#and i also have a really weird fear that i will be lambasted for liking it? but

[bizlybebo]

theres something in me that wants to write the exact same au shifted slightly to the left 48269484 billion times

[weirdowithaquill]

Can you do Duncan x Cody headcanons

I did some of those a little while back (you can find those here) but I get the feeling you mean less about how they got there and more about how they act once within the relationship. In which case, I've got a few ideas!

1: Duncan secretly loves reading, but only certain books, especially those that criticize the government or question society through philosophy. This can range from something like 1984 through to All Quiet on the Western Front and even into longer novels like Crime and Punishment. It's this weird idea in his mind of rebelling against his parents, by reading these books that question a lot of the values his parents tried to instill in him. Cody is less fond of these deeper, psychological books - but he does enjoy curling up with Duncan to read his own books alongside the punk. They have a rather massive bookshelf in their apartment which is filled with books and has their favourite reading couch beside it.

2: Cody hates jump-scare horror films, but he watches them with Duncan anyway, even if it means burying his head in Duncan's chest throughout most of the film and trying to ignore the film. Duncan keeps taking Cody to watch these films because he likes the feeling of having Cody in his arms. He does like the really shitty B-list horror movies though, having watched way too many of them with Gwen - but only if he can dissect them loudly and spend the film lambasting the characters' mistakes.

3: Duncan is a very, very light sleeper. It comes from his juvie (and later prison) days, when the worst things happened at night, and has transferred over to his return to normal life. It also means that Duncan likes to sleep as close to a wall as possible - another hold over from his prison days - and their bed is shoved right up against the walls of their bedroom. Duncan sleeps next to the wall and Cody sleeps beside/on top of him.

4: Cody still makes money from his time with the Drama Brothers, and this makes Duncan feel a little... inferior. Cody, after all, is a successful musician, not to mention he likely goes to a good university and has some sort of degree. Duncan has none of these things - what he does have is a police record, and it makes him feel almost like he doesn't deserve Cody. When Cody finds out about this, he does try and help Duncan with these feelings - but it takes some time for those feelings to fade.

5: Duncan still talks to Gwen, which makes Cody a little jealous. He's not worried about Duncan cheating - Gwen burnt that bridge to the ground and then tossed the ashes off a cliff - but he does envy how naturally they click. Cody had to work to gain anything resembling their easy friendship with anyone who isn't an insane superfan, and it leads to a similar situation as Duncan's inferiority worries, where they have to work on it.

6: Sierra and Courtney are not allowed anywhere near their apartment. Sierra has a restraining order placed against her by Cody (one which Cody's friends helped finalise) while Courtney was never given their address by anyone because of how uncomfortable she makes both of them. This does get a bit awkward as Courtney enters into a relationship with Gwen, but the three can spend time around each other in neutral settings without kicking off so it's less of a problem.

7: Speaking of people that our main men don't like, Alejandro ranks high on the list. After Heather ditched him for the final time, he is quietly removed from their contacts list and faded out of their lives. It's not for quite the same reasons as Sierra, but more because of how untrustworthy he is. There's a real fear that he'll reveal their address to Sierra, or worse yet Chris, and moreover he just exudes a toxicity that they're trying to move beyond.

8: Duncan and Cody both, however, like Heather. It's a bit of a surprise to a lot of cast members, but the pair really do get along with the Queen Bee. Duncan likes her brutal honesty and sharp wit, while Cody likes how much she evolved and really tried her best to help him get away from Sierra. She's one of the first people to accept them, and they end up loaning her their spare bedroom when she breaks up with Alejandro for the last time.

9: Speaking of, they own an apartment in Montreal. It's where a good chunk of the cast settle after TD, being outside of Ontario (where Camp Wawanakwa is) but also still a pretty central part of Canada. It's close to Ottawa, the US border and Quebec City, and a lot of the cast just sort of gravitates towards it. It's a nice apartment in a nice area, with an open-plan kitchen/living room, two bedrooms, a bathroom and an en-suite, a study and a balcony from which they can see the St Lawrence River. It's also got a lot of white noise, which they both really appreciate after TD, prison and Cody's childhood estate of a home.

