Happy Women's Day to all who celebrate

The little Courage the cowardly dog-esque paws on this drawing just sent me for some reason I'm so sorry I just had to quickly doodle a little Machete the cowardly dog XD

.

it's concerning what people are saying and thinking is activism. I've unfollowed someone who unironically reblogged something that said death to israel. how is that going to help? if anything that's just making a more hostile environment. support palestine but maybe cool it about what you say about israel considering why it exists in the first place

There are a few reasons for this, and the first is that the western left is so absolutely goddamn terrible about recognizing its increased and violent radicalization. I can't tell you how many posts I've seen to the effect of "the far right wants to kill everybody but the far left just wants healthcare for everyone uwu." First, by their own extremely warped and constantly biased perception, that would actually make the mainstream Democratic Party "far left." The party might disagree about how exactly the actual mechanism for better/more equitable healthcare should be implemented (etc. etc. if you oppose instant Medicare for All with no other transition period or hybrid options, YOU ARE EXACTLY THE SAME AS A FASCIST!), but that's now a central and uncontroversial plank of official Democratic party policy. But since as we know, BOTH SIDES ARE THE SAME!!!, clearly that can't be what the self-defined "far left" actually wants. Witness how we've had several days of intense and valedictory social media approval and worship of a mentally ill person's violent and public suicide, because it was done for the "right reasons." This person should have been given help and support, yes, and we never know what's going on in anyone's head. But if I was someone also contemplating suicide, this whole "it's the right thing to do and you should just burn yourself to death and announce it's for the Right Cause and you will have legions of adoring admirers" would be hella hard to resist. This is going to directly cost more lives.

We point out all the time that the far right has become a fascistic death cult of authoritarian personality, but the online far left is now absolutely just as willing to make "you should die and/or kill yourself and others for Ideology" a central part of their platform. We've had endless rhetoric about how the violent Glorious Revolution is the only answer and society is irretrievably broken. This is casual, constant, inescapable radicalization, and it's presented as the only way to "do" leftism. So of course the rhetoric gets increasingly insane and genocidal (while insisting that all they want is to "stop the genocide"), and it's more and more normalized. We've had people reblogging posts that are almost entirely lies, because they "want to highlight" one sentence or half-truth they agree with (and apparently decided the best way to do this was to uncritically amplify the misinformation, rather than making their own post and trying to push back on it). We've had people admitting they're afraid to lose friends or be attacked on social media because the Groupthink is so pervasive and violently radicalized. This is not normal and this needs to fucking stop.

Secondly, and this is inescapable especially in regard to this particular conflict, the western left is absolutely steeped in antisemitism through and through, and it has no desire either to examine that or even think it should. It has become absolutely mired in the "antisemitism is a Good and Necessary and Correct belief to have and it's not actually a prejudice, it contributes to social justice because all Israelis and/or all Jews are evil settler colonialists constantly genociding innocent Hamas and/or Palestinians." This is why, as I keep saying, it's not that hard to support Palestinian self-determination, statehood, dignity, freedom, and a stop to the indiscriminate slaughter of Gaza, while not actually thinking that the way to do this is just to be wildly antisemitic at all times and calling for the genocide of Israel to be substituted for the genocide of Gaza. That does not actually reduce the net amount of genocide in this world!!! I thought you wanted to stop it, not turn it loose on another group of people who "deserve it more!" JESUS CHRIST!!!

On that note, even if you don't agree with every single premise or point it makes, a lot of people on this website (and on Twitter, but yeah, uh, good luck with that) need to read the following article in order to understand, as I keep saying, how deeply virulent antisemitism has become an unquestioned tenet of virtuous faith among the western left. Content warnings for some very graphic depictions/discussions of violence, including sexual violence, but that's not an excuse. If you've found yourself posting or agreeing with any version of the "Jews/Zionists/Israelis are all collectively responsible for this while evilly torturing innocent non-Jews" thesis statement, READ IT. Y'know, read it anyway. Try to get the first and most basic grip on the fraught and violent history of antisemitism, which is quite literally the oldest prejudice in the world, and how that interacts with and negatively informs the way in which supposedly well-intentioned western leftists are reacting to the current situation. As I said in an earlier post, I don't care if your "good intentions" (the road to hell is paved with, etc. etc.) are solely about stopping the current slaughter directed against Palestinians. That does not excuse you from the consequences of the lies you spread and the genocidal violence that you advocate as a "better" or "more correct" kind of genocidal violence then that already taking place. So. Yeah.

If you run into a paywall, you can remove it by disabling JavaScript on the page (this can be done with most ad-blockers), or someone has also helpfully provided the full text as a pdf in this link. Read it.

I love Shadowheart. She was my bae throughout my first (unfinished) Tav run. I abandoned that run because Astarion convinced me I needed to restart as Durge for him, but Shadowheart forever holds a very special place in my… well, heart.

I’ve been thinking about the contrast between them and their arcs and the way fandom interacts with them.

They both start off as characters that by D&D standards are “evil.” Shar is an evil aligned goddess, and vampires are evil aligned creatures.

However, Shadowheart isn’t evil. She disapproves of actively evil decisions and approves of kindness to animals and the helpless. She just doesn’t like it if you seem to be putting do-goodery above your search for a cure to the tadpoles. She is fine with killing the grove, but the contrast between her at the tiefling party and the goblin party shows pretty starkly how she really feels.

Astarion starts off the game evil. I will fucking fight anyone on this. He has very very good reasons to be evil, but so does Shadowheart… and she’s not. Astarion enjoys chaos, he likes murder, he likes hurting people. He thinks being “good” is weak and stupid and that might be a trauma response, but it is how he genuinely feels at that point in his story.

And yet. AND YET. For some reason, I have never seen anyone complain about making Shadowheart a Dark Justiciar. If she likes you, you actually have to encourage her to kill Nightsong. Even on my evil run, she spared Aylin if I didn’t tell her not to. You have to either not care about her or intervene to make her evil, and right up to the end where she kills her parents and Shar wipes her memory again, she is just so miserable and resigned to what she’s been influenced to be.

But people do it to get the hotter sex scene or whatever and that’s fine.

But Astarion? The man who spends the whole fucking game begging you to help him take over an evil cult and murder his “family” so he can become a living vampire as soon as he realises it might be an option? The guy who will throw a fit and leave you if you don’t either succeed in a persuasion check or help him eternally damn 7007 people— no matter how close you’ve gotten to him?

Apparently you’re an evil piece of shit if you find his “bad” ending compelling or, dare I say it, hot.

I don’t really care which ending you prefer for either character— I think the game does a great job on its own telling you what you should think and it’s fairly nuanced for both characters. I just don’t understand why Astarion has to be so woobified and his “bad” ending fans vilified as if they’re naive morons with no media literacy.

Shadowheart, the character, hates her “bad” ending way more than Astarion, the character, hates his. And fandom can’t reflect this because I don’t know…

Oh god. It’s sexism isn’t it?

Reasons people underestimate the prevalence of RAMCOA:

Untraumatized people don’t think about trauma nearly as much as survivors

People don’t know what the signs are. Trainings are shitty when given, attendees don’t think they’ll need to use the information, and trainings offered are usually online and easy to walk away from

Mandatory reporters don’t usually follow through their contracts. This is sometimes a good thing, but it can leave room in the wrong places for endangered children

People who know the signs will ignore them. They think it unlikely, that they’re overreacting, or they just don’t notice

Survivors are quiet. Speaking up puts us in danger, and more people think of us as media material than peers

The police don’t do jack shit for us. Some stations train officers to overlook our cases, and it’s difficult to take to court if a survivor wants to. In larger cases, government works with organized criminal groups that perpetrate or do so themselves for research

We’re a test question. The only time we are brought up in psychology classrooms is if they want to nod to a DID diagnosis. Few therapists are educated and willing to take us on as clients

Abusers know how to make connections with local authority. In high control groups, members may be taught how to abuse and evade interception

All of this makes it hard to report anywhere how many survivors exist free, and the low numbers in turn make us less believable when we do report

RAMCOA includes severe religious abuse, manipulative coercion, programming, cults, trafficking rings, criminal gangs, and more. Survivors are your coworkers, neighbors, cashiers, librarians.

