#mainstream narratives

[in-sightpublishing]

Conversation with Ginger Coy on Psychology of Conspiracy Theorists in America: Independent Journalist

                      Publisher: In-Sight Publishing Publisher Founding: March 1, 2014 Web Domain: http://www.in-sightpublishing.com Location: Fort Langley, Township of Langley, British Columbia, Canada Journal: In-Sight: Independent Interview-Based Journal Journal Founding: August 2, 2012 Frequency: Three (3) Times Per Year Review Status: Non-Peer-Reviewed Access: Electronic/Digital & Open…

[generalelectionmusings]

[finalgirlsamwinchester]

realised. dean is the perfect viewer avatar for a horror show. he gets to be both the action hero and the quippy, self-aware wiseguy who knows he's in a horror show. he provides a safe point; a comfortable power fantasy for you to experience a story through. he's ash in the evil dead. he's a gunslinging tough guy, and you get to see those moments where heroism sits on his shoulders like an ill-fitting leather jacket. and even when he gets his turn at being captured and victimised by the narrative, it's filtered through this mythic lens first. he's the tormented hero; tortured by villains, tortured by the constraints of his role. yeah he gets bruised, beaten bloody to a pulp, torn to shreds and killed, but his perception of reality never gets thrown into serious doubt (unless it's played out as a gag). the narrative valorises his sense of right and wrong, because that's what heroic stories do. their heroes provide moral center, regardless of how we might judge them. the lines dividing hero, anti-hero, and villian are paper thin, and dean isn't truly ever allowed to be ambiguous. and the hero always wins in the end, even when he dies.

meanwhile sam is the abject object of the horror show, a character who gets trussed up, chased, tied up, ripped apart, cut into, possessed, exploited, manipulated and psychologically hounded. he's carrie covered in pig's blood. he's the marginal person people are cheering on either to die - or to live past it all. he gets his turn at playing both movie monster and victim, always occupying the liminal space between both. abject horror lives within him. he's violated with demon blood, he consumes demon blood. he hates halloween because he vomited his guts up in front of a room of normal children. he will never get to be normal, he's designated the freak on multiple levels, but most significantly, by the way his narrative frames him. he's living inside a world that is at its core, fundamentally frightening and horrifying - full control over himself and his surroundings is always slipping away, just beyond his reach. his grip on reality and the world around him gets thrown into question by the story consistently. what's right? what's wrong? what's real? what isnt? the narrative punishes him - because that's what happens to you when you're living in a horror. he can never run away from his nightmare reality, it catches up to him like a curse nipping at his heels. the only way out for him is through the punishing fire. in order to survive, he's required to be pushed to the absolute brink of instability; emotionally, physically and mentally. he emerges out the other end, barely holding it together but somehow alive - like the bloody final girl, changed irrevocably by what she's experienced.

[fellhellion]

looking up video essays analysing the queer themes of persona 4 has been such an Experience. You will ping pong between white men condescending to u that there’s absolutely no way to read queer subtext (LET ALONE TEXT!) and tiny channels made by queer fans passionately explaining their readings of this game.

[nadekofannumber1]

I’m pretty convinced the way they’re gonna break up the episodes for next season is that they’re gonna sprinkle the rest of the waza episodes around for the sake of keeping up the feeling of an ongoing narrative abt Shinobu and deathtopia via consistant character appearance to have the feeling of buildup maintained. In the sense that yoimono has decent amount of Shinobu appearance but Amari and ougimono have less and if they wanted to engage in the flow of Shinobu posting to be constant for the build to shinomono in the way Nadeko’s appearances would be, they’d probably put them around there for the sake of hype.

However that is subject to change depending on how they do musubi which I can see them do a direct run through, sprinkling it next shinomono, putting individual episodes next to the 3 arcs b4 shinomono specifically to max them out for the vibe (most evil option) or doing an ova.

I think that for the rest of oraka putting sodachi fiasco as an opener to the next season and putting suruga bonehead some point after but before ougimono (I’d say that between yoi and Amari is likely bc of digestion time but also the fact we don’t have that second resolution and if you put it directly next to ougimono its gonna feel like they’re hyping towards a plot that isn’t actually gonna be resolved soon but doing that is nisio core so I’d accept it. But realistically because of the overarching Gaen izuko subplot that comes to a head by shinomono it makes sense to perform that same build up as a parallel. Really I think the best time to look at those arcs is in novel order but we can’t do that now, big signs that say look at Gaen plot will probably be successionally happening bc of this. So I think getting it in early has its merits esp if they’re going with buildup)

[thorniest-rose]

find it really fascinating that modern shows about queer characters and queer desire & romance are all very sweet and twee and funny (Heartstopper, Good Omens, OFMD, also that Red, White & Royal Blue movie)... where are the shows about queer desire that are violent and messy and hard-hitting? I want stories where queer desire is something carnal and complicated,,, these other examples all feel so safe and antiseptic.

[ivan-fyodorovich-k]

Person who thinks literally everything is a deep-state conspiracy: getting some real deep-state conspiracy vibes from this

[tmarshconnors]

The Modern-Day Witch Hunt

The label "far-right" today carries as much weight and destruction as the cry of "witch!" did in the Middle Ages. 

No evidence needed, no investigation necessary just one accusation, and suddenly you're cast out, demonised, and ostracised. The term has become a catch-all, a convenient way to smear anyone who dares challenge the mainstream narrative. And I'm angry. I'm angry because this label isn't about protecting society from extremists it's about shutting people up, getting rid of the ones the powers that be don't like.

