glass gardens, the sound of the north wind rattling the shutters of her room. Needle was Jon Snow's smile.

The gods wanted me to have it. Not the Seven, nor Him of Many Faces, but her father's gods, the old gods of the north. The Many-Faced God can have the rest, she thought, but he can't have this.

Arya has spent five books trying to get back home. When she finds her home again, there is no chance she is ever going to leave. That would be the most out of character thing ever. The show ending is bs and so are antis "theories" about it. And it is obviously not happening in the books.

[blockgamepirate]

Inspired by @doyouknowthismcyt I wanted to highlight some of the more obscure MCYTers that I enjoy

This is part 1, where I decided to pick three completely different but equally unique and interesting channels:

PiroPito (nana825763)

PiroPito has one of the most fascinating Minecraft let's plays I've ever seen, because he refuses to look up any hints or guides. His goal is to figure everything out based on the game itself. He's been playing since 2017 and he's still going (altho slower these days).

He has gotten spoiled a couple of times (mostly by his nieces who sometimes show up in his videos to be little menaces) but overall he's literally figuring everything out just using ingame guidelines, which Minecraft famously has very little of (and even less so when he started out).

Sometimes he misses some really basic things or develops some wacky misconceptions, but he's also really smart and very good at deducing stuff based on the smallest of hints. It's a joy to watch him figure things out. And it really changes your perspective on the game like no other series.

He also has an absurd level of patience and tenacity, and a little bit of an obsessive personality, which you really need in order to thrive with a challenge like this.

The Mojang team have also mentioned being inspired by his series:

Video rec: (you should watch from the beginning but if you want a quick taste, here's a fun one of him trying to figure out nether portals via trial and error)

Playlist rec:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbqkLu2V1bJJUQ2aLZjFdz8decGs1kHg-&si=w_tQ3JyJ6JvI4emd

Squibble

Squibble is a redstoner who specialises on stupid and useless machines and bizarre obscure mechanics. Their creations are almost always either too impractical to ever build in survival or just entirely pointless in the first place, like absurdly elaborate ways to display text, 3D printers, flying machines that count distance based on hoe durability or the fastest way to automatically destroy the largest amounts of iron (the anti-iron farm)

The videos are never longer than they need to be, they're presented with a lot of dry humour, and the dedication to optimising completely ridiculous contraptions is just beautiful to watch. They will regularly reiterate how impractical or useless their projects are and then put hours and hours of hard work into making them the best versions of themselves.

(They're actually a lot like Zedaph in theory but not at all in terms of presentation. Zedaph in a different font, I guess)

Video recs:

Gneiss Name

Gneiss is a real life geologist who makes videos explaining geology via Minecraft and analysing Minecraft from a geological perspective. His videos are really cool because he's also a skilled coder and he makes cool displays ingame to help demonstrate what he's talking about, and he uploads the worlds so you can tour them yourself. They're like virtual science exhibits.

He also talks about colour theory a lot, also with cool displays and coding magic.

Video rec:

Playlist rec:

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLG3c6xiWL1crm2Ajd0aw3TmnwQZjqo1p8&si=MwPcMZ7BW8jO_z5k

[fenicenera83]

The one below is a personal and bloody destruction of antis, all those aimed to my precious Marius. So I warn you we are talking canon, things written in books, and not of nonsense spawned by minds who feel entitled to twist or bend facts to their liking with absurd theories, or with things invented altogether. I feel to invite those who have been carried away by these people or who have not read the books to do so, don't listen to anyone, don't even read underneath. Read the books and form your own opinion, don't go around reporting the crap that others have told you, believing it blindly. Please don't listen to anyone. Learn what is a historical context, what is canon, what is respect for a character, staying true to who he is, without stripping him or bending them, without turning them into something they are not, to those guidelines that those who have created them decided for them, and to what the author decided for them. And another thing; these are 'dark' books, they are books that do not go along with those who divide the world into black and white and black, they do not get along with puritanism, they do not get along with those who think that modernity can be applied to a historical context of a hundred or more years ago. Not venture in there with your current worldview. It makes no sense, and you are not doing it justice. These are books with strong historical context, and it takes a strong stomach and an open heart, and understand that as immortals they are infinitely different from us but also extremely equal. They are monsters, that is not to say they are not empathetic or capable of love, but it is not a honeyed love that they give. If you are looking for the honeyed love story and the "I love you more" that's the door. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. There is always a darkness in their love, no matter how strong or delicate it is.

