#neurodivergence and indoctrination

[askanautistic]

Indoctrination: avoiding the undue influence of high control groups.

Anyone can be indoctrinated into a high control group. No one is immune to propaganda or manipulation, and in the right circumstances, targeted by the right person/people, and fed the right info, anyone can be indoctrinated. Being intelligent or strong minded doesn't prevent this manipulation from taking hold. Lots of highly intelligent and very strong-minded people become very enthusiastic cult members, possibly even bolstered by their own self-perception.

Intelligent people are prime targets - cults need people who are useful to them: people with qualifications, job roles and titles, people who are knowledgeable in their field. They make good spokespeople, they inspire trust from outsiders, prospective recruits, and current members. Sometimes they can also be useful in very practical ways (scientists backing your claims, or having lawyers advising on or fighting legal battles). People who have been indoctrinated are victims, even if they then go on to victimise people themselves.

So it’s important to be aware of what high control groups are, how they control people, and what to look out for.

What is a high control group? Most groups will exert some kind of influence over members. There are rules, hierarchies, and a popular viewpoint in most organisations. High control groups tend to have a range of behaviours that mean their control over members is fairly extreme (even if it’s not always obvious to the members or to outsiders that that’s the case – after all, part of the point of mind control is that the victims are unaware just how much they’re being manipulated and controlled).

We usually think of high control groups as being the more stereotypical religious cults and extremist groups (like the Moonies, or ISIS), but it’s also possible for this manipulation and control to happen on less extreme or obvious levels and in less rigidly controlled ways. The internet makes it easier to get a wider reach and maintain control over long distances and without having to meet in person. There are cultish groups that operate almost exclusively via long distance, using extremely long video chats and phone calls to keep members exhausted, busy, and under the influence of the group. There are others that gain followers via vlogging, and then gradually move towards in person meetings, and setting up living spaces for members where they can exert more control over them. There are spaces on the internet where people are radicalised and propaganda spreads rapidly, with ease – nowadays the internet means that high control groups can bypass a lot of the physical aspects of control commonly employed by cult groups. For example, incel culture often spreads online.

Again, not all of this necessarily means that a high control group is obviously involved or people are being recruited into a cult. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion (a long debunked antisemitic hoax) was being spread around fairly recently on Tiktok as if it’s a genuine thing, and that didn’t involve viewers of those videos joining a group or doing anything other than viewing, believing and sharing. But it’s very easy for high control groups to use the internet, and to update how they recruit or how they spread their doctrine. So it’s important to be able to recognise these issues, and protect yourself (and people you know).

What might be the added risk factors for an autistic person? There are various traits associated with autism/neurodivergence that would make it seem that we’d be less likely to be unduly influenced. We often perceive ourselves as being strong-willed/stubborn, not following the crowd, having a strong sense of justice, being 'sensitive', or being hyper-empathetic. Whether or not these self-perceptions are accurate, they create a false sense of security and also allows people to excuse their behaviour based on how they perceive themselves.

'This mistreatment of someone we consider 'the other' must be justice, because I am big on justice.' 'I cannot possibly be doing or saying anything that's prejudiced or cruel because I am hyper-empathetic and that's just not something someone as empathetic as me would do!'

So self-perception might make it harder to accept that someone is being/has been indoctrinated.

There are also lots of neurodivergent traits that would make someone vulnerable to indoctrination. Lots of neurodivergent people are very friendly and agreeable, might lack confidence and not be very assertive so might be more likely to follow than lead, might want to fit in and so might be just as likely to follow trends/be influenced.

Some might have a poor sense of self due to masking and so a group might be able to impose an identity on those people. Hyper-empathy/being sensitive might make it easier for someone to manipulate your emotions. A strong sense of justice might also be manipulated by the right dis- or mis-information. Taking things literally and possibly being more likely to believe what you're told can play a part. Being loyal is a good thing, usually; loyalty to or trust in friends or to groups you're affiliated with might make it more likely you'll agree with them/follow them. Developing a social strategy that involves mimicking peers (so following their script) might lend itself to mimicking recruiters/other members of a high control group, and their more rigid and definite way of communicating and behaving might make it easier to mimic and make the scripts and rules quite appealing. Black and white thinking can be very compatible with a cult organisation's oversimplification of complex and nuanced issues/with strong us vs them dichotomies.

When someone is/has been a victim of bullying, is/has been excluded and ostracised, we tend to assume that they’ll be kinder to others, but lots of people who experience being left out or belittled will go on to do that to others because it makes them feel more powerful and because they want to remain on the inside (and sometimes, part of creating/maintaining/remaining in an ingroup, means ensuring that there are undesirables on the outside). Or someone might join in with bullying behaviours as self-preservation – to avoid being ostracised and victimised themselves.

Lacking social skills and a desire for belonging might make an autistic person vulnerable to the ‘love bombing’ of a high influence group. In the initial stages, recruiters and other members will act like they’re your friends, to convince you to attend events and to convince you that you are valued and respected by the group. Being praised for doing and saying the right things might feel good, and later it might feel bad to be criticised for questioning or doubting the doctrine.

What should we look out for? There are cultish aspects to almost any kind of group that's pitted against another in some way. Not everything 'cultish' is the sign of a cult. People become very tribal when they align with groups - whether it's a political group, a football team, or even something like iPhone vs android or Coke vs Pepsi! It's very easy to adopt an 'us vs them' dichotomy without it necessarily meaning that someone is bring indoctrinated into a high control group that will cause them or others damage. However, in some groups, these aspects of human behaviour are manipulated and become tools for control. The dichotomy will be absolute/extreme. There will also be other factors in play, like the group controlling what information their members access, whether that’s by banning certain books or access to media, not allowing someone to visit friends or family, or whether it’s ensuring that you distrust outsiders/anyone who doesn’t follow the cult doctrine (so that if you do engage with outsiders you will not do so in good faith - you will not listen to outsiders and so won’t allow them to make you doubt the doctrine). Members of cults are routinely and intentionally deceived by those above them and often don't know the actual intentions of the organisation.

Here I break down some of the criteria of mind control/thought reform, so that you might be better able to recognise it. The more of these things you notice, the more likely the group is a high control group that it might be best to avoid. Some of these things might be subtle enough that it’s hard to identify them. Steven Hassan's BITE model of mind control: Behaviour Control In more stereotypical ‘cults’, this often involves members being told where to live, who to live with, having their sleep schedules and diets controlled, etc. People who are tired and malnourished or overworked are easier to control. Members are kept closed off from others in some way (whether physically or mentally), and are often told what to spend their time doing. There's lots of chanting and 'meditation' type activities that create the perfect mindset for indoctrination. In some groups people are told what to wear – this might be a uniform of sorts, or some limit on what kind of things are allowed (colours, fasteners, etc). Members are indoctrinated to control their own behaviour, and often go on to control each other's behaviour by ensuring there are consequences for not saying or doing the right things, not following the doctrine closely enough, etc.

Information Control Any source that isn't cult-approved is seen as unreliable and is rejected. Many more powerful high influence groups have members who work on editing Wikipedia entries about anything that might be linked to the group or the group’s dogma in some way, and might own organisations under different names to ensure that the top online search entries are all positive (and any information they don’t want you to have is buried under lots of positive, cult-approved entries). The sources people most rely on for quick info (and that comes up at the top of searches) is therefore full of propaganda and misinformation. This prevents members or prospective members from seeing anything that might cause them to have doubts. The high control group controls the narrative.

Thought Control Members are 'indoctrinated so thoroughly that they internalize the group doctrine, incorporate a new language system, and use thought-stopping techniques to keep their mind "centred".' They chant (even phrases that they don't understand the full meaning of, and even in languages they don't understand), give words new meaning (loaded language) to create barriers between communication with anyone outside of the group (who doesn’t use the words in the same way/doesn’t understand the group language).

'Since language provides the symbols we use for thinking, using only certain words serves to control thoughts. Cult language is totalistic and therefore condenses complex situations, labels them, and reduces them to cult cliches.' (Hassan) We see the same words repeated over and over and over, and it does exactly that - oversimplifies and prevents critical thought or good faith discussion that would lead to the cult losing power over its members.

