#literally only 1 of those is an educational source

[undeadorion-archive]

??????????????

OP, do you even know what you're saying?

Coursera isn't free. A website that just gives you textbooks answers (slader) isn't learning (and I doubt it's actually every textbook). Wolframalpha is literally just a fancy calculator. Thriftbooks is just a used bookstore, those are pretty common (see also Powells, Half Price Books, Amazon, etc). PolishMyWriting isn't an educational tool, just fancy spelling/grammar checks. Tipofmytongue isn't an educational tool, just helps find words. Gutenberg, while great, isn't an educational tool.

Actual educational sources that are free on the internet:

EdX / HarvardX / MITx -- Real ivy league courses available for free online. At least on EdX, some courses are paid or limited if free. It's a collection of schools around the world so availability varies by school. Harvard gives a completion certificate for every course for free.

Khan Academy - Free courses in a wide range of subjects, for grades from preschool to college.

Free Code Camp / The Odin Project - Learn programming or web design for free with full, real lessons and exercises.

Literally just youtube or google -- If you want to learn something specific, just search for it. Odds are there's bunch of highly specific videos on youtube or a whole website for whatever topic you're looking for. I've taught myself everything from knitting to 3D rendering in Blender just by searching "[topic] for beginners".

Avoid places like Skillshare, Udemy or any other places that allow basically anyone to post "lessons". There is zero quality control, so it's basically Youtube where you pay to access playlists. Basically don't pay a single cent to access content that claims to be educational but hasn't been properly vetted.

Also, try to understand the difference between education and calculators, please.

👏🏾Education 👏🏾is 👏🏾a 👏🏾right,👏🏾 not👏🏾 a👏🏾 service 👏🏾

Pass along and use the shit out of them

[fucktoyfelix]

This is actually a useful thing to understand how to spell out. What exactly is wrong with puritanical attitudes towards sexuality? TW: Discusses body image issues, suicide, STIs, sexual assault etc

1. It fosters fear, disgust and loathing of our bodies. By hiding the human body as soon as we are born, and treating it as an object of inherent shame: THAT creates trauma. Shame is one of the primary sources of trauma, its the fuel and lets trauma burn. Those raised in nudist societies, and children raised in households where nudity is treated in a neutral and non-sexual tend to have a much more positive relationship with their bodies as adults. This makes complete sense when you think about it. Going through puberty not knowing if your body is "normal" terrifies children in ways that stick with them for life. In fact, most cultures outside of the Unites States aren't as strange about non-sexual nudity actually...and are healthier for it. We can't have body positivity as long as we are literally criminalized for having an uncovered body. 2. It creates fear, shame and disgust about sex. Most people have sex at some point in their lives. No one would be here at all without it. Most people have sexual desires which lie outside their control. When people are ashamed of those desires, it leads to self hatred, and depression and anxiety. This shame is just as traumatic as bodily shame. When sex is normalized, and treated with the same candor as any other hobby: it becomes less apt to traumatize people.

3. Puritanical attitudes towards sex limit sex education. When people are too ashamed to talk about sex, people don't learn about pregnancy, stis, or consent. All of these things can and do kill people when they aren't addressed with an open dialogue.

Sexual shame leads to people too ashamed to buy condoms, to talk to their doctor about birth control, to ask their partner to use protection, to get tested...the negative health impacts of sexual puritanism have a massive negative effect on society.

4. Sexual shame leads to poorer communication in relationships. Ohh if I had a dime for every person i knew who ruined their relationship because they felt too guilty to talk to their partner about their sexual feelings...Not just that, but the general body shame that comes with puritanism blocks people from connecting to one another too. Have you ever avoided getting close to someone because you were ashamed of your body? If not, I guarantee you know someone who has.

5. Misogyny! Puritanical sexual believes hold that women are not capable of sexual agency. That only men should initiate sex. That women should only ever want babies and not pleasure from sex. All of this rolls right into the next one:

6. Victim blaming in sexual assault. When women are the gatekeepers of sex, its easy to blame them when they 'fail' to protect their chastity when someone violates their trust. This isn't something that just effects women: as the same attitudes hold that men are not capable of experiencing sexual assault. The lack of education and discussion about sex in a sex-negative world inherently prevent the open dialogues necessary for creating and maintaining consent culture.

7. Suppression and marginalization of the queer community. If we're too ashamed to talk about sex, we'll be too ashamed to talk about sexuality. Puritans can't accept any deviation from gender norms either. Anything other than sex between a cis man and a cis woman for the purpose of making a baby is a deviant kink, a mental illness, and needs to be wiped out. Its important to point out that many queer people hold puritanical values about sex: believing that they can achieve sex negativity and queer liberation at the same time. However, sex negative movements always rise with censorship and discrimination of queer people...because queer people are inherently considered deviant by the vast majority of sex negative "allies". It's very dangerous to forget this.

8. Censorship of art. Who decides what is sexual and what is not? Its easy to agree that sex needs to be hidden...but it never takes long before the definition of what is "sexual" expands. Even women's breasts are considered sexual in the United States. Its so normal for Americans to think of them that way that women can't feed their children in public. Drag queens face violence for reading at libraries. Books get taken off the shelves. Artists are bullied offline.

9. Censorship of scientific exploration. Scientific research into reproductive health, sexual behavior, gender identity and more are often hindered due to the "moral objections" of puritans, delaying progress and understanding. That's just off the top of my head. I think its time for people to take how problematic 'puritanism' is more seriously. As we see fascism rear its ugly head all over the world, we're going to see a lot more talk about 'degenerates'...and we know where that kind of talk leads.

[apocalypticvalraven]

Delicious in Dungeon in The Kitchen

So... I was struck by the thought that I kinda wish some food nerd would go through the Dungeon Meshi dishes and analyze them and sort of give a "this is the real world thing they're making" run down.

And then I realized I'm a food nerd that can do research.

So.

We're gonna try this out, starting with Volume 1. I don't promise that I know everything about cooking. I don't promise I'll always be able to make the thing I'm looking at (I am broke, and I don't have my own kitchen). But I can at least look at a dish and figure out what they're doing and how to replicate it, at least sorta.

Dungeon Meshi Volume 1-- Huge Scorpion and Walking Mushroom Hot Pot

The two main components of this dish are the Huge Scorpion and Walking Mushroom.

Walking Mushroom

Looking at the images in the manga, Walking Mushroom seems to just... be a mushroom that can walk around. There are no organs, the interior seems pretty uniform in substance...

Like, literally, that's exactly what sliced mushrooms look like. Senshi cuts the mushroom into ~4" strips (judging by their size next to the small cabbage-like vegetable, and comparing those plants to his hand in the image of him gathering them. I am assuming dwarf hands are roughly the same size as human hands).

There's a variety of edible mushroom that is probably as close as we're going to get to the size of a Walking Mushroom, growing a cap up to 3' wide, but it seems to only grow in termite mounds in a very specific part of the African continent (please forgive my USAmerican, White education leading me to not being able to identify the specific region), so... if you can get that at all, it's probably crazy expensive (as it should be, unless you're literally getting it from the mounds or local markets yourself). Portobello or similar large culinary mushrooms are probably just fine. The Mushroom Feet are literally just mushrooms, so no worries there.

Huge Scorpion

Ok, so... there is a difference between arachnids and crustaceans. As a start, arachnids have book lungs and crustaceans have gills. Arachnid guts are different from crustacean guts, just because of environment. Hell, crustacean limbs grow differently from arachnid limbs.

That said, everything I see in Dungeon Meshi implies that, from a culinary standpoint, Huge Scorpion is a crustacean-

So, really, it's just a big lobster. Take a lobster, cut off its legs, antennae, and the tail fluke, and you're going to see something that looks pretty similar to the huge scorpion in Dungeon Meshi.

