#resources for (un)learning

[disabilityjusticeandyou]

Web Resource

Resources. (n.d.). Project LETS. Retrieved November 6, 2024, from https://projectlets.org/resources

[ID in alt]

This is Project LETS’ Resources for (Un)Learning. They have a whole page on disability justice that includes sources for all definitions, introductory readings and videos, and some more in-depth collections of resources organized by topic. The author’s and information are all world class, and they include both some newer and some older sources, allowing for a more historically grounded perspective. The site itself is on a mission to help create alternatives to the mental health system we live with today, and many of their other resources are centered around unlearning ableist and harmful beliefs about yourself and others. This web resource is very approachable for someone who is just getting started learning about disability studies and other topics therein, but it’s also excellent for disabled people who are interested in a more in depth learning experience about disability justice.

[northern-passage]

over the last 24 hours Tom Homan has flip-flopped on what exactly is going to happen this upcoming week in the US, but we know he has threatened a “big raid across the country” and Chicago seems to be the first target with leaked plans for tuesday, January 21st, 2025. if you are here and live in a sanctuary city, brace for ICE raids to begin this week. if you're able, you can request or print your own red cards (available in multiple languages) from the Immigrant Legal Resource Center and offer them to people within your community.

if you see ICE, let people know. shout "ICE" and "LA MIGRA." do not open your door for ICE.

You have constitutional rights:

- DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR if an immigration agent is knocking on the door. / NO ABRA LA PUERTA si un agente de inmigración está tocando la puerta. - DO NOT ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS from an immigration agent if they try to talk to you. You have the right to remain silent. / NO CONTESTE NINGUNA PREGUNTA de un agente de inmigración si el trata de hablar con usted. Usted tiene el derecho de mantenerse callado. - DO NOT SIGN ANYTHING without first speaking to a lawyer. You have the right to speak with a lawyer. If you are outside of your home, ask the agent if you are free to leave and if they say yes, leave calmly. / NO FIRME NADA sin antes hablar con un abogado. Usted tiene el derecho de hablar con un abogado. Si usted está afuera de su casa, pregunte al agente si es libre para irse y si dice que sí, váyase con tranquilidad. - GIVE THIS CARD TO THE AGENT. If you are inside of your home, show the card through the window or slide it under the door. / ENTREGUE ESTA TARJETA AL AGENTE. Si usted está dentro de su casa, muestre la tarjeta por la ventana o pásela debajo de la puerta. I do not wish to speak with you, answer your questions, or sign or hand you any documents based on my 5th Amendment rights under the United States Constitution. I do not give you permission to enter my home based on my 4th Amendment rights under the United States Constitution unless you have a warrant to enter, signed by a judge or magistrate with my name on it that you slide under the door. I do not give you permission to search any of my belongings based on my 4th Amendment rights. I choose to exercise my constitutional rights.

What to do if you are detained - National Immigration Law Center

there's also the ICE Detainer FAQ and the ICE Raids Toolkit from Immigrant Defense Project. and you can also get information on DACA, various resources for preparedness, and flyers at united we dream:

this one is Chicago specific but another organization that is helping people prepare:

[ms-demeanor]

How to avoid sharing Social Media Scams in the Wake of a Disaster

The world is full of disasters. It is also full of people who have learned to profit off of disaster. It is an unfortunate fact of life in the modern social media/online environment that in order to avoid spreading scams, you have to make a continuous effort and you have to be cynical.

There are a lot of wonderful, well-meaning people in the world who want to help everyone who asks for it. Unfortunately, those people are easy to scam.

These are some rules to prevent you from either falling victim to scams or from passing scams along to other people.

These are not suggestions, these are not things to take into consideration, the rules listed here are RULES that you need to adopt in order to keep from spreading scams on social media.

Rules:

Never, ever share screenshots of fundraisers or resources that you haven’t verified yourself. If you see a screenshot of, say, the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds Instagram announcing that they will be accepting evacuees with RVs, you go find the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds website, you find the social media linked on their website, and you check that the post you’re seeing actually came from the entity it’s claiming to. Once you have proved that the post actually came from the entity it’s claiming to, double check that entity with a couple of verifiable sources. So, for instance, if I was checking on the Guitar Center Music Foundation I’d check Guitar Center’s website and maybe I’d look for news articles about donations from the foundation. If I was looking up the Antelope Valley Fairgrounds, I’d look for a local newspaper calendar of events that linked to the fairgrounds or would check the city websites in the area and search “fairgrounds” on them. I would not share a link to a social media page for an organization until I was 100% certain that it was actually associated with the organization. You shouldn’t either. If you see a post that claims to come from a specific group but all you have is the screenshot of the post, go find the group’s website and if it all checks out you may share it IF AND ONLY IF you add the link to the post. And if a post has a link already, click through it and STILL check that everything looks okay.

Never give money or information to someone with a free email address. This sucks. I know. But if the group you’re looking at only has a gmail address or a protonmail you have no way of knowing if they’re legitimately associated with the organization at a glance. And even if they ARE associated with the organization, the free email account demonstrates a lack of planning/commitment that has troubling implications for the handling of your money or data.

Do not share screenshots of “resources,” headlines, social media posts, or news articles. I’m done with screenshots. Screenshots are easy to fake and almost always remove context from the discussion. A standalone screenshot isn’t information, it’s a trap to get you to share something without thinking. Do not *trust* screenshots of “resources,” headlines, social media posts, or news articles. Always assume a screenshot is faked unless you have found the original post yourself. A screenshot isn’t a “resource” it is an un-source, it is intentionally removing information from the viewer and we are well past the time when people should have understood that sharing screenshots without a link to the original text in context is never, every trustworthy.

Do not give money or information to accounts without a history. This may mean individual social media accounts, or it may mean a shiny new mutual aid project that popped up near your house. It’s unfortunate that people have their accounts deleted, it’s unfortunate that new orgs have trouble finding support, but the likelihood that a new account is a scam is simply too high to trust your money or information with it. If someone is asking for money or offering help on an account that hasn’t posted for years, or that suddenly changed all its content, or that has only existed for a month with no links to other, older sites and socials, you shouldn’t trust that account.

