#NOT an anti-post but for some reason people think it is??

[wat3rm370n]

Jay Bhattacharya is anti-vax.

He's anti-vax for the same reason that Florida Man Ron Desantis is anti-vax even without Joe Ladapo.

https://wat3rm370n.tumblr.com/post/768897389699432448/florida-man-is-anti-vax

Being anti-mandate is anti-vax because vaccination is a community level public health measure. High uptake is what stems transmission. It’s how vaccines work best for everyone. So being against vaccine mandates is anti-vax. Being pro "natural infection" is also anti-vax.

Jay Bhattacharya AND Marty Makary also cavort with all sorts of anti-vaxxers, and someone pro-vax would not do that. If pushed, these people will go with the anti-vaxxers, because they already have, after all.

https://teamshuman.substack.com/p/trucker-convoy-adjacent-symposium

They all seem to be funded by the same big money too. All connected to fossil fuel at the heart of everything on the right and the money could explain a lot of that.

https://heated.world/p/ai-is-guzzling-gas

https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:ifcx5e6vwjvy2oqoynshleqv/post/3ldppcl2gpc2k

The connections are truly dizzying, and I've spent way way too much time connecting these dots, and most people do not want to hear it.

https://medium.com/@watermelonpunch.com/lefty-zine-promoting-right-wing-pseudoscience-protocols-of-an-expensive-concierge-clinic-f73b758dbbff

https://medium.com/@watermelonpunch.com/vaughn-what-team-is-he-actually-on-c4df1a3a8ae8

Generally eugenics is also anti-vax, because of pseudoscience fantasies about "evolution".

https://chloehumbert.substack.com/p/eugenics-as-an-ideology

The pain point here is that there are MANY Republican politicians and conservative voters who want vaccines and do not buy into anti-vax nonsense and want protection for themselves and their family.

Some of these pro-vaccination conservatives live in my neighborhood in Scranton Pennsylvania in fact. I remember many loud conversations in my neighborhood over hedges back in 2021, in fact. The average Republican who voted for Trump didn't vote to get rid of vaccines, they're not even paying attention to that extremely online crap. They just thought none of it mattered anymore because they're steeped in pro-biz disinfo and didn't think more broadly than "covid is no big deal anymore" (not realizing that it's partly because of vaccines that most Americans got initially but which wane in effectiveness over months and certainly years, and also partly because the entire political spectrum decided grandma had to be sacrificed to the false god The Economy, to appease violent anti-maskers, or at least in order to justify Fridays at the packed nightclub).

https://teamshuman.substack.com/p/journalist-trusts-right-wing-covid-denial

But one of the biggest problems is that the coalition is not so much a coalition of cranks, it's a coalition of high demand authoritarian groups (aka cults), many which favour eugenics ideology, and many that are anti-science unfortunately, and even worse, are run by a lot of people making money on selling quacky products linked to anti-vax disinfo. And these people are clearly ready to to sell their own snake oil.

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/trump-fbi-director-kash-patel-vaccine-detox-supplements-rcna182434

MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy - Thinker-Fest: Session 1 - Fireside Chat - How to Fix the “Splinternet” Mar 3, 2023

But as they say, online is not the totality of real life.

People need to start talking about vaccine uptake with their neighbors over the hedges again. We need billboards more than we need tweets or facebook ai slop and interacting with bots on bluesky while trapped in info cocoons and echo chamber silos created by manipulative block and subscribe lists.

https://chloehumbert.substack.com/p/grass-is-not-much-greener-on-blue-sky

https://www.rauhauser.net/p/blueskys-bubble-blues

https://sci-hub.se/10.1086/225469

Trumpism’s healthcare fracture-lines

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/20/clinical-trial-by-ordeal/#spoiled-his-brand-new-rattle

There was never any question as to whether Trump would implement Project 2025, the 900-page brick of terrifying and unhinged policy prescriptions edited by the Heritage Foundation. He would not implement it, because he could not implement it. No one could. It's impossible.

This isn't a statement about constitutional limits on executive authority or the realpolitik of getting bizarre and stupid policies past judges or through a hair-thin Congressional majority. This is a statement about the incoherence of Project 2025 itself. You probably haven't read it. Few have. Realistically, few people are going to read a 900-page group work of neofeudalist fanfic shit out by the most esoteric Fedsoc weirdos the world has ever seen.

But one person who did read Project 2025 was the leftist historian Rick Perlstein, who was the first person to really dig into what a fucking mess that thing is:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/14/fracture-lines/#disassembly-manual

Perlstein's excellent analysis doesn't claim that Project 2025's authors aren't sincere in their intentions to wreak great harm upon the nation and its people; rather, his point is that Project 2025 is filled with contradictory, mutually exclusive proposals written by people who fundamentally disagree with one another, and who each have enough power within the Trump coalition that all of thier proposals have to be included in a document like this:

https://prospect.org/politics/2024-07-10-project-2025-republican-presidencies-tradition/

Project 2025 isn't just a guide to the masturbatory fantasies of the worst people in American politics – far more importantly, it is a detailed map of the fracture lines in the GOP coalition, the places where it is liable to split and shatter. This is an important point if you want to do more about Trumpism than run around feeling miserable and scared. If you want to fight, Project 2025 is a guide to the weak spots where an attack will do the most damage.

