#I hate I’m interested in learning about pseudoscience

[strawberrypucklecopeandseethe]

So huuuuge tw for ableism and emotional abuse. Also mention of alleged attempted murder

I’m going to give my actually autistic and ND fellows some advice.

We’re often told and even *trained* to believe everything is our fault and others feelings are too. This is not surprisingly bad and is bad for anyone’s mental health.

This leads to a really toxic mindset pushed on people which might be rooted in good intentions, but is really great for manipulative, downright nasty people. The idea that if you keep trying with someone and make a genuine effort to do your best and please them, you’ll soon enough prove you’re worthy to be treated like anyone else! If someone is rejecting you, it’s you and you alone.

This bothers decent human beings(I lost friends due to this mindset). But it makes you very appealing to manipulative, abusive types.

Then there’s the idea parents of autistic people know best and have it so hard. Some parents are truly ignorant and swept up a culture of hate. This doesn’t mean you’re responsible for those feelings either.

Their children are broken and defective and difficult. If you can type and express yourself you NEVER had or have these challenges like being nonspeaking/semispeaking, toileting, sensory challenges and help with daily life then you’ll never understand. As if high support needs and suffering means someone’s life isn’t a life.

Then there are people who are swept up in the power they get from others. Some more ignorant parents will cry about lack of services and many have the right to, but this still doesn’t make dehumanization right.

Once someone starts using insults against you that are related to your diagnosis, keep in mind. You’re not *really* autistic but they’ll use it against you anyways. They believe due to social hierarchy they are right and whatever they say is right. Like claiming you didn’t read something right. They’re superior to you no matter what. You can’t prove yourself, it would break their power.

These people will attack autistic people who suggest nonverbal people can communicate in other ways. If you ask enough questions, you might find said people trying to fuck with you, gaslight you and will hate you no matter what. Yet they demand you act nice. These parents are not interested in their child’s humanity. Pseudoscience groups are great for people like this, allowing them to use concepts like anti vaccination and brain damage to look like they care while claiming these children are completely utterly broken.

Now i’m going into attempted murder allegations

It’s not the first time. I want to give one example and why this kind of behavior shouldn’t be shoved off as a stressed out parent or SHOCKER something the autistic person did right away.

I’ve met a few people like this. I just encountered one today and am glad to know now it’s not my fault nor responsibility. Said person started saying I was “not following well” and telling me to “prove” they were upset about accessibility recommendations. After providing receipts of our conversations, they still claimed I was imagining things.

A 14 year old autistic girl that my mom’s colleague was involved in teaching had a family who could use some support. We met her and the mom, everything seemed ok at the time. Her sister had higher support needs, her dad had a job that left the mom by herself for half a month. She has similar interests to me and wanted to learn to cook, which both of us were looking forward to doing.

We’d come over three times a week, have the kiddo come over my mom’s home or go out somewhere. But it turned out we were supposed to go to her home while she played computer games to supervise. Her mom didn’t even want me to join her in multiplayer games. No learning to cook either, it would encourage her to make a mess. Not even at my mom’s home or offers of helping to clean up. Kiddo’s mom fired my mom.

Mom’s colleague got a call from kiddo’s mom saying she needed an emergency mental health break. She could have 72 hours to go out and cool off. She wanted three weeks. My mom’s colleague asked what was wrong that she needed that much time. Apparently she wanted to go on an international trip. Mom’s colleague was angry and said this service was for the safety of parents and disabled children. Then there was a speech about how hard she had it.

It also turned out kiddo’s mom sorta lied about being involved with teaching kiddo better coping skills. Which explains why it wasn’t working well, kiddo would just be told to go upstairs and play on the computer.

I got a very sad email. She was sad and was gonna miss me and why did her mom hate her? I couldn’t talk to her anymore by association because my mom had the nerve to believe in her.

Then we got a call from mom’s colleague. Kiddo was having a psychotic break. Kiddo’s mom tried to play dumb and claim it was autism. Hospital staff did tests

Her medication levels showed she had been given 4 times the safe dose of her daily meds for some time. Kiddo’s mom insisted she tried to off herself. Then there was evidence it was the kiddo’s mom. Dad came home as soon as he could and he was horrified. Last thing I know was that there was a court case, but dad was divorcing kiddo’s mom and trying to take away kiddo’s mom’s custody regardless. She did admit to it with “I get tired of her, she has too much energy and wanted to do things.”

I don’t know if the allegations were proved in court, but regardless both kids weren’t safe. Due to kiddo being a minor, she has the right legally and morally to privacy. I hope she’s ok where ever she is and her higher support needs sister too.

Neither of them deserved that. Beware of people who attack people perceived as “high functioning” for being able to type.

[anothersleepmissed]

Going back to the pseudo history channel, he loves to fuckin point to the younger dryas impact hypothesis as the explanation for a bunch of shit and humanity was essentially reset and lost a bunch of progress and technology and earth’s megastructures are way older than we think. Which is only slightly better than ancient aliens because at least it fuckin let’s humans be the reason just still not giving the known cultures their credit.

And he believes in Atlantis and but from what I remember it’s more along the lines of “it existed and maybe they were advanced?” and less “Atlantis is definitely the reason for pyramids and other ancient structures.”

The guy really fucking loves graham Hancock and other pseudo-archaeologists and has no real understanding of geography, history, or linguistics.

[spaztique]

The biggest differences in the incelospheres, then and now…

I’m kinda honored somebody called me a “fakecel Chad” over some of my writings lately. In my conversation with this person, I kinda realized a HUGE difference between when I was learning social skills (and by proxy, dating) then and what people are learning now.

Nowadays, the current incelosphere is focused 100% on height, race, facial structure, and genetics. They believe if they get leg lengthening surgery, facial reconstruction, and even full-on race changes, they’ll suddenly become desirable to women.

Let me tell you what I had to deal with, and many other men in my situation back in the day.

The proto-incelosphere focused on the opposite: we formed because we thought we were decent, had hobbies, were interesting, and could treat women right, but kept losing our potential crushes to men who were uglier, fatter or scrawnier, had no hobbies beyond drinking, were abusive or had no personalities, and who were generally unpleasant to be around. We complained how our crushes always complained to us about them, and we kept wondering why they wouldn’t pick us over them.

I, too, have too many stories to tell about all of the crushes who rejected me for men that made me doubt Darwin’s theories.

You see, we weren’t focused on competing with “Chads”: we were focused on competing with who we deemed “assholes.” The modern incel says if you’re a “manlet,” some buff guy below the golden height of 5”10, then “it’s over” because you’re not “tall enough.” Nuh-uh: my generation had to compete against “manlets.” We wondered what the “manlet’s” secrets were and why they were so successful with women. Our competition was the fat guy with no job, who uses her girlfriend as a meal ticket; the wimp who could barely stand up to a barista raising their voice above a whisper; the wifebeater-wearing drunkard who only calms down during angry hate-sex. Back in our day, we didn’t see going to the gym as a waste of time because “the gym can’t change genetics”: we saw it as a waste of time because we kept seeing women going out with guys who were allergic to even walking up stairs. I think that’s why we laugh at the notion of the “Chad”: it didn’t matter!

God, I feel so lucky to have grown up back then. We never said, “It’s over.” We asked, “What are they doing right?!”

We learned social penetration theory and the stages of intimacy. We learned depth vs. breadth of a relationship. We learned to stop beating ourselves up over the lack of being in a relationship. We learned the different “love languages” and the concept of “rapport.” We followed the 55-38-7 Principle (messages are made of 55% body language, 38% tone, 7% words), studied body language like we were about to travel to an alien planet, and built a fashion sense to conform to our body types. We studied empathy, self-disclosure, open-ended questions, and how to arrange meetups and dates.