Okay, those are the RULES. Those are the lines you draw in the sand. The TL;DR version is this:

Don’t share posts you haven’t personally verified

Don’t give money or information to accounts with generic email accounts like gmail

Don’t share or trust screenshots that have no links or further context

Don’t give info or money to brand new accounts

I absolve you of any guilt you have surrounding this. You want to share that post to help a stranger but they have only had an account for a week. You want to spread that resource, but unfortunately it is only available as screenshots of an anonymous instagram account. You think that perhaps that mutual aid group really can help people, but the only way contact them is to put your info into a google form and send an email to their gmail account. That post seems really helpful, but actually you can’t find anything that suggests that the Mt. Pacifico Aquatic Center exists outside of this twitter account. No more guilt! Guilt be gone! You do not have to feel bad for not sharing these things, or not reaching out, or not giving money because doing so would be irresponsible and would put other people at risk of being tricked by scammers or wasting what money they can donate on a potential fraud.

Now, some tips:

Always, always, always take at least ten minutes to think about giving someone money or your information online. Read the post that moved you, then re-read it, then go sit away from it for ten minutes and think about it. There’s a good chance you will still want to give, or sign up, but ten minutes away will give you a chance to consider if there are any red flags in the post that inspired you.

Independently search everything you’re going to share. Go outside of social platforms and check on search engines. Check Wikipedia. Look up the website and send a while clicking around. Go on a *different* social media platform and check their account.

Just straight up search “[SUBJECT] Scam” before you do anything. See if this thing you’re looking at is actually an old scam that’s revamped for a new disaster. See if you can find an explanation of how something might be a scam or risk in a way that you didn’t understand before.

Get used to getting away from social media. Go check websites.

Learn domain name syntax. “musicfoundationguit.arcenter.com” is a bullshit scam. “guitarcenterfounditaon.org” is a bullshit scam. “guitarcenter-foundation.org” is a bullshit scam. The actual domain is “guitarcenterfoundation.org” and the link to the correct page isn’t going to be “guitarcenter.foundationfires.org” it’s going to be “guitarcenterfoundation.org/fires”  

Tips for Orgs:

If you do not want your org to look like a scam you are going to have to put some effort into it. Unfortunately this will probably also require at least a little bit of money; I know it’s hard to get money together at the beginning, but it will pay off in the long run.

Invest in a domain and hosted email. You can get relatively inexpensive hosted email through most domain registrars and even if you only get one email address for your domain you can forward it to all the free gmail and protonmail accounts you want. But buy a domain, set up a simple website, and get an  info@[yourdomain].com email set up because you don’t want people emailing “MyOrgInfo@gmail.com” because it’s super fucking easy for a 1337 hax0r like me to set up “YourOrgTeam@gmail.com” and scam the people who want to reach out to you.

Make a blog on your actual website, not on a social media site. A blog means that you can make regular posts and establish a history to prove that you are real and you do real stuff; it will also help with SEO and help to ensure that when people search for your org YOU are what comes up. Keeping up calendars of previous activities with links to those activities is also good.

Set up social handles on all the sites you use, make a “socials” page on your website, and link to your handles so that people can verify if you’re the one posting something. If you don’t make it extremely easy to find your socials, that means it’s extremely easy to set up fake accounts claiming to be you. Then put the link to your website in the bio on your socials.

If you are offering something or holding a fundraiser or doing anything on your social media page, link it back to your website. If you have an IG post offering resources, you should include a url for your site in each image. If you share a photo on twitter with the info for a march, that should link back to your website with more info about the march. If you post a fundraiser on tumblr you need to link the fundraising page of your website on that post.

If you absolutely positively cannot set up a website and a real-ass email address, set up a linktree, choose a primary social media to post on that all the others refer back to, and very explicitly state what your email address is and that you do not have other email addresses somewhere that's difficult to miss. Build a history of posts and link to other orgs that you work with or any writeups or stories about your events or projects. The point of all of this is making yourself easy to verify. "northfullertonfnb@gmail.com" sucks but it sucks a lot less if it's in the bio of "@northfulltertonfnb" and that page has a two year history of posting meal share schedules and menus.

In conclusion, don't share things that you haven't personally checked. When in doubt, it is always safer not to share.

[elodieunderglass]

History of Black jockeys in the USA: tumblr starter pack

The gif above was created by animating the motion study of “Annie G,” plate 627 of Eadweard Muybridge’s 1887 work, “Animal Locomotion”. The horse is a mare named “Annie G.” The jockey, unknown, is a Black man. It is one of the earliest motion studies on record, and captures some of the first humans and first animals to be recorded this way. (The earlier 1878 Muybridge study of the mare Sallie Gardener is more famous but you can’t really see the jockey.)

The Black jockey is referenced (fictionally) as an ancestor n Jordan Peele’s film Nope (2022) which also looks at the relationship between Black men, horses, and the consumption for entertainment of both of their bodies.

Fold into that what we are learning about today’s acceptance of the jockey-as-consumable, of their body as an accessory, of their wellbeing as mostly irrelevant; but then remember that once upon a time, people cared a lot more about horse racing. This is a big, tricky topic in American horse racing. There was a time in American history when Black jockeys were enslaved and forced into a job that we know is dangerous and consuming. Later there was a time in American history when Black jockeys were incredibly influential and important, competing equally alongside white jockeys, and they were deliberately pushed out of a sport they had mastered.

“The Undefeated Asteroid,” Edward Troye, 1864. Enslaved horse trainer Ansel Williamson, right, holding saddle. Ed Brown, jockey on left adjusting his spurs, was the young enslaved jockey. The groom is unidentified.

Press Keep Reading for an essay/signposts to resources. It’s intended as a jumping-off point for curious people and historians to learn more. TW for racial discrimination and discussion of weight.

As we know by now, jockeys are considered consumable/disposable by their sport; they are athletes whose names are less memorable than their mounts and their working conditions are tough. The sacrifices that jockeys make today to remain strong and light are hard enough when the jockey is willing. They have hard weight limits on their profession. And one of the very dark horrors of this was that young enslaved Black men of small stature and riding ability were singled out and used as jockeys. Their sacrifices would not have been willing. While this essay is about the Black athletes who willingly entered the sport post-abolition, I think it’s important to be up-front about the history of enslaved jockeys in America. Jockeys like Ed Brown (above) were forced into the job very, very young.

Horse racing is a bonkers calling, but it’s also one that people willingly follow. Post-abolition, there were many Black American jockeys who were incredible athletes, their records and statistics still impressive today. In a surge of excellence around the 1890s, Black jockeys rose to remarkable influence and power in America, becoming household names above even the horses, travelling the world, greeted with admiration, true celebrities with their faces on merchandise. At the very first Kentucky Derby, raced in 1875, 13 of the 15 jockeys were Black men.

