I think what a lot of people don't understand is that the cultural and societal aspects of religion can still exist in a society that is 100% secular. Most atheists aren't anti-theists, in fact, most of them still take part in many religious customs and celebrations in a secular form. Anti-theism doesn't even mean the eradication of religion, it's typically used to describe the intellectual opposition to belief in a deity,

So, I'm honestly perplexed whenever I see people arguing that the "end goal" of atheism is to eradicate religion, this is something both religious people and ill-informed atheists believe, for some reason. I guess this is what happens when Christopher Hitchens and Sam Harris are your go-to atheists and you're measuring atheism against the most extreme religious zealots because that's what most people are reactive towards.

What should be completely removed are almost all forms of institutionalized religion and religious power structures. These are the exactual oppressive structures that have used religion as a tool to justify every form of bigotry and crime against humanity. They are also not essential to the practice of the religion or the survival of the religious culture. Your right to practice your religion ends if you're using said religion to advocate for the oppression of Muslims (assuming you're not practicing Islam), atheists, LGBT+ people, and other minorities. You can be a church-going Catholic without advocating for state-sanctioned religion or the rights of others being removed. This evangelical breed of religious extremism has no place in society and is what actually leads to real genocides happening today.

Antisemitism is evil

Genocide against the Palestinians is evil

If you disagree with either of these, please leave my page

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Further Reading:

Yes it’s a Genocide

TL;DR: there are many classifications of genocide, and one of such classifications is ethnic cleansing. Israeli military and government forces claim they are doing a Nakba 2. The first Nakba is the definition of ethnic cleansing, by UN definitions, which is a form of genocide. Israel has admitted that they are committing genocide.

No criticizing Israel is not antisemitic

TL;DR: if criticism of Israel or being pro Palestinian equates being antisemitic, then here is a list of raging antisemites (direct quotes included): Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhi, Malcolm X, Fred Hampton, Nelson Mandela, Albert Einstein (is Jewish), Stephen Hawking, Frida Kahlo (is Jewish), Noam Chomsky (is Jewish), DJ KHALED, Muhammad Ali, Jimmy Carter, Ben and Jerry (the ice cream people), Bernie Sanders (is Jewish), and Susan Sarandon.

Why Israel hates Palestinians (and why it’s unjustified)

TL;DR: Early post Zionist radical philosophy was to get back at the Germans and kill 6 million Germans senselessly for their systemic murder of Jews. This was rejected by Israel, but this thought process and reaction to historic European antisemitism was channelled into mistreatment of Palestinians. Europe is to blame yet Palestinians are the ones suffering,

I am very well read

TL;DR: Someone called be a slur and told me to pick up a book, I responded with a list of books which I read, a good chunk of which are from pro Israel Zionists and anti Israel Jewish and Palestinian academics

Antisemitism Post #1

TL;DR: a critique of white leftists who thing all Jewish people must categorize themselves as “good Jew” or “bad Jew”. Ethnonationalism like Zionism is dangerous but so is bigotry such as antisemitism. I also use my personal story of hating Belgians.

Antisemitism Post #2

TL;DR: if you replace “Israeli” with any other ethnicity or nationality and it’s bigoted, then your statement is antisemitic. If your statement isn’t bigoted and a rightful criticism of government or military positions and actions, it’s not antisemitic. It’s not antisemitic to criticize a genocide.

Patriotism vs Nationalism vs Jingoism

TL;DR: A Patriot loves their country, she celebrates when it does right and criticizes it when it does wrong. A Nationalist loves their country, she celebrates it when it does right and ignores when it does wrong. A Jingoist loves their country (or at least a specific version of it), celebrates when it is right and when it is wrong, because their country is unable to do wrong in their eyes. Everything can be justified.

Antisemitism Post #3

TL;DR: the Jews don’t control Hollywood.

Rebutting the “It’s Complicated” Claim

TL;DR: it’s not complicated, it’s apartheid

Antisemitism Post #4

TL;DR: Israel is Antisemitic, non Ashkenazi Jews frequently face discrimination, especially in Netanyahu’s Israel, but it’s always been this way with Yiddish language bans, forced sterilization of Ethiopian Jews, and European supremacy in all corners of government

Extremism is Sometimes Justified

TL;DR: one person’s terrorist is another person’s freedom fighter, and if you claim all extremism is bad, you support European colonial control of Africa, Haiti, the USA, and so many other evil regimes.

Yes Israel is a Colonial Project

TL;DR: Direct sources from the founders of Zionism calling the creation of Israel a colonial project and referring to Palestinians as the indigenous peoples who are in the way

Continued:

In a few months more journalists have died in Gaza than in WW2.

Gaza: Israeli company plans luxury beach side Apartment on the ruins of Gaza

A Message from a Palestinian Friend

People who are not Israeli or Palestinian are allowed to engage in discourse on this issue, especially Americans

Goat Jewish Boi Slays

The Post that Blew Up

Debunking idiotic Israeli arguments

Where’d you Come From, Where’d you Go

USA is the most diverse country on earth

Direct quote from an Israeli cabinet minister calling this conflict a war on Gaza not a war on Hamas (what happened to the plot??)

I love Jewish men who love humanity

Israel doesn’t care about peace

Watch the American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 now: https://youtu.be/bWiW4Rp8vF0?feature=shared

The American Climate Leadership Awards 2024 broadcast recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by active climate leaders. Watch to find out which finalist received the $50,000 grand prize! Hosted by Vanessa Hauc and featuring Bill McKibben and Katharine Hayhoe!

do you know where I can learn about baeddels from an accurate point of view?? everything I've found seems to be strangely contradictory and fitting certain agendas, and I'd like to understand better what's going on there.

I don't know if there's one condensed source on Baeddels, but I can help fill in some gaps to the best of my knowledge.

"Bæddel" as a term comes from an Old English slur meant to target "effeminate"/gnc men, people we would now understand as transfeminine, and intersex people. It is the root of the word "bad", quite literally. This was interpreted by some transfems around 2014 to mean that society hates trans women more than most/any other group, and the term was reclaimed as a way of communicating a transfem-centric, transmisogyny-centric worldview and ideology.

So Baeddel ideology is about "centering transfems", but it goes a little deeper than this:

[From this article on Baeddelism, written by a self-described Baeddel in 2017]

Baeddels believe that transmisogyny is under-discussed (which is true) and extrapolate from this two major and deeply dangerous ideas:

Transmisogyny is under-discussed because other trans people, namely transmasculine people, are taking up too much space. Transmascs are their oppressors, and they get away with it.

The only people transfems can possibly be understood by, or safe around, are other transfems.

The first point is problematic because, well, transmascs do not hold the institutional and systemic power necessary to oppress anyone. We are not granted privilege nor power for being trans men.

We can and do participate in transmisogyny, which is absolutely a problem (and it's one I do my best to address in these conversations), but this is lateral aggression. It absolutely causes harm; but it neither aids in, nor benefits from, the systemic oppression of transfeminine people.

Acting as if transmascs are uniquely privileged or are otherwise oppressing transfem people contributes to the existing oppression of transmascs (and again, this is lateral aggression when coming from transfems). In fact, trans men and AFAB nonbinary people face higher rates of lifetime sexual assault and suicidal ideation than any other group- which stems from oppression that is erased and under-discussed, allowing it to continue in the shadows.

The second point is problematic because it very quickly leads to a re-hash of lesbian seperatism, something Baeddels are happy to admit to:

To the extent that “no… young trans women [are] espousing transfeminine separatism” - its true only insofar as it was never transfeminine separatism but lesbian separatism (people get this twisted - it wasn’t necessarily exclusive of cis women & there were cis women who contributed to the theory back in the day) and if we aren’t espousing it its because we’ve implemented it with sufficient success. I, at least, still uphold lesbian separatism [...]

[From this post on Baeddels from one of the original Baeddels, written in 2019]

Lesbian separatism, for those who don't know, is an extremist radical feminist movement that states that women cannot have contact with men without endangering themselves. Solutions to this range from simply interacting with men as little as possible (often including political lesbianism), to forming self-sufficient communes devoid of men, to literally killing all men.

Lesbian separatism is a proto-TERF movement, and something many TERFs still advocate for today. Slapping trans paint on these ideologies does not make them less dangerous, because the problem with TERFism isn't just that they hate trans people: it's that they are a violent and cultish group founded on fear, hatred, and bigotry.

The Baeddel movement largely imploded around 2016/17 when there was some drama and fallout, and one of them was revealed to be fairly abusive (iirc). Still, they left an impact. This post is a compilation of (genuinely horrific) anti-transmasc sentiment found largely on Baeddel tags and self-described Baeddel blogs on Tumblr, all of which is no older than 2018, and largely from more recent years.

If you'd like to dig deeper, the sources I linked provide a lot more information on all of this. It is genuinely fascinating, and it's genuinely important to be able to identify these ideas and why they're dangerous.

I want to leave this off by stressing that Baeddels were a relatively fringe group, and in no way represent all transfems. They caused damage to transfem communities as well as transmasc and trans-androgynous nonbinary communities, and transfems as a whole are our allies in addressing the mess they left behind.

The Complete Fiction of HP Lovecraft rated by me, someone who read them all* but has a terrible memory

The Beast in The Cave: uh a guy goes on a cave tour and finds a creature that was like a human that got lost and adapted to its surroundings. 0/10 just because im pretty sure there was another one with this exact premise and neither of them were memorable at all.

The Alchemist: dude achieves immortality and lives in the narrators basement and has pledged to murder his entire lineage or something. 4/10 the alchemy stuff was actually kind of interesting

The Tomb: im pretty sure this is the one where a guy starts hanging out in a tomb and like travels back in time/becomes one of his ancestors? 5/10 if its the one im thinking of i did enjoy reading it

Dagon: guy lands on a mysterious island with signs of a long dead civilization. 1/10 i do not remember what happened in it

A Reminiscence of Dr. Samuel Johnson: 0/10 i have no memory of this

Polaris: also 0/10 i forgot all about it

Beyond the Wall of Sleep: could be any of the dream focused ones. if its the one about the dude sailing into the void or whatever than 4/10 not too bad

Memory: ironically, i dont remember it. 0/10

Old Bugs: 1/10 for the title god i wish i remembered this one

The Transition of Juan Romero: i got nothing. 0/10

The White Ship: this might also be the one about the dude sailing into the void? i liked that one he lived in a lighthouse and boarded a dream ship and just fucking left it was fun. 4/10

The Street: uh i think really steep street that didnt actually exist. 3/10

The Doom that Came to Sarnath: i wanna say another one of the dream centered ones where a town discovers some old relics and blatantly disrespects them and gets exactly whats coming to it. 5/10 they deserved what they got

The Statement of Randolph Carter: ok this dude shows up several times. i think this one is about how he returns to his childhood home then travels back in time and creates a time loop paradox thing. 1/10 meh

The Terrible Old Man: uh some thieves harrass a weird old guy and get got. 5/10

The Cats of Ulthar: someone is mean to a cat in a dream city, all of the rest of the cats get revenge and are revered for the rest of time. 2/10 (-3 because lovecraft has a specific name he gives to apparently every fictional and real cat he encounters and wow i wish he hadn't)

The Tree: i feel like this is something to do with a person becoming a tree but i cant actually remember. 0/10

Celephais: yeah no i got nothing 0/10

The Picture in the House: also nothing 0/10

The Temple: nope 0/10

Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and his Family: is this the one where the dude's great grandfather married an ape? i dont think so but im not sure. 0/10, -5/10 if it is that one cause that one was especially shitty

From Beyond: nope 0/10

Nyarlathotep: charismatic dude shows up and is like get in bitches we're going to the void. i love nyarlathotep cause hes the one who directly interacts with humanity and like wears a human suit or whatever so hes just some dude whos like hey im gonna feed you to azathoth 5/0

The Quest of Iranon: got nothing 0/10

The Music of Erich Zann: narrator makes friends with an old musician whos being hunted by supernatural forces. 2/10 because i remember it but it was just ok

Ex Oblivione: 1/10 for the title but i have no clue what it was about

Sweet Ermengarde: lovecraft's sole attempt at comedy. not to my taste like at all 0/10

The Nameless city: nope 0/10

The Outsider: also nope 0/10

The Moon-Bog: sounds cool, dont remember it. 0/10

The Other Gods: dude tries to find the gods of humanity where they live on a big mountain, actually finds them, is immediately smited by the Other Gods who protect the gods of humanity. 3/10 he deserved it

Azathoth: dont recall, 0/10

Herbert West- Reanimator: Arkham man Herbert West and his assistant ressurect the dead with little thought to the consequences, then get murdered by a band of said resurrected dead. 5/10

Hypnos: nope 0/10

What the Moon Brings: also nope 0/10

The Hound: still nope 0/10

The Lurking Fear: again, nope 0/10

The Rats in the Walls: dude returns to his ancestral home, hears rats, excavates the basement and finds out that his ancestors ate human flesh, eats his friend. 1/10 it was an interesting read but can lovecraft please stop calling cats that.

The Unnameable: no clue 0/10

The Festival: nope 0/10

*Under the Pyramids: ok im pretty sure this is the one with houdini which is the only one i could not read. i went into this mentally prepared for lovecraft's bigotry but i was not mentally prepared for him dropping harry houdini, avid skeptic who absolutely would have beat the shit out of him for this, into the middle of his super racist paranormal horror. -1000/10

The Shunned House: nope 0/10

The Horror at Red Hook: also nope 0/10

He: cool title, no memory of the story. 0/10

In the Vault: wow im bad at this. 0/10

Cool Air: still no 0/10

The Call of Cthulhu: kind of all over the place, there was a thing about artists and then a thing about a cop investigating a cult. 3/10 meh but ill give it a bonus for being a staple of horror fiction.