And you know what we found?

We were shallow: the reason our crushes hooked up with those other guys was because they knew their depth, not just their breadth. Of course they didn’t want us: we never went below the surface, both in revealing ourselves and learning about them.

We were afraid: we didn’t want to face rejection, so we played it safe, we only hinted at our motivations and emotions. So, our crushes fell for guys who took risks, who opened their hearts (even if there was very little, because a little heart is still more than one that is never opened), and faced rejection.

We depended on a relationship like food and water: building a relationship requires work and effort, as the above would imply. We hated ourselves and couldn’t live with ourselves because we didn’t have this thing that we didn’t know how to build, let alone maintain it. Some of us got into relationships and still felt empty, or addicted to the physical intimacy, falling into despair if they ever lost it.

Women don’t date “assholes” just because they’re assholes (and on the flipside, men don’t date “bitches” just because they’re bitches): they dated them because they knew how to build relationships in ways we didn’t.

Modern incels don’t have the luxury we had: they’ve cast aside hope for the previously-mentioned “black pill”: that unless you’re above 5”10, have perfectly facial and bone structure, and are apparently whiter than frozen mayonnaise, then “it’s over,” utterly ignoring the men below 5”9, folks with weird faces or body deformities, and pretty much every non-caucasian race on the planet. But the problem is, you cannot test/debunk the “black pill”: any exceptions to the rule are ignored or explained away. It is a pseudoscience, crafted from very narrowly-manipulated data and ignoring all contradictory data, and developed by the same folks who believe intercourse changes the shape of a woman’s lady parties (the “roast beef” theory).

But everything the proto-incelosphere had was based on stuff that worked. That’s why the proto-incelosphere has evolved away from the current incelosphere into something else. Whether or not we’re in a relationship or not, dating or not, whatever, we no longer worry about sex or relationships, and it doesn’t control us like it once did. It’s no longer a need like food or water, but a want like going to an amusement park or a concert by our favorite band.

We got out. We became excels.

And now, we’re the “Chads.”

So, I’m flattered to have been called a fakecel. I’m happy, knowing where I was ten years ago, and knowing where I am now. Perhaps the lesson here is that you know you’ve grown when somebody whose shoes you were once in calls you liar, and tells you, “You’ll never understand what it’s like to be me!”

Except I do, because I was there, no matter how much you deny.

I remember the pain like it was yesterday, and how happy I am when I got out.

And if you’re stuck in a lonely place right now, I hope you someday get called a fakecel, too.

[fairyhaven13]

Just had to walk away from a conversation with my dad before it turned into an argument; he thinks that Marvel’s Infinity War and Endgame were great movies, and I think they’re crap. They tick me off, and because I can’t go on a rant about it to my dad without making him sad, I’m going to rant on here instead.

Spoilers. Under the cut if you’re interested.

First of all, after the first Avengers movie, we were given a distinct impression. This was a group of people who had their differences, who may never become good friends, but who would stick it together anyways to be a team. The classic “quirky characters bond out of fighting for the greater good.” This is what is known as a Found Family trope. It doesn’t mean that the characters would have seen eye to eye, or even necessarily liked each other, but they would have cared, because they’re family. Them eating shawarma together at the end was a good example of a stereotypical Found Family scene. 

I tried to explain this to my dad and brother, but they don’t understand. They think I mean we should get lots of Slice of Life scenes with them doing chores and playing hopscotch and “boring things.” They don’t understand that a good superhero team movie necessitates a sense of Found Family by the end of it, and doesn’t need “boring” Slice of Life in it at all. It just requires the team to want to stay a team, to want to defend each other and in general have that baseline of care towards each other. A funny quip in a fight scene, a moment of “No one picks on him but me!” 

Age of Ultron implied this even more strongly, with Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch hitting the team where it hurt: in the way they cared for each other, and made them afraid to lose one another. When the kids reformed, they were told that this heroic action was what it meant to be a team, to understand each other and fight for what’s right. This was emphasized with the team once again quipping and joking with each other during the fights, and showing how each one provides a specific strength to save the day.

After that, it was like the directors stopped caring. Team? What team? What Found Family? They all hate each other! What communication, what compromise? Steve goes hunting for his friend without telling his new family what he’s doing, and then leaves the team entirely when push comes to shove, also without talking it out with his new family. Tony is understandably hurt because, A) Steve knew Bucky killed his parents and never even bothered to talk this out with Tony, to give the guy time to mourn and decide what would be the right thing to do, and B) Tony wanted the Avengers initiative to work, he wanted to make it work, and seeing Steve leave tells him that Steve doesn’t care, that Steve wants to give up. And, Steve doesn’t bother to explain why this isn’t true, he just takes half the team and breaks Tony’s heart.

This is never fixed, never given any closure. The most we get is Steve and Tony going back in time to work together and get the Dragon Ball stone, and they don’t at all talk about what happened between them. Steve, the self-righteous hypocrite that he is, will never say sorry.

Steve goes on being selfish in Endgame, when he decides that, instead of stepping up to the plate when the team needed it--when Tony is literally dead--he’s going to abandon these people he’s worked with for years and be with the woman he knew for less than half that time. Dad thought this was sweet. I thought it was ridiculous. Steve was supposed to learn how to move on, how to be a part of this new world, and just like he did with the team before, he quit. He gave up and said it wasn’t worth it.

Second, we have the stupid plot of Endgame entirely. Time travel via Ant Man’s shrink machine. This. Is. Not. How. Quantum. Physics. Works.

You can’t just staple the word “quantum” onto something and go, “oh, it’s related to space displacement, but because it says quantum, it’s also tiiiime displacement!” That doesn’t work! Just because the darn machine can shrink and grow you, doesn’t mean it can magically shunt you through time! After Infinity War, this was the biggest theory everyone had, was that Scott was going to bring time travel into the mix in this exact way. I said, no, there’s no way they would be that stupid. Turns out, yeah. They were that stupid. They said “oooo quantum this, quantum that, poof, time travel!”

It would be one thing if this was a precedent for the series. If they used that sort of crappy, unbelievable reasoning all the time. But, they didn’t. They used much more understandable pseudoscience for everything else, and then they just... didn’t here. They pounded the idea of time travel into our heads because they couldn’t handle the idea that literally any other explanation might be better.

They don’t even bother to try making it make sense. Not at all. “Oh, we have to put the stones back so we don’t change the past!” What about Loki escaping? What about past Thanos and past Nebula being actually dead? And, you know, all of past Thanos’s other kids? His whole army? There’s a GIGANTIC paradox there and the directors do. not. care.

Third, we had so many characters that were cared for, developed carefully, just slaughtered. The worst offense was Loki. He had a whole movie dedicated to his reforming--yes, reforming, dad, stop trying to say he didn’t reform! He freaking reformed! He went from “BOW TO ME” with his fancy helmet and scepter, to “Asgard will rise again, brother!” and using that dumb, fancy helmet as a weapon because he didn’t care about how he looked anymore! That whole movie--Ragnarok--was specifically dedicated to finding Hulk, and reforming Loki to the point where he’d healed from so much of his madness in the previous movies. And, then what do they do?

