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mariacallous · 5 months

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“Join Your Local Militia or III% Patriot Group,” a post urged the more than 650 members of a Facebook group called the Free American Army. Accompanied by the logo for the Three Percenters militia network and an image of a man in tactical gear holding a long rifle, the post continues: “Now more than ever. Support the American militia page.”

Other content and messaging in the group is similar. And despite the fact that Facebook bans paramilitary organizing and deemed the Three Percenters an “armed militia group" on its 2021 Dangerous Individuals and Organizations List, the post and group remained up until WIRED contacted Meta for comment about its existence.

Free American Army is just one of around 200 similar Facebook groups and profiles, most of which are still live, that anti-government and far-right extremists are using to coordinate local militia activity around the country.

After lying low for several years in the aftermath of the US Capitol riot on January 6, militia extremists have been quietly reorganizing, ramping up recruitment and rhetoric on Facebook—with apparently little concern that Meta will enforce its ban against them, according to new research by the Tech Transparency Project, shared exclusively with WIRED.

Individuals across the US with long-standing ties to militia groups are creating networks of Facebook pages, urging others to recruit “active patriots” and attend meetups, and openly associating themselves with known militia-related sub-ideologies like that of the anti-government Three Percenter movement. They’re also advertising combat training and telling their followers to be “prepared” for whatever lies ahead. These groups are trying to facilitate local organizing, state by state and county by county. Their goals are vague, but many of their posts convey a general sense of urgency about the need to prepare for “war” or to “stand up” against many supposed enemies, including drag queens, immigrants, pro-Palestine college students, communists—and the US government.

These groups are also rebuilding at a moment when anti-government rhetoric has continued to surge in mainstream political discourse ahead of a contentious, high-stakes presidential election. And by doing all of this on Facebook, they’re hoping to reach a broader pool of prospective recruits than they would on a comparatively fringe platform like Telegram.

“Many of these groups are no longer fractured sets of localized militia but coalitions formed between multiple militia groups, many with Three Percenters at the helm,” said Katie Paul, director of the Tech Transparency Project. “Facebook remains the largest gathering place for extremists and militia movements to cast a wide net and funnel users to more private chats, including on the platform, where they can plan and coordinate with impunity.”

Paul told WIRED that she’s been monitoring “hundreds” of militia-related groups and profiles since 2021 and has observed them growing “increasingly emboldened with more serious and coordinated organizing” in the past year.

One particularly influential account in this Facebook ecosystem belongs to Rodney Huffman, leader of the Confederate States III%, an Arkansas-based militia that, in 2020, sought to rally extremists at Georgia’s Stone Mountain, a popular site for Confederate and white supremacist groups. Huffman has created a network of Facebook groups and spreads the word about local meetups. His partner, Dabbi Demere, is equally active and on a mission to recruit “active” patriots into the groups. Huffman and Demere are also key players in the pro-Confederate movement known as “Heritage, not Hate.”

Before Meta shut it down, the pair ran Free American Army, which drew in individuals from several militias, including the Kentucky 3 Percenters, the Virginia Liberty Guard, and the Florida-based Guardians of Freedom, a group that was mentioned in the final January 6 report and whose members were among those arrested in connection with the Capitol attack. Free American Army also included a known activist in the far-right extremist Boogaloo movement. At least one user in the group claimed in their profile to be active-duty military; another claimed to work for the Bureau of Prisons.

“We have (and still do) traveled across our country standing up for our constitution, and have met most of you face to face. There's no time like the present to come together and organize our states, to build them stronger with true patriots (not people pretending to be Patriots and using groups for dating sites),” Demere wrote in a post last year. “We are relying on each and every one of you to keep us informed about what's going on in your state by bringing the information to us.” Demere and Huffman are also admins for a larger, public group called Freedom Across America, which has more than 2,000 members and is more focused on current-event commentary than militia building. But public groups play a key role in drawing in prospective recruits whom administrators can then funnel into smaller, more extreme private channels. Huffman and Demere did not respond to multiple requests from WIRED for comment.

The groups haven’t faced a lot of pushback from social media platforms: Though some of them have now been taken down, this network is just the latest example of a “banned” extremist coalition operating on Facebook, exposing Meta’s inconsistent approach to content moderation. Other reports in the past year have flagged that anti-immigrant border militias and the anti-government Boogaloo movement had rebuilt on the platform, despite being banned. In 2021, The Intercept obtained and published a reproduction of an internal Facebook document containing a blacklist of all 986 “dangerous individuals and organizations” the platform had banned. The majority of entities banned were “militarized social movements,” including the Three Percenters.

“We are removing the groups and accounts that violate our policies,” said a Meta spokesperson in an email to WIRED. “This is an adversarial space, where actors constantly try to find new ways around our policies, which is why we keep investing heavily in people, technology, research, and partnerships to keep our platforms safe.”

But Meta’s critics say the company is failing to allocate the necessary resources to address the problem.

Meta “has not improved its moderation efforts,” says Paul. “The company’s failure to effectively address these issues despite its billions in revenue, technological advances, and engineering talent proves that the policies it regularly touts are no more than a public relations ruse rather than actual efforts to combat harm.”

Last year, Meta conducted massive layoffs that reportedly led to the company ending more than 200 content moderators’ contracts. Earlier this week, The Washington Post reported that there may soon be layoffs at the Oversight Board, a Meta-funded organization that oversees the company’s content moderation.

“There is the reality that neither social media platforms nor domestic law enforcement understand how they should respond to the online spaces that incubate domestic violent extremism,” says Jon Lewis, a research fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism. “This issue has become even more glaring as these movements intersect with the mainstream, especially as it relates to election disinformation and conspiracies.”

These networks of public and private Facebook pages may also indicate that the militia movement—which had retreated from the public sphere and, in some cases, distanced itself from the term militia altogether—is considering a comeback.

At a recent conference for constitutional sheriffs in Las Vegas, conspiracy theorist and former Overstock CEO Patrick Byrne called for citizens to form militia cells and to “build alliances with the militias” in response to migrants at the US-Mexico border. In Michigan, which has long been a hotbed for paramilitary activity, a township established a militia in response to the state’s new “red flag law,” which allows the temporary confiscation of firearms from individuals believed to be at risk of harming themselves or other people. And earlier this year, in the most significant mobilization of the far right since January 6, rhetoric about an immigrant “invasion” galvanized a convoy to the border and rallied extremists, including individuals with militia ties. Since last spring, the Justice Department has charged several individuals linked to the North Carolina Patriot Party and the 2nd American Militia with violent plots to allegedly travel to the border, target migrants, and start a war. Politicians know militias are a problem: Earlier this year, Democrats introduced federal legislation in the form of the Preventing Private Paramilitary Activity Act, but the bill has yet to advance.

“What January 6 showed, despite the incompetence of the Oath Keepers, was that the threat was—and is still—the network, not a single organization,” says Lewis.

