#which is a whole other issue but moreso an issue w society rather than on an individual level. maybe. idk

[dandyshucks]

i think im just gonna delete their reply and maybe block them dhdkdl it is entirely possible (and likely) they just have no idea this guy's incredibly racist because UNFORTUNATELY white ppl have taken this spirit from Algonquian culture and twisted it and now everyone only knows of it as a """cryptid""" unless they're like... active in indigenous spaces or spaces where ppl actively care about racism fhdkdl, but I just don't really feel like trying to carefully word things to educate a random 19 yr old this morning bc i have a headache and now my nervous system is all fucked up fjfkldl

[illnessfaker]

Can you go off about your tangent the other day re: people only caring about ableism as it pertains to fandom

ooooooh boy. i was thinking abt this yesterday actually. kinda. if ur talking abt the warrior cats post my point was moreso "why are u directing so much energy into something ultimately meaningless when it comes to improving the treatment of disabled people irl" rather than "people only care about ableism in fandom" which kinda leads into what i was thinking abt

i search "ableism" on here when i'm bored and the results are mostly chock-full of posts abt fictional media and it's like...upsetting. the disabled people on twitter basically never talk about fictional media (and never talk about mcyt, god bless) and are instead raising awareness abt ableism in the real world that's seriously affecting real people every day.

like, i get it. i get why this happens. ppl on tumblr are always posting "making fandom ur whole identity is cringe/unhealthy" but not rly asking why so many ppl do it. i used to be just like these people when i was younger and my life was a special kind of hell due to being abused whereas now i'm pretty alienated from fandom spaces. i'm not saying that everyone uses it as a coping mechanism for abuse or smth but it's a phenomenon that i see as occurring because when we live in a bleak capitalist hellscape i can't rly fault people for getting super invested in fictional characters and worlds, then living vicariously through that because the current state of the real world is unfulfilling. that's why this happens

that doesn't mean it's okay for people to do offensive crap like interpret real-world, very serious issues exclusively through a fictional lens (white ppl in fandom often due this w racism) or anything else, and that doesn't mean i don't think ppl super-invested in fandom "discourse" shouldn't direct more of that energy in to real-life issues, just that i think it's not rly productive to tell ppl they're freaks and weirdos for centering their identity around fictional stuff bc it's produced by the isolation and monotony that comes w existence in a capitalist society.

most of these ppl are disabled themselves in some way and i'm not saying it's bad for them to criticize or vent abt ableism in their favorite media, even if it's...warrior cats...lol, but it's just rly something seeing most discussion abt ableism on tumblr generally being. incorrect or meaningless. any able-bodied ppl who talk more abt the ableism against "physically disabled characters" in warrior cats than they do abt ableism that happens to physically disabled people irl can get fucked though lol that's absolutely ridiculous.

[tfw-no-tennis]

mtmte liveblog issue 35

ooooh baby functionist universe time

the cover with the neon ‘everything is fine’ sign is rlly good but also the pile of dead data stick bots makes me so sad omg noooo they're so cute leave them alone :( 

minimus and rewind...! its so cool seeing them interact

also I just love the crowd shot, and you can immediately see that there are a ton of data stick bots like rewind around - which isn't what we’re used to at all

also some good ole totalitarian govt stuff like the ‘you are our eyes’ sign (which, in retrospect, is fucking evil damnnnn)

also I'm so [eyezoom] on this functionist universe stuff bc like, this is basically the only time we ever see dominus be a character (rather than hearing abt him thru other characters), and even so he remains pretty ambiguous 

like, minimus clearly isn't thrilled that dominus didn't show up to see him at the space airport or w/e when they've been apart for two million years - and even tho we later see why he didn't show up, it still shows that there's some tension there

the amount of crowd shots in this issue is insane 

oooof, the fact that they sold luna 2 - and to the black box consortia, who we just heard about last chapter when they previously got into a space battle w/the galactic council and the djd

fu!minimus being part of the primal vanguard is interesting, I wanna see more about that. what was he doing w/them for 2 million years?

rewind just casually saying this completely fucked stuff, like that the govt ‘outlawed the intellectual class’ and ‘deported the knock-offs’ (which I'm assuming is cold constructed bots?)

