I really want to write my own story but I am so afraid of antis. Todays people are horrible and they compare fiction with reality.... I am really scared they would find my story and start to send me death threats since my story is really REALLY dark. What should an author do if this happens? I know ignorance is a bliss but I don't think that I would be able to ignore it for so long. Sorry for my ask and thank you, Pia.

Hi anon,

There's a few things going on here.

Firstly, have you noticed that you speak in some absolutes that just aren't true? Saying 'Today's people are horrible' is just...not true. While it's definitely true that antis exist, the vast majority - the absolute vast majority - of readers and folks who interact with stories out there, aren't antis, and don't think fiction is the same as reality.

If you're telling yourself things like 'today's people are horrible' you're not giving yourself a chance to tell yourself things like 'there will be people who want to read this' and 'most people just won't read this if they don't feel like it' and 'most people do understand the difference between fiction and reality.' It's really hard to encourage yourself to share what you're writing if you imagine the world to be more falsely mean-spirited than it is.

Secondly, I don't know why your fic is so dark (i.e. I don't know if it's like a 'regular' amount of dark that's found in dark fics on AO3), there are ways to mitigate the anti response. Write under an account name that's not associated with any of your social media accounts. Make a separate email address and a separate account, and then make sure you set your fic to comment moderation.

You may still get flak from antis, but no one else will see it, and you aren't in any other way contactable on your main platforms, and you can just focus on approving the comments that support the fic. Most antis starve without internet oxygen, i.e. they go elsewhere after a while of trying to spew invective if no one else can see it. (Antis try to start shit with me via anon way more often than anyone truly knows, but once their asks get immediately deleted (and they get blocked), they almost always vanish after the first ask).

You can write it and not publish it, or choose to wait until AO3 introduces the ability to block users (this is eventually coming) so that you can block anyone who harasses you.

If you do get death threats, and you're really worried about it, then I can't tell you to 'write the fic anyway.' Antis have definitely stopped some people from writing fic, and caused others to sadly delete their fics (please always orphan, folks!), and I can't like, tell you to not be affected by things like that since obviously people are, because targeted bullying is harmful and it sucks. I don't know what kind of person you are, or whether you'd need professional or friend support to get through that, etc.

I'm pretty much teflon when it comes to antis, because I know the science re: fiction and media and reality (esp. when it comes to violence and sexualised violence). But not everyone is the same. And if you're someone who really believes that all of today's people are horrible, or doesn't believe that people will find your fic who like it (and honestly with some of the most extreme fics I've stumbled across, there are still people who kudos and comment on the fic if they find it well-written / it speaks to them), you might not be in a good space to encounter a minority of people who are horrible, it might feed into the untrue / irrational absolutism that all of today's people are horrible, and like, that...would not be great.

But yeah either way I'd definitely suggest starting a new account not connected to your pre-existing social media or other AO3 account. It takes 5 seconds to make a new gmail account, and about 2 minutes to link it to your pre-existing gmail account so you can get emails from it there. This is what I did with my 'thespectaclesofthor' account - though for different reasons - I made an account that had, for maybe a year, zero connections to my not_poignant account.

You can even post a 'test fic' with some of the content you write and see what happens. If the response is too intense or you don't like it, you can actually turn comments off that fic and then antis have literally no way of contacting you in that context ever again.

Things are more complicated if you write a really dark / extreme fic attached to all of your main accounts and your public identity (let's face it, the folks writing '3 year old Mob gets raped and/or tortured by Reigen' are not normally doing it under any username that's connected to their real identity or their main Twitter/Tumblr accounts etc). The fact is, most antis do actually stop being little assholes after a while and find someone new to target, but some don't. I've been lucky so far that I'm not regularly harassed, but other people are.

And you have to ask yourself if you're writing the kind of fic that will make even people who aren't antis not like the fic. Like, if you're just torturing and murdering a cast of beloved characters, pretty much not many fans in the fandom are going to enjoy that (though some still probably will), especially if you're doing it from a spiteful place - and then you have to ask yourself what you want to get out of publishing it. I.e. Do you want to upset people? Do you want people to feel uncomfortable, awful, or miserable? Are you prepared for the kinds of comments those people leave? Because those folks aren't antis at all, but people speaking through an emotional response can leave very strongly worded, even cruel comments - some people will just try and immaturely inflict the hurt on you, that you gave to them - are you prepared for that too if that's the kind of extreme content you're writing? (The best response to something like that is 'you saw the tags and warnings! Maybe avoid fics like this in the future' - neutral, and a reminder that they're responsible for themselves.)

Anyway as you can see, different types of 'extreme' can create different responses. I have no idea what you're writing! Not all 'extreme content' is built the same. But tl;dr - a separate AO3 account and using it to 'test' the platform with the kind of content you want to write can be a good way of seeing how you respond to the experience. Always, always make sure you tag and warn appropriately - over-warn even - for extreme content, and it can help to place a disclaimer in the author's notes to additionally warn people that if they don't like what they read, it's on them.

I hope you find a way through that works for you, anon!

I'd love to ask about '03 Rachel/Faith notes, backstory, past Faiths, Bliss Mechanics, Tracey, etc' and 'Redshift Collision', if that's okay! 👀

Oo, fun choices! :D Thank you for asking!! ♥ Putting it below the cut, also trigger warnings for mentions of child abuse, drug use, dark backstories, in line with or inspired by Far Cry 5 canonical content. Trigger warnings for Redshift Collision include mentioned fantasy religious content, topic of euthanasia mentioned, magical diseases, etc. Long post is long, I hope the read is enjoyable though!! :0

————— 03 Rachel/Faith notes, backstory, past Faiths, Bliss Mechanics, Tracey, etc ————— So this folder breaks down into a dozen docs with split up notes, we’ll touch briefly on a bit from most of if not all of them, but the list is as follows:

