#// dont really feel like debating ''morality'' with someone who goes and says this to me because my response window wasn't satisfactory

[cheecats]

I was the anon who sent the long critique, and I’m sorry that you got such a passive aggressive message from another anon. But the fact you ignored mine definitely rubs me the wrong way. It’s almost like you’re picking messages that help your point stand out as morally correct, ignoring the genuine criticism. But that’s fine, all that tells me is that you couldn’t think of any counter critiques. I just wanted a fair discussion.

I beg your pardon? Ignored?? I was going to reply to your message, but as you can see for yourself, yours was much longer and held a more nuanced and diplomatic stance on the discussion. I had to think about how to reply to each point listed, all of which were fair assesments and critiques to make. I didn't want to rush and miss something. But uh, I think instead im just going to copy/paste your message and just post it under the cut and call it a day after this. I don't have to answer to someone who speculates i'm attempting to appear "morally superior" because I didn't reply to their critique on my personal reflection on something? Don't make assumptions about me. You don't know me. Whether intentional or not, this came across as passive aggressive too.

Anons critique to my original post available down below for those interested:

[catholic-character-tournament]

Round 1 - Side B

Propaganda below ⬇️

Matt

Matt's faith in the show is really important and well explored; one of the first scenes of the show is Matt going to confession (or, well, talking to his priest since he's not really confessing at that point). Matt struggles a lot with what he's supposed to do; everyone's telling him to kill the villain and he kinda wants to, but he literally says: "I know my soul is damned if I take his life". He struggles with his faith and goes with his doubts to his priest, and it's beautiful—also when he finally gets a costume for his vigilanteing he chooses to dress as the devil, lol. (His priest tells him that nothing makes people run to Church faster than the feeling of having the devil on their heels.)

a lot of the show is about how he justifies his vigilante actions with his faith, and whether he's doing the right thing in trying to help people or just using it as an outlet for his anger. the literal first scene of the show has him in a confession booth talking to his priest (who is a really interesting character too). this is not the scene I was talking about but it's such an excellent scene with matt talking to his priest: https://youtu.be/XHZ3NbEIDdw

canonically catholic but dresses like a demon to be quirky

honestly i dont wanna type too much but i feel that matt is a great example of someone who battles with his faith because he rarely loses his faith but rather fights with why he was made the way he was and put through what he was. He believes himself to have the devil inside him but believes that God put him there

ok in the comics barring the most current run matt has Mostly been a non-practicing Catholic that very rarely actually does any catholic Activities but ends up falling back into the Mindset and very occasionally dramatically taking confession (ex. in that one issue where he takes confession, basically tells the father that he is uniquely terrible and is thinking about violently murdering someone and when the father says "you can be forgiven" hes like "AUGFH-- NO!!!!!!!!!!" and runs out) when he's gone through some shit. and i love that its so relatable

hello its me cct organizer. i have to come clean, i made this tournament because i need matt to win something. i dont think hell win the sadboy and he lost the ginger tournament and >:( hes my favoritest guy ever. Also @ who said he has religious trauma is wrong and i will fight u about it (nicely) on my main @usaigi

This guy so catholic he spends an ungodly amount of time just chilling in the church. And goes there whenever there is a moral conundrum about killing people being Bad even though it would solve a lot of problems and stop said people from killing other people. This happens every other episode. Matt is the Catholic Guilt Guy. There's actually a lot of catholic stuff in the show as a whole. Just a compilation would be like three whole episodes long.

Hes great hes catholic enough to not outrught murder people but not catholic enough to not fuck before marriage hes a bisexual disaster at all times hes besties with a priest might i add hes great hes my special little guy

his catholicism is a huge piece of his characterisation he was raised by nuns in a catholic orphanage, the first scene we ever see him (as an adult and not a flashback) is him going to confession, he is good friend with his priest and has regular debates with him, etc also in s3 he has a huge crisis of faith after he lost A Lot where he stops believing for a while and it's linked to his identity crisis where he actually wants to kill another person (a hard line he previously chose never to cross) and wants to be only daredevil and not matt murdock, when he is both and needs both to exist also when he was a kid his grandmother used to say "watch out for the murdock boys, they've got the devil in them" and it created a surprising lot of his issues

So he's both catholic in the comics and the show but he's More Catholic in the show. Like, raised in a catholic orphanage by nuns (ONE OF WHICH IS HIS *MOTHER*), second scene in the show has him in a confession box kind. Matt Murdock goes out and gets the shit beaten out of him nightly and also beats the shit out of other people and purposefully leaned into devil iconography as his theme. When his nurse friend says, he takes a lot of punishment without one complaint he says "That part's the Catholicism." It is a Core Aspect of his character (at least in the show). He makes me insane. Also the same chemicals that blinded him created the teenage mutant ninja turtles and everyone should know that.

They went to confession to a priest who they had saved as their costumed counterpart and the guy recognized them by the voice, proving that it's possible and everyone else is just dumb

he takes "i wanna fight god" to new and incredibly violent levels, while also being a sweetheart and a goofball

Actually strictly WILL NOT kill criminals. Goes wayyy out of his way to avoid it. Fights with the Punisher about it. Goes to confession booth after nightly vigilante excursions. Feels so much guilt. "How have you been holding up?" "Like a good Caltholic boy" "that bad huh" - actual conversation with his priest

So Daredevil struggles with his mission as a crime fighter because killing criminals goes against his faith. He makes it a point to not kill criminals, believing that even bad people deserve a second chance. This philosophy puts him at odds against The Punisher, who is a relentless killer. As a Catholic myself, while I love the concept of a morally conflicted superhero, I think the worldbuilding around Daredevil is lacking. If he struggles with violence and killing, why doesn't he pray to warrior saints like Saint Michael, Saint Ignatius of Loyola (a former knight), or Saint Joan of Arc? Why isn't there a community of other Catholics he can turn to for guidance, considering New York City has a sizeable population of Catholics? And why are the churches he goes to always empty? Doesn't he know that the Catholic Church supports the just war theory? I think that would have made his burden more bearable.

