#because the indoctrination shit gets worse and more personal

[likeabxrdinflight]

possibly the most interesting consequence of letting my therapist read through my trauma memoir is the way she still sees things in what I wrote that I don't. like I wrote quite a bit about the ways I was taught about and experienced religion that she pointed out were kinda fucked up in ways I didn't even think about. things like having little kids sit and pray the rosary every week, or dedicating an entire afternoon just to religion class, or preparing for first confessions- these things were so normalized to me I'd have never even considered them all that unusual in the context of a religious education. but they were details that stuck out to her as being a lot of ask of fourth graders (she was a lot more weirded out by confession than I'd have expected), and that fascinates me. because it was so normalized. all of it was so normalized, I think I've still only really considered the most extreme aspects to have been the most toxic parts.

the other interesting part for me is that the majority of this narrative is about the impact a very specific teacher had on me. the whole point of writing this was to sort of go back and re-live that experience and present it in a narrative way that makes sense of the story and helps me conceptualize it. and it served that purpose, I think. but throughout it, this teacher was a figure that I tried to write as honestly as possible because it was tempting to depict her as 100% a villain. and she is the antagonist of the piece in the end, there's no mystery about that, but part of this project, for me, was treating her like a human being and exploring what that meant for me. it's not about having compassion for her so much as for myself, for why I was ever vulnerable to someone like her. so I do not want her to come across like a mustache twirling cartoon villain- if anything I kind of want the hypothetical reader who knows nothing about me or my life to feel conflicted about her in the early parts of the story. I want the reader to feel torn between liking her and not being so sure if they should, because that was what it was like for me.

now my therapist was always going to be a little biased, given she already knows the bones of the story I'm telling. she knows the ending. but despite going to great lengths to keep this teacher feeling like a human, my therapist still told me that she came across, to her at least, as "cunningly manipulative" (her words). she felt like this teacher's way of teaching religion throughout even the earliest parts of the story was quite sinister. so either I'm just not doing a good job of keeping my present-day negative perception of her out of the narrative OR this bitch really was just that shitty of a person and I need to trust more in the reality that yeah, it kind of was that bad...

[welivetodream]

The reason Bunny gets a shit load of hate despite him being the only one who is NOT an accomplice to murder is because of one simple thing:

His personality.

That is the reason we can't feel bad for him. We as a society have considered Homophobia and sexism one of the worst things you can ever do. Which is true.

Murder is justified in certain situations, especially when it's in a fictional universe/story, not saying Bunny's death was justified, but we can excuse murder----even the law excuses murder at times. It's something grey and understandable in certain situations. We have liked; even loved characters who have killed others simply because it is in a fictional story.

The reason we draw the line at Bunny's behaviour is because, Homophobia, Racism, Sexism/Misogyny as well other forms of discrimination are NEVER excusable. When someone says a slur, you can't excuse that by comparing them in terms of morality with other characters. In modern society, we don't accept slurs and derogatory remarks.

Maybe in the 90's and 2000's when the book was new and fresh, people might not have cared about Bunny's behaviour much, maybe they even sympathize with him and loved him, because it was a DIFFERENT TIME back then. We cannot tolerate things like that anymore and it makes people harder to sympathize with Bunny.

Other than all that, Bunny is annoying a lot of the time. He is not the loveable goof he thinks he is. He scams his friends. He is cocky and arrogant. He is dumb and condescending. He says the worst things at wrong times. He puts people down. He pokes fun at others weaknesses. And the more you see of him the worse he gets. Even to the point you wish he dies.......

And he does. It's in his death that Bunny is more humanized, as most people are, in death.

And it is SOOO frustrating because he is the sanest person in the entire class. The most normal and least indoctrinated in those beliefs.

Bunny Corcoran is a character I wanted to like. But he kept getting on my nerves and I found others more interesting than him. And after reading the book several times I can appreciate him more. Although I don't agree with so many theories about him being a "good" person.

Bunny doesn't need to be good. He doesn't need anyone defending him. He doesn't need excuses for his personality. He is annoying, sometimes endearing; he makes your blood boil and he's still gone too soon. His death is a tragedy. He wanted to live. Forever.

Bunny is Bunny

You love, you hate him, or you don't care about him

His existence is necessary for the story and it's time we don't fight about if he was an angel or the devil

He was a person. A deeply flawed, complex person. And we should appreciate him just for that.

~🕯️🕊️🐇

[damnfandomproblems]

respond to a reply on this post: https://www.tumblr.com/damnfandomproblems/758279107941466112/fandom-problem-5461-cishet-being-used-to?source=share

"are you seriously equating making fun of a marginalized group to making fun of like, idk gender reveal parties or whatever people in your fandom make fun of cishets for doing? Like I don't mock people based on their sexuality but tell me that you do understand the difference between someone making fun of a marginalized group with a high suicide rate and someone poking fun at straight people.(Also, for the folks making racism comparisons: I'm white and when people make white people jokes about like, white people love avocado toast! White people love yoga and saying buddy! or whatever, 1) I don't mind 2) that's much different than a white person making fun of say, Black people.)"

As a poc, and specifically a queer (cisbi) native american (tlingit) who grew up around cishet white people, when it comes to online and fannish spaces I have noticed that people tend to cross the line from making harmless fun to just straight up expressing and encouraging hatred

While this is definitely a minority of people who believe and act out on these beliefs, there is a problem of people truly believing that cishet white people are all genuinely evil and inherently evil at that, and that the only way to "fix" (cleanse) the world of all problems would to be committed genocide in fandom spaces. They immediately assume the worse and dehumanize and rejected similarities they may share with cishet white people. It's absolutely prejudice and need to not only be called out, but utterly tossed in the bin

I get feeling uncomfortable or even wary of people who appart of the same kind of people who have oppressed you because you are not sure if they too have been indoctrinated into the bigotry, but we live in the modern era, more often then not you'll find that most cishet white people just don't care about poc and queer stuff

Cishet whites aren't responsible for crimes they weren't even alive for, that their ancestors committed. They are far more often ignorant because the education system is shit and has a lot racism/ableism/etc baked into foundation ontop of not really being how to do own research, then they are intentionally malicious and bigoted, and the best way to prevent them from being indoctrinated into bigotry is to just, expose them queers and poc who are chill with them and are willing to educate. Insulting them and assuming they want to hurt minorities just because they're cishet whites is the best way to push them into radical hands that will instead pain queers and poc as the ones who just want to hurt others for being cishet whites, because "obviously" why else would they immediately assume you want hurt them unless they want to hurt you?

