#also the double standards are crazy in this discourse

[idiosyncraticrednebula]

Me when I see any discourse that has to do with the "battle of the sexes":

[ggukkieisintominnie]

This will get me into shit BUT WHATEVER 🙄

I find it funny that ARMYs can sit and Kiki about Namjoon's "toxic male ex" but turn around to call Jimin and Jungkook brothers and us who support them delusional. Like the fuck...

Here is this ARMY doing what we "Jokers" are dubbed to do which is speculating Jimin and Jungkook's relationship being more than platonic. However while we get comments about being jokes and crazy...

... They get this as response. The double standards in this fandom I can't 🙄. Like not only that but the engagement is crazy as well for something that has no valuable prove whatsoever.

Here is another tagging the ex who apparently is known as "emoji guy".

Oh my... sharing or wearing the same shirt allows for ARMYs to conclude that Namjoon is indeed in a gay relationship so why is it when we do the same for Jimin and Jungkook; we are considered delusional.

Jikook has done more than just sharing the same shirt. Jimin went to bed in Jungkook's sweater which the other wore the whole day while carrying out his schedules for the day. But they are the ones boxed as brothers.

ARMYs are insufferable. They legit chose which members in the band are allowed to be suspected as Queer and who are not. Suspecting Jimin and Jungkook to be Queer in this fandom means you have to be skinned alive but hey Namjoon bi king, go off tongue technology Min Yoongi and bisexual icon Jung Hoseok I guess.

It a shame really especially for someone who has showed so much of their identity like Park Jimin to be shunned to heterosexuality because the fandom has such a mindset. Or just because accepting Jimin for anything but straight acknowledges that Jimin's relationship to Jungkook can actually be more than just platonic. Everything Jimin has done from ID: Chaos to Face means nothing to ARMY because they rather sit down and fascinate over the girl in the like crazy MV and the she/her lyrics to songs he has no writing credits on.

ARMYs will never change. It too late to change their backwards views but atleast they should not show up in Jikook spaces and spam with "they are brothers." "I do this with my sibling." comments. Are You Sure wasn't catered for the likes of those who will watch Jimin and Jungkook's relationship and just immediately cast them aside as platonic brothers without seeing and comprehending the beautiful bond they have. And hyping those who are claiming the travel vlog as shippers content.

No they do not have to believe that Jimin and Jungkook are in a love relationship but they also don't have the right to label their relationship as brothers because apparently ARMYs have proclaimed themselves as "who can be queer" police. ARMYs should watch Are You Sure and leave it at that if they don't have anything other than a stupid or an incestuous comment on it.

Like how is Jungkook slapping Jimin's booty something you do with your sibling? How is Jungkook's intense gaze on Jimin's sleeping form reminding you of how your father looks at you when you sleep? How the fuck are those takes normal?

This discourse can go on longer on how they are obsessed with the "rapper girlfriend" trope when it comes to Jungkook's relationship with Namjoon but I decided not to. But the truth of the matter is... ARMYs are annoying. If you are a Taekook, Namjin, Vmin or a Yoonmin shipper you deserve flowers and praise on your comment section but if you are a Jikooker you deserve a spam of "You are delusional" type of comments on your post.

I'm glad Jikook scares them so much. It feeds my soul. And it makes me believe in them so much more. Because Jimin and Jungkook even got "Queer ARMYs" hating on them. Like if they hate is coming from inside the house.... you better believe that shit is good.

Anyway 2moro's we officially hold a funeral to Are You Sure 😭😭😭😭 peace ✌

[knightochan-official]

yknow, it's kind of a crazy double standard that the theyfab discourse, which was bait, was the Most Important Thing Ever to strike down, and you shouldn't dare silence anyone speaking up about it, but the AFAB Transfem thing, which is also bait, is "funny" and "if you take it seriously you're getting mad at non issues"

I wonder what changed between these two discussions and if it reflects a systemic problem in the queer community

[chemnections]

It really bothers me that so few people on this site seem to genuinely like Frank. I'm glad I found this blog.

There are so many people who only post about him when he mentions MCR, or only post about Frank when there is some nonsense drama fabricated around him and those people want to get in on the memes.

It's almost as though people can't be genuine or sincere about Frank. There's always a level of sarcasm or criticism or slight hostility when they talk about him. They can write novel length posts about anyone else in MCR with no snark, but can't do the same for Frank. The only exception to this is the Sydney bus accident, and honestly I dread the day some fucking ghoul tries to make a joke post about that incident.

these past few days really have been disheartening on that front.

i did expect there to be some anger and typical capitalism discourse from people who really do not understand what they are talking about. but it is so crazy to see anger from people i actually didn't expect to lash out in that way. seeing users change their frank profile pictures because they were so mad over the reverb sale, or i have even seen someone keep theirs but with a red x over his face. as if frank doesn't see what happens online and like his feelings can't be hurt. all because they objected to him selling old clothes (conveniently forgetting that were part of iconic shows/tours/photographs) for a proper collectors fee? significant figures in music have their 'old clothes' in museums or on display or in private collections - these pieces have the potential to increase in value or have donation value to future music exhibitions.) the turn around from being excited to try and buy something of frank's to straight up condemning him is weird. like you said, like they never really liked him in the first place.

mikey literally just had a signature bass line where the bass costed over $1000 and i never saw anyone comment or complain about it. no one accused mikey of 'going for the cash grab'. and this isn't a dig at mikey, just shows the double standard.

long time frank fans should know that 'being critical of your favs' is not dished out fairly and often leads to certain fans attempting smear campaigns against frank. it's why i tend to be protective of him on this blog, to try and counteract that bs.

there were some particular tweets that really pissed me off and i thought about responding, but i also didn't want more attention on them. it's a thin line.

and then with the context of certain meddling/manipulation that goes on in the fandom space where frank is often targeted with unfounded rumours. . . i'm usually out of the loop on that one but i've been curious with lola's reemergence. on that topic i can think of a certain person with a deleted possum post making fun of a car crash.

frank cares and puts in extraordinary effort into his career, truly giving fans so much, and for his efforts he is unappreciated or has his name dragged through the mud. from his efforts to reunite mcr in the first place, to the amazing ls dunes content recently and giving fans opportunity to purchased reasonably priced collectors items tagged with stories where all fans can learn more. have fans ever heard of thank you? and appreciating what you get instead of demanding for something else? truly biting the hand that feeds. and then there is a controlling aspect to it as well - not accepting who frank is as a person, the art and opportunities he is putting out and bullying him online to get things out of it. i'm glad he won't bend to that pressure and his snarky response tweets were gold.

this is the same behaviour that ran frank off of twitter in the first place. so it's hard not to get upset about it when it is being ruined for the rest of us. but we also can't change other people. it is what it is.

[cripple-punk-dad]

I don’t know if this is the right place to say this but i need to spout it somewhere. I just found a blog run by a person who has shown off the fact they are punk both in fashion and mentality. They were also a proshipper (shipping a child with an adult. In this instance it was rick and morty. Together. It was fucking insane). Like i just— wanted to be sure I’m not alone in the insanity and the feelings of double-standard ness of being punk and supporting that stuff

I obviously don’t know what that person is like in real life or if they’re— whatever. They didn’t seem to say anything on people in real life but it was obviously worrying.

Anyways yeah i don’t know if this is the place to put this i just wanted to make sure that I’m not crazy in thinking this is hypocritical as fuck

Listen bruv I don't actually give a fuck what somebody ships. Is it gross? Yah. Am I gonna police what somebody does as long as it's not actually causing tangible harm to a real life person? No. Frankly it's not punk at all to try and create thought crimes. I don't engage with proshipping/anti discourse very often and I'm not gonna start now.

