#THIS TOOK ME THE BETTER PART OF AN HOUR

[insanityisfine]

I HAVE BEEN SUMMONED!

Let me break this down by points:

First, consent.

This is a concept that was pushed to the sidelines for very long, in a vast amount of contexts. Then, some years ago, several movements pushed for it's recognition and aplication, particularly when it comes to sexual contexts.

This is all normal and good. As times evolve, certain things get more attention or new importance. But we have to take into account 2 things:

1. The internet, and how fast it allows something to spread; and

2. The threat of the common sense.

I'll work backwards on these two, it will make sense, I promise.

The threat of the common sense is an expression of an old professor whose lecture I had the pleasure to attend. It refers to the phenomenon of specific cientific and academic concepts becoming part of common lingo, and how dangerous that is. This isn't to say, mind you, that academia ought to keep knowledge to itself, gatekeeping it to a form of elite. This was the professor warning us of what we'd encounter once we hit the field work; namely, a vast amount of people with very little knowledge of a thing, convinced they deeply knew it. It's related to the Dunning-Krueger effect, wherein if someone knows a little bit about something they are overly confident in their knowledge, but the more one learns, the less likely they are to feel absolutely certain in their knowledge.

The threat of the common knowledge, however, is slightly different. The Dunning-Krueger effect is still displayed, but it's as a consequence. Of what? Of people's tendency to take incomplete information and filling in the blanks by themselves, with their own biases. Humans, for beings that are incredibly complex, abhorr complexity, to the point where our brains literally developed shortcuts to make complex things easier. There is at least one (1) universal experience, that applies to all of humanity: that feeling of "this thing™ is MUCH harder than I thought!"

Taking all this into consideration, now let's add the speed of dissemination of the internet. With it's tendency to prefer and push shorter simplified content and information. Which leads to misinformation (the unintentional perpetuation and spread of wrong and/or incomplete information) and disinformation (the purposeful spread of wrong information, usually to fuel an agenda of sorts. It's not as simple as lying, because the underlying (heh) intentions are harmful).

This leads to the abuse and misunderstanding of concepts, in this case, consent, and the need for everyone else to conforme to one's view and definition of it. This last point is a human tendency, that's exarcerbated in online spaces, where speed imposes itself on thinking through things and about things.

However.

Some people are aware of this last point. And then incurr in a uhnoly combo of overthinking about something, without looking for further info on it, thus creating a spiral of progressively more unreasonable opinions, they then demand be seen as facts, of their own creation. This leads us into the next subject;

Second, the pathologization of the self, online.

This occurs in two fronts:

People who are experiencing/have experienced exclusion in some form;

People who are looking for a sense of belonging and support.

Both groups are looking for the same thing, but come from different backgrounds, that inevitably shape their experiences and interactions with whom they meet.

A very important thing to keep in mind, is that no one involved in this phenomenon started with bad intentions. Most of those that do perpetuate wrong information, genuinely think they're helping. This should inform our approach, if we want to educate someone.

This all started, much like with consent, with movements to talk about mental health, after a LONG period of time where it was... let's just say, ignored, because that's a WHOLE other rant, for another time.

People shared their struggles, and how they dealt with them. This in turn, allowed more people to do the same, sharing and supporting, and helping one another, creating a sense of community.

And then, the threat of the common sense reared its ugly head, and the concepts broke containment.

Soon, there were people self-diagnosing, not in the sense that they related to things within the communities and then looked for a professional opinion, but in the sense that they decided that a label applied to them, and started using it, without really understanding the weight it carried. This in turn emboldened said people to diagnose others, and in their self created spiral of unreasonable opinions (mentioned above), everything is a diagnostic for something.

Third, outrage, judgement, and young people left to learn by themselves with no guidance.

It is a fact well researched that older teens and young adults are very susceptible to radicalizing thought processes. Not just susceptible to radicalization, for example, but more prone to think there's only one way of doing and saying things. Tunnel vision, if you will. Because it's the prime age range where the Dunning-Krueger effect takes place: they know a LOT, more than they ever knew, and think that's all they need.