Between 1890 and 1899, African American jockeys won the Kentucky Derby six times. By the early 1900s, they were history. The key push to exclude Black jockeys came when White jockeys began violently attacking their African American counterparts by boxing them out during races, running them into the rail, and hitting them with riding crops. These attacks prevented Black jockeys from finishing in the money, and endangered fragile and valuable racehorses. Soon after the attacks began, African American jockeys found they could not get rides. Anxiety over job insecurity appears to have played an important role in White jockeys’ actions: there were only a limited number of riding slots. White jockeys would have benefitted in any circumstances from the exclusion of Black jockeys, but in the late 1890s the US was in a depression, and unease about finding rides was especially high. Combined with a growing anti-gambling crusade that reduced attendance at racetracks and eliminated some tracks entirely, jockeys found demand for their services contracting.(National Bureau of Economic Research)

Professor Pellom McDaniels, describing the impact of this on legendary Black American jockey Isaac Burns Murphy:

MCDANIELS: If black people are supposed to be inherently inferior, to have someone who demonstrates success in material terms unravels this idea and therefore those whites during this time period who believe themselves to be inherently superior, something's broken in their psyches. And Murphy represents that kind of attack on white supremacy.

Isaac Burns Murphy, one of the best American jockeys of history, had an unprecedented rate of wins (something like 44% which is almost impossible.) he was born into slavery, but his mother managed to escape with him as a toddler to a Union Army camp. He was inducted into the Jockey’s Hall of Fame in 1955 and Eddie Arcaro was quoted, “there is no chance that his record of winning will ever be surpassed.” (How could it?!)

Today, the American Racing Museum honours many Black jockeys of history in their Hall of Fame, telling some truly incredible stories that are worth browsing.

Like James Winkfield. Born in America 1882, died France 1974. won the Kentucky Derby twice. Left America due to this rising backlash against the growing prominence of Black jockeys, the KKK in particular explicitly objecting to his celebrity and earnings by sending him death threats. Winkfield therefore rode and trained in Europe, settled in Russia, FLED THE 1919 REVOLUTION WITH 200 HORSES?, married an exiled Russian aristocrat (????) and, lest he know peace for five minutes, defended his horses from the European Nazi invasion with a pitchfork(!!!!). Fleeing WW2 to America, where the new racial segregation was now being widely embraced, Winkfield found hotels that had once welcomed the celebrity athlete suddenly turning him away (never forget that segregation was artificial and deliberate.) I am still stuck on him sneaking 200 thoroughbreds out of Russia. Here’s his Britannica article and Hall of Fame bio.

The campaign of racism and terror was successful at driving Black athletes from the profession, and Winkfield was the last Black jockey to win the Kentucky Derby. Jim Crow swept through the USA, and white people in the South comforted themselves with “lawn jockeys,” racist caricature lawn ornaments of Black men in jockey silks.

It wasn’t until the 1970s that Black jockeys began winning high-stakes races in the USA again.

Hopefully this has spurred (ha!) your interest. Here are some links if you find yourself interested in more!

American racing museum: Jockey hall of fame

Kentucky Derby Museum’s Black Heritage in Racing collection

How and Why Black Riders Were Driven from American Racetracks (summary paper, National Bureau of Economic Research)

There is no competition: the legacy of black jockeys (1975 entry in Sepia magazine preserved here. Note that James Winkfield’s picture incorrectly identified as Isaac B Murphy.)

This 1975 photo is from the article above and describes Cheryl Smith, “first Black American female jockey to hold a license.” I haven’t been able to find out much about her, but I’m not a historian - let me know if she takes your interest as a topic!

It looks like there are some big interesting books on the subject, though I haven’t read them myself. If you’re interested in doing a research project, here they are!

The Great Black Jockeys: The Lives and Times of the Men who Dominated America's First National Sport, by Ed Hotaling, 1999

Isaac Murphy: The Rise and Fall of a Black Jockey, by Katharine C Mooney, 2003

The First Kentucky Derby: Thirteen Black Jockeys, One Shady Owner, and the Little Red Horse That Wasn't Supposed to Win, by Mark Schrager, 2023.

[opencommunion]

"As the U.S. government continues to provide Israel with both weapons and diplomatic cover — most recently, by voting against a UN resolution demanding a ceasefire, coincidentally also on December 11 — activists like DBNY see collective direct action as their best means of curbing the violence. They also describe their organizing as a direct response to solidarity requests from Palestinian labor unions urging workers around the world to halt the flow of weapons to Israel.

... Since September, DBNY has been taking the fight to Easy Aerial’s doorstep. Each week, activists with the group distribute flyers to the more than 11,000 people who work for over 450 businesses in the 300-acre complex, including art studios, food vendors and entertainment companies. The flyers in English and Spanish provide background on Easy Aerial, Crye Precision and the Brooklyn Navy Yard itself .... In addition to the weekly flyering, DBNY has organized demonstrations to coincide with the corporation’s board meetings and public events. Activists have also been directly petitioning the corporation’s executives, board members and staff, demanding they evict Easy Aerial and Crye Precision from the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

While the response from the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation to DBNY has been official silence paired with harassment from hired security — including drone surveillance — the response from workers has been 'overwhelmingly positive,' according to the activists. 'Most of them have been shocked and disgusted to learn that they work alongside war criminals.'

... Ultimately, DBNY hopes to replicate the recent successes of other activists targeting weapons manufacturers supplying the Israeli military. Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions Boston, for example, was able to force the closure of Elbit Systems’s offices in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in August, following a year of demonstrations, as reported by Cambridge Day.

According to DBNY, until the Brooklyn Navy Yard ceases to host businesses trading in 'blood money' from targeting people in Gaza and the United States alike, all New Yorkers and visitors should boycott the complex. To that end, the activists have created a petition demanding the eviction of Easy Aerial and Crye Precision, as well as pledging a boycott until that time.

'We also urge all tenants and workers to take autonomous actions at the Brooklyn Navy Yard and by joining our campaign to disrupt, strike and boycott all genocide profiteers,' said the DBNY spokesperson."

Demilitarize Brooklyn Navy Yard: IG, Linktree Resources for locating genocide profiteers near you ACT UP Civil Disobedience Guide Small Group Direct Action Advice

[tiredguyswag]

one of those masterposts for Sudan 🇸🇩

Disclaimer: I am not Sudanese, and am in no way an expert on the ongoing crisis. Corrections, if any, are welcome.