Seaweed

Next is seaweed, which... is just a thing, but also kind of an imprecise term, I think. Basically, "seaweed" just refers to any marine algae that is multicellular and macroscopic (big enough to see). Arctic Moss seems to be a real thing which refers to a couple things- the aquatic moss Calliergon giganteum and the terrestrial lichen in the genus of Cladonia, which includes Reindeer Lichen.

Reindeer lichen is edible, in a number of ways, but it's also not seaweed. So we look at Calliergon giganteum. I cannot get an answer as to whether this particular variety of moss is edible. So... fuck it, say Senshi used Reindeer Lichen, at least we know that's edible.

"Star Jelly" is... I don't know. The main result I find when googling it is that it's the sort of general term for various slimes that show up on lawns and other vegetation, etc. Which means it could be anything from amphibian spawning jelly to who the fuck knows what.

However, one thing it could be is a cyanobacteria known as Fat Choy, a commonly used "vegetable" in Chinese Cuisine:

Looks like jelly? Yep. Looks weird enough that you might imagine it comes from a star? Yep. Edible? Yes!

(I mean, maybe don't eat a ton of it, or get it from irreputable sources. At least some Fat Choy contains a toxic amino acid which may or may not have negative health effects, but I'm not a doctor, so all I'm saying is "be aware of this." It's an expensive delicacy, which means that it is a particularly lucrative target for counterfeiters, and China does not have strong, or strongly enforced, food safety laws).

The Hard Stuff

So that leaves "Invertatoes" and "Dried Slime."

Neither of which seem to have a good direct analogue to the real world. Well... sorta.

Invertatoes seems to refer to the plants. The name calls to mind potatoes, and potatoes do indeed grow in the ground and are starchy. It's probably fair to just use any kind of starchy tuber as the "invertatoes." Maybe cassava, since those are large enough that it's at least somewhat believable that "Fantasy Land Cassava" could look like that (although that doesn't fit the "these are normal plants that grow upside down" unless we're being really generous).

The problem is that it's sort of implied that the cabbage-like vegetable seen in the hot pot comes from the same plant, and everything from a potato plant other than the potato itself is toxic. They also don't look like that.

I literally don't know what those cabbage/lettuce-like leafy vegetables are. They're not seaweed, because the two varieties called out definitely don't look like that. They're not, so far as I can tell, the greens of any kind of starchy tuber--

EXCEPT.

So, I was taking one last look at tubers to see if I could find something that seemed to match, and I think Invertatoes could be likened to something similar to chicory. Particularly endives. I never knew endives were related to chicory (ie, "that thing that I'm aware is popular as a coffee substitute in the South, but I don't have much desire to try it, and I wonder if it even has caffeine..."), but, apparently, yeah. Endives are a member of the chicory genus.

So, yeah, lets say that Invertatoes are a sort of fantasy plant similar to the various members of the chicory genus. The trunk can be replicated with chicory root, and the leaves with endives.

That leaves Dried Slime. Dried Slime makes up the noodles in the hot pot, which implies that the noodles are gelatinous, and probably low in gluten. Senshi's explanation of the slime makes me want to think of it as a macro-unicellular lifeform, but... I'm not sure that's accurate.

While it's definitely not an accurate way to describe a jellyfish, I could definitely see a non-biologist describing jellyfish in a way similar to the way Senshi describes the slime. I could also see some fantasy terrestrial jellyfish thing hunting in a similar manner to the slime. Moreover, there are edible varieties of jellyfish, and they're processed in a manner very similar to what Senshi describes for processing slimes. And one way of preparing edible jellyfish is to thinly slice it into noodles.

Hot Pots

I... think this is using a very specifically Japanese sense of "hot pot" (which makes sense), because in Japan, hot pot can refer to a dish called nabemono, while in general, hot pot refers to a particular kind of dining in China where you get a pot full of boiling stock/broth and a bunch of raw ingredients, and you put the stuff you want into the broth at the table. Nabemono is more of "put a bunch of stuff in a pot, and cook it. Serve it boiling." Which is to say, it's soup.

Senshi puts the scorpion meat and mushroom into a pot on its own, and lets it start boiling-

Then, while it's boiling, he goes and finds other ingredients, coming back with the invertatoes and the slime. The two are prepared simply-

Seasoning isn't included in the ingredients, but I can understand this as a choice for presentation. We do see Senshi add something to the broth after tasting it, and I think it's fair to assume it's one of soy sauce, mirin, fish sauce, or similar. I think it's actually really interesting that we see Senshi add seasoning, but we're not told what it is-

Because... that's cooking. You can follow a recipe, but ultimately, you need to taste your cooking and make your own decisions. Senshi lets the soup cook, tastes the broth, decides it needs something, and gives it a bit of time to let the flavors meld before serving it up.

Dungeon Meshi Lobster and Mushroom Hot Pot

So, we're looking at something like this for the "Huge Scorpion and Walking Mushroom Hot Pot"--

Lobster- ~5 lbs or more (a 1 lb lobster yields about 4 oz of actual meat, which is a single serving), cut into large slices

Portobello- 2 mushrooms large diced, 2 left whole with the caps scored

Reindeer Lichen and Fat Choy- to taste

Chicory Roots- ~1 cup, diced

Endive greens- ~2 cups

Jellyfish, thin sliced- as much as you like

Add lobster and mushrooms to water, and allow to boil. While it comes to a boil, prepare the other ingredients, then add to the water. Let the soup come to a full boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes to an hour (can simmer longer, but this will affect the texture of the ingredients. Longer simmering will result in more melding of flavors, but also degraded solid parts).

Taste the broth. It will likely need salt and acid, which could come in a variety of forms, such as kosher salt and lemon juice, soy sauce and mirin/rice vinegar, oyster/fish sauce, or something else. Go with your gut and your taste buds..

[king-candybug-backup]

I saw a post recently about Roadblasters feeling like an NPD collapse for Turbo, and it got me thinking of a couple things I wanted to ask you, if that's ok? So 1, how do you do your research in regards to writing about NPD? I've done some casual googling about NPD before (just out of curiosity) but vast majority of the answers I get look like they're from people who blanket-statement the whole disorder or smth, like they appoint themselves an expert because of having experienced narcissistic abuse, but feels like they don't actually know what they're talking about. Example being smth like say I'll google "Can person with NPD change" and all answes will be along the lines of "No, they'll be awful forever because they're evil and incapable of love or improvement" (extreme example, but that's the underlying vibe coming off from a lot of what I see but it feels like a very shallow and uneducated take on it)

And 2, what would you say is the most challenging part about writing a character with NPD?

