#and then they always spread some false statistic

[stressedbeetle]

sometimes I watch video footage of Sweden from several years ago (70s, 50s, 1920s etc) because, I like history and I find it interesting. But then when I unfortunately check the comments there will without fail always be so many racist, xenophobic, Islamophobic comments saying that Sweden has been overrun and that the time from the video was the "good old days". Which just makes me SO FUCKING MAD PLEASE JUST SHUT UP YOU RACIST PIECE OF SHIT

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Erec Smith

Published: Feb 24, 2024

My impetus for dedicating the bulk of my career to combatting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives began on a listserv for Rhetoric and Composition, the field in which I teach as a professor. Upon hearing a well-received speech claiming that the teaching of Standard English to Black students was a form of racism, I wrote an email questioning the efficacy of that argument. My inquiry induced a level of opprobrium I did not expect. I was called a white supremacist, and blatant lies were spread about me on social media.

Besides these robust attempts to degrade me, I noticed a consistent infantilization of anyone Black who was “brave” enough to speak up against me. Mind you, this extremely woke listserv was a safe place to voice disdain for anyone who refused to embrace a victim narrative—no bravery required—but in order to abide by that narrative, anyone Black had to be cast as a downtrodden victim punching up and speaking truth to power. Anyone Black except me, of course. For wanting Black students to have the utmost agency and to flourish in today’s society, I, a Black man, was shunned by whites and Blacks alike.

The U.S. is currently celebrating Black History Month, and I’ve been asked to share my thoughts about how this month of celebration aligns with DEI initiatives. The answer to that question depends on the type of DEI. Some DEI initiatives align with the classical liberal values of the civil rights movement, and indeed of America’s founding, such as freedom and equal opportunity for all, regardless of skin color. Other versions of DEI, however, are undergirded by critical social justice (CSJ), an ideology that pits whites and Blacks against each other; whites are perpetual oppressors, and Blacks are perpetually oppressed. This variation of DEI, which I refer to as CSJ-DEI, is the ideology that was on display during the aforementioned listserv debacle. It insists on the perpetual victim status of Black Americans and, in so doing, is ideologically opposed to the celebration of Black Americans because it focuses on their trials, not their triumphs. Black History Month is supposed to be about Black empowerment, but CSJ-DEI depends on Black disempowerment.

One can get the gist of CSJ by understanding its primary tenet: “The question is not ‘did racism take place?’ but rather ‘how did racism manifest in that situation?’” This philosophy assumes that racism is always already a part of any interaction between whites and nonwhites; one just has to find it. Assessing the facts of a particular situation is considered unnecessary, even naive. One need not think when it comes to racial justice; the narrative—the script—does the thinking. Does this lack of agency, this deference of volition to a pre-scripted narrative, sound empowering?

CSJ-DEI is about leaning into to the “downtrodden Black person” narrative, but that narrative does not align with the reality of today’s America. Forget about the growing presence of current or recent Black immigrants and the enhanced socioeconomic status of many Black Americans today. According to the altered reality of CSJ-DEI, Black people must still be seen as irredeemably oppressed. Scholars Julian Adorney and Jake Mackey call this altered reality a “virtuous lie,” defined as “a false or dubious claim that is asserted without qualification because it is thought to advance an ethical agenda.” Exaggerated police statistics and the insistence that Black Americans are still caught in a form of slavery are just the tips of this “virtuous” iceberg.  

Virtuous lies are anything but virtuous in these situations, but they show up in traditionally virtuous places, such as scholarly journals. In the scientific journal Cell, prominent scientists insist that the Black individuals among their ranks “continue to suffer institutional slavery.” In addition, a philosophy professor argues that the “years 1492 and 1619 and 1857 and 1955 are still now” and insists she means this in “a meaningful, non-metaphorical sense” (my emphasis). The absurdity of these statements is matched, if not eclipsed, only by the fact that these authors were confident their arguments would be taken seriously. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was emboldened enough to say that a false narrative is acceptable if it feels “morally right”; to insist on facts is to be misguided.

Black History Month is too good for CSJ-DEI. It is about the celebration of figures in Black history who beat seemingly insurmountable odds. It is about figures like educator Mary McLeod Bethune, lawyer Samuel J. Lee, congressman Josiah T. Walls and many others of whom most are unaware. I firmly believe that these figures would scoff at CSJ-inspired ideas such as equitable math, the demonization of debate and the violence of teaching Standard English to Black students.

[ Autodidact, reformer and orator Frederick Douglass. ]

The misalignment of Black History Month with CSJ-DEI is exemplified by one of the most consistently celebrated figures of Black history: Frederick Douglass. As a slave, Douglass taught himself to read despite the fact that it was illegal. He had to be astute enough to be autodidactic and clever enough to do it without getting caught. When he escaped into the free states, he rose to become the most sought-after orator of the 19th century. Douglass’ life is an implicit counterargument to the CSJ-DEI narrative: If Douglass could accomplish this as a slave two centuries ago, what excuses do Black people have for embracing victimhood today, in a truly free society of which Douglass could only dream?  

Ultimately, CSJ-DEI not only counters the spirit of Black History Month, but it insults the figures celebrated during that month. To pretend things are just as bad now as they were throughout American history is to disrespect the accomplishments of Black Americans. Black Americans today are here and thriving precisely because of their power and ability to rise above adverse circumstances. To insist we remain disempowered at all times is risible at best.

[clare-with-no-i]

hi clare!!!! very random (I’m clearly having a wild NYE), but if you don’t mind, I’m super curious about your opinions re: sarah koenig and true crime journalists. I saw you posted about it a while back on clarewashere (I would have submitted this ask there but that blog didn’t have an ask option!). I have always hated true crime podcasts but I know you’re super educated on the criminal justice system and I would love to hear your perspective

totally feel free to ignore this :) cheers! hope you’re having a lovely NYE!!

hi beloved! thank you for the question! also yeah I have my asks off on that blog because one time someone sent me anon hate on there but didn't realize it was my main and that I'm, yknow, me, which was really hilarious lol. anyway.

soooo god I have myriad problems with the true crime genre. it pretty much does everything possible wrong when dealing with conversations around policing, criminalization, and incarceration, and yes I even mean the 'sensitive' true crime people and not just the YouTubers who do makeup while talking about, like, Ted Bundy or whatever it is they discuss.

true crime as a genre and phenomenon sensationalizes crime, creates an unrealistic culture of fear based on wildly standout incidents of violence, and reinforces false ideas that a) police in this country solve crimes, which they don't, FBI statistics on homicide clearance rate give a (very optimistic!) estimation that about 54% of homicides are being solved per annum; b) kidnapping, murder, other violent crimes are a significant portion of the prison population, which they absolutely are not; c) that white people are just as likely to experience violent crime as people of color, which they aren't at all. the airtime that these incredibly niche, outlying stories get overwhelms real conversations about the carceral state in America (prison gerrymandering! over-policing minority neighborhoods! stop and frisk! civil asset forfeiture!), and they also strengthen this insane mythos that there is a hard line between perpetrators of crime and victims of crime, which, no, there absolutely is not. an overwhelming majority of incarcerated persons have themselves been victims of some form of crime. crime is born from poverty, from underfunded school systems, from homelessness, from lack of healthcare, from feeding drugs into Black communities and then arresting drug users. it is a function of the structural racism and classism that permeate the American reality. it's not just joe criminal waking up one day and grabbing an axe. like yes of course that happens, and it is terrible when it does, but to only report on that/make it a feature of a media subculture is frightening.

and people might say, oh, well, what's the harm? it's just a youtube video!!! but the popularity of narratives like those spread by true crime pods/videos is, and let me make this clear, exactly what tough-on-crime lobbyists and legislators want. how do you think laws like "Three Strikes You're Out" get passed? the popular consciousness gets swept into a moral panic about violent crime and looks to expand the prison system as a means of harm reduction.

and to anticipate another counterpoint: when people are like, but it's spreading awareness!!! ok…awareness of…ongoing police investigations? great. and which investigations in particular? whose stories get told, and whose get ignored? I remember seeing some dumbass take that true crime pods 'spread awareness about domestic violence.' cool. and what structural solutions are we positing? what resources to possible victims are we providing? what funding toward shelters, toward civil legal funds, is being allotted from the earnings? yeah I thought so.

outside of its larger effects on its consumers' understanding of criminalization, true crime is so gross on a human level: these are real people's stories. these are real families of victims who have to watch their loved ones' deaths get discourse-ified and mangled on the internet like it's the latest episode of fucking Game of Thrones. Netflix and other streaming services have created scripted TV shows and films based on real human suffering without ever checking with the families or getting approval. and, honestly, even those scant YouTubers who get families' approvals, I still think it's sketchy as fuck. like, you're still profiting off of this, if not financially, then with it being your entire career just sitting in your house telling the stories of other people's trauma for clicks. yikes?

also, sooo many true crime fanatics are feral weirdos. sorry to say it. there is no goddamn reason why people should be dressing up like Gabby Petito or her murderer for Halloween. there is no reason rando white women should be making "if I go missing" folders with, like, locks of their hair and vials of their spit in them. there is no reason to create conspiracy theories around victims of domestic violence and act like they're actually manipulating the world and/or their abuser. there is no reason that lawyers on fucking TikTok should be making weeks-long series on a domestic abuse trial filled with meme audios and funky freeze-frames. it's weirdo behavior!! I'm not sure at what point we all got desensitized to the idea that people are entitled to privacy and respect when dealing with the objectively hardest times in their lives, but Jesus Christ !!!

to wrap up, my gripe with Sarah Koenig is that she's a hack lmao. Serial not only garbled most of its content wrt the Adnan Sayed trial, but it also stole from Rabia O'Chaudry's investigation of the trial, and left key significant pieces of his bungled defense out. and then SK claimed credit for getting him out of prison. blech. she's also the final boss of all true crime journos because true crime podcasting absolutely took off after Serial, much to my chagrin.

there we have it, this was a dissertation, sorry to anyone who actually reads this, it's such a rant lmao. thank you again for asking <3 as a known haver of opinions it's always a pleasure to be asked about said opinions

[tellthemeerkatsitsfine]

A few days ago, I had the best night I’ve had in a long time. I’ve been struggling lately to get back to the coaching job I did before COVID, going to practices once in a while but feeling disconnected, like it’s not my home the way it used to be. Or like I’m not who I used to be. Like I don’t know what’s worse, the people I used to be close with but I let those bonds go when I shut down in the last two years, or the new people who don’t know me at all, and I’m a stranger where I used to be a fixture. My mental tolerance for being around people in an intense environment has gone down so much. I was scared I could never get it back.

The other night was by far the best time I’ve had so far for that. It was the official first day of a new season, and the room was full of hope and anticipation and excitement. Old friends came back and new people came out and it felt like community, not like a lot of people who were already comfortable and me in isolation. I helped so many different people with so many different things. Taught new moves to a twenty-three-year-old who’d never done any sport in his life but had always wanted to, and had decided during the pandemic that it was time to finally have the courage to try something. Also taught new moves to a nineteen-year-old who’s been training hard for seven years and medaled at the national championships before the pandemic is so excited to get his plan back on track. And I worked with a bunch of people in between. Everyone helped each other and at the end I jumped in and participated in the matches until I was exhausted, and I remembered why I love all this so much.

It was the first time I was in an enclosed space with lots of people and didn’t have worry about COVID in the back of my brain. When I was a kid, I had a lot of issues around OCD-related contamination fears. Getting into this contact sport did a lot to get me over that for a long time, but they’ve gotten worse in the last two years, and that’s been a problem as I’ve tried to get back to this sport over the summer. I keep seeing ways that spreading germs is dangerous. But the other night, I was so focused on the people and the things that I loved, I didn’t even think of that. Didn’t think of COVID, didn’t think of anything. I’d decided it was safe and I was finally able to really believe that.

I came out of it feeling like I really can get this back, not at some nebulous point in the future but now. Like I already have it, it was there. After spending so much time using media as a way to vicariously get my emotions, it was a reminder of how it feels to actually go out there and experience things I love for real. I believe David O’Doherty described is best in his song about feeling “truly alive”.

This morning, I woke up with a bad cough, very sore throat, and I don’t have a thermometer but based on how I feel I’m pretty sure I have a fever. I took a rapid test and it was negative, but my friend who was at practice the other night just told us that he just tested positive, so I suspect mine is a false negative and I do have COVID. I’ve been so careful for two and a half years, and have avoided getting it in all that time. I know statistically it will probably be okay, but I also know about the long COVID horror stories and I like being able to taste and smell and breathe at full capacity and I’m imagining what it’ll be like if I never do those things again. Also, next week I was supposed to start the final in-person placement in a college program I started nearly three years ago. I’ve put so much work into it, and now at the very end I got out for one night and fuck it all up, I have to figure out protocol and I’ll start late and it’s a mess.