Perlstein's insight continues to be borne out as the Trump regime makes ready to take power. In a new story for KFF News, Stephanie Armour and Julie Rovner describe the irreconcilable differences among Trump's picks for the country's top public health authorities:

https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/trump-rfk-kennedy-health-hhs-fda-cdc-vaccines-covid-weldon/

The brain-worm-infected-elephant in the room is, of course, RFK Jr, who has been announced as Trump's head of Health and Human Services. RFK Jr is a notorious antivaxer, chairman of Children’s Health Defense, a notorious anti-vaccine group. Kennedy's view is shared by Trump's chosen CDC boss, Dave Weldon, a physician who has repeated the dangerous lie that vaccinations cause autism. Mehmet "Dr Oz" Oz, the TV "physician" Trump wants to put in charge of Medicare/Medicaid, calls vaccines "oversold" and advocates for treating covid with hydroxychloroquine, another thoroughly debunked hoax:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2024/12/17/hydroxychloroquine-study-covid-19-retracted-trump/77051671007/

However, other top Trump public health picks emphatically support vaccines. Marty Makary is Trump's choice for FDA commissioner; he's a Johns Hopkins trained surgeon who says vaccines "save lives" (but he peddles the lethal, unscientific hoax that childhood vaccines should be "spread out"). Jay Bhattacharya, the economist/MD whom Trump wants to put in charge of the NIH, supports vaccines (he is also one of the country's leading proponents of the eugenicist idea of accepting the mass death of elderly, sick and disabled people rather than imposing quarantines during epidemics). Then there's Janette Nesheiwat, whom Trump has asked to serve as the nation's surgeon general; she calls vaccines "a gift from God."

Like "Bidenism," Trumpism is a fragile coalition of people who thoroughly and irreconcilably disagree with one another. During the Biden administration, this resulted in self-inflicted injuries like appointing the brilliant trustbuster Lina Khan to run the FTC, but also appointing the pro-monopoly corporate lawyer Jacqueline Scott Corley to a lifetime seat as a federal judge, from which perch she ruled against Khan's no-brainer suit to block the Microsoft-Activision merger:

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/judge-rules-for-microsoft-mergers

The Trump coalition is even broader than the Biden coalition. That's how he won the 2024 election. But that also means that Trumpism is more fractious and off-balance, and hence will be easier to disrupt, because it is riven by people in senior positions who hate one another and are actively working for each others' political demise.

The Trump coalition is a coalition of *cranks*. I'm using "crank" here in a technical, non-pejorative sense. I am a crank, after all. A crank is someone who is overwhelmingly passionate about a single issue, whose uncrossable bright lines are not broadly shared. Cranks can be right or they can be wrong, but we're hard to be in coalition with, because we are uncompromisingly passionate about things that other people largely don't even notice, let alone care about. You can be a crank whose single issue is eliminating water fluoridation, even though this is very, very stupid and dangerous:

https://yourlocalepidemiologist.substack.com/p/the-fluoride-debate

Or you can be a crank about digital rights, a subject that, for decades, was viewed as by turns either unserious or as a sneaky way of shilling for Big Tech (thankfully, that's changing):

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/18/greetings-fellow-pirates/#arrrrrrrrrr

Cranks make hard coalition partners. Trump's cranks are cranked up about different things - vaccines, culture war trans panics, eugenics - and are total normies about other things. The eugenicist MD/economist who wants to "let 'er rip" rather than engage in nonpharmaceutical pandemic interventions is gonna be horrified by total abortion bans and antivax. These cranks are on a collision course with one another.

This is on prominent display in these public health appointments, and we're very likely about to get a test of the cohesiveness and capability of the second Trump administration, thanks to bird flu. Now that bird flu has infected humans in multiple US states, there is every chance that we will have to confront a public health emergency in the coming weeks. If that happens, the Trump public health divisions over masking, quarantine and (especially) vaccines (Kennedy called the covid vaccine the "deadliest" ever made, without any evidence) will become the most important issue in the country, under constant and pitiless scrutiny, and criticism.

Trump's public health shambles is by no means unique. The lesson of Project 2025 is that the entire Trump project is one factional squabble away from collapse at all times.

[utilitycaster]

in looking for posts about the end of C2 I found a self-inflicted ask meme (called that) in which I asked people to send wish items for C3 and first off, once we do have a hard episode count for C3 I might run something similar because it was fun, but also, looking through, some notes:

Laura playing a sorcerer was rather popular, as was Marisha as a high-Charisma character

Issylra setting REALLY popular...we got a smidge I suppose but this was not really a Continent In Depth campaign

people did want to see Travis as a lycan blood hunter, AND in some cases older characters

Lots of interest in an aeormaton too!

I really wanted to see Sam as a cleric, which is funny because I spent the first 30 episodes pissed off at FCG's execution but I DID come around, so. hat consumed.

why do people care so much about the seating arrangement. bestie i could not give a shit.

I think this campaign also made me go from "previously knowing each other can be good but I'm not interested in more twins, we've moved past that" to "let's keep the prior relationships either brief or like. require you submit a 10 page essay of backstory so we don't get some empty bullshit"

people REALLY liked wild magic barbarian so the fact that Taliesin and Matt were explicitly like "it sucks ass" is funny to me, a person who's neutral on it.

a lot of people wanted Travis as Tabaxi and I hate this and they got mad but I'm right and sexy and ready to have a long mean conversation with you about the anti-ableism leaving people's bodies when it comes to severe allergies.