Pickman's Model: uh artist sees some wild shit and draws it and then it eats him. 2/10 i forget the details

The Strange High House in the Mist: if this is the one im thinking of, dude does a dangerous climb to find a mysterious house and meet the inhabitant who is kind of interdimensional and also being hunted by interdimensional things. also maybe the house eats people? 2/10

The Silver Key: another Randolph Carter one, and i think this is actually the one about him travelling back in time so idk what the other one was. 3/10

The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath: randolph carter goes on a quest in the dream world to find the gods of humanity and ask why they wont let him check out this cool city he can see from his window. lots of action and very wordy and went a lot of different places. 4/10 good read but extremely xenophobic

The Case of Charles Dexter Ward: guy investigates his ancestor who looks disturbingly like him, ancestor comes back to life and kills him and takes his place and a bunch of other stuff happens. mostly a dramatized genealogical study. 3/10 not bad, very suspenseful

The Colour Out Of Space: meteor lands on a farm, scientists get weirded out by it, everything in the area gets weird then dead, alien thing gets enough power from draining nearby life-forms to escape earth. fun twist ending. 4/10 bonus for being one of the better ones, detraction for writing out a 'rural accent'

The Descendant: nope, 0/10

The Very Old Folk: nope again, 0/10

History of the Necronomicon: very dry. fake history of lovecraft's fake book thats super important to a lot of the stories. 0/10

The Dunwich Horror: isolated witchy family has a kid who no one likes that grows up real fast. graphic descriptions of renovation. a horror gets unleashed on the area and the local folklore scholars have to deal with it. 1/10 nothing good enough to counter the xenophobia

Ibid: i remember this one. no idea what it's deal was. pseudo-bibliography? it was weird. 0/10

The Whisperer in Darkness: guy has a correspondance with another guy about local folk legends based on evil crab things. other guy gets straight up replaced by an evil crab thing and first guy doesnt even notice. imagine if you followed up on a scam email and didnt realize anything was up until you saw that the face of the dude you were talking to in person was a mask. 4/10 for the comedy this guy would not last in the internet age at all

At The Mountains of Madness: guy whines about penguins and how awful it would be if there were civilizations that predated humanity. also commits grave desecration. i get hit by the realization that if lovecraft was less of a racist coward he wouldve made a great speculative sci fi author. 3/10 i would love to watch that old asshole get absolutely torn to shreds by the monster fucker community

The Shadow over Innsmouth: Fish People! Leave Them Alone! Or Else! 5/10 the protagonist gets to live the dream by escaping human society and becoming an immortal fish person

The Dreams in the Witch House: dude rents an objectively haunted room, doesnt listen to people trying to help him, gets murdered by a weird rat. later they find a shit ton of bones in the attic. 2/10 meh

Through The Gates of the Silver Key: Randolph Carter transcends time and space, then de-transcends time and space and immediately gets stuck on another planet in the distant past, makes a long and difficult journey back to earth to find that his estate is being divided amongst his heirs. the comedy potential of a man stuck in an alien body dealing with a legal system that has declared him dead is not examined. 2/10

The Thing on the Doorstep: narrator's good friend marries a fish person witch who steals his body. thats basically it. 3/10. at this point im like wow these narrators really refuse to believe the heavily foreshadowed supernatural explanations that turn out to be correct huh.

The Evil Clergyman: dude is in a room. some ghosts (?) show up. dude has a UV light for some reason. Gets his face stolen i guess and just has to live with it. 5/10 for being absolutely buck wild and refusing to explain anything

The Book: nope 0/10

The Shadow Out Of Time: dude gets his body stolen by ancient scholar species. agonizes about it for a while. finds archaeological evidence of said species. finds a book he wrote while living with said species. almost gets eaten by something. 3/10 more cool speculative sci fi but lame protagonist

The Haunter of the Dark: you'd think id remember it bc this was the last one and i read it last night. oh wait, nvm i do remember it. dude finds an old box in a run down culty church and unleashes a horror that then comes and fucks him up. 1/10 meh.

What we’re your thoughts about the book?

Some asks were answered already in this post already so I just smacked those asks in here at the part where I talk about the topic in question, which is why the answer may not 100% fit the question.

Massive “Seasons of War” spoilers below the cut:

First off, of all, this book read like GoT/any zombie movie ever. With the necromancers being like the white walkers, Vile is the night king and daugar are the wights. even with the necromancers crumbling away after Vile got killed Tell me I’m not the only one seeing that.

I think there was a lot of fanservice and some confirmed headcanons in the book, which I really liked. Saracen magic got revealed, there was a return to the Leibniz dimension, the Vile vs Vile fight so many wanted finally happened (tho that was kinda underwhelming) and the Dead Men returned which I’m sure made a lot of people happy. 

Ravel poisoning Saracen during the war and Vile being so powerful bc of being dead were two popular headcanons that got confirmed. And I am personally so happy that this book killed the ‘there is no sarcasm in the Leibniz dimension’ headcanon bc I bloody hated that.

Finally, Landy tries to please the old fans instead instead of what feels like purposefully pissing them off. I guess the phase 2 book sales weren’t that great so far (nice try blaming it on the pandemic, but no). 

I’m also glad that the romance in this book was kept to a minimum bc The Val/Militsa kiss in the beginning, yikes, fanfiction has better written kisses than that. And the the dialog for the lesbian love triangle (bc for some reason Ms.Wicked aka Laura’s self insert is Militsa’s ex??) was cringy and stiff as hell, it felt more like first graders trying to do a dramatic play and not natural at all.

Surprisingly enough Mevolent’s and Serafina’s relationship seems to be the most healthy and romantic in the entire series and I have no idea if that was on purpose or if Landy just has twisted views on relationships.

I however am actually kinda happy with how Mev was written. He was sympathetic and charismatic, tho some of the stuff he did doesn’t fit to they way he’s characterised when he’s on screen (I know he is probably lying 90% of the time he speaks, but still). Like, banning all languages apart from English doesn’t seem like something a man who cares about culture, literature and art would do. It also seems kinda stupid bc those languages will be forgotten eventually and if they need an old text translated no one will be able to do it. Also, why English? Isn’t Mev old enough that his first/original language should be Gaelic? So weird. I have the feeling this was mainly done so Valkyrie (and with that the audience) can understand what the people on the continent are saying bc I very much doubt she understands/speaks any languages apart from English. 

But I loved that Mev was also shown as insanely smart. He managed to outsmart Val multiple times. And I love how he doesn’t need his magic to fight, how quick and agil and skilled he is. So I take it that his fighting style is more based on agility and not getting hit, and he uses brute force only when forced into it (by Darquesse/the Unnamed). I was wondering about that bc his armor is made of leather and chainmail instead of metal plates which is considered light armor and not something a tank type of fighter would wear.

What really rubbed me the wrong way tho was when he was talking Tanith and Skul and more or less stated the war wasn’t a challenge anymore ever since Skul died. Or when he was talking to Val being like ‘you’re more powerful than I could ever hope to be’.It bothers me even more knowing that Val is based on girlfriend!Laura. Does really everyone and everything in-vers, even a big bad like Mev, rub Skul’s/Landy’s and Val’s/Laura’s ego? Big yikes.

Crespular Vies is surprisingly fun. At first I thought the two men going after the Obsidian Blade were hired by the Unnamed, but since that wasn’t the case, I think Crespular Vines hired them that so he could show up in time to save Omen and his friends. I think him opening up to Omen about being Skul’s former partner came too unprompted, too quickly and that he is trying to gain Omen’s trust so he can get close to Skul through him. I think another giveaway that that’s the case is bc one of the men Omen had to meet to get his brother back wore a Cleaver outfit and Vies gave that man probably the same reasoning Omen gave him.

That said Omen’s chapters were surprisingly enjoyable. By what I had heard of others I expected a sad sack that can’t fight worth a damn. 

I’m not found of the Temper/Kierre stuff, it came out of nowhere.

Val is overpowered AF, it seems that she can get on Darquesses level with more practise/learning how to keep the doors open. She certainly needs to be nerfed.

Also I skipped the Darquesse chapters bc I’m giving negative fucks about her and the plague doctor.

The last 10% of the book were too rushed and felt like half finished thoughts.

Also I was kinda really bothered by the citizen of the Leibniz dimension. They were cartoonishly racist and it was very pretty black and white for the most part AKA everybody good is in the Resistance and all other sorcerers are evil/corrupt. That is also shown by there being children in the Resistance camp while there was no mention of children in the mage cities. In reality, most people are fairly mellow and it’s just a small percentage that is either really good or really wicked. I would have liked to see more racism towards mortals in form of apathy or ‘the soft bigotry of low expectations’ like I’ve seen it from Serpine in DotL. You know, make it a little less black and white.

Also, I understand the mermaids, but the bats in Europe were random AF. Like, I would understand it if they were just in Romania/Transylvania as a nod to the Dracula-typ vampire legends originating from there. As a plot-device they weren’t really needed to keep the protagonists from flying bc the danger of getting spotted by necromancer by doing so should be enough of a threat to keep them on the ground. This might seem nit-picky of me, but the bats just seemed so bloody random to me like wtf????

And also bc I’m a slut for magical creatures, I would have really liked to see more of them than just daugar and giant bats. Some undead cut together and resurrected necromancer experiments would have been pretty cool tbh. Like whatever the hell this is.

Something like zombie bears would have also been acceptable, I mean, bears are fucking terrifying on their own, let alone when undead and decaying.

I’m kinda pissed at China that she wanted Skul to kill Nef, but it does seem in character. Of course I still don’t like it bc I headcanon as Nef, Eliza and China having been besties during the war (no matter what canon says, I’m keeping that headcanon). I’m surprised Skul didn’t let Wreath have Nef considering that. Then again, he thought Nef might still be useful. And he was right. I loved how Nef actually had an essential part in saving the world by throwing the bomb. So proud of my boi <3 But Skul refused to kill him even after that. Could it be that Skul is finally getting character growth and development? 👀

Aaaand, China’s continuing to be a tyrant. With Tanith’s sense of justices flaring up shown when he killed the city governor, Erato, and Nef being shown to go after people that betray him (Lorien) I think those two are being set up to go after China to kill her (and to probably kill Creed too). Imagine Eliza joining the team bc she want a piece of China too.

I feel sorry for Baron, but at least he got a few speaking lines this time around. Still, I really wanted Nef to save him. :C Like, he suffered so much before he died too considering he spend a year alone starving and thirsty with broken legs in the middle of nowhere wft, why is Baron getting fucked over like this? #BaronDeservedBetter2020 he is the only honorable person of all faceless followers and he’s the one that gets screwed over in every book he shows up in, why tho- 😭

Speaking of Nef, I absolutely loved him in this book, he was a delight and stealing the show whenever he was on the page, despite being used as  punching bag through pretty much the entire book. If people have always treated him that way I can see why he turned evil jfc that poor man. Despite that, he was still being such a clever, funny and relatable bae <3 He’s described as ‘cynical, and nasty but also kinda cheerful’ and as liking to ‘needle’ people (aka trolling and roasting) by Val and that essentially describes every shitposter on the internet ever. And I so loved the way he roasted Saracen lmao

And how he’s so clever, like the Lorien part was my favourite scene closely followed by how Nef essentially talked Remus Crux into getting himself killed, just 👌 smart snek boi, I love him <3 Also I hope he keeps poisoning everybody thoughts against Skul like how he had already been doing it to Tanith, he’s poison in human form and that’s just my jam.

That obedience bracelet was kinda fucked up tho.

Why does this thing even exist? Aren't electro shocks or any other form of pain enough instead of shutting his nervous system down/rendering him completely defenceless? I feel like some messed up mage 100% used it to keep himself (sex) slaves at some point in time :/ Landy might have gotten that idea from some fucked up hentai. Even the implications of the name "obedience bracelet".... I can’t be the only one that got creepy perv vibes from that thing, right?

Btw what the fuck happened to Harmony? You know, Leibniz Serpine’s girlfriend. She hasn’t been mentioned again. Did she die? She didn’t seem too found of him in DotL, was she plotting against him and he found out about it, killed her and fled the Resistance? Or did she die prior to him leaving and it was part of the reason he left bc she was the only thing that had tied him emotionally to the Resistance?? Or Landy just forgot  she existed. I would not be surprised.

Of course my biggest issue with this book was how he retconned Nef’s magic and how he took his trademark, his red hand, away, but more about that in a different post.

TL;DR: Nef was a delight even though he was done dirty. Mev’s scenes were a 50/50 split between good and bad. I actually liked the Crespulare and Omen chapters. The Unnamed was a disappointment. The last 10% of the book were to rushed and the final fights that were supposed to be the biggest were underwhelming. The rest is meh, didn’t really care tbh. Let’s be real here, I only bought this book bc Nef played a bigger role in it, anyways.

THE DIFERENT CYCLES OF NOSTALGIA FILTER

Most of the nostalgia towards the past is based on Nostalgia Filter. The good stuff is remembered and the bad stuff ignored, forgotten or not even taken in account. When it's about a time period Two Decades Behind people will be nostalgic for it because they experienced it themselves, but from the viewpoint of a child or a teenager, when they didn't have to worry about all the adult stuff that depresses them nowadays, because the grownups took care of all that: taxes, work, bills, tragic news events,... If the nostalgia is about a time period people didn't directly experience themselves the romanticism is even more rampant. People will base their rosy posy image of that time period on stuff they have seen and read in books, comic strips, cartoons, TV series, films, old photos and/or fond memories of older family members. Usually they aren't aware that many things they now take for granted didn't always exist back then or were still considered highly controversial.

The glories of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome where the cradle of philosophy and science started, everyone is able to enlist in the army (well, if you weren't a woman or a slave, of course) and see the world while doing so. You can go and enjoy watching Olympic Games, a play in the theater or watch exciting gladiator battles in the arena, philosophers like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Virgil are respected as pillars of their societies, and people were opened to sex and LGBT as opposed to the close-minded Christians in later centuries. Not taken in account: class systems, people dying early of diseases we nowadays have proper treatment for, slavery, democracy only for rich upperclass males citizens, bloody battles, Roman military service had to be fulfilled several years! before you could retire and start a civilian life, women having no rights, not even allowed to watch sporting games, xenophobia was so prevalent that would make modern prejudices and bigotry look tame, scientific contributions were more based on superstitions and empirical and weren't always based on logic (see Plato's and Aristotle's works), pederasty was the only accepted form of homosexuality and it was punishable if a relationship did not fit in those criteria (also it was only tolerated in some city and states), Roman sexuality was still arguably patriarchal and not all sexual taboo was acceptable (ie. a wealthy man get away with his slaves while married women were expected to be faithful, oral sex was considered shameful).

The thousand years of Chinese dynasties up until Republic was the time where people dressed in beautiful colorful haifu with good etiquette and manners, scholars were appreciated, education was valued as opposed during the Cultural Revolution, the Tang Dynasty was the golden age of prosperity and where women has more rights than any other periods. Not taken in account: the Confucians were oppressive against the lower social classes, the caste system, education systems were corrupted with many scholars and students were promoted based on bribes rather than actual skills, women were still considered inferior in the Tang Dynasty, the royal court were so deadly and decadent that would make the place in wuxia media look tame, slavery, the rebellions and civil wars (ie. The Three Kingdoms, An Lushan Rebellion, Taiping Rebellion) that were very common that cost million of lives that went unheard of and resulted in many famine and diseases that led to cannibalism, footbinding was practiced since the Song Dynasty, xenophobia was prevalent including against their sister countries like Japan and Korea.

The Middle Ages are usually romanticized as a glorious past with chivalrous knights fighting for the honor of beautiful princesses, proving their worth in tournaments, stuffing themselves at royal buffets with the kind old king, and defending castles against malevolent invaders. Not taken in account: The Plague, wars, mercenaries and soldiers plundering farms and villages, filthy streets, people dying at a young age because of insufficient knowledge of diseases, the injustice of the feudal system, monarchs and the Catholic Church being oppressive towards people with other viewpoints, high illiteracy, people executed and tortured for audience's pleasure and often without anything resembling a fair trial, women considered being lesser in status than men, famine whenever harvests failed... Ironically, the part that was arguably good, the Byzantine Empire (with its extremely high literacy and such luxuries as running water) is usually overlooked or completely ignored.