Signs to look for:

Ritual Abuse

History of self-harm, substance use, sui/homicidality, especially with prescribed patterns

Unusual phobias (red or brown foods, kinds of houses, churches, hospitals, fear of the dark or being alone in adults)

Aversion to or obsession with the occult/witchcraft or other faith traditions

Patterns of nightmares, aversions or obsessions with common or nondescript themes (gore, needles, bugs, rodents, monsters, babies, men or women)

Sudden or irresistible urge to relocate, recontact abusers, participate in abusive ceremonies

High pain tolerance

Repeated phrases with violent, aggressive or religious themes

Mind Control and Coercion

Unquestioning obedience of a person or doctrine

Defers to another, speaks as though scripted, frequently accompanied by another or has to ask permission inappropriate for their age

Sudden or dramatic change in behavior, hobbies, or long-standing habits

Refusal to consume media unless approved by another/without further explanation

Anxious or idealized descriptions of childhood home and family, unable to recall these things

No memory of childhood or missing years

Multiple self-states, especially in high quantities

Organized Abuse and Trafficking

Disconnection from peers, family and friends

Does not attend community events or faith services or is perpetually preoccupied with a single group

Repeated unexplained absences from work or school

Disoriented, confused or dissociated for long periods of time or without explanation

Fearful or self-persecutory behavior, especially with allusions to another person or group

Bruises, broken skin or other wounds in various stages of healing

Minors engaging in commercial sex (including CSEM or survival sex)

Timid, skittish, fearful or submissive behaviors (including when this is the norm)

Malnourished, dehydrated, exhausted or with untreated ails

Without belongings or suitable living space

Many indicators of abuses flow together, as do the events themselves. It’s common that RA and OA perps use MC to keep victims in line, and techniques are often implemented by default in abusive environments. A group using RA or MC also qualifies as OA. This is why the community acronym includes all three.

There are more discreet examples for each. It’s possible to find many symptoms of RAMCOA and have none of those maltreatments as the cause. It’s possible to have none and still be abused.

Noticing indicators in children should be followed up by alerting any available reliable authority. Children sometimes disclose using metaphors or slang words they have been taught, so keep this in mind if you work with them.

For my own memory, in the hopes that Scar will put yesterday´s stream on his VODs channel because it was amazing and featured among other things:

Scar calling Etho “the Maple Prince”

Xisuma trolling Scar by mixing up Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Star Trek, and Harry Potter

Mumbo showing Scar the llama death chamber, and Scar praising him for being weird

Scar and Mumbo having a conversation about social media and AI

Scar telling Etho not to worry and that he´s thinking about moving the mail box himself (after all he had two best-selling redstone shops so surely he´s qualified!); Etho: well now I´m worried… But right afterwards Etho says people forget that Scar is actually quite skilled at the game

Etho is just interrupting people today and Scar suggests just collecting people to procrastinate

I approve of Scar encouraging Etho to participate in MCC again

Etho asking how Scar got stamps already, Scar saying he´s been a part of a lot of Life series, Etho: “you and your wily words, you can get anything you want…”

Big Salmon decreed mercury = good

Cleo shows up! “lag busting” is the new “it lagged into my inventory”

Scar definitely not encouraging Cleo to kill all other villagers after setting up her own trading hall. Cleo wants organic free range villagers.

Cleo trying to sell the monstrosolith as a giant billboard

Cleo proved she can do valley girl voice, Scar and Etho are shocked. Then they´re discussing what "no cap" means. (Etho on stream: “big true, no cap.”) They talked about poggers, and Scar going wild with his pants off (after Cleo exploded them), and Etho didn´t know what Stitch is.

Scar starts talking about Disney and it takes him a minute to realize Cleo and Etho have run away

More maple syrup discussion (Etho telling Cleo if she likes the brand she gets it´s fine), and a frantic ride-by and log-out by Grian

Cleo and Scar want to start a cult. Etho wants to be a frat instead, something cooler. Frats have fewer rules, they´re more like “pants off, it´s fine.” Scar says he´d ask too many questions to be in a cult, Etho points out he could be cult leader. Cleo immediately offers to be his second, the person who does all the dirty work.

Shoe talk. Scar shows off his twelve-year-old shoes on stream.

Making fun of Etho´s set-up! Scar is horrified. Etho talks about his Kleenex box where his mike stands. It matches his desk! It has his settings written on it! Also his space bar broke during DO2 but he got used to it. Scar decides they need reinforcements and calls Bdubs over. Ren also shows up.

Etho mentions he didn´t get a Decked Out 2 desk mat (took to long to think about it) and Tango logs in to write in chat that he´s disappointed and logs out again

A wild Iskall approaches in the distance. Etho: trident brother!

Etho invented the minecart shuffle

Cleo: "I always want you to kill people, Scar. ...no not Etho."

And Etho leaves to shuffle snow like the Canadian cryptid he is

(how dare Ren interrupt Bdubs before he can give his current opinion on the kleenex box)

"Etho´s not one to lie" (are you sure about that? ^^)

...I look away for two seconds and did Mumbo just call himself a panda in chat. I was later told: a panda fiat! Which is a car, and Iskall is a Ferrari

Moonlanding with Gem! And some talk about bases and criticism. Gem: "I love making Etho mad," “Let Etho be mad,” What´s he gonna do, all he´s gonna do is go oh snappers ^^ "Scar, you are my Etho"

Jenna Ortega’s fame: a blessing or a curse?

Jenna Ortega, the bright young star of Hollywood, already has a cult of her own - crazy fandom that can make Selena Gomes and Taylor Swift jealous. And tarnish all her great achievements. How did that happen?

About a year ago Netflix released “Wednesday”, which immediately has become one of the most popular series of the platform and a real cultural phenomenon. Wednesday's dance went viral, prompting the teens all over the world to cosplay the goth girl and of course, Ortega, who played the main role in the beloved series, turned from a promising actress into a superstar.

But could we say that fame is a blessing for her? Along with unprecedented popularity, Ortega has acquired numerous aggressive, obsessive fans, most of whom are teenagers living more online than in real life. The behavior of these fans have already turned into a serious problem. Every new project involving Jenna Ortega is dragged into a scandal by the efforts of her own fans that throw absolutely every accusation in the book at her co-stars.

It all started in January, when Percy Hynes White, who played a part in love triangle with her in “Wednesday”, was accused in anonymous tweets of sexual assault, racism etc. The actor denied all the accusations and no legal proceedings followed. Ortega's fans meanwhile organized the massive campaign against White, justifying it with concerns about their idol’s life, both work related and personal. Ortega and White have repeatedly stated that they became best friends during the filming and although the status of their relationship is now unclear, many fans of Ortega continue to campaign against the actor, inciting to harass him on social media. White’s participation in s2 of “Wednesday” is still uncertain.

Martin Freeman was the next to come under fire from Ortega's fans. Freeman is her co-star in the upcoming "Miller's girl" film, where his character, a teacher, has an illicit relationship with his own student, played by Ortega. The first trailer was released recently and immediately caused to resurface the accusation of racism, child abuse etc Freeman has. In less than a day the viral tweet gained more than 13 million views and Ortega's fans actively participate in spreading accusations and inciting the harassment of the actor. And the movie hasn't been released yet! There is every reason to believe that with the release, the hate snowball will turn into an avalanche and Freeman will become the next victim of the cancel culture.

The most ambiguous situation happened around another co-star of Ortega, Toby Wallace, who played her love interest in the recently released Paramount film "Finestkind''. Although Wallace wasn’t involved in anything controversial, did not actively promote the film together with Ortega and even skipped the red carpet premiere of the film, he was bombarded with hateful comments on his Instagram by Ortega's fans, who wished him dead (smt in portuguese), among other things.