3+ years and I still hate changelings and kalashtar I'm sexy and right on this one too

someone wanted a horse girl but a cavalier fighter; Imogen's horse girliness sort of didn't really have much time to be a thing (this is not a judgement, this is just, they weren't riding horses much bc of the nature of the campaign) and I would like a cavalier

*ironic laugh* multiple people wanting Laura specifically to play evil aligned.

people really wanted circle of spores for liam. there were a lot of repeats frankly that made no sense to me and i never got the answer. was there a server or something.

Travis INT or WIS caster when

Bard Ashley when

Sam's character should be taller than Travis's ACHIEVED FOR ALL BUT FCG & BERTRAND. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

everyone was like WELL OBVIOUSLY the cast will play elves for the sleep reasons and then no one did.

the specter of a Shadowgast child had already risen unfortunately. before the relationship was fully confirmed no less.

spelljammer fans are not intellectual to put it mildly

please GOD not everything has to be self-referential in-jokes. use your mind.

[genderqueerdykes]

Hey um thanks for posting about endogenic plurality

I was anti endo for a long long time because I couldn't understand why someone would want to have DID but having you explicitly say that endogen plurals are different and are not expected to act the same as CDD systems has made me much more open

Like why did I hate endos? There was a few people who were definitely spreading misinfo and being complete assholes but that's every group? Endos are just people? Like all of us?

Yeah my disorder sucks but that doesn't mean everyone who experiences plurality has the worst existence ever

Anyway lmao yeah thanks for what you do

hey of course, i'm glad i could have helped in some way!

i've noticed the anti-endo community is OBSESSED with saying "complex dissociative disorder" (CDD)... which dissociative disorders aren't complex, exactly...? dissociation is inherently complex, i don't like the idea that some dissociative disorders are seen as "more" severe or whatever than others. i NEVER heard the term "complex dissociative disorder" until i met anti-endos. i have no idea where people came up with this, but why would pitting dissociatives against one another help... ever?

like, not only are anti endos concerned with pitting dissociative plurals against endogenic plurals, but apparently, they're also concerned with pitting dissociatives against one another. it's clear as day that this is just about fighting and nothing else. like, it's a slap in the face to call something like depersonalization/derealization as a "non-complex dissociative disorder" or whatever like. i was diagnosed with DPDR 2 years ago when i was in the psych hospital. i was told by the doctor who was screening me that the level of dissociation i experience is NOT normal for someone with just DID. i don't think that DP/DR is inherently less "complex" than my DID, because it's the reason i dissociate literally 24/7 and never stop. ever.

i'm glad you brought up the most important point, which is that endogenic systems are still people. it doesn't matter if someone disagrees with how they express themselves. they're still people. dehumanizing people you dislike is a dangerous path to walk down. thanks for stopping by to send this ask! i'm glad i could've helped you in some way! life is a lot easier to live when you're not harboring hate for things that don't deserve it. hatred of injustice? always reasonable. hatred of someone who don't understand? not helping anyone.

[mikeellee]

Can you into more on Kirishima's character and why you think he has the mentality of "If I'm not the one being bullied, then it's fine."? You mentioned this in one of your posts and I want to know more about it, even better if you can apply this to class 1-a as a whole while providing scenarios of it

Hi @jarierei

First off, I don't have panels of the scenes anymore. I saved on my phone, post here and then delete it. But I will explain the best I can.

So Kiri, in his background, is a kid who suffered bullying for his weak quirk and he wanted to be a hero (I have people pointed out how Kiri could be considered a less version of Izu as the bullying, while bad, seems tamer if compared to what Izu endured and we don't know for how long that begins. Was a temporary thing or not? Bc Izu was abused since he was 4 years old. No pain Olympic here) and admired Mina Ashido who, in his own words, is a great hero in the make (she face a less giant Macchia)

We see he doesn't like bullying...bc he endured bulling. We see how he change his hair color and applied to UA. We never saw if he bullies give him a hard time or not, he never seem affected by it as fanon loves to say ...and even menage to strike a friendship with BK (somehow)

Bk...who tried to kill Izu in broad daylight. Who calls him useless (way before Izu claimed the name, I hate this and I hate ochako for that too.) and tried to kill Izu again (to be fair, on that part Kiri was a bit shaken by that but it's only that and he still hangs out with BK)

"he thought they were rivals" it's so fucked up and lazy...feels an excuse to justify hanging out with a shitty person. "Yes, Bob beat up Mary but Mary cheat on him so he is justified in beat her up"

But don't forget.....BK assault and rob Kami- treated as a gag- and Kiri didn't react at all. He took the money and has no questions. He has no questions regarding BK.

"bad writing on Hori's part" I agree, it's bad writing bc he is cuddling his beloved and by this ended up sacrificing everyone and everything. Kiri was supposed to be anti bullying...but he is hanging out with the biggest bully/abuser and ...nothing changes.

You wanna a scenario ? Ok

We have canon.

Kirishima has lend some money to BK, who is rich, and for some reason is asking for the money now. He needs for something and BK, is a rich boy, decides that to pay Kiri back....he will rob Kami's money and...Kiri is fine with that. He got the money.

Now....

If it was the opposite.

Bk needs to pay someone back and BK stole his money? Then Kiri would have something to say. "No more bullying"

Kirishima became bk's cheerleader and it's sad to see.