01 Faith Character Notes, NPC Followers

02 Rachel Jessop’s Backstory for ACABH

03 Deaths of the Former Faiths Prior to Rachel, Some Bliss Mechanics

04 Tracey Lader Backstory Notes for ACABH

05 Types of Bliss Drug

06 Bliss Dart Mechanic Notes

07 Faith NPC compilation links

08 Overarching Bliss Realm Mechanics

09 Priestess pictures for Athalia - refs, tattoos, etc

10 Jacob’s Men talking about Bliss Shipment Amounts for Various REgions, Bliss Barrel capacity

11 Faith’s character arc, [Redacted for spoilers] - Major Plot Developments for All Main Characters

12 Angels versus Lost Souls

So, fun tidbits from these various docs! Some are implicitly dark because Faith is a Seed and Seeds don’t get to have happy, fun backgrounds in cult-centric AUs like ACABH, poor souls. The first Angel that Faith ever made, and the first ever Angel of the Project, was a woman named Abigail. It was an accident. Researched the first and last (and alternate) names for both Rachel Jessop, Faith, and Tracey Lader. Fun stuff honestly, Tracey’s is very fitting in that one definition of the name is taken from the Irish word "treasach" meaning "war-like" or "fighter." Lader is from Old English and Middle English words meaning to load; draw up (water specifically.) Rachel is as far as biblical names go, the name of the favorite wife of Jacob, and means “ewe” as in a female sheep. Fitting in a metaphorical sacrificial lamb way, if one chooses to look at it like that, among other sheep-like metaphors such as following the herd, etc. Rachel’s father was a doctor who researched the biochemistry of various plant  based compounds that he extracted from specimens he grew at home in controlled conditions. Her mother ran a florist shop and delivery chain, and grew orchids in the green house as a past time. Rachel was passionate about the sciences when she was young, but neither parent looked upon this favorably for various (toxic and abusive) reasons, leading Rachel to become far more withdrawn and reclusive about her passions and activities—in as much as she could manage, beneath her parents’ ironclad rule. Rachel in the present day still is passionate about biology (specifically botany) and biochemistry, but keeps that to herself unless she really happens to trust the other person. There was a brief time when she was a more rebellious and spirited young girl—but her parents quickly stamped that out through any means necessary, including force. It is a major reason as to why Rachel is so conflict avoidant: she remembers how badly it can go, how quickly it can escalate, and she is so very aware of the inherent fragility of both life and limb. There are quite a few conflicting points-of-view regarding the deaths of Rachel’s predecessors, and a great deal of misinformation. Rachel believes that the Seeds aren’t being entirely forthcoming with her about how their own abilities work and the limits of said abilities, and that there’s a lot of secrets not being told regarding the details of how the two former Faiths died. Selena was the first Faith, chosen while the Project was still in its infancy, long before they had made it to Hope County, and Joseph was so sure she’d be the prophesied fourth Herald to help shepherd the faithful through the Collapse. Lana was the second, stepping up to fill the role when Selena died—but Lana died two months later, with both Faiths’ deaths serving as markers of the dangers of the then proto-Bliss-realm. Rachel had been at the Project for half a year at that point, and was the one who took up the mantle of Faith and has served ever since for the past seven years. She was eighteen when she took up the name Faith, but despite her young age had marked accomplishments to her name that had put her forward as a candidate, namely her works with the geneticist Peter on developing the first strains of the drug that would later come to be called the Bliss. This lead to huge leaps and bounds of development with regards to the psychic network that would become the Bliss Realm, and without Rachel’s work, it would be safe to say the Bliss both in drug and psychic plane form, would likely not exist. Jessop as a name is potentially from a root name of Joseph in the form of Yosef, meaning “may God increase, or add (another son)” which ties into Rachel’s family’s thwarted desire for a son rather than a daughter very well in this AU. Thematically, Rachel does arguably share ideology from both Jacob and Joseph, so in a way that is also extremely apropos for her. Ah, Tracey. She did not come from a happy home life either—but that doesn’t surprise anyone in the slightest I think. Her father left her mother the moment he found out she was pregnant, and that’s all Tracey knows and wants to know of him. Her mother worked hard to support them but was absent most of the time, leaving Tracey with relatives to keep an eye on her. Said relatives were very shitty in their treatment of her, leading to a whole host of problems for Tracey to deal with growing up, ranging from neglect to verbal and emotional abuse. This is a cluster of reasons among others that lead to Tracey learning to look out for herself—and to stick up for those who couldn’t look after themselves. She and Rachel met in high school, and they were each other’s first real meaningful friend. It was when they were together that they first thought of the possibility of a better life than all the horror and terribleness they had to live through so far in their very young lives. They were so sure they’d be friends forever...until they weren’t. As of writing this, there are currently six major strains of the drug bliss in ACABH, including Regular Bliss, Sleeper’s Bliss, The Chosen’s Sacrement, The Angels’ Bliss, Cleanser Bliss, and Red Bliss. Variant strains within those major categories also exist as it’s an on-going series of projects for Faith and her followers, with varying levels of involvement from other Heralds, regions, etc. Red Bliss is specific to Jacob’s region and is used in both the Judgification process and the Trials. The others are all largely self explanatory for the most part, or explained or will be explained in the fic. Bliss darts! These are what John’s hunters use, same substrain of Sleeper Bliss that Jacob’s hunters and Faith’s followers use in the form of Bliss arrows and Bliss grenades (think like smoke grenades) to capture non-Project-members too, alongside their attempts to capture the Deputy. Joshua still has a nice stash of them at this point, so the whole family’s in on this. Commonly used even in the Project’s rank and file to subdue kidnapped targets. People can die permanently if they suffer sufficient psychic injury or psychic death in the Bliss in general, but that’s not a guarantee. If some form of psychic death is induced while the person is in the Bliss, it’s possible with immediate medical response to potentially resuscitate said person. Some people can “die” in the Bliss without problem though, aside from likely waking up in a panic as if from a very stressful nightmare. Most people can’t without being connected to the private Bliss network in Jacob’s region—Jacob’s is specifically split off from the rest of the Bliss Realm through the exclusive use of Red Bliss, though Faith and her priestesses could in theory cross over and connect to Jacob’s network, they generally do not. It is easier for Jacob’s people to cross over to the main Bliss network than it is for other rank and file or even Chosen that belong to other Heralds to enter the Red Bliss network if they are not induced into it through drug use. The Heralds have a much easier time of it, but it’s still difficult—Faith and Joseph have abilities that allow easier passage for it among other things, whereas John would struggle more with it sans other additional factors to help said effort along. Athalia was originally one of John’s people before she transferred to help support the previous Faiths, and Rachel retained her as Head Priestess from early on, striking up something like a friendship over time. Some of Athalia’s loyalties may still lie with her old Herald though moreso than her chosen Herald, certainly some of her outlook mirrors John’s dogma moreso than Faith’s, though Athalia keeps that underwraps more often than not. They have a SHIT TON of bliss being shipped around to the different regions. They have to have one hell of an industry for making the stuff to keep up with that scale, depending on what the chemical makeup and ratios are. The doc regarding the plotting of Faith’s arc is all spoilers, so we’re skipping any mention of it here. Angels are different from what the Project calls Lost Souls due to the fact that Angels aren’t 100% disconnected from their bodies and lost in the Bliss Realm, they’re still distantly connected to their corporeal forms in reality, just busy enjoying the Bliss high trip and for the most part uninterested in returning to the real world...for the most part. A minor part of the job for Faith’s people is to ensure that the Angels don’t wander too far in the Bliss realm, or else they’ll become Lost Souls and if gone too far for too long (average length of time spent too far required to become a Lost Soul is a little over a week), this separation can induce major multiple organ failure, including cardiac arrest. It is possible to revive a Lost Soul, much like with reviving someone who died a Bliss-plane death, but it requires that the person’s soul in the Bliss Realm be found and brought back immediately, to sustain the body without extensive external life support systems. Even then, brain death has been known to happen. What counts as “too far” varies from person to person, but the general rule of thumb is within shouting distance—namely, having the Angel’s psychic form in the Bliss Realm’s counterpart of the real world being within shouting distance of where the Angel’s physical body is in the waking