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real-jaune-isms · 4 years

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RWBY Volume 8 Chapter 10 Review/Remix

WHAT the ever loving FUCK was that just now RT?? You give us several great answers and scenes we really wanted to see, and then rip all that joy away in the last 3 minutes!!! I want to sue for emotional damages, but I really can’t be mad cuz it’s very masterful writing on their part. After years of shows doing redemption arcs we finally have it... the bastardization arc~

We open, perhaps to the disappointment of some, on Ironwood staring out the windows of his office at the battlefield and city in turmoil below. He’s being given a situation update on the destruction of the cellblock two episodes back, and he takes the news a little differently than might have been expected (read: worse). Jacques apparently stayed right where he was and let himself be put back into custody, while Qrow avoided much harm by being a bird and ending up in a spot where the rubble wasn’t landing directly on him. Robyn was only slightly lucky, she was under some large debris but doesn’t seem terribly hurt and is actually conscious when Atlas soldiers uncover her and say she’ll be moved to a new cell elsewhere. Qrow isn’t about to be put back in a cage though, and flies right at the soldier who finds him. Behind a conveniently placed piece of wall he turns back and, as I was somewhat praised for phrasing it in a discord chat, he tackled that man as a man. We can assume he knocks out the guy about to apprehend Robyn, and the two make a getaway. Ironwood doesn’t like this news one bit, though he focuses more on recapturing the two huntsmen he had arrested on paranoid treason charges than the actual war criminal he lost an arm catching whose dangerous work on the city of Mantle still hasn’t been undone. Not cool, dude. He yells at the soldiers who had come to report this, and they leave to try and find the jailbirds. He stares out the window again in contemplation and tries to calm down a little before turning on his earpiece to get an update on the status of some thing or another, probably the bomb, when something massive happens.

With a blinding flash and an array of gold and green, Oscar’s staff goes off with whatever he was charging up. It’s as bright and forceful as you’d expect a nuclear bomb to be, and it knocks Winter and the Ace Ops off their feet as they were heading towards Monstra lugging their own bomb. Weiss and Nora see it from Schnee Manor, and it seems to do a real number on the Grimm around Monstra and in the city. Rooster Teeth had to give a flashing lights warning at the start of the episode for those it would adversely affect, and I can totally understand why after the crazy display this gave us. When the light fades and the noise settles, Monstra has been snapped and is fading away to dust, and in that dust cloud we hear and barely see Neopolitan skipping away with the Lamp in hand. What a little punk... Winter gets back on her feet and is quick to ask her squad for their status, she doesn’t want to have lost anyone or suffered serious wounds from whatever the hell they just saw/felt. No one is hurt, though Elm’s ears seem to still be ringing. But Marrow is very distressed, realizing they still hadn’t heard back from Jaune and the others and they may have been killed in that blast. Nobody has anything to say that would appease him, so they stay silent. Vine tries to put a reassuring hand on Elm’s shoulder but she brushes him off. Guess after they got called out by Ren she wants to show even less emotion and sentimentality than before. Ironwood contacts them under the false assumption this was the result of their bomb, and requests they return to HQ for an update on the new problem he wants to deal with. Marrow naturally points out that the destruction wasn’t their doing, and Winter decides that will be news best delivered in person, so they load the bomb back on the airship and take off.

Cutting into the city, we see Watts and Cinder viewing the destruction of their mobile HQ from a distance. Nobody is returning Cinder’s calls but they know Salem will be back so Watts suggests they come up with a plan in the meantime. But Cinder is fully confident that they can still do what they originally intended, that being having her kill Penny and take the Winter Maiden powers after Watts brings the synthezoid to her. But this was a plan made under false assumptions, because apparently she misunderstood the terminology in his message and thought he could puppeteer Penny to go wherever he demands when really he just laid a new prime directive to send her straight to the Vault as we saw two episodes back. Hearing this pisses Cinder off immensely, especially the part about Penny being set to self destruct as soon as the Vault is open since that means the next recipient of the powers will be randomized again and she’ll have lost her chance to yoink them. Watts is too busy grumpily musing to himself about Penny having free will and a spirit that doesn’t want to succumb to his leet hacks to notice Cinder growing more and more enraged, until he turns around and she pulls him in close to yell at him. But Watts is having none of that, he works for Salem not her, and his plans weren’t made to give this flaming whining goth what she wants every single time. He’s just supposed to get the Vault open for Salem, and this is how he’s doing that. This is not the kind of answer Cinder wanted to hear, and she stretches her arm out to shove Watts to the edge of the roof and leave him on the verge of falling over to his demise. He doesn’t seem terribly fazed, calling her bluff and saying her mission was to bring him back and Salem won’t be a bit pleased if he dies. But you know what Salem is not? Here right now to stop Cinder from dealing with this arrogant self righteous prick once and for all. So she fully intends to drop him and then tear up Atlas on a fiery path to the Vault where she can intercept Penny and steal the Winter powers before tearing her to pieces herself and being the triumphant follower getting everything done that Salem really needed. And Watts just... laughs. Chris Sabat must have had a great time in the VO booth for this one, because he gets to have an absolute roast session the likes of which he hasn’t delivered since Majin Vegeta tore that clown Kakarot a new one. Naturally Cinder’s plan would be to brute force her way to victory and get glory for none but herself with her every whim satisfied along the way. Because that’s always her plan. And it always fails. She tried to storm Fria’s hospital room like that and got her ass handed to her by some teenagers and a dying woman before Penny took the powers before she could. She did the same damn thing 2 Volumes ago when she tried to massacre all her enemies under one roof in an alliance with a woman she thought she could outwit, but ended up blindsided by a surprise Maiden reveal and almost died while her outnumbered forces were on the verge of surrendering without her. And did anyone warn her not to do that? YES! WATTS DID!!! WATTS IS ALWAYS RIGHT, YOU FOOL!!! Well, okay, he’s really not. But he’s more clever and meticulous so he saw the flaws her arrogance left her blind to. And then Watts really tears into her by saying she isn’t smart, she isn’t worthy, and she isn’t entitled to what she wants because she’s suffered in the past. The one thing she is is a goddamn migraine. I’m a little mad Tyrian stole the show’s first cuss 4 years back cuz I really would have liked for Watts to cap this off by calling Cinder a bitch. This roasting literally lights a fire under Cinder and she seems ready to snap and kill Watts here and now, but instead she pulls him back onto the roof and stares off blankly into space before her fire fades and she walks off to sit on the ledge of a different side of the building to really think about his harsh words and shed a single tear. It’s a little unclear if she’s just feeling sorry for herself and realizing she’s more of a failure than she wanted to admit, or if she’s just overwhelmed by Watts reminding her of her childhood trauma. Maybe she’s realizing how powerless she’s truly remained all this time after fighting so hard for her own freedom and independence, and crying at the fact that she seems unable to escape that role she hates so much. Whatever the case, it’s real rough for her but I don’t feel like shedding any of my own tears for her sake. She doesn’t seem like she’s gonna change her allegiances so I don’t feel much need to cheer for her, but maybe she’ll reevaluate her strategy and become a force to be reckoned with as a villain because of this. I wouldn’t mind that. We’ll have to wait and see.

Back in the ruins of Monstra, we see Yang Ren and Jaune are all doing alright, and Oscar seems to be as well. Jaune is using his Semblance to help Oscar heal up quicker so that’s good to see too. Yang answers a call and sees Blake anxiously hoping she’ll pick up. The biggest smile comes to her face when she does, and the two halves of the group are ecstatic to hear the other is still alive and well. Neither are quite ready to tell the full tale of what they’ve been up to, but Weiss pulls up a map of the city and lays out a safe route through the subway tunnels that will take OYRJ straight to the mansion so they can actually reunite. Oscar isn’t about to leave Emerald behind though, and we see her knelt in the chaos holding out her hands as if hoping to catch some of the dust that was once her father figure. Yang is vocally against the idea of bringing Emerald with them, but Oscar advocates for her being every bit against Salem as them so the enemy of their enemy should be their friend. Emerald actually doesn’t seem to want to keep hanging around them and says they should just part ways, but Jaune isn’t about to let her walk free without facing any kind of justice for her past crimes. Ren thinks they need to be able to see past their emotional hang ups and consider the value in having her as an ally, and Yang is quick to remind them all that Emerald is part of the reason she lost her arm. Technically that is true, Adam was working with Cinder and if Yang hadn’t been framed as a brutal criminal she would have been around the rest of the team when everything popped off so maybe that first fight would have gone differently. But I do feel like it’s a bit of a stretch. Yang keeps going about why she can’t just forgive and forget when Em had been such a snake in the grass back at Beacon, but that’s not what Oscar is asking of her. He just wants her to try and give the girl a second chance to be better. He gets a little cryptic about how they’ve already gotten help from someone they haven’t had the best track record trusting, and Ren perfectly guesses he means that Oz has reemerged in his mind. This takes the blondes by surprise, and Oscar stands up for the old soul by saying he took the brunt of the beatings and told him how to impede Salem like he did just there. Turns out we’ll be finding out the secret of Ozpin’s cane today: It’s been made into a magical repository for kinetic energy stored over dozens of past lives to be made into a sort of bomb to set off when needed. I don’t know quite enough about physics to describe how exactly that would work, but it seems to make sense that it does. But the blast that took out Monstra used up the majority of what was in there so he can’t rely on it for that kind of attack again. It seems likely that was what Ozpin used against Cinder in the Beacon Vault, but didn’t use very much of it, and again what Oscar used to bust a hole in the bottom of the pit Ironwood shot him into. Oscar finishes making his case that Oz really does want to aid them, and the others seem convinced. What’s worth noting is that all eyes had been on him during this, but Emerald made no attempt to run away or even lower her hands. Guess she might really want to stick around after all... The moment is interrupted by the not so distant sound of a crying baby, and they all run further down the tunnel to find a subway station where the people of Atlas are taking shelter on Ironwood’s orders. Emerald starts to feel the weight of her action and those she used to side with, especially when she sees kids scared and hungry like she was before Cinder found her. They continue past the station on their way to the manor, and Oscar offers some encouragement to Emerald that they need her help in this war considering what she’s capable of. Considering the feats she performed under stress back in Volume 5, I’m inclined to agree.

We fade away from that scene to Ironwood’s office and the camera rises up the stairs as if being held by the Ace Ops as they and Winter come through the still broken doors to give their report to the general. He’s looking at multiple holographic screens projecting from his table: one with graphics telling him the status of all the airships mechs and soldiers, one pulling up news articles and any other info they can get on Monstra presumably for the purpose of cataloguing it in case they ever need to worry about another one, the third seems to be a map of city to monitor the damage so far, and the last is all the info they have on Cinder. He congratulates the team for their work destroying the Grimm, but Winter admits it wasn’t their bomb that did the job, they still have it intact for him. This confuses Ironwood greatly, but he sees an opportunity in this twist of fate. Penny hasn’t come to the Vault like he wanted her to be programmed to do, so he assumes Watts did a shit job of reprogramming her or just intentionally screwed them over. Yet the truth is something he can’t seem to imagine, she has free will and doesn’t want to do as she’s told. Who’s the real tool now Jimmy? He informs them that Cinder broke Watts out, and he seems to consider Qrow and Robyn escaping to be an even worse consequence. Harriet seems ready to sprint out of the room and haul them back here herself, but Ironwood stays her hand... or foot in this case. With Salem temporarily halted, now is the best time they’ve got for him to have the Winter Maiden open the Vault and use the Staff to lift Atlas higher than she can reach like he wanted so badly. So he wants Winter to bring him Yang Jaune and Ren. Winter doesn’t see the purpose of that, or she does and hates to imagine it’s truly what he intends, but either way she knows she can’t do what he’s asking. He plans to make full use of the lives they hold in their hands, and he’s going to use Jaune and the others as leverage to make Penny do what he says. He acts as if he’s actually proud of himself for realizing this is an option available to him, and I think it’s his Semblance that’s partially blinding him to the moral reasons why it should not be an option worth considering. Winter is left wilting under his unaware and proud gaze, and then Harriet pipes up to tattle on her commanding officer. Winter gave the kids a chance to try and rescue their friends from inside the whale(they don’t mention that friend was Oscar so he still doesn’t know the kid survived his attempted murder), and they weren’t seen exiting before it blew up. I want to say I’m shocked and disgusted that Harriet snitched on Winter just for the brownie points of being honest and taking Winter down a peg, but I’m really not. She’s been a loyal bootlicker since this time last Volume, and this feels like payback for that whole “I outrank you so you can’t stop me from giving them a chance” thing in chapter 7. Ironwood removes the proud and probably intended to be comforting hand he had placed on Winter’s shoulder, as if ashamed to be touching her after she let him down like this. This was his last plan for his definition of success, and now it’s ruined so he can’t do anything. In a fit of rage he smashes his table like the goddamn Hulk and the Ace Ops are left to watch and wonder just how in his right mind he actually is. As he tries to catch his breath, the general gets an urgent transmission that dozens of non-military aircraft have shown up on radar. I and probably a few dozen other people watching this hoped this was an Avengers Endgame moment of tons of allies coming to the rescue of the down and out heroes. But no, its the Schnee Dust Company ships Whitley sent out. Almost forgot about that plan, whoops. Ironwood immediately recognizes this as Weiss’ handiwork for the sake of saving Mantle, because nobody would have guessed Whitley would show some humanity and make this plan himself. Winter immediately shows attentive concern hearing her sister has done this, and Harriet gives her a look as if to say “you are such a bleeding heart for these little criminals...” Ironwood makes the very one dimensional assumption that everything Ruby and the others have been doing is simply to protect Mantle, as if they didn’t have a serious conversation with May about helping Atlas as well as Mantle 3 episodes back. With that knowledge in mind, he decides he needs to make a call.