GHFGFGDSFCHG I SAW THAT POST TOO, OP is so based 😂

Okay, so, for the first question, I've had a lot of the same issues before while researching, as NPD is unfortunately still extremely stigmatized, as are pretty much all Cluster B disorders, so there's a looot of misinformed people out there throwing out random bullshit as if it's fact. Hell, even in the medical/psychology field, there's a lot of demonizing going on with Cluster B folks, so it's really about filtering out the obviously-demonizing stuff to try and find sources that are legitimately wanting to be helpful/educational. One thing I'd say for sure is, do not use Quora for this topic lmao, I'm assuming Quora is where you're getting a lot of those kinds of answers because Quora is FULL of that sorta BS. While there can sometimes be helpful answers over there, it's mostly just full of people who want to brand the entire disorder as "evil" because of their own negative experiences. And I don't say that to try and discredit the experiences of those who've suffered abuse at the hands of people with NPD, it's just that painting the WHOLE disorder as "pure evil" because of it helps LITERALLY NOBODY. All it does is worsen that stigmatization and make it WAY harder for people with NPD to actually get help if or when they need it. In a convo I've had about this with a few moots, they also made some GREAT points that, like, turning the disorder into some "boogeyman" that you can blame all the abuse on just makes people wrongly assume stuff like "Only people with [x] disorders can be abusive, therefore if I see these behaviours in people later on they must have [x] disorder" EVEN THOUGH THAT'S NOT HOW IT WORKS AT ALLLL, ANYBODY WITH ANY KIND OF DISORDER OR NONE AT ALL CAN BE ABUSIVE, STOP TURNING IT INTO A LABELS THING I BEG OF YOU, anyways I'm getting side-tracked, sorry lmao

One thing I would HIGHLY recommend is checking out the r/NPD community on Reddit, that community is specifically for folks that actually have NPD, and there's a lot of good discussions in there that can be helpful in understanding how it works a lot better. So like, next time you google an NPD question, try adding r/NPD into your search or something, and it should show you discussions about those topics more specifically. Listening to discussions about the disorder from people who actually have it is about as good as you can really get when it comes to this stuff, lol. I'm also lucky in that I have a friend who has NPD and has felt comfortable enough with me to open up about their struggles with it, as well as knowing an extremely talented and well-educated writer that is very well-versed in Cluster B disorders that was willing to help me out with some of the things I'd been struggling with. (I talked a bit more about that and about some general Turbo NPD stuff in this ask) Also it's important to note that people with NPD, just like anybody else, are all different and may interpret/react to things differently. (I know that may sound painfully obvious, but you would not BELIEVE the amount of people that actually think "You HAVE to behave exactly like [x, y, z] or else you don't really have NPD" unironically, lmfao)

You're also probably better off using Google Scholar search results for NPD rather than vanilla Google, since the scholar version has a higher standard of research and education involved in the kinds of results it shows you. (That being said, as I mentioned before, there's still a lot of stigmatization towards NPD even in the professional fields, so always take what you read with a grain of salt, and take into consideration the way in which people talk about NPD.)

As for the second question, tbh, all of it has been pretty hard, it's really difficult to write a character from such a different mindset that I myself have never experienced, but that's what the researching part is for, ofc! I think the hardest part for me is like, writing the "extremes" of NPD thinking in an accurate-feeling way? Like, the extremities between "narc high" and "narc crash", I feel like sometimes I put Turbo in too much of a middle ground, which isn't super accurate to how NPD generally works. 😭 (It can be easier to healthily cope with those extremes for those who've been formally diagnosed and given the proper tools and support to handle navigating this stuff more healthily, but given that I'm writing KCB from an undiagnosed/uneducated-about-it kind of angle, it doesn't quite match up as well as it probably should) Another thing that's also been kind of difficult to work with is like, Vanellope being pretty much the only one willing to hear him out and (try to) support him, because like, she is nine and should NOT be taking on that level of emotional labour, especially for somebody who wronged her so badly, and I don't want it to seem like I'm making it, like, her "responsibility" to deal with this dude's mental health problems, because it's also important to note that she really REALLY does not owe him ANYTHING and has already been WAY too gracious, all things considered asghdfjvh..... Like, yeah, part of her motivations are selfish in that "This guy is basically the only thing stopping Sinistar from eating me, I should probably stay on his good side" lmfao, but even still, it's like... yeah, just not an ideal situation, she should not have to be worrying about this stuff, lmfao. Anyways, idk man, I'm still likely getting a few things wrong here and there, I am certainly not an expert by any means, but I'm gonna do my best the whole way through, that's for sure

[pastafossa]

Adventures in being disabled/chronically ill but also just weirdness. And also in the process of writing this I only basically now realized how shittily I was being treated as a disabled person because that's what happens when you put it on the page and go, '...oh, maybe I wasn't overreacting by feeling put off.'

Putting it all behind a cut because there's some ableism here and it's a bit long.

Enter Lady. We'll call her - *spins random name generator* - Angie. Angie has decided I am her friend because I woodcarve and she makes old fashioned clothes. She has decided for me that I will be going to big weeklong outdoor renfaire style events with her group, in which I will sell my stuff and I will carpool with them.

She decided this ten minutes after meeting me for the first time, by the way. I have met her a grand total of 2 times.

Anyway. These events are outdoors, and I would be camping. In the height of summer. In locations known for high humidity and summer wet bulb temps that regularly climb over 100*.

As expected, this is an issue in multiple ways, the first of which is my chronic pain wracked body tolerates camping about as well as Cocaine Bear would tolerate being shaved (source: went camping), and the second of which is one of my medication's side effects literally includes inability to tolerate moderate to high heat and a fucking mild allergy to sunlight.

I'm a goddamn vampire with limited heat tolerance ya'll, on top of being Physically Incapable Of Many Things TM. And she wants me out in the sun and heat for a week, and sleeping at night in a tent.

So I pop over to her place because she invited me (meeting 2, since meeting 1 was brief), she's nearby, and I'm still thinking she was just a little clueless but maybe this can still be like a, 'fellow crafter discussion of cool events in the area' once I explain. My plan is to gently segue from heat tolerance and disability into I Am Not Going, but also I want to use it as a little reminder not to assume people's functionality, cause I don't mind trying to educate a little. Most mean well, so I'm not even mad at this point. But I don't get far at all before I'm blatantly interrupted and told heat and sun isn't an issue for a disabled person, I can swap out with someone and go be in a tent from noon to 2, and, get this-

"You can have a fan in your tent to cool down!"

Angie, if a fan could solve my issues I wouldn't have been so eager to live in a city that is, as we speak, still getting snow in FUCKING APRIL.

Which I calmly explained.

But I am interrupted again, after I use the word, 'disability'.

"Do you have a service dog?"

No???

"You should get one. Anyway, trust me, you'll be fine. Other disabled people go and they're fine."

Right, cool, I'm definitely in the exact same disabled situation as the dude that lost a foot.

I try again. I'm blunter this time. I am disabled, my body doesn't like camping, my doctor would not advise-

"Oh you'll be fine. They have flushing toilets nearby!"

???

How does that fix the heat or my body being-

"So when you go with us to this one in May, and this one in-"

Ah, ok, we're just disregarding everything I said. Cool. Cool cool.

I sat there feeling like... a prop I guess? Just... bewildered. Obviously looking back I should have just walked out and left, but there's this bizarre feeling where you're still in Don't Be Rude mode because you haven't quite processed what happen. I did manage to cut the visit short after about 20 more minutes, drove home, still kinda unsettled. It was only after talking to mom, that I realized I'd just been completely dismissed as a disabled person. Which has happened before of course (once had a random lady interrupt my conversation with another person about my disability with, 'you need to eat more blueberries. Those have antioxidants, that'll fix your problem!'), but it's been a while.

Anyway, I will not be hanging with this person again and to be perfectly honest I'm tempted to bring this up with the witchy shop owner (who I am friends with) where the event I met Angie is held - the shop owner VERY much wants to protect anyone who's been treated poorly or have some boundary talks with anyone crossing those boundaries in a disrespectful way - but even now part of me's saying, 'no no, that's too much, just skip that event every month so you don't see Angie again'. On top of that, I'm new to the area and the art community here, and this lady's much more established. I really, really, really do not want to cause issues for myself since I'm trying to start up with all my carvings. So I'm feeling... stuck I guess.

Anyway, 'you can just have a fan!' is going down in my, 'ridiculous fixes I've been given for some part of my disability' list.

[sophieinwonderland]

MAGA Propaganda Debunk: "Illinois Students Can't Read"

I came across this post attacking the Department of Education, claiming the Department of Education is a failure because not a single student in these 30 Illinois schools "can read."

Now, there are many reasons why conservatives might be targeting Illinois with this sort of propaganda. It could be because they have it out for Chicago, as a predominantly black city. Or... No. never mind. That's pretty obviously it.

