#AND we're living in an absolut hell of fascism in a lot of the world at the same time

[sherlock-is-ace]

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[wathanism]

Your ideals are going to kill people. The only thing refusing to vote is going to do is ensure that the republicans win and their project 2025 gets enacted. This is not a conspiracy theory. They want a theocracy. They want authoritarianism. They want fascism. You and everyone you convince to not vote is letting that happen.

I don't know who convinced you that its impossible to care about two things at once, but abandoning the vulnerable here in the states because you care so deeply about the vulnerable on the other side of the world doesn't make you more righteous.

Refusing to vote for him is a foolish act that will do nothing to stop what is happening. Even if he finally pulls back all aid for Israel at the eleventh hour, no one will vote for him now, which means the vulnerable right here at home are fucked. Thanks.

i was really close to not answering you at all because i have a hard rule about not talking with selfish cunts who are commited to misunderstanding everything a non-white person says to them. but since you had the good sense to realize that you were being an ass right then, i'm going to assume that you're worth engaging with, and i'm going to hope you'll talk with me in good faith and read everything i have to say rather than blow up at me again. if nothing else, i'm going to use this as an opportunity to say all the things i've been wanting to say since i made that post. that said, i'm real pissed and i'm not gonna be all nice and palatable in my answer.

first of all, no i'm not a US citizen. i live in west asia. y'know, where all the wars are? gaza is five hours away from my hometown of damascus, which is also being bombed with your tax dollars, by the way! in fact, i grew up living under a textbook authoritarian theocracy. so don't sit there and talk to me like i don't know what it's like to be afraid of your own government. we're in this shithole world together, and you and i are a hell of a lot more like each other than the politicians putting our lives on the line.

second of all, i should have been more clear about what i actually would like for US voters to do. contrary to small-minded liberals' assumptions, i'm not republican nor am i anti-voting. i'm saying people should vote third party. i even have a preferred candidate in mind, jasmine sherman. they even have strict and well-defined policies to protect trans rights and provide universal healthcare that includes gender affirming care and reproductive care.

this is usually the point when usamericans talk down to me like it's my first day on earth, so let me be clear. i know about the electoral college. i know about the flaws of the first-past-the-post voting system. i know about ranked-choice voting and why that's a better system in almost every way. i know that until there's drastic changes to the US voting system, there is no chance a third party candidate could even win. i'm not delusional about that. and i'm asking you to protest-vote anyway. which, yes, i realize is a big ask, but consider that this is a big fucking problem that requires pretty drastic actions.

several absolute dumbasses who i refuse to engage with said some very interesting stuff that made me realize why so many people are quick to dismiss the idea of refusing to vote for either major party. some examples:

they describe the push to vote third party as us lashing out at biden. in their eyes, we're not politically aware adults with a righteous passion for justice. no, we're petulant children causing problems for everyone whose rights actually matter. maybe a nicer person than me can give them the benefit of the doubt, but i find it extremely suspect that they truly seem to believe that non-white people are irrational, easily-angered, thoughtless creatures with no understanding of the complexities of the situation. there's a complete refusal to consider that there might be an actual coherent strategy behind the activism of indigenous and black people.

and again, because this is not my first day on earth, i know about the "but trump!!" argument. i honestly am BAFFLED that liberals seem to genuinely believe they're offering anything novel or valuable to the discussion at hand when they parrot talking points that we've been hearing since 2016 with quite literally nothing to show for it.

but i digress. the important thing is: yes, i fucking know. i know trump would have a near identical policy on gaza. he'd also have an identical policy on the police, on covid, on immigration, and on most other issues. you worry about project 2025, and you're right to! but the thing is, and you'll forgive me for quoting imani here but she is the most correct person ever always, "everything in project 2025 relies on biden doing exactly what he's fucking doing right now. the more successful this genocide is, the more likely project 2025 is to happen." because at the end of the day, it doesn't require a republican president. it requires a CONSERVATIVE president. and that's what biden is.