Emotional Control They use the emotions of their members to manipulate them. This might vary from inducing euphoria to create a sense of belonging using rage bait to rally members to ‘the cause’, or using guilt and fear to control how members behave.

Euphoria: Members are amped up and unified in various ways depending on the individual group, via acts like marching, meditating, chanting, call-and-response, or praying.

Rage: Members might be taught to be angry at a certain person, certain groups of people, or world events, so members can rally against ‘the other’ or the group can present itself as the solution to the problems.

Guilt: For not believing or behaving as the doctrine says they should, for being in a privileged class of some sort, for not doing enough for ‘the cause’, for doubting or questioning. Fear: If you dissent in the slightest, you're evil and wrong and they dehumanise you. So there's also fear - fear of not living up to that standard, of being impure, of being rejected from the group, of having your ‘confessions’ shared. Personal feelings and struggles are also seen as selfish and unimportant because everything should be about the cause. Sometimes the group will convince people that awful things will happen if they leave, and these fears can be deeply embedded even if they seem obviously false (to outsiders who haven’t experienced the level of control the member has experienced).

Group conformity and obedience Even without behaviour modification techniques, group conformity and obedience to authority are powerful influences. Experiments have repeatedly shown this. If people are put in situations where the most confident people around them give the wrong answers, the majority will doubt their own perceptions and will accept those answers. The majority of people will be obedient to authority, even if it means causing harm to someone else. In a crisis people will often hesitate, waiting for someone else to take charge, or will follow others (even if the other person also doesn't know where they're going). People often don’t want the responsibility of having to make decisions so it’s easier to have someone else make those decisions and give you permission to enact them.

This can also occur because of trust in specific people or groups of people. Generally, we tend to assume that the people we are aligned with, and who we usually agree with, are probably right about everything else, as well. And we usually don't want to agree with people we dislike. So the politician we detest? If that politician says or does anything that we agree with, we are uncomfortable and might doubt ourselves. Whereas that politician or influencer we like and look up to says something we perhaps didn't agree with previously, we're more likely to be swayed into agreeing with them. Even though there are people who are hero worshipped and thought of as being very good and pure, who turn out not to be. No ones politics or identity makes them infallible.

Universities are prime places for cult recruitment - university students are separated from their usual home and their usual people; they might also be disillusioned, or desperate to make a difference, and stressed from studies and trying to fit in, trying to figure themselves out. Humans are also often primed to trust experts or people they believe to be more intelligent/more knowledgeable about a subject (there is a term for this phenomenon called Captainitis – there can be(and have been!) fatal results if other crew of an aircraft defer to the captain even when they recognise the captain might be making a wrong decision). And cult recruiters might offer all the answers. Or an escape. They provide meaning or belonging or ‘the truth’.

Lifton's Eight Criteria of Throught Reform: Mileu control This happens in various ways, but ultimately most people indoctrinated into a high influence group will heed their peers and leaders and isolate themselves (to some extent) from anyone who doesn't comply with the cult doctrine fully enough. Various other organisations or companies, professors or classmates, strangers online etc., are impure and not to be trusted, so a barrier is created between members and non-members.

Sometimes physically (through members all living or staying in the same place) or through encouraging members not to fraternise with non-members, to distance themselves from family or specific groups of people that might challenge the doctrine (or at least not to listen to others when it comes to discussing concerns with the cult or with issues the cult is concerned with). A campaign of disinformation, loaded language and emotional manipulation that’s successful enough will mean that the influential figure/group doesn't need to physically isolate people in ranches in the middle of nowhere, or control where they work and study, because people are so primed to react to the language and ideology that it's still powerful even over huge distances and spreads effectively via online discourse and other various mediums. Mystical manipulation (or planned spontaneity) Many groups have a defined ‘leader’ who is almost godlike, and in this case all the messages and occurrences are somehow supposedly coming from a higher power (not the careful planning of the ‘leader’ who is presenting themselves as a prophet or a kind of messiah).

Cultish movements don’t always rely on a mystical ‘leader’, however. Many are designed to look like a grassroots movement, created or initiated by 'the people', but if you follow the trail up the pyramid there'll often be big money and lots of organisation behind it all. The wizard is hidden behind a curtain (or two or three curtains).

Because it looks (and feels) spontaneous and organic (when events are put together and crowds gather, and people sing or chant of pray together) mob mentality kicks in. Speeches, chanting, etc. gets people fired up. it all feels like they're a part of something big, powerful, and real.

The demand for purity This demand for absolute purity enforces a strong us vs them divide. The cult and its members are pure, good, right, innocent, and anyone who opposes them or does not surrender to the cult completely is impure, evil, wrong, guilty. Bearing in mind there are good and bad people in all demographics, no group is a monolith, yet in the eyes of the 'ingroup', nothing bad they do is ever condemnable, and nothing good an outsider does is ever good enough.

The realistic and reasonable idea that there are good and bad people in every demographic – that all humans have hopes, dreams, doubts, fears, and all are fallible and capable of both good and bad, like the rest of us - does not align with the demand for purity. Anything anyone does or says that does not align completely with the cult rhetoric is deemed impure.

Feeling justified and right is quite a powerful feeling, and unfortunately that often hinges on having people who are ‘wrong’ to berate and judge. It’s also quite human to feel superior and to enjoy this dynamic, and the flip side of it is that the judge fears becoming the judged and so ascribes even more completely to the cult rhetoric to ensure they never have to become the judged.

The cult of confession Somewhat similar to the above. In some cults confession is used to gain useful info on members that can be used against them, and to make members more vulnerable, but it also has another function…

Guilt is a powerful deterrent (people feeling guilty for their own wrongdoings and privilege will work extra hard to become morally pure) and by 'confessing' and cleansing themselves, people feel they have more right to judge others.

Focusing on specific issues also excuses you from having to face up to the things you might actually need to work on. No self-improvement is necessary, no genuine self-reflection has to be faced, because you can 'confess' to the less personal failings, or confess and be cleansed by the purity of the cult. You can also focus on the perceived guilt of The Other to lessen your own guilt. The confessor then gets to become the judge, having confessed and basked in how aware and disgusted with themselves they are for their privileges or wrongdoing. [This also feeds into the demand for purity – people who feel guilty want to offload their privilege and they can do this by believing in The Other is an all-powerful entity (even if, in reality, The Other is a vulnerable and/or minority community. For example: antisemites (which specifically refers to Jew haters) claim that Jewish people (who make up only 0.2% of the world’s population) are supremely powerful and control the media (regardless of all the evidence to the contrary); transphobes often claim that there is a ‘trans lobby’ that is somehow taking over and has the power and influence to somehow make children transgender.]

People enjoy feeling superior and getting to criticise others, and many people will actually become quite gleeful and excited when they are being hateful towards 'The Other'.

Sacred science The world is simplified into a sacred set of dogma. Often the dogma won’t make sense to anyone outside the group, and might even seem ridiculous. Members might seem to just be regurgitating catchphrases and nonsensical conspiracy babble, but they've accepted it as the absolute truth.

There might be an ‘end times’ plan, where the group members will either survive or will ‘ascend’ to a higher plane. Or the group’s cause might involve acting to bring about a better era (which might be as innocuous as selling flowers and/or proselytising for the ‘cause’), or eradicating an evil that will apparently fix all the world’s problems, and supposedly create a utopia where people live in peace (basically it will being a messianic age, even if the group is not overtly a religious group, and even if group members do not consider themselves or the group to be religious). The Other is solely to blame for all the world’s ills (or primarily to blame, to the point that nothing else really matters).

Loading of the language The above feeds into the loading of the language. Everything is extreme and yet oversimplified. No critical thought is needed (or possible). The language is appealing and powerful and absolute - it's emotive. The same arguments are used for everything, whether fair or logical, and whether accurate or not.

Much of this language is made up of thought terminating cliches; it shuts down discussion and prevents facts or reasoning from challenging the cult doctrine. For example, saying that someone is brainwashed is in itself a thought terminating cliché. You’ve already rendered that person’s words not worth listening to because that person has already been labelled incapable of rational thought. By using extreme terms to label someone, they are effectively ostracised from the conversation, and/or the conversation is derailed (the labelled person now has to argue against the label or prove themselves, instead of being able to engage with the original topic).