[agentrouka-blog]

Not that i want Sansa Antis to attack her even more, but i just wondered why they always blame her for Ned's death (he would have died in KL anyways), but they never bring up Jeyne Poole. Like, i was thinking, is Sansa partially responsible for what happened to Jeyne Poole? The only thing that Sansa going to Cersei accomplished is that Sansa could be taken into custody instead of Ned sending her and everyone from his entourage back to WF. If that had happened, Septa Mordane, Jeyne, etc, wouldn't have been in KL for the Lannisters and Baelish to get their hands on them. Obviously, the Lannisters and Baelish are the ones who actually did the crimes and I hate when people put just as much blame on Sansa as they do on them, but: in my head, Sansa has always been unfairly maligned and mostly blameless. But would this be something she could be blamed for? Would she consider this when she finds out about Jeyne's fate? On the other hand, if Sansa hadn't talked to Cersei about Ned's plans to send them back to WF, they would have ended up in WF without Ned or Catelyn, ready to fall into the hands of Theon and or Ramsay.

That's wrong, actually.

Here is a helpful timeline (halfway down into the post) by @istumpysk that gives us insight into what happened when.

The boat Wind Witch was going to leave that evening.

Ned was getting himself arrested that morning, and the slaughter of his household commenced soon after.

Absolutely nothing Sansa did had any influence over anything other than MAYBE giving Cersei the identity of the ship they were leaving on, quicker than they maybe would have gotten it from questioning anyone else. But - again - they were never making it to that ship in the first place.

And it's even doubtful the captain would have taken escaped Arya away that evening all by herself and delivered her to Winterfell when the guy who hired him has just been arrested for high treason, even if Cersei (or spying Varys or Littlefinger) had not known which ship it was. The same would be true for Jeyne and Sansa if - for some unfathomable reason - they had not been in the Tower of the Hand as Ned instructed and somehow escaped the slaughter undetected. Which is ridiculous because we know how difficult it was for adventurous Arya to get away. She had to kill a witness to do it. Jeyne Poole is clearly apprehended with ease and placed into confinement in Maegor's Holdfast with Sansa that night.

And even Arya didn't make to the ship there by the time it was supposed to leave. They made a trap for her that she recognizes as such many days later, surprised the ship is still there.

So.. no. Sansa is absolutely not to blame for anything that happened to Jeyne Poole. If she did blame herself, she would be wrong to do so. That's what makes people's desire to blame her so ridiculous. It relies on not actually reading the text and understanding what happens.

[brainwashed-klarkstella]

I feel like saying this

I get so many posts on my tumblr feed about antis saying dumb shit and being awful and just general stuff about not liking antis because a bunch of them harass proshippers for no reason and say awful stuff. we should be angry at this people who send death threats and spread hate for no reason other than to be hateful. we don't stand for this behavior as a community, no matter who is doing it

HOWEVER

sometimes, antis put "proship dni" in their bio and the tags of all of their posts and...that's it. they don't go bother proshippers, they don't even say mean shit about us. they just make their silly posts about their favorite ships or their f/os or whatever else they post about. they are not harming us. not all antis are these awful people with a list of insults to hurl at us. I think it's so easy to say antis are bad, antis are mean, antis are this that and whatever, but...honestly like half of the anti community are actually proship and they just don't realize it because they don't know that by not wanting to harass people for their ships and personally being uncomfortable with certain stuff still fits the definition of proship

I guess my point is I wish this community didn't thrive on anti hate. It is so important to call out the bad behavior of specific users (and this goes for anyone, because some proshippers aren't good people either). It would just be nice to see more posts about positivity and just silly ship stuff get more notes than all of the shit talking about how hypocritical and dumb antis can be. They do the same thing, you know. I've seen posts by antis talking about how proshippers are bad because some of them harass people or actually support these things irl or whatever

I'd just like us to be...a bit nicer, maybe? Every time we say bad stuff about the anti community as a whole, we're giving them more fuel to antagonize us with. We should strive to educate people and be respectful, not to sit in a large internet circle with some random antis in the middle and laugh and gawk at them. Even if it sucks, even if we want to just be angry at them, we should strive to be better than them in that regard. And again, not all antis are harassers, and making these generalizations reflects badly on us, just like the harmful generalizations antis make about us that reflect badly on them

oops sorry I keep making long posts lol

[starryjkoo]

If Jungkook went on live and asked toxic fans to stop harassing Jimin I already know exactly the kinds of comments we would be seeing in response -

“the company is forcing JK to say that to protect the company fave” *10k JM company fave posts* *random slurs, animal names, and bongo tweets* “look at how the company is shielding Jimin solos again” “notice how none of the other members are telling their solos to leave JK alone, JK is the only member who cares, the rest of the members don’t care about him, #JKleaveBTS #BTSdisband” “JK is only saying that because he has a kind heart, but I don’t have to be kind like JK, I’m going to protect him by going after the leeches who are trying to take advantage of him”

And then you would see a thousand posts from his solos/diets complaining about why JM hasn’t called out his own toxic fans, saying that he’s a terrible person who approves of PJMs harassing JK (and tkkrs and other solos would join in and pile on adding how JM doesn't care about the hate that TH/YG/other members receive from PJMs either). And definitely some PJMs would play into it and gloat about JK hating his fans but JM loving PJMs or something. It would be a whole mess, and for what?

JK asking fans to stop going to his house and to stop sending things didn’t work, JK saying artists are innocent didn’t even stop some ARMYs from talking about nwjn's a certain way (I don’t mean simply disagreeing with him, I mean some ARMYs outright dismissing his words and being condescending towards him about it, some were even resentful and leaving rude messages on his IG).