Perhaps the situation began to bother Ortega's PR team, because several big fan pages simultaneously called for an end of harassment of this actor, thereby only fueling the interest of others in the issue.

Thus, almost everyone who plays a love interest of Jenna Ortega in the movies finds themselves under attack from the actress' numerous and very active fans. Their actions create quite an unhealthy atmosphere of scandal around the young star, negatively affecting her reputation in the industry, because everyone of her colleagues risks getting bullied and canceled.

Miss Ortega didn’t comment on any of this and fans may see it as full approval, continuing to harass her co-stars on the Internet. Who is next? The release of a new film featuring Ortega and the Weeknd is to be announced soon, and the prospects for the Weeknd, already suffering harsh criticism for his Idol series involvement, are not very sunny.

In the upcoming film Ortega plays a stalker obsessed with the Weeknd’s character, a very controversial role in itself. Let’s just wait and see if he would be the new target for the Ortega’s stan cult.

*WSJ Link*

There Are Plenty of Power Publicists. But Only One Works for Taylor Swift.

By Allie Jones

April 18, 2024 at 8:00 am ET

Taylor Swift was celebrating the end of the Australian leg of her Eras Tour in late February when a bit of unpleasantness sailed out from Down Under and landed on the home page of TMZ. The New South Wales Police Force was investigating a 71-year-old man for allegedly assaulting a 51-year-old man at a wharf north of the city, according to their media unit. Per TMZ, the septuagenarian was Scott Swift, Taylor’s father and a key member of her management team, and the younger man was a photographer. 

The story had all the makings of a public relations nightmare: (1) Celebrity family member allegedly behaves badly while (2) disembarking from a luxury yacht, resulting in (3) a police investigation. To make matters more complicated, Taylor was reportedly present for the alleged altercation—hiding under an umbrella, TMZ said. Though the man didn’t require medical treatment, the police said, there was video footage. Would this be the end of the pop star’s marathon run of fawning press? 

Not if Tree Paine could help it. 

Swift’s longtime publicist first released a statement that did not refute TMZ’s story, exactly, but offered some exculpatory evidence: “Two individuals were aggressively pushing their way towards Taylor, grabbing at her security personnel, and threatening to throw a female staff member into the water.” Subtext: Scott Swift was simply protecting his daughter and another defenseless woman from a couple of rogue aggressors. He was not charged. 

Around the same time, as if by magic, People found a video of Scott passing out sandwiches to young female fans at one of the Sydney shows and published it along with fan commentary. “Isn’t he the sweetest and cutest,” one cooed.

Online, Swifties clocked the People story as good old-fashioned damage control. As a chorus of fan posts put it: “The devil works hard, but Tree Paine works harder.” (In late March, the New South Wales Police Force media unit said that the North Shore Police Area Command finished its investigation and that it is taking no further action.)

The public often sees Paine expertly attending to Swift’s needs, from smoothing out Swift’s red carpet dresses to leading her past scrums of paparazzi.

The average celebrity publicist does not have fans. But Paine, the 52-year-old redhead seen trailing Swift at awards shows and rubbing shoulders with Gayle King in the Eras Tour VIP area, has become a Swiftverse cult figure in her own right. Fans post reverently about her PR machinations and share videos of her expertly attending to Swift’s needs: smoothing out Swift’s dress on the red carpet, leading Swift right past a scrum of reporters whose questions have not been approved, subtly offering Swift what appeared to be water at the Video Music Awards—a night when the star was filmed dancing in a manner that suggested inebriation.

Swift has trained her followers to look for meaning in her every gesture, outfit and Instagram caption. Paine’s own work—the stories she chooses to respond to, the narrative she puts forward in the media—has become part of that lore. 

And Swift and Paine are creating a lot of lore lately. Swift spent the fall cheering on her new boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, as he sailed to Super Bowl victory, and dropped by the Grammys to pick up album of the year for Midnights and announce her new album in an acceptance speech for yet another award. The Tortured Poets Department, which fans speculate is at least partly inspired by her breakup with the British actor Joe Alwyn, drops this month, and Swift will promote it while balancing her public relationship, continuing her sold-out international Eras Tour amid growing criticism of her private jet usage and brushing off baseless conspiracy theories that she is secretly working as a Democratic operative to swing the 2024 election for President Joe Biden. 

In a long career of riding high, Swift has hit the stratosphere. It’s Paine’s job to keep her there. 

Back in 2014, Swift’s world domination was not yet assured. That March, trade publications reported that the pop star’s publicist of seven years, Paula Erickson, had submitted her resignation. Fairly or not, during Erickson’s tenure, Swift developed a reputation for being both boy-crazy and unwilling to joke about it. See: Swift’s string of high-profile relationships with Joe Jonas, Taylor Lautner, Jake Gyllenhaal and Harry Styles; her alleged wedding-crashing with Conor Kennedy; her humorless response to Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s joke at the 2013 Golden Globes about her dating life. (“There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women,” she told Vanity Fair when asked about the incident.) Erickson declined to comment for this story.

Paine, who had been working as the senior vice president of publicity in the Christian and Country divisions of Warner Music Nashville, came on board and quickly flipped the script. She launched her own firm, Premium PR, and signed Swift as her first and only client. “There isn’t a publicist in NY, LA or Nashville that wouldn’t jump at an opportunity to work with someone as talented as Taylor Swift and her management team,” Paine told Page Six at the time. 

That year, Swift moved from Nashville to New York, went full pop with the release of 1989 and began flaunting her friendships with a gaggle of famous women, known colloquially as The Squad. The public started to forget about the time Swift, age 22, allegedly bought a house across the street from the Kennedy compound in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts. 

Now that Swift has hit the stratosphere, it’s Paine’s job to keep her there. 

Throughout this transformation, Paine refused to let rumors about her client fester. The very week her hiring was announced, she began issuing public rebuttals to the tabloids. “Never believe the National Enquirer,” she tweeted about an apparently false story that Swift declined to record a duet with Randy Travis. Ten years later, the gossip about Swift has changed, but Paine’s approach has not: She recently called out the anonymous gossip account Deuxmoi for causing “pain and trauma” by posting false rumors about Swift secretly marrying Alwyn before the two broke up. 

Paine became even more visible to fans in 2020, when she appeared in Swift’s Netflix documentary Miss Americana. Wearing white shorts and blue nail polish, she clinked white-wine glasses with Swift as the singer-songwriter anxiously prepared to post her first political statement on Instagram. Swifties have since turned Paine into something of a meme: Online, they joke that Swift’s “Out of the Woods” lyric “the monsters turned out to be just trees” is a reference to the publicist and that a redheaded Eras Tour backup dancer is Tree-coded. They have decided that in the inevitable Paine biopic, the publicist will be played by Amy Adams, and that she will win her first Oscar for it. 

The fan obsession has been fueled, in part, by how little Paine has shared publicly about herself. Her Instagram is private. The last time she sat for an interview was 2012, when she was a VP at Warner and appeared in Nashville Lifestyles’ “Most Beautiful People” issue; she posed for a photo in front of a shiplap-covered wall wearing a peasant blouse and made the astonishing revelation that she was “trying to enjoy life.” I cannot report whether that is still true; Paine declined to be interviewed for this story. 

Born Trina Snyder, Paine grew up in Costa Mesa, California. She was still going by Trina when she was initiated into Pi Beta Phi at the University of Southern California in 1990, according to the women’s fraternity’s official publication, The Arrow. 

Like her client, Paine is a Nashville transplant. In her early career, she worked her way up at a variety of L.A. record labels—World Domination, Maverick and Interscope, whose roster included Snoop Dogg, No Doubt, Nine Inch Nails and Marilyn Manson. She launched her own guerrilla-marketing company, worked for the Academy of Country Music and eventually joined Warner Music in Tennessee. 

