#dissent
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still thinking about crowley's fall.
That one quote, more specifically. "How much trouble can I get into just for asking a few questions?"
It's very possible I'm overthinking it. But it still reminds me so much of art and censorship, I wrote a poem on it just now, and I just wanted to elaborate on that, on why I said that an answer is judgement but a question is justice.
Back in Ancient Greece, Plato tried to outlaw writers, the storytellers. For millennia, those in power have feared people in arts, because we're not just dealers in aesthetics, we're dealers in ideas. Even in times of war, poverty, censorship, songs were sung, paperbacks exchanged in dark alleyways, stories whispered and walls covered with graffiti.
When stories are created, the writers have to balance both opposing ideas in their head, no matter how vile or repugnant. To prove that the protagonist is strong, you can't have a weak antagonist. The opposing idea has to be as strong as the one that will win for the victory to be meaningful.
Art, and stories, aren't about being right. People say we find answers in art, and maybe for some that's true, but I think what is infinitely more important are the questions it raises.
Because what is braver, what is more shattering to the status quo, than to question it? To dare to ask what if, to present an alternative, to pull an idea up to the witness stand and cross-examine it?
That's why when we see censorship, we need to look deeper. Because if an idea is truly that 'right', it will survive even the most intense of questioning, and even sceptics will have to accept its veracity. Why, then, are people so afraid of stories that question? Maybe it is because deep down, they aren't convinced themselves. They don't believe that their idea will survive the cross-examination. They are trying to keep a lie in power over the truth.
And art isn't about finding that elusive truth, it's about daring to look the lies in their face and say, maybe, maybe you're wrong. I don't know, you don't know, nobody may ever know, but maybe.
Like the Serpent of Eden, whispering, presenting that alternative of dissent to Eve. Not coercing. Not forcing her hand. But telling her that there is an alternative, whether good or bad.
That's why the writers, the artists, the musicians, those from every walk of the arts, are journalists interviewing society. We cannot allow ourselves to be silenced.
It's not about the answers offered, and whether someone agrees with them or not. It's about the questions, and if people fear the questions, maybe think about why that is.
#good omens mascot#good omens#good omens fandom#weirdly specific but ok#asmi#crowley#neil gaiman#maggots#censorship#free speech#oppression#journalist#art#writing#thoughts about art#storytelling#serpent of eden#dissent#asking questions#dare to question things#okay?#don't stop asking questions#fall of man#adam and eve#ineffable fandom#ineffable demon
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By Hamza Howidy
I was born in Gaza Strip in the late 1990s, one of six children. At the time, the Palestinian Authority was the ruling party. My father, like most people in Gaza, was sick of the PA's corruption and was waiting for any alternative. Hamas promised "change and reform" and they won the Palestinian Legislative Council elections in 2006. One year later, I awoke to the sound of gunfire. Hamas gunmen were fighting Fatah, and they ended up killing of more than 600 Palestinians. It became clear very quickly that Hamas was not the "change and reform" that we hoped for.
To silence dissent, Hamas terrorized the citizens of Gaza. On the way to the Dar-Alarqam school I attended in the al-Shujaiya neighborhood near the Israeli border, a group of masked men carrying Kalashnikovs would check each car. At the end of the year, masked men opened offices in our school to promote Hamas's military camps and register students.
I graduated and began my studies at the Islamic University of Gaza, along with future Hamas leaders and current members. All art classes were replaced with radical Islamic teachings, and the elections of the student councils and clubs were only open to Hamas members, who hoarded all the privileges and distributed all the grants between themselves.
Voicing dissent was not an option. Hamas has a no tolerance policy for criticism or objections to any of its policies. Even discussion is forbidden Any journalist who objects or criticizes a policy is suspended and investigated. Demonstrations are strictly prohibited. Freedom of speech in Gaza is a fantasy. The dirtiest tool Hamas uses to silence citizens is character assassination through online campaigns accusing dissenters of working for hostile bodies or committing immoral acts. Hamas also routinely breaks into the homes of people deemed disloyal and humiliates them in front of their family and neighbors.