The moral of the story is never love anything. Wait, actually, I know exactly what the lesson is. I just have to find the picture.

[leejanfayesuministrado]

Prevention of misinformation in a community

Nowadays fake news and misinformation is spreading nonstop to our society. It affects people's lives by sharing the information they saw on the internet without any research about it. People believe easily on what they see on the internet.

Fake news has a big impact to a person who do not know about media literacy, they will spread news without checking the information or news that they see in a website.

By educating people to research the post and find a factual evidences before sharing it to the community it will lessen the fake news.

By media information literate we can participate in discussions and debates related to media, information, and community issues. Share our insights, perspectives and critical analysis with others to foster a healthy and informed civic discourse. We can advocate for the inclusion of media literacy education in schools and community programs. Raise awareness among policemakers, educator, and parents about the importance of teaching media literacy skills to young people. We can share our knowledge to individuals especially when they are kids. We can help them develop media literacy skills, teach them how to evaluate information critically, and guide them navigating the digital media landscape responsibly.

Students can help the community through media literacy by providing tools to help the people develop receptive media capability to critically analyze messages, offers opportunities for learners to broaden their experience of media and help them develop generative media capability to increase creative skills in making their own medic messages and others can access to online books, pictures, blogs, documentary films and music enables people to learn about different authores.

We can educate others in our community about the importance of media literacy, we can conduct workshops or presentation to teach people how to identify misinformation, fact-check sources, and critically evaluate media content. We can also share accurate and verified information with our community to prevent dissemination of false or misleading content. We can use our media literacy skills to create informartive content that educates and raises awareness about issues in our community.

Some people never share a post on social media without fact checking. Before sharing any information, make sure that it is from a reputable source. Check if the information is supported by other credible sources, and fact-check any claims or statistics that seem dubious. Share your knowledge with others and educate them on how to spot fake news. Encourage your friends and family to fact-check before sharing any information and to avoid sharing news from unverified sources. If others come across a news story that you believe is fake, report it to the appropriate authorities, such as social media platforms, news outlets, or fact-checking organizations. reputable news sources that prioritize accuracy and impartiality. Avoid sharing content from clickbait sites or sensationalist outlets.

Our contribution for our community is to help others that what they see online is not always true. And ourselves who studying Media Information literacy, Our mission is to educate people to get more information before spreading out the news that is not accurate, educate others to get to know more about media information literacy it is for them to understand what we're trying say. And teach them how to use social media in a proper way to prevent fake news around the internet, Some people are convinced immediately that what they see on the internet without knowing all the information of that issue. Example that someone posted online on someone that will destructive their personality and false information without knowing the whole story. Then that person who posted online will be ashamed of themselves. Social Media like false information can affect our life, It is because we are spreading not accurate and false information that is publicity that everyone can see.

Listed are the proactive way to avoid spreading false information. Verify before sharing, check the source, be mindful of bias, avoid impulsive sharing, educate yourself and others, and report false Information.

Preventing the spread of misinformation and fake news is a shared responsibility that begins with individual actions. By following these simple yet effective strategies verifying information, checking sources, staying mindful of bias, avoiding impulsive sharing, educating yourself and others, and reporting false information you can play a vital role in curbing the dissemination of false information and promoting a more informed, responsible digital society.

As a media and information literate individual, you have the power to contribute to your community in many ways. You can help spread awareness about important issues, raise funds for causes you care about, and engage with others in thoughtful dialogue.

You can contribute to your community by expressing your freedom of speech. You can use your skills to help others understand the news and make informed decisions about the world around them. You can also use your knowledge to create new media content that will engage and inform your community. As a media and information literate individual, you have a responsibility to use your skills for the good of your community

In conclusion, the Internet has profoundly impacted our world, transforming how we communicate, learn, work, manage our finances, access entertainment, and shop. It has made our lives more convenient and connected and will continue to evolve and shape our future in countless ways.

[reasoningdaily]

Many things likely come to mind when you think about the end times. You probably envision fire coming from the heavens, chaos erupting globally and life as we know it coming to an end. While these are common associations, several signs will occur before the last days that we should pay attention to. We understand that these are signs of the end times because Jesus tells us so. Here are the final 11 signs of the end of the world.

Signs of Deception

One of the major signs of the end times is deception. The Bible warns us of false prophets who will say they are the Messiah. They will also claim they have answers for all the problems of the world. Jesus gives us very specific warnings that speak to our generation now, referenced in Matthew 24. In this passage, Jesus mentions the false prophets who will use wonders to deceive us. These false prophets can include people in government, elected officials and other leaders. We must guard ourselves and be on the lookout for these deceivers. We are also told in the Bible these aren’t ordinary men. In the last days, many will cry out for leaders, and they will turn to these false prophets who claim to have the answers.

Hunger and Famine

Another significant sign of the end times is famine and hunger. These are some of the biggest issues plaguing our world right now, and many people are trying to figure out if this is a sign we are entering the end times. According to key statistics, 11 percent of the world’s population is hungry. That means 805 million people are undernourished daily. While we are blessed with a large and fertile planet, millions of people are going hungry each day.

Natural Disasters

When natural disasters take place, many people are concerned that they are pointing to the end times. Some of these recent events and disasters include record-breaking heatwaves not only in America and in Europe. People have also cited devastating earthquakes and wildfires that have taken out whole communities. This has come against the backdrop of political tension, which has only left people more fearful.

The Spread of New Diseases

Revelation 6:5-8 warns that our world will be rocked by new diseases and subsequent plagues in the end times. Luke 21:11 also cautions that there will be pestilences in various places and fearful events in the last days. Many people have wondered if the COVID-19 pandemic is one of the new diseases the Bible speaks of. Some believe that the pestilences that Jesus referenced will be fulfilled in the first three and a half years of the Tribulation period that comes after the rapture.

War

We are told in scripture that there will be disputes among nations. Scripture warns us that a big sign of Jesus’ ultimate return is discord and war among groups of people. This is another sign many people are wondering about is occurring right now. The Book of Revelation references a period called the Tribulation. During this period, we are told there will be a great deal of war. This war will appear to have no end. The Bible also tells us that as we enter the end times, including national battles, conflicts at the border and race wars.

Rumors of War

In addition to listing war as a sign of the end times, Jesus also mentions rumors of war. Many people think that Jesus is simply warning us of war in the last days, but Jesus is really instructing us to not allow rumors of war to concern or alarm us because “the end is not yet.” Jesus was doing the same thing when He spoke of false Christs in Matthew 24:5. Jesus tells us in Matthew 24:8 that “all these are the beginning of the birth pains.”

Signs in the Heavens

God references numerous heavenly signs that point to the end times. The 6th Seal of Revelation goes into great detail about the signs in the heavens which haven’t been witnesses since creation. One of the biggest passages that reference these signs is Revelation 6:12-14. This passage says, “When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place.” While many believe these are signs of despair, they are indeed signs of hope.

Persecution

One of the signs of the end times many people don’t talk about is persecution. During the final days, there will be a rise in the persecution of Christians. We will also see hatred and betrayal increase. In Matthew 24, right before Jesus references the rise of false prophets, He warns the disciples, “Then you will be arrested, persecuted and killed. You will be hated all over the world because you are my followers. And many will turn away from Me and betray and hate each other.” This is why we must be disciplined in our prayer lives.

Lawlessness

Jesus prophesied in the final days that there would be lawlessness. Many people think the lawlessness associated with the end times is as simple as people disobeying the 10 Commandments. It goes much deeper than this. Remember, Jesus was a big proponent of God’s law. Not only was His life governed by the law, but He also taught people to obey the law. In Second Thessalonians 2:8-9, Paul uses the word lawless to reference the most powerful false religious teacher in the last days. During Jesus’ earthly ministry, Jesus warns us that God will reject those who practice lawlessness.

Jesus

The most significant sign of the end times is Jesus. In Acts 1, the risen Lord spoke his parting instructions to his followers. They asked the Lord, “Is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?” While the disciples didn’t fully understand Jesus’ full purpose, they were filled with the hope that He would act victoriously and decisively on their behalf. Jesus’ response serves as a reminder that while we will not be privy to the exact day and moment of Jesus’ ultimate return, we will not be oblivious to the signs that the day is close.

While the world appears to get darker, and we face more spiritual warfare than ever before, we have real hope through Jesus Christ. He defeated death and remained victorious. We can have the same victory when we put our total faith in our Lord and Savior. When we trust in the words of Jesus and the prophets, we can be better prepared for what’s to come.

[oncology-xpert]

6 COMMON MISCONCEPTIONS/MYTHS ABOUT CANCER

Certain common views about how cancer begins and spreads, while scientifically incorrect, can appear to make logic, especially when they are based on old theories. However, false cancer beliefs can cause unnecessary anxiety and even obstruct excellent prevention and treatment decisions. Myths tend to emerge in response to exceptionally widespread conditions. As a result, it is not surprising that individuals frequently misinterpret cancer. The term "cancer" refers to a collection of diseases that can affect any region of the body. This type adds fuel to the confusing fire.

Some popular cancer misconceptions and the facts behind these falsehoods-

Cancer is a fatal disease-

Cancer is not a fatal disease. Despite the depressing statistics, cancer is not always fatal. Many factors influence how long a cancer patient lives and whether he or she dies from the disease, including whether the cancer is slow or fast developing, how far the cancer has spread in the body, if effective treatments are available, the person's overall health, and more.

Cancer is contagious-

This is a myth. Cancer does not spread. Cancer cannot be transmitted to others. The only time cancer can transfer from one person to another is during organ or tissue donation. A person who gets an organ or tissue from a donor who has had cancer in the past may be more likely to acquire transplant-related cancer in the future.

Cancer is intensely painful-

Cancer that is painful is very rare. One of the most serious issues is that many varieties of cancer show little to no symptoms, and diagnosis may occur only at a late, advanced stage. The majority of the pain associated with cancer is the discomfort caused by cancer treatment side effects such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy. Medication and other pain management measures can help to alleviate this discomfort.

All cancers are alike and can be treated in the same manner-

Cancer refers to a group of disorders that share the feature of uncontrolled cell division that spreads into surrounding tissues. There are approximately 100 different forms of cancer, and each one reacts differently in various people. Different forms of genetic alterations can affect cancer and should be treated differently even in persons with the same type of tumor in the same body location. This is why a "miracle cure" for cancer is extremely unlikely, and why even the optimal mix of therapy for each patient might generate wildly disparate results. A devoted and skilled medical team is typically required for a successful cancer therapy to examine the possibilities and chart the best road to recovery.

Cancer is Hereditary-

Because cancer is mostly caused by hereditary flaws in the DNA, many people assume that if they do not have a family history of cancer, they are extremely unlikely to develop cancer. In reality, inherited genetic mutations cause only roughly 5 - 10% of cancer occurrences. The remaining 90-95 percent of instances are caused by an individual's lifestyle and environment, such as smoking or exposure to cancer-causing chemicals. People with a cancer family history, on the other hand, should get screened periodically and live a healthy lifestyle because they are at a higher risk of acquiring cancer.

Cancer has no known cure-

Fortunately, this is also a misconception. Treatments become more successful when medical research looks deeper into the causes underlying cancer. It is critical that cancer patients, even those in advanced stages, should not lose hope: there are numerous successful, novel medicines, as well as more effective surgical approaches.

There are numerous useful sources of cancer information on the internet. Unfortunately, it is also used to instil fear by repeating myths and misconceptions so frequently that many people believe them to be true. Despite the fact that the struggle against cancer is still ongoing, science is making major advances. You can always consult an Oncologist for correct information and treatment.

[tech-blog987]

5 Myths and Facts about Ayurveda Treatments -Kerala Ayurvedic Centre, Dubai

The exercising of Ayurveda dates all another time over 5000 years. The globe over, there are various myths and realities regarding Ayurveda remedies that have been spread due to its seemingly archaic techniques of recuperation. Then there are the untruths that skeptics spread about Ayurveda that don`t have some detail to do with fact. But no affected character who has embraced Ayurvedic practices can ever acquire as authentic with such defective assumptions. There are severa Ayurvedic treatment facilities in Dubai because of the fact Ayurveda is the pioneer from which many modern areas of drugs emerged. To find out greater about the five myths and realities surrounding Ayurvedic treatment, hold reading.