LAST UPDATED: 8th October 2024 [Please try to reblog the original post as much as possible]

~

So what's going on in Sudan? Sudan was under the rule of the military dictator Omar Al-Bashir for thirty years. He came to power through a military coup in June 1989. His rule saw extreme economic decline, repression, and conflict. In the December of 2018, a democratic revolution began that eventually overthrew the dictatorship on April 11, 2019, and saw the beginning of a military rule by militant parties SAF (Sudanese Armed Forces) and RSF (Rapid Support Forces). This unrest is, of course, funded by western governments.

On the 15th of April, 2023, fighting broke out in Khartoum between the SAF and RSF. Clashes spread across the nation of Sudan, and the civilian populace is still caught in the middle. According to UN officials, Sudan is in “one of the worst humanitarian nightmares in recent history."

There is an ongoing war in Sudan, and it's getting worse. There is a health crisis along with the humanitarian crisis as well: around 2/3rds of the population do not have access to healthcare services. Around 15-20 millions suffer from hunger. There are 70 non-operational healthcare facilities in conflict zones. Thousands killed, millions displaced, and a dramatic increase in sexual violence and rape cases.

~

Links for Learning Resources:

Hadhreen: Hadhreen started as an initiative by a small group of Sudanese youth in 2015. Since its inception it continued to work in a variety of sectors, most notably Emergency response, health, and in supporting vulnerable groups.

Talk About Sudan: Learn more about what's happening in Sudan and actions you can take. Also has donation links for those who are able.

Keep Eyes On Sudan: A website run by Sudanese diaspora to amplify the calls of the Sudanese people. Has donation links, actions you can take, upcoming protests and events, resources, FAQs, etc.

#SudanSyllabus.docx: An extensive and well-sourced document, providing English language resources about Sudanese history. It's really long and has got lots of links to books, articles, and more. Curated by Razan Idris.

Human Rights Watch

~

Donation Links:

List of verified charities providing humanitiarian assistance in Sudan

SudanFunds: Like GazaFunds, it is a compilation of GoFundMes for Sudanese individuals in war zones in need of help.

Help Sudan Tarada Initiative: The aim is to deliver emergency basic needs, food and medicine. Funds will be transferred directly to local charities and organization who are managing those shelters to make sure that the funds are well received and is spent on the needs specified.

One Million Sustainable Pads Campaign: Fundraiser to help provide women in IDPs camps with reusable pads

Zubeyda Adam and family (Sudan)

Our home bombarded and destroyed

Help my family escape Sudan's war

Save a transperson in african Refugee camp from starvation [Unsure about the legibility of this one since its not from the person themself, but if someone can verify this for me that would be great]

Hope For Sudan

Darfur Women Action

Doctors Without Borders

Fill A Heart: Financial Assistance to Sudanese Hospitals

Hometax: Sudan Relief

Cairo Sudan Aid

Amal For Women

Sudan Solidarity Collective

Sadagaat

UNICEF

~

These are all the links I have so far. Please spread awareness about Sudan! Let me know if there are any links I should add to the post and I will update it.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Self-Doubt

Self-doubt - a feeling of uncertainty about yourself that leads you to question your identity, your abilities, and potentially your self-worth.

It can arise in any situation requiring you to take action or step outside of your comfort zone, from going on a first date to applying for a new job.

To a certain degree, self-doubt can be healthy, leading you to develop new skills or prepare for novel situations.

On the other hand, excessive self-doubt breeds indecision and self-criticism, preventing you from taking risks that can help you grow.

Causes of Self-Doubt

Some of the causes of self-doubt:

Anxiety and overthinking: Anxious people constantly overthink different scenarios, imagining all of the possible ways that things can go wrong. Daunted by rumination over every possible worst-case scenario, an anxious person will naturally underestimate their abilities to handle challenges, reinforcing self-doubt and encouraging more negative thoughts.

Fear of failure: Perfectionism and a fear of failure reinforce feelings of self-doubt. In a state of self-doubt, you may attribute your past successes to luck, downplaying your true abilities. (A term for this experience is imposter syndrome, which is when successful people feel unworthy of their wins.) Conversely, you may feel traumatized by past instances of failure, paralyzing yourself out of fear that you might experience those negative emotions again.

Trauma: Self-doubt is often a result of negative life experiences, which can adversely impact your self-esteem. A mental health professional can help you sort through crippling feelings of self-doubt stemming from trauma.

Overcoming Self-Doubt

A few ways to work on your self-doubt:

Set goals for yourself. Combat self-doubt in small doses by assigning yourself daily or weekly tasks to improve your confidence in specific areas. For example, challenge yourself to meet new three people one week, and to stand up for yourself the next. Set goals for yourself that are realistic and non-intimidating. As you achieve smaller goals, set progressively larger ones and take a step back to reflect on your confidence. To track your feelings along the way, consider journaling throughout this process.

Practice self-assured body language. When you adopt confident body language, real confidence will follow. Stand up straight with your shoulders back. Maintain eye contact while people talk to you. Practice power poses, which are specific stances meant to increase your confidence.

Make a list of your positive qualities. List out all of your positive qualities, or times that you were successful in an endeavor. Relate these qualities and scenarios to your current feelings of self-doubt to disempower your reflexive negative self-talk.

Practice self-compassion. Being kind to yourself—whether that involves changing your internal narrative, prioritizing time for the things you love, or practicing positive affirmations—helps chip away at chronic self-doubt.

Give your inner critic a name. Your inner critic may mock your progress and highlight your failures. Give this character a name and speak to them as if they were another person. For example, when you start beating yourself up for a failure, call the voice out by its name. Remind yourself that you are worth more than one mistake. This will help you habituate positive self-talk and build self-confidence.

Speak to a mental health professional. Therapy is a vital way to learn self-compassion and get to the root of what’s causing your self-doubt. Many people with anxiety disorders or chronic self-doubt benefit from cognitive-behavioral therapy, which involves un-learning negative cognitive habits that cause you pain.

Source ⚜ More: Writing Notes & References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[folklorespring]

"Izolyatsia" ("Isolation") is a former art centre that was turned into torture prison by russian forces.

The journalist Stanislav Aseyev, who was held in the Izolyatsia prison from 2017 to 2019, stated that acts have been carried out there would qualify as war crimes. He described the torture leading to suicide attempts of several prisoners.