10: Cody and Duncan both end up going to university after they settle in. Cody goes first - he's most of the way through his degree or even finished by the end of Season 5 of TD, and I feel like he'd either study music or journalism after breaking from his parents' expectations for him to pursue law. Duncan has to wait a little longer - he takes a few low-skill labour jobs to make some money first - but then he goes to Uni and startles everyone by doing psychology and philosophy. Duncan just really wants to understand the mindsets behind people's decisions and also just enjoys questioning everything in society and driving his professors up the wall.

No pictures this time - mostly cause I exhausted them all last time. Whoops.

[hopeful-struggler]

Defense Mechanisms

Psychological defense mechanisms are really interesting in how they take shape in people. From what I understand it’s rooted in this need to protect our ego, to avoid culpability, or to justify an action. I think it’s really cool in the sense that people have this inner subconscious that knows something they’re partaking in is wrong, and then another subconscious suppressing that inner morality by creating weird little justifications. That’s probably oversimplifying an extremely complicated, multifaceted psychological phenomenon by a lot, but I’m not a psychiatrist, who cares, fuck you.

It’s the reason why liars think everyone else lies, why people who cheat on their partners tend to project that their partner might also be cheating. Or why abused people adopt their abuser’s traits to conquer their fear of those qualities. But it doesn’t work the same way around; honest people don’t think everyone else is honest for example. It’s really neat that we have this internal barometer for bullshit, even when we attempt to justify our bullshit, all it does is reveal that we’re involuntarily aware of its, I guess, wrongness?

As part of introspecting for self improvement, I’m gonna try to identify these types of defense mechanisms with myself more often. Just to see where my moral compass stands. Like truly stands, as in deep inside and not what I project onto the public through Twitter retweets and Instagram posts. A big one I’ve identified is, I tend to poke fun at cringey attempts at social justice, or people making gestures towards a political cause that I deem to be pointless. “Damn, look at all these idiots advocating for social reform in the ‘wrong’ way. I am so glad I don’t do that, that’s dumb.” But like, who the hell am I to judge these people? I haven’t done shit either, I feel strongly, become well-informed with certain issues, develop a taste for ‘correct’ protest/social justice. But I have no right to hold that over anyone’s head. All of it amounts to some thickly irony-veiled social media quip, that makes a net zero influence in the world I live in. Shit, I’ll even go further as to say that stating all of that is also a form of defense mechanism in and of itself. Because deep down, I think identifying my flaws and pointing them out absolves me of being a lazy fuck, that thinks being correct about a topic equates to being a good person.

I’m not an inherently cynical person as much as I like to project that I am. I always tell people my nihilism started off as just a bottomless pit of pure despair. But that throughout the years have actually dug deep enough that it’s progressed into an optimistic view, absurd as that may sound. I embrace the things I can’t control, so I can narrow down the things that actually matter to me. The things I actually love; my partner, my family, my friends, myself(?). But I should be striving to expand that, or at the very least act on it. I’m not gonna stop making fun of white women overusing psychology terminologies, like ‘gaslighting’ and ‘toxic’, to the point that it renders those terms meaningless. Or liberals trying to combat racism by larping as slaves as a form of protest. I think shit like that is fucking dumb/hilarious and I’ll lambast it ‘til I’m 6 feet deep. But then I have to learn to ask myself, “Well, what am I doing?” Ultimately, I agree with these people when it comes to them identifying an issue with society, or the power structures that control us. I just don’t agree with their methods, but what’s mine? Maybe donate to some causes I support, do some volunteering work again, if anything, give myself the right to clown on these people (I’m kidding).

P.S This was all spurred when I came to a Science Fair today in town, ended up at a stall that was advocating for combatting climate change. Spoke with this very lovely, kind and intelligent old lady, and had a very illuminating conversation with them (they were so smart and so sweet). But halfway through our conversation I realized that I have so much to say about this topic, so much opinions, different angles and nuanced perspectives, but nothing to show for it in terms of action. Just hollow conviction and aimless passion. Gotta do better.