The Renaissance and The Enlightenment are the time when society finally got out of the bleak, primitive and God fearing Dark Middle Ages and gained wisdom by discovering a lot of stuff. Kings and queens never looked more magnificent. Artists and sculptors painted the finest works and humanists, philosophers and Protestants learned humanity to think for themselves. You could enjoy a Shakespeare play, listen to baroque classical music or have a swashbuckling duel. Not taken in account: A lot of new thought and discoveries in the field of science were very slowly adapted into society. Mostly because a lot of royals, religious authorities and other government officials suppressed these "dangerous" new ideas. Compared to those "primitive" Middle Ages more people have been hanged or burned on the stake for their beliefs and/or on the assumption that they were witches during the 1500s, 1600s and 1700s than in the centuries before! The Reformation and Counter-Reformation divided Europe and caused many casualties. All the great books and art works created during this era were only enjoyed or experienced by the very rich. Wars still ravaged Europe, colonization exploited other continents, slavery became a real industry and absolutism made the monarchy and nobility so powerful and decadent that they didn't care about the lower classes. Duels weren't glorious at all, just a matter of killing off your opponent.

The Golden Age of Piracy is one big adventure where you could go on a boat trip with pirates and have fun attacking other ships, taking gold and bury or search for treasure on some Deserted Island. Men were real men with a Badass Beard and cool looking eye patches, hooks for hands and wooden legs. Not taken in account: scurvy, people forced to do what their captain told them, your ship being attacked by other ships and losing, keelhauling, loot just being spent instead of buried, anti-piracy laws could get you arrested and hanged, storms could destroy your ship, all the cool looking eye patches, hooks for hands and wooden legs were just practical solutions for grievous injuries suffered during fights, and the fact that most of the Caribbean economy was reliant on the slave trade. There were also plenty of brutal attacks on helpless villages, indigenous communities, plantations, civilian ships, and even colonial settlements. In addition to helping themselves to everything that wasn't tied down, pirates would also torture, murder, enslave, and/or rape men, women, and children indiscriminately just for their own sick pleasure.

America's Wild West is a fun era where you could roam the prairie on a horse, visit saloons and shoot outlaws and Indians. Not taken in account: slavery was not abolished until deep in the 19th century and still going on in many colonies or remote place in the American South, cowboys took care of cattle and didn't engage in gun fights, gun violence was just as illegal as it is nowadays and could get you arrested by local sheriffs, outlaws could actually remain on the loose for several years, Native Americans being massacred by white settlers and armies, black people having no basic human rights, The Ku Klux Klan was a respected organization...)

The mid-to-late 19th century and early 20th century were a classy time period where everybody was impeccably dressed and had good manners. You could take a coach ride or (later on) test the "horseless carriage", read some of the greatest novels in history, listen to the first records or even the great Caruso in person, admire the wonders of electricity and enjoy a world still untouched by modern industry. Life in the colonies was even more fun because you so many countries were still unexplored territory and the ideal place for adventure. Not taken in account: Victorian values were dominant, women couldn't vote, poor people couldn't vote, industrialization didn't have any health, safety or ethical rules to obey, child labor was rampant, workers had no rights, factories were very harmful to people's health and the environment, city rivers were open sewers, upper class had all the advantages upon the lower class, people could be sent to the poor house when they couldn't pay their debts, many novels were just pulp (think of it as the 19th century version of Internet) and music was strictly symphonic, the first automobiles were as dangerous as electricity, colonization was great for white Europeans but not as much for the oppressed native populations of Africa and Asia, animals were still hunted down as trophies, people who looked different were exploited in freak shows and circuses for spectators to Come to Gawk.

The Interbellum (1920s and 1930s): Between the two world wars, life was great. Everybody went to night clubs and/or revue theaters where they could enjoy great jazz music, girls and comedians. Movie theaters were a great place to be, because fantastic cinematic masterpieces were made. On the radio you could great music and serials, and newspapers published the best and most engaging comic strips ever printed. Not taken in account: From 1920 until 1933 alcohol was prohibited in the USA, so having an alcoholic drink was impossible without getting arrested or dying because of bad homemade brew. Crime was able to organize itself in a way that will probably never get untangled again. Many people got murdered in gangster violence. Jazz music was initially seen as "barbaric" just because it was made by blacks, and it had to be adapted to symphonic music to make it well-known. Hollywood in its early years was subject to more scandals than ever since, leading to a industry-wide censorship that lasted until the 1960s. The Great Depression between 1929 and 1940 caused major unemployment and poverty in many civilized countries, also forcing quite some people to start a life in crime. The "Dust Bowl" generated a desertification of the Midwest. Germany was particularly struck hard, because the country was still paying huge war debts to other countries, causing mass poverty and the ideal atmosphere for Nazism to gain voters. Many countries during this time period suffered under either Nazism, Fascism or Communism. From 1933 on Jewish, homosexual, Romani and left wing people were already persecuted in Nazi Germany, at the same time disagreeing in anything with Stalin meant a one-way ticket to Siberia. War was already brewing in Europe and the Far East, when Japan invaded China and South East Asia. Many countries were still colonies, which wasn't a great deal for the natives there. Afro-Americans were still second class citizens and the Ku Klux Klan was still quite powerful in many political circles.

The '40s and World War II, the time where the entire world was united against a common evil foe and soldiers could still fight a just cause. Everybody worked together to defeat the Nazis or Japanese, while enjoying great Hollywood films and jazz and big band records on the radio. Not taken in account: Not everyone was united against the Axis. Numerous people (even Lindbergh and Ford) didn't consider Nazism or Fascism anything bad or felt their country should stay neutral in the war. During the occupations many people on both sides were arrested, deported, and/or murdered. People couldn't trust anyone, because your neighbor might be a Nazi collaborator or a spy who would turn you in to the authorities. The Nazis banned American and English music and films in Europe, so you could get in big trouble if you tried. Also, you know, there was a big war on. Millions of young soldiers were drafted and died on the battlefield, cities were bombed and occupied by enemy armies, you could die any day, shortages were rife.

The '50s: The last truly great time period in history. Music, films, politicians were nice, clean and decent. There was a general optimistic feeling about the future, exemplified in sunny fashions, interiors and technology. The youth enjoyed some great rock 'n' roll on their transistor radios and the early TV shows show how happy and pleased everybody was. Not taken in account: the Cold War, the Red Scare, anti-communist witch hunts, the Korean War, the French Indochina War, many European countries tried violently oppressing the inevitable independence of their colonies, Afro-Americans were still second-rate citizens in the USA and had to fight for human rights, homosexuals were forced to keep their sexual identity silent in many countries, the traditional role of women as housewives was still encouraged in many Western countries, a lot of music in the hit parade was still the bland, square, formulaic and sappy crooner music popular since the 20s, adults were scared of early rock 'n' roll and actually did everything to suppress the youth from listening to it and becoming teenage delinquents, the TV shows and films of that decade were so escapist that they ignored every controversial element.

The '60s and The '70s, a great time when everybody was a beatnik or a hippie and enjoyed fantastic rock music, marijuana, LSD and free love. People chased bad guys with their own hands with cool funk and disco music playing in the background. The young demonstrated for more democratic rights and everything changed for the better. Not taken in account: the older generation looked down upon hippies, the Vietnam War cost many lives, The Cuba Missile Crisis nearly caused a nuclear war between the USA and USSR, Afro-Americans still had to fight for civil rights, just like today there were just as much idealistic but naïve demonstrators who merely wasted time smoking pot instead of actually doing something, drug casualties were just as rampant back then as they are today, people took the law on their hands because of the alarming crime rates, not helped by the extreme corruption of police forces, psychedelic rock, funk and disco are now confined to sit in the shadow of both rock-and-roll and modern pop music, to the point that for decades, these were considered as the most cheesy genres created by man, [[not all demonstrators were pacifistic in their approach and it's an open question whether everything actually changed for the better.

The '80s: Oh yes. A great decade for pop culture after the sordid '70s and before everything went to the gutter in the '90s: Everybody felt a bright future coming along, as demonstrated by good TV shows, groundbreaking technology, computers and videogames, colorful clothing, simple yet catchy pop music and finally a TV channel that showed your favorite bands 24/7. The Cold War came to an end, the Berlin Wall and Apartheid fell. Not taken in account: The early 1980s had many people fear the Cold War wasn't going to end well. The Latin American debt crisis. President Reagan wanted more nuclear missiles in Europe, envisioned the Star Wars defense system and the "Evil Empire" speech reflected the "Red Scare" at a time "the Bomb" was still making everybody nervous. The Cold War, Berlin Wall and Apartheid did fall, but only near the end of the decade. Unemployment and economic crisis were a huge problem in many Western countries in the early years of the decade and the high speculation led to a bubble which fatigued in 1987 and burst in 1989. AIDS caused many victims because governments were slow to inform the general public on this disease as most people at first dismissed as just a problem for blacks, gays and drug users. TV shows and movies were extremely escapist and PCs and video games were prohibitively expensive. MTV did bring music videos on TV, but the downside was that how a pop star looked and danced became more important than the music, which was now created by computers, becoming increasingly sappy and repetitive as samples became the norm, becoming a disadvantage for those who still wanted to use actual instruments, chords and tunes. Metal and rap were seen as crime-mongering and even "satanic" as a whole. Also drugs went artificial during this time, turning Florida into a Crapsaccharine World. The nuclear power plant explosion in Chernobyl caused another major fear among people about the dangers of nuclear power.

The '90s and The Aughts: Dude. The Cold War has ended, and though some pesky Arabs (and some nutcases in the West) will try to blow people up and some Central European countries will be at each other's throats, there is peace at last! Outsourcing has lifted the West from the heavy load of manual work for good and turn to technology, and anyways, isn't the Internet wonderful? Society and culture are now free to break all imposed boundaries: Music has become more authentic with the arrival of rap, hip-hop, grunge and pop-punk. TV and movies now address modern issues instead of being stuck in those stodgy 50s and 60s. Politicians at last agree on stuff and generally get along. Whatever. Not taken in account: While a couple of years in the late 1990s were quite peaceful, the years before were marked by the extremely chaotic rearrangement of the former Warsaw Pact nations and the decade after was dominated by the Iraq War and memories of 9/11. The "technological revolution" ultimately never became the boon it was supposed to be: Economically, the exodus of manufacturing jobs forced the middle class to live on debt, which would give way to an economic meltdown by the end of the 2000s while privacy would gradually become a major source of concern as personal data became readily accessible. During the 1990s, the Internet was very expensive and was the province of businessmen and geeks while during the following decade, online downloads and chatrooms became incendiary topics. Grunge and "gangsta rap" were better known at their peak for the demise of several of their stars than for the music while hip-hop and pop-punk would be regarded in retrospective as trashy as the bubblegum pop that dominated the late 90s. By increasingly appealing to the trendy set, TV and film became increasingly shallow. While ideological differences became a thing of the past, politics became more self-serving and conflicts became pettier. As a result, people began to feel a sense of disconnection, which eventually led to the rise of strongly ideological populist movements.

SOURCE:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NostalgiaAintLikeItUsedToBe

EXTRA: IN THE DISTANT YEAR OF 2045.

The New '10s and New '20s : Remember that meme? Do you have a Harriet doll? I need her to complet my My Little Poney: Friendship is Magic and Equestria Girls collection. Do you want to exchange her for my Fluttershy doll? Oh, do you like Lady Gaga? Her music was so deep. “Oppan Gangnam style. Gangnam style. Op, op, op, op oppan Gangnam style. Gangnam style. Op, op, op, op oppan Gangnam style. Eh sexy lady. Op, op, op, op oppan Gangnam style. Ehh sexy lady, oh, oh. Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh”. Oh, i love your funko pop of Baby Groot!  “ Gotta get that. Gotta get that. Gotta get that. Gotta get that that that. Boom boom boom (Gotta get that). Boom boom boom (Gotta get that). Boom boom boom (Gotta get that). Boom boom boom. (Gotta get that) Boom boom boom. That boom boom boom. That boom boom boom. Boom boom boom”. Avengers Assemble! 

Not taken in account: The Syrian refugee crisis. The burning of the Amazon jungle. Donald Trump as the american president. Jair Bolsonaro as the brazilian president. The Covid-19 Pandemic. Navy oil in the beachs of the brazilian north east. The Brazilian Cinematheque getting closed. Height of murders of LGBTQ in Brazil. Disney monopolizing the american TV an Movie Industry.

@theroguefeminist @ardenrosegarden @witches-ofcolor @mademoiselle-princesse @butterflyslinky @anghraine @notangryenough @musicalhell @rollingthunder06 @graf-edel-weiss @princesssarisa @culturalrebel @irreplaceable-ecstasyy @im-captain-basch @iphisquandary @jonpertwee

Watch the 2024 American Climate Leadership Awards for High School Students now: https://youtu.be/5C-bb9PoRLc

The recording is now available on ecoAmerica's YouTube channel for viewers to be inspired by student climate leaders! Join Aishah-Nyeta Brown & Jerome Foster II and be inspired by student climate leaders as we recognize the High School Student finalists. Watch now to find out which student received the $25,000 grand prize and top recognition!

You're saying the DEO isn't fucked up in the same place I'm saying Lena isn't evil. She is. I just don't like the 'because they're law enforcement' excuse being used to even partially justify shady behavior when a person doing actions that can easily be described with the same 'things the system demonstrably cannot deal with' excuse is branded irredeemable rather than morally questionable like the DEO. Lena's bad, but she's bad because of her plan, not because of holding Reign or killing Lex.

No, I’m pretty sure Lena’s bad because she straight up murdered someone while they were defenseless.

Look, I’m getting tired of this, so I’m going to go deep dive here, and hopefully, it will get my point across.

Society can only exist because of something called the social contract, which is defined as “an implicit agreement among the members of a society to cooperate for social benefits, for example by sacrificing some individual freedom for state protection.”

Law enforcement agencies are part of the social contract.  The right to protect self, life and property are, as part of the social contract, held collectively and exercised by Law Enforcement Agencies.  This allows for the systematic encoding of rules and limits on those rights in order to guarantee the most safety and liberty for everyone.  Law enforcement exists as a public trust to ensure the public good.  In Theory.

Now, in practice, I’m  pretty firm in my stance that all cops are bastards, and that by and large, law enforcement is rife with corruption, over reach, and abuse.  I’m a disabled, mentally ill, working poor transgender woman.  I trust cops about as far as I can throw my van.

BUT, I can also recognize the fact that people commit crimes, and law enforcement agencies are the ones that we, as a society, have collectively charged with the responsibility of protecting us from those who would commit crimes, and for catching those who have committed crimes.

And that is a GOOD thing.  Because Law Enforcement has an obligation to follow the law (I am under no illusion that they always, or even usually do).  If we did not hold the right of protection and enforcement of the law in collective, than everyone would have to take the law into their own hands.  And let me tell you, as someone who gets told every day what people *think* the law says while they are WILDLY in error, you WANT a system in place with a standardized and ridged interpretation of the law.

The reason I am defending the DEO as a Law Enforcement Agency is simple.  Lex Fucking Luthor is what you get when a private individual attempts to police aliens.  Ben Lockwood and the Children of Liberty is what you get when a private individual attempts to form a group to police aliens.  Individual interpretation, bigotry, cruelty and brutality.

The DEO is FLAWED.  It’s more flawed than most US Law Enforcement.  But is is a system which is at least attempting to be fair, unbiased and just.

Yes, it needs to be fixed, but acting line the DEO is out there murdering people on a whim, is bullshit.  It just is.  Drawing moral equivalence between Lena and the DEO is insane.