According to the report by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights for the period from 16 November 2019 to 15 February 2020, the individuals detained in Izolyatsia underwent torture, including electric shocks, mock executions and sexual violence. The number of such torture chambers, filtration camps and prisons is growing.

Detailed thread

Story of one of the survivors

More resources to learn about it

[lieslab]

Main Masterlist 2

Apparently, there's a limit of links you can add to your posts and I've reached it for my first masterlist. Due to that, welcome to the second list that will be filled with more links for drabbles and full-length fics as I write them.

꘎♡━━━━━♡꘎ ꘎♡━━━━━♡꘎

Go back to the first masterlist

Taglist and inbox information

Learn how to support the writer

Mental health resources

_ _ _

Stray Kids X reader:

Merry Christmas, please don't call [comfort/hurt]

I love you [fluff]

I'm stuck with a phobia [comfort/hurt]

My baby here on earth showed me what my heart was worth [reverse comfort/hurt]

Shadows and silhouettes [fluff]

No wisdom, just teeth [9th member AU]

When there's monsters on your ceiling, I'll keep you safe [9th member AU]

Dying star [9th member AU]

Bad idea, right? [Stranger AU]

You're wearing me out, but I love you the same [9th member AU]

Don't be afraid of me [9th member AU]

The music will wake me up again and again and again [9th member AU]

Tell me you love me, come back and haunt me [9th member AU]

This is a place where I feel at home [9th member AU]

_ _ _

Chan X reader:

If we could only turn back time [angst with a happy ending]

Enjoy the ride and let loose [Vampire AU]

Where's my love? [angst with a happy ending]

Where's my love? Pt. 2 [fluff]

I wouldn't wanna be too much [comfort/hurt]

My body is not my own [comfort/hurt]

You know I can't fight the feeling [comfort/hurt]

Know I'll never win the battle [comfort/hurt]

I just need a quiet place where I can scream how I love you [angst with a happy ending]

It's not like me to be so mean, you're all I wanted [angst]

_ _ _

Minho X reader:

And at least I see the light [fluff]

Go fish [fluff]

Soon you'll get better [angst with a happy ending]

What if the world comes to an end before I make it? [fluff]

Do not go gentle into that good night [angst with a happy ending]

There is thunder in our hearts [angst]

Maybe dreams are meant for sleeping [angst with a happy ending]

War of hearts [angst]

_ _ _

Changbin X reader:

A rabbit is innocent until a man spills blood [comfort/hurt]

The warmth in me is you [fluff]

Our skin starts to rot [angst with a happy ending]

Dial 999, it's a good time [crackfic]

Put 'em up [reverse comfort/hurt]

I'd fall to pieces on the floor, if you weren't around [comfort/hurt]

_ _ _

Hyunjin X reader:

The look of love, the rush of blood [fluff]

Why is it that your love is like loneliness? [comfort/hurt]

Wish you were sober [angst with a happy ending]

The sun cannot see its own light [comfort/hurt]

The ache comes and goes like stars with the weather [comfort/hurt]

I wanna cry and I wanna love, but all my tears have been used up [angst with a happy ending]

_ _ _

Han X reader:

It's my party and I'll cry if I want to [comfort/hurt]

Would you miss me in the end, if I ran out of oxygen? [angst with a happy ending]

Can't you come back home? [comfort/hurt]

Right now, I wish you were here with me [comfort/hurt]

All time ever does is pass and all I ever do is remember [fluff]

Last first kiss [comfort/hurt]

_ _ _

Felix X reader:

Too close to the sun [angst with a happy ending]

A nest of our own [fluff]

And I heard about the twister that lives inside your heart [angst]

For now, I will stay alive [angst with a happy ending]

I hope I never lose you, hope it never ends [fluff]

_ _ _

Seungmin X reader:

And normalcy's boring [comfort/hurt]

Will you still walk me home? [angst with a happy ending]

Can we always be this close? [fluff]

Dead-man-walking [angst with a happy ending]

Lane seven is for losers (and lovers) [crackfic]

_ _ _

Jeongin X reader:

Someday, I'll get it [angst with a happy ending]

You're smiling, as if nothing happened [angst without a happy ending]

Soap 'n suds [fluff]

Un-fur-gettable [fluff]

Do you feel ashamed when you hear my name? [reverse comfort/hurt]

Every single thing I touch becomes sick with sadness [angst]

꘎♡━━━━━♡꘎ ꘎♡━━━━━♡꘎

Full length fanfics on Wattpad/Ao3:

Chronic | Felix | Apocalyptic AU with a poetic romance that's doomed from the start

[wowgrim]

Allegations of Antisemitism & Anti-Israel Bias at the United Nations

Articles about United Nations getting rid of Alice Wairimu Nderitu, its Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide, after she concluded Israel wasn't committing genocide and published a paper on how to use the term accurately:

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/the-u-ns-anti-israel-genocide-purge-c8feef1a

UNRWA links to Hamas:

Other articles:

https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounder/united-nations-israel-and-anti-semitism

[theliteraryarchitect]

How to Keep Yourself From Editing As You Write

Not to say there's anything wrong with editing as you write, but if you want to stop yourself and find you can't, here are some tips.

1. Write longhand or on a typewriter.

Not only is it more difficult to edit as you write, changing mediums can help you establish new habits.

2. Try one of the many writing apps that come with features that discourage editing.

Cold Turkey Writer won't let you close the window until you reach a certain number of words. The Most Dangerous Writing App will delete all your progress if you stop typing. And I know there are at least a few apps that disable the backspace key.

3. Set a timer and a word-count goal.

This relies a bit on willpower, but the timer really helps. I talk about the specific process I use in this post.

4. Take a break from reading writing advice.

While you can’t ever “un-know” what you’ve learned, it’s especially difficult if you’re constantly absorbing critical information while at the same time trying to be creative. Give your right brain some space. Go outside, read fiction, paint or draw. Get away from your Tumblr feed. Turn off the internet while you write.

5. Practice, and be patient.

You’ve developed a habit of editing-while-writing and it will take some time to reverse it. Give yourself short practice sessions of not editing: Try to write 50 words without editing. Do some timed freewriting. Think of it as a muscle that needs to be exercised to get stronger.

Hope this helps!

/ / / / /

@theliteraryarchitect is a writing advice blog run by me, Bucket Siler, a writer and developmental editor. For more writing help, download my Free Resource Library for Fiction Writers, join my email list, or check out my book The Complete Guide to Self-Editing for Fiction Writers.