[themarkofoxin]

People literally supplied you with screencaps of contra being racist and shit, are you intentionally ignoring it to scream at anons cuz you know you can't disprove it or what

i actually wasn’t going to respond because when that reblog happened i was crying in the bathroom at work so like. just straight up did not have time.

but for realsies, i literally cannot see how any of the screenshots in that reblog prove that she is Undeniably Antisemitic, Racist, and Transphobic. i think they’re insensitive and brash, but i don’t think natalie is A Racist because she pointed out that it’s weird an old racist statement was trending.

in none of my posts am i saying that this ^ stuff isn’t uncomfortable or insensitive. i take issue with so many people’s need to permanently vilify someone for stuff that she probably thought about for maybe 30 seconds before tweeting two years ago. also, she’s not being racist here? a native person responded to her tweet, but nowhere in natalie’s original tweet does she say (or even imply) anything about race. at all?

next:

if you were to actually watch her videos and listen to what she has to say now, not in june of 2018 when this tweet was sent, she acknowledges that she held this perspective at one point and she regrets it. she talks about this in two of the videos in my original reblog AND in her one titled “beauty.” yes, she thought like this at one point. she recognizes it was harmful now, and has apologized. even if she hadn’t apologized in “canceling,” if she had just shown her change in perspective through her actions, would i hate her to the extent that so many people on the internet do?

no. because it’s just not that deep.

when i first realized i might be nonbinary, i was fucking terrified. i had a million different tmed arguments swirling around in my head, and i spent months arguing with myself about it because of it. i’m absolutely positive some of my fears came through in my conversations with people, and i definitely said damaging, tmed-adjacent things because i was scared to be One of Those Nonbinary People. the only difference is my conversations were verbal and impermanent, and a year later no one was combing through all my social media posts to find evidence to damn me for it.

okay, lastly. the lizard people thing.

1) she’s stopped using the lizard people characters since the growth in power of far right movements in the US

2) originally, she used them as kind of a joke about capitalism, and later learned their antisemitic origin and aftet that clarified every time she used those characters that she does not condone antisemitism and that she knows about the dogwhistle and is not, and would never, use it to that end.

3) i know tons of people irl who have no idea the “lizard people control the world” conspiracy is linked to antisemitism, so it’s not that hard for me to believe natalie didn’t when she started youtube either. the important part is that she has acknowledged their implications and, believe it or not, she was actually the first person who taught me that conspiracy was antisemitic.

conclusion -

in “cringe,” natalie made a lot of really interesting points that had me thinking for months. specifically, she analyzed trans man kalvin garrah’s visible hatred of “transtrenders” and compared it to her own difficulty accepting catgirl trans women. note that here she was admitting to a bias she’s aware of within herself and outwardly working to improve it.

she basically talked about how the feeling of intense “cringe” that leads to the kind of content garrah makes comes from a fear that the people you’re cringing at are similar to you. have you ever not told someone you have a tumblr, or loudly lambasted cringey tumblr blogs because you don’t want them to think you’re one of those tumblr users? it’s kind of the same deal, but on a more damaging scale. garrah sees gnc trans men as making him look bad because he’s a Real Man; natalie cringes at catgirl trans women because she feels like they infantilize themselves. she acknowledges in the video that this is unfounded and wrong, but she was using self-analysis to create discussion. 

i bring this up for two reasons - one, to point out that natalie is a self-reflective person who admits to her own faults and grows; and two, because i think the cringey thing is part of the reason the hate for natalie is so intense, and why i see it mostly coming from trans women, rather than nonbinary people, jewish people, or poc. 

TL;DR

do i think the screenshots above mean she’s antisemitic, racist, and transphobic? no. it’s not that deep. there are so many better things you could be putting your energy towards, so many more worthy people you could hate, than sending anonymous messages to a dan and phil blog about an educational leftist youtuber.

[jcmorrigan]

What movie or tv show scared you the most?