The DEO is part of the social contract.  It’s an organ of the government, which has been assigned the responsibility of exercising the collective right to protection from crime when either the perpetrators or victims of the crime are aliens.  They have a legal, moral and ethical mandate to act to protect the safety of the populous from criminals who have abilities which put them outside of the capabilities of other law enforcement.

And yes, they have stepped over the line.  Disappearing Max Lord was over the line.  I mean, the man fits the legal definition of a serial killer by that point, but the DEO should have provided evidence to the cops and let them prosecute the fucker.  But even when it was happening, it’s clear that the DEO doesn’t regularly disappear people.  When Alex tortured the Cadmus operative, it was clear that that is NOT standard DEO operating procedure.

The DEO needs to be fixed, but the DEO arresting an alien who rampaged through downtown and locking them up so they don’t kill again is NOT the equivalent of Lena shooting an unarmed man, or kidnapping Eve and performing experiments on her.  The DEO operates within the bounds of legitimate authority to protect the public from danger.  Lena’s a mean girl throwing a tantrum.

They’re not morally equivalent.

The Note

By R.L. Lawrence

My response to the recent mass shootings, in the form of a fictional suicide note from a gunman.

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Disclaimer: The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred. The sad fact that this disclaimer is necessary is one of the reasons why this was written.

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Congratulations! If you’re reading this, I’m dead, and by killing me you’ve played an important role in my plan. Thank you very much, and I hope you aimed for the head.

I’m writing this to provide context for what just happened here. By now the news media has already reported on a crazed gunman who went on a shooting spree, who was killed by the brave first responders called to the scene. I hope that they didn’t use my drivers license photo as my picture on the broadcast, I look terrible in that. Regardless, I apologize for the panic I caused, but I want you to know that nobody was ever in any real danger. All my guns were loaded with blanks, ordered online from a film prop supply store. Feel free to check my bank card history to back that up, just ignore the fact that I’m overdrawn right now.

So I guess this is where I get on with my manifesto, huh? I’ll bet you’re expecting a long diatribe about my grievances with the government, or with immigrants, or with socialists, or with whoever else you think I’m upset enough with to kill over. Tough luck there, this wasn’t meant to be a political act on my part. I mean, I suppose it could be broadly considered political, given that this is really directed at society as a whole, and politics and government are a major part of any society.

The reason I’ve done this is because it seemed to be the only way to get people’s attention, even if it’s only for a few days until the news cycle moves on to something else. Generally, our society only acknowledges one’s opinions as worth paying attention to if they are already famous for being wealthy (such as with business leaders), charismatic (such as with Hollywood celebrities), or both (most national politicians). I suppose you could say I fit the mold of a mass shooter: white, male, vaguely antisocial (though I prefer the term “uncharismatic”). Because of my lack of charisma and aforementioned lack of money, whenever I try to speak out against something I feel is wrong, it’s pretty much completely ignored. This is the case not only for me, but for the millions of people not already sitting at the top tier of society. Within the marketplace of ideas, my small voice is drowned out by pundits and ideologues in that top tier who are given a much more visible platform to speak from. I think regardless of beliefs, that’s what drives the majority of mass shooters to kill; it’s the feeling that they aren’t being listened to and they need to do something drastic to get their point across.

That’s not really an opinion though, that’s simply an evidence-based observation. Everyone knows who Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold are, but I bet you’d be hard pressed to name a Columbine victim without a Google search. Same with Timothy McVeigh, Adam Lanza, Nikolas Cruz, etc., etc., etc… Media coverage makes these people famous, and every time it happens people already on the edge are effectively told “if you can’t be famous for something good, you can always be infamous.” Every commentator tries to decipher motives, some blaming divisive rhetoric by politicians, some blaming lax gun laws, some blaming video games, but it should be plainly obvious that anyone willing to go on a shooting spree isn’t 100% mentally healthy to begin with. You can hold strong opinions about any number of things without ever considering killing people over them. It takes a special type of crazy to do that.

So let’s go ahead and get to the meat of the matter here. Why did I do it? What message am I trying to convey that I felt wasn’t being listened to? What’s so important to me that I was willing to get shot over just to be heard?

Simple. Don’t be an asshole.

Well, it’s a little more complex than that, but that’s pretty much the gist of it. I’ve spent much of my life trying to share a message of kindness and acceptance. I haven’t always been correct about everything; I read, I learn, I reevaluate my ideas if they seem to be lacking, but I’ve always tried to do right by people and encourage others to do the same. From my point of view however, it appears that in a lot of ways, society is moving in the opposite direction. Our nation has become less kind, less compassionate, and less caring year after year. People can’t discuss differences of opinion without devolving into shouting matches and insults. Within my lifetime, our world has become more connected than ever, but at the same time, people are fortifying themselves within their ideological echo chambers and becoming more isolated than ever from ideas and people that differ from their close circle of like-minded friends. The dangerous us-vs-them mentality of tribalism and zero-sum competition that has driven wars and social division throughout human history has been cranked up to eleven. Recent resurgences of racism, nationalism, homophobia, misogyny, and every other form of bigotry have nearly eliminated decades of progress made in human and civil rights. Fear of “the other” having the same privileges as one’s own group has made cooperation between groups of people all but impossible. This isn’t a critique of one group either, this goes for all groups: religions, races, nations, governments, political parties, businesses, nonprofits, fraternal organizations. You name it, and the in-group/out-group mentality is rampant.

It’s partly because of this that humanity has largely conflated legality and morality. Instead of treating everyone with compassion and kindness, society has agreed that if someone is not a part of your group, it’s morally justified to inflict any sort of punishment you want on someone that breaks the rules of the group. It’s why brown people looking for a better life are put in concentration camps. It’s why a black person pulled over for a broken tail light can be murdered by police. Without even mentioning specifics here, there’s a huge portion of the population that will justify any atrocity committed in the name of “law and order”. What’s worse is that they don’t realize that they aren’t even a part of the in-group in these situations. When it comes to laws, the in-group is never those who the laws apply to, it’s always the people making and enforcing the laws. People with power and money create and advocate for laws that benefit them and their friends personally. It’s why there’s effectively two separate justice systems in our country, one for the rich and one for the rest. It’s why a black man selling loose cigarettes can be killed by police while bankers who ruin the economy and businessmen that destroy the planet get at worst a slap on the wrist.

This is also why nothing is ever done on a legislative basis to combat the types of mass shootings that I attempted to mimic in my actions. Politicians see no personal benefit to it; in fact it’s usually the opposite. They know that any substantial change will anger the lobbyists that line their pockets. For most legislators, funding their next campaign is far more important than the loss of human life.

I suppose my motive here is be that I am trying to draw attention to the sort of change I’d like to see.  I want to see less selfishness and more compassion. I want to see less competition and more cooperation. I want to see a world where people help each other, rather than just helping themselves, a world where we stop asking how something benefits us and start asking how it benefits others. Less discrimination and more acceptance, less vitriol and more consolation. I want a world in which people are judged based on their own merits, and not who they know or what group they belong to. I want to see a world where those who have a prominent public voice and platform stand up for those who don’t. I want to see a world where people who need help can get it without being looked down upon for their circumstances.

Overall, I just want to see less hate and more love. Maybe then there won’t be so many people willing to commit mass murder just to be listened to. Maybe then people like me wouldn't prefer death to living in this world as it is.

Bluewind's Massive List Of Fic Recs

Here are some of my favorite fics. Please be mindful of the tags on the fics as I was unable to note them all myself. Let me know if any are abandoned, if a link doesn't work, or if you just want to share a fic I might want to add to my list ^_^

Also, I didn't have time today to add all the Tumblr ones, so click here to see all the fanfiction under my fic rec tag.

Also also, if you get a minute leave a little comment on the fics you enjoy (especially for the AO3 writers who tend to rarely get noticed if at all).

The Hidden Rose by jamiebluewind (wc 10196): Warning! Please read the tags! Roman will be okay. He can handle the self loathing building up inside of him. He can ignore the weight pressing down on his shoulders as he plasters on a convincing fake smile. He can hide his pain from the others. He'll be okay... until he's not.

A Different Side Of Hogwarts by notalwaysthevillian: Four boys travel to a magical school to learn to be wizards. A brave muggleborn, a nervous pureblood who doesn't quite fit in, an intelligent loner with his nose always in a book, and the friendly ball of fluff that keeps them all together. Can they survive their classes and everything that seems to try and pull them apart?

In The Witch's Nest by a_forgotten_note: Virgil is considered bad luck. Nobody wants to adopt him and everybody who does returns him due to the fires that always happen around him. Then one day, two loving men come into his life and show him what he never knew existed. They do their best to teach their new son how to use his magic. One could expect no less from the two Ilvermorny professors.

To Build a Home by AValorousChoice: Nobody ever wanted Virgil. Nobody had ever shown the slightest bit of interest in adopting him. He never believed he was good enough for a loving family. Then one day, Patton and Logan walked into the orphanage and changed everything. (I love this one so much. Angst and fluff and well written)

This Love Hate Relationship by insanelycoolish: Roman has followed The Witching Hour since he was in high school. Last time they were in town, Roman not only got to meet the lead singer of the band, he kissed him as well. The band (Virgil included) is in town once more. Roman drags along his friend Logan for moral support as he tries to find the answer that's been plaguing his mind for a year: Will Virgil remember him and their kiss?

Keep Him Safe by Whatwashernameagain: Warning! Adult content, so please read tags! Officers Logan and Roman are unlikely friends. Roman is a flamboyant flirty rainbow and Logan is... decidedly not that. When their regular stop closes, they decide to try out a new place. The pastry shop is owned by a sweet bubbly man that quickly pulls in all who meet him with his genuine kindness. However, pain can be hidden beneath a smile. Meanwhile, a gang is quickly growing in power. (a mixture of fluff, angst, and dark undertones)

A Lesson in Practicality by ResidentAnchor: Four seemingly random strangers all answer an ad to move into a downtown apartment. After a few month together, they all realize they've been hiding a secret from one another... they each have a unique special ability. Can they keep living their day to day lives in a house full of superpowered humans? Will their powers bring them together or cause a rift between them? And how long until somebody starts running around in tights?

Patmalian by patentpending: Patton loves Logan more than anything. He just doesn’t understand why his friends are lying or why they’re saying there’s something wrong. He’s not obsessed or deluded. He’s just in love. Desperately, terribly, helplessly in love. (will stomp on your heart and you will say thank you)

Out Side Observations: The sides become real. Thomas is left scrambling as he tries to figure out how to handle the situation. The sides are not much better off. (linked to current newest chapter so yall would have the links to all the previous ones)

Illuminated by altruistic-skittles: Most humans are born with a soulmark that glows in the presence of their soulmate. Some are platonic. Some are romantic. Those without one or with a faux one are often treated badly by society. This is the story of a group of men trying to find where they belong.

A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing by I_Live_In_A_Trash_Can: Warning! Dark themes so please check the tags! Three superheroes face off against vilian Nightmare. Patton tries to become friends with a lonely guy named Virgil.

Partial Prints by satan_copilots_my_tardis: Warning! Basically all the warnings so check the tags! Patton is a serial killer who feeds victims to Virgil who is a monster who eats people, Deceit is a demon, Roman is a muse, and Logan is the poor human caught in the middle. (for god sakes read the tags)

An Unconventional FamILY by EmPhoenixCat: Warning! Dark themes so check the tags! Human Logan adopts a vampire (Remy) and a werewolf (Roman). Virgil is a good kid despite being possessed by a morally gray demon.

Another Line That Comes With Age by SmolTownFangirl: Warning! Graphic depiction of violence so please read the tags! Roman takes care of his 3 sisters despite his dad being king of the assholes. Patton and Logan are teachers. Virgil is their son.

We'll Be Together Never (Forever) by Lady_Akuma_Wolf: Warning! Extreme abuse/neglect so please read the tags! Patton befriends a mostly elective mute outcast said to be Soulless. However, Patton believes Virgil's soulmate is just shy (unlike his own dramatic soulmate Roman). Virgil isn't use to kindness especially since his own parents are abusive assholes.

Could You Imagine by FebruaryFun: Imaginations take physical form. Logan is not taking very good care of him imirage Virgil and needs a helping hand.

Blank by Shay_Nioum: Logic is gone. There's only Apathy. The other sides are heartbroken.

A Whole New World by mandeebobandee: Virgil and the others were just watching a movie. Now he's lost in the real world.

Fanged Friend by Demon_Wr1ter: Warning! Graphic violence so please read the tags! Virgil is a vampire with three great roommates. Now all hell is breaking loose and he's scared of killing one of his friends.Fangs by TessaTheDreamer: Warning! Assault so please read the tags! Logan was turned into a vampire. At least he's already a nightowl.

The Seeds We Sow by ResidentAnchor (wc 67435): Warning! Graphic depiction of violence so please read the tags! In one kingdom, magic is embraced. In another, it's outlawed and those with any magic are executed. Prince Logan has to travel to the other kingdom for a meeting.

Even Nobody Has A Tale To Tell by AlliDaMeme: Warning! Abuse so please read the tags! Roman isn't happy with who he's being paired with for a group theatre project. Virgil the dark loner. Patton the boy that always smiled. Logan the nerd who skipped two grades. Dex the dangerous delinquent. What none of them realize is that everybody has a story to tell and not all of them are happy.

Behind the Yellow Door by FangirlOfPower: A story of Deceit's adventures in the Light Sides' version of the Mindscape. He's usually very confused, especially by idioms that are taken literally.

Family Matters by IRegretNothingAndEverything: Warning! Abuse so please check the tags! Virgil runs away from an abusive home only to be scooped up by a strange collection of two adults and the runaways who became their children. Now if he could only save his little brother.

Ceremony of Innocence by Acantha_Echo: Warning! Abuse, violence, and isolation, so please check the tags! Sir Roman is captured by the evil warlock terrorizing the lands. Locked away in a cell with his only company being a kind man in glasses and the handsome servant who brings them food at night, Roman struggles to find a way to protect the kingdom and save the others.

The Witch's Secret by Arcadian_Skye: Roman rushed back to meet with the other sides. He was going to regret fighting the dragon witch with so little time to spare before brainstorming with the others. Pain. Glass breaking. Darkness. Will the injured prince find someone worth fighting for?

Blanketverse by SoDoRoses (FairyChess): Wet Blanket and Life Of The Party: Roman wants to host a party in his realm. Virgil feels like a wet blanket (when he's not worried about having a panic attack). Personal Space: Patton won't go near Logan and Logan worries why.

adventures in gender by riverblujay: Virgil discovers they're nonbinary. They're later joined by Roman resulting in the two bonding.

It's Still a Good Life by IsaacTheGreat69: Logan is in pain after a breakup. Virgil is supportive. (Analogical)

Silk Gloves by Dorktapus42: (more of a jacksepticeye/markiplier egos fic with mentions of Sanders Sides). A hectic day in the life of our favorite silent grayscale boy, Jameson Jackson aka JJ.

Powerless by patentpending (wc 187953): Warning! Graphic depiction of violence and mental abuse so read the tags! Almost everyone in the world has a superpower. The unabled 0.04% are treated as lesser and subjected to bigotry. Virgil has tried to fight back against the system that oppresses people like him, Patton, and Logan. When Patton’s bakery is targeted in a hate crime, he finally snaps. With the help of a mysterious sponsor, Virgil becomes a villain, ready to remake a broken society. The only thing standing in his way is the world’s most powerful superhero: The Prince.