He goes to church and confesses to punching people and says "imma do it again can i apologize in advance" and the father dude says "no you're meant to stop now" and Matt says "no" and they do this everyday. I'm not remembering it properly but this is a canon interaction i swear

HELLO HI YES I LOVE HIM AND WILL INFOR DUMP ok so. he is a vigalantty and he got named daredevil and he is an orphan and after the age of 12 was raised in an orphanage at a Catholic church and his therapist is his priest via confession abd. also his mother is a nun he has a whole mental breakdown over god and called Job a pussy because he liked god until he got better and liked god again he said "I'm dearedrvil and not even god can stop that now" and he's so cool

matt is a freakish little babygirl who was raised by nuns and definitely has religious trauma. i hate him so much (affectionately)

he’s literally fucking insane about it i don’t know what to say here. he thinks he’s chosen by god to go on some sort of holy quest to save hell’s kitchen. joan of arc ass.

i already know hes in by default j just wanted to give him a personal shout out i love this angsty catholic dweeb

how practicing he is depends on the run, but in my favorite he is quite literally confessing to a member of the last extant order millitant who happens to be a priest at a church in hells kitchen.

i love him for having the funniest version of a trope i usually hate (person gets into confession booth and asks forgiveness not for what they've done, but for what they're about to do). usually this trope just looks silly to me bc like. the priest would just say "i can't do that" and you would have to either awkwardly explain yourself or just Leave. it's funny when matt does it because fr. lantom is probably like "what are you gonna do???" and matt's like "lol. lmao. 😊 hehehe." anyway we love this angry catholic man who dresses up like the devil to beat people up in hell's kitchen

Harrowhark

I'm pretty sure you've already got plenty of submissions for her so I'll just say she was raised in what is basically a cult (technically a nunnery but let's be real) dedicated to keeping the body of the thing that will kill God behind the rock. One of their prayers is actually "I pray the rock is never rolled away". Harrow is extremely devout as penance for her earlier heretical actions in the tomb as a child (spoiler!) so the Catholic guilt really comes through

imagine being a catholic nun and you meet god, but it turns out he’s a twitch streamer from new zealand who became god because everything got a little bit out of hand. and just before you met him you gave yourself a diy grief-fuelled lobotomy with the help of your best frenemy. imagine how insane you’d be. now multiply that insanity by nine. that’s the fictional love of my life right there.

she meets god. she’s not inspired

she’s number one practitioner of space Catholicism. The locked tomb is chock full of Christian (catholic) imagery themes metaphors etc. just look at her she’s got a bone rosary

They're Catholicism with extra bones. Everyone is a nun. They have what is basically a rosary made from knuckle bones. They technically worship the same God as everyone else, but they're waaaay more focused on The Body in the Tomb (Mary) and we get a moment where we find out that while everyone else prays the equivilent of The Lords Prayer, they're doing the equivilent of Hail Mary. And they paint their faces with skulls.

She thinks leaving dry bread in a drawer is taking care of someone. She's in love with a 10,000 year old corpse (the same one they worship). She spent ALL NIGHT digging with her bare hands to make sure a field had bones every 5 feet so she could fight her girlfriend - I mean, greatest enemy. Spoiler territory: She's been puppeting her parents corpses since she was 8 years old. Instead of grieving her dead girlfriend, she gives herself a lobotomy. She makes soup with bone in it so she can use the bone IN THEIR STOMACH to try and kill them.

The author is/was Catholic and the entire series had heavy Catholic overtones. https://www.tor.com/2020/08/19/gideon-the-ninth-young-pope-and-the-new-pope-are-building-a-queer-catholic-speculative-fiction-canon/ A good breakdown of how it's Catholic

[vrronica-sawyer]

i've seen you post about jd and heather duke's mental health a lot but what do you think is going on with veronica? clearly something is but i dont know what.

Firstly the way you worded that is hilarious,

Anyway I think it's clear she's depressed and that was the intention canonically, but looking back at her as an adult whole emotional attachment to Heathers as a whole stemmed from Veronica being the most accurately I've ever felt represented as a mentally ill teenager when I first saw it, I view her as having BPD. You could say it's self projection obviously but almost all the symptoms and behavior she displays that made me feel so seen by the character are the symptoms I learned later in life are BPD.

The depressive episodes turned constant emptiness, the impulsivity usually revolving around self destruction, and her entire relationship with the Heathers and the problems she has with them at the start of the story all just scream borderline to me. Going from being someone's best friend for years and (according to chandler) being okay with their bad behavior and finding it funny to all of a sudden hating them and thinking they're a bad person when their behavior hasnt changed and Veronica's worldview and personality really hadnt either sounds a lot like splitting to me. Most people's idea of splitting is the opposite, when people talk about it they always talk about the scary concept of you being a good kind friend and then your scary borderline friend has an episode and makes you out to be the devil on a whim, but a lot of what I've experienced is that because of the black and white perception of people the disorder causes I will meet someone who is really really not great, treats me very poorly and has a million red flags, but because they were nice or entertaining in our first couple interactions all bad behavior of theirs is completely excusable if not invisible to me until either they do something big enough to trigger my splitting on them or I just have an episode and in this case it ends up being a good thing (for that relationship at least). So like when I was younger and unaware I had bpd i would look at Veronica's relationship with the Heathers and didn't question it at all, I was like yeah sometimes youre very close with terrible people for a very long time until you realize the things they've been doing are bad even though you... wouldve morally thought those things were bad from the start. I never understood why people questioned Veronica's logic in the situation or didnt realize from context clues they were supposed to have been close friends at the start of the movie.

Same with her handling of the JD situation, she goes from encouraging and going along with things to very against it and angry that he would even think shes okay with it all without vocalizing any of this to him once because the jumps happening in her head make sense to her and it doesnt occur to her to communicate these things to him.

And again just the overall emptiness, anger, self harm and recklessness, all that very much reads as BPD to me. Most of it overlaps with depression but most symptoms of depression are also symptoms of the disorder, plus its very rare that bpd and a form of clinical depression aren't comorbid.

Though I do want to note that there is a reason BPD is avoided as a diagnoses for teenagers around Veronica's age, a lot of the symptoms stem from emotional dysregulation that you can also experience just from being a teenager with a developing brain and unstable adolescent hormones and it's debated on how long it takes for the disorder to develop, some people believe it grows from having something like depression untreated as a child/teen and doesnt fully form until adulthood. That is to say,,, teenagers reading this if you also relate to these things I listed I'm not telling you that you have borderline personality disorder, nor am I saying Veronica has it canonically. This is just my opinion as someone who related to the portrayal of depression and mental illness that is Veronica Sawyer as a teen who later learned what my specific disorder was, giving me a certain bias context for hers.

[lunar-lair]

ok say hello to my insanely new oc who ive made entirely to be a villain who is still an excellent adult and a decent parent, probably. cares too much abt kids. think reigen mob psycho with a drop or two of milla. worked under Nick From The Mailroom and was actually in on his scheme.

has always been rather cold and brash towards adults, but is more caring towards kids. in my brain he has a brooklyn type accent? rough and tumble, walks around without a tie, yknow? they keep him cause he sorts mail real good, though.