OH HEEHEEHEEEEEE MY TIME HAS COME

I think this was probably the sign I was meant to be a horror fan, because I'm gonna talk about two movies here and neither one is a standard horror film. Now, I avoided horror films like the plague, but I now realize that's because of my aversion to jumpscares and gore, which have very little to do with actual scary stuff. I feared actual horror imagery as a small child, but basically once I read Coraline it all just turned around because that book gave me nightmares but I actually WANTED those nightmares and kept going back to the book. So what are the movies I just COULD NOT contend with?

First up, I have found that a lot of people have said this one, but really and truly, fuck Chicken Run.

I was...maybe ten when I watched it. Signed up for a goofy claymation adventure. What did I get? First of all, a whole lot of bleak color palette that warned me that this was not going to be a happy story. We are then shown the stakes right away: our entire main cast lives in a dystopian prison and if they do not find a way to escape, they will die. One DOES die. This is where a lot of people say they noped out right away, but actually, the execution of the dinner chicken in the first scene was tame for me compared to what would come next.

The pie machine. It's assembled, it's talked about, and eventually our two leads fall into it in a way that is designed to be fatal. Look, there are a ton of horror tropes in this scene alone. I haven't seen it SINCE THE ONE AIRING and I can still vividly tell you a lot of this. And if I walked into a horror film and asked for this, I'd come out super satisfied, but I was not expecting horror from this. First of all, I remember vividly the shot where you're looking from Ginger's POV falling down the shaft and the divider comes up to shunt her into the "meat" line. It's incredibly claustrophobic and you just get this almost jumpscare reminder that the character through whose eyes you see is regarded as nothing more than meat to be consumed. There is then an array of blades designed for close calls, and dough that essentially glues the lead characters down to a conveyor belt so they have to helplessly watch the death machines that are coming. Sticky stuff that roots you to one spot; that's another thing that just REALLY unnerves me and I love it if I'm reading CreepyPasta but I was not reading CreepyPasta; I was watching a children's film. The leads escape certain death by jamming the gravy system, causing the machine to overload on pressure, and here I feel like I should've been relieved that they escaped but instead I was the most unsettled of all when the pressure meter started climbing. I don't know if this film *gave* me a phobia of industrial accidents or if it just awakened what was already in my OCD little brain, but suffice to say that after this movie, I was hyper-aware of my own fear of things like hissing steam, rising pressure meters, and being in a room where large metal things were clanking. (I'm since over it; I've been exposed to it in enough things.)

Now, I was no quitter. I should have just noped out. But I didn't. I continued to traumatize myself. The next part of the film until the climax I don't remember so well - it wasn't as traumatizing - EXCEPT for the part where Ginger finds and rebuilds Rocky's circus poster. And now, as an adult, I can see how that was kinda supposed to be funny, like, "The goddamn chicken padded his résumé and the way they found this out was a circus poster." But little me was invested in these chickens, I wanted them to be happy, and what I saw was basically their death notice being signed with that scrap of paper with a cannon on it. I FELT that in my bones.

STILL NOT HAVING THE GOOD SENSE TO JUST EJECT THE TAPE ALREADY, I proceeded to the climax, in which what happens to Tweedy might be one of the most fucking awful things I've seen ever? Pinned upside-down in a superheated, confined space with rising liquid from below as the pressure meter starts climbing again. And her husband arrives just in time to see her like this but not in time to actually stop the explosion. Thank God it didn't actually kill her because even though I was already traumatized, that would've absolutely made it worse.

Thing is, ever since this movie scared the absolute shit out of me - and was probably the cause of the weird stomachaches I had for A WEEK after - I've kinda had this thing about reclaiming the scary parts and stomping on them while laughing maniacally. I feel like every time I've done a crossover project, there's been a temptation to write in an arc where the mains go up against THE PIE MACHINE and fucking win. And also there's whump with tons of comfort in my version to mitigate it all. I haven't done any such thing for TBTC...YET. But I know what I must do. I know who must destroy the machine and the Tweedys along with it. Buckle your seatbelts.