i don't know if you're missing it or if you don't care, but democrats benefit from you being terrified, and that's exactly why they'll never keep you safe. you will always be one election away from being killed by the system because that's what keeps you complicit. democrats won't shoot the gun, but they will ALWAYS make sure it's loaded and that you're trapped in a room with the person who'll shoot you. don't forget that roe v. wade was overturned on biden's watch. trans rights were rolled back on biden's watch. covid deaths skyrocketed and protections were dismantled on biden's watch. he'll find every loophole in the book to funnel weapons to israel's military but he'll never lift a finger to fix the problems ruining your life, because he needs you to be as scared as you are. that's exactly what's keeping you from showing an ounce of compassion or solidarity to palestinians right now. and no, your fucking lip service and crocodile tears don't count as solidarity.

liberals have managed to completely forget the most important lesson about social justice: none of us are free until all of us are free. you've been so busy yelling at arabs to even realize that this moment in time is one of the greatest pushes against the two-party system. do you not get how important that is? right now, when damn near everyone who's even mildly left leaning (and many who are right leaning) is so deeply unsatisfied with both major candidates, is the perfect time to be thinking of ways to break out of this system. to organize, to advocate for your mystical fucking ranked choice voting!

palestinians aren't asking you to lay down your life and throw away your human rights so they can mildly spite joe biden. they're asking you to grow a fucking spine and stand on principle and god damn DO SOMETHING to tear apart the two-party system. make people realize that a third party candidate IS a viable one, so that one day they can be.

you're framing this as a matter of pitting palestinians versus americans, which couldn't be further from the truth. maybe instead of directing your hate towards palestinians and their allies, show some gratitude. palestinians are uncovering the veil of all the atrocities and all the corruption in the world, and they're giving the people of the earth a banner to unite under. there have never been so many people (afaik, at least) pushing against the systems of corruption in america. that kind of thing ripples out. standing with palestine isn't easy, but all of our lives will be better for it, including and especially the lives of minorities living in the US.

there is so, SO much more i can say about palestine, and it will inevitably turn into a very spiritual rant about the uniting force of the holy land. but i'm instead just gonna leave you with this tweet that i think sums up everything about this.

[fxl3]

Finally putting together some words on WWO episode 4:

Hell yeah Aabria! Talk about a big swing with Suvi- not many players can give a character such a deep flaw so connected with a world's history and culture, but Aabria just crushed it. I'm so so so excited to see where Suvi goes next, and what her character has to saw about the rest of the Citadel/Empire.

I know Suvi's brashness came as a shock for some people, but it makes perfect sense to me. She's been conditioned since childhood to fight and hate the enemy, to take pride in hurting them. I think we're going to get a lot into themes of fascism/imperialism through our relationship to Suvi. It's going to be a long haul, but I'm so excited to see the growth and conflict between the group, especially once we get to the empire. Also Suvi's words from episode one, paraphrased, "Let me go an see the world, let me prove myself" take on a whole other light once you realize she's asking to go murder some chalices and wear those deaths as a sign of her dedication to the citadel.

(side note: very interesting that their little island has an imperial governor, cool power dynamic and I'd love to hear some of the regional history there)

Suvi's absolute sickening pride in murdering a woman for the sake of the empire was both terrifying and exciting.

(side note; I'm even more sure now that Suvi's parents worked to fight the empire, costing them their lives. Maybe Steel, "The Sword of the Citadel" had some thing to do with it... And We've been conditioned to think Eiogharn/Yoren (the shapeshifter from Suvi's backstory) is supposed to be the bad guy, with all the blood and body horror/scaring Suvi- but I bet he knows a lot about what happened to Suvi's parents... And he might have been more loyal to her dad than to the empire)

Joras was such a enthralling depiction put together by Brennan. An outpost of Imperial industry combined with an older town core- with some kind of strange witch's fire burning in the background? Delicious. PLUS we have a strange wizards island out at sea- sick I tell you!