Many of the Facebook groups in this growing network are focused on local militia organizing, such as the Pennsylvania Light Foot Militia.

“In light of the violence and uncertainty in the world, Covid 19 shortages, civil unrest, and potential for terrorist attacks and natural calamity, we exist to equip our members,” the administrator for the Pennsylvania Light Foot group, which has more than 1,000 members, wrote last month. “Our aim is to equip them with the ability to defend themselves, whether it be a mugger on the street or foreign soldier on our lawn.” The group has linked itself more firmly to the word militia recently—until March, they had called themselves the Guns of Pennsylvania.

The Arizonans State Civilian Guard is another recently formed group on Facebook. It’s run by Bryan Masche, a reality TV personality from the show Raising Sextuplets and a failed Arizona gubernatorial candidate who has spread election conspiracies and, more than a decade ago, pleaded guilty to domestic violence misdemeanor charges. The goal of the guard, according to its bio, is “advocating and organizing as the People in order to activate the Unorganized Militia.” In February, Masche shared a link to a Wikipedia page for the 1946 Battle of Athens, when civilians led an armed revolt against their local government. “Learn your History Folks,” Masche wrote. “The Battle of Athens, Georgia was the last successful Armed Rebellion in the United States since the Revolutionary War.” (The battle actually occurred in Tennessee, not Georgia. Masche did not respond to multiple requests from WIRED for comment.)

Matthew Robinson, who was affiliated with the Florida militia Guardians of Freedom, has recently been recruiting on Facebook for the Florida chapter of another network called the American Patriot III%—also referred to as APIII or AP3. He’s also touting “warrior survival training.”

“Are you prepared for what's coming? You think they're going to hand this back over, they have NO intention,” Robinson wrote in a recent Facebook post, along with the URL for the American Patriot III% website. “In our world today, the word ‘militia’ has many negative connotations including white supremacy,” the group says on its website, despite claiming not to be a militia itself. “Any militia is painted by the media today as a hate group.” (APIII is also explicitly blacklisted by Facebook as a “dangerous organization.”) Robinson did not respond to requests from WIRED for comment.

Facebook has long been a go-to hub for militia organizing. In 2020, social upheaval from the Covid-19 pandemic and racial justice protests created the ideal conditions for militias to act out their survivalist, vigilante, and anti-government fantasies.

In August, amid growing concerns about paramilitary and extremist activity in the US, Meta (then Facebook) announced updates to its Dangerous Individuals and Organizations policy. It took sweeping action against pages, groups, and profiles associated with an array of extremist networks, including militias and their memeified cousins, the Boogaloo Bois. For a while, those extremists decamped to fringe sites such as MeWe, Parler, and MyMilitia.

But by the end of 2020, it was evident that the long-simmering militia movement still posed a clear and present threat. After January 6, 2021, when dozens of militia members joined forces with hordes of Trump supporters to storm the US Capitol in an attempt to block Joe Biden from becoming president, Facebook was widely blamed for allowing election conspiracies to flourish on the platform unchecked.

With the militia movement under intense scrutiny and even more paranoid than usual following January 6, it retreated from the streets. Some Oath Keeper chapters disbanded entirely; others scrambled to distance themselves from the optics of the Capitol riot by rebranding. Arizona’s Oath Keeper chapter, for example, rebranded and became the Yavapai County Preparedness Team. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the number of Oath Keeper chapters went from 70 in 2020 to five in 2022. For a moment, it was almost as if militia had become a dirty word, even among people in the movement.

But experts have cautioned that although militias have been less visible recently, that doesn’t mean they’ve gone away. Periods of intense scrutiny—following the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, for example—have resulted in lulls in public activity for as long as the modern paramilitary movement has been around. If anything, this time their anti-government rhetoric has only tightened its grasp on the mainstream.

“You don't need to be a card-carrying member of a militia group to go down the anti-government rabbit hole. For the most part, the anti-government extremist ideology has become intertwined with the mainstream on the right,” says Lewis. “The same umbrella movement that attacked the Capitol on January 6 has happily absorbed any conspiracies that further their goals, and has increasingly gained followers from across the right-wing ecosystem.”

The potential reemergence of the militia movement coincides with an increased romanticization of January 6, as well as deepening hostilities toward the federal government due to the prosecution of Capitol rioters and former president Donald Trump.

Polling conducted earlier this year of more than 1,000 Americans found that one in five Americans “strongly agree” that violence is the only viable solution to get the country back on track. Although the societal conditions heading into this year’s election are not the same as those in 2020, a newly emboldened militia movement could add a dangerous dimension to potentially fraught future events, such as a judge handing down a prison sentence for Trump or Trump losing another close presidential election.

“Nothing brings the freaks out of the woodwork like a presidential election,” says Lewis. “You've already seen the election denialism and threats to public officials ramping up, and the narratives and grievances—from the border to college campuses and somehow, inevitably, Soros and the ‘globalists’—are in place.”

And some of this is already taking place on Facebook.

In the Free America Army Facebook group, Huffman recently posted an Instagram reel made by an account called packingpatriot.2 that has 140,000 followers. The video includes dialog from the 1993 Western film Tombstone, played over footage of Trump's rally preceding the January 6 riot. Text appears: “When the government tries to steal the election again and they think we’ll just sit and take it … It won’t be like the last time … Just remember, they started it … We just wanted to be left alone … We prefer ballots over bullets … But …”

The video then cuts to a graphic of the preamble to the Constitution and an American flag, surrounded by flames.

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7grandmel · 17 days

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Rip of the week: 02/09/2024

Do for LOVE

Season 1 No Album Release (Read More)

Ripper Unknown

youtube

Requested by Fezaki! (Request Form)

Is it just me, or is it absolutely crazy that there are SiIvaGunner rips from as far back as Season 1 that we *still* don't know who we owe the credit to? Like, in some part, I get it: not everybody necessarily feels as if their work is valuable enough to warrant sticking their name on it, and I know particularly back in Season 1 folks just submitted things for the hell of it, due to the lack of any quality control. But as I talked about just last week on Welcome to 2021! They finally invented summers that hurt motherfuckers😂 only at sonicforces.com, there's value to be found in rips of all kinds - and be they simple or complex, stupid or sincere, ambitious or goofy, anything has the potential to stick with the SiIvaGunner audience. And as the years go by, I feel like Do for LOVE has grown into far more than just some rando's fringe submission, releasing at just the right time and place to resonate with a huge crowd of fans united in mourning.