My final word before I move on is that as I ascend into adulthood, I think that for the most part, a rewatch of this film wouldn't traumatize me so badly. It'd still be gross and creepy in a way I think shouldn't be sent to children without warning, but I could deal with the imagery, maybe enjoy using it as whump fuel even more, maybe my horror side would really get into the peril this time. But the one thing I've realized is that this premise is fucked EVEN MORE if you're a grown-up, because as a child, you're sympathizing with the chickens. You want them to get free of this death camp environment. But as an adult, you start to realize that all Tweedy wanted to do was be a chicken farmer who sold pie, and her supposedly nonsentient animals ganged up on her in a display of unheard-of intellect among farm stock. This would then lead to her undergoing at least one near-death fate. Think about being a farmer in our world and the animals you keep GANG UP ON YOU LIKE PEOPLE because you're killing them for food. No thank you, no THANK you.

But surely this was a one-of-a-kind phenomenon. Surely, after this...after so many other people agreed with me; "Fuck Chicken Run"...no animation studio would ever pull shit like this again.

I had hoped that was the case until Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs.

This is one I don't actually see lambasted as often. Maybe because the Chicken Run trauma crew grew thicker skins before this movie. I only sort of did. Maybe because no one ever actually invested in this film, having already predicted how much it would be garbage from the dumb humor in the trailers. Oh, but not me. I was a fool. Also my family picked it for a movie night so my fate was sealed anyway.

The original book is actually pretty frightening on its own. Food falls from the sky in such great numbers that it starts to destroy the world. Okay, that's terrifying. But kind of in the alluring way. I would keep coming back to the one page about the giant pancake on the school because the way it was drawn unsettled me so, with something huge and immovable blocking off the way to a building that usually has hundreds of innocent children inside. The film built on this and made it a thousand times worse.

Let's start with the goddamn Spray-On Shoe. Our main character is a mad scientist (but the good kind, apparently) whose list of bumbling failed experiments dates back to when he was a child and invented a spray you could put on your feet to coat them in shoes. He then gets laughed at because he didn't engineer a way to get the shoes off, and runs home in humiliation. Guys, the teasing/bullying factor is...not the most worrying thing about this story. There's a throwaway line about how Flint wears THE SAME SHOES into adulthood because to that day they simply cannot be removed. This seems like an incredibly urgent medical problem? Having your feet encased in the same rubber for years? The same rubber as when you're a kid? I just found myself thinking "What if my shoes never came off one day" and that terrifies me, okay? It's stupid and it's silly and it scares me. Even more than that, though, is the canonization of a polymer in this universe that can be sprayed on sticky and will literally never break no matter what you do to it, because that goes back to the pie machine dough principle. Being glued to a surface permanently is inherently terrifying and we'll go over this later because this is not the last fuckin time the glue shoes get brought up.

Flint invents a food-spewing machine. It ends up in the sky. He rides his popularity as it rains larger and larger food down upon the town and also the world. Most of this film up until the climax is unsettling but not AWFUL. Where it starts to go to shit is when Flint realizes his machine is too dangerous and shuts it off, only for the town's local greedy politician to switch it back on into an apocalyptic mode. So can we start with "Local town finds out its elected official is willing to sabotage their well-being in order to capitalize on the fame of a disaster-causing object?". Like, the whole film would've been solved so much sooner if there hadn't been a saboteur in the works - not a fun campy villain, mind you, but a saboteur who exists to drive the plot to the scary place. But I guess we need that narrative tension to justify having a film in the first place, so fine, I'll ride it out.

The main crew saddles up to fly out to the machine, which is now encased in a FLESH LABYRINTH of food, and...I'm just gonna rapid-fire the shit that happens at this part:

-The food turns sentient in order to defend itself. The cute animal sidekick brutally dismembers an army of gummy bears that is fully sentient and rips them apart to devour them.

-We enter the flesh labyrinth and it's exactly as much a horror RPG setting as you think it is.

-Now sentient cooked chickens besiege the party. The comic relief character is consumed by one, only to kill it from the inside and decide to WEAR ITS SKIN in what is seen as his defining character arc's conclusion. Wearing the skin of a dead monster allows him to forge his new identity.

-One of our party has to go back because of a tight passage lined with her deadly allergen, causing her to undergo anaphylaxis after an accidental mild nick. In the flesh labyrinth.