The language is so extreme and false that you often can’t even argue with it effectively, and that’s the point. ‘I’m not listening to a [insert extreme label]!’ They don’t want a good faith discussion, they don’t care about the facts, they want to control the narrative by making discussion impossible. Whether that’s shutting things down completely, or creating a situation in which the non-member is forced to defend themselves against baseless accusations.

Words are given new meanings to weaponise them and render connection and understanding with outsiders impossible. This language also makes group members feel special and connected to each other (and to the sacred science), but creates a bigger divide between them and anyone outside the group who either doesn’t use those words, doesn’t use them in the same context, or uses those words correctly/differently. The same often goes for chants and slogans that might mean different things to members than non-members, or might be used in place of more accurate or understandable language (so that group members repeat things that they don’t really understand the meaning of, and that might not even have any particular meaning).

Doctrine over person The doctrine is everything - your thoughts, feelings, your previous morals (that the doctrine might contradict) are meaningless. If you do experience any doubt or guilt because of how the doctrine misaligns with your ethics, that's just evidence that you are guilty/impure. There is no nuance, no room for critical thinking or trying to understand someone else's perspective. Your suffering, the suffering of friends or family who are concerned about you, the suffering of ‘The Other’ are all unimportant compared to the doctrine.

Dispensing of existence Anyone who does not pass the purity test, and is not a part of the cult's movement, ceases to deserve to exist. The cult members are pure and elite (which feels quite good!) but, actually, even the members lives are less important than the doctrine. If the doctrine states that in order to achieve the end goal (whether that’s peace on earth, ascension to a higher plane, or protecting leaders from accountability) the lives and freedoms of members are expendable.

Everyone is a tool for the 'greater good'. Because...

The means justify the ends. However horrific or morally corrupt those means are, whoever those means are enacted upon, as long as it's done in the name of the cause it's magically purified.

In cults, anything can be justified. For a higher power or a greater good, anything goes. Deceit, mind control, slavery, human trafficking, all forms of domestic abuse. Leaders can lie to followers, followers can lie to prospective recruits or outsiders, because it's for a good cause. It's all somehow justified, then becomes normalised. And if someone has been taken in and has engaged in anything that they might not be quite so proud of if they really thought about it, the cognitive dissonance would be too much. So it becomes easier to continue to justify it.

[Most people who end up involved in high control groups probably start out with good intentions, and with optimism that the group is good and will help find the answers to all their problems. But the cultish nature of these groups or 'movements' (mind control, thought reform - limiting access to information, disinformation, loading language, a strong us vs them dichotomy, etc.) leads most people away from the well intentioned and caring place they started at into a radicalised, dogma driven mindset.]

Cult members are victims of the cult. Even members who have behaved horrifically whilst under undue influence. Like most things in life, this can be nuanced. So if you have been in a cult/under undue influence, realise you are currently in a cult/under undue influence, and you are struggling to come to terms with that, especially if you’ve done things that are wrong, or have demonised another group, it’s never too late to recognise this and to distance yourself from the cultish dogma. Seek support from other ex-cult members, find therapists who understand indoctrination and de-indoctrination. Better to stop now and work towards undoing the mind control than to continue. It doesn’t have to become another ‘cult of confession’ where you have to self-flagellate to make yourself pure – humans are not pure. We are complicated, multi-faceted, confusing (and often confused)! And that’s okay. We get things wrong, sometimes. We might get things drastically wrong. But once the harm is done, it cannot be undone, and all anyone can do is move forwards, seek support, apologise and take accountability for our actions, work to improve, and try to make amends. If you know someone who is under indue influence and has been indoctrinated into a cult or radicalised by an extremist group: Most people under undue influence will not accept it just because you tell them so. Any confrontation will just make them use the above-mentioned cultish tools to shut you down and to avoid having to think too deeply about it. It's jarring to have your reality or morals called into question. Sometimes more subtle methods might help, like referring to other cults with similar tactics, and if you know anyone who has been indoctrinated and managed to get out, perhaps asking them to share their experiences (it's much easier to hear from people with similar experiences (if someone feels they've been duped, that's easier to discuss with someone else who they recognise is a good person but was also taken in by similar tactics/if you've believed something radical and absurd, it's easier to discuss this with someoen who has also believed things that are radical and absurd). If someone has caused harm while under undue influence (towards you personally, or with their cult-influenced morals/ethics) and they then recognise this and want to leave a high control group, even if you’re angry or disappointed in them, it’s worth remembering that they were also a victim. It might still be worth offering them support to leave, and a chance to make amends and to get away from that influence as long as they are able to acknowledge any harm they caused.

[systemserendipity]

Me, trying to explain why online syscourse is stupid to a bunch of bigotted teenagers like:

[m3-mianbo]

Huh but also remember that Neurodivergent People Exist. Some folks (and perhaps not necessarily just neurodivergent folks) have interoceptive abilities (for want of a better word) and their bodies may not 'know' if they have been eating 'too much' or not enough.

we really can’t overstate how damaging it has been to indoctrinate the public with the idea that if they let themselves eat as much as they want, they’ll eat too much. human bodies, when permitted over the long term to eat as much as they want, actually get really, really good at calibrating their hunger and satiety, and will over time eat exactly the right amount for themselves. the common conception of a balanced eater as a minimal or restrained eater is absolutely wrong. balanced eaters eat quite a lot (compared to diet cultural ideas about right intake amounts), and they do so consistently and permanently. healthy, balanced eating isn’t some tightrope walk, it’s a gigantic net of total permission to eat.

[val-the-protoss-simp]

Update on the "I figured out my OC is super autistic" thing. My best friend is having a mini crisis over this because he's one of her favourite characters and she finds him relatable in a lot of ways and now is realising that this sense of relatibility might be rooted deeper than she previously thought and like look thinking she's neurospicy has been in the back of her mind for years now but now she's apparently really considering if that's really true I am in hysterics

[teaboot]

How do Canadian schools teach about indigenous Canadian history and culture? -a curious USAmerican

In my experience we learned about colonization at the same time as we learned about the formation of Canada. At first it was "European settlers came and pushed out the indigenous population", then in the higher grades we learned more about the how and the why.

For example, how carts full of men with rifles would ride around shooting Buffalo, then leaving the meat on the ground to rot, because "a dead Buffalo is a dead indian", which was so fanatical it almost wiped out wild Buffalo entirely

Also how Canadian settlers were lured in with beautiful hand-painted advertisements for cheap, beautiful, fertile land that was unpopulated and perfect, if only you'd sail over with your entire family and a pocket full of seeds- only to be met with scared, confused, and angry lawful inhabitants already run out of ten other places, and frigid winters, and rocky, forested, undeveloped dirt.

also, smallpox blankets, where "gifts" of blankets infected with smallpox were intentionally given out

And treaty violations- Either ignoring written agreements entirely, or buying them out at insanely low prices and lying about the value, or trading for farming equipment that they couldn't use because they weren't farmers.

Then in the first world war, where they told indigenous peoples here that they'd be granted Canadian citizenship if they enlisted

To Residential schools, which was straight up stealing kids for slavery, indoctrination, and medical experiments

But we also covered the building of the Canadian Railway in which Chinese immigrants were lowered into ravines with dynamite to blow out paths through the mountain for pennies on the dollar

And the Alberta Sterilization Act, where it was lawful and routine procedure to sterilize women of colour and neurodivergent people without their awareness or consent after giving birth or undergoing unrelated surgeries

But I'm rambling.

We kind of learned Aboriginal history at the same time as everything else? Like. This is when Canada was made, and this is how it was done. Now we'll read a book about someone who lived through it, and we'll write a book report. And now a documentary, and now a paper about the documentary. Onto the next unit.

And starting I think in grade 10 our English track was split between English and Aboriginals English, where you could choose to do the standard curriculum or do the same basic knowledge stuff with a focus on Aboriginal perspectives and literature. (I did that one, we read Three Day's Road and Diary Of A Part-Time Indian, and a few other titles I don't remember.)