[chrissycunninghamkin]

wait so eddie’s allowed to be bi if it’s w trans fem steve but he has to be gay when it comes to taking down hellcheer shippers? i ship both and i swear sometimes. y’all r always at each other’s throats and there’s always a crazy double standard. what bothers me the most tho is that the hellcheer tags have been taken over w discourse and the steddie tags r unaffected. and all the hellcheers being homophobic?? no bc grace is literally bi?? so if ure homophobic then u don’t support gvd 💀 also leave the actors out of it, y’all r so mean to grace and for what?? she literally hasn’t done anything

[dimiclaudeblaigan]

Okay I don't do this normally but out of curiosity, I looked at that guys' posts and yeah they're going around sealioning anyone who likes Dimitri being all like "how can you say Dimitri/AM is your favorite when you didn't play all the routes". Buddy it's called having preferences, subjectivity and opinion. I'm sure if we twist their behavior around back at them, they'll be like stop bothering us for liking Edel cause double standards is their bread and butter.

Yeah, I had taken a brief scroll through their blog the first time I saw them argue with Random about Claude because I had a pretty strong feeling that they were just another stan running around around against Rhea and Dimitri fans because I knew that person didn't follow Random when they started pulling the bad faith Claude takes.

I scrolled through a few posts before I was like yeah I'm not even gonna bother looking further because I could see all they were doing was arguing with people whose names I recognized, and the only people who ever do that are the stans. They also have absolutely nothing else but discourse on their blog.

It's crazy to me too, because I've seen those same Dimitri fans try to talk about anything else FE related and yet they still get pulled back into discourse. Like, I'm at the point where I believe everyone in that immediate group is just actively being stalked by the stans (and I recall one of them mentioning they are being stalked by them, but my guess is if one of them is, all of them are).

Also, the stans tend to pull the "you didn't play xyz route" when I'm quite certain most if not all of the Dimitri fans on Tumblr have at the very bare minimum watched the full route on YouTube of anything they didn't play. All these people have the information they need to know where they stand opinion-wise, and like you said, it's just... having an opinion. The stans have their opinions, we don't agree with them, and we don't engage with them unless they engage with us first.

Something I've noticed about the group of Dimitri fans that gets stans going after them is that it's always the stans who start it. They always respond to asks sent to those people. In other words they go onto those people's blogs, look at their posts/their replies to their anons, and start arguing at them over literally anything they say in thsoe ask responses.

Every single time I see a post reach my dashboard from any of those people (you might know the Faerghus/Dimitri group I'm talking about), it's always a stan going after them when they were just answering one of their own anons and posting something on their own blog. I'm sure there are people who think they engage in discourse too much, but they don't even start it. They get harassed and can't just blog in peace.

Unfortunately those same stans have been targeting Random as of late (and I've noticed it's more and more different ones so they're probably going after someone as soon as they notice their buddies are doing so) so it's not that surprising that they've taken notice of me since she and I interact regularly. They basically go through the chain of who interacts with who and try to start shit.

Oh nonnie honey, you better believe if even a single Dimitri fan did to them what they do to us, they'd be all over that and whining about it and posting callouts and shit.

I just want to be able to post whatever my feelings are about Dimitri without worrying that people will try to tear it down because "it's not about Edel-chan and it portrays Dimitri in a good light".

I've blocked every Edelstan I've come across but more of them keep popping up, so... I guess the blocking never ends. My block list is basically just Edelstans and bots at this point with few exceptions.

Funny how the stans don't block Dimitri fans who hate Edelgard to avoid seeing them (it's because they don't actually want to, because they want to argue), even though we're all over here trying to block them, but some of them block evade to keep going. Literally like Dimitri fans have tried to block them and move on, but they persistently find ways to keep harassing. And like I said, they go down the line, so eventually they'll just find every active Dimitri lover who posts about him and whine at them.

[davekat-sucks]

*reads your equius discourse posts* b-b-b-but i wub equius...!!!

he's problematic only if you're not from alternia. there he's perfectly normal lol

XD People forget that he had a moirail for a reason, to tame some of his bad habits or traits. There is hints that Equius would be seen as more of a creep without Nepeta. Would it go to extreme like Horuss levels, a man who gets off at every little thing? Probably. Eridan gets a lot shit from the fandom for his own bad habits like racism, but how when it is the norm for him to do that and he's highblood status? Equius had also shown this, but the only one who gave him lip was mostly Nepeta and it is mostly seen as "playful", not as serious like how Feferi tries to tell Eridan not to think so rude of the lowbloods. It's a crazy double-standards that I am surprised it is rarely addressed.

[thestalwartheart]

i'm gonna say this to you because i know you'll get me instead of getting mad about it, but GOD does it drive me crazy how a straight actor can play a gay character and instantly become the entire internet's fave special little guy, but gay actors who play gay characters are brushed aside and never make it out of their niche. like don't get me wrong, i absolutely adore daniel craig, i've been a fan of his since layer cake back in the cretaceous period and it's lovely to see the craig renaissance coming into full force, but let's be real - if a gay man had played benoit blanc they would not be popping off like this with normies. everyone loves gay people when they're theoretical, but still keep their double standards when it comes to real ones.

Hi Anon!

Okay, first, "layer cake back in the cretaceous period" made me wheeze. I have loved DC for about as long, and he bodies the role of Benoit Blanc. I'm so glad to see him shine in such an incredible series post-Bond.

Secondly, I truly do not have the energy to get mad at anything people say online anymore. And I wouldn't be mad at this anyway because I think you have a legitimate point about mainstream audiences loving theoretical gays and switching off when it comes to real ones. You only have to look at the cancellation of almost all the content on Netflix that features lesbians, or to have seen some of the outraged reviews as The Sandman ("why are they all gay? No one knows this many gay people!"), or to have heard the wank discourse around Q being gay in No Time To Die ("he didn't shove it down our throats! It was just a fact of life!") to notice a trend here. Mainstream audiences love sanitised diversity, and they love it especially when they get to venerate a straight actor for being "brave" enough to take on an LGBTQ+ role.

Having said all that (and this is diverging from the main point a bit), I have complex feelings around the notion of actors, sexuality and the roles they take on. By that I mean that I can see legitimate arguments on all sides of the usual argument about straight actors playing gay characters. We 1000% need more LGBTQ+ actors in leading (esp leading LGBTQ+) roles. At the same time, actors should be free take on roles that are creatively fulfilling and that they connect with, regardless of how they identify. Also, no actor ever owes the audience an explanation of their sexuality for any reason. It's 2022/3 depending on when you read this. I really hope we're done outing people and making assumptions about them based on the roles they take. I don't think any of those statements are mutually exclusive. The problem is with the wider social conversation about representation and why it's necessary.

Idk if I properly articulated myself here, or if I should have even posted this ask, but I'm putting it out there because I'd love to hear some more thoughts from everyone. As always, I loe a bit of respectful debate.

Final disclaimer that I love DC. At least IMO, this isn't really about him. You can love an actor and critique the cultural and social impact of the media they're in. That's a fine and normal thing to do.

[strideofpride]

super random comparison, but recently i’ve been getting into the show jane the virgin, and the way that fandom talks about jane is exactly the same way the gossip girl fandom talks about dan and vanessa, and it’s lowkey making me crazy. like every other jtv post is “unpopular opinion, but does anyone else HATE jane villanueva? she’s such a judgmental hypocrite!!! yes the other characters commit actual crimes regularly and constantly treat other people like shit, but aT lEaSt ThEy OwN iT!!!1!!” like idk but the double standard here drives me insane - god forbid a “good” character has any actual flaws, ESPECIALLY if the flaw is judging people’s problematic faves lmao. idk i know like dan/vanessa and jane are obviously pretty different (save the whole writer thing), but the discourse about them is so similar i feel like if i just deleted the names in the posts about them no one would be able to tell the difference lol

Me? Getting involved in JTV discourse in 2022? It’s more likely than you think!

No, you’re so right anon! Actually, I think there are a lot of similarities between Dan and Jane especially. Like their judgmental nature and their outsider status to the wealthy worlds they have to enter and their grounded worlds with their families…and then yes of course they’re both the Writer and they see their lives as Narratives (although Jane and Blair share some traits with that too).

And then there’s not as much between Jane and Vanessa, but they’re both poor WOC which automatically puts them in a precarious position in fandom where they must be perfect otherwise they’re going to get absurd amounts of hate.