Overworked and Underpaid by IsaacTheGreat69 (wc 7349): Thomas has been really busy and hasn't been seeing his friends. Virgil gets hit hard by the stress.

A Stitch a Day Keeps The Bad Thoughts Away by ShadeCrawler (wc 8407): Virgil has found serenity in knitting. Whenever he knits, he tries to make the other Sides a gift. It never ends well.

Love and Other Fairytales by SoDoRoses (FairyChess): Wickhills is a town that never stays in the same place forever. The people there do there best to keep themselves safe when surrounded by fae and other magical creatures. Not all beings are kind. Not all gifts are wanted. Not all paths are safe.

lavender for luck by lovelylogans (wc 66391): (LAMP) Virgil's uncle castes spells, reads fortunes, and listens to houses talk just like Virgil's father when he was alive. You see, the Fae family is born with both magic... and a curse. Those who fall in love with a Fae and have that love returned all die, so Virgil refuses to ever take that risk.

How not to be an idiot about your feelings by Tiili97 (wc 5475): After staying up for 3 days studying, Virgil convinces Logan to get some sleep. Logan wakes up the next day not remembering that he had randomly kissed his roommate on his way to bed.

The Low Light by a_forgotten_note: Warning! Graphic violence and sexual conduct so please read the tags! Logan is a cold-hearted vampire who runs a funeral home with the help of Patton who takes care of the daytime business. Patton's boyfriend Roman is... there. While out walking the graveyard, he happens upon a boy being stalked by a ghoul. Virgil survives and gets entangled in the world of nether creatures and the sudden influx of vicious ghouls in the small town.

Second Chances by callboxkat: (Sequel/series page) Roman is homeless and just trying to survive. With no room left at the shelter, he was tossed out and left to fend for himself on the streets. A former high school rival offers to help.

The Last Days by EdgyCatSkull (wc 10383): Warning! Major Character Death so please read the tags! Patton, Logan, and Roman have lived in their apartment together for years, along with a fourth reclusive man. While the three grew closer, the other never even told them his name. But one day, the man they had started referring to as simply Anxiety came out of his room and began to bond with the other three men. Maybe there is a reason, but one Virgil would rather leave unspoken. With Roman's play coming up and everybody seeming very happy, it would almost seem like things would finally work out for them... almost.

Of Course by A_Travis: Anxiety existed in a gray area of not good or bad. Just gray. When he lends a hand to the others, he only has one response.

Lovesick by Jackfruit: Roman can smell lovesickness and Logan REAKS. Logicality

Ever After by creativenostalgiastuff: Virgil is death and must guide souls to the afterlife. (very sad)

What? by just-an-anxious-mess: The sides are acting strange

Chemically Imbalanced by NyxWordsmith: Warning! Read the tags! Roman’s first mistake was taking Mr. Sanders History class, expecting an easy ride. His second mistake? Hitting on his son. (very lose adaptation of the sides and so much angst)

Stains of a Soul by sanders-sides-fics: Warning! Abuse so read the tags! Virgil is torn. He loves writing to his soulmates and the marks on his arms from their replies. His parents don't. They called having three soulmates unnatural. He's punished. Insulted. His pens are broken. He just wants to make his parents proud.

Scribbles by SketchyNebula: Virgil watched as the ink appeared on his arm followed by a second and a third. His soulmates. He would never muddy their relationship with his presents, but as he watched the happy colors take up every last inch of blank space on his arms, he couldn’t help but be happy that fate chose him to be lucky enough to witness it. The unfolding of this relationship was going to be something akin to a fairy tale and if that was the only light in his dark existence that fate would grant Virgil, then he would take it without regret.

Silence and Duality by xaandiir: Warning! Read tags! Children make mistakes and the Sides were no exception. When Thomas was young, they locked up the one who was hurting him. They thought they were only protecting Thomas. Now that Fear is out, they have to face he consequences of their decision.

On Impossibility by theotherella: Student body president Logan is in a precarious balance of power. In order to save the football team, he was forced to cut the unsusessful theater program. Roman hates him for it. Virgil isn't too happy either. Logan is fine.

A Virgil Affliction by creativenostalgiastuff: Warning! Read tags! Thomas has high anxiety over his friends moving. Virgil becomes overwhelmed with all of the changes in Thomas’ life. He struggle to cope and starts taking it out on everyone and everything. What will help them get through this tough time?

Innerworks by Prplzorua: Warning! Author may not be able to finish! Because of an "Incident" Anxiety falls ill, Thomas won't speak, Logic is mad, Morality is just trying to be a good dad (they tell the best jokes) and Prince is trying to figure out what in the world is going on.

Inks and Tallies by Skittlesun: Roman has an odd tattoo client asking for tally marks

Sleeping on Secrets by novusavis: Virgil is worried his curls will make the other sides not take him seriously, so he tries to hide them

Splat! by Listless_Songbird: Patton hears a curious noise coming from Roman’s room and peeks in to investigate

Mimicry by On_Sonnshine: Warning! Dark themes and violence so read tags! Virgil looks broken as he confesses something terrible that happened. Roman sees red.

Patton Will Fight You by RLCinderella: Virgil talks bad about himself. Patton did warn him. (Pure fluff)

Wynken, Blynken and Dad by SilversEdge: Virgil is having trouble falling asleep, so Patton decides to help (Pure fluff)

Neuro Logical by musicmuse0609: After being insulted by Roman, Logan decides to do some research to figure out why he's so different. Discovering the reason only seems to cause him more stress than before.

Love hurts by TheGhostOfBenjamin: Warning! No comfort so read tags! A merman falls in love with a human. One needs air, the other doesn't. How far will he go to get to his loved one?

Everyone can leave by Vampirtulpe: Warning! No comfort so check the tags! The sides and Thomas have been stuck on an imaginary island for months. Roman is convinced that he will find the exit, but what if everybody doesn't want to leave?

Must Be Dreaming by rosesandstuff: Remy loves kissing his boyfriend, Roman. However, when it’s obvious there’s something much weighing on Roman’s mind, Remy stops so they can talk.

Unspoken by IronWoman359: Warning! Read tags! Virgil stomps off in a downpour after he and Logan have a fight. When tragedy strikes, will Logan get the chance to make amends.

Noose - Oneshot by imthederpyfox: Virgil walks into the woods with a rope and a piece of paper. A noise in the distance startles him.

Love at firtht thight by shiverfawkes: (analogical) Virgil is use to not being taken seriously. He has a strong lisp which causes "s" to sound like "th". Then he meets a boy at his new school who changes that.

Silence Is Your Loudest Scream (I Don't Know Why You're Hiding) by maxiswriting: Roman is an actor. He can hide the truth behind a wall of convincing lies. The dark thoughts aren't there. He's fine and happy for the others. Everything's fine. (LAMP)

Lessons by DemonicPresence (wc 2732): Roman loves guitar. Logan doesn't understand why.

High Five by periwren: Virgil is a shy lonely school kid that always gets picked on. His classmates have made it a new game to jump scare him and eventually it all ends in tears.

Cat's out of the Bag by YouDontKnowMeIDontKnowYou (wc 2262): After wandering into the imagination to find Roman, Virgil turns into a cat. He's not happy about it. Hilarity ensues.

Nail Polish and Princes by novusavis (wc 3207): Virgil has trouble with his hands shaking. It makes it impossible to cleanly paint his nail, so he decides to ask Roman for help.

The Kind of Pain That Doesn't Hurt by warcatscat: Warning! Read tags! Roman has bad habits. He knows that. He knows they're not good for coping. But when everything else is so deeply overwhelming, what else can he really return to besides old habits. They die hard, right?

The Betting Pool by Skittlesun: Drama teacher Roman Hart and music teacher Virgil Knight have this little game they like to play. The objective? Make the other blush first. Place your bets!

Did You Lock The Door? by periwren: Warning! Sexual situations so read tags!Patton and Deceit just want to fool around without the other finding out, but the other sides keep spoiling their fun. Hilarity ensues.

The Smell Of Leather Jackets And Alcohol by Sp00nhater: Warning! Extreme child abuse so please read the tags! Virgil and Roman are very different. Roman is popular and loud. Virgil is a quiet loner that's feared. A class protect forces them to work together and brings some dark truths to the surface.

It's Only Logical by TSTrashCaptain: Warning! Sexual conduct and past abuse so read the tags! When Logan (a florist with a PhD in botany), decides to hire someone to work the counter in his flower shop, he assumed it would be no big deal. His life would continue to be calm and as predictable as Roman unsuccessfully flirting with the emo owner of his favorite coffee shop. He could never have expected what a disruption one single Dad could make to his neatly ordered life.

To the Charlottesville Anti-Fascists: A Message from the Mothers of Murdered Anti-Fascists in France

On the anniversary of the anti-fascist mobilization in Charlottesville, in response to a call for a weekend of international solidarity, we’ve received a solidarity statement from the Collectif des Mères Solidaires in France, the Collective of Mothers in Solidarity.

Click the image above for a PDF of a trifold of this statement.

One year ago, we felt with you the pride of seeing a powerful anti-fascist movement rise up against a far-right and white-supremacist gathering in Virginia.

We also felt the terrible sadness of seeing a young woman who stood up against all forms of discrimination murdered by fascist hatred: Heather Heyer, this shining face, this strong and at the same time calm determination to refuse the unacceptable. Too much light, too much determination…

This is the same hate that in Paris in 2013 killed Clément Méric, an 18-year-old syndicalist and anti-fascist militant.

Elsewhere in Europe, fascism or state repression have claimed the lives of Carlos Palomino, Pavlos Fyssas, Carlo Giuliani, Renato Biagetti, Dax, and so many other young people whose names will forever be associated with the struggle for a world liberated from white supremacy, bigotry, and social injustice.

We write from France as the mothers of young militants who have suffered violence or repression as a result of their activism.

Like Susan Bro, Heather’s mother, we are proud of the struggles of our children.

We know that they pay, or risk paying, very dearly for their refusal of an unjust society that is imposed upon them by the powerful. Death, violence, criminal charges, imprisonment… They are familiar with all of this. We have lived it alongside them.

And we affirm as loudly and as strongly as we can, a thousand times over, that our children are right for fighting back!

Our own struggle, as their mothers, is to bring attention to their words—words too often neglected, deformed, or caricatured.

The fight against the vision of the world spread by the far right must be the business of every generation, each one in its own way.

Mothers from Italy and Spain, whose parents knew fascism and Francoism, have shown us the path forward.

Alongside them, we are in the process of forming an International Network of Anti-Fascist Mothers in order to mutually support one another and to be present wherever struggles are taking place.

We are organizing to support everyday struggles in the neighborhoods targeted by racists, in the schools, and in the prisons; as well as the mobilizations that the entire world will be watching, such as that of this weekend, August 11-12, 2018, in Charlottesville.

We are pleased to associate ourselves with this great movement of resistance, to which your courage has summoned us. We send you our gratitude.

Collectif des Mères Solidaires//Solidarity Mothers

Collectif des Mères Solidaires: Who We Are

A collective to support victims of fascism and state repression.

We live in a Europe that boasts of being a haven of peace, freedom, prosperity, and justice, built upon the blood shed by the partisans during the battles to liberate it from fascism. However, our children, engaged in various social and political struggles, are beaten, arrested, sentenced, and in some cases killed by state authorities or fascists.

We, their mothers, affirm that the politics conducted by the governments of Europe are responsible, directly or indirectly, for this:

By thwarting our children’s aspirations to transform our societies and standing in the way of experimentation with alternative models founded on cooperation and self-organization.

By ignoring calls to respect human rights and the earth in order to defend the economic interests of the wealthy, exacerbating social injustices in their own countries and throughout the world.

By provoking hopelessness throughout society, by encouraging fear of foreigners, by tolerating or allying themselves with violent movements of the extreme right, they facilitate the resurgence of fascism that terrorizes and kills.

Exercising their freedoms of expression and of struggle, our children denounce injustice, discrimination, and the unrestrained capitalism that is ravaging the world. They defend their rights and those of the most marginalized. They fight against all forms of the drift towards fascism. They struggle for a world based in solidarity, openness, and respect for the environment.

Because they dare to take a stand against the state, they are considered a threat. And they face disproportionate repression from:

Police forces that use instruments of death, beatings, and arrests against those who don’t present any real danger;

A justice system that enables police impunity and mobilizes any means at its disposal, particularly imprisonment, against those who it wants to silence;

A prison system that violates the most basic human rights.

The state institutes these police, judicial, and carceral forms of violence as its normal mode of functioning to serve the powerful and to criminalize social, environmental, and political struggles.

Because we have raised them with the values of truth, solidarity, justice, and freedom, we, their mothers, demand justice and freedom for our children.

We denounce:

The fact that these states designate them as enemies of the Republic and of democracy, and seek to paralyze them through intimidation;

The violence and repression that is exercised against them;

The fact that these states tolerate the existence of fascist or neo-Nazi groups and on occasion guarantee them impunity.

Faced with the powerlessness of individual protest, we unite our voices so that those of our children may be heard. We share the struggles of other mothers, in Europe and throughout the world. We help and support one another.

We will neither forget nor abandon one another. We will not allow our devastated hearts to be engulfed by the silence of the cemetery or crushed by the humiliation of prisons.

For mothers like us, the slums where the children of migrants face discrimination, the refugee camps and the detention centers where those fleeing poverty, war, or political repression in their country are humiliated—these will always be spaces of mobilization.

And the anniversaries of the deaths of our children will always remind us of the urgent necessity of struggle.

-Collectif des Mères Solidaires—Collective of Mothers in Solidarity, France

Au collectif antifasciste de Charlottesville

A CrimethInc.

Le message de soutien des Mères solidaires françaises

Il y a un an, nous avons ressenti avec vous la fierté de voir se lever un puissant mouvement antifasciste contre le rassemblement des extrêmes droites suprémacistes et racistes en Virginie.

Nous avons aussi ressenti la terrible douleur de voir une jeune femme militant contre toutes les formes de discriminations assassinée par la haine fasciste. Heather Heyer, ce visage lumineux, cette détermination forte et tranquille à la fois pour refuser l’inacceptable.

Trop de lumière, trop de détermination… C’est la même haine qui a tué en 2013, à Paris, Clément Méric, jeune militant syndicaliste et antifasciste de 18 ans.

Et aussi, en Europe, Carlos Palomino, Pavlos Fyssas, Carlo Giuliani, Renato Biagetti, Dax… et tant d’autres jeunes dont les noms sont pour toujours associés au combat pour un monde libéré du racisme, du suprématisme, de l’injustice sociale.

Nous sommes des mères de jeunes militants français victimes de violence ou de répression du fait de leurs engagements.

Comme Susan Bro, la mère de Heather, nous sommes fières des combats de nos enfants.

Nous savons qu’ils payent ou risquent de payer très cher leur refus de la société injuste qui leur est imposée par les puissants. Mort, violences, condamnations judiciaires, emprisonnement… Ils connaissent tout cela. Nous le vivons avec eux.

Et nous affirmons du plus haut et du plus fort que nous pouvons que nos enfants ont raison, mille fois raison de lutter !