There was also a lunch room for the Aboriginal Culture Studies where Aboriginal kids could hang out at lunch time if they wanted, full of art and projects and stuff. They'd play music or videos sometimes, that was cool

And one elective I took (not mandatory cirriculum) was a Kwakiutl course for basic Kwakwakaʼwakw language. Greetings, counting to a hundred, learning the modified alphabet, animals, etc. Still comes in handy sometimes at large gatherings cause they usually start with a land recognition thanking whoever's land we're on, with a few thanks and welcomes in their language.

And like- when I was in the US it was so weird, cause here we have Totem poles and longhouses and murals all over and yall... don't? Like there is a very distinct lack of Aboriginal art in your public spaces, at least in the areas I've been

My ex-stepfather, who was American, brought his son out once, and he was so excited to "see real indians" and was legitimately shocked to learn that there weren't many teepees to be found on the northwest coast, and was even *more* shocked when we told him that you have Aboriginal people back home too, bud. Your Aboriginal people are also named "Mike" snd "Vicky" and work as assistant manager at best buy.

If you'd ask me, I'd say that the primary difference is that USAmerica (from what I've seen, and ALSO in entirely too much of Canada) treats our European and Aboriginal conflicts as history, something that's tragic but over, like the extinction of the mammoths, instead of like. An ongoing thing involving people who are alive and numerous and right fucking here

But at the end of the day, I'm white, and there are plenty of actual Aboriginal people who are speaking out and saying much more meaningful things than I can

So I'm just gonna pass on a quote from my Stepmum, who's Cree, that's stuck with me since she said it:

"You see how they treat Mexicans in America? That's how they treat us here. Indians are the Mexicans of Canada."

[invaderoli]

Sips black tea. Ive said it before but I feel like people prioritise Dibs mental issues over Zims because Zim can't be softened and made more of a victim like Dib can. Despite the fact that Zim is a child soldier who's experienced what's basically indoctrination, people don't see him like that. They see him as someone who murders and harms innocent people, especially children, and don't recognise that Zim only acts that way because he's been in a military all his life where, if he isn't violent, he is nothing. People seem to "baby"ify Dib and his wrongdoings because he's easier to project onto. Sorry to be so blunt, but I really need to acknowledge that most people who like invader Zim are neurodivergent or don't exactly fit the "norm", just like the show and it's characters itself. But Dib, as a character, is more clear about not being the norm, about being the weird kid with no friends. So people empathize with him more, and transform him into a soft, unnecessarily hated child. Which, well... He is, depending on your interpretation. It isn't his fault that he's hated like that. But that doesn't travel back into Zim being one in the same as Dib, since he isn't as clear about it. He hides it better as a character, not as visibly effected by his ostracization by his peers. It's shown that he's effected by it, but he has outbursts and is loud and "annoying" enough to make it not seem like a big deal to him. And with that, it's much harder for people to project the "UWU soft bean" innocent victim image onto someone like him, despite the fact that he has much more trauma and problems than Dib. TLDR I think that bug is much more fucked up than dib and we need to start giving him forehead kisses and flower crowns too

The executor about to kill me who asked "any last words": what the actual fuck are you talking about man.

[lakecountylibrary]

If you liked Camp Damascus, try Hell Followed With Us

and vice versa!

There's a lot to love in both Camp Damascus by @drchucktingle and Hell Followed With Us by Andrew Joseph White. As horror novels about queer youth with, shall we say, complicated relationships with religion, they have a lot in common - if you liked one you very well may like the other. Let's take a closer look.

Characters:

Both books feature queer, autistic youth fighting back. The characters are trying to survive in a world created for them by abusive adults and religious institutions that hold power over them.

In Camp Damascus we follow Rose (autistic, lesbian). In Hell Followed With Us we follow Benji (neurodivergent, trans) and Nick (autistic, gay).

Genre:

Both books are horror, but with two distinct flavors. Camp Damascus has more of a creepy factor, while Hell Followed With Us leans more toward gore. In Camp there is some mystery to the evil, but in Hell the evil has a name, a face, an address - and a to-do list.

Both books deal with Christian cults and the horrors of indoctrination. They deal with the characters' complicated relationships to Christianity as an institution and God as a concept. They also both quote Christian scripture heavily.

Vibes:

While both books are horror, they do feel very different, largely because the primary emotion that drives each story is different. In Camp Damascus, it's love. In Hell Followed With Us, it's rage. You'll certainly find both emotions in certain quantities in either novel, but what they primarily put forward distinctly changes the vibe of both books.

-

So there you have it! Two fantastic reads in close thematic conversation with each other - but still quite distinct. If either sounds good to you, do yourself a favor and check out both today!

See more of Robin's recs

[fellthemarvelous]

Aziraphale hate makes my brain hurt.

Like let's be really fuckin' for real here.

Neurodivergent fans have repeatedly said that Aziraphale is autistic coded. I agree with them. I have never been diagnosed but I wonder about myself. If only I could get a doctor to take me seriously enough to test me for it, but alas, I'm a 43-year-old woman living in the good ole US of A.

Those with religious trauma have repeatedly said that they identify with him as well. I'm one of those people. I endured 12 years of Catholic schools and just as much time being taught a very black and white view of things that I've had to spend more than 20 goddamn fucking years working to unlearn.

I find that my views as a survivor of religious abuse are often dismissed because people keep wanting to say "Aziraphale doesn't have religious trauma." Yes, thank you, I get that, but unless you've been indoctrinated and brainwashed into a very black and white view of the world, you probably don't understand the kind of feelings Aziraphale's onscreen experiences evoke in so many of us. Heaven might not be real, but the feelings of "God is always watching" still stick with me today even though I no longer believe in God. I have entirely denounced Christianity because of my own personal experience, and I refuse to allow people to try and guilt me or shame me for trauma that I didn't ask for. I wasn't given a choice.

As a child I was told that God was real and always watching everything you do (just like Santa Claus) and can hear everything you say and knows everything you are thinking. Do you know what I learned to do in order to cope with this overwhelming and anxiety-inducing information as a small child? I learned to censor my thoughts. I never spoke up, and I have always felt like I was putting on a show for people because I had to be who I was told to be or I would get into trouble.

Aziraphale said "poverty is a virtue" during The Resurrectionists, and as someone who grew up in the Bible belt and went to private schools, I was taught this very same shit by the Catholic church. He learned in that very same episode that "poverty is a virtue" is actually a tool of oppression to keep the poor poor and the wealthy wealthy. I know we all watched the episode. He went into that episode believing what he said, but by the end of it he knew it was actually utter bullshit. Aziraphale is not ignorant. He's highly intelligent, and he has never been too proud to admit when he has been wrong. He accepts that the information he learned before is not matching up with reality.

And it's so obvious some of you have zero experience with that type of indoctrination because of how very little empathy you show Aziraphale for his "mistake" of "choosing Heaven over Crowley" and "making Crowley sad" so clearly Aziraphale must somehow be "abusive" and "manipulative" and "selfish" and "self-centered" because he didn't choose to run away with Crowley at the end of season two.

First of all.

FIRST OF ALL...

Aziraphale has a mind of his own.

Aziraphale is always going to try and do what is right.

Aziraphale is an angel. He's a being of love. And the reason he's so "bad" at being an angel is because he actually wants to protect humanity. He has always loved humanity. He repeatedly has to contend with what is "right" versus what is "good" and "wrong" versus "evil". Yeah, he has flaws. He's an angel, not a goddamn fucking saint. He has lived on Earth for more than 6,000 years. He has seen everything. He loves doing human things.

He's obsessed with magic. It makes him so happy. He's not very good at it...well not when he's trying to put on a show for Crowley.

He chose to learn French the hard way, so even though he knows every single language in the world, he chooses to be mediocre at French. Something that annoys and amuses Crowley at the same time.

He loves to dance even though angels aren't supposed to dance, and dancing with Crowley was what he wanted the most.

He owns a bookshop and refuses to sell any of his books because they are books he's had for as long as there have been books. He will chase customers away from his collection, and Crowley understands how much they mean to Aziraphale because he refuses to sell any when Aziraphale leaves him in charge.

He and Crowley have been speaking to each other in coded language for more than 6,000 years. They have to be very careful about what they say because Heaven and Hell are always watching.