Myth # 1: Ayurveda is an vintage and obsolete device

Fact: Ayurveda is frequently seemed as an “exotic” shape of treatment that doesn`t adhere to mounted clinical theories. But because of its effectiveness, Ayurveda has been applied in our united states of america for introduced than 5000 years and stays used now. It is a well-documented branch of drugs, and severa studies and medical trials were completed in antiquity. Observation and experience, the cornerstones of science, were used to refine it for loads of years. The antique texts have unique statistics about food, herbs, and minerals similarly to medical diagnoses. Ayurveda has professional a rebirth and is now substantially noted due to the greater expertise of the fee of a holistic manner of life and healthful vitamins in today`s decades.

Myth # 2: Ayurvedic treatment takes longer to art work and isn’t very effective

Fact: One purpose why Ayurvedic treatments take longer to art work is that they popularity on treating the muse of the problem in preference to definitely treating the symptoms. The fact that patients frequently take Ayurvedic treatment wonderful after trying specific medications, that may put off Ayurvedic treatment`s consequences, is a few special problem contributing to the myth’s persistence. It may additionally moreover moreover provide consequences faster if used on the number one sign of a disease or illness. The time period needed to heal patients varies on severa variables, which consist of techniques rapid the hassle modified into identified, how excessive it modified into, and the manner rapid the body responds to the treatment.

Myth # 3: Ayurvedic remedies do no longer want a health practitioner

Fact: When someone uses Ayurveda treatment to heal themselves, they encourage others to do the same. The fact is that Ayurveda treatment is based totally absolutely absolutely mostly on “Prakriti,” or the body`s constitution, for some diseases. Therefore, selecting home remedies based totally absolutely absolutely mostly on an internet searching out or mindlessly taking ayurvedic treatment that someone else has recommended can be harmful. Instead, you want to are searching out out an authorized Ayurveda practitioner or choose from among the proper market formulations for the treatment of precise problems.

Myth # 4: Ayurvedic treatment is ready oil rubdown or spa

Fact: Oil rubdown or spa treatments are part of ayurvedic treatment. Spas hire herbal and ayurvedic prefixes in loads of additives of the place to draw clients, primary to the false impression that Ayurveda is much like oil rubdown or spa treatments. While Ayurveda uses oils with restoration characteristics, the aromatherapy employed in spas pastimes to appease the body. They perform the primary feature of body cleaning and toxin elimination similarly to relaxation and renewal.

Myth # 5: Ayurveda way a strict vegetarian diet

Fact: One of the most important misconceptions is this one. A vegetarian diet is typically advocated via manner of technique of Ayurveda, but it isn’t always required. Vegetarian food often digests without difficulty and gives your body all the nutrients it needs. In Ayurveda, ingesting meat isn’t always in the direction of the rules. It is based totally completely upon at the selection of the individual.

Kerala Ayurveda Centre Dubai is typically available in case you are looking for the fantastic ayurvedic care in Dubai. We are the fine Ayurveda health center in Dubai to transport once more lower once more for any pain you revel in because of our holistic technique and choice for sharing the facts of Ayurveda.

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[radkindoffeminist]

I think one of the most insidious things about the trans movement is all the lies that they spread to over-exaggerate their oppression.

When they say things about trans people being more likely to be murdered on the street when they have the lowest murder rate? Razor blade behind stickers which got completely debunked? Lifespan being like 30 years for trans people which was based on the murders of prostituted trans people in Brazil. Extremely high suicide rates, assault rates, basically rates measuring anything bad?

These lies are all too commonly repeated by trans activists in order to prove that trans people are oppressed as they claim to be. And of course, if they were true, then they would have a point to make. But so many of them are either blatantly false or manipulations/misunderstandings of statistics (such as the suicide rate which was taken from one small study asking trans people if they’d ever attempted suicide.) They’re a way for trans activists to claim that they really are The Most Oppressed People Ever(TM) despite the fact that they’re really not and just liars who are begging for attention as well as dominated by white men who think that they’re oppressed when not everything goes their way.

But they forget in the process of trying to prove to everyone that they really are The Most Oppressed People Ever(TM) that they are harming a lot of trans people too. Because so many of them genuinely believe that they will be murdered on the street because that’s what they’re told. That if they don’t get quick access to HRT then they’ll kill themselves because that’s the lie that’s been spread and repeated constantly. That once they hit 30 then they gotta start looking out for themselves because that the most common lifespan statistic shared. That they need to be really fucking careful when taking down anti-trans stickers because there might be razor blades behind it since one person has claimed it and now they all fear it (and I have literally had conversations with my mates about this story including mentioning that it was debunked but they’re still convinced that it can happen and worry about it). That when they go out they always need to be on high alert for rape, assault, murder, etc because these things are all too common for trans people. And as a woman, I can empathise with this need to be on high alert constantly and being worried about walking at night and it fucking sucks. So to force that fear -as well as so many fucking others- onto someone when they have have little to no reason to worry, just so that your group can continue to claim oppression, is fucking sickening.

And I know some idiot is going to be like ‘well they should just research it themselves and most the statistics don’t make sense anyway so they deserve it’. They never deserve it. No one deserves to live in fear like this and I honestly can’t imagine what some of them go through, especially with the average lifespan stuff. These statistics are far too commonly spread across far too many outlets for them to find the true statistics unless they actively knew what they were looking for. And even then it’s probably a source which has been deemed problematic so they will not trust that source to be reliable. These young teenagers, these people sucked up with internalised homophobia, these women with body dysphoria and internalised misogyny don’t deserve to live in fear because they identify a certain way. They don’t deserve to be bombarded by misinformation to the degree that they are and find it difficult to find the actual statistics.

[mxvirani]

STATISTICS.   PINTEREST.   GROUP.

old instruments in the corner of the room, dust settled onto forgotten text books, prophecies that never panned out quite how they were meant to, a future that looked bright but suddenly went dark, self sabotage or self sacrifice, a deep sense of loss for a life never lived, the search for meaning that always comes up empty, the bottom of the bottle, the end of a container of pills, always waiting for death to come knocking like an old friend. 

FULL NAME : mitesh xeavi virani ( mx ) / PRONOUNS : he/they interchangeably / LAST ADDRESS :  london , england / BIRTH DATE : april 17th, 1992 / RUMOURED DEATH DATE : october 10th, 2022 / AGE : 29 / ZODIAC : aries / SIBLING(S): pari virani (26) / ORIENTATION : unknown / RELATIONSHIP STATUS : single / LAST ADDRESS : winchester, uk. /  TRIGGER WARNINGS : addiction, death, fire.

A WALK THROUGH HISTORY ; 

the virani’s had moved to darkwood, uk in the late 80s when they had decided to make a nice life for themselves. they were both medical professionals and mx’s father quickly opened his own practice with his mother working at the local hospital. they called it the good life and when they had their little son and daughter, they were ecstatic. there was nothing particularly abnormal about their lives in those early years raising their children. mx was particularly talented, he was fluent in six languages by twelve, played more instruments than you could count on two hands and wrote poetry that could reduce adults to tears. every year there was a new act from mx in the talent show but every month he changed his mind and started anew, flushing away his old identity. he drowned himself in anything and everything but nothing ever really hit the spot. by his teenage years he was restless, filled with an underlying sense of hopelessness that never really went away until he discovered drinking, drugs, partying. it was during this time in his young life that the darkwood fires of 2019 took place claiming the lives of some of his closest friends, injuring others and more so destroying mx's grasp on reality completely. mx spent the next three years becoming lost to his addiction and spiralling out of control in winchester until he took an overdose and died.

NEW REALITY ; 

after years of addiction and darkness, mx woke back up in 2019 before the darkwood fires took place and everything was exactly as it was before. he wasn’t the only one. it defied reality, universal law and anyone’s belief but it happened. mx began to wonder as time went on if it was all just some kind of whacky drug induced dream but he still spread word about the darkwood fires and other world events that were laughed off by the town. when the darkwood fires began despite those who had lived through them once doing everything in their power to stop them, they didn’t go the way they had before. they still claimed lives but these were different ones. mx was resented for being a false prophet and honestly, he wondered if any of it had ever happened at all. had he really lived two lives? was it all in his fucked up head? if he was enough of a mess to dream up an entire lifetime of loss, misery and his own death then mx supposed he’d have no issue returning to what he did best; finding something else to fill his mind with the help of substances as he waited to see if the universe really would claim him back as it once had. do we control our destiny or does it control us?

FUN FACTS ; 

believes that aliens are behind 99% of things.

very anti-government, doesn’t even keep money in the bank because he thinks it’s a scam. a lot of his paranoia is rooted in his addiction know.

often says things just for the sake of it and not for any real reason or because he really believes it. that’s just how he can be.

mx writes fanfiction online under an alias about popular tvs/comics/movies and finds this hilarious. it’s one of his hobbies and definitely fuelled by the weird things that pop into his head.

mx was originally a youtube moderator and was paid for this job as well as running a patreon where he helped people edit their youtube videos or websites for a small fee. he’s very good with technology although his talents were often wasted making spoof videos and other things that wasted time. 

mx got a dui the year that he got his license driving his friends from one party to another even though he didn’t plan to attend.

mx is british.

[dwellordream]

"In The Crowne Conjugall (1632), John Wing reminds readers that "an undutifull wife is a home-rebell, a house-traitor." As Wing's hyphenated terms reveal, the analogical relation between the household and the commonwealth could elide distinctions between the two. The resulting conflation of the domestic and the political informed legal as well as literary representation; the possibility that a wife might actually kill her husband was so disturbing that the crime had a special legal status. In legal statutes after 1352, killing one's husband, defined as petty treason, was carefully distinguished from other forms of murder and pronounced analogous to high treason-any threat to or assault on the monarch and his or her government. While a man who killed his wife or servant was accused of murder, the statutes provided that "if any servant kill his Master, any woman kill her husband, or any secular or religious person kill his Prelate to whom he owes Obedience, this is treason."

One justice of the peace succinctly explained that a wife or servant who "malitiously killeth" a husband or master was accused of treason while a husband or master who "malitiously killeth" a wife or servant was accused of murder "for that the one is in subjection and oweth obedience, and not the other...” In the statute that first defined killing a husband or master as a form of treason, killing a king and killing a husband or master were not explicitly distinguished as high and low, grand and petty, treasons but were instead described simply as versions of the same act, that is, kinds of treason. According to many legal historians, the definition of petty or domestic treason did not grow out of the definition of high treason, nor was the definition of the latter applied to the household analogously; instead, the understanding of treason against the sovereign, and even more abstractly, against the state, may well have evolved out of the more local, particular concept of betrayal of one's feudal lord.' 

In marking any distinction between the two kinds of treason, the 1352 statute might be seen as defining high as well as petty treason, marking a difference between king and lord and placing greater value on loyalty to the king. Although it is unclear exactly when the term "petty" or "petit" was first used to describe acts of domestic treason, the term "petty treason" was widely used in popular and legal discussions of the crime by the early seventeenth century. Until 1790, the punishments for petty treason were different than those for murder and drew attention to the crime as a particularly egregious treasonous assault on social and political order. Men convicted of petty treason were drawn to the place of execution on a hurdle and then were hanged. This punishment emphasized the shameful display of the disciplined body, but was not as heinous as the notorious executions for high treason, which involved mutilation, disembowelment, and decapitation. 

Women convicted of petty treason, however, were sentenced to the same punishment as those convicted of high treason: They were burned at the stake. In legal theory, then, if not always in practice, the punishment of female petty traitors collapsed the distinction between the two kinds of treason. For women, these capital offenses were not only analogous but virtually the same. Although the legal definition of petty treason constructs the subordination of wives and servants to the master of the household as the foundation of domestic and civil order, as natural and inevitable, it also acknowledges that wives and servants did not always cooperate; their subordination was not a given. The very need to define such a crime and the fairly regular opportunities to see or read about the offenders who committed it suggest the pervasive fear that wives and servants could and would rebel; they might not acquiesce to their subordination, which was achieved only by a complex network of constraints and coercions. 

The statute thus tells two stories that contradict one another: "These are the incontrovertible, non-negotiable principles according to which our world works"; and, simultaneously, "Our world does not always work according to these principles, so perhaps they are controvertible and negotiable." The transgressions of curates against their ministers and male servants against their masters inscribed in the legal definition of petty treason offer a useful reminder that domestic hierarchy and gender hierarchy are not the same thing and that gender and class categories do not neatly overlap. Some discussions of petty treason, although not the legal statute itself, suggest that a female servant who kills her mistress or a child who kills his or her mother could be considered guilty of petty treason. 