world. Brief bouts of separation have not been noted to cause harm to Angels, so it’s fairly lax as duties go to shepherd their souls about and is often tasked to lower ranking Priestesses on the day to day basis. ————— Redshift Collision ————— Redshift Collision is a fun idea that spawned from a crossover fanfic idea I was considering a while ago before letting it evolve into its own original fantasy setting with sci-fi elements instead. It centers on a character named Edgar Loom, short for Loomis, which is his family name. A bit of cultural trivia about the name: The reason he’s called Loom instead of Loomis is because only the heads of a house may use the full family name, everyone else is introduced with a derivative surname. As Loom is next in line to be the head of their household, he is typically the one people refer to when using the name “Loom”, though casual use of the derivative name happens for applicable family members here and there as the situation calls for. First names are typically a much more private affair, and people typically have “use” names that they give when introducing themselves to others including but not limited to prospective business partners, strangers, distant family members, etc. Telling someone your given first name is seen as a huge sign of trust, the equivalent of saying that the other person is part of your inner circle. It is generally expected that first names not be given out prior to knowing someone for a socially acceptable amount of time (length of time not given because I’m not done working out the calendar yet.) Typically, the head(s) of house can use just the family name as their use name if desired, or if there are multiple heads of house then their own use name can be used either as a stand alone or combined with the famiy name. In Loom’s case, since he’s next in line, his use name is typically Loom by default, thus why he’s called that in the ensuing paragraphs. Loom is the only child of his parents, much beloved and happy with his lot in life, having spent his time apprenticed in order to learn how to take up his father and mother’s trade, namely overlooking the production of luxury textiles in the guild of weavers (you can imagine where their ancestors got the surname Loomis from.) Tragedy however has befallen their world in the last two decades, an unknown cataclysmic event has shorn the very fabric of reality in such alien angles, even the gods are left scrambling as they try to figure out what has happened—and what is happening. Despite the new dangers and unforeseen changes that continue to twist the fabric of their world however, life goes on. People still survive, and flourish, adapting as they can to the strangeness that has taken root upon their planet. However, one of the new shifts brought about in their world includes new diseases—plagues. One such disease is called Wraith Fade, so named for what a person becomes as the disease progresses, and how. It is unknown how Wraith Fade is transmitted, but it is widely suspected to be magical in some form, due to lack of evidence for it being transmitted through the more common corporeal means. Loom contracts Wraith Fade, and he and his family all know that it’s a death sentence—sufferers of Wraith Fade are typically observed to have a year or for the more robust two before succumbing to the disease. Typically, the course of treatment is for the afflicted persons to make good of their last days, and then to call for a doctor to help with euthanasia—most countries if not all sponsor covering costs for this procedure to varying degrees, due to the dangers that wraiths pose if left unchecked. And wraiths are very dangerous, and very hard to kill. One of the early to mid stage symptoms is what appears to be a magically-induced loss of voice—both medical professionals and thaumaturgical researchers are at a loss for the mechanics of it, as studies do not register readings of magical structures either natural or artificial that would induce a silence effect. Various treatments have been attempted, but no direct results have been observed thus far in the trials. Another symptom is what has been referred to as “greying”—specifically, a gradual fading into total translucency and loss of most forms of color in the afflicted person’s physical appearance. The silencing and greying that sufferers of Wraith Fade endure eventually comes to encompass most if not all sounds that they make towards the end of the disease’s incubation period, and coupled with the greying effect this translates into a near silent and visually obscured entity when the person loses themselves fully to wraithood. Older wraiths have been observed as occasionally being able to silence entire areas seemingly at will for brief periods of time, and some of the more markedly dangerous individual wraiths have even learned to disappear from sight completely in what appears to be true invisibility. Their hardiness and resistance to what would constitute mortal injury to many living beings also seems to be supernatural in origin, though it is yet one more area that eludes researchers and experts to a vexing degree. What makes wraiths so dangerous however is their penchant for hunting in sporadic and irregular patterns, and the predominant pattern of many wraiths taking to heavily populated areas as a preference. Why they hunt people is a mystery, as sufferers of Wraith Fade are noted as slowly losing sensations of hunger and thirst, and late stage sufferers going without either food or drink without succumbing to starvation or thirst beyond noted secondary effects. The individual modus operandi of a given wraith develops over time, to terrifying results. It is not unusual or imprudent for the public to break into mass hysteria should a murder occur in a city, with people fearing that a new wraith has taken up residence. It is for this reason that sufferers of Wraith Fade are at times persecuted and sometimes killed on sight by unruly mobs, so-called vigilantes, and at times even government-sanctioned organizations in some countries. It is dangerous to travel for both the afflicted and for others, should the afflicted’s health take a turn for the worse and their condition deteriorates faster into wraithood. There is no known cure for Wraith’s Fade—but there are rumors of one, in the strange and distant city-state of Wyrrawyr. Loom is however a soul defined by hope, in that moment of definition. He chooses to try and seek out this rumored cure, and he and his family and friends have a tearful goodbye, knowing this full well could be the last time they see each other in this life. Wyrrawyr is a strange place. It is the city of stained glass, the gateway to the Snowfeld Sea, the broken circle which once sat as the crown jewel of the mighty Hederan Empire, the land of a thousand sieges—and a land of the old ways. Wyrrawyr has been conquered many times, but no conqueror has ever met with good fortune when trying to rule that place. Ill fortune plagues any power that tries to rule that city for long, and Wyrrawyr has garnered a reputation as a place to avoid...not that everyone listens to such tales. It is known as a cursed place to many, but those brave souls who dare to call it home say otherwise. The local gods of Wyrrawyr in particular are strange in their antics when seen through the eyes of the more northern countries, but not so strange as the people—some of whom say the city itself is a divine being in its own right. It is for that reason first and foremost that the Northern Alliance calls it the city of heretics, proud and unyielding in their strange ways. But age-old feuds are reduced to mere distractions as the entire world shudders as the shifts seemingly grow more aggressive where once they were placid. The landscape of their home world seems to shift more drastically in a short span of time than ever it has before, and many are driven to terror at the thought that reality may be collapsing into an unrecognizable form of chaos as they watch the mechanics of their world come apart at the seams. Loom arrives to a sundered Wyrrawyr, as parted and torn with unknown magical phenomena as if a slip-strike earthquake had cracked the earth’s crust open. It is in a sundered Wyrrawyr that Loom meets Death. Specifically, the local Wyrrawyran incarnation of Death, who offers Loom a deal: stand as Death’s champion and agent to investigate the phenomenons, and to enact Death’s will in restoring a form of natural order back to their world—among Loom’s tasks should he accept is to find those souls spirited away by forces unknown. Gods unknown, perhaps, is Death’s suspicion. In exchange for Loom’s services, Death offers him an out that will spare him from dying from Wraith Fade—and this is the only way to avoid that fate and all the sinister after effects that come with it. But both their deal and the “cure,”—in so much as it can be called that—requires Loom to leave their home world, never to return again. Loom must go where Death cannot: into the new world that is slowly colliding with their own, the two ripping each other apart like the collision of galaxies into a new, singular galaxy. A world where magic is a foreign idea, and technology is the watchword of nearly all who live there. A world that is out of place. This collision shouldn’t have happened. These two worlds were not on a collision course—far from it, they had been moving away from each other in their shared planes of existence. That is why the gods of Loom’s world have taken to calling the matter the Redshift Collision. It is the possibility of survival and a world full of the unknown that Death offers, should Loom agree—or, as a mercy, the option of a swift, safe, and painless passing into death and the afterlife, if Loom would prefer to die in his home world while he is still himself. Loom accepts. And that’s the starting point for Redshift Collision’s story!