Pretty sure that solos/tkkrs would find a way to twist it to be even more hateful and unhinged towards JM. I mean tkkrs quite literally came up with a whole conspiracy theory so they could twist and dismiss anything they don’t like in BTS content (company forced fanservice ship, tkk hidden couple) and they include weverse lives in this now. How do you even combat that?

The people who want to believe a certain narrative will just twist whatever they want, dismiss whatever words and actions they don’t like to suit whatever narrative they want to push. Anyone who thinks that JK doesn’t like JM (and vice versa) is already extremely biased and irrational, you can’t really reason with that. JK has already done and said x100000000 things that contradict those narratives and they still just ignore it, and his haters never give him credit for it and expect him to do more. Not to mention people like that do not respect or care about JK in the first place, they just want something from him - to live vicariously through him, possess or own him, use him for whatever fantasy.

I mean sometimes I do want (all of) them to address toxic fans and I wonder why they haven’t, but I can also sort of see how it wouldn’t really change much and tbh I just assume that the seven of them have probably talked about this and have some mutual understanding on how they decide to handle it. And like I said JK asking his fans to leave Jimin alone would just result in another unhinged response from those groups of people and JM would be expected to also immediately make a statement or be painted as a terrible person who doesn’t care about JK getting harassed either.

This discourse is really tired and it’s sad the kind of expectations people place on JK about all of this, not even just to call out antis but never being allowed to tease or joke around, being blamed when antis twist his words, having the burden to prove that he doesn't hate his bandmates for some reason placed on his shoulders (even though he HAS proved that, they just don't listen to him). I expect it from solos, but every now and then I have seen some jikooker's also be weird to him about it and it's just really frustrating. Most people I see have just been celebrating and enjoying his live though!! Sorry for the negativity but I wanted to say something too because I can literally picture EXACTLY the kind of things they would be saying and no doubt it would just be another fandom headache.

[buntress]

Posting here bc i posted a banger on my main and don't wanna derail my sick posting with discourse.

If it's not known, I'm very firmly pro endo right. Like I have good friends who are endo systems, those are my home boys.

So what has me rackin my fuckin brain is like, as a traumagenic system who as constantly been told that I'm not actually a system by too many people, why are we doin that to other people dude. Like look at yourself man, you're a system yourself (or at least I'd hope so) and you've been told your whole damn like that your experiences are invalid, not real, whatever bullshit and you're just like, doing that to other people y'know? You're perpetuating this cycle of systemic abuse on others based on, what, what you think they might be experiencing? The harm they might be doing? Like you're actively dictating what you think is going on in someones head for whatever reason ya might have (I ain't gonna assume, that makes me no better) and for what? Who does it serve?

Like every anti-endo thing I've heard has only really helped people who oppress systems to do that more, to do it almost easier. This rhetoric I constantly see bopping around our community actively harms not only this grand standing enemy you've made endogenic systems out to be but like, it's basically a form of self harm to the system community as a whole. By creating this weird divide between the "real" systems vs those deemed "fake" we are fueling some really bad and bigoted shit towards our community. Is that what you want to do as part of this community? Is weeding out these supposed "fakers" worth the actual harm this stuff is doing?

Sorry to discourse on mogai over here. But 1. this is my biggest account so I think it'll reach the most people and 2. It's been a problem I've had for a while with the mogai community as a whole. I feel like we can do better than this.

[psalms-and-spells]

Woah. So this post broke containment! Let me clarify a few things.

@atheostic

1. I actually agree with you on a lot of this actually. I believe Christmas has gotten too commercialized and this can 100% be traced back to Christian Colonialism and forcing people to celebrate Christmas (Certain Christian Colonial efforts tried very hard to make Christmas as secular as possible) I will be the first to say that Christian Evangelism and Colonial efforts are quite literally rotting Christianity from the inside out.

2. I didn’t mean for this to come across as exclusionist or anything. I don’t truly want to ban anyone from Christmas. It was mostly a rant post about people who simply see it as an excuse to decorate and participate in consumerism while not acknowledging the ‘harder’ or ‘religious’ stuff. Especially because Christianity is a very anti-capitalist religion so to see what one of our Major holidays has become is very saddening. I am more than happy to have others celebrate the holiday respectfully in whatever way they are comfortable with. (I give Muslim friends a gift and card every year. Just like how I often go to Ramadan Celebrations with them. I don’t see anything wrong with non-Christians celebrating Christmas as long as it’s respectful. )

3. This is just a clarification. When I say ‘Secular’ I am meaning essentially ‘without religion’. My main point here is you can’t really celebrate without religion, it’s a religious holiday at its core, and if you try too then you will be left with just a glorified capitalism holiday. ( I could go further and say that I do, to a certain extent, think that non-Christians should probably stay away from Christmas for a whole bunch of anti-colonialist reasons but that’s my thoughts for another day)

4. Again, I want to reiterate. The post wasn’t meant to be that deep. Like I was specifically thinking of people who will decorate their house to high heaven, go to Starbucks to get a peppermint mocha everyday, buy a truly glutinous amount of gifts, and then claim they don’t believe in Christianity. I’m talking about people who view christmas as a time to keep up with the Jone’s. Not people who aren’t religious who grab their close friends and family a gift and go look at Christmas lights.