[saszor]

Hello!

I was wondering if you had any tips on how to find pictures for scars/acquired physical impairments? I feel that when I’m looking for photos on scars and how they look/how they develop, I tend to instead find a lot of photos of the injury itself or of a person immediately post-injury (usually very bloody photos from news articles), which isn’t exactly what I’m looking for.

Do you have any specific key words you use to search for references or use any specific databases?

Hey, I answered this somewhere in the replies under that one post so I'll copy it here;

In general, [look for] content surrounding real life burn survivors living their lives, not un-personed burn scars. So places like Phoenix Society, Face Equality International, Changing Faces, these are all orgs that support burn survivors, have advocates that are burn survivors, etc. There's a lot of models who are burn survivors like Loide Ndemueda, Turia Pitt, Catrin Pugh. You can also look up channels by burn survivors on Youtube, SBSK has a couple of in-depth interviews with burn survivors that are great (I referenced youtu.be/sIcLiC3VnTk?si=SEoVMAl4uLoYD98X for one of the drawings in this post). When learning about drawing burn survivors you need to actually get to know some burn survivors and listen to them, most people don't even think of doing this and their "burn victim" ocs are nothing but offensive stereotypes and that's unsalvageable even with the most accurately drawn scars possible.

But for looking up just the scars:

Using hyperspecific terminology is useful to get decent google results. So instead of "burns skin", which will give you everything under the sun including shitty VFX, I try searching "acid burn hypertrophy", and the results are primarily medical resources of treatment so most of them aren't showing it right after the initial burn. Including stuff like "-reddit -fatal" to avoid things you're not looking for is helpful (putting the "-" before a word in a google search will eliminate it from search results) while putting in "management" "update" or "progress" gives you what you're looking for, most of the time at least. If you're looking specifically for photos of keloids, put the word keloid in quotes "like this", it will exclude all the results that don't have it. Don't use emotional or otherwise charged words since these will give you news articles. Try "extensive" over "really bad" etc

Whatever results you get, make sure you're not :

assuming that what you're looking at is gore if you're just starting. I sometimes see shit being categorized as gore when it's pretty clear that this is a matured scar that just looks like that, and I'm flabbergasted every time. If there's blood then yeah it's fresh but I know some people see someone who just didn't have surgery and think that person is dying. They aren't, they just don't have a prosthetic eye.

looking at VFX, cosplays, bad edits, random drawings (though actual medical illustrations done for actual medical purposes can be useful if they are not your only reference), all that shit.

Hope this helps

[noticiasarquelogicasjaponesas]

Sean bienvenidos , arqueojaponólogos; quiero hacer un llamamiento: en Instagram abundan cuentas así como la de la foto que usan Wikipedia sin rigor cientifista y lo peor es que hay gente incrédula, o no sé cómo llamarlos para suavizarlo. Hay que ser crítico con lo que se lee en internet. Si de verdad quieren aprender sobre algo, hay que leer hasta un máximo de 10 fuentes, incluso más, y después contrastar la información que leemos. Las fotos son una cosa aparte, pero también hay que tener cuidado con el material que se usa; yo me tiro días en publicar el contenido que ven en esta cuenta. Además, las fotos son dos recursos muy buenos para detectar el plagio y lo siento mucho por esa cuenta y todas las cuentas que son similares; si las ven, denuncien o bloqueen, no son de fiar, son cuentas que desinforman, además de la poca originalidad. - Hay fuentes más confiables que Wikipedia, como Google Scholar y Academia.edu, por poner unos ejemplos. Si todos unimos fuerzas, podremos eliminar de internet este tipo de gente y su contenido que solo sabe desinformar . - Que pasen una buena semana y nos vemos en próximas publicaciones . ¡Feliz año 2025! - ようこそ、日本考古学者の皆さん。訴えたいのですが、インスタグラムには写真のようなアカウントが科学的厳密性なしにウィキペディアを利用しているアカウントがたくさんありますが、最悪なのは信じられない人がいるということです。あるいは、彼らを何と呼んで和らげたらいいのかわかりません。インターネットで読むものには批判的でなければなりません。何かについて本当に知りたい場合は、最大 10 個の情報源、さらにそれ以上の情報源を読み、読んだ情報を比較する必要があります。写真は別のものですが、使用される素材にも注意する必要があります。私はこのアカウントでご覧いただくコンテンツを何日もかけて公開しています。また、写真は盗作を検出するための非常に優れたリソースであり、そのアカウントと同様のすべてのアカウントについて非常に申し訳ありません。それらを見かけたり、報告したり、ブロックしたりした場合、それらは信頼できず、オリジナリティの欠如に加えて、誤った情報を提供するアカウントです。 - いくつかの例を挙げると、Google Scholar や Academia.edu など、Wikipedia よりも信頼できる情報源があります。私たち全員が力を合わせれば、誤った情報を伝えることしか知らないこの種の人々とそのコンテンツをインターネットから排除することができます。 - 良い一週間をお過ごしください。また今後の投稿でお会いしましょう。 2025 年明けましておめでとうございます! - Welcome, archaeojapanologists; I want to make an appeal: on Instagram there are plenty of accounts like the one in the photo that use Wikipedia without scientific rigor and the worst thing is that there are people who are incredulous, or I don't know what to call them to soften it. You have to be critical of what you read on the Internet. If you really want to learn about something, you have to read up to a maximum of 10 sources, even more, and then compare the information you read. Photos are a separate thing, but you also have to be careful with the material you use; I spend days publishing the content you see on this account. Also, photos are two very good resources to detect plagiarism and I am very sorry for that account and all the accounts that are similar; if you see them, report or block them, they are not trustworthy, they are accounts that misinform, in addition to the lack of originality. - There are more reliable sources than Wikipedia, such as Google Scholar and Academia.edu, to give a few examples. If we all join forces, we can eliminate these types of people and their content that only knows how to spread misinformation from the Internet. - Have a good week and see you in future posts. Happy New Year 2025!

[sirfrogsworth]

2 new things I learned about Mormonism.

Thing the first…

Joseph Smith once held a sorta Mormon Comic-Con where he invited all of his followers and claimed he was going to perform miracles and talk to God and other nonsense. He set up a faith healing demonstration with an audience plant and they pretended to be suddenly stricken deaf and dumb.