Speaking of phones, Cinder gets a cheeky text and an accompanying selfie from Neo revealing she has the Lamp and she knows Salem will tear Cinder to pieces if she doesn’t bring it back to her. So she’s proposing a trade; Cinder gets the name to activate the Lamp, and in return she has to bring Neo to Ruby for the revenge she so deeply craves. Watts can’t see Cinder’s screen so he wonders who among their comrades has survived. Unclear if Cinder is going to tell him.

At last, we see Ruby throw open the front doors of Schnee Manor with Weiss and Blake flanking her, to see Yang and the others on the front steps. The sisters immediately embrace and Ruby sheds a tear of relief and joy that they’re all okay. Yang tells her she missed her too, and that seems to be that for the distrust and argument they had back in chapter 1. Ruby goes to greet the guys, and Yang gives Weiss a nice hug too. Then she sees Blake has taken a few steps away from the group and seems ashamed or embarrassed, unable to even look in their direction in Yang’s direction. Yang puts a hand to her cheek, her thumb softly stroking up and down as she turns Blake’s head to meet her gays gaze. Yang blushes and smiles, Bake returns the smile, and the two softly press their foreheads together. The intense sapphic energy of this deeply intimate moment was almost overwhelming, and many couldn’t help but adore it. I know I couldn’t stop myself from being a little giggly. Ren notices Nora isn’t there to greet them, and Weiss seems like she’s going to bring him up to her room and possibly even explain what happened along the way. Ruby takes this chance to go and greet Oscar with a hug, but stops short when she sees Emerald behind him. She seems real mad and is about to go on the attack, but Oscar steps between them and insists he can vouch for her, or maybe he’s saying he can explain? We don’t quite know because they get cut off by the sound of Ruby’s Scroll ringing. May is calling from the crater to say that the SDC freighters aren’t the only thing in the air right now, and she seems very panicked by what she sees. She yells for everyone to run into the mines for shelter, and an explosion is hear before the call is cut short. Before anyone has time to try and puzzle out what they just heard, a loud alarm tone goes off on all their Scrolls. It’s a fun detail that as a Faunus Blake covers her ears cuz the loud noise is especially bad for her. An emergency CCT broadcast is coming in for everyone in the kingdom, and Ruby magnifies her Scroll’s playing of it to be projected into the air for all of them to watch. The cargo ships are shown being shot down by military ships, and then the feed cuts to Ironwood standing ominously under a single light to deliver a downright villainous speech. He claims he has been trying his best to protect the technology and future of the kingdom from those who would do it harm, but I think it is VERY telling he never mentions protecting the people. Because that’s not what matters to him anymore. Not really. He says the only person stopping him from finishing his plans of making sure the currently crippled Salem can’t hurt them anymore is Penny. So he has an ultimatum for Penny and her friends, because he knows they will be listening right now. Either she turn herself over to him so he can have her do her “duty” and save as much of the Kingdom as possible and forget about trying to save Mantle, or he will nuke Mantle as punishment for her selfishness. The more he talks the more angry Ruby and the others get, and we are right there with them. He somehow thinks that if Mantle is destroyed then Penny will be free to only care about Atlas and its protection and will gladly work with him to do so. What a delusional bastard. And if anyone tries anything other than what he has said to do, he will use the bomb. 1 hour to decide how they will respond, and a hell of a lot riding on that choice.

There can be absolutely no question now, Ironwood will be the villain for the rest of the Volume and Salem will probably return at the end to ruin whatever hope putting him down will have raised in our heroes... And I’m kinda excited for how that’s gonna play out. Let’s see how team RWBY get out of this one~

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buzzdixonwriter · 5 years

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You Don’t Say

For me, one of the unforeseen benefits of Facebook and other social media is that it gives me a chance to do rough drafts of ideas, assembling my thoughts and getting feedback before committing to more permanent form.

And sometimes, like asteroids colliding in space, two separate ideas / posts slam into one another and either create something new and unexpected, or else shatter themselves and reveal interesting aspects of their nature heretofore hidden from view.

That happened recently with a pair of Facebook posts I made on Dennis Prager and Harlan Ellison.

Let’s get the turd out of our mouth first.

. . .

Dennis Prager is a purveyor of herpetology lubricants admired by many on the right-leaning-nazi side of the spectrum, primarily because he keeps his mouth closed when chewing. Half of what he says is repackaged self-evident truths of the “Don’t eat the yellow snow” variety, a quarter is opinions that if not startling original are at least not genuinely harmful, and the remain quarter is egregious bullshit for which he deserves a public pants down spanking.

Hmm, what? Oh, yes; purely metaphorically, of course.

I long since wrote off Prager as a. utterer of inanities, but recently his turdmongering was forced on my attention by someone who posted a link to Prager’s argument that the “left” (i.e., basically anybody who thinks Auschwitz was a Bad Idea) is inflicting harm on both the American body politic and the universe at large by denying people like Prager the right to drop the N-bomb whenever they feel like it.

As some of you no doubt already knew, Prager is a member of what polite bigots used to refer to as “those of the Hebrew persuasion”.

That a person from an ethnicity that historically suffered hatred so vicious and specifically targeted that a special word had to be created for it (“anti-Semitism” because the original word -- “Jew-hatred” -- was too damned ugly even for bigots to use) now has his knickers in a twist because he’s “not allowed” to use the only other word of equal or greater impact -- also coined specifically by oppressors for expressing unrestrained hate and contempt against those oppressed -- is so rich in irony that all I can do is swipe a phrase from Jim Wright over at Stonekettle Station and say Dennis Prager has “all the self-awareness of a dog licking its own asshole in the middle of the street”.

First off, he’s lying: Neither the “left” nor American law prevents him from dropping the N-bomb whenever he feels like it and I invite him to go down to the intersection of Normandie and Florence in South Central and drop it at the top of his lungs for as long as he is able and please make sure to take plenty of video recorders along because I really wanna see what happens next.

Second, why the fuck would you want to say that? Seriously, other than in an evidentiary context (a cop giving testimony in court, a journalist reporting what some bigoted politician says, etc.), who today gains anything from repeating the word other than inflicting unjustified distress on people who have done nothing to deserve it?

(This is the point where a bunch of alt-right trolls are gonna jump up and say “but whatabout all the times when black people say it?” and to those trolls I’m gonna say STFU & STFD; if you can’t grasp the difference in context then you’re too damned stupid to be allowed out in public except at the end of a leash and with a ball gag in your mouth.)

It’s a word specifically created and designed to be used to brutally oppress people who did nothing to deserve that brutal oppression. Why would anybody outside that group use it except to participate in that brutal oppression?

. . .

Least there sit any in the cheap seats who presume the above rant was targeted at Dennis Prager simply because he was Jewish, guess again, ya yutzes.

Few writers enjoyed as brilliant and as incendiary a career as Harlan Ellison, and I count myself privileged to have been one of his friends.

Ellison, as many of you know, also was Jewish, a damned tough little bastard, singled out for hatred and abuse as the only Jewish child in his backwater Ohio school, growing up with nerves & balls of chromium, a bona fide Army Ranger, and a writer so honest and fearless that when he wrote about juvenile delinquency in the 1950s he did so by infiltrating and joining a street gang to get first hand experience and insight on the kids who ran in that crowd (and as icing on the cake, James Caan played him in the TV version!).

Top that, Dennis.

Harlan’s electric eclectic career features many highpoints, but the one I want to focus on is his brief 4-year run as TV critic for the legendary Los Angeles Free Press (a.k.a. The Freep) from 1968 to 1972.

What’s interesting is that Harlan did this while at the same time at the height of his demand as a TV writer.

You got any idea how hard it is to make a living while you’re gnawing on the hand that feeds you?

Harlan may have been crazy, but damn it, he was honest.

Back to the issue at hand.

Recently I’ve been re-reading his TV criticism columns, collected in two volumes, The Glass Teat and The Other Glass Teat.

The depressing thing is that all the evil we see today was in place back in those days, and the same smug pious frauds and their dimbulb marks kept congratulating themselves how wonderful they were as things continued to spiral out of control.

Oh, we've had good moments when we made changes that improved the lot of people who'd previously been marginalized, but the core cancer is still there. Harlan was no cock-eyed sentimentalist -- he was often filled with anger and could vent it spectacularly at deserving targets -- but he did have hope that somehow we could keep nudging the ball further towards the goal lines.

The columns make fascinating reading; they are nowhere near as dated as one might suspect. Sometimes they offer diamond-like brilliant dissections of a particular instant in the cultural gestalt, other times they examine the unseen (well, to most audiences, that is) tides of Hollywood that shape our media, sometimes he turns his attention to bear on seemingly insignificant and forgotten local programming only to show with McLuhan-esque clarity how that tiny piece of seemingly insignificant fluff is symptomatic of a much wider, much vaster, and far more serious problem.

One entry caught my eye in particular, the March 7, 1969 column on a failed ABC pilot called Those Were The Days.

Harlan sat in the studio audience watching the taping of that pilot, and his column praised the courage and insight of producers Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin, the brilliant performances of Carroll O’Connor and Jean Stapleton, and the raw honesty of the pilot’s sharp comedy and writing.

Those of you not in the cheap seats have already realized this was the second failed pilot for what would eventually become All In The Family over at CBS (there was an even earlier original pilot called Justice For All back when Archie and Edith’s last name was Justice, not Bunker.)

I remember the hoopla when All In The Family finally aired in January of 1971 as a mid-season replacement.

You might count Archie Bunker as the white Dolemite insofar as the comedy sprang from the shock of all the crude and vulgar things he said.

Lear and Yorkin were mocking that mindset, belittling bigotry, exposing the Babbittry of millions of “good” Americans who lacked either the self-awareness or the courage to take a long introspective look at themselves and realize how badly they were failing as citizens of this country.

Audiences weren’t supposed to like Archie Bunker.

And that’s where Lear and Yorkin made their fatal mistake.

No, audiences didn’t like Archie.

They loved him.

. . .

Asteroids collide, and sometimes they form new planets, and sometimes they shatter and expose what lies beneath.

Prager’s modern day Babbittry crashed into Harlan’s half-century old anti-Babbittry, and from the explosion a stark truth revealed itself.

It’s almost impossible to make an outlaw a villain in popular media.

