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papirouge · 9 months

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I never was told to leave a church group before but I had left one, the last one I went to, because they were.. ew

It seemed well in the beginning. No issues until the church let go of the old pastor and this new young guy came in. Single and would sometimes sprinkle in weird incel talk about how single women were the worst parts of Gods kingdom for disobeying his commandment to be fruitful and multiple. Like? What?

Then the sermons got very political. Old people that never had issues before and were pretty nice had become a lot more mean and racist. I saw less women in general? Trump this. Trump that. Democrats are working with the jewish elites and muslims to destroy our Godly nation (I’m living in the US), it was so BIZARRE to hear this being said with no irony or anything and people legitimately believe it.

I left when I attended a midweek meeting that talked about church issues. And it started by discussing how the Catholic Church is a horrible institution for defending pedophiles while others called out how the victims were mostly boys and “priests should have been women the whole time then those boys would be called men, not whatever beta victimhood they want to be” -cue snickers from mostly males- Then the subject was to abortion where some believe it’s a crime against *the state* ie the government because abortion takes away 1 solider from the military and others chimed in with “we’re already below replacement levels, we need more babies!”

And I, being not white, and not caring about white people panicking over being a minority was just really bored of it all. But I did look at a few others didn’t really react who looked at me and we just knew this is just stupid.

And I also, being someone who couldn’t care any less about the american military industrial complex, was bored of the panic people feel about abortion needing to be banned ONLY because the military requires bodies is honestly dystopian to say the least.

Yeah the rest of that meeting went by terribly. I know these people are not representative of anything, but I cant stand how a lot of churches now are becoming mini political centers.

Also, one of the higher up guys in the church quietly left before I did when he was outed as a gay man for sleeping with married husbands. But some people blamed the wives? God was a trash fire that place was.

There were so many good times and a lot of good people though too, like I got to know this old lady who knitted sweaters and scarves for people for free if you asked and all she would ask in return is for you to hang with her 🥹 she used to work as a nurse in the 50s, she couldn’t have her own babies so, she told me, “I ended up for a time as a volunteer to cuddle babies in the hospital!” she was such a beautiful person. She also donated a lot of money to domestic abuse shelters for women.

I'll NEVER understand why Christians fundies act like not having children is a sin/"multiplying" is a commandment for ALL of us. Jesus was a celibate - yet he never sinned. Why can't they make the logical conclusion off of it?

When God told Eve and Adam to multiply it was while they were still in the garden of Eden, and yet, they started conceiving/multiplying only after they got kicked out of the garden. Were they sinning for not multiplying humankind while still in the garden? eating the forbidden fruit is the only and first sin they committed out there - not their lack of offsprings. Breeding kink christians should get their facts straight.

I'm absolutely not surprised by this new generation of young pastor matrixed by red pill content. It was bound to happen. I think it's yet another sign we have to stop relying on "regular" church assemblies and build our own communities.

I really don't get whenever a male get exposed for being a pedophile people go like "oh but if roles were reversed!!" Like- do those people see men reaction whenever boys get abused? They are the one acting like the victims were grownups and how "lucky" they were from discovering sex that turned them into men. Women are the ones consistently frowning upon sexual abuse.

US Evangelicals should really pipe down with their mocking of catholic Priest pedophile when they have no problem handing over their 13 y.o girls to middle age polygamous scrotes. There's a documentary floating around on TikTok of a man who married & impregnated girls as young as 13, their sisters, mom, cousins, etc.

Bless that old lady. Wherever they are, women are the only hope to elevate the bar somehow. I'm glad you're out though. How much time did you stay in that cesspool of a church ? I think documenting crazy church drama from an actual/authentic Christian perspective (instead of a whiny uwu church trauma uwu one) could be the subject of such a cool documentary. Made by Christians FOR Christians, and to warb them off the lunacy of modern churches.

I thought about it but I'm in France and most church are catholic so very geriatric but chill/unproblematic. The evangelicals ones are those were the mess is. They're mostly African too 👀 (I'm from Congo and Congolese pretty much 'own' the network of evangelical churches in France and Belgium lmao) A few months ago a Christian teen rapper got exposed having several gf (in the same time)/having sex with them - they all exposed him on TikTok 💀. They said he was adamant having sex with them with Christian music in the background 😭

If i was around your church I would do an interview of that homewrecking gay dude and expose their husbands. JUSTICE FOR THEIR WIVES. I can't imagine the horror of discovering your husband is cheating with a gay man... Double betrayal. And let's not forget the STDs.... They all should be put to jail IDC

#answered #Christian

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nikadoesanart · 3 years

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Will Jouno assist Fukuchi?

In ch 92, Fukuchi shows Bram to Jouno (though I'd say introduce would be a better way to describe it cause Jouno's blind but minor inconsequential details) and reveals that he is the mastermind behind the Agency being framed and asks Jouno to help him. Personally, I think that Jouno is just a bit more likely to form some kind of alliance with Fukuchi but not necessarily a full-on partnership, much less to the point where it'd be considered working more with Fukuchi as Kamui of the DOA than helping Fukuchi as Fukuchi himself or as the commander of the HD.

Also, I am using @buraihatranslations translation of ch 92, so that's where my exact phrasing for quotations and page counts are coming from. You can read the full translation here.

The main context of our focus

“I’m the mastermind. Jouno, wouldn’t you like to assist me?” (p 19)

For starters, I don’t think Fukuchi is being a reckless idiot for saying this. Considering that he's literally Kamui, he obviously must’ve considered this as a calculated but worthwhile risk to take. As I’ve previously mentioned in my ch 89.5 cover art analysis, Jouno is the most on the fence of the HD in terms of supporting Fukuchi vs believing in the Agency’s innocence. In fact, as we learned in 92, he simply doesn’t care and can therefore be considered a (nearly) neutral party. Jouno is also basically a living breathing lie detector, so he can tell apart the likes of jokes and lies from the truth very easily. Jouno also cares primarily about being able to hear his victim’s suffering, regardless of who’s right or wrong or innocent or guilty (as he’s told Aya). It logically just makes the most sense for Fukuchi to try to get Jouno on his side out of all the HD because :

Teruko is a simp for Fukuchi but she still cares about civilians and being able to take pride in her job as an officer (Sky Casino)

Tachihara has already clearly established his doubts in the ADA being guilty in front of all of the HD (ch 89) and told Fukuchi that he sees himself as more Mafia than HD now (ch 89.5)

Tecchou has a very strong sense of justice and cares about fairness, so asking him to quite literally join the side of the terrorists would never work out and would essentially be a waste of both time and possibly personnel too

What does Jouno personally want?

As I've already briefly touched on (and presumably you already read ch 92 before this), Jouno has already stated his goals, which gives us a good sense of where he stands morally.

“I just want to hear the voice of someone’s suffering.” (p 9)

“To hurt people under the name of the law[,] corner them and hear their “sound” as they break.” (p 10)

Now that we’ve more than established that Jouno is in fact, a sadist, I do want to emphasize Jouno’s mention of the law. Not only does he enjoy making people suffer (specifically psychologically, as he’s mentioned before), but he specifically mentions that he wants to do it “under/in the name of the law”, meaning that he likely either only wants to do it in a “justifiable”/“excusable” way or that he doesn’t want or plan to be held accountable for his actions (or worse, both). Until we get a backstory reveal, there could be any number of reasons for him being this way. I think it’s fairly likely that he’s from a similar situation to Fukuchi (took part in the Great War, and the mental scarring of everything he experienced then caused him to find some sort of extreme and inhumane goal or enjoyment to cope with it all). So for example, he could have been drafted for the War because he’s an ability user (or maybe he already happened to be in some sort of training where he received recognition for his skills, ie. the military academy or part of a renowned dojo) and eventually that led him to become a sadist because coping mechanism or discovering that he’s a sadist because of some extreme circumstances (ie. having to interrogate a prisoner for the first time and realizing how much he enjoyed giving and hearing the psychological torture).

Example of Jouno's excuses and justification

“I was just asking suspects for cooperation!”

“Then do it after they sign the consent form for judicial transaction. Otherwise, it’s not justice.” (p 12)

On one hand, we have Jouno who is very quick to make excuses for his actions by using his position as an officer to justify his behavior. Despite knowingly and intentionally using extreme measures, beyond what's necessary for the situation, he's using the law and his job to try to justify it. (If you're seeing some real-world parallels here, good job!)

On the other hand, we have Tecchou who very clearly values actual justice that is fair to all parties (as we’ve seen previously with him promising the cafe owner that the ADA will get a fair trial at the very least in ch 72). In fact, I think it’d be safe to say that Tecchou is the one that values impartial justice and fairness the most out of the HD, but that's not the focus here.

Parallelisms and which other organizations would suit him and his goals

(p 15-16)

For starters, Jouno appears to be on the side that believes that the ADA is a part of/affiliated with the DOA (if I’m not reading this wrong)

Also, I’d like to highlight him saying:

“ ‘Our tastes match’, if I should say. The abusive nature. To be honest, I’m almost empathetic. If we happen to lose this battle, I wouldn’t mind reemploying to their side. Not to say that we wouldn’t possibly lose.”

Jouno has no doubt in the strength of the HD but also just wants to be on the abusively cruel side dishing out the suffering. If he’s able to use his position to excuse his actions (ie. what he said about Aya just a few pages ago), then that’s even better for him. The ADA has an ability permit and currently ⅓ of the police force is siding with them and believes in their innocence. Joining the ADA next, should the HD lose, would be the most advantageous for him, if the allegations of them being abusively cruel terrorists were true.