Extra Credit Blog - About the Pandemic

My personal thoughts and opinions - 

My thoughts on the pandemic, in a nutshell, are that everyone was simultaneously over and under reacting at the same time. However, now that things have settled into place, we are starting to find a good medium. What I mean by this is that you have people acting in polar opposites because of the virus. First, you have the idiotic people originally panic buying toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and masks mainly and then the people who just jumped on the bandwagon who followed them panic buying everything because “everyone else is doing it, I need some before it runs out”, but what most of them don’t understand is that they are just contributing to the problem. Then, on the other hand, you have the people ignoring the quarantine, not really partaking in social distancing and still going out. I personally knew many people, my own roommates included, who still went out to their spring break trips in Florida, Europe, New York, and more even in spite of the virus and the warning the not travel.

I believe education about the virus is necessary and knowledge about what the virus is, what it does, and how to prevent the spread of it should have been the first step taken when everyone first found out about it. Instead, and I am speaking from my personal experience, people just brushed it off, said “it’s never going to get to the U.S.”, and went on about their life. Then once it first hit the U.S. everyone starts to panic. It’s ignorant to think that in todays globalized world that a virus that doesn’t have a vaccine in China would stay in China. I remember thinking to myself “it’s only a matter of time before it comes here if no preventions are made and there’s no vaccine available”, but I had no idea that it would affect us the way it has or that it would spread as rapidly as it did. People do need to take this pandemic seriously and on a global scale, I think we have overreacted a little bit, but it is better to overreact than to underreact on a global scale: people’s lives are at risk.

However, on an individual level, people have been overreacting where they should keep a level head. People need to find that happy medium, or “goldilocks”, where they can see the problem at hand but react to it logically instead of running around like a chicken without its head. I think more people have found that happy medium now that the virus has been around for a couple months now, but I’m more so talking about what was happening at the beginning of this pandemic.

Prompt 1 - 

The available information about COVID 19 does not overwhelm me, nor I think should overwhelm anyone. The more you know about something, in this case COVID 19, and the more you understand something, the better equip you are to deal with it. It is true that ignorance is bliss, but on this subject matter in particular I think knowledge, and I stress correct knowledge on the subject matter, is power and can give us the power to help prevent the virus. I’m not here to throw my opinions around claiming that they’re correct but I will talk about them. I think that if you have been watching the news intently about this you will have a lesser understanding of what is actually going on, and it is the reason why people are overreacting so much and being overwhelmed. I believe I saw a picture recently where CNN had the headline “death toll has reached 3 million”, which is terrifying, but if you were to look at the actual statistics, there have been 3 million cases, not deaths, and the death toll on a global level is only roughly in the mid 200,000’s. I am not stating that it is a small number or saying that the death toll on a global scale is insignificant, because it is a big deal, and healthcare facilities are being overrun and medical staff are struggling, but I am saying is that you need to factcheck statistics yourself and to get your information from unbiased places so you can be correctly informed.

Overall, the information being given on COVID 19 both infuriates me and is also very sobering. On one hand when incorrect statements about the virus are being thrown around, it infuriates me, while on the other hand, even when correct facts and statements are being said about the virus, it’s sad and makes me wish we could find a cure for it sooner rather than later. What is most scary about this in my opinion is that COVID 19 doesn’t survive well in the heat, it survives better in the cold, and with summer around the corner and places heating up, the virus will seem to dissipate. With the virus seeming to go away, people will stop social distancing and have a more “normal” summer than what this past semester has been like. When this starts to happen, there’s a chance of a resurgence of it in the winter and we’ll be right back to where we were at the beginning of this semester. I’m sure everyone can agree that we just want this to be over with.

I honestly cannot tell if other people have had the same experience with this information or not because I honestly don’t talk about the statistics that much other than with my family. My mom, who has been intently watching the news, talks about skewed and untrue facts all the time and I always tell her to fact check them, but other than that I can’t really say how other people truly view the information and if they take everything that is being told to them at face value or really looking into it for themselves. For example, my mother is worried that I’ll die from it if I catch the virus. The truth is that I might, but the chances of me dying from it are very low even if I do catch it, which is again highly unlikely because of where I live. The virus mostly kills the elderly, the immune deficient, or the young with not as strong immune systems whereas I have a healthy and fairly strong immune system. While yes, there have been several cases of young 18-mid 20-year-olds in seemingly healthy condition dying from COVID 19, the chances are highly unlikely and while you shouldn’t be taking the chance, you also shouldn’t spend every waking hour in fear about it or get overwhelmed. Again, I am not belittling the seriousness of COVID 19, and I’m not saying what is happening isn’t awful, but I think people are mostly overreacting to the situation on an individual level.

Prompt 2 -

I have been following most social distancing protocols. I haven’t been out of isolation besides to go to the grocery store and one other time when I went to see a friend, but it was still one-on-one. Regarding facemasks, I am not wearing any facemask for a couple reasons, which these reasons also have to do with the spread of misinformation.

The reason I don’t wear a facemask is because facemasks prevent spreading the virus if you already have it, they do not prevent you from catching the virus, or at least it doesn’t in the way that the general public uses them. This is probably the biggest piece of misinformation that people have today, and has caused people to, again, be overwhelmed and overreact due to this misinformation and mass buy facemasks, creating a shortage for the medical professionals who actually need them. However, I believe it is better to be safe than sorry, as long as you know why you’re using it. You don’t know immediately if you have the virus or not and you could be a carrier of the virus but not showing symptoms of it. Wearing a mask in public prevents any doubts that other people could get the virus from you, but if you’re wearing a mask, you should know it does not protect you from other people who have the virus and aren’t wearing a mask. I think as long as people wash their hands, keep clean, don’t touch your face, social distance, and do everything else the medical professionals have been saying, then this virus will slowly start to dwindle away.

When I go out without a facemask, I think other people perceive me in many different ways. No one has said or done anything because I haven’t been wearing a facemask, but I think I might have gotten a weird/judgmental look or two from people who were wearing facemasks. I think it’s a person-by-person basis on if they judge me or not for not wearing a mask. I personally don’t care if you do or don’t wear a facemask in public, it’s your decision. I think the people who would do something or say something though are the people who are misinformed. Again, it is better to be safe than sorry and everything we do to stop the spread of the virus counts, but facemasks, while they do help, aren’t as helpful as people think they are and are probably the weakest form of prevention there is.

Prompt 3 - 

At the moment, I feel overall less in control now than I did before, and I felt pretty in control prior to COVID 19. I was on track to make all A’s and B’s, I was doing extremely well in gymnastics going almost every day and almost perfecting my front full and was starting to work on back tumbling connections. I was also planning on trying out for tech’s D1 cheer team and was going to go to open practices to stunt with the other cheer leaders, and I had a consistent schedule of seeing my girlfriend. Now, gymnastics has stopped for obvious reasons and the cheer team has also canceled all of their open practices. My girlfriend has gone back to NOVA to stay at home for the rest of the semester and, even though this is mostly my fault, I have lost a lot of drive and motivation to stay fully on top of my schoolwork which has caused a slight decrease in my grades.