5. This is where I will also tag @phinarei . I want to make it clear I wasn’t talking about Yule celebrations. I love Yule. I’m a Christian Witch, it’s great. (Idk if y’all were implying this but I just wanted to make it clear)

6. This is now gonna be be more debunking. Like I said I’m a Christian Witch who tries to incorporate traditions of my ancestors into my craft. So I was used to also believe that a lot of Christianity came from paganism and was open to that idea. (And there is no doubt that some traditions are, but many pagan traditions came from willfully converting pagans celebrating holidays in ways that they knew and bringing new life to traditions. Take wreaths for example. To act like Christianity purposefully stole traditions from pagans all over Europe is just factually incorrect. It also simultaneously takes away a lot of the agency of old European pagans as well as watering down what colonialism actually did to their culture.) BUT a lot of what we believe to be pagan actually comes from Nazi propaganda.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/nazis-fought-original-war-christmas-180961513/#:~:text=According%20to%20Nazi%20intellectuals%2C%20cherished,shortest%20day%20of%20the%20year.

It’s a lie that’s really ingrained in our society, but it a lie that’s rooted in white supremacy and antisemitism. So it’s something that I take note of and actively try to inform about. Things like the Christmas Tree originated in 16th Century Germany (and actually didn’t start off as a tree which was interesting) There is no evidence that it was a Norse-Pagan tradition and is a rumor started by people who didn’t respect pagans (essentially they were calling them tree worshipping hippies) and then further perpetuated by the Nazi’s.

I didn’t expect to have to write this much. I just wanted to clarify. I understand that Christmas and the language around it used by some Christians can be really hurtful and frustrating, so I should have chosen my words better. So sorry about that.

Anyway I hope y’all have a good day! And however you celebrate, or don’t celebrate, the winter season I hope you have a good time.

I hate to say it but I do fear we need to take Christmas away from non-Christians.

‘Secular Christmas’ babes that’s just capitalism…

[aprill-99]

How it started *Under the Mountain*:

Feyre: “So that’s the love of my life.”

Rhys: “Really? Tamlin? That guy?”

Feyre: “Yeah. Thoughts?”

Rhys: “And prayers. Girl what-”

Where it went *Early ACOWAR*:

Feyre: “So this is my mate.”

Lucien: “Really? Your mate is that guy?? Rhysand???”

Feyre: “Yeah. Thoughts?”

Lucien: “And Prayers. Girl what-”

[thevioletcaptain]

next person who perpetuates the completely fabricated anti-adjacent fandom myth that "the writers" shot down queer dean and deancas interpretations of the text and "told us we were delusional" for seeing any of it is getting blasted directly into the boötes void

[cxtangerina]

k2 is such a funny ship to me, like it's just plausible enough to be kinda sorta realistic if you squint and pray and look at it sideways, not quite a crackship but not able to get off the ground as more than a particularly popular rarepair either. they had, like, one big episode together back in season 3, a handful of major moments over the years that people hold onto with an iron grip, and basically nothing else outside of a plethora of fantastic fancontent and dreams.

i think i like it for the exact opposite reasons that i like kyman, actually, they sorta stand as complementary ships in my mind. where k2 barely has any actual basis in canon & comes heavily from fanworks and speculation about how well the characters would match each other, kyman is practically canonical, at least when it comes to cartman's feelings, and is at least regularly joked about and referenced in-show. personally, i also tend to see k2 as a ship that is kinda miraculously requited, whereas kyman is usually stuck in unrequited hell, which...

...well, this gets into more specific character analysis, but a big part of this is that i tend to see cartman as having very fucked up views of both romance & sexuality that have especially interesting implications when you consider him to have a crush on kyle, specifically.

on the one hand, i think his cupid self is evidence enough that he has a very fairytale, idealized view of romance, based more out of the hollywood movie image of what love is supposed to be rather than anything in reality. south park adults being utter fucking idiots 99% of the time means that most, if not all, of the kids don't have a lot of good role models to base their actions off of. i'm not gonna talk out of my ass about childhood development more than i understand it, but i don't think it's too controversial (?) of a take to claim that kids understand & learn about the world through watching it just as much as interacting with it, particularly when it comes to their own parents.

cartman is a piece of shit, and while a lot of that comes from him and his own bigotry, he's still ultimately a kid in show and you can trace where some of his worst traits originate from in the people around him, even if he makes the personal decision to push it as much as humanly possible. i think the trend in recent seasons for many adults to try and at least appear more pc only makes this more obvious, actually (coughcoughrandy), though talking about that is maybe biting off a little more south park politics than i'm willing to chew for this particular post.

point is, cartman as a character in particular does not have a lot, if anything, to base his idea of what a healthy, happy romantic relationship looks like, which isn't only because liane is single though that may be a major contributing factor. love isn't work to cartman, it isn't about the maintenance of a relationship or communication or all the more realistic and slightly less pleasant parts of loving someone that hollywood doesn't find dramatic or interesting enough to show. rather it's a fantasy, something that happens to people that they have no real control over. i wouldn't be surprised if he believes in soulmates or love at first sight, even if the likelihood of him admitting that out loud isn't especially high.