Hating anyone for things they cannot control (race, gender, sexuality, etcetera) only breeds more hate. Yeah, don't tolerating bigots, but if genuinely can't stand a certain demographic of people ignore them rather then going out of your way to hate them. Educate if you can, or shut up when talking to people who haven't don't anything to you beyond offend your sensibly for committing the crime of being born a certain way, because otherwise you're just feeding into the genuinely malicious and bigoted peoples hands and making it easier for them to take the ignorant and make them malicious too

Hatred at the end of the day is hatred, sure, it might not be the racist or homophobic flavor of hatred, but it's still hatered. And no one should hate anyone, at least not for the things they can't control (because fuck pedos/rape-philies in general and murders and genuine racists of course, they can all go get shot, don't get me wrong and twist my words like I know some of y'all are just dying to do)

Posting as a response to a previous problem.

[cetaceanhandiwork]

I don’t care about the checkmarks and I’m probably not gonna buy one unless I can think of some really funny way to use it. and to be clear, this post isn’t really about that.

but it was the inspiration for this post, because I saw some interesting secondhand discourse on the topic, which reminded me of this old XKCD episode

but I think there’s a better point to be made in this neighborhood than the sorta gratuitous “take that” approach Munroe used there

which is that if you let yourself get to the point where you see any expenditure of money “for fun” as wicked because there’s children starving in detroit, you have fallen for one of the central lies that money tries to indoctrinate us with: that you can math out everything in terms of +EV and opportunity cost, even things like good and evil.

and the reason you can’t math it out is that:

nobody on planet fucking earth knows enough to actually math out the consequences of an action. nobody has that level of perspective or context.

even if they did, how do you price those consequences against each other? there’s no way to compare one person’s pain to another’s; you’ll getting meaningless results, worse than useless. there’s a reason that we say “there’s no winners in misery poker”.

even if you could compare, how do you add or subtract? how do you do basic arithmetic when we know the hedonic treadmill exists, or that beyond a certain minimum successful care produces over-unity of happiness?

but we think we can anyway. we think we can b/c we live in a world where everything costs money and everyone needs money, where we’ve been trained to think that you can just convert X into a dollar-denominated opportunity cost and compare that way.

but that ain’t how good and evil work, and it ain’t how our hearts work. and it’s a deadly risk, because as soon as you start trying to do that math, you can get your arm twisted into believing that enough money can make something wrong into something right (b/c you can donate it to make something better happen than the bad thing you did). which, to be clear, is nonsense, and it’s the kind of thinking that ate Ana Mardoll (f’rex) alive.

or you start wondering if your existence is somehow a net negative to the world b/c you happen to take prescription meds paid for by medicaid. which, to be clear, is also nonsense and eats people alive every day.

and all this shit erodes your moral sense, your... fuckit, I’m just gonna say your conscience. b/c you keep telling it “no this good thing is bad actually because of the math” or vice versa until you get so much practice at it that nothing feels good anymore, or nothing feels bad anymore. and now you’re entirely off in deep space without even anything to base your busted math on.

I don’t claim to have all the answers. my own mutant ass take on virtue ethics is probably not an effective coda to this post b/c it’s not actually the point. and I’m definitely not saying that you shouldn’t spend your money on good causes. it’s good to care, and it’s good to act on that care! you’ll probably even enjoy it! but that’s not the point either. the point is more that “you should quit your topic X because my topic Y is more important” or “you should give up on real human being Z because my topic Y is more important” are snake oil, because you can’t even do math to those things in the first place without getting yourself irrecoverably, tragically confused.

[rinwellisathing]

I would like to repeat a point I have made that I guess I don't make often enough and I sure as hell don't see others make often enough. Any character that you like in BG3, no matter how innocuous they are or you THINK they are, shut the ever loving fuck up about your judgments on what characters other people like. It's fiction. Astarion is racist as fuck against gnomes and is against you helping slaves. Lae'zel is racist as fuck against non Githyanki and the cult she's indoctrinated into are brutal killers and incredibly xenophobic. Shadowheart is racist as fuck against Githyanki and has tortured people as part of her religion, I'm not even going to get into Minthara because I'm gonna hurt someone...Wyll and Karlach are probably the most innocuous, but even then you can certainly make a case for Karlach potentially knowing more than she let's on about Gortash and willingly working for him until it's her on the chopping block. Orin abuses Minthara and if she gets her hands on him, Zevlor, and is also a serial killer. Ketheric is controlling of Isobel and enslaved Aylin, the less I say about Gortash the better because as much as I'm a Gort simp, he is genuinely a terrible person trauma notwithstanding. Raphael is an actual pedophile, slaver, abuser, and a literal devil, Haarlep's idea of 'consent'is dubious at best, The Emperor is part of The Nights of the Shield and I am begging you Emperor fans to please do a modicum of reading about them I love Emps, but he and Stelmane are...not good people.... The Society of Brilliance has a lot of sketch ideas and execution of ideas so even cute gay dad's Blurg and Omeluum aren't totally squeaky clean, Zevlor may have been brainwashed and he may not have been, but his actions or lack thereof cost lives that were relying on him and also he can be very manipulative (I love him and identify with him, so don't at me about daring to look at him critically), Rolan, whomst I relate to more than any other character in the game apart from maybe Astarion, will help enslave Aylin if his siblings died so their deaths weren't for nothing, Gale is over ambitious, makes a lot of excuses for Mystra, and can be pretty annoyingly smug.