But let's unpack that for a second: I feel like there were a lot of factors that all came together at just the right time to make Do For LOVE such a memorable rip, even outside of its contents. To start, of course, would be the very game its ripping from, Undertale - and while today its hard not to feel as if the game is at least a *little* oversaturated on the channel, that's something I believe is well deserved. In many ways, the game's very existence feels like it exists in parallel to the channel's own growth. I've talked about this on past posts like Shiny Smily TALE and Your Best Nightmario, but it feels as if the channel and the game are thematically and emotionally interlinked with one another: similar narrative theming, yes, but also just down to the very idea of getting its audience so emotionally attached to what at the surface appears to be nothing but delivery methods for goofy, meme-laced jokes. On top of all that, Undertale itself released mere months before the SiIvaGunner channel began, and in those few months quickly became revered for housing some of the best music in the whole video game medium - at least, in the perception of its massive playerbase. Undertale was, to many, the first time they'd gotten so emotionally invested in a musical soundscape that pingponged between silly, sincere, clever and stupid, althewhile being attached to a story and set of characters all befitting those same characteristics. Mere months later, as SiIvaGunner truly got going with the start of The Reboot and rips like I Saw a Brainwasher Today, that emotional connection started revving up once again. And for whatever beat and growth SiIvaGunner was undergoing, you could almost guarantee that there'd be an Undertale rip released to mark it.

With an emotional attachment like this, I think it was inevitable that a sappy Undertale rip just like Do for LOVE was going to do well - yet to amplify those feelings, the rip also released during one of the channel's more treasured times in the days counting down toward the Season 1 finale - or, as we knew it back in the day, the channel ending. Tons of the rips uploaded during the month of September on the channel felt tinged in a sort of bittersweetness, the end of the journey reached: the period has stuck with me a lot in the years since, and its a big reason why I've covered so many Season 1 rips from it, such as THANK YOU FOR RIPPING, Planet Wisp Mashup Medley, Memey Hell, and so many more. To me, this was the most united the loose hodgepodge we call our "community" had ever felt, united in tearful goodbyes over what we were about to lose.

And so, in the midst of this mourning, in the midst of the bittersweet farewell we were forced to make, we're met with a rip of Empty House - the song that, in Undertale, plays upon returning to Toriel's peaceful home after making the choice of violence. The theme of a goodbye you didn't want to make, but one that was effectively made for you as to have you move onward into the future. It wouldn't have mattered what the joke in Do for LOVE was at that point - immediately upon hearing those first notes, unchanged from their original Undertale counterpart, I was sitting around the campfire with my fellow commenters and remembering the months passed. And there's something I really like about Do for LOVE deliberately choosing not to jump head-first into its edit: It reminds me, in the best ways possible, of the Season 1 rip Door into a Hundred Summers, which was another rip teeming with emotion and atmosphere, in large part owed to allowing itself to build up to the joke featured within. Waiting so long for the joke to kick in also makes said kick feel like a true rugpull, a change in atmosphere you KNEW was coming as per the nature of the channel yet still feels like a complete 180 from anything you could've predicted.

After slowly fading the music out 90 seconds in, our listening experience is gently interrupted by the lovely Tupac, mashing up the song with his own Do for Love. I, as you may well know, am not exactly the most versed in the scene of rap music, nor do I feel I'm able to comment exactly on the meaning of Do for Love as a song, Tupac as a person, et.c, et.c...yet, much like a rip like Telling Fish Tales, its as if the presence of a passionate lyricist and a chill beat can make any background music million times more relaxing to listen to. The mashup here in particular twists Empty House out of its standard 3/4ths time signature and into the more common 4/4 time signature, an inversion of what we saw back on Hoopache earlier in the season - only now, this change in time signature isn't necessarily just done to make an impressive-sounding rip, yet to make an already pleasant, comforting tune sound all the more reassuring. It's hard to explain, but its as if the mashup and all of its quirks, paired with the aforementioned context of the rip, all culminate into the auditory form of a loving pat on the shoulder from the SiIva team - not sappy, not tear-jerking, but a simple gesture acknowledging that its about time to get a move on.

There's, again, likely a lot more to unpack here in terms of the versitility in turning Empty House into 4/4, the thematic correlation of using Do for Love, all of those things - but at the end of the day, as someone so deeply nostalgic for those Season 1 days and nights, it is those emotions that stick with me most with a rip like Do for LOVE. I was there, together with my community of people I'd hardly spoken to and hardly knew where they'd go after the channel's supposed demise...and in those last few months, even without knowing who made them back then, even without knowing who made them today, it was rips like this that kept us united. Undertale, a comfortable blanket of good memories, and high quality ripping.

#todays siivagunner #season 1 #siivagunner #siiva #Youtube #undertale #deltarune #utdr #tupac shakur #tupac

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dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 4 months

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The 34 felony guilty verdicts returned Thursday against former President Donald Trump spurred a wave of violent rhetoric aimed at the prosecutors who secured his conviction, the judge who oversaw the case and the ordinary jurors who unanimously agreed there was no reasonable doubt that the presumptive Republican presidential nominee falsified business records related to hush money payments to a porn star to benefit his 2016 campaign.

Advance Democracy, a non-profit that conducts public interest research, said there has been a high volume of social media posts containing violent rhetoric targeting New York Judge Juan Merchan and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, including a post with Bragg’s purported home address. The group also found posts of the purported addresses of jurors on a fringe internet message board known for pro-Trump content and harassing and violent posts, although it is unclear if any actual jurors had been correctly identified.

The posts, which have been reviewed by NBC News, appear on many of the same websites used by Trump supporters to organize for violence ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. These forums were hotbeds of threats inspired by Trump’s lies about the 2020 election, which he lost, and that the voting system was “rigged” against him. They now feature new threats echoing Trump’s rhetoric and false claims about the hush money trial, including that the judicial system is now “rigged” against him.

“Dox the Jurors. Dox them now,” one user wrote after Trump’s conviction on a website formerly known as “The Donald,” which was popular among participants in the Capitol attack. (That post appears to have been quickly removed by moderators.)

“We need to identify each juror. Then make them miserable. Maybe even suicidal,” wrote another user on the same forum. “1,000,000 men (armed) need to go to washington and hang everyone. That’s the only solution,” wrote another user. “This shit is out of control.”

“I hope every juror is doxxed and they pay for what they have done,” another user wrote on Trump’s Truth Social platform Thursday. “May God strike them dead. We will on November 5th and they will pay!”

“War,” read a Telegram post from one chapter of the Proud Boys, the far-right group whose former chair and three other members were convicted of seditious conspiracy because of their actions at the Capitol on Jan. 6, just a few months after Trump infamously told the group to “stand back and stand by” during a 2020 debate.

“Now you understand. To save your nation, you must fight. The time to respond is now. Franco Friday has begun,” another Proud Boys chapter wrote, apparently referring to fascist dictator Francisco Franco of Spain.

One Jan. 6 defendant who already served time in prison for his role in the Capitol attack also weighed in on X, posting a photo of Bragg and a photo of a noose. “January 20, 2025 traitors Get The Rope,” he wrote, referring to the date of the next presidential inauguration.

The threats fit into an ongoing pattern. An NBC News analysis of Trump’s Truth Social posts earlier this year showed that he frequently uses the platform as a megaphone to attack people involved in his legal cases — and some of his supporters have responded. When the FBI searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in 2022, a Trump supporter who had been at the Capitol on Jan. 6 sent angry posts about the search and then attacked an FBI field office. When Trump made a social media post last June that included former President Barack Obama’s home address, a Jan. 6 rioter re-posted it and then showed up at the residence. When Trump was indicted in Georgia in August, his supporters posted the purported names and addresses of members of the grand jury. Special counsel Jack Smith, who is overseeing Trump’s federal election interference case in Washington, was the target of an attempted swatting on Christmas day. So, too, was U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who will oversee that trial, if the Supreme Court allows it to go forward (though that could change if Trump wins in November). When Michael Fanone — the former police officer nearly killed on Jan. 6 by Trump supporters who believed the former president’s lies about the 2020 election — criticized Trump at a press conference outside the hush money trial earlier this week, his mother was swatted. When Trump and conservative media outlets spread false information about the jury instructions in the hush money case this week, threats against Merchan rolled in.

“We are continuing to see a dangerous erosion of democratic norms,” Daniel J. Jones, president of Advance Democracy, said in a statement to NBC News. “Trump and his allies have been spreading disinformation about the trial, challenging Justice Merchan’s impartiality, and describing the entire process as ‘rigged’ for weeks. As such, it’s not a surprise that some of his most fervent supporters are now calling for doxxing and violence against jurors, the judge, and the district attorney.”

Jones said online activity has been increasing in the wake of Trump’s guilty verdict, which makes it important for elected officials to “speak out against the disinformation Trump is spreading, as well the calls for violence he’s inspiring.”

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justinspoliticalcorner · 2 months

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Erik Ortiz and Daniel Arkin at NBC News:

In recent years, The Epoch Times has amassed a large audience as a publisher of right-wing news articles and peddler of baseless election conspiracies. This summer, the conservative media company is hoping to conquer new territory: Hollywood.

Epoch Studios, a branch of the wider Epoch Times Association, plans to release “The Firing Squad,” a drama starring Kevin Sorbo and Cuba Gooding Jr. as drug smugglers who find God behind bars. “The Firing Squad” marks Epoch’s entry into the growing market of faith-based cinema, a genre that includes recent box-office successes such as “Sound of Freedom,” “Unsung Hero” and “Jesus Revolution.” The film’s Aug. 2 theatrical debut comes as other right-wing media companies are pushing into entertainment, releasing content that counters what conservatives view as Hollywood’s progressive and secular agenda. The creation of Epoch Studios has caught the attention of those who have closely watched the New York-based media company’s ascent from a fringe print newspaper startup formed in 2000 by followers of Falun Gong, a religious group persecuted in China, into a prominent conservative outlet with content amplifying Donald Trump’s conspiracies and right-wing messaging.

[...] In a news release announcing “The Firing Squad,” Epoch Studios described itself as a “platform for storytelling that fosters hope, healing, and growth.” The studio is overseen by executive director Sally Sun, who has supervised Epoch documentaries and streaming specials, some with religious themes, such as “Divine Messengers” and “Church & State.” The Epoch Times Association did not respond to a request for comment on this article.

Tim Chey, who wrote and directed “The Firing Squad,” told NBC News he is grateful that Epoch Studios came aboard his passion project as a co-producer and distributor. “I’m a huge fan of Epoch Times. I absolutely love these guys,” Chey said in a recent interview. Chey’s film follows three Christians — played by actors Sorbo (TV’s “Hercules”), Gooding Jr. and James Barrington — who are set to be executed by firing squad in Indonesia. (Right-wing audiences may seek out the film in part because of Sorbo, a pro-Trump conservative activist who previously appeared in the Christian film “God’s Not Dead” and produces faith-based movies through his own production company.) “The Firing Squad” is inspired by actual events in the country in 2015, when eight people convicted of drug smuggling were put to death. One of them, an Australian national, became a Christian pastor while on death row and led the singing of Christian songs while the smugglers were being executed. (The Southeast Asian nation is known for its strict drug laws.)

[...] But whether Epoch Studios can attain the cultural prominence and commercial reach of other conservative and Christian-focused media companies remains to be seen. (“The Firing Squad” debuts in theaters the same weekend as the kid-friendly “Harold and the Purple Crayon” and a new psychological thriller from M. Night Shyamalan.) The Daily Wire, which was founded by conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro and film director Jeremy Boreing, launched its own movie and TV studio in 2021. Fox Nation, the entertainment unit of Fox News, runs a streaming service that hosts various reality shows and historical documentaries. Great American Pure Flix, a production company with a streaming service, features Christian-themed movies that have found mainstream success, including the “God’s Not Dead” series. Big corporate players have clearly seen a business opportunity, too. Sony Pictures owns the independent Christian studio Affirm Films, which has produced and distributed titles such as the Jennifer Garner vehicle “Miracles From Heaven” and last year’s “Big George Foreman.”

Right-wing propaganda outlet The Epoch Times has added a new market: faith-based films. The launch of Epoch Studios and their plan to release The Firing Squad in a similar manner to Sound Of Freedom.

#The Epoch Times #The Firing Squad #Conservative Media Apparatus #Epoch Studios #Kevin Sorbo #Tim Chey #James Barrington #Cuba Gooding Jr.#Film

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beautifulpersonpeach · 1 year

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Had to share this with you because I was looking at the quotes on this post and this one gave me a big laugh. This is exactly how you describe how solos see their bias vs other members. And I don’t understand how they don’t realize how insulting this is to Jimin, the idea that he would be so loyal and affectionate towards people who, according them, treat him like trash. But this was seriously so funny. (Like even Jhope who they token stan now? 😭)

https://x.com/diorstear/status/1709969755115811065?s=20

***

Your link.

I mean, where do you even begin with people who are incapable of realizing the implications of what they’re saying? When I say solo stans literally lack ordered thinking beyond the 1st, this is exactly what I mean.

You know what I find most amusing though? I joined Tumblr in 2021, so just before Chapter 2 started. And the topics that dominated here were people speaking lowly of those “chart-obsessed ARMYs”, about those “infantilizing k-pop idols”, about how people should watch full unedited original content, about how k-pop fans shouldn’t have a saviour complex, about the privilege BTS have as Korean men, about how toxic fans lean into parasocial attachments in k-pop, about fans lacking boundaries, etc… This was the dominant discourse in this space always said in a tone where the people in these fringe spaces relative to the main OT7 ones, felt they were above all that. Only for Chapter 2 to start and almost every single one has done an aboutface.

Now practically all these people are significantly much more chart-obsessed than any chartmy I’ve seen ever, it’s like they picked up the tactics (the how) without any understanding of the why, when, and where ARMYs employed those tactics, and intensified it. These are the people now hyping up edits that victimize their fave, constantly wanting to play saviour and inserting themselves into the relationships between the members to assume malice, envy, or hate, all to further the idea that everyone in the group hates their fave, is using them for their own selfish needs, and only their fave is the most selfless sacrificial lamb for the ‘temporary experiment’ that is BTS. In spite of all the footage we have, in spite of what their supposed sacrificial lamb has said and keeps saying… in spite of everything, they choose to insult their fave all in a bid to justify their hate of the rest.

It’s amusing to me because everybody else can tell exactly what this is. We all know the types of groups of people, across various backgrounds, cultures, religions, times, who fall into these exact kind of thought patterns. I promise you, for solo stans it doesn’t just end in k-pop - their underlying beliefs extend to how they see the world at large. And that’s how I know there’s nothing to be done for people like this unless they completely detach. They’ve become too sucked in and are the sorts for whom k-pop will consume everything about them. But that same reason is why they won’t leave, and will only become more and more toxic, further poisoning their own experience within fandom and that of everyone who comes into contact with them.

I keep saying, for BTS, the people who think the least about their faves are their solo stans. And over the three-ish years I’ve been answering asks in this space, it’s clear PJMs are no exception.

Thankfully, Jimin remains fairly insulated from the madness that happens in fandom. He’s focused on advancing his career and all the guys constantly remind everybody that they are in fact in this together and they intend to keep it that way. Speaking of which, Taehyung hyping up 3D was so cute! The way he was saying he loved it almost made me rethink my initial view of the song. And while 3D is growing on me (tbf), I still want to hear more from JK, something that actually wows me. Fingers crossed at least one of the new 8 tracks has something there for me.

Lol anyway thanks (kinda) for sending me that, it did make me chuckle. I say kinda because while it’s a tweet that does prove my point about how akgaes view their fave, I didn’t feel it was worth it seeing the extent of their abuse of other members in the quotes. All of their talking points I’ve heard before and so I’m not sensitive to it, but it’s still kinda unpleasant to see these people be extremely abusive to the members completely unprovoked. It’s like entering a den filled with raving, unwashed lunatics looking for anything to tear apart.

Just unpleasant. So I’d prefer if next time, rather than show and tell with a link, you just describe what you mean without a link to that insanity.

**EDIT: I just realized I only talked about the quotes without addressing the underlying clip and someone who perhaps hasn't watched the original full clip could be wondering why I'm okay with the other six members 'ganging up' on Jimin...

I've actually talked about what happened in that clip on my blog before, and it was in the context of how Yoongi supports Jimin in BTS. For anyone who wants to watch the full thing to reach their own conclusions, the source is from BTS's Festa 2016 dinner. I've linked the Bantan Subs version with English subtitles here:

youtube

In my Masterlist post where I talk about hate in the BTS fandom, I refer to clips exactly like what PJMs are spreading now to victimize Jimin and incite hatred on other members. Every. Single. Member in BTS has clips like that about them, where they're being immature or cattish, towards the others. Including Jimin. It's an age-old akgae tactic to add up these clips into compilations to create a narrative about their chosen member, it's exactly what shippers do as well and taekookers are the worst offenders, and is also the reason why ARMYs keep insisting that new fans go back to BTS's old content and watch all of it in full. If you're educating yourself on BTS based on clips circulated by akgaes or shippers you've already lost the plot.

#bts #jimin #jungkook #jikook #taehyung #bts maknae line #yoongi #bts chapter 2 #bts solo stans #bts fandom #bts army #fandom behaviour #fandom discourse

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oswlld · 2 years

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Eight (8) Shows to Get to Know Me

tagged by @talays-portkey ♥ ty for tagging me and having me walk down memory lane for the past few days (spent too much time in all the tags microdosing on my upbringing)

DISCLAIMER: i wanted to showcase defining eras in my life/made an impact in a substantial way; i’m also recommending an ep to watch with each one, which isn’t part of the tag format but imma do it

i. LOST (2004-2010)

this was my whole world for my entire hs existence and into my early college years. half of the shows listed here stems from my first love of the ensemble cast, their interwoven yet clandestine storylines, and the mystery box. at my first sdcc, half of the cast was present when they debuted p1 of the series finale (you’d think i was dead the whole time fksfsk;lv)

the jessi special: The Constant (04x05)

ii. Fringe (2008-2013)

yes, i faithfully followed jj abrams into another insane show. i think it actually altered my brain chemistry, rewired something in me, devoured a piece of me. once LOST was over and Fringe brought in the alternate universe, i dove in head first and never resurfaced

the jessi special: Making Angels (04x11)

iii. Doctor Who (2005-Present)

i think it was technically winter 2010 when i started binging this show because s6 was my first time catching it live (was young and naïve, i caught it on bbca lol) ive been on hellsite for almost two years at the time and fully became a fandom blog, so it was inevitable i would love this series. i think it was the first show i made gifs/edits for???

the jessi special: The Doctor’s Wife (06x04)

iv. Lizzie Bennet Diaries (2012-2013)

oh look, my dna makeup shifts again. i actually started watching this show the week leading up to Darcy Day and can still vividly remember the migraines from binging 8-10min eps times 60ish worth of content. this show got me into writing my first fic, running an rp blog, creating instrumental playlists, making a DWxLBD blog, AND eventually flying my ass back to CA to meet the cast and beloved mutuals at VidCon

the jessi special: A New Buddy (ep56)

v. Orphan Black (2013-2017)

happy international women’s day to this show and this show only! i think of all the shows listed here, this is the first time since LOST i caught all the eps in real time from the very beginning. this was filling the hole Fringe was about to carve deep in me. but if you cut me open, you will find the beth-shaped hole that nothing/no one has been able to fill and likely will never fill til the end of time

the jessi special: The Collapse of Nature (04x01)

vi. Shadowhunters (2016-2019)

im willing to admit that the reason i got into this show was because of the wedding kiss haha i saw the clip, signed the adoption papers on the spot, and went on to write a 100K+ wip series. admittedly, i confess that this was a DNF and never finished the last season... i abandoned my boy.gif

the jessi special: Of Men and Angels (01x06)

vii. Sense8 (2015-2018)

a show about eight children than i gave birth to, that i raised on my own, that i will defend on my death bed and beyond??? that show sense8?? yes that show sense8. fun fact, when they did the screening of the finale in Chicago, the cast ended up sitting three rows behind me in the theater and i could hear them talking in between scenes the entire evening. wish i could bottle that feeling up

the jessi special: I Have No Room in My Heart for Hate (02x07)

viii. Bad Buddy (2021-2022)

and we finally made it to the current decade! its nov 2021, im fresh off leaving my previous job and still getting situated in my new position, yet this show was a siren calling to me in the dark mist of my life. i ended up saving the binge watching for the week of my bday and my whole life shifted again. it must have been so alarming on the outside, seeing me go from making 1-2 edits a month to 1-2 edits a day for almost THREE MONTHS. the fact that i still cont to avg two edits/week since then... oy lol

the jessi special: Ep10 (shocked pikachu.jpg)

and ill also throw some honorable mentions too: Chuck, The Good Place, Vice Versa, Twenty Five Twenty One, Once Upon a Time, and Elementary

now tagging @pranink, @icouldhyperfixatehim, @noxclara, @curious-earth (no pressure tho!)