Let's call racism for what it is when we see it. It's racism.

There is a lot wrong with this, so I'm going to break this debunk into multiple parts.

Not being able to read at grade level isn't the same as not being able to read

Let's start with this one.

It is obviously ideal to be able to read at the grade level of the grade that you're actually in... but let's not conflate not being able to read at grade level with not being able to read.

A 7th grader who could read at 6th grade level wouldn't be able to read at "grade level," yet that's a far cry from being illiterate. And I bet a 7th grader reading at a 6th grade level would be able to understand that "reading below grade level" isn't "not being able to read."

The fact that Christian Collins can't tell the difference makes me question what his reading level is. It certainly isn't an adult level. That's for sure!

30 schools out of how many?

Let's start with putting these numbers into context.

There are 3977 schools in Illinois.

These numbers represent less than 1% of the schools in the entire state!

This context is conveniently missing since it would hurt their narrative. 30 schools sounds like a lot when you don't have any idea how many schools are in the state. But that's an illusion!

How many students are attending these schools?

If I mathed correctly, these schools represent 5101 students in Illinois. Again, this sounds like a big number out of context. But the state had 1,925,415 students in 2022. Almost 2 million.

So these schools represent less than 0.3% of the students in the state.

And as deceptive as these number appear, there's an even bigger deception going on here that's inflating the numbers!

YCCS are charter schools for dropouts

Those 12 schools labeled YCCS, making up more than 30 on the list, are the Youth Connection Charter Schools.

Youth Connection Charter School (YCCS) is a charter school in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1997 it is the only charter school in Illinois that targets dropouts and other at-risk students. YCCS serves over 3,500 students through 17 campuses throughout Chicago.

So to recap...

These are charter schools, not public schools. The smear against the Department of Education for this is absurd because charter schools exist outside of the state school system. They get some funding from the state, but lack the oversight of actual public schools.

They are targeting at risk youths and dropouts. Basically, the kids going to these particular schools are going BECAUSE THEY AREN'T PERFORMING AT GRADE LEVEL! That's the point of schools like this.

More charter schools

Urban Prep Englewood and Urban Prep Bronxville are Charter Schools as well.

So is North Lawndale.

So is CICS. The CS stands for "charter school."

The YBMC charter school is obviously a charter school. I don't think I even need to source that.

So of the 30 schools in the list, this brings the number of confirmed charter schools to 17. If I haven't missed any, that leaves only 13 public schools in the list. Many of which are vocational and career schools and have a relatively small number of students.

A Man In a Glass House Shouldn't Throw Stones

While Mr. Collins is attacking Illinois, I want to mention this cool map of literacy in America I found. If you notice, most adults are pretty literate in Illinois.

Cook County, where Chicago is located, is slightly worse than the rest of the state with an illiteracy rate of only 25%

But let's go down south to Mr. Collins' home state with counties like this one with an illiteracy rate of 70%!

Most of Texas is dark blue!

I have to wonder why this is? Does it have something to do with the Republican control? Or MAYBE it's the influence of groups like Collins' Texas Youth Summit, dedicated to pushing "judeo-Christian and conservative values" in students.

Let's tell the truth about what this is about!

Christian Collins is from a stupid state filled with illiterate people.

Illiterate people elect conservative politicians.

Collins is targeting Illinois because he wants his stupid racist white voter base to believe that it's actually the largely-black population of Chicago that are the illiterate ones. That's what this is about!

Collins himself is stupid. But I doubt even he's stupid enough to actually think that cutting the department of education will help make people more educated. Rather, he knows it will make people less educated. And as a result, more likely to be conservative and be racist.

Never forget that the people who are trying to convince you that cutting the Department of Education is a good thing for education are always those who benefit most from uneducated voters!

So respectfully, go to Hell Christian Collins!

[evecallum]

Genuinely trying to imagine what the relationship between Aaravos and Claudia will be. From the initial seasons I’d say Claudia was closer to Viren (not in any emotional sense) but at least had some footing intellectually with dark magic.

Seasons 4 & 5 have shown Claudia take up a caretaker role for Viren as he struggles to cope with his death and revival. That is to say, at this point, she’s not looking for an exclusively parental figure (or at least is capable of looking after herself). If the teaser is anything to go by Viren is gone (whether via death or abandonment we will see). Claudia has failed at the very goal that has helped her push through deception, murder and war. And what she wants to avoid more than anything is being abandoned again.

Aaravos’s voice speaks her name and states “I am here”. And I can’t help but wonder if he will act as a source of affection and ultimately security. Unlike Viren, Aaravos is capable of feigning genuine care, and deeply understands an individual’s insecurities. Aaravos can directly sing the praises of Claudia (which Viren manages to give in S4 literally only after dying and just moments before he doubts the efficacy of Claudia’s breath spell) and is a strong, confident figure that can not only lead her but provide a sense of security. This doesn’t even delve into the fact he and Claudia have been in communication for 2 years and he has taken it upon himself to educate Claudia on the “true” history of humanity.

So currently I see 5 options (jk I’m imagining like 10 but they’re mostly nonsense):

1. Claudia follows Aaravos because his plan of revenge towards those who betrayed him (elves, dragons, the pompous stars) coincides well with Claudia’s own bitterness and desire for revenge regarding humanity’s treatment.

2. Claudia follows Aaravos as an almost messianic character seeing as he helped lift humanity from their “wretched and helpless” position.

3. Claudia follows Aaravos due to their pseudo parental/child relationship (due to him helping Claudia through the years, teaching her spells, guiding her). This also helps fill the parental hole she has from the loss of her mother and now Viren.

4. A fourth fucked up option that I’m not going to entertain because the rating is supposedly just going up to a TV-14 and I highly doubt they would do something THAT messed up..

5. Something else entirely or a blend of these options.

[tonydaddingham]

I mean Neil said once that the sequel involved Jesus arriving in America on a plane with secret service agents, and the S2 opening sequence shows a plane, so I'm... fairly confident that he's an adult? Jesus died when he was like 33 right

afternoon anon!!!✨ see i recall this (ask on neil's page?) and remember the response but cannot for the life of me find it anywhere (and im pretty good at Finding Stuff), do you - or anyone else reading for that matter - have a link to this? just so i can save it for future reference.

now, i hope you don't mind if i do this, but i would like to use this opportunity to parse out a more coherent rationale on the second coming, if that's okay? yeah? cool.

(previous incarnation of this theory).

thing is that the premise of the baby swap in s1 is based on the omen, right? takes at least a huge chunk of inspiration from that as the origin of how the antichrist came into the story. but it goes wrong, obviously, and there's a third baby thrown in the mix. makes a cursory wave to the omen, but isn't a carbon copy of it.

now i can't help but feel that narratively it would make sense to bookend this and have the second coming be a bit bollocksed up too. seems to be a theme in GO. and actually, when i thought about it (with extreme bias, granted, because im chomping at the bit on this theory), the second coming was potentially already fucked up anyway.

now, disclaimer time -

i completely get that people will look to the bible in reference to parsing out the second coming (or indeed any other theory). obviously i do too, for references to certain verses etc. in order to draw the relevant parallels. but there are multiple instances in GO where it is based on the bible or other texts, but doesn't follow it exactly; how GO portrayed the book of job, for example. it takes these texts, and distorts or reimagines them slightly or completely.

the way i see it, we are reading/watching GO as if this is in fact the true telling of those texts, as if (and not trying to be diminutive here) the bible is an inaccurate telling of GO, not the other way around - because, of course, we're seeing GO from the angel and demon that were 'actually there', so to speak.

im not saying that this - or any - of my theories are indisputably correct, far from it. but to me, with the information i have from the narrative as first source, and then looking at the referenced texts that inspired it, what i come up with, and write, is what makes sense to me. and it might make sense because it would be poetically apt, is in-keeping with how i interpret the characters, and/or is just plain funny or ironic (GO is after all, a comedy).

so whilst i fully anticipate people to duly correct me on how it all goes down in the bible (as they should, i love being educated!!!), please know that im not trying to deliberately misinterpret anything, but more trying to think outside the box, from the viewpoint of the GO story itself, and what direction would make the most sense in which it will reimagine these texts.