No matter how many banks they rob, stages they hold up, sheriffs they shoot, the mere fact that somebody wrote a song / dime novel / movie about ‘em makes them into heroes.

Demi-gods.

People to be admired.

Emulated.

Professional wrestling knows this.

You can never be so big a heel that you won’t have a legion of followers.

And you can turn a heel into a baby face in the blink of an eye and none of the fans will remember the despicable acts the wrassler did just last week.

You put an Archie Bunker on TV, you do not get millions of people to recognize themselves in his hateful / hurtful behavior and change their ways.

Oh, hell no; you get millions of people to applaud him for saying and doing what they say and do in private.

And now that it’s all big and bold and brassy on TV, why it becomes even easier to say it in the privacy of your own home, then over the fence with the neighbors, then in the bar down the street, then on the street itself, and then against people who have done you no harm, who have committed no sin other than the heinous crime of not being exactly like you.

I remember watching and liking All In The Family when it first came on because I, like millions of other Americans, got the joke: Archie was no hero.

But it wasn’t long before the voices cheering Archie began to drown out the voices laughing at him.

Lear and Yorkin tried undoing their damage with Maude and The Jeffersons and Good Times and other spinoff shows, but the bigot was out of the bottle.

Archie Bunker, even though written in a way to ridicule his use of bigotry and stereotypes, became a champion and defender of those who clung to said bigotry and stereotypes.

So tell me again why you want to drop that N-bomb, Dennis.

Explain to me -- even while you talk out of both sides of your mouth and claim even if everybody can use they word maybe they shouldn’t use the word -- how that does anything to help anybody…

…other than bigots and hate mongers.

Your argument is as circular as the thumb and forefinger gesture white supremacists use to signal one another, a gesture deliberately chosen because it lets them transgress openly by lying about the truth meaning of their gesture.

And Harlan, you were right about Those Were The Days as it began evolving into All In The Family. Absolutely brilliant -- but absolutely deadly.

Not airing All In The Family wouldn’t have eliminated racial / ethnic / sexual prejudice in the United States…

…but it would have denied those ideas a voice.

The narcissist always proclaims, “I don’t care what they say about me so long as they spell my name right.”

Well, that’s what we got with Archie Bunker.

None of the bigots cared if we made fun of their ideas…

…just so long as they got their ideas out there.

Because ideas are made legitimate by their presence.

Now clearly, this is a bade that cuts both ways.

Ideas once unthinkable -- liberty and justice for all in the form of racial and gender equality, f’r instance -- need to be championed in public.

But we need to shout down and stamp out the bad ideas.

The United States took their foot off the neck of the defeated white racists after the end of the Civil War, and as a result jim crow came roaring back, and things did not change for millions of Americans for another entire century.

We allowed bigots and hate mongers and slavers to be whitewashed and glorified and forgiven for their crimes against humanity…

…and in the process we allowed them to continue victimizing African-Americans more and more.

Every song about the Ol’ South, every novel glorifying plantation life, every movie showing happy field hands, every statue commemorating murderous traitors as men of honor and principle, every single iteration of that idea made millions of people’s suffering not just possible but inevitable.

. . .

Now this is the point where the alt-right trolls are gonna jump up and ask “did you ever drop the N-word?”

Not in casual conversation, no.

I was born and raised in the South (Appalachia, mostly); my father’s side of the family were almost all Southerners.

Almost all.

My paternal grandmother was born and raised in New Jersey and met my grandfather when both served in the U.S. Army medical corps in WWI. When my grandfather died in his 40s, my grandmother originally moved back to New Jersey, but her three children (dad and two aunts) felt heartbroken at having to leave their Southern cousins and friends behind so even though she carried no particular love for the South, my grandmother moved her family back and stayed there for the most of her life (she and one of my aunts moved out to California to be near us, but that’s another story for another post).

One thing my grandmother absolutely refused to tolerate was use of the N-bomb anywhere near her, especially under her roof or in the homes of her children.

This included both the -er and -ra variants, because Southern racists who didn’t want to appear as uncultured and as boorish and as bigoted as their backwoods cousins preferred the second pronunciation because they could claim they were actually speaking respectfully about “colored people”.

So I grew up in the rare white Southern home where the N-bomb merely wasn’t used, it was actually denounced as wrong.

Now, don’t go thinking my grandmother was some great paragon of virtue; she wasn’t (she was hell on wheels, in fact, but that’s another story for another post).

But she did recognize there was something wrong with the use of the N-bomb, and whether she demanded her children never use it in any form to keep them from appearing to be boorish, bigoted louts, or whether she just thought it was simple good manners of the golden rule variety not to use it, I dunno.

But I do know we never used it, and when my parents heard our neighbors or schoolmates use it, we were reminded in no uncertain terms that we were never to use it.

But that doesn’t mean I haven’t used it.

A couple of decades ago I wrote a screenplay based on the life of Robert Smalls, in particular his incredible escape from Civil War Charleston by hijacking a Confederate gunboat and sailing it right past Ft. Sumter to join the Union fleet, bringing his wife and several other escaping African-Americans with him.

As a skilled harbor pilot, Smalls enjoyed certain privileges other enslaved African-Americans didn’t.

For example, he was allowed to go about the streets of Charleston unescorted…

…provided he wore a big diamond shaped brass tag around his neck.

Like a dog.

The tag indicated to slave catcher patrols that he was one of the “good” ones, that he could be trusted because he was helping his masters in their struggle against the Union by guiding blockade runners into the safety of Charleston harbor.

But knowing Southerners the way I do, and knowing the kind of low class good ol’ boy types they recruited for such jobs, I couldn’t imagine the slave catcher patrols being particularly courteous to him, even when they knew they had to let him pass because clearly he had the protection of some high positioned muckamuck.

And I could easily imagine them flinging the N-bomb at him with great glee, taunting him, daring him to act “uppity” so they could beat the crap out of him and teach him some manners and remind him of his place.

So I used the word in their dialog in my script.

Would I use that word today?

Probably not.

It’s not that crucial to the story, and if the viewer doesn’t grasp the concept that these are bigoted bully scum from their actions and attitude, then I’ve failed my job as a writer.

Have I ever quoted people who dropped the N-bomb?

Yeah, I have, in the past.

I’ve quoted Richard Pryor and Blazing Saddles and Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction.

I would excuse it then as the aforementioned evidentiary context but ya know what? I don’t quote those lines anymore.

I still think Pryor is hilarious and will recommend his routines to anyone I think might be interested, but he as a member of the African-American community at large (because like any other ethnic group, African-Americans have numerous sub-cultures and sub-communities among them), he could say things in a way neither I nor any other white person could say them.

(And, yeah, there’s a big debate going on to this very day among African-Americans about the appropriateness of that word and you know what? Whatever decision African-Americans reach for themselves is their business and should not involve any input whatsoever from we white folk; we not only can’t use the word, we can’t even comment on how they choose to use it. Period. Full stop.)

Blazing Saddles when it came out used the N-bomb to be deliberately transgressive, to make a sympathetic point re how unfairly African-Americans were treated.

All well and good.

But nine years earlier there had been a movie called A Patch Of Blue and while it wasn’t a raucous comedy like Blazing Saddles it tried making a point about race relations in America and it was a really. Really good movie and it made some important points but today is virtually unwatchable not because of any flaws in it but because the times have changed.

Ditto Blazing Saddles.

We don’t need to approach the problem that way any more.

Quentin Tarantino? I really like what he does as a director and a screenwriter but his use of the N-bomb to show us how transgressive his characters are is really shallow. I have a strong feeling his movies are going to be considered embarrassingly passé’ in a generation or two, much the same way as benign-yet-stereotypical characters in 1940s movies render many of them passé’ today.

Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction lose nothing by changing the N-word to something else.

Maybe an argument could be made for its use in Django Unchained or The Hateful 8 but even there I think substituting another word wouldn’t significantly change the tenor or tone of either movie.

So I stop quoting those lines from Tarantino’s films, at least not fully.

I can admire his skill / talent / craft without signing off on his problematic elements.

Let me offer an analogy: If a creator can get the same dramatic effect by pretending to shoot somebody but not actually blasting them with a gun, then they can get the same dramatic effect by using something evocative of the N-bomb without actually dropping it.

(By the way, for those who may be curious, my mother was from Naples and a bona fide card carrying member of Mussolini’s Fascist Youth Brigade, but that’s another story for another post.)

. . .

We are plunging into a new cultural conflict -- and while I think there will be violence, I don’t see it being violence on the scale or level of political organization as the Civil War -- and we can only win by refusing to let the bigots and the hate mongers spew their bullshit in the marketplace of ideas.

There is no compromise with an oppressor.

Stand up to it every time you encounter it.

Make it unthinkable, never acceptable.

#racism #race relations #morals #ethics #Harlan Ellison #Dennis Prager #N-bomb

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kipakyousee · 5 years

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7 Gaslighting Phrases Malignant Narcissists, Sociopaths and Psychopaths Use To Silence You, Translated

By Shahida Arabi, Bestselling Author

Last updated: 18 Nov 2019

~ 10 MIN READ

Gaslighting is an insidious erosion of your sense of reality; it creates a mental fog of epic proportions in the twisted “funhouse” of smoke, mirrors, and distortions that is an abusive relationship. When a malignant narcissist gaslights you, they engage in crazymaking discussions and character assassinations where they challenge and invalidate your thoughts, emotions, perceptions, and sanity. Gaslighting enables narcissists, sociopaths, and psychopaths to exhaust you to the point where you are unable to fight back. Rather than finding ways to healthily detach from this toxic person, you are sabotaged in your efforts to find a sense of certainty and validation in what you’ve experienced.

The term “gaslighting” originated in Patrick Hamilton’s 1938 play, Gas Light, where a manipulative husband drove his wife to insanity by causing her to question what she experienced. It was further popularized in the 1944 film adaptation, Gaslight, a psychological thriller about a man named Gregory Anton who murders a famous opera singer. He later marries her niece, Paula to convince her she is going crazy to the point of being institutionalized, with the agenda of stealing the rest of her family jewels. According to Dr. George Simon, victims of chronic gaslighting can suffer from a wide array of side effects, including flashbacks, heightened anxiety, intrusive thoughts, a low sense of self-worth, and mental confusion. In cases of severe manipulation and abuse, gaslighting can even lead to suicidal ideation, self-harm, and self-sabotage.

Gaslighting can take many forms – from questioning the status of your mental health to outright challenging your lived experiences. The most dangerous culprits of gaslighting? Malignant narcissists, who, by default, use gaslighting as a strategy to undermine the perception of their victims in order to evade accountability for their abuse. These perpetrators can use gaslighting callously and sadistically because they lack the remorse, empathy, or conscience to have any limits when they terrorize you or covertly provoke you. Gaslighting by a malignant narcissist is covert murder with clean hands, allowing the perpetrator to get away with their mistreatment while depicting the victims as the abusers.

I’ve spoken to thousands of survivors of malignant narcissists who have shared their stories of gaslighting, and below I include the most commonly used phrases malignant narcissists, sociopaths, and psychopaths employ to terrorize and deplete you, translated into what they really mean.

These phrases, when chronically used in the context of an abusive relationship, serve to demean, belittle and distort the reality of abuse victims.

1. You’re crazy/you have mental health issues/you need help.

Translation: You’re not the pathological one here. You’re just catching onto who I really am behind the mask and attempting to hold me accountable for my questionable behavior. I’d rather you question your own sanity so you believe that the problem is really you, rather than my own deceptiveness and manipulation. So long as you believe you’re the one who needs help, I’ll never have to take responsibility for changing my own disordered ways of thinking and behaving.

Malignant narcissists play the smirking doctors to their victims, treating them like unruly patients. Diagnosing their victims with mental health issues for having emotions is a way to pathologize their victims and undermine their credibility; this is even more effective when abusers are able to provoke reactions in their victims to convince society that they are the ones with mental health problems. According to the National Domestic Violence Hotline, some abusers will even actively drive their victims to the edge to concoct proof of their instability. The Hotline estimates that around 89% of their callers have experienced some form of mental health coercion and that 43% had experienced a substance abuse coercion from an abuser.