Anyway, what I'm getting at is everybody has flaws. Every last character. That's why they're great. You're not better or worse than anyone else for liking or not liking a certain character. Let people enjoy things and get off your judgy high horses for fuck's sake.

Also plz read about The Knights of the Shield because I will lose my shit if one more person sits there and tells me Stelmane is an innocent victim/good person in everything... unrelated mostly, but come on, y'all. Have a LITTLE better reading comprehension than the Warcraft fandom.plz.

Also, how some of yall look trying to argue that your fave's warcrimes are different, actually:

[jaegerisim]

It's exaggerating because "handing out stickers" will make a person look more evil than he is than just the fact that his friends own them. Rachel and Moti are influencers who were the ones posting with the zionism is sexy stickers. They posted the stickers being sticked on walls on their ig story but they didn't get half the lashings that Noah did. Noah didn't post shit that show the stickers. Again, I don't agree with him but if you really care, then get your facts straight and give the same energy to Rachel and Moti who are definitely much more evil than Noah is and if you aren't in the twt fandom, even st stans who hate Noah to death agree that these two people especially Moti contributed to the Israel propaganda indoctrination of Noah since he never spoke any shit about politics before the birthright trip. Moti is posting much worse stuff rn both on ig and twitter, he' an influencer but he doesn't get half the lashings when he deserves it too

searched up who moti is. u r talking about moti ankari, aren't u? he's some model or fashion designer and there were rumours of him and noah dating... never cared for the guy and legit dgaf abt who "rachel" is lol

do u know why noah got more consequences? cuz he is more famous. he has millions of YOUNG followers (many of them jewish and/or queer) who admire him. "moti and rachel" don't have half as many followers as him. he was an idol to many, including me.

I went to my birthright trip too, I am not a zionist. in fact, I came back horrified and distraught. kids begging for scraps in the street and mothers looking at me in horror for being jewish. i was heartbroken to see what my ppl were doing. i donated, i bought them food, gave them some of my clothes, tried to show them that these monsters didn't represent my faith.

If noah let the birthright trip brainwash him then he is stupid and dumb. just bc he went to 5 star resort and didn't see the horrible things Israel was doing well, then...

I hope he grows and realizes that what he is doing is racist and hurtful. i really hope he does, but by then the damage will already be done. millions of Palestinians will be slaughtered or displaced. lives stolen and dreams shattered. the damage would already be done.

[sea-adhesiveness537]

hi it's the op of the madd ask game! how about 1, 7, and 25?

1.) How long have I've been Daydreaming? Hmm... For as long as I can remember. Daydreaming is like breathing, it's a second nature and it just happens. The earliest daydreams I might remember are from when I was in nursery or kindergarten, I was very young.

7.) Oh boy, I've been looking forward for this question! Parallel parking prompt, let's gooooooo

Ok, so, while SpongeBob can drive in my paracosm, as in, has the ABILITY to drive a car or a boat mobile, he doesn't like it because he finds it very boring. So he wouldn't give much fucks about parallel parking his car unless it's actually at the expense of other cars. But if you let him have a monster ride like, say, Nihilego Lusamine (I'm using her as an example because it's funny and that she's actually one of his go to mode of transport), THAT'S when the MF actually can parallel park his god damn ride just fine without any problem.

Mickey would boast about being able to parallel park like a good citizen should and be obnoxious about it, but does a shitty job when he actually tries to execute it. Bonus points if he hits a villain actor's car in the process (on purpose or not) and not give a fuck about that. He even believes that his parallel parking looks good and insists that it's perfect, even though it's not.

Sandy is one of the normal ones who'd just parallel park her vehicle just fine and not be to weird about it.

Clarabelle ranges from getting anxious over her car not being perfectly parallel enough (ex: the car being an inch too close or far from another car or object, the car not being straight, the car being in a particular angle, ect), to bragging about parallel parking it successfully first try as if she's a Mary Sue incarnate. But in reality, it took her four or five tries at best, and ten or more at worse if she was having a bad day.

Sonic exe and Ludwig Von Drake would rather just park elsewhere to not deal with this than park in tight spaces if possible (SpongeBob would do this too).

Gothel's also normal, but that's because I made her a bus driver in the paracosm because I got inspired by a video of Google translate singing Mother Knows Best and I gotta yoink the idea for how hilarious the video was. She wouldn't use a bus for this, but it'd be pretty impressive if she somehow manages to parallel park it.

Lusamine would hastily park the car as if she's running from the mob or is late for work, and bump into something in the process. If it's a hero actor's car or worse, Mickey's, then shit would hit the fan very quickly. She takes after SpongeBob with the can park a creature ride properly with no issues thing going on

Cynthia is the one who can park it well and smoothly for a first try and doesn't make a big deal about it. Her ser-workers (aka: co-stars) would freak out about it though.

25.) Which para I'd hate to meet in real life? Honestly Mickey and his cult. Sure, people would make memes about it for the first few weeks, but the moment they get put into the news because of their cult shit and trying to indoctrinate people into their religion, I'm really not meeting them in person multiple times just for the memes. Also, they're very scary, you would not want to face them, especially in combat. You'll either get killed or brainwashed. Pick your poison.

It doesn't help that I try to model their cult after rl ones like the Jehovah's witnesses and heaven's gate. I just like to ruin people's childhoods by making a cult out of Disney characters because the severe whiplash of childhood cartoon characters being in a cruel cult either harming people or being harmed will never not be pretty amusing and super fascinating to me.

Honorary mention: I wouldn't like to meet Lusa in person, either because I kinda still associate her with her canon self or I can not act normal around her because of the daydreams. Either way, I really don't want to deal with her. I'd rather leave her to SpongeBob.

EDIT: I'M A DUMBASS

I forgot that answers can be edited! Welp, guess you have to deal with the ask I sent you.

So yeah, my paras are the fic kind or the pre-existing characters who were unlucky enough to be kidnapped into my mind and be near its vicinity. Yes, they're not mine, but they're adoptive children stolen off the streets from their creators because my brain said so.