Such texts grant women positions of authority analogous to those of the king or queen-or husband or master-and present crimes against them, in their roles as mothers and mistresses, as crimes against familial and domestic authority. Although it was possible for female gender to coincide with domestic authority, as the relatively frequent murders of women by their rebellious servants and children confirm, the popular texts that survive seldom tell these stories, nor does the statute of treasons explicitly address this possibility. Petty treason narratives inevitably present the story of the murderous wife (and, often, of her servant-lover); when they grant a woman an important role in a story of domestic violence, she is usually the perpetrator rather than the victim of that violence.

The many popular versions of the story of the betrayed male authority figure and the female home-rebel and house-traitor exclude the complexities with which the justices of the peace wrestled. The murderous wife invited representation and debate in a huge array of seventeenth-century printed texts, including legal treatises, pamphlets, scaffold speeches, political polemic, ballads, and plays. Depicting actual domestic crimes, these texts serve a variety of functions-spreading news, correcting false reports with "true relations," offering moral lessons and "warnings," debating legal issues, and fulfilling the taste of a burgeoning audience for titillation and retribution. The proliferation of texts about petty treason does not demonstrate that wives and servants suddenly began killing their husbands and masters in record numbers. 

Nor does the relative paucity of texts on husbands killing their wives (especially before 1650) mean that they rarely did so or, more important, that they did so less frequently than wives killed their husbands. Indeed, statistics on domestic homicide in this period suggest that husbands murdered their wives at least twice as often as wives murdered their husbands. Using assize indictments from Essex, Hertfordshire, and Sussex from 1559 to 1625, J. S. Cockburn calculates that women were the victims of almost three-fourths of the instances of "marital killing." In Essex assizes from 1560 to 1709, J. A. Sharpe finds that women outnumber men as the victims of spousal murders two to one. Servants, too, were more often the victims than the perpetrators of violence.

Although women and servants committed proportionately fewer acts of violence, the story of the murderous wife or the murderous servant is far more frequently narrated and published than the story of the murderous husband or master. The process of textual representation amplifies rather than suppresses women's violent assertions of self, revealing and contributing to an anxiety about murderous wives in inverse proportion to the actual threat they posed. Although popular texts offer varying accounts of the extent and nature of the contradictions inherent in the story of the murderous wife, all of them constitute a wife's subjectivity as violent in its interiority and speech as well as in its action.

These texts represent married women's consciousness of their conflict with and separateness from their husbands, their articulation of themselves as speaking subjects, and their plotting and execution of murder as interrelated and as equally violent. They also portray the subjectivities of their protagonists as produced through the hierarchies ordering gender, class, and domestic relations (they are wives) and their resistance to those hierarchies (they are murderous wives). By asserting her entitlement to grievance and self-will and endeavoring to reshape her circumstances by means of violence, the murderous wife calls into question the legal conception of a wife as subsumed by her husband and largely incapable of legal or moral agency. She also violates the vigorous and persistent, if not necessarily descriptive, cultural constructions of women as incapable of initiative or autonomous action. 

While evidence suggests that actual early modem women found many ways of challenging, outwitting, or ignoring such sexual ideologies, the representations of the murderous wife explore the most extreme, visible, threatening scenarios of resistance. The heterogeneous narratives of the murderous wife construct the conditions of wifely subjectivity as criminal, because, in violent action, the contradictions of wives' social and legal status prove uncontainable. Legal and literary discussions of the murderous wife and her crime, petty treason, interrogated the contradictory, disturbing nature of wifely subjectivity in its most extreme and uncontainable form. But it is in those moments of violent criminality that prescription constituted married women as subjects. 

As numerous scholars have noted, in early modem England, husband and wife became one legal agent-the husband-by means of the husband's "subsumption" of his wife into himself. In this process, the wife became a fame covert, meaning that she was ''vailed, as it were, clouded and over-shadowed." The wife emerged from this coverture into legal responsibility when her husband ("her steme, her primus motor, without whom she cannot doe much at home, and lesse abroad") died or deserted her, or when she committed a serious crime on her own: "In matters criminall and capitall causes, a Femme covert shall answere without her husband." " 

As Catherine Belsey explains, "Women became capable while and only while they had no husbands, but were always accountable," especially when it would cost them most. Contemporary discussions of married women's legal status reveal that criminality was the most extreme instance of one strategy by which women accommodated themselves to the demands of coverture. In The Lawes Resolutions of Womens Rights ( 1632), an encyclopedia written to inform women, T.E. explains that the husband's incorporation of his wife into himself is the reason "that Women have no voyse in Parliament, They make no Lawes, they consent to none, they abrogate none. All of them are understood either married or to bee married and their desires [are] subject to their husband, I know no remedy though some women can shift it well enough." 

T.E. simultaneously constitutes wives as subjects of desire and, in that very desire, as subject to their husbands. In pursuing their desire, married women are represented as "shifting it," as managing a demanding, repressive situation, by bending, if not breaking, the rules ..... Married women are "covert" both in that they are subsumed by their husbands and in that they are stealthy, sly maneuverers within that subsumption. In T.E.'s text, it is only in infractions (presented as "shifting or managing within" rather than "transgressing against") that subjectivity is conferred on married women, even when they are not criminal or violent. By this formulation, T.E. constitutes married women as subjects, but never challenges the sexual ideologies within which they must operate.

If, by presenting wives as "shifting it," T.E. constructs them as subjects without fracturing marriage or reshaping their legal status, she or he also describes a strategy that works only if it does not draw attention to itself. Women who abandoned the covert tactic of "shifting it" in favor of violence and thereby challenged the subordinate place allotted them in the institution of marriage and in legal discourse employed tactics that were conceptually allied with the more widespread strategy of "shifting it." Yet, because they were less covert in either meaning of that word, these wives gained more attention-and more censure. Scholars have demonstrated the contradictions and tensions within prescriptive discourses about love, sexuality, and marriage that construct wives as authorities and dependents, partners and subordinates, sometimes allied with their husbands and sometimes with the children and servants.

…Such representations of the violated home both reinforce the household as the sphere in which women act and suggest that women were not only confined to the household but were empowered within it. There they may suffer frustrations and annoyances so great that they turn to violence, but at home they also dare to transform their household tasks into the occasions of retribution and their household tools into the weapons they need. By depicting the home as an arena of female power as well as subordination and by representing the feme covert as both subsumed by her husband and stealthily insubordinate, accounts of petty treason show how the analogy between the household and commonwealth could work to grant the household significance as a locus of conflict.”

- Frances E. Dolan, “Home-Rebels and House-Traitors: Petty Treason and the Murderous Wife.” in Dangerous Familiars: Representations of Domestic Crime in England, 1550 - 1700

[mybg3notebook]

Astarion and Power - Part 2

Disclaimer Game Version: All these analyses were made up to the game version v4.1.101.4425. As long as new content is added, and as long as I have free time for that, I will try to keep updating this information.

Additional disclaimers about meta-knowledge and interpretations in (post)

The number between brackets [] represents the topic-block related to (this post), which gathers as much evidence as I could get.

Astarion: abuser / victim

Disclaimer about interpretation victim/abuser: I’m not a fan of bringing the allegory to the plain explicit comparison with serious stuff from real life, but the fandom seems to focus a lot on this aspect and therefore I would like to share my opinion on it. This topic may be sensitive for some people. Be aware of it. 

If we are going to engage into the comparison abuser/victim, from the section (Backstory: Mortal Astarion) we can assume that mortal Astarion was developed as an abuser so far the facts we got from the game/interviews. There is little doubt about it with the bits of information we have in EA. Maybe the full game or a retcon of his past may change this in the future. 

As a vampire spawn, Astarion presents a duality abuser-victim that comes from the archetype of the “bad behaved victim”. 

(Squeezing him in the shoulder. You try to connect, to let him know he's not alone- but he twists like a snake.) “No, I don't need your pity. I don't need anything from you. Go back to your wet dreams and leave me be.''

As a slave under Cazador’s power, humiliated and physically and psychologically tortured, he becomes a victim. He displays many of the most common behaviours of traumatised survivors: dismissal of the actions he suffered (humiliation and cruelty), sensitivity or violent rejection of gestures of pity, paranoia (for the abuser to appear at any moment), reiterative dreams focused on the abuser or their tortures, pride that may reach into arrogance of having survived tough situations. Considering that survival mode is his default, he can turn any of these aspects into tools to manipulate any potential benefactor (he may care little about). As long as he has a protector, he would do anything at his disposal to keep pleasant and agreeable to that benefactor (this characteristic is a permanent, constant, and obvious trait in his character).

But he is not a mere victim, he is also an abuser. And this aspect has been studied in psychology and sociology: it’s not a surprise that a good amount of abusers were victims before. There is a psychological process that can make victims prone to harness as much power as they can in order to avoid the abuse, and in doing so they become abusers. The fact that they can inflict similar or the same trauma on someone else, shifts the power imbalance they had always perceived in their life: the ex victim—now abuser—finds psychological relief. They find a way to perceive themselves as not powerless anymore, and this process can cross limits, making them enjoy when causing the same torture they suffered before. This is the (extremely brief and simplified) process known as the transformation of victim to victimiser (in a general violence-related way, not necessarily focused on sexual abuse), which tends to affect, so far the statistics show, a group of victims. 

With this brief introduction of the topic from the real life (this is why I dislike so much these comparisons, serious stuff brought into a fantasy world always feels like dismissing the real life issue) we can understand that Astarion has acquired a twisted taste to enjoy the same torments he suffered on himself, but applied on creatures he considers lesser: animals and weak creatures [3,4,6,7,11]. There is pride in his survival [14]: he follows the philosophy: “if I could survive it, you could do it too, otherwise, you must perish”.

He enjoys humiliation [6,10], despite being one of the most sensitive aspects that could trigger a violent reaction in him when Tav tries to humiliate him (dialogue about the Bedchamber Master). He enjoys the power he can have over others, over their wills [11], and aspires to have the control of the tadpole, at first to be free of Cazador’s influence, but as long as the game progresses, his intentions become clearer: he wants to control the tadpole to become powerful: the most powerful vampire of Faerun and bend everyone’s will [12]. This aspect is also ironic and hypocritical since Astarion displays violent reactions against mind control or against any intervention of his mind, so it’s something that triggers him in particular (video here).

He also has a taste to enjoy cruelty on animals [4], maybe because of all the resentment he has against them for having been the only means to sustain himself (he is directing his cruelty and hatred to the wrong group of living creatures though). And he also finds entertainment in murder and bloodshed [2,3,13], just because of it, most probably because all these abuses are proofs that he is now “more powerful” than those suffering it. However, part of this could be explained due to the Dark Desires element of the vampirism, to be fair. But considering Astarion’s backstory, I would say that vampirism only deepens his already evil traits.

Also, as a comment aside, I like to highlight how all this characterisation defies the romantisation of the archetype of the “good victim”. A good victim is—explaining it briefly and oversimplified—the one who encourages to spread goodness, self-sacrifice; their pain is hidden and/or used to improve, tends to be a highly empathetic person in front of similar abuses they suffered. It’s the antipode of the “bad behaved victim.” Which is basically all what we see in Astarion: selfish, violent, whimsical, cruel, psychopath.

In conclusion, we can see Astarion as a vampire spawn who embodies the duality of Victim-Abuser. 

However I would like to note that this is not a char where we can see how the victim becomes an abuser exclusively. In Astarion’s case, it is even more twisted because in his past he was a victimiser. His character lies on a Schrodinger duality: he was an abuser when he was mortal, he is an abuser and a victim at the same time as a vampire spawn (his torments can be understood as poetic justice since Astarion embodied the—corrupt—Justice himself), and he aspires to retake his abuser position in the future (so far EA allowed us to see it or the description of his characters in Larian’s web page), enjoying all the potential that the power of the tadpole can give him to “bend the will of others''. 

Astarion’s story represents topics that should allow us to think about how abusers are created, how they could also be victims, and how victims are not always free of evilness. Astarion also embodies the concept of how far punishment makes sense, how you can punish the abuse if there is no justice, how to punish evilness when it’s placed to have control of the Justice itself. How could we understand the punishment of evil creatures when there is no repent but a deepening of their evil nature? And finally… Would any victim not desire for their abuser to have a punishment like Astarion’s? 

I like to think that Cazador also represents the “modern prison system”, where criminals are gathered in panoptic structures (in this case, Astarion’s mind), tortured in many ways, while society expects them to recover. There is also the concept of how and when recovery is not possible anymore, because let’s be honest, saving people from dark paths is not always possible. Real life psychopath, serial rapists, and a broad amount of creatures who revel in torture and murder are beyond salvation. If we consider Cazador and Astarion as mirrored figures, it makes us think about how much of all of his story is about the eternal cycle of violence and about evilness without salvation. Also, this reflection of one on the other makes us believe that if there is no salvation for Cazador, there shouldn't be salvation for Astarion either; if Astarion can be saved… Cazador should too (after all, we don’t know anything about Cazador’s story). So many things to think about.