“Most survivors who reported their abusive partners had actively contributed to mental health difficulties or their use of substances also said their partners threatened to use the difficulties or substance use against them with important authorities, such as legal or child custody professionals, to prevent them from obtaining custody or other things that they wanted or needed.” – The National Center on Domestic Violence and the Domestic Violence Hotline

2. You’re just insecure and jealous.

Translation: I enjoy planting seeds of insecurity and doubt in your mind about your attractiveness, competence, and personality. If you dare to question my numerous flirtations, affairs, and inappropriate interactions, I’ll be sure to put you back in your place in fear of losing me. The problem, as I’ll convince you, isn’t my deceptive behavior. It’s your inability to remain confident while I perpetually put you down, compare you in demeaning ways to others, and eventually cast you aside for the next best thing.

Manufacturing love triangles and harems are a narcissist’s forte. Robert Greene, author of The Art of Seduction, speaks about creating “an aura of desirability” which stirs a frenzied sense of competition among potential suitors. In abuse survivor communities, this tactic is also known as triangulation. It grants malignant narcissists a depraved sense of power over their victims. They actively provoke jealousy in their intimate partners in order to control them and paint them as unhinged when they finally react. When a victim calls out a narcissist’s infidelity in any way, it is common for them to label the victims insecure, controlling, and jealous to avoid suspicion and to continue to reap the benefits of multiple sources of attention, praise, and ego strokes.

Remember: to someone who has something to hide, everything feels like an interrogation. Narcissists will often lash out in narcissistic rage, stonewalling, and excessive defensiveness when confronted with evidence of their betrayals.

3. You’re too sensitive/you’re overreacting.

Translation: It’s not that you’re too sensitive, but rather that I am insensitive, callous, and unempathic. I do not care about your emotions unless they serve me in some way. Your negative reactions provide me stimulation and pleasure, so please, do keep going. I enjoy putting you down for having legitimate reactions to my abuse.

According to Dr. Robin Stern, one of the effects of gaslighting include asking yourself “Am I too sensitive?” a dozen times a day. Claiming that victims are overreacting or oversensitive to emotional abuse is a popular way for malignant narcissists to override your certainty about the severity of the abuse you experienced.

Whether or not someone is a sensitive person is irrelevant when it comes to cases of psychological or physical violence. Abuse affects anyone and everyone of varying sensitivity levels, and its impact should not be taken lightly. A mark of a healthy partner is that they give you the space to feel your emotions and provide emotional validation, even if they do not agree with you. A malignant narcissist will excessively focus on your so-called sensitivity and consistently claim that you are overreacting rather than own their horrific actions when called out, regardless of how “sensitive” you may be.

4. It was just a joke. You have no sense of humor.

Translation: I love disguising my abusive behavior as just jokes. I like calling you names, putting you down, and then claiming you’re the one who lacks the sense of humor to appreciate my depraved “wit.” Making you feel defective allows me to say and do whatever I wish, all with a smile and a derisive laugh.

Disguising cruel remarks, off-color comments, and put-downs as “just jokes” is a popular verbal abuse tactic, according to Patricia Evans, author of The Verbally Abusive Relationship. This malicious tactic is very different from playful teasing which takes a certain amount of rapport, trust, and mutual enjoyment. When malignant narcissists dole out these unsettling “jokes,” they can engage in acts of name-calling, taunting, belittling and contempt while evading the responsibility of issuing an apology or owning their vicious verbal assaults. You are then gaslighted into believing that it is your inability to appreciate the “humor” behind their cruelty, rather than the reality of its abusive intentions.

“Just jokes” are also used to test boundaries early on in an abusive relationship; what you may have rationalized as a tone-deaf or off-color comment in the beginning can escalate into psychological violence quite quickly in the hands of a narcissist. If you find that you have a partner who laughs at you more than they laugh with you, run. It will not get better.

5. You need to let it go. Why are you bringing this up?

Translation: I haven’t given you enough time to even process the last heinous incident of abuse, but you need to let it go already so I can move forward with exploiting you without facing any consequences for my behavior. Let me love-bomb you into thinking that things will be different this time around. Don’t bring up my past patterns of abusive behavior, because you’ll then recognize that this is a cycle that will just continue.

In any abuse cycle, it’s common for an abuser to engage in a hot-and-cold cycle where they periodically throw in crumbs of affection to keep you hooked and to renew hope for a return to the honeymoon phase. This is a manipulation tactic known as intermittent reinforcement, and it’s common for an abuser to terrorize you, only to return the next day and act like nothing has happened. When you do recall any abusive incidents, an abuser will tell you to “let it go” so they can sustain the cycle.

This form of abuse amnesia adds onto your addictive bond to the abuser, also known as “trauma bonding.” According to Dr. Logan (2018), “Trauma bonding is evidenced in any relationship which the connection defies logic and is very hard to break. The components necessary for a trauma bond to form are a power differential, intermittent good/bad treatment, and high arousal and bonding periods.”

6. You’re the problem here, not me.

Translation: I am the problem here, but I’ll be damned if I let you know it! I’d rather subject you to personal attacks as you bend over backwards trying to hit constantly moving goalposts and arbitrary expectations of the way I think you should feel and behave. As you spend most of your time trying to fix your fabricated flaws while always coming up short of what I deem “worthy,” I can just sit back, relax, and continue to mistreat you the way I feel entitled to. You won’t have any energy left to call me out.

It’s common for abusive partners to engage in malignant projection – to even go as far as to call their victims the narcissists and abusers, and to dump their own malignant qualities and behaviors onto their victims. This is a way for them to gaslight their victims into believing that they are the ones at fault and that their reactions to the abuse, rather than the abuse itself, is the problem. According to Narcissistic Personality clinical expert Dr. Martinez-Lewi, these projections tend to be psychologically abusive. As she writes, “The narcissist is never wrong. He {or she} automatically blames others when anything goes awry. It is very stressful to be the recipient of narcissistic projections. The sheer force of the narcissist’s accusations and recriminations is stunning and disorienting.”

7. I never said or did that. You’re imagining things.

Translation: Making you question what I did or said allows me to cast doubt on your perceptions and memories of the abuse you’ve experienced. If I make you think that you’re imagining things, you’ll start to wonder if you’re going crazy, rather than pinpointing the evidence which proves I am an abuser.

In the movie Gaslight, Gregory causes his new wife to believe that her aunt’s house is haunted so she can be institutionalized. He does everything from rearranging items in the house, flickering gas lights on to making noises in the attic so she is no longer able to discern whether or not what she’s seeing is real. He isolates her so that she is unable to gain validation. After manufacturing these crazymaking scenarios, he then convinces her that these events are all a figment of her imagination.

Many victims of chronic gaslighting struggle with the cognitive dissonance which occurs when their abuser tells them that they never did or said something. Much like reasonable doubt can sway a jury, even the hint that something may not have happened after all can be powerful enough to override someone’s perceptions. Researchers Hasher, Goldstein and Toppino (1997) call this the “illusory truth effect” – they discovered that when falsehoods are repeated, they are more likely to be internalized as true simply due to the effects of repetition. That is why continual denial and minimization can be so effective in convincing victims of gaslighting that they are indeed imagining things or suffering from memory loss, rather than standing firm in their beliefs and experiences.

The Big Picture

In order to resist the effects of gaslighting, you must get in touch with your own reality and prevent yourself from getting entrapped into an endless loop of self-doubt. Learn to identify the red flags of malignant narcissists and their manipulation tactics so you can get out of disorienting, crazymaking conversations with malignant narcissists before they escalate into wild accusations, projections, blameshifting and put-downs which will only exacerbate your sense of confusion. Develop a sense of self-validation and self-trust so you can get in touch with how you really feel about the way someone is treating you, rather than getting stuck attempting to explain yourself to a manipulator with an agenda.

Getting space from your abuser is essential. Be sure to document events as they happened, rather than how your abuser tells you they happened. Save text messages, voicemails, e-mails, audio or video recordings (if permitted in your state laws) which can help you to remember the facts in times of mental fog, rather than subscribing to the distortions and delusions of the abuser.

Engage in extreme self-care by participating in mind-body healing modalities which target the physical as well as psychological symptoms of the abuse. Recovery is important to achieve mental clarity. Enlist the help of a third party, such as a trauma-informed therapist, and go through the incidents of abuse together to anchor yourself back to what you’ve experienced. Malignant narcissists might attempt to rewrite your reality, but you don’t have to accept their twisted narratives as truth.

References

Evans, P. (2010). The verbally abusive relationship: How to recognize it and how to respond. Avon, MA: Adams Media.

Greene, R. (2004). The art of seduction. Gardners Books.

Hasher, L., Goldstein, D., & Toppino, T. (1977). Frequency and the conference of referential validity. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 16(1), 107-112. doi:10.1016/s0022-5371(77)80012-1

Martinez-Lewi, L. (2012, November 10). Narcissist’s Projections are Psychologically Abusive. Retrieved March 19, 2019, from http://thenarcissistinyourlife.com/narcissists-projections-are-psychologically-abusive/

Logan, M. H. (2018). Stockholm Syndrome: Held Hostage by the One You Love. Violence and Gender,5(2), 67-69. doi:10.1089/vio.2017.0076

Simon, G. (2018, May 11). Overcoming Gaslighting Effects. Retrieved March 19, 2019, from https://www.drgeorgesimon.com/overcoming-gaslighting-effects/

Stern, R., & Wolf, N. (2018). The gaslight effect: How to spot and survive the hidden manipulation others use to control your life. New York: Harmony Books.

Warshaw, C., Lyon, E., Bland, P. J., Phillips, H., & Hooper, M. (2014). Mental Health and Substance Use Coercion Surveys. Report from the National Center on Domestic Violence, Trauma & Mental Health and the National Domestic Violence Hotline. National Center on Domestic Violence, Trauma and Mental Health. Retrieved here. November 5, 2017

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morbid-n-macabre · 6 years

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You probably already know that Stockholm Syndrome is a term used to describe what happens when a kidnapped victim becomes emotionally attached to his or her captor. Do you know the origin of this condition?

The phrase Stockholm Syndrome was coined back in 1973 after a well televised bank robbery which gripped the entire country of Sweden. Armed with explosives and a submachine gun, a well-known paroled convict by the name of Jan-Erik Olsson robbed one of the largest banks in Stockholm, Sweden. He walked in right after the bank opened, screamed "the party has only started", shot at the ceiling, and forced 4 of the bank's young (and attractive) employees inside the bank's vault. The hostages were 3 women named Birgitta Lundblad, Elisabeth Oldgren, Kristin Ehnmark, and a man, Sven Safstrom. They remained in this vault from August 23rd till the 28th.

Olsson made his demands, the first of which being that his buddy, Clark Olofsson, must be released from prison to help him out; negotiators obliged. Olofsson was released from prison and driven to the bank where the two convicts reunited. Olsson wanted 3 million dollars in Swedish currency, this was quickly given- but police weren't as quick to give in to the rest of the demands: 2 bulletproof vests, helmets, and a fast vehicle to get away in.

At first the hostages were absolutely terrified, but within a day the group became very close friends; the 4 came to love and trust these 2 men beyond reason, and those feelings were reciprocated.

At one point the hostages left the vault to use the restroom and they had a chance to go safely to police. The hostages refused, went straight back to their captors. Police noticed that the hostages were outright hostile with them- not their captors!

A couple days in, the robbers told their male captive, Sven, that they had to shoot him. They said that they'd allow him to get drunk first, they would shoot him in the leg and make sure that the bullet didn't go through the bone. Being nice guys, they promised not to kill him. Well, it's not surprising that Sven freaked out- he didn't want to be shot, and the robbers decided not to go through with that plan. Sven later recounted an overwhelming feeling of gratitude to them for offering to shoot him in the leg! Hostage Kristin would later recall her frustration at Sven, thinking he should've gone through with it; that he was such a wimp. Kristin says she still feels bad over the way she treated Sven over this.

