#you participate in society exactly the same way a human would

[a-dragons-journal]

Forgive me for showing my fangs a little here instead of being as delicate in phrasing as I usually am, but. Periodic reminder:

sweeping "humans suck, humans are evil, the world would be better off if humans disappeared/had never evolved" statements may be cathartic but they're thoroughly inaccurate (ie, the vast majority of uniquely bad effects of humans on the planet are a) extremely recent, like within the last couple centuries, b) the fault of an extremely small minority not the entire fucking species, and c) fixable)

hating being human isn't the same as hating humans. I get species dysphoria is a thing. I get that it's often hard to fit in as a nonhuman in human social groups and that can make it easy to slip into hating everyone around you. Please fight that instinct

villainizing people for traits they didn't choose, such as the species they were born into, is neither cute nor fair. No species is inherently good or bad

misanthropy is cathartic in short term vents or whatever but genuinely embracing it wholesale as a philosophy is liable to lead to you hating humans, human society, and being in a human body more and more over time and thus make your life worse by constantly reinforcing a thought pattern that makes you angry and upset

you are not immune to being part of human society (translation: just because you're nonhuman doesn't mean you're not included in statements about the effects of the human population on the world, ie "humans are killing the planet")

related, you are not better than humans for being nonhuman. looking at my fellow dragons in particular on this one. I get it, draconic pride is a thing, dragon brain probably says you're the supreme being and all else is beneath you especially anyone who annoys you. Mine does too. Please recognize that is an instinct you are supposed to FIGHT, not something that's TRUE AND THAT YOU SHOULD EMBRACE. Good fucking gods.

some nonhumans are also human (it's me, I'm some nonhumans) and you are making sweeping "humans suck, why would I ever want to be human, all humans do is kill the planet" statements in the presence of people included in those statements, which is insanely rude (and no, you don't get to "but you're different because you're nonhuman" me! you do not get to decide to ignore half of who I am because you don't like it, you do not get to decide I'm not "really" human, and also see the previous bullet point). this goes doubly if you're in a space like a DIscord server where people have expressly stated they're not comfortable being tacitly included in statements like that

saying "but I don't REALLY mean all humans, I just mean the specific ones at fault!" after the fact does not actually change anything if every other thing you say is constantly "humans humans humans" and not the group you're actually referring to, or at the very least doesn't change how it reads to everyone around you

[communistkenobi]

re: several recent discussions I’ve seen on here about the dangers of bio-essentialism, in the authoritarian personality the authors find over and over again that highly prejudiced individuals (ie those most likely to be fascists) believe very strongly in A) innate human differences that cannot be altered or negotiated, and B) their own personal ability to categorise people based on these differences with a high degree of precision. the highly prejudiced individual can “always tell” when they meet someone who belongs to an outgroup. This discussion is usually framed in the context of antisemitism, with prejudiced people insisting they can always tell when someone is Jewish, that it is impossible to hide.

There is also a section in the discussion chapters of the book about low-scoring individuals - people who are strongly anti-prejudice (or anti-antisemites, as the authors sometimes call them). These people are not just non-bigoted, but take a conscious stance against bigotry and respond with anger when asked leading questions by the interviewers about minorities. like, “what do you think about the Jewish problem in America?” is almost always answered with some version of “there is no Jewish problem,” or “it’s a Christian problem, not a Jewish problem,” which is not an answer to the question so much as it is a rejection of the question’s premise. This is contrasted with the responses from highly prejudiced people, who treat this question as if it’s completely reasonable and outline what they think “the problem” is, though they often attach qualifiers to it (“the Jews aren’t all bad”) to temper their bigotry. Which is to say, there is an understanding on the part of the low-scoring participants of the role rhetoric plays on prejudice - that “just asking questions” is not an innocent, apolitical act, but one that comes preloaded with assumptions on what you think the answers to these questions should be, or the types of answers you think should be produced.

And to place this in another context - the trans panic that is currently dominating right wing discourse - we can observe extremely similar behaviour. This is best exemplified by the common twitter joke of posting a picture of a cis woman and claiming she’s trans, just to watch transphobes reply with all the ways they can “clock” this woman and tell that she is “secretly” a man. and, it’s worth discussing, that bigots frequently and especially define “male” traits as those commonly found in black and brown cis women, that they are especially fixated on white femininity as the measuring stick by which to judge all other women. but we can see the way that this idea of essential difference in humans undergirds all reactionary thought - without essential ontological categories, you cannot advocate for a worldview that argues for the “good” groups to have dominance over the “bad” ones. But they never prove this base assumption! They point to the very fact of variation within human beings - whether that be skin colour, facial features, ability, sexual organs - and claim that these are indicative of some deeper worth (or lack thereof), but proof of that hierarchical view of variation is never provided.

Which is why when bigots claim they’re “just pointing out the facts,” or say shit like “oh so we can’t even say women and men are different now? We have to ignore biology?” this is an inherently bad faith question. They rhetorically marry “variation” with “measure of value,” and force you to now pivot to talking about the fact that like, human beings are different from one another, rhetorically ceding ground to the premise that human variation inherently determines the value of a human being.

And following this logic, the only way for us to achieve a perfectly equal society would be for us to live in a world where every human being looked and behaved the exact same. And like, uh, how exactly would we achieve this? Which set of parameters for appearance and behaviour would we be following? Who gets to decide what those parameters are? The ONLY logical conclusion to this essentialistic thinking is state sanctioned mass death and subjugation programmes, because there is no other way to get rid of ontologically “bad” people. These hierarchies only have value when they are socially and politically enforced. This is why you should be wary of anyone “just pointing out” that human beings have different physical characteristics. They are not pointing out a neutral biological fact about human genetic diversity, or sexual dimorphism.

edit: altered the spelling of anti-Semitism to antisemitism. Apologies for the improper spelling!

[superectojazzmage]

Really interesting aspect to Amazing Digital Circus is how the performers aren’t actually, like, forced to do anything.

Its made pretty clear that the adventures aren’t compulsory or anything like that. There’s no punishment for not participating, the performers can just wander off to do other stuff instead of taking part in adventures (Jax, Pomni, and Ragatha do exactly that and Zooble tries to do it only to walk into the Gloinks by accident). Ragatha claims that Caine only generates the adventures as a way of helping the performers avoid abstraction and they’re totally optional, while Caine himself notes that the one thing he can’t control in the Circus is people’s own minds and souls. There’s no gun to their head forcing them to partake in these weird, oft-traumatic antics, their free will is not impaired in any way.

But at the same time… what else are they gonna do?

They can’t leave obviously, so their only sources of entertainment or any real life experience for that matter is whatever they have on hand in the Circus and the weird cyber-island it exists on. That would be fine but there doesn’t seem to be a ton of real amenities on the island beyond the Circus, and the Circus is mostly just confusing and terrifying and bizarrely empty for something meant to entertain people. The “rewards” for adventures are just that, seemingly only able to be given to them by Caine as a condition for winning and consisting of stuff like dinners. Presumably they’re allowed personal possessions or hobbies, but what is that going to amount to when there’s nothing but circus equipment and the occasional object you’d see in a children’s rec center?

Any kind of purely adult fun is preempted too, even though the only people in the Circus are adults in their twenties to forties. They can’t go out drinking or engage with media that has anything above an E For Everyone rating. They can’t have sex because of the enforced censorship and kid-friendly nature of the Circus (and their avatars probably aren’t even physically capable of it), and even if they could why would they WANT to have sex with each other considering their avatars’ appearances and their hideously clashing personalities? They’re not even allowed to swear or discuss “adult” topics, so they have to stifle and censor their speech constantly instead of speaking frankly as adults.

(as a side note, I feel like this whole “all ages” element is possibly intended or could be read as a satire on the infantilization of the modern internet by corporations and censorship in general in modern society, but that’s a whole other post)

Literally the only break from the monotony of the Circus is when Caine changes things slightly by introducing an adventure. And even that doesn’t seem to attract much enthusiasm from the performers, since the one adventure we’ve seen so far sucks and seems to just annoy everyone more than anything. Caine tries to give them things they would enjoy, but is clearly limited by both the strict content rules of the Digital World and his own poor understanding of humans; he created the Fake Exit to try and cheer up Kaufmo by giving him what he wanted — an escape from the Circus — only to realize he couldn’t actually let them out that way and that they wouldn’t respond well to thinking they’re getting out only to have their hopes shattered (which is exactly what happens to Pomni).

These annoying, asinine scenarios are the only thing that createsk any sort of change or excitement in the Circus, so of course everyone is going to engage with them because otherwise they’ll be bored out of their skulls. And being bored out of your skull is a sure fire way to push your mind ever closer to abstraction. And maybe even with how dumb they are, the adventures could be fun, but it’s hard to get very enthused about them when they’re the only thing you have, day in, day out. That monotonous feeling of running without moving never goes away.

The reason the Circus breaks people so much and so badly isn’t because of how freaky it is, but how tedious it is. It offers only an illusion of choice while never impairing the performers’ ability to recognize that they DO have a choice and SHOULD be able to do other things because they’re people but they artificially can’t. And that suppression of their ability to have choices and do whatever they want like any human can is what drives them mad.

[mask131]

The other Olympians: Eris

After Eros, I just HAD to do Eris. Everybody keeps speaking of “Eros and Thanatos”, the pulsion of life and the pulsion of death – but what about Eris and Eros? Hate and love. One causes division, the other unification. One destroys the world, the other creates it. Heck, they are even just one letter away from each other!

“But…” I heard some of you say. “Eris isn’t an Olympian!”. Well yes and no. Sometimes she is, sometimes she isn’t. Let us explore that.

Who is Eris? The word “eris” means “strife” in Greek, and this is exactly what Eris is. She is the goddess of strife and the embodiment of discord (in fact, her Roman name was Discordia). She is the eternal enemy of peace and order, always searching to break harmony and cause troubles everywhere she goes.

Now before going further, I want to insist on something. Eris is not an actual goddess, in the sense we can understand it. Yes Eris is presented as a goddess in Ancient Greek literature and in the various epics forming Greek mythology. However here’s the thing… Eris was not part of Greek religion. Or if she was, she had no temples, no sanctuaries, she received no cult and no worship, nobody prayed or sacrificed to her. Eris only seems to exist in literature and philosophy – she was not an actual religious figure of Ancient Greece, even though she was a key character of Greek mythology.

I) The Hesiodic Eris

The Eris most people are familiar with today is the one I would call the “non-Olympian Eris”. It is the Eris described in Hesiod’s Theogony, as well as in his “Works and Days”.