Heaven has photographs of Crowley and Aziraphale sitting or standing together throughout history. Hell had one photo of Crowley and Aziraphale actually working together and it was Aziraphale's quick thinking and how good he actually is at sleight of hand tricks that managed to get that photo out of Furfur's hands so he wouldn't be able to turn Crowley over to the Dark Council.

Aziraphale saved Crowley from being taken to Hell again. He wasn't able to save Crowley from Hell in Edinburgh, but he sure as heck managed to save Crowley from Hell during WWII. He took Crowley to his bookshop and showed Crowley that he stole the picture from Furfur. He saved Crowley.

You get that, right?

Aziraphale SAVED Crowley.

People always talk about how it's "always Crowley saving Aziraphale" because apparently heroic acts are only heroic when they are grand gestures. The sleight of hand wasn't heroic at all, am I right? It wasn't sparkly and showy. It wasn't interesting enough, therefore not heroic. At least that's all I'm hearing when people start with their "blah Aziraphale deserves to suffer because I have no imagination or ability to understand the media in front of me blah", and all these reasons he deserves to suffer is because Crowley almost got hurt.

Aziraphale did that without flinching and I watch that part closely every single time. He's not scared for himself. He's scared for Crowley, and he managed to hold onto that photograph. He did not fail Crowley. He protected Crowley.

And so here's another thing that we like to point out. The way that Aziraphale, an angel who is effeminate and male presenting, an angel who is soft and full of love, an angel who is kind and forgiving because he has empathy and compassion, is somehow painted as abusive and manipulative. He's not violent, but he could easily fuck up your world. He doesn't use his powers. We have no idea how powerful he is because we only ever see him do small acts. He's used to hiding. It's the only way he has ever been able to protect Crowley.

And I'm not saying that Aziraphale has actually saved Crowley before means that Crowley hasn't also saved Aziraphale. Like, you get that those are not mutually exclusive and their relationship is not transactional, right? They have spent their entire existence protecting each other but never actually getting to be together because Heaven and Hell are always watching.

Yeah, Crowley fell. We all know this. We are aware of this. He was the serpent of Eden. He gave humanity the knowledge of free will.

But what we don't talk about is what Aziraphale gave humanity.

What did he give them?

We all know what it is!

Let's say it together!

He gave Adam and Eve his flaming sword because it was dangerous outside the garden and Eve was pregnant and she was already having a really bad day. He showed them compassion and gave them his extremely powerful angelic weapon so they would stand a chance on the outside of the garden. He gave humanity the gift of compassion. It's just unfortunate that his flaming sword became a weapon of War.

And then what did he do after that?

Ooooh, yeah, that's right.

God asked him about it and he straight up lied to her and pretended he had no idea where he'd managed to misplace it. She didn't say anything after that. He told Crowley the truth though. He told Crowley the truth even though Crowley fell.

Yeah, we know Aziraphale has done some really fucking questionable things. He and Crowley both suck at passing for human in front of observant people like Nina. They're not human. They are still learning, but they managed to experience human history together despite being on opposite sides and their experiences with humanity are what has shaped them into the compassionate and loving duo they are now. One of them is not better from the other.

This, my friends, is what we call meeting in the middle. It's why shades of gray is so important. Aziraphale constantly breaks the rules. Crowley refused to play by Heaven's rules. It's the reason he fell. He doesn't play by Hell's rules either. These two dorks figured out how to cancel each others' miracles out throughout human history in order to have more time learning about humanity and each other because working all day every day sucks when there are so many new things to learn and experience with the people you love.

We know Crowley and Aziraphale both love each other. Neither of them are good at hiding the hearts stars in their eyes.

But here's what's really fucking annoying about the Aziraphale hate.

Aziraphale was already crying when Crowley grabbed him and kissed him. Aziraphale is trying so very hard to do the right thing. He loves Crowley. He does. But he also has a duty to humanity, and he has taken that job very seriously since the creation of Adam and Eve. He sent them out into the world with a flaming sword so they would have a chance at surviving beyond the walls of the garden.

And he knows that Something Terrible is going to happen and he spent all of second season trying to figure out what that Something Terrible was while trying to have some sort of more honest and open relationship with Crowley, but again, they aren't human, they are a demon and an angel approaching life from opposite sides who met in the middle and fell in love with humanity together.

He wants more than anything to tell Crowley how he feels about him, but he wants to do something grand for Crowley because Crowley has always been grand and dramatic and sexy and a little bit scary.

Crowley is impulsive and has a temper and sometimes says the wrong thing but he has always trusted Aziraphale because Aziraphale gave him a chance even after he fell. Aziraphale chose to shelter him instead of smiting him while they stood on top of that wall. He knew he was supposed to kill Crowley, but oops, he gave his sword away to the humans so he didn't really have anything to kill him with and Crowley is the one who created nebulas. The Pillars of Creation is Crowley's work and Aziraphale was there to witness that, but he watched Crowley more than he watched the nebula. He witnessed the pure joy on Crowley's face when he said "let there be light" as a nebula full of colors exploded before their eyes. He was fascinated by Crowley.

But Aziraphale is going back to Heaven even though he has made it perfectly clear he absolutely has no desire to go back to Heaven. He told the Metatron this during their conversation. He spoke these words out loud. They exist.

But then The Metatron said this....

The Metatron. The very same angel who told Aziraphale in season one "to speak to me is to speak to the Almighty." He's the boss. He's the big guy. He's used to existing as a giant head and he had to give himself a body so he wouldn't stand out on Earth. And he knows that Aziraphale and Crowley have been working together since the beginning. He knows they worked together to prevent Armageddon in season one, and now he's made it clear he knows they were working together long before that. And let's face it, Aziraphale really wants to know what this Something Terrible is that Gabriel is running from so he can try to prevent it from happening.

It makes sense that he would want to take Crowley to Heaven with him because he would be able to keep Hell from getting their hands on him again. Aziraphale hates it in Heaven. He doesn't want to go, but Something Terrible is happening and Metatron isn't taking no for an answer, and maybe Heaven won't be so bad if Crowley is there with him. At least they can fix Heaven together.

But Crowley can't go back. We all get that. We don't blame him for saying no. It doesn't change anything.

Something Terrible is about to happen and Aziraphale has to figure out what it is. He wants to change Heaven.

He is fully aware that Heaven sucks. He still has faith in God. His faith isn't in Heaven. He deserted his platoon in season one and threw himself back to Earth so he could figure out how to make sure the war between Heaven and Hell doesn't happen.

But see, here's the thing. Heaven is at the top. Heaven has all the resources. Heaven is responsible for the creation of Hell. Heaven is empty and Hell is overpopulated. Aziraphale knows this. Crowley knows this. It's obvious every time we see either place. Both sides are desperate to go to war and will not hesitate to destroy humanity in the process. This is the opposite of what Crowley and Aziraphale want for humanity. If anyone can change Heaven, it's Aziraphale. He's the only one up there who gives a shit about humanity as far as we know. No one else is going to speak on humanity's behalf.

Some of us are so busy getting mad at Aziraphale for going back to Heaven and giving Crowley a Big Sad. Newsflash: Crowley is not the main character of Good Omens. Aziraphale and Crowley are equals, yet we wanna hold Aziraphale to higher standards because he's an angel, and when he makes mistakes it's proof that he's the bad guy.

Holy mother of all things that trigger my religious trauma, let me tell you. I spent my entire life hating myself every time I made mistakes. I've had to teach myself that just because I mess up sometimes doesn't mean I'm bad. It means I'm human. I still struggle with it. I probably always will. So when you say that Aziraphale deserves to be punished for breaking Crowley's heart, you not only ignore that Aziraphale's heart is also broken, you're saying he deserves to be punished for doing what he thinks is right.

Wanting to change Heaven for the better is not a bad thing.

And some of y'all wanna see him suffer for going back into the lion's den that is Heaven, knowing that he is already an outcast, that they have already tried to kill him once, knowing that he is a deserter, that he has been lying to Heaven about a lot of things, and you still think he's blinded by Heaven? You think he's just so naive and that's the only reason he's going back. He doesn't show his emotions the same way Crowley does so it means he doesn't care as much. He's expected to consider Crowley's feelings over his own when making choices. Like holy shit if all of that hasn't defined my experience as a woman with religious trauma in this fucking society. He's expected to be subservient to Crowley and if he doesn't do what Crowley wants then he's being unreasonable and illogical.