Joseph was all, "By the power of Jesus, alakazam, you can now hear and speak again!"

Everyone clapped.

Joseph did not seem to have the foresight to realize other people might want to have their chronic maladies cured. So he was ready to wrap up his little magic show and move on.

But an old dude in the audience was all, "I've got this fucked up hand. Would you mind unfucking it for me?"

In his head, I'm sure Joseph thought, "Well, shit."

But he decided to give it a go. I mean, when I was young I would try to use force powers "just in case." Like, how do you know you don't have force powers if you never try to use them?

So he did his routine again on the fucked up hand and the old man stretched out his fingers for a second and Joseph probably thought "Oh shit, did that really work?" and then they curled back into their fucked up state. He tried his best to make an excuse and hoped that was the end of the faith healing portion of the show.

But then…

A man walks in carrying his little boy.

Who is super dead.

He's like, "Yeah, I was going to take him to a doctor, but everyone said you were coming and I should just wait. Would you mind un-deading my little boy real quick?"

In his head… "Fuck fuck fuckity fuck fuck..."

Out loud… "Jesus Christ and the almighty Father, restore life to this very dead child!"

And the boy opened his eyes and smiled and everyone clapped…

Would have been a great ending to this story.

But he was still quite dead.

Thing the second…

I knew that when Mormons turned 18 they went on a little mission. I always thought they picked a poverty stricken country somewhere and went to help the poor and build houses and give people food and medicine using the church's immense wealth and resources. That seems like it would humble a young person and give them a valuable life experience.

I suppose I just assumed that considering that's typically how Catholics do missionary work. They do a bunch of good deeds and when people are happy and grateful for their help, they pull out a Bible and start their sales pitch. I always had mixed feelings about this but I thought "at least they were helping people." (Not always the case. Sometimes missionaries do more harm than good. But that is the idea, at least.)

Mormons skip the helping people and just do the sales pitch.

They honestly believe converting them to Mormonism is more valuable than food, shelter, clothing, money.

Being a member should solve all of those things, right?

Well, that is essentially what these young mission kids are told.

And they don't just go to poor countries, they often go to rich areas in the US. One might go to the Congo and the other... Beverly Hills.

These 18 year olds are thrust into an unfamiliar place with a few weeks of language training and are tasked with getting people baptized. They have to pay for this "honor" and are judged by how many people they convert. They are often housed in sketchy places and in order to keep them from going rogue, they are attached to another 18 year old who must stay within sight and sound at all times.

Mormonism relies heavily on tattling to keep people following the rules. Seriously, I think the glue that holds all of it together is "snitches get riches." BYU even has an official snitching office where you can narc on someone for getting coffee.

The point is, no one is helped and these kids are essentially slaves for 2 years. They work 80 hour weeks with no pay just trying to get baptisms.

[physalian]

Who are your characters without their powers?

I *love* this trope. Love it. I don’t care if the “depower your super” is cliché, it is necessary for the audience and for you as the creator to understand who they are and what choices they will make when their super-powered support system has vanished.

And I love it in its basest form: A character is used to having x ability, whether it’s super or not, and suddenly it’s gone. It could be a mutation, but it could also just be their own health and mobility. Who are they when something they took for granted is now barred to them by the limitations of their own mind and body?

Of course it’s at its most fun when it’s somebody like Superman trapped on a planet with a red sun(?) where he’s basically human and has to be resourceful in ways he never needed before.

But I just adore it beyond superheroes and I’ve got one OC in particular that I want to talk about.

Bel was, in a few ways, inspired by Superman of all characters—and I’m not a Supe fan. He’s a solarkinetic alien empath and basically has god-level abilities to decimate a small town if he tries hard enough, all powered by sunlight, and a survivor-guilt driven imperative to live by the mantra “If I can, then I must, because if I don’t, then all the bad things are my fault”.

He's very very OP. But with that comes some space-war shenanigans and the opposition’s many ways to depower him, benignly and very painfully, as his whole race is a very rare and very appealing barrel of living weapons ripe for the conscripting.

So Bel is also very used to being nerfed and has learned a long time ago how to get by without any of his powers, and the side effects of losing them. He never has a “omg what do I do who am I when I’m powerless” moment. He gets hit and gets right back up with a knife and a kick to the teeth, and he fights dirty.

But he also has a crippling fear of being useless, so while he’s not incompetent when he’s powerless, he thinks he’s incompetent when he’s powerless and that his team, annoyed by how (rarely) he gets nerfed, won’t want him around anymore, and desperately tries to make up for his perceived shortcomings while god-mode is on a cool-down.

Which results in him obliviously being really, really good at anything he touches, self-deprecating and forcing modesty about it, and losing sleep chasing multi-talented perfection. And that is what annoys his team.

He’s got a whole bunch of other abilities I won’t detail here, but in one of his later bouts of being nerfed, he’s also sick from too much stress while the enemy invades their base and it’s just him and two of his un-powered teammates. He can’t fistfight the bad guys if he tried—and he normally doesn’t anyway—so he’s doing things to help build defenses and buy them time, and he has to sit there and do long-division by hand because his magic calculator is gone.

He can’t run, so he hides in an homage to the raptors in the kitchen scene from Jurassic Park, and has to resist sneezing to alert them. He can’t spam his alchemy, so he’s mixing ingredients with a hodgepodge of measuring cups and spilling things because he’s sick and tired and frustrated. He can’t fight, so he pulls the fire alarm and goes Home Alone on their asses with homemade chemistry bombs, fire foam, strobe lights, and motor oil. The same character that can kill someone with just a look.

He's a character that I started writing about 10 years ago now, and at the time and even now, I just don’t see many like him, who are mentally and emotionally, not just physically reliant on their powers, but who are dangerously and misguidedly dependent on them (and not a raging asshole when they lose them). I want more imposter syndrome in my OP heroes.

Again, not a huge Superman nerd, but in the shows and animated movies I’ve seen him in, he might doubt himself, but he doesn’t go on a self-destructive insomnia spiral trying to make certain that everyone he cares about isn’t just using him for his powers (but also if they are that’s totally fine because thinking people can like him just for him is naïve and childish).

Shoutout to Queen’s Gambit, Beth’s genius and addiction is the closest I’ve seen to what I’m looking for here.

But beyond super powers, I love subplots like:

Character broke their hand, and while it’s in a cast, they have to learn how to do basic things all over again. How frustrated do they get, and how does this loss of ability impact their perception of themselves, and their perception of their relationships?