- exit disclaimer.

anyway! theory time!

so we have the imagery from the s2 sequence of the "thy kingdom come" plane, and this is obviously a reference to the resurrection as you've said, anon: that jesus arrives by plane. i truly love this imagery because if we take matthew 24:36 (KJV): "But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.", the concept that in the great plan the date and time might finally be revealed in the form of a flight number, airport, and ETA is frankly hilarious to me. furthermore, "cometh with clouds" (revelation, 1:7 KJV) being reimagined as a literal plane landing again sets up the comedic backdrop so well.

now wherever the plane lands, whether from the US or to the US (again, don't have the original neil answer to refer to, but going based on your ask, anon, it's the latter), it regardless involves americans. this is where i feel it would be a perfect narrative symmetry opportunity to refer back to s1/the book, and reintroduce the dowlings.

and you might be wondering, "well no because GO set up the dowlings to be involved only insomuch that they were meant to be custodians of the antichrist - why would they also be involved in the second coming?" well, i wondered this too. the only conclusion i can come to, frankly, is GO!god having a very warped, twisted and ineffable sense of humour. they saw what satan had planned for the dowlings in inadvertently raising the antichrist, possibly did a bit of shifting around in the mystical threads, and decided that actually - just to throw in the wildcard of chaos - they should instead be the bearers of the second coming. this degree of mind-boggling ineffability, to me, would be comedically on-brand.

regardless; whilst just a theory, the whole thing makes sense to me - that in any case, the dowlings are going to make a reappearance. and with them, or on his own (if we follow the biblical telling that jesus was resurrected as he was from the crucifixion, at age 33yo, and therefore would suggest a timeskip from s2, but this isn't necessarily guaranteed - ie: might not be how GO chooses to portray it!), comes warlock. now we know that warlock was meant to be the antichrist, before crowley and the nuns managed to bugger it all up.

but heaven wouldn't necessarily know that its the dowlings arriving, right? presumably they'd just all gather on the tarmac awaiting the arrival, and lmao SIKE, it's bloody warlock. heaven hasn't met warlock, and therefore still think he's in fact jesus resurrected... but aziraphale has met him. he helped bloody raise him. and he knows now that he is essentially a normal kid/adult (albeit a very stuck-up one) and definitely not the second coming.

well then, if jesus was meant to be on that plane, according to the great plan, a plane being used by the dowlings... then why isn't it warlock? well, because the dowlings' actual baby isn't warlock. lets go back to the baby swap in the book/s1:

*apols, editing to correct this somewhat because it isn't quite right and lateral thinking is not my strong suit*

ANTICHRIST was meant to go to: the DOWLINGS. instead, went to: the YOUNGS. this is Adam.

YOUNG BABY was meant to go to: stay with the YOUNGS, but got mixed up. instead, went to: the DOWLINGS. this is Warlock.

DOWLING BABY was meant to go to: adoption/something nefarious instead, and indeed did. this is... Greasy Johnson.

and i love this for all sorts of reasons. now im lifting this next bit, essentially, from another ask of mine, but to keep things all in one place:

"greasy is posed as the antithesis of adam/antichrist, has a gang surrounding him that you could infer are loyal disciples, and is a mirror to adam in that adam on the whole seems to be a well-adjusted and morally-upstanding young boy.

i further think the fact that adam is the antichrist put against greasy being the second coming is a well positioned reflection on the nature vs nurture argument. ultimately adam grew up in a largely loving and supportive environment, and as the literal son of satan, you'd expect his nature, the circumstances of his birth, to rule out every other influence.

ultimately it does for a short time, but adams narrative iirc is that it is reflective of his desire to save the world... he wanted to get rid of things that were Wrong, and naively (he is still an 11-year old boy after all) thought that destroying the world and restarting it would do just that. his friends however reinforce in him that destruction and reparation are not the same thing, and so his upbringing, the nurture, wins.

greasy? we don't know a lot about him, only that he is a bully and represents the opposite of adam and the them... [and there exists] the whole [sic] analogy that greasy and the johnsonites vs adam and the them are meant to represent the hell vs heaven war..."

and then we have this small, relatively innocuous detail from the book:

as i said, possibly something of nothing. but the deliberate wording of 'breeding the fish', which is left out of s1, is - i like to think - a bit of a clue.

and before anyone comes for me on this, i am aware that this is based practically on fuck all of jack shit; im painfully aware of that. im aware that it deliberately misinterprets certain passages (not going to do the soapbox speech again, promise), but i just like to have fun. i honestly do not care if this is wrong; whatever happens in s3 should and will be better than anything i can come up with. yes, it's fun to get a prediction or speculation correct, of course it is, but it's not the endgame here. i get that others will have conflicting schools of thought, see things differently, or just plain think it's crap - that's okay! but, if that's the case, just move on from this post with a shake of your head. im not here to do anything other than have a good time, lads (gn)✨💓

edit 21/08: additional reading because now i feel vindicated: here from amuseoffyre, and my tags on this post too.

[absolutebl]

Your last post «what if every time a Thai boy reached for a guitar in a BL he had to play a tuba instead?», made me ask if it's sort of mandatory thing that also outside the series they all sing, play and/or dance. If I can, I avoid everything outside the series. Tumblr is literally the only info source about actors activities: concerts, cons, fan meetings, series bts etc.

Thanks in advance.

In Thailand you mean? Well there seems to be a lot going on.

1 Culturally, especially in many more wealthy families (and in a lot of Asian countries) a musical education is considered very important (and high class). It's a bit like being properly mannered. You know your ps & qs & an instrument (preferably the piano).

2 Many of the actors in Thai BLs come from higher education and income brackets, so they probably have at least some musical education. Unfortunately for us.

3 I blame Love Sick.

4 I also blame Kpop. Everybody pretty thinks they can sing. Yes, I AM throwing shade. Good bone structure, a clear complexion, and glossy hair does not make for strong vocal cords and being on key. (As the 4th gen likes to prove to me on the over auto-tuned regular.)

5 It's possible, that in country, Thai consumers actually like it. I mean like genuinely like it both on screen and IRL. Although it seems a lot less common in het Thai dramas (although I watch fewer of those).

6 BL is young, so are the people in it, they think it's cool to pick up a guitar (we see this in the reality TV stuff from GMMTV)

Ya know college stuff, sitting around on the beach, some dud always things it's cool to force his questionable musical strumming on us... so yeah, it's also a 20 year old dud thing - like it or not, that's who's in these shows.

There's probably a few other reasons.

I did ask the Thai bestie if it was a thing when she was in uni there (boys picking up guitars all willy nilly) and she was like, "not really." But that was a while ago.