In 1998, she married Lance Paine, a businessman and onetime president of the Nashville candy brand Goo Goo Cluster, in Las Vegas, according to public records. (Lance also served as president of the company owned by HGTV’s Property Brothers.) The Paines have one teenage daughter, and according to the society pages, they have spent some nights mixing with locals at Nashville charity galas. 

Paine has built a fearsome reputation in media circles, closely guarding access to Swift.

But mostly, Paine works. She has built a fearsome reputation in media circles, closely guarding access to Swift and sending emails to journalists with surprising velocity whenever she disagrees with a story. “Once I started working in media, I would always hear about people getting emails from Tree Paine, or maybe, people being afraid of getting emails from Tree Paine,” says Hunter Harris, a self-described “Painiac” and the writer of the entertainment newsletter Hung Up, which regularly chronicles Paine’s engagement with the press. (Harris has also contributed to WSJ. Magazine.)

In the past 10 years, Paine has guided Swift through some of the more tumultuous moments of her career: her feud with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West; her trial accusing a former DJ of sexual assault; her battle against her former label, Scooter Braun and private-equity giants for the control of her master recordings. At almost every turn, Paine presents Swift—arguably the most famous woman on the planet, a billionaire with a private jet—as a relatable underdog fighting for her voice to be heard. 

It has, for the most part, worked. In the process, Paine has become one of the most powerful people in the entertainment industry. 

Getting any kind of journalistic access to Swift has become a fool’s errand. The star sits for few magazine interviews, and in between, Paine does her best to ensure that no information about Swift that Swift has not expressly chosen to share with the public becomes available. One magazine writer recalls the slightly fraught process of interviewing another artist on one of Swift’s stadium tours a few years ago. As a condition of the interview, the writer had to agree that anything they witnessed or discovered about Swift while spending time with the other artist before a show would be off the record. Paine was clear: No journalist is going to catch Swift in her sweatpants backstage and write about it. 

When writer Emily Kirkpatrick reached out last year to seek Swift’s comment for a profile of the actress and musician Suki Waterhouse for the fashion website Ssense, Paine surprisingly acquiesced, with the caveat that Swift’s quote be printed in full—no edits, no line breaks. (Kirkpatrick, annoyed, accepted the terms.)

This is an understandable sticking point for Paine. The Kardashian-West debacle revolved, in large part, around a truncated recording of Swift. Before the rapper released the single “Famous,” which contained lewd lyrics about Swift, they spoke by phone, where he asked her to promote the track on Twitter. For years, a snippet of the call released by Kardashian painted Swift as a liar who publicly rejected the lyrics but privately approved them. When someone released the full call online—a friendly heads-up but one in which West never shares the final lyric (“I made that bitch famous”)—Kardashian tried to save face. “To be clear, the only issue I ever had around the situation was that Taylor lied through her publicist who stated that ‘Kanye never called to ask for permission…,’ ” she tweeted. But Paine never said that exactly. She tweeted a rejoinder: “I’m Taylor’s publicist and this is my UNEDITED original statement. Btw, when you take parts out, that’s editing. P.S. who did you guys piss off to leak that video?”

The biggest year of Swift’s career has also been her most public yet. There’s the tour, the new album, the NFL boyfriend, the constant tabloid coverage of her relationship with the NFL boyfriend, the never-ending paparazzi strolls with her famous friends at sceney New York City restaurants. There have been stumbles: Swift forgot to thank Celine Dion, who presented the album of the year award, when accepting her Grammy. (A photo of the two singers hugging circulated online later.) She’s still taking heat for her private jet. She dated Matty Healy. 

But the sheer volume of information about Swift that pours, ceaselessly, out of every tabloid and news outlet from the Daily Mail to the New York Times typically washes away negative stories as soon as they are published. There are fans who speculate that Paine sent Swift to Kelce’s regular-season game against the New York Jets in October so that internet searches for “Taylor Swift jets” would return cheery images of Swift dancing in a VIP suite with Blake Lively instead of stats about CO2 emissions. 

Swift is at a point in her career, however, where she could completely disappear from view and still generate more headlines than just about any other person on earth. Scientists at Caltech and UCLA recently published research proving the existence of “Swift quakes” (seismic activity caused by fans dancing and jumping at concerts). Ancestry.com shared on social media that Swift is a sixth cousin, three times removed, of poet Emily Dickinson. The New York Post talked to experts to guesstimate how much Kelce has spent wooing Swift so far (more than $8 million, allegedly). 

If Swift released The Tortured Poets Department with zero fanfare, it would probably still hit No. 1 on the Billboard charts. But she chooses to feed the beast—with black-and-white Instagram posts, snippets of possible lyrics, a pop-up poetry library, so many vinyl editions—and, with Paine’s help, make her own news.

By Chauncey Devega

As I have previously explored in a series of conversations with cult and mind control expert Steven Hassan, Donald Trump meets most if not all the characteristics of a cult leader. Trump holds extreme power over his followers, who subsume their own identities and will to him. He persuades them to reject their own perceptions of reality and to trust only him and his approved messengers. To a large degree, they have lost the ability to engage in what psychologists describe as "reality testing."

Trump's mug shot, taken at the Fulton County jail in Atlanta last Thursday, is as an image of murderous rage and a bottomless lust for revenge. Trump has already used it to raise yet more campaign cash. In all probability, Trump's upcoming criminal trials will only make him more popular and powerful among his core followers, not less.

Like other cult movements, the MAGA phenomenon is rooted in manipulation and psychological abuse. Trump effectively exploits the death anxieties and other existential fears of his followers, presenting himself as their only protector and savior. The MAGA cult is authoritarian, preying on lonely, socially isolated and otherwise vulnerable people and providing them with a sense of order, meaning, community and destiny.

A poll conducted from Aug. 16 to 18 by CBS News/YouGov demonstrates just how firm Trump's power over his followers continues to be. A large majority of Republican voters view Trump as "honest and trustworthy," which would be hilarious if it were not deeply alarming. Furthermore, "Trump's voters hold him as a source of true information, even more so than other sources, including conservative media figures, religious leaders, and even their own friends and family." When asked who they believe tells them the truth, 71% of Trump voters picked him, more than picked friends and family members (63%), right-wing media commentators (56%) and religious leaders (only 42%).

Beyond the numbers, mental health expert Dr. Justin Frank, author of the bestseller "Trump on the Couch," perceives a tragic and pathetic human dimension to the CBS News poll, as he told me by email:

“What this poll doesn't measure or explain is the cause and effect of the profound loyalty of Trump's core supporters. It's this factor that continues to baffle pundits and call into question everything we thought we knew about American politics and the future of democracy. How did these startling figures come to be?

Trump taps into specific needs certain people have to love and to feel loved in return. People who feel they have been lied to — whether as children or adults — yearn for a person or group to trust, in which to place unwavering faith. While I think this type of blind loyalty to Trump is a delusion, it's also a common human experience. In some people it overwhelms an otherwise healthy emotional state in which most of us simultaneously understand that authority figures can be both admirable and disappointing. Televangelists are able to captivate and exploit their vulnerable audiences for this reason. It's also why cash (from many who can ill afford it) pours into Trump's coffers each time he's indicted for a new crime.

As I wrote in 'Trump on the Couch,' Donald Trump himself felt lied to by his parents, which binds him and his fan base even closer. Trump provides the kind of love they crave because he instinctively meets those unconscious needs, in part because he shares them unconsciously himself.”

Frank further suggests that Trump "invites maternal love" from many of his followers, who "are touched at a deep level by their awareness of his neediness, which endears them to him":

“In his rallies he repeats 'believe me' the way a child does when telling a lie or feeling unloved. He is quick to ... paint himself as a maligned victim. He becomes someone they want to protect from assault ... [by] sharing his sense of betrayal with his audience and psychologically merging with their own histories of having been disappointed. What evolves is an inability to differentiate oneself from the idolized other that results in an emotional bond that is deep and thrilling to share. To those outside the mystical Trump romance, this unconditional love makes no sense. We call that kind of love a cult. How can such an overt liar and accused criminal can be so admired?”