Hesiod describes Eris as the daughter of Nyx, the embodiment of night and one of the primordial goddesses who manifested at the very beginning of the universe. According to Hesiod, Nyx was a quite negative figure, since all the children she gave birth to were actually the personifications of ills and disasters: beyond Eris, Nyx also gave birth to Thanatos, the god of death, to the Keres, the spirits causing violent and painful deaths on the battlefield, Oizys, the personification of misery, Apate, the embodiment of deceit and treachery, Geras, the god of old age and aging, and many many more… Interestingly, in turn Eris also became the mother of a large brood of personifications, each embodiments of even more evils that plagued and tormented humanity. No father is mentioned for these children – but given Nyx seemingly used her powers as a primordial goddess to have her children on her own, without the participation of any male entity, it is very likely that Eris inherited or used the same abilities. Remember, from our talk of Eros in previous posts, the beginning of the world in Hesiod’s universe was not defined by gender, and the primordial Eros was a creature of cosmic, abstract procreation that went beyond mere sexes.

Hesiod gives us an exact list of the numerous children of Eris. On one side you have “singular” children acting as specific personifications: Ponos (toil, hard work), Lethe (forgetfulness, oblivion), Limos (hunger, starvation), Ate ( mistakes, delusions, folly, recklessness, all things that bring ruin) and Dysnomia (lawlessness, absence of civil order). On the other side, Hesiod lists groups of entities, representing “swarms” of concepts: the Algea (the pains and sufferings), the Hysminai (fights and feuds), the Makhai (battles and conflicts), the Phonoi (murders), the Androktasiai (literaly the man-slaughters), the Neikea (the quarrels), the Pseudo-Logoi (the lies), the Amphilogai (the disputes)… Remember what I said previously, Eris was not an actual religious figure but a literary one – and the same way, all of her children are here mere metaphors and allegories. Hesiod is merely listing here all the effects that strife and discord have within human society. Hesiod adds to this list of children a final son of Eris, Horkos, the god of oaths. Why would “oaths” be a bad thing you ask? Because Horkos is more specifically the deity in charge of punishing oath-breakers, the spirit that all those that make false oaths fear. Hesiod even says that Horkos will make more damage to anyone breaking an oath than all of his siblings – and he later mentions, in his “Works and Days”, that the ERYNIES themselves acted as midwives when Eris gave birth to him.

Hesiod describes Eris as a hateful and harsh being, only concerned with causing slaughters and “evil wars” on Earth (remember the Athena/Ares divide, there was for the Greeks a good way of making war, and a bad way of making war). He mentions that no mortal being loves Eris, but that human still “promote” her – but only due to either compulsions (the natural drive of humanity to fight with each other) or by the “will of immortals” (when the gods purposefully send Eris among mankind). When Hesiod describes the legendary shield of Herakles, he mentions that Eris is depicted upon it among the many terrifying entities meant to frighten his adversary – he adds there that Eris is without pity or mercy, and that her mere sight will break the mind of anyone trying to attack the hero.

However, mind you, despite this very negative portrayal of Eris, in his “Works and Days”, Hesiod allows himself a philosophical or social myth about Eris, where he divides her into two identities, one good and one bad. If you recall my Eros posts, there is yet again a parallel with how there are two Eroses. According to Hesiod two Eris are at work among humans: the one he keeps describing above is the “evil” Eris ; but there is a “kinder” and older Eris, who is the one born of Nyx at the beginning of time, and who is even… likeable! Because this Eris is a positive form of strife, a productive form of discord that isn’t about having people slaughter each other, but prompts each human to excel and outdo each other in talents and arts. Specifically sent by Zeus among humans for this very purpose, the elder Eris will for example make a poor man envy his rich neighbor, prompting him to work even harder to become rich himself – and thus she can turn even the laziest man into a hard worker. This Eris isn’t so much about discord, as about a sort of mutual envy between humans that creates a competitive society, indeed, but one that prompts each human to try their best at becoming better than others.

II) The Homeric Eris

Hesiod mentions that of the two Eris, only the “elder” is the daughter of Nyx. Then, where does the “evil” Eris comes from? Well, Hesiod might have been evoking here another cosmogony… I am of course speaking of Homer’s own works, The Iliad and the Odyssey. For you see, the Homeric tradition and the Hesiodic tradition diverge strongly when it comes to the figure of Eris, and it is in the Homeric cosmogony that Eris is presented as an Olympian goddess.

Homer depicts Eris just as negatively as Hesiod. He describes her as a goddess with “relentless wrath”, as the “lady of sorrow”, as a “destroyer of cities”, and even depicts her during a battlefield scene as working in a triad alongside Ker (the spirit of violent death) and Cydoimos (the personification of confusion). But where he changes the story (or rather where Hesiod changes the story, since it is agreed that the Homeric tradition is older than the Hesiodic one, and reflects a more primitive form of the Greek pantheon), is when it comes to Eris’ parenthood. Homer explicitly presents Eris as working in a duo with Ares, the Olympian god of war, the two being “companions”. But more than companions… Siblings. Homer insists heavily on the fact that Eris is Ares’ sister, and given Ares is in the Homeric tradition the son of Zeus and Hera, it is very clear that Eris is also the daughter of the king and queen of the gods.

No need to tell you that Eris’ strongest presence in the Homeric tradition is within The Iliad, aka the epic describing the greatest mythological conflict of all times, the Trojan War. Eris is there usually paired with another deity: sometimes she forms a duo with Athena, and helps her in her role as a “war goddess” to encourage men to fight by her side ; other times she is alongside her brother Ares, as the spirit of hatred that complements the god of murder and bloodlust. This depicts Eris as a very ambiguous deity, that can serve and help as much the senseless, brutal, “wrong” war of Ares as the “good”, ordered, intelligent and civilized war of Athena. An even more interesting detail however shows that this ambiguity does not actually exist: Ares fought on the side of the Trojans during the war, while Athena fought with the Achaeans. This is a detail Homer himself notes and explains in his poem: Eris purposefully played both sides, and found herself on each line of the battlefront, since all she cared about was spreading bitterness and pain, so as to make the slaughter of the Trojan War even greater. Sometimes she does this to further the gods’ desires and plans: Zeus at one point, wishing for the Achaeans to keep on fighting and not just give up, send Eris among them so that she would bellow a great war-cry, so “terrible and so loud” it made every man who heart it want to battle again. But other times, she disobeys even the orders of the king of the gods out of pure perversion: most notably, when Zeus at one point gave the order to all the gods to stop interfering with the war and remain far away from humans, without causing interferences, Eris is the only goddess that remains upon the earth and among humans – merely because she takes a “great pleasure” in seeing them “battle like wolves”, and wouldn’t miss it for the world.

In short: while it seems from the outside that she is actually more of a neutral power that can serve both sides, good and bad, in truth she is a selfish, neutral psychopath only existing for chaos and destruction, and who only accepts to play by the rules when it furthers her own goals.

One last interesting fact: Homer, in his poems, keeps using another name for Eris, a name that many later mistook as being a different goddesses – however, at least in the Homeric tradition, they are just two identities of a same deity. “Enyo”, that is to say the female spirit and embodiment of war, the female counterpart of Ares. Beyond Homer, Aeschylus, in his tragedy about the Seven against Thebes, describes the Seven as making an oath upon the dreadful trinity of war formed by Ares, Enyo and Phobos – in a similar way, Eris was already described by Homer as part of a trinity involving Ares and Phobos (who also stood for his brother Deimos). The idea of Enyo and Eris being different deities seems to come from quite late sources, such as Quintus Smyrnaeus’ epic “The Fall of Troy”, from the fourth century CE, which did a very clear split between Eris (the deadly strife, which causes the battles by causing an “unbalance in the scales of war”, and then watches and gloat as humans fight) and Enyo (a ghastly and wrathful deity who fights inside the battles, and ends up gore-covered and all bloody and sweaty from her constant massacre of mortal beings). In fact, from the third to the fifth century, it became common to attribute to Enyo a “gore-fetish”, as she was described as delighting in piles of corpses left on the battlefield, or getting drunk on the flow of blood ; as well as the power to drive completely mad whoever she “touched”. Mad with war-lust and battle-fever, of course. But originally, for Homer and other early authors, Enyo and Eris were clearly just one and the same, two names for a same goddess.

What is quite fascinating with Enyo is that, unlike Eris which is purely literary, Enyo has some ground for actually having been a religious figure. Now, this is to be taken with a grain of salt, as the Greeks gave the name “Enyo” to several non-Greek deities of the countries east of Ancient Greece – but we have records of a statue of Enyo appearing in the Athenian temple of Ares, and it seems that the deities honored during the Homolôïa festival (in Thebes and Orchomenos) included Enyo. But beyond those two little facts, we don’t have more information about a potential cult of Enyo, who truly seems to be more of a female counterpart or extension of Ares. A last interesting point with Enyo is the presence of a name: Enyalios. Enyalios is the male form of Enyo, and is the name of a deity associated with her – but how? That is the question. Very, very late commenters of the Iliad (we are talking Byzantine commenters) made Enyalios a minor spirit of war, son of Enyo and possibly fathered by Ares. However, a more careful study of the use of Enyalios reveals that it is not the name of a distinct deity as many like to believe. Homer uses it as an epithet for various characters, but most notably for Ares. Other Ancient Greek authors also used Enyalios as an alternate name for Ares: Aristophanes in his play “Peace” (people claim it is used as two different deities, but I do not read it that way, I do think Aristophanes used the name as a nickname of Ares), for example, and Ares is also called “Enyalios” in the Argonautica. Plutarch did mention the existence of a temple of “Ares Enyalios” too, and the late myth collector Pausanias did mention the habit by Lacedaemonians of chaining up the deity Enyalios to prevent him from leaving the city – a custom identical to the habit of chaining up statues of Ares in Sparta. Overall, when you actually look carefully at things, it is extremely clear that Enyalios is just Ares.

And this confirms the true bond and link between Ares and Enyo: Ares is called by the male version of Enyo’s name, or rather Enyo is named after the female version of Ares’ nickname. This reinforces the idea of her being equivalent to Eris, presented by Homer as the sister-companion of Ares, and this feeds into this topic of the “duo of slaughter gods”. Ares/Enyalios, the male god of war, and Eris/Enyo, the female goddess of discord.

III) The golden apple

“But… What about the golden apple?” I hear you cry. “You talked about the Trojan War, but not about the golden apple!”

It is true that the most famous myth of Eris today is the one centered around the start of the Trojan War. It is the story of how Eris, upon not being invited to the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, despite all of the other gods being there, decided to take her revenge. It is the legend of how Eris threw among the feast of the gods a golden apple with on it written “For the most beautiful”, and how this random gift caused a deep feud between Athena, Hera and Aphrodite who all believed the apple was for them. It is the myth of how to settle the feud, the goddesses demanded the opinion of a Trojan prince by the name of Paris, who gave the apple to Aphrodite, resulting in her rewarding him as a gift with Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world… Who also happened to be the wife of Agamemnon, the Achaean king who promptly declared war upon Troy since their prince had kidnapped his wife – a war where the scorned Hera and Athena supported the enemies of Troy, while Aphrodite defended Paris’ city, leading into the legendary decades-old conflict we know today.