(added a read more because this got INSANELY LONG AKSKSK i spent like an hr on this h)

he was a delugeionist, but only because he kinda just wanted to rip the world apart a little; lysandre vibes, thinks a lot of it is scum and needs to go. thinks the *psychonauts* are scum and need to go. hes psychic but suppressed it, think aquato parents but extra toxic about it, and straight up just saying being psychic is unnatural. wouldnt go to loboto parent lengths tho. so he adopted that thought of 'being psychic is unnatural and wrong', which contributed to a lot of self hate that was never learned out. likely, he realizes hes a shitty person and thinks he needs to go too. so like...yknow hank, dbh? kinda the vibe im gettin right now. way more formal, of course, and while usually gruff, is more polite when its needed; can and *will* beat the shit out of you verbally in a factual way, though, and can talk more street-lingo if hes talkin to real thugs. (probably winged it on his own after failing college or smth, hes got the vibes.)

anyways, its this plot where he slinks off and starts planting mistrust in the psychonauts or something. and inevitably he just...shows up and starts kidnapping people. dismantling things from the inside and all that. he left and formed a group who also hated psychics at some point, likely friends of his parents and friends of friends, all from his hometown. all of them fight *insanely* dirty, and a lot of them are insanely vulgar. the kids are supposed to be kept away.

but theres a line to follow here.

this man is a fold to raz. hates the psychonauts, hates being psychic, adopted his parent's hate of psychics, hates the *world.* raz is young and unburdened and unjaded...mostly. hes not the shock of water some young characters can be when it comes to being the foils of other characters; think steven with a villain or something, right? but raz is sassy and a little jaded, and not total sunshine positivity.

hes a child this man could look down on and not be immediately annoyed by, who is worried by yet respects raz's realization of the world as it is, however little that is.

and yet raz is still his foil. he still mostly loves the psychonauts, despite it all, he loves being psychic, for the most part, he dodged adopting his parents previous values, he still seems to have an even view of the world as a whole.

raz is jaded, if only a little, but he moved past it and accepted that things could still be bright. this man is jaded, but he stayed in his stormclouds, never looked for the sun.

ok where. was i. RIGHT ok so. at the beginning of this...story? the man finds raz being talked down to by one of the office workers; someone with weak psychic powers whos insanely jealous of his prowess. an adult who envies the young prodigy. and theyre giving him some insane task to do, like cleaning all of the closets within the hour, but hes saved the world twice, so he smiles and nods along, because he said he would help around the motherlobe, and this adult is asking him to do something that seems simple enough.

and this guy, internally, goes 'bitch.' for a good long second bc 1. dude even if you envy a kid, kinda fucked to show that?? not their fault 2. WHY are you asking a 10 year old to do that. why is there a 10 year old here. holy shit thats a 10 year old oh my god hes so tiny (no one told him there was a 10 year old because they knew hed stomp right up to management but. regardless. he is going to stomp up to management after this and no one can really stop him. except maybe raz well see)

so yknow. dude fixes his slight slouch and walks forward and politely tells this woman that 1. hes 10 why are you jealous of him and 2. hes 10????????? and shes like shit hes 10. and apologizes. and walks away

and raz is VERY ?? bc she was doing what? why is him being 10 important? and its that young part of you that gets pissed when people try to keep you from doing things because youre young and hes DEFINITELY yet to learn that piling responsibilites that should be handled by adults onto a child is fucked up in its own special way (looking at you ford, *nick*)

and the dude calmly explains because yea. he gets that. and he still sounds gruff and a little peeved but he squats down to razs height and he talks simply and factually, telling him straight on why it isnt right.

and. huh. people dont really do that for raz. except for sasha, sometimes, everyone likes to dodge the truth a lot with him, because hes 10, and sometimes, hes too nice to tug it out of them.

and this guy, this man that raz is already polishing a trophy for 'good adulting' in the back of his brain with his striking statements about how adults should handle things and kids should-kids should...get to have fun. not be traumatized.

for the shock on his face when raz said hed already saved the world a couple times, whats some closets. he reigned it in, said that its weird he saved the world, because thats usually their jobs.

and this guy offers his hand on instict before he stands up, even though he doesnt seem very sweet and kind like the adults that usually offer raz a hand. and he takes it, i think. he takes it.

warm. warm, a little nice.

reminds raz of his dad, maybe. he wonders if this man has any kids himself, but keeps his mouth shut, because he thinks he already has the answer, and its yes.

(he doesnt have any. he would wish he did, but he knows hed fail to raise them right.)

and when he stands, he asks raz what he was asking that woman for, and he says hes doing tasks around the motherlobe because his papers are still coming in. the man doesnt ask. (he knows what 'papers' means, realizes this is the tiny junior psychonaut every room in the damn place has been buzzing about, and he has fucking words for forsythe.) he just offers for the kid to sort mail under his supervision.

and that sounds boring. at least, it usually would.

this man is interesting, and a good...person? a good adult? hes...hes new. hes new, and calm, and a little like sasha but a lot not, and he thinks he trusts him.

so raz grins and says yea, mail sorting sounds nice.

(debatably, raz does not take his hand. hes too jaded when it comes to adults. debatably, he does not feel any warmth from this man who has taught him every adult has been telling him wrong. debatably, im projecting. but thats the whole point of ocs, hm?)

and then holes crop up in motherlobe systems. people are kidnapped.

raz keeps seeing the strange man, keeps telling him things, keeps hearing back, gruff and factual and a little annoyed, but raz can almost-just-barely tell its not at him, with the way he talks.

he can tell. he can tell.

he can never tell. this man is making sure he can tell.

raz trusts the man, is still polishing that trophy for 'best adulting' he has settling in the back of his mind.

and then the man comes with a militia.

he did not seem jaded. he did not seem hateful. he never showed any anger or hate towards raz.

but thats because he knows kids dont deserve it.

an excellent moral or two. a rotten, broken heart.

and at first, they keep the kids away, because these people fight dirty, because this isnt their battle, because the man has been sending emails about why 15 year olds are in a secret psychic agency.

(he does not mention raz. by razs second visit, he had just marked the boy down as another reason to hate the psychonauts as a whole, and especially its higher ups.

hes also regretting his alliance to nick by about the third. if he had known the man would puppet a child as if they were a toy, he would have organized his own rebellion ages ago.)

but eventually, the psychonauts need all hands on deck.

they send the children to find the missing agents.

the interns are fought on the way. some of them avoid the child, know the boss would pummel them.

they get to the base, and the strange man, the one with the broken trophy for 'best adult' (still barely-polished, because hes still so sure) still nestled in the back of razs brain, is still there.

the junior psychonauts are spotted. one of the guards throws a few rocks aimlessly.

they surprise them. one almost hits raz.

its intercepted instead.

and the other junior psychonauts watch as this man, their enemy, a villain, in their eyes, reprimands the other man for even accidentally daring, for even trying. for doing something they might have done just a month or so ago, if they had decided he was too much weirder than they already had.

and he yells something like, "Why the hell is he even here?! This is an enemy base, of whats a rebellion! This is a *10 year old*! What kind of adult sends a child *near* something like that?!" and he truly sounds angry this time, raz finds. hes too angry to keep it in. he still sounds gruff and oddly proper. raz is standing there, arms hanging. hes baffled in a specific way, the way he was every time the man's brow furrowed when he mentioned a harrowing story, the way he was the first day they met.

and he asks, a little quiet, a little small, a reminder of how young he really is, "Why are you still trying to keep me safe? We're supposed to be enemies now."