#tag meme #tagged #this is jessi #i am a tree and these are the most defined rings #the ones people would study and say 'tf happened in this era'#now i feel obligated to make an edit for fringe #its the only show of the eight listed that i have never made something for #made a few LOST edits maybe two remakes ago #theres still some LBD edits in the archive tag #now all the new mutuals since bad buddy ended know me on a molecular level

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themovieblogonline · 2 months

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Dune Prophecy: HBO's Epic Prequel Series Premiering in November

Hold onto your stillsuits, folks! HBO's latest foray into the vast universe of Dune is about to drop. This newest entry in the franchise is Dune: Prophecy. This new series is set to premiere in November, hitting both HBO and Max. If you're a fan of political intrigue, secret sects, and epic sci-fi sagas, this one’s for you. Dune: Prophecy HBO series is a prequel, diving deep into the origins of the Bene Gesserit, the mysterious sisterhood that pulls the strings behind the scenes in the Dune universe. Set a whopping 10,000 years before the events of Dune, this series promises to explore the early days of this clandestine sect. Think of it as the Bene Gesserit’s origin story, but with more drama and fewer capes. The Cast of Dune Prophecy Alison Schapker, known for her work on shows like Lost, Fringe, and Alias, takes the helm as showrunner. She’s bringing her A-game to ensure Dune: Prophecy is as gripping as it is grand. And let’s talk about the cast for a minute. Emily Watson and Olivia Williams star as the Harkonnen sisters who founded the Bene Gesserit. These two powerhouse actresses are set to deliver performances that will likely have us all hooked from the get-go. The teaser for Dune: Prophecy is already creating buzz. It’s clear that political maneuvering is going to be a central theme, which makes sense given the Bene Gesserit’s knack for behind-the-scenes manipulation. The six-episode series will delve into their early machinations, setting the stage for the galaxy-shaping events fans know and love. The show is "inspired" by the 2012 novel Sisterhood of Dune by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson. While it’s not a direct adaptation, fans of the book can expect to see familiar elements and characters. HBO’s approach seems to be to take the essence of the novel and expand it into something that will appeal to both die-hard Dune fans and newcomers alike. So why should you tune into Dune: Prophecy? For starters, it’s HBO. They’ve got a track record for producing top-tier content that gets everyone talking. Plus, the Dune universe is vast, rich, and full of stories waiting to be told. With Schapker’s vision and the talented cast, this series is shaping up to be a must-watch. A Brief History of the Dune Franchise The Dune franchise started with Frank Herbert’s groundbreaking novel, Dune, published in 1965. The book's blend of politics, religion, and science fiction captivated readers, leading to several sequels. The first film adaptation came in 1984, directed by David Lynch. Despite its mixed reviews, the movie became a cult classic. Fast forward to 2021, and Denis Villeneuve’s Dune reboot brought the saga back to the big screen, earning critical acclaim and reigniting interest in Herbert’s universe. With the success of the reboot, the franchise continues to expand, now venturing into television with Dune: Prophecy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLbfFT99oJA Read the full article

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chubbycaucasianchristiancloseted · 10 months

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Wow this article found a way to claim Newsome and Trump both made “misleading” statements.

Wow this article found a way to claim Newsome and Trump both made “misleading” statements. They spend a lot of time calling DeSantis’s words “half lies” and spend very little time on Newsome but if you read in-between the lines, this article uses less harsh language to call out Newsome on a lot of lies.

A “small group of parents” are worried about the age appropriateness of sexual related material? That is a hard sell! I have a lot of trouble believing it’s a minority, “fringe”, group of parents worried about content their kids are exposed too.

I’ll never comprehend how charging everyone LESS taxes, places more of a burden on the middle and lower class citizens. Of course Politifact’s “source” for this claim is from a radical left, progressive “Institute”. How does having a 0% statewide income rate mean a 12.7% income tax on lower class citizens?

In regards to crime we have an entire section where PolitiFact completely disregards California and spends paragraphs criticizing the way Florida reports their crime. In the violent crime portion Politifact goes out of their way to quote another radical left leaning “source” that claims Florida has a higher gun related murders then California. They mention nothing of smash and grabs, rape, the knock out game or DeSantis’s Claim about products behind glass in stores.

Of course California can’t put any limitations on abortion because they don’t value human life, which is apparent in the way they handle crime and homelessness. A very very misleading talking point from the left is that women would be “criminalized” for not following abortion laws. This is 100% inaccurate; all proposed pro-life bills would hold doctors accountable for the procedure. The Florida law also makes several exceptions INCLUDING the mother’s life.

Direct Quotes:

California’s population declined for the first time ever in 2020, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. It’s been declining since then. (Newsom became governor in 2019). After the 2020 Census, California lost a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time in its history.

In January 2022, U-Haul said that it ran out of one-way trucks and trailers in California at the start of 2021. This was a result of the large demand of people moving out of California in 2020, leaving fewer trucks, a U-Haul spokesperson told The Sacramento Bee.

A 2023 poll by the Public Policy Institute of California found that 45% of Californians who considered moving to another state cited housing costs as a factor.

Newsom borrowed a page from former President Donald Trump’s playbook by misleadingly portraying DeSantis as a lockdown leader. Newsom’s comments focused on DeSantis’ actions in the pandemic’s first few weeks, when nearly all governors operated in lockstep. Newsom omits that DeSantis reopen earlier than most governors in the spring of 2020.

Many local governments closed beaches for a limited time, but DeSantis did not close them statewide.

Newsom was on firmer ground in his claim about closing bars. DeSantis ordered all bars and nightclubs closed for 30 days. Restaurants did not close. His March 17 order said restaurants were limited to 50% customer capacity and had to separate seating by 6 feet.

This stems from one group’s count and does not represent 1,406 books banned statewide.

A September Florida Department of Education report shows 20 of Florida’s 67 school districts and the statewide public Florida Virtual School removed 298 books in the 2022-23 school year. Some of those books were banned in multiple districts. Overall, school district officials received 1,218 objections about books.

Newsom also said, "What’s wrong with Amanda Gorman’s poetry?" suggesting it was banned. A parent at a South Florida school challenged Gorman’s poem "The Hill We Climb," which Gorman performed at Biden’s January 2021 inauguration. After a review, the K-through-eighth grade school moved the book to the library’s middle school section. It was not banned at the school, much less by the district or the state. Many of the objections were for books containing sexual or LGBTQ+ content and came from a small group of parents, some affiliated with conservative groups, such as Moms for Liberty, a Tampa Bay Times analysis found.