What we don't remember when we see such a cult in operation, Frank says, is that all children seek to protect "the image of their loved parents from the inevitable disbeliefs and hurts that even the best parents create":

“They do this by splitting their early experiences into good and bad, black and white. What evolves is a yearning for comfort, aided by binary thinking, from a figure who is only good, despite any evidence to the contrary.

So, here we are as a nation, confused and divided in the darkness of our deepest fears and needs. Trump offers his devoted flock a shared sense of purpose and meaning. They've been groomed to look outside for someone to safeguard their best interests and provide shared faith and support. I think it may not be possible for those diehard Trump adherents to discover that this a dangerous illusion.”

I also asked Jen Senko, director of the documentary "The Brainwashing of My Dad," about what insights she could share on the findings of the CBS News poll regarding Trump's hold over his followers. She said she found it "stupid, and maddening, that many on television 'news' seem shocked" by the poll's findings:

“Have they been living under a rock? More likely they've been living in denial because it's a lot easier than accepting the truth. ... Though many of us understand this now, too little emphasis has been put on how millions of Americans lost their minds and became right-wing zombies. It's the media, stupid! ... As someone who saw the writing on the wall decades ago and made a documentary about it in 2016, it's particularly frustrating. Too many people laughed at Rush Limbaugh. Too many people thought Fox News was a legitimate 'conservative' alternative to the 'liberal media.' Too many people didn't question the barrage of email propaganda (often put out by think tanks and disguised as homespun bits of wisdom) emphasizing over and over: Democrats bad, Democrats evil. Democrats not real Americans. Republicans are all that is good and holy.

Limbaugh was allowed to get on the Armed Forces Network. Fox News is still on it, and became the go-to news station for bus stations, airports, restaurants, bars, doctors' offices. When humans immerse themselves in false information that gets repeated, it stands to reason that millions of them become "cultified" right-wing zombies. What can be done about it, I leave to the experts. When will America acknowledge that we are in an information war? That's what worries me every day.”

Former right-wing pundit Rich Logis was immersed in TrumpWorld and the MAGA movement for years, but managed to escape. He said it was an "irrefutable fact" that MAGA had a cultlike ethos:

“I know this because I was once quite deep in the MAGA rabbit hole. Had Trump won in 2020, I probably would have gone deeper into it, with the odds of escaping close to zero.

There are two prevailing ties that bind the MAGA cult. The first is that Trump is an omniscient, omnipotent, martyred savior of America; some believe him to be sent by God. (Note that Ron DeSantis poached this heresy last year, in his re-election campaign.) Martyrdom is the final stage of cult leadership, and to those in a cult, it is the outside world who are deceived. Those in this first category are willing to see through the cult to its fiery end. The second is among those who are ... politically traumatized by their hyper-partisan, paralytic, paranoid worldview that Democrats, socialists, communists and Marxists have long conspired to tyrannically infringe upon their rights and freedoms. I knew some who fell into one, or both, categories.”

Logis suggests that Trump's voters should not be dehumanized "and had some valid motivations for supporting Trump, even though he exploited those concerns and fears":

“We must, as a nation, build a broad consensus that electing Trump was one of the most egregious mistakes in our history. Admitting when we're wrong is an unnatural act, but it is possible — and liberating. When I look back at my MAGA time, I remain stunned at the level of political trauma I put upon myself; my hope is that others will begin to recognize their own trauma, which has been, to some extent, self-inflicted.”

The only real hope for awakening or deprogramming MAGA cult members, Logis said, will come from "resounding losses of MAGA candidates next year, up and down the ballot. Though such losses will probably not 'save' most MAGA voters, it will, likely, save some — and 'some' equals millions of Americans."

Former Republican congressman Joe Walsh, now a leading never-Trumper conservative and democracy advocate, described the CBS News polls findings as "the least surprising thing ever." I conclude here with his words of warning:

“Three and a half years ago, while campaigning in Des Moines against Trump, I asked 40 people in line to enter a Trump rally if Donald Trump had ever told a lie. All 40 Trump supporters said no, Donald Trump had never told a lie. I knew then and there that my primary challenge against Trump was hopeless, but I also knew then and there that my soon-to-be-former political party was hopelessly gone too. I knew then and there what I'd sensed for the past six years: The Republican Party is a cult, an authoritarian-embracing, truth-denying cult. So what do we do about it? Well, we all come together in 2024 to defeat this anti-democracy cult. Again. That's job No. 1. But my other job is to continue to try to rescue members of the Trump cult. That's not a job for everyone, but as someone who helped create the cult and then escaped from the cult, it's my job. It's my penance.”

i looove clementine morrigan criticism because 1) her fucking canceled podcast annoys me and 2) a community leader in my area has similar politics/recommends her podcast and is very staunchly anti "cancel culture" and anti accountability, which has led to the anarchist organizing in my area to be recruitment ground for a cult and a safe place for predatory behavior (because any and all response to harm that isn't just like. talking it out and seeing things from the perpetrator's perspective is carceral, apparently)

GODDDDD yeah the fucking infuriating thing about it all is that these people say they're for openness and dialogue and acceptance of a variety of views, but only in the modes and tones that THEY personally approve of, and everything else can be phased out as "Cancelling" or "policing". I'm not a fan of cancellation campaigns because they're often really ill informed and they dont actually work even if the victim does want one, but even with these critiques in mind I believe people have the right to name their experiences, criticize public figures, voice their opinions messily at times, etc.

the hypocrisy was especially pronounced when i saw clementine making snide little posts about how unfair it was that i dont have my comment sections open. she who has repeatedly said that strangers dont have the right to just come running to your social media pages saying whatever they want to you. she wants the right to harass people but never to even be critiqued on her merits by anyone else. no wonder she loves taylor swift

Riko rant part 2 but make it even more edgy I am waiting asking and begging (and saying pretty please!)

Instead of a rant, i give you this:

something something - Good Omens aftg au

He should’ve been at the club. I cannot stress it enough how much little prince of darkness should’ve been at the club.

WHOOO that was a loaded answer and I loved every word of it OP! I am curious if you've seen the movie hereditary. I know some other post on tumblr talked about how the movie had a massive influence on Gege and it's shown pretty clearly between Megumi and Sukuna, so I was wondering if you had any input on that out of curiosity.

I've seen the movie hereditary. I think you're referring to this post about Hereditary's influence on Jujutsu Kaisen. I wouldn't put it past Jujutsu Kaisen to be inspired by other media, it's also a manga with several horror elements itself from the premise to the existence and designs of the curses.

For those who haven't seen the movie hereditary he's a quick and silly summary:

A woman buries her mother and it's heavily implied that the mother was abusive. Also she was a Satanist who didn't approve of her daughter's non-satan loving lifestyle. The mother Annie has two children Peter, and Charlie. Annie thinks her daughter Charlie is kind of annoying so she tells Charlie to go to a party with her brother and stop bothering her. At the party Charlie eats a weed brownie and has an allergic reaction to it, and so they rush her home in the car. However, Peter is speeding too fast and Charlie's sticking her head out the window so she gets instantly decapitated and dies.

Then - and this is the greatest scene in any movie ever made. Instead of calling the cops, or the hospital, or his parents Peter just drives home, parks the car in the garage, and then leaves his sister's dead body as a fun little surprise for someone to find in the morning.

After that a cult pretending to be a grief support group tricks Annie into using a ouiji board to summon Charlie's ghost back, but instead they summoned the demon Paimon, who takes over her son's body at the end of the movie.

The post I linked above posits the Megumi and Sukuna possession plotline, which has basically been the longest running arc involved with Megumi in themanga was directly inspired by the ending twist to Hereditary where Peter is made to host Paimon. Even if it's not a direct inspiration it's a pretty apt comparison. Hereditary is basically a movie about trauma being passed down through three generations until it culminates on Peter as the last link in this chain of abuse.