And his brow furrows further before flattening out, and he tilts onto one leg, and he swears he almost kneels to a knee.

He cant believe it. He really cant.

"You're 10." he says simply, softly, that factual way. "You shouldn't even be here."

and raz pauses. the interns freeze.

"...well, here I am."

and i think...it would be so intriguing if this was done halfway out of the mind, because this man is so against anything psychic. it would be so *compelling.*

so raz steps forward and asks again, asks why hes doing this.

and the mans eyes harden, he tries to turn off that soft heart, trying to remind himself of all that he hates. because he hates the psychonauts, because he sort of hates the world.

and raz asks why he could ever hate the psychonauts, head tilted, before listing off the few he knows to be true. but other than that, how? and ok, the world sucks a little, yea, hes seen that, gets that.

and he appreciates that this kid isnt totally gung ho about existence.

but he hates that he isnt, too.

and its this back and forth. everything the man hates, why he hates it. raz saying why its good but admitting why its bad.

and hes swayed, just a little.

but the man stands up from the kneel hed inevitably instinctively put himself into, and walks forward, hand held out yet again.

"You shouldn't be in the Psychonauts," he tells him, soft, factual, brow furrowed. "Come with me. I'll bring you back to your parents, or wherever it is you want to go."

raz contemplates. thinks, for a long moment.

he grabs the mans hand, warm and firm, yet again, for a terrifying moment.

before he reaches up to slap a mental door on his forehead, and astral projects into it.

he thinks this man is good. thinks hes just jaded.

thinks hes the best adult hes ever met, one who just happens to hate a lot of things.

hes only 10.

hes not letting someone who can tell him so clearly whats wrong and right for adults to tell him go that easily.

aaaand yknow. raz does his razzy thing. learns about why the guy hates the world and the psychonauts and himself. helps him learn that its not all bad, that he was excellent to raz, and still is, that things can be bad and good all at once.

the man concedes that raz is very capable, very smart, and can do a lot. but that doesnt mean he should have to.

raz tells him, though, that he likes working for the psychonauts. its his dream. and he realizes some things he was told to do were kinda screwed up, now. that maybe, in honesty, he was dealt a bad hand.

but hes done what he can with that hand, and he ended up with a royal flush.

and uh! yknow!! then raz leaves his mind and he calls off the rebellion! its like a rhombus of ruin type adventure, except without the villain being present beforehand. its just not clustered in insanely close with a ton of other wild shit.

anyways this got really long? sorry?? its an oc i just saw good adult and slight father vibe potential in the vibe i instantly got on him and then i went feral???? rip maybe someone will read this and if you did. congrats i honestly really liked how the whole foil and good-yet-bad and consideration of raz being 10 thing worked out. this oc is almost like our representative in the psychonauts world the way reigen is for the audience in mp100. yea :) i match them up a lot but thats just cause they vibe a lot. anyways its 1:40 am now and i spent abt an hour on this hope it vibed mildly byeeee

[sparklyandchic]

🦋 MINI MIND MAKEOVER 🦋

okay i started the idea for this mini little mind makeover when i broke up with my boyfriend in like january. instead of being sad or angry, i wanted to be grateful for this time and take it as an opportunity to make life better for myself. then quarantine happened, so some of these are related to things i’ve learned since that started. either way, these aren’t all concrete things to do for your mind; some of them are just ways of thinking or pep talks. but if you can find one little piece of information or thought that makes you a little bit happier for a moment, that’s all i can hope for!

5-htp: okay first off- please ALWAYS consult your psychiatrist or medical professional before taking a supplement! taking 5-htp with, for example, serotonin-increasing medications can lead to a fatal illness called serotonin syndrome. personally, i started taking it because i had been on 10 mg prozac for a few months. it definitely dulled a lot of my anxiety and had a lot of positive aspects to it, but it dulled them almost too much to the point where i felt apathetic and detached from myself and the situations i was in. i was in a very unhealthy relationship and felt like i needed my mental clarity and “overthinking” processes back in order to identify what i was feeling and how to deal with it. i felt a lot more “sensitive” after coming off it, which was actually really welcome for me at first, but then it sort of dropped off into withdrawals. i was having constant panic attacks and crying very often. after a while, i was debating going back on prozac, but remembered i had taken 5-htp before. 5-htp is an amino acid that is a direct precursor to serotonin being produced in the brain. when u eat turkey, tryptophan is converted into 5-htp which leads to your brain producing serotonin, thus why you feel calm and happy afterwards. after taking 5-htp for just a few days, ranging between 200-300 mg per day (again, do your research, ask your doctor, and start small) i stopped crying constantly and really felt this sense of calmness and wellbeing but without the detachment and apathy i felt with prozac. i could still think clearly but didn’t feel overly sensitive to every emotion which arose. personally, it is really a lifesaver and really does make a noticeable difference.

cognitive behavioral therapy: ive tried therapy a million times. well okay, like 5 or 6 different therapists. at its worst, therapists told me i needed to use my sexual power as a woman in order to get what i wanted from men, told me i’m bad at socializing and should do group therapy, said my mom shouldn’t have encouraged me to “be myself” when i was younger because it made me less likeable than if i had conformed to normal societal standards of dressing. i had gone to “therapists” who claimed to be trained in CBT, but when i told them about my experiences with dissociation, the only feedback i got was to “take more baths.” while going through a few unpleasant experiences in my personal life, i decided i should try CBT once more, but like the real kind. i found an ivy-league educated licensed psychologist (NOT a “licensed clinical social worker” who doesn’t even have a psychology degree!!) who SPECIALIZED specifically in cognitive behavioral therapy. just after the first session, i was so elated with my experience. as opposed to just telling me that i needed to be more normal or more kind or a better person, she tried to identify WHAT was making me feel that way about myself in the first place. she pointed out the positive things i do and reassured me i was kind, good, and deserving of good things. she pointed out many aspects of my situation that would have taken me days or weeks to come to on my own. i’ve realized my hubris isn’t that i’m not socially acceptable or not perfect enough, but its just that i tend to THINK that i am these things despite having no evidence of it. so, over time with therapy, my positive self image about who i am as a person has grown and strengthened and i dont just randomly feel like a bad human being anymore lol. moral of the story, if you wanna do therapy but it keeps sucking, dont give up. go to a legit psychologist, find someone who specializes in the type of therapy you’re seeking, and also be vocal during your sessions. stand up to your psychologist when they continually push a narrative onto you, and explain why you don’t agree with it. sometimes it’s their job to try different narratives to see what fits, and if you just passively let them say what they want to, you’ll never find the truth of your experience! it’s a communal effort! therapy isn’t usually a magic cure-all where one session fixes everything that goes awry in your brain. but if you find someone who knows what they’re doing they can in fact really help your thought processes become less twisted up and more clear and healthy.