I really like the sense we get thru minimus and rewind’s convo that all of this fucked up stuff has happened slowly enough that its become almost normal - like, they talk about it casually, even though its clear they don't necessarily agree with any of it 

plus the sense of ‘even if things get really bad ill be okay’ that both rewind and minimus seem to adhere to - rewind having been upgraded from being in the disposable class due to his connection w/dominus, and minimus saying ‘I like to think that obsolescence is something that happens to other people’ 

I love all the fucked up signage this issue. ‘take pride in being a means to an end,’ yikes

god and the fact that there isn't MORE data sticks, there's just LESS of other alt modes bc of how many alt modes the govt has wiped out completely...

oof, and continuing the whole ‘slow change’ thing - minimus saying that ‘the council never touches the astro class,’ and maybe that used to be true, but the govt will keep pushing that line, clearly...

and we get to see minimus’s alt mode! altho we the readers know that this isn't minimus’s true form...

‘amazing, the lengths some people will go to cross class boundaries,’ minimus says, as if he isn't doing exactly what rewinds describing, but even moreso as a loadbearer wearing an entire suit of armor

and then the casual public execution of the last lunabot...oof.

love the ‘cybertron. the present day’ text overlay...I was so confused about this when I first read it lmao. I figured it had to be some sort of au/quantum nonsense but STILL

back on the lost light, chromedome is going full kool-aid man on rewinds door

mannnnn I absolutely love the plotline of rewind 2 and chromedome 1...im so glad the story acknowledges that they ARE different, they did experience different stuff on their own lost lights, and rewind 2 being a quantum duplicate doesn't mean he had the same experiences as rewind 1...

and I love so much that chromedome just Doesn't Get It, bc of course he wouldn't - he’s too relieved that rewind is back to even consider that its not quite the same, that the rewind he was forced to blow up is still dead (which is a fucked up thought, so of course chromedome, the master of pushing the past away and moving right along, would want to avoid thinking about that in favor of continuing his relationship w/rewind 2)

it also makes a lot of sense that rewind, who records everything and puts a huge emphasis on history/the past, would be hyperaware of all the differences between him and rewind 1, and his chromedome and this chromedome

AUGHHHH and chromedome referring to an offer he made to rewind that was pretty clearly ‘if your memories of the djd slaughter are too much, I can remove them for you’ ooooof...I love these two so much, like...their absolute opposite approaches to trauma is fascinating

oooh mannnnn and then rewind starts ‘remembering’ stuff from the functionist universe...the plot thickens...!

I really like how one of the main ‘things’ in a lot of tf universes is energon/energy shortages, its interesting when the angle is kinda like, ‘energon is a finite resource and the methods to obtain more often involve destroying other planets,’ that's a pretty unique, alien problem for the tfs to have

it also makes sense that the functionists would form partially in response to that (perceived) shortage, and any sort of scarcity would push them further into their extremist views

I like how expressive the characters with visors are...its cute...

poor rewind has to go thru So Much

WHY can just anyone go into the morgue and touch the dead bodies. I mean I guess megatron being one of the captains explains why he’s in there, but that still shouldn't be allowed 

‘megatron mountain’ vhbjdkshfbjskfbhhk that's so fucking funnyyyyy I love rodimus....I quote that line a lot, especially when watching g1 lmao

the fact that swerve diluting his engex bc he’s a cheapskate saved everyone's s lives is amazing lmao

also like...damn brainstorm sure tried to murder Literally Everyone huh. like I guess the logic would be that if he succeeded in changing the past it wouldn't matter that they had died there cause the timeline wouldn't exist, but STILL. I guess that shows how confident brainstorm was in his plan

it makes so much sense somehow that rung doesn't drink. and we’ve seen firsthand why magnus doesn't lol

mannnn that panel of brainstorm shooting magnus with some wacky beam and causing the magnus armor to fall off in vehicle mode...Super Cool, just peak mad scientist vibes there

ok but if minimus switches to alt mode when ultra magnus does - as we see here, where minesweeper-minimus is inside big-ole-car-magnus - does that mean that inside the minesweeper is turbofox-minimus?? I want to seeeee

ghsdufjkbvksadfbhjs the panels of rodimus telling megatron that brainstorm time travelled are so fucking funny

and megatrons rant about how absolutely bonkers the lost light is....hvbhjdskfbasjh that's so funny oh my god. like yeah dude you're right and you gotta roll w/it sorry 