on the other hand, i think his view of sexuality is greatly influenced by not just liane's sex work, but the way she is slut-shamed and treated like garbage by the rest of the town for it. i tend to view cartman as having a very transactional, cynical view of sex and sexuality, where sex is only used for personal gain (whether that be money or power, likely at the expense of someone else/the submissive party), and sexuality is an inherent character flaw, a weakness that must be overcome unless you are able to twist it and use it for your own (material?) benefit- see the streaming wars & cartman wanting his mom to seduce a rich man for money as a recent example of this.

it's a running gag in TFBW that cartman uses douchebag catching their dad fucking their mom as a tragic backstory, and doesn't seem to understand how reproduction actually works even when kyle basically says it straight to his fucking face. even as a joke, there's still a lot of underlying truth behind why he would believe this. cartman is aware of his mom's sex work, even if he may not want to fully admit/believe it, largely because of situations where he's specifically getting shit for it. he knows he has a father, and that he is (in)directly responsible for said father's horrible death & consumption, but he only really cares about that insofar as it means he's half ginger. sex has only ever been presented through its most vicious power dynamics to him- why would he see it as a good thing, as something that could ever be loving, especially when contrasted against such an idealized, purified view of romance?

(you could also extrapolate from this how cartman associates sexuality & romance with femininity & his brand of sexism to get some particularly delectable transfem cartman ideas, but i digress.)

ANYWAYS. this is all to say that cartman having a crush on kyle (or anyone, really, but kyle is obviously the most emotionally volatile example) instantly pits those two conflicting views against one another, like he wants something that he doesn't even think could ever exist: a happy, healthy romantic relationship, where sex is just a normal thing that they can choose to do or not. this is where a lot of kyman angst comes from for me, with cartman either trying to stuff that round desire back into the square hole of how he views the world, or having his ideals fall ever further apart when the feelings are unrequited. and, on top of that, none of this being actually said out loud because communication is impossible.

this is why i always see kyman as making each other worse, especially if they actually manage to make it into a romantic relationship. i simply Do Not see kyle being a patient enough person to help cartman work through the intricacies of all of his expectations and idealized fantasies and internalized fears surrounding such mutually screwed views of romance & sexuality- on the rare occasions that kyle does show some interest in romantic relationships it's usually pretty centered around himself, and to be frank i only see his interest in romance going down as he gets older.

i've heard some people talk about kyle before like he's the "moral compass" of south park or whatever and while that may be true by the end of the episode, one of the things i like most about him is the fact that he struggles so much to get to the best conclusions. this is kind of getting back into the k2 side of this analysis, but where kenny manages a much more effortless selflessness, even pushing it to the point of being both a strength and a flaw when kenny stops caring about himself for the sake of others, kyle is a lot more self-centered than he cares to admit and it influences a lot of his attempts at being a good person.

this is both my favorite aspect of kyle, that he really has to put in the work to be the good person that he wants to be, and also the primary bad trait that i think cartman brings out of kyle. by being such a notoriously horrible shithead, he gives kyle the perfect target to unleash his annoyance on, getting him so caught up in arguing and proving himself to be the better person that kyle forgets to actually listen to the people that he's supposed to be standing up for. cartman is a fantastic troll and, at least in show, kyle definitely has not learned to stop feeding him argument fodder yet.

sidenote: about kyman entering a romantic relationship... wasn't sure where to add this, but it's for this exact reason that i also see kyman (or this version of kyman where cartman gets worse with age, rather than better) only actually happening in the universes where kyle has lost all other meaningful connections, to the point that feeding a troll to get off on an argument is the best possible option, even if he's old enough to know better. especially if he's old enough to know better.

again, k2 is the opposite of this for me in that i see kyle & kenny as having a lot of potential to bring out the best in each other.

if kyle's worst trait is that he gets too caught up in his own feelings & desires to truly be the good, selfless, thoughtful person that he wants to be to actually do genuine good for the sake of others, kenny's problem is that he skews too far in the opposite direction. i kinda already said this, but to state it outright: kenny's biggest strength and his biggest flaw are the exact same, that he is selfless to a fault, to the point of consistently putting other people's safety and happiness above his own when he thinks it would be of help the majority/the people he loves. this was the key kenny trait that was established by the end of BL&U, and it has only gotten more prominent in the years since with his mysterion persona.

it is in this way that kenny both stands as someone that kyle can look up to & admire for how effortlessly he dedicates himself to the people he cares about the most, but also, simultaneously, as someone that kyle can take care of himself and offer the same help back to. and i don't even think kenny needs to say very much out loud to push kyle towards a lot of these conclusions, he kinda just has to exist and be noticed and kyle has the intelligence to figure it out himself, to recognize the shit that kenny puts himself through and his (usually) quite noble reasons for doing so, and want to offer him the same love and care and dedication that kenny never allows himself to have.

really, the difficult part of this is being noticed at all in the first place. again, i said earlier that k2 is kinda "miraculously requited," in my mind, specifically because the aspect that's missing in the show and almost always must be provided by fan content for k2 is that spark/push forward that gets them close enough to start talking and for kyle to notice kenny in the first place. it's just lucky that's one of my favorite things to figure out and write for those two, hehehe.

[all-things-are-nothing-to-me]

Except that isn't what anti-civ ideas are dumbass. For one, anti-civ is an umbrella term for anti civilization, not a set ideology. It's like how antifa encompasses all antifascists. Common tendencies with anti-civ leanings include anarcho-primitivists, primitivists, green anarchists, deep ecologists, post-civ, transhumanists, cyber nihilists, anarcha-feminists, and some but not all anarcho-communists & platformists.