All these aspects and topics to think about are what make Cazador-Astarion dynamics worth understanding with a realistic and dark perspective of evilness, without woobifying Astarion as sadly a big part of his fandom does. 

As a note of colour to finish this section, it’s interesting to re-read the paragraph I had written in the first part (Astarion and Power - Part 1) where I briefly described Cazador. If we replace Cazador by the word Astarion we will obtain a curious result:

>>>Astarion has a particular pleasure for control, especially the one related to people’s will (we can see this pleasure progresses over time, increasing it. His need for freedom turns slowly into wanting to have control on everyone, because with power he can do everything he wants to). He enjoys cruelty, humiliation, and torture (read the analysis post done (here), there are dozens of facts showing it). He enjoys playing psychologically with his victims. He also likes to give false hope, making his victims believe that there is hope, removing it right in front of them (the Arabella’s approvals about making her parents believe she is alive when she is not, Mayrina’s hope of reviving her husband).

There are so many questions left in the air: has Cazador imparted Justice? Is 200 years too long for a punishment? I don’t believe there is an easy answer here. First, because we are mixing serious real-life dynamics in a fantasy setup, with the twisted componen of vampirism (a fantasy element always considered an allegory of abuse, power, and rape) and second, despite the analogy is there, and the comparison can be done lightly, Astarion has a particular backstory, with a particular amount of meta-knowledge that makes those answers even more complicated. 

Astarion’s Pain and Shallowness

Back scars scene (full Datamining info)

A pair of videos that pjenn has posted about Astarion’s scars on his back (1) (2) shows that he needs help to read it since he can’t see it in reflective surfaces due to his vampire nature. We get from the narrator: 

* He might be sneering, but you can see pain in his eyes. He needs help, but doesn’t know how to ask. *

What we can infer from this is that Astarion, whether mortal or spawn, never asked for help, and if this is true, I’m confused. If he truly doesn’t know how to ask for help… what had been happening with all the previous interactions he had with Tav? Implicitly asking for help against Cazador? The only answer I have to explain why 25 hours of game with Astarion asking for help against Cazador are suddenly erased and now “he doesn’t know how to ask to”, is that all those 25 hrs are about manipulation. Not a true, honest, clean asking for help. There is not much to say about this scene since it’s entirely under work so far. 

Mirror scene (full Datamining info)

This scene is mostly about vanity and, again, manipulation. 

He doesn't remember the colour of his eyes, and he barely remembers his face. As a vampire, he can‘t see his projection nor cast shadows. He explicitly says that he misses vanity, and even though it may be an honest loss he feels, he doesn’t miss the opportunity to use this moment as another hook to throw at Tav to keep them under his control as well as testing how deep his charm has reached Tav (If Tav shows appreciation, Astarion knows he keeps them under his thumb).

This scene basically shows that, even though evil characters/abusers also suffer (maybe the game would make us reflect eventually about Cazador’s pain?), and Astarion is stating his pain for losing things he appreciated: petty vanity (he can’t see himself in a mirror) and his memories (he has no memory of the colour of his eyes and his face is vague), he is still using all these moments to keep on working on his survival manipulation:

“(Vanity) is an indulgence, I’ll grant you that, but a weakness? A well-presented face can open a lot of doors.”

He has a personal drama, as he stated it at first, and the focus of all his conversation is always about how what he lost was a means for an end too. 

If Tav is the one engaging into being his Mirror, Astarion engages to appraise the reach of his presence in Tav. If Tav simply states it’s a decent face, Astarion will push the engagement for that appraisal. If you mock him about his age and skin, he won’t be offended (after all the moment is not meaningful for him, it’s shallow), and he would insist on a proper praise, because he is trying to taste the ground. 

The moment was meant to be used, and Astarion did it. It was not special to him:

"Mirrors are not much use, but being reflected in someone's else's eyes? I could do much worse.

If we do not derail the conversation in the funny moments where you can mock his beauty, age and skin, we keep gathering more information about what Astarion values the most:

Tav: “Is it all what you want? shallow praise?” Astarion: "Hardly, there is also gold, sex, revenge, quite the list, really. But failing any of those, I will always settle for shallow praise."

There is another option in this scene where Tav says that vanity is a reasonable price for vampire powers, but for once, Astarion is not so eager about this power, because it comes with Cazador. He knows that the price is way much bigger. 

Tav: “Vanity is a small price to pay to have vampire powers”. Astarion: "To you. To me it's just another thing that Cazador took from me".

The only moment when you can get a more emotional reaction is when you mock him about age/beauty/skin. That is how shallow this scene is. If you are a githyanki and your compliments are a list of raw facts about his persona, even if they are good or bad, Astarion can’t appraise Tav with that, and gets frustrated. 

Personally I think this scene has little value per se beyond the comedy, and even less value in terms of lore when you have Disguise spell available for so many characters. Anyone can disguise themselves as Astarion and he would finally see what he looks like… so… more reasons to show how cheap and shallow this scene is. Maybe that was the intention. Maybe it needs more work since, after all, it’s datamining info. There is not much to say about this scene since it’s entirely under work so far. 

The concept of Redemption/endings 

Among the (Datamined information) we have a set of gems under the name of Drunk bear (1) (2) (3) scenes, which speak more about Astarion and his relationship with Cazador and Power.

Tav: “You can start over. You can be better than what he made you.”

Ast: “Exactly. I can be better than him. Stronger, more powerful, more- oh, you meant “be kinder”? Pet bunnies, that sort of thing? I’ve no objection to being nice, of course. Once I have the power to bend others to my will.

T: “You think power lets you do anything free from consequences?”

A: “Well… yes. You can’t look at the world and tell me I’m wrong.”

T: “The strong have a duty to protect the weak”

A: “They’re doing a piss poor job, then. The strong had two centuries to pluck me from torture, but no one came. No, it was the mind flayers that rescued me. They gave me a gift: the strength to take my own freedom. I’m embracing this power- you should too.”

T: “You are free now. That’s what matters.”

A: “Is it? What good is freedom if I'm always watching in the shadows? No. I will be safe when I'm powerful enough to grind cazador into the dust. Powerful enough to do whatever the hell I want.”

T: “Power corrupts. You’d do well to remember that.”

A: “Oh I hope so. A little corruption sounds fun. I spent centuries as the victim of a corrupt man. It was the mind flayers that plucked me away from that.”

So far we see in this scene, Astarion reinforces his evilness, his desire for power, not just enough to save himself from Cazador’s claws, but to control other people, even though mind control is a triggering effect when it affects his own will. I believe in this interaction we see the contrast of the story that Astarion narrates mainly: the abuser who found a more powerful abuser. We shouldn’t forget he comes from a past where he was a corrupt magistrate. These words have almost a hypocrite meaning here. Astarion was a magistrate, by definition, someone who held power and should have helped those in despair, but he was corrupt and did not care. When he became a spawn, he ended up on the other side of the imbalanced power. He was the one asking for a powerful entity to help him, and none came, suffering a similar fate of despair than those who sought in him the concept of Justice and Power Used For Fairness. Like Astarion’s victims found freedom when a twisted creature like Cazador was incorporated into this situation, Astarion was free when the Mind flayers saved him from Cazador. 

I will not repeat this again: Astarion, so far in Early Access, looks like the story that could explain why Cazador is who he is. These scenes bring once more, another of the many proofs along the game where we see that Astarion has not learnt anything from his torment, he has not improved, he has turned into a more twisted and evil man than he was when he was a mortal magistrate, and there is no intentions to become a little more sympathetic. 

This brings me to think that, at least in EA, glimpses of future paths for Astarion may all be related to different degrees of evilness. 

First of all, we need to remember that Astarion is an evil character, and if we assume that what Sven said in several interviews doesn’t change, Larian is going to break the style this worked in bg1 and bg2, not making big shifting of the alignment in companions. For this reason I think these endings would entitle variations of evilness.

Astarion keeps repeating over and over his opinion about power as the only means to have access to his freedom. And as long the game evolves, he began to reinforce the importance of having power to “do whatever he wants”. Considering his tastes (how much he enjoys cruelty and bloodshed) we can agree that Astarion “doing whatever he wants” is not a good thing for Faerûn. He finds murdering a fine show, an entertainment. Certainly Astarion is a child of Bhaal in his fullest. 

He even mocks Tav when they comment about looking for self-improvement. “I can be better than him. Stronger, more powerful, more- oh, you meant “be kinder”? (...) Once I have the power to bend others to my will.” This is Cazador speaking. 

So, considering these details, I would suggest (predict is a too strong a word for this) that we have chances to three different kinds of endings and their variations:

The first one, screaming in all what Astarion does: Astarion becomes a full vampire and ends up as the next Cazador. If his approval is high (or some hidden requirement is met) he can turn his lover into another full vampire. If these requirements are not met, in a spawn, repeating the cycle that Astarion suffered but now, on Tav. 

The second one could be with Astarion killing Cazador remaining as a spawn and an agent of chaos and bloodshed. Maybe his relationship with Tav may help to have certain control on him (since we had seen that Astarion so far has been asking permission to kill npcs when the situation arises, so the MC could be turning into a master of choice.)

The third one, finding the cure of Vampirism, and letting Astarion continue with his life of evil corrupted magister. 

Some people ask about the possibility of a Redemption arc. I hardly see it (especially if I keep in mind how bg1 and bg2 worked, they never offered a “real” redemption arc, just small shifts here and there.)

Redemption could be acquired, according to these fans, using two mechanics. 

Astarion feels compassion out of the blue. He starts to have guilt for his past sins and develops empathy, despising cruelty. How? Who knows, so far in EA it has not been seen even once a hint, a scene, a bit of meta-knowledge in that direction. Honestly, so far we’ve seen, this option seems impossible to me, because Astarion has tons of chances to use the meta-knowledge of his approvals and disapprovals to show regret and empathy, and never happened. His character was always focused on himself, his vanity, his pain, his entertainment (which implies constant approval of cruel actions and torments and humiliation to others, especially the weak ones), his survival. If there is a character more far away from empathy right now in EA, it is Astarion. How do you start a redemption arc without the character showing compassion? No way.

Cure Vampirism. Vampirism is a curse, and therefore in the Forgotten Realm can be cured. But this, under no circumstances, can be considered a redemption arc. There is no redemption at all. The curse is lifted, and Astarion can return to be the same cruel magister he was before. No arc about remorse and empathy. 

His character is the story of an abuser who found a greater abuser and became a victim of the latter, seeking to return to his previous power position but stronger. Despite suffering this abuse, that could be understood as poetic justice (more like accidental justice) at certain point, he never developed empathy for those sharing his conditions. In fact, he cares little to inflict on others what he has exactly suffered. I hardly believe there is something else going on “in layers” in him at the moment, since the meta-knowledge provided by the approval/disapproval shows otherwise. My point is, I see little material here showing change. But again, this is EA.

We can see how this exact detail is managed with Shadowheart, from her we know even less than with Astarion because her memory was erased, but so far, we know she has some soft spots that were never shown explicitly, so Tav is oblivious to this information while the player knows it. 

This post was written on April 2021.  → For more Astarion: Analysis Series Index

[scripttorture]

Far Cry Ask

hello ! thank you so much for running this blog - i've learned a great deal about torture and how to handle it respectfully in writing! i wanted to ask about something a friend and i were wondering about - the 'classical conditioning' that happens to the deputy/pc in Far Cry 5. mostly whether its actually possible for something like that to occur and whether it was accurately represented!

-

I couldn’t find the ask itself in my box any more (thanks tumblr) and it’s only fair to state that I have not played the game so I’ll miss any nuance in the story.

 Generally speaking my knee jerk reaction to a game like this using the term ‘conditioning’ is ‘Oh joy, torture apologia bingo night again.’ And reading over the plot summary, yep that’s exactly what it is.

 I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a hundred times: Torture survivors are not broken.

 There is no abuse, no pain, no act of violence that can take away a person’s free will. Their personality, their capacity to make decisions, their judgement is always still there.

 Torture does change survivors. The mental illnesses it causes can drastically effect a person’s outlook, behaviour and beliefs. But this does not happen in a way that torturers can control.

 Torture does not make people agree with their torturer, in fact the evidence we have suggests that the opposite happens. Survivors typically come out of torture strongly, radically opposed to their torturers. And often knowing survivors, seeing survivors, has a radicalising effect on their family, friends and acquaintances, as well as by standers who witness torture.