Well, you might be surprised to learn that this story does not come from Homer. Nowhere in the Iliad is a golden apple mentioned, or the involvement of Eris in causing the war. It comes from other sources. It does not mean the story isn’t ancient: on the contrary we have records of very ancient epics, probably created around the same time as The Iliad, who described and explained this legend. “The Cypria” for example is the oldest record we have of the story of the “Judgement of Paris”, caused by Eris’ apple of discord. However these ancient epics were all lost, so all we have are secondary testimonies about them, and much later and modern retellings of the story – such as the “Bibliotheca” of Pseudo-Apollodorus, where this old myth was collected in an abbreviate and concise form, or the fifth-sixth century CE poem the “Rape of Helen”, which like Nonnus Dionysiaca, was an attempt at reconstructing the ancient myths of the now-gone Ancient Greeks. While this is not an exact source and has to be taken with a handful of salt, this poem is quite fascinating because it adds all sorts of details about the situation: including how the decision of not inviting Eris came from both Peleus and Chiron (the latter sent out the invitations), and how, before imagining her devious golden apple plan, the furious, fulminating, jealous Eris conjured up plans ranging from stealing Zeus’ thunderbolt and use it as a weapon against the gods… to freeing the imprisoned Titans so they would overthrow Zeus. (Yes, Disney’s Hades does exist in old – but not ancient – Greek literature, and her name is Eris). There is also the additional detail that the golden apple used by Eris is one of those that the Hesperides grow in their orchard, the same golden apples Herakles had to collect during his labors.

Speaking of Herakles, all the way back to the sixth century BCE, Aesop wrote a fable about Eris. Yes, THIS Aesop of the Fables. And he wrote one with Eris and Herakles – one that also involves an apple, and thus furthers proves that the story of Eris using apple to cause discord was an ancient part of Greek mythology. In Aesop’s fable, Heracles was going through a narrow pass when he saw an apple on the ground before him. He tried to smash it with his club, only for the apple to swell to twice its size. Heracles hit it again and again, but every time he tried to destroy the obstacle, it grew bigger. In the end, the whole pass was blocked by the giant apple (slip a Roald Dahl joke here), and as Heracles stood amazed and confused, Athena appeared by his side and explained the situation: this apple is actually the product of two personifications, Aporia (impasse, puzzlement, lack of passage) and Eris. By trying to fight it, Heracles made it larger and bigger – if he had just left the thing on the ground untouched, and ignored it, it would have stayed its size. In short, the moral is that strife and discord will always be there somewhere, but that it only becomes a true obstacle or something serious if you let violence take over you or decide to enter the fight instead of just passing over it.

This conception of Eris as something “growing in size” is not actually a pure invention of Aesop: it was already present, way back in the Homeric tradition. Indeed, when Homer first introduces Eris in The Iliad, he describes her as such: she always appears first as a “small thing”, as a little force, a miniature goddess, but as chaos and battles and discord grow around her, she too grows, and gains in size and largeness, until in the end she becomes a giantess who feet are on earth while her head is in heaven.

[craycraybluejay]

Someone made This comment under the video so i wrote an entire fkn essay on Impulse: I feel like any of the people cruel enough to participate in the harm of an innocent woman just because she is vulnerable before them can be considered pure evil

Me for some reason:

wasn't the whole point of the art piece/social experiment exactly not this? have you no introspection? it came to show that 'evil' is not some intangible concept that someone either is or is not. evil is an act, a choice, by either the individual, the group, or the society. statistically how likely is it that all of these people have some inherent dark, sadistic personality? highly unlikely. more likely is that the first offenders had the natural curiosity "what would happen" or "what is this like" or even like the woman who made this video said, "one-upping each other" as a form of contest. both curiosity and contest are ambivalent human instincts-- neither inherently Good nor inherently Evil. the way in which these instincts were applied was the evil-- not the person/people and not the instinct. humans are, though we like to deny it, still animals, and this fact becomes very obvious through experiment. the entire point is that, through the cruelly applied curiosity of one person, there was a ripple in the group and in the society. another instinct, that is programmed into all-- very much sane and well adjusted humans-- the social instinct. heavily enmeshed groups act as one, which is one of the reasons why diversity is another important aspect of humanity; without it, the group and the society would become unhealthy and dysfunctional. the very fact that one woman took to wiping Marina's tears and comforting her despite the actions and attitudes of the group shows that. every person fundamentally changes what you do as a person-- and psychologically no human can isolate themselves without going crazy. so yes. pure evil. sure. but this isn't a "oh this is a bad evil man who is by personal atypical nature flawed and violent." it's a "this is an example of evil actions inspiring more evil actions." in dehumanizing herself, Marina gave the group the opportunity to be openly animal-- and not proper humans. she did not tell them to hurt her, but the reason it was an option was arguably to draw the conclusions one can draw from watching/learning about this experiment. that evil is not abstract, not inherent, and not something that is impossible to prevent. and too, obviously we face Marina's pain-- but part of the art piece is the group, not just her. we need to think about what they are thinking, why they are doing what they are doing. the first slap: impulse, in my opinion but feel free to draw your own conclusions. most of the rest likely ranges from real sadism/intentional cruelty (a small percentage) to curiosity, groupthink, contest, etc. (most of it).

think of it in a slightly less dramatic scenario. someone says they have an injury/defect. curiosity + impulse drives you to ask to see it. impulse + fear of the unknown + disgust causes you to lash out upon seeing it and call them/their body gross. this hurts them deeply. did you hurt them? yes, undoubtedly. did they deserve it/ask for it? nope. could this have been prevented by better analyzing your instincts? yeah, probably. but here's the really important question. when you first asked to see it, or at any subsequent point even-- was it your intention or goal to be cruel or harm this person? the answer is no. hurting someone does not necessarily mean you are a Bad Evil Person. nor does helping someone necessarily mean the opposite. humans are complicated and intentions and actions can correlate but are not the same. evil and good are created, they do not exist in a vacuum.

Extra note: this person assumes the intentions of all participants and bystanders, treating the group as a monolithic unit rather than a complex system of clashing desires that naturally try to reach a consensus. there is, in my opinion, a general misunderstanding of why people hurt people in most cases. yeah, sometimes some people are just cruel for the sake of being cruel. but this is an exception, not the rule. the very worst acts we have heard of are for the most part not grounded in the desire to harm but in misguided extrapolations of normal instincts or ideas. if we cannot understand that evil and good only exist insofar as we believe they do-- and are reflected more by effect than cause-- then we will never reach the collective ability as a society to prevent evil. anyway yeah people who think evil is an inherent trait to random individuals and not simply the result of a harmful action or actions hurt my brain.

[d-parade]

Is “transgenderism” just another youth subculture?

As much as the words “transtrender” and “brainwashing” sound extremely harsh and hateful, the fact is that there is some truth to them.

(Personally, I wouldn’t like to use these words as they might come off as too biased even though they do represent my views somewhat.)

It is no lie that children and teenagers are constantly in the process of finding and discovering themselves. They are the peak of progressiveness. This can be seen all throughout history with rising rebellion trends that goes against the norm.

Take for example (because I’m kinda obsessed with it), the bosozoku and yankii youth subculture in the 80s and 90s in Japan. Teenage gangsters exploded in popularity. Gang fights, underage smoking, biking all spiked during this era. Why? Because it heavily went against the traditional Japanese culture of being an upright student with good grades. Teenagers were sick of it and hence decided to rebel.

This is a trend.

Another example would be the emo scene during the 2000s, though I won’t be going into that.

If you notice, many youth subcultures tend to go against societal expectations and norms because it is stemmed out of frustration of being in a suffocating rigid society.

Now… what does this sound like? Hell yea, the transgender movement. The young people involved, the sudden spike, it’s intertwine with one’s entire identity and self expression, and the general push it has towards progression.

This is what youth rebellion looks like in the 2020s. It is exactly the same as all the other subcultures that preceded it.

But it’s going overboard, way too overboard.

Youth subcultures and the rest of the world always had a sort of divide between them, but living in mutual disagreement. There were always backlash and discrimination from the older generation, and sometimes from others in their own generation.

Transgenderism doesn’t escape this. But the slippery slope of liberalisation and conservatism pushed these issues to opposite far ends, resulting in extremism which churns out more hate. As you can see, this creates an endless cycle that would not stop anytime soon.

Furthermore, the rise of transgenderism ropes in transsexualism, due to misunderstanding that they are one and the same. You can understand how this is harmful as transsexualism is a medical issue, transgenderism much less so.

I would also like to point out how many participants of old youth subculture have grown out of it. If you were to talk to them in the past, they would tell you that they believe that they will forever live like this and that it was part of them, not because it was a trend. But if you were to talk to them now, they understand it was merely a trend that they unconsciously followed. Of course, there’s some who still partake in the culture, but the vast majority wouldn’t.

This is a hint that transgenderism is a youth subculture. We’re also seeing it now, as the prevalence of eccentric neopronouns and such have been decreasing ever since it’s spike in 2020-2022.

Enough rambling.

In conclusion, I do believe that there’s always been frustration based on gender expectations which might lead to the desire of being the opposite sex, or leaving the idea of binary gender altogether. Similar to how some black people might’ve wished to be born white so that they wouldn’t have to undergo slavery. But the transgenderism we see today is definitely just another rebellious youth subculture that has gone too far.

Are participants valid as humans? Of course.

Am I saying your feelings and experiences are not real? Not at all, they’re very real to you right now and I wholeheartedly understand.

But am I going to feed into the idea that being trans is your true, never changing self? No, because I believe you will slowly grow out of it, and that the transgender movement will eventually die down when two sides reach an equilibrium. Although, this might take another 10 years or so.

I’ll use pronouns if it makes sense, respect you as a human. But am I going to encourage things that I believe will harm you in the future? No.

Most of all, it’s crucial to know that leaving behind something you thought was your entire identity is fine. It’s all part of being a teenager/ young adult and growing up.

[somedaylazysomeday]

A Deal With a Demon - Part Three

Beetlejuice x fem!witch!reader (no use of y/n)

This Beetlejuice is closer to the musical version than the movie one, but there's a bit more specific stuff going on here. You can get the whole story in the first two chapters!

Rating: Explicit, NC-17, lemon, etc. Minors DNI!

Word Count: 6,700

Warnings: Sketchy ride share, description of a sex shop and sex toys, mentions of magic and witchcraft, hand jobs, grinding, unprotected piv, creampie, drug use.

Previous | Next | Masterlist

---

Geometry had never been your strongest gift.

Witches still participated in human society more than most other groups who had the ability to access magic, so they were expected to learn the basics about functioning in human society. Attending schools with humans was impractical, obviously, but most young witches gathered in groups to learn about human life. 

Your geometry tutor had been extremely skilled in the field. She used her knowledge to design the most beautiful hexes and wards, ones that couldn’t be broken, no matter how strong an intruder’s magic was. You had scraped by with a low C and fled with absolutely zero intention of ever using geometry again. To your dismay, it cropped up occasionally in adult life and was always an unwelcome surprise. 

At this particular moment, you were calculating the odds that the ride-share driver had angled the mirror in an attempt to look down your shirt. You really weren’t good at geometry, but your calculations were all coming up with the same unwelcome answer. With a flick of your fingers, you tilted the mirror back to its proper place and made sure it was stuck in that position.