It's heavily implied that Grandma Satan worshipper was not a good mother, and at the beginning of the movie before tragedy even strikes Annie is completely checked out on both of her kid's lives. She's not really a mother in this family unit before the family destroying tragedy. You could say Charlie's death happens in the first place because her mother didn't want to put up with her and sent her away instead. Then after the tragedy, Annie's got a clear scapegoat to blame in Peter who caused the car accident yeah, but number one it was a pure accident, and number two he's a teen.

Grandma Mrs. Satan's poor parenting -> Annie not liking her kids -> Neglecting Charlie -> Charlie's death -> Annie scapegoating Peter for Charlie's death -> Peter is possessed by the same cult that Grandma Satan belonged to.

There's a circular quality to this grief because it's implied towards the beginning of the film while Grandma Satan didn't get along with Annie she started to connect with her daughter's children soon after Charlie was born because she saw Charlie as a prospective host for Paimon. So, it leaves the question that this might have been the plan all along, Grandma always planned to take one of the kid bodies and their mother was unable to break the cycle or interrupt grandma's plans because she was too caught up in the circle of grief too.

Ari Aster has gone on record saying the movie is about familiar trauma being passed on through generations:

I knew that I really wanted to make a film about the corrosive effects of trauma on a family unit. I knew that I wanted to make a film that had sort of an ouroboros quality about a family that’s basically eating itself in its grief. [SOURCE]

Megumi, much like Peter is the last link in a chain of trauma. I explore that concept in more depth in this post, but basically Megumi is the last link on the chain that starts with the Zen'in and Toji. Toji is rejected by his clan and basically has no family or support inside of Jujutsu Society. He flees it, finds some stability in Megumi's mother for awhile but after losing her he decides to stop caring about himself or others.

Toji then repeats the cycle. Toji is the famous sorcerer killer but in story we see him victimize several children. He kills Riko Amanai in cold blood for cold cash right in front of Geto and Gojo, the aftermath of which would affect them for years to come. He then absolutely brutalzies both Geto and Gojo who were also teenagers at the time though they were incredibly powerful ones. FInally, he also abandons his own son, sells him to the Zen'in and leaves him without a guardian or adult in his life to take care of.

The trauma that began with the Zen'in -> leads to -> Toji's actions as the sorcerer killer -> leads to -> Toji's abandonment of Megumi and Megumi having no parental figures in his life to take care of him.

Gojo is also a chain link in this cycle. His loss to Toji is something Gojo still remembers to this day, as the first and only time someone ever made him feel fear in a fight. He literally cites Megumi's resemblance to Toji as the reason that he has no problem fighting Sukuna while he's in Megumi's body.

Then, is Gojo trying to overcome this cycle of abuse by intervening in Megumi's case and making sure he wasn't sold to the Zen'in Clan?

Well, Kiiiiiiind of. It's clear is motivation is to try to save Megumi from becoming like Geto. After Geto's defection Gojo comments that being strong isn't enough to save people you have to save people who want to be saved and then goes to find Megumi early, like he's trying to intervene earlier because he regrets not being there in time with Geto.

However, this is where I say Gojo's lost to Toji gave him trauma he has yet to recover from. Ever since Gojo's awakening as "the strongest" he believes that strength is the solution to every problem. Yes, even after he had the revelation that being the strongest isn't enough to save some people. Yes, it's a contradiction. Gojo's brain is a complicated and scary place, us mere humans aren't meant to totally comprehend what goes on inside there.

Since his awakening against Toji, Gojo has always solved his problems by being the strongest, and being the strongest alone. His solution is to raise allies who will be as strong, or even stronger than him. Megumi who has the Zen'in Clan's strongest inherited technique, and one that supposedly killed a six-eyes user with the limitless in the past seems like the natural candidate.

On top of that it's clear Gojo sees a lot of himself in Megumi. They're both child prodigies born to one of the three great clans, with that clan's strongest single technique. Considering Naobito made Megumi the Clan Head in his last will and Testament, if Megumi had been raised by the Zen'in he probably would have been given a similiar childhood to Gojo's (spoiled child prodigy raised as a tool for the clan). However, Megumi is not Gojo and Gojo seems to have trouble ferreting out those differences.

Which is why we see some frustration on Gojo's end that despite the fact they have their respective clan's powerful techniques, at his second year Gojo was already a special class and well on his way to being considered the strongest while Megumi himself has a tendency to coast on his talent instead of applying himself and doesn't think it's even remotely possible for himself to get as strong as Gojo.

Gojo does not understand why Megumi doesn't "swing for the fences" the way that Gojo and Yuji does. Why he comes off as so unomotivated and fails to capitalize on any of his blessings.

However, while Gojo is able to notice the symptoms, he doesn't understand the disease or rather the cause of Megumi's behavior. The first being that Megumi is not Gojo. Gojo may find a lot of things similiar about their situations, but no matter how much Gojo tries to mold Megumi into a successor Megumi is not going to be Gojo.

That's where we get back to the connection to Hereditary. In hereditary basically the cult's grand scheme in the movie is to manipulate events to mould Peter into the next successor to Paimon, and Peter himself is not only a bit of an agenciless victim to all of their schemes as the cult progresses, but because of the failure of their mother they have no parent or adult to protect them from the cult's actions. Peter has a missing parent figure, and another figure trying to actively manipulate him until he's worn down enough to fall victim to Paimon's possession.

Not only is the story a tragedy in the genre sense, hamlet, romeo and juliet, etc. etc. but the victim Peter is agenciless in his actions like most victims in tragedies are. Everything in the world just wears him down, he has no support from adults, and no escape, he has little choice in the things that happen to him until eventually he gets his body taken away from him. HIs agency is literally stolen because he no longer can control even his own body.

Someone on reddit put this better than me:

Hereditary portrays how one might lose conscious control over his or her actions; be overwhelmed by the subconscious: possessed. It's symbolised with decapitation – a separation of mind and body. The body is what keeps the head up top and grounded upright. If they're separated, a person disorientates and loses his/her sense of up and down. Suffering without being able to interpret it is torturous and can make you want to stop trying to interpret all together. If you think of home as a person's frame of interpretation, the treehouse is where the film's themes come together:

Decapitation is a pretty common image used in the movie hereditary. Two characters die from swift decapitation. Is there a clearer symbol for loss of bodily control then having your head chopped off? Losing all five senses? Losing your ability to move your body?

Megumi is also a character who has lost control over his body and actions since Sukuna's possession of him, and the grief over loss of a sister has caused him to stop fighting for control entirely but did Megumi have a lot of control over his own life before that?

There are no adult figures who are trying to protect and care for Megumi. That was his father's job, but Toji abandoned him. Megumi and Tsumiki are essentially left to fend for themselves in the world of adults with little choices.

Megumi is given two choices, go to the Zen'in who are going to raise him to be a sorcerer, or go to Gojo who will raise him to be a sorcerer in a slightly less misogynistic environment. There's no option where Megumi gets to choose not to be a sorcerer because Gojo's "help" comes with the huge asterisk* *If you don't work as a sorcerer for jujutsu high we won't pay for your food.

Megumi was already being molded into being what someone else wanted for him to be - in this case Gojo. He was being raised as one of Gojo's allies and successors with little to no input with what Megumi wanted out of life. In the process Sukuna ends up hijacking Megumi's body and moulding Megumi to be useful for Sukuna's ambitions instead. Which is why this is so similiar to the tragedy in Hereditary it kind of feels like in traditioanl tragedy fashion Megumi has the agency of the main character of a tragedy. No matter what he does he's playing into someone's hands. So many people have plans for Megumi and how they want to use him and Megumi's just some teenage kid caught in the middle of it.