I do hope we slow down a bit and really explore here though- I know they want to keep episodes under 90 minutes, and the pace up with only 2 episodes a month, but we've really been rushing through the world so far. Which can sometimes make it feel a little like the scene's made out of cardboard, without any depth. Tough line to walk, but I think they can stick it.

I wonder what the difference between imperial and citadel wizards are- is it just political or is there an ability difference as well? What exactly is the citadels relationship to the empire? They clearly seem to be some kind of combat troops- Is that also true of empire wizards?

What the heck is the empire's enemies powers? (I'm blanking the faction/country names) shadow spirits can possess somebody as a chalice with a tattoo? Is this connected to Yoren? Is it connected to the wanderer who will visit in a year? Or are they the coincidentally similar?

[quantumshamana]

My Deal

When I was growing up, the Internet was this place of absolute anonymity. You could write about anything and everything, and as long as you didn't let anything slip about your real name, no one would ever know.

It isn't that way anymore. Everything is tied to your real name, which is fine when you live in a democratic society with a respect for privacy and a dedication to the rule of law.

That is becoming less and less like the America I grew up in every day. Which is fine. Things change. Life changes. Society changes.

The problem with these changes is that we're running headlong into fascism.

So...who am I? What is a shaman? Why do I believe that I am one? And why am I writing a blog instead of chanting alone in the woods somewhere?

These are questions that we're going to come to answers about together.

As a child, I was indoctrinated by evangelical christianity because that's the faith my parents had. During my teen years, I was told over and over that I had been chosen to be a healer. At the time I pictured Benny Hinn style services.

I believe in my faith whole-heartedly. It meant the world to me. I fully embraced Christianity and Jesus as the way to live life.

Then over the next couple of decades I began to see that all of their lovely words were simply lies. Everything was an excuse to discriminate.

The final straw for me was realizing that every time I heard "God" speak to me and tell me to do something, I failed. If I had never truly heard from God over decades of faith, then the odds were good that he simply didn't exist, and I had been conned.

So I discarded Christianity. I grieved for what I had lost. But I moved on to the only thing I had evidence for, which was atheism.

I met a woman. I got married. A few years passed, and then we got divorced.

In the aftermath of the divorce, I began to have a mental health crisis. I began to hear things. Thoughts. Ideas about reality. Ideas about the roles that people like me were meant to play in human society.

I started seeing repeating numbers everywhere. Synchronicities began to occur. I thought I was losing my mind.

Eventually I began to see that I wasn't crazy. I still understood and valued the role of logic. I began to be able to understand the difference between random things my brain came up with and receiving messages from...somewhere.

The things I started hearing began to make a little more sense. Even though I didn't (and don't) understand what I was hearing, I decided not to dismiss them out of hand.

I've been told that I am a shaman. It's taken time to come to terms with this idea. It resonates. I do need training, and I'll seek it out when the time is right.

I have been feeling my way into manifestation and spellcasting. I've seen some success with manifestation, but the logical side of me wants to test it more before I really believe it.

My problem with all of this mystical stuff is that there's so much bullshit. If spirituality is real, and humans can interact with other dimensions of reality, why can't we prove it? Why is it when you ask a spiritual leader a question, they usually tell you not to think too hard?

The answer I've come to is that while there are real spiritual leaders out there, there are also a hell of a lot of grifters. When you find a grifter, you need to run in the opposite direction. Or call them out.

The blog you're reading is going to be where I work out the ideas I've been wrestling with. Once I feel like they're in good enough shape for the wider world, I'll publish them on my spirituality blog, Church of the First Simulation.

In addition to being told that I'm a shaman, I've been hearing from deities. Aphrodite, first, and then Odin. This doesn't feel logically consistent at all. Shamanism is from different cultures altogether than the ones that produced Aphrodite and Odin.

However, I'm working to be okay with an impartial, incorrect form of knowing. I don't know where things are going, and I need to be okay with that.