The driver made a soft noise of confusion, which you ignored as you turned back toward the window again. Your magic had been as strong as ever after you had summoned the demon Beetlejuice. He hadn’t managed to siphon your magic - not that he had ever claimed to have intentions in that direction - and he hadn’t destroyed anything major in the three days you had let him roam the city. At least, nothing you had heard about. 

He hadn’t followed through on his promise to send the right demon your way after you fulfilled your contract with him. The terms of that contract were that you would sleep with him, the standard cost of summoning a pleasure demon. Even though he hadn’t done everything he promised to, you still considered the encounter a net positive. Beetlejuice had been a good source of stress relief, and no one had found out about your time together. Several months had passed and you hadn’t gotten a single visit from the Council. 

More importantly, summoning Beetlejuice had helped you figure out the angle of the rest of the spellbook’s potions, charms, and incantations. All of them had some kind of sexual bent to them, from aphrodesiacs to beauty charms. The money you had earned from selling them to the greater magical community had gone a long way toward settling your debts, which was how you could afford to get a ride instead of walking back from the coven’s headquarters.

Speaking of… You frowned as your eyes finally began tracking the passing scenery. Not only were you not nearly home, but you seemed to be traveling in the other direction. With a deliberate lack of worry, you settled back against the seat and studied the driver in the rearview mirror. His eyes flicked to you, but averted when he caught your gaze. Ill intentions, your intuition warned.

You shook your head, trying to decide exactly how badly you would curse him, but a garish storefront drew your attention back to the unfamiliar street passing by outside. It only took a moment to draw some conclusions and you spat out a few foul words.

The driver’s shoulders rose toward his ears, his voice far too casual as he asked, “Something wrong?”

“Stop the car,” you ordered, using a touch of magic to make sure he followed your instructions instead of trying anything clever. When he had parked, his wide eyes met yours through the properly angled rearview mirror. You didn’t need clairvoyance to know that he was wondering why he had just stopped the car for someone he had bad plans for.

“I would rather have taken my time with this, but…” You hissed out a familiar curse and got out of the car. It was driving away before you had fully closed your door. 

You were oddly disappointed. The curse was effective, but simple. The man would get hurt every time he tried to hurt others. He could think about it all he wanted, but a single thought with intention attached would lead to pain. The more concrete the intention, the worse the injury. Thinking about hitting someone would result in a badly bitten tongue, but you had seen someone crack a femur trying to kill someone.

Given the proper time, you could have come up with something far more creative to use against the driver. You decided that was yet another strike against the one who had caused this situation, and you were scowling as you walked toward the striped storefront emblazoned with the words Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice!

When you opened the door, it was with a slam entirely befitting the situation… no matter how much of an overreaction it seemed when you were facing a quiet shop with a startled-looking young woman behind the register. You eyed the woman closely, but could detect nothing otherworldly about her. She just seemed to be a regular human, not even a tinge of magic surrounding her.

“Um, hello,” she greeted, shifting uncomfortably from her place behind the counter. You briefly wondered if she had a panic button back and was standing with her fingers poised to press it. “Welcome to The Store.”

You stared at her. Surely that wasn’t the name, but the way she said it gave the words a sense of being capitalized. “The Store?”

“Yes.”

She didn’t seem inclined to say anything else, opting to watch you warily instead. You were itching for information, but you would have to be careful about it to avoid raising her suspicion any more than it already had been. You forced yourself to relax, offering a smile. “That’s not what it says on the front of the building.”

“Oh, yeah,” she said. “But that name is so long, and the owner says we don’t really have to say it.”

“Is that so…” you trailed off as you read her name from the striped plastic square pinned to her shirt, “...Jordan? Have you met the owner?”

Jordan shrugged. “Not really. He interviewed me over the phone, but the connection wasn’t great. I’m pretty sure he said he can’t ask me to call the store by name. It was super weird, but I guess I did okay, since I got the job.”

You nodded, mind whirring. “Thanks for the information. I’m just gonna… browse.”

There was no chance this was a coincidence. Literally no chance at all. Even without the hyper-specific name and summoning convention, the fact that Jordan had been interviewed over the phone and had never met the owner was suspicious. And that was saying nothing of the color scheme.

Everything in the store was black or white, with occasional touches of green to break up the monotony. Unlike the demon’s suit, the stripes that bedecked the decor were tastefully done. The entire interior of the shop was, actually. That was a shock, but the merchandise was undeniably adult in nature. There were slips of fabric that could only be considered dresses if you were feeling extremely generous, interspersed with undergarments of all kinds. The shelves held erotic sculptures and artwork, and everything led to a curtained section that took up a little more than half of the shop. 

You weren’t surprised, per se, to find that the section in question was filled with sex toys. Honestly, in some twisted kind of way, you would almost have been disappointed by anything less. Still, you couldn’t help but be impressed by the sheer variety of toys the shop stocked. A shopper could find everything from vibrators to nipple clamps, all done in pinstriped black and white, or a green so pale it was almost devoid of color at all. And everything, down the most delicate cock ring, was labeled with a neat tag emblazoned with Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice!

The store was far from empty, despite it being early in the afternoon on a weekday. There were couples and single people scattered throughout the store, all of whom were far too absorbed in the merchandise to spare you a look.

And you couldn’t sense a hint of magic in the entire place.

Eventually, you grabbed a small bottle of lube and went to the front of the store, where Jordan was still standing behind an ornate-looking cash register. As you plonked the bottle down and dug for your credit card, you put on your best ‘innocently curious’ face. 

“Does anything… weird happen around here?”

Jordan looked immediately suspicious and you silently bemoaned your own lack of tact. “Weird?”

“Uh… yeah. Weird. A lot of the buildings around here are supposed to be haunted, and I was just wondering…” You gave her a sheepish smile. “Sorry, I’m an amateur ghost hunter. Can’t help but ask!”

The wariness on Jordan’s face cleared immediately and she showed her first signs of genuine friendliness. “Oh, wow! That is so cool! I’ve never seen anything too weird, but I’ve heard a lot of people tell stories about the stuff they take home. They swear it’s like, cursed or something.”

“Cursed?” you repeated carefully.

“Maybe that’s not the right word,” she amended. “But they say it gives you bad dreams or something. I don’t know; no one’s ever said it to me directly. I just hear them talk. Lots of people say stuff about sleepless nights and ‘feeling a presence’. But maybe it’s the good kind since they keep coming back for more.”

You hummed in agreement, paid the surprisingly reasonable total for the lube, and thanked Jordan for her time. When she seemed friendlier after your ghost-hunting excuse, you decided to push your luck one last time.

“If you see anything weird, you should text me,” you offered, scrawling your name and phone number on a scrap piece of paper. “I’d love to learn more about hauntings in this area.”

“Yeah… Sure…” Jordan said slowly. 

Sensing you may have gone too far, you waved and left, waiting until you were outside to take a closer look at the bag. It was discreet, a black-dyed paper bag featuring the store’s logo bordered by a white ouroboros. You liked to consider yourself a mature adult, but you couldn’t stifle a snicker when you noticed that the snake looked more than a little… phallic. 

Dark green lettering inside the ouroboros spelled out Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! in three jaunty lines, followed by smaller writing underneath that said, ‘Say it three times and you’re in for a surprise!’

The door behind you opened as a laughing couple stepped out of the shop. You moved out of their way, then started walking home. You were further away than you had been when you started, but it was fine. You needed some time to plot, anyway.

---

Human superstitions were baseless for the most part, but they had managed to get a few things right about the world of magic that existed among them. The most important of those right now was that it was difficult to cast spells during the day. 

The coven meeting you had attended was deliberately held at midday, the time when the sun was highest in the sky and everyone’s magic was at a minimum. The whole excursion hadn’t taken long, even factoring in your unexpected stop, and you were pacing your living room, impatiently waiting for the sky to darken.

A summoning didn’t take much power, all things considered - easily attainable at any time of day - but if you waited until sunset, you would be much better equipped to handle anything that Beetlejuice could throw at you. You weren’t going into this intending to battle a demon, but you needed to know exactly what he had done so you knew precisely how thick the shit storm was going to get.

The moment the sky went from ‘evening’ to ‘gloaming’, you were already chanting, bouncing on your toes with the excess energy you had built up. 

“Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice!”

The smoke trick was just as theatrical as it had been the last time you summoned the sex demon, but it lasted a far shorter length of time, even caught as it was behind the protective containment circle. When it dissipated, you were faced with a grumpy-looking Beetlejuice, waving his hand as if to dispel the last few wisps clinging to his striped suit.

As he brushed imaginary lint from his suit - brushing off real dust that sifted slowly to the floor inside the circle - Beetlejuice schooled his expression into one that he apparently felt was suave.

“Ready for all your dreams to- Hang on…” He peered out through the circle, dark eyes wary as he searched for the person who had summoned him. 

Your shoulders hiked with tension, ready to deliver a blast of magic strong enough to stun the trapped demon. Hopefully. 

Beetlejuice’s eyes tracked to you, dilating with a focus that forcibly reminded you of a predator. However, the biggest shock came when his face broke into a wide smile. “Babes! I’ve been wonderin’ if I was gonna see ya again! Back at the circle-drawing again, huh?”

Your carefully planned line of questioning fell to pieces at the warm welcome. “But… you-” Wordlessly, you held up the bag you had gotten from his store. “This…”

The demon beamed then. “You bought from my store! See, I knew I liked ya for a reason! Supporting small businesses and all-a that. I hope you at least picked somethin’ good! Wish I’d’a known you were gonna come in, I woulda set you up with some kinda discount. After all, it’s all happening ‘cause of you!”

Your heart sank at that. “That’s what I was afraid of.”

Beetlejuice’s smile faded a watt or two. “Afraid of what, toots? It’s a great business.”

You held up the bag again. “There’s an ouroboros made of a dick around your logo.”

“Yeah, isn’t it great?” Beetlejuice asked, voice excited again. “I didn’t have time to imagine anything - plus, I’m more of an ideas guy than an artist - but I hired a kid who really ran with it! I think it turned out great, and it only cost me twenty bucks! Digital artists really should charge more for their time, but people are fuckin’ cheap and don’t want to pay a decent commission rate-”

“Beetlejuice.”

The demon winced at the sound of his name. “There is a dick around my store’s logo.”

“A logo that also prominently says your name,” you reminded. “There’s no way that none of the demons are going to notice when you start getting summoned more often. How long do you think it will take them to track the summonings back to your store? They’ll call the Council, who will shut it down in a week, tops.” 

Beetlejuice scoffed, but it was filled with resignation rather than disbelief. “They gotta make sure nobody has any fun.”

You sighed, rubbing a hand over your arm. “They’re just trying to protect people. Demons running around freely isn’t good news for anyone except the demon.”

In a movement that was almost too fast to see, Beetlejuice’s head snapped up to look at you, eyes blazing. “Is that why ya summoned me here with the circle? Gonna hand me over to your Council?”

“What? No!” you replied, even as a guilty voice at the back of your mind admitted that it wouldn’t be a bad idea, just to absolve yourself of any consequences the Council would deliver if they found out about it on their own.