Sukuna sets up his plan for possessing Megumi at the start of the story. Megumi was taken in by Gojo and turned into a sorcerer and his tool against the elders before the start of the story. Annie's grandma always planned on putting Paimon into one of her children, and Annie doesn't figure it out until it's too late and we're already seeing the effects of her grandmother's long game plans.

So yeah, Hereditary and Jujutsu Kaisen are both about this intergenerational cycle of trauma, and how it will always affect the weakest members on the chain (children).

A lot of conservative parents (and not just the ones in the US either) seem to be aware that their own worldview is weak and does not stand up to scrutiny and an analysis of the evidence.

So they focus on isolating their children and shielding them from outside opinions so that any information they get on a topic gets filtered by their approval.

Ironically, they sometimes say that this level of control is an effort to avoid indoctrination but from the outside it's clearly just indoctrination by the parents.

Parents very often say this garbage very openly and shamelessly too. For example, many parents worried about "rapid onset gender dysphoria" will advise each other on completely isolating their children from their friends and social media and then either homeschooling them or putting them in conservative christian schools.

And there's even christian parenting books like the Battle of Peer Dependency, which say things like:

“A child having an independent social life is a cultural phenomenon that has become an accepted practice in Christian homes, resulting in the decay and impotency of the modern Christian family.”

...

“Once I entered the battle with peer dependency, a new and different kind of fear gripped my heart. Seeing my children being drawn to the things of this world, I feared that they might never let Christ be the Lord of their lives.”

...

“Some may think that being peer dependent is not such a bad thing….however, Scripture is clear that it is a very big deal to God. In fact, if is God’s desire for the father to have his children’s hearts, because in the last days, if they don’t, He will smite the earth with a curse.”

The idea being that if you let your child have friends then parents and the church may not have complete control over them, which is bad. This whole christian homeschooling thing is about turning families into small cults with the parents on top. Any social connection that might lead to freedom must be purged.

Hi! I've just read There Are Many Benefits To Being A Banite Minion and really enjoyed your interpretation of the Church of Bane.

Do you have anymore hc about the church that you'd be willing to share? Another mutual and I were talking today about how the church recruits new members so would love to hear your thoughts on that!

BIG INHALE

Hi Crystal!!! Welcome to my girlblog, you have unlocked my TED Talk. I fucking love lorecrafting and I am delighted to talk your ear off.

So I always do an embarrassing amount of research into one-line throwaways, but this sentence is incredibly load-bearing:

And as your watchful brothers and sisters close in around you, whispering their approval, you understand suddenly how cults pull people in with such efficacy.

There’s a ton of excellent articles I read which are locked behind a JSTOR subscription from back issues of sociology magazines. These went into great depth about the espoused beliefs of new age religions and cults and which parts of the human psyche these target. At the end of the day the common points are these:

Lobster in cookpot socialization: recruits will hear the least threatening version of an organization’s beliefs first. They will be welcomed with open arms and effusive lovebombing so that it feels good, feels rewarding, feels that you are part of something greater and grander than mundane life.

Carrot/stick emotional manipulation: Recruits are then made to feel guilt over actions which would go against the organization’s goals, and are praised over things which adhere to those strictures. Over time they then subconsciously gravitate to doing things which elicit the carrot, and again, make them feel good.

Control of environment and information: As the recruit is slowly boiled with increasing adherence to the organization’s will, you slap the lid on. An Us Versus Them mentality is the backbone of any good propaganda, and the organization then fosters distrust in media, in one’s friends and family, in those who just aren’t part of the organization. A sense of superiority follows here, and then you have a fresh new minion.

If this sounds familiar, it should!! You are not immune to propaganda. This is how a lot of manipulations built on belief work. State the belief. Push the belief. Make the belief the only thing worth believing. Keep the believer forever.

In 5E, Bane’s portfolio of divine influence shifts from earlier editions to “ambition, control, tyranny.” I’ve chosen to honor those in that order. Ambition first, control to achieve its end, and if that doesn’t suffice, tyranny. Might is right. Slytherinesque manipulations and power plays abound, because after the whole thing with Cyric, Bane learned that if your recruits all kill each other to rise in the ranks, soon you won’t have any recruits. Whoops. Killing is only for outsiders.

So then in my mind, recruiting for the Church of Bane works like this:

“Hey I see you’re struggling with meeting life’s basic needs. Can I interest you in a bit of mercenary work? There’s an asshole who kicks cats and owes a widow money or something and I’m trying to track him down.”

“Oh good job beating up those scoundrels, you really helped [insert name of downtrodden old widow]. Hey, if you ever need spare coin again and aren’t averse to a bit of fisticuffs, you can find me here.”

“Oh wow it’s you! Good to see you again! Here for more work? The weather’s sweltering today, I’ve got a nice surveillance mission so we can sip on chilled tea and take notes while we catch up.”

“Oh, you can’t write our Faerûnian language? Our order teaches our recruits everything. Hey, if you’re down to make more of a commitment than that of a mercenary, I’ll sponsor you and you’ll get three hots and a cot out of us.”

[banite training montage] let’s get down to business to defeat the cyricists and other enemies of our order

“Oh hey you killed a man but it was in self-defense! Hey don’t worry you aren’t damned for that in the eyes of OUR god haha… wink wonk…”

“Oh wow it turns out that those people you killed were just the personal enemies of one of our members, but hey, they were bad people yanno?”

“Oh we are just killing people for personal power of our superiors, but that’s fine isn’t it? After all, you’ve been doing the same thing, hurting people just to eat something better than the slop they serve at the poorhouse. And look what all you’ve learned and gained at our hands. If you hate it, rise up in the ranks, rule over your lessers, and make our mission what YOU want it to be.”

???

Profit. Which in this case is “kiss Enver Gortash.”

Could I get a eddie x f! Reader where he discovers she likes Abba, he’s sneaking in through her window as he does because her parents don’t approve of him and hears her singing along to Abba, he stifles his laughter before he falls into the room.

Thank you, your work is *chefs kiss*

I'm glad you like it! I can absolutely do that lol we love Abba in this household♡

𝕬𝖓𝖌𝖊𝖑 𝕰𝖞𝖊𝖘

pairing: Eddie Munson x female!reader

synopsis: Eddie Munson sneaking into your bedroom to find you jamming out to some Abba!

warnings: none! Just Eddie being Eddie and some fluff.

word count: 1633

If you'd like to be added to the tag list please check out [this post]

Eddie Munson, local bad boy and town pariah to a not so mild extent. He was the sort of boy parents warned their children about, the kind of guy you were told to stay far away from and your parents were no exception. Everyone was so quick to judge a man they didn't even know simply because he looked different. Now, you were no Bible thumping hard-core catholic but you didn't exactly fit the stereotype of someone who would be caught hanging out with the brown eyed metalhead. You were average, or so you thought. You wore things you found comfortable, what you liked, no matter what anyone else had to say. You weren't outspoken, but you weren't afraid to stand up for the things you believed in and that's how you and Eddie had met. It had been your senior year, hearing Carver talk to some of his boys about how Hellfire was a satanic cult that sacrifices animals. You, having heard the same bullshit for the past year and a half, had gotten sick of it.

Eddie had been watching, having overheard the jock from a few tables away and to his own surprise you marched right up.. tapped the man on his shoulder- and when he turned around you absolutely fuckin laid it on him going on about how it was just a fantasy game that people enjoyed and that maybe if he pulled his head out of his daddy's ass he'd realize the media propaganda was all false and they used scare tactics to try and start a witch hunt for people like Eddie and Hellfire. Jason just sat there bug eyed and in shock, the man was too stunned to speak as you walked away hands still on your hips. Thats the moment he knew he had to have you. He had scrambled out of his seat, rushing over to you just as you were about to start eating. Without hesitation he plucked the sandwich out of your hands, set it down, and asked you out on a date. You declined, but the man was determined and after a few weeks of denying him you folded. Turns out the metalhead and you had a lot more in common than you thought, and you became Hawkins' weirdest couple.