Also going back to Jane and Blair actually, I think part of it is that they were both in self insert ships with the Billionaire Dream Boyfriend the showrunner was in love with and the fandom woobified so anytime Jane didn’t coodle Rafael it became “Jane’s not good enough for Rafael anymore, she doesn’t deserve him, she’s treating him like garbage” while Rafael could rarely do wrong.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 316: We've Had One, Yes, But What About Second Explosion

Previously on BnHA: Deku was all “[powers up like whoa because it’s time to end the fight]”, and he saved Overhaul from getting not-shot, and then smashed up Nagant’s arm with the power of his new rechargeable super knees. Nagant was all “yoooo this kid is crazy strong whaaaat, it’s like he’s some kind of protagonist or something.” Deku was all “I AM A PROTAGONIST, ACTUALLY, DO YOU WANT TO JOIN FORCES AND FIGHT BAD GUYS WITH ME?” Nagant was all “ah shit why the hell no -- ” and then AFO was all “SURPRISE” and everyone was all “?!?!?!” and AFO was all “TIME TO EXPLODE NOW” and made Nagant explode because he’s an absolute fucking dick. And then Hawks showed up, because Horikoshi just wanted to stuff as many plot points as humanly possible into a single chapter I guess.

Today on BnHA: Hawks is all “good job giving motivational shounen redemption speeches Deku but I’ll take it from here” and screams very earnestly right in Nagant’s face until she finally wakes up. Nagant is all “oh hey it’s my successor, you seem surprisingly unfucked-up from your own HPSC tenure, how did you manage that?” Hawks is all “fandom is going to love hearing this one, but basically it’s because I’m very upbeat and also I had the world’s best role model Endeavor to look up to,” and I swear this man stirs the pot on purpose, but damn it I still love him so damn much. Overhaul is all “HELLO AGAIN, JUST A REMINDER THAT, THE BOSS!!” and Deku is all “MAYBE TAKE TWO SECONDS TO REFLECT ON HOW YOU TORTURED A LITTLE GIRL,” which, thank you, lol. Nagant is all “btw AFO’s hiding in a house in the woods”, and so Deku and the gang go to the house in the woods. Video recording!AFO is all “hi I’m AFO welcome to Jackass” and blows up the house. Sometimes I wonder if this manga is just a weird dream.

I am once again reading the Bean version because I think it was actually the best out of all three translations last week. and that is surprisingly including Viz’s. “faux” is not nearly as entertaining as “knockoff”, and also I have literally no idea why Caleb thought Deku was saying the Third’s lines lol

oh hey, Endeavor’s here too! not that you’d ever be able to tell from this first panel lmao

glad you received All Might’s call, mysterious unidentified glowing smudge

oh snap he says he’s weaker in the rain. is that why AFO told Nagant to attack then?? except that as we discussed the other day, I believe that AFO fully intended for Nagant to lose the fight, so him giving her info that would give her an advantage doesn’t really fit in with that. maybe he wanted Deku to be separated from Endeavor and the rest for maximum angst, though

btw Deku’s eyes are unsurprisingly back to the new normal here

alas, the angst continues. I say, pretending like I’m not totally eating it up each and every week and writing essay after essay about it lol

anyway so apparently Hawks can’t actually fly lmao. he was just yeeting himself with style

for some reason this is the funniest fucking thing I’ve ever seen omfg. wave to Hawks, kids! say “bye, Hawks!”

j/k of course Deku is catching them. -- except???

wow so he was just running on fumes there at the end. well, good to know there is actually a limit to his shenanigans, particularly regarding this new “knockoff” 100% OFA. it will definitely not alleviate any of the discourse, but it’s good for my own peace of mind because it’s solid confirmation that he still needs his pals in order to win this thing

anyway, but on to the rest of this conversation, which is basically Deku deducing what we all deduced last week -- AFO implanted some sort of trap into Nagant when he gave her Air Walk. though I’d still like to get the actual details from AFO and/or Horikoshi, because this was particularly wild even by quirk standards lol

omgggggg

she still has a face after all!! so it’s confirmed, Horikoshi has no idea what “blowing up” actually means. we might have guessed, based on what happened to Toga in the MVA arc, and also based on everything Katsuki does ever, but shhh

so now Hawks is all “NAGANT PLEASE WAKE UP, IF I SHOUT MY NAME AT YOU WILL THAT DO THE TRICK”

this is actually kind of touching though because even though we all know (or most of us acknowledge at any rate) that Hawks is a pretty caring person, it’s rare to see him actually panic over someone’s welfare like this

oh shit Horikoshi is really doubling down on it

I wonder how much Hawks knew about what really happened between Nagant and the HPSC. regardless, he probably sees her as a kindred spirit of sorts, and I’m more than happy for Deku to pass the redemption torch onto him now that he’s on the scene. like no offense Deku but they actually know each other and stuff lol

DAMMIT NAGANT CAN’T YOU SEE HOW LOUD HE IS YELLING

apparently being freed from his HPSC shackles has finally given Hawks the space to embrace his own inner shounen protagonist. is there anything more shounen than trying to motivationally scream someone awake when they’re lying in your arms inches from death?? 100% guaranteed to work

!!! IS THIS NAGANT’S POV OMG

SO SHE IS ALIVE. THANK GOD. Horikoshi doesn’t want to meet with my emotional distress lawyer today after all

love how she’s all “just gonna stir up the weekly Hawks Discourse pot here by implying that he probably committed a lot of Atrocities just like I did, so now people can get all hopped up about that, even though there’s no evidence he’s ever killed anyone aside from that one horrible ‘damned-if-you-do...’ situation with Twice.” no one asked for your provocative speculation young lady!! trust me Nagant, our rabbles don’t need the rousing lol

but nice save there with the “so how are your eyes so untainted” well you see it’s because even when he was following the HPSC’s orders he always went to great lengths never to go against his own moral compass. which just to be clear was incredibly difficult, and led to a ton of pain and suffering on his part, because the life of a spy is basically just one impossible situation after another. but in spite of that he never stopped trying to do his best to help people. I don’t really know where this tangent came from or is leading to, lol, but anyway p.s.a. I love Hawks a lot and he’s a good kid dammit

oh shit??!?

how is the League always able to swing all these fancy forest mansions. where do they find them. how many do they have

so Deku’s dropping them -- very roughly, not sure if he was reacting to finally getting AFO’s location, or if his energy really is giving out -- and now Nagant’s saying that AFO hired other villains as well. well of course he did. gotta keep chipping away at OFA’s ninth successor little by little

now Nagant is asking Hawks how he’s able to keep making “that” face. I assume she’s again talking about the fact that he somehow didn’t let the HPSC wear down his spirit

oh my god???

thanks for stuffing this chapter to the brim with good nutritional Hawks Feels, Horikoshi. what a good. he just keeps on trudging forward undeterred no matter what bullshit comes his way. what a steadfast little guy. I WILL PROTECT YOU FROM DISCOURSE MY SWEET SUNSHINE

lmaoooo

“SPOTTED THIS DUDE JUST CHILLING OUT THERE ON THE ROOF WITH NO ARMS, SEEMED PRETTY SUS” good job Endeavor

anyway so you don’t really need me to tell you that Overhaul is immediately starting in with the “BUT THE BOSS WHEN ARE YOU GOING TO TAKE ME TO THE BOSS YOU PROMISED YOU WOULD TAKE ME TO THE BOSS” stuff again. but I will go ahead and tell you anyway. so yeah. he’s doing that

OMG YOU GUYS LOOK AT DEKU’S “of all the fucking assholes to just randomly drop in on my life once again why did it have to be you” FACE THOUGH, OMG

fun fact, if you go back to chapters 124 through 160, there was an entire story arc where Overhaul imprisoned and tortured a little girl. yeah, I know!! suuuuuuuuper evil. anyways just an interesting little anecdote for you all that’s somewhat relevant to the current situation

OMG, YES. FUCK YES, DEKU

THEN WHAT ABOUT SPARING ONE FOR HER!!! YES!!! EXACTLY!!! JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, SOMEONE GETS IT

HERE’S THE PANEL OF DEKU SAYING THE EXACT SAME THING I’M SAYING LOL

(ETA: so apparently there’s some discourse about this because some people are interpreting this as Deku saying “you should apologize to Eri”, which would obviously be a terrible idea even if Overhaul actually wanted to do that, because Eri shouldn’t ever have to see him again. however I just want to point out that there is a HUGE difference between saying “it would be nice if you could direct that feeling of regret/being sorry towards Eri as well”, vs saying “you should also apologize to her.” all Deku is doing is rightfully pointing out that Overhaul has hurt way more people than just his boss, and if he really is remorseful, then he should extend those feelings of remorse to Eri and the rest as well. it’s not a directive to take any specific action, and I’m 1000% sure no one at U.A. would let Overhaul within 100 miles of Eri ever again.

tl;dr “try feeling remorse sometime” =/= “do you want me to fly you over to U.A. right now to surprise the little girl you traumatized”, lol.)