I think my general sense of well-being has overall decreased since the start of the pandemic. My sleep schedule is out of whack – I am writing this part of the essay at 3:00AM – and just a general schedule structure is pretty much non-existent. My eating schedule has shifted because of my sleep schedule and I have gone from working out every single day to not working out at all because I burnt myself out of it in high school, so if I don’t have the social interaction of working out I don’t enjoy it at all and have almost a visceral reaction to the idea of walking or working out on my own. To give you a better understanding as to why, I would spend anywhere between 3-5 hours a day, every day, in high school working out by myself for football in the offseason because none of my other teammates were as dedicated as I was to the sport. This went on for roughly a year and a half before I couldn’t bring myself to do it anymore and haven’t fully gotten back into it yet.

All of this said, I know that this is essentially the equivalent of a celebrity complaining about how rough their life is being trapped in their million-dollar mansion during lockdown. I know and completely understand that other people have had it way worse than I have and have gone through a lot more than me, but I guess this is what I have been mostly struggling with during the virus which I am entirely grateful for; none of my family or close relatives or friends have gotten sick from the virus and I have been otherwise generally unaffected by the pandemic. Overall, I just wish that things would go back to the way they were before the virus happened. Yes, it was nice at first laying back and taking it easy, staying home and not having to worry so much about getting up to go to class and making it on time, but now I just miss how life was before all of this started.

United in Anger

Last week, I finally sat down to watch the highly-recommended comedy special, “Nanette” by Hannah Gadsby.

It was so good.

Seriously. Go watch it. This human has an excellent brain, and her messages are super important.

But of course, this wouldn’t be my blog if I wasn’t complaining about something, right?  

The end of “Nanette” kind of broke my heart. For the entire hour +, I was along for the ride, hanging off of every word she said, raising my fist at the TV in solidarity and support.  And then she just….dumped me.

I do want to take a quick timeout to honor that celebrities and public figures are people, too.  Not deities.  You will disagree sometimes, and that’s totally okay.

Nonetheless, I was sad.

At the end of her special, she closes by saying that we must no longer unite in anger, even if that anger comes from a place of love.  But the way she spoke about anger did not sound like the anger I know.  The anger she spoke of sounded more like hate and self-loathing.  I kept saying, “yes, I agree, but I don’t think we use that word the same way, and you’re really breaking my heart right now. Please, please don’t spread this with those specific words; it’s so unhealthy.”

I agree with her, to an extent.  The actions many take out of anger are quite unhealthy, and no, we should not unite over that.  Hate crimes start with anger.  But so do human rights movements.  So let’s be a little more clear—

Anger is simply saying, “nope. This is no good.”  Anger saves lives. Anger creates boundaries and containers for healthy, respectful relationships.

When anger is told that it is not allowed to exist, or that it’s the only thing in charge, the human brain goes into wild places, because anger never disappears.  If it isn’t allowed its own channel, it’ll just go hide behind some other emotions or impulses.  That’s when we get stuck in rage, fear, willful ignorance, prejudice, unrelenting sadness, and terrible violence.  Anger says, “I will keep you safe”.  And when you say “go away, anger”, your brain says, “oh shit…now I’m not safe. OVERCOMPENSAAAAAATE!!!” That could be shutting down, dissociating, or lashing out.

It breaks my heart when people conflate anger and hatred.  We are in this mess to begin with because of our misinformed ideas of anger, and the vast efforts to destroy it, particularly for anyone of a marginalized demographic.  Unless, of course, one’s anger can be used against them by those who seek to oppress them.  Consider, for example, this need in our white-supremacist society to hold on to the stereotype of an angry black woman or a violently angry black man to justify racially motivated injustice, and excuse oneself from personal accountability.

Control a person’s ability to stand up for themselves, and you control their entirety.

When I heard Hannah’s words and desires around stopping anger, I knew what she meant.  She was exhausted, and sick to death of bullshit. She no longer wanted to see people hurting themselves or others.  She wants to live in a world that doesn’t hurt.  She wants people to join together in joy, love, pleasure, and benevolent laughter.

This is what I heard between her words. And yes.  Yes, yes, yes, YES to all of this.

But we’re not there yet. We have to work toward that, because we’re so far down and lost that it’s going to take a lot of strong effort by every single person on this planet to do better, to hope for better, to believe in better.  So right now we’re angry.  We need to get angry for things to change.  Not hateful.  Just angry.

In my interview with Aepril Schaile, she mentions that she came across the theory that anger is actually a form of optimism, because in order for a person to be angry, they have to believe that things could, or should, be different.  Apathy and acceptance, I believe, are the greatest dangers to modern social progress.

Think about it—when you’re in a failing relationship and you fall out of love, you fight less, right? Because at the end of the day, you’re just like, “ugh. Whatever. I don’t even like you. I’ll say whatever you want to hear so you just go away.  Fuck my life.”

Or when you’re at a job that is zapping the life out of you, but you don’t believe you have any other options, so you just whither away for years getting kicked in the shins by your miserable boss, setting the timer on Monday for when you can finally go get blackout drunk on Friday before it all starts over again.

Anger, instead, looks like telling your partner that you love yourself, that you deserve better, and that you’re not going to put up with getting screamed at or degraded.

Anger looks like going to HR to report that your co-worker put his hand on your ass for the last time.

Anger looks like asking a child who’s locked out and sobbing in front of his house if he’s okay.

We NEED to unite in anger.

Not hate.

When I started The Scarlet Tongue Project, I felt completely isolated in my anger.  I was silenced, told I was crazy, told I was scary, told I was weak, awkward, quiet, etc.  I wasn’t allowed to use my anger, so I had no idea how to use it when it inevitably came up.  Most of the advice I got was to chill or “let it go”.  Rarely did anyone pause to consider what might be on fire inside of me that was causing this.  At that time, conversations on anger were not flooding in online like they are now, nor were they happening in my various communities of friends.  Now you can’t even flutter your eyes open in the morning without being smacked by someone’s flying rage fit.  Only a couple years ago, you actually had to sit down and do research to find people brave enough to talk about these things.  Now, we can’t escape.

One of the greatest blessings of this project was that I stopped feeling isolated.  I found people I could process with, people who understood, people who would teach me, and people who knew how to harness anger in order to move forward with great love and strength, to create epic change and love in the world. Friends began coming to me and saying, “thank you for doing this. I’m so fucking angry all the time. I just never felt allowed to express it.”  This week, 6 artists are flying into Mexico City to join me for an art residency related to the film.  Our intention is to come together, discuss anger, discuss how to build community, explore how to free ourselves from social constraints, how to support others in their desires to live in truth and openness, and how to create action and change for a more beautiful, just world.  It is anger that is bringing us together.  And it is so profoundly powerful and magical.

When Hannah said that we cannot unite in anger, of course I took it personally, because that is the entire mission of my project—to create communities where people feel safe and inspired to stand up for themselves and others in the face of injustice, to be witnessed in their authenticity, and to move forward to create their best lives with the support of others.