I observed all this with growing horror as a student. And as Hamas's oppression of the Palestinian citizens of Gaza increased, the quality of life deteriorated. Hamas's aggression toward Israel resulted in fewer and fewer job permits and limits on the electricity in Gaza, which we only got for eight hours a day. The economy cratered. Social and economic conditions collapsed.
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It's also a good sign that you're the ruling overclass, not the underdogs.
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Shepard Fairey, My Florist Is a Dick (2019)
A review of Facing the Giant: 3 Decades of Dissent at Mesa Contemporary Arts Museum
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“We need leaders and not followers, but the leaders are now cancelled, deplatformed, and silenced to protect the interests of the herd.”
(From my blog archive)
#leadership#democracy#free speech#censorship#cancel culture#extremism#debate and dissent#dissent#dissent is patriotic#do not comply#save america
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I have approximately 0% of my normal brushes right now but you know that feeling when you're on your phone at night and even the lowest brightness is starting to feel obnoxious, but you're still on your phone regardless?
#art#art tag#oc#tf oc#dissent#like for visibility reasons i need mine to be full brightness all day#this has lead to in hindsight funny incidents#This is about more than that but I just needed to draw n my art phone is still in the rice
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[In protest of Banned books (and censorship in general) I’ll be posting banned books that I have or enjoyed and books about the dangers of censorship.]
The classic: 1984 by George Orwell
Needs no summary, besides this may be one of the most important books a person reads in their lifetime regarding the past and future. In a dystopian setting where Ministry of Truth edits the past to exalt the governing powers, censorship at every level and the inherent dangers of full scale surveillance. Bereft of privacy and freedom, citizens face only one way to live: be controlled and comply.
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"If a religion suggests that the followers have any rights over a dissenter, that is precisely why that religion must be denigrated and denied."
-- John Hartmann
Your religion and its rules apply to you, not us.
#John Hartmann#dissent#apostasy#blasphemy#ridicule of religion#ridicule#criticism of religion#mockery of religion#mockery#religion#religious authoritarianism#religion is a mental illness
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There will be not more virtuous people than all the others, never, which is the reason we are all governed by several people they're totally corrupt. Now this powerful "elite" is just the 1% of the human being of this planet but they possess 1000000 times the resources of each one of the opposite 99% summed together.
This is the "original one" of all human crimes.
Today the rich no longer needs the poors to enslave, at least not all of them, because today there are the best machines ever and they make their job well than all the people can do it. Machine does not need to be pay for life. Machine does not protest. And then the people are becoming to be obsolete…
#anticapitalism#anarchocommunism#no war#poverty#new world order#transhumanism#government corruption#mind corruption#protest#dissent#resistance
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The passion of Palestine
#Israel#US#complicity#Gaza#genocide#dissent#protests#politics#Zionism#Palestine solidarity#military#Ann Wright
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Daily Sermon #53
I see my interaction rate has gone down significantly...
No more asks, no comments, no confession booth messages, hardly any reblogs and my sermons reaching only around 5 notes?
So what's the issue? What's caused this?
It seems none of you care to stick around until I can build my cult in the real world. No one seems to care about dedicating their lives to a worthy cause in a place where everything is taken care of for them.
Of course, I will build up this cult anyway. It'll be easier in real life.
There used to be so many asks coming in I could hardly keep up. Devoted followers who listened to me. And now what, people just glance at these sermons?
Can't even be bothered to pray to the Red Crown?
Lamb will not stand for this utter disrespect.
Well, I did regain a very miniscule part of my divine power. So, to teach you all a lesson, I'm going to set a small curse upon you and put you on a ritual fast.
I did not raise you to be bloody dissenters.
Ritual of the Day:
Fast
"Followers will not need to eat for 3 days."
#cotl#cult of the lamb#cotl lamb#cult leader#sermon#ritual#followers#dissent#the red crown#gospel of the red crown#god of death#holy lamb#lamb of prophecy#/srs
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