During negotiations, Kristin spoke on the telephone to the prime minister, Olof Palme. She begged for her captives to be allowed to go free- and that herself and the other 3 be allowed to leave with them! During this call she stated: "I'm not the least bit afraid of Clark and the other guy, I'm afraid of the police. Do you understand? I trust them completely. Believe it or not, but we've had a really nice time here". Even when Olsson used her as a shield and placed a bomb at Kristin's feet, she did not turn against him- she had complete trust in these men. And they had been nice to her- at one point when she was feeling claustrophobic Olssen tied a rope around her neck and allowed her to walk around. What a gentleman!

On the 6th day, the police decided enough was enough; they broke through the ceiling of the vault and dropped some tear gas inside to disarm the men. It was at this time that Olsson and Olofsson surrendered.

Once released- the hostages were actually sticking up for both Olsson and Olofsson; they sided with them! This was all law enforcement's fault! Kristin even went so far as to say that the tear gas used on them was attempted murder! The 4 sang their captor's praises, they absolutely refused to testify against them, and not only pleaded for their captors release from prison but they even raised money for decent defense lawyers!

Nonetheless, Olsson was sentenced to ten years for the situation, and Olofsson received 6 years for his part in the fiasco. The victims remained in contact, sharing letters with their captors for years and years.

Olssen would later say: "It was the hostages' fault. They did everything I told them to. If they hadn't, I might not be here now. Why didn't any of them attack me? They made it hard to kill. They made us go on living together day after day, like goats, in that filth. There was nothing to do but get to know each other."

So, as for the psychology behind this- Usually the victim feels like they're definitely going to die when first taken captive; maybe they've been tied up, threatened, even assaulted. Basic human rights like using the bathroom and food/water may be denied. The situation is extremely traumatic. When the captive is finally given back those rights which most of us take for granted, they feel very grateful. Then, over time, the victim will come to understand the reason for the hostages situation, and empathize with his or her captor; often they'll even take on the captor's mission as their own. Together victim and criminal will bond over injustices in the world- an "it's us against them" type of mentality. Once released often the victim will feel like they truly love their abuser, and that feeling is usually reciprocated.

#Stockholm #sweden #true crime #true crime junkie #true crime scene #true crime community #psychology #criminology #hostage

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almostnoisydonut · 4 years

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𝓣𝓲𝓶𝓮 𝓐𝓷𝓭 𝓣𝓲𝓭𝓮 𝓦𝓪𝓲𝓽 𝓕𝓸𝓻 𝓝𝓸 𝓜𝓪𝓷

‘No one is so powerful that he can stop the march of time’ – this is what the phrase ‘time and tide wait for none’ means. Although the origin of this phrase is not sure, yet it is obvious that it has ancient origins and predates modern English. The mere mention of the ‘tide’ being beyond man’s control brings to mind images of King Canute’s story. He showed the limitations of a King’s powers by failing to make the sea obey his orders. The word ‘tide’ in this phrase originally didn’t imply what the present meaning is – ‘the rising and falling of the sea’. It denoted ‘a period of time’. At the time when this phrase was coined the word ‘tide’ meant a season or a time or a while.

This phrase is also sometimes mentioned as ‘time and tide wait for no man’. Nevertheless, it signifies the importance of time. In literature time has often been referred to as “Once upon a time” and then as the story progresses we discover how time passes, how it comes to a standstill, how it flies sometimes and how the character develops as time goes by. Time was a great teacher for King Lear in Shakespeare’s play ‘King Lear’. His character undergoes a sea-change with passage to time. His tow elder daughters failed the test of time. It was the youngest one, the reticent Cordelia, who faced the stormy times and came out a winner in being united with her father. But then time was a cruel teacher. Both Lear and Cordelia had to pay the price of their lives. Time had not waited for them. How time flies!’ they say. Rightly has Ben Hecht said, “Time is a circus always packing up and moving away.”

Time is to be treated as a precious commodity. It’s as important as life itself. What is life? Is it a mere breathing exercise? How do we define time? We often refer to the term ‘lifetime’. What makes a life is not the whole life at one go. Rather it consists of moments stitched together. We should live life in parts, so to say. Live a whole lifetime in a whole day. Live as if there’s no tomorrow. This doesn’t mean being rash. But start enjoying your life, you never will be able to when times change. You never can judge what time has in store for you. Being alive and living is a totally different thing. If you go to accumulating wealth hoping that you’ll indulge yourself, do something for your family and enjoy life one day, you are grossly mistaken. When a man dies he will never wish he would have spent some more time in the office. As we say, ‘opportunity is here’, similarly, ‘time is here and now’. Time should never be wasted. “I wasted time and now doth time waste me”, says Shakespeare.

Time has been mentioned in literature in different ways. Even the mythical and cyclic depiction of time had influenced many writers.

No matter how many pains you take, you cannot use the ‘undo’ command in life and edit again.

Another quality of time is its uniformity and impartial nature. It works at the same pace for the wealthiest and for the poorest one. An hour means sixty minutes both for a king and a pauper. All are slaves of time. What we can do is make the most of the time at hand, as the old proverb goes ‘make hay while the sun shines’.

We can broadly divide time into three categories – past, present and future. But actually it is indivisible. It’s a wonder how soon a past is created. You wink and eye and the moment is past. You will never find back the time wasted by you, there will only be tales of past. Future too is not revealed to us. We never know what is going to happen. ‘There’s many a slip between the cup and the lip’. So we should live in the present. It is only in the present that the essence of life is contained. We cannot depend on either the past or future which is not in front of us. Live life as it unfolds itself before us, that is, in the form of present.

Time doesn’t give you chances. There are no retakes in real life. Time teaches you with experience but it has been called the cruelest teacher. Why? Because it never waits and you can’t change your actions later. So much destruction has been caused in the world. The two World Wars have been there. Atom bombs have been dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It seemed as if the country of Japan would be destroyed, its economy would never be able to recover. But time didn’t come to a standstill. Japan is one of the leading nations of the world. This is because the Japanese didn’t wait for the time, rather they acted. People lose their loved ones. Their lives are shattered by the death. Life doesn’t seem to be moving ahead. But things change because time doesn’t wait for the mourner to get back to life again. Time is a great healer too. It goes on and on, just like a stream. Indeed, time is the stream of life. Just like the bubbles some people fade away, some new ones take their place and the process goes on. Life goes on.

Time and tide are natural phenomena. Like other agents of nature, they too have no consideration and regard for any individual. Man cannot change their course. They are beyond the control of human hands. Man finds himself helpless before them. In ancient times there were no steamships. There were huge boats equipped with sails. They were called ships. Their launching in the sea was a difficult affair, which depended on the tide. The sailors had to wait for weeks and sometimes for months, because their ships could not sail without the help of a tide. As soon as the tide came, they sailed their ships away with it. If they missed the chance, they had to wait for the next tide about which there could be no certainty. A tide never waits for any sailor. It is for the sailor to wait and take advantage of the tide when it comes. It is for the sailors to take advantage of the tide. If they fail they suffer the consequences.

Time is running fast. Yesterday will never come again. Even this moment when you are reading these lines will never come again. Time is an opportunity. If time will not come again, it means the opportunity will not come again. It is, therefore, necessary that one should grasp the opportunity as it comes. Missing an opportunity means missing the chance for ever, because one does not know whether the opportunity will recur or not. No amount of repentance would compensate the loss caused by such a failure. Nature is impersonal. It does not matter to it if a certain individual fails to make use of an opportunity offered by it. It is because of this aspect of the matter that wise men are always prepared to act with full vigour when time comes. They never postpone things.

Since we all know the story of the rabbit and the tortoise, this story is perfect for the idiom. But if you don’t know anything about the story let me narrate it. Once there was a tortoise who was slow in running he was always criticized by others for his slow pace.

But instead, there was a rabbit in their community who used to run fast. Moreover, everyone praised him for his speed. So to show his skills and to humiliate tortoise the rabbit challenged him for a race. The tortoise accepted the challenge because he never wanted any more humiliation.

The race was scheduled after two days. To win the race, the rabbit practiced hard. Moreover, he started celebrating his victory beforehand. The tortoise was humble he had never thought of winning the race. Yet he was eager to give his best.

So the race started on the third the day of the challenge. Everyone knew that the rabbit would win. Therefore the rabbit was overconfident of himself. The rabbit ate a lot before the race thinking if he would even walk then also he will win the race. But the tortoise had a determination to give his best.

After some time the race started the tortoise was very slow but he kept on moving. On the other hand, the rabbit was running at a very fast pace.

Therefore he was able to reach half the distance of the race track within a few minutes. After reaching that distance he thought that he should take rest. So he lied down under a tree to take a little rest. But soon he went to sleep without realizing because he had eaten so much food before the race. While he was sleeping the tortoise constantly moved with time. Neither did he stop nor did he take any rest.

Thus he was able to cross the rabbit while he was sleeping. When he was about to reach the finish line the rabbit woke up. He rushed towards the finish line. But it was too late till then the tortoise was much ahead than him. So he crossed the finished line in the first place. The Rabbit cried after losing the race. While the tortoise was celebrating the victory.

After reading the story you must be sure that ‘time and tide wait for none’. Because the tortoise worked hard and utilized the time so he was able to succeed in the race. Also, our life is like that only, to achieve success we must work hard with time. Moreover, we should always utilize our time in the best manner. Only then we will be able to achieve success in life.

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watchmanis216 · 5 years

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Fall Gardening ‘Survival tips and Cardinal survival Rules’! Fall gardens are in the decline as fall approaches winter, yet there are things you should know. Here we discuss the fall gardens in Wyoming, but also have Basic Gardening and Survival Tips. Along with these we have included paramount Cardinal Survival Rules. Just a few things to keep you spot on ready for what will eventually occur. So be ready and stay alive.

Fall Gardening ‘Survival tips and Cardinal survival Rules’!

Fall Gardening ‘Survival tips and Cardinal survival Rules’! The potato’s have been harvested and are sitting in special breathable bags in a cool spot. It won’t be long before the real cold will set in. We have been busy wrapping up our growing season in Wyoming. The season is short, way too short! Just as fishing, camping, and other summer sports are also short in this neck of the woods. The winter squash is growing and could use more time, but the cold and freezing usually hits about the week before Halloween. But I have had stuff growing in November here. Even with snow and freezing, stuff can still grow. But with the Fall, a lovely time is also the norm for us here. It is shirt sleeve weather, not too hot and not too cool; at times that is. It is great hunting and fishing as well around here in the fall. So many love the fall colors, fall harvests, and the fall things we do here.

One of my fresh flower and herb arrangements from our yard

Fresh vegetables, salsa, and a wrap

On main road leading into Buffalo Wyoming, the valley and the Big Horns in the background

2016 Potatoes sacked and ready to store

Gardening in the Apocalypse

7 Garden Tips for living in the Apocalypse

Western Garden Survivalist TV

We have been planting fingerling potato’s for two years now. It is a successful crop. You buy four fingerlings, cut the eye’s as usual and plant. From those five potato’s which weight about a pound, we can get 15-20 pounds of fingerlings. So we like to plant em. Not having much room we have to use raised bed and planters. But the raised beds do the best job.

The fall crops for us here are winter squash, cilantro, romaine, leaf lettuce, and other related salad greens. Other fall crops are onions, beets, turnips, and root vegetables. The tomato’s work their processes right into winter and snow. Usually if the crop is big, I will pull it by November, sometimes Halloween. But our tomato’s the last two years have been bumper crops so this year we could relax on it a bit.

This year the garlic was great, again; we praise the Lord. We grow our own for food and to plant so it is always good to have enough to plant. Remember the key here to Gardening in the Apocalypse is to grow both food for eating and for growing.

12 Basic Gardening & Survival tips that you should target:

Use Heirloom seeds if possible

Learn to can your food, dehydrate your food, and freeze some if you have a mind too!

If you do find a GMO type seed that produces a good fruit you like to eat, you won’t grow any fruit next year from it’s seeds. If you are short of space try raised beds, container gardens, planters. [Not everyone has lot’s of room, many do not have room at all]

Whether you have a garden or not, stock up on the foods you eat.