Edit: found a typo and fixed it.

[rainbowcarousels]

☕️ + Daniel's reaction to reading TVA

I don't think Daniel read TVA until a few years before PL. I tend to think that it took a long time for Daniel to come to get enough confidence in himself again to make decisions that were expressly against what Marius advised. I think Marius reading it didn't go well and doesn't think Daniel should risk it, possibly to the point where he doesn't keep a copy in the house so Daniel has to get one himself.

As such, I think he read it after having spoken to Armand a few times over the years. Probably not for long, your fic definitely gets it down how I think their conversations went, but enough that he felt like he was prepared.

He wasn't. What could possibly have prepared him for the raw emotion of it?

For the amount of times Armand was clearly struggling and David, instead of helping, catalogued him like the Talamascan he is? Then published it for the world to see? For the way Armand spoke of how he finally had the perfect companions, how Marius had spoken of how it would work this time because he could have their minds when Daniel never would again and of how he and Daniel had been nothing more than a footnote, as if their relationship hadn't really mattered at all? That Armand had felt abandoned by him and chalked it up to self-fulfilling prophecy, not Daniel trying sort out his own shit?

Not to mention everything else. Armand has, for better or worse, been many people and Daniel has loved all of them because he's seen glimmers of all of them. He's seen that mouthy little painter who struggles with something within himself that he doesn't understand, he's seen the venetian princeling, the vulnerable victim of kidnappings and indoctrination, the coven master, the theatre kid, the modern technology nerd. It's all his Armand, laid bare in the pages step by step and god, I think it takes everything not to just go and try and scoop him up and tell him that he loves him - even if he's not mortal anymore and apparently that doesn't count.

I think there was a lot of pacing, a lot of smoking ('I'm stubbing them out when I'm done, don't worry, I'm not Louis!') and more weeping than he's done in a long time. It skinned him raw and I think he just kept doing it over and over again. Was this what Armand felt when he heard Interview? Is that why he listened over and over?

Honourable mentions go to understanding the parallels between how Marius had shown his love and how Armand had tried to with him, recognising that Marius had a profound effect on Armand's taste and sexuality (and probably told Marius that he was much kinkier than he'd realised, potentially without context and randomly) and that Armand is forever just trying to be a whole person after his pieces have been ripped apart so many times. To knowing that god and religion in general has been a hair trigger for him but now understanding why, wanting to kick past-him's ass for being so flippant about it.

Mostly I think it was the beginning of a burning desire to see him, to hold him, to apologise, to ask if he loves him and try to be brave in the face of it. To make him know that he wasn't abandoned from lack of love but because he was just in a fucked up place and he'd been wanting to come home every night before Marius eventually took him under his wing and made sure he didn't perish. But he also knows he has a life with Louis and the kids and he doesn't know how or if he's welcome to any part of him anymore. Not for sure, not until PL and when he finds he does have a place, he goes home.

[rametarin]

To reprise

Me: "Hey. When you make posts arguing correct things, if you then slap on a word like, 'retarded', you've stepped over that bullshit imaginary line in the sand your opponents use as a gotcha so they don't have to even consider the logic. When you do this, the other sycophants that have been trained to eat out of the idiot's hand and then dogpile into a bunch of yes men hooting into their echo chamber, will focus on, "YOU SAY BAD WORD! OPINION DISCARDED" instead of the rational integrity of your argument. They can perform outrage over a faux pas and bury the actual meat of the discussion. You've given them even an ambiguous and muddy excuse to upend the chess board and leave, self-satisfied. Consider not using words they consider to be inflammatory, so they do not have any excuse to ignore the veracity of what you say and try to actually defend their positions. Give them no excuse to disregard your argument by citing your usage of, "slurs." FORCE them to go out of their way with reaching logic to invent reasons, and stretch the credibility of their accusations, because even their believers/followers will see that as a reach too far and eventually, snap. The reality they don't like hurts worse than any insult you could hurl, I promise you."

Some Of You Babboons: "HAH, FUCK YOU RETARD SNOWFLAKE! RETARD IS NOT A SLUR, I'LL USE IT ALL I WANT! NPC!"

My post was not about retarded being a slur so you shouldn't use it, it was about adjusting and tailoring your speech to reach people that are, for all intents and purposes, brainwashed or blinded by ego. They've been cultivated into a place where their opponents have to walk on eggshells of their design in order to communicate with them as a form of power, or they're told they have the right to antagonistically deny others an audience, and their people ignore that they just left the table and the encounter, rather than support their beliefs and logic in a way that defends or proves them, and rewarded with the group mentality that says they don't have to support how they arrived where they did in their worldview. They do not extend that same courtesy to those they disagree with. And don't have to, because it's a communal personality cult based on principle.

If you want to dismantle and defuse this hideous culture, you need to be able to play their game and win it without giving them any opportunity to take their ball and go home, claiming you said something so hideous and out of bounds they couldn't dignify it with further correspondence. And the fewer reasons you give them they can claim are valid, the more they eventually have to come to the realization it's not their opponents that are Nazis or bigots for disagreeing with anything, it's them looking for excuses to treat even benign behavior like it's hate speech or violence.

Naturally, there are some that are so indoctrinated because they're sheep that want to fit in and see that as the "winning side," or at least, the morally correct side. They're either too ignorant or too invested in the desired outcome (usually something socialistic or communist) to be flexible. But, the ones that are not simply stooges cannot deny to themselves when they see petty disqualification from someone that is not using, "slurs." When they have to actually argue the meat of the matter and have no convenient ejection seat or trap card to pull out that gets them out of the heat and pressure, it falls on them to do something desperate.

And when that happens, we get stupid reaching shit like webcomics about walruses and seals who are, "so annoying because they want to argue despite being polite, with people that don't want to argue." It makes them look pathetic.

Refusal to comprehend this is exactly why the moldy haired anti-nuclear breadtube pieces of shit are even close to winning cultural arguments. Because people that could be arguing with any kind of dignity are being lazy and acting like these overgrown children don't have the ability to engage with the democracy just because they're stupid.