[slings an arm around Deku’s shoulders] you’re a good kid. I like you. I don’t know if I tell you that enough, but it’s true

meanwhile here is Overhaul’s “spare... a thought... for Eri...???????” face sigh

the struggle is real y’all

(ETA: and that’s... the last we ever saw of Overhaul, I guess? well all right then. I assume Deku will make good on his promise, so we know he’ll get that little bit of closure before going back to jail or whatever, and I confess I’m more than fine with leaving the rest of it open-ended, especially given his character’s history. I think this was pretty generous all things considered.)

lmao holy shit

All Might what did you do to those tiki torch guys?? did you thrash them. did you give ‘em those hands. did you deliver their own asses to them complete with a sticker reminding them Amazon Prime Day is on June 21. we missed out goddammit

so Endeavor, who wasn’t the one he was asking, is telling him that they captured (well let’s be real, Deku captured, give the credit where it’s due) Nagant and Overhaul. and so I guess they’re going to take Nagant to the ER now

fire is no one’s weakness

-- oh my GOD I scrolled down and audibly gasped

[is politely but firmly approached and asked to remove my arm from Deku’s shoulder by the physical manifestation of all this Dekuangst] “we’re sorry, he’s not allowed to have visitors right now” oh shit, my bad. [goes to stand behind a police barricade]

lmao what. did you run out of room on the previous page

what an exaggerated fade to black lmao

-- AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I actually can’t see what he’s reacting to so maybe I’m just seriously jumping the gun here lol, but THE HELL WITH IT. the next panel appears to be a cut to Haibori Forest, so I’m just gonna go ahead and declare that Deku ran off on his own all wounded to go have more Dekuangst, just like I manifested. now go call Katsuki goddammit

[scrolls three more inches down] oh

yeah so like I said, Deku is walking very slowly a few feet in front of Endeavor, who’s telling him to wait up. yep. we’ve all gotta be so careful to not just jump to conclusions. I know we’re excited but still

anyway, so! welcome back to Mt. Lady and Kamui Woods (ARE YOU GUYS DATING) and Edgeshot! have fun walking into this obvious trap lol

dammit Deku why are you so determined to tempt fate

[monkey puppet meme faces]

OH MY GOD THIS IS PURE GRADE-A CHEESY COMIC BOOK VILLAIN 101 SHIT AND I’M HERE FOR IT

that’s such a weird way of clapping who claps like that

unlike certain other people who shan’t be named, AFO doesn’t feel the need to inexplicably take his shirt off when recording sinister villain monologues. I think we’re all pretty grateful for that

high fives to everyone who called it!! yep yep

anyway so this whole scene has major booby-trap vibes, which I’m enjoying immensely even though I don’t think anything is really going to come of it lol. probably just another long-winded AFO Speech. but wouldn’t it be funny if like the ceiling started lowering down to try and squish Deku afterwards lol

(ETA: well the explosion was still pretty funny too ngl.)

ffff

[“Dekuangst is the trap” intensifies]

anyway so yeah. he’s just hitting up all of his usual villain talking points. we get it, you’re so smart and you see right through the thin veneers of society and people who don’t conform are left to fend for themselves and labeled as villains and history is written by the victors, and blah blah blah dude are you just jumping randomly from one soundbyte to another lol. literally what are you talking about. what does this have to do with you blowing up Nagant

-- holy shit??

[”Dekuangst is the trap” intensifies MORE?????]

LOL WHAT

BRO. WHAT IS WITH YOU. DON’T YOU KNOW HOW TO LAY ANY OTHER KIND OF FUCKING TRAP GOOD LORD

“YOU’RE NEXT” THE CALLBACK?? THE PARALLELS?? THOUGH WHEN ALL MIGHT POINTED HE MADE IT LOOK WAY COOLER. AFO’S POINTING JUST LOOKS LIKE SMOKEY THE BEAR

HAS ANYONE CHECKED IN ON KAMUI WOODS I HEAR HE IS WEAK TO FIRE?? THE ONLY ONE WHO IS, APPARENTLY

r.i.p. to this particular forest mansion. don’t worry they have a ton of backups

remember last week when I said maybe AFO thinks explosions are gauche. well never mind. he fucking loves explosions

anyway so that’s the end of BnHA, everyone. hope you enjoyed. it was a good ride while it lasted. see you all, good luck in your travels

[proship-selfship]

Im therian, and it took forever for me to find a pack I wanted to join where Id feel safe enough to exist as a person with paraphilic OCD and a therian at the same time. When I finally did, I started noticing all these other therians getting massive hate and suicide baits from people I was following. As soon as I posted saying that there is a huge double standard and that is disgusting of people to suicide bait and isolate and oppress other people for anything that they see as different or wrong that they cant understand, didnt even reference anything paraphilia related, and immediately I got banned from the discord server for the pack, they started posting everywhere about me, the founding member of the pack is schizophrenic like myself and we bonded ovee that briefly, and they started posting about how Im “probably like this because hes schizo” and they got other people to join in calling me crazy, a freak, insane, retarded, etc. All because I said “if you tell someone to kill themselves for any reason, youre disgusting, and having a therian instagram account is for being therian, not discourse, and nobody wants to see you be an asshole on the regular.” These people are fucked up. One of them from the server is a big trauma positivity advocate and straight up told me that there will never be safe places for me to exist and that she hopes I get physically abused and assaulted by anyone who loves me. She also is in self harm recovery, yet told me to cut myself over this. These people will look for literally any chink in your armor and try to exploit it, just to be a justifiable bully. They learned about bullying in school, so they think that because this is towards “awful people” that every single thing an average cyberbully does that they end up replicating in these situations, they tell themselves, “well, Im doing this to a pedophile, so its ok!” No, youre doing it to a person, first and foremost. And people with POCD are people. Maybe if we treated people who are uncomfortable with their paraphilias before they had to learn to love themselves after trying to seek help and the world telling them to stop existing, maybe we would have a lot less actual pedophiles. Antis are fucking insane.

I'm sorry that happened dude, that was fucked up from start to finish. I hope you find a better pack, pack is family. Family doesn't treat each other like that. Fucken antis dude.

[olderthannetfic]

I'm a Chinese, nationally and racially. Racial projection seems to be a common practice in western fandom, doesn't it? I find it a bit... weird to witness the drama ignited upon shipping individuals with different races, or the tendency to separate characters into different "colors" even though the world setting doesn't divide races like that. Such practice isn't a thing here. Mind explaining a bit on this phenomenon?

--

Sure, I can try. But of course, fish aren’t very good at explaining the water they swim in.

Americans aren’t good at detecting our own Americanness, and a lot of what you’re seeing is very much culturally American rather than Western in general. (In much of Europe, “race” is a concept used by racists, or so I’m told, unlike in the US where it’s seen more neutrally.) Majority group members (i.e. me, a white girl) aren’t usually the savviest about minority issues, but I’ll give it a shot.

The big picture is that most US race stuff boils down to our attempts to justify and maintain slavery and that dynamic being applied, awkwardly, to everyone else too, even years after we abolished slavery.

There’s a concept called the “one drop rule” where a person is “black” if they have even one drop of black blood.

We used to outlaw “interracial” marriage until quite recently. (That meant marriage between black people and white people with Asians and Hispanic people and others wedged in awkwardly.) Here’s the Wikipedia article on this, which contains the following map showing when we legalized interracial marriage. The red states are 1967.