If you are angry, sure, you can use that to fuel an agenda of fear and destruction.  You can also use feeling confident and happy in your skin to go cheat on your partner with 50 people.  Emotions are indicators, not actions themselves.  The energy you draw from your emotions can go anywhere you put it. I encourage you to find others when you’re angry.  Find someone healthy to talk to, find groups to join, go see a show that inspires you and helps you imagine worlds of deeper love, greater tolerance, and goddamn it—FUN.

If you are angry, see if you can push to the other side of the voice that says, “SHUT UP.”  Try to invite your anger in.  Listen to it.  Ask your body what it needs to feel relief.  Then find others who support you, and maybe even share your dreams.

If you separate anger from hate, what does that look like?  Does it have its own space?  Can it lay close to feelings like bliss, pleasure, and satisfaction?

My anger does.  And I’m so grateful to the wise, creative folks around me who can hold that, because they know that on the other side is a super badass world of experiences and ideas that we can’t wait to manifest.

Unite in an anger that flows.  Unite in an anger that doesn’t get stuck.  Unite in an anger that gives you energy to create. Unite in an anger that is from love, and leads back to love.  And if you’re not sure how, then unite with people who do so you can find the help you need.

I’m sorry, Hannah, but the brilliance of your work did, in fact, powerfully unite people in anger.  They learned something.  They felt desire to be better people.  They felt love and compassion for you and for themselves. Thank you for that.  That was a gift.  And now you get to move on to something else, which is the whole point. But please don’t dishonor what brought us to this beautiful place of eye-opening and change.

Anger does not have to be suffering.  Anger can be revolution.  For many of us, anger IS revolution.  And the revolution needs you.  I hope to meet you there.

Uniting in Anger

Last week, I finally sat down to watch the highly-recommended comedy special, “Nanette” by Hannah Gadsby.

It was so good.

Seriously. Go watch it. This human has an excellent brain, and her messages are super important.

But of course, this wouldn’t be my blog if I wasn’t complaining about something, right?  

The end of “Nanette” kind of broke my heart. For the entire hour +, I was along for the ride, hanging off of every word she said, raising my fist at the TV in solidarity and support.  And then she just….dumped me.

I do want to take a quick timeout to honor that celebrities and public figures are people, too.  Not deities.  You will disagree sometimes, and that’s totally okay.

Nonetheless, I was sad.

At the end of her special, she closes by saying that we must no longer unite in anger, even if that anger comes from a place of love.  But the way she spoke about anger did not sound like the anger I know.  The anger she spoke of sounded more like hate and self-loathing.  I kept saying, “yes, I agree, but I don’t think we use that word the same way, and you’re really breaking my heart right now. Please, please don’t spread this with those specific words; it’s so unhealthy.”

I agree with her, to an extent.  The actions many take out of anger are quite unhealthy, and no, we should not unite over that.  Hate crimes start with anger.  But so do human rights movements.  So let’s be a little more clear—

Anger is simply saying, “nope. This is no good.”  Anger saves lives. Anger creates boundaries and containers for healthy, respectful relationships.

When anger is told that it is not allowed to exist, or that it’s the only thing in charge, the human brain goes into wild places, because anger never disappears.  If it isn’t allowed its own channel, it’ll just go hide behind some other emotions or impulses.  That’s when we get stuck in rage, fear, willful ignorance, prejudice, unrelenting sadness, and terrible violence.  Anger says, “I will keep you safe”.  And when you say “go away, anger”, your brain says, “oh shit…now I’m not safe. OVERCOMPENSAAAAAATE!!!” That could be shutting down, dissociating, or lashing out.

It breaks my heart when people conflate anger and hatred.  We are in this mess to begin with because of our misinformed ideas of anger, and the vast efforts to destroy it, particularly for anyone of a marginalized demographic.  Unless, of course, one’s anger can be used against them by those who seek to oppress them.  Consider, for example, this need in our white-supremacist society to hold on to the stereotype of an angry black woman or a violently angry black man to justify racially motivated injustice, and excuse oneself from personal accountability.

Control a person’s ability to stand up for themselves, and you control their entirety.

When I heard Hannah’s words and desires around stopping anger, I knew what she meant.  She was exhausted, and sick to death of bullshit. She no longer wanted to see people hurting themselves or others.  She wants to live in a world that doesn’t hurt.  She wants people to join together in joy, love, pleasure, and benevolent laughter.

This is what I heard between her words. And yes.  Yes, yes, yes, YES to all of this.

But we’re not there yet. We have to work toward that, because we’re so far down and lost that it’s going to take a lot of strong effort by every single person on this planet to do better, to hope for better, to believe in better.  So right now we’re angry.  We need to get angry for things to change.  Not hateful.  Just angry.

In my interview with Aepril Schaile, she mentions that she came across the theory that anger is actually a form of optimism, because in order for a person to be angry, they have to believe that things could, or should, be different.  Apathy and acceptance, I believe, are the greatest dangers to modern social progress.

Think about it—when you’re in a failing relationship and you fall out of love, you fight less, right? Because at the end of the day, you’re just like, “ugh. Whatever. I don’t even like you. I’ll say whatever you want to hear so you just go away.  Fuck my life.”

Or when you’re at a job that is zapping the life out of you, but you don’t believe you have any other options, so you just whither away for years getting kicked in the shins by your miserable boss, setting the timer on Monday for when you can finally go get blackout drunk on Friday before it all starts over again.

Anger, instead, looks like telling your partner that you love yourself, that you deserve better, and that you’re not going to put up with getting screamed at or degraded.

Anger looks like going to HR to report that your co-worker put his hand on your ass for the last time.

Anger looks like asking a child who’s locked out and sobbing in front of his house if he’s okay.

 We NEED to unite in anger.

Not hate.

 When I started The Scarlet Tongue Project, I felt completely isolated in my anger.  I was silenced, told I was crazy, told I was scary, told I was weak, awkward, quiet, etc.  I wasn’t allowed to use my anger, so I had no idea how to use it when it inevitably came up.  Most of the advice I got was to chill or “let it go”.  Rarely did anyone pause to consider what might be on fire inside of me that was causing this.  At that time, conversations on anger were not flooding in online like they are now, nor were they happening in my various communities of friends.  Now you can’t even flutter your eyes open in the morning without being smacked by someone’s flying rage fit.  Only a couple years ago, you actually had to sit down and do research to find people brave enough to talk about these things.  Now, we can’t escape.

One of the greatest blessings of this project was that I stopped feeling isolated.  I found people I could process with, people who understood, people who would teach me, and people who knew how to harness anger in order to move forward with great love and strength, to create epic change and love in the world. Friends began coming to me and saying, “thank you for doing this. I’m so fucking angry all the time. I just never felt allowed to express it.”  This week, 6 artists are flying into Mexico City to join me for an art residency related to the film.  Our intention is to come together, discuss anger, discuss how to build community, explore how to free ourselves from social constraints, how to support others in their desires to live in truth and openness, and how to create action and change for a more beautiful, just world.  It is anger that is bringing us together.  And it is so profoundly powerful and magical.

When Hannah said that we cannot unite in anger, of course I took it personally, because that is the entire mission of my project—to create communities where people feel safe and inspired to stand up for themselves and others in the face of injustice, to be witnessed in their authenticity, and to move forward to create their best lives with the support of others.