What the actual fuck, y'all.

Like seriously.

I'm sick of this bullshit. I had to step away from this fandom because of how toxic some people in this fandom are. It's not chasing me away, but the fact that I chose to hang out in a a more toxic fandom that is already notorious for being really toxic over a fandom that claims to be more open-minded and welcoming should probably tell you something.

It gave me a lot of perspective, and yeah, I'm still gonna speak up against the bullshit Aziraphale hate.

People are entitled to their opinions, but the Aziraphale hate isn't an opinion. It's just ableist, misogynistic garbage. At this point we all know y'all say these extreme things about Aziraphale because y'all get more joy out of the harm and alienation it is causing others.

Keep being loudly wrong, but if you think I'm not entitled to challenge shitty-ass, harmful, hateful discourse, bite my ass.

I'm not the one who lost the plot in this fandom.

[class1akids]

I think one of the main gripes when it comes to Midoriya fan’s, who specifically speaking suffered bullying and/or abusive friendships (I do consider their relationship an abusive friendship due to being childhood friends and Midoriya considering Bakugo as a friend) and actively dislike BKDK, is the lack of portrayal of his feelings particularly negative ones not the positive ones which are emphasized in the manga (To the point where some people think Horikoshi is using Midoriya as a mouthpiece to elevate Bakugo which it doesn’t sit right with a lot of fans especially with the kind of history the two of them have). It doesn’t help the fact that Horikoshi technically has the right ingredients to start addressing this type of bullying/abuse such as having actual friends that look out for him which can give him another reference point and the narrative opportunity (actually, I think it should be extremely esencial for his character because you can’t portray a decade of bullying/abuse, especially physical and verbal, without at least showing consequences and showing him heal from those experiences) to actually question which can help address one of Midoriya’s flaws, specifically hero worship and low self worth. It doesn’t help that his admiration of Bakugo is not contextualized as a coping mechanism (and show the actual consequences such as emotional repression) and it isn’t challenged unlike his admiration for All Might where at least it was partially addressed. Actually, I’d argue that Bakugo’s redemption arc is incomplete because of the lack of elements mentioned earlier which is why you have so many fans thinking that Bakugo’s apology is more closer to gaslighting rather than genuine apology because he never directly addresses the specifics and is far more vague (Most of his peers don’t even know or understand why he’s apologising in the first place which is a missed opportunity when it comes to the rest of the class especially considering that there’s characters with anti bullying stance such as Ashido Mina).

This is a general problem with Horikoshi's writing. He's using RL issues like bullying / domestic abuse / institutional indoctrination / racist discrimination / neurodivergence as "spicy setting" that he manipulates as he pleases but never really takes a moral stance on it.

I feel like he "copied" much of his "themes" from existing comic books, but without fully understanding how those comic books used the superhero setting to make social commentary. That's why he doesn't really land well any of the issues he's raising, because it's just a patchwork of stolen settings without a moral guideline.

Deku's writing is especially problematic, because on top of the above, Horikoshi is so afraid to make Deku unlikeable that he never lets him feel negative emotions or fail at anything really. The saintly portrayal became the biggest flaw that dragged Deku down as a character.

[kisakis-boyfriend]

The 17 y/o staring at multiple "minors do not interact" banners, mdni in bold red text, and sometimes mdni in large font:

I know you probably don't consider yourself a "minor" at 17, but you are. Legally. If an nsft/smut blog is asking you not to follow or interact with their blog, then please respect that. Minors do not belong in nsf.w spaces. If we're lucky, nothing will happen except the adult running the blog/space will probably be uncomfortable. If we're really unlucky, and the wrong people see minors in these spaces, the adult(s) could get in legal trouble even if they repeatedly tell the minors to leave.

We live in an unfortunate time when any content or space that's considered "inappropriate" by fascist/conservative standards is usually assumed to be full of pedo.philes (read: queer people, neurodivergent/autistic people, "freaks" likes furries, etc). And if those conservatives find out that MINORS (read: the precious children that they're "always thinking about and trying to protect") are "indoctrinated" into these spaces, bad things happen. I don't want to fearmonger, but I've seen some horrible things happen to creators who did not want minors following them since they posted p.orn. No amount of "but I told them to not follow/interact" saved them from public backlash and dogpiling from both conservatives AND liberals.

Please just wait another year until you are legally 18. Reading/reblogging/commenting on that fanfic isn't worth making the author uncomfortable or, worst case scenario, getting them into legal trouble. Let's be kind and considerate to each other please.

Sorry for the rant or word soup. I'm just really tired of finding minors reblogging my fics that very clearly state "minors do not interact". :/

[ohwolfling]

Wolfling's Galeposting Masterpost

Some folks expressed interest in me organizing my Gale meta/headcanons/spirals/menty bs/etc and so here it is. I'll try to update it periodically & at the end I'll leave the tags I tend to use for Gale. Note that my ask is open & my AO3 is here. You can also find me on TikTok, Twitch, and Ko-fi. Post established 14 Nov 2023. Broken links fixed 15 Jan 2024.

Feb 2024 Update in Progress. Mystra related meta now purple for easier time to following that thread.

Big Meta

Gale, Mystra, & Abuse as Mentorship - an examination of Gale's connection to the Weave and the inherent lack of agency he experiences via his education, with Elminster, and of course Mystra (casual information/timeline chat about those two)

Failure to see Gale/Mystra as abusive & how we identify abuse - references the above & a piece on Shadowheart, as well as a talk on ACEs & how we're socialized to qualify abuse

Mystra + Systemic Abuse + Real World Parallels

Elminster the Enabler - a reply to a reply of the first meta, clarifying Elminster's role in indoctrination, religious trauma, & grooming

The Gale of Waterdeep Deserves A Bl*w J** Meta - Gale the Man vs the Wizard of Waterdeep, S*x as Characterization, defining Gale's relationship to intimacy and control

Tav's "I Want You to Kiss Me" & Gale's Soft Laugh - a summary of Gale's inclination to service, anticipating needs, and people pleasing & how the dialogue choices present Tav as a good change

Unpacking Act I Weave Scene - romance & Mystra's resonance

Honeypotting Gale's Musical Theme - analysis of the piece of music for Gale's intro, pulling other music that builds similarly to imagine finished themes and motifs, and a comparison to the musical language and narrative build of Battlestar Galactica's Gaius Baltar, via Bear McCreary's four years of music for the character

Mystra, the Weave, and complicity - honeypotting & Mystra lore re: how much power she does or doesn't have in the Orb sitch

Gale and the Drow Twins - insecurity, monogamy, and how the narrative leaves room for both healing through monogamy OR a healing that opens up s*xually

Accidental meta, replies, thinky thoughts, & more organized beneath the cut!

Meanders, Responses, Lesser Meta

the issue of "Counter Meta" - a bit of a PSA on internalized or latent victim blaming, particularly that I've seen growing for Gale and Astarion

Gale's Folly - what motivates his power/ambition, let's cry about it

Introductory thoughts on Mystra as Abuser

Gale and Yenna - some parallels, a nowhere-near-enough examination of Gale's relationship to children

Gale as Curator & Creative - thoughts on what drives Gale

Sleepover Talk - Why Gale's Folly lowkey makes him very sexy

Recognizing this glimmer to be magical in nature - What did Gale think the "glimmer" was? Some thinky thoughts.

Fanon Gale & Elminster interpretations

Fanon whitewashing of Mystra

Gale's Seeing the Crown of Karsus - aaaaah aaaaah aaaaaaaaaah

Is Gale's Seed Necrotic - listen...

Smaller replies/add ons

Gale's Duality - a wizard in the streets, but a freak in the bed, and WHY that hits us hard

Thoughts on Tav, Tara, Morena, & clashes in Waterdeep

"Not the kind of excitement I usually enjoy being woken up for" - a pretty indulgent discussion of Gale's preferred ways of being woken up

Gale the Camp Cook - how trauma and neurodivergence might influence Gale's command of the cooking and his own relationship to food and hunger

Gale's Focus - what is this wizards focus and how can I make it ouch?