In my opinion, his actual next best organization to join, based on his interests and goals so far as well as his own methods, would be the PM. They have an ability permit too and he’d have just as many chances to be either on the front lines and/or work with the interrogation team. With what his goals has revealed about his moral code, he’s just more cut out for the nature and surface level goals of the PM than the ADA. In fact, Dazai has already admitted to the two of them being alike (which we as the readers can deduce is for their methods in manipulation and interrogation) and Dazai has previously mentioned that he’d sometimes have to come in and help Kouyou’s interrogation team with the job (ch 19). Jouno joining the PM could be a very easy transition, should he stop caring about doing things “under the name of the law” (p 10). However, there is a loophole with the PM being a part of the tripartite tactic, of which the whole goal is to protect Yokohama. Both we as the readers and the members of the ADA know that despite their methods, the PM does in fact care about upholding the overall peace and safety of Yokohama. The reason why he jokes about joining the ADA and makes no mention of the PM (at least in my opinion), is because before all of this, to the public eye, the ADA was one of the “good guys” that were upholding the law whereas the PM is quite literally the mafia. (I touch on this part too in my ch 89.5 cover art analysis.)

Back to answering Fukuchi's question now

I feel like Jouno is ever so slightly more likely to form some kind of alliance with Fukuchi as Kamui but not straight up joining the DOA/allying with the DOA as a whole because again, Jouno is very much sadistic but he also specifically tells Aya (a possible hostage and a confirmed supporter of the ADA) that he specifically wants to “to hurt people under the name of the law” (p 10). Fully siding with the DOA and Kamui would mean that he’d no longer be working under the protection of the law, by any extent, unless Fukuchi were to create some kind of excuse as the commander of the HD (ie. Jouno was under the control of the vampirism). He might work with Fukuchi but I don’t think he’d work with or for Kamui. Either way, I think that overall it’s a very close tie.

In short:

If he says yes then he’d risk not having the law to protect him any longer, which is a part of what he clearly wants to have. The only way around this is some sort of agreement where Fukuchi will create a believable excuse for Jouno helping or he does it in a very indirect way that won't be noticed by others or can easily be played off as some sort of coincidence.

If he says no, he’d likely have to go up against Fukuchi and Bram and risk getting turned as well. I doubt he’d be killed since that would raise too many questions with Tecchou and Teruko, and thanks to Tachihara’s fight, I’d say it’s all been explicitly stated that still being alive is a part of the requirements to be turned into a vampire. When Tachihara tried to off himself as a last resort, specifically to stop Fukuchi and Bram from turning him into a vampire, Fukuchi personally prevented that from happening (ch 90).

Jouno has established that he just wants to hear the sound of people suffering (which Fukuchi would probably have learned of or figured out by now, considering that he’s the commanding officer here), which can be achieved from quite literally any side. However, his condition to this is doing it "under the name of the law", so being on a side that has the law’s protection and works on the front lines is where he’d be closest to achieving this with minimal risk (so realistically the HD or ADA). I doubt Jouno would have any interest in joining the Special Division because I doubt he’d get to do much interrogating or front-line work there, in addition to him having less of an excuse for his cruel methods, and I've already gone over why he'd rather join the ADA than the PM.

#bsd #bungou stray dogs #bsd analysis #bsd spoilers #bsd theories #bsd jouno #bsd 92 #bsd chapter 92

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aroacestartrekrewatch · 5 years

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Star Trek: ToS Rewatch - 1x01 - The Man Trap

Members of the crew of the Enterprise are being stalked and murdered by a mysterious being capable of psychically disguising itself in order to extract salt from its victims.

Ace Friendliness: 5

Aro Friendliness: 7

For more info on my rating criteria check out this post.

Recap:

In the ruins of an ancient civilization on the planet M-113, Dr. Robert Crater and his wife, Nancy, are the only members of a five year archaeological survey of a number of ancient ruins on the planet. Nancy Crater was once involved romantically with Doctor McCoy, who is looking forward to seeing her again.

However, upon arriving on the planet, the landing party - made up of Dr. McCoy, Captain Kirk, and a crewman in the science division named Darnell - each see a very different woman. McCoy sees Nancy as she was when he knew her, Kirk sees Nancy as an older version of the woman McCoy sees, and Darnell makes the mistake of outright saying Nancy looks like a woman he knew on Wrigley's Pleasure Planet - presumably a sex worker - which both McCoy and Kirk take offense to. Darnell gets sent to wait outside but 'Nancy' follows after a short while and lures Darnell away to his death.

Dr. Crater finally arrives and is upset the landing party is arrived. He keeps insisting all they need are salt tablets and generally he just wants them to go away. McCoy and Kirk, however, are both insistent they follow regulations - both Dr. Crater and his wife are due physicals (and probably psych evals too, considering how little social interaction they've had these last five years). Crater eventually consents to his physical, but they're interrupted by a scream outside.

They find Nancy standing over Darnell, whose body is covered in strange circular marks, and she claims he ate a poisonous plant before she could stop him.

Meanwhile, back on the Enterprise's bridge, Commander Spock has been left in command. With so little to do at the moment, Uhura is attempting to engage the commander in conversation and flirting but to no avail, as Spock claims that Vulcans have no sense of humor. The transporter chief signals the bridge to alert the bridge to the death of a crewman. Spock acknowledges and presumably signals one of the transporter bays to transport the party up, but Uhura is concerned by Spock's lack of interest in who the dead crewman might be since it could be the Captain, as the transporter chief didn't specify.

Once McCoy does an initial examination of Darnell, he determines the cause of death wasn't poisoning; in fact, aside from the circular marks on the body, McCoy can't find anything wrong with Darnell at all. Much to Kirk's annoyance, McCoy gets lost in thought over Nancy and his unresolved feelings for her.

After a more thorough exam, McCoy is able to determine Darnell died because his body had been drained of its entire salt content.

Taking two more crewmen with them, Kirk and McCoy return to the planet to bring Dr. Crater and Nancy aboard with them until the cause of Darnell's death can be determined. However, Dr. Crater is less than receptive to this idea and runs off to find his wife. he discover Sturgeon - one of the two crewman who joined the landing party - dead with the same circular marks as Darnell and calls to Nancy, telling her he has salt for her. When she doesn't respond, he continues off to find her, leaving Sturgeon's body behind for Kirk and McCoy to find.

While separated from the Captain and McCoy, the fourth member of the landing party is lured into a trap by Nancy, who kills Crewman Green and assumes his appearance. Nancy then joins Kirk and McCoy in the guise of Green and is transported up to the ship.

Now aboard the ship, "Green" follows Yeoman Rand as she brings lunch to Lt. Sulu in the botanical lab; there's a salt shaker on the tray of food that "Green" attempts to take at one point, but Rand stops him and tells him off for following her. With the lift full, the corridors crowded, and both Rand and Sulu present in the lab (as well as the unusual reaction of one of the plants towards him), "Green" doesn't seem to feel safe taking it and eventually leaves. From there, "Green" runs into Uhura and transforms again, possibly someone from Uhura's past or a person created from bits and pieces of people she once knew. He speaks Swahili to her, much to Uhura's clear delight as she responds in the same language. But he then seems to entrance her, perhaps some aspect of the same psychic abilities that allow him to take on so many different appearances, and it's only the timely arrival of Sulu and Rand that prevents Uhura from become the salt eater's next victim. Unfortunately Crewman Barnhart is less lucky and is discovered dead by Sulu and Rand after Uhura heads to the bridge.

Taking the appearance of Nancy again, she goes to visit McCoy because she likes his strong memories of Nancy; those feelings make her feel safe. She encourages him to get some sleep and when he mentions that he has sleeping pills, she gets him some water to take them with.

Sulu and Rand come across Crewman Barnhart, whom the creature attacked before “Nancy” came to visit McCoy. Reports of Barnhart’s death lead to McCoy to be summoned. Having drugged McCoy and, presumably, used her psychic ability to persuade him to sleep, “Nancy” assumes McCoy’s form and leaves the real McCoy asleep in his quarters.

Kirk and Spock return to the planet. While Kirk attempts to reason with Dr. Crater, Spock discover's Crewman Green's dead body. Aboard the ship, they begin searching for the impostor while Kirk and Spock finally stun Crater and question him about the creature attacking the crewman.

Crater finally explains the truth about his wife Nancy. The real Nancy has been dead for nearly two years now, replaced by one of the few surviving inhabitants of the planet. Once the planet was once a lush, plentiful world, but the ancient civilization caused some kind of catastrophe that left it barren. The M-113 creature that took Nancy's place requires sodium chloride - salt - to survive, but the planet is so lacking in salt that the creature's species has nearly died away entirely. Dr. Crater clearly assumes "Nancy" is the last of its kind and compares her to the buffalo, which went extinct on Earth some time ago.

Once aboard the ship, Crater claims that he and the creature have a symbiotic relationship due to their trade of salt tablets and companionship and even notes that he can recognize the being regardless of what form it takes, clearly aware that "McCoy" is actually the creature. However, when Spock suggests they use a truth serum on Dr. Crater in order to ascertain who the creature is currently masquerading as, "McCoy" reluctantly agrees. Spock, Crater, and "McCoy" head to sickbay, but the creature murders Crater and attacks Spock, whose Vulcan physiology seems to make him unappetizing to the creature.

The creature takes Nancy's form again and returns to McCoy's quarters, seemingly torn between it's hunger for salt and a desire to seek safe refuge, which it knows McCoy can be manipulated into providing. Kirk arrives, however, armed with a phaser and salt tablets; he attempts to convince McCoy to stand clear. McCoy seems to be under the creature's psychic thrall, however, and hesitates to shoot the creature in Nancy's form even as she fights with Kirk. Spock arrives and steps into the fight, repeatedly striking "Nancy" and appealing to McCoy's sense of logic. However, the creature fights back, knocking Spock across the room and reverting to its natural form in order to use its suckers - the cause of the circular marks on its victims - on Kirk.

McCoy finally rallies himself and shoots the creature.

Later on the bridge, as the Enterprise leaves M-113 behind, Spock asks Kirk what's weighing on his mind, to which Kirk replies, "I was thinking about the buffalo."