Notre combat à nous, leurs mères, c’est d’attirer l’attention sur leur parole trop souvent négligée, déformée ou caricaturée. La lutte contre la vision du monde véhiculée par l’extrême droite doit être l’affaire de toutes les générations, chacune à sa façon.

Des mères italiennes, des mères espagnoles, dont les parents ont connu le fascisme et le franquisme, nous ont montré le chemin. Parce qu’elles sont mères, elles sont écoutées.

Avec elles, nous sommes en train de constituer un Réseau international des Mères antifascistes afin de nous soutenir mutuellement et d’être présentes sur les lieux des luttes, que ce soient les luttes quotidiennes dans les quartiers racisés, dans les écoles, dans les prisons ; ou les luttes que le monde entier observera, comme celle d’aujourd’hui, 11 août 2018, à Charlottesville.

Nous sommes heureuses de nous associer à ce grand mouvement de résistance auquel votre courage nous appelle. Merci à vous.

Les Mères solidaires.

Photo, Canadian Press.

I’m scared about what’s happening in Canada.

When Donald Trump was elected in 2016, many of us Canadians wagged our fingers smugly at our southern neighbour. “What were they thinking?” we said to one another in line at Tim Hortons. We spent the next year or so glued to CNN, more captivated by American politics than what’s happening here.

We might have wanted to pay more attention.

The tide in the Great White North appears to be shifting right — but not in the way we’re used to. This isn’t a typical liberal-conservative tug-o-war, the ebb and flow we’ve seen throughout election cycles. This new movement is one that has already swept through Hungary, Poland, the U.S., it’s fuelled Brexit in the U.K. and has seen the rise of the far-right party Alternative for Germany, who have been compared to the Nazi regime. And it’s tilted so far to the right that it threatens to upend our democracy and the very liberties we’ve fought for.

While conservatives have historically called for less government regulation, lower taxes and a stronger military, today’s Canadian right-wing politics has rebranded itself to include more visible intolerance. Bigotry isn’t just bubbling under the surface these days, it’s out in the open and proudly displayed for when the guests come over.

This ugly, newfound boldness threatens to dominate the next federal election, impacting not only the world’s view of us a fair, diverse and welcoming country, but also the lives of all marginalized Canadians. That keeps me up at night.

As a gay mother with a trans child in the Ontario school system, and as a human rights advocate who spends a lot of time on social media, I’m on the receiving end of a lot of messages from people who think it’s “about time” politicians start standing up to “special interest groups.” We’ve been coddled for too long, they say, and we don’t deserve special treatment. They mock, namecall and outright threaten those of us who fight for the rights of marginalized people to be preserved. They’ve always done this, of course, but their voices, now embolded by the very politicians and public figures they support, are growing in number and getting angrier. I’ve had to file two police reports after my life was threatened — and those are only the incidents I reported.

This swing to the populist right is both in our face and insidious. Donald Trump might be loud and brash, but his win was unexpected by most. We surveyed the damage from up north, thinking it couldn’t possibly happen here. Surely, Canadians know better. We didn’t.

Modern populism has grown quietly, from the pages of right-wing websites to the birth of new neo-fascist groups such as the Proud Boys, now designated a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. Support for the populism movement gained traction through one protest, one meeting, and one tweet at a time. Now it’s loud and it’s everywhere. It unseated Premier Kathleen Wynne and her Ontario government, with Premier Doug Ford and the Conservatives promising little more than a buck-a-beer and the end of teaching gender identity in schools.

And then, in October 2018, Premier Ford met privately with university professor Jordan Peterson. While the premier openly discussed other meetings that had taken place around that time, the public only learned of this one after the CBC obtained his itinerary through a freedom of information request.

Wildly popular in some right-wing circles, Peterson’s views have been slammed as retrograde, problematic and dangerous. He became well-known after taking a stand against using trans people’s chosen pronouns, claiming being forced to do so is an attack on free speech. He argued vehemently against the federal Liberal government’s now-passed trans rights bill, speaking in front of the senate committee overseeing the bill, and warned his followers about the dangers of “compelled speech.” Peterson has also proposed “enforced monogamy” as a way to reduce male violence and believes “crazy women” can’t be controlled by men because men can’t resort to physical violence against them.

Despite, or, perhaps, because of these views, Peterson, who teaches at the University of Toronto, earns tens of thousands of dollars monthly from his Patreon account, a site where fans can pledge financial support to creators of all stripes. These donations are given to him by admirers, many of them Canadians.

Ford, meanwhile, campaigned heavily on the removal of Ontario’s most current incarnation of the sex-ed curriculum, and followed through — a move that has earned much criticism and more than one lawsuit. However, it was also, in part, what earned his party a majority government. A slew of Ontarians has proudly come out in support of Ford’s policies, including the removal of mandatory student funding for certain college and university services, such as pride centres.

A week before meeting with Premier Ford, Peterson had spoken out in a tweet against the Ontario Human Rights Commission, claiming it to be the most “dangerous” organization in Canada, and calling for the Ford government to abolish it. Peterson has previously said he doesn’t agree with the OHRC’s support of gender identity and gender expression. The OHRC had just joined the legal fight against the Ontario provincial government’s removal of the sex-ed curriculum, which covered LGBTQ+ issues, consent and cyber-bullying.

The Ontario Human Rights Commission does exactly what the name implies: using the Ontario Human Rights Code as its guide, it strives to protect all Ontarians from discrimination and harassment. Those who are fiscally-minded might also appreciate how the OHRC first tries to resolve issues between parties out of court, taking the less-expensive mediation approach. It is not the country’s most dangerous organization, but its dismantling could certainly be very dangerous.

The timing of this secret meeting should ring alarm bells for liberals and conservatives alike. Protecting human rights is, after all, supposed to be a closely-held Canadian value.

Trump’s 2016 victory was a dog whistle for bigotry that reached the ears of Canadians. Doug Ford has proven Ontario will welcome similar politics, while Maxime Bernier’s People’s Party of Canada, a federal right-wing party formed in 2018, has over 30,000 members and a social media presence that speaks out against “political correctness” and “diversity nonsense.”

Taking a page from the Yellow Vest movement in France, the Facebook group “Yellow Vests Canada” has more than 100,000 members. What began as a place to organize protests around the country quickly became a spot where anti-Liberal sentiments and memes are circulated around the clock, several going so far as to call for the Prime Minister’s death. Immigration is regularly condemned, and Islamophobia is dismissed as a made-up word.

While some of the most offensive posts have been removed over recent weeks, the views are still crystal clear. This group isn’t just anti-tax and pro-oil, it’s filled to the brim with intolerance. This message is consistent throughout provincial groups as well, such as BC Proud, Alberta Proud and Ontario Proud. With a combined total of hundreds of thousands of members in these groups, cries of fake news and the danger of refugees abound.

These sentiments don’t just live online.

Statistics Canada reported hate crimes had reached historically high levels in 2017, rising 47 per cent over the previous year, with Ontario and Quebec leading the pack on reported incidents. Black, Jewish and Muslim people were targeted most. Quebec saw a 50 per cent increase in hate crimes overall, and crimes against Muslims tripled between 2016 and 2017. In January of 2017, a shooter killed six men and injured several others in a Quebec City Mosque. Meanwhile, Ontario saw a 207 per cent increase in hate crimes against Muslims, and an 84 per cent increase against Black people. Crimes against LGBTQ+ people have also climbed. Swastikas have been spray painted on synagogues and other buildings across the country. Intolerance is growing.

Populism has many sources. Perhaps there are people who are tired of looking inward and are now lashing outward. Maybe, for some, it’s simpler to blame immigrants when they can’t find work than the companies who cut minimum wage jobs and still pay their executives millions in bonuses. Maybe it’s easier to find a scapegoat, to call someone like me a child abuser for supporting my transgender teen, than it is to grow and broaden our ideas of what’s normal.

Societal change can be hard and it can make people uncomfortable, but that’s a flimy excuse for discrimination.

Intolerance has never gone away, it was simply out of fashion for a while. Now it’s back with a fresh new look and a boost from fake news and social media.

We should all care deeply about this frightening political shift and where it could take us.

I know I care, which is why I’m so scared about what’s happening in this country, and what’s yet to come.

Amanda Jetté Knox is an award-winning writer, public speaker and LGBTQ advocate. She is the author of Love Lives Here: A Story of Thriving in a Transgender Family, which will be published in August 2019 from Penguin Random House Canada. She lives in Ottawa with her wife and four kids.

@diagnosis-prognosis-psychosis​ Frankly this is taking up way too much real estate on my blog so... this is what you get.

I was drafting an extremely lengthy point-by-point response to this, explaining all of the many, many, many, many things you misunderstand about every religion other than your particular flavour of Xianity, and Judaism in particular. I sunk probably an hour into it.

Then I got to your point 4.

4. You’re right, I am. My faith demands that I find a model of Judaism that fits Christian teachings, and that model is the model that Christ and his apostles preached. That is what my faith considers the true model of Judaism - a model wherein evangelism was only prohibited by the first covenant due to the circumstances of Israel at the time.

That’s... that’s a show-stopper on the religious-education front.

You are never going to find that model, because it doesn’t exist. There is no “version of Judaism” preached by the followers of Oily Josh, because that religion is Xianity. Judaism is, in fact, its own distinct entity with its own distinct history. A history that includes over a millenium of Xian evangelists being the first step toward murdering us.

So yeah. We take a dim view of evangelism.

I’m done talking religion with you; you are just too completely, willfully ignorant to even make sense of it anyway.

That leaves us with the rather disturbing politics you’ve been fed.

9a. You don’t seem to be taking the cute snarky hints, so let me be explicit: The things you are saying? Are made up by racists.

Kid, I have lived over twice as long as you. This means, among other things, I’ve got way more life experience than you. Don’t give me that “if you lived in a small town you’d know” bullshit. I have lived in many places in my time, from cities of millions to a community that still numbers less than 100 people total.

The divide you’re painting does not exist. There are urban communities (and let me come out and say outright what you keep dancing around: communities of coolour) that are tight-knit and vibrant. There are rural “communities” in name only, stretches of road where you might see your neighbours once every couple of months and never know their names.

You have been fed a racist myth, kid. I’m sorry.

9b. [citation needed]

9c. You’re about ten seconds from launching into a diatribe, I can tell. But... riddle me this: 

You claim government is evil.

You claim government is beholden to corporations.

You claim corporations are not evil.

How are corporations not responsible for what their minions do?

9d. No. No it is not. You see, unlike you, I lived through the 90s. I personally witnessed the way “urban” was used in that time. Remind me, when was he apprehended again?

You are talking racially-tinged politics whether you know it or not.

9e. “I never defended their actions, I just said they’re not a problem and we shouldn’t really do anything about them.” Now who’s playing semantics? What you are doing provides cover for their actions because - get this! - if we don’t do anything about them THEY ARE FREE TO FUCKING ACT.

Re the FBI stuff: See point 9b.

Kid, the alt-right literally marched under the slogan “Jews will not replace us” before murdering someone I would have been proud to call a comrade. They routinely talk about how they want to kill us all off, threaten us, beat us, and shoot up synagogues.

So yes. The alt-right do, in fact, see me as Them. They see me as a traitor and collaborator, and they have shown that at least some of them are ready to kill over it.

Have you ever heard your sources talking about ZOG? (If not, please remember this when it happens. Because it will happen.) What that refers to is the “zionist-occupied government,” a common belief in alt-right circles that Jews have infiltrated the government and are the reason it is bad. They will never ally with me against the evil government, because they think I’m the reason the government is evil.

“Is one point of difference enough to condemn your greatest ally against-” When that “one point of difference” is whether I and people like me should be alive or not, then yes, that is enough to condemn anybody who differs from me on that point as an enemy and a would-be murderer.

The rest of that paragraph is racist bullshit that somebody fed you because if you thought that Black people were the cause of everything bad you wouldn’t notice while they picked your pockets. I’m sorry this happened to you, but now you have an opportunity to do better - to show righteousness.\

I will not engage further with racist diatribes, and they will not get reblogged here because there’s no way I’m giving them a wider audience.

10a. So... where are all of the people shooting up white churches in the name of nonwhite people? Have you got a list of 100 people murdered by antifa? ‘Cause... I was able to find that kind of evidence of a problem on the alt-right side in like 30 seconds tops, and frankly I know it’s being awfully conservative with that body count.

One side in this debate has a list of murderers and gunmen who were specifically motivated by common ideology. The other does not.

Why are you pretending these are equal? Why is it important to you to see “murderers” and “not murderers” as the same?

I don’t care about political registration. That’s one of those clever distortions fed to you by people who want to feed you a story. What I care about is actual motivation, as demonstrated in statements preceding these incidents, documents left by the people, the people themselves when they’re around after the fact, things they said and did while attacking people, etc.

You know, the things that show what their reason for resorting to violence was.

That strikes me as a little more important than a piece of paperwork that they had to fill out once upon a time because your political system is deeply weird.

🚩: Saying that having the “wrong” hormone levels for your gender is bad is something that will always splash on trans people, who literally always naturally have the “wrong” hormone levels for our gender. So yeah. Transphobic. Saying that abnormal hormone levels mean you are irrational and should not be listened to is wildly transphobic.

🚩: See the bolded line in point 9e.

11. I don’t care what your original motivation was for repeating right wing myths. I care that:

You’re repeating right-wing myths as facts, and You are doing so specifically to cover up for the actions of Nazis. Oh, and also: In doing so, you are playing into very old antisemitic conspiracy theories. Eventually, the people you’re listening to are going to use your belief in this myth to convince you that actually Jews are just oppressing ourselves.

Yes, it sounds ridiculous when I put it that way. But there is a direct path from A to B that these people use all the time. I’d lay it out here but frankly I’m not sure you won’t believe it because you are in just that vulnerable and ignorant a position.

I desperately hope you find more honest and less manipulative sources before it’s too late. But... I’ve seen enough kids like you that I’m very, very worried you won’t. Hell, TBH I’m not sure it’s not too late already.

This is an important lesson: It doesn’t matter whether you intended to say bigoted things or not. You did say bigoted things, and now you need to own that. You screwed up; fix the mistake.

You have a model of what you think about Jews, but... I’m afraid that model has some holes in it.

If you don’t think less of us, why do you think that we - people who live and breathe Judaism every single day - know less about it than you, an outsider who literally only knows what other outsiders have told you? Do you think we’re that ignorant of our own history, customs, and culture? Or do you think that you’re just naturally that much more knowledgeable than everybody about everything?

You might not hate us. But you’re spreading falsehoods that have a very ugly and violent history, and that put us in danger. If you don’t hate us, if you don’t want us endangered, that should concern you.

Your perspective is coloured by your faith - and that faith, unfortunately, is stained with a history and undercurrent of bigotry and harm toward Jews. That’s not saying it’s irreparable, but you have to understand that that context is there and it shapes interactions between our cultures. Some of the remnants of that historical bigotry are still there. Some of the less obvious forms of it are still routinely practiced. I don’t expect you to know and recognize all of this - how could you? It doesn’t affect you, after all! - but please, please show us enough kindness to listen when we talk about how it affects us.