Surely Beetlejuice would understand that? After all, he was bound to a contract. He understood what happened when you broke the rules that governed you, no matter how stupid you found them.

“But you have to know I’m worried,” you continued. “That’s why I summoned you. This could get traced back to me.”

“And you’re just worried about yourself?” Beetlejuice demanded.

“Of course I am!” you snapped back. “Do you remember why I summoned you in the first place? I wanted someone to help me fix my life, not make it worse!”

“I haven’t made anything worse!” he snarled, stepping up to the edge of the containment circle. You didn’t move away - you had been smart enough to keep the demon’s arm span in mind when choosing your spot.

“You haven’t made it better, either! You promised to help me find another demon, remember?” You sighed, pinching the bridge of your nose. “I consider our last deal complete, even if you did skip out on helping me later. But this store of yours could get me into serious trouble. I could be banned from witchcraft completely, not to mention tried for anything you do with your store that breaks the Concessions. They could execute me if you do something extreme enough! So, yes, I am worried about myself. I have to be! No one else is going to.”

Beetlejuice didn’t answer that right away, studying you with a level of concentration you would have thought was beyond his flighty attention span. Whatever he found there, it made his shoulders tense as he heaved a sigh. “Fine, I’ll level with you. But can ya let me outta this circle? As a sign of trust?”

You narrowed your eyes at him. You didn’t trust him, not in the slightest. But saying that would probably hurt what little chance you had of resolving this peacefully. The real question was whether you thought you could take him on in a fair fight. And since he was a centuries-old demon and you were a struggling amateur witch, the answer to that question was a definitive ‘no’.

As a pleasure demon, Beetlejuice couldn’t read your thoughts, but he seemed to do it anyway, a knowing smirk twisting his lips. “What’s wrong, babes? Worried I’m gonna attack if ya let me out?”

“No,” you said, a second too late to be believable.

He hummed, his gaze flicking down your body. “Maybe ya should be. I can still remember the way you taste…”

Beetlejuice licked his lips, letting far too much of his overly long tongue peek out as he did so. Your heart skipped a beat and started to pound, but you gave him a stern look. “And none of that. We need to talk, so focus up.”

A grin was his only response to that. It wasn’t a promise of good behavior, but it wasn’t an outright refusal, so you decided to go with it. Gingerly, you slid your foot across the floor, marring the crisp line of chalk that had made up the boundary of your containment spell. When you felt the power sag before dissipating entirely, you drew back, keeping a wary eye on the demon. Beetlejuice seemed mostly unphased, stretching and glancing around as he stepped out of the remains of the circle.

“Same old place, huh?” he mused. “And it’s just as ratty as it was before - and that’s a compliment, by the way. But ya weren’t kidding about not having any help.”

“Why would I joke about that?”

“Well, not really joke,” the demon amended. “Usually, when breathers say they’re on their own, they mean they would have to sacrifice their pride to ask for help. Unless you’re really stubborn.”

“No, I don’t have anyone,” you admitted, wrapping your arms around yourself. How different your life would be if you had a set of wealthy but emotionally distant parents to ask for help? Or a friend who would give you her old furniture when she replaced hers, and you could repay with chores and laughing conversations that stretched far too late into the night?

You shook yourself, drawing away from the yawning chasm of self-pity that beckoned. “So I have to take care of myself, like I said. Tell me about your store.”

Beetlejuice visibly brightened. “Well, ya already know the name! I sell high-end entertainment for adults. My merchandise covers a lot of different categories, from-”

“Yes, I know what you sell,” you interrupted hastily. “I’ve seen it first-hand.”

“That’s right, you have!” he said, beaming again. “And I can’t tell ya how much I appreciate the support, really. What did ya get? A wand? A naughty vibrator? A nice set of anal plugs?”

“Uh…” you drew out, glancing guiltily at the bag.

Beetlejuice snatched it from your hands a moment later. “Let’s see! You got… lube? The small bottle? And not even any of the fun kinds? Babes, this is… this is sad.”

“I’m not here to talk about your merchandise!” you snapped, grabbing the bag back from him and tossing it onto your couch. 

“Are ya sure?” he asked. “Because it’s special.”

“Special how?”

Beetlejuice chuckled at the suspicion in your voice. “Nothin’ like that, toots. I don’t make it myself or anything, but it’s high-quality and I sell it at cost. There isn’t another store like that in most of the human realm!”

“Because you’re giving away your entire profit margin,” you told him. “Why operate at a loss?”

“Easy - because I want people to come back.” He nodded victoriously at his own point. “If I sell ‘em cheap stuff with the prices hiked up, I’ll make a quick buck, but no one will come back. And if they don’t come back a couple’a times, they’re probably not gonna think to say my name.”

“Why do you want-” You cut yourself off before you could fully articulate the idiotic question, but it was no use. 

Beetlejuice looked amused for a moment, but that faded as he shook his head. “Because it’s all so boring. Sure, maybe somebody finds an inscription and summons me once a decade. And those summonings are lotsa fun, don’t get me wrong. Hell, there was this one time I got summoned in the middle of a matha in the 1500s. That was one Shankarayacharya who knew how to party!” 

Your eyebrows lifted meaningfully and the demon cleared his throat. “But anyway, after the summoning is over, I go right back. And lemme tell ya, years spent locked alone in the demon realm feel a lot longer than they do anywhere else.” 

“That sounds terrible,” you admitted, trying to balance sympathy with persuasiveness. “But the store is a bad idea. It’s really visible and the Council is going to find out.”

The demon hummed, shifting a pile of books to study their titles. “I figured you would’a tried the whole ‘what if humans find out about magic?!’ angle.”

“I don’t care if the humans know about magic,” you disagreed with a shrug, trying to dispel how much you hated it when Beetlejuice mimicked your voice. “About time, really.”

“I forgot, you’re a bit of a rebel,” Beetlejuice said with a laugh. It faded quickly from his pale face, leaving him watching you with an earnest expression. “So use that rebelliousness with me. Let me keep my store. I want out more and this is a good way to do it. Besides, what do we have to lose?”

“I could be imprisoned or executed,” you reminded him sharply.

“So you want me to think about how this affects you, but you don’t have to think about how if affects me?” Beetlejuice gave you a loftily superior look. “Doesn’t seem very fair. Are you witches all about balance?”

The opening and closing of your mouth was hardly graceful, but you couldn’t help it. For all of Beetlejuice’s strangeness - his bizarre speech pattern and tendency to dress in garish stripes and the mold growing on the side of his face - he showed flashes of a keen insight that reminded you why demons were considered dangerous. It had more than a little to do with their teeth and claws, true, but they also showed a remarkable ability to take in information and twist it to suit their needs.

“You’re right,” you admitted. There was no point in lying to him - many demons could literally smell a lie. “I still feel like you took advantage of the freedom I gave you.”

Beetlejuice grinned. “Took advantage of it to set up a way to make my existence better? Yeah, I did. But I didn’t kill anyone or start a war. Those were the only limitations you gave me and I didn’t break either of them. In fact, I was a perfect gentleman.”

Your snort made him chuckle. The moment stretched slightly and you shook your head. You weren’t going to turn Beetlejuice in to the Council and you weren’t going to make him shut down his business, which meant you weren’t going to fight him. That also meant there was no real reason to keep him here. 

“Okay, I’m convinced,” you accepted. “Enjoy running your business, good luck with the summonings, and if the Council gets wind of any of it, we never met. Have a nice existence.”

His eyebrows shot up. “Hell, yeah! You’re not gonna regret this. I’m gonna get out more, but you won’t hear a thing about me. Low-key as a cyanide poisoning, yes siree. Just you wait.”

If things went according to that particular plan - doubtful, but you tried to hope - you would never see or hear from Beetlejuice again. You nodded, moving toward some lust potion you had been preparing for the next batch of orders you had gotten. You placed the small cauldron over a low flame, encouraging the ingredients to mingle in the proper way. “Sounds perfect. Goodbye, Beetlejuice.”

“Whoa, whoa,” he protested. “Aren’tcha forgettin’ something, toots?”

You paused to glance around him. The containment circle was broken and the protective spells and herbs you had placed around the room wouldn’t affect his ability to dematerialize just as they hadn’t stopped him from materializing in the first place. “No..?”

“You have to fuck me,” he explained.

“What?” You crossed your arms. “Why? We didn’t make a deal like we did last time.”

“It’s part of my contract. The second summoning, I just assume ya want more of what’cha got the first time. The contract is built into the summoning.” He shrugged. “It’s a convenience clause.”

“Convenient for who?” you demanded, then sighed. You really did have orders to finish up, and they were time-sensitive. The longer you spent arguing with Beetlejuice, the less time you had to work. It would be pointless, anyway. If you had inadvertently signed a contract by summoning him, the damage had already been done and there was no point in fighting it.

“Fine,” you agreed with a sigh, and you could see Beetlejuice perk up slightly in your peripheral vision. “But we have to make it quick.”

“Babes, you’re definitely speakin’ my language,” Beetlejuice said. In the time it took to blink, you were both naked and Beetlejuice was sprawled comfortably on your couch. He beckoned you closer. “C’mon. You’re the one in a hurry, so you’re on top this time.”

With a last mournful glance at your lust potion, you joined him. You took a moment to figure out the best way to get both of you where you needed to be. Beetlejuice’s cock was pale and soft between his spread legs and you weren’t feeling particularly horny at the moment either. Both of those would have to change, and you took another moment to mourn your lust potions. If you had a bit more time, you could have just taken part of one and been ready to go.

Ah, well. If you had to do things manually, you could make that work.

The look of surprise and interest on Beetlejuice’s face as you straddled his thigh was enough to start you down the right path, and the way his cock twitched when you licked your palm pushed you further along. You reached down to take him into your spit-slicked hand, but stopped barely before you made contact. 

“Tease,” Beetlejuice grunted, but brightened when you leaned over to snag the bag from his store. “Hmm, never had my own merch used on me before.”

“Let’s see if it’s as high-quality as you say it is,” you suggested, squeezing a small dollop of lube onto your palm and grasping Beetlejuice’s now semi-hard cock.

Loathe as you were to admit it, the lube did smooth silkily between your skin and his, luxuriously coating every inch until your hand could slip comfortably from root to tip, providing tantalizing sensation without too much friction.

“Well, well, well,” Beetlejuice gloated, only a hint of a hitch in his voice. “Looks like someone shouldn’t have doubted the quality of my-”

His voice cut out on a shuddering moan as you began to gently twist your fingers around him, tugging just enough to feel as if you were coaxing the arousal out of him. 

The air was filled with the sounds of slick movements until Beetlejuice disrupted your rhythm, straightening as his dark eyes narrowed at you. “Ya better get movin’, sweet cheeks. We’re on a schedule, remember?”

You certainly remembered, but it simply didn’t seem as important as it had a few minutes before. Still, you nodded, resuming your stroking as you shifted your hips against Beetlejuice’s thigh. It took some experimentation to find a pattern, speed, and pressure that worked for you, but you zeroed in on it fairly quickly. 