meditation and mindfulness: a few weeks ago i felt anxious and overly driven to get things done to the point where i spiraled into a space of guilt or a panic attack over not getting enough things done. meditation can be so so helpful here. it’s better to spend an hour sitting and doing nothing, but doing it peacefully and then calmly moving on to doing something else, than to spend 5 hours stressing yourself over every single thing you need to get done and how much time you’re wasting. the things that need to get done will get done. another thing that i’ve realized and say to myself a lot is: “focus not on doing all things perfectly, but on doing the small things well.” by this i mean, stop thinking about the 20 things you need to get done and how it all needs to be perfect, but instead take your time with the task that presents itself as most beneficial right now and focus on enjoying it and giving your whole self to the process. for example, stop thinking about how you need to clean your room, your closet, donate clothes, take a shower, take out the trash, read, workout, etc. think to yourself; “which task would bring me the most joy right now?” if the answer is taking a shower, then take that damn shower. bring your speaker into the bathroom, scrub every inch of your scalp with shampoo, scrub your feet and behind your ears and your neck with body wash, brush the conditioner through your hair fully. you may end your shower with 19 other things to do, but god damn if you can’t enjoy a single one of them and be present for it, what’s the fucking point! go light a candle and bask in its glow, go make your bed and huddle up in your neatly arranged covers, go take a long bath or a thorough shower, and be proud of and content with that today. 

relationships, with others and yourself: okay, if you missed the memo, my ex-boyfriend sucked. like genuinely was a bad person. he was a drug dealer, so that’s red flag number 1 (which i ignored of course), he hadn’t graduated high school (he was 18, i was 20, he was supposed to graduate the last semester but refused to do the work and ignored me and his mother when encouraged to do it, which is uhh definitely red flag number 2 which i also ignored), he habitually did not show up for dates on time or lied about what he was going to do or what he did (literally everything he did was a red flag and i rlly ignored all of it). the worst part was how he responded when i worked up the courage to speak to him about it. if we had agreed upon a time for our date but he showed up literally 8 hours late, he would blame it on me because i “could have called” him, or that i was “demanding too much of” him, or that i “should have said something earlier so now [i was] just dragging it out because it already happened.” basically, whatever narrative he pushed at me, i eventually gave into. i’ve dealt with gaslighting in a relationship before and a part of me knew what was happening to me, but a part of me also kept having hope for him, kept empathizing with him, kept wanting to believe in him. after a bit too much time, i finally realized you have to trust yourself, empathize with yourself, and believing in yourself over anyone else. at first i felt bad for him not being able to graduate because i had my own struggles with high school and getting work done. i thought he may have issues but he deserves someone to be there for him because i wanted someone to be there for me. despite the pain and stress he was causing me, i sat around crying over him because i cared about him and tend to over-empathize with people close to me, whether they deserve it or not. my therapist told me something that at first i did not understand, but over time came to grasp in its entirety: “some people do not deserve your love or kindness.” after our first session, my homework was to “consider when you are being kind and when you are being taken advantage of.” this made me realize that what feels like your instinctual nature to be nice to others, can in fact be a self-sabotaging unfair action, depending on the other person’s response. i might be dishing out a lot right now, but bear with me. think of it this way: you regard an action as a “kind action”. you might think “kind actions” include: forgiving someone for large mistakes, putting someone’s needs over yours, sparing them some change when they ask for it, listening to the problems they are dealing with every day. BUT when their actions include not forgiving you for minor mistakes, not giving a sh*t about your needs or considering them, not caring how much money they take from you and how much money you need to have around, or habitually glossing over your problems because it doesn’t benefit them to care, THEN those actions you performed are NOT “KIND ACTIONS” anymore. the act of continuing to give them leeway is now the act of being taken advantage of. the act of giving them money is now the act of being taken advantage of. the act of buying into their story at the expense of your sanity, is now the act of being taken advantage. basically, all i’m saying is START PUTTING YOURSELF FIRST AND TRUSTING YOURSELF WHEN YOU FEEL SOMEONE DOESN’T HAVE YOUR BEST INTERESTS IN MIND. 

ending thoughts: i know quarantine is difficult right now. the desire to grow contrasted with the inability to move. maybe try and follow that old 2008~ quote; “bloom where you are planted”. you might not be able to reach the goals you thought you would during this time. you might not be able to run a marathon or make a bunch of new friends or wake up at 6 AM to workout or redo your bedroom or get a rhinoplasty or join a gym or get an internship. working towards productivity might be unrealistic right now. but you can work everyday towards becoming the woman you want to be, mentally. you can work on learning to be content, learning to make the best with what you have, learning to appreciate the little things, learning to slow down. these are all qualities that i for one want to have just as much as i want to be attractive or successful. if you can’t enjoy success, what’s the fucking point! life is on pause right now, take this moment as a gift and consider your internal world and what parts of your mind need a makeover. there are horrible things happening in the world right now, do what you can to help, but if you’re safe and healthy then be grateful for the things you can learn from this difficult time. take it slow, but keep moving forward! 

[djhedy]

bullying in fandom

even as i consider typing this i feel anxious and a little sick - the idea of taking on the very people i’m worried will call me out for trying to call out a particular type of behaviour - but i want to say something.

online spaces should be treated the same as real spaces. the way some people talk to each other online isn’t ok. 

somewhere along the way we’ve lost the art of nuanced conversation. it is ok to say “this is problematic and i like it”. or “i disagree with you but i still like you”. or “i like this novel but not this aspect”.

bullying happens in fandom.

it happens amongst ourselves - and not the call-outs themselves, i’m perfectly comfortable having a discussion about the morality of something existing at all (and fandom is full of pretty complicated things), but i’m not comfortable with the way we talk about it. people are scared to have conversation (the way i am right now) for fear of being yelled at for saying anything at all.

it is not ok to drown out one person’s voice for yours. it is ok to decide whether you want to be in a conversation or not - you have a right not to be in places you don’t feel comfortable. 

but i was bullied at school, and have carried those anxieties into adulthood, and i don’t feel comfortable existing in fandom right now because i’m constantly afraid of being targeted or harassed. which is ridiculous. no one knows who i am. a handful of people read my fanfic and basically no one follows me on tumblr. which is fine. and maybe no one will read this. i don’t even have any particularly controversial opinions. i tend to write about mental health, because that’s my jam. 

in my head fandom is a place that’s just meant to be fun. i thought the rule would be - look for stuff you like, don’t look at stuff you don’t like.

it is never ok to passive aggressively yell at someone for disagreeing with you. even for something you think is absolutely appalling. i am bi and have had heated discussions with homophobes on twitter, and have never used the type of bullying language against them ive seen used in fandom. it is ok to disagree, and to hate someone, and to not bully them for it.