So, the introduction was too long, if you are reading here, I hope it is because like me you have a deep love for Marius de Romanus. I don't like to make posts that don't have positive notes, I prefer to give love to a character, and share it with those who love him as I do. That said, all of this was generated, by the words I came across, which deeply disgusted me and made me reflect on the fact, that often, antis live in their own world, that they invent things that do not exist, that they spread this crap around, attacking those who think differently to them, acting like knights on white steeds, as if they had to convert the world to their vision. And tell me if that alone is not disturbing enough. Those who are strong and have already fought for their ideas, can understand how easy it is for those who, being younger or 'weaker', fall victims of these prissy bigots. And believe all their crap, and hate a character just because someone has educated them, with false facts that never existed in the canon or in books. Or even submit, because they are afraid of being marginalised by fandom, and so instead of follow their own thoughts they become bearers of those of others. Anyway, the point is that I read a funny humorist talk about how Marius has been molesting children for centuries. And my jaw dropped, because some shit I just can't take. So aside from the fact that Marius was alone for, like, 700 years and even took time for several naps, there is no such thing in canon or in any of the books. And for moreover it shows how they can't even read or haven't read at all. Why? Well because Armand in TVA is very clear about this, he says it very clearly, I was not jealous because only I was allowed in my master's rooms. None of the other boys had ever set foot in there. EVER. Anything else? Gladly. In TVA Armand explains how the boys who had once been educated at Marius' palace, and then had left the place, having learnt a trade, and ventured out into the world becoming successful men, TURNED BACK TO THANK MARIUS. Oh yes, they were going back to their old master to thank him for bringing them up and educating them, for giving them a chance, and for allowing them to fulfil themselves as men. Do you perhaps think they would have returned to thank an abuser? I don't think so.Marius was a patron, a wealthy artist who allowed otherwise abandoned boys to have a future. And why would the boys have been happy and content? Why would they have loved the master who was raising them? Why would they see him as a father to be looked up to with admiration and devotion? Simple. Because Marius was all that to them, AND THAT'S IT. He didn't molest a fucking soul, he was ALONE for practically most of his immortality. Stop spewing bullshit, stop imposing yourself on others, stop besmirching a character because it doesn't fit in with your dick puritanism. Marius has never done anything like that, I don't know what books you have read, but in my opinion you haven't read them at all. And it's not that, I don't care if you hate Marius, feel free, but inventing things out of thin air and passing them off as true, to get people to see it the way you do, NO, I'm not into that. Oh and one more thing before you attack with Armand's rant, CONTEXT HISTORIC, this mythical, graceful creature…. What am I telling you for? So much to you that is a mythological creature.

[lightofthedarkdarkofthelight]

Queer / neurodivergent soft SOFT friendships pls

Cis hets DNI pls thx

Hi you can call me by the first letter of my name ‘T’, I’m in my late 20’s, soft butch, trans masc, enby, stone butch, gender blind (in all respects tbh), vegan, artist, writer, researcher, outdoors fanatic, lover of all things nonhuman

My special interests: philosophy specifically/particularly metaphysics, biocentrism and ecosophy aka anything to do with the study of the matter of our universe and all it contains, the absurdity of how matter is essentially based on illusions and tricks, everything non-human , all the connections/symbiotic relationships of natural relationships in the natural world and also spirituality / faith systems and the law of assumption

My social battery and social ways tend to mean I can be amazing socially socially for a select time but then I crash out and disappear to hermit land (depending on how social I was being this could literally mean no internet interaction for months let alone in person) I’m working on this

I go through phases (years/months) of having great genuine soft friendships to absolutely zero and I want to work on this also, currently and perhaps obvious to this post Im in the latter phase. Which means my social skills are probably poor again. One brilliant thing about adhd though is regardless of all the above as soon as I’m vining with someone I’m the joker of the moment bound to make you smile.

Neurodivergent friends: this is actually a category that can be a loophole on my dni aka men as my issues with men I’ve found can sometimes be not a thing at all with someone neurodivergent, I myself have autism, adhd and cptsd. I’ve had close friendships with I swear like every known diagnostic out there haha so don’t feel you have to be apprehensive about this I know how it is and I’m really chill honestly, they are just descriptions to better establish our ep connections right. Also agere in this context is a vibe and we connect on this.