That’s within living memory for a ton of people! Yellow is 1948 to 1967. This is just not very long ago at all. (Hell, we only fully banned slavery in 1865, which is also just not that long ago when it comes to human culture.)

Why did we have this bananas-crazy set of laws and this idiotic notion that one remote ancestor defines who you are? It boils down to slavery requiring a constant reaffirming that black people are all the same (and subhuman) while white people are all this completely separate category. The minute you start intermarrying, all of that breaks down. This was particularly important in our history because our system of slavery involved the kids of slaves being slaves and nobody really buying their way out. Globally, historically, there are other systems of slavery where there was more mobility or where enslaved people were debtors with a similar background to owners, and thus the people in power were less threatened by ambiguity in identity.

Post-slavery, this shit hung around because it was in the interests of the people in power to maintain a similar status quo where black people are fundamentally Other.

A lot of our obsession with who counts as what is simply a legacy of our racist past that produced our racist present.

--

The other big factor in American concepts of identity is that we see ourselves as a nation of immigrants (ignoring our indigenous peoples, as usual). A lot of people’s families arrived here relatively recently, and we often don’t have good records of exactly where they were from, even aside from enslaved people who obviously wouldn’t have those records. Plenty of people still identify with a general nationality (”Italian-American” and such), but the nuance the family might once have had (specific region of Italy, specific hometown) is often lost. Yeah, I know every place has immigrants, and lots of people don’t have good records, but the US is one of those countries where families have on average moved around a lot more and a lot more recently than some, and it affects our concepts of identity. I think some of the willingness to buy into the idea of “races” rather than “ethnicities” has to do with this flattening of identity.

New immigrant groups were often seen as Other and lesser, but over time, the ones who could manage it got added to our concept of “whiteness”, which gave them access to those same social and economic privileges.

Skin color is a big part of this. In a system that is founded on there being two categories, white owners and black slaves, skin color is obviously going to be about that rather than being more of a class marker like it is in a lot of the world.

But it’s not all about skin color since we have plenty of Europeans with somewhat darker skin who are seen as generically white here, while very pale Asians are not. I’m not super familiar with all of the history of anti-Asian racism in the US, but I think this persistent Otherness probably boils down to Western powers trying to justify colonial activities in Asia plus a bunch of religious bullshit about predominantly Christian nations vs. ones that are predominantly Buddhist or some other religion.

In fact, a lot of racist archetypes in English can be traced back to England’s earliest colonial efforts in Ireland. Justifying colonizing Those People because they’re subhuman and/or ignorant and in need of paternalistic rulers or religious conversion is at the bottom of a lot of racist notions. Ironic that we now see Irish people as clearly “white”.

--

There are a lot of racist porn tropes and racist cultural baggage here around the idea of black people being animalistic. Racist white people think black men want to rape/steal white women from white men. Black women get seen as hypersexual and aggressive. If this sounds like white people projecting in order to justify murder and rape... well, it is.

Similar tropes get applied to a lot of groups, often including Hispanic and Middle Eastern people, though East Asians come in more for creepy fantasies about endlessly submissive and promiscuous women. This nonsense already existed, but it was certainly not helped by WWII servicemen from here and their experiences in Asia. Again, it’s a projection to justify shitty behavior as what the party with less power was “asking for”.

In porn and even romance novels, this tends to turn up as a white character the audience is supposed to identify with paired with an exotic, mysterious Other or an animalistic sexy rapist Other.

A lot of fandoms are based on US media, so all of our racist bullshit does apply to the casting and writing of those, whether or not the fic is by Americans or replicating our racist porn tropes.

(Obviously, things get pretty hilarious and infuriating once Americans get into c-dramas and try to apply the exact same ideas unchanged to mainstream media about the majority group made by a huge and powerful country.)

--

Politically, within the US, white people have had most of the power most of the time. We also make up a big chunk of the population. (This is starting to change in some areas, which has assholes scared shitless.) This means that other groups tend to band together to accomplish shared political goals. They’re minorities here, so they get lumped together.

A lot of Americans become used to seeing the world in terms of “white people” who are powerful oppressors and “people of color” who are oppressed minorities. They’re trying to be progressive and help people with less power, and that’s good, but it obviously becomes awkward when it’s over-applied to looking at, say, China.

--

Now... fandom...

I find that fandom, in general, has a bad habit of holding things to double standards: queer things must be Good Representation™ even when they’re not being produced for that purpose. Same for ethnic minorities or any other minority. US-influenced parts of fandom (which includes a lot of English-speaking fandom) tend to not be very good at accepting that things are just fantasy. This has gotten worse in recent years.

As fandom has gotten more mainstream here, general media criticism about better representation (both in terms of number of characters and in terms of how they’re portrayed) has turned into fanfic criticism (not enough fics about ship X, too many about ship Y, problematic tropes that should not be applied to ship X, etc.). I find this extremely misguided considering the smaller reach of fandom but, more importantly, the lack of barriers to entry. If you think my AO3 fic sucks, you can make an account and post other fic that will be just as findable. You don’t need money or industry connections or to pass any particular hurdle to get your work out there too.

People also (understandably) tend to be hypersensitive to anything that looks like a racist porn trope. My feeling is that many of these are general porn tropes and people are reaching. There are specific tropes where black guys are given a huge dick as part of showing that they’re animalistic and hypersexual, but big dicks are really common in porn in general. The latter doesn’t automatically mean you’re doing the former unless there are other elements present. A/B/O or dubcon doesn’t mean it’s this racist trope either, not unless certain cliched elements are present. OTOH, it’s not hard for a/b/o tropes to feel close to “animalistic guy is rapey”, so I can see why it often bothers people.

A huge, huge, huge proportion of wank is “all rape fantasies are bad” crap too, which muddies the waters. I think a lot of people use “it’s racist” as an easy way to force others to agree with their incorrect claims that dubcon, noncon, a/b/o, etc. are fundamentally bad. Many fans, especially white fans, feel like they don’t know enough to refute claims of racism, so they cave to such arguments even when they’re transparently disingenuous.

--

Not everyone here thinks this way. I know plenty of people offline, particularly a lot of nonwhite people, who think fandom discourse is idiotic and that the people “protecting” people or characters of color are far more racist than the people writing “bad” fic or shipping the wrong thing.

But in general, I’d say that the stuff above is why a lot of us see the world as white people in power vs. everyone else as oppressed victims, interracial relationships as fraught, and porn about them as suspect. Basically, it’s people trying to be more progressive and aware but sometimes causing more harm than good when those attempts go awry.

[nightswithkookmin]

MONDAY, JANUARY 18TH: GOLDY'S LOG

I miss Suga. Scratch that. I miss Agust D. My spirit animal.

I've been thinking about him a lot lately, wondering if his injury isn't an exemption to military service. I wonder if he qualifies, in light of his injury, as an able body. I wonder what their law defines as able body.

I wonder if he passed the legal physical exam and health assessment test when he turned 19, since he's had that injury way before debut. Or if BTS have undergone that mandatory military service assessment since they are all past 19 and what their results are.

Jimin has chronic back pain too. That should qualify him for an exemption to military duty. He can still do desk work if it's that serious.

I should talk to ***** and look into South Korea's law on exemptions to military service.

Moon values the arts and culture industry. There's already been an extension for conscription for the benefit of BTS. Their success and longevity in the spot light perhaps influenced this decision. Should BTS maintain this momentum, an exemption would be inevitable I feel.

I miss them. They've been gone for too long. I'm worried about the impact this is going to have on their popularity if they disconnect from fans for so long or be mechanical about the way they connect with their fans.

I hate the limited access to them. But Scarcity increases the value of a product and it's not surprising if this is the approach BigHit is adopting in the wake of the pandemic.

Limited access not only raises value, it creates demand. Bang PD is a bigbrain marketing genius- I hate it.

They are taking a huge risk with this new marketing strategy. Personally, I'd stick to what works but then I am no marketing guru. Just a consumer who likes to play it safe. I guess I won't be getting hired anytime soon. Fuck.

It's all very fascinating.

What's equally fascinating is the shippers out here on these streets. The Jokers.

I... they confuse the hell out of me sometimes.