 Drugs and sleep deprivation can make people delirious. They can make people hallucinate and they can make people paranoid. But none of those things are agreement and none of them lead to violent acts. Let alone violent acts that torturers intend.

 I’ve covered this kind of stuff a lot because it’s a very common trope. If you want more information I’d suggest looking through the tags on coercion, compliance, compliance under threat, compliance under torture and ICURE.

 The evidence we have on torture is far from complete. We need more, thorough studies on every aspect of it to get a clearer picture of how to help survivors and how to prevent this crime.

 But we do have some statistics on the rate of forced confessions under torture. This is something we know torture can do, whereas every piece of evidence we have says torture can’t change a person’s mind.

 Drawing from historical French cases the rate of false confession with torture alone is 10%.

 Under torture an average of 90% people will not comply long enough to sign their own name.

 So if torture is all that’s happening in a story, or if a story is telling you that torture was the ‘only reason’ a character acted the way they did: they’re full of shit.

 They’re parroting torture apologia. And they’re drawing directly from works of fiction written by torturers to justify their atrocities. (I’m referring to the novels that came out of the Franco-Algerian war and I don’t feel linking to colonialist hate speech adds anything here.)

 They might not realise that’s what they’re doing. Accurate information on torture is hard to find. It’s often behind paywalls, untranslated and poorly publicised. Whereas torture apologia has become a set of standard fictional tropes. And since that’s usually the only information people have on torture it’s what they assume to be true.

 That’s part of why I’m here.

 The people who wrote this story probably didn’t have any malicious intent. They might even genuinely believe that what they presented is realistically possible.

 They’re wrong. Like… fundamentally misunderstanding the basic workings of the human nervous system wrong.

 And I think a lot of the reason this particular set of tropes still exist is because writers get lazy.

 They want to have a character dramatically change sides! But without the effort of writing character development.

 They want to have a character do something terrible! Without having to be morally culpable for their actions.

 They want to have the character attack their friends, only to have the friends forgive them with no lasting relationship conflicts/effects.

 And if you want to write something simple, without much effort or thought, then torture and human rights abuses are never a good pick. War crimes, torture are not narrative short hand. They are real serious crimes that effect far too many people in our global society.

 When Rejali wrote his textbook on torture it took an average of 10 years for survivors to see a specialist and get the treatment they needed.

 When we spread and support the idea that torture survivors are dangerous to the rest of us, that they’re violent and controlled by their torturers, then we feed in to the barriers that stop them getting help. These lies are used to argue against letting torture survivors emigrate, access benefits and access medical care.

 They hurt the most vulnerable members of our global society.

 Frankly they deserve better. And we, as writers, as creators should be doing better.

Disclaimer

Available on Wordpress.

[pastpatientlywaitingforimagines]

Two Points Higher | Spencer Reid x Reader Platonic

WC: 5380

A/N: I started binging Criminal Minds last week and I’m already on season 5... Spencer Reid is precious and my asexual heart needed some platonic fluff so I wrote it myself. 

Warnings: fluff, interrogation, mentions of murder

Having Spencer Reid show up at your office was not an unusual occurrence. Having Spencer Reid show up at your office in the middle of the night with another FBI agent on his heels was.

“See I told you they’d be here,” Spencer almost tripped over a box of records by the door with the speed of which he burst in.

“I get it, I’m married to my job,” you rolled your eyes, not looking up from your computer, “what’s up?”

“(y/n), this is Agent Derek Morgan,” he gestured to the man behind him as he spoke. Spencer pulled up his usual chair in front of your desk and started rummaging in his bag.

“If you can find a seat you’re welcome to take it,” you smiled at Morgan, who was watching Spencer intently.

“We need your help,” Spencer pulled out a stack of photos.

“Spence, I have work to do,” you chided, though you pushed aside what you were working on to take the photos from him.

“I wouldn’t be asking if it wasn’t important. Please?”

“You’re not really asking,” Agent Morgan finally cracked a smile at your comment, “I don’t see how I can help you though, these are neat crime scene photos but I’m not in the FBI.” As you observed the images Spencer stood up again, haphazardly pulling books off of your shelves and piling them on his now vacant seat.

“You missed it. Look again,” you scanned the images again, scrutinizing every detail. This time you noticed it, pulling each image closer to your face to really take in what you were seeing.

“Those are my labels. Why are my labels on human bodies?” Spencer pulled one last book off the shelf and started thumbing through it.

His voice was soft this time, as his eyes met yours, “we don’t know.”

You didn’t normally see Spencer when he was working a case like this, something about him seemed different.

“How can I help?”

“The rest of the team is on the way. Have you talked to anyone about your collections recently? Told them how you label and research?”

“The only one I’ve talked to about it is you, but it’s not exactly an industry secret. Anyone who has looked at the exhibits has seen my labels, people just don’t usually care about them.”

Spencer and Morgan exchanged a look, then Morgan stepped out to make a phone call while Spencer filled you in on the next course of action. The rest of the team would be using your office as a field station while they tried to figure out why the unsub would make exact copies of  your labels.

“Have you known Reid long?”  A blonde woman who Spencer introduced as JJ asked.

“Since preschool,” you recalled.

“(y/n) was the only other kid in class who could read,” Spencer commented from the adjoining collections room where he was poking around for signs of entry.

“Spencer was the only other kid in class who could remember dinosaur names, we made quite the pair until he graduated.”

“You only graduated two years after me.”

“Enough to get you ahead by two doctorates and a bachelors,” you shot back.

“What’s in the water over in Vegas?” Morgan commented, shooting Spencer a look when he started rattling off the exact contents of the water and how it definitely did not affect the development of your brains.

It was already the early hours of the morning, so it was decided that any investigating would wait until a more reasonable hour. The team mostly acquainted themselves with your space, finding places to work, sleep, or follow up on leads. Even Spencer was moving around, restlessly conversing with his colleagues. You kept to yourself at your desk, busying yourself with the bone you were looking at. The research was comfortable, though the background noise wasn’t.

“You should get some sleep,” Spencer said quietly to you after a few hours, leaning over your shoulder to observe the notes you were making. It felt oddly normal, considering the circumstances.

“I’m on to something here, I want to finish this first,” you turned to the next page in your notebook.

“I’m going to go nap in the other room then, wake me up if you need anything, ok?” you looked up at him with a soft smile and nodded. He went into the break room across the hall, laying down on the old couch. You watched after him for a minute then turned back to your work. A few minutes later, JJ sat down in front of your desk.

“Do you spend a lot of time together?”

“If he’s not working with you, he’s with me. I’m almost always here which is why he knows where all of the good sleeping spots are,” you smirked.

“What are you working on?”

“We don’t have any records on this bone, so I do the research and get as much information as I can about it. My official title is ‘Collections Curator’ but Spencer says I’m just as much a profiler as he is.”

“Have you ever thought about joining the Bureau?”

“Spence tried to convince me… once,” you chuckled lightly at the memory, “I like my job, it’s a lot lower stakes than what you do. I don’t need a gun, just some research material and my brain.”

“It does seem… still down here,” JJ observed.

“Our collections are stored down here so it’s all climate controlled. These rooms were free so I asked if I could trade my upstairs office for a collections research suite. Did you know that 80% of a museum’s collection isn’t displayed? The exhibits you see upstairs are only 20% of the entire collection,” you stopped talking when you noticed a change in her expression, “sorry, I’m rambling.”

JJ smiled kindly, “I can see why you’re friends with Reid.”

“I don’t know what I would have done without him growing up. It’s easier to be a kid genius when there’s another kid to be a genius with, makes you feel less alone. He’s always been more competitive though, tougher, too.”

“Why am I not surprised you’re also a genius?”

“I try not to flaunt it, unlike Spencer. If it wasn’t for his eidetic memory we’d have the same number of degrees,” you smirked.

“He’s different with you,” Morgan had stepped into the room and was poking through your stuffed shelves.

“Like I said, it’s easier to be a genius when you have someone else who gets it. Spencer and I don’t talk about what you do in the field, but I see what he looks like when he comes back from traveling. I do my best to make this a space where he can be a genius without all the crime and someone that he can just be himself with.”

“Having a support system is good. He needs one.”

“You said he’s different with me, but he’s also different with you. His behavior is consistent with when he was trying to plan a surprise for my birthday last year, except its a stressful secret not an exciting one.”

“I need to hear the birthday story later, when this is all over. You’re good at noticing details,” Morgan commented. You noticed the way both Morgan and JJ shifted nervously.

“I have to be, that’s how I do my research. One detail can open up a whole string of possibilities, but you all know that. At first I thought it just had to do with him being in the middle of a case, I’ve only seen him a handful of times when he’s working.”

“But?” Morgan’s question was leading, they knew you knew they were hiding something.

“This is the first time he’s ever come into my office wearing his gun.”

There was a pause during which you noticed both agents’ eyes soften.

“I’m no FBI agent, but if dead bodies were showing up with museum labels specific to one curator I would start by questioning the curator. None of you have acted like I’m guilty at all. Why?”

“Reid gave us your alibi and confirmed it all in one breath. The local police still want to bring you in, but they’re having trouble finding you. Reid knew where you were and wanted to get ahead of them, solve this before you were falsely accused.”

“They probably ended up at my apartment. I spend most of my time here, but I keep that lease for storage and other things. Not many people know I practically live here. Do either of you want coffee?” you took off the latex gloves you were wearing as you stood up. They shook their heads with a murmured ‘thanks’.

They started whispering behind you as you walked across the hall to the room where your best friend was spread out on the couch. You paused as you passed him, gently brushing a piece of hair from his face before continuing on to the kitchenette. Leaning against the counter, your gaze fell once again on Spencer as you waited for the coffee to brew. He slowly stirred, rubbing the sleep from his eyes before standing up and joining you by the counter.

“You’re still working?”

“Have to make progress on my own projects while we’re waiting, before your case consumes my workday,” you bumped your elbow into him.

“I’m sorry I dragged you into this.”

“Hey, someone is using my specimen labels for murder victims. That’s not ok, my labels should be for museum collections only. I appreciate you telling me. I don’t appreciate whatever secret you and your team are keeping from me.”

“It’s characteristic for unsubs like this to have a fantasy… an unhealthy idolization that’s expressed in the victimology,” he stuck his hands in his pockets nervously. You thought for a minute as you poured a cup of coffee for yourself and your best friend.

“You think the unsub fantasizes about me.”

“We don’t know for certain. Two of the victims seem random, but three of them have an uncanny resemblance… and the labels…”

“Is that why you came to my office instead of just calling me for more information?” you leaned into his side, gripping your coffee.

“I can’t let anything happen to you,” he pressed a kiss into your hair and wrapped his arms around you.

“It’s not your fault this is happening. You live your life and I live mine,” you took a sip of your drink.

“You only leave this basement to buy groceries and do laundry. Statistically you’re only seen by a small fraction of people in this city and somehow you’ve been targeted by someone who’s now going around killing people.”

“Statistically, the unsub could have seen anyone who lives in this city, including me. It’s not your fault,” you repeated, “you could have told me though, genius.”

Spencer cracked a tired smile, “didn’t want to scare you more than necessary.”

“You’re a better person than me.”

“You’re smarter than me,” he retorted.

“That’s why you’re a better person. That’s how you can do the job that you do. If I had to interact with strangers every day I’d implode.”

“Spontaneous implosion isn’t possible,” you rolled your eyes at his comment. Before you could respond he spoke again, “I love you.”

His words caught you off guard, not because you didn’t return the feeling but because they never needed to be said. You knew from the way his eyes lit up when he read your notes and how he always made you another coffee when he got one for himself. You had spent practically your whole lives together and you genuinely cared about him in a way you knew was reciprocated. You considered this boy family more than most of your blood relatives. Still, with everything going on it had to be said.

“I love you too, Spencer.”

You stood with his arms around you until the coffee in your hands went cold.

“I need to make sure your friend Derek isn’t messing up my office. Sorry I woke you up,” you pressed a kiss to his cheek before stepping away. When you made it to the hallway you started walking down towards the largest collection room instead of your office.

“Agent Hotchner? Do you have a minute?” You knocked on the doorframe of the large room that the agent had set up in.

“Of course, is everything ok?”

“I wanted to talk to you about Spencer. I know he’s supposed to be protecting me, but he’s also my best friend. He would put himself in danger- he’s expecting to put himself in danger for me. With all due respect, sir, I know you’re trying to do a job but please promise me that you’ll keep Spencer safe too.”

“You don’t have to call me sir,” he said as you sat down in front of him.