It's BECAUSE they're stupid they can change the foundations and face of the system, because of the values and things they've been taught to recognize as forbidden. People that actually have intelligence are shepherding them in an asymmetric way that benefits from the chaos caused by their bleating discordant stupidity, like mean girls with self-awareness stoking the fires of a bunch of stupid gradeschool girls to be petty, shallow and vain as a form of competition. And unless you can appeal to their better senses and get them to personally choose to think about things outside of their dogmatic and safe, convenient perspective, you're just going to get more morons jumping down the narcotics lined prairie dog holes of Antifa and far-leftist nonsense that takes something even approaching reasonable mercy and reinterprets it through their disgusting red lenses just to hitch them up to pro-communist initiatives like a bunch of reined donkeys.

Some of you that replied have reading comprehension and still replied, "Naw, I see what you're saying but I choose to continue using retarded as an insult." And that's fine. I think that's counterproductive, but notice how my post said please. It was a request and suggestion supporting why, not a demand, and if you read my post, you'll notice it was neutral as to whether or not it was even a valid slur.

The rest of you read a post about how you shouldn't carelessly sling around words like retarded at people you're arguing with on social media because the sort of people put off like that, are EXACTLY the sort of people that should be reading arguments that challenge their notions with as few easy outs as possible, so you shouldn't GIVE them any excuse to pack up and leave and make them do it themselves, and immediately concluded it was just yet another post from some bug eating Lenin apologist wagging a finger and declaring victory during a discussion citing technial foul, for the other calling someone mentally defunct.

One fewer idiot drinking the kool-aid means one fewer idiot laying in wait to sabotage productive, constructive operations. One fewer idiot to vote against nuclear power plants. One fewer idiot to support abolishing police stations and replacing them with narco-mafia- or some flabby community watch that's just one step removed from narco-mafia. One fewer idiot to scream about how animal rights means meat should be illegal. One fewer idiot to claim fucking wool is harmful to the environment so you should use plastic leather. One fewer idiot browbeating their girlfriends about how a popcorn flick is "harmful to society because MMMMAAALE GAAAAAAAAZE" and them feeling self-conscious but not wanting to fight with their friend about it.

[sixty-silver-wishes]

It's 2023 and I live in Florida.

I've lived my whole life in central Florida (with the nearest city being Orlando), and the general political climate I grew up in was pretty moderate. The far-right shift things have been taking honestly came as a shock (although to be fair, confronting the rise of fascism in your backyard is a tough pill to swallow no matter where you live), considering the atmosphere I was raised in; I remember going on vacation to places like Georgia and Tennessee when I was a kid and being shocked to see people flying Confederate battle flags and selling them as souvenirs in gift shops. Florida always felt like more of a mixed bag, albeit a whiplash-inducing one; you can go down to Mims and see Trump signs tacked up everywhere, or you can go to Lake Eola and see pride flags in all the windows.

Both the Pulse and Parkland shootings happened when I was in high school, and I distinctly remember how both of them rocked my community. We staged walkouts at school, had conversations with our families and friends about topics like gun control and the LGBT+ community that lasted for weeks, and it felt like a sense of mourning and desire for progress could be felt within everyone I knew.

Which is one of the many reasons why whatever the fuck Desantis is doing infuriates me so much. I hate to see the place I grew up in turned into what it's becoming, and frankly, it's painful not just to see outsiders see it first and foremost in this way, but for them to be right about it. When Kathy Hochul told conservative New Yorkers to "move to Florida," to me, that felt like a stab in the gut, that the place I lived and grew up in should be recognized nationally like this. For me, that just wasn't Florida. Did we have conservative crazies? Sure, but overall, I always saw Florida as a much more diverse and multifaceted place than people give it credit for. But unfortunately, with the insane laws being passed here and Desantis receiving a level of support that to me seems unthinkable (I swear, he could write "I am a fascist" on his forehead and people still wouldn't give a shit), and the fear I feel every day that things are getting worse and worse, the apathy that follows as a survival mechanism that I keep reminding myself that I can't give into, it feels unrecognizable. And yet, this didn't come out of nowhere.

My advice to those who are still reading? Don't be apathetic. Oppression is happening here, and will continue to worsen, and by writing off entire populations as people unworthy of compassion, you are writing off the people who are oppressed and may not be able to "just leave," who are suffering the most under such legislation and sociopolitical climates. Fascism thrives off of fear and dividing people into "us" and "them," so I'm begging you, remember the humanity of those who are suffering under it- and yes, that includes the people who have been indoctrinated into it. Do you have to like them, excuse them, or forgive them? Absolutely not. But their fears and ignorance are being preyed upon, and that will end up hurting more people in the long run.

Secondly, don't think it can never happen to you. I've seen people in blue states constantly dismiss whatever Desantis and co. are doing because it doesn't affect them, but if he runs for president and wins, he becomes the entire country's problem. And it doesn't have to be him; we've seen far-right ideology spreading across the country, perpetrated by multiple people. I've seen Europeans and Canadians blaming the rise of far-right movements in their countries on Trump and America, and while Trump and far-right American movements may have encouraged them, fascism can show up anywhere; the first step to fighting it acknowledges that there's never just one person to blame; it works systemically and thrives off of apathy. Think critically, stay educated, and most importantly, stay compassionate.

[royalberryriku]

As a transgender person, the way the media talks about Jews and Palestinians since October 7th really rubs me the wrong way.

I don't know if I'm wording this very well, I'm really emotional over how these methods being used against people like me and have been used against so many marginalised communities are being used again. I know I sound like some conspiracy theorist but the truth is that history shows a long list of evidence pointing towards the west being at fault for this and for starting this colonial hate filled bullshit.

But yeah.

So, when I i get shit for being trans, it's often because people assume my existence threatens someone else's, said people who, by the way, they turn around and give shit when they think we don't realise. Cis lesbians, for example. We will get shit for calling non transgender people the word for being non transgender "cis", but said people who get angry will ignore cisgender men who corrective rape lesbians and then also advocate for the rights of lesbians to be taken away on a state and federal level.