'on this ship, a minor breakdown is practically a rite of passage’ vbjdsnfbkasdfn its true and I love it

goddddddd it kills me how at this point in the story its So Obvious to everyone that brainstorm travelled back in time to do evil decepticon double agent stuff - and we as the reader can even buy that bc brainstorm has been so sketchy until now, and nothing he’s done contradicts what rodimus suggests - but it turns out in the end, it was all just for love. AUGHHHHHHHH its about the LOVE!!!! that's why I love this arc so much.

back in the functionist universe - god I cant believe rewind waited until Now to reveal to minimus that dominus has a tv face...like I get that that's a difficult topic to bring up in conversation but like, a little sooner might've been good hbvhjkdhnfbjaksl

oh man it hurts...rewind saying that they're in a ‘blind spot...’ oh man :(

rebel rewind, tho!! I love it sm

oh man and rewind never even broke the news about dominus to minimus oof. that's a tough reveal 

MANNN I really like the whole ‘flathead’ thing, its so awful and brutal. its such a logical extension of empurata, and as dominus says, once people get used to seeing empurata’d bots, it loses its punch...and the flatheads thing is even more invasive 

and writing wise, both empurata and the tv-heads are such good devices to show evil govt bs. I talk abt it a lot but I like all the ways jro gets creative with the ‘alien robots’ thing; a lot of these concepts wouldn't work at all with humans or other organic aliens

GODDD and dominus’s chilling speech being interrupted by the functionist propaganda....fucking horrifying I love it

also seeing dominus here is fascinating - clearly the council managed to pin him down enough to turn him into a flathead, but they never discovered his true alt mode...same with minimus, actually 

the cog is so fucking ominous. just floating there...

and the council is scary too! their names, and the fact that they all look the same...seems about right for an evil alien governing body

mannnnnnn and then the reveal that the data slug alt-modes will be ‘recalled’ next...rewind noooooo...and the one council guy even admitted that they still served some purpose in society, BUT that their ability to mass store data made them dangerous to the goverment...evil!!

meanwhile, rodimus doesn't know enough about science to be appropriately frightened about their timeline being wiped from existence, so he’s having a grand ole time

‘no one’s nodding, perceptor’ bvhjdbfasdfhbk their expressions....the lost light command crew are all clearly team ‘leave the science to the scientists’ lmao

I do love the paradox stuff, and brainstorm’s way around it all 

‘so I'm not allowed to take an interest in magic?’ hvbjhsdkfbjhkdf ily sm rodimus

but also like....rodimus suggests a parallel universe could've formed and perceptor is like ‘no way, that's not scientifically possible,’ as if brainstorm didn't basically defy science by time travelling at all...and more to the point, functionist cybertron DID get created, so rodimus was actually RIGHT this time

love that we’re already seeing perceptor’s admiration for brainstorm and his invention even here....sapiosexual mfer

a time travel chase....so beautiful...I love sci-fi so much

seriously time travel is one of my favorite tropes ever, this arc was inevitably gonna be my fav 

‘he’s going to kill orion pax.’ DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNN

meanwhile, on functionist cybertron...aw, is that bulkhead? great cameo! oh wait what's going on with all the data sticks...? uh oh!

the fact that their heads just EXPLODE....soooo fucked!! 

god and then the council picks up their dead bodies, for...probably something evil, I’d assume

god and then dominus got even more fucked....

‘there are certain words you cant afford to lose’ ;_; REWIND....GODDD IM SAD 

GOD GOD GOD the reveal that minimus has CAMERAS in his EYES GODDDDDDDDDDDD that's so FUCKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and rewinds reaction...ME TOO BITCH TF!!!!!!

all the ‘you are our eyes’ messages are even worse now huh!!

they did it while minimus was asleep...that's so fuckedddd

FUCKKKK and then rewind’s impassioned rebel speech, which I adore.....rewind ily sm...he’s such a good revolutionary, I wish we could've seen him leading an anti-funtionist rebellion....BUT THEN ‘oh? what about the back up?’ and its just like HHHHHHHH AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH and then his head starts smoking and we see another billboard, but this time it says ‘WE are your eyes’ - is the implication that everyone is now a surveilling spy, whether they like it or now, so now it’s ‘we?’ like, we’re all in it together, spying on each other! ooooof

also. this is like the third time rewind has died on-screen in this series lmao (well, if you count the fake-out death where he thought he’d be cancelled out during slaughterhouse)...he ALMOST died in issue 12 too....poor rewind