Analysis:

There’s quite a few different plot threads throughout the episode to keep an eye on. First, there’s the friendship between Kirk and McCoy and how Kirk seeks to keep McCoy grounded in the here and now, not drifting off into the past where his feelings for Nancy were strong. Then there’s Dr. Crater, trapped in an abusive relationship and desperate to keep the secret of his wife’s death to prevent the ‘tragedy’ of the salt-eater’s extinction. And finally there’s the creature itself, a manipulative monster who only cares about feeding its need for salt and assuring itself a protector who feels nice emotions towards it.

Basically, to me the episode feels largely like its a portrayal of an abusive relationship - one where the abuser is a woman - and how difficult it can be for people who know the abuser to recognize that behavior as wrong, even when seeing it happen right in front of them. There’s also a lot to be said about the assumptions the creature makes about how it can use sex for bait.

The episode opens with lighthearted banter between Kirk and McCoy, establishing their friendship with the ease of their teasing. Darnell is the outsider here already, a junior crewman nervous to be on an away team with not one but two of his superior officers. And then Nancy shows up, looking like three different women at once, and the plot finds itself dropped into the tail end of a long running tragedy.

Imagine, for a moment, the picture of the last two years that gets painted over the course of the episode. Dr. Crater can’t remember when his wife died. Was it a year ago? Two? He’s not sure.

Maybe he ran across her body after she died... but if that’s the mottled corpse of his wife, then who was he talking to over dinner? Who did he give the salt tablets to, thinking Nancy seemed out of sorts from the heat? Did the deception over whether or not the creature was Nancy really end there or did the creature torment and gaslight him first before finally admitting the truth?

And then the first time a crew arrived with supplies after he knew what was going on... and Crater realizing he couldn't say a thing to them without risking 'Nancy' murdering the whole crew. He has to stay the quiet, silent victim, trapped in an abusive, toxic relationship because the creature assures him that if he speaks up, other people will suffer and it will be blamed on him. And perhaps, now and again, the creature did kill one of the suppliers for fun. For the sport of it. To watch Crater cringe and flounder for an explanation that would satisfy the suppliers without giving away their secret. It made him complicit in their murder after the fact so that Dr. Crater would be afraid of the very people who might be able to save him. So that the only person he could depend on was the one who ruined his life. By the time it happens to crewman Darnell, he has an excuse at the ready. The borgia planet, a deadly nightshade type plant that kills quickly. The only difference is this time the crew is that of a Starship with a supercomputer whose memory banks include an accurate accounting of the borgia plant's affects.

With the arrival of Dr. McCoy, however, ‘Nancy’ has a new potential protector. By then, the creature probably thinks of itself as Nancy to some degree, which makes Leonard’s memories of Nancy, full of vibrant recall and deep feelings, all the more appealing to the creature as a replacement for Crater’s memories and emotions, which have been tainted by the creature’s own actions and the knowledge of Nancy’s death.

(Additionally, it’s McCoy’s memories and feelings for Nancy that also make him attractive to Crater. Having been denied the right to truly grieve Nancy’s death, it’s likely that Leonard reminiscing over how Nancy used to be gives Crater a chance to memorialize her, finally, in a way he’d been unable to alone. It makes the scene where Crater keeps egging McCoy on while Kirk is subtly trying to get McCoy to shut up make more sense at any rate.)

Darnell’s death is rather senseless in the face of things, perhaps caused by the creature being unable to control their impulses but more likely a warning to Crater to keep him in line. Nancy seems well used to using sexuality as a weapon as she interacts with Darnell, seeming even pleased that he makes it so easy to lure him away. But once she chooses to leave Crater behind and heads up to the ship in the guise of Green, things begin to go wrong for the creature.

No one knows Green well enough for the creature to be confident mimicking him, he can’t simply take what he wants from Rand the way Nancy could with Carter and her various victims, and the large number of crewmen all over the place (including the ones who catcall Rand) make the creature nervous. It’s first attempt at snagging a victim after giving up on the salt shaker nearly fails when it assumes that Uhura’s fantasies are similar to its previous victims. That is, more about a sexual partner than a longing for home and an intellectual equal; notice how Uhura is at first insulted by the creature’s insinuations at first, but she becomes more at ease when he speaks in Swahili to her. Once again the ship’s large crew interrupts the creature’s attempts to hunt and its forced to release the hold it had on Uhura.

Hungry and afraid, the creature ends up retaking the familiarity of Nancy’s form and seeks out McCoy... and proceeds to drug him in order to take his place. But while being McCoy grants the creature the chance to murder Crater, it only places itself at higher risk from its recklessness.

When Kirk shows up to rescue McCoy from the creature, Leonard is suffering both from the after effects of the sleeping drugs and from the psychic manipulations of the creature, unable to tell what’s really happening in front of him because the Nancy he knew would never harm his friends. It takes Spock showing McCoy that Nancy isn’t who he thinks she is to let him break through the manipulations and see the monster beneath his loved one’s visage long enough for McCoy to save Kirk.

While the episode is interesting for being a science fiction take on the Siren lore, it’s very heavily themed episode on the dangers of abusive, toxic relationships and the dangers of isolation with these kinds of abusive people.

But wait, there’s more.

Okay, so the creature had basically one modus operandi when it came to hunting. Sexual attraction used as a baited hook to catch some tasty, tasty salty humans to eat. The episode itself is called ‘The Man Trap’ which can be seen as a kind of gross reference to the idea that all men want sex (not even remotely true) and are thus easily manipulated by that desire.

However, the episode itself shows that sex appeal isn’t really all that effective a hunting technique once aboard the ship. Uhura is insulted by the assumption she’d be automatically attracted to the man the creature presented her with, forcing the creature to switch gears to entice her with the familiarity and nostalgia of someone who also spoke Swahili. Janice is repulsed by the creature’s fixation on her and the container of salt she carried. The creature never even considers Kirk as an option for manipulating, presumably because he’s too focused on the welfare of his crew; the creature only tries to kill him because its afraid of being punished for its crimes and no longer sees a way out, but the creature never tries to lure him in as a target the way it does with Darnell or Uhura.

Additional Notes:

It’s really great to see the friendship between Rand and Sulu. Janice Rand is a character we didn’t get to see enough of in the show (the reasons for which are truly appalling) and seeing the two of them as friends is a lovely treat. It’s a friendship that likely continued beyond the Enterprise, as the last time Janice Rand’s character appears in the overall Star Trek universe is on an episode of Voyager where a flashback revealed she was part of Sulu’s crew on the Excelsior.

We also get a good look in this episode at how much the crew’s safety and security means to Kirk. He’s the first to link Darnell’s death by salt deficiency to Dr. and Nancy Crater’s insistence on getting salt tablets and even before that he wasn’t exactly impressed by the Craters attempts to explain away Darnell’s death as an accident. He clearly takes every crewman’s death as a personal failing, but is still able to feel sympathetic towards the creature despite the necessity of its death, as evidenced by his comment about the buffalo at the end of the episode. This is a Captain Kirk who sees Nancy Crater as a lovely woman who has aged well, a captain who views his duty to his ship and crew as the most important commitment in his life, and a man who greatly values his friendships. This is not the caricature that eventually found its way into pop culture. (He is, however, a character that’s easily headcanoned as being arospec, something I’ll have to discuss more at a later date.)

Ratings:

As I noted earlier, the episode’s name ‘The Man Trap’ can be seen as a kind of gross reference to the idea that all men want sex and the salt eater itself uses sexual attraction as a lure to attract its prey. The creature also uses romantic attraction in an attempt to bind a protector to itself - first with Dr. Crater and later it attempts the same thing with Dr. McCoy only to misjudge the importance of McCoy’s friendships with Kirk and Spock. There’s also Uhura’s very poorly thought out attempts to flirt with Spock that are completely shut down. (Honestly, Uhura, what gives? If you like your job, don’t pretend you don’t as a basis for flirting with a superior officer... that’s practically asking for a transfer.)

So for a rating between 0 and 10 where 10 is a very friendly episode and a 0 wouldn’t be recommended...

Ace Friendliness: 5

Aro Friendliness: 7

For more information on the episode, check out the page for The Man Trap on Memory Alpha.

If you need additional tagging for content warnings not found currently found in the tags, let me know and I’ll get those updated.

#star trek #The Man Trap #star trek rewatch #aro ace star trek rewatch #psychic manipulation #mind rape #stockholm syndrome #death #murder #catcalling #sexism #gaslighting #abuse #sex normativity #identity theft #flirting #shapeshifting #monster of the week

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rpedia · 7 years

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[Ask RPedia] Characterization of Emotional Manipulators

numbertwooflorien asked: Advice to rp as a emotional manipulative character?

Well okay! This post is how to RP an emotionally manipulative character, and in general a manipulative character. Useful for villains, and grimdark settings, it may include some crap people don’t want to think about. In detail. Major detail. So fair warning, I’m gonna get into psychological shit, and describe what amounts to abuse tactics with lots of explanation so if this isn’t your cup of tea, keep running. You might be able to use this as a way to spot toxic relationships as much as you can use it to play fictional ones, and I hope it helps people one way or another. But remember, keep it fucking fictional!

This is presented as a way to understand those mindsets as a writer, which is important, and not in any way shape or form something you should do in real life. I acknowledge if you wanna do shit like this you’ll find the details on how to be an asshole somewhere anyways though, so I’m not gonna let you ruin it for everyone who just needs some writing help to make their character’s manipulation/emotional crisis more realistic. Onto the cut.

Hi! So first off, fair warning. I may get a little testy, or sound like I’m talking about shit happening from a first-hand receiving view without meaning to. Spoiler: I am. I’ll try to couch this in writer-talk more, sorry if I sound salty, or slip and don’t notice.

So! You’re a writer. You’re writing a character who is designed to produce conflict, and emotions within the reader by emotionally manipulating others. First things first, look at yourself, and your character’s goals. You need to have relatively firm goals in mind when you're figuring out what to do with a character’s motivations and personality.

What reaction do you want from the reader or your opposite in a roleplay? Do you want your partner/reader to feel sorry for them being caught up in their own web of lies, or do you want them to hate them and rebel against them? Do you want them to feel sickened, relate to the character, or feel pity for them? What goals does your character have in mind? Does it just feel good, or are they looking for attention? Do they feel the need to control things?

First let’s look at the motivations of the character. Usually the urge to manipulate others stems from some sort of issue in their past. This is gonna simplify things a lot, but that’s because we’re making shit up and not dealing with real people. Real people are hella complex, they have way more detail to their “backstory” because they’re real, complex, thinking individuals who may have issues we can’t even know because they’re repressed. This is a character, under our control. So we can define what happened to them, and how it effected them, to a minute degree.

Control is a big player in this ‘game’, needing control can push the character to do things they might not have otherwise. A loss of control in their childhood that significantly impacted them could cause this need/goal. Having someone take their favorite toy and destroy it in front of them? Yeah, I don’t know about you, but if someone did that, I wouldn’t fuckin’ want nobody to do anything I didn’t plan for ever again. The character might then start focusing on ways to stop that from happening.

They might just like the feel of control, rather than fear a lack of it. It feels good to see the puppets dance, so to speak, so when they force others to do as they command by playing their emotions it feels like victory. Victory is delicious, and most people whet that appetite on nice things like cooking a nice dinner, or drawing, or running in races. Characters who are emotionally manipulative instead get their kicks from hurting others in such a way that they get what they want, which may include just getting attention.

The basic issue here is, regardless of other issues for them, they make choices that hurt other people. Logically, they know what they are doing even if they block it out or try to ignore it. They may come up with a complex, distorted, long winded reason why they are in fact the victim, or that their behavior is somehow righteous. They are deliberately going out of their way to look for weaknesses in others, and exploit them for personal gain. This is just the sign of an asshole. Be aware you are playing or writing an asshole.

So, have their history in mind? Have you built up their reasoning for thinking that they are in the right at all times? Have you picked their goals or personality? If so, the next step is actual manipulation. Now we’re gonna jump right into how and why people react to things, and the logical fallacies that get preyed on by the less scrupulous.

We see it in advertising all the time. That commercial with the sad kennel puppies? The time your parent told you to eat your veggies because somewhere out there another kid is starving and would be so lucky? This is called Appeal to Emotion, and is in formal logic classes, considered a fallacy used in arguments to support your point despite it not having actual back-up. When you use these, you can appeal to fear, envy, hatred, pity, pride, and more. Coherent arguments of course can have an aspect of emotional connection, it’s what makes us passionate. The fallacy comes about when the emotions are the only argument. Since we’re affected by emotions, this fallacy works wonders... even if they’re dishonest and flawed.

So say, the other character went out for lunch. They didn’t invite your character. So, in order to get attention to make up for this, and control such behaviors, the manipulative asshole character would probably confront them about it. Depending on how deep they are with the other character, they’re be subtle. Pouting a little, and sighing. Maybe mentioning they’re hungry, and looking hurt when the other character mentions lunch. Sure, they could get their ass up and get food themselves, but that’s not the point. The point is, their victim did something, and they want them to feel bad about it.

Subtle is how they draw you in. There could be, if you squinted, some feelings hurt by not being asked to join in. Perhaps they want to hang out with you, or they miss you, or they’re just playing around and teasing that they’re sad. The part that makes it manipulative is when they draw out the sadness until you feel guilty, and then laugh it off and wave you away. Step one is done, now you think they’re joking, and still feel kind of bad. Hooks have been set.

So your character can start kicking it up a notch over time. Your character might do something else by themselves like a healthy normal adult, and that character will complain. “Why wasn’t I invited?” At first they’ll continue to play it as a joke, so the other character will do it repeatedly. This becomes multiple strikes they can complain about over time, because they never actually explained themselves as upset. Now the manipulator can get pissed at the victim character: you didn’t realize I was actually upset?! Wow, you don’t even care about me at all! I can’t believe you’re so unobservant. Do you just not remember?

Here kids, we get into gaslighting. Events are now happening in a parallel which is sorta similar, but not quite. Sure they were upset, but they played it off. Without communicating, they’ve worked themselves into a victim position. They are being ignored, unwanted, and apparently the character don’t even care about their feelings enough to read them properly when you two have a talk! This is a lie. They were hiding their emotions, they regularly downplayed it until they could use it against the other character, and going out to lunch or a movie alone is not an attack on them just by existing. In fact they’re suggesting joking petulance is now a “talk.”

Now that the victim character feels guilty and unsure of themselves, they do what a normal person would do to a real issue. They try to work it out, to figure out a way to make them feel better. They offer to take them with them. They invite them out, a few times, and try to make amends. Sure it feels a little weird, but they’re a friend. It’s easy to just do something nice! Heck, they might even accept, and the two characters might have a lovely time. This instills a ‘if you’re good, I’ll be good too’ mentality in the victim. There is now a set up where you get reinforced to follow what they want because it causes less problems.

These issues may pop up everywhere. A victim may be told they chew too loud, or they shouldn’t watch a TV show without the manipulator. Maybe they’ll be upset by the toilet seat, or some real things just to make sure it’s realistic. They’ll draw it out, be ‘uncomfortable’ explaining why this makes them upset. Everything is a hardship. The difference between real issues and manipulation here is somehow the only bad things are things the victim likes, or wants to keep safe or to themselves. Things they can take to make the victim less happy. To the manipulator it may look like they’re expressing how much they care by getting rid of their favorite or special things that they can get no where else. The manipulator also makes it hard on themselves to explain, despite things not being that bad, so that they can add another level on if the victim complains: now they’re a burden to them because of all their baggage. Even non-manipulators have hard to explain things, the manipulator however will do this whenever they’re rejected out of hand, very quickly because it produces results. Victims take the time to build up to explaining why something’s important because it’s really hard to do so, manipulators can jump in when convenient.

A kind normal person feels getting rid of someone because of baggage would be a terrible thing, after all they have baggage too! They have special things they like to have just so. The character continues to try and make things easier, because clearly even if the manipulator hasn’t had a particularly harder life, they have had it hit harder to make them so delicate. They deserve happiness, and to feel cared for. The gaslighting continues, the manipulative character begins to point out every time they make a mistake or forget something, and starts laughing about how forgetful the victim character is. They explain situations just a little south of how they actually happened, keying themselves as the victim. Any argument gets heated, but then suddenly they drop all heat and start ‘worrying’ about their own mental state. Maybe they’re wrong, and they’re so so sorry. But can you still not do that, if it ever comes up? This is a fake concession to lure you in by making this the easier path.

So slowly the victim character becomes used to these demands, even as they grow wider and wider in the net they cast. A manipulator needs their full attention, and to cockblock anyone raising doubts about the issues. So they start fights and burning bridges with the victim’s friends. They might even lie directly to them about being the real victim, far ahead of the actual victim noticing. Getting rid of all of their contacts makes it easier to manipulate them because then they can’t find an outside opinion. Only tainted, controlled ones. The hooks set in a little deeper.

So your victim is alone in the world, or only has a few friends. They begin questioning what is wrong with themselves, and struggle to become a better person. There’s honeymoon periods, there the abusive character is happy, and genuinely makes the victim feel good about themselves... until they get bored and need another mistake.

Now that they have you alone, so it’s easier to just get mad and ‘need to cool down’. So they abandon the victim character for long spaces of time. This forces them to question themselves, and try desperately to find solutions without any means to use them. This also makes them the bad guy if they try to communicate. Suddenly these brand new created boundaries are being broken. Ostracizing people causes genuine pain, which means that it’s easier to control them because pain is a great way to teach someone they’re “bad”.

From a victim’s perspective this is all normal and reasonable because it’s slowly gained in momentum over time. They feel good, sometimes, and it’s really good. They just keep making mistakes (spoiler: they don’t, the mistakes are manufactured.) and if they were “better” this wouldn’t be happening to them. They get into the headspace of needing to not only obey, but become a god damn psychic to understand what the manipulative character wants next.

How does this manipulative motherfucker keep things interesting if they’ve already broken someone to their whims though? By adding in things that are seemingly contradictory, but depend on ‘mood’. Mood whiplash is common in manipulators, and they will go from having a great day to having a terrible one based on ‘outside’ forces. The victim character cannot foresee these, nor stop them, so they might get to have a wonderful morning! And then some asshole says something rude, and the manipulator says they’re having a TERRIBLE day now, this triggered a headache, and they’re so miserable. The illnesses will always be invisible, it’s easier to get one at the drop of the hat that way even if it invalidates real versions of the illnesses. Watch for faked symptoms that magically disappear when they want to do something they like, like listen to loud pounding music in headphones during a “headache” while refusing treatment. The victim may try to help, but no. The manipulator now says the victim is making it worse by being clingy and needy. That, or they’re going to blow their cover.

So the victim learns to stay in their box unless the manipulator wants to take them out and play with them. They suppress their desires and personality because it’s the only way that makes sense and will keep the friendship going. After 6 months, we humans begin developing bonds based on attachment rather than love or lust. The main chemicals involved are oxytocin and vasopressin. Same shit you get after an orgasm, but it cements that you need someone, that your life would be emptier without them. For the characters: The manipulator is not worming their way into someone’s heart and making a hole. They are building additional stress, which leads to good feelings, which all bond together with the sticky sap of lies to CREATE a net around both characters. They’re like a caddisfly creating a burrow instead of finding one where they actually fit.

It’s easy to fall too deep into the spell of a long relationship, even if it’s just an acquaintanceship, or friendship. Dateship is even worse, because then you get to play on heartstrings and they’re obligated to fix them because they made a deal to work things out with you and stay in love as long as possible.

Over time the victim stops being useful. They’ve been turned into a pitiful wreck, who needs the manipulator to tell them what to do every step of the way. Either that, or they make friends and a spark of rebellion means they start fighting back. Keeping logs. Forcing them to sign things. Making sure fights are in view of other people. Once additional not-victims see things, it can be easier for the real victim to find solid footing. A manipulative fuckhead character does not like solid footing. They want to be relied on. Either way, they’ve expired in their usefulness. The manipulative character has to move on.

They can do so by latching onto one of the friends peeled away from the initial victim by seeding years ago that the victim is the bad guy, or from a current group member who has been explicitly warned not to mess with the victim, or even an entirely new group fashioned behind the scenes. Because the manipulator is free to lie, steal, cheat, and have full exciting lives while the victim has to play to their demands.

They can now bring forth a story, that the victim has been holding them back and hurting them for years. Every detail, every piece of their lives is now a way to hurt the victim one last time. The trick is, they have to make sure everyone new knows that the victim is a liar, is bad, is toxic and should be avoided. This is something the victim will also want to say about the abuser... later. When they recognize everything they’ve done while they were tucked under the spell. They will question themselves, for very long periods of time, while the abuser/manipulator character will jump right on that shit. Spreading the lies early means no one will check on the victim character. They can be eliminated as the real liar if they strike first.

Clues that the manipulator character is really the asshole include: Being too quick on the draw while pointing out who is wrong. Victims need time to process and unravel, the manipulator knows the lies already. Prolonging it. Victims want to stop contact, to move on, to warn others but to avoid the situations that make them feel queasy and hurt. Manipulators will constantly check their profiles, leave messages years later to hurt the victim, and spread nasty stories long after the victim character has moved on. They will boil in the drama and prolong it... especially as baggage the next victim has to be careful of and work around of while they get drawn into the net.

So after that heart rending rendition of how manipulative characters work internally, how do they work for an author/player? Most of the time when an author wants to make a manipulative character it’s to damage the hero or give them something to grow beyond. Think Mother Gothell from Rapunzel. That shit was hella abusive and emotionally manipulative! Drawn on her for inspiration. Research this shit, and then apply it. Do you want to damage the other character for hurt/comfort stuff later? Do you use it as in-character fictional catharsis? It will matter how you word it.

So be aware of what you’re doing. Do not fall for the spell of just behaving like a manipulator in text and going ‘it’s okay it’s fictional’. It will take a real toll on the other player if you do not highlight what your manipulative character is doing. Be a talkative narrator. Explain what they’re doing, at least a little bit, or you can actually fuck up people.

For instance. Let’s go back to the sniffling about lunch.

Agatha was staring at her book with the distant gaze of someone preoccupied, sniffing a third time that hour. Lloyd had, in her opinion, abandoned her for far too long to have lunch. It was time to catch his attention. She pushed out her lower lip, willing herself to look a bit more upset. She gently touched her own stomach, “Boy,” she said wistfully, “I’m quite hungry...”

This is way better for the other player to understand that she’s playing at being sad, without destroying how realistic it looks to the other character. This lays down the obvious in narration, without completely outing her in play. The next is a bad version of this scene:

Agatha sniffled, eyes glazed. Her lip was extended in a pout and her body language writ large how miserable she was, “Boy, I’m quite hungry.” She sniffed, quietly to herself to avoid Lloyd hearing. It was self-pity, a deep loneliness that ruined her reading...

Good writing! Baaaad for intent. This makes her upset look genuine (which it isn’t) which may make it harder for the other player to respond. Watch how you word things. Explain them from an outsider perspective to give an inside view of how things are working. This makes the story move easier.

Plus, you don’t wanna be that prick who goes from IC to OOC without any real distinction between the two and starts a fight because it turns out an IC woe was an OOC one, and your partner responded “wrong”. That’s you being a jerk, so don’t do that. Make sure you have a clear view of what is in character and what is out of character. It’s important, to keep the scenes strong, and to keep from your partner feeling taken advantage of when it turns out to be some massive manipulation. They may actually fall for it if you ever fall into the habit of actually hiding your intent behind a thin smoke-screen of ‘but it’s IC’.

Double check with your partner often, check that they recognize what’s going on. This may be as easy as chuckling over a scene with them ooc ((Hah, isn’t Aggie being such a jerk? Lloyd would never do that to her! )) to actually sitting down and going ((Hey you okay? This is pretty intense, and she’s clearly got him wrapped around her little finger. I wanna make sure you’re okay and know I don’t believe what she’s saying. ))

Partners are the most important thing here. Readers, on the other hand, don’t have to have an active role. They’re being fed the entire story, so you can fuck with them all you want and it’ll just be a twist happening to someone else. You can play with words, hide your intent, and slowly reveal how twisted dear old Aggie is over time, instead of putting it out there each step of the way so your friend playing lloyd can catch onto which way to write the victim into. Readers are there to absorb and get amazed and shocked and feel relatable pain, loss, and sorrow. They can stop, and walk away if it’s too much. A partner playing another character feel obligation to stick around and see how things play out even if they’re hurt. They have more creativity and time put into the situation. Remember that while you’re playing, and remember they put themselves where the character is to see what comes next. Give them respect as human beings, and don’t fucking hurt them.

So yes, how do we use this in other situations though? A suave magical emperor and his subordinates? Same concepts really, you play on emotions. If the hero is trying to stop you as the villain, you put their family in danger. You make them question their choices, you hurt them. You make them out to be the villain and you a simple victim. You point out all the ways what they’ve done could make them look bad, or hurt others. You focus on trying to make them hate themselves, or feel like there’s another path.

You try to look like a friend, if they haven’t outed your character as a villain yet, and slowly bond with them. Point out that everyone around them is gross, that they should be avoided. Praise them for things you want to see, but make subtle indications other ideas are terrible. Complain about things that other people do, but that they do as well. That’s how you work around directly confronting them before they deeply trust you. Make their world view shift to favor your opinion.

The evil wizard telling you you’re under a curse that makes everything you do seem cruel to others, so you’re constantly second guessing yourself. Pointing out what you’re doing mirrors themselves. All logical fallacies pointing to emotion as reasoning, rather than anything else. It’s a focus on guilt, on making them want to change. You don’t force, you persuade, limit their choices, and break them. The less they’re willing to trust themselves and their friends, the easier they are to sway to evil. They may even start imitating you to get your love and attention. You can train someone to be cruel.

And that, my kiddies, is how you make a villain that people fucking hate. Because the hero seems lost, and they want to yell NO! Don’t listen to Mighty Thorgar The Cruel! He’s using you! Auuugh! The more you explain why they themselves have been stuck in this career choice the more likable they are, but if you go too far you may be travelling from ‘morally grey’ into Loki and Draco fan territory where their fave did nothing wrong it was all a product of how they were raised. You can do wrong things and then grow up and change. Infants scream and fake crying to make mommy do shit too, doesn’t mean most of them won’t grow out of it.

It’s how you write that will define how people perceive things. So double check your writing, always. Make sure it reads your goals, not just reads as well written. Check with your partners, scare your readers, and let your characters prey on people’s feelings. Can they hurt them? Go for it. Just do it safely and with a reasonable definition between IC and OOC. Don’t let it get out of control with another person, ever. It hurts. Good luck on your writing.

Oh, and because I know it’ll happen... I’m sorry if you were abused like this. I’m sorry if you feel targeted. This was written for writers only, and maybe spotting habits so you can get yourself out early. If you feel called out by this post or the behaviors in it, remember that I don’t know you. That if you are offended, I’m reflecting something you don’t like. So look at yourself, and consider if you want that part of you to exist. You can change if you truly want to and are willing to monitor yourself. Good luck, and this disclaimer is so you know I am not pointing fingers at you... unless you’re the asshole who did this to me so I mean, fuck that guy.

#Roleplaying #Writing #Writing Help #Character help #RPH #TW: Abuse #TW: manipulation #TW: gaslighting

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tomeandflickcorner · 8 years

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OUAT Episode Analysis- Ill-Boding Patterns

Probably not a very good idea to expect this to be a very long analysis. But this episode actually made Nasty Habits and The Bear and the Bow look good by comparison. For the record, if any die-hard Rumple fans want to read this, please proceed with caution. While I don’t necessarily bash him in this one, I do seriously question his logic/reasoning in some places.

So let’s talk about the flashback portion first. Its right after Rumple became the Dark One, and he pops up in the middle of an Ogre War battle to pretty much disintegrate the ogres. Although, I do question his claim that he killed ‘all of them.’ If he killed ‘all’ of the ogres, wouldn’t that mean they would have been extinct, and they wouldn’t have been around during the age of Regina, Snow, Charming, Belle, etc? But maybe he just meant all the ogres on the battlefield. Either way, we’re also introduced to Beowulf in this scene, as he’s among the men who were on the battlefield. We also see him wielding the fated sword; the one with the red pommel stone. It apparently was forged with Light Magic, and that the person wielding it was sure to become a hero. Anyway, sometime later, everyone is at the tavern, singing praises to DO Rumple for having saved them from the ogres. But then Beowulf comes in, announcing to everyone that DO Rumple killed the ogres with Dark Magic, exposing him as the Dark One. The weird thing is, the people in the tavern seem genuinely surprised by this reveal. Why? I mean, these people have been living alongside Spinner Rumpelstiltskin for years now. They must have noticed his self-imposed limp is gone, and that he’s now a walking disco ball, right? What did they think caused the obvious changes? Really, why was this such a big shock to everyone in the tavern?

Regardless, time goes on, but now Boy Baelfire is being bullied because his father is the Dark One. Which is rather idiotic, if you ask me. I mean, they KNOW his father is the Dark One. It’s like picking on the offspring of a crime lord, or someone in the Mafia. It’s just something you don’t do. Because it’s gonna get you killed. Obviously, Rumple’s not happy about his kid getting picked on, and decides to have a ‘talk’ with the parents of the boys who are bullying him, despite Boy Baelfire begging him not to make it worse. Out of nowhere, some villages arrive, saying this creature called the Grundel attacked and abducted some of the men in the village. They say Beowolf went off after the monster, but he hasn’t returned, leaving them worried. Remembering how DO Rumple vanquished the ogres, they want him to go and stop the Grundel as well.