They kill him like a dog. In about five seconds, with no attempt to defend himself with any of his large array of magical powers. All he does is poof up a knife. A knife. And, then he’s dead. No, I don’t care about the Loki show they’re making, that Loki show is using old Loki, the hurt one who didn’t get that chance to heal. They used an entire movie to heal the new Loki, and then they killed him.

The same goes for Vision and Gomorrah. Vision gets a whole movie where he’s born, and another movie where a chunk establishes his relationship with the Scarlet Witch, and then they kill him. Gomorrah gets two movies showing her growth and learning to love Peter, and then they kill her. What’s worse, is they bring her past version back and act like that’s okay! The past version, who doesn’t know Peter, who doesn’t even like Peter, who didn’t have a whole movie to teach Nebula how to love and be a sister again. The past version, who, according to their reasoning, should have stayed in the past to prevent a paradox! But, who cares about any of that??

Captain Marvel I can kind of get, the actor was only able to be there in the last few weeks of Engame’s production, and this was before her debut movie was made. But, it’s still very annoying how a character with so much buildup ended up with a measly couple punches on past Thanos, and it barely touches him. Why is past Thanos so much stronger than his older, wiser, supposedly more well prepared counterpart, huh?

The only thing this movie did well was Black Widow’s death. That scene was in direct contrast to Gomorrah’s death, and it was to show how, in reality, Thanos didn’t love Gomorrah at all. Clint fights Natasha viciously to stop her, tries to die in her stead, exactly the opposite of what Thanos does to his “daughter.” It was a scene made to show how horribly abusive Thanos was.

That’s it, that’s the only thing I appreciate about this movie. Well, that and squealing when Steve finally said, “Avengers, Assemble” again, when the portals all opened. That was nice.

All the rest of it sucks. I hate it, and I hate that this is where the MCU ended up after I had so much hope for it and its characters. It used to be so good. 

This is why I’m writing a gigantic freaking Fix-It Fic where Found Family happens and nobody dies and everyone is happy. This is why fanfiction even exists.

[escapingpost]

Five Things Everyone Knows (Final)

Part 1: Five Things I Know About Cho Seungyoun 

Sequel: Five Things Cho Seungyoun Knows About You

Suggestive and language warning.

The kiss in the alleyway would have been the cherry on top for this mess of romantic comedy. It would be the turning point of the plot where the next few scenes were merely a fast-forwarded, shortened down versions of what would be to come with your perfect “friends to lovers” relationship.

But, you were hit with the reminder that this was not an actual romantic comedy and reality is much harsher.

The next day, you woke up from a text from yours truly telling you that the girl he was texting ages ago finally got back to him. They were going on a date this weekend.

Your mind went through different thoughts in a span of one minute:

Were the two of you that drunk yesterday? If that was the case, you would have a hangover. And Seungyoun? You were sure he was too busy making Hangyul drunk to drink himself.

Were you just dreaming? No, your hair definitely smelled of rain water and you could still almost feel Seungyoun’s strong arms around your waist.

Then, what the hell was this?

As if answering your thoughts, Seungyoun sends another text message.

younie: I smell like sewage right now. What even happened last night.

And with that one text message, you were brought back to the reality of romantic relationships in your twenties.

Romance was dead and so were your feelings.

NOT my best friend: Dumbass, how am I suppose to know.

“I can’t believe you did that.” Woohyun was currently hovering over Seungyoun on the couch as Seungyoun holds his phone out of his reach. Woohyun gets up and dusts himself off. “Have fun being lonely. I’m rooting for Hangyul.”

“Wait, Woohyun.” Seungyoun also gets up from his couch. “I’m sorry. I just, I can’t do it.”

“Seungyoun, what do you mean, you can’t?” Woohyun says trying to keep calm. Him and the guys did the most to get Seungyoun to realize his feelings, but when he actually does, it backfires.

“I don’t want to mess us up.” Seungyoun says, avoiding Woohyun’s gaze.

“You know the feeling is mutual, so why?” Woohyun asks.

Seungyoun takes out a few crinkled pieces of paper from the small trash in his studio. He takes the first crumple piece of paper and hands it to Woohyun.

Woohyun looks at Seungyoun weirdly before unfolding it and reading his chicken scratch writing.

I wish you happiness

It's okay if it's not me

I don't think I'm good enough for you

We're so different

Woohyun takes the rest of the crinkled papers and unfolds them.

Tell me you're tired of me

Tell me you're seeing someone else

For me, even just a little bit

To hate you, just lie to me

Woohyun stops reading and crumples the paper into its original state, “This is different from the last time. You know it.”

“We’ve been best friends for years. I just can’t risk that.” Seungyoun looks down, his fringe hiding his eyes.

And Woohyun could not think of a comeback with Seungyoun looking like he already lost the most precious thing in his life.

“You know, its true what they say about musicians. You are all creative, crazy messes.” Woohyun says with a huge sigh.

Which brings us to the first thing everyone now knows: 1) Seungyoun, for a fact, has slight commitment issues.

A week passes by after the night with Seungyoun. You try your best to avoid him, but he stuck to you like nothing had happened. Sure, it was only the alcohol that made him do it and the reason why he could not remember. But, he should take some sort of responsibility, right?

The day of his date with the girl, you went to a library to study for your classes, but the silence was worse. It only made your sad thoughts louder. Letting out a deep sigh, you run your fingers through your hair and leave the quiet room.

“Hey!” Before you could start walking down the staircase to the lobby, a familiar voice calls your name.

You close your eyes. You knew exactly who it was and he was probably the second person you did not want to run into. Quickly changing your expression into a neutral one, you turn around to him, “Hey, Hangyul.”

Long story, short: You and Hangyul did go on a date. You actually had more fun than you thought and he said he would call you back, but never did. When he did end up calling you for a second date, the two of you still had unfinished business. Seungyoun crashed your second date before the two of you could talk about it.

Hangyul scratches the back of his neck, a habit of his whenever he felt uneasy. Your fake expression was apparent to his eyes, “Do you want to go to a cafe? I hated the silence in that library.”

You said yes and maybe it was the fact you wanted to show up Seungyoun for being on a date. Or, it might have been that you believed Hangyul was a nice, decent guy so he deserved some sort of explanation.

“I just wanted to say sorry for everything.” Hangyul says with a soft smile.

“Sorry about what?” The warm tea hits your throat and it calms your nerves.

“Sorry about not calling you when I said I would.”

You let out a petty laugh, “So you did know.”

Hangyul moves in closer, “Of course, I did. I was just confused and needed time to think.”

You purse your lips, “Well, I’m sorry for taking Seungyoun along on our second date.” You look down at your cup of tea.

Hangyul plays with the straw of his smoothie, unsure of what to say.

“It was a dumb decision.” You add.

“Did something happen?” Hangyul carefully asks.

You shrug, not wanting to think about it, still looking down.

Hangyul takes a deep breath and lowers his head so he was in your peripheral view, “Hey, to be honest, I wasn’t sure if you were actually available.”

You are forced to return his gaze, his face a little closer than a few minutes ago, “What do you mean?”

“I know you don’t have a boyfriend.” Hangyul was now staring at you intently with a soft expression, “But, on our first date, it didn’t seem like you were emotionally available.”

And that’s exactly what everyone thought: 2) No one else was really good enough for you, but him.

The guy with cute dimples? You preferred adorable rabbit teeth. The talented vocalist? A high-toned voice with the duality of IU’s ballads and Flowsik’s rapping was more your genre. The possible future president of the country? How about the person who you trust all your secrets, dreams, and inside jokes with?

As exaggerated as it was, Seungyoun just started to infiltrate your mind with no invitation.