How are they going to question my rationality when I talk about moments I feel Jikook are having issues in their relationship or had broken up etc but then have no problem with and even applaud that same rationality when I talk about moments that has led me to believe there is lack of depth in Tae Kook's dynamics or that they are not real by any standard or that another ship in BTS isn't real.

Do I have two minds? Or are they more inclined to be selective in their beliefs based on their biases towards Jikook and against other ships? It's weird.

By the same lens I define Jikook as real, I define Tae Kook or any other ship that includes JK and Jimin as not real. And by that same lens if I feel Jikook aren't together then I'm wrong and irrational?

It really confounds me.

Not sure if they expect me to apply double standards to Jikook in those instances.

I don't think there is right and wrong opinions or perspective when it comes to shipping, but I think if they are right about me being wrong about my perspective on Jikook then I must be wrong about my perspective on any other ship in BTS as well.

I can't be right about one and wrong about another. I'm either right about all or wrong about all.

I can't be 'right' about Tae Kook having 'issues' in their bond in such a way I think it often bars them from fully nurturing their bond and developing depth to it but then be 'wrong' about Jikook also having issues that mess with their bond from time to time when it's the same measurement I use in accessing the depth of bond of both ships.

I really don't understand their way of thinking.

What is right and what is wrong and who decides on that?

I think we ought to substitute right and wrong with 'believe and believable.' The approach to such discourse should be about what one is willing to believe or not believe about certain discussions: I believe this. I don't believe that. Because believes stem from our personal biases towards a subject.

And the people that come running to me with 'look, Jikook smiled at each other in On era so change your mind'

I would except I hear this debate all the time. I wonder if they realize they sound exactly like the Tuktukkers in my DMs trying to convince me Tae Kook is real.

'Look Tae sat on JK's laps! How can you say there is no depth to Tae kook' ' He squished JK's cheeks' 'Jk said he wants to ride with Tae, if there was no depth why did he say he wanted to ride with him'

I have a feeling Soft Koo is back. The days of Terminator JK might be over. Too bad, I liked terminator JK. He was a bad ass.

I like that he is experimenting with his looks. But I'm glad his Ravi-esque phase is over. I wonder who he is drawing inspiration from this time. He reminds me of Jimin though. There is something peaceful and serene about his looks.

Can't really tell much because Bighit is sitting on tons of footages. I think I need to send a truck to Bang PD HQ.

I don't like that Jimin posted a Vhopemin photo for Tae's birthday. It was cute and all but I don't like it. That shit felt passive aggressive as fuxk. Lmho. What, he didn't have a V or Vmin photo in his gallery? Sounds like someone didn't put much effort in their VMin agenda for this post.

I wonder if he will keep the same energy come JK's birthday. I mean both him and Tae didn't post for him💀

May be I'm reaching on this one. But a single post where V was not even the focus of the post... I think his birthday means a lot to him and he enjoys when people shower him with love and attention and I don't think his birthday is an exception.

And he kept reiterating after such said birthday how he recently discovered he loves to be loved and how he does most of the things he does in order to be loved by his fans, friends and family.

And it breaks my heart that, the headlines read BTS shower X, Y with love on his birthday but the two people close to him were missing from that list this time. The media talks about BTS posting for eachother as them showering eachother with love. Certainly they all know this.

And the fact Jin posted for Tae after Tae's birthday says a lot about Tae and JK. Tae had no intention of posting perhaps because he left JM a message on the packages. With Jin I feel he was overcompensating for not posting for him on his birthday...

JK gets a pass. If JM wasn't happy about him not posting for his birthday, he would have pulled a Jin.

Jimin talking about coming to the realization he loves to be loved makes me think JK withholding his affections openly made him come to the realization he loves to be loved. Just a hunch. And the only reason JK would withhold his affections is if Jimin himself estopps him. Those two give me headaches.

I think I got the closure I needed from this.

LESSON: dont get on JM's bad side and bloody post for his birthday 💀

Tae been releasing photos of Jimin and Jhope a lot lately. Not sure how that makes me feel either. I think it's beautiful. But when I think about all these beautiful photos he has of Jimin on his phone and how generous he is with them- I think they would have been more meaningful had he released it on JM's birthday. The snow photo he posted still sits in my Vmin heart somewhere.

I really don't like this not posting for each other's birthday business. It's 2021. They need to cut it out.

I feel JK set a bad precedent but personal happiness first so good for him.

This moment haunts me for some reason.

What was going through V's head. I want to know. RM looks done. Lol.

Jimin is really beautiful. I love his eyes when he smiles and the thing he does with his shoulders.

Some people complain I write a lot. Some say I don't write enough. Ayayayai!!!!!!

What to do.

I think I accidentally deleted a post.

I'm looking forward to JKK1. Stay Gold, Still with you, Your eyes tell... I hope he hasn't given his best away cos those were bops.

PJM1... oh God I'm nervous. I'm excited for it but nervous. I think Serendipity is a classic. The Christmas song was equally great and frankly the only good Christmas Ive heard so far and I don't even like Christmas- nothing against Baby Jesus I just think it sucks. That bridge in Dis-ease is something.

I want to read his thoughts. His spotify playlist is insightful but I want to confirm if he really sees himself as a mess who is always causing his lover grief.

I mean he did say he has realized he needs to be considerate towards those that love him. Not sure yet the connection there.

I want to read his thoughts.

PJM1....

I love JHOPE. I think his ship with Jimin is beautiful and healing. They make my insides warm. Not sure if their shippers think they are real. Do they? That would be awkward.

I think RM and Jimin need to spend time together... it would be good for them.

Jimin and Sungwoon shippers are alleging Jimin has been staying with Sungwoon all this while. LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL

But the bit about him living with Sungwoon before the start of Bon V 4 has me🤔

Around that period, I don't believe JM was at the dorms and Jikook were not together then too. He must have been staying somewhere...

I'll let them have that.

But around November 2019 when he was having issues with JK he was staying with Tae too so no I don't think that means Sungwoon is queer or that Jimin is sleeping with him💀

They need to get out of their imaginations.

I think Jikook will drive me crazy one day.

I can feel my cranium swelling.

JiRose shippers need to pack it up. They really think Jimin is straight? 💀

It's the bad editing for me.

That doesn't look like a straight face to me. Unless his butt was on fire and he was uncomfortable looking at that black interviewer, I think that's his flirting face.

Lately I've been thinking about what ifs.

What if Jikook is not real?

I wish I believed that.

[mithliya]

I just find it so annoying the time, energy and debates the discussions like this usually turn into. Something nasty or then crazy gc discourse or someone calling you a fake lesbian on rf gossip. The nitpicking is ridiculous. As soon as I saw this thread I knew someone was gonna call you bi or get mad because she didn’t get by you saying looks you mean aesthetic. You can like a character or actors personality or acknowledge they have a nice aesthetic or be a fan without being into them. Just from now maybe use aesthetic and not looks because looks to most people means physical attraction.

So many people get so hostile and are just waiting to call some actual lesbian bi. I don’t think white fems even think about how much harder it is for lesbians of color to get where they are and how bad the pressures and socialization is. Radical feminists are massive hypocrites with their own works and beliefs. Cognitive dissonance of their own going on about how women are socialized and sexuality. Their empathy, perspective and analysis seems to disappear when it’s needed the most. Liking men can put your life in danger and women of color are especially not allowed to desire only be desired by men.

We exist as business transactions all over the world, denied so much and barely allowed to be our own person. Sexuality can be deeply suppressed. Women aren’t taught or allowed to have their own desires and to know their own bodies or orgasms, just how to please men. In high school every discussion amongst girls involved blowing men or how cum is good for your skin. No one talked about pleasing a girl ever. I hated having to hear it & girls doing it because that’s what they’re taught. even bi women I’ve met have just blown men for years and never been sexually satisfied or reciprocated by men once. Then they got lucky and realized they liked women and fell for one. So yeah I think no lesbian actually obviously fantasizes about males in anyway fictional or not. Plenty bi women feel like that and don’t want a male irl. Penis repulsion is thing. A fantasy is representative of a desire or scenario of something or someone you find pleasant and makes you feel things. I know lesbians who love anime and cartoons who just love butches and they still never fantasize about a male because it isn’t what a butch is. That anon is fantasizing about male characters and I think that’s not lesbian period. No lesbian is excited by maleness and depictions of it. I think it should end their.