(*even now, i’m editing, and i’d originally written - “it is ok to disagree, and to hate someone, and to be nice to them”. and then immediately panicked that someone would yell at me for saying we should be nice to - oh i dont know - paedophiles - and that i would be in the exact place i want to avoid being. i do think we should try to be nice to everyone, without qualification, but of course this is hard, and of course i fail sometimes too. so i took out the word ‘nice’. i replaced it with courteous. i hate that word. now the sentence doesn’t work as well and i’m worried i’m going to have to qualify the word ‘bullying’. but i think even bullies know what they’re doing when they’re doing it. it’s language designed to hurt, to push someone into a corner, to shut them up, to make them feel small. anyway. i digress.)

i don’t know if anyone will agree with this. maybe i’m too hufflepuff for my own good.

but i’ve been feeling anxious recently and i’ve never really properly acknowledged to myself that i was bullied in school. and not wanting to participate too hard in the extreme corners of fandom feels a lot like ducking my head in school corridors.

we also bully the original creators. that one i don’t understand at all - if they hadn’t made the thing, we wouldn’t be here obsessively delighting in the thing? they came up with the characters we love? it is ok to like one aspect of someone’s creation, and not another - and it is never ok to send them hateful messages about it.

you do not own that content. someone else created it, and we get to decide whether to engage or not. that is as far as the relationship goes. my favourite author has left tumblr because of harassment about her characters. characters i also love by the way, but because my head stays half in the real world, i know those characters are not real. i know all of this is a hobby. a hobby without much importance. this is what we’re talking about here. and yes i love it too. and yes i’m angry, you can probably tell, i’m angry that this author was run off tumblr. and i saw a couple of the people involved. and i will never yell at them. i considered entering into a couple of gentle debates - because i do think it’s important to stand up when you see wrongdoing - but i had no idea how to do it in a way that wouldn’t get me yelled at.

i’m still ducking my head in school corridors.

maybe i’m just naive. maybe i’ve said something problematic that will get me hate. mostly i just want to be left alone to enjoy this thing that’s supposed to be an easy fun hobby. but it would be nice to not be too afraid to make friends here, without worrying what sort of spaces i’ll accidentally pop my head into.

it is ok to disagree, and to hate someone, and to still be nice to them.

[ruffiorocks]

Long post on people's misconceptions about Lena.

Sooo I'm reading a pretty good fic on AO3 but some of the comments people leave are just as bad as the stuff posted on here, Twitter and Instagram. It's mostly people hating on Lena, but they are so hypocritical about it and they make stuff up. I'm honestly convinced that half of them didn't watch the show and only go off of what haters have said happened. Either that or they have regurgitated the same nonsense for so long they have convinced themselves it actually happened.

1. Lena did NOT steal Harun El! Please go back and watch the show, listen to the dialogue and try and watch it without instantly waiting for Lena to be bad. I saw a comment that said that Alura requested all the Harun El back after they defeated Reign. Yeah, whoever commented that didn't watch the show. Kara and Mon El were given a small percentage of Harun El, it was used against Reign. Lena then MADE more Harun El. She figured out how to do something an advanced society of alien scientists weren't able to do. RAO the bloody witches were able to create Reign but not Harun El?? Anyhoo, Lena then produced enough to keep Argo City functioning for a long time and for good measure she threw in the recipe. Alura did NOT request all of it back because what Argo gave was gone. Alura did state that she was glad none would be left on Earth because they didn't know the extent of what it could do, but she didn't explicitly forbid Lena from making more and there was no law in place saying she couldn't. The same commentor even said Lena should have some kind of galactic authorities on her ass, for what? Creating a substance that will keep an entire planet and it's inhabitants alive and then using some herself? Yes I can see how that is a terrible crime.

2. Lena is fully entitled to feel pissed at Kara for not telling her her secret. All I see is the comments saying that Kara did it to protect her, she can't tell the people she cares about in case they get hurt. Yeah... That excuse only works if other people don't know. But the fact of the matter is EVERYONE but Lena knows. If you go back and watch it all you'll notice that a lot of problems could have been avoided if Lena knew. In fact her not knowing Kara's secret is neither here nor there since she's always in danger anyway. So that excuse is redundant.

3. People are still harping on about the alien detection device. RAO, wasn't that like in her second episode? Kara made the decision to destroy that device and probably millions of dollars and a long times worth of work because she didn't like it. I get why, but she could have just refused to use it. Kara already made it clear she didn't agree with it, anyone who doesn't agree with something would just say the aren't using it on principal. Kara even changed her stance a bit and began to see Lena's point of view at the end of the Episode. Plus if that was still an issue Kara wouldn't still be friends with her 3 years on.

4. Lena is still being called xenophobic and that's a reason Kara shouldn't of told her. oh all that xenophobic behavior of hers. Outside of the alien detection device, something that was addressed in the Episode where is this so called Xenophobic behavior? Do you know what I remember?

. Lena gave Kara the location to the fight club and stated very clearly she had no interest in that sort of entertainment.

. She directly requested help from Supergirl at the Gala and was really happy about a Luthor and Super working together.

.She screamed at her mother not to hurt Supergirl.

. She switched the isotopes saving all of the aliens in National City, including Jonn and Kara from choking to death.

. She helped Kara track down the aliens that were about to be shot into space by Cadmus.

. She helped and developed a bond with a Daxamite queen who convinced her all she wanted to do was get back to her home

. She left the choice to poisen the Daxamites completely in Supergirls hands.

. She saved Supergirls life more than once.

. The moment she found out one of her closest friends was an alien and didn't know it she didn't immediately turn her in out of fear for what would happen to her. She immediately set about trying to help and cure her dear friend.

. She had an anti Kryptonite suit ready to go the moment she was called and told Supergirl needed help.

. She was immediately against Lockwood and his xenophobia. She didn't want her company associated with them and was pissed James was giving them the time of day.

. She created image inducors to protect aliens

. She saved all of Argo City from extinction by manufacturing Harun El.

. She saved Argo City again when she stopped Lex.

So tell me where her xenophobic behavior is? Tell me why Kara couldn't tell her because Lena is apparently against aliens?

5. Lena has no right to be mad at Kara and she should remember all the times Kara has saved her and should be grateful. OK, but that goes both ways, Lena saved Supergirl several times, and at times thought she was protecting Kara. So yeah it wasn't just Kara doing the heroics here.

6. Lena created Kryptonite doesn't she know how much it could hurt Kara? She should have told her! Ok, but you're all convienently forgetting why she made it. She had it to keep Sam contained while she tried to cure her. She didn't tell Supergirl because then she would have had to explain why she had it leading to exposing Sam and given the DEO track record and the fact Sam was Reign I wouldn't have wanted them to know either. Lena didn't think about Supergirl when she made it because Supergirl was never meant to be in contact with it. Why does everyone including Kara forget that this was all for Sam? It wasn't just a Lena and Kara situation. Sam was the important one here, even Kara failed to give much though to her.