[fandomwave]

TCOAAL UPDATE 6 LETS GOOO You know the drill don't give yourself hives

I have been rolling this around for a few days now and again, absolute blind shot in the dark is to say that this is probably him about to confess to Ashley that he and Julie are dating. I cannot WAIT to get more context, if Andy is worried about her reaction to him dating, if he's feeling conflicted internally and unsure as to why that feeling is there. There is so little available to know what this could fully mean but I am thrilled to learn more AND THEN THE GOT DAMN VID 1) nice to know we have confirmation that his biting his knuckle is a nervous tick 2) MOM NAME! That'll make fic writing easier lmao 3) God there is SO much to unpack here We kinda always knew that Renee suspected Andrew of having some sort of inappropriate attachment to Ashley. This is something she hints at a few times in chapter 2 and more so when you reject the olive branch. Renee keeps dropping points in parent of the year it's almost comical. I am genuinely interested to see what the game has in store for her and if we do get a little more empathetic to her situation as playing her, given that we clearly have a round to do so. Also the fact she was looking for condoms is.. Good lord this lady will die before she gets therapy for her kids... I LOVE seeing the fact that we get confirmation that Andrew is able to lie on the fly. It's again implied but the fact he was able to make up, some bullshit about a show she's never seen. That's some fascinating skill knowing A) It's a show she doesn't watch B) Because of which he CAN just make up whatever because she can't confirm he's lying C) Creativity to weave a fib about a show he's probably also never seen. We know he can do poetry on the fly so making up a plot about a show must be as easy as breathing. The sheer fact Renee has Andrew labeled as Disappointment and Ashley as Embarrassment is incredible too. Fantastic work. A fun little showcase of her relation to them both honestly.

All of this is just causing me to vibrate in place in anticipation. I'll admit TCOAAL is fun in terms of it's world, but rotating each character around and really picking them apart? That's why I can't shut the fuck up about this game. Everyone is so INTERESTING even if they are the worst people alive. I am THRILLED about the idea of getting to know their mother better as a means to understand the foundation they come from. Like the idea Andrew is labeled Disappointment is so telling. She clearly had higher hopes for him, clearly was content to pin those to him and when he fell short of, lets be honest, of those probably unrealistic expectations. > She did basically ask him to raise an entire human as a child himself. > I hate that I have to say this but in the 90s having a college degree meant you eared the good money. Andrew going to college would imply that he would make enough cash to at least be a source of pride in the family given that the implied economic situation of Renee and her husband is that neither of them are college educated.

Andrew still being at home, still clinging to Ashley (literally), still ruined his life with whatever happened to Nina, it's easy to see how she feels like he's the biggest letdown. A bright spot in the family squandered. Ashley being labeled Embarrassment is no surprise. She already clearly harbored some ill will towards her even as a baby, and with how much of a fucking handful Leyley is, it seems like that trend continued well on past infancy. Then her being out of school, I can only assume without a job (or at the very least one that can't pay for her own apartment) and worse now, potentially in an fucking relationship with her brother is... Yeah I can see the tagline pretty easily got applied. Now again, that's because it seems like this woman is critically allergic to Getting Her Kids Help, but what ifs and what coulds need not apply, we're lookin at what we got :D ANYWAYS OK IM DONE NOW BYE I HOPE YOU ALL HAVE A GOOD ONE!

[asfaltics]

a something of, six feet of

  a something of a linguist, of unknown age; he lived in an impregnable moral enclosure of his own   ₁   (attending to this only) to conclude a something of six feet   ₂   midway on clumsy pillars, assuming a something of   ₃ middle between the ballad and the scientific.   There is a something of — but this may wear off   ₄   — of rough manufacture; a something of blue   ₅ a something of immutable reserve; a curious diction of the atmosphere   ₆   a something of distance in the relations; that the silence, the fits of absence, and the almost brusqueries   ₇ I have, it is true, in all the instances I have yet brought, adduced examples connected with words, and consequently with definite ideas.   which anticipates in these sounds a something of moment to come   ₈ something (often, alas! no more than a something!) of music   ₉

—

sources, their respective details at the more’s

1 Arnold Bennett, Dream of Destiny, an Unfinished Novel : And Venus Rising from the Sea (1932) / more 2 The works of Horace, translated literally into English prose, for the use of those who are desirous of acquiring or recovering a competent knowledge of the Latin Language. By C. Smart. (Philadelphia, 1836) / more 3 Narrative of a Year’s Journey Through Central and Eastern Arabia (1862-63) by William Gifford Palgrave (London, 1865) / more 4 “The Theatrical Examiner, No. 376,” performances at Covent Garden, in The Examiner No. 612 (London; Sunday, September 19, 1819) / more 5 an extract from Border Lands of Spain and France. With an account of a visit to the Republic of Andorre (London, 1856), published in The Dublin University Magazine (November 1856) / more 6 V. Cecil Cotes, Two Girls on a Barge, with 44 illustrations by F. H. Townsend (New York, 1891) / more 7 Sink Or Swim? : A Novel by the author of “Recommended to Mercy,” etc. [Matilda Charlotte Houstoun (1811-92)] (London, 1868) / more 8 “To the Editor; On the philosophy of musical composition,” in The Quarterly Musical Magazine and Review (1823) / more 9 Jenne M(orrow). Long, “Common Sense in Oral Expression,” in The Western Journal of Education (San Francisco, April 1902) / more

20250309 all a something of’s  

[thebrightestwitchofherage]

Ah yes, an 🦅🇺🇸🦅American 🦅🦅🇺🇸person who saw 2 TikToks and read one (1) article tells me, an actual Israeli to get educated,,,

About my country,,,

Do you really think you have a proper grasp about one of the most complicated geopolitical conflicts, just cuz you read something online???

Are you really arguing with me about my reality, saying Im brainwashed when I tell you you’re wrong???

Get over yourself , read anything other than Hamas’ propaganda and touch some grass.

Also, stop telling me there’s no proof when Hamas literally live streamed their massacre…

But Hamas are innocent and brave freedom fighters 🥹🥹🥹🥹

Nope. They’re literally ***a globally recognised terror organisation**** - kinda weird to support them …

You’re telling me that Hamas are innocent fighters fighters while People I know are dead.

“Prove it. You’re making things up. “

Nope. That’s what Hamas is doing! Here are a few sources:

*official statements & video evidence released by the Israeli government.

*the IDF’s spokesperson & official video evidence

* “survived to tell”- A civilian campaign on social medias, where survivors of the October 7th massacre tell their story.

*coroner reports and examinations.

*****

Since the first hours of the October 7th attack , survivors and victims called the news stations and posted pictures and videos. Some were later interviewed by the news…

*police and EMT body cams.

*footage released / streamed by Hamas themselves.

*Research done by western media news outlets.

But you would rather believe Hamas ? Mmkay.

If you haven’t spoken up about any other crisis the Palestinians people have faced- You don’t care about the Palestinians, you care about sounding woke& harassing Jews and Israelis.

Where were you when more than 4000 Palestinians refugees were murdered camp by Syria?

When Lebanon banned Palestinians from certain jobs& owning land?

When Hamas prevented medical aid and stole gas from UNRWA?

When over 800 misfired rockets aimed at Israel, ended up falling within Gaza?

They literally store ammunitions and shoot rockets from schools , mosques and youth centres.

When approximately 850,000 Palestinians were displaced due to the Syrian civil war?

When Jordan & Egypt refuse to accept Palestinian refugees? Btw, Egypt has its own blockade as well…

But I support human rights🥹🥺 only the Palestinians are suffering , the Israelis deserve this

*israeli Women were raped as an act of war& terrorism - and suddenly every single women’s rights is silent.

* saying civilians deserve this since they are Israeli ,is a messed up logic and a sense of reality.

*look around- how how much anti- Semitic posts and slurs do you see? Are the protests you go to peaceful?

An elderly man was literally killed in one of those protests. But it’s fine since he’s Jewish & supports Israel… 🤦‍♀️

**********

I could go on, but I think I’ve made my point. There’s video evidence for everything I wrote here, stop believing Hamas’ lies.