Feminist academic reminds us mainstream feminism really does just hate men

The Washington Post recently published an editorial entitled “Why can’t we hate men?” It is a short and illuminating look at the psyche of a modern feminist academic. In her editorial, Northeastern University professor Suzanna Danita Walters “names the problem”, a term feminists use when they get tired of dancing around how evil all men are and just decide to come out and say it. In these moments, the pseudo-academic smokescreens of “patriarchy” start to fall away and feminists reveal themselves as naked bigots.

Anti-male bigotry is mainstream feminism.

Although the article’s quality tempts you to think otherwise, Walters isn’t some random blogger:

“Suzanna Danuta Walters, a professor of sociology and director of the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at Northeastern University, is the editor of the gender studies journal Signs.” [link to her bio added]

I’m surprising no one by pointing out that while women’s studies or gender studies could be a legitimate academic discipline, it is really only feminist indoctrination in practice. The Northern University Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies Program website states:

“We advance knowledge through interdisciplinary research, innovative pedagogies, and collaboration with other institutions, inspiring new generations of gender and sexuality scholars and feminist leaders committed to social justice. We strive to be a globally recognized model of excellence in gender, sexuality, and feminist scholarship.” [emphasis added]

Walters is neither a nobody nor a fringe radical. She is a feminist professor teaching feminism at a prestigious university, running a feminist academic center and a feminist academic journal. She stands at the zenith of mainstream feminism.

This also makes it laughable when Walters claims “[t]he world has little place for feminist anger.” I won’t rehash the mind-bogglingly examples of feminist power and influence I’ve written about. I’ll just point out that Walters is one of many for whom “feminist anger” is a viable career. This is like Bill Gates telling us, “People really never much had of a place for that whole computer thing.”

The problem with naming the problem

In my past articles, I explained how Patriarchy theory is the core narrative of feminism. Patriarchy theory claims that women (and sometimes to a lesser extent men) are being oppressed by men as a class. Since men are considered to have absolute power over the world, even problems seemingly unrelated to gender (war, economic issues, environmental issues, etc) are the fault of men as a class. Individual male misdeeds are attributed to the entire male class even if most men would find those misdeeds repugnant. Positive male contributions are forgotten. Indeed, Walters blames men for a “milienia of woe”. Because God knows humanity was so much better off a millenia ago. Things have really gone to shit since a man invented Penicillin.

Meanwhile female misdeeds are seen as rarities, ignored or blamed on male influence. Under feminism, women must be angels and men must be devils.

Men as a class are referred to as the Patriarchy. This obfuscates and dehumanizes feminist bigotry toward men. Feminists portray themselves as fighting a system rather than people. This is useful for public relations and seducing new recruits. It is unclear whether feminists are just lying to the public or also to themselves. I honestly think it’s a bit of both.

As feminists become more indoctrinated, they get tired of dancing around the problem. They feel like they are doctors who aren’t allowed to properly diagnose a disease that is ravaging the world. Sit in the feminist pot long enough and you will eventually boil over. That is what we are seeing with Walters:

“Seen in this indisputably true context, it seems logical to hate men. I can’t lie, I’ve always had a soft spot for the radical feminist smackdown, for naming the problem in no uncertain terms. I’ve rankled at the “but we don’t hate men” protestations of generations of would-be feminists and found the “men are not the problem, this system is” obfuscation too precious by half”

Notice Walters is not only framing men (not “Patriarchy”, but men) as the “the problem”, but challenging the feminist credentials of all “would-be feminists” who don’t openly hate men. Walters believes hating men is essential to being a feminist.

Walters justification for hating half of humanity

So what is the “indisputably true context” in which “it seems logical” to hate half of the entire human species based on a biological trait they have no control over? What is Walkers indisputably justification for hating over 3.5 billion people across the world with diverse backgrounds, identities and beliefs simply because they were born a certain way? You would think an academic would have a rock solid argument to advocate such widespread hate. You would be wrong:

“It’s not that Eric Schneiderman (the now-former New York attorney general accused of abuse by multiple women) pushed me over the edge. My edge has been crossed for a long time, before President Trump, before Harvey Weinstein, before “mansplaining” and “incels.” Before live-streaming sexual assaults and red pill men’s groups and rape camps as a tool of war and the deadening banality of male prerogative.” [included original links from article]

These aren’t arguments. They aren’t even coherent sound bites. Walters is just ranting. We don’t even know if Schneiderman is actually guilty of anything yet. Yeah, Weinstein is a jerk. He doesn’t represent all men.

Yeah, 2 incels went on a killing spree (killing both women and men) in the last 5 years. However, incels aren’t inherently violent. They aren’t always saints, but they aren’t a terrorist movement. There appears to be no evidence that either killer colluded with the wider incel community. Frankly, a lot of the reporting on the supposedly “dangerous” incel movement seems like fear-mongering/feminist propaganda. More importantly, incels are a fringe movement that most men want nothing to do with. Most men don’t even know what an "incel" is.

The only items with even a little meat are claims of live-streaming sexual assault and rape camps. How common are these things? Who are the victims? The perpetrators? Walker doesn’t tell us. We get no information about live-streaming sexual assaults. Her link on rape camps takes you to a 18 year old article about the trial of Serbian soldiers who sexually enslaved Muslim women during the Kosovo conflict. This is tragic, but is it grounds to hate all men? Again, the article is about their criminal trial in the Hague. Strange how the rape of women is globally condemned in our universal patriarchal rape culture.

“Pretty much everywhere in the world, this is true: Women experience sexual violence, and the threat of that violence permeates our choices big and small. In addition, male violence is not restricted to intimate-partner attacks or sexual assault but plagues us in the form of terrorism and mass gun violence.”

Walters provides no links or no citations here. Statements like this are largely meaningless without some effort to establish scope. “Pretty much everywhere in the world women experience” synethesia and gout. Female violence “is not restricted to intimate-partner attacks or sexual assault.“ These are also both equally true statements.

Similarly, Walters gives us no actual data about men’s role in terrorism or mass gun violence. I’m still willing to consider men might be overrepresented in terrorism and mass gun violence. However, does this mean I should hate women because women commit the majority of infanticide? What? I can’t because only a minority of women commit infanticide and most women find infanticide abhorrent? Feminists say I should be sensitive about possible psychological or social issues that motivate female child-killers? Really?

What about women being the majority of human traffickers? Should I hate all women now?

Surprise! It's the wage gap.

Walters eventually gets something that sort of resembles an actual argument:

“Women are underrepresented in higher-wage jobs, local and federal government, business, educational leadership, etc.; wage inequality continues to permeate every economy and almost every industry; women continue to provide far higher rates of unpaid labor in the home (e.g., child care, elder care, care for disabled individuals, housework and food provision); women have less access to education, particularly at the higher levels; women have lower rates of property ownership.“ [original links included]

Basically you should hate men because…wage gap - the dead horse feminists keep thinking will win the Kentucky Derby. The wage gap is generally found to be the result of women’s choices in the labor market, not sex discrimination. The same goes for unpaid labor. Walters’ own source explains that women often do more unpaid labor because their husbands often do more paid labor.

Walters claim about education holds a bit more water. Her linked source is a recently published academic report on girl’s worldwide school enrollment. I haven’t had a chance to read through it detail, but it seems to take a much more nuanced view of than Walters would have you believe. First, there are only significantly unequal primary and secondary school enrollment rates in very poor countries and/or war torn countries. The report doesn’t seem to blame girls lack of education enrollment simply on patriarchal oppression, but mentions issues such as the greater costs on families and greater concern for girls’ safety.

It is unclear what Walters means by “higher levels” of education. The report says very little about post-secondary education. It doesn’t seem to have any statistics on global post-secondary enrollment. One of the few things it does point out is that U.S. colleges have a higher female enrollment than male enrollment (page 18).

Walters never offers hard evidence all of these supposed inequalities she lists are due largely to widespread to sex discrimination against women by men. In fact, she doesn’t even directly make this claim. She only strongly infers it.

Walters Advocates Violence?

“So, in this moment, here in the land of legislatively legitimated toxic masculinity, is it really so illogical to hate men? For all the power of #MeToo and #TimesUp and the women’s marches, only a relatively few men have been called to task, and I’ve yet to see a mass wave of prosecutions or even serious recognition of wrongdoing. On the contrary, cries of “witch hunt” and the plotted resurrection of celebrity offenders came quick on the heels of the outcry over endemic sexual harassment and violence. But we’re not supposed to hate them because . . . #NotAllMen. I love Michelle Obama as much as the next woman, but when they have gone low for all of human history, maybe it’s time for us to go all Thelma and Louise and Foxy Brown on their collective butts.” [originally links included; emphasis added]

Now we are getting into SCUM manifesto territory. The pivotal plot point in Thelma and Louise is one of the protagonists shoots a man to death. I’m less familiar with Foxy Brown, but it sounds like the female protagonist also commits violence against men. It’s hard to not to see this as a thinly veiled call to violence.

This fits with the general cowardice of Walters’ editorial. While it’s clear she hates men and it’s clear she wants us to hate them too, notice she never explicitly writes, “I hate man and you should hate men too”. She is simply stating “”it seems logical to hate men” and that women have every “right to hate” men. She isn’t literally telling anyone to actually hate men.

I’m not sure what legal, professional or ethical bullet she thinks is dodging by so thinly obscuring her obvious intentions.

Feminist Julie Bindel is a monster, but at least she had the decency to just come out and say she wants to put men in concentration camps.

Why was this written?

It isn’t well written. It isn’t thoughtful. It likely won’t improve the public opinion of feminism. Why would Walters write this? Why would the Washington Post print it? What purpose does it serve?

Firstly, Walters wrote it because she is a bigot who wants to spread her bigotry.

Secondly, the Washington Post produces feminist propaganda. I don’t know exactly why, but they do. They concocted a new bogus 1-in-5 college rape statistic after the CSA study finally fell from grace. They further scrambled to save the feminist college rape panic in the face of government data showing incredibly low rape rates on campuses. They tried to whip up #MeToo frenzy by creating a bogus work place harassment study that completely ignored male victims.

Finally, I hypothesis the main goal is to bring Democratic voters to the polls for the midterm election. Look how Walters ends her editorial:

“So men, if you really are #WithUs and would like us to not hate you for all the millennia of woe you have produced and benefited from, start with this: Lean out so we can actually just stand up without being beaten down. Pledge to vote for feminist women only. Don’t run for office. Don’t be in charge of anything. Step away from the power. We got this. And please know that your crocodile tears won’t be wiped away by us anymore. We have every right to hate you. You have done us wrong. #BecausePatriarchy. It is long past time to play hard for Team Feminism. And win.“

Since Trump took office in the United States, SJW groups and left-leaning media outlets have formed an indistinguishable mass of outrage to keep the anti-Trump fires burning for the midterm elections. This is why the National Organization for Women is making tweets about immigration and the 2nd amendment. This is why the Women’s March really wasn’t about women, but about left-wing talking points and hating Trump.

Take a look at this sentence again:

“Pledge to vote for feminist women only.” [emphasis added]

Remember feminism isn’t for women. Feminism is for feminism.

The Justicar Orders

With a population with a greater propinquity to the radical beliefs of the common Chaos Cults, Kallig needed a reliable solution to up root the radical groups which will inevitably form within his borders, and ideally one which didn’t depend on Kallig’s constant oversight to function. The solution in the form of the Justicar Orders were formed after the onset of the Knightly Revolts by the ever loyal Desolator.

Designed as a form combined security roles, the Justicars could fill any role from overt security personnel for Governors and forming Kill Teams to hunt cult leaders to creating webs of informants and surveillance throughout entire worlds which would all be at the disposal of a few reliable leaders which Kallig could ensure loyalties for. With their wide variety of roles and tasks, the Justicar Orders can as easily recruit a gangster as a Praesidium veteran for their purposes and often work outside the legal system.

The more militaristic members of the Justicars often refer to the Orders as Battalions despite the more free form nature of the organisations. At the head of each order sits a single High Marshal which deal with major coordinations of the Orders and are only superseded by Kallig and his retinues. To allow for a manageable division of the Orders, Covens are formed for individual cities or fields of work such as governmental security and are commanded by Marshals but their authority can be overturned by the higher planetary governors. Further divisions are common but they aren’t as clearly defined.

Individual Orders

Deus Gemma - The Abbanic Children

As would be expected of an order given dominion over a hive world, the Abbanic Children are the largest Justicar Order with the most active, reserve and sleeper agents at their disposal. They also have the largest number of specialised Covens with some entirely setup to monitor and utilise criminal organisations. Compared to the presences on other worlds, the Abbanic Children are one of the more subtle often working behind the scenes like a early humanity secret service organisation.

Mechanica Petram - The Larvatum Nobles

With pre existing internal policing and the lack of connections with the dominant faiths of the worlds, the Primas Artificers rarely need an external force controlling them. With this freedom, the Artificers have developed stronger bonds with the wider Empire and the Justicar Order was mostly set into reserve and kept as a ceremonial force.

Opera Agri - The Wraith Brethren

Starting as the original template for the orders, The Wraith Brethren were founded by the Knight Desolator during the starting days of the Knightly Revolt. Befitting their bonds with the Knights of the Void, a small cult of reverence exists among the Marshals for the Knight and a common right of passage to becoming a High Marshal is to visit the Great Shrine to receive his blessing.

Despite their minor cult, the Brethren often act as an overtly physical presence instead of the more subtle nature of other Orders. This is primarily to work with the Clans planetside which are often more mobile than other population groups.

Vorago - The Akkvaden Wardens

Acting as the main policing force on the dead world, the Akkvadens forgo their more subtle methods and focus entirely on being a clear force around the convicts and other dangerous people.

Despite their limited domain, the Adriatic Knights and the Larvatum Nobles are two orders which are leagues smaller than the Wardens.

Malagast - The Adriatic Knights

Currently only the foundation of the implemented Order, the Adriatic Knights are intended more as a way to prevent internal hostilities between the Malagastians and Empire personnel. With the lingering bigotry in the population, this Order was started by request of Kritski to ensure some reliable security on his home world. Until reliable warp travel is created to Malagast and integrations of the world into the rest of the Empire is undertaken, the Order current works with the Wraith Brethren to gain an understanding of its purposes.

Alongside their High Marshal, it is noted in the command structure that Kritski Twinhorn is to be able to act with the same authority when they are finally transported to Malagast.

On violence against autistic people having meltdowns.

Full text:

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In the coverage of the Calgary incident, I've seen the statement that one of the reasons it is bad that the police beat the kid up is that parents often rely on first responders to get autistics under control. The poor parents, they called for help, and their child was harmed.

Forget trauma-informed care. Let's talk about trauma-informed families. Let's talk about trauma-informed disability advocacy.

What we are talking about is usually meltdown which, contrary to what the "experts" keep saying, is not a "tantrum" or a "mental or behavioral health crisis" or "rage behaviors" or whatever. It is being pushed so far beyond your ability to cope that you just fall apart. Contrary to what the "experts" say, it does not happen "for attention" or "for escape" or "for tangibles" or "for no reason." It happens because people are pushed so far beyond their ability to cope that they just fall apart. Contrary to what the "experts" say, it is not actually a symptom of autism. It is a symptom of being expected to survive in an environment that demands so much greater ability to cope than you can muster, that you just fall apart. And it happens to autistic people with some regularity because autistic people are regularly forced to live in environments that are full of things that are impossible for them to cope with.