7. Lena made anti Kryptonian tech. So we're all just going to convienently forget the power ranger suit? That cell she kept Reign in and the forcefield were once again to keep Reign from killing people and to help Sam. Kara got pissed Lena dared to make something she couldn't see through. Lena even told her she couldn't see through it, it was to keep Reign from knowing what was going on a s it would hurt to use X Ray Vision. So the very first thing Kara does upon being told this is try to look through it.

8. Lena lied about the Kryptonite. Well I would have as well, look at Kara's reaction when she thought Lena only had left over Kryptonite. Imagine walking into a secret government facility and revealing you know and have made the one substance that can hurt their most important asset? Add the Luthor name to that and you're already f**ked regardless of reason. Turns out they needed Lena's expertise in making Kryptonite anyway.

9. Lena and Kara only ever talk about Lena and her issues. Ok this the fault of the writers. But the fact is Lena talking over her issues is what drives her arc forward, we need to know her inner thoughts and circumstances. We already know Kara's, we as the audience know what she's been through, what she's thinking. The fact is Kara can't talk to Lena about her issues because she hasn't told Lena she's Supergirl so what issues would they discuss that are relevant to the plot moving forward?

10. Lena did NOT take advantage of Kara. If you watch it properly, you should notice that it's actually Kara that comes to Lena whenever she needs information or if she needs her to spend millions of dollars to keep her job safe. Lena asked Kara for stuff friends do, like asking her to go and see Jack. Lena didn't abuse her position as Kara's boss, she was actually way more tolerant with both Kara and James than what they deserved. Rightfully she could have (and in James' case) should have sacked them.

11. People say that Lena didn't tell Kara and the others about her experiments so why should Kara tell her about the super secret? Well basically because Lena was directly involved in regards to the super secret. Kara and the DEO actually didn't have any right to know what Lena does at L Corp. The writers glossed over a lot of the process on the Harun El experiments, but that didn't directly concern them. Actually Lena already told the gang at Thanksgiving her ideas and they were immediately shot down without any consideration. But just because they don't approve doesn't mean Lena has to stop, the super friends aren't in charge of Lena and what she does. Let's not forget that James was against it the first time, convienently when he was pissed at Lena, then he was for it when he realized she had nearly figured it out, then against it again when the government got involved. Lena's Harun El experiments weren't actually illegal, she had a government contract. Where Adam is concerned is a moral grey area, but it still isn't anything to do with Kara.

12. Lena's killed people? Lena only shoots people to protect herself or others, same as Alex. Plus Alex, Jonn and Kara have all killed to.

So yeah, don't make stuff up. If you're going to hate on Lena at least let it be for legit reasons and not just ones you've regurgitated from haters on here and convinced yourselves actually happened. Lena isn't perfect, she makes major mistakes but you know who else does? Kara does! Jonn does! They all do.

Lastly fanfiction is someone's version of what happened, they can change it all they want. You don't have to like it, you can say you don't like a direction a character is going in. But dont comment essays on stuff that you think happened in the show and start massive debates about it when it has nothing to do with the fic.

[dabistits]

hey... you're the smartest blog i follow on this hellsite so i gotta ask... why do people use tomura saying he fully intended to kill his father when he reached out for him as an argument that tomura is obviously 100% evil? like... why not something else? because tbh, idk about other people, but like... i got abused way less than tomura did as a child but never felt bad about my father dying and, if anything, felt relief because it meant that one of my abusers was gone (1/2)

and sometimes i get desperate about the situation im in now, to the point that i do honestly consider murder just so i can be free and like… dont rlly feel that bad when i look back at those thoughts when im in a clearer mindset… so, if i, someone who’s gone through less than tomura has, am not necessarily evil, then why is that used as a ‘trump card’ to prove that tomura is 100% pure villain and not like… something else? also.. please humor my vacuum question? (2/2)

thank you, lovely, but the truth is i learn a lot from other people on this site too!! just not the fandom blogs, absolutely do not develop your sense of morality from fandom blogs…

for your question: people think tomura killing his father makes him evil because they look at morality in stories through the same lens that predominates our own society. it pushes the message that an intent to kill (from anyone who isn’t an agent of the state) is bad, encouraging us to divorce violence from the context that surrounds it. it’s the easiest way to undermine victims and marginalized people, because comparisons are drawn between the intent of both parties: i.e. your abuser only wanted to hurt you, why does that make it okay kill him? white supremacists only want to remove you from this country, how is that equivalent to violent resistance?

this approach 1) obscures the violence of the more powerful party (assumes that the abuse isn’t serious or otherwise inescapable, pretends that ‘population removal’ doesn’t entail uprooting people from their lives at gunpoint), and 2) creates a double-edged sword where victims can only endure the violence of their oppressor/try to resolve everything peacefully and accept that their oppressor has gotten away with all the pain they inflicted, or be branded the ‘bad guy’ if they respond in a way that other parties deem ‘excessive.’ in every case, responding to violence with violence (even necessary violence) is deemed worse than initiating violence where there wasn’t any in the first place.

as far as bnha goes, we can question if kotaro ‘deserved it’ or if tenko’s response to him was ‘proportionate’ (which are not wholly worthless questions, but that’s for another post). i do think there could be debate on this—because for instance, i largely see him as more redeemable than emdivor or afo—but as per my first couple paragraphs, i don’t think we can simply call a child, who justifiably felt deeply, deeply wronged, ‘evil’ for acting on his emotions. we might call it ‘unfortunate’ or ‘badly misguided,’ maybe, or even ‘vengeful’ or ‘hateful’ (which i’m listing because that was how he felt in the moment) but nothing that presumes a static, unchanging characteristic like ‘evil.’ there are decisions that people can make that are not morally upstanding that nevertheless doesn’t brand them forever.

but, just as an aside, i don’t even really believe that a five year old going through one of the most traumatizing moments of his life was making a completely rational decision to commit murder. tomura’s internal monologue does bias us towards this interpretation to a degree, but it feels dissonant with what is actually being shown on the page. it could be deliberate, it could not be. hori could be trying to show that tomura is retroactively inscribing a narrative wherein he was fully aware of events as a disordered way of coping, or hori could genuinely believe that a five year old’s decision-making in that moment was the revelation of his truest self. i don’t know which interpretation is closest to the author’s intention, but i guess time will tell.

and, lastly… i want to take a moment to say to you, anon: i’m sorry you’re in this situation, but believe me when i say it will get better. you will get away from your parents and you will remove their hold over you. you will be better than they ever were. thank you for sending me this question (i hope this answer is satisfactory), know that my inbox is always open if needed, and i wish you the very best❤️