So they go off to find the Grundel, but DO Rumple’s going on about how he’s not going to use magic because he promised Boy Baelfire he wouldn’t use it anymore. Which begs the question of how he planned to deal with the Grundel, as DO Rumple didn’t really have any manner of weapon other than his magic. But the even bigger question is why he had Boy Baelfire come with him. Considering how much he claimed he wanted his son safe from the ogres, why would he bring him along on this dangerous monster hunt? In any event, on the way, Boy Baelfire finds out that DO Rumple brought his dagger with him, because he didn’t want to risk anyone finding it. After brief exchange in which Boy Baelfire compares the dagger to his father’s old crutch, DO Rumple entrusts the dagger to his son. They eventually find the cave where the Grundel lives. But then it turns out the whole thing was all just a trick set up by Beowulf to frame DO Rumple for the deaths of the men taken from the village. Because Beowulf wants everyone to see DO Rumple as a monster. He even manages to wrestle the dagger away from Boy Baelfire in order to Dagger Command DO Rumple to remain with the bodies of his ‘victims,’ so the villagers could see the ‘proof’ with their own eyes. But when Beowulf starts to go back to the village, Boy Baelfire manages to get the dagger back from him. And, after some stuff happens, he realizes that no one in the village will believe DO Rumple was framed for the deaths of those men. So, he ends up Dagger Commanding Rumple to kill Beowulf before he could reach the village.

Okay, so at first, I was all ‘what is this?’ Now, I am not a fan of Neal by any stretch of the imagination, but I did always like Boy Baelfire. And….wasn’t he always completely against Rumple using his magic? So I was wondering how they were going to explain away his sudden hypocritical attitude. But then DO Rumple, seeing his son was planning to continue using the dagger to keep the other kids from bullying him, slips a memory potion into Boy Baelfire’s tea, making him forget everything that happened after they left the cave. So now, Boy Baelfire believes his father killed Beowulf of his own accord and reacts poorly. So, fine, that little inconsistency is dealt with. But now it’s like they’re trying to paint Rumple as a good father who willingly let Boy Baelfire have the wrong idea in order to keep his son from being consumed by darkness. I don’t know. That just feels like ‘too little, too late’ to me. Besides, if DO Rumpelstiltskin was this against seeing his son’s heart become corrupted, you’d think he’d have been able to actually go with him through the bean portal instead of displaying a reluctance to give up his power. So there’s a little part of me that wonders if DO Rumple wiped Boy Baelfire’s memory because he just didn’t like the idea of someone, even his kid, controlling him via the dagger, and that it wasn’t solely out of concern for his son’s soul. Then again, I could be wrong.

On the other hand, the fact that Boy Baelfire was capable of actually wanting to use his father’s status as the Dark One to his advantage does kinda make it easier to connect him with Neal. All this time, I was stumped how such a likable, noble kid like Baelfire grew up to be a colossal d-bag like Neal. But, according to this flashback, the trait of being willing to use unsavory methods to get what he wants was a part of his character all along. The memory potion DO Rumple spiked his tea with just threw a metaphorical rug over it.

Come to think of it, however, this does bring up a tiny issue. WAAAAYYY back in S1, when August was trying to masquerade as an Adult Baelfire, Gold decides that August can’t possibly be his son because his son would never try to control him with the dagger. But again, as this episode shows, Baelfire/Neal was capable of such a thing. But I can understand how A&E would have forgotten that bit. After all, that episode aired about 6 years ago. It’s highly doubtful they go back over 6 seasons worth of material when writing episodes. The confusing OUAT timeline is proof of that.

Finally, there was that one final detail about this flashback. At one point (I think it was during the final confrontation with Beowulf, when DO Rumple and Boy Baelfire were realizing no one would doubt Beowulf’s claims against Rumpelstiltskin), Rumple is all ‘it’s okay, because we can just move somewhere else!’ Oh, really, Rumpy-Rumps? NOW you’re willing to move to another village? After refusing to even consider moving when Milah was miserable and practically begging for a fresh start somewhere else, you’re able to agree to the prospect, now? You hear that? That’s the sound of me throwing a random object across the room in aggravated frustration.

Moving on to the present day, Gideon is still plotting to kill Emma, thinking that doing so will enable him to absorb her Savior powers or something. Again, I fail to understand how he got that idea, but hopefully they’ll explain in a future episode. Maybe when he finally figures out that he’s way off base. But Gold finds him stealing the broken sword hilt from the Sheriff’s Station and magically knocks him out. He takes Gideon to the clock tower (which seems to have been fixed off camera) and they go on for a bit about Gideon’s dumb plan. At one point, I did feel bad for him. He explains how, while growing up in the Dark Realm, the copy of Her Handsome Hero that Belle gave him as a baby had been a huge comfort to him. Until the Black Fairy caught him reading it and did this whole twisted scheme to break his spirit. Essentially, she gave him a chance to stop her from beating some other kid, but Young Gideon found he couldn’t bring himself to do anything. Gideon now feels he acted like a coward, and now he needs to become a hero to redeem himself. But I say he’s being too hard on himself. When this incident occurred, Gideon was still a little boy. Even if he decided to step out of his cell, there was nothing he could have done to stop the Black Fairy from hurting that other kid. To label him a coward for that is nothing short of victim blaming. For crying out loud, people. Young Gideon was a little boy growing up in an abusive environment. He should not be blamed for being unable to fight back against his abuser. Anyone who says otherwise is a depraved jerk. Regardless, Gideon’s got it in his head that the only way he can become a hero and defeat the Black Fairy is by killing Emma. Because he’s somehow convinced that doing so will enable him to absorb her Savior Powers. Gold, instead of doing the logical thing by pointing out that Gideon could simply ask Emma to help train him in the ways of Light Magic so he’d become strong enough to defeat the Black Fairy on his own, decides to help Gideon repair the Fated Sword. Apparently, it can only be repaired with Shady Blue’s blood. Because she was the one who forged it? I didn’t quite follow that part. Regardless, because Gideon taking Blue’s blood to repair the sword would cause his heart to become darkened, Gold volunteers to take Blue’s blood himself so Gideon wouldn’t have to soil his hands or whatever. Which is stupid. It’s like hiring a hit man to kill someone. Even though it’s not your hand that pulled the trigger, the dead person’s death is still on you. How is this any different? I am asking. And again, it doesn’t explain how Gideon thinks he’ll achieve instant hero status by killing Emma. But Gold doesn’t seem to be thinking that far ahead. Not that he’d give a bat’s behind if Emma died, of course. He’s already proven that he wouldn’t hesitate to trick Emma into suicide in order to regain the power of the Dark One. So he’s probably not going to really care if Gideon kills Emma. The weird thing is that Belle seems to be going along with all of this, or at least buys the warped logic that Gideon will be unscathed by the darkness if Gold performs his dirty work for him. I just don’t know with Belle anymore. I get that this is her son and all, but he’s planning to kill someone who isn’t supposed to be an enemy because his mind is off on some bizarre tangent. Not to mention the person Gideon plans to kill is the True Love of one of Belle’s friends. (Are Belle and Killian still friends? It’s unclear.) I really don’t know what to think of Belle right now.

Meanwhile, we get a subplot with Robin Clone. It turns out the fancy box he swiped from Regina’s vault contains potions he plans to use at the town line in order to get out of Storybrooke. If you remember back to the start of the season, Evil Queenie put a barrier wall around the whole town to stop Snow and Charming from escaping when the heart-controlled Count of Monte Crisco was on the loose. And because that barrier is still up, no one can leave Storybrooke. But Robin Clone plans to try with the potions he stole from Regina and even convinces Zelena to come along, while making it known he has no intention of claiming parental rights to Baby Robyn. When they attempt to bring down the barrier, they’re intercepted by Regina. They have a bit of back and forth with Robin Clone stating he doesn’t want to live in Storybrooke, as he’ll always feel like he’s living in Robin Prime’s shadow. In the end, Regina decides to let them go. But the potions fail to bring down the barrier, so Regina promises she will search every book in her possession to find a way to remove the barrier so Robin Clone can start over elsewhere. Later on, we get a scene with Regina and Zelena, in which Regina actually acknowledges how pointless her scheme to split herself off from her ‘dark side’ was. She even seems to accept that she did the stuff Evil Queen did, finally stopping her tendency to treat Evil Queen as a separate entity. (Whether or not she lets this revelation stick this time around has yet to be seen.) Regina then comes up with a new theory about Robin Clone. She now feels that he was a test to see if she could move on with her life. A test she feels she failed. But just when I was starting to become invested in Regina’s plotline again, Regina and Zelena discover Queen Cobra has gotten out of her cage. Turns out Queen Cobra tracked down Robin Clone and somehow was able to turn back into a human. I couldn’t quite follow how it happened, to be honest. Queen Cobra just bites Robin Clone, and she’s suddenly back to being a human. However it happened, it now looks like Evil Queen and Robin Clone, who I now liken to a male Lacey, are going to team up and become the dark version of Outlaw Queen.

Finally, we get the tiny scrap of Captain Swan that was featured in the episode. I have to say, while I knew going into the episode that it was going to be a Rumple centric, I was still disappointed by the lack of attention giving to them. And no, it’s not just my shipper bias talking. Emma is the show’s main character. So what’s with her only appearing in this episode for two minutes? She at least had a bigger role in ‘Nasty Habits’ and ‘The Bear and the Bow.’ Anyway, Killian is in an emotional turmoil after finding out that he was the one responsible for the death of Charming’s father. He spends the majority of the episode at Granny’s, downing multiple shots of rum in an attempt to come to terms with it. Even so, I like that his first instinct was to go to Archie for guidance, but he had to make do with rum because Archie wasn’t in his office. When Archie runs into him at Granny’s, Killian admits that, while he knows he could take the secret to his grave, he wants to tell Emma about what he’d learned, even if it meant losing her forever. Because he genuinely believes this will be the thing that makes Emma change her mind about their relationship. After a full day of drinking and filling himself up with liquid courage, Killian finally returns home with the intention of telling Emma the truth. Unfortunately, he doesn’t get the chance. When he returns home, he’s met with a warm welcome from Emma, who reveals she stumbled across the ring. She apologizes for ruining the surprise, but invites him to ask her anyway, telling him that her answer will be ‘yes.’ Caught up in the moment, seeing Emma so willing for this to happen, Killian complies by getting down on one knee, proposing on the spot.