The reason I originally called you a strawman is because a return to a past isn't on the table and most anti-civ theory will tell you so. That time has come and gone. There are some (primitivists) people who would like to return to a nomadic way of life, but that again isn't a return to the past but a way to move forward. We're not time travelers.

The second reason I think you're strawmaning, bad faith arguing, and a general dumbass is. While there is green tendencies with misanthropic "death to humanity" tropes (eco-extremism), most of the anti-civ tendencies have a certain element to them. The fucking "anarcho" aspect. Which means things like mutual aid, (trans)feminism, horizontalism, non-hierarchal, pro-queer, and most importantly, anti-state. You're choosing to purposely ignore this. You're choosing to ignore the death toll of civilization because you're comfortable in our present society. A different way of life would challenge your existence. Let's not forget you're a soviet union stan, so being a fan of mass death & ecological destruction checks out for you.

The point still stands that every single criticism of capitalism, imperialism, enviromental exploitation and society itself has been done by other ideologies that are not anti-civ and have better ideas than "we should RETVRN to pre-industrial times and let billions of people die"

[bibuckaroo]

absolutely hilarious to me that that side of the fandom think the buddie side is the delusional one because of the tim interview when the man himself CLEARLY stated that he had NEVER seen the fandom behaving this badly in all of his years working in the business and the only difference from all the other years to this one is the bt fandom, like genuinely lol.

he also stated about people coming to talk to him and using what he said when there are prints out there of their fandom doing this, like it’s not all of them obviously, just like there are parts of the buddie fandom who can be disrespectful too, but as someone who recently joined the fandom and saw the comings and goings through the years, i can safely say when a fandom is being too much on the disrespectful side and i saw that behavior way more on that side, honestly.

[arson-09]

its very interesting to me how Tamlin is the character and High Lord that is heavily vilified (I would almost say even more than Beron strangely) when he is the only High Lord to have talked about d how he has gone about removing slavery within his court, protecting lower fae in general, and his court was open to immigration from other courts (i cant remember if its mentioned again in acomaf but in acotar fae from other courts are free to move to the spring court. example, Alis) and how overall he is a great leader. Especially when you compare him and Rhysand as High Lords.

The Court of Nightmares is well, a nightmare. Its existence is extremely strange and makes Rhysand look very odd. as well as its unclear how Rhysand gets his wealth. Velaris was a hidden city until acomaf-ish, which means it was locked (so no immigration or emigration which isn't bad per-say but does bring up how it works economically) and Rhysands inability or unwillingness to protect his citizens (not enforcing the wing clipping ban and allowing people to be abused in the CoN. and before anyone starts about him not being able to control the illyrians, why did he make it a law in the first place? It just makes him look bad) makes him look like a shitty ruler. His supposed "feminism" and friendship with the people of velaris doesnt answer these very important questions or justify the strange shit he does. Versus Tamlin, which you can refer to my opening statement for the comparison. Also to note, his rule only came into question and stability after Feyre broke into people minds (which I do feel is extremely gross and a huge violation of ones autonomy and privacy) and had to sabotage him. I won't comment how I feel about this in this post, but it says a lot that she had to go through such lengths to break him down. Especially after it was revealed he was in fact a double agent and never actually siding with Hybern.

The only time Tamlin is an arguably bad high lord is in acofas and acosf where he is in a severe mental crisis and not in a position to properly rule. But even then, it's not clear if this is actually causing harm to the land and people. It's probably not good because they don't have a proper leader but I can't believe it's a severe issue.

Its definitely a strange choice, isn't it? Cause I think anyone in their right mind would choose the anti-tyranny, anti-slavery leader who does his best for his people... and its somehow not our supposed 'hero'

"I once told you I would fight against tyranny, against that sort of evil. Did you think you were enough to turn me from that?"

Acowar, chapter 44

[twistedappletree]

Thinking about Lan Sizhui teaching Jin Ling how to play guqin.

Thinking about Jin Ling absolutely bored to tears by the fundamentals until he hears how beautifully Lan Sizhui plays and suddenly takes an interest (in the guqin, definitely the guqin, he’s interested in the guqin only, okay??)

Thinking about Jin Ling practicing outside of classes because he wants to impress Lan Sizhui by how much he’s improved and wants to make him proud and wants to see his face light up with a smile—I mean, what? No no no, he just wants to show initiative to learn, that’s all there is to it, nothing more. Nothing at all.

Thinking about Lan Sizhui finding Jin Ling asleep on his guqin after a night of wearing himself out with extra practice and gently waking him up to safely escort him back to his room so he doesn’t get caught by their seniors. Meanwhile, Jin Ling sleepily leans against him on the walk back to his room because it’s normal, he’s just tired, it’s obviously normal because Lan Sizhui slips his hand into his and smiles and Jin Ling’s heart feels like it’s on fire. Oh no.

Thinking about Jin Ling opening up to Lan Sizhui about his nightmares from all the trauma he’s endured and Lan Sizhui staying to play guqin for him until he falls asleep, each note chasing away every bad dream that tries to disturb him.

Thinking about them practicing guqin alone together the next day. And the day after. And the day after that—and they really are practicing but it’s a little hard to focus when Lan Sizhui keeps putting his hands over Jin Ling’s to move them to the correct strings, and Jin Ling’s face is a breath away from Lan Sizhui’s every time he leans over to help him.

It’s just guqin practice, that’s all there is to it, perfectly normal. 🩵💛