When your breath was as uneven as Beetlejuice’s, you released him and slowed to a stop. “We’re good to go.”

“C’mon,” Beetlejuice complained. “I can smell how close you are. Lemme just-”

Demons were strong. You knew that, but it was still a surprise when Beetlejuice grabbed your hips and resumed the movements you had been making, but… more. Harder, faster, enough variation that it kept you guessing what would happen next. Little surprise, then, that you shattered after only a few thick slides of his thigh between yours.

You writhed on him, grabbing his shoulders for support, but he didn’t stop until you were weak and trembling on top of him. The moment you settled heavily on top of him, he clapped a hand to the place where your asscheek met your thigh.

“Okay, now we’re good. Get movin’.”

If you kneed him in the gut while you clambered into place, no one could really blame you, right? By the time you settled over him, Beetlejuice had stopped complaining in favor of staring greedily between you. You slicked your hand back down his length as you held it in place, finding the right angle so you could begin impaling yourself on him.

It was a slow process, even helped by gravity and the lube and the remnants of your own orgasm. You could feel him stretching you, the broad head carving a path through your core as you stretched to accommodate him.

When you were seated on his lap again, his length spearing deep inside of you, you let out a delicate hum. Maybe it was just because it had been so long since the first time you summoned him, but Beetlejuice felt… different this time. You couldn’t figure out how. Maybe it was something imperceptible, or just a trick of the new position, but he felt better than he had before.

Whatever the reason was, you couldn’t keep yourself from moving. He felt too good for you to sit still and let him passively fill you. Oddly enough, grinding on his thigh seemed to have helped warm you up for this section. Your movements were quick and sure, finding a speed and angle that worked for both of you and staying with it. 

Rise and fall, rise and fall. 

Empty and full, empty and full. 

The slow slide of Beetlejuice’s length in and out of your throbbing heat was delicious, and your toes curled where they were hanging over the edge of the couch. 

“Harder,” the demon purred under you, eyeing the way your breasts bobbed in front of his face.

You shook your head at him. “Are you really going to make me do all of the work?”

“I said I would, didn’t I?” he asked, his smirk only cut off when he rolled one of your nipples between his lips.

You dropped full-force onto his lap. Whatever point you were intending to prove was lost as you stunned yourself with the way he speared up into you, bottoming out as you gasped. Fortunately, he seemed just as surprised by your action.

Your motion had tugged your breast away from his mouth, leaving his jaw hanging open enough to let a loud groan escape. He didn’t seem embarrassed in the slightest at the pure need in the sound, either. Instead, he held your hips locked against his until you could feel your heartbeat in the depths of your cunt. 

Well, you assumed it was your heartbeat. Did demons have hearts? You had never thought to research it, though this was the second time that a knowledge of demon biology would have been useful to you.

“Beej,” you said eventually, your voice breathy in a way you couldn’t quite manage to control. “I need-”

His mouth pressed to yours, the taste of fresh earth and a hint of moss filling your senses as he parted your lips with his own. And then his too-long tongue was pushing past your teeth, sliding against yours until you worried you would choke on it - on him. 

And then he was gone, pulling away to fix you with a smile full of both menace and promise. “I’m gonna start movin’ now, babes.”

You nodded and he did just that, controlling your movements with his hands on your hips just as he had earlier… but this time, he moved counter to your strokes, thrusting up to meet you and pulling back to whip himself out of you until just his head was left inside to guide him back in. 

The result was immediate. 

Everything you had done to that point felt good. It was pleasurable, slowly building toward what had promised to be a lovely orgasm. But this new pace, new depth, led to Beetlejuice pressing against something magical with every stroke, and it left you rocketing toward orgasm at a speed that was almost frightening.

“I’m close,” you panted in warning. 

“Back at’cha,” the demon said through gritted teeth. “In fact…”

He pulled you down onto his thrusting hips, the collision so hard that your teeth rattled. With hitched breath, he buried himself even deeper and you felt the warmth of him releasing inside of you. You were already on the edge - it was a small thing to dip your fingers down and press them to your own clit. That pushed you over the edge, and you locked around Beetlejuice’s length, your inner muscles milking every drop of cum they could from him. 

When you lay trembling on him, you sighed. “We haven’t used a condom either time we’ve done this.”

Beetlejuice’s chuckle rumbled through his chest and you felt it under your cheek. “Ya worried I’m gonna getcha pregnant or somethin’, toots?”

You snorted. “More worried about diseases. Don’t you ever worry about catching something nasty from whoever summons you?”

He snorted. “Yeah, right. The human world hasn’t come up with a disease yet that I don’t have.”

“That makes me feel so much better,” you muttered, pulling a face as you rolled off of the demon. “Maybe I should try to find a recipe to brew my own antibiotics.”

A split second later, you sat up in horror. “Brewing! My potions!” 

You darted across the room, ignoring the way your knees wobbled with the motion. Still, you made it over in time to pull the cauldron away from the heat before any real damage was done. In fact, you mused as you gave the potion a gentle stir, it was just about perfect. One of the better batches you had ever made.

“That smells great,” Beetlejuice commented, peering over your shoulder. “What is it?”

“Lust potion,” you answered absently as you continued to stir. It would need to cool before you could decant it into individual bottles, but then you could send them off. Maybe you could even start on the next batch. Lust potions didn’t keep very long, but business had been picking up…

“It looks kinda familiar,” the demon told you. “And these… they’re beauty charms!”

“Yeah, and?”

“Are these from my book?”

“Yes, that’s where I got the recipes and spells,” you told him. You had never intended for it to be a secret and you had no problem with him knowing about it. “Why? Are they secretly poison or something?”

“No, they’re just really good shit.” He took a pinch of powder from a nearby bowl, inspecting it closely for a moment.

“That’s a-” You paused, watching as he snorted it before concluding, “a powder used to instantly remove all traces of cum from something.”

“Mmm, and gives you a wicked fucking high,” he said, eyes heavy lidded.

You rolled your eyes and began grinding ingredients for a skin-softening salve. “Okay, well… Our deal has been settled and you have a store to run. There's no need to draw this out any longer than we already have. It was ni- Uh… interesting meeting you, Beej.”

“Hang on a minute,” Beetlejuice insisted. “What if you worked for me?”

“You don’t make any money,” you countered, refusing to even glance up from your work. 

“I could if you would agree to sell this stuff out of my store.”

The pestle paused - you couldn’t help it. “Why would I do that?”

“Because it would give you a new platform and new people to sell your goods to,” Beetlejuice said.

“Your store’s customers are human.”

“I could add a new section upstairs,” he wheedled. “You could issue special invitations to people in the magical community to browse the special goods section. C’mon, you know it would be good for your business.”

“It would tie me closer to your store,” you argued. “That’s the last thing I need, especially with the name being what it is!”

“So I’ll change it,” he said easily.

You frowned and he pushed onward, clearly sensing his advantage. “I’ll change the name, add new products, whatever you want. Hell, ya wanna manage it for me? That would be a big help.”

You held up a hand, needing a moment to process all of that. “I’m going to restate this offer, just so I know we’re on the same page. You’re willing to let me take over your store and make whatever changes I want.”

He nodded, but you continued. It was too good a deal; you needed to find a flaw. “I would change the name. Not just that. I would hike up your prices enough to make you earn a profit, maybe add in some new advertising and new staff.”

“Sounds great.” You stared at him, doubting his easy acceptance, but he only smiled and offered a hand. “Do we have a deal?”

As you began to reach for his hand, he pulled it away and you cursed yourself for being a fool. “There is one more thing I would need from you, though. I would need ya to summon me every week if you haven’t heard from me.”

“Every week?!” you demanded.

Beetlejuice’s tone turned placatory. “You don’t have to leave me out for the full week! Just a day or two. Give me a break from containment, ya know?”

“Well, that doesn’t sound as bad as I thought,” you admitted. 

The demon beamed. “Great? Is it a deal?”

You stared at his hand. Something in the back of your mind was screaming. This was a terrible idea, just as terrible as it had been to summon the pleasure demon the first time, and then to do it again once you knew what he was. This would be your third stupid choice, and three was a number of significance for witches. This could be your downfall… or it could be the key to fixing everything that was broken. Unfortunately, there was only one way to find out for certain.

With a heavy sigh, you shook his hand. “It’s a deal.”

It was only when he smiled with his mouthful of too-sharp teeth that you remembered you were both still naked. Beetlejuice seemed to be thinking along the same lines, since his smile heated as his eyes grew darker.

“Put our clothes back on,” you ordered. “We have some logistics to figure out.”

---

A/N - I know what you're going to say: Ink, this is a lot of world-building for a smut fic. And you're right. But this is now a fic with a life of its own and I'm just the fool it possessed. Hope you enjoyed it anyway!

I don't offer taglists for explicit works, but you can check out my other fics on my masterlist!

Thanks for reading! I'll be back tomorrow with another Fanfic February story!

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

Unholy Union: Atheists & Christians | Peter Boghossian & David Silverman

Boghossian: So, what is your take on the substitution hypothesis? [i.e. religiosity as a default human tendency, Woke as a substitute for traditional religion]

Silverman: It's scary, okay, and the implications of it are really scary. Of course, my fear would be, okay I was an atheist leader, I did a lot for atheists, I have been very proud of my accomplishments. Did I do bad, right? Did I cause harm, because now we've got this very persuasive evidence that shows that, yeah, we're going to move from one to another.

And back in 2009 when I heard this idea, which wasn't called the Substitution Hypothesis, it was just called that the default position is religious, I didn't realize that by taking away, that by fighting religion, I would just make way for something else.

Boghossian: I didn't realize it either.

Silverman: A wise man once said, everybody does everything for exactly the same reason. You think it's a good idea at the time. [..] I am afraid that it's true. I'm afraid that it's true. I am afraid that the fight to fight ignorance, the fight to fight mythology, is a never-ending and possibly ultimately losing fight. And that is a hard pill to swallow. Because Dawkins is right, it's a sad world to be in when you don't have data, when you don't have respect for information.

Boghossian: Yeah, when you don't value data, when you don't value evidence, when you won't have a conversation about data and evidence. [..] Let me just be clear about this: on a social level, it's always better to have people participate in a more benign delusion. There's just no question about it. But I don't think that that means that we should encourage people to participate in delusions. All it means is we would just step aside and let their cognitions, let the memetic spread of a less toxic ideology take root in the society. Because if the Substitution Hypothesis is correct, I see no alternative to that.

Here's one: The Amazing Atheist.

Silverman: Yeah, because they're changing the words. They're changing the words to cloud the issue. They're clouding the issue because they don't want to study, they don't want to actually tell people, no. This is the Coddling of the American Mind on steroids. This is exactly what happens when you take away the ability to tell people no. No, you're not actually a woman. No, you can't go into the women's showers. No, you can't compete against actual women because you're not an actual woman.

You're completely allowed to live and do and marry and adopt as you see fit but, no this is where we cross the line. The left can't say that. The left is those helicopter kids are now grown up and now having kids, completely unable to say no to their children's whims. In fact, they absolutely defend those whims.