So anyway, no one also does this with gay men. gay men don’t argue about this and call other men fake gay men. Maybe that’s because it’s so different being a woman and experiencing misogyny and homophobia with sexuality and the fact that bisexual men aren’t saying they’re gay or being problematic and annoying in the same way bi women who are always lesphobic do. idk. Gay men don’t go through female socialization and are taught to be submissive so it’s easier for them to be confident and at least know or realize their desires much more easier than lesbians. Some things to think about. bi women are so annoying to us and love to hate lesbians and wanna be one but this shit doesn’t happen much or in the same way or extent with gay and bisexual men. I think people need examine the misogyny and double standards here.

it’s kinda bizarre to me bc i straight up said repeatedly that i don’t really get it and that i personally have always just gotten extremely bored when male characters are involved n don’t care for anything about males.. yet bc i said i don’t think someone’s not a lesbian if she likes anime guys or w/e it means i also like fictional men in any sense 😐

u did lose me in some parts tho and the part where u said no bi men claim to be gay, thats untrue. there’s plenty of bi men that call themselves gay men, it’s just never turned into a discussion of Some Gay Men Can Be Into Women or w/e and it’s not used to prove that gay men can be attracted to women to the same degree. but unfortunately plenty of bi people of both sexes claim to be gay. some will call themselves gay bc they genuinely think they are exclusive same sex attracted while some will say they’re gay bc they’re primarily same sex attracted and think that’s the same thing. it’s terrible bc it rly makes it harder for gay ppl to communicate our sexualities and also to form communities around our shared sexual orientation

anyways i think u may have sent me the longest anon ive ever had,, i wish i could give u an award for that

[dailyaudiobible]

02/08/2021 DAB Transcript

Exodus 28:1-43, Matthew 25:31-26:13, Psalms 31:9-18, Proverbs 8:12-13

Today is the 8th day of February welcome to the Daily Audio Bible I am Brian it is wonderful to be here with you today as we get into this workweek and reach out for the next step, move further into the Scriptures and into the stories that we are immersing ourselves. In the book of Exodus, we are…well…we’re listening to God begin to weave together the culture of these recently freed slaves are gonna look like. So, what God wants His people to present and model for the world, this is what we’re beginning to hear. And if we understand that then, you know, some of the stuff is tedious like, how long, how far should the polls be spread out on this tent and, you know, but what we need to understand is that this tent is something that God is saying, “I want to build this and this is gonna be in the center of the camp and this is going to represent the fact that I am dwelling among you in the middle of it all.” And, so, for God to have some specific specifications about what this is to look like not only has practical value because it needs to be movable, it needs to be portable because they're moving around, but also because it needs to fulfill a specific purpose among the people. This is the place where God is among them. It’s something physical that they can see. It's something that makes them aware that in the middle of everything there is God. And, so, let's dive in. We’re reading from the Christian Standard Bible this week. Exodus chapter 28.

Commentary:

Okay. So, in the book of Matthew for the last couple of days we've been reading Jesus discussion about the end times. And this whole thing began by Jesus and His disciples being in Jerusalem, and them admiring the construction of the temple. And the temple, in Jesus time, this is the second Temple, so this is the Herodian temple, and it would've only been completed for about 40 years. So, this is pretty new, and Herod is one of the greatest developers in world history. As crazy of a person as he was, paranoid as he was, he was an unbelievable developer, a builder. So many of the Herodian constructions are still in existence today in ancient Israel. So, this would've been the temple that they would have been…would've been observing and they’re just admiring it and Jesus is like, “the whole all things coming down”, which is what began this discussion because later on they’re like, “tell us when this is all going to happen.” What Jesus tells us is that things get worse before they get better when we reach the times of the end, and that essentially the things that are observable like wars or famines or rumors of wars, these kinds of things, these are like contractions that a mother has when she is in labor preparing to give birth, but the contractions aren't the birth. The birth is the birth. And I’m kinda using this line of reasoning, the birth is that all things will be made new again. And, so, this in affect is called an apocalyptic world view and Jesus was known from the outside as like an apocalyptic prophet because He said the things that He’s saying. He's saying things about the times of the end. A lot of times…we already talked about this…we’re trying to date things, trying to find the right month just plan it all out, which has always up until this very day been 100% incorrect every time a guess has been made. And Jesus during this discourse claims that He doesn't even know, that the only one who knows is the Father. And, so, His…His discourse, this conversation that's been going on isn’t really to instill terror it's just simply to say this is…this is how you will know things are moving in a certain direction when you see these kinds of things happening. Well, these things…these kinds of things have been happening for a long time. So, this is where we find ourselves, contractions or labor pains or the pains of birth depending on which translation you're reading in, that this is what we’re seeing but this is not the end. And even Jesus…that like nobody…nobody knows that day but the father, which then leaves a little bit of unrest, right? Because how could you prepare for what you don't know? It's just like an ominous cloud of dread that hangs over everything. And, so, Jesus then goes into a couple of stories saying this is what the posture should be. So, He does a story of the virgins and the bridegroom, the banquet, the wedding banquet and half of these girls, they came prepared with extra oil in their lamps because they didn't know exactly when he’s gonna show up. The other ones just came to the party excited about it but were not prepared for any kind of lengthy waiting. And, so, their oil ran out. They all fell asleep their oil ran out but when the bridegroom came the wise…the wise maidens woke up they had oil. The other three are like, “give us some of your oil. We don’t have enough.” And they have to go buy more oil and in the process, they miss the bridegroom. So, in the context of what Jesus is saying about being aware of the end and just being like just being able to see the signs of the times, what would be the moral of the story? The moral of the story then would be the ones who were prepared, right, the ones who didn't know when the bridegroom was going to show up, but they were prepared are the ones who got to see him. So, in other words, like bringing this out of a story we would say we don't know the day the end of things. We have some signs that are observable, but we don't know exactly when. Only the Father knows that. We are supposed to be ready any time as if it's in the next five minutes. Like we’re always supposed to be vigilantly ready and aware. And then Jesus tells another story about a master who gave five talents to one person, one servant, two talents to another servant, one…two to a third servant and then went away. Two of them doubled what they were given. The one with five had ten by the time the master came back. The one with two had four by the time the master came back. And the person who was given one talent buried it in the ground and did nothing with it. When the master did return it was, “well done thou good and faithful servant. Enter into rest. Enter into my joy” for the…for the two that had taken the risk and actually stewarded what they were given by the master and doubled what they were given by the master. That worked out well for them. The one who had the talent and buried the talent, it did not work out as well for him. So, what do we pull out of that in light of being aware and prepared for the end? We would have to say that the ones who recognized what they had been given and did everything that they could to steward what they had been given so that the kingdom of the master would have an increase, those who were at work and were not afraid, those were at work and prospering, they got the “good, well done.” The one who just took what they had and…and hid it so that they wouldn’t lose it and just went on with their lives, not paying attention that didn’t work out so well. So, Jesus has given us…well …first of all, an apocalyptic worldview which we all share on some level. That is the…just the general awareness, the general sense that we were born into an ongoing story, the story of humanity and this story continues to go on generation after generation and it's all ultimately headed somewhere. It's all…like we’re in a story that is going somewhere. From apocalyptic perspective we’re expecting that things will get worse before they get better, but we have the perspective that these are contractions that are unto something, the birth of all things being made new. So, we have that kind of baked into us, It’s just back there. But it has a profound effect on the way that we live, far more than we realize, unless we’re paying attention. This is what Jesus is speaking to, and so this is why He was known to some the way that He was, an apocalyptic prophet. So, we get into today's reading and then Jesus is talking about when the Son of Man comes and how He’ll will be like a shepherd and He will separate the sheep from the goats. And the separation, the distinction between the sheep and the goats was how they had cared for the vulnerable, how they had cared for the least of these, how they had cared for those who were marginalized. That should prick us pretty profoundly and invite examination of our own lives. We should also be able to read into this that it's a great encouragement for the hearers of Jesus because Jesus primary hearer, they were marginalized, they were suppressed, they had…they were subjugated. They didn't really have a voice or representation in the culture that they were in. And, so, they were simmering and stewing, So, these kinds of words about the least of these being important to God would have been very encouraging to them. But ultimately what Jesus said is that when you care for the vulnerable you are caring for Jesus. When you don't care then you are not caring for Jesus. And it's fascinating what happens as He ends this discussion, this discussion at least for us that’s taken several days to move through. He finishes this discussion and I'm quoting from the book of Matthew here. “Then the chief priests and the elders of the people assembled in the courtyard of the high priest who was named Caiaphas, and they conspired to arrest Jesus in a treacherous way and kill him.” That is their response to Jesus teaching about where this is all going and the posture of heart that we must have to be able to observe it, a posture of vigilance and awareness and preparedness, a posture of understanding that we are steward…like what we have, the talent in the story of Jesus, what we have been given we are to use to advance the kingdom of God and be participating and collaborating in it. So, this general sense that we need to be awake and aware or to put it more clearly in Jesus vernacular, that we have eyes to see and ears to hear, and that we are seeing and hearing the vulnerable. The religious leader’s response to this is to plot the assassination of this guy, Jesus, who is stirring up the hearts of the people. Now, obviously we are reading the story of the life and ministry of Jesus. So, it's clear who is against Jesus and it happens to be the religious elite. And we can very easily make judgments about them, but we must examine our own hearts. Are we prepared? Are we awake? Are we alert? Are we understanding that what we have has been given to…given to us to steward? Are we focused on the vulnerable or is it more our custom to simply rehash the political talking points that are going around at any given time? We’re actually invited by Jesus to step all the way away from all that and focus on people and be aware of people, be aware that our impact actually matters, that this is the way of God's kingdom not paid people who interpret the news and tell us what to think. The Holy Spirit is here to lead us into all truth no matter what gets said to polarize us from each other so that we can be manipulated. This is the stuff that Jesus was against. He was against of the things of the world because the things of the world had grown false. Everything had a veneer of falseness about it. That's the way of the world now. That's the way of people now. We’re all hiding things and Jesus is like you…you have permission to be true and…and when more and more people are then the kingdom becomes more and more evident. It becomes a city on a hill. It becomes a light in the dark. It becomes the salt that preserves things. These are the kinds of examples that Jesus uses. And, so, we’re never going to be able to just look at Jesus and go, “that was a pretty story.” There's nothing about Him that's not gonna challenge something in us because what He's after, what He was after in His earthly ministry and what He is after now is that we be free through the truth and not through the next conspiracy theory that comes down the pipe. And, so, maybe we should be listening to Him. And, I mean, maybe this is a good time to review, go back and read the entire discourse Jesus is laying out in the book of Matthew on our own because the point here isn't that we finally learn what the Bible says. Just…that…I mean that’s the tip of the iceberg. The point is that we hear what it says, compare it to our lives, andt hen understand that there are things that must change if we’re going to come into alignment with wisdom and that we can’t do this on our own. It requires surrender to the will of the Holy Spirit in our lives. And, so, yeah, this isn't going to go away. That's the thing. The quicker that we…if we really want this, we want to live this faith, if we want to be in this faith, if we want it to actually work instead of it just being a set of principles that are supposed to work but really don't. If we actually want to live into this then we’re going to have to be willing to live into this, to take up our cross and follow.