Add to this, the (wrong) notion that "digital natives" are born knowing how to deal with everything online, and you get lost children trying to guide other lost children, who react negatively (like humans tend to) to being told they're wrong, actually.

Then, you get people being very confident in their opinions, and trying to agressively protect themselves and those they see as vulnerable, by any means necessary, because no one protected them. Even if it means shouting unreasonable opinions as facts, desperate to be told they're the ones in the right, because they have their nerves fried. They're live wires. Now, onto our final point:

Fourth, the weaponisation and appropriation of psychological language, particularly online.

I've already touched on the general points and origins of this above, so I'll focus on your points, hope that's okay.

I don't know enough to be able to tell for sure if it should be considered similar to Munchausen or not, honestly. On the one hand, superficially it makes sense, on the other, there seem to be too many reasons for why these people act this way, that don't match with Munchausen proper. Munchausen itself is controversial, so I'm afraid it will take time until we can reach a conclusion on this.

The Self Care Psychopath is the most recent iteration of those™ people that insist they know better than everyone, and thus everyone ought to defer to them.

I believe they are different from the misguided kids, because their intentions are fundamentally different (as mentioned above), even if it's possible for a misguided kid to grow into a Self Care Psychopath.

(I'm not a big fan of this term, because it accidentally contributes to the mythology of psycho and sociopaths, but for the sake of clarity it's what I'll be using. The mythomania around the dark tryad alone is worthy of multiple rants, but I'll hold back here).

The SCP (HAH! I'M DEFINITELY KEEPING THIS!) is now someone who uses words like "gaslighting" and "narcisist" without not only self awareness or real knowledge, but with the express intent of making the other look bad, in order to make themselves look better.

They're just the latest in an unfortunately long line of smartasses. Once there were "well, achually" people, "but according to this one source" people, "I'm just brutally honest" people, etc.

If I may conclude with some anger, the SCP is someone who's very likely to buy into their own bullshit, and believe themselves oppressed or surpressed for being called out, proceeding to complain about "cancel culture". It's the latest form of the people who want to do and say whatever comes to their mind, without consequences. And I fear it's not even their final form.

[jellyala]

“The Holy Shepherd”

Do you all have time to talk about our lord and savior Saint Vanilla Cookie??? 🙂

Beasts Ancients au belongs to 👉 @cuppajj

[ratwithhands]

Read Right to Left (Manga Format)

I have returned to watching demon slayer after a year and it came up while I was having a serious late night talk with my big sister. I was talking about the relationship between Michikatsu/Kokushibo and Yoriichi and it turns out we both see each other in Yoriichi's shoes and ourselves in Michikatsu's place. Definitely surprising, but really relieving to know that we both worry too much and we are not so far apart in skill as we believe.

This is technically the first piece of fanart I've ever made for the characters in Demon Slayer, I have made OCs before but I never drew an actual character from the story. For context this is mostly just a fun "what if" scenario with them meeting in the afterlife. I like to think Yoriichi's love would reawaken Michikatsu's humanity.

[artifeast]

HUGS!!!!!

[heyclickadee]

So. I’m. Haunted by the lighting and posing on the CX-2 poster, haunted by the fact that no one will straight up say that Tech is dead or that he wasn’t CX-2, wondering if the CX-Tech plot wasn’t dropped after all, and hoping against hope that they’re putting this man through the wringer so they can pull him out and give him the happiest possible ending. CX-2 had BETTER be in the next series and he had better be Tech, because I need this to make sense. I mean, I’ll buy that the spear symbolically killed the CX-2 persona. I’ll buy, “Oh, he had to be Crosshair’s shadow in the last third of this series but we had to foreshadow him being Tech in the next one.” “The damage you sustained on Skako Minor all of your behavioral modifications,” coming back around. I’ll buy someone surviving that in the GFFA because they can in the real world (warning for a picture of a real life injury in the link). I’ll even buy that the electricity didn’t kill him because the boulders and the waterfall definitely should have (and it’s Star Wars). I really do not care about plausible survivability. I just want the story to make sense and for Tech to get back to his family.