-The entire horrific journey is instantly INVALIDATED when it turns out that instead of the kill code for the machine, all Flint has is a file of a cat video. Which he finds out as the town is about to be obliterated off the face of the earth.

-So he solves it by jamming the works with the spray-on shoe and DID I NOT JUST GO OVER HOW HORRIFIC INDUSTRIAL EXPLOSIONS ARE IN KIDS' MOVIES? DID I NOT? ARE WE REALLY DOING THIS AGAIN? Anyway it's canonical proof that NOTHING can break the shoe glue and I should be happy for the town and happy that there's no more flesh labyrinth of living meat but instead I'm just terrified because of the door we have opened. We have imparted the existence of an indestructible sticky polymer upon the world.

-It's later seen used in a credits sequence to repair damaged houses. Which, first of all, given its flexible nature, is fuckin stupid. It won't serve as an actual wall. Second, that got me thinking about construction accidents involving the fuckin shoe glue. If that stuff gets dripped on a person's face -

-So then cue me sitting awake in bed later thinking wide-eyed about Cloudy with a Chance of Fucking Meatballs and realizing that this compound that is essentially a chemical weapon in the making is now in the hands of the mayor who deliberately caused an apocalyptic event over the town because he wanted the food rain. And THAT'S not going to lead to pretty circumstances.

I think you'll see that a lot of my fears with these two movies is "THINK OF THE IMPLICATIONS!" and I think that just shows how my mind works and why I'm drawn to fanfic so much. I'm all about diving into a universe, exploring its corners, analyzing it to death.

And with the industrial horror stuff, I kinda wanna bring it around to two other films that actually really subverted my expectations and made it fun. 102 Dalmatians was a fave of mine through middle school, but I remember when the climax took us to a big ol' factory and I got plumb nervous. After the usual blades and ovens of horror, the fact that it concludes with Cruella basically wearing a cake and a lengthy montage of the dogs kicking toppings onto her is just one of the most wholesome imageries. She survived the thing and now you get to watch her be decorated Lisa Frank style by her victims who are more interested in humiliation than murder, and I love that.

But maybe more prevalent is that I'm well aware that if certain filmography or plot points had been handled in different ways, The Boxtrolls might've actually frightened the ever-loving fuck out of me what with all the industrial stuff and medical horror, but I just...felt like that film was holding my hand the whole way through going "It's okay." The industrial stuff was framed in a way that was just campy enough and yet also taken seriously. Putting a really charismatic villain - ACTUAL VILLAIN, NOT CHICKEN FARMER OR CORRUPT POLITICIAN SABOTEUR - at the wheel was just such a mitigating factor that it gelled the whole thing together and I ended up LOVING what was done with giant machines and garbage crushers and explosions. And as for the medical body horror, I really appreciate how it was so baked in that Snatcher did that to himself - that everyone, EVERYONE warned him "Do not do this, you will probably die, I'm serious, bad fucking idea" up to the point of Eggs trying to plead him during an anaphylaxis attack, one last time, DO NOT continue down this path, we can find a way to heal you psychologically and get you some self-fulfillment. And Snatcher fully chooses hubris over the many, many opportunities offered him to be able to step down onto a safer path and that removes the fear and pulls it more into a tragedy for the villain. Not at all the same thing as "Sam the reporter is trying to save the world and doing her best until a fixture of the landscape accidentally sends her into anaphylaxis."

(Oh, and by the way, can I just - when I do see CWACOM brought up these days, it's always in the context of "This is the one movie where the guy tells the girl it's okay to look nerdy!". Well, no, not the way I remember it. The way I remember it, Sam basically tells Flint "I used to have really tacky style but have since changed it up of my own volition" and Flint is just like "NOOOOO YOU NEED TO WEAR GLASSES AND A SCRUNCHIE. I WANT A HOT NERD GIRL." This could've been pulled off right with some more introspection into female beauty standards, even in a tongue-in-cheek way, but right now it really looks like Sam just wanted to make herself more glam for a new image and Flint bullied her into regressing her style. Which I've also realized meant he bullied her into dressing more like she did as a teenager and normally I think that kind of shit is just "You're overthinking it" but since it's CWACOM and I spelled it out on paper like that, I'm just now realizing how that can be seen as pretty...icky.)