Prayer:

Holy Spirit come. We ask every day. Some days, we are so full of hope and encouragement and some days we are pricked. And…and we thank…we thank You for that. We thank You for the disruption. We thank You that the Bible isn't pandering to us. It's looking at us in the eyes and showing us how things are. It’s leading us away from falseness and into the truth and we need, but sometimes it's disruptive and we need to get used to disruption because it's the thing, it's the catalyst that shakes us that makes us get off the couch, it's the thing that makes us move. So, come Holy Spirit into all of this we pray. In the name of Jesus, we ask. Amen.

Announcements:

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And that's it for today, I’m Brian I love you and I'll be waiting for you here tomorrow.

Community Prayer and Praise:

Hello good whatever it is wherever you are whenever you're listening to this. This is just another Joe calling in on Wednesday February 3rd 3:13 my time. Against my logical self I'm throwing my log in on the campfire. I've been listening for many years, but I never really felt like I needed to call in and speak. I just want you to know that I'm standing behind you and agreeing with whatever you ask for in prayer. I love you guys. Can't wait to hear…

Hi my name’s Amie calling from Canada and I was initially going to respond with a prayer request but instead after listening these last few weeks and indeed the last few months and just growing into the Daily Audio Bible, loving it to pieces I am so grateful for this ministry. Thank you so much for what it has given me and so many around the world obviously. But I really wanted to just reach out to a couple of people individuals who called in and requested prayer. One, the young girl with the so-called whatever brain problem that she described. Honey, you are so loved by Jesus. And when you asked for prayer, I envisioned His hands on your head and may His hands be your helmet all day long. There will be healing, and I pray for you every day. I also pray for them mum who called him with a daughter she has to be strong for. You were just diagnosed with breast cancer. I am a daughter of a woman who has just survived breast cancer and mama wherever you are I am praying for you. Remember, God does not give you what you cannot take He does not give you more than you can take and…and you will be strong. You are strong in the Lord. Rest in Him on His rod and His staff. You may walk through the Valley of the shadow, but it is just a shadow. He loves you and I am praying for you.

Well, I just wanna say if anybody is hearing this that God is good and personally just coming to Him within I would say about a month been kinda crazy but, you know, coming from a life that's been, you know, so against God. When I was a child and going to church and stuff not really knowing what it meant, you know, coming to God, just, you know, view changing it's encouraging. Like I actually have, you know, a purpose in life. And it's awesome. And, of course, there's bad days and there's good days like He says. God doesn't change for a season. I'm really trying not to. I really want to, you know, get the same truth out to everybody else. And, yeah, I hope that He comes back some because I feel like I miss Him. I miss my __ here but I love all you guys. And everybody who’s hearing this know God loves you. Literally, all you have to do is chase Him with your full heart, ask Him, talk to Him like He's a real person, He is a real person, He made us into persons but have a conversation like you have a conversation with a real human being. That's all He really wants. And, yeah, He'll show Himself to you. He's got you like he did me. I'm just trying to, you know, chase after Him. And I know I will find Him. Amen. Amen. Amen.

My name is Tyler I've been trying to pray for a less critical spirit, and I can't pray for myself anymore. So, I need prayer from other people around me. I appreciate all of your prayers that I've heard and listened to. Jesus loves all of you. Thank you for the Daily Audio Bible app.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make straight your paths. I've been reminding myself this…of this scripture quite often over recent days because everything seems a bit manic, everything seems a bit busy, you know it's all uncertain as…as it has been for the past year really. And I'm tired and that doesn't help matters either, you know. I’m eating properly, I'm getting sleep and yet I'm still tired. And yeah, it doesn't help. And…and I make plans and then things happen that could potentially derail those plans and nothings certain. And, so, at this time it's…you know I'm choosing to cling to Christ, I'm choosing to trust and the Lord that even though I've made plans that His will will be done. And I'm praying for wisdom around that as well. Yeah, and yet…I'm…I'm…I'm choosing to rejoice, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand. Do not be anxious about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. This is Michaela from Gloucester. I hope you have a blessed day wherever you are. Thank you for your prayers. Bye.

Hello DAB family we just thank God for your lives and also thank you to the Hardin family for this amazing podcast. I just have a strong urge to encourage those who were adopted fostered moved from family home to family home or those who generally feel abandoned by their own parents, it could be either physical or emotionally they are not there, and they feel unloved. Just remember that God wipes away your tears and He hears your cry. He is mending your hearts. Abba Father is our true Father. He gives us the love that no earthly parent can give us and comfort you when you feel alone and emotionally drained. We have to also remember that in Galatians 4, 6 and 7, it says because we are His children God has sent the Spirit of His son into our hearts prompting us to call out Abba Father. Now you are no longer a slave but God's own child and since you are His child God has made you His heir. Amen. Please be encouraged. God bless you all. Praying for you all. And this is Sarah from London.