Anyway all I’m saying is why release a poster that’s going to fuel speculation about a guy whose face we never see after the series is done and out? If you actually dropped that plot, why not change the poster? Or just not release it? Why do this? What is the purpose of this?? Because if the purpose was to drive me, specifically, insane, then congratulations, Lucasfilm! Mission accomplished.

[this-is-a-podcast-fanblog]

hozier, "francesca" from unreal unearth / tears of the kingdom dir. hidemaro fujibayashi / anaïs mitchell, "road to hell (reprise)" from hadestown / the last of us part ii, dir. neil druckmann, anthony newman, kurt margenau / better call saul s6e13, dir. peter gould / ethel cain, "famous last words (an ode to eaters) / good omens s2e6 dir. douglas mackinnon writ. neil gaiman / william finn and james lapine, "what would i do" from falsettos / the hunger games catching fire dir. frances lawrence / "on another panel about climate, they ask me to sell the future and all i've got is a love poem" by ayisha siddiqa / "roemo and juliet" by henri pierre picou / sza, "awkward" from ctrl

"doing it again" - art about regret, repetition, and circular stories

[alangdorf]

The aforementioned Forgotten Land cutscene redraw, which I ended up overpainting (for the first time in over three years) to make it all nice since I’m using it as my desktop background!

[batfossil-fr]

I’ve been really thinking of reopening my art shop soon… I’ve been taking some practice doodles (hence all the posting lately) while I shake off my rust and I’m finding things I enjoy working on again. I miss trying my hand at more dragons/OCs and colors. my shop’s so broken rn lmao but that’s a problem for a later date it’s just nice getting back into art

[napsaps-archive]

everybody look at his chicken hat!

[mintjeru]

smth about secrets, acceptance, and relief

open for better quality | no reposts | ID under the cut

[Image description: A four page comic of Kaveh and Alhaitham. In the spur of the moment, Alhaitham confesses something to Kaveh. Kaveh is surprised for a moment, but soon notices Alhaitham is tense and trembling from the sheer emotion. He gently holds his hands and talks to him. Alhaitham listens quietly and stares at his hands in Kaveh's. When he calms down, he leans onto Kaveh's shoulder.]

[kris-mage-fics]

The Secret of the Greenhouse

A little non canon compliant Tabitha fic for Scarlet Hollow.

Tabitha loathes taking care of the…thing in the greenhouse. But with Pearlanne gone she's the only one left to do it.

(Please note: I wrote this before Episode 4 came out and based it on my thoughts on the Goop Teddy fan theory at the time. Now we know what's actually in the greenhouse, so this very much doesn't follow canon. But after @georgiedoesntfloat asked me about my SH fic ideas I couldn't get this one out of my head because I liked the vibes. So here it is, and it's all thanks to Georgie!)

Tabitha wasn’t one to believe something unless she saw it herself. She lived in a world of what was concrete and right in front of her. Yet what was in front of her tested her mightily. It shouldn’t exist, but somehow it did. Now that Pearlanne was gone, it was up to her to deal with this…thing.

Pearlanne told Tabitha about it less than a year ago. Apparently it used to be Teddy Scarlet, who was said to have died in the mine collapse in 1918. For all she knew that was a lie. But she learned long ago to keep such thoughts to herself. Pearlanne had been insistent that she learn how to ‘care’ for it. As if it were some kind of horrible pet.

Ever the dutiful daughter, she listened to what her mother had to say. Though Tabitha was sure Pearlanne left out quite a bit. There were too many missing pieces to the story she was given. Now she would never know the rest. Her mother was dead, and she knew not to trust what it had to say.

You can find the rest here on Ao3!

[slumbergoblin]

Mock comic panel my beloved

[camscendants]

That was an eventful two days

[callixton]

the thing is that sex doesn’t scare me but bodies do which is unfortunately commonly considered an integral part of sex

[tardxsblues]

And the voices that implore,

"you should be doing more."

To you, I can admit,

that I'm just to soft for all of it.

SWEET NOTHINGS - Taylor Swift

[polycraftory]

Is it even comic con if I'm not up late the night before finishing up our cosplays for the weekend? Ah, beloved con crunch 🙃