If you are angry, sure, you can use that to fuel an agenda of fear and destruction.  You can also use feeling confident and happy in your skin to go cheat on your partner with 50 people.  Emotions are indicators, not actions themselves.  The energy you draw from your emotions can go anywhere you put it. I encourage you to find others when you’re angry.  Find someone healthy to talk to, find groups to join, go see a show that inspires you and helps you imagine worlds of deeper love, greater tolerance, and goddamn it—FUN.

If you are angry, see if you can push to the other side of the voice that says, “SHUT UP.”  Try to invite your anger in.  Listen to it.  Ask your body what it needs to feel relief.  Then find others who support you, and maybe even share your dreams.

If you separate anger from hate, what does that look like?  Does it have its own space?  Can it lay close to feelings like bliss, pleasure, and satisfaction?

My anger does.  And I’m so grateful to the wise, creative folks around me who can hold that, because they know that on the other side is a super badass world of experiences and ideas that we can’t wait to manifest.

Unite in an anger that flows.  Unite in an anger that doesn’t get stuck.  Unite in an anger that gives you energy to create. Unite in an anger that is from love, and leads back to love.  And if you’re not sure how, then unite with people who do so you can find the help you need.

I’m sorry, Hannah, but the brilliance of your work did, in fact, powerfully unite people in anger.  They learned something.  They felt desire to be better people.  They felt love and compassion for you and for themselves. Thank you for that.  That was a gift.  And now you get to move on to something else, which is the whole point. But please don’t dishonor what brought us to this beautiful place of eye-opening and change.

Anger does not have to be suffering.  Anger can be revolution.  For many of us, anger IS revolution.  And the revolution needs you.  I hope to meet you there.

New Post has been published on https://brandbaskets.in/pose-shows-trans-women-of-color-seeking-happiness-and-sex-todays-news-our-take/

Pose Shows Trans Women of Color Seeking Happiness and Sex - Today's News: Our Take

“Take off your panties,” Stan (Evan Peters) tells Angel (Indya Moore) the transgender sex worker he takes to his seedy hotel room in Pose‘s first episode. Violence, or the threat of it, hovers above the room like smoke; one doesn’t need to know that a record number of trans women of color were killed in 2017 to intuit that Stan’s discovery of Angel’s penis is not going to end well. But something else happens instead. Stan softens, and reveals his attraction to her body just as it is, even if, for Angel, her genitalia is the last vestige of an identity she wants to shed, an identity that never really suited her in the first place. In that one scene, Pose hands viewers a complicated knot of ideas about trans anatomy, trans autonomy and the huge gray areas between homosexuality and heterosexuality.

A lot of men have not been able to interrogate (their attraction to trans women) because of our ideals around masculinity and what makes a real man.

“People are like, ‘Oh shit what’s going to happen?’,” Janet Mock, the trans author and activist who wrote, produced and directed for Pose, told TV Guide. “We have linked trans bodies to so much trauma, that’s where we go in a moment like that.” But in keeping with Pose’s main theme of triumph over tragedy, this scene and others like it buck tradition. “What can’t she just be loved? Why can’t she just be embraced?”

Mock wrote all of Pose’s sex scenes, an opportunity she took to “undo the link between our bodies as being points targets of violence and ridicule.” Angel is stunned to learn she can be valued and appreciated exactly as she is, even at her own perceived worst. “I’ve been searching for that love story my entire life,” Mock said.

Everybody knew Pose would include the largest number of transgender actors (and producers, writers and other creatives) ever seen on TV, but nobody could’ve predicted how deeply and unflinchingly Pose would present complexities of trans life — especially sex. Most of what the American populace knows about trans issues boils down to debates over which bathroom people can pee in, but Pose’s education starts by working from the most universal of anchors — the human need for intimacy — and then drills down into the ways being a trans woman of color complicates achieving this basic need. Radical for their rarity on TV, moments depicting Angel (and a few episodes later, Elektra) in bed flip the script on a conversation normally relegated to the edges of shows like Law and Order: SVU by presenting trans women as empowered and valuable yet still confined. If sex is a political act, so often informed by religious and cultural codes as well as baggage about power and who’s giving it away, then Pose’s sex scenes are a Molotov cocktail intended to burn down the old system and start a revolution.

Angel and Elektra’s erotic tales get into nitty gritty mechanics that most people know are too intrusive to ask trans people about. Pose confronts what it means to be a woman with a penis, what it means to be a straight man who’s attracted to a woman with male genitalia, and addresses whether that has to mean anything at all. Stan is confused by his attraction to Angel and women like her, wracked with shame and guilt but Elektra’s lover, introduced in Episode 4, (a surprise casting TV Guide won’t spoil here) is confident in his attraction to Elektra but doesn’t have language to explain his affinity for what remains between Elektra’s legs.

“I can’t explain why my dick gets hard knowing yours is in the room,” Elektra’s suave, rich white lover says. “I just know I want it there.” Hulking and hairy, Elektra’s patron looks very much like the idealized version of masculinity that’s been around for ages, making it another scene that torches preconceptions about what “real” men look like and what “real” men do in bed. Pose starts in 1987, but in light of alarmingly commonplace violence against trans women and increasing attempts by the White House to roll back protections for trans people today, these scenes crackle with urgency and relevance. Angel and Elektra feel real — like people who deserve not just basic human respect and dignity, but also the everyday bliss of affection that straight and even gay people get to enjoy without as much consequence. Series creator Steven Canals, whose partner is a transgender man, told TV Guide, “What we wanted to do was show all the various sides of the complexities of a loving relationship. We spent a lot of time in the room talking about the misinformation the cis-gender community has about trans people — especially straight men with trans women. We wanted to unpack those complexities.”

Indya Moore as Angel, PosePhoto: FX

As sensitive and kind as Angel and Elektra’s partners are with them, the relationships have elements of transphobia and suffering inherent in them too. Both women remain their man’s secret, tucked away in plush, elegant settings to be played with when convenient; they don’t get invited to the galas and the office Christmas parties. And both women long for the procedure to align their bodies with their true gender identities; both find that their paramours don’t support that desire. Through them, viewers get to consider, perhaps for the first time, what it would be like to constantly wonder if your partner appreciates your unconventional body because they see you as a whole person or because they see you as a curiosity or some sort of titillating fetish. “These are the conversations couples have all the time about bodies they’re sharing,” Mock said. “A lot of men have not been able to interrogate (their attraction to trans women) because of our ideals around masculinity and what makes a real man. When I wrote these scenes I knew they didn’t have to be graphic — they just had to be super telling and they needed to tell the complicatedness of what we do when we thrust our bodies against one another, and how can we find truth and love and acceptance in those stories.”

What we wanted to do was show all the various sides of the complexities of a loving relationship.