Obviously, I have mixed feelings about this. I am thrilled to see Emma and Killian officially engaged. And the actual proposal, while not the most flamboyant, was simple and to the point. Which is probably what Emma prefers. Not to mention how huge it is for Emma, the woman who once had walls higher than Mt. Everest and stated that she never committed to anything more than one night stands, to actually ask Killian to propose when she learns that was his intention. At the same time, it does stink that the proposal happened before Killian could admit his role in Robert’s death. But I don’t fault him for not telling Emma before proposing. Because he came to the house with the sole intention of coming clean. But Emma pretty much backed him into a corner when she revealed she found the ring he bought for her. As Killian said in ‘Street Rats,’ he wants Emma to have nothing less than her heart’s desire. Of course he wouldn’t want to let her down and dash her hopes when he sees her that eager for him to propose. And you know he’s not going to keep silent for much longer. I’ll be surprised if he doesn’t spill in the next episode. I just hope Evil Queen doesn’t beat him to it, seeing as how she’s back. If she even knows, that is. It’s unknown at the moment, but the fact that she was the one who made Charming aware that his father’s death wasn’t an accident does make one question what she was trying to accomplish by telling him that.

(Click here to read more Episode Analyses)

#ouat episode analysis #ouat 6x13 #ill-boding patterns #slightly anti Rumpelstiltskin #anti neal cassidy #milah deserved better #regina mills #does this count as anti regina?#zelena #wish robin #killian jones #emma swan #captain swan

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getpregnant-blog1 · 5 years

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How Can Adult Children Relieve Tension?

New Post has been published on http://www.karanschmidt.com/2019/05/27/how-can-adult-children-relieve-tension/

How Can Adult Children Relieve Tension?

Continual exposure, during the two decades of an adult child’s upbringing, to fear, trauma, abuse, and survival-oriented reactions created by parental dysfunction, alcoholism, and abuse prime him for significant, sometimes chronic tension, even later in life when triggers spark earlier, unresolved incidents or he is confronted with circumstances those from safe, secure, and stable homes may not perceive e as so daunting. What, then, is tension?

A psychological manifestation and sensation, it can be perceived as an internal tightness, resulting in elevated heart and blood pressure levels and the release of stress hormones. Like a giant, interior rubber band, it deludes the person into believing that it stretches to its maximum length, leaving him to believe that if something is not done to release its tenacity, it will imminently snap. At other times, it feels as if his brain were in an ever tightening vice. An adult child assuredly experienced these “on the edge” sensations during a major portion of his childhood, as the mere entry into the room of his controlling parent caused him to retreat within himself, cease all pleasurable focuses, and prepare for the next blame, shame, or harm. Tension can be the uncomfortable internal state that alerts: Something is about to happen! Get ready for it!

Later-in-life tension, despite the absence of the rigid parent and even a departure from the person’s home environment, can be self-created for four principle reasons.

1). A perceived obstacle to the attainment or successful completion of a goal or endeavor, which can be considered significant and important.

2). A conscious or subconscious perception that a person, place, or thing poses a potential threat and approximates the detrimental circumstances of his upbringing, such as an authority figure, who represents the displaced image of his parent.

3). The resultant consequences if the physical, mental, and/or emotional obstacle is not surmounted so that the goal can be reached, whether that goal be sheer safety or an actual accomplishment of some type.

4). The inability to triumph over the restriction.

I once asked someone which would create more tension about passing a college course and attaining his degree-the ability to write his name on a piece of paper or the requirement to research and write a 20-page term pager, use at least five sources, and do so in under an hour? The latter, obviously, carries three of the tension-creating elements: the need to complete a significant goal (write the term paper), the consequences of that inability (failure of the course), and the impossibility of doing so in a sixty-minute interval.

I doubt that writing a person’s name on a piece of paper to pass a university-level class would produce very much tension for anyone.

Already a cultivated victim, having had parental abuse or even insanity demonstrated as indicative of human behavior, and diminished in resources and development, an adult child may create an even deeper tension when confronted with certain aspects of life that carry these elements, discovering that the more he thinks his way into his helpless ability to overcome his obstacles, the more inhibited he becomes in overcoming them. He eventually forces himself into a mentally imposed prison and throws away the key.

Examination of my own tensions indicates that my subconscious is usually superimposing a present-time situation on an unresolved past-time incident, regenerating the inner child retreat, who was assuredly powerless, helpless, and tool-less, along with the fears, danger, traumas, incapacitations, and immobilizations experienced during its time of necessary creation.

Surmounting obstacles as an adult with these inabilities as a child, needless to say, creates tremendous tension, as the former states, “I have to prevail over this,” but the latter replies, “I can’t. I don’t know how!”

The more he tries, the greater becomes tension’s grip, until he is jammed by it.

Tension’s solutions, which can perhaps more accurately be labeled “tension’s relievers,” are many, but all depend upon the amount of recovery and the ability to pause and assess which of the three brain areas the person is operating from: the brain stem (amygdala-induced reactions), mid (emotions), or upper (logic, reasoning, and executive functioning). That “stop and think” strategy could be the threshold to varying degrees of release and relief, and can threshold several successful strategies.

The adult child, first and foremost, must realize that his past, tension-building reactions most likely never worked before and therefore will not work now. Instead, they will only tighten their grip on him.

Indeed, the solution is paradoxically not tightening his hold on its resign, but instead releasing it and surrendering it to a Higher Power, as he realizes that he is too limited and restricted to find all solutions within him. Because he was forced to do exactly that during his upbringing in the midst of deficient, abandoning parents, it may require significant recovery and “turning over” attempts before he is successful with the effort.

“‘Let go and let God ‘teaches us to release problems that trouble and confuse us because we are not able to solve them by ourselves,” according to Al-Anon’s “Courage to Change” text (Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc., 1992, p. 321).

The adult child must realize that his unresolved childhood issues and the helplessness they now generate are only blocking him and thus causing his tension build-up, not reduction.

Tantamount to understanding his tension-producing stressors is the determination of their intensity and severity. If they are particularly amplified and out-of-proportion for the emotions they create, then he can suspect that his past is playing out in his present without his awareness. Consideration of when he had similar feelings, particularly during his upbringing, may time-peg the incident and re-shelve it, considerably relieving his tension.

When I have used this method, my abusive father’s image has appeared and with that realization the tension has subsided, because I found myself chewing on an earlier-life episode that was feeding the fires of the later-in-life one.

There are several other tension relieving methods, whose effectiveness, based upon personal experience, has varied according to occasion and intensity.

When my internal circuit breaker seems like it is about to pop, the energy that causes it can be diffused or dissipated by speaking either with a sponsor or a trusted friend.

“Many of us have discovered that the telephone can be a life line between meetings,” according to “Courage to Change” (ibid, p. 116). “… A particularly useful time for Al-Anon phone calls is when we are preparing to do something new or frightening. Many of us ‘book-end’ these actions. We make an Al-Anon call before taking the action and we follow (it) with a second call. For those of us who have always acted alone, there is a way to share our risks and our courage with others who will love and support us, no matter what happens.”

Another relieving method is pressing the personal “pause” button by interrupting the building intensity with other, more pleasurable activities or focuses. Like a loop, tensions continually run the same circular track in the brain and heavy emotions ensure that they remain impressed into it, unable to locate the happier “off ramp.”

“Sometimes a horse refuses to obey a rider’s command and races out of control,” advises “Courage to Change” (ibid, p. 306). “My thoughts can do this too, when I frantically try, over and over, to solve a difficult problem… When my thoughts race out of control, I need to stop. I need to do this by breathing deeply and looking at my surroundings. It can help to replace the obsessive thoughts with something positive… “

Awareness of the mind’s thoughts and refocusing on external stimuli is known as “mindfulness.”

Light music, a comedy television show, taking a drive, and communing with nature, particularly on a warm, spring day, have all aided me in releasing my mind’s grip from tension’s track.

“When I’m trying to tackle a tough problem or cope with a stressful situation, and I’ve done all I can for the moment, what then?” asks “Courage to Change” (ibid, p. 290). “I can do something that will nurture my mind, body, or spirit. Perhaps I’ll take a walk or listen to music.”

During such walks, I myself have gazed up toward and temporarily immersed myself in the sky’s infinity, realizing how small I and my tension-provoking problems really are in relation to it all.

At times I also think of the friends and relatives who had once been a part of my life, but who are no longer in life, and wonder how important my concerns are in relation to their eternal existences now. How many, I can only ask myself, care that 20 or so years ago, when they were alive, that they had had a “bad hair day?” How, then, can I continue to view my own worries and trepidations with any degree of lasting severity?

As these efforts enable me to adopt new perspectives, my tensions-and the circumstances that cause them-begin to dissolve. I stand on the physical platform designated earth and negotiate the life I have been given in my imperfect and impermanent state the best way I can until someday, like those who preceded me, my cares and concerns will collapse into meaninglessness.

Sources:

“Courage to Change.” Virginia Beach, Virginia: Al-Anon Family Group Headquarters, Inc., 1992.

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automatismoateo · 7 years

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Imagine a world without religion. via /r/atheism

Submitted November 30, 2017 at 04:09AM by whaliam (Via reddit http://ift.tt/2Aferdj) Imagine a world without religion.

I've been working on this for a while. Some of it I transcribed from a couple of popular atheist YouTubers and formatted it to fit into an argument.

Imagine a world without religion.

Imagine a world where you never hear the headline, “Faith-healing parents charged with murder in death of premature twin baby.” A world, where individuals never failed to send for medical aid when their newborn baby stopped breathing.

The majority of states have laws protecting parents and religious leaders from prosecution relating to child neglect, abuse or even death for withholding medical care on religious grounds. Imagine a world without needless suffering from faith-healing.

Imagine a world where bigots had to admit that their gay-hatred is their own idea. Where they can no longer say it’s not them, but it’s their god’s standards that command it. Imagine a world with no religious arguments against gay-marriage, one where people aren’t stoned or beheaded just for being queer. Imagine a world where no one has to be ashamed to be their true self. Imagine a world without religion.

Imagine a world without religiously motivated wars. Without egregious acts of terrorism deeply rooted in indoctrination. A world where we can come together and build a better society together without suicide bombings and IED’s.

Imagine a world where no one ever tried to claim jurisdiction over the experience of others based on their take on ‘faith’.

Imagine a world without Scientology. Imagine a world where society would never of allowed an idea of the sort to be nurtured into fruition. Today this ‘religion’ is worth over 1.75 billion dollars and is responsible for destroying countless lives. Imagine a world where this money was used for the betterment of society through studies of reason, philosophy and logic.

Imagine a world where nothing said or written is ever taken on the authority of the speaker or writer. One where every claim accepted is held only to the proportional evidence. One where such evidence and its interpretation is continually challenged, recirculated and made readily available to the masses. One where supporting claims are not only also readily available but also frequently accessed.

Imagine a world where people aren’t constantly killing each other over their imaginary creator on a daily basis.

Imagine a world where people can have reasonable discussions despite a difference in ideas. Imagine a world where people aren’t scared for their lives over the criticism of such ideas. Imagine a world where we don’t make excuses for extremists just because someone offended their religion. Imagine a world without organized religion. Imagine a world without Islam. A world where the freedom of ideas doesn’t mean the risk of human lives every single day.

Imagine a world without hijab, where you can see the wind blow through an Iranian women’s hair; or at least, imagine a world without niqab where you might be able to at least see her face. At the very least imagine a world without burqa so you can see her eyes. Better yet, let’s imagine a world without Islam.

Imagine a world where people didn’t spend millions of dollars attempting to cure a disease in a manner that isn’t evidence based. Countless lives are lost because people fall victim to pseudoscientific practices in a vain attempt to cure a disease in a way that often does more harm than good. Envision a reality where no belief in the supernatural or pseudoscience would allow for this to happen, then ask yourself would such a reality be one with fewer atrocities in favor of greater health and happiness? In doing so you take the first step in making that reality our very own.

Imagine a world where people gave serious thought to such questions such as: why we love, why we exist and why we consider some actions moral and some immoral. Where we continuously test the depth of these mysteries and use our findings to make society better, instead of just deciding that they are all innate spiritual qualities that must come from god. Imagine a world where no one claims that there can’t be secular answers to these questions simply because they decided to stop thinking about them.

Imagine a world that wasn’t saturated by mainstream religion. One where undue reverence isn’t given to ideas that are equally absurd as any mythology that we have left in the dust. This normalizing of religion is the stagnation in society. This prevents an honest dialogue from happening. Imagine if we could strip all of the emotion out of these arguments, all of the heritage and all of the baggage and debate ideas solely on their merit.

Imagine a world without religious moral authorities, when faced with an action that conflicts with our core beliefs we tend to rationalize it to avoid the mental conflict between doing something bad and being a good person. One common way of doing this is reflecting that responsibility onto an authority. “I didn’t have a choice because my god commands it.” If there were no religious authorities in the world, people would no longer have the option to shove their responsibilities onto an intangible, infallible and unchallengeable moral authority. Violent acts could no long be passed off as “Obeying the will of god.” Of course the same can be said about human moral authoritarians, however a human is infinitely more times tangible, fallible and challengeable as compared to an omniscient being.

Imagine a world where religious reverence isn’t used as a shield for pedofiles. So that they can be recirculated into finding new victims.

Imagine a world where children aren’t fearful of eternal damnation in hell just for being themselves.

Imagine a world where it wasn’t taught that prayer or communication with God could solve all of the world’s problems. Imagine if during the wake of a national disaster all the people that gather for prayer instead gathered to give aid.

Imagine a world where morals or rules weren’t dictated by ancient texts.

Imagine the capacity of science today had it been able to advance without the hinderance of religion convictions. Envision a society where research in stem cells has birthed new methods of curing cancers and allowing people to walk, hear and see again. Imagine a world where no longer would someone’s religious views cause another to live their life in pain.

Imagine a world without honor killing; where gays don’t live in fear of their lives. A world where women around the world are treated without respect, given equal opportunity and are treated like human beings.

Imagine a world without Christianity . . .

Imagine a world without Islam . . .

Imagine a society without religion.

#reddit

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stevejehovahbible · 7 years

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Chapter 7&8: How Abram our fore-father went out to Canaan, and there was a famine in Canaan, so Abram went thence into Egypt. by: Flavius Josephus

1. Now Abram having no son of his own, adopted Lot, his brother Haran’s son, and his wife Sarai’s brother; and he left the land of Chaldea, when he was seventy five years old: and at the command of God went into Canaan, and therein he dwelt himself, and left it to his posterity. He was a person of great sagacity, both for understanding all things, and persuading his hearers, and not mistaken in his opinions. For which reason he began to have higher notions of virtue than others had; and he determined to renew and to change the opinion all men happened then to have concerning God. For he was the first that ventured to publish this notion, that there was but One God, the Creator of the Universe: and that as to other [Gods], if they contributed any thing to the happiness of men, that each of them afforded it only according to his appointment, and not by their own power. I love this Abram apologetics! So he can show that when it comes to OTHER gods, the things they appear to do are just coincidences. That men are not blessed or cursed by them. They just THINK they are. But for some reason he can’t apply the same reasoning to HIS God. Sound familiar?

This his opinion was derived from the irregular phenomena that were visible both at land and sea; as well as those that happen to the sun, and moon, and all the heavenly bodies, thus: “If [said he] these bodies had power of their own, they would certainly take care of their own regular motions: but since they do not preserve such regularity, they make it plain that in so far as they co-operate to our advantage, they do it not of their own abilities, but as they are subservient to him that commands them: to whom alone we ought justly to offer our honour and thanksgiving.” For which doctrines when the Chaldeans and other people of Mesopotamia raised a tumult against him, he thought fit to leave that country; and at the command, and by the assistance of God, he came and lived in the land of Canaan. And when he was there settled, he built an altar, and performed a sacrifice to God.

“I don’t know where the sun goes at night. Therefore, God.” Now after this, when a famine had invaded the land of Canaan, and Abram had discovered that the Egyptians were in a flourishing condition, he was disposed to go down to them: both to partake of the plenty they enjoyed, and to become an auditor of their Priests, and to know what they said concerning the Gods: designing either to follow them, if they had better notions than he; or to convert them into a better way, if his own notions proved the truest. This idea, I actually love. He’s willing to listen to them if they have more sense than him, and he want’s to sway them to his ideas if they seem more sound. I wish more people did that.

Now seeing he was to take Sarai with him, and was afraid of the madness of the Egyptians with regard to women, lest the King should kill him on occasion of his wife’s great beauty, he contrived this device: He pretended to be her brother; and directed her in a dissembling way to pretend the same: for he said, it would be for their benefit. “The madness of the Egyptians with regards to women”... is that a thing? I’ve never heard that before. Are Egyptians known for going feral around the ladies? Do they just rape everything that comes into Egypt wearing a skirt?

Now as soon as they came into Egypt, it happened to Abram as he supposed it would. For the fame of his wife’s beauty was greatly talked of: for which reason Pharaoh, the King of Egypt, would not be satisfied with what was reported of her, but would needs see her himself; and was preparing to enjoy her. But God put a stop to his unjust inclinations, by sending upon him a distemper, and a sedition against his government. I like that this account makes sure you know Sarai never got violated. The word of God didn’t bother to, but this unreliable historian has taken the time to make sure we know she didn’t actually get to inspect the Sphinx. But God stepped in. Just like He didn’t with Jaycee Dugard. Just like He didn’t with Colleen Stan. Just like He didn’t with Elizabeth Smart. Just like He doesn’t with the alleged 237,868 victims of sexual assault or rape in the United States EVERY YEAR. Let’s also take a moment to appreciate that in this version, God gives them the flu AND political upheaval. Because He can I guess.

And when he enquired of the Priests, how he might be freed from these calamities, they told him, that his miserable condition was derived from the wrath of God, upon account of his inclinations to abuse the stranger’s wife. So the priests who serve other gods knew that she was his wife? Sounds like their gods are better than Abrams God. Or maybe what they said was, “eh... the strangers could have something to do with it maybe?”

He then, out of fear, asked Sarai who she was and who it was that she brought along with her? And when he had found out the truth, he excused himself to Abram, that supposing the woman to be his sister, and not his wife, he set his affections on her, as desiring an affinity with him by marrying her; but not as incited by lust to abuse her. Totally wasn’t gonna rape her brah. Swear. What’s that? “Then why did God strike my people with a plague and upset my government?” Mysterious ways brah. You know how it is.

He also made him a large present in money; and gave him leave to enter into conversation with the most learned among the Egyptians. From which conversation, his virtue and his reputation became more conspicuous than they had been before. The bible says literally NONE of this. Weird.

2. For whereas the Egyptians were formerly addicted to different customs, and despised one another’s sacred and accustomed rites, and were very angry one with another on that account; Abram conferred with each of them, and confuting the reasonings they made use of, every one for their own practices, he demonstrated that such reasonings were vain, and void of truth. Whereupon he was admired by them, in those conferences, as a very wise man, and one of great sagacity, when he discoursed on any subject he undertook; and this not only in understanding it, but in persuading other men also to assent to him. He communicated to them Arithmetick; and delivered to them the science of Astronomy. For before Abram came into Egypt they were unacquainted with those parts of learning: for that science came from the Chaldeans into Egypt; and from thence to the Greeks also. Abram learned science, and logic, and math from the goats and sheep I guess, and then passed it on to the Egyptians. Suuuuuure. I believe this so much. It totally doesn’t sound made up and entirely backwards.

#logic #atheism #God #Religion #apologetics

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