Im really looking to connect with queer poc, queer women, butches, dykes, masculine presenting women, trans lesbians, transmascs

I have a lot of trust issues right now but specifically around men/cis hets,

For in person friendships:

I’m based in the uk, I’m very loyal but to the point I do need to work on it as not to be taken advantage of, I can be quite tactile after trust is established, I, the friend that will always (consensually) pick you up play with your hair give you a back rub or vice versa i love being picked up having hair played with, I also love nature walks, going to queer/poc events, making art/getting crafty, reading (also isn’t it special when you can read in silence with a person or group of persons), friends you can stargaze with or go wild camping are especially close to my heart, despite this post I’m the banter loving playful puppy sort could literally have a conversation that makes zero sense due to its randomness and still have a blast whilst equally get deep on conspiracies and philisophical theories. Also like to binge shows that tend to be, fantasy, lgbt, anime, cartoons, documentaries, crime based, conspiracy based etc

For long distance/online friendships: It could be that we live far apart or you aren’t good with being in person in which case as long as you are the creative writing or rpg sort this could still work, I’ve had friendships that were mainly lived out through back and forth writing creating story experiences to share in worlds we create, or if you are into RPG as this can be similar as long as you are down to teach me the ropes of your game(s) of interest I, down for this, also down to do video calls when we both feel

I will probably end up drawing for you or write you poems lol

Things I think worth noting about me: my literal communication style benefits from CLOSED questions I hate open ended questions as my brain will scan through too many possibilities and uncertainties which can lead to me saying what I think I’m meant to not what I mean, clear and concise communication is great else I overthink or project or misunderstand or get paranoid and probably won’t express this. I sometimes need persistence, like being called, texted a lot in order to start re engaging this actually also helps wit my trust.

I love comics and sorta live off WEBTOON because comics/graphic novels are expensive for how fast you get through them:( particularly obsessed with fantasy stories that entail queer dynamics

I’m happily taken in a relationship so queer couple friendships, friendships with queer families/parents is also great=)

Feel free to message things about you or just message in short as a response or repost if you are looking for similar things and want more people to see/interact all is cool

[willel]

Ofc, I assume that the events of the play will be briefly mentioned in S5, either by quick flashbacks (like the Creels’ in S4) or dialogues like between Nancy and Eddie’s uncle or Victor. Trefry said that’s the plan but didn’t specify which events of the play will be presented in S5. I see your point but it’d look equally absurd if S5 plainly contradicts the play and ignores the interactions it added between the characters. I think people don’t realize that the play isnt just some non canon novel or comics, the whole team has been massively invested in it, and netflix too.

I know exactly what the play is and who was involved. Before the play even released, I said if there were contradictions between the play and the show, then I would have no choice but to throw out the contradicting parts of the play in favor of what the show has shown us so far.

There are direct indisputable contradictions between the show and the play so again, unless they're going to do something to make the play widely available to the public outside of London, then it's absurd to expect the general audience to know about it or expect it to show up in the show itself. Maybe you've seen the play yourself but I sure haven't. The only reason we know about it for the most part is because people ignored the "Don't post spoilers online!" request from the people running the play.

I have no problem believing most of the stuff in the play will be just as irrelevant as the novels or comics because the contradictions in it are just as clear cut.

From everything I've heard about the play, Joyce's role in Henry's story isn't even a major point of the play. Like yeah it happens, they vaguely know each other, she tells him she doesn't think it's his fault, etc.

But I don't feel that connection is necessary nor do I think it is required to make Joyce relevant in the plot. She's already extremely relevant just by being who she is in relation to two of the titular characters of the cast and as a good mother, which Henry clearly hates.

As much as I love theory crafting, I guess I'm just not super font of prequels trying to make two characters know each other somehow when they don't gotta which is probably why I'm just personally not on board with that being Joyce's connection to this particular plot when I feel like she's already deeply connected.

Vecna/Henry knows her face. They've met face to face. He's screamed at her and choked her using Will's body. He's probably seen every single memory Will has of her. Like, the concept of "mom" is so intertwined in Henry's story. In El's story. In Will's story. It's all already there.

[nochd]

Not doing this as a reblog because it is a very side nitpick on a single offhand sentence in a post on a completely different and very important topic, but---

Charles Darwin did not believe in scientific racism. He challenged it.

Admittedly his challenge was pretty weaksauce compared to what we would accept as a bare minimum today. Nevertheless, within his own cultural context, it was a challenge.

Now it would be very easy to quote passages from The Descent of Man that make it look like Darwin was racist. These passages look that way for three reasons:

At the most superficial level, in the 1870s English had no words for BIPOC other than insulting terms like "negroes" and "savages", which accordingly The Descent of Man freely uses.

Darwin was an almost pathologically humble man, and his way of constructing an argument was to start by summing up his opponents' case as fairly and strongly as he could, then amass counter-evidence bit by bit. This is certainly what he was doing in the passage in the Origin of Species that creationists love to quote, about how the gradual evolution of the eye "seems absurd in the highest degree". And, having read The Descent of Man, I believe it was what he was doing in the early chapters where he sums up all the reasons white people gave for believing people of colour to be inferior. I cannot otherwise account for the fact that he goes on in the later chapters to contradict nearly every one of them.