Your parents were absolutely appalled, well your father was- your mother had somewhat of a better head on her shoulders and at least tried to get to know Eddie. He wasn't the best with parents, but your mom thought he was sweet in his own unique way. It wasn't enough to sway your father however and a strict curfew was set in order. You weren't allowed to go to his trailer unless his uncle was home, and he wasn't to come over to your house unless your father was home and when he was over the door was to be cracked no less than three inches until he left. Oh, and he had to leave by 6pm. The rules weren't optimal but hey at least they were allowing you to continue seeing him right? Well, Eddie wasn't one to follow rules and very quickly the nightly visits began. He would always crawl through your second story window at around 9pm when he knew your parents were asleep, stay the night, and crawl back out before 7am when your dad woke up for work.

Tonight had been no exception, but there was a slight twist.. it was 6pm. You hadn't been expecting him for three more hours, fresh out of the shower with your hair wrapped up in a towel and your comfy clothes on which consisted of a pair of shorts and one of Eddie's Dio shirts. It fit you like a dress but you absolutely loved wearing it and he loved seeing you in it. Music was blasting over your speakers, both of your parents had gone on a weekend trip to the next town over wanting to spend some time with a handful of their friends. You had promised them 'No Eddie' while they were away but hey you were an adult and you could make your own decisions.. plus your mother had already predicted he would be at the house anyways and being the Saint she is told you to both help yourselves to the beer in the fridge while your father was packing up the car.

Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! Was blasting at top volume as you swayed your hips, feet shuffling around and arms waving as you danced your heart out to one of your favorite songs belting out the lyrics unaware of the presence at your window. He had been perched halfway through the opening for only a few seconds, but he had heard your singing from the street and not wanting to miss the performance of a lifetime he made quick work of scaling the side of your house to watch you. Carefully he crawled through, eyes never leaving your form as he slipped into your room and just leaned against the empty wall beside your open window- he did have to stiffle a bit of laughter though as you danced around entirely unaware of his presence. "Gimme gimme gimme a man after midnight- won't somebody help me chase the shadows away~" you sang, spinning around with your hairbrush in your hand acting as a makeshift microphone only to come face to face with your mischievous boyfriend. He had his arms crossed over his chest and he was adorned in a pair of tattered black jeans, his usual shoes, and a motley crue shirt that had been cut into a muscle tank top. He was already smirking down at you as your dancing screeched to a halt and you froze on the spot, dropping the hairbrush as your face flushed a deep shade of crimson. His smirk only widened as he watched the object fall with a resounding thud against your carpeted floor. "Oh- don't stop on my account sweetheart." He chuckled, pushing off the wall to approach you. Large hands slid over your hips as he leaned down to press a kiss against your forehead. "Eds!" You whined, squirming slightly in his grip as you swatted at his chest. "YOU- are very early." With a pout you stared up at him, the song on the mixtape switching to Angeleyes and he just chuckled and shook his head. "Yknow I'm not surprised you're an Abba fan-" with a jolt he began to dance, hands still on your hips as he swayed haphazardly to the music dragging you along with him. You just giggled and squealed, hands flying up to grip his shoulders to keep yourself from toppling over as the two of you danced. It was sloppy, off beat- but undeniably on brand for the curly haired man. He just grinned down at you, eyes creasing and God was he beautiful when he just let go like this. He spun you around, a shout escaping you as he quickly dipped you and pulled you back up. This definitely wasn't the song for this sort of dancing but you couldn't be bothered to care, tossing your arms back around him as you both finally settled into a good rhythm. "Do I have angel eyes?" His smile widened a fraction as he stared down at you, wiggling his brow as he pinched your hips. "Yes Eddie- yes you do."

"Do yoouuuu think about me when you're lonely?" He spun you again, head now cocked to the side. "Yes Eds- I think about you all the time." He mumbled a soft 'hmm' bringing one hand up to rest against your forehead. "Well I have some good news and some bad news." As the song came to an end you both stopped swaying simply enjoying being so close to one another as you played with the long strands of hair at the nape of his neck. "What's the prognosis doc? Am I gonna live." Again he chuckled, moving his hand to pluck the towel carefully from atop your head allowing your hair to fall and frame your face as he tossed it to the side. "Well, y/n, you'll certainly live a long life- but I think you've fallen in love. Do you deny it?" He arched a brow, brushing away a few strands of hair that had fallen in front of your face. "Well doc, there is this boy with big brown eyes.. he can play guitar, and I get butterflies in my stomach every time he looks at me even though we've been together for over a year now.. but I don't deny it. I do love him."

"So you love me?" He questioned, already knowing your answer. "Of course, I love you Eddie Munson." You just grinned up at him and he returned it, bending to give you gentile Eskimo kisses while his hand cupped your cheek. "I love you too y/n" slowly he leaned forwards to give you a kiss but you blocked him with your index finger. "Hold on doc you never told me the bad news." Eddie's grin slipped into a lopsided smirk as he pulled his head away slightly. "Your taste in music is shit-"

"EDDIE!" You just laughed, hitting him in the chest and he stumbled back gripping it like you had stuck a knife through his heart. "Oh fuck she got me- IVE BEEN HIT! MAN DOWN!" He grabbed your hand as he fell backwards onto your bed tugging you on top of him as he wrapped his arms around you to cage you in place. "I know you like Abba!" You squirmed, lazily fighting his grip for a few seconds before relaxing into him. "Oh yeah? That so?" Now it was your turn to smirk down at him, cocking your head to the side. "You knew the lyrics to Angeleyes Eds" He sputtered, wide brown eyes staring up at you for a second as you just laughed at him. He hadn't been a huge fan of Abba before, but he certainly was now.

authors notes: ngl this was my favorite fic to write and I hope you enjoyed it ^^ something about dancing around all silly with Eddie just hits different.

I have so many things to say about the "clarification" of the FIA's policies, religious and personal statement ban.

Whoever drafted the wording should be fired because this sentence that says drivers can "express their views on any political, religious or personal matter before, during and after the international competition, in their own space and outside of the scope of the international competition" is the most vague shit I've ever read. They claim that drivers' spaces include social media and press conferences, but social media isn't a space (it's a platform), and press conferences aren't owned by the drivers but I digress.

Drivers are not allowed to do anything that will compromise the FIA's stance on neutrality which is defined as any and all proselytizing gestures, clothing, speech etc without approval (which should be requested 4 weeks in advance). They said Lewis' rainbow helmet would qualify but not, for instance, Pierre's symbol of the cross before a race. This is where things start to get messy. If a rainbow on Lewis' helmet can convert people to queerness, why doesn't the FIA think Pierre's gesture can convert people to Catholicism? People have joined cults for far less. Do they not think that people could switch religions if they are influenced by their favorite, good-looking celebrity expressing their belief in God? Because I hate to break it to them but Scientology, Hillsong church, and Jared Leto's cult are prime examples of that. They may not view Pierre's cross gesture as proselytizing but that's only because they've never watched Fleabag. Anything can be proselytizing and I mean anything.

What happens if Lewis, in a feat of malicious compliance, does request to wear his rainbow helmet 4 weeks in advance for Qatar? They have put themselves in a position to be fucked if they let him wear it and fucked if they don't. They can have fun trying to parse their way through that backlash.

What happens in the event of an emergency on track. Let's say, GOD FORBID, a driver or personnel gets hurt or dies due to conditions on track or related to the FIA's governing. Are they gonna have to wait 4 weeks to express that? What if their message isn't approved because they were critical of the FIA or the specific country's national motorsport organization? They're just supposed to pretend like they support the FIA? Lol ok.

Their decision is in direct contradiction to the wants on Formula 1. Domenicali literally stated that last week, and instead of backing off, MBS decided to double down and have a dick measuring contest. He chose to strain the relationship further at a point when F1 is literally having its moment on the world's stage. They have never been more eyes on the sport and specifically on the drivers than ever before, and instead of capitalizing on that, they're deciding to muzzle them. Let's see how that strategy pans out longterm.