“I don’t usually get myself into situations this stressful. My brain is rationalizing by flagging you as an authority figure. I know you’re not my boss but it’s easing my anxiety to think of you as one.”

Hotch looked at you calmly, a small smile on his lips, “I should have known Reid’s best friend would also be a genius.”

“My IQ is two points higher than his…sir,” it felt odd, joking with this man during such a stressful time.

“Reid is family to us too. We won’t let anything happen to him.”

“Spencer said that the unsub had a fantasy about me, and that’s why he was using my labels,” since your conversation with Spencer, your brain had been reeling for information.

“He asked that we didn’t tell you,” you sighed at his words.

“Of course he did. Now that I know, what information do you need? How can I be more helpful?”

“Reid asked you some questions when he got here,” you nodded, “if you’re up for it, I’d like to get the team together and ask you for more details.”

“Anything that helps,” your answer was definite, so Hotch rounded up the team with the exception of Spencer.

“Shouldn’t Reid be here?” Emily asked when you were all crammed into your office.

“I don’t want him… interfering. I don’t like biased research,” you told her.

“Then I guess we’ll get started. How exactly do you create the labels for your specimens?” Derek started the questioning.

“They’re printed on a specific cardstock that I get on special order. They’re all made down here, by me. I’m also the only one who handles the specimens, I don’t even let Spencer touch them.”

“Are there any other employees that work down here? Custodians, other curators?”

“What are you doing?” Your answer was interrupted by Spencer standing in the doorway holding two cups of coffee, in your respective favorite mugs.

“We’re doing research,” you spoke before any of your friend’s colleagues could.

“This looks like an interrogation,” Spencer came to stand behind you protectively, setting both cups down in front of you.

“I asked for this meeting, Spence. I want to help.”

“You should have told me,” he leaned closer to your ear, talking quietly so the rest of the team couldn’t hear. You didn’t usually see your friend this upset.

“Nobody comes down here regularly except for Spencer and I. It’s not open to the public, so anyone else needs a personal invite. Usually that’s when we’re changing exhibits, but everyone who helped me most recently has done it before. If it was one of them they would have killed before the first victim, right?” Derek nodded.

“Nobody else has been here in the last two months?” he repeated. You laughed half heartedly,

“I don’t have much of a social life. The only people I talk to are Spencer, the cashier at the grocery store, and Tim if I see him,” you added the last one as an afterthought.

“Tim?” Spencer stopped fuming by your side when your words piqued his interest.

“He teaches a museum history class at the community college in the city. They come by once a semester and tour the museum. You met him, remember?” Spencer averted his eyes from his team.

“I wouldn’t count that as a meeting,” you fought back a smile, recounting the way Spencer ran past the group of college kids as he tried not to let his severe hangover make him late for work.

“Tell me more about Tim, are you close?” Rossi refocused the meeting.

“No, just friendly. We email to schedule the tour, but it’s always professional. I see him at the grocery store most weeks, but it’s usually just an exchange of pleasantries.”

“How do you run into someone at the grocery store most weeks in a city like this?” Emily asked.

“I always go grocery shopping on Friday afternoons, from three to four. Spencer tells me I shouldn’t be so predictable but I work so much I have to schedule it in otherwise I forget. Tim must have the same schedule.”

“Have you seen Tim recently?”

“Now that I think about it, no. The last time I saw him was two weeks after the tour. He asked if I had dinner plans. That was the night we had tacos,” you bumped elbows with Spencer.

“What did you tell him?”

“I said I was making dinner for Spencer. You were all coming back from a trip, Spencer always comes over for dinner when you come home. I know I’m predictable but he’s never missed a dinner.”

“What was his reaction like when he heard you were making dinner for Reid?”

“He looked a little upset. I remember noticing it and thinking it was weird, but at the time I rationalized it. I’m not great at interacting with people. You don’t think Tim did this, do you? He’s really nice, always good with the kids. He asks a lot of questions because the kids don’t- oh God,” your eyes widened when you realized what you were saying. The office exploded in activity, with every agent moving to take action. Even Spencer moved, grabbing your arm and pulling you back across the hall into the break room. You noticed the way his hand was nervously on his gun.

“What happens next?”

“We don’t know for sure that it’s him yet. Garcia will cross check him against the profile. If it’s him, we’ll find him and lock him up. If it’s not… then we’re back to square one.”

“You seem more on edge than for it to be that simple,” you observed.

“Up until the most recent tour, Tim was able to admire you from afar. He saw you every week at the grocery store, and twice a year got to come down here to your personal paradise and see what you were doing. That was good enough for him until he saw me leaving here. That was the stressor. He suspected that we were… uh…”

“Dating?”

“Yeah. He tried to confirm it by asking about dinner two weeks later. It was coincidence that I was coming over that night. That was all he needed to kill out of rage.”

“You aren’t still blaming yourself for this, are you? Tim never asked if we were together. He never asked if I was with anyone at all. If he had this could have gone a lot differently. It’s his fault for assuming, not ours.”

Spencer put a hand on your back gently, “I’m the one who’s supposed to be reassuring you.”

As you rolled your eyes and told him it didn’t matter, Morgan stepped into the room.

“We’re heading out to catch this guy. Prentiss and JJ are staying, Garcia is watching the security cameras at all the entrances. Are you staying or going?” Morgan’s question was directed at Spencer. He thought for a minute, you knew he was considering the possibilities. If he stayed he could protect you personally, and he would also be protecting himself. If he went, he could personally take down the person who wanted to harm you and could be a good lure, but there was also a chance he would be targeted.

“I’ll stay. Keep me posted,” Morgan nodded, casting you a glance before running out.

“Now we wait,” Spencer rocked back on his heels, “will you show me that bone you were working on?” You were surprised he wanted to go back to business as usual, but maybe that was just it. You both needed a distraction from all of the chaos happening above ground without you. You went back to your office where Emily and JJ were. Their conversation paused when you stepped in.

“(y/n) and I are going to work on identifying this bone, there’s coffee across the hall if you want it,” Spencer said to the women.

“Thanks for staying,” you added, earning kind sympathetic looks from them as they stepped out.

“So, a long bone?” Spencer took one look at the fragment on your desk.

“Wow, he’s a genius,” you teased, sitting down, “here’s what I’ve got so far-”

You and Spencer spent hours researching. JJ and Emily popped in occasionally, but you were too engrossed in your work to see the amused glances exchanged between them as you bantered with your best friend. Spencer was trying really hard to keep things normal for you and this side of his genius, the way you fed off of each other’s stream of consciousness, was not something his coworkers usually got to witness.  

Two hours into your work Spencer’s phone rang, causing you both to startle.

“Hotch,” he was quiet as he listened to the agent on the other end of the line, “yeah, uh, yeah we’ll be right there,” he hung up and turned to you.

“They got him, but there was no real proof. They’re interrogating him now, they want us there to help.”

“Us?” you followed him out of the office as he went to find Emily and JJ.

“He’s not talking, Hotch thinks he might break for me…”

“Or me…” you finished the thought for him. The car ride was tense, and even with Spencer by your side you felt very out of place. Spencer made sure you were next to him even through the whirlwind that happened when you got to the interrogation room. Through the glass you saw Morgan talking to Tim, though Tim wasn’t doing much talking.

“(y/n), would you feel comfortable going in and talking to him? Morgan will be there too, he’ll keep you safe,” Rossi asked.

Before Spencer could protest you nodded and squared your shoulders.

“Of course. What do I need to do?”

“Morgan will do most of the questioning. You just need to get him talking.”

You took a breath and stepped into the room, watching the relief on Tim’s face when you did.

“(y/n), I’m so glad you’re here. This is all just a misunderstanding. I’m not the guy they’re looking for.”

“It’s not up to me to decide that, Tim.”

“You’re here to tell them it wasn’t me, right?”

“They’ve already told us everything we need to know. You’re still talking to me,” Morgan said, pulling Tim’s attention away from you.

“Then why are they here? I see the way you all carry those guns around, it’s too dangerous,” Tim said.

“Too dangerous for who?” Morgan pressed.

“For (y/n).”

“So you care about them, are you close?” you watched Tim’s reaction.

“Very, you can ask me anything about them, I know it all,” he was confident in his answer. Morgan glanced at you and you gave him a small nod.

“What does (y/n) do for work?”

“They’re the Collections Curator at the museum. They spend all of their time there, except on Fridays when they go grocery shopping,” Tim was enthusiastic in his answer, and looked to you for validation. You nodded gently, encouraging him.

“How do you know that?” Morgan leaned forward a bit.

“My class has been touring the collections suite for years. That’s how we met, then I ran into them at the grocery store and we got to talking,” Morgan nodded, pausing for a moment.

“I guess you are close. Since you know so much, this will probably be an easy one. What is (y/n)’s boyfriend’s name?” you tensed, waiting for the answer.

“Spencer. He’s tall, I’ve only seen him once,” he grumbled.

“(y/n), you can tell him,” Morgan said, keeping his eyes on the handcuffed man in front of you.

“Tim, I don’t have a boyfriend,” your words were soft. Tim’s eyes narrowed.

“You do! I saw him, that’s why we can’t be together!” he started to sweat under the harsh light.

“He’s just my friend, Tim. You never asked,” you were trying your hardest to stay composed.

“I did ask! You said you were having dinner together! He was good enough for you to have dinner with, I KILLED FOR YOU. DIDN’T YOU SEE, I LABELED THEM JUST LIKE YOU DO. I DID THAT FOR YOU. HE WOULD NEVER,” Tim’s outburst caused him to stand up and lunge across the table at you. Derek simultaneously pushed you back and pushed him down, you weren’t really sure how. Tim was still thrashing around and yelling all sorts of things you were sure were going to incarcerate him, but above the noise Morgan was able to speak.

“That’s all we need. Thank you, (y/n).”

When you stepped out of the interrogation room you moved immediately into Spencer’s arms, like gravity was pulling you into the one person you felt safest with.

“You’re ok. It’s ok. We’re ok,” he kept repeating.

“Spencer,” you mumbled into the material of his sweater. His words stopped so he could listen, “he seemed so normal.”

“I know, I know.”

“Do they always seem normal?” Spencer sighed, you felt his chest move with the breath.

“No, not always.” You felt his muscles tense as he held you tighter. He went back to repeating his mantra of reassurance as you caught sight of two police officers escorting Tim out of the interrogation room.

“Reid, Hotch wants to see you,” Emily approached the two of you once the room had cleared.

“Go, I’m alright,” you told him, stepping out of his embrace. He kissed the top of your head before leaving you alone with Emily.

“You did a great job in there,” she said as you walked back to the bullpen.

“It didn’t feel like it,” you told her honestly, “I’ve known Tim for years, he was always so nice to me. He never seemed…capable… but the way he yelled…”

“I know. It’s over now, though. Is there anything we can get for you? Coffee?” you sat down at Spencer’s desk, feeling exhaustion wash over you.

“No, thanks. I think I’m just going to go back to the museum. I have some work there that needs some attention. Do you think Spencer could drive me? I’m not awake enough to take public transportation.”

“I’m driving, but we’re not going to the museum,” Spencer loped over from Hotch’s office, grabbing his jacket and bag from the back of his chair.

“What? Why not?”

“You’re coming back to my apartment. Hotch’s orders, you’re not allowed to argue.”

As much as you wanted to, you decided not to put up a fight and instead got into the Bureau vehicle with your best friend. It was quiet as he drove, you wanted to say something but you didn’t know what the right words would be to describe how thankful you were to have him in your life. The silence continued until you were inside, when Spencer offered you something to eat.

“Are you sure?” he asked from the kitchen when you declined. You were by his bookshelves, running your finger down the spines of the many books he owned. Even though most of the time you spent with Spencer was in the museum, you had been to his apartment before on multiple occasions. You had never been there long enough to read his large collection of books, though you wished you had the time because you always trusted Spencer’s book recommendations.

“I’m sure. Thanks, though,” you paused to pull a Chaucer book off the shelf, “why did Hotch want me to come home with you?”

“He wanted you somewhere safe and comfortable, where you can process what happened without being completely alone. I know you wanted to go back to the museum but I also know what you’re like when you’re working and going back to work isn’t going to help you process what just happened. I thought coming here would give you a chance to eat and sleep,” he took the book out of your hands and put it back in its place.

“Is it that obvious?” you were having a hard time keeping your eyelids open. Spencer laughed lightly.

“It is, you should get some rest. I’ll be right out here, I have to finish this report,” he gestured to the folder he had brought home. You nodded, padding over to the bedroom. As soon as you crossed the threshold you could feel your distance from Spencer, who was leaning against the counter scratching away at the file with a pen.