When you cannot cope with the demands of life, what do you need? A break. Kindness. A moment of comfort. It may not look the same for us all, but we all want whatever it looks like for us, don't we?

What is the standard "treatment" for overwhelming demands and inaccessible environments that autistics get? Training in how not to assert themselves to get their needs met. If your shirt hurts and you take it off, you get put on a program to teach you not to remove things that hurt you from your body. If the fluorescent lights in your classroom are messing with your brain and you leave, you get put on a program to teach you to stay where people want you. If people are speaking too fast, too loud, too unclearly and you protest, you get put on a program to teach you to be a pleasant conversation partner. When the world pushes you so hard that you think you can't cope, and you try to protect yourself, the world responds by pushing harder. And eventually you either assert yourself in a way that nobody can silence (and then they come down on you even harder), or you snap and melt down.

At that point, for many of us, the people around you resort to violence. Or at least the threat of violence. Restraints, seclusion, Level III aversives, first responders and the like. Bringing a person with a loaded gun to manage someone is an act of violence. Transporting someone against their will to a place where people will manage them is a form of violence. And in the case of meltdown, it is violence in response to something that people cannot control.

You know you are getting off easy when all your "friends" do to you is belittle you, ostracise you, berate you, mock you, ablesplain to you how to cope, cut you off from your support system, and the like.... Because they could just have you declared violent, carted off to an institutional setting, or get you killed. And trust me, some of them will do these things. Parents certainly will.

We. Do. Not. Know. What. Autism. Looks. Like.

We. Only. Know. What. Autism. Plus. Trauma. Looks. Like.

"But what should we do when things are out of control?" Well, first, of course if things are actually likely to end in someone hurting another person badly without intervention, you may have to take extreme measures with the full understanding that those measures are likely to result in someone getting hurt badly. Though a lot of the time this is about onlooker anxiety and parental frustration, bot a real risk assessment. But it's still the wrong question. It assumes these situations arise spontaneously.

None of this happens in a vacuum. All children, when they are little, are capable of acting in ways that would be dangerous if thry had adult bodies. You love and guide them, and you get through it. And if they are neurodivergent, you recognise that they may need to be guided and supported in atypical ways, you figure out how, and you teach them safety. If they need to hit, give them a punching bag and teach them to use it. If they need to throw their bodies up against something, give them something safe to throw themselves against. If they need to lift and throw things, give them things to lift and throw and teach them to give others a heads up to get put of the way. What you don't do is drive the ways their minds and bodies naturally cope with the hell of being in a world designed to be excruciating underground until they explode with a ferocity and an ability to do real harm that can only be contained with an escalation of violence, and then pretend you are blameless for the consequences.

If you call first responders on someone, you are teaching them under what circumstances you will respond to them with violence. And you are teaching the first responders that they are the sort of people against whom the use of violence is necessary. So now, as the world pushes harder and harder against them, as they move closer to being unable to cope, they also have to be aware that there are those around them prepared to escalate to violence. And that makes it harder to cope. This isn't autistic children aging. This is a cycle of escalating violence autistic children at the mercy of neurotypical demands that they act on opposition to their biological programming are caught in.

When you spend half an hour brawling with your child to force him to see Elmo even though he doesn't want to go into that space, you are teaching him that it is dangerous to tell you what he needs. When you win, you are teaching him that it is hopeless. Whatever else you think you are teaching him, you are teaching him that if he wants to survive in a world with you in it, he had better keep his head down and absorb every awful thing the world has in store for him, or you will make it so much worse. Then when he learns that lesson and implements it like a pro, you will call the result "happiness."

When you go out in public and you tell the world that experts recommend using violence on disabled people for the crime of trying to survive in an inaccessible and hostile world, and you do not also address why that is a bad thing, you are telling disabled people not merely that you are not good spokespeople, but that you are actively trying to harm them.

This one isn't even on the parents. It's on the "professionals," the ones who convince parents that the only way to save their children from a horrible fate is to bully them until they fall apart, the ones who are so desperate to get their policies implemented that they will whip up anti-disability bigotry and violence to do so. It's on the people who will, in response to grassroots community advocacy to try to make the world a better place for autistic children, pull out the "But my child deserves to be abused" and "But think of the parents" cards. It's on the purveyors of the comforting fantasy that there are places for "those people" where they will be "safe and cared for" and engage in compassion theatre, where brutality is portrayed as love. The "disability experts" turn the parents into loaded weapons and leave them lying around, waiting to be triggered.

This is a traumatised disabled child who was assaulted by the police at his parents' instigation, because he is a traumatised disabled child living in a horrifically inaccessible world, and he can't cope. This is not a problem that started when the police showed up. It is a problem that started the first time someone had a chat with his parents about "developmental milestones."

And this child, this white, speaking child, "only" got his skull fractured. It could have been, and sometimes is, so much worse.

Things need to change. And people need to step up and change them. It is not the act of an ally to the disability rights movement to allow the statement that first responders get called on autistics to pass without a clear statement that this is a problem.

***

Doomsday Clock #5

Nostalgia's branding efforts might be a little off the rails.

Dammit. I had almost forgotten how everybody blamed and mistrusted superheroes!

Of course there's always been a long history of Gotham Police mistrusting and hating Batman (if only because he does their job better than they do and obviously has way better pay and benefits). But DC really fucked up when they decided that level of mistrust should be applied more broadly so that every citizen suddenly turned against even Superman, the universally acknowledged boy scout. I'm not a comic book historian so I don't know when that attitude began but I think it's generally acknowledged that it was a byproduct of Watchmen and similar comic books of the time. "Look at how more realistic this is! Why should a world embrace and trust masked heroes?! And Watchmen was so popular, that aspect of it must be what made so much money!" But, of course, that's the kind of thing people who didn't read Marv Wolfman's New Teen Titans believe. Because if I had to pick a starting point for when the mistrust of heroes seriously got rolling (I'm not saying it wasn't there before! It just wasn't the standard reaction of the public), I'd point to Wolfman's work trying to adapt The X-men feel to DC's superheroes. In the X-men, the "heroes" were actually mutants enrolled in a school where they could feel safe and learn to control their powers. They were hated by the public due to bigotry and a misunderstanding of what they represented to humanity's future. They were constantly attacked by "evil mutants" due to a disagreement on what mutants meant to the world. This worked as a plot point because of the bigotry aspect and the underlying difference between mutants and superheroes. But translating that to DC's world where mutants don't exist completely missed the mark. Wolfman's world became a place where The New Titans formed to help the world but never actually did. They simply created a headquarters in New York where they were constantly attacked by family members. Of course the people of New York would begin hating them for bringing danger and destruction to the city. Because they were actually doing that! And since The New Titans became DC's biggest seller for quite some time, every comic book writer on Earth learned that Wolfman's model was acceptable to readers. Instead of having heroes exist for saving the world, they could just exist to be targeted by super villains. And if that's all super villains seemed interested in then isn't it true that heroes are the root cause of all the problems with super villains? It's one thing to comment on bigotry in America by portraying people's hatred of mutants. It's a totally stupid other thing to have people hate heroes because of the destruction caused by the heroes attempting to simply save themselves from their enemies. In the first one, you side with the mutants because the people hate them for irrational reasons. In the second one, you have to side with the citizens because who wouldn't be upset if their house was destroyed and their dog was killed because The Joker was trying to kill Batman? I've said all of that before. Sometimes, I feel that's all I have left to say about DC. At least when Priest recently had the public hating the Justice League, it was because the Justice League was racist! Not in the regular racist way where Batman is using slurs and Superman is flying around in blackface and a sombrero but in the systemic way where they don't realize they're being racist but they just are. That was at least different (even if I still wasn't happy about it). I don't understand people who prefer heroes who are mistrusted and hated over heroes who are inspiring, loved, and embraced by the public. Wasn't the latter version the whole point of them in the first place?

Dammit! I should really read ahead before I go on a rant! Although, technically, I think this somehow proves my point about how this is all supposed to fix what went wrong with The New 52.

This issue is called "There is no God." I'm guessing at the capitalization because the font actually reads "THERE IS NO GOD". But it doesn't end in an exclamation point (or any other kind of punctuation, being a title and all) so I'm assuming it isn't meant to be yelled and it's just DC's perverse avoidance of lower case letters. Anyway, "There is no God" is the perfect title to ruffle religious feathers. But I bet it's a set-up! I bet Geoff Johns is going to write a story about how God does exist, even if only in a metaphorical way that gives hope to people who need more than a few decades of random, chaotic life! I mean, I would like more than a few decades of life too! But I wouldn't mind if it remained meaningless. Who needs a purpose? That's just adding obligation to this precious gift! Why do people want that?! I think that's why "being inspiring" has become such a huge achievement for so many people. Because it seems to give meaning to your life without you having to actually do anything except exactly the thing you want to do. So, say, I was coming up with a completely hypothetical situation where a guy I know survived an IED attack in Iraq but the four other people in his Humvee were killed, he might want to find meaning in why only he survived. He might feel somehow responsible for carrying on in a meaningful way to make their deaths less random and nonsensical. He might also become religious because it's too painful to believe that those four other guys simply winked out of existence in a meaningless war that didn't do anything for anybody (aside from some people making a lot of money (and aside from opening up the country to more chaos and instability)). And the meaning he might find in his life is becoming the center of attention just like he always wanted but could never attain. He became a comedian who also inspires people because he's so badly burnt and disfigured, how can he tell jokes?! Now his life has meaning even if his jokes and his poetry never get any better because the people who hear and read them are Christian and patriotic supporters who can't be critical of anything he does. So if he says in a poem that his daughter is crying "alligator tears," nobody tells him that they're "crocodile tears" and that if his daughter is crying them, it means she doesn't actually care that he's off in Iraq. And when his only joke is that he was blown up and set on fire, nobody minds because he was blown up and set on fire and—look at that!—he can still stand up and tell jokes! So inspiring! Now if my thought process were better than it is, I would delete all of that so that I don't sound like a jealous and bitter friend. But I explained my thought process earlier so you can judge me but I've got my Oreos ready to go after you misunderstand the hyperbole and facetiousness. Also, I'm not jealous and bitter. I'm supportive but critical! Which is why I didn't post what I just wrote on his wall. Because he can take supportive but I don't think he's up for critical. Especially hyperbolic and super truthful critical. Hypothetically, I mean! Back to how this comic book is doing its part to reset the DC Universe into the Post-Zero-Hour, Pre-New 52, Post and Pre a bunch of other stuff I can hardly guess at because DC Continuity is super fucked, a news report on a hospital television reports on Hawk, Dove, Red Star, and the Rocket Reds. So maybe I was wrong about Post-Zero-Hour! Maybe this reboot is post-Crisis only? And I might be wrong about that too! Isn't the current Superman from the Crisis timeline where they actually beat the Anti-Monitor? It's hard to remember Convergence because it was super boring and terribly written. It rated 5 Flaccid Penises out of 5. Unless you're totally into flaccid penises and then it rated zero of them. Along with the Rocket Reds and Red Star gearing up for an anti-west battle, Pozhar has stepped up to the plate as well. Or whatever you step up to in Russian baseball. Do they have something akin to baseball in Russia? Maybe cement-block-call? If we're going by themes, it's beginning to look like we're headed back to the eighties cold war, so a reboot to pre-Crisis levels of continuity isn't completely off the table! If I didn't know Geoff Johns was writing this, I'd be tempted to guess it was Dan Jurgens. The Cold War of this ear isn't about nuclear superiority but about metahuman superiority. But that's just a superficial difference, really! What's actually happening in Watchmen 2: Doomsday Clocks is identical to what was happening in Watchmen. Which means everybody will get along at the end not when Mister Terrific teleports a fake space creature into the middle of New York but when an actual cosmic threat attacks Earth and all the American and Russian metahumans have to team up to save the day. Then everybody will be inspired and begin fucking. Right on panel! I hope. In Moore's Watchmen, there was a thread with that kid reading the pirate book. I wasn't smart enough to know what that was about. Maybe it had something to do with how, to survive, the lead turned himself into a monster the way Ozymandias did. Or maybe it was just about the kinds of things media used to distract the populace. Who can tell?! Not me! Anyway, this series has Nathaniel Dusk stories as the story within a story. I guess it's the only way DC could get people to read them. So boring! You can tell they were boring if you read them in 1984. Also because an old man really loves them in this comic book. That old man is Johnny Thunder! His name makes him sound exciting but you'd be wrong! More boring! And he's trying to get the Justice Society back into continuity. Most boring of all! Some of you might be bristling at my description of the Justice Society as "most boring of all." But you've forgotten about the hyperbole and facetiousness! There's a twenty-five percent chance that I actually liked the Justice Society and own a bunch of their comic books! The Superman Theory states that the American government is in the business of making metahumans to make sure they retain control on the world stage. Most of the heroes deny that they were made by the government because they were actually made when they were exposed to Nth Metal. Duh. Everybody who believes The Superman Theory must not have read Metal. How did they miss it? It was the biggest and longest blockbuster ever produced! Anyway, Lois thinks Lex Luthor is the one behind this propaganda. But Lex denies it. In fact, he says somebody in the government is creating metahumans and that person was once a member of the Justice League! So, um, like Lex? Hopefully the reveal of the person behind The Superman Theory doesn't wind up being somebody like Commander Steel. With a twist like this, it's got to be somebody you generally associate with the League, like Martian Manhunter or Gleek.

Here Ozymandias lectures Batman thanks to years of terrible comic book writers.

By the end of this issue, Rorschach and Saturn Girl have caught up with Johnny Thunder who finally found Alan Scott's lantern. Batman has been captured by The Joker. And Geoff Johns is well on his way to telling comic book fans how dumb they've been accepting the bullshit narrative they've been fed for years that super villains only exist because super heroes exist. Rating: This issue was called "There is no God" and it had nothing to do with the story inside. But it was used because it was part of the Eugene O'Neill quote that closes the issue: "When men make Gods, there is no God!" Is that how every issue has been titled so far? Using a bit of the quote at the end? I haven't been paying close enough attention to know. Anyway, I have a few issues with that quote. First off, you shouldn't capitalize "Gods." I suppose you can argue that you would capitalize "Johns" but if you choose to do that, I probably don't like you and would discount your argument on that basis alone. I mean, the point is that men are making little gods which kills the proper noun God. Second, why does it end in an exclamation point? Is the second half of that statement such a huge twist that it needed the surprise element of the exclamation point? Maybe Eugene knew it was a fairly week turn to the phrase and thought the exclamation point would bolster the sentiment. I know that trick! The third problem I have with it is that I don't understand it in the context of this story. Is Johns saying that super heroes have replaced God? Are fans now supposed to feel reprimanded for being blasphemous monsters?! Am I supposed to believe that if we rely on heroes, we have lost our faith in God? Is Johns saying inaction through faith is better than relying on super heroes? Or is he saying that we lose our own motivation and free will when we expect heroes to save the day? How is that any different than expecting God to save the day? I guess in that context, I understand the quote! "When we come up with something more entertaining that still doesn't actually help or save humanity, we've forgotten the original concept we came up with that doesn't actually help or save humanity!" Hmm, good quote! I've won myself over! Five out of five stars! Not for this issue but for my twisted logic! For more of this sweet, sweet writing, subscribe to my newsletter: E!TACT the Newsletter.