[technofeudalism]

US supermarkets literally throw around 5 million tons of food directly in the garbage every single year. that’s probably a conservative estimate.

this is supermarkets only.

the amount of individual food waste in america equates to every person wasting 325 pounds every year.

that’s 60 million tons, or 120 billion pounds.

the average american eats approximately 1 ton of food per year, or 1,996 pounds.

there are, according to the USDA, approximately 34 million food insecure people, including 9 million food insecure children in the united states.

with the amount of food we waste, we could feed every hungry person in the united states an american diet, plus either export or compost what remains.

much of this waste is driven by inconsistent labeling and lack of education on the true shelf life of grocery items (ie: best by, sell by, use by, etc.)

as usual, an american problem that comes back to a fundamental educational gap. not coincidental.

yes, long term: we have a food source and thus, eventually, a supply issue.

however, this is oversimplifying a complex and branching problem that can be at least partially addressed if those who make the regulations and laws for how the shelves are stocked would choose to act. history shows they won’t. as with most problems, it is simply too profitable to do nothing.

[dawnstorms]

ON THE THALASSIAN 'PRIESTHOOD'

(NAMELY: THOSE MAGISTERS WHICH HUMANS ASSUME TO BE PRIESTS, BUT WHICH ARE GENERALLY NOT)

Priests are most commonly utilized within Quel'thalas for their skills with mind-affecting magics. The city guardsmen often call upon them to soothe agitated crowds, disperse riots and other such violent gatherings peacefully rather than to permit harm done to any of our own kind or even our allies, and to sense the minds and intentions of those who would do Quel'thalas or its people harm, even if the intruding bodies are hidden from the watchful eyes of the guardians. (Source: [1] [2] Additionally, as another fun OOC note before we get started, Blood Elf priests are the only ones that start with a dagger in the entire game, not counting Allied Races that are obviously related to them such as Nightborne or Ren'dorei, who I admit I haven't checked on.)

Necessitating special delineation and discussion more than any other is perhaps the "priesthood" of the Sunfury Spire, as it was so named by the heavily theocratic Humans of Stormwind after their introduction to Silvermoon City some few years past and is even still so called abroad. To be brief, in the interests of education: though some magi study schools of magic and spellwork which may resemble--or even be genuinely originating from and/or identical to--the "holy" magics of other, foreign religions, these magi are not necessarily priests of those religions. The converse is also true. Most religious Sin'dorei are found among these ranks, and are in fact welcomed despite the generally secular nature of both Sin'dorei society and the Sunfury Spire, as their perspectives on and knowledge of these magics provide what would otherwise be missing or inaccurate information to the Spire and its archives. 

Some mages study what humans and other magic-users think of as divine or divine-adjacent magic. A significant minority of these mages are also genuine practitioners of one religion or another, ie. being literal 'priests' in the wider Azerothian sense. The remaining majority are magi or Magisters, not priests, and simply specialize in the relevant magical field of study. 

With that thusly established, in the Thalassian language as well as in terms of the organization of the Spire, those mages who do choose to specialize in these 'holy' schools of magic--particularly those who are explicitly not pursuing the rank of Magister/Magistrix but who instead study, labor, and otherwise contribute to the Spire without this total and explicit denial of the self in service of their country--are often given the title 'Priest' once they complete their education and join the ranks of their peers in labor. This title is nearly exclusively for male practitioners, with only few exceptions; female mages who pursue these arts are often given the title 'Matron'. Priests and Matrons are the relative equivalent of Magisters and Magistrixes, but with respect paid to their unique needs both in terms of education and potential personal beliefs, which might conflict with the oaths taken by Magi and thus explains their nearly complete non-existence within those ranks. Notable is the fact that the Matrons have historically always been at the head of the order, while priests tend to be mid- and high-level aides and state actors.

Priests and Matrons are also utilized more heavily by the Spire within Quel'thalas than their relative equals among the Magi, who are much more commonly either deployed without our great nation or else are sequestered in research facilities in its service. As priests' skillsets and magical knowledge were comparatively quite rare among the populace of Quel'thalas even before the Razing, and as they obviously so remain now in light of their added indispensability in both restraining the Naaru--and with great deference paid from this humble author to the Priests and Matrons whose knowledge and research was the only reason that His Most Radiant Highness, Prince Kael'thas, was able to make his own breakthrough in terms of the nature, control, and containment of these powerful creatures--their small but crucial order of mages forms the backbone of both Silvermoon's peacekeeping force. They are also healers alongside our more conventional military units, researchers aiding the Magi as well as even Horde druids and alchemists in everything from plagues and warfare to healing the Dead Scar, and can even be clandestine operatives abroad. 

Not to be understated is the priests' philosophical, literary, and even spiritual contribution to our great society: far be it from even the Sun-King to judge what an individual believes or finds comfort in, so long as it does not lead them to act against the homeland that had loved them so unquestioningly and supported them so generously, and so some religious priests do indeed lead sermons for even the most niche of spiritualities within the Spire. Many of our greatest philosophers throughout history have been spiritual leaders, from ancient Sun-worshippers to the liberal-minded few who took up the Human worship of the Light. Affecting our society and vaunted by our learned even today is the aggregate collection of philosophical, moral, and societal literature written by the Elune-worshipping Highborne magi and poets of old, who had themselves the intentions of guiding their own people just as the Magisters do for us today.

It is also through the efforts of the priesthood that the Sin'dorei have found common ground with, and achieved diplomatic successes among, not only those traitorous thieves we once forged with our own Alliance--which they have now stolen from us, having judged that our secrets and knowledge and compassion and land were all not enough, in true human fashion--but perhaps even moreso among our new allies within the Horde.

Darkspear diplomats even begin disclose to us now the nature of their barbarian but fascinating and previously undocumented beliefs, and in turn arm us well against the Amani through our mutually shared disdain for those cannibalistic invaders whose society is apparently even beneath the Darkspears' own slightly more advanced one. All of this would never have been discovered had we not reached out the hand of friendship through spirituality. Forsaken cultists of Shadow and Sin'dorei students of its power find great community between one another, and the Lightslayers of the Undercity have found great boons in both our knowledge of holy magic, doctrine, and particularly Stormwind beliefs as well as our ability to wield the magic now denied to even they who had been most devout in life.

The Tauren find agreeable our botanists and Sun priests, and begin to consort with our botanists in hopes of teaching them their own fascinating belief system surrounding druidism. The Spire hopes strongly that in time we will master their artform so as to improve upon it as our own and thus might even heal our torn lands; this goal the Tauren diplomats have already expressed interest in sharing, again as a consequence of our priesthoods' willingness to embrace the foreign, strange, and even the nonsensically barbaric. Even the Orcish shamans find our harmony with our land and its spirits to be worthy of study and perhaps can even be led to emulation.

The Horde's cultures may be undeveloped by some reckonings, and though this author humbly recuses himself from further such commentary by virtue of having failed his freshman anthropology courses twice, one may find it more suitable to conclude with the reckoning of the priesthood itself: 

"In undergoing this [generally speaking 'pre-societal' period of cultural development], the Horde at large is ripe for mutual education, societal cultivation and guidance as we might our own gardens, and in time may even be capable of establishing the long-term bonds and alliances which our people--Sin'dorei being generous, open to both teaching and learning, and generally communal by our basemost natures--so crave: ties of true friendship and even that of family, in that siblings are each vastly different but beloved by each other for it. 

These ties, if properly built and maintained in the way of our forefathers rather than those of mortal hands, can not be so easily broken as was the shallow bond that had been forged and destroyed with equal haste by the fecklessly impatient thrashing of other mortals that had thought themselves the masters of their planet. This time, we will not quietly await their realization of their hubris, but instead shall... correct them."

- Matron Ael'thissa

[uncloseted]

why do you think media literacy is dying?