And the idea that that we are transitioning children is fucking killing me. As young as 12 are getting damaged by activist parents who want to use their kids.

Boghossian: Double mastectomies.

Silverman: It's insane. It's insane that we are allowing our kids to be damaged like this. And when we fight that, when we fight the insanity, we're called bigots, we're called assholes, we're called TERFs and transphobes.

I am a pro-choice person, I have been left of center my entire life. I lobbied personally, at the local, state and federal level for trans rights and I'm an anti-trans person because I don't think you should cut a child, because I don't think a child can consent to permanent change? This makes me a bad person? It's insane what the left is having.

And this is our atheism. This is what's happening in atheism now. And when I say, no wait, let me explain, what do they do? They shut me down, they shout me out, because they'd much rather have the very very easy path of hate, because hate is so easy. Dismissal is so easy. And skepticism is hard. Too fucking bad, skepticism is hard. Do it anyway.

[..]

Boghossian: What are you fighting now?

Silverman: Lies. Immorality. I've taken a humanistic turn in my life. Humanism is important to me, it's always been my driving force, I've never really spoken about it, but it's always been... I believe that we have a pseudo-objective good in the reduction of suffering, every living being flees from suffering on the planet, no it's not really objective good, but it's as close as we get, and the existence of that mandates a morality around it. And that's kind of my position as kind of a firebrand humanism type of thing.

So, if the objective good exists, we must follow it to be good. And when you look at humanism from that perspective, you can build a morality around the reduction of suffering that will include honesty, that will include integrity, that will include skepticism, and you can all bring it back to the root of reducing suffering. That's what I'm fighting. I'm fighting suffering.

[slithymomerath]

I recently ran into the tumblr radqueer community. I was just lurking for a bit, but now I have some thoughts.

First, about transid:

- Just because I don’t personally experience something doesn’t mean that it’s not real and that anyone saying they experience it is just lying to get attention.

- If someone is doing their own thing and talking about their own feelings about themself and not hurting anyone else, there’s no reason to be upset with them.

- Last but certainly not least, I can’t find a logically consistent reason to be okay with transgender people and not okay with transid people.

The most common arguments I’ve heard against transid people are:

- Their existence is damaging to people who physically have that identity. How, exactly? If they try to represent the opinions of the community and lie about their transid status, then yeah, but that’s also a problem if trans women were to do it about experiences that are specific to cis women. The vast majority of trans women don’t do that, and if some of them do, we can condemn the behavior, not the group.

- They’re fetishizing our identity and making us feel reduced to a stereotypical, sunshiney version of our traits, instead of a whole human. If people engage in fetishizing behavior, like treating others badly while fixating on certain traits of theirs, we can be upset at them for that. However, if they’re talking about feelings they have about themselves and no one else, I don’t see why we should be upset with them. Also, this argument can again be applied to transgender people.

Now, to move on to something scarier: paraphilias. My thoughts:

- Many people enjoy play-acting and engaging in fantasies about things they would never want to physically participate in.

- If you fantasize about doing something that would be immoral if you actually did it, that doesn’t make you a bad person.

We as a society understand these points implicitly about some things, and refuse to understand them about others. For example:

- Most games of D&D involve play-acting that you’re killing other people. Many people play as characters with violent tendencies who kill lots of innocent people.

- A lot of sexual role-playing is about situations that would be very unethical in real life. For example, if anyone involved is pretending to be a nurse/teacher/etc, pretty much all of BDSM, consensual non-consent.

- Calling anyone “Daddy” or “Mommy” in a sexual way. This one is especially mind-blowing to me, because of the difference in how people treat this kink and paraphilias. In real life, this would be pedophilic incest. But we all understand that the people who participate in this kink are only play-acting. And nothing happened as a result of our non-hatred. It didn’t contaminate vanilla people, it didn’t make anyone think that real life pedophilic incest is okay, the people who like to play-act this are just vibing in their own little corners of the world.

Common concerns:

- HOW COULD YOU SUPPORT PEDOS YOU SICK FUCK GO KYS— I would never support anyone doing real-life pedophilia. I will never be okay with someone doing actions that hurt other people. I just don’t think I should be mean to D&D players, people who call each other “Daddy” in the bedroom, people with rape fantasies (in either direction), or people who sexually fantasize about children. I’m not going to lie, it feels bad to say that.

- All people who have pedophilic fantasies go do pedo actions or watch child porn, so it’s basically the same thing. I don’t know of a statistic that states if this is true or not (please let me know if you do), but I would guess that it’s probably not, based on my understanding of the world and the previous examples I gave (i.e. people with rape fantasies).

This one applies to both transid and paraphilias:

- I’ve been deeply hurt by someone fetishizing my identity and/or doing pedophilic actions. I cannot fathom how some people could have positive feelings about these ideas instead of utter disgust, grief, and rage. I reserve the right to hate them. I’m so, so sorry. I can’t blame you for your feelings at all. If you tell me to die in a fire because of what I’ve written, I understand. I don’t blame you. I forgive you.

I refuse to be afraid of things that aren’t hurting me just because of their association with things that would actually hurt me and use that as a reason to be mean to others. This sentence applies both to how I feel about people who might be angry at me anonymously on the internet and transid/paraphilic people.

Finally, a quote that really made an impression on me:

“LGBT normies are under impression that the concept of sexual deviance was initially coined to describe someone else and applied to them by mistake.” -@female-to-faggot

Please let me know if you have thoughts about this that I didn’t address. I really appreciate constructive criticisms, they help me grow. I’m open to changing my mind about any of this.

[alyssaguisales]

Blog #1: For What?

Prior to my first ever meeting on Lasallian Business Leadership, Ethics and CSR class, I was thinking that it would be a typical class discussion the same I had during college. However, the first thing we did was to find a partner, get to know each other, and introduce ourselves. That was somehow a reminder for me that indeed “no man is an island”. 

I am the kind of person who would prefer working alone because communicating is one of my weaknesses. I would feel anxious thinking I need to have a conversation with someone i just met. However, from the start of my journey in La Sallian education, there was no class that I did not need to work with my classmates. For a shorter period of time compared to what I had in college, teamwork was one of the things every class in DLSU did not forget to instill. 

Another practice I admire is the importance of praying before class that is still being observed like how my college classes do. This sets an atmosphere of learning that is guided by faith. The mission and vision of DLSU are focused on making the students well-rounded graduates. From spiritual, social, and national, students are aimed to be leaders, professionals and entrepreneurs that will serve as agents in changing the society. This way, the institution aims a higher degree of impact to the society by using various ways to mold students into a better future. 

Suddenly the stories my mother used to tell me started making sense. One thing she is proud about her stay in DLSU as a graduate student is that the people in the university are unanimously kind people. That was proven to me when I went to the school for the first time to get my ID picture taken. The security guards are all polite, as well as the utility worker I asked for directions who patiently guided me to the place I needed to be. Overall, my first experience on campus as well as the people I talk with in my online classes are all polite and kind. 

This gives me the thought of how the whole institution manages to act as one. Attending this class gave me a clear understanding that it starts with DLSU being a catholic institution. Accordingly, our lesson about the Major Themes from Catholic Social Teaching gave ten major themes that reflect the institution’s mission and vision. From giving importance to the individuality of humans to coexisting with other human beings, these are all captured in the Catholic Social Teaching. During my first term, I remember we were required to attend orientations, and these were also discussed. Hence, I can say that DLSU is committed to continuously teach its students of these social catholic teachings.  

Above all, I have the responsibility to uphold these teachings as a member of the catholic church as well as a student who is bearing the name of DLSU institution with me. As a teacher, this is a good learning experience that I can also pass on to my students. Moreover, as a member of the community, it is important to participate in community programs once in a while. These will all bring us to being well-rounded persons. By spreading faith, kindness, compassion, and love for ourselves, others, and GOD we could live a fulfilling life.

So, let’s ask ourselves now, ‘for what’ are we exactly living at this point. At what stage of life are we exactly now?  Do you live with these catholic social teachings? Or is this just another subject compliance for you?

[anthonybialy]

Denying Participating

It's not exactly fun playing the worst game.  But the winners get to choose if there’s another round.  The only admirable people in politics are those who participate because they hate it.  Joining is a noble act for those who oppose the competition.

Subversion increases productivity by bringing down a shady operation that quasi-illegally bosses humans who did nothing wrong aside from possessing the nerve to be born.  A tiresome chore like guarding a baby farm from dingos is nonetheless necessary to prevent catastrophic results.  Unlike wild animals, pushy politicians can’t blame nature.

The turf war would be a lot more tolerable if only those who choose membership participated in grappling.  A gangster mentality comes naturally to politicians who are essentially members of a crime family.  The difference is the mob maintains some honorable standards.  Politics doesn’t resemble the John Wick universe where those who’ve joined only target each other: we’re all pursued.

The side that cheats by getting the government on its side demands you obey rules invented this morning.  Pretending its rulings are moral by calling them legally binding is as clever as fans get.

One ideology drags everyone in.  Intimately involving politics with every life aspect isn’t nearly as romantic as promised by our seducers.

The contest is afoot whether or not anyone chooses to field a team.  All are losing.  The results of incessant competition are everywhere you turn.  You may have noticed the boarded-up windows and lurking plunderers.

Occupying the economy has not inspired collaboration.  Being forced to enroll in crummy insurance out of mandatory compassion isn’t as loving as projected.  If you thought flagging down a doctor took awhile, check out the wait times to charge a car to drive a short jaunt.  Pretend to save Earth by making humans idle while they wait for coal to do its work.

Democrats have succeeded in uniting everyone in poverty.  Such common ground is why the vibe feels so pleasant as of late.  It’s not like you have a choice.  All members are expected to concur with their warping of society.  Making everything comply is very tolerant, particularly the way they attempt to ruin everyone who dares dissent.

Hockey players warming up offer the perfect culture war front for Maoist lunatics.  The shame-based debate over pride jerseys is an attempt to demonstrate there’s nowhere free of politics.  Woke maniacs draft others to wear their uniforms.  It’s the wrong kind of impressment.

The utterly tolerant don’t want any foes for the same reason they oppose competition.  Creating acceptance by demonizing questioning is like thinking a lack of accountability is what lowers prices while raising quality.

Changing the contest’s boundaries to suit whatever absurd whim they deem scientific is what constitutes rational behavior.  Knowing what you’re allowed to say varies by the moment, which is how we keep English interesting.  J.K. Rowling refuses to believe magic applies to gender.  New Protestants consider it blasphemous, as she wrote their Bible.  I’m starting to suspect she didn’t even create Voldemort with Trump in mind.

Seeking emancipation should be an easy case to make.  Unfortunately, the judges are related to the parents.  Treating politicians as parents keeps citizens as juveniles.  Our guardians are deadbeat drunks who spent our retainer money on roulette.  They’d bet our birthdate if they could remember it.  Solutions that cause problems involve never letting you being left alone.