You gulp and slowly nod your head, “Sorry, Hangyul.”

Hangyul feels a heavy weight lifted from his shoulders and he gives you an assuring smile, “We’re good.” He pats the side of your head.

You return his smile, feeling ten times better.

"I’m not sure what happened with you and Seungyoun, but if you want, I’m meeting with him later with the guys. Maybe you want to come?”

Your ears perk up at hearing his name, “Wait, Seungyoun is hanging out with you later?”

“Yeah, Seungyoun and some other people from the Taekwondo club.”

‘What about his date?’ You think. ‘Did that brat lie to me?’ You add. Did you not just have a small monologue on how great he was?

Hangyul calls out your name.

You snap back to reality, “Oh sorry, why don’t you text me the address and I’ll meet you there?”

The night was a little colder when it was predicted to be a warm summer night. Mercury was in retrograde or something along the lines of a pseudoscience explanation. 3) Everyone just knew it was going to be an interesting night.

“You like to hurt your own feelings?” Dohyun scratches his head.

“Masochism. Its called masochism.”

“Yohan, shut it. Don’t teach him that.” Hangyul rubbed his temples.

“Well, at least you’re better off than Seungyoun. He didn’t even give closure. He completely made his whole friendship awkward as hell.”

Hangyul blows out air from his nostrils. He wanted to keep it a secret and was not planning on inviting you to see Seungyoun. It was his chance to ask you out for a third date. But, taking advantage of your vulnerable state was the last thing he wanted to do.

Yohan hands Hangyul his black jacket, “Here, buddy. At least look cool while setting up the two idiots.”

Hangyul turns to Dohyon, “Don’t you dare learn from Yohan.” Hangyul moves closer to whisper in Yohan’s ear, “Yohan thinks he’s some sex god.”

Yohan has an appalled and disgusted look on his face, “A dude grinds on the floor one time and automatically becomes the icon of greasiness.”

Hangyul receives a text message alert and stops their conversation.

soju girl: Hey, I’m already here. My phone’s on vibrate so just text me when you get here! Too loud to take a call :(

“Lets go, idiot three.” Yohan puts his arms around Hangyul.

hangyul: see you soon

You bite down on your bottom lip and pull down on the short black dress that you wished did not sacrifice to cover either your chest or thighs. It was one or the other. You furiously shake your head to get some sense in you, “I need a drink.” Or not.

One drink turned into two, then three, then four and it all went downhill from there. The last sober thought you had was the fact that you could change your social media addiction and put your energy in making a blog about the wonders of alcohol.

“Close her tab.” you hear a voice and the person has reached over the counter. That was weird because you only conditioned yourself to listen to one specific voice through a loud bass of music.

“Oh? Its my best friend, Cho Seungyoun.” your voice slurs and you see he is confused because he can’t hear anything through the music and you made no effort to talk over them music. Seungyoun quickly scans your state and has you wear his oversized bomber jacket. You do not put up a fight while he quickly zips up the jacket. “Am I your date for tonight?” You say with no energy or volume.

Seungyoun gets to eye level with you and smiles, “Lets go.” He mouths.

The unapologetic smile, his eyes that assured you that your were safe, and his eyebrows that drooped in worry made you furious. The alcohol spoke and made the decision for you, “Fuck that.” You push him away and stagger through the dance floor.

And Seungyoun never felt so awkward trying to keep you away from other people on the dance floor while still remaining a sinful centimeter away from you and that miniature piece of fabric people called a dress.

His eyes darted around to catch the glimpses of other people on the dance floor to make sure they knew you were with him. Just when he thought people were getting the hint, a stranger attaches himself behind you.

He quickly snakes his hand around your waist and pulls you into a secure hold, turning your whole body like a tango move.

You continue to shamelessly dance, not giving a two coins because all you could see are the blurry lights, your mind was still buzzed, and whose ever arm was around you felt too good.

No matter how much he tried, there was only one answer to your shenanigans.

If you can’t beat them, join ‘em.

Seungyoun brings you into his chest as close as humanely possible and lays his hands on your hips as you two dance. He can only catch glimpses of your face, but when he did see you through the club lights, the look on your face got to him.

Your eyes were no longer the awake eyes that he could see from a distance away. Your eyes were half-lidded and seductive. Your baby hairs stuck to the side of your face and your cheeks flushed pink.

Then, Seungyoun’s ears were blocked as if he had water stuck in them. Your mouth was moving, but he could not understand what was happening anymore. The loud bass drowns out any reasonable thoughts.

Seungyoun did not drink any alcohol that night.

But, he got the same sweet alcohol on the tip of your tongue and caught the same alcohol buzz.

When Hangyul left the club that night and did not get to see you or Seungyoun, it was already a given: 4) The literal climax of the story that everyone would know of.

By the time you were all partied out and the two of you got to his apartment, the alcohol high wore off, but neither of Seungyoun’s or your hormones did.

The conversation was said through messy kisses, but it went something along the lines of Seungyoun apologizing for being a coward and a liar. Then, you try to say something back, but whatever he was doing down there did not help you form a coherent thought.

It was the climax that happened in Seungyoun’s small studio, both emotionally and physically.

Finally, it was the scene before everything fell into place. At least, as much as reality allowed you to.

“That dress wasn’t going to cover anything.” It was the morning after and you did not wake up glamorously. It was a good thing Seungyoun always saw you like that and nothing about his feelings changed. He laid on the couch and watched you find your stuff that was lost in the hurricane.

“Yeah, but your sweater will.” You quickly slip into it a sweater that he left hanging on his chair and Seungyoun curses in his mind for being weak to the cold.

“Wanna get breakfast?” Seungyoun sits up and also looks around for his lost t-shirt.

“Not like this.”

“I can pick something up from the convenience store.” Seungyoun finally finds his clothing piled up on the side of the couch.

You two only had to be apart for ten minutes, but Seungyoun was running back from the store like he left a stove on.

Also, you had no idea what you were getting yourself into until Seungyoun drops the food on his small desk and starts to make his way towards you. Alert, you hold him back with one finger, which stops him for a grueling second until he picks you up like a bride and lays you down on the couch.

You always thought Seungyoun looked like a rabbit with his two front teeth. Now, he looks like a tiger creeping up on his pray (read: you). You were quickly reminded Seungyoun was actually a bear because he pulls you into a warm hug as the two of you lay on his couch.

“There’s not enough space, so we have to stick as close a possible.” Seungyoun is breathing down your neck and you were not sure if it was on purpose.

You stir in his arms and he looks at you.

The images of you two playing tongue hockey in the middle of the dance floor flashes through your mind and you wanted to dig a tunnel into the couch because this time, he was there to remember it.

Seungyoun bit back a silly smile.

“Shut up.”

“I didn’t say anything?” He says with a smirk.

“Hey, we can’t tell anyone.” You are talking to his chest because you could not bear to look at him without being reminded of last night.

“Why not?” Seungyoun, on the other hand, had no shame and kept his eyes on you. “I swear, I was going to post this on my story.”

“Seungyoun!”

He gives you his cheeky, smiling eyes and presses his forehead on yours, “I’m sure every already knows.”

“That’s a little bit T.M.I, no?” You ask him.

“Not with them. They know everything.”

The two of you look at each other both thinking that everyone was weirdly invested in the two of you getting together. You and Seungyoun laugh knowing the same thought went through your head.

“I like you so much.” Seungyoun unconsciously says.

“I like you too.” You say making random shapes with your fingers on his chest. “Hey, um.” You finally muster up the courage to look at him.