I think a big part of it is just the introduction of the internet. In the 1980s, before the world wide web became a thing that lots of people had access to, the sources of information that people had access to were relatively limited and generally pretty well vetted. In the US, ABC, CBS, and NBC were the only free channels on TV, and you would generally get one or two newspapers a day. The information people were getting from those sources were generally well-researched, well-written, and with at least some attempt to be impartial. If you wanted to know anything that wasn't in the newspaper, you had to go to the library and try to find a book with the answer to your question. While all local libraries have some books that are probably not exactly accurate, the information in those books had to go through an editor, a publisher, maybe a legal team, and then be chosen by the librarian to add to their collection. In a sense, I think people used to be more media literate because there weren't a ton of things to be media illiterate about. Compare that with our media landscape now, where we have access to hundreds of TV channels, plus streaming services, plus millions of random people on YouTube and social media, plus websites with their own agendas that masquerade as legitimate. There aren't really institutions in place to protect us from misinformation anymore, and protecting ourselves is a full-time job. We have to approach everything we see online with skepticism because we don't know where the information came from, how well it was sourced, or what the bias or agenda of the poster is. Plus, we have algorithms that are intentionally feeding us content that it thinks we want to see, whether the information in that content is true or not. It's much easier to believe something false when we want to believe it, and now we're being bombarded with information that we want to believe all day long.

I think the other element to this decline in media literacy, at least in the US, is the No Child Left Behind Act. No Child Left Behind introduced a system where schools are evaluated based on standardized testing, which in turn introduced an educational curriculum that, in many places, focuses only on things that might appear on a standardized test. And as a result of that, English classes, which used to focus on literacy - things like reading comprehension, identifying motifs and themes in literature, identifying bias in text, distinguishing the author's point of view from the narration - started to focus instead on things that could be easily tested. This usually ends up being things like "locate information in a text", "define this word", "identify which words are synonyms", and "identify the correct grammatical structure". Literacy just isn't being taught the way that it used to be, and so as a result, people are generally less media literate as well. In the US, about 54% of adults lack literacy proficiency, meaning that they can't reliably evaluate sources or infer sophisticated meaning and complex ideas from written sources. Some sources suggest that 20% of adult Americans have a literacy proficiency at or below Level 1- meaning that they struggle to understand texts beyond filling out basic forms. In that context, I think it makes a lot of sense that half the people in any online comment section seem like they've totally missed the point.

[sophieinwonderland]

Episode 4 of Responding to the "Sophie is Dangerous Doc": On Genders and Slurs

If you haven't seen my other posts on this:

Episode 1 (Block Evasion Allegations) Episode 2 (All Tibetan Buddhists are Monks) Episode 3 (Survivor's Network) Episode 3.5 (Hate Groups)

Let's just get right into this!

First, just noting that I absolutely H*TE the culture online around censoring sl*rs where this is a t*rrible word nobody should say, BUT it's totally okay if you replace ONE vowel with an asterisk. Mostly because, when reading it in their heads, I'm certain most everyone is going to instantly read the slur as the slur, and it should be just as triggering to those who would be triggered by it. This isn't specifically an issue with the author but more collective st*pidity of the internet.

Here I went through the trouble of, after realizing I had messed up, to at least replace the whole word with "the T-slur" when all I needed to do was write "tr*nny." Silly me. (This is the only time I'll be writing it that way in this post. I just really need to illustrate how stupid I find this whole thing.)

This bare-minimum censorship while being outraged over saying a slur is just a tad too ridiculous to me to take seriously.

Context...

This came about during an argument with someone over the word endogenic. They were arguing, in essence, that because the word "endogenous" may have had vague ties to Freud fakeclaiming trauma, the word "endogenic" was bad because it's the same word.

My point was to illustrate how even if this was true and endogenous was offensive, two words can sound similar and have the same roots with similar literal meanings with one still being offensive and the other not. The example I gave was how trans/transgender are perfectly fine terms while the t-slur is bad despite both having the same roots and literal meanings. Connotations of specific words matter. Not just their roots.

I apologized after seeing how that affected people because I wasn't aware of the severity of the term.

Derogatory terms aren't all equal, and while there are certain pejoratives that you never should say, ever... others are generally acceptable in neutral contexts when not using them as an insult.

My mistake here was not being educated in which category this particular pejorative fell under.

On our gender...

A huge part of this narrative is the idea that I just suddenly for the first time ever decided to identify as genderfluid because I was under fire.

This is, like much of what is said in this document, completely false.

I had previously posted about how being a system with multiple genders makes our system's body more accurately described as genderfluid.

This post was back in August of 2022. Well before the slur discourse in May of 2023.

I believe there were other posts but they're hard to find because Tumblr searches are bad. (I used google to find this one.)

The idea that the body/system is technically genderfluid isn't something I invented out of thin air for that one discussion, but is something that had been on my mind for a long time, and something I had talked about before.

While I won't blame the author for not having an encyclopedic knowledge of every post I ever made. This is yet another instance of accusations and assertions without ever even bothering to confirm if they were true.

This lack of due diligence is a massive theme in the "Sophie is dangerous" document.

If anyone had asked me if I had made public statements referring to our body being genderfluid, I could have answered and provided a source.

In fact, the author quotes me saying that I've always considered the body genderfluid, even highlighting it...

But didn't once think, as any reasonable person would have in this situation, that there may be evidence of this out there.

Instead, the author lazily repeats the lie that this was something new I just suddenly decided for the sake of this one argument.

Transness...

There are a couple problems.

First, let's start with the point near the end about being queer. Because my point was more than that.

It was that genderfluidity is not merely queer, but specifically on the transgender spectrum as seen below:

My position is actually that any system with fronting headmates of a different gender than their AGAB is genderfluid to an extent. And because of this, is on the transgender spectrum. (Regardless of whether they identify as transgender or not.)

Slipper Slopes and Bad Precedents.

This is a ridiculous take meant to try to villainize me. And is a bit of revisionist history at that.

I initially apologized and did explain that the intent was not to reclaim the term, and that I didn't feel comfortable reclaiming it. I stand by that.

I didn't cast myself as a victim over people being upset by it.

After my apology, I listened to numerous transgender systems who were uncomfortable with the topic that arose from that, and uncomfortable with the people taking issue with a girl in an AMAB body using the T-slur.

There is a lot of underlying complexity here that I believe needed to be addressed.

Because simply apologizing without addressing these other issues sets a precedent that I didn't want to be setting.

I wasn't going to let the takeaway from that conversation be "individual headmates can't reclaim slurs, even ones they could be called, unless they directly identify by the specific term for the experiences they have."

I've never been called the T-slur. But as more systems are out publicly and headmates of different genders are expressing their gender, it's likely that they'll be victims of transphobia.

Systems with multiple genders are, as a whole, genderfluid.

Genderfluidity is on the transgender spectrum. Regardless of whether they identify as transgender or not.

And it's pretty weird to try to police the language people on the transgender spectrum use based on whether they specifically call themselves transgender or not.

My biggest problem with the whole discourse around that topic is that it ultimately presents an intrusive ideology that is super concerned with policing the specific terms GNC people use and identify by. And worse, it presents the gender of systems as less important than those who have varying genders for other reasons.

The precedents you set don't exist in a vacuum. The fact is that you are arguing this at the same time that sysmeds have resorted to maliciously misgendering endogenic systems, justifying it under the basis that it's not actual misgendering because the headmate with those genders aren't real.

Something which, if you remember from the previous episode, the OP of the "Sophie is dangerous document" doesn't believes counts as real misgendering.

In the end, it's a very slippery slope from "female headmates in AMAB bodies with gender dysphoria can't reclaim transgender slurs" to "gender discrimination against headmates is totally separate to that faced by trans people and misgendering headmates isn't as bad as misgendering real transgender people."

And this is a slippery slope the author of the document appears to have fallen straight down and crashed face-first on.