Join the side who entered the fray because they hate it.  The government losing would tally a victory for humanity.  Good guys shouldn’t have to fight relentlessly to not be bothered, as it defeats the purpose.  But why watch all those superhero movies if not to learn that battling villainy is a pain in the hind that is nevertheless necessary?

Futilely attempting to pay bills takes up enough of the day that exhausted participants can’t appreciate the inflicted irony.  We admire those who think the Constitution’s limits are sort of legally binding.  Boundaries might be established for wise reasons.  Containing a beast that wanders as it pleases is the best way to preserve the environment.  You really should care about the Earth.

Playing a sport they hate embodies selflessness.  The market would indicate the game should go extinct like the BlackBerry.  But unopposed statists will just run up the score.  This pastime is more frustrating than soccer, in part because you’re required to watch.

Respecting those who want to commandeer their decisions is a popular political trend for dim lunatics who think Joe Biden makes them rich by printing currency to order.  Humanity’s managers certainly won’t stop at interfering with cultists who beg for virtual incarceration.

Resisters are targeted for special attention by caring federal agents.  Ingrates should appreciate the care.  Adoring the legislative process is as hideous an affectation as admiring a politician.  Eagerly tracking election results is the next side of madness.

Fighting on behalf of uninterested parties is the burden of those who want to keep it that way.  Decent Americans are tired of investing so much energy in a contest that is decidedly joyous.  Dismantling an overreaching government is unfair on account of how competitors are also referees.  Biden can’t call or play a fair game, which makes him his side’s ideal competitor.

[miafreemandesignresearch]

Benefits & Drivers of Universal Design

National Disability Authority. (n.d.). Benefits and drivers. The Centre for Excellence in Universal Design | Centre for Excellence in Universal Design. Retrieved October 1, 2022, from https://universaldesign.ie/what-is-universal-design/benefits-and-drivers

"The age-distribution of the world's population is changing dramatically. People are living longer as a result of medical developments in the last century and healthier lifestyle changes. The following key statistics show some the demographic changes expected in the first half of the 21st century:

A child born today has a 50 percent chance of surviving to over 80 years of age.

By 2021, it is predicted that 15 percent of the irish population will be over the age of 65.

By 2021, the number of people over 80 years of age will have increased by two-thirds.

By 2050 it is estimated that there will only be two 18-64 year olds for every one person over 65 in Ireland, in comparison to six for every one at present.

Within the coming decades in Europe and Ireland, the number of people who are available and capable of assisting and caring for older people will decrease considerably.

The number of people living with physical, sensory, mental health or intellectual impairments is increasing, as is the life expectancy of people with particularly severe or multiple impairments."

Universal design is not only important for assisting people with disabilities, but for elderly people as well. Since life expectancy is constantly changing and increased a lot in the last century, there will be more older people. It's important to design with the future in-mind taking into consideration how our bodies will change with age and what we will be and not be capable of.

Able-bodied people may think that universal design or lack there of will not affect them, but when they older they will realise the impact.

"Universal Design assumes that the range of human ability is ordinary, not special."

Elaine Ostroff, 2001

Really like this quote. Growing up disabled people praise you a lot for accomplishing everyday things. Something as simple as tying my shoes I could get praised for. Someone would say it's so amazing I could live and function with one hand. It's probably one of the most frustrating things when people consider my disability as something 'special'. It is not a 'special' or 'amazing' accomplishment for me to live with one hand, it's just an ordinary thing for me and I think it is important to recognise that having disabilities or a range of abilities is just an ordinary thing for humans.

"No two people are the same and no two people have exactly the same ability. The considerable variation that exists between people can be influenced by both external and internal factors. Ability can vary according to the type of activity in which a person is participating or the environment in which that person is carrying out the activity.

Every person experiences reduced functioning at some stage during his or her lifetime. For example "noisy environments impair anyone's hearing; [a] dimly lit rooms impair anyone's vision; and having the flu reduces anyone's stamina" (molly follette story and james Mueller, 2001)

A Universal Design approach therefore requires an appreciation of the varied abilities of every person and to design in such a way that the resulting product, service or environment can be used by everyone regardless of age, size, ability or disability."

"In this technological age, the skills required to participate in society are becoming increasingly complex. As each technological innovation is adopted the risks to people who do not adopt of being excluded from accessing a whole range of financial, state, social or cultural services or amenities increases. Technology is increasingly embedded into the built environment and products so that the lines of what is specifically product, ict or building design have become blurred.

In order the facilitate people with differing abilities, of differing ages and sizes within society, systems and building must be designed with the user at the centre of the design process. A universally designed environment promotes equality and makes life easier and safer for everyone."

Designing universally means products and places can appeal to a wider range of people as you are not excluding a large market of people. Taking extra time and care to design for everyone gives benefits in the amount of people that can appreciate and use the products or environment.

[wsl-chelsea]

(Anon who said capitalism is the least flawed) I probably should of clarified I think it’s the least flawed out of the tried and tested. Out of the big 3 that have been real world tried (capitalism communism and feudalism) capitalism is the one that has been better for economic and social stability

But this is sort of where the line gets blurred when we talk about an economic system and a political system. When talking about capitalism vs. communism they are considered economic systems and in terms of the country generating enough money to sustain the people capitalism has been better.

The bad rep of capitalism comes from the select few who are exploiting the system. When we think of capitalism we think USA normally but no capitalist societies are the same. Like take USA and aus for example USA don’t have tax brackets which makes the rich richer and the poor poorer and the rich exploit that. But in aus we have tax brackets where the top earners are taxed up to 49% for their salary which is a huge amount. For every $1 they make 49c goes to the government to fund the country. What the government do with that money however is the problem when it comes to like social issues and that’s more politics than it is economic systems

In terms of a political/social system true communism hasn’t been executed and although it would be the best ideologically I don’t think it’s possible. I agree people should have basic human rights and the government should provide that but even if people at their core were selfless there would still be that small few who wouldn’t be. That’s not something we can control like for example psychopaths there’s something chemically abnormal about their brain and we can’t exactly just get rid of that. I think maybe once the older and more politically incorrect and selfish generations die out maybe communism could be given another go and turn out better than before but at this time I don’t think it would work

Sorry for that massive rant I like talking about this. At the end of the day that’s just my opinion and everyone is free to have their own. You are 100% free to smite me and I welcome it cause like it’s interesting to hear other peoples opinions and you can learn from other people. Hope you have a wonderful day :))

that makes a lot more sense then lmao. i dont know how much i agree that capitalism provides economic stability since it like. fucking collapses every 10 years but yk

idk what to tell you man australia is just slaying LMAO (/j). i agree with you on that. i still dont think that australia is free from the upper class exploiting the working class but it's definitely better than fucking elon musk exploiting his american workers and saying they should model themselves off of china's tesla workers who work 12 hour shifts six days a week lols and get paid barely anything.

'I think maybe once the older and more politically incorrect and selfish generations die out maybe communism could be given another go and turn out better than before but at this time I don’t think it would work'- this. transitioning to socialism then communism requires a major shift in the way the working class sees capitalism, and a majority would need to see it as an enemy of the working class not a weird frenemy. atm most people think its kind of shit but it works and they wouldn't be happy with a shift to communism esp with all the propaganda thats been fed to us after the colossal failures of 'communist' countries. people need to be radicalised if communism is to be given a chance otherwise no one will participate, and that takes a looooong time lmao.

dw i like talking about it too! gets me thinking about society, i dont have much smiting to do here bc you make some good points. i just hate classes and i hate how capitalism fuels the climate crisis a lot (and is responsible for the hesitancy to solve it),thats all. hope you have a good day too!

[humansun]

I want to complete my first project.

Written April 29th, 2022

I can’t explain what the project will be because it is not a full set out plan. I want to make the project happen, because I want to become a full on creative one day. It’s important that I have the project management background though and I would never regret all the experiences I’ve had working like.

I think there is a specific type of mental and external liberation I want to experience in becoming a full creative and diving into the unknown. I realized that even though I consider myself a flighty, transitional person, that my life has been pretty stable growing up (thankfully and by the grace of luck and the universe’s placement of my life). Stable as in I make easy, safe decisions.

After trying to figure out how to make my sister’s dreams come true, which we’re still in the process of, I thought deeply about my own and how my trajectory at this point is not quite clear. I think a round two of illustrating future me would be a good plan. It will help me understand what it is my trajectory is. It could be the case that I honestly do not know it, or it could be the case that I know it, but it changes frequently.

Being passionate, persistent, and patient about my very specific target means I must identify and be certain of what it is, who it entails, where it’s located, who I will be at that point, the kind of traits I’ll have, and how I feel at that time. The focus of that would be my definition of “success”. 

On this amazing Friday afternoon where the sun shines and I get to touch the divine blue sky with my healthy eyes, I am thinking deeply about the person I am and how I’ve come to the point of who I am. I know more than anything that I have improved on my understanding of myself. I like Betty very much and I can see that I’ve learned to care for and respect myself more than I ever have in my life. It’s evident in how I speak to myself, how I speak to others, the thoughts in my head, the habits I practice, and the priorities I’ve placed for myself in my daily life.

There will never be a time when I experience “perfection” because life is filled with flaws, but in this moment, I do view it as perfect. I am gifted with myself as a being and I feel satisfied with my existence. The people who surround me, support and love me. I am blessed to have meals that supply lots of nutrition. I get to write and read and meditate. I can travel when I want to. I can see what I want to see.

I find it important to remind myself of my abilities as a human, because it gives me the time and space to engage in healthy actions and to continue to grow myself and my life. I can identify when I am excited or frustrated or pained. On days when I can’t, I reflect and process. If I am at a 70-80% success rate of catching myself before I let my feelings consume me, I am doing pretty good and I want to recognize that.

Every part of my life has contributed to this exact moment. This moment where I am writing, appreciating, shining, and content with the life I have been given and blessed with is the right moment (and if it's not right, it doesn't matter because it just is). I’ve also been reflecting on our society and who I am in relativity to the people I admire. I realized that as a child and through my teen years, I constantly had role models that I wanted to be exactly like. I wanted to dress like people I liked, act the same way they did, participate in their same activities, and pursue the same goals.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with that and it helped motivate me to become awesome like them. But, I learned that when I would admire people, I would be easily swayed by what they were doing to become like them. I would want to change my style, the way I acted, my mission in life, and all the things that were pretty solid to me. Values and ideas and inspirations were changed in an instant after being motivated by someone that I admired.

When you like and grow who you are, there is more strength in that than ever. There is a power in admiring me. I can still watch these folks be successful, be happy and proud of them, but also focus on myself and see what I am doing to make myself be proud. I know I have what it takes to create art that is true to who I am and what feels right and aligns with me. I don’t have to sway at the thought of others. The stripping of this understanding already shows me what lies beneath who I am and what I want.

Some answers are more apparent than others. I strive to be more authentically creative, instead of driven by insidious, societal motives. I strive to be a more real Betty each day, even if its very hard as a sometimes self-conscious individual. It’s the idea of, I belong in each space, in each moment; and doing all the activities I need to fuel my growth and joy will be most important moving forward.