‘the custom-made now’ is such a great title. jro always killin it w/the titles

plus ‘elegant chaos’ is such a cool arc name. fucking epic 

M A N NNNNNNNN THIS ISSUE WAS BALLER...this ARC is baller....I talked a lot hvbhdjkhfndsak lmao but there's so much to talk abt!!! I love the look into the functionist universe, I love seeing alternate versions of characters and settings so much, and I love time travel, so this issue is basically made for me

plus I fuckign love alien robot politics and seeing the absolute control the govt has over cybertronian society in the functionist universe is fascinating - plus from a storytelling standpoint, I think it was brilliant to show the ‘other side,’ aka what things would've been like without the war...which is something ill talk about later when its more directly addressed in the story but man do I enjoy that 

basically I love this arccccc I cant wait to read more hhhhhhh

[thismountainhastigers]

Short Writing Assignment #5

Boldly Going

I never understood the argument that the full history of the universe as science has uncovered it is incompatible with how Christians ought to view God and His works. If anything, understanding the full scope of His creativity and power ought to move a person to worship as much as understanding His love and care. I will concede that the more we understand the universe, the further we move from its center, however, the Christian story is supposed to be about God—not mankind—from start to finish, so why should we fret about being put in our right place with respect to who He is? Why limit his capabilities for the sake of our own pride, especially when the universe could be a much bigger, brighter place if we are willing to see all He is capable of? As a religion, the short-term focus of Christianity is often put on the imperative of loving one’s God and neighbor, but the long-term focus is generally about eternal salvation and the “business of saving souls.” The latter in particular presents a few issues for Christians to face with respect to the possibility of life on other planets, particularly intelligent life. Who (or what) can be “saved”? Are they saved in a manner different from humans? Should we send out missions to the planets around Alpha Centuri, as we first did to the Greeks and Romans and later to the Indians and Koreans? Personally, I believe that there are a few qualifications that need to be met before churches start fundraising mission trips to the far-flung corners of the universe.

The life that we may find in the universe can have a number of implications depending on how developed it is, and the first step on this ladder is that of unicellular life. If we find that life exists at all anywhere else, it would certainly be monumental discovery on top of being a huge opportunity for biologists here on Earth to understand the origins of life (though watching it evolve in real-time may prove to be a bit tiresome). As a whole, I do not see the mere existence of such life forms as any particular threat to the way that Christianity operates today. Even if we move a step further into multicellular organisms, so long as their intelligence does not significantly surpass that of certain animals on Earth (e.g. in terms of tool-making and communicating), such creatures are only another thing to marvel at. Life at these levels is just the result of processes that we already know to occur.

The more intelligent that this hypothetical life becomes, however, the more complicated the situation is for me. I see the next step leading into one of two possibilities: intelligent life and intelligent life that possesses some form of a soul. In this case, we shall define the soul as the source of a person’s reason, individuality, and spirituality, both a part of the body and yet separate at the same time, unknowable by physical means. With respect to the Christian issue of salvation, the eternal nature of a soul is the most important aspect here. Admittedly, I am not sure if the difference between a soulless intelligent being and a souled intelligent being will be readily obvious. Perhaps, as the Turing test is supposed to determine human-like intelligence in machines, we can develop a “Lewis test” to determine the ensoulment of aliens based on his quote from Mere Christianity: “If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world.” The discovery of intelligent life without a soul (assuming we can differentiate between the two) would hold no particular spiritual importance for me; if it is not capable of reaching eternity, then it holds no ultimate or eternal significance. Its existence can still serve to teach us about the nature of God, but overall it still does not turn Christian soteriology on its head. However, should we find beings that do possess souls, there is still one more characteristic they must meet before the issue of salvation comes into play at all.