Remember at some point during a red flag event and martial law your food will become a target [so don’t advertise it].

If you have a farm or live in the country, be prepared to guard yourself, your house, and family. [There will be roving bandits].

Have a supply of water that will last you three months [longer if you have room].

Get a water purifier.

Have a bug-out bag with emergency essentials and things to keep you alive if you have to leave the area. [Three main targets for your bag: Starting a fire, drinkable water, staying warm, and food. Then some medical supplies]

Get a gun and know how to use it.

Don’t trust anyone outside of your close circle [family, maybe really good friends here].

Many cannot afford a bomb shelter or other secure type bunker [prepare as best you can].

10 Cardinal Survival rules: [This isn’t all, it’s just my list!]

‘It will happen, it is not a matter of if; but when, so be prepared’.

Have one place stocked and ready [where you now live] have a second back-up place to go to just in case!

Remember the phrase “I’m from the Government and I’m here to help“! Don’t believe this for a second!

You may be able to trust local officials, but the feds carry a big stick and a fence to put you in!

It may get tiring always being prepared, but it can save your life!

What you don’t know, research it, and find the answer. Be self taught and take the responsibility.

Get in shape physically

Be mentally fit

Be sure you are spiritually fit in the Lord!

When all physical means to survive end, then Trust the Lord; believe in Miracles and deliverance!

Fall Gardening ‘Survival tips and Cardinal survival Rules’!

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Fall Gardening ‘Survival tips and Cardinal survival Rules’!

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Fall Gardening ‘Survival tips and Cardinal survival Rules’!

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Fall Gardening ‘Survival tips and Cardinal survival Rules’!

Fall Gardening ‘Survival tips and Cardinal survival Rules’! Fall Gardening 'Survival tips and Cardinal survival Rules'! Fall gardens are in the decline as fall approaches winter, yet there are things you should know.

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brucesimpkinsblog · 7 years

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Just the right Man

In previous articles we have been looking at Jesus coming to just the right place at just the right time with just the right message in just the right way . . . and now we will finish up the series with Jesus coming as just the right MAN.

Now, I don’t know if that phrase, “Just the right man” sparks any questions about being theologically correct or not, but I have chosen those words very carefully. Jesus was a MAN in all respects. You may be thinking, “so was He God or was He man”? Good question. We must NOT miss the fact that Jesus was fully man AND fully God but He was made visible to mankind in the flesh.

When you think about the Christmas story, what naturally comes to mind are the angels, and the shepherds, and the wise men, and Mary, and Joseph, and sometimes even a little drummer boy (who is not in the Bible at all). If there was a drummer boy, it seems to me that Mary wouldn’t really appreciate drumming going on while Jesus was trying to sleep, but that’s another discussion . . .

The fact is, we only see these parts of the Christmas story in Matthew and Luke. The gospel of Mark skips it entirely and jumps right into John the Baptist and Jesus ministry. So what about the gospel of John? John doesn’t skip the birth of Jesus, but unlike Matthew and Luke who tell about it from an earthly perspective, John tells the Christmas message from a Heavenly perspective.

I. God sent just the right Man to be just the right example

John is the first one who brings out the truth that Jesus was God in the flesh. We can easily establish that Jesus was the perfect “God/Man” by the Gospel of John 1:1-5, and verse 14.

John 1:1-5

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

John 1:14

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth

Now, Jesus being fully God in every way AND yet still fully Man in every way is a hard concept for some people to wrap their minds around. After all, when Jesus was asked when the final days would come, He said in Matthew 24:36 But concerning that day and hour, no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.

So, how can He be fully God if He doesn’t know what day or hour it will occur? Let me try to give you the simple answer from Philippians 2:6-8

6 . . . who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

You see, when God became a man, He voluntarily restricted the use of His divine attributes to show us the power we ALL have as humans through God, with just the faith of a little mustard seed. The God/Jesus intentionally restricts Himself from any knowledge or ability that God the Father has, in order to demonstrate how any person in the flesh can and should live.

But you might ask, “How can we do everything Jesus did? Didn’t He do so many miracles that no one else was able to do?” But you might be surprised that the answer is, “No”. The disciples did many of the same miracles Jesus did at one time or another, and even more that Jesus did NOT do. I’m not going to take the space in this article to list them all for you, but if you do find a list of Jesus’ miracles and research which ones the disciples duplicated, I think you will be surprised. Jesus said, John 14:12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me [That includes you and me if we believe] will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.

Take note. Jesus never performed any divine act unless it was directed by the Father in Heaven, and neither should we. That direction from the Father comes through the Holy Spirit, and is now also available to you. Jesus opened that line of communication through the Holy Spirit, and when directed by God/Jesus, miraculous things can and do still happen.

So, God made Himself completely man. He set the perfect example of how God wants us to live. That’s what made Jesus, “just the RIGHT man” with just the right message, at just the right time, in just the right place, in just the right way, to set just the right example.

II. God sent just the right Man to bring just the right comfort . . .

John’s version of the Christmas story doesn’t include all of the things we typically think of at Christmas time. John wanted us to know that God came from Heaven to live a life exactly the way we can live our life. He was as ordinary and plain as they come, so that we can relate to Him and know that He can also relate to us. There is nothing that we experience on this earth that He also has not experienced. It is a comfort to know that He really does understand and can empathize with us.

Hebrews 4:15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are - yet he did not sin.

Only God Himself can become the perfect example for us to follow unlike others in the Bible. I don’t know about you, but most people learn better when they can first watch it being done. Then, the teacher watches us as we do it and corrects along the way. Jesus was fully God who became fully Man to be our mentor and guide and to show us how we are to live our lives.

Some of the best descriptions we have of Jesus as a man was prophesied in the Old Testament. Some of the classic scriptures describe Him in the second half of Isaiah. You understand that Isaiah is clearly divided into 2 parts. Some say they were originally two books that were combined into one. The first half (chapters 1-39) describes God’s judgment and wrath of Judah, Israel, and the pagan nations around them.

The second half (chapters 40-66) show how God would provide comfort for the future and salvation from sin. Isaiah speaks more about the coming Messiah than any other Old Testament book in the Bible.

Jesus was described as both a suffering servant AND a sovereign Lord. I’m sure they could not fully appreciate the implications of how that would be carried out before Jesus actually fulfilled the prophesy. The second half of Isaiah is packed full of hope and joy for the future. It is almost impossible to pick a chapter in the second half of Isaiah that would not show in some way the loving compassion, and mercy, and grace of our Lord and Savior.

The opening message from God in Isaiah 40:1-2 is one of double comfort . . .

1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.

Look at this verse in comparison with Isaiah 61:7

Instead of your shame you will receive a double portion, and instead of disgrace you will rejoice in your inheritance. And so you will inherit a double portion in your land, and everlasting joy will be yours.

He begins with a double word . . . comfort. He follows it up in chapter 61 with double comfort. Jesus was just the right man who could bring true comfort that would save people from their bondage to sin.

2 Corinthians 1:3-4

3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.

When you find yourself trudging through guilt and think the troubles will afflict you forever, remember that God came to us as a man in the flesh that we might have comfort, even in the presence of our enemy the devil. When God came to earth as a Man, He showed His personal compassion for mankind and He comforts those who are His children.

III. God sent just the right Man to be just the right Savior . . .

You know, at the time Jesus was born, there were many people claiming to be the Savior. Most of them were Zealots . . . who may not have been all that different from the terrorists of today. They didn’t have bombs, but they were underground warriors always looking for ways to kill Romans and overthrow Rome’s government. They were trying to be the Savior through bloodshed and violence. But that is never God’s way. Jesus became the savior through love and compassion and forgiveness of sin . . . not blood and violence.

Jesus’ approach was actually the radical approach. Jesus’ approach was the really hard way, but it was the only way. The true Savior was God in the flesh who would offer Himself as a blood sacrifice for the atonement of sin once and for all.

The most common descriptions of what Jesus would be like are in chapters 52 and 53 of Isaiah.

Isaiah 52:13-15

13 See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. 14 Just as there were many who were appalled at him - his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being and his form marred beyond human likeness - 15 so he will sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand.

Is this not the description of what our God in the flesh did for us on the cross? The next chapter 53 describes perfectly what the Savior would do for the people. I am going post the entire chapter for you to read and let it speak for itself. There is nothing veiled or hard to understand here. If you are not familiar with this chapter, you may want to have your Bible open with a pen or pencil or highlighter ready to mark places you want to return and read again, and again in more detail.

Here it is: Isaiah chapter 53

1 Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

4 Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punished by God, stricken by him, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before its shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. 8 By oppression and judgment he was taken away. Yet who of his generation protested? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was punished.

9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it was the Lord’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the Lord makes his life an offering for sin, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the Lord will prosper in his hand.

11 After he has suffered, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities.

12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

This perfect description of Jesus was given 700 years before He was born. Think about how far in advance that prophesy was. It would be like someone making a prophesy in the year A.D.1300 about a person in our culture today! That’s an amazing miracle in itself, and impossible odds that every part of this long list would be so accurately identified.

Yes, Jesus came to just the right place, at just the right time, with just the right message, in just the right way, to set just the right example, and bring just the right comfort, as just the right Savior of the world.

Joy to the World, the Lord has come. Let earth receive her King!

That’s the REAL Christmas story. It kind of makes you want to sing about it !!! May you carry this Christmas story with you throughout this new year of 2018.

Numbers 6:24-26

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace.

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riotdragonx · 7 years

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Wasteland Waltz (Fallout 3)

OoO( Prologue )OoO

Legends. Every culture has them. The Greek had a pantheon of gods who lived on Mount Olympus. The Norse had their own world called Asgard where gods and giants fought one another, with the human world at stake. Even the Asian cultures had dynasty after dynasty of kami and shén bearing tales of romanticism, anger, hatred and tragedy.

Jesus, Muhammad, the Buddha, prophets of legend. Robin Hood, Paul Bunyan, Casey Jones, Hercules, Saint Nicholas, King Arthur, Ishiwaka Goemon, Sun Wukong, heroes of legend. Every culture has them, and they are forever idolized within the people of a culture, told to children to make them behave, or to give them hope. There was even an era where these figures were put into comic form. Grognak, the Silver Shroud, the Watchers, Mighty Man, the Unstoppables, and the Unbeatable Shebeast. All made and idolized by youth until they grew up, still praising the same heroes.

This is the tale of one such hero. Not one from comics, or mythological origins. But one who people knew, one who people loved, one who was idolized not because of unbelievable exploits put into text, or told to children. But because of his actions, and his unwavering gaze in the face of impossibility. Even when outnumbered, outmatched, and outgunned, he never gave up on the people of the wastes. It was because of him that the Capital Wasteland is the way it is now, and we have him to thank for the peace we enjoy every single day.

He is our hero, our legend, our idol. He is the Wanderer.

~Excerpt from... "The Lone Wanderer," Published December 25th, 2297 As written by famed author Moira Brown

OoO( 1 )OoO

It seems that a lot of the most important moments in a human's life, whether a single man or woman, or humankind as a whole, begin with a flash of light. The creation of the universe is said to have begun with an explosion on a universal scale, a massive flash of photons and galactic fire that formed the livable plain of our existence. And when we first open our eyes, we are assaulted by an intense flash of light as our never before used eyes take in the world around us.

In October 2077, when the bombs fell, the entire world was exposed to a flash of light that literally changed the face of the planet. From the moment that flash covered the surface of the Earth, mankind was plunged into a world of fire and chaos, the likes of which they had never seen before. The entire world, reborn in a flash of light.

Just as one young man was reborn as he kicked open the rickety door of the tunnel he stood in. As soon as he did, he regretted it, as the blinding light of the massive star in their solar system stabbed at him like knives. His entire life, he'd had nothing but the artificial lights of Vault 101 to guide his path. Now, he desperately covered his watering eyes as the ultraviolet light pierced him to his very core. He immediately shrank back into the small cavern outside of the giant doorway of his home, shying away from the intense burning blanket that the sun laid on him.