What really sticks out to me is how the media talks about antisemetism exactly to the same extent they talk about lesbiphobia; whenever it suits an agenda while ignoring the actual issues that actually affect Jews. All the while, blaming another minority for their own bullshit. White supremacy has been perpetuated by white nationalists who often appropriate nordic symbols and say they are superior for their nordic bloodlines. Which is also total bullshit, but they seem to believe it enough to call for the death of Jews, deface graves and shoot up synagogues. Yet, when far right extremists online are given a platform or make stories with obvious dog whistles, the media say absolutely nothing. The only time the media seems to suddenly "care" is when it's to target another minority.

As a trans guy who really likes knowing about history, let me tell you a very damning observation of mine; lesbians and gays get treated worse the more trans people are legislated against, because it's means rolling back rights for other minorities. It means starting a process that targets more and more "undesirables".

The Nazis used the exact same frame work and the western leaders at the time applauded him for it. And yes, they still use the exact same methods. We know that once one group are dehumanised, it's only a matter of time before the next group are targeted immediately afterwards. So when I say "when they're through with Palestinians, Jews are next on the list" that's not hyperbole.

I'm not saying Israelis are victims either, the is a huge issue of indoctrinated far right metrology and idealism that stems from colonial European bullshit passed on. I am however saying that, in the west's mins, when Palestinians are out of the picture, who else do you think would be next in line so that the west gain more land? Who else is "in the way"? Who else do white nationalists despise? We've seen how this shit is done; how hate is methodically done.

"Hamas are terrorists and hide amongst civilians" have to considered that this narrative was born because Hamas were civilians who were targeted and bombed before October 7th? No, I'm not saying this justifies anything, but if you can recognise at least that it was by law self defence, then you can realise that Israel's actions are, by law, terrorism since before last year and every year since 1948.

So, when you Pro Zionist/ Pro Israel people come on here and try to claim that "Hamas are terrorists and anyone pro Palestine is antisemetic" please know that you're repeating the same exact narrative created by white nationalists that is supposed to isolate you and make you easier for THEM to kill. You're next, not by arabic people or brown skinned people but by white nationalists who are cheering at the fact that Islamophobia is on the rise and that antisemetism will rise with it because hate gives way to hate, as it always has. And those who profit will pretend to be sheep while waiting for a chance to kill you, that's how historically the far right have operated and are operating amidst this. It's a red flag and we need to stop ignoring it.

First they came for socialists, the communists, the Romani, the Jews. History repeats when we ignore how this shit works; it doesn't start and end with one group. So yes, from a historical perspective, if you're not pro Palestine, you're anti Jew; you're going on the side that wants both of these nationalities gone. I know that's an strong statement, but when I look at history and I look at now? I see a very clear picture of how methodically the guillotine is being raised, one by one, until there are no Semites left, Arab or Jew. And isolating each other is how the far right have always done this exact thing. So remember the real enemy for fucks sake; and it's isn't Palestinians who are at fault for existing, the ones doing this are the ones cheering at the death and profiting off of it. It's always been the west, not those who want to live with equal rights and resist violance done to them.

You want to end antisemetism? Start by protecting EVERY SINGLE Semite. Palestinians must be free for Jews to thrive, trans rights just be upheld to protect the rights of us all, and every single human life must be valued.

[blacktoothcomics]

white intellectuals despise being corrected on their isms, but especially their classism and racism. my country is full of comfortably monied wipipo who are CONVINCED that their college education was their lifelong subscription to Good Person quarterly, meanwhile lacking any and all familiarity with any member of a minority group existing outside their comfortable economic bubble.

domestic abuse and parental abuse of children are worse in poverty. hate crimes are worse in poverty. rape culture is worse in poverty. cult indoctrination is worse in poverty. medical neglect and institutionalized abuse are also... oh man u guessed it they're worse in poverty.

i put my arguments down at the feet of people i think could benefit from picking those arguments up and examining them, and this has worked VERY WELL in weeding out the performative dramatics of voluntary sufferers -- those who would see all that information bundled there on the ground and kick it for attacking them.

it's not a finite resource, my argument. my time and attention are limited to my physical existence, sure, but anything i have to lay at the feet of people who are bawling for inclusion and allyship can be found basically anywhere, from any other underserved and traumatized native of poverty.

it's just other impoverished persons are not usually as eloquent as someone who was raised in brutality to the specific goal of marrying up, AND they don't really have the time or energy or access to the infrastructure needed to do circus tricks online in exchange for visible personhood. it's not usual to hold a land bridge between the tax brackets, but those are bridges i have been crossing my entire life, and i tend to assume my experiences could be valuable to both sides to learn from...

and sofar, without fail, it's the comfortably monied who kick my bundled information the furthest into the sea. but it's the impoverished who kick it the quickest, without even reading a single goddamn thing.

what's the masculine version of cassandra complex? aspergers?

whatevs, my slightly more educated rich white family are the absolute pros of neglect and creepsterism, then blaming me for their own ignorance over why they are abusive creeps, when it's like... bruh i am not going to unwrap the info and read it out loud to you, you actually need to use your eyeballs and earballs and grow a set of courageballs before punting away the experiences of the violently defended personhoods about whom you claim to give a shit.

anyway i absolutely used to hit my mom back and i highly recommend any kid or teen learn to do the same no matter their proximity to ASD. teachers, too, i yoosta stab any and all authority figures if they got handsy and the worst attack against workingclass kids safety came in the form of weapon screenings post-columbine.

nobody brought a gun to a knife fight and kids didn't even bring knifes to fistfights, those blades were for spicing up the afterschool church basements with carved testimonials over which youth pastor would try to get you drunk at his house, carved so it couldn't be painted over, usually under a table or in a corner that only a kid in hiding would know where to look.

all this to say i am so glad for the internet, but we do need to keep in mind that ppl online are a privileged minority.

if you're disabled and actually have access to the internet, but not to meatspace people with actual problems? man, just sit down from the social justice shit, you CANNOT verify if anyone online is being genuine -- AND your social justice efforts would go way further if you could just focus on helping one other actual person face to face every day instead of broiling your brains in the "rejection sensitivity arena" that is the internet.

and? sit down from the social justice shit online because it's not good for you. i was raised by and with actual monsters, i saw them making the same self-harm decisions to be and stay forever victims, then to co-opt the victimhoods of others so they could keep that adrenaline punch fresh, riding the endorphin high of the persecution complex at every turn.

nobody likes that ally.

stop it.