“Yeah?” Seungyoun gives you his full attention.

You gather your arms and push him off the couch, “I’m hungry.”

Even if you were not hungry, Seungyoun’s scent was getting to your head and all the red flags went off.

He didn’t have to know that, though.

Months pass and you two are still together and annoying.

“Can you not?” You step on Seungyoun’s foot under the table.

“What?” Seungyoun moves his hand closer to your inner thigh, but you swat his hand off.

“Can you two just stay in Seungyoun’s studio? Forever.” Wooseok pretends to barf.

“We would, but the AC is broken.” Seungyoun shrugs.

You smack him on the side of his head.

“I don’t even want to sit on that damn couch now.” Seungwoo slowly shakes his head.

“Maybe it was better for you two to stay single.” Yohan taps on the table.

“Hey, I’m all for that.” Hangyul chuckles as he opens a bag of chips.

Seungyoun’s neck almost breaks turning to Hangyul, “If you eat chips like that, your fingers are going to stain.”

“Well, I’m gonna eat it with chopsticks.” Hangyul retorts.

“Where are the chopsticks, genius?” Seungyoun mocks Hangyul’s matter-of-fact tone.

Hangyul’s eye darts back and forth, until he sees you slipping him the chopsticks. “Here.”

Seungyoun makes a face at you, “Whose side are you on?”

You give him a chaste kiss and the self-proclaimed all rounder turns into one thing and it was the fifth and last thing everyone knew.

5) “Whipped.”

[kanna-ophelia]

get to know you meme thing

tagged by @into-september

Top 3 Ships:

That I’ve written: Crowley/Aziraphale (Good Omens). Well obviously. Got me back into fandom and is the hyperfixation that won't end, but I loved it back when it was called airconditioning and I used to read it on bookslash mailing lists. I used to read the book over and over looking for tiny signs they were in love and dreaming about ways they could end up together, and then the series came out and it was all languishing glances and fluttering eyes and oh, thank you. Forbidden love, should-be-enemies to friends to lovers, literally eternal love.

Bill/Clarissa (Malory Towers). Why hello I am sick all the time, introverted, socially awkward and not pretty, isn't there some wonderful butch girl who will see me crying, sweep me off and then adore me and never ever let me go anyway? (Spoiler for my life: yes.) I really wonder how many lesbians, back when we had hardly any wholesome representation, clicked when we read Fourth Form at Malory Towers--or read Last Term and thrilled when the girls were asked what they were doing when they left school because obviously whatever Bill and Clarissa were doing with their life would be as a unit. (They bought riding stables together.)

Juri/Shiori (Revolutionary Girl Utena). Oh, my fucked-up darling girls, always misunderstanding each other and hurting each other (in Shiori's case with a deep obsessive sadism that is ultimately masochistic) and hurting themselves. And really no reason thy shouldn't be happy together, except that Juri feels her Evil Lesbian Desires are corrupting Shiori and Shiori hates herself so much and... yeah, it's almost impossible to see them happy together, The Angst. I adore them. Also, like everything in Utena, a very pretty ship. And Juri, despite her long golden Rose of Versailles curls, is satisfyingly butch.

That I've read:

Garak/Bashir (Star Trek: Deep Space 9): Oh, the dark possibly evil one is soft on the sunshiny one and they flirt and bicker a lot and it's all complicated and the sunshiny one has secrets and... do I really have to explain this one? But also Garak is reptilian and that is apparently a thing for me. I adore Cardassians.

Mulder/Scully (The X-Files): They are unhealthily dependent on each other and Mulder is barely functional and they bicker and give each other long, yearning, burning glances and would do anything for each other, oh the UST.

Jeeves/Wooster (P G Wodehouse): You have all the class angst and forbidden love of master and valet, you have the fact that sweet Bertie is actually completely in the manipulative grasp of Jeeves anyway, you have Bertie living in a constant besotted state of "He made me a cup of tea and quoted some poetry, he is utterly amazing", and you have Jeeves devoting all his time to making sure Bertie never, ever marries anyone but him. Despite Bertie's constant peril of being hauled to the altar by one of the many beautiful and highly-born young women who think he is in love with them (the horror).

Last Song: T-ARA, Number Nine. (Warning for rapidly flashing lights). I miss T-ARA. No other K-pop group sounded quite like them.

Last Movie: Cats: On Christmas day. I have no regrets. Wow. That had to be experienced.

Last Read:

Manga: I'm reading my way through Ranma 1/2 from the start again, because God I love all the characters so much it hurts and it still makes me laugh my head off and I love the art. Also Ranma/Akane is the only valid option.

Novel: Nocturnal Lessons: A Gay Historical Fantasy, which is a very sex-heavy and oddly touching book about a cynical half-incubus working in a molly house and learning about the existence of True Love. I will read the rest of the series.

Non-fiction: Corrupted Science: Fraud, Ideology and Politics in Science by John Grant. Pseudoscience is an interest of mine, and I really enjoyed Grant's skeptical history of psychics and mediums, so I've moved on to miracle cures, Nazi racist "science" and climate change denial.

I'm not going to tag anyone to do this, but if you want to do this, consider yourself tagged, and let me know!

[istpdumpling]

Rules: just answer these and tag some people

tagged by @venusian-prince

MBTI type: my most recent guess is istp

Enneagram (with tritype If you know it): honestly can’t tell if it’s 4w5 or 5w4; currently guessing 5w4 because of disintegration to 7. and tritype would be either 4w5 5w4 1w2 or 5w4 4w5 1w2

Instinctual variants (iv): sx/sp. the one thing i’m 99.9% certain of.

Fav fix of your tritype: probably 4 because of the ~*aesthetic*~

Do you think your iv’s blindspot gives you many problems: eh, it does make me socially inept but like...I don’t care

there’s also the so-blind issue of never feeling like you “belong” anywhere because you’ve been excluded from social groups too many times during of your childhood. it’s a sore spot i guess but as you get older you learn to get used to it and stop caring about it so much.

What do you like about your type the most and what do you like the least: 

MBTI- I looove Se. so much. and I love the interplay between Ti and Se; makes you a pretty handy person to have around. As for what I dislike: lower Ni is.....a trip. Inferior Fe is...hmm.

Enneagram- like I said above, I like the emotional intelligence and ~~aesthetique~~ of 4. 5 is great because of its inquisitiveness and thirst for knowledge, and I like the high standards my 1 fix gives me. and...we all know Sx/sp is the best variant stack.

That being said, 4 also gives me the tendency to be whiny and arrogant, 5 makes me an Actual hermit (and disintegration to 7 is........hairy), and those same high standards from 1 can sometimes be straight up unreasonable, yet I barely feel the need to change them. Dom Sx is good except for when you lose interest in something and get intensely swept up into your next interest...and then it happens again in a few weeks, and then again....eventually you might return to it but it’s exhausting sometimes.

A song that reminds you of your type:

idk about songs but Prince is dom sx 4 culture

What colors, smells, animals, etc do you relate to your type: 

istp- like....skateboards and concrete and shit but also those sparks when you hit rocks together, being outside and feeling one with nature, prototype sketches, those like truck loading docks on the back of buildings, tapping complex rhythms with your hands, photography, this is like extremely stereotypical but taking things apart completely and examining the individual parts to see how they fit together, like a computer mouse or something. sunglasses, cats

4- artsy shit....like watercolors spilled everywhere but in an aesthetic way, peacocks, emo kids, Prince, most musicians actually, that avril lavigne video where she says she doesn’t consider herself punk because it’s not punk to say that you’re punk, the whole “poseur” bullshit in scene culture from 08, jack skellington, hot topic in general, Liberace, tumblr in general, the color gray for some reason, shadows, Dr. Frank-N-Furter, a city street

5- robots honestly. green and orange, science projects, rubix cubes, doritos LMAO, fast typing, big books, the smell when you open a certain kind of book (not sure how to describe it but it’s usually  books with pictures so maybe it’s the picture ink? idk), knowing a fuck ton of “random” facts, wikipedia, gamer dudes, aquariums (aquaria???), wood, the sound a mechanical pencil makes when it’s writing

1- tall buildings, protesters, cold, the color white/off-white/tan, coffee, click clacking of heels, quiet churches, owls, sirius, that feeling when you get pissed off and can feel your shoulders tense, glasses, the type of person who says “leitmotif”(i guess this doesn’t apply if they’re german lol) (pretentious), when you’re speaking passionately about something and your eyes light up

Sx/sp- classic rock. the entire genre is just so dom sx. smoldering logs, the smell of woodsmoke in the distance, motorcycles, dark roads, driving late at night blasting music, driving with your hand at the top of the wheel and arm locked (this is bad, don’t do this), weight training, clouds floating past the moon, lighters, leather, also sunglasses, flannel, eyeliner, stargazing with someone you love, tigers and other big predator cats, that thick humidity in the air before a thunderstorm

Boards of your type, do they seem accurate to you: 

I think most of the istp ones are geared towards 9s and seem kind of empty and cold, so...no? but the enneagram and sx/sp ones usually do.

What is MBTI and Enneagram for you:

funny me-mes but also an avenue of self discovery; it’s helped me recognize some of my issues so that i can work on them. it’s also just fun to learn about.

Do you relate to your type stereotypes: 

yeah, mostly. that’s kind of what made me start to think i’m a five LOL most of the stereotypes fit.

How long have your been studying this stuff: hmmmmmm like 2ish years maybe? not sure.

Any mistypings: 

I thought I was an INFJ for years, and I also thought I was a 471. and who knows, I wouldn’t put it past me to have misunderstood something about my current types and wind up being mistyped lmfao

Other pseudosciences you know/like: hmm.... I don’t actively hate the ones that don’t hurt people (anti-vax, holocaust denial, diet culture, polygraph, mbti when it’s used in the workplace (such as firing someone because they’re not an entj or something), certain vegans) /the environment (climate change deniers)/actual sciences. i do think astrology is fun, i used to be very into it until i realized that most of the descriptions are intentionally vague and can apply to almost everyone in some ways. uhhh aromatherapy is nice, not because it works but just because i like having an excuse to smell pretty things. also hypnosis if that counts.

idk who’s done this so if you have then....ignore this i guess lol

@just-emerald @eclipsenn @cinamint @god-of-whi-ne-and-ti-ts @lophiusdragon @dumb-ti @girl-youd-die-for @shyconoclast @t3chn0-anarch1st @amazoniansiege @akehci @umbraphage @holy-panther @dulcetlips @glitter-nemesis

[biofunmy]

Gwyneth Paltrow’s Netflix Show “The Goop Lab” Is Suspiciously Normal

reader

The mostly harmless new Netflix series The Goop Lab makes it easy to forget the damage Gwyneth Paltrow’s pseudoscience-y brand of “wellness” can do.

Scaachi Koul BuzzFeed News Reporter

Posted on January 23, 2020, at 9:31 a.m. ET

Adam Rose / Netflix

Gwyneth Paltrow and Elise Loehnen, the chief content officer of Goop, in Episode 5 of The Goop Lab.

You’ve gotta give it to Gwyneth Paltrow: She’s no dummy. The promotional photo that looks like she’s trapped inside a many-layered vulva; the vagina-scented candle that costs $75 (sold out, good grief); her surprisingly delightful role on The Politician; her cool-mom presence on Instagram, leaving a faint breadcrumb trail of proof that actually she has a great sense of humor — it all creates the image of Paltrow as someone far more self-aware than her wellness brand Goop, on its face, would suggest.

It remains kind of a bummer that someone as interesting as Paltrow is using her charisma to recommend and sell a variety of potentially risky pseudoscience treatments and products to her large, enthusiastic audience. But based on her newest project, a Netflix series called The Goop Lab that debuts January 24, it looks like this is the Paltrow we’re getting from now on.

Each episode of the show explores one alternative health or wellness trend, following an expert or enthusiast who’s offering a different way to live a better, happier, healthier life. Paltrow dips in and out, usually interviewing the leading expert and sometimes acting as the guinea pig herself. (She does not, regrettably, do mushrooms or masturbate on camera.) And each Goop Lab episode begins with a disclaimer: “The following series is designed to entertain and inform — not provide medical advice.”

Maybe the Goop team learned something from the lawsuit it settled in 2018, over some deeply unscientific claims about the benefits of inserting a jade egg into your vagina. At the time, Goop suggested that the egg could help balance your hormones (it is a rock shaped like an egg) and help prevent uterine prolapse (it is still a rock shaped like an egg). The site’s editors have since removed the offending language from the product description.

Paltrow and her staff have built a business on pseudoscience that targets women where our anxieties are.

A pretty sizable chunk of Goop’s website is dedicated to convincing you to buy luxury goods you absolutely do not need: a pair of low-rise jeans that only go up to size 31 ($295), an “infrared sauna blanket” ($500), or a pair of made-to-order pearl drop earrings ($16,780). Most of these things are unnecessary, but perfectly harmless. Would you like a $200 dopp kit that only holds maybe six products? Knock yourself out, kid. But clicking on the “wellness” section of the Goop site opens the door to a much more nefarious part of the business. There’s a wide range of (highly suspect) information on “fasting-mimicking” meal plans (briefly mentioned on Goop Lab), a summer detox guide, and an endless selection of supplements that cost as much as $90 — including something called “High School Genes,” a one-month supply of pills “formulated for women … who feel like their metabolism might be slowing down.”

So you’d be forgiven for walking into The Goop Lab with derision, prepared to be sold some (possibly literal) snake oil or maybe a CBD patch that you put on your butt to calm your detox tea–induced diarrhea — or perhaps a $42,500 pillow made entirely of rose quartz. (It’s very uncomfortable but very exclusive.) It may be either a relief or a disappointment to learn that The Goop Lab feels like it comes from a different, much tamer (and less product-led) point of view than the Goop brand overall. And that’s actually the biggest problem with The Goop Lab: There really isn’t one.

The recommendations dispensed are largely reasonable, if a bit unorthodox when compared to traditional medicine — microdosing mushrooms to help with PTSD, psychic readings, looking at your own vagina, jumping into cold water to keep yourself feeling young. Any science The Goop Lab presents is generally flimsy, but it’s really not about the science. The various slightly woo-woo topics explored have been covered many times before, sometimes by this very media company.

The trouble comes when you compare the series with Goop’s broader branding and strategy. Paltrow and her staff have built a business on pseudoscience that targets women where our anxieties are: Am I getting enough sleep? Am I attractive? Am I thin? Am I sexually fulfilled? How’s my skin? How’s my hair? How’s my overall sense of self?

Often, we’re not happy with the answers to those questions — which leads people to buy products that don’t work or take advice that’s downright dangerous. The Goop Lab, meanwhile, is much more innocent and far harder to hate than the e-commerce empire that spawned it. So it acts as a form of brand rehab for Goop and Paltrow in general — but there’s no indication that the underlying Goop ethos has actually changed.

Adam Rose / Netflix

Goop staff exercise their intuition in Episode 6 of The Goop Lab.

Some episodes of The Goop Lab may actually be emotionally impactful if you’re a cis woman struggling with your body. “The Pleasure Is Ours” focuses on sexual health and shows more vaginas than you’d even see in an eighth-grade health class. The episode follows an accountant who works for Goop, a queer woman originally from Shanghai, struggling to open up intimately with a partner — a rare moment of the Goop brand not being aggressively white, rich, and capitalist. Sex educator (and absolutely delightful, brassy broad) Betty Dodson recommends some pelvic floor exercises, which can have benefits for many women, but there’s no one urging viewers to buy any mysterious sprays or unnecessary wands or douches. (The famed egg, alas, does not make an appearance.)

Other episodes are less effective. “Cold Comfort” follows Wim Hof, an extreme athlete who believes that his particular breathing method can help the body withstand subzero temperatures, depression, stress, and, most worryingly, bacterial infections. The idea that if you just believe in yourself and breathe like Hof, you, too, will be able to fight off hypothermia and E. coli is both patently ridiculous and outright dangerous. I don’t know who needs to hear this, but: Breathing exercises will not save you from freezing to literal death.

Believing in the otherwise unbelievable is easy to do if you’re willing to take a small leap of faith.

In another episode, Paltrow puts herself through a “fasting-mimicking” diet for five days, which effectively allows her little more than a watery, miserable soup, a bunch of tea, and a nut bar each day. What Goop frames as “wellness” is also often focused on weight loss and food restriction, even if no one says so directly. “The Health-Span Plan” episode is purportedly about your “biological age,” but it also advocates for incredibly expensive facials, diets that punish the body and the spirit, and a general focus on clinging to physical youth rather than prioritizing something like, say, your general quality of life.

Much of The Goop Lab is just plain weird and barely worth picking apart. What are you supposed to pull from the episode where Julianne Hough joins Paltrow and her Goop employees (who are featured in all the episodes, seemingly of their own free will, which I’m sure their HR department just loved) as they get their energies realigned? The episode is 29 minutes of people writhing and grunting on tables with no scientific proof or explanation for what’s apparently happening to them. The “expert” leading the episode — John Amaral, a go-to energy healer for the rich and famous — seems to believe that changing your body’s energy (which is basically just having some guy wave his hands over your body until you convulse, I think?) can change your rate of cell growth — which, honestly, isn’t the dumbest thing Goop has ever suggested.

Believing in the otherwise unbelievable is easy to do if you’re willing to take a small leap of faith. If you’re watching The Goop Lab to begin with, you’re likely already prepared to jump. But the show is enough of a departure from the absurdity of Goop’s website, and so much gentler in its approach to overpriced, overhyped, unnecessary “wellness” trends, that you’d be forgiven for forgetting that Goop’s fundamental business model is still profiting off gullible and vulnerable consumers who buy into the dubious promises it makes. With The Goop Lab, it seems like Paltrow is making a play to bring her brand out of the jade egg era into a new phase of (relative) credibility. But of course, the egg is still for sale, for $66 — if it ever comes back in stock. ●

Sahred From Source link Science

from WordPress http://bit.ly/2uwzTtu via IFTTT

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

Thoughts on Luke Cage

I should’ve done this months ago when I binge-watched the series but I’ll do it anyways because it’s better late than never. Overall, I liked the series, I thought it told a fine story and did its job in setting up Luke Cage as the next Defender. 

In fact, I’m actually okay with a lot of the common problems that people had with the show. I liked the slow pace at the start since Netflix shows are like reading a novel. They have the space to tell the stories their way, as opposed to cable TV which has to write their shows around having commercial breaks and boosting ratings. 

I liked learning about Harlem, I didn’t mind the pseudoscience (it’s Marvel, it gets a pass), and I thought Luke Cage was an interesting protagonist. 

As for the character of Luke Cage, I get that he has the same problems as Superman (somewhat boring do-gooder who is impervious to everything except one deus ex machina) but Mike Colter makes it work with his charm. He’s a fine leading man, I don’t get why some people thought he was better off as a supporting actor. 

But I did have problems with the show’s villains. Now, I get what they were doing. They wanted both halves of the show to tell their own story, with the first half being Cottonmouth and the second being Diamondback. It’s the execution that needed work.

For one, Mahershala Ali was TOO good for his role. I know lots of people loved Cottonmouth but narratively, it made sense to kill him off. Ignore Mahershala’s performance for a second. Cornell, while a threat, was clearly not the main villain of the show. He was always an ineffective antagonist to Luke Cage, he was a sloppy gangster, and right from the start, you knew he was working for the true Big Bad, Diamondback. Even Mariah was more threatening as an antagonist. The guy was always meant to be a stepping stone for Luke Cage in order to get to the true villain of the series.

That being said, Mahershala acted his ass off to the point that he elevated the character. He made the character far more compelling than he was supposed to be and made Diamondback look bad in comparison. That’s not a knock on Mahershala by any means, he did a damn good job, but the showrunners should’ve recognized this problem from the start. 

On the other hand, Erik LaRay Harvey did his best with the Diamondback role. It’s just...Diamondback’s not that interesting. My main problem is that the show made the same mistake as SPECTRE did with Ernst Stavro Blofeld. We get that Diamondback is the true crime boss of Harlem. But did he have to be Luke Cage’s brother?

Did we really need that extra step in villainy? We already know he’s gonna be Luke’s archnemesis, you didn’t need to make him his brother for us to get involved in this rivalry. What results is a bit of a misfire. The show wants to push this personal rivalry between Luke and Willis, while also pushing that Willis is a powerful crime lord, while ALSO pushing that he’s a vicious psycho that everyone hates. 

In the span of 7 episodes, that’s not enough story to make Diamondback a compelling villain. Plus, he was just a very one-dimensional villain, as opposed to Cottonmouth who was a nuanced character. 

So what I’m saying is I get what the writers were doing. I get the story they were trying to tell. But they should’ve done it in two seasons. Have Luke square off against Cottonmouth in season one and keep all of Cornell’s flaws. Write him like a failed Wilson Fisk / Scarface-type character, someone who’s trying to be the ultimate crime boss but in the end, they fall because of their own character flaws.

Then in season 2, focus on Diamondback. Instead of 7 episodes, you have the full 13 to explore Luke and Willis’ failed brotherly relationship and explain how Willis became the most powerful crime boss in Harlem. Even though I don’t like that Willis is also Luke’s brother, there’s a way to make this work. However, this type of arc needs more than 7 episodes to tell it. 

So there’s my thoughts on Luke Cage. Great show, just bogged down by issues with the villains.

[lilnasxvevo]

Also they mention Willy Ley in that article and I was like HEY just a total Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon moment because I learned about him for the first time yesterday because I fell down a weird wikipedia rabbit hole (on Jeopardy! yesterday they mentioned Ammon-Zeus and I was like “That sounds interesting” and I’m not 100% sure what happened after that) and ended up reading about pseudoscience

And Willy Ley was a genuine rocketeer and also a cryptozoologist which is considered pseudoscience and I could have sworn one of the things I read associated him with Nazi pseudoscience (look up “Ahnenerbe” if you don’t know what I’m talking about) but apparently he hated the Nazis, as many do, and fled Germany for the US in 1935

[biofunmy]

Gwyneth Paltrow’s Netflix Show “The Goop Lab” Is Suspiciously Normal

reader

The mostly harmless new Netflix series The Goop Lab makes it easy to forget the damage Gwyneth Paltrow’s pseudoscience-y brand of “wellness” can do.