Pose, already defiant for making trans people of color the protagonists, empowers its heroes by giving them choice. Angel is infinitely more confident than Stan, in bed and out. Elektra, Pose’s great ball of fire, has the same intensity with her alpha male lover that she shows when collecting trophies in the ballroom. “No man gets to tell me what I do with my body,” is the prevailing theme of these women’s sex lives, Mock said — an idea that requires absolutely no understanding of trans life whatsoever in order to be understood by anyone watching. But for trans people who’ve not shared these narratives on a scale like this before, the show’s pillow talk disrupts generations of neglect, derision and even violence to show trans women procuring love, chasing dreams and finding fulfillment. Angel is the character Mock said she most poured herself into; the way she dresses and longs for love and romance comes straight from her own experience as a trans girl growing up in Hawaii. “I was a lovesick 15-year-old who only wanted a boy to hold my hand,” said Mock, who married her husband Aaron in 2015. “And I never got that.”

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Pose airs Sundays at 10/9c on FX.

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The mainstream media has become such a joke; it’s “following-an-agenda” transparent. And like nails on a chalkboard, the drivel – more often than not devoid of fact – a constant static. A tiresome broken record, echoing emptiness. A terrible lack of authenticity. A narrative. Agenda. A propaganda machine.

  People must decipher between truth, misinformation, disinformation, & their latest schtick: ‘fake news.’ Similar to & as impressive as, when in high school, you’d stick out your palm & say, ‘Talk to the hand.’ Fake news is just another word for disinformation. And now conspiracy theory. The goal is to increase uncertainty & confusion in those looking for what is authentic. Only now they’re using the term ‘fake news’ on truth as well. By labeling truth as ‘fake news,’ they hope people just dismiss without investigating. It’s a quick way to discredit those who get too close to the truth. Smoke & mirrors. And it’s working! Voilà: how to ‘eliminate truth:’ trick people into eliminating the researching part altogether! “HEY YOU DON’T NEED TO RESEARCH THAT, IT’S FAKE NEWS!” It’s Mind Control. Fucked up. And it’s actions of the guilty. When people insist something is ‘fake news,’ investigate it. Do your own research; don’t take anybody’s word for it – not even mine. Question Everything. 

‘Misinformation‘: to give false or misleading information to.

‘Disinformation‘: false information deliberately & often covertly spread (as by the planting of rumors) in order to influence public opinion or obscure the truth. 

  The MSM’s refusal to discuss certain somethings, is an absolute red flag. Where they keep you from looking, is a roadmap of where to look. ‘The elephant in the room‘ has been floating around for awhile; but we’re not allowed to talk about it. Seems we can’t talk about something if the government/media/machine labels it a certain way. Isn’t that odd? Think about that – why does the government care about what we research on the net? Why are they trying to control what we search for, or more importantly, what we don’t? They tell us exactly where to look, by telling us where NOT to look.

“Don’t worry, just keep it moving, no reason, it’s all good, nothing to see here, move along. We just, um, really care about your, um, well-being & we, we want you to be happy, yeah that’s it. We just don’t want you to waste your time .. so, um .. hey look, it’s a Black Friday sale & you need the latest iPhone / XBOX / any other useless distraction.” Subliminal. Shut the Pie Door 🍕

Look behind the “scenes” to see what is really going on. A guilty person will try to divert your attention, ridicule you, discredit you, call you crazy. Don’t you just love those auto-confirmations?! Their actions always out them. If there was nothing there, no validity, just nonsense, then they wouldn’t care if we looked. Nobody wastes their time discrediting something that can’t hurt them. Can they make it any more obvious? How do people not see right through their bullshit?

Think for Yourself.

Let’s compare it to another ‘conspiracy theory:’ Aliens & UFO’s. The powers-that-be have assured us for decades: ‘Not real, hoax, fake news.’ Those who’ve come forward making claims have all been ridiculed publicly, especially since Roswell. The silly costumes, big alien heads, tabloid stories; “First Alien Baby!” & “Man Abducted by Aliens Finally Returns Home!” All part of the plan. When the MSM finds out a nugget of truth will be exposed, they counter attack with 10 nuggets of misinformation & disinformation, meant to confuse you. Brilliant. Evil.

“Nope, it’s just us in this infinite universe. Nobody else, we swear!”

Hide it in plain sight.

“Ridicule the crap out of it & no one will ever want to attach themselves to it.”

But it doesn’t add up; if aliens aren’t real we should be banned from talking about them, but we aren’t. That seems strange – a different set of rules for the same thing. Weird .. but not really. It’s not the same thing. They want us to believe both are bullshit. Do you know anyone banned from twitter, fb or reddit; or that disappeared, or worse, for mentioning the word alien? UFO? Why would they? ‘They’ successfully made the world believe you’re a complete crackpot if you claim aliens are real. Mission accomplished?  Why wouldn’t they use those ‘tried & true’ tactics this time around – just making fun of the ‘theory’ & the people who believe in it? They’re more vicious about this one. Attacking those who mention it. Censoring those who write about it. A handful of people who exposed or discussed it, have disappeared.

So much scandal for a fake story! Maybe, just maybe, it’s not fake after all??

Nah .. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence. You know, we always see tons of dots connecting & coincidence upon coincidence upon coincidence when everything is on the up & up. Nothing illegal or corrupt going on. So many coincidences & dots connecting that surely it defies the laws of chance/probability. Oh well. Math. So overrated. Who needs math right ..

I prefer, I choose, to believe in ‘conspiracy theories’ over what they tell me. If I hear, “Oh no, you don’t want to look into that subject. It’s silly, it’s stupid. Nobody believes that crap! Don’t read that article, it’s biased or it’s a ‘bad’ site, it’s this, it’s that, it’s whatever,” it’ll be my first stop. “Why are they trying to keep me from that? What don’t they want me to see?” People out themselves without knowing it – actions speak volumes. It’s the whole ‘what we fear we create’ scenario. They are leading people right where they don’t want them to go. They must have missed the reverse reverse psychology class. They don’t realize that they’re ‘creating exactly what they fear.‘ Pay attention 😉

The moral of the story; A person who would never, EVER hurt a child, wouldn’t stand for anyone else to hurt one either. So if one day someone told them about possible or probable abuse, or molestation, rape, or the trafficking of a child; that person who would never, EVER hurt a child would want such serious allegations to be looked at, taken seriously & investigated. You know, just in case it is true. Gotta make sure. I mean, come on, who wouldn’t ?? Someone who’d hurt a child, that’s who. 

🆘Red Flag🆘

If there’s nothing to find, why can’t we look? If it’s all fluff, then why is everybody panicking? Why does everybody lose their shit when you say the word? Why did reddit ban it? Why is twitter & fb suspending profiles who talk about it? Why are people disappearing, & worse, for mentioning/looking into it? What really happened to Andrew Breitbart, Max Spiers, & Nancy Schaefer? What about Chris Cornell & Chester Bennington? Too conspiracy-ish for you? It’s a little too coincidental-ish for me.

This is part of our spiritual awakening; remember the part where they said, “It’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better?” Well here we are. And yeah, it’s fucking ugly. But staying in your bubble of illusion & pretending it doesn’t exist isn’t going to make it go away; in the darkness the cockroach thrives, in the shadows, it multiplies.

Exit The Matrix.

      Don’t Say It The mainstream media has become such a joke; it's "following-an-agenda" transparent. And like nails on a chalkboard, the drivel - more often than not devoid of fact - a constant static.