It is another, equally-important question: are these beings perfect? Perfection, something I doubt we experience on Earth, is slightly more difficult to test for, since we rarely encounter it to know what it looks like. Here, however, I want to make the distinction between perfection and omnipotence. The perfection I would expect to find on another planet is moreso the absence of moral imperfection (“sin” in the Christian tradition), seen in the way members of the species interact with themselves and their planet, than the inability to be any better. It is not the sort of perfection that eliminates the need for improving their species or society as a whole; if life on other planets is subject to the same principles of evolution as life elsewhere, they will not be an unchanging entity. Behavior-wise, I imagine that those that are perfect have little motivation to be better for their own sake; we might notice a larger degree of selflessness among such a species as any desire for improving themselves, their society, or their technology is for the sake of another. The possible existence of a perfect race also requires us to ask how such a species would interact with our own (I doubt that the idea that we as a whole are not perfect is exclusively Christian). For their sake, I would want as little direct contact with them as possible. If such perfection can be lost (as Christian tradition states happened in Eden), I would not want to play a role in instigating the Fall of another species. Regardless of whether or not this Fall is of the spiritual kind or the kind which is more accurately described as physical extinction, I have no doubt that humanity at its worst is capable of that. Encountering an imperfect species levels the playing field in terms of interacting with them. How similar is this discovered species to us? Do they feel any ill-will towards each other? Are they capable of harming another unprovoked? Maybe we can attach a checklist of the seven deadly sins and see how many they meet.

The question of perfection finally brings us to central issue of salvation. As far as I can tell, the only prerequisites for salvation are a soul and imperfection. I also cannot believe that God would allow the existence of a souled, intelligent being and give it no chance to join Him on the otherside. Now that we have established what can be saved, we are left with how they are saved, and just as we cannot limit God’s creative efforts to a single planet, I do not think we can limit salvation to just one method (i.e. Jesus, as we know Him here, complete with incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection). Is it within His power to do so? Certainly. Does it make sense to leave the salvation of an entire planet to a species too busy pointing nuclear weapons at each other to make time to develop an advanced space program? Absolutely not, especially when we have no idea if the life out there originated billions of years before us or will originate billions of years afterwards. In addition, if God is capable of the creation of a wide array of physical forms, why limit Him to making the same kind of soul for all spiritual beings? I was always under the impression that angels were spiritually distinct from humans, so perhaps this can be the case for the other possible life out there. In that case, a “one-size-fits-all” method of salvation may not exist at all. Perhaps all of the saving is accomplished through God, but the mechanism itself is allowed to differ. In the end, I am not so worried about having to translate the Gospel of John into some alien language. I will be far more troubled to learn that God had abandoned an entire planet for eons rather than reveal Himself in a way different from how He did here.

Before I conclude, I would like to bring up just how much I like Star Trek. Cultural importance (and dated special effects) aside, the show has come the closest at portraying my ideal society, one where people (and non-people) of all backgrounds work together for a common goal: to better understand the universe and its occupants. Just because I think we need not worry about taking the gospel to the ends of the universe does not mean we should avoid contact altogether. Should we encounter intelligent life anywhere else (or it encounters us), though it may turn a few of our religions on their heads for a moment as we find our bearings, I hope we can interact with them in a way that skips over any violent confrontation, and we can start learning from each other. I do not know if their answers to the big questions of life are any better than ours, but if they are, why not share the knowledge? Unfortunately, this hopeful future may be too far off, and not only because we have yet to find evidence for life elsewhere. On Earth, we as a species have a poor history of treating those different from us and still have yet to stop trying to kill each other over such differences. (After all, the original Star Trek series only showed Americans and Russians working alongside each other in the 2200s, and at this rate things are going now it appears they were very optimistic.) That said, I do think a successful interplanetary exchange of knowledge and culture can be accomplished if and when we finally sort ourselves out here. For my lifetime, I will settle for peace on Earth before I spend too much time worrying about peace in the galaxy.

Christians tend to speak out against the idea of “putting God in a box,” yet I see so many trying to limit what God has done in the physical world, brushing off the new possibilities because they do not fit the notion of God that they have constructed for themselves. The Christian story is about God from start to finish, we are fortunate to be along for the ride. We say His love is infinite, and His mercy is infinite, so why limit His creativity, and limit it to ourselves? I have found that I can know God through hearing about what others think of Him, particularly those from a different religious tradition. I imagine I could do the same with any exoplanetary life form as well.

“Be comforted, small immortals. You are not the voice that all things utter, nor is there eternal silence in the places where you cannot come.”

-C.S. Lewis, Perelandra