Greek Coded Gale - others brought vibes and lore, I brought George Michael. I'm the least cool part of this discussion but yes.

Possible Roles of Archmages/ArchWizards, from loose DnD guidelines

Reactions, Live Blogging, That Kinda Thing

Do You Need to Kneel For This? - the Gale's Folly reveal

Gale & the Ghost of Video Game Male Wife Past - i cried

Trying NOT to romance Gale

Moody, Sad, & Pathetic - but also : my wife?

Becoming A Gale Girlie at 100 MPH

The Elminster Scene, live reaction/discussion

(to be expanded)

Galegate (THAT Larian interview)

Initial response/context of "annoying"

Gale as Red Herring (+ media literacy)

Gale as Comic Relief (in structure + as coping mechanism)

The Orb Choice as "good" storytelling explained + qualified (Tav's role, Astarion foil, & where death makes sense)

The line between story criticism + personal triggers re: Gale

Gale & Childhood/Children

(to be expanded)

Playlists, Songs, etc

Modern AU Playlist for Maudlin Wizard Sensuality - someone asked what was on Gale's s*x playlist & I establish that Gale is set the stage/vibes over tempo/during & threw this playlist together

(to be expanded)

Silly, Goofy Mood Gale stuff

Are You Mad I Ascended energy

Swayze-esque Gale thoughts

Thinking about hands

Hoe into a housewife

Gale getting high pt 1

Gale getting high pt 2

Gale Dekarios Catdad Core

God Gale Core Test Post

Common Gale Related Tags

Bg3 headcanons

Bg3 shitposts (i do not have a tag just for gale shitposting)

Bg3 meta

Bg3 art

Galeposting

Galeposting srs (i forget this one regularly)

A gale sized hole / gale sized hole

Wolfling photomode / wolfling photo mode

Gale Dekarios

Gale of Waterdeep

Gale Dekarios Music Hour / wolfling playlists (I only put BIGGER playlists posts here, but there are many one off song recs and such if you explore the tag)

Gale Pls (tend to be hornier)

Wolfling Plays  

Wolfling answers

Gale and Macha

Gale tummy

[quitblamingnarcissism]

The concept of "narcissistic abuse" is ridiculous enough as it is. It makes no sense to label a demographic as inherently abusive in a society where abuse is normalized.

But you'd seriously have to live under a rock to believe in "narcissistic parents".

Parents regularly openly brag about abusing their children. Parents regularly insist that it's their right to hit their children and that all of society's problems are caused by children not being hit enough. Parents regularly control their children's hobbies or career choices. Parents regularly abuse, disown, or force into conversion therapy their neurodivergent or LGBT children. Parents regularly restrict their children's access to information then label any attempt to challenge them as "indoctrination". Parents regularly punish their children for "backtalk". Parents regularly yell at their children then consider it disrespectful when their children yell back. Parents regularly punish their children for "arguing" just for asking for a reason or for clarification. Fathers regularly threaten any teenage boy who dates his daughter.

There's absolutely nothing that you can blame "narcissistic parents" for that neurotypical parents don't do on a regular basis and get away with it. If your parents who happen to be narcissists are pieces of shit, it's not because they're narcissists. It's because society normalizes parents being pieces of shit and that includes yours.

[snowdropskylark]

*th*l c**n fetishizes csa and incest :///

ethel's music is not for everyone. if it isn't for you, that is okay.

i grew up in an extremely religious household and was kept from having anything to do with the outside world - anything away from the bubble of the religion. the schools i went to were run by it, everyone in my entire life was part of it. there was no escape. my home was physically abusive and emotionally neglectful. i did not know i am queer or neurodivergent until i was in my mid-twenties. i was brainwashed and my identity was forcibly, and sometimes violently, scrubbed out of my brain. i was indoctrinated since birth. these kinds of upbringings WILDLY increase your likelihood to develop serious mental illness and fall into abusive relationships. i think ethel's music reflects that quite well, and is even a message of "beware" of sorts sometimes.

there is a depth to this human experience, of having religious trauma mixed with every part of your being, that is not easily understood by people who have not experienced it themselves. it is my opinion that ethel cain does not fetishize abuse. fetishizing is reducing something to only its sexual value and ignoring the rest. ethel's work does not do that. that is my opinion. you are entitled to yours, and we can agree to disagree.

[kidspawn]

Omg I am always in your asks. Okay so now I know you’ve read AFTG, TRC, and SOC. What are some others you’ve read? I’ve gots to know if we overlap more.

Also have you read RWRB?

HELLO! First of all, my friend, I don't mind. Enjoy it even. Please. You've practically got a personal room in my ask box atp. And its furnished! Decorate how you feel, get a cup of tea, etc. It's delightful.

ALRIGHT! So, I assume you mean like... what book fandoms I've been in? Or just in general? (I could totally make a list of every fandom I've been in, chronologically, in case i ever want to expose myself LMAO. Not today, though it has crossed my mind.) I can share what I have, though it might veer into "here are all my favourite books."

...

...

So, buckle in.

Crossing the obvious out the way, I'm a huge Rick Riordan fan (tag is #riordanverse for all his works). This actually has a huge sentimental aspect, because in a way Percy Jackson has formed so so much of who I am, how I perceive the world, and like... made me a reader?

I was a huge math kid in elementary school, big into STEM and math and history. And I struggled with reading. Quite a bit. Just didn't have the attention span or interest. I was never behind, but I didn't care for it. Which is a problem when your mother writes books for a living. Joking, mostly, that wasn't why - she just wanted me to read.

Barring a brief H*rry P*tter stint (read over the summer before fourth grade) that failed to indoctrinate me into being a bookworm, it was actually Percy Jackson and the Olympians that hooked me in. Because something about a neurodivergent kid in a big city with an abusive parental figure being told he's special because he is different? Oh idk something hit there. I found a lot of comfort in imagining one of my parents was a god and there was a delightful freedom in that, thinking there was something more. One day I'll do my PJO road trip. (Shoutout to Annabeth for my interest in architecture. Which I am looking to minor in.)

PJO just... lit a fire. I tore through the series. The Kane Chronicles. Waited for the Heroes of Olympus books - the first series I followed the release of. And, it was my introduction to the internet. To fandom. I discovered fanfiction, fan forums, etc. Like... it opened this whole world to me of people just as bizarre and attached to this thing I'd folded into my very being. There was a sense of community and belonging. You could be corny and say I found my own Camp Half-Blood.

(A lot to say about Nico di Angelo and Alex Fierro and what they taught me about sexuality and diversity. This won't be a Rick Riordan post, I promise, but god its so significant for kids to get exposure to neurodivergency and the turbulence of adolescence and queerness and tense family relationships and learn to exist with and in spite of the worlds obstacles.)

This whole spiel is to say that the riordanverse is to this day my longest standing fandom. And it really informed all my other courses within fan spaces, and that's the most prevailing. I genuinely thank Rick Riordan for making me the biggest bookworm in every room I was in, because after PJO it was like a switch flipped and I could. not. read. enough.

(You didn't ask for this, but god I cannot stress how important PJO is to me. The safety the love the comfort it brought to me in a very traumatic part of my life. I will always always always adore this franchise. as flawed as it is.) I have a shelf dedicated specifically to all his books.

Alright, here's the actual answer to everything you asked for (sorry for the whole... whatever that was). Here's some of the book fandoms I've been/am in:

Hunger Games. Huge huge huge dystopia fan, actually. I'm a known Orwell fan (1984 specifically), I adore The Giver, Parable of the Sower, Future Home of the Living God, etc. Hunger Games was the start. The s-tier in my dystopia tier list. Joanna Mason my beloved. The amount of discussion I wish I could have about this franchise. Suzanne Collins I respect the fuck out of you. I honestly think THG taught me to actually engage with the text and decipher the underlying messaging, to connect it to real life. Reading Sunrise on the Reaping now, actually.