As he sat in the cavern, he also began to feel other sensations that he'd never felt before. His skin, at least that exposed to the open air, had began to tingle slightly when he had come into contact with the outside air. No longer did thick walls and air filtration systems protect him from the harsh irradiated world. He merely sat, running a single hand through his brown hair as he allowed his eyes to recover from the intense pain they had just received.

While sitting, he thought about everything that had just happened. It seemed as if just yesterday, he had had his tenth birthday almost ruined by the annoying and always intruding Butch. Then again, time itself seemed to disappear in a flash to him, as if vault life were somehow making things go incredibly faster than they should. That was the same day he had gotten his Pipboy 3000, a device clamped around his arm that had practically become a best friend to him. No matter how hard he thought life was in the vault, the Vault Boy always continued to smile courageously, giving him the iconic thumbs up.

He looked down at the green tinted screen of the pipboy. But he was surprised to find that the Vault Boy no longer had a smile for him. Instead, the small figure's face was melancholy, as if saddened by what the boy was about to learn. It wasn't long before he happened to see the blinking appendage that the Vault Boy had. Immediately, he lifted and examined his own arm which was covered in the usual Vault 101 blue jumpsuit.

As it turned out, one of the officers he had to gun down for firing on Tom and Mary Holden had actually gotten him in the arm with a stray shot. How he managed to make it all the way through the fight and through the situation with the Overseer without noticing was beyond him. Such was the wonders of adrenaline, he guessed. Luckily, it wasn't bleeding much, and wouldn't be beyond repairing with a stimpack. He had gotten of much better than Mary, who unfortunately, had caught a bullet directly to her ulna, leaving it in pieces. She'd live, but would likely have to endure weeks of pain and medication before she fully recovered. She told the pair as much when he removed the round from her arm himself, a surgical process taught to him by his father.

That's when he growled menacingly. His father, the man who loved him and cared for him, ultimately left him behind in the vault when he made his escape. No warning, no signs, no hints, no nothing. Just fell asleep one night, then gone the next morning, leaving his son to fend off psychotic vault guards, radroaches, and an Overseer with a power trip. He slowly began to bandage his arm as he recalled the encounter with the overseer.

After his close call with the two officers down the narrow hallway leading to the Atrium, the young man was attempting to sneak past the Overseer's office to reach the front entrance to the vault itself. That was when he heard probably the most blood boiling, enraging sound he had ever heard in his life. It was the sound of Amata screaming in pain. The next few seconds were a blur as he stepped into the office and raised the gun that Amata had given him and fired it directly into the face shield of the man responsible.

Officer Mack, the guard that the Overseer was using to extract information from his daughter, was as sadistic and psychotic as all the rest put together. He had a baton out, one of the non-lethal methods used by Vault Security to keep the peace. But his had small rods on the tip, which sent waves of electricity into whatever they came in contact with. That was currently his best friend, and teenage romance, Amata.

As he fired, he aimed directly for the chest, knowing that it was the greatest target from their distance. The officer, who had turned as soon as he entered the room, was struck in the chest plate and knocked onto his back, groaning in pain. It was then, when he had a clear shot, and Mack was unarmed, that he stepped on the officer's now pain riddled gut, and aimed directly at the man's head. The next bullet smashed the flimsy plastic and splattered the man's blood all over the inside of the shattered mask.

The much older man quickly backed up, raising his hands in defense as John, the doctor's son, reached down to grab the electro-baton off of Mack's corpse. "Please! Don't kill him!" shouted Amata. His finger froze on the trigger as he stared at the man with a hatred that burned deeper than any of the fires that had sprung up in the vault. Reaching down, the doctor's son grabbed the baton that had fallen from Mack's hand when he was shot in the chest.

"Now young man, don't do anything you may regret…" said the Overseer, his tone surprisingly level for having a gun pointed at him by the young man responsible for executing one of his guards.

"You killed him you son of a bitch..." John said as he whipped the edge of the baton into the side of the Overseer's leg, causing the man's stance to buckle, sending him to the floor in pain. "He was a pushover, a fan of sci-fi comics who had trouble asking Jane on a date. And you had him killed..." Despite the probable knee fracture, the older man still managed to crawl backwards as the pistol was held in his face.

"Please..." was all he managed to get out before John aimed the baton at him as well.

"Save it." he said, whipping the baton across the Overseer's hand as it tried to grab the leg of his jumpsuit. "You've killed Jonas, you've tried to kill me, and you had that barbarian torturing your own goddamn daughter!" he shouted, the force behind his voice practically shaking the walls. Two of the guards that had come up to the door, preparing to take the young man down froze in place at the statement.

"I-I did it for the vault!" shouted the older man.

"Say the phrase "for the vault" one more time and this'll be going up your ass." said John viciously as he waved the shock baton in the man's face. "Now, I'm going to say two things, and you're going to listen to me as I say them. Do I make myself clear?" asked the enraged young man. The Overseer nodded his head rapidly. "Good, now stand up." he commanded. As Alphonse stood, John lowered the gun. "First, Officer Kendall has a wound to his left shoulder where I shot him after he pulled a gun on me. I patched him up, and he should be fine. Officers Richards and O'Brian are lying in the hallway to the atrium with their arms and hands crippled. I shot them because they fired on unarmed men and women who had nothing to do with me. And Officer Mack..." he said, looking down at the body as blood began to pool out from under the shattered face plate. "Well, he got exactly what he had coming." he said, then turned to the Overseer again. "Do you see what I'm getting at?" he asked.

Alphonse sighed and nodded. "You were defending yourself, and the other dwellers of the vault." he said in a tired tone. "Including my daughter..."

"Good. And second, this is for Amata." he said, pulling the trigger on his weapon. A loud pop sounded, and the Overseer, fell to his back. The Overseer's daughter watched in wide-eyed horror as her father seemed to fall in slow motion and hit the ground. She wanted to scream, but couldn't. She watched in shock for a few moments before she registered that someone else was screaming, namely her father.

The older man was now holding both hands to his head and was rolling around in throes of pain. "D-Dad!?" she asked incredulously as she stumbled over and knelt next to him. After taking a moment to pry his hands away from his face, she saw that his eyes were watering and he now had a large red welt directly in the center of his forehead.

"Amata is my best friend. She has my comm code, and I swear to you that if you ever lay another hand on her, I will kill you with my bare hands. Even if I have to rip away and blow through the vault walls myself. Do I make myself clear?" he asked.

"Yes! Yes! For the love of God yes!" he shouted, still rubbing tenderly at the sore spot on his forehead.

"What did you do to him?" she asked, bewildered that her father was still alive.

He smirked and turned to her, handing her the gun he held in his hand. "Taught him a lesson. If he ever gets out of line again, give him another shot." he said with a smirk. Amata looked down at the weapon and noticed immediately how small it was compared to the gun she gave him.

"A...A BB gun? You switched your guns out?" she asked. He nodded, and she laughed, and laughed. Her father glared at her, then stood up, noticing that John was now walking out the door to the office.

"Where do you intend to go?" asked the Overseer, his voice much less angry than a minute before, but no less irritated.

John just shrugged. "I don't know..." said the doctor's son as he reached up and scratched his head. "But I will find him, and I will make him answer for what he did here today." he said with a look of steel in his eyes.

"Good luck then." he merely said. After those final three words, he left the room and headed for the entrance of the vault, unhindered by the officers who were waiting outside the room for him. When he finally made it to the giant cog that sealed their vault shut, he marveled at it once again. He had only seen it a couple times, none of those times did he ever suspect he would one day return to open the doorway.

Amata approached the young man and eyed the door warily as the giant mechanism slammed into the entry point on the giant cog. After a moment or two of locking into place, it began to pull the crenelated metal wheel free from its home and slowly began to roll it aside. Now, Amata stood next to him as they watched the occurrence with wide eyes. "W-Wow...it's actually opened. You did it." she said in shock as she stared at the dark tunnel beyond the once secured door.

John turned to her and stared at her for a long moment before he held out his hand. "Amata, come with me." he offered.

She turned and looked at him as if he had just slapped her. "What?" she asked.

"I know it's a really crappy time to ask for a commitment, but we're here now. And...I know that when I'm with you, I can do anything. So...please. Come with me and help me find my father." he asked, holding his hand out to her.

The young woman looked at him, her gut plummeting at the admission, but at the same time, her knees were weak in fear. She wanted so bad to reach out and grasp his hand. Slowly, she put her hand forward to place in his, wondering what life on the outside was like. But then she remembered her father, and the people of the vault. She didn't know what was going to happen after the door closed again, but she knew that if she left, they'd all be defenseless. As that thought ran through her head, her hand pulled away again.

John's eyes widened as he saw her pull away. "I-I'm...I'm sorry..." she said, her eyes watering slightly as she stared at him. Despite his father's actions, and despite having to gun down several officers, this was definitely the most painful thing he had encountered today. Taking a step back, he turned away painfully. "John...please..."

"Close the door behind me. I don't want anything else getting in once I'm gone." he said as he reached up and grabbed the tattered armor that was now barely hanging off him. Ripping the velcro clad chest piece clean, he tossed it aside and grabbed his pack again, then began to venture into the dark tunnel that would forever change his fate.

Remembering the situation sent him through another rollercoaster of emotions, from fear of his father being gone, to the pure, unfettered rage he felt at the Overseer's actions, to the heartbreak of seeing her pull away. It all hit him again as he sat, still waiting for the dots to remove themselves from his gaze.

Now, he sat in the cave just outside the vault with the door sealed shut behind him. With his vision clearing, and him going nowhere until the sky darkened a little, he began to notice that the cave was littered with bones. Human bones to be exact. Most of them had been taken by the erosion of time and exposure, but there were still some that survived, the odd skull or full set of arm bones. Surprisingly, there was even a plastic sign written with the words "LET US IN FUCKERS!" scrawled on it in a hasty fashion. These people had wanted in the vault so badly that they literally died trying to enter. And he just left. The safety of the walls, the purified water, the non ultraviolet lights, all of it thrown out the proverbial window. He was here now, and there was no going back anymore.

He pulled out the lunchbox that his dad had stashed behind the picture of his mom's favorite quote from the Bible. Opening it up, he found the note from his father to Jonas transcribed on a holotape, something he'd listened to multiple times now since he had sat in the cave. The rest of the contents were a mix between different medications, and oddly, a large amount of bottle caps. He sighed to himself as he threw the holotape against the wall, shattering the fragile disc, then stood to his feet.

Finally, he stood up and stared out through the crack in the door. The sun was now setting, leaving the sky a hushed dark blue, and making it more than tolerable to his sheltered eyes. Grabbing his supplies, he tucked them away before opening the door and stepping outside. It was hard to breathe out here without coughing, but something he'd likely get used to with exposure. Looking out over the landscape to the east, he saw a small, ramshackle town. Then and there, he decided that this would be his first stop. "Dad, wherever you are, you've got a lot of questions to answer."

#fallout 3 #fanfic #megafic #novelization #lone wanderer

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russellthornton · 8 years

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Backhanded Compliment: How to React Kindly or Give Back in Kind

A backhanded compliment is a passive aggressive way of being nasty while sounding nice. To combat them, use one of these five comebacks.

A backhanded compliment is a way to make someone feel good by praising them for something, while at the same time, saying something to offend them.

Often leaving the person scratching their head wondering if you were trying to be nice, or if you knew that you were nasty, sometimes we do it to hide aggressive behavior, and sometimes we are completely unaware of how the things we say can sting or come across.

A backhanded compliment would be something like “you’re so pretty that you could be a plus size model.” The pretty part is meant to make someone feel good, but the overall compliment leaves the recipient knowing that the compliment giver thinks they are overweight.

A backhanded compliment can sometimes come out wrong and isn’t noticed until they leave our mouths. But, there are times when you can use them to put someone in their place, let them know that they have been a jerk, or bring down the queen bee who you don’t want to call out directly, but do want to let them know that they can’t continue with their behavior. [Read: 101 awesomely good comebacks for every occasion]

A masterful trade, a backhanded compliment can not only catch you off guard, but they can leave you guard-less. Although you know that they were meant to intentionally hurt, they are disguised in niceness.

Like “Bless your heart,” it is hard to combat them or be overtly aggressive when handed one without looking paranoid or ridiculous. After all, it was a compliment meant to make you happy… or was it?

5 effective ways to deal with a backhanded compliment

The key is to meet backhanded compliments with like kind. Being overly aggressive, mad, or angry about them will only bring out the worst in you. In intentional cases, that is what the compliment giver is hoping for.

So, it is best to be as covert as they are in your response. Meeting passive aggressiveness with the same is the only way to put a backhander in their place. Here are the effective ways to deal with a backhanded compliment.

#1 Ignore it. My mother-in-law was the best, wait… did I say the best? Yes, the best backhanded complimenter of all time. She would say things that would sit in my crawl for months. She was so good at what she did that I still, to this day, really don’t know if she had any idea that what she was saying to be nice was so mean. [Read: The mean girl – 25 traits to recognize her and stay away]

The best way to defend yourself from a backhanded compliment, especially if you aren’t sure if the person intentionally meant to hurt your feelings, or if they just were speaking their version of the truth, is just to ignore it and move on.

In the end, if you call them out, they will vehemently deny it anyway. And, it may backfire to make you look insecure, accusatory, and paranoid. If it is something small you can live with and it doesn’t happen frequently, sometimes it is best just to let it go.

There are times when the backhanded complimenter is saying what they say to purposely push your buttons or get you upset. If that is the case, ignoring it is the best way to combat it. If they can’t get a rise out of you, they may just stop it and move along to the next victim. Pretend not to get it, and they may not waste their time on you anymore.

#2 Only acknowledge the good portion of the compliment. A backhanded compliment didn’t just come out of thin air. The person providing them has thought pretty hard about how to hurt you. If someone gives you a backhanded compliment like “I love that dress it really hides your midsection,” simply reply “Thank you, I thought the blue looked good with my eyes.”

If you only allow the positive message to make it through to your psyche, they will see that you refuse to take on the nasty portion. That negates the whole reason for a backhanded compliment. If you do it enough times, the backhanded complimenter won’t waste the time trying to take you down through passive aggressive methods. [Read: 12 different types of humor and how it affects relationships]

#3 Be appreciative for their compliment. To stop the backhander from thinking they got the best of you, simply say thank you and nothing else. If you say thank you it shows the backhanded complimenter that you are tough and self-confident enough to take it without being hurt or even effected.

By saying thank you, you acknowledge “yes I heard what you said” and “yes I got that it was supposed to hurt” while also saying “I don’t care… you can’t hurt me or my feelings with anything that you have to say.” Remember, you are rubber and they are glue, just let it bounce off you and stick to their ugly self. [Read: 15 types of toxic relationships to watch out for]

#4 Call them out. I have had occasions where a backhanded compliment came with such fervor that it becomes impossible to subject yourself to it another moment without putting a stop to it.

If you have a friend or family member who simply can’t stop themselves from being passive aggressive, and is constantly making you feel bad by disguising their ugliness in something that sounds nice, then it may be time to take out the bully.

Bullies come in all forms, and a passive aggressive backhander is the worst type. You aren’t the only recipient of the hurtful phrases, so take one for the team. Just like any bully, calling out their behavior and meeting it with like aggression will do the trick to ensure that they can’t continue to dump on you without reprise or any responsibility for what they say. [Read: How to deal with bullies – 13 grownup ways to confront mean people]

If you are tired of the backhanded compliments flowing your way, state in no uncertain terms that you don’t appreciate being hurt. Sure, it will be met with a “What are you talking about? I was just giving you a compliment!” But, once you have shown their covert actions for what they are, they will have a really hard time trying to dive bomb your feelings in a kind/unkind form of verbal attack again.

Letting them know that you know it is no mistake that they intentionally say shitty things will stop them from being able to hide it anymore.

Someone who uses backhanded compliments does it so that they sound nice and don’t want anyone to know the ugly side. If you call them out and confront them, they no longer can claim the “I didn’t know” defense. They have been put on notice. [Read: Stop the craziness in life – How to deal with rude people]

#5 Give it right back. If you receive a backhanded compliment, sometimes it is best to keep your sense of humor and keep it light. If they give you a compliment, then it is okay to give one right back that is just as caustic and covert.

If you are quick-witted and know how to send your own zingers, then have at it. A like kind comment works in two ways. It lets the backhanded complimenter know that you understand what their phrase was intended to do, and it insults them in the exact same manner. Not everyone has the skill. But, if you do… let it ride to take out a word bully.

Backhanded compliments are one of the hardest things to counterattack. After all, the entire purpose of them is to be nasty while sounding nice. An intentional way to make you feel bad while giving you the cue that they didn’t mean it, chances are good that it was totally spot on.

[Read: How to stop selfish people from hurting you]

You can be quick-witted, ignore the backhanded compliment, acknowledge only the positive, or meet it with your own twist. It is really about timing and how masterful the person you are dealing with is.

The post Backhanded Compliment: How to React Kindly or Give Back in Kind is the original content of LovePanky - Your Guide to Better Love and Relationships.

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russellthornton · 8 years

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Turn Offs for Girls: 32 Worst Things to Say to a Girl After Sex

It’s true there isn’t a manual for what to say to a woman after you’ve had sex with her, but some turn offs for girls are just a matter of common sense.

Knowing what to say to a woman after sex is just as important as what you say before and during the act. Saying the wrong thing during post-coital bliss almost guarantees you look like a douchebag, and ruins your chances of a round two. These turn offs for girls will surely get you kicked out of the bedroom.

Being tactful in your words and thinking before you speak helps, make sure you don’t make the same mistake as some of the guys who’ve coined these sayings below.

Turn offs for girls – Things not to say to a woman after sex

This list is in no particular order, because it’s pretty hard to distinguish bad from worse.

#1 “When was the last time you got checked?” Whether she has a funky smell going on, you’ve had a bad experience, or you’re just a hypochondriac, this phrase is guaranteed to hurt a girl’s feelings. She might even think you’re the one with a STD, and you’re trying to pin it on her… bad move. [Read: Surviving an STD scare in a relationship: 9 things to know]

#2 “I think the condom broke.” This panic inducing phrase is one of the worst things a woman could hear, especially if you’re just friends with benefits.

#3 “Was that the best you ever had?” This proves you’re an egomaniac who needs constant reassurance, or you’re so cocky you believe you’re God’s gift to women. No girl wants to answer that phrase unless she volunteers the information willingly. Don’t fish for compliments.

#4 “Do you smell that?” Nothing could make her go from feeling like a steamy sex goddess to instantly insecure and anxious. If she also knows she smells fine down there, you’re only making yourself look like the culprit. [Read: 7 smelly body parts that can ruin great sex]

#5 “Can I use your mouthwash?” While this could be seemingly innocent, you’re either making her feel like you were so repulsed after making out with her that you need to rinse your mouth, or your breath stinks. Either way it’s a lose-lose.

#6 “Sorry…” *hangs head in shame*. No one likes a martyr who plays the victim after coming too quickly, or simply didn’t get a girl where she needed to be. If you want her to give you sympathy, it definitely won’t inspire her to want to sleep with you again. Feeling sorry for yourself won’t make you look like a sex bomb or cover up a bad performance.

#7 “That was better than I expected!” This leads her to believe you expected her to be bad in bed… point blank. She won’t find this to be a compliment, unless she was just as surprised herself. [Read: 23 hacks to be a lot more attractive to women instantly]

#8 “You’re a lot cleaner than other girls I’ve hooked up with.” This cringe-worthy praise puts all sorts of images in her mind about where your man part has been before it got between her legs. Her reaction will be panic, anxiety, and the urge to shower multiple times.

#9 “So you’re on birth control, right?” This implies a woman should probably consider Plan B if she wasn’t planning a pregnancy and isn’t on the pill. If you slipped up, it’s better to talk to her about it, rather than bluntly assume she’s got it covered.

#10 “You didn’t tell me you were a squirter!” Not all women are proud of their ability to squirt during sex, some are insecure about it. Bringing it up that way only makes her feel like a spectacle, rather than a person with feelings. [Read: Female ejaculation: Debunking the myths and shedding light]

#11 “I think I’m in love with you.” This is just something you don’t say after sex. Maybe after a few good dates, but not if you’ve just had sex for the first time or are just friends with benefits.

#12 “Have you booked a cab yet?” This is just plain insulting. At least sit and talk for a minute before making it known you want a quick hit and run.

#13 “I’m not really into cuddling.” She may not be into cuddling or may not want to cuddle with you, so there’s no need to put out the disclaimer. She only assumes you’re full of yourself, and she’ll regret getting with you in the first place.

#14 “I was worried that condom wouldn’t work!” She’ll wonder where you got it, or if it’s older than she is.

#15 “So what are your thoughts on abortion?” Otherwise known as “I may have accidentally impregnated you, and I want to make sure you’re okay with terminating the pregnancy.” If she’s a pro-life activist, this could cause a bad reaction. [Read: 10 birth control options and what they can do for you]

#16 “What was your name again?” Nothing feels more like a slap in a girl’s face than having a great sex session, and finding out she’s just a nameless, pretty face. If you don’t remember her name but you found your way around her body just fine, don’t kill the vibe by asking her name right after sex.

#17 “I’m so glad I lost my virginity to you.” If she didn’t figure it out while you were having sex, and you didn’t give her a heads up beforehand, she definitely doesn’t want to know she was your first right after you’ve done the deed.

#18 “It’s time to go.” Kicking her out of your place right after sex makes her feel like a tramp and completely disrespected.

#19 “On a scale of 1 to 10… ” No girl appreciates having to evaluate your performance right after sex. You look like you have a frail ego that needs boosting, and you were just using her as a conquest. [Read: 20 foolproof ways to tell if you’re a serial womanizer]

#20 “I hope I caught all of that” *checks webcam*. This couldn’t be more horrifying for a girl to hear you’ve been recording a sex tape without her permission.

#21 “So this is between us, right?” Having to make it clear the sex you just had was a big secret makes her feel like you’re hiding something, like a wife or a girlfriend.

#22 Nothing *falls asleep*. She might be flattered she put you to bed, or annoyed you passed out on top of her.

#23 “That was amazing, Melissa!” …but that isn’t her name.

#24 “Sex makes me really emotional” *cries*. That makes everything go from zero to weird quicker than she’ll go running out the door.

#25 “I lasted a whole half an hour” *checks the time*. She’ll wonder if you want a sticker or a medal for that, plus she might not think it was worth any applause.

#26 “That was almost the best I’ve ever had.” You’re better off saying nothing than telling her she’s “almost” the best at anything sex related.

#27 “Was that your first time?” If you want to make a girl feel like an amateur, and average in bed, ask her if it’s her first ride on the train. [Read: 18 relationship turn offs that could ruin your romance]

#28 “So how much do I owe you?” Unless she’s working by the hour, this is deeply insulting, even as a joke.

#29 “Thanks, I got you next time!” If your performance was bad enough you feel the need to make it up to her, show it in actions instead of words. If you’re lucky enough to get a second chance, that is.

#30 “You’re even better than your sister.” This is just not something you say, even if you did sleep with her sister, another close family member, or close friend.

#31 “I see your mom taught you well.” This is just as bad as the last point, if not considerably worse. [Read: Win their heart: All the things to talk about with your crush]

#32 “Same time next week?” She’s not a scheduled play toy, she’s a woman with her own needs and her own schedule. Don’t assume she’s ready to put you in a weekly time slot.

[Read: 15 things guys do that are a big turn off for girls]

Saying these things to a woman after sex is sure to make her disappear before you can even ask for round two. Don’t make the same mistake twice if you’ve already blurted out any of the above phrases.

The post Turn Offs for Girls: 32 Worst Things to Say to a Girl After Sex is the original content of LovePanky - Your Guide to Better Love and Relationships.

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