The one saving grace of CWACOM is that I was older by that time, and so it didn't affect me as hard as Chicken Run. But I still hold it dearly to my heart as one of the MOST DISTURBING movies I know, and by "dearly" I mean "fuck this movie, really and truly." I want to extend my thanks to 102D and Boxtrolls for giving me industrial-horror-based climaxes that were actually really comfortable, and again, probably what drove both of these was the fact that we had a campy diva villain in the lead for the potential scary stuff to surround and radiate off. Not a fuckin...ordinary chicken farmer who is just trying to make bank but is somehow passed as a Nazi allegory for trying to live her life as a farmer? I dunno, maybe if I rewatched that film I'd see she has a thirst for human blood too, and if I could fix fic Chicken Run my first order of business would be to give her a thirst for human blood instead of/in addition to chickens.

Anyway. Fuck both these films, EXCEPT for the fact that traumatizing scenarios can always be recast as whump material, and the next time I wanna do some crossover aftercare from a physically and psychologically damaging mission, I have a pie machine and a flesh labyrinth to exploit. REALLY HEAVY ON THAT AFTERCARE COMFORT THOUGH!

[ty-talks-comics]

Best of DC: Week of February 5th, 2020

Best of this Week: The Dreaming #18 - Simon Spurrier, Marguerite Sauvage and Simon Bowland

Okay, hear me out - The Dreaming has been really good since the beginning and while not on the same level as Sandman itself, Si Spurrier has done a fantastic job of contributing to this world of the fantastic and absurd with his own brand of whimsy and abject horror. I haven’t found the time to cover any of the issue because, well, there’s always been something just a bit better on the same weeks that this series released and though the normal artist, Bilquis Evely, wasn’t on the art this month, Marguerite Sauvage stepped up and provided her always stunning style.

A short-ish recap for the uninitiated, The Dreaming is a realm where all of humanity’s minds go when they sleep. It was ruled by Dream of the Endless, a being of immense power over and creator of the realm before he was succeeded by a young man named Daniel Hall. Daniel becomes Dream for a time and even appeared in Scott Snyder and Greg Cappullo’s Dark Nights: Metal, but at some point, he left the Dreaming entirely. This caused things to spin out of control until the realm lands in the hands of Wan, a moth like boy with a dark side.

The book begins with a dream apparition of Rose Walker, a central character of the Sandman series, looking upon Wan’s Eldritch side as it releases nightmares into The Dreaming. She muses that she’s been watching him for some time now, acknowledging that when he returns to his cute moth form they both forget what had just occurred. Wan appears satisfied, thinking his rule over the Dreaming is making the world better as he’s been dispatching “blanks” into people’s dreams to make their whimsical dreams more logical instead. This has a profound effect on the world as it seems as though joy and color are lost.

Sauvage stuns with her depiction of this joyless world as people just walk around with utter lethargy and casually kill themselves. It’s absolutely disturbing to watch as a woman prepares to drop herself from an overpass, seeing another calmly hold a gun to the side of her head and a man self immolating in the background. What makes all of this especially great, however, is Sauvage’s use of soft colors to almost make the despair and horror feel unimportant. Rose walker is the only one that stands out because of her bright yellow dress and normal looking skin.

Her internal monologue allows her to see that something’s amiss and that she should be a wreck after losing her mother and daughter over the course of her personal story, but she lacks sufficient motivation to pursue any action aside from sleeping, but then she recalls how vivid her dreams always were and Sauvage portrays this excellently as an unseen figure lights a cigarette for her and she drifts into a white space filled with beautiful wisps of smoke and color. In the dream, she hears something about a Vortex that will likely play a big role later in the series.

We then cut to Dora as she watches the transferred consciousness of Cain kill the man who initially caused Dora to fear her own existence, Keter. Dora is a Night Hag that had haunted Keter in his younger years, causing him to want to figure out the secrets of the Dreaming and ultimately how to destroy it. It’s implied (or plainly stated, I forget) that he created Wan and set him upon the Dreaming in Daniel’s absence. Unfortunately for Dora, with Keter’s death there is no one able to remember her story and she starts to fade away.