“Spencer?” he turned to you quickly, his eyebrows mashing together in concern.

“Is that report kitchen specific, or could you do it in here?” his face softened. He left the file abandoned where it was on the counter as he rushed over to you. He helped you into bed, before sitting at the opposite end and settling by your feet.

“I’m not going anywhere, you’re safe now,” he put a hand on your leg. The pressure was reassuring, to say the least, and you found yourself easily slipping into sleep underneath Spencer’s quilt.

When you woke, Spencer was still at the end of the bed with a book in his hands. His feet, clad in mismatched socks, were crossed by your shoulder. You gently prodded at his foot, causing him to twitch and look up from what he was reading.

“You’re awake,” he smiled, putting the book down beside him. You sat up and stretched out your arms.

“You’re still here,” you smirked.

“It’s my apartment,” his quip was light and gentle.

“You’re right, I should get back to the museum,” you started to get up, but Spencer put a hand on your foot.

“Stay here for a while. You work too much, some time off would be good for you.”

“You work just as much as I do, genius. I’m not going to loiter in your apartment while you’re off fighting crime.”

“Hotch is letting me stay home for a few days. If an urgent case comes up I’ll help remotely, but I’m not leaving you.”

“Spence, you don’t have to-“

“I want to, (y/n). You’re my best friend who just went through a traumatic experience. Your family is 2,431 miles away, but even if they were closer you wouldn’t spend time with them. You said it yourself, I’m the only one you talk to regularly. I’m not going to abandon you now.”

“Haven’t we talked about you profiling me?” Spencer blushed.

“That wasn’t a profile, just information.”

“Sure,” you yawned.

“Go back to sleep, you still have some catching up to do.”

“You’re keeping track?” you asked, though you laid back down to get more comfortable.

“It’s simple subtraction, (y/n). I don’t need a PhD in mathematics to know you have slept far less than is healthy for the last three days,” he picked up the book again, finding the place where he left off.

“What are you reading?” his eyes flickered up to meet yours again.

“Dickens, Great Expectations.”

“You’ve read that one before,” you commented, surprised he didn’t have more to say on the subject.

“I have. I thought you might like it, I was just passing the time while you were sleeping. I can read it to you, if you want. It always made me feel better when my mom read to me.”

“I’d really like that,” you settled deeper into the pillow, listening to your friend’s voice as you drifted off to sleep. For the first time since Spencer had burst into your office, you finally felt content.

[mariaiscrafting]

can i ask why you dislike dream? im not being passive agressive or something lol i am genuinely curious

S’all good, kinda figured you weren’t being, and a lot of people have asked me this lol. There are so many reasons, and I’ve said this so many times already, but I’ll try to go over some of the main things I can remember:

1) Arrogance: kinda put me off how he’s always responded to criticism. Always kinda had an air of superiority about shit, and it never really bothered me on its own because I think lots of CCs are arrogant & I’m arrogant myself, but combined with all of the following, it became a reason for me to dislike him lol

2) Manipulation of his audience: look, I kinda always knew that CCs with huge fanbases, especially CCs who grow this quickly, have some kind of grasp of how to treat and foster their audience to their greatest advantage. I’ve always been wary of CCs that put on soft or nice personalities, especially since the whole Shane Dawson debacle. But with Dream, it’s been a whole other thing ever since his cheating response video, and I’ve never been able to see him in a good light in regard to how he responds to his fans, ever since. I went into it in a lot more detail back when I first watched the video, the day it dropped, but I’m too exhausted to scrounge that post up, so I’ll summarize: that video had a very specific strategy that he used to victimize himself and appeal to his fans’ compassion for him, and after rewatching the video for the third time that day, it felt gross and calculated to me. The way that he focuses very little on the actual mathematical part of his argument. The way he frames the issue of the mods having favoritism or bias. It was already proven on Reddit and throughout Twitter that the numbers the mods looked at were for good reason, and not because they just wanted to pick the numbers that made Dream look the worst, but that’s how he framed the argument. When I logged onto Twitter and Tumblr that day, there were thousands of fans who had latched onto what he said in the latter half of that video and coming to Dream’s defense, and that’s kinda when it hit me: this guy fucking knows what he’s doing, and he’s doing it well, and I really really dislike it. There’s about a hundred other ways he manipulates his audience, including not coming to people’s defenses when huge chunks of his audience attack them (even though the people had respectful and correct criticisms of him), defending stans so adamantly in the face of antis, and posting periodic alt tweets that help garner the illusion that he super cares about his fans; but, that cheating response video was the major red flag, for me.

3) Cheating & lying: as is likely no surprise to y’all, I think Dream cheated lmao. At first, I was ecstatic that he had actually made a detailed response video and put out a report with the help of an actual professional, but as I read up on his supposed statistical argument and dissected the parts of his argument that felt off to me, I realized maybe he had cheated. Talking to some STEM major friends of mine, who weren’t into MCYT but had obviously heard about the whole debacle because they like Twitter and Minecraft, kinda put the nail in the coffin for me. I’m not nearly smart enough or have a good enough memory to detail exactly why I think he cheated on this blog, right now, in April, but essentially: his main argument relied upon claiming mod bias, instead of a sound mathematical or statistical argument; there’s no way of proving that the world files he provided to the mods and in the open source weren’t altered; the statistical problems he points out (i.e., stopping effect) don’t actually skew the original mods’ model nearly as much as his supposed PhD guy would say; and the odds he comes up with might not be nearly as impossible as 1 in 7 trillion, but they still come up to around 1 in 100 million, which is still fucking ridiculous, considering that there are only, like, 120 million people in the world who play Minecraft.  Not impossible, but laughable that he expects people to believe that. But... I guess they did, lmao. The thing that peeved me the most about the whole thing was the adamant lying lmao. When you look at the situation from the perspective of “dream cheated,” you realize just how fucked up all his Twitter responses, his adamance in streams and that video, and the general mood among his friends is... idk man, it’s just highly fucked.

4) Relationship with stans: look, there are significant numbers of  his fans that take part in Twitter cancelling vendettas, who spread around information about other CCs and their fellow fans that is false and meant to villify them, etc., and he never fucking says anything. It really, really bothers me. There are too many instances to enumerate, but a few that have caught my eye were when Dream stans would attack Techno, prior to their battle and when a Native American woman politely explained why he shouldn’t use Native music, he responded and said he wouldn’t, but tons of stans continued to attack her in her replies for “being so harsh/mean.” Like, he knows that just one word from him will make his fandom follow his beck and call. All it would’ve taken was one fucking word. There are so many fucking people that have been harrassed off of social media platforms because of the hivemind that is dttwt, for christ’s sake.

5) Reddit posts: All of the above were reasons for me to mildly dislike the guy prior to the Reddit posts, but they weren’t really enough to make me stop posting about c!Dream or reblogging fanart or reading DNF fics or watching Manhunts. I kinda just clowned on the guy, answered the occasional ask about the cheating thing or something related, and left it at that. The Reddit posts not only pissed me off for their content, but for the lying, as well. Do you think I fucking cared about him cheating at speedrunning Minecraft, of all games? Fuck no. What I cared about was the adamant lying that went into the whole debacle. Kinda the same with the Reddit posts. I’m one to usually forgive creators who acknowledge past errors, obviously. It is creators who try to brush stuff off, or even worse, create an elaborate lie to cover up allegations, that put me off a fuck ton. This is the reason I could never be comfortable with watching Pewdipie after I realized all the shit he had brushed off, and it’s now the reason I can’t go back to watching Dream. There is so much evidence that points to guilt, including but not limited to: his first move when the slideshow dropped (before posting to Twitter) being deleting as many old Discord messages as he could, the contradiction between him at first denying the account was his at all then changing the story to say he shared it with a friend, the wording and phrasing in the political posts being almost identical to the non-political posts that were clearly him (i.e., the one that explains his demographics perfectly), and the timing of the political posts (some of them being posted mere minutes after posts that were verifiably him, like the picture of Patches to the cats subreddit). People can claim that he’s likely changed, and what this it matter, as long as politics don’t affect his work now, but I can’t believe this fundamental misunderstanding of why bigotry in entertainment matters. I’ve always had a problem with the adoration this fandom has for cishet white men, and the constant criticism of non-cishet, non-white, non-men, but this really feels like the final slap in the fucking face. It’s like everyone truly believes that it doesn’t matter, that his beliefs couldn’t have possibly affected the way he’s treated fellow CCs in his circles or any of the number of people that depend upon Dream, directly and indirectly, for employment/CC clout. It’s like everyone truly believes that political ideology has no effect on the way we perceive, treat, and behave around other people in literally any field, not just politics. I, just... Christ. I don’t really wanna unpack my emotions about this whole thing right now, so I won’t. I’ll just say: I dislike Trump supporters and ex-Trump supporters alike, I dislike conservatives who claim they’re centrists (every fucking guy my age does this, it’s infuriating and makes me want to bash my head into the nearest wall), I dislike people who levy their fans against criticism - even when it’s righteous - and I dislike people who lie about their past actions; Dream fits all those categories, so I dislike him.

[ldcu-12stem1-group4mil]

Breaking through the years of relying the television for information, technology in today’s generation has finally given birth to effortless spread of figures through the medium of media. In 2020, there are approximately 79 million of smartphone users in the Philippines as reported by Statistica. Given from the data, just by simply posting what you think can easily scatter all around the internet and eventually may turn out as trending. Possessing media communication tools is very powerful in this period, and turned out to be even more functional ever since the widespread virus struck the lives of every person. From different forms of communication involving; selling, services, news, and memes it significantly progressed our way of living. Communication pays a critical role in our sociability, it is just one way to survive the never-ending nightmare of being alone, just as they usually say “Communication is the key”.

www.facebook.com/Bakkler (Recently Removed)

Though communication is widely used as the foundation for data gathering and the spread of information throughout media, it can also be misleading and untrue which is cynical to the public that might create confusion and misunderstanding especially in the field of social and political matters. Hiding and concealing the fact of the matter from the people that should know the truth is inequitable and must follow serious consequences, yet satire pages and false news are becoming rampant in today’s period because from our situation now, the news is given more contrast and it could cause large impact to the media if wrongfully used. We may find satire pages as humorous and fun but others take them as truthful and it is alarming especially when it is mostly emphasized politically whereof the country has a controversial issue about governing. Aside from these satire pages, “Secondary school teacher in Zamboanga City noted that during the 2019 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the Philippines, among 79 participating countries, scored the lowest in reading comprehension” (Rimando, 2021). From this very information, Filipinos often misapprehend the headlines or the media information itself even if it is viable. Quantities of conditions are at stake if the following issue would precede in the following years, having this kind of issue might also lead to false news if media and information illiterates continue to fail in recognizing facts, as well as constructive criticism about a piece of said information.

Image by Buena Bernal via Rappler

Although hindrances are present in media and information allocation, just by the existence of media and information communication topics that are not conversed about are contrasted which is very essential in the progress of elevating. Topics such as LGBTQ+ which are mostly taboo to some countries, forbidding people with different gender identities to reveal their true nature. With the use of media, people are enlightened that it is no different from the norms where gender is only referred to men and women, and people from LGBTQ+ must also be treated the same. Topics such as mentioned must be taken gravely since LGBTQ+ are often being discriminated against in today’s society. I mean, there is nothing wrong to be yourself, why stop others from trying to achieve their true essence? They are themselves and you are yourself, simply respect that thought.

In this day and age, media and information literacy taught us that it is not concerning how old or how young the communicator is but “It is the capacity to recognize, comprehend, interpret, produce, communicate, and compute utilizing printed and written materials from various contexts” (UNESCO, 2011). Though in our country, invalidation of opinions is still a thing from people who thinks that the youth has yet to grow and learn more in the process. For everyone to know, “Literacy is a skill” everyone who possesses such understanding about the proper use of media and information literacy is free to voice out their opinions without worrying to be compromised by the adults. Remember, it is our opinion and they are obliged to respect it the same as theirs.

Communication is always developing, and the only thing that must be considered is the viability and precision of the information that will be sent through the media via the internet. It may get out of hand, but with the spirit of unity and peace, we young people will accomplish the diversified integration of media and information integrity that is essential in every aspect of our life.

REFERENCES:

https://www.statista.com/statistics/467186/forecast-of-smartphone-users-in-the-philippines/

https://www.manilatimes.net/2021/01/21/campus-press/low-reading-comprehension-impacts-ph-education-quality/830118

https://www.rappler.com/nation/lgbtq-rights-philippines-tolerated-not-accepted

http://www.uis.unesco.org/Communication/Documents/media-and-information-literacy-assessment-framework.pdf