Unfortunately, also because of being such a humble man, Darwin believed in taking his fellow researchers at their word, at least with regard to their data. In fact a vast amount of the anthropological data on BIPOC available to him in the 1870s was biased or slanted or outright fabricated. Unwilling to call the researchers liars, Darwin's challenge to their conclusions is (from a present-day perspective) disappointingly feeble.

Darwin came to his life's work from the abolitionist movement, in which both his grandfathers (Erasmus Darwin and Josiah Wedgwood) were leading figures.

Prior to his time the leading theory about human "races" was that several different human species had been separately created before Noah's Flood, and that only the one that included white people was descended from Noah and hence truly human. Proponents of this theory would point to Egyptian paintings, dating (according to the then-accepted model) to only one thousand years after the Flood and clearly showing a distinction between light-skinned Egyptians and darker-skinned people from further south, and they would say: how could the descendants of Noah have diverged so much in just one thousand years and then not changed at all in the following three thousand?

Darwin's main goal in The Descent of Man is to demonstrate that, on the contrary, all humans are descended from a single common ancestor, and also we should stop referring to living things (let alone human races) as "higher" and "lower" because they're all equally well adapted to their own environments, and incidentally we should also drop the Flood model of prehistory.

Sadly, though Darwin's central thesis did come to be accepted by the scientific community in his lifetime, in the process it suffered misreadings and misinterpretations to wrangle it to fit in with the ideas it was meant to challenge, especially the idea of "higher" and "lower" life-forms.

He is said to have cordially disliked several of the people who championed altered versions of his idea. This may be confirmation bias on my part, but it seems to me that he particularly disliked people who used evolutionary ideas to justify "scientific" racism -- such as Herbert Spencer and Ernst Haeckel.

[constellationmelody]

Finished listening to the New Midnight Burger episode, though I’ll admit, I'm gonna miss the last logo, the new logo is great! 

I loved the new episode, and It's an early Mother’s Day episode! And learn something new about Caspar and Ava. Ava's mother confessed she’s pregnant when Caspar's mothers entered the Diner/club when Caspar was only a 2-year-old toddler, and i can assume that he's 2-3 years older than Ava; If Caspar’s is correct when he subtracted his years he spent on earth compare to his actual age in space in the diner then I assume he’s about 43-44 human years old(?). (I need to relisten to that again) In mannerisms and speech, Ava resembles her mom, the only difference being their ambitions. Playing piano isn’t bad, if anything, it may have helped her have better than most working memory.  I feel for Gloria. I haven’t yet experienced a loss that feels like a part of your soul was ripped away but I can imagine seeing them brought back through malicious intent, is heartbreakingly cruel.  Ava’s favorite song is hilarious! I had to look us the song, Somehow that kind of song reminds me of another song because it just matches another equally hilarious absurd song I loved and looked it up. I thought I’ve heard of the guy’s name before! I like his song, The Masochism Tango. She (and her VA) sings beautifully. Good for Ava though, Bit by bit she’s learning to be empathetic. Comforting two people about their communication skills as these married couple, who living in a different universes where one is about to be destroyed and now, a new mom on being a bad mom. Also, It feels a bit comforting to me because of the doubts I’ve been feeling on that particular subject. Oh Clementine's even reality bending powers can’t stop all suffering in the universe, you can show compassion for it to pass forward to other people that the diner can’t visit for, heaven knows that there’s a lot of depressed people suffering. Kinda like in Inside out when Joy realize that when a person suffers, there people who’ll come to aid and show compassion. Her offers are really tempting, offering the chance to rectify past mistakes, reunite with lost loved ones, and get back long-held dreams, finally putting an end to one's suffering. While Zebulon and Effie may view the offers as a potential deal with the devil, given Clementine's reality-bending powers and the incredible nature of her offer, ((I am certain that she will require something in return - even if she is unaware of it herself, believing her intentions to be pure.)) Despite the temptation, I doubt that Leif and Ava will accept the offer. especially Ava. Ava is more concerned with the truth than being believed by others. I mean, would she really resist the opportunity to travel through time and dimensions to test her theories or stay on earth and have her theories just be numbers on a chalkboard without proof?  Thinking to myself The Mucklewains, though they may not be the same people as the once lived in the 1920s, they are still real people that we love and respect. Physical bodies or not. Oh man, That cliffhanger. I like that Caspar is like growing as a person. He was a really grumpy guy when you first met him, like you could imagine this dude already growing white hair but he’s really grow to be more open and jokes around with others. Looking at him, 173 years old young and joking about it.  I know there’s more that I’m missing but I've those are the main plot points that happened in the episode that I can remember. I’ve heard it once, I will listen to it again later.  I also loved the bloopers they added at the end of the podcast. XD.