The Maze Runner. I could go into this, but I've yapped enough. Maze Runner books BANG. Also have a lot of sentiment attached to this series, involving my adoptive father and audiobooks. Stayed for Minho, tbh. Recently reread the series and it still bangs.

Dystopia in general. My biggest guilty pleasure is trashy dystopia dramas lmao. I won't list them all. No, I didn't like Divergent and I never finished it. Thought it was an autism metaphor. It was not. Bye bye!

Heartstopper/Osemanverse. Read the webtoon, then the entire novel series. My favourite is probably Radio Silence. This series is such a safe space for me.

Howl's Moving Castle/Dianne Wynn Jones books in general. HMC book BANGS. Howl most gender of all time. Would love to talk about how Miyazaki and Jones were so fucking smart in how he interpreted the books, imo. Also, shoutout to the sequels Castle In the Air and House of Many Ways. I still need a copy of House of Many Ways after my dad tore it to shreds in front of me. But yeah, those books bang, too.

Adam Silvera's books in general. Shoutout to the mess that was They Both Die At the End. Fuck that book.

The Naturals. No one talks about this series. Read it at my nana's house on accident. Genuinely really fun series???? (I love crime.)

Song of Achilles/Circe. Putting those two together. I preferred Circe, but I think SoA is just a classic for sad gay people.

39 Clues. These are my ROOTS. too bad the books kind of sucked. But damn was I *into* them.

Anne of Green Gables. I am such a fan of these books. First book that made me cry! I actually played Anne in a stage adaptation I wrote for my theatre final. I was fantastic, btw, because I too am an autistic yapper and just played myself. God these books. Anne With An E really roped me back in, and now the anime!?@?@?@?

Tamora Pierce books in general. Especially the Alanna Series. Tortall and Other Lands is in my top five books of all time, and it inspired my own short story collection. Her world building is fantastic.

Heaven Officials Blessing. Enough said. Oh these mlm lesbians make me feral.

Jacky Faber books by LA Meyer. Omg? I can't believe I don't talk about that series more. I cried when my mom said I wouldn't pass for a boy after reading these books. Fun fucking girl pirate series.

IRON WIDOW/HEAVENLY TYRANT. MY FAVOURITE POLY GIRLFAILURE.

OMFG HIS DARK MATERIALS. God these books make me FERAL. I think about this series once a month. It's influenced my writing so much and made me critical of religion <3 One of my favourite series EVER.

Greek Mythology counts, right? Right.

Skyward by Brandon Sanderson. Those books are great. I love angry sci fi women.

Eon/Eona by Allison Goodman. It's aged horribly, btw. But I loved it was a kid. The magic system is fucking sick. I wish people knew about this book lmao.

Gather the Daughters by Jennie Melamed. This book is fucking insane. Wow. Such a phenomenal piece of work. I think the prose rewrote my brain chemistry. Most book of all time.

Wilder Girls by Rory Power. Ugh this book. Definition of messy lesbiansssss.

All That's Left In the World by Erik J Brown. God this book deserved it's place to shine *sobs*

Okay,this is not a definitive list. But it's the ones I have copies of, which means I like them enough to get copies of. It's not every book in my personal library, but according to my organization system they're my favourites.

To answer your second question, (which is technically part of your first) I have read RWRB! I liked it quite a bit! I've also read One Last Stop, which I (personally) enjoyed in a different but equal way. I highly recommend One Last Stop. It's so fascinating wtf. I read RWRB during pride of... I think it was 2021? I set a goal to read one queer book for every day of pride month! Some winners, some duds. I kept the ones I genuinely adored, and I cannot recommend some of them enough.

Some book series I've been meaning to read (because my mutuals are very persuasive and I want to like what people I care about like and know why they like it). I've been on a huge nonfiction kick, but I'm breaking out of it and here's what's up next:

Vicious by V.E. Schwab. (I've read her ghost adventure series and loved it.)

The Secret History by Donna Tartt. This is literally the next book on my TBR.

The Folk of the Air Trilogy by Holly Black

Sorry for the whole... bleh. Please make recommendations if you have any! I'm what the kids call a "voracious reader", or more affectionately, "a fucking nerd." I love books, I give myself reading challenges all the time. This month was to read nonfiction books erhjfds. Okay, that's all. Thanks for the ask!

[avpdvoidspace]

I have a video game playthrough I like to rewatch sometimes, but there's a part that really frustrates me. I don't want to personally criticize the people playing it, but their conversation gets to a point where they're like

I feel like this game teaches empathy

I wonder what would happen if you make murderers in prison play this, if they would develop empathy It's frustrating because it points to a lack of understanding of why most murder actually happens.

a lack of empathy doesn't make you violent or want to kill people. most people have material reasons to murder. Even if we agree that murder isn't a solution to jealousy, desperation, being slighted, whatever, those are clear motivations as to why murders happen. I don't think it's pathology or lack of empathy that causes most people to cross that line.

Some murders that seem senseless and have no obvious motivation beyond hatred are done by people who have been indoctrinated into sexist, racist, ableist, homophobic, or transphobic hatred. I think there's a big difference between pathologically lacking empathy and being raised to see yourself and people like you as human and an othered group as not human. And then you have to account for people in prison for murder who were actually trying to defend themselves or escape an abusive situation. Murder is uncommon. Most people in prison are not murderers. I think 'murderer' is kind of a strawman scare tactic to manufacture consent for mass incarceration, because people imagine that prisons are just busting at the seams with them. On the other hand, neurodivergence that comes with varying degrees of low empathy isn't all that uncommon. The vast majority of us don't make the choice to be violent towards other people. And it is a choice, not a symptom of mental illness or neurodivergence. This is a long post to say that the push to associate low empathy and mental illness with violence and murder is a distraction from the actual material conditions that make violence as common as it is and to distract from things we could do to mitigate it... and the stigma placed on neurodivergent and mentally ill people makes us collatoral damage.

[filipfatalattractionrblog]

In hinsight it's even funnier.

Ambessa spend months weaving intricate web of lies and corruption, just to make sure her puppet dictator festers in her hatred for one pair of blue hair and mental illness. Cait basically fell into her lap pre-packed, she was already on her "shoot the kid first, gas the rest" stage when Ambessa gave her absolute power on a silver platter. To get her hands on Jinx's neck Caitlyn was ready to make 1984 look like Conquest of Bread, all she did was an enabler with military power to back it up. But Ambessa wasn't going to stop here, she wanted to mold Cait in her image, just to be sure. Forget the Noxian Triangle, one of Caitlyn's ears was being filled with tenents of Ur-Fascism labeled "guidelines", all while Ambessa's hand-selected two-faced bitch was in the other ear, telling Caitlyn to not worry, she is in charge, she is in control, she has the power here, she can stop whenever she wants. And she's a good person, much better than this scary Noxian general, would such cutie patoie be so in love with her otherwise? Of course Caitlyn will stop when things get really bad because she's such a good person and she is in control, she can stop whenever she wants, just not after some Zagnief looking motherfucker treid to break someone's neck for having blue hair and pronouns, that wasn't so bad, she just needs to have some stern talk with mo...general, remind her who is in charge and that she will totally stop everything if things get really out of hand. Just not right now. Ambessa helped Caitlyn bent to shove her head up her own ass so deep she had Runeterra's greatest piece of shit dead to rights and didn't blow his head off because she was too focused on wanting to strangle a single neurodivergent that doesn't even like the guy herself. Caitlyn's downfall was doing so well Ambessa said "forget Piltover, I want to induce this bitch to the empire, she's gonna do numbers!". She was well on her way to mold Caitlyn into a true wolf, a perfect child that wouldn't question her ideals like the other two.

And then she gets one look at an angry oil stick that doesn't believe in proper bras, with her tight black pants, her leather jacket barely containing the guns, her ABS and it's like a fucking spell came undone. For all intents and purposes Ambessa could as well have hypnotize her like in a Saturday Morning Cartoon, pendulum on a swing style, that's how easy it all went poof, gone the moment Vi said a magic word. Months of careful manipulation and realistic indoctrination, poisoning woman's mind and bedroom, undone faster you can say "true love's kiss". Sorry, your political intrigue is over, because a butch hit her emo phase. RIP to Ambessa, Vi's just built different

-Admin