In the Middle Ages, women (and occasionally men) were labeled witches for everything from being a bit too independent to knowing how to use herbs. The accusations came without evidence, often based on hearsay, jealousy, or fear. The mob didn't care about facts. They cared about punishment. It was a tool for control, a way to silence the different, the non-conforming, the inconvenient.

Sound familiar?

Today, the new word hurled around with reckless abandon is "far-right." Disagree with the government? Far-right. Question mainstream media? Far-right. Express a thought that isn't perfectly in line with the social justice warrior handbook? Well, congratulations—you’re a Nazi now. There's no debate, no dialogue, no effort to understand why someone might hold a different view. Just an accusation. And just like the Middle Ages, it sticks. It sticks hard. The label isn't just a political designation anymore; it's a moral condemnation. The implication is that if you're "far-right," you’re evil. 

You must be silenced.

And here’s the kicker—there’s no real definition of what "far-right" even means anymore. It’s nebulous, vague, and deliberately broad. They’ve weaponised the term so that it applies to anyone they want to get rid of. You can be fiscally conservative and socially moderate, but God forbid you utter the wrong opinion on immigration, gender, or healthcare. The second you step out of line, there it is you're branded. Once you're marked, you're banished from polite society, canceled, and pushed into the margins.

Just like a witch.

The hypocrisy of it all is staggering. The same people who claim to be champions of tolerance and free speech are the ones waving the torches, lighting the pyres, and throwing around the accusations. They preach about "inclusion," but only if you subscribe to their ideology. If not, you’re not just excluded you’re demonised. They don’t want discourse; they want conformity. They don't want dialogue; they want obedience.

The modern witch hunts are real, and they are vicious. It’s not enough to disagree with someone’s politics anymore—you have to destroy them, strip them of their humanity, and reduce them to a two-dimensional villain. It’s lazy, it’s cowardly, and it’s dangerous.

In the Middle Ages, they drowned, hanged, or burned the ones they called witches. Today, they do it differently, but the outcome is the same. They ruin careers, smear reputations, and incite mobs to tear down anyone who dares dissent. The tools may have changed, but the intent hasn’t: silence the inconvenient, punish the different, and maintain control.

I refuse to stand by and watch as this modern witch hunt tears our society apart. The next time someone throws around the label "far-right," ask them what they mean. Demand evidence. Don’t let them get away with vague, slanderous accusations. Because today, it's someone else being labeled. Tomorrow, it could be you.

And I’ll be damned if I stand in silence, watching another pyre being lit.

[hiddenbysuccubi]

"Why's it necessary to have transphobes calling X character their deadname-" To show exactly what we face. That it is ugly and unnecessary. To parallel their grandmum fumbling but doing their best. To show how I still have to hear my birth name in legal settings. To show that my mom isn't really an ally but is trying for my sake. to show humanity and that it isn't just easy A B C the character is This without even Trying. To connect with a varied audience. Why the entirety of fuck do you want it sugar coated and dumbed down for you? In a perfect world yes it DOESN'T MATTER. But for how often it does matter - IT MATTERS. It matters that I get to see this character facing the harship I have faced AND SHRUGGING IT OFF. It does MATTER that their family accepts them even if they struggle with correcting the pronoun they use. The Star Beast handled this correctly and I'm glad our LGBT rep producer handled this the way he did. I'm sorry that the younger generations don't appreciate this the way I do.

[tavtime]

headcanoning monogamous characters as polyamorous is free, fun, and easy to do! additionally, it is always both cool and sexy 😎

[hans-garden]

"ugh high support needs autistics are overrepresented/get all the representation" and are these high support needs characters in the room with us right now

[ishouldreallybeelsewhere]

Episode one of Supernatural is so flawed that, had I watched it for the first time last night (instead of for the third), I would not have have watched the second. Ever. The flaws are things I simply didn't pick up on when I was thirteen, and memory glazed over with emotional attachment. I understand why these flaws are there, what the writers tried and failed to do through clumsy dialogue and strange character decisions. There's no subtlety. Everything Sam says is direct exposition, specifically the things that he would not have to say to his brother.

I do not do reviews so that's all I'm going to say.

[biarritzzz]

The French left pretending that a XY boxer is a woman or that it wasn’t a man in skirt who won the Prix d’interprétation féminine in Cannes last spring.

If you are lying about something as fundamental as biological sex, material reality and genetics, then what else are you lying about?

It’s not ‘far-right’ to point out that a man is a man. It’s a fact.

[o-the-mts]

Just like Hitler before him, Trump is benefiting from the fact that journalism is an incremental, daily business. Every day, reporters have to find something new to write or broadcast. Trump keeps saying dangerous and crazy things, but that’s not new. He’s said it all before. His impeachments and the January 6 insurrection happened years ago. True, he has been indicted four times and now faces up to four criminal trials, but that’s already been reported. What’s new today? For political reporters covering the campaign, that means usually treating Trump’s authoritarian promises as “B-matter.” That’s an old newspaper phrase that refers to the background information that reporters gather about a story’s subject. B-matter is usually exiled to the bottom of an article — if not cut entirely to save space or time. But the horrifying truth is that when Trump’s dictatorial ambitions are left on the cutting room floor as B-matter, America is in trouble.

The Media Still Doesn’t Grasp the Danger of Trump

[rondoel]

People who enjoyed Outer Wilds, I think you’d also like The Swapper.

It’s another indie space game with stunning visuals, beautiful music, fun puzzles and amazing existential narrative.

I remember the ending leaving longest lasting impression on me of any game I’ve ever played. Seriously shook me to my core.

Here’s my absolutely favourite piece of soundtrack as an incentive: