#ITS WHAT PEOPLE HAVE DONE IN THE NAME OF RELIGIONS THAT HAS HURT PEOPLE

[just-gay-thoughts]

I just hate this specific brand of atheist so much because they tend to have a vibe of like 'I'm so much better because I don't have x belief system' which is just like dude what? Imo same level as religious person saying you're doomed because you don't follow their religion, like live and let live.

Religious people are like a kid who still believes in Santa Claus even after his parents tell that they were behind the whole thing for years.

[velvetvexations]

While I entirely understand Indians who have been traumatized by Hinduism and would never deny them those feelings, asserting that it is a uniquely oppressive faith just isn't true. All religions, like any social technology, have the capacity to empower or oppress based on an infinite number of factors. I'm white, so my positionality here is far different from that of a Desi person and I'll therefor never know what it's like to be a queer Indian or someone of a lower caste, there has certainly been a lot of harm done to those groups in the name of faith, but the same is true the world over.

I don't practice, but I study Hinduism at a university level and have seen its flaws and the ways it can be surprisingly empowering (Arjuna when he's in exile in Virata and Shikandi -both a part of the Mahabharata- are two of my favourite examples of stories that you can read as queer and more specifically trans).

Likewise, my academic sister and someone who has more or less adopted me is a middle aged Indian woman who is an extremely devout follower of Krishna. She has nevertheless welcomed me into her home as a trans man and spoken about how she loves the acceptance of Canadian society, she also talks about how she abhors the caste system and the harm is causes.

Like I said at the top, I will never argue against people who have been hurt by the faith, but the generalizations of hatred hurt my heart.

(P.S. i'm too scared to go off anon here, but if you wanna talk about Hinduism Velvet just say so and i'll DM you lmao)

and btw an Indian woman having trauma doesn't make her racist for not liking her own culture's dominant religion but it is

absolutely

racist that a lot of White people are cheering on her epic dunk on a religion of more than a billion people because they would recognize that please-get-therapy response would be bugfuck if she directed that hostility towards a trans Christian but it being something outside of their own cultural context means everyone is totally thrilled to go along with "it inspired the Nazis! you can't be Hindu without being transphobic!"

like literally that is the entirety of her complaint

I pointed out the OP was not about her and she IMMEDIATELY pivoted away from that issue to me being "obsessed" with her because I briefly discussed her book one month ago and apply the term she uses for her ideology to others who share it with the framing that I'm doing an Operation Freakout because she's apparently gone on rants about Hinduism before

so regardless of her meltdown being triggered by something she now is undeniably aware was not about her she still gets her W from the cheering crowds because she ripped the mask off her bubbling trauma making her lose her shit at anyone who practices or is working towards practicing Hinduism which everyone loves because to them it's just some backwards foreign cult akin to a browner version of Scientology

God, can you imagine how they feel about Jews if they're this angry about Hindu atrocities? No fucking wonder they can't go five seconds without accusing anyone they dislike of being a Zionist the second they find out they're Jewish. It's unimaginably racist. Not of Talia, she just needs time off the internet, but of every White person who will uncritically share it in spite of the fact that no they truly would not say some dumb shit like this about the major religions that fit into their cultural context. This is exactly how TERFs are with Muslims, but it's not praxis right now for TRFs to hate Muslims unless China is the one putting them in concentration camps.

"transfeminized people are at the bottom of the caste system" ohhhhh my God and Christians have murdered queer people FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS but to act like a trans person being Hindu is a unique act of betrayal or short-sightedness you have to conveniently ignore that because it would be so obviously wrong to say that queer people can't be Christian

[themuseandantarctica]

* 𝒊 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒆𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒂 𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒆 𝒈𝒂𝒓𝒅𝒆𝒏

sentence starters from joanne greenberg's novel i never promised you a rose garden. change however necessary. i never promised you a rose garden is a semi-autobiographical account of a young girl admitted to a mental hospital for treatment for her schizophrenia, which means...

tw: mental hospitals, medical, self-harm, suicide, suicidal ideation, ableism, ableist language

it should look as if we trust her. she must feel that we trust her…

they call it a mental hospital, but it's a place where they put people away.

we should have expected them. why should we be so surprised?

i told you the truth about these things you asked. now are you going to help me?

you are just in time for the patient's soothing tea and the end of the world.

it was considered advisable to terminate the interview.

well, i'm a hundred square yards sane.

you will not have to give up anything until you are ready, and then there will be something to take its place.

the prisoner pleads guilty to the charge of not having acute something-itis and accepts the verdict of guilty of being nuts in the first degree.

someday i hope to help you see this world as other than a stygian hell.

it seemed like a good life -- a very good life she had. now they say it wasn't.

i can't really see you and i can't really hear you.

they think that both of us would be too much just now.

it's without a cause, you see, and that's what is so frightening.

i hated it and had no talent for it. it was one of the flags to capture, you see, and he had to try to win it, even through me.

it's going to cost us -- everything. you know that, don't you?

am i not what you wanted? do you have to correct my brain, too?

you see, she knew, in her own way, that she was not attempting suicide, but making the call for help, the call of a mute and confused person.

waiting for the blows… and then there came a time, later -- a time where she began to arrange for blows to fall.

i swear to you that i will not use you.

they never said they were sorry, not one of them.

is this… forever?

that was not my doing. i was not even in on the consultation.

you are walking around your destruction and poking a little finger at it here and there.

it's funny… i never figured that kid was really sick.

i scratched my arm a little -- that's all.

do you know what a coldsheet pack is? i'm going to set one up for you.

this is the little tart i was telling you about.

there are flowers in a hospital and strength, too. you will live and be strong.

i could not be sure. i am good at getting deceived, you know.

you know… the thing that is so wrong about being mentally ill is the terrible price you have to pay for survival.

there is no injustice being done.

don't hit me, [name] -- don't hit me! i know how hard you can hit!

once i greeted my best friend and she turned from me. when i asked why, she said, "after what you did?" she never spoke to me again, and i never found out what happened.

none of the others laughed, really. you were only afraid that they might laugh. you alone made yourself lie.

there are other deaths than death -- worse ones.

we might someday… have to be "well" and be in the world.

i didn't want to hurt you -- to make you sicker.

when i get around to it, i'm going to do your portrait.

my hair feels dirty.

it is my selfness and it is poisonous. it is mind-poisonous.

another camouflage is to blame it all on someone else. it keeps you from having to face what they really did to you, and what you did to yourself and are still doing.

somewhere there is a thief who has heard that people bury and hide their gold and jewels. can you see the expression on his face when he comes on what i have buried!

i like being somebody's punishment; it makes me feel needed.

their religion doesn't permit them to commit suicide.

i found out about being insane. it really is something.

lay off [name], will you?

do you think the sick people are all in hospitals? do you think you have a corner on suffering?

you ought to know mental trouble when you see it.

it's envy! the best and smartest are always envied. walk straight and don't let them know if they touch you.

i thought i was going to die, but at last they came back.

that kid looks through me as if i'm not here at all.

i am a hair in my eye, and so are you.

a pacifist is one who uses his open hand.

i never promised you a rose garden. i never promised you perfect justice, and i never promised you peace or happiness. my help is so that you can be free to fight for all of these things.

it's because of the maybe. it's because of the little, little maybe.

she never took your world at all, don't you see?

what do they want with me, broken into and spoiled already? i'm not good enough for anyone else.

i could still be crazy if i wanted to?

i wish i could have made it to that narcotics cabinet.

are you calling me? is it me you want?

you have quite a number of bits and pieces all copied down on those papers of yours.

who ever told you that learning facts or theories or languages had anything to do with understanding yourself?

there is nothing you can do to me that my own craziness doesn't do to me smarter and faster and better.

i'll be around. you could even get privileges to come and visit me.

i never could ask for anything. i thought you knew that. when i have to ask, something happens to me and i… well, i start to fight.

i always wondered why those reports seemed to be more about [name]'s thoughts than about her body, like pulse or temperature.

maybe the cannon blast we were fearing was only what we heard.

you are captive and victim. we did not want you to escape.

it's going to hit -- please -- it's going to hit harder than i can stand up under.

god, they build their tortures cunningly!

everyone is so afraid of getting blood on the living room floor. "i can't stand to see suffering," they say, "so die outside!"

i think now, though, that you are little too happy with yourself for this trouble you have.

mommy and daddy are shelling out plenty on that bitch who isn't fit for saving.

get away from that door, [name]. you have no business there.

you are trying to hurt yourself now. what happened?

don't forget what i know about you!

i had known all those years and years how sick i was, and nobody else would admit it.

if you're seeking objective reality, this is one hell of a place to start.

even if you didn't really talk out loud, it was that look you get…

i'm not giving up; i'm just tired, that's all.

occasionally, others are damned by you to punish you.

this you have earned. i don't often give presents either, so take it.

this is one-by-one from the jawbone!

my difference is not my sickness.

when i get upset… i usually have trouble seeing properly.

did i hurt anybody? did i hurt anybody?

kid, i never knew you had it in you. you can really fight!

if i want to die, what am i saving myself for?

you've seen this… awfulness before; why are you so shocked?

measure the hate you feel now, and the shame. that quantity is your capacity also to love and to feel joy and to have compassion.

i would be worse than wasteful to give a moment's time to a hopeless case.

you will find no shortage of moral issues and hard decisions in the real world.

i have decided not to be immoral, because of what happened to [name].

where is what you used to scratch this?

it is why you need a hospital.

you are worn out, but no longer so very frightened, are you?

what am i doing here with all these crazy people!

i don't want to think anymore! i'm tired and scared and i just don't care anymore what happens.

i like an anger that is not fearful and guilty and can come out in good and vigorous english.

we just didn't get on. we didn't like each other. i think perhaps we were too much alike…

you've only got one kind of cold, the kind coats can fix.

you may not even have to do anything about it. you may not even have to think about it.

it was just a simple statement in my mind that i was going to live, to come up alive.

what hurts is being kicked by the forces that everyone else lives by and years of being nuts and not being able to tell anyone and have them believe you.

i tried to go easy. i hope it didn't hurt too much.

grapevine never told me you were back.

it can be very, very tough, but people are sometimes better than you think they will be.

somehow lately, there's been something like a caring in her.

now, am i crazy or did you make that story up?

you can have something on which to model yourself.

stop it! will you never end it!

if everybody would stop dying over the big secret, it'll be a lot easier.

you're not here that much. i want to see you this week.

no, [name], he was weeks ago -- i just went to the party with him.

when she blows, she's going to cover the ceiling.

sometimes you have to fight what won't yield and put yourself where it's safe to be crazy.

whose idea was this in the first place?

if i weren't scared to death of it, i would be so grateful!

you're not just rubbing it in good to get a little free suffering out of it?

alive is fighting. it's the same thing. i still think [name] could have made it.

well, i hope you like the room.

now, when you have come again to the world, you are able to remember what was also there with the darkness. much of it was darkness only because it was balanced against the light of loving and experiencing truth.

what about your new friend, [name]? do you still see her sometimes?

the one place i could never go… the one hunger i could never admit.

do they know how beautiful and enviable their lives are?

i can't go back to my merry high-school days again, volleyball in the gym and teeth-teeth at the school dances.

could you call them for an appointment?

just… well, i liked to think of you being outside and starting along, that's all.

hey! you know what happens when you burn yourself? you get burned, that's what!

is it true that you bring me beauty lately only when you are threatened?

if it's okay with the people down at that place she mentioned, i'll be ready whenever they are.

say "hello" for me. throw something at her and be rude so she'll know it's me.

she is prompt and obedient and never insane in the classroom.

does it all have to go? do we pile it up and throw it all out?

i will never have that. not by fighting or study or work or withstanding will i be able to walk with one of them or be warmed by their hands.

we had to call your landlady and tell her you weren't coming back there tonight and that you were here.

you rotten whore! let me go!

i am going to hang with the world. full weight.

[moorishflower]

Hey I wanna be really clear about something because I do occasionally reblog stuff wrt Palestine and its current occupation, so if you don't have any interest in politics (because this IS politics, this whole situation is very much NOT about religion) feel free to skip over

But I want to make it absolutely clear that anti-Zionism and antisemitism are not the same thing, and when I reblog things in support of Palestine I am not doing so because I think that Jews are evil. I'm studying Judaism. I'm trying to convert. I hope I'll be ready for that someday. So it is not Jews who've stolen land and killed locals and started a genocide. It is not even, to a certain extent, Israelis who've done this. The country of Israel, our modern understanding of it, was flawed from the beginning, built on colonized land that had been already occupied by the British Empire. It has since been taken over by a far-right extremist government who views the native tribes and people of Palestine as little more than animals, or worse than animals. And what's tragic is that this government is using Jews as their footsoldiers and their scapegoats and their pawns. Promising them a return to a homeland that has been gone for thousands of years. Promising peace and safety to a people who have been hurt and oppressed and murdered and driven out again and again. But you can't buy peace with blood. What Hamas did was horrific and is NOT to be celebrated. But what Israel is doing in response is worse.

Halacha tells us that we have the right to rodef, the right of the pursuer. The actual line is "You shall not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor." In the Talmud, it's decided that "if someone comes to kill you, rise up and kill them first." It's the right to self-defense. What Israel is claiming is that Hamas is SUCH a threat that the deaths of more than 30,000 people, most of which are civilians, most of which are women and children, is justified under Talmudic law.

Right now, the estimate for Israeli casualties (including those killed at the Sukkot gathering) is around 1,139.

The estimate for Palestinian casualties is at least 30,000. Quite possibly more, as some 10,000 are missing. Professor Yagil Levy of the Tel Aviv University estimates that about 61% of that 30,000 is women, children, and the elderly (he places all men over the age of 18 in the "combatant" category and thus are not considered civilians, which is problematic in and of itself).

So where is the line drawn? The Talmud doesn't tell us. But I don't think that the tragic deaths of 1,139 people justifies the wanton and senseless murder of 18,000 women, children, and elderly.

What Israel is doing is horrifying, and it isn't to secure a Jewish homeland, and it isn't in the name of G-d, and it isn't for the continued existence of Jews. It is, plain and simple, an attempt to consolidate power. Netanyahu was (and still is) an extremely disliked Prime Minister. He has put himself into bed with whoever he thinks is most powerful and most likely to keep him in power, which is unfortunately a gaggle of right-wing extremists who are no different, fundamentally, from any other extremist, and who are using Judaism and Jews as a vehicle towards their own enrichment.

I guess what I'm saying here is that in a way, I feel sorry for the Israeli Jews who were told that Israel was the home they had always been promised, but were never told about the strings attached to it. And I wanted to make it absolutely clear that I will not hold with anyone who says that Jews, specifically, are to blame for Gaza, or any other antisemitic statements, because it is not a religious contention.

Oseh shalom bimromav hu ya'aseh shalom aleinu v'al kol yoshvei tevel. Palestine will be free and Jews will know peace again.

[multifunctionalnitroglycerin]

Heaven is not entirely on the wrong – a hazbin hotel theory #2 – Exterminations

Something that is often overlooked or sugarcoated a bit in Hazbin amidst all the goofy songs and trust exercises, is that Hell is terrible. There I said it. Hell is a blood terrible place to be. It’s a place of eternal torment, and a prison, a container if you will, for the most terrible of people that have walked on earth. (Let’s not forget that fan favorite Alastor was a psychotic serial killer when he was alive, and still is a master puppeteer, a manipulative, powerful owner of countless souls that is undoubtedly cruel.)

            Murder. Manipulation. Abuse. R*pe. They all exist in abundance down there. And for the average sinner down in the pride ring, things are tough. After being exposed to all that and worse even – as we glimpse with Angel, and Husk – your average sinner is left severely traumatized, if not also physically hurt (regenerative abilities, so idk). To put it simply, hell is a hellish place. And even our beloved princess of Optimism in all her naivete sees it and wants to help. Thus, the plan for rehabilitation and getting a postmortem chance at redemption. (Though how many of them can be redeemed? And does it count if they only do it in fear of punishment? What about metanoia? Is it sincere? What if someone breaks through that shouldn’t have?)

            Hell is overpopulated and here comes heaven with its plan of annual exterminations to keep the population on the down low. And Adam who does it purely for his own entertainment. And Sera who internally struggles with having given the okay for them. (We’ll get to her in a bit, though).

            Here comes the controversial part. If Hell is such a terrible place to be, and no one wants to be there, isn’t killing sinners a way of freeing them from their torment? (It sounds bad I know, and I don’t intend to turn this to an assisted – suicide / euthanasia debate). And if they are “worthy” see rehabilitated, aka have regretted what they’ve done, aka can be redeemed their souls are cleansed and free to ascend to heaven.      

We are not talking about exterminators, we are talking abt exorcists. And if you are familiar with at least horror movies – not necessarily history or religion – you know that exorcists vanquish restless or misguided souls and release them. It’s not a form of punishment, but historically an attempt to help the soul rest in peace. So, if the name choice is deliberate and we are talking exorcists and not exterminators, aka soul cleanses instead of forever death, things might not be as bad.

Keep in mind that I am saying this from an outsider’s perspective and the show is portrayed from the sinner’s perspective. Or at least the denizens of hell. The very traumatized denizens of hell that amongst all their other torment have to be worried abt being killed like cattle once a year. And they have no idea what happens once you die by angelic spear. So that births fear and paranoia Not to mention that Adam and Lute’s sadism and the general bloodthirsty tendencies of the exorcists don’t help the case.

The narrative perspective is meant to make us empathize with the sinners and the denizens of hell, not heaven not the angels, and certainly not Adam or Sera. In the shows narrative they are supposed to represent the corrupt order and oppressive powers we are supposed to resent, whether that is objectively the case, is an entirely different discussion.  So the perspective, and the narrative tools used express that particular POV, and the plot and characterization is meant to support that. Consequently, the questions abt narrator reliability arise, and what I have said above seems lackluster and completely opposite to what the show tells us.

Another point I wanted to bring up is that the way Charlie pitches the idea of the hotel, and a chance at redemption has a bit of a… big hole in it. Anyone can improve at any time yes. I agree. But people that are in hell, have already had the chance to improve for so long as they were alive. It is an arduous process, a mountain to climb yes, but if one truly desires to redeem themselves for what they have done, and become a better person they would have tried before. Perhaps tried and failed, but tried, nonetheless. Which sets those people up perfectly to be residents of the hotel.  But how many of them are there? How many ended up in hell? How many of those in hell actually want to redeem themselves, regret, change their ways and ask for forgiveness? So, the postmortem redemption is kinda fishy. And there is another reason for it as well. If you want to redeem yourself, just for the shake of avoiding punishment, and eternal suffering, is it really redemption? Do you really want to become a better person?  Or just avoid the consequences of your decisions in life?

And as we see none of the people in hell, apart from Vaggie, believe in Charlie’s plan. Most even ridicule her for it. Including Angel who just wants free food and a place to crash at night. And who while having showin signs of improvement, still is in hell. Would just sticking to Adam’s rules, make him go up in heaven? Would that balance out all that he has done in life? Hell, does Sir Pentious’ sacrifice balance out all he did in life? And earns him a place in heaven?

Alright though, Sir Pentious is a mostly harmless goofball. What about people Like Vox and Alastor, Valentine, Velvette, the overlords? Hell is populated and in part ruled by the worst that humanity has to offer. And what happens if one of them manages to break the system, manipulate Charlie, fool her and take advantage of her, and end up in heaven? What will that spell for all the innocent souls up there?

Could infiltration be the key to a new Hellish uprising? And war between heaven and hell? Would corruption sheep into all their hearts? Idk what would happen but it would spell disaster for all the innocent souls in heaven that remain ignorant of all that mess.

And lastly a big elephant in the room I’d like t o address. Is Pentious really the first denizen of hell to be redeemed? He gets blasted by holy light and ends up in heaven, because he dies in an act of self-sacrifice. Have there not been any sinners before him that just tried to get by in hell? That ended up there for a stupid reason, or sth that they didn’t quite have a choice about, and then tried to make the most of their life in that mess, regretting what they have done? And if so, if they were killed in exterminations, why would they not ascend to heaven instead of being cast away to oblivion? Like Sir Pentious?

What if there were souls that were worthy of heaven, and with their release – however violent – from the plane of hell they had the chance to ascend? If it is possible now, wouldn’t it have been possible before? Why would Pentious be the only one? Or the first one for that matter?  

 In all the history of hell, I m supposed to believe that the only time a soul was regretful and changed and could have been redeemed was Pentious, with that one act of self-sacrifice? No woman that might have killed her abuser, and regretted taking a life but never regretted gaining her freedom, no man stranded in a desert or struck by a great famine with nothing to eat, hunt or scavenge but the bodies of his dead comrades? People that genuinely were faced with an impossible choice and ended up in hell for making it.

In a way I feel that if redemption is possible now, it was also possible before. It just flew under the radar, because probably no one ended up face to face with Sera after their ascend. Otherwise, she would have known it’s possible. And perhaps taken other measures.

And yes my ridiculous last argument leads me to the third installment of this huge mess

#3 – SERA

[utilitycaster]

the thing is, the accounts on cr twitter who have these wild takes aren't even shippers

they're all about nuance about the gods, aeor, ludinus, ruby vanguard.....but then have these extreme views about orym, say he's got bloodlust and pretty much equate him to a cop/military soldier

Hey anon! So I will admit as I have in the past that I largely avoid CR Twitter because I hate Twitter as a platform and the community of CR Twitter specifically (more below) but I will say the tweets I have seen have largely been from people who are, if not the most rabid of shippers, shippers. I did in fact just go there and click on "Orym" as it was trending, and the tweets to this effect are largely from people with black and purple hearts in their names. I don't think they're necessarily conscious that this is the reason why they try so hard to discredit Liam's characters (and I think the desire for Laudna to be a Traumatized Innocent rather than a person who has done her own share of harm is an even larger factor) but I do think it is part of it.

I should note: a significant point of reference for me is that the person who famously said "do not uwuify this" re Orym post episode 63 is Wally Wests on Twitter. Look, I know I use the word "stupid" a lot, and I'm trying to reduce it not because I think it's a problem to use but because it reduces the impact and also heavily implying people are stupid without outright saying it tends to be more effective on every level but god this person is the dumbest motherfucker in the fandom and I'm not even kidding. Like, they're the "Australian white person who writes like Rupi Kaur but worse" I've referenced. Because of The Algorithm they are weirdly popular in that space and it baffles me because I honestly don't understand why every single thing they say isn't just filled with replies saying "are you fucking stupid." Like I physically cannot understand how you can have a brain and read a single word they say and go "this is a person I should listen to." They are also not a big shipper, but they do like the ship from what I understand. Specifically on Tumblr, the people echoing this nonsense are pretty much shippers.

With that said yeah, I do think it's worth addressing the soldier aspect. First off, if we're talking cops, why is Bryce, pleasant but forgettable minor NPC, inexplicably popular in this fandom despite them being an actual crownsguard of an actual authoritarian government. Like are all fictional cops bastards or no (fwiw my opinion is no, because the context of the world in which they exist is extremely important; I'm just pointing out the inconsistencies)? But also...I've run into this with Worlds Beyond Number too, and it actually came up on the Fireside chat, but there are words people hear (empire, religion, soldier) and automatically go "BAD BAD BAD" and don't spend any time thinking about how we've come to these conclusions. And for what it's worth I think Empire is always ultimately going to be bad because of its source in conquest; religion is neutral with the potential to harm or hurt; and soldier is deeply contextual and inherently gray; but all are very valid things to explore in fiction, where the war crimes and abuses aren't real. I remember seeing a take about Candela Obscura shitting on how half the party is former soldiers, and like...the messaging of this season of Candela is undeniably about the immense psychological damage of war, and the soldiers were defending their home against a colonizing force rather than doing any sort of invading, but some people are so high on a paper-thin unexamined concept of what I presume they tell themselves is leftism that they cannot see that. Orym's husband did not die trying to invade a nation for their oil. He died because people trying to unleash a horror ran an attack on their town as a practice run. Orym's experience as a soldier has always been one of defense, never conquest or destruction, and that is important to understand. It doesn't mean that in the future Zephrah couldn't become an oppressive power (and various worldbuilding in Exandria does explore the idea of small community watches or protective guards growing deeply corrupt or expansionist over time, but god knows the people saying this shit have the lore knowledge of a dead pigeon), but the aspects of being a soldier he is engaging with are those of personal sacrifice and protecting one's own, not killing for resources or ideology (which, let's be real, is usually an excuse to take the resources of those you disagree with).

[imaginarylungfish]

i just finished the last season of sex education and i have some thoughts:

first of all, i really do love what the show did. they brought sexuality, queerness, disability, mental health, and other "taboo" topics to light. it wasn't perfect, and i think they took on a lot of new arcs that were a little unresolved this last season. but overall, a solid show that i will probably re-watch in the future.

i'll list out the specifics of what i liked and disliked below, so spoiler warning! (also tw for anything mentioned in the show)

---LIKED---

ADAM

i was surprised that my favorite interaction was between adam and his father (michael).

i liked how the show handled adam's character development. we are introduced to him in season 1 as a bully. but wait, it's because he is emotionally repressed and has internalized homophobia. this is not an excuse, but an explanation. he is still accountable for the pain he caused (namely, to eric).

and being with eric helps him a lot, but they were not compatible. i really liked how they showed that dynamic. like, some people are so pivotal in your life, but they are not meant to be in it in the same capacity forever (or at all).

i also love how adam is able to admit he's bisexual to the horse girl and she's so normal about it.

MICHAEL

i am very happy they kept michael in the show even though i probably would have been fine if he never returned after the first/second season. but that's not life. people who hurt you stay in your life. and they either turn a blind eye to the pain they caused or try to make amends and change.

seeing michael come to terms with his part to play in his separation with maureen and his lack of connection with his son was peak. a father figure learning how to feel his emotions in a healthy way and take responsibility for how his behavior has hurt others? what a groundbreakingly average thing to show.

his redemption arc is clumsy. he makes adam feel uncomfortable by saying sorry and by voicing his emotions. but he is trying to break out of the cycle of emotional repression. yes, it's too late. damage has been done. but that doesn't mean you don't still work on changing yourself to stop further damage.

in general on this show, i like how character's backgrounds are shown so we understand why they act the way they do. but those are not excuses. those characters must come to terms with what they've done and put in effort to mend relationships.

(also, i cried during this scene ^)

idk like this father-son depiction was so helpful for me to see. seeing a parent take accountability was huge. i really haven't seen many depictions like this in media.

but i hope to see more.

ERIC

love love love this character! he's the flamboyant, confident gay some part of me wishes to be.

i was surprised to like his character arc this season too, even though it involved religion. tbh, when the religious scenes with him would pop up, i'd sort of ignore them and want to get back to the other stuff. but i am actually happy with what they were trying to show with him here.

i loved how they showed eric's conflict. his queerness is at odds with his spirituality. okay, what's new? well, he also wants to stay within the church because he does truly believe in its teachings. plus, his cultural identity is tied to his church, and he doesn't want to give that up.

so again, we as viewers do not get the easy way out (to just leave). we must stick it out and wade our way through the messiness of it all with eric.

i have a personal connection to this character's story as i am queer (more proudly and confidently now) and grew up catholic. i love how the show showed the pastor and other people in the church turning a blind eye to eric's queerness (at first), expecting him to hide it while citing "beliefs" as to why when it's clear jesus (if he was ever a real person) would have never done that.

i do not believe in god anymore. so i thought i'd not relate to anything more of eric's arc after it was clear he wanted to stay religious. but i think they did a great job showing how queerness and religion are not mutually exclusive for people who want/believe in that.

i love how eric stayed true to himself. he is proudly queer AND christian. and i found myself respecting that, even though i, of course, do not fully understand it.

also the moment when his mom stands up and says "i love you as you are, my son" after he comes out to the whole church was peak. a mother who is proud of their queer child? again, groundbreakingly average.

another quote i loved from eric: "i love myself too much to not tell my truth." this is now my mantra.

also, i was surprised i didn't find the whole "seeing god" thing super cheesy.

but it was kinda healing for me, as if i got some closure from my time being queer and catholic.

i remember reading a catholic book in high school that said people who had "homosexual tendencies" were just called by god to be stronger and resist those feelings, as if we are soldiers in a war. as the good little catholic girl i was back then, i obeyed.

so seeing this "god" say "i made you this bright so that others would see in the darkness" was really huge for me.

ERIC & OTIS

i always loved their dynamic. a straight man being able to show affection for his gay best friend (and even dress up in drag together)? groundbreakingly average.

i really liked how they showed their dynamic change, too. otis is eric's best friend but that doesn't mean he's going to understand everything about him. eric needs more friends than just otis. he needs queer friends, black friends, religious friends.

i loved seeing eric come to terms with this. he needs more! he feels guilty! he feels annoyed that otis doesn't listen to him! he tries talking about it with otis but otis shuts him down again and again.

but as this show likes to do, they find a way to work things out. otis is able to look inside himself and realize they don't relate to each other about things that are important to each. and that's okay. they talk. they communicate. they apologize. hurt is acknowledged and repair is happening.

they can still be really good friends, even best friends, even though they are really different than when they started.

i'm so glad a show called "sex education" knew to put a big focus on the importance of deep friendship.

---DISLIKED---

VIV

i really like this character! she is focused on her goals and straight to the point. no bullshit. (and maybe autistic-coded??) i'm glad we still have her in season 4. plus, her and jackson's friendship is still going strong (again, love me some friendship rep).

BUT i do not think they did a ~great~ job with her arc. it was too rushed. they had some great things to say, but little time to properly execute it.

i think the show did a good job showing beau's love bombing and how viv didn't mean to get caught up in the vicious cycle of emotional coercion and abuse (as it is never the victim's fault).

and i really like what aimee had to say to viv about love: "love should make you feel braver... it shouldn't be confusing and it shouldn't be scary."

i also love that viv stands up for herself by saying: "i don't wanna hear from you. i don't know what made you like this, and it's probably something really sad, and i hope you seek some therapy, but if you keep trying to contact me, i will report you."

it's such an emotionally mature response. she acknowledges that there is probably a misguided or potentially traumatic reason beau acts they way he does. but that does not excuse the harm he caused. and she makes it clear there is no avenue for repair in this relationship, so he must do the work of healing (if he so chooses) on his own. she will not allow him access to her.

but idk this whole arc seemed rushed and almost just thrown into the season. like trauma for trauma's sake.

and don't get me wrong, i am glad this was portrayed. it helped me and i imagine many other people in similar situations. but i hope to see a depiction of this more fully fleshed out in media in the future.

CAL

i have similar sentiments for cal's (and jackson's) arcs.

showing how trans dysphoria affects mental health and how medical transition is life-saving is super important !! it's not talked about or shown in media enough !!

but omg this sensitive topic was so rushed. and what was the conclusion? did cal get top surgery? did they finally get to experience gender euphoria? did they go to therapy to help them with their suicidal thoughts? we don't know.

JACKSON

i feel like they really should have kept him as a supporting character this season. he really didn't need his own storyline.

he already had a big arc when he self-harmed to get out of swimming. that was really important to see.

but this whole thing with his dad not wanting him seemed so rushed.i feel like there was something there. some message. but it totally fell flat for me. it was confusing and underdeveloped.

i really like his character so it was a little disappointing to see how he was written this season.

---HONORABLE MENTIONS---

AIMEE

i've enjoyed her character throughout the seasons. she's light-hearted, goofy, and a solid friend to maeve.

showing how she has been processing her sexual assault was liberating. i liked how the writers show her process of accepting it, naming it, and finding her power again. she learns how to continue living and loving with, and not despite, it.

ISAAC

i'm glad the show included a visibly disabled character that didn't seem like pandering (since he wasn't just added in last minute).

he's rough and abrasive sometimes. he's a lil bit of an asshole. but he's kind and has a big heart.

i have a soft spot for purposely written annoying disabled/sick characters. yes, you are allowed to not like a disabled/sick person because of their personality. please do. please just treat them like a human (cause god knows you don't like every single human on earth).

JOANNA

even though her character arc could be categorized as one that was rushed and unresolved, i think she brought a little more insight into jean's character which evened things out (for me).

i like how they show her denial of her childhood trauma. like, it's okay to not want to confront it. it makes sense. and if she never wants to, jean will still love her and help her (to a certain extent). but joanna might be able to be happier if she addresses it.

this quote was amazing: "i'm scared that if i stop moving, and start properly talking about what happened, then it might all catch up on me, and i won't be able to pretend that i'm okay anymore."

MAEVE

kinda weird for her to be so low on this list because she's one of the main characters, but idk i think that's okay. she needed to break free from moordale. she gives herself permission to do so once her mom dies and jean steps in to say the thing she needed her mom to say to her. she needs to go back to america to finish her studies, believe in herself, and see how great of a person she is. and that's hers to do, not ours to see.

the only disappointment i have with maeve just not seeing more of her being happy/content on screen. (i know i literally said that could have been the point, but idk it still would have been nice). she has a big heart, is so resilient and smart, and goes through a lot of heartbreak and loss. she deserves happiness!

THE NEWBIES: THE COVEN & O

super psyched we had some trans, disabled, ENM, and ace rep... but it did feel a little pandering ngl

i think what i liked most about these new characters was seeing the different reasons behind abbi's and o's need for control.

like yay! we're showing that queers are unlikable for their personalities (and not for their sexual orientation)! genuinely so happy to see that (for the same reason i like seeing unlikable disabled characters)!

OTIS

oh otis. he was definitely on the backburner this season. and i was fine with that. it seemed natural? idk. i don't really have much to say about him, even though he is the main character lol.

---CONCLUSION---

and there you have it! my take on the last season of sex education. like i said, i think this show did a great job talking about topics that our society deems "taboo." it gave a platform to many different topics, identities, and experiences. it portrayed sensitive topics tactfully and injected humor at the right moments. it wasn't perfect, but what show truly ever is.

if you have anything to add to my review, feel free to comment. just please be nice! these are just my opinions. and i wrote this for fun! thanks!

[odinsblog]

Something I need to get off my chest, for old followers and new:

I do not give a single solitary fuck about communism

If communism blew up and died tomorrow, I would not give one shit about it 🥱

If “communism” is your end all be all about what’s right and what’s wrong in the world, then do us both a favor and block me right now. No hard feelings, okay?

And for anyone wondering: no, I don’t give a shit about capitalism, and definitely not neoliberalism either

Look, sooner or later you have GOT to understand something: some people (neoliberals) get all bent out shape if you aren’t constantly falling over yourself to kiss the ass of whoever the current Democratic president is. That ain’t me. When Biden or Clinton or whoever is wrong, I will hold their feet to the fire and at least try to them accountable (see: Biden Title 42)

And when capitalism fucks up (lol, that’s any day of the week that ends in the letter Y), then I will call that shit out too

Sooner or later, ALL of that shit fucks up. All of it. All of it

None of it is beyond critique

If you think your special little rhubarb (communism, capitalism, religion, libertarianism, etc etc etc) is magically the only one that is perfect and good and right all the time, then you’re just like a little baby who still believes that Santa lives on the North Pole. Please grow tf up

But I am very specifically calling out communism today because several long time mutuals lose their shit whenever I don’t kiss Putin’s ass, or when I don’t blame NATO for Putin invading a sovereign nation that wasn’t attacking Russia, wasn’t in NATO, and wasn’t even applying for membership into NATO when Putin decided to attack them

Is America wrong for all the dirt its done all around the planet? Fuck. yes. Does America bad = Russia good? FUCK NO

Look, everyone has their own personal coda; their guiding principles; their “religion,” their rhubarb. For some, it’s a blind, sycophantic inability to understand or acknowledge that simply being marginally better than Trump doesn’t automatically make centrist Democrats above being held accountable (it’s our job as citizens to always demand better from whoever our elected representatives are—they work for us goddammit)

For other sycophants, it’s a rabid inability to call out capitalism and/or Christianity

And for others still, it’s communism

I guess my problem is, EYE don’t measure how “good” something is by how “communist” it is—I measure it by how much good it does without burying poor people, without harming Black & Brown people, without hurting women (trans or otherwise), without vilifying foreigners, and without burning LGBTQ people (the way Russia and America do)

If you can’t understand that, then your particular brand of blind fanaticism (your rhubarb) is communism, and you are no different from the VBNMW, Blue MAGA sycophants who go completely ape shit whenever you say something even slightly unflattering about politicians who happen to wear the letter “D” behind their name—see where that got us??

You’re no different. You just have a slightly different rhubarb

Communism is NOT my fucking measuring stick. I don’t have communism on the brain, and I sure as fuck don’t have capitalism on the brain either

I love Black people, Brown people , poor people, immigrants, asylum seekers, women, the LGBTQ community, democracy, equality, justice and freedom

And dassit ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I’m on the side of the little guy and the underdog

So anyway, fuck communism, fuck capitalism, fuck “Christianity” and fuck all the other little bullshit unimportant distinctions you far too rigidly use to decide if someone is “good” instead of just looking to see if they’re actually doing good or not

Some of you good little “communists” couldn’t even be bothered to speak up about Brittney Griner because you didn’t want to look bad or say anything bad about Vladimir Putin’s raggedy ass. Lol. You guys suck!

And no, this isn’t me taking a right wing turn like Cenk and TYT (or like Jimmy Dore, or Glenn Greenwald, or any number of the other “previously” progressive media types who are re-aligning themselves with conservatives)

In 2016 I had to break ties with people and bloggers who turned out to be dogged Blue MAGA sycophants, and today I’m fed up with people who can’t go more than two minutes without signaling how “communist” they are 🙄

Sorry, but that shit don’t get my dick hard

(And for added clarity: Republicans and Libertarians, go fuck yourselves with a rusty chainsaw)

If this post makes you mad, then here ya go

</end rant>

[m--rtyr]

What’s your falcon claw lore in Amaranth?

i got this a while ago, sorry its taken so long, decided i'll try and tackle my old asks and all.

This is a long one, especially the section about Ultimas, so... strap in,

TW mentions of like... murder and invasion, and stuff. Nothing graphic, just said that it happens and all

Falconclaw is one of the few villages that have survived from before the Ro'Meave family expansion outside of Gal'Ruk. Multiple regions have Ro'Meaves in their noble bloodlines and all, and Ru'Aun and Gal'Ruk even had them as their kings for hundreds of years. However, not all of Ru'Aun submitted to their rule once they came over.

Falconclaw as well as a few other villages (like Boboros, where Dante is from) managed to retain their heritage and culture despite the invasion, and Falconclaw in particular took on a very defensive and aggressive strategy to do this. They selected their land, built up walls large and strong enough to withstand armies, and if anyone who wasn't their own tried to surpass them, they would be killed and whatever was left of them afterwards would be displayed upon the walls to drive off any wandering adventurer without bad intentions. Good people don't go to gore land, after all, and it was never their intention to hurt good people.

The only real reason this was successful was because the people of Falconclaw had always been very good fighters, as a large percentage of their population had werewolf blood. Their village was the one in which the Ultima curse began, in fact. For hundreds of years, this worked, and they managed to keep their own little populace alive with their own culture and traditions despite their close proximity to O'Khasis, the stronghold for the kings of Ro'Meave name.

It was during the war of the Magi that some major changes happened to their structure, though. Their village was not far from the battlegrounds, and they watched as Wyverns and dragons rained fire from the sky and the ground became corrupt with the potent magicks that was used by those upon it. They watched Irene slay armies on her lonesome, and the Destroyer also. Such an act was clearly admired by a little warrior village, and so the religion of the Three began to thoroughly thrive, not only in Falconclaw, but in some surrounding villages also. Balance, Justice and Death were the main three things they worshipped, and she was their goddess of War. Up until Falconclaw's destruction, she remained as such, though her mythos varied much compared to the legends of the rest of the region, as those who had written about her had been the ones to witness the war first hand.

I mentioned how the Ultima had originated in Falconclaw, but it is not only that, but all of the Ultimas had been their lords. They don't have 'lords' as such, as the title of lord goes null when the title of Ultima meant the same to them, but to the outside world, that was what the ultimas were called. They had the power of a god, and the ability to bestow immeasurable strength and vitality to their own people (lycanthropy). Once a firstborn son came to be, his father would lose the title of Ultima and instead be a former, someone who acted as leader in the Ultima's place until the Ultima was of age (typically this was around 20, but was whenever the former thought it was fitting). When the ultima was given the permission to, he would go through the trial of the soul, a kind of 'good and bad' balancing scale kind of trial, to see if they were both good of heart and yet willing to commit atrocities for the good they intended. This was done through claiming the Moonlight Ward, the largest chunk of Shad's relic that remained after the war (and was discovered by the people of Falconclaw, given to their lord, and voila). Of course, anyone of Shad's blood could claim the moonlight ward, but Shad only has one kid in my rewrite, and, uh, she dies as a child. so he has no descendants. Aaron and Shad are unrelated. However, because of Shad's own nature as a person, before his evil and all, the moonlight ward only goes to those that share his nature. So, being good but being willing to do evil for good reasons.

Ultima's became OP once the trial of the soul came into place, however, this did not imply that the ultima always kept those traits of goodness, or evil, and it did not imply that they all had it to begin with. If an ultima were to fail the test, or refuse the test and the title, they would be killed. It was thought of as a bad omen to keep around an ultima with no purpose, and it would take up space that a younger brother or cousin could fill by taking on the curse themselves. Formers were often left alive, though, as the curse still affected them somewhat, but they weren't considered even the same species as Ultimas anymore. If there were no Ultimas or male heirs, a female heir would act in place, under the title of former despite never having formerly been an ultima, until an ultima could be named.

The mothers, wives, sisters and daughters of Ultimas did have a special place in society, and were not looked down upon as much as one might expect from a male-dominated rulership. They were often advisors, and bodyguards, and were treated just as well as their sons, husbands, brothers and fathers were. Just because they did not carry active traits of ultima blood (or, in the wives case, didn't have ultima blood at all... hopefully) that did not mean they were not worthy of political strength and adoration. It wasn't uncommon for them to be formers position, after the father of the ultima died in battle or of disease when the ultima was still young, and they were often practitioners of magicks. Elder sisters of Ultima brothers were also considered especially important, and would have a lot of religious power amongst other things.

The Ultimas themselves had a lot of religious significance, being the bearers of godly curses, and whilst they mostly did not head their own religion, they were expected to be extremely active in it. Attending services, adorning themselves in the symbol of their chosen god, sticking to their religious rules and showing them off, etc. Generally, they were mostly performative in their religious significance, but there were those that ran their religion and were very active in it.

Since the Ro'Meaves had entered Ru'Aun, Falconclaw and O'Khasis have had serious damage with eachother. A lot of murders of eachothers peoples, causing general beliefs and ideals to spread through eachother's communities (O'Khasis' fear of wolves, Falconclaw's distaste for the colour blue), and a lot of messing with eachother's supplies as well as trade routes. Importantly, they had a lot of religious conflict, especially as Falconclaw held some of the most reliable information on Irene, and relics, and whatnot, despite O'Khasis calling itself the religious centre of Ru'Aun. This came to a peak when Zane took over the church, as he believed they were entitled to the works that Falconclaw had. He tried to ask Aaron to give them up, he tried to threaten him, and he eventually settled on killing the entire village and taking the works for himself rather than admit defeat. So he did as much, being an asshole. The first breach of Falconclaw walls in thousands of years, and it was a child chasing a cat. Of course, Jacob being surprisingly devious worked in Zane's favour, and he gave to Jacob the amulet to bring to his father, and listened with a grin as the village died in screaming agony. Then, he himself skiddadled inside, captured Aaron for experiments, raided the library, and realised his plan was incredibly fucked because... oh, shit, it was all written in Falconclaw's specific dialect of Native Ru'Aun, a language which had long since died out in a general sense and only existed anymore in hyperspecific dialects that applied only to certain villages and no longer could even be called one language anymore with how much it varied since they'd all been self isolated for so long. He had killed everyone who could have translated it for him, aside from one guy, who he had blinded.

And thus, Falconclaw began its important lore with blood, expanded into glory, and died at the hands of a man who was too stupid to think before he acted, and a child who was too sweet for his own good.

Oh, also, theres more. Like about how the village ran, and some important historic events, and the religion and all but I wanted to get the important things out of the way. If you want more details lmk!

[nexus-my-beloved]

Religion is a Disease.

CW: Religious Trauma, Vent Piece, Implied S/A, Possible DIsrespect to Religion (this entire piece is meant as a vent, a poetic description of what was once a child's pain. Apologies in advance if it offends anyone, but I figured I could make a possibly beautiful work out of it.)

Religion is a disease. 

More specifically, Christianity. 

A book full of books, chapters upon chapters, verses upon verses, all telling how you should live your life and the consequences that should come if you don’t follow the rules. 

Ten “commandments” that are put up in homes, rules you should follow that are punishable by great torture if you break them. 

Buildings dedicated to the teaching and preaching of a new set of verses each week, gathering on Sundays and sometimes Thursdays, sometimes Wednesdays, Tuesdays for kids on occasion and Saturdays on Christmas Eve if the day just so happens to fall on one– but you’ll go to church on Christmas Eve regardless, whether it be a normal church day or not, and you’ll go for service the next day for Christmas as well, unless your household values spending time with family over time with the Lord, but you’ll be sure to pray over your Christmas dinner and ask each one of your dishes blessed and bellies full and bodies to His service. 

A whole hivemind all worshiping one being that there isn’t proof is real, asking that you have faith, that the nonbelievers be saved, the children be baptized and the adults as well if their family was as disgraceful enough to not have it done when they were a child or to be done again just as an extra precaution. 

Groups of people across the globe, following the religion and praying and making sure to follow each rule and go to church on Sundays just for the hopeful promise that when they die they might reach heaven, or the fear instilled in them that if they don’t they’d go to hell. 

Christianity is a disease. It eats away at your mind, makes you question every ounce of yourself before any decision you make in a blind hope that God wouldn’t consider you a sinner for doing some action. A disease that makes you wonder in times of hopelessness “What would Jesus do?”, that makes you pray for help rather than go out and try to fix it yourself, believing that whatever outcome happens is the “Will of God”. 

Christianity makes you blind. You will look at others, see their ways of life and say “sinner”, call them crude names and disregard them entirely should they try and remind you that your number one rule is to love thy neighbor. It ruins your judgment, making you insensitive to your own family should they commit a sin you can’t find it in yourself to forgive. 

Christianity makes you believe that without praying, without God, you will fall to the depths of hell and wander into the temptation of the devil. It makes you believe that if you go against the rules, you will suffer in the eternal flames that await you downstairs. 

As righteous as the cause claims to be, it isn’t– no cause is righteous when it has caused the everlasting trauma of multiple, the trauma of children, where some of which try to (and, unfortunately, some succeed to) end their lives because of it. 

Christianity is a disease, or more accurately put, a virus. 

A disease is terminal, no way out of it; as much as they try, a church does not always manage to convince someone to be a believer all their lives. 

Instead, it plants its seeds in places, waiting to spread when someone stumbles upon it: bibles in the top drawers of hotel rooms, billboards asking if you’re going to heaven or hell, Jehovah’s Witnesses standing on sidewalks and yelling at any that pass by if they have thought about God’s plan for them. 

Viruses can be overcome– you’ll be sick for a while, and it’ll hurt you while it’s there, but you can get over it, and if you do there’s always the chance you’ll catch it again. Some people catch it, get better than fall sick again, and some people succumb to the virus and never become rid of it. 

Christianity is a virus, pulling people in and making them feel as though they’re alright until a certain sermon comes along and hurts them, yet they feel they need to be doing something better rather than the virus itself be the problem. 

Christianity ruins your mind, turns you against people you once thought you could trust and makes you believe that they’ve committed great atrocities that can’t be forgiven, even by God. 

The trick is that some rules are good to follow; honor your father and mother, do not commit adultery, thou shalt not kill– but the problem is when rules slip in that make you believe they are righteous even when they aren’t. 

You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination. 

Why should a man loving a man be seen as the same level of sin as killing another? Why should it be sin at all? If to love is to be good, and to love another is good, why is a man loving another man so awful? Why should it be punishable by the torture of hell? 

Christianity makes you blind, robs you of such rational thought and instead brainwashes you into only thinking of what “God” would say. 

Christianity is a cult. 

If God is so loving and righteous, why would God allow so many to go about their lives harming their families through rejection and bible verses thrown at them, sparking arguments and disowning family for any sin they deemed too much? 

A kind and loving God would not let his followers hurt their families. If God had flooded the Earth once before to rid them of the immorality it had become, why wouldn’t he do it again? Beside his promise, the world is so full of evil and pain, it needs to be redone anew. 

And yet, the world continues as it is, evil spreading and the cult of God causing lives to be taken and families to be torn apart. 

Christianity is a virus that causes you to ignore your family, to become blind to abuse and only focus on the idea that your once niece is now your nephew, your loving girl suddenly hateful; it causes you to only focus on the idea that she is gay, that she wishes for something your bible claims is wrong. Rather than focus on the idea of the abuse your sweet child you had raised from when they were little told you of, you focused on their sin, their wrongdoing, over the idea they were hurt. 

Christianity is a virus that causes you to throw out your own kin. It makes you neglect that they have tried to express themselves, ignore how they cut their hair terribly and short and don’t read into the obvious lie that it was to “disguise themselves” as they ran away from your home. Belief in your “God” makes you send your nephew that you still claim is a girl to a mental institute, and the child that had lived in your home that reeked of judgment and rejection was thankful for a time when they finally got help they had wanted; but that thankfulness turned sour, changed to hate, when you let the words fall that they tore apart the family with their sin, their “lies”, told them no part of their once family wanted to care for them and you sent them away for much longer than they had ever been from home. 

Christianity is a virus that causes you to only ever remind what was once your loving child how badly “she” ruined the family, how awful “she” made you look, how terrible of a person “she” was and make him hate himself further than he already had long before because he had known, deep down, that this was what reaction awaited him when he finally let his secrets spill. 

Christianity is a virus that makes you blind, makes you believe that your loved ones could not commit a sin you refused to believe, despite how easily you cast out your nephew for a lesser one. Or maybe, you always knew, and like how families of old in the bible used to use that kind of abuse as a show of dominance, you allowed it because you believe your lord wrote it to be. 

Christianity makes you a terrible person, when you take the words of a book written by men years ago and treat each word like it is so holy, ignore the subtractions from among the years and ignore the additions made by judging priests in years past, instead insisting it is “God’s Word” and following every phrase down to the last letter, the very stroke of whatever pencil or ink or carved stone tablet it had been written in so long ago. 

Christianity makes your family hate you, when you follow this book with such devotion that it tears your blood from you, makes them hate your very being and makes them hate themselves for having any relation with you. The family member that had once loved you, now refusing to ever call you their aunt. 

Christianity is a disease. 

It is vile, ruthless. 

Despite all the righteousness it claims to have, it tears holes in families and creates doubt, and when one person finally stops trying to fit the mold, the “Will of God” tears them from you and causes you to cast them out, to be on their own, to find a family that will love their sin-streaked soul. 

Christianity is a virus. Christianity is a disease. 

Christianity makes you sick. 

And it only makes the already guilt-ridden mind of a child forced to grow up too fast worse. 

~Fin.

[thepeopleinpower]

Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss explains why he supports Palestine by touching on several good points including:

A brief history of Zionism, what it really is, and its contradictory relationship to religious Judaism

A brief history of Jewish-Muslim communities not only peacefully coexisting but actively supporting one another.

How pro-Palestine movements and media are being heavily stifled by fear of antisemitism accusations (and worse)

How Jewish refugees have been received and embraced by Muslim countries in the past

Its seven minutes and definitely worth a watch/listen if you have the time.

(Subtitles included on-screen, closed captions available, transcript below the cut)

[AUDIO ID:

As we see now this last Saturday it was shocking to the world but the world doesn’t seem to take into regard the 75 years that every day almost you have Palestinian death and suffering. But we as Jews do take this into consideration

Its not how I personally look at this is. Its how, as a Jew who is observant, who’s following the rules of Judaism of the Torah…

Judaism is subservience to God that’s what it’s all about, its a religion of 3,000 years. While Zionism is a mere 150 years, it’s a transformation to nationalism, to have a piece of land. It’s a political movement. It’s a materialistic movement. It was started by Jews who are nonreligious, and they’re simply incorporating using the name Israel and using the star of David, and claiming that [Israel is] given to them by God. And we who are following the Torah, who are true to the Torah, stand up adamantly refuting what they’re saying. The Torah clearly states that we shall not kill, we shall not steal. And the whole concept is strange, is totally antithetical to our teachings, and contradictory.

The Jewish community have been living together with the Muslim community and the Christian community, and since the movement started, and since they gained hold in the land, and eventually got rule over the land, there’s been endless bloodshed. This hate that has grown a thousand fold, it’s a wedge between the Jews and the Muslims, and it brought death and suffering to the Palestinian people as the majority, but to the Jewish populace also.

As we see now this last Saturday, it was shocking to the world, but the world doesn’t seem to take into regard the 75 years that every day almost you have Palestinian death and suffering. But we as Jews do take this into consideration. We say this is clearly a rebellion against God and it hurts us more than usual because it’s being done in our name. And the Rabbis you’re seeing, the power bases that you’re seeing in the settlements that is fringe to the Jewish communities. Those are the ones who bought into this tale that it’s God’s wish. But the central part of Judaism, the very religious in whatever country it may be, in Argentina, the very religious says “no we’re dead set against this, we cry with the Palestinians.” And therefore what’s happening today in Gaza, that they’re bombing them relentlessly and they’re pointing and they’re accusing them of being animals, its even hard to repeat. And whatever they say of them, of being terrorists, it’s all to cover their totally illegitimate occupation. And to that I’ll bring a simple proof. We lived together, the Jewish community for hundreds of years, in Palestine, in Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Iran, in all the countries we lived and flourished as religious Jews amongst religious Muslims without any human rights groups to protect us. We always lived together. We babysat each others’ children. Even though we have a distinctly different religion. And it was never a cause of animosity. All that changed is the introduction of Zionism, the control of the land. And since that came, which is not 1948, it’s in the 1890s or so, they started coming in and taking over the lands.

Since then there is death and suffering of the Palestinians and of the Jews. Because they are creating this fear, this hate, this estrangement. I have so many pictures of how the Jews lived together [shows open photo album full of photos] any old Arab will tell you, and any old Jew, how we used to babysit each others’ children like I say and help each other, and there are many stories that people will tell us.

So, its clearly what Ben-Gvir and these other people are saying, they are coming from Mizrahi. That is that segment, that is religious Zionists, but not the central what we call the ‘Edah HaChareidis’ God-fearing community and around the world, we stand in total opposition. And it hurts us that we have no words for the suffering of the Palestinians. That’s why we came out. Even today, yes we go out in tens of thousands, but we would have hundreds of thousands demonstrating constantly, but the fear of the repercussions from the ZIonists, because they’re vicious.

We went out, yes, two days ago to Manhattan, we demonstrate, I came back, the car tires were slashed, the mirrors were broken. And this is nothing to what they threaten. They have death threats. And in Jerusalem and Al-Quds and in the other part of occupied Palestine, people get killed and arrested and so forth.

So there’s a reason why there’s less of a voice that you hear, even though our communities are full in oposition to Zionism. And we plead with the leaders today, it’s very scary what today we are seeing, there’s an assembled 300,000 soldiers at the Gates of Gaza, and of course the bombing there. Its heartrending, there’s no words.

And so we can only, again, plead with the world leaders and demand that this injustice, this criminality, this suffering of the Palestinian people has to be addressed. It must be stopped. One day this will end. It’s against God. And we as Jews are crying and hurting with them and praying for them, and we go out tirelessly. Some of us go out all the time and we’ve been doing this for years. And many of others, there’s demonstrations in front of the UN. We’re going out.

A lot of the media doesn’t cover it because they know that they will be accused of being antisemitic. But we try and we hope that with God’s help, that His compassion that He will free them. And ultimately with a totally free Palestine we as Jews with the able to show our tremendous gratification for the fact that we were embraced and taken in when we suffered in Europe. When we went through crusades, acquisitions, it was the Muslim countries that took us in and we flourished there.

So we should be able to show, again, our gratefulness, and not to watch how they’re being vilified. We hope it will happen soon in our days and we apologize about what’s being done in the name of Judaism.

/END ID]

[blackdragoness]

😤 blowin' smoke pt.2 💨

Hey. I'm bDee, the Black Dragoness. Tonight, imma just be blowin' smoke. If you don't know what that means, I'll explain it to ya. I'm aware that it may mean many different things depending on where you're from. But where Im from, this is what it means: Blowin' smoke is slang for letting out air. As a dragon, I inhale and I exhale smoke. It's part of my anatomy. It's a saying where I'm from which means to say, "Let me talk my shit real quick, unfiltered and unapologetically." Air is symbolic to us for communication. Sometimes there's a need to just release air. Similar to passing gas. If you hold a fart in too long, your stomach starts to hurt. Releasing that air will make your stomach feel much better but it will also smell like shit to everybody else. That's kind of what "blowing smoke" means. I'm just talking shit. Y'all may not fancy it's fragrance but it sure does feel good to say it out loud. So that's what imma do right now. Imma just blow smoke. Don't be attached to my words. I'm just flowing.

You know, I'm not religious. I believe in God but I don't believe in these organized churches. For me personally, as a dragon, that whole church stuff isn't really my jazz but I respect that it is for most humans.

But, to be able to understand that realm more and the people in it, I dove deep into religion. Not all of them. But quite a few. There's some truth to it. And other stuff I think is bullshit. But that's a topic for another day.

Anyways, the religion I'm gonna dabble in today is Christianity. Like all religions, Christianity also has their own stories. One of the stories we are going to talk about is the Parable of the Talents. Y'all can correct me if I'm wrong, but basically there's 3 dudes having a conversation with their master, right. I guess the master is heading out of town and entrusted his property and estate to these 3 dudes. The property is worth 8 talents, and one talent is worth a significant amount of money. So he splits these 8 talents amongst these 3 dudes based off of their workmanship. The first dude gets 5 talents, the second dude gets 2 talents and the last dude gets 1 talent. Then the master leaves. After a long period of time being away, the master returns and asks for an account of the talents he gave them. The first two replied saying they put their talents to work and doubled the value of the talents he gave them. The last dude who only had one talent, said he buried his talent and hid it in fear that he would lose it all. The master then punishes the last dude because he did nothing with what he was given.

Now why is this story so significant?

For many reasons, obviously. You can pick this story apart and come up with many different conclusions. For me personally, it stands out to me because us dragons, we struggle with pride and ego. To be honest, a lot of things come to us naturally. Opportunities, gifts, skills, talents, etc. You name it, and we've already got it, done it, experienced it, mastered it.....you get the point. So it's easy for us to sit on the skills and talents that we have and become complacent. However, when we do decide to utilize them, its almost as if magic has been restored back on this earth.

You know, my ancestors tell of a time when magic was prevalent in this world. Humans, fairies, dragons, warlocks, goblins, and all fanatical creatures alike used to coexist in peace. But since the magic has been taken, a lot of us remain in hiding.

How do we restore magic?

We start utilizing the gifts and talents that make us unique and start CREATING again. What can you CREATE with the talents and skills you have that can be used for the greatest good of all? Let your imagination go wild and watch the magic happen.

There's a caution for pride and ego once you've reached this stage. Pride and ego are the killers of magic. There will be a point where you will be persuaded to think that what you create needs to reach the masses. But remember, your creation will reach who it is meant to reach. Fame is not why we've been given talents. Although fame can be obtained through your talents, it shouldn't be your main focus. Once you've master and created something (or many things) with one talent, move on to the next talent and so on and so forth.

The more we create, the more magic we bring back into this world.

But heck, what do I know.

Cuz at the end of the day,

I'm just blowing smoke 😤

[scentedchildnacho]

The new staff is funny but I think she is going to have to find out that the cats need their litter box and a scratching post near they poop on fabric because if their not allowed scratching they get çonstipated their a chore till given litter box and scratching post

They are an intensive chore too they poop like dogs and it's having to get a scoop bag it's like time and effort

Cole is a cool cat and fights with her about pooping on the outside wicker so you dont have to discipline the girl cat for him

Its like Cole's territory and he has fight wounds from a dog and she messed his territory and he is a tough cat

He is maybe partly coon he is tough like a snake and big for an abyssinian

Then she finds politically correct about addiction important like don't say addict so I felt like warning her that her personal injury won't be requirements if you don't learn the politically incorrect aspects of things

To me addict implies obsession compulsion so subconscious mechanisms like washing one's hands too much and not knowing why

It tends to exonerate and remove disciplinarians that claim people can help themselves who cannot anymore

I believe in dissociation and personality change so they are an addict is to imply that their personality did completely alter and sometimes you have to ask satanically ritualistically abused people if they have a protective name they prefer to be called

My friend this bartender in natchez that truly is her job to be an alcoholic that is what she does for a living is stages control group studies and experiments liquor on herself

What else did I say about politically incorrect I said my travels sometimes brought me to americans who I think were Muslims sometimes so I actually found around crazy people more seriously devout and apart of religion....it's this physical strength people seek....lehi though would try the fruit and keep believing his conversations with God that the city had become wicked and they would desire extensive changes say San Diego and helicopters and midday construction wars

Wicked southern California is a popular and subtly witchin place

San Diego scary scary very not nice Parisian like place instead of like new York where the city has to conform to the boundaries of an inner natural preserve

I don't agree with confederates that would seige themselves inside I don't think whites would really be murdered if they went to natural revivals with black brethren I am just some white lady and I'm fine it's more for those conflicts I can't be alone without someone to talk to police sometimes or it would just hurt me

Crazy if He tries to touch me crazy was in the basement of Irish and Italian basilicas and crazy can really power war back at him

I wasnt too interested in the black brethren culture I am mostly interested in economic development for myself that includes a diverse wealth until police in Madison wisconsin called me a racist and beat me up in shocking and obscene ways and large amounts of people went to the capital to tell walker the writ of habeous corpus matters and creating white terrorists is brutal and wrong

Zitkala sa...I am not sure if the clinic I am guessing about is racist Richard wright on communism and the amount of contagion he wasn't seen for

Lynch syndrome and micro satellites....the police did know about white terrorists that they had done something to purge their intestines till portions of it needed to be removed and they can't resist micro satellites drone suggestion and they still chased a hells angels lady around when they should have been more sympathetic and maturate about

Mary baker Eddy and healing its these small historic mistakes like claiming the Nazis party was modernity instead of 20th century emergent

I was Lutheran lemmon charities it's this mistake that Lutheran's are separate from catholicists instead of an ongoing philosophical conversation

California at Irvine....wave theory....I did find the clinic that would be Texas and normal school....when they reach zero or rock bottom in San Diego they treat it like a Pandora's box and all these strange high impact athletics start proxemics hitting at the leisure families and this could also just mean a brief wave of intensity instead of hitting and high adrenaline

That's more a school and the strong white lady will do these physical therapies to start but then the brethren have to learn this lemmon charities

Uhm white ladies did work under naval ship captains so I think the homosexual metaphor there they didn't have too much to worry about though

Compared to Lutheran's the same white skin black hair if Californian is too mean and beaterish

The Californian is to heroin the jobs here cause people to attack them instead of Christians I would do things sometimes till people I would want relations with would want to meet more people then me

I get shy about relationships and judge correctly that many people I know might be good for ME about relations would be hard on my sense of I and not talk correctly to me about some of my psychoanalytic misperceptions....in fact I might feel rejected and so treat them like ME is all they want and that's boring and they eventually allow me re enforcements so I don't have to anymore

No the really sad minor stuff that happened to me those young men had problems and I don't wish them on anyone they needed to get help...

No those people needed to live soberly and live lives they wanted and not bother me with strange mean possessive rituals I have to read Harvard women about wet land destruction about what type of Man was that becoming

Hidden Caribbean Islanders like Puerto Ricans know how to literize

Guess is clinic and no there were factories...it was a factory

No there was a factory it appears like there are no factories in the states because they caused micro satellites sweat problems...and we cannot buy made in the USA or people around the problem appear to endorse concentrative sweat

That's why it appears like only China produces things

PLZ....blue banner...around the block are factories that's why the energy is so disturbing in proxemics

Nunavut treaty space medicine and oxygen....the matrix

I am not a bunk to heat and release oxygen from I am someone

Nunavut treaty the inuit were found to have the most toxic breast milk.....specifications for factories

[icharchivist]

i was thinking about character foils (as i always do) about DAI and like

Cole and Blackwall especially are often put in parallel in their banters. They're both people who lived while someone else died, and who reacted to it by taking the name of the person who died. Both of them had done crimes, killing innocent people, and both of them are trying to become better people.

But that's the details that change everything, of course. Cole being a spirit and not even having realized what he's done vs Blackwall who consciously took someone else's place to run from his crimes. Hell, the fact Blackwall's crimes predate his name change while Cole's follow his name change.

And Blackwall pointing out later how the two of them are quite the duo, "the killer and the victim".

While at the same time in the Fade their greatest fears show on their graves next to one another: for Blackwall it's himself, for Cole it's "Despair", and we know Despair is what Cole can become : it is, just like Blackwall, himself.

At the same time we also have Solas and Sera working as foil, both as very different extreme different people in term of their relationships to the elves, to the past, to magic. Yet they're also two people who used another name to bring in a rebellion. Solas as "Fen'Harel" disrupted the powers of the Elven Gods to protect and inspire the then-be-slaves where Sera as "Red Jenny" disrupt the influence of the nobles to inspire the common folks.

It's something Solas recognize to an extend because he comments on how Sera could organize her organization in order to actually make waves, to make it more than just petty things and actually try to take down people in power. He says Sera is "further away of what she could be (as an elf)" but he also says that they're more alike than Sera believes and i believes it means as individuals. It doesn't help that Sera clearly has a sensitivity to the Fade and Spirits that even regular elves don't have (Cole's "she sees the string that pulls me")

Anyway so i was thinking about that because those are pairs in the "identity, what is that" gang of dai (Bull & Leliana would be my other pair for this foil as spies who were groomed since very young to become the best liars they could be, and the way the people they love either keep them grounded, reminding them of who they really are, or how losing them makes them even more so dedicated to what they were groomed to be. They're also both dedicated to their religion while also acknowledging a lot of its flaws.)

and it's when thinking that that i realized the irony of how Blackwall and Sera are besties, and Solas and Cole are besties. Solas and Blackwall get along alright, they see themselves in each other too (soldiers who know the fear of being desensitivized by war, who carries too much blood on their hands), while Sera dislikes Cole for being a spirit (despite the fact both of them care deeply about the hurts of others and try to help more than anything, they're not unsimilar).

Blackwall struggles with Cole because Cole makes it too easy to remind himself who he used to be, who he runs away from. Cole reminds Blackwall of his past sins.

and in the same way Sera reminds Solas of his past sin, because every struggle she encountered and the way she rejects a part of herself comes from what Solas once did when he rebelled. He wants to help her see, and he sees who he used to be, cocky and reckless, but she refuses to let him in.

AND YET Blackwall&Sera and Solas&Cole have extremely strong dynamics despite of it all.

I don't really have a conclusion i just find it neat. I mean i'm team "Solas used to be a Spirit" so of course i see why Solas and Cole would be so close with this specific "spirit mind", while Blackwall and Sera are both people who try to live for tomorrow. (Blackwall dodges a question about his past with "it would be best if people cared more about what's in front of us than how things came to be" which mirrors Sera's themes, re her song "why change the past when you can own this day")

And it's just such an interesting intra-dynamic between those four in particular. Mind full.

(also in general on the thematic of skewed sense of identity it also applies to Corypheus (left his identity behind once he lost faith, a bit of Leliana's arc in there as i've seen the devs refered to that) and the Inquisitor (gaining new names because of the faith the people have in them, the fact you have no choice but letting it become your name, whether you like it or not, something Solas points out is similar to his situation in Trespasser if you are on the friendship path with him) so this is something that carries over there. but i didn't think about it in enough depth to really add a big point about it on this post i just think about it)

[itsyourchoicedevotionals]

Stop The Flow

“That you may exercise proper discrimination and discretion and your lips may guard and keep knowledge and the wise answer [to temptation].” Proverbs 5:2AMPC

There are 282 references to “lips,” “words,” , ”say,” “speak” and “mouth” in Proverbs alone. This tells me the words exiting the largest hole in my face can get me into or out of trouble, cause or not cause hurt. Yet, this is the arena I struggle and fight in the most.

The Bible has so much to say regarding what we say, how we say what we’re saying, or what our words attract. — Luke 6:45NIV “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” — James 3:2, 5-6ESV “For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. …So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by hell.” — James 3:8-9ESV “but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God.” — Proverbs 18:20-21ESV “From the fruit of a man’s mouth his stomach is satisfied; he is satisfied by the yield of his lips. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits.“ — James 4:11NKJV “Do not speak evil of one another, brethren. He who speaks evil of a brother and judges his brother, speaks evil of the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law but a judge.” — Ephesians 4:29NLT “Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.” — Leviticus 19:16NLT “Do not spread slanderous gossip among your people. “Do not stand idly by when your neighbor’s life is threatened. I am the LORD.” — Mark 11:23-24NIV “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

Scriptures have shown here, the spoken word produces a variety of products. In just compiling this list Holy Spirit has pinpointed different areas where I’ve needed to repent and stop the flow of words. “If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person’s religion is worthless.” James 1:26ESV. My tongue must be bridled, which will take much effort and discipline. Just to keep me from “temptation,” plus a host of other difficulties. Not long ago I wrote about “open doors.’ Writing this, Holy Spirit told me, ‘herein lies your biggest open door for satan to walk through.’ Ouch! I have to choose a different way and put a lock on my lips. How about you? It’s your choice. You choose.

LET’S PRAY: LORD God, I ask Your forgiveness for past transgressions with my words. Please God put a watch-guard on my lips to awaken my mind to what is exiting my mouth in order to stop the flow of negativity, in the name of Jesus Christ I pray.

by Debbie Veilleux Copyright 2024 You have my permission to repost this devotional for others. Please keep my name with this devotional, as author. Thank you.

[pingnova]

Thanks for being honest about how hostile most Christians are to even the most basic show of support for queer people. Christians love to claim the Bible is only full of nice things and any of the overwhelming evil that's come out of it over the millennia is just random bad faith outliers who weren't true christians. The reason those folks probably think their religion supports their bigotry is because the official church organizations materially do support their bigotry and have for centuries, even if it's not supported by the words in the book

Christianity is synonymous with colonization, it has been the single largest concentrated force for homophobia cisheteronormativity misogyny forced pregnancy and child abuse for the entire lives of everyone alive today, at the very least. Personally i don't think it's worth trying to reclaim an ideology that's filled with bigots and officially stands for bigotry. I don't think there's anything worthwhile in there that you couldn't find somewhere else where it isn't packaged along with bigotry. If someone publicly affiliates with Christianity, they're broadcasting to strangers there is a high likelihood they don't recognize the personhood of over half of the people on this planet and believe they will be cosmically punished for their divergence. I'm going to assume they're a bigot until they prove they're not, and after that point, I'll wonder why they lend their name to an organization that stands for bigotry if they don't believe in it.

I don't think this is an unfair assumption. I saw how American Christians acted toward queers during AIDS, I'm not just gonna forget. They were very vocal. That's what Christianity means to millions of people around the world

Yes I agree if someone tells me they're Christian I'm instantly on guard for these reasons. I do personally find redeeming value in it but I'm fully aware of the terrible things people have done in its name. Forced conversions, boarding schools, anti-abortion campaigning, advocating for more queers to die during AIDS. Too many to list here. As a queer Christian myself I can't really afford to be romantic about it. I believe Christianity could do so much good, and yet the majority of those who claim it choose not to. So I tend to not talk about my personal conviction IRL too much, and if I do I make it clear as quickly as I can that doesn't eclipse my queerness or progressive convictions, but actually goes along with it.

A lot of unpleasant and conservative brands of Christianity get a pass on account of "religious freedom" and I feel like I'm in a particularly good place to openly criticize them. I also practice this religion and don't feel the need to oppress people over it. In fact we have a lot of the opposite convictions. So I don't think enacting laws to hurt people because you believe something or its "in the bible" is right, because that's not part of MY version of your religion and i didnt see that in MY bible. Sus. I can only do so much tho, being queer I'm marginalized and then being ELCA I'm kind of marginalized in the wider Christian world, like my post outlined. There are Christian bodies out there doing good but sadly they are the minority. They shouldn't be the minority, especially bc none of that conservative crap is "in the bible", but that's the reality. And even those groups likely did terrible things in the past and now have to grapple with how to right that.

To me, bigotry is not a religion. That's my motto. People and groups can practice whatever religion they want, but they should be held accountable for their bigotry no matter what. And I give them an unimpressed stare if they try to tell me it's what their religion says.