In contrast to the previous pages, Sauvage colors this scene with a deep, but not oppressive red as the facility responds to its creators impending death, giving things a sense of panic as Dora then looks puzzlingly at her translucent hands. Soon after, Keter’s body starts to convulse and a murky plume of light purple and pink pours from his mouth - the background and Keter’s body are white, with his outline and the monitor version of Cain being the only line art for this panel. Abel and Matthew (and others) then burst forth from Keter’s mouth as he finally dies.

Matthew is one of the Ravens of the Dreaming and he acts as the eyes for the ruler of the Kingdom as they survey the dreams of men. Abel acts as something of an accountant of some kind, but he has been keenly aware of Wan’s other side and chose to escape the Dreaming with Matthew, but The Dark Moth sent blanks to follow them and one of those blanks just so happened to be Ziggy, Dora’s former blank companion. When Ziggy disregards his former identity, his other blanks begin to savagely beat Dora in a flood of oppressive pink colors.

Spurrier tells two tales that Sauvage portrays in nine striking and dynamic triangular panels. On the downward facing panels, Cain lambasts Abel for having the audacity to kill him, but Abel counters with the fact that Cain has killed him hundreds of thousands of times over the millenia they’ve been together. Cain looks on with rage and it only gets worse as he realizes that Abel is mostly right to call him a coward. At the same time, we continue to watch as the blanks continue to assault Dora. These panels are most uncomforting as she pleads for Ziggy to help.

Sauvage does an amazing job of showing Dora’s distress is pained and betrayed facial expressions as she bleeds and cries while a flurry of fists and feet meet her. She continues to fade and is soon dragged away by the other blanks before cut back to Rose Walker and her continued feeling of disillusionment before Spurrier reveals that the unseen figure that lit her cigarette might be the hand of her Grandmother, another being with a strong connection to the Dreaming. She manages to convince Rose to take the bus and find the color of the world again.

One subtle thing that I liked about this issue and the way Spurrier has been writing this series thus far, is the implication that things started to go horrendously wrong when Abel killed Cain and stopped stuttering as a result. Cain was always one of the smartest residents of the Dreaming and would have figured out Wan’s scheme even if Wan himself wasn’t aware of his other half, but Abel was far too nice to think about it like his brother. When Abel is finally reunited with his brother, he begins to stutter a lot more again, symbolizing a return to how things were.

In trying to convince his brother to return to the Dreaming, Abel does he one thing he needed to do make things right with Cain, he recreates his brothers murder by stabbing himself in the neck with a fork while Cain says that he will, but because he WANTS to, not because Abel asked (Cain is a tsundere confirmed). While absolutely brutal and horrific, it’s touching at the same time because Abel does this out of love and sacrifice knowing that the world is doomed without his brother at his side. At the same time, this inspires Ziggy who goes against his order and tells the other blanks to stop the process of killing Dora because she made Ziggy who he was…

Unfortunately, his newfound sentience comes late as Dora is probably seconds from death and True Death by fading. Then suddenly a bus CRASHES through the walls and Rose emerges, feeling the dream energy drifting away from Dora. Sauvage draws their interaction together beautifully as Rose inches closer and closer to Dora, trying to feel something before whispering in her ear and bringing the Night Hag back to life.

The soft colors spring to life as Dora mounts Rose and begins to drain her fear, her ear wings turn a bright white and varied pink watercolors dance across her body as she reaffirms her belief in herself and Rose is in ecstasy of feeling again. We then learn something crucial about Dora and how all of this might have been by the original Dream’s design. At the end, not only is Dora restored, but the keeper of the Dream Library is as well.

The Dreaming is a weird story, but it always has been. One thing that I have loved about this story so far is that it doesn’t completely require you to have read all of Sandman to understand it, but it enriches the experience if you have. These characters are fully three dimensional with their own motivations, fears and thoughts that Si Spurrier has captured so well. I