Among the 50 states, Florida has the nation’s 11th-lowest overall tax burden, while California has the fifth-highest, according to annual rankings by the Tax Foundation, a think tank that advocates for lower taxes.

Comparing the tax burden for the lowest 20% of households in income, California also has lower taxes. In California, households in the bottom 20% paid 10.5% of their income in taxes, compared with Florida’s 12.7%.

Meanwhile, wealthy taxpayers came out ahead in Florida, where the tax burden for the top 1% was 2.3% of income. That’s far lower than the 12.4% rate for California millionaires.

DeSantis signed legislation in 2022 that outlawed abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. It does not make exceptions for cases of incest, rape or human trafficking but includes an exception for the mother’s life.

The law penalizes physicians, but whether it also criminalizes women is less clear, so we have rated a similar claim Half True. The law says that anyone who "actively participates in" an abortion commits a third-degree felony, which opens the door to prosecutors charging women, but we don’t yet know whether they will or how courts would respond to such charges. DeSantis has also said that he doesn’t want women prosecuted, only doctors.

This is accurate. Florida ranked third among states for fourth grade reading, after Massachusetts and Wyoming. California ranked 32nd.

DeSantis criticized California for having "one of the lowest literacy rates in the country." He is correct — but he ignored that Florida’s literacy rate is nearly as low.

Hannity said California’s levels of violent crime are "way higher than the national average." He showed a graphic with 2022 violent crime rates, based on FBI data. California had the highest rate, with 499.5 violent crimes per 100,000 people. The national average was 380.7 per 100,000, and Florida’s was 258.9 per 100,000. We checked the numbers in the graphic and found they were accurate.

Newsom is right, based on the voting patterns in the 2020 presidential election and 2020 state-by-state homicide rankings, according to an analysis of federal data by Third Way, a center-left policy group.

The map plotted public reports of human feces found in San Francisco from 2011 to 2019. (More than 118,000 people reported their findings to San Francisco’s nonemergency line.)

Newsom was San Francisco mayor from 2004 to 2011 and was California’s lieutenant governor from 2011 to 2019.

#USA #TheChubbyCaucasianChristianClosetedConservative #DeSantis #Newsom #SeanHannity

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steelcityreviews · 1 year

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Director: Lucia Crespo and James Allen (The Plot Hole Company)

Playwright: James Allen

Performers: Devin France, Allison Dickey, Kyle Billie, Harry Chapman Darlington, Matt Moore, Stephanie Allen

Additional Artists: Brianna Seferiades (Costume Design), Kyle Billie (Sound Design)

It’s a big night at the failing comedy club The Chuckle Hut. Tom, the club owner, has been able to book famous hometown comedian Topher Michael Richards. But there is more to this night than just comedy. Tom has also organized an intervention for fellow comedian Dave whose drug use is spiraling out of control. Can this group of comedians work together to save the club and help their fellow comic? That's what this crude yet strangely endearing comedy brings to the Player's Guild in The Green Room.

Winner of the FringeXchange Disability Justice Artist (to learn more visit: https://hftco.ca/apply-to-the-fringe/), the combination of writing and directing talents of James Allen and Lucia Crespo excel at showing the behind the scenes of life of aspiring comics. James' previous Digital Fringe submission, The Container, won the popular vote of the Audience Choice Award in 2021. This year, The Green Room is a strong contender for that same award and it definitely deserves it.

The show has some genuinely hilarious moments throughout with a standout performance from Matt Moore as eager, bumbling and preciously pathetic Barry who is willing to go the limit to get his 5 minutes of fame. He stands out against the other hardened, bitter comics who are more willing to buy each other off or steal each other's material than work collaboratively. Chaos eventually ensues, and the ending, while unexpected, is a triumph.

The pacing, dialogue, and comedic timing is incredibly strong and the cast is a delight to watch. Everyone plays off one another with a natural ease and the audience is receptive with loud, appreciative laughter. Crass humour isn’t for everyone but The Green Room’s crass has enormous heart at its core which helps make this one a must-see at this year’s Fringe. Don’t miss it!

Director: Lucia Crespo and James Allen Playwright: James Allen

Performers: Devin France, Allison Dickey, Kyle Billie, Harry Chapman Darlington, Matt Moore, Stephanie Allen

Additional Artists: Brianna Seferiades (Costume Design), Kyle Billie (Sound Design)

Event Details

Price: $12

Venue: Player’s Guild of Hamilton, Queen St N

Genre: Theatre—Comedy, Theatre—Drama

Duration: 60 mins

Warnings: Sexual Content, Coarse Language, Other

Audience Suitability: 18+

For tickets, please visit: https://hftco.ca/events/the-green-room/

#hamiltonfringefestival

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anthr--apology · 1 year

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As the climate crisis continues to devastate the world, predominantly white men on the far-right have embraced eco-fascism. As an ideology, eco-fascism promotes “authoritarian, hierarchical, and racist analyses and solutions to environmental problems.” Eco-fascists often blame environmental problems on “overpopulation, immigration, and over-industrialization,” advocating violence towards refugees, people of color, and other marginalized populations as an environmental solution. It has recently been gaining popularity in today’s far- and alt-right movements–and, more alarmingly, even in some leftist spaces–fomenting racial paranoia about who will have the resources needed to survive the climate crisis.

Eco-fascism dovetails neatly with the Great Replacement Theory, a Nazi-inspired conspiracy theory claiming that “white people are being stripped of their power through the demographic rise of communities of color, driven by immigration.” For example, the man who murdered 11 Jewish people in Pittsburgh chose to target the Tree of Life Synagogue because of their work with the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) and wrote that HIAS was “working to ‘bring invaders in that kill our people.’” The Great Replacement Theory has its roots in a related white supremacist conspiracy theory of “white genocide” which capitalizes on white people’s fears of becoming a minority population in a country built on the genocide of Indigenous peoples and the enslavement of African peoples.

A core tenet of any kind of fascism is the belief that hierarchies are morally correct and some peoples deserve rights while the rest of us should be prevented from acquiring them. That kind of belief both contributes to and stems from the idea that humans are superior to the “rest” of nature, hence why extractivism is such an important part of fascism, and why Indigenous peoples who steward the environment based on relations of kin and care present such a threat to fascism.

Although many people might assume eco-fascism only lives in the far-right fringes of the internet, it has become alarmingly mainstream in the past few years: Tucker Carlson, who had 2021’s most-watched cable news show, has mentioned the Great Replacement Theory on more than 400 of his shows, as have Lauren Ingram and Jeanine Pirro, and many prominent right-wing radio shows and podcasts. An increasing number of right-wing politicians who hold local, state, and federal office have also parroted Great Replacement talking points and/or avoided opportunities to condemn it. There is no telling how many people have been radicalized by this rhetoric just in the last few years.

#submission #journal #fascisim #ecopunk #to read

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jellogram · 2 years

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I posted 9,477 times in 2022

That's 7,497 more posts than 2021!

3,629 posts created (38%)

5,848 posts reblogged (62%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@bebidocrimes

@jellogram

@lesbianralzarek

@annabellioncourt

@sofipitch

I tagged 2,999 of my posts in 2022

#basketball - 125 posts

#horror - 97 posts

#movies - 93 posts

#lgbt - 63 posts

#writing - 61 posts

#music - 40 posts

#art - 34 posts

#horror movies - 32 posts

#youtube - 29 posts

#spotify - 27 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#i remember being shocked the other fourth graders didnt know simon and garfunkel bc i didn't realize they were old i thought they were like

My Top Posts in 2022:

Jesus Christ Superstar is genuinely emotionally annihilating. It's about fate. It's about the tragedy of being condemned from birth. What if the villain never had a choice, what if he was just as bound by destiny as the hero? What if nobody wanted it to end this way and it still does? What if Jesus never wanted to die? It's about guilt. It's about dread. It's about not realizing what story you're in until it's too late. It's about Jesus singing insanely high rock vocals. It's about Judas in a fringe disco getup. It's everything.

2,514 notes - Posted June 16, 2022

T-shirt I owned in my dream last night. I wore it to an aquarium.

5,299 notes - Posted October 5, 2022

"Modern art is just SHAPES and COLORS it takes NO SKILL and it's NOT ART" shut up shut tupt you don't get it. That's the POINT you son of bitch. Look at the fuckign shapes and colors. Enjoy the shapes and colors. How do they make you feel. Use your fucking emotions and brain to engage with art instead of expecting everything you see to perfectly cater to your view of the world. "So if I just smear some paint on a wall, that's automatically art?" YES what is so hard to understand. Art is everywhere and you're just too boring and small minded to notice. This artist has gone to the trouble of perfectly selecting out of the infinite number of colors they could have used and carefully arranged those shapes for you. And you don't like it because it doesn't look like a fucking still life of sum fruits. Fuck you and your miniscule attention span and incapabiltiy to reflect on things. I may be a little drunk but I'm right.

5,554 notes - Posted August 14, 2022

Did you guys ever see the car that got into an accident with a truck carrying hagfish

Can you even imagine being this person. Imagine you call your insurance and tell them you got in an accident. They ask what happened and you have to tell them your car got fucking hagfished

15,368 notes - Posted August 5, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I know there's been a lot of talk lately about anti-intellectualism and the lack of movies that have souls etc but please don't forget that we also live in the first time in history where just about anyone can create and publish art online. Watch movies posted to directly to YouTube with a thousand views. Read self-published books. Listen to SoundCloud artists. There's a whole world of low budget content out there made solely for the love of art and even if every industry is a capitalist hellscape there will still be people creating art and how lucky are we that we have access to it

35,226 notes - Posted July 1, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #holy shit the lack of tags #Rip my followers

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foundfamilyfringedivision · 3 years

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no i did not have enough pictures. yes i have no skills. i still did it. for him.

#i literally go feral every time i think about him #it's not about fate... it's about CHANGING fate #and that's all he ever did #he could literally see all possible futures and he chose to make one himself #one where the people he grew to love could have the happiness they deserved #no matter the cost #i love him i love him i love him #i hope in the final timeline the scientist who would have become him gets to live a good happy life #fringe #fringe fox #fringefox #september fringe #september/donald #i lied this is a donald appreciation blog #fringe content in the year 2021

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sophieinwonderland · 2 years

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The Future of Plurality

Someone recently asked me if I thought that I was on the right side history. I think this is actually an interesting question. Society is constantly changing. It's easy, in the present, to simply see the world as stagnant, but that's not true, and see the debates of today as things that will persist forever.

So I want to talk about what is happening now and how I believe things are likely to progress.

First, it's important to look at our history. In the DSM-IV, there was an assumption that anyone experiencing multiplicity was inherently disordered. In 2013, the DSM-5 came out, and a criterion was added requiring a diagnosis to have clinically significant distress or impairment. This effectively demedicalized plurality, signaling that you could check off every box and still not be considered disordered unless distress or impairment was present.

The DSM and ICD also both acknowledge that you can achieve plurality through other means, using spiritual practices as an example. The ICD is the most overt, referring to these spirits as personality states, using the same terminology used to refer to dissociative identities:

Dissociative identity disorder is characterised by disruption of identity in which there are two or more distinct personality states (dissociative identities) associated with marked discontinuities in the sense of self and agency.

...

Boundaries with Normality (Threshold): The presence of two or more distinct personality states does not always indicate the presence of a mental disorder. In certain circumstances (e.g., as experienced by ‘mediums’ or other culturally accepted spiritual practitioners) the presence of multiple personality states is not experienced as aversive and is not associated with impairment in functioning. A diagnosis of Dissociative Identity Disorder should not be assigned in these cases.

Until recently, research into non-disordered, non-spiritual plurality didn't really exist.

In 2016, the first study into created psychological systems, through the tulpamancy community, was conducted. In 2017, the first interview study with the online plural community. In 2021, researchers began what will be a three year study into the online multiple community. At the same time, Stanford University is investing in an ongoing fMRI study of tulpa systems that has yet to be published.

In the short time since the release of the DSM-5, non-disordered non-spiritual plurality has gone from having basically no research at all to being studied by multiple independent groups of psychologists across the entire globe.

Additionally, these recent studies into non-disordered systems have been referring to them as "systems." It's likely that this inclusive language will continue to be used in future research.

The argument that "system is a medical term" and can't be used by endogenic systems will quickly fall apart as more medical professionals are using it in reference to endogenic systems. The debate about our existence will do the same as more research is conducted. The anti-endo ideology will slowly die. It's not a question if, but of when.

At the same time, many plurals are creators. Writers, artists, influencers. I think many will create content based on their own experiences, and we'll gradually see a normalization of plurality in the popculture. This can also lead to more celebrities being open about being systems.

I believe that, based on current trends, 20 years from now, anti-endos will be a fringe group, and plurality will be on its way to gaining mainstream acceptance. As this happens and plurality increases in public awareness, I also see a large boon to the plural community, both from existing systems being more likely to realize that they're plural and from singlets using tulpamancy guides and similar methods to create headmates.

That's not the end of the battle. In fact, it's probably only the beginning as mainstream acceptance invites mainstream opposition. But as far as the fight against anti-endos goes, I see that as the end. And in a hundred years, I think the existence of endogenic systems will be an accepted truth. People will have forgotten the anti-endo ideology ever existed, and those who learn about it will think it silly to have ever denied something so obvious.

So to sum it up, yes, I firmly believe that we're on the right side of history.

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