[goddamnwebcomics]

My Not-so-Brief Review of Gene Catlow (Part 3)

This is where we talk about the half of Family of Intelligent Life members, yes, HALF.

Characters (Part 2)

During this review I’ve rightfully shittalked the entire Family of Intelligent Life so many times, but I’ve never actually talked about who’s in it. Most of them are already established characters who we have seen earlier in the comic. There’s the MacRopuses, a couple of kangaroos who start off as an interesting couple. The male of the couple hates humans at first, but eventually leaves the whole ideology of humanhating behind when he sees Eubie join the infamous Furry Unity group. After their indoctrination into the Family of Intelligent Life, the MacRopuses turn into a pair of MacDoofuses who want to put on Superman and Wonder Woman cosplays and want a world without strangers. It seems the duo is more obsessed with wanting to put on the Second Skins than actually reach their goal and knowing how OP those suits are I don’t blame them. But still, the MacRopuses have their previous personalities effectively rewritten to emphasis their childlike behaviour. Someone who didn’t have this thankfully happen to them was Eubie, one of the few heroic characters I actually like and who stays likable through most of the comic. In the first arc, Eubie is a proud human hating bear who gets a lot of angry stares at his way, especially when he joins the infamous Furry Unity group. However, when he learns the Furry Unity group is about to kidnap a bunch of children, he warns the children and gets hanged by the Furry Unity group as a punishment. This destroys his vocal chords and he can only interact by writing notes on paper. He soon gets abused by Bev, the adopted mother of his girlfriend, and is protected by a group of skunks from the bigots. He doesn’t get turned into a child when he joins the Family, but he instead gains an ability to talk again which is bullshit but whatever. At least he got to remain decent until the end, and is an example of a good redemption.

Who isn’t an example of good redemption is a character I’ve brought up before, Crendall. Crendall is the token human of Family of Intelligent Life, at least the outgoing part of the group. He started off as a violent furryhating bigot, whose son commited suicide with brain cancer(?). Instead of coping with this, Crendall goes to Gene and Catwhis to beat them up and gets roasted instead. He then turns into a good guy, punches Evil Staggler in the face and later torments his son’s friends Figgs and Chalky as a naked man, calling them “fuck-poor excuses of life”, and then lets them be groomed by a mouse which stops them from being bigots. Redeemed Crendall is worse person than the bigot Crendall which is rather sad, and his redemption being so sudden and terribly executed doesn’t help. Crendall later returns to join the Family with Ciggs and Fhalky, and develops a friendship with Diane the little girl Cotton saved. At first it’s kind of adorable and feels like Crendall griefing with the death of his son, but then they have to turn it into a  Console Girl big man-little girl relationship with sexual euphenisms and Crendall inserting himself inside a Little Girl, yes, in Second Skin way but still. Also Crendall never fucking mentions his son once he dies. Like what the fuck. Why the fuck do you not care that your son died??? That is arguably one of the biggest plot holes in this entire comic, neither Crendall nor his wife nor his friends give a shit that he died. It’s not like Albert forgot about him because we later see Furry Unity bigots mention him.

[globaldoom98]

A worldwide doom is all, what I hope…

Mankind can no longer be saved, it has completely failed in its nature and in its entire development, and they are simply not worth in their own existence (so I don't think about it, to saving them either, because this generation is and was responsible for itself…).

Well, now at the latest after this corona pandemic, people should wake up a little bit more and think deeper about their own lives - but that's exactly what they don't do (and I wouldn't expect this anything else). Society has undergone exactly the same brainwashing, as in all other times and histories before, in which humanity has failed by indoctrination of the governing.

I could say, that humanity never evolves in its own core point (we only live in this packaging culture and that's all...) and always remains on the same stand of their reason: Governments can "change" and develop from the outside, and make this world believe, that everything is getting "better" and more "tolerant" - but the respective order, to which we are all subordinated, is only packaged visually differently and only a few notice it, because they all are lost in their stupid, basic lifes of shit...

Above all, people should become dumber, more ignorant and naive in their own thinking, and the respective norms and structures, in which we all live, they should not even have to question ..and for those all, who do it now at this point, because they think, they have to complain about their own, senseless livings: Only them have chosen this path, have gone along with it and have selected other opinions and other thinkings in this society... probably they present complaints about the corona pandemic (or rather the consequences of all this voters) are so petty and trivial, that they have to ask theyselves, if they represent theyselves more at this point, than that they have really thought more deeply about their own lifes. (Except for the few, who still really do it at this point). I simply have no pity for the society and the culture, in which I live in, and I wish, that the current conditions would get so much worse, that one day it will affect everyone else in this whole, damn world. Let it be deadly diseases, poverty, wars, natural disasters or anything else... the entire humanity should not survive much longer, and it would be the best for this planet, that we waste with our lifes. Consider that this is exactly what Darwinism would do: NATURAL SELECTION!! Mankind has voluntarily adapted to an order and to a structure, in which we all become manipulated and gutted slaves - and in which there is no place for free and independent thinking ..no place for the few, reasonable and intelligent people, who could have stopped all these things... I only look to this future with despair, because I know, that I have to accept all these conditions, even though I didn't deserve them. Personally, I have reached a certain point, in which everything only illustrates and confirms to me. Every day of this life is marked with this injustice, that I did not choose... ~ 10/11/2023

[anangelforsure]

Good Omens 2 thoughts (long, spoilers)

First of all just generic thoughts (so tumblr hopefully doesn’t put any blatant spoilers on display.)