[spidermanifested]

not to do Universal Steve Discourse on main in 2019 but....... i did genuinely enjoy the season finale and i want to like. express the reasons why? in a really really really long drawn-out and needlessly convoluted manner probably because this is being typed on mobile and im tired

first of all i know the main thing people dont like about how things have gone in general is the fact that its less You Gotta Beat the Bad Guys and more You Gotta, Talk to the Bad Guys Until They Stop Being Bad, which is not very often a realistic approach to stopping actual horrible people in our real human society from doing actual horrible things

and i get it!! but honestly the way the finale goes about resolving conflict (or specifically how steven goes about resolving conflict), while flawed, feels more like. a mediatorial power fantasy id have as a kid than anything else. like....... for once, things not having to end with the strongest person coming out on top. making the other side just sit there and listen for a few minutes, and force them to realize that their actions have consequences for the rest of the world and the people they claim to care about. that no, their idea of whats best isnt always helpful! that theyre ignoring everyones actual needs in favor of an idealized and selfish narrative!

every time i would watch a show featuring superheroes or anything similar when i was younger id hate that it always had to resolve itself with violence instead of just TALKING to each other, and maybe su and the homeworld arc in particular isnt an accurate portrayal of successfully navigating interpersonal conflict with stubborn assholes or of fighting systemic oppression or a fascist government colonizing everybody else and suppressing all dissent through any means available or whatever but. sometimes metaphors dont work as a direct 1:1 comparison to things happening in real life, and thats, okay i think? sometimes? i dont know it just feels good to see everybody UNDERSTAND each other. it reminds me that its. actually possible once in a blue moon to convince someone to treat the people around them with respect. and it just feels good honestly. its a fantasy show and Everybody Goddamn Finally Getting Along is a Common and Valid Fantasy to Have Especially If Youre a Kid in a Bad Place

also: though in a lot of scenarios this way of approaching the diamonds wouldnt be feasible at all, steven in the show is not just a random human whos magically able to change the minds of alien dictators. hes the son of maybe the one person they had any compassion for, and they treated him like he was still her, which even then Wasnt Great because the diamonds were not a healthy familial setup by any measure. but at the very least they could SOMETIMES be swayed by pink. and he used that to its advantage by showing them how much they hurt her, and then by extension how much they hurt everybody else, even if they didnt particularly care about the rest of their “flawless” gem society. and maybe they still dont!!! maybe theyre just making reparations to honor pink. but when it comes down to it their feelings dont matter. their motivations dont matter. their ACTIONS matter. in stevens words: “you did this, and now you have to fix it”.

he used his foothold in their good graces (again, relatively) to make them take a closer look at their actions, and thats what makes it more rational to me. because of course they wouldnt listen if he was some random half-alien kid. if he really was unrelated to the diamonds he would have HAD to use force. you dont get people to listen to your viewpoint by just talking when theyve already convinced themselves youre below their consideration and itd be useless to pretend otherwise, yes!! but to use another characters metaphor- the best character in the whole show (bismuth)- if you are a lion, you can safely enter the lions den. use your respected-as-a-peer status to convince the people around you to be better. obviously everybody being affected by oppression can fight with everything theyve got and it makes a huge difference, but what also makes a difference is people in positions of privilege standing up for other peoples rights and magnifying their voices, and the burden of breaking out from an unjust system shouldnt NEED to be placed on the downtrodden. we should fight, but we shouldnt HAVE to fight. its not our fault things are this way

and giving up on galactic conquest doesnt suddenly make the diamonds good people. not once to my memory do they ever actually verbally apologize (at least white diamond definitely didnt) but like i said before, that doesnt really matter to the people they hurt. the damage is done and any apology offered would just look flimsy and performative. instead steven has them just shut up and fix the things theyre able to fix. nobody says “i forgive you”, they arent suddenly given tragic backstories to make the audience sympathize with them, theyre just... the same close-minded egotistical royalty, but being forced to look at everybody else from a different angle for the very first time, directly after coming to grips with the fact that their awful caste-based society pressured one of “their own” into faking her own death and later dying for real just so she could experience life outside of the constricting role she was born into. thats their thing. that isnt a redemption arc so much as a “hurray we made them pay for their reprehensible actions in a constructive and viable manner” arc

i think thats... cool? less focus on Punishing Wrongdoers and more focus on Fixing Problems. we need that. in a lot of ways

but yes i also wholeheartedly believe that you should not argue or debate or converse with fascists in real life unless youre somebody they have to take seriously. like. their dad, or something. and dont do it anywhere public where they can perform for the audience instead of addressing your words. and also dont do it on the internet where they can screencap and mock you with their friends instead of being serious. but if youre their dad i dont know why youd need to be doing that. anyways this post is long enough so thats the end of my ‘Punching Nazis is Very Morally Good and Also Fun and Im Not About to Say Otherwise in a Million Years’ disclaimer

the tumblrmobile refuses to post this so ive had to save it as a draft and come back on my laptop to add tags good website great design functions as intended

[cheesecakeremix]

Hmm..*rant incoming*

You ever get that feeling that you end up looking on posts of friends of your friends and then realize that Tumblr seems to be filled with a bunch of immature people who can’t even do a proper insult and proceed to use ad hominems and childish bs about being “roasted” or using derogatory slurs because someone doesn’t agree with you and you just want to either punch your computer screen or just go off on a tangent and call everyone idiots?

...I’m in one of those nights. Now for the sake of my sanity and everyone around me, my tumblr will be drama free. I dont have an issue with politics, but i wont speak my views on it. I dont have an issue with opinions, but i’m not giving my opinions on shit. I dont have an issue with anyone, but the second someone tries to start shit, i will fucking shut them down faster than they could possibly imagine.

I’m a Sonic fan. I’m a furry. I’m a Texan. I’m an American. I’m an asshole. I can be your best friend and your worst enemy.

I am tired of the drama...i’m tired of “left this, right that, politics this, bs that”. It’s good to be informed and to be active on what you feel is right, just remember that there are those that have completely different views/opinions than yourself and there is no need for violence, name calling, and other bs unless its completely justified (and before you even say it, rioting is not protesting. Setting shit on fire is not “peaceful protesting”..now of course on the whole “punching a nazi” thing, i’d say go for it but don’t be surprised if someone punches back...i mean that’s basically murphy’s law and action/reaction in a nutshell)

Now you’re probably wondering “Why are you saying this?” Well its because I’M TIRED OF ALL THE BS. Yes, i’m scared of what’s going on right now and i dont approve of most of this, but i have to look at this from a middle point of view: i cant let bias get involved as to how its going to affect the country. I have to look at both sides and see if it’s really as bad as it’s going to be...some people don’t like that, but it is what it is.

I just...-sighs- I want everyone to be friends again. People get stuck on labels and stereotypes and all that, we tend to forget one thing: We’re all human. We have to be productive and constructive, not destructive.

Engage in healthy conversation and debate, not harmful heated arguments over which side is “right” because of some self moral bs that goes on in your heads (and i do it too, trust me).

Anyways..i just needed to get this off my chest and vent, though heavily edited to avoid sounding like a giant asshole...i’m just tired and i honestly...i honestly have no clue anymore. I knew this was gonna be a bumpy 4 years..but this is starting to get ridiculous now.