Scaachi Koul BuzzFeed News Reporter

Posted on January 23, 2020, at 9:31 a.m. ET

Adam Rose / Netflix

Gwyneth Paltrow and Elise Loehnen, the chief content officer of Goop, in Episode 5 of The Goop Lab.

You’ve gotta give it to Gwyneth Paltrow: She’s no dummy. The promotional photo that looks like she’s trapped inside a many-layered vulva; the vagina-scented candle that costs $75 (sold out, good grief); her surprisingly delightful role on The Politician; her cool-mom presence on Instagram, leaving a faint breadcrumb trail of proof that actually she has a great sense of humor — it all creates the image of Paltrow as someone far more self-aware than her wellness brand Goop, on its face, would suggest.

It remains kind of a bummer that someone as interesting as Paltrow is using her charisma to recommend and sell a variety of potentially risky pseudoscience treatments and products to her large, enthusiastic audience. But based on her newest project, a Netflix series called The Goop Lab that debuts January 24, it looks like this is the Paltrow we’re getting from now on.

Each episode of the show explores one alternative health or wellness trend, following an expert or enthusiast who’s offering a different way to live a better, happier, healthier life. Paltrow dips in and out, usually interviewing the leading expert and sometimes acting as the guinea pig herself. (She does not, regrettably, do mushrooms or masturbate on camera.) And each Goop Lab episode begins with a disclaimer: “The following series is designed to entertain and inform — not provide medical advice.”

Maybe the Goop team learned something from the lawsuit it settled in 2018, over some deeply unscientific claims about the benefits of inserting a jade egg into your vagina. At the time, Goop suggested that the egg could help balance your hormones (it is a rock shaped like an egg) and help prevent uterine prolapse (it is still a rock shaped like an egg). The site’s editors have since removed the offending language from the product description.

Paltrow and her staff have built a business on pseudoscience that targets women where our anxieties are.

A pretty sizable chunk of Goop’s website is dedicated to convincing you to buy luxury goods you absolutely do not need: a pair of low-rise jeans that only go up to size 31 ($295), an “infrared sauna blanket” ($500), or a pair of made-to-order pearl drop earrings ($16,780). Most of these things are unnecessary, but perfectly harmless. Would you like a $200 dopp kit that only holds maybe six products? Knock yourself out, kid. But clicking on the “wellness” section of the Goop site opens the door to a much more nefarious part of the business. There’s a wide range of (highly suspect) information on “fasting-mimicking” meal plans (briefly mentioned on Goop Lab), a summer detox guide, and an endless selection of supplements that cost as much as $90 — including something called “High School Genes,” a one-month supply of pills “formulated for women … who feel like their metabolism might be slowing down.”

So you’d be forgiven for walking into The Goop Lab with derision, prepared to be sold some (possibly literal) snake oil or maybe a CBD patch that you put on your butt to calm your detox tea–induced diarrhea — or perhaps a $42,500 pillow made entirely of rose quartz. (It’s very uncomfortable but very exclusive.) It may be either a relief or a disappointment to learn that The Goop Lab feels like it comes from a different, much tamer (and less product-led) point of view than the Goop brand overall. And that’s actually the biggest problem with The Goop Lab: There really isn’t one.

The recommendations dispensed are largely reasonable, if a bit unorthodox when compared to traditional medicine — microdosing mushrooms to help with PTSD, psychic readings, looking at your own vagina, jumping into cold water to keep yourself feeling young. Any science The Goop Lab presents is generally flimsy, but it’s really not about the science. The various slightly woo-woo topics explored have been covered many times before, sometimes by this very media company.

The trouble comes when you compare the series with Goop’s broader branding and strategy. Paltrow and her staff have built a business on pseudoscience that targets women where our anxieties are: Am I getting enough sleep? Am I attractive? Am I thin? Am I sexually fulfilled? How’s my skin? How’s my hair? How’s my overall sense of self?

Often, we’re not happy with the answers to those questions — which leads people to buy products that don’t work or take advice that’s downright dangerous. The Goop Lab, meanwhile, is much more innocent and far harder to hate than the e-commerce empire that spawned it. So it acts as a form of brand rehab for Goop and Paltrow in general — but there’s no indication that the underlying Goop ethos has actually changed.

Adam Rose / Netflix

Goop staff exercise their intuition in Episode 6 of The Goop Lab.

Some episodes of The Goop Lab may actually be emotionally impactful if you’re a cis woman struggling with your body. “The Pleasure Is Ours” focuses on sexual health and shows more vaginas than you’d even see in an eighth-grade health class. The episode follows an accountant who works for Goop, a queer woman originally from Shanghai, struggling to open up intimately with a partner — a rare moment of the Goop brand not being aggressively white, rich, and capitalist. Sex educator (and absolutely delightful, brassy broad) Betty Dodson recommends some pelvic floor exercises, which can have benefits for many women, but there’s no one urging viewers to buy any mysterious sprays or unnecessary wands or douches. (The famed egg, alas, does not make an appearance.)

Other episodes are less effective. “Cold Comfort” follows Wim Hof, an extreme athlete who believes that his particular breathing method can help the body withstand subzero temperatures, depression, stress, and, most worryingly, bacterial infections. The idea that if you just believe in yourself and breathe like Hof, you, too, will be able to fight off hypothermia and E. coli is both patently ridiculous and outright dangerous. I don’t know who needs to hear this, but: Breathing exercises will not save you from freezing to literal death.

Believing in the otherwise unbelievable is easy to do if you’re willing to take a small leap of faith.

In another episode, Paltrow puts herself through a “fasting-mimicking” diet for five days, which effectively allows her little more than a watery, miserable soup, a bunch of tea, and a nut bar each day. What Goop frames as “wellness” is also often focused on weight loss and food restriction, even if no one says so directly. “The Health-Span Plan” episode is purportedly about your “biological age,” but it also advocates for incredibly expensive facials, diets that punish the body and the spirit, and a general focus on clinging to physical youth rather than prioritizing something like, say, your general quality of life.

Much of The Goop Lab is just plain weird and barely worth picking apart. What are you supposed to pull from the episode where Julianne Hough joins Paltrow and her Goop employees (who are featured in all the episodes, seemingly of their own free will, which I’m sure their HR department just loved) as they get their energies realigned? The episode is 29 minutes of people writhing and grunting on tables with no scientific proof or explanation for what’s apparently happening to them. The “expert” leading the episode — John Amaral, a go-to energy healer for the rich and famous — seems to believe that changing your body’s energy (which is basically just having some guy wave his hands over your body until you convulse, I think?) can change your rate of cell growth — which, honestly, isn’t the dumbest thing Goop has ever suggested.

Believing in the otherwise unbelievable is easy to do if you’re willing to take a small leap of faith. If you’re watching The Goop Lab to begin with, you’re likely already prepared to jump. But the show is enough of a departure from the absurdity of Goop’s website, and so much gentler in its approach to overpriced, overhyped, unnecessary “wellness” trends, that you’d be forgiven for forgetting that Goop’s fundamental business model is still profiting off gullible and vulnerable consumers who buy into the dubious promises it makes. With The Goop Lab, it seems like Paltrow is making a play to bring her brand out of the jade egg era into a new phase of (relative) credibility. But of course, the egg is still for sale, for $66 — if it ever comes back in stock. ●

Sahred From Source link Science

from WordPress http://bit.ly/2vp3hSX via IFTTT