Oh my god. Incredible. It’s amazing just to see Crowley and aziraphale again. Their dynamic is wonderful, as an ace person they really resonate with me in the way they express affection. Gabriel without his memory is so cute it’s wild to compare that to his awfulness in season one. The three major new characters are delightful, Muriel is so sweet, Maggie and nina obviously mirror a and c which makes for some amusing moments. The mystery is intriguing, the flashbacks add a lot of depth to everything, i feel like we get to know aziraphale a lot better in this season. Obviously they more or less go together, as always, but my first impression is that I learned a lot about him.

*spoilers start here*

More specifically, we get a lot of insight into the way heaven keeps their grip on our angel. We see Crowley deciding to ‘ask some questions’ before he falls, and aziraphale clearly already knows it’s trouble. Through the flashbacks to the time of Job, we see how brutal heaven is, playing with human lives for a bet. Az hates it but is too afraid to say anything out of line. To be totally honest he struck me as kind of annoying my first time seeing season one due to his undying loyalty to heaven, but over time rewatching that and seeing season two I realize that it’s not entirely his fault, he’s indoctrinated, heaven is like a cult, threatening terrible punishment for those who dare question authority. It’s awfully awkward since he’s paired with Crowley who has been through it with both heaven and hell and rejected taking either side because he knows how they are. The continuing theme through the flashbacks of az insisting that heaven is “the good guys” despite seeing the complexity of human morality many times makes the ending all the more painful. As soon as the metatron appears and the music changes in episode six, im filled with a sense of dread. Aziraphale never fully acknowledged that heaven is wrong with their actions or stated that he isn’t on their side. Crowley has been on his own side (“our side”) for a very long time, but he ‘goes too fast’ for aziraphale. I’ve seen a lot of people shitting on az for this, but come on we’ve spent two whole seasons watching him wrestle with inner conflict as he knows heaven isn’t what they claim to be, but he truly believes things can get better because he is purely good in a tragically naive way. Good people do bad things and hurt people they love sometimes, and both of them are horrible at communicating. Az is afraid to commit to something new, falling back into familiar ways when posed with a decision, Crowley rarely shares how he feels instead opting to be mean and make jokes (up until the end of course) anyways. You know it’s going nowhere good when there’s only ten minutes left and the music isn’t happy… I was absolutely shocked at the way it went down though. I feel sick to my stomach with the music and aziraphales interrupting Crowley trying to confess.. every word from az’s mouth makes it worse as we know there’s no hope for him to see sense at this point. My heart STOPS and I can barely register what’s happening at the moment of crowley’s “we could’ve been US” I almost question if I’m dreaming, if this is somehow a joke or fanfiction. I’m simultaneously elated and horrified at what I’m watching it’s beautiful. The entire credits rolling as a and c silently hold back tears on either side of my screen.. delightful,,heartbreaking,, unexpected. Such a bold move, A terrible terrible way to end a season but also the best thing I’ve ever seen. 10/10

[vitos-ordination-song]

There’s lots of things I could note about my Evangelical upbringing but I’d say one of the ways that adults demonstrated their authority was by restricting normal child behaviors and enforcing boredom. That’s true of child socialization in many places around the world, especially in school contexts, but mine had that religious dimension. And it was something my parents enjoyed doing.

It wasn’t until the last few years that I realized that other churches didn’t have hour+ long sermons. And mine were always boring. I actually loved the music, I think my church had good music esp for the type of church it was, its parent church was way more megachurch shit. But the sermons were devoid of meaning or always on the same 2 facile themes, always a white male 40s-70s preacher. I don’t remember any hate spewing from the pulpit or anything much political, but I could be forgetting things bc 1) I was young and indoctrinated myself, 2) I just don’t remember the sermons at all bc there was nothing to them! Not a one was memorable or stuck with me. So every church service turned into me sitting and staring at the ceiling. I remember some people came and went from the auditorium but my parents judged them and forced us to attend even tho most other parents allowed their kids to go to the kid services (I went to them sometimes but I remember a particular episode where my dad forced me to stay in the service even tho it started snowing and all the other kids went outside!! It barely snowed where I grew up I was so pissed).

School had its normal boringness and in elementary/middle school i only had occasional religious services in school. But then in high school I went to a MUCH worse school, both educationally and politically. And my first school taught young earth creationism so that should tell you something. The religious service was held weekly, had AWFUL modern Christian rock, and featured manipulative youth pastor speakers or testaments. Their speeches were usually at least 30 minutes and sometimes strayed into hate or politics or shaming. Then at this school I had to go to Christian retreats where they tried to psychologically break you down through music and manipulation, they made us do awful games and “team building exercises,” and the sermons were THREE TO SIX HOURS A DAY. One of the preachers my first year went on a rant about how God knew if you were “in this room right now” and didn’t believe in him. It freaked me out because I wasn’t a Christian by the end of middle school and I’d gone to this school against my will, which made everything worse! I had mental a breakdown every time I was on that trip.

My parents would do stuff like make us sit and watch long boring movies or Christian/political propaganda. I was taken to an anti-Obama movie which played into the “he might be Muslim” thing, I was forced to watch PragerU at the dinner table, I was forced to watch a creationist movie, I had to listen to Rush Limbaugh until I literally cut my parents off bc they were obsessed w him, and I saw Dennis Prager himself live with my mom, against my will, with one of her ghoulish friends! Beyond all that boring and stressful waste of time, my parents also forced us to sit at the dinner table “as a family” most nights. We had to eat even if we didn’t want to and sometimes talk if we didn’t want to; other times we were expected to stay silent. Usually dinner was longer than an hour, often marked by adult outbursts or childish fighting (w each other or parents). You had to sit at the table until you finished everything they told you you had to finish. So more just sitting around because someone has arbitrary control.

It’s no wonder i had to completely remake my personality, learn everything over again, and get out of that environment to be who I really wanted to be. And also no wonder that I now try to keep myself occupied if not always plugged in.