Character is just getting older, they can’t run like they used to, pick up their grandkids like they used to. Do they lose hope or appreciate what they can still do? Do they give up or decide to exercise so they can have their youth for a little bit longer?

Character quit their passion after a passion-ending injury. Maybe they can’t perform at their previous capacity, but do they become a trainer instead, or a bitter old has-been?

Some are of course more permanent and inevitable than others.

But I really love it also when characters just have to perform menial tasks with difficulties they’ve never had before. Not stopping bank robbers. Not throwing cars.

Stuff like, your super-strength is gone, and now you can’t open a jar of pasta sauce for dinner. Your super-hearing is gone, and now you need subtitles. Your night-vision is gone, and now you need a flash-light. Your super-speed is gone and you never got a license, now you need a taxi or the bus. Your immortality is gone, and now you need to figure out how to cook for yourself, and take a nap before you collapse. Your super-healing is gone, and now you have to both put on and eventually tear off a Band-Aid, and take a Tylenol.

And usually it’s just a gag, something to laugh at like “ha ha they can’t open a pickle jar” but I want to see it played straight. If they throw a fit over not being able to open a pickle jar, it’s not about the pickle jar.

This shit makes us human and while stopping bank robbers makes for a more exciting story, that’s showing us who the hero is without their powers. I want to see who the regular old human is without their powers.

[gayleviticus]

i finished reading 'the widening of God's mercy' by richard b. hays and his son, which for anyone unfamiliar is basically by a guy who used to be non-affirming but changed his mind and thinks the trajectory of the Bible shows God's gradually expansive mercy towards the excluded (gentiles, eunuchs, women etc) that is analogous to lgbt inclusion today.

it's an interesting take that gets away from the grind of just beating away clobber passages, and i think it's a valuable resource in the repertoire of works that try to articulate positive reasons why lgbt affirmation is consistent w the Christian story. but i think one of the most baffling parts is the way the book flirts with the idea of God changing his mind without fully committing.

i dont think you need to appeal at all to some kind of idea of God changing his mind to make the point the book is making; that the overall trajectory/arc of the Bible is towards inclusion, overruling laws/interpretations of laws that undermine human flourishing, and re-examining what we take to be the Word of God.

and at no point does the book take this suggestion that God changes his mind to the obvious conclusion that God used to think gay people should be stoned and will be excluded from heaven, but now has actively repudiated the clobber verses. in fact it's decidedly uninterested in them in any way.

but it flirts with the idea enough to feel unsatisfyingly un-thought-through to me (and probably downright heretical to a potential evangelical it's trying to sway). and i suspect it's because the authors are very much biblical scholars rather than theologians, because the book could definitely use with a good dose of theology. the book acknowledges there are narratives in the Bible where God is depicted as changing his mind, and then sort of just suggests that well, we've inherited lots of theological bias against God changing his mind but if we read the Bible it's clear and obvious that he does that.

but i'm not sure the authors actually believe this is true of God as an entity we worship and interact with, because at other times they write in ways as if God's will was always a certain way and just revealed piecemeal, or distorted by culture, or deliberately responds to human action. i don't think, for instance, that the authors believe God was ever genuinely homophobic, but rather that they're trying to maintain a certain dynamic freedom in God; God is free to act as he wants and we should not feel trapped by our interpretation of scripture into straining a gnat and swallowing a camel.

but i feel like casually dropping the idea of God as changing his mind is like dropping a nuke on america to kill a single cockroach. it raises huge questions that the book doesn't seem interested in answering, or even acknowledging the significance of. does this mean God genuinely was homophobic and thought homosexuals should be executed? how did God learn not to be homophobic? is true morality then some kind of standard superior to God that exists beyond him? have we stumbled our way back into the Euthyphro dilemma just to advocate for lgbt inclusion?

i know process theology etc exists and is well thought out (even if i vehemently disagree with it), but i dont even know if this book is trying to advocate process theology. i dont even have a problem with using language about God changing his mind - it's biblical, and inasmuch as we understand all language about God having emotions etc is analogical it makes sense of the way God seems to act towards us. but the book seems like it's happy to suggest radical ruptures in the way we view God to achieve rhetorical victories when it's not even unnecessary. it just feels distracting.

and i wonder if it almost comes from a place of being so evangelical you veer into being more radical than a lot of outright progressive christians. like, i would just happily say large chunks of the Bible reflect developing theology about God and divine inspiration intermingled with human brokenness. it's a complex work of narrative with layers not a simple didactic instructional text. and so when i think the genocide narrative in Joshua is not reflective of who God is I don't feel a need to suggest maybe God has changed his mind, but rather than people's understanding of God changed.

and i think perhaps the authors (who admittedly i dont know a ton about) still have a sense of needing to respect inerrancy (or at least, appear that way for their target audience, because there are hints in the text of a deeper understanding of historical critical scholarship etc) that rather than interpret scripture metaphorically on the topic, theyd take it so literally they introduce something that is unequivocally more 'heretical' than just rejecting inerrancy.

i have seen a few times this attitude of 'well, if we read the Bible again, we see clearly that God gets angry, changes his mind, is not omniscient etc, so why did we allow all this greek philosophical baggage of immutability etc to infect christianity?'. and i can respect that position when properly developed, but i feel as if it often comes from an overly reductive sense of sola scriptura that ignores the fact these philosophical ideas are trying to make sense of the very concept of God through reason.

and even if not everybody needs to know that philosophical undergirding, it's important that it exists within the christian tradition; a concept of God that is just based on bible stories with no further reflection or thought is going to be shallow. it's like if science stopped at 'when we drop things they fall down' and was decidedly uninterested in developing a theory of gravity

similarly w the trinity; you're not going to get it from just a straightforward reading of the bible. but it is a very effective framework for making sense of scripture. it gives the confusing and seemingly contradictory perspectives on God in the Bible a coherency that is necessary for Christianity to be a coherent theology.

and so i guess approaches to faith that are just like 'let's just follow what the Bible says' miss the fact that theology/philosophy arent just bolted on to make Christianity more respectable, but just inevitably what develops from deeper reflection on the faith. and rejecting that is like saying 'we dont need case law or precedent; we just need to follow the constitution to the letter'.

anyway ive gotten a bit sidetracked on my rant. overall, book with a good overall point that is undermined by flirting with ideas about God that are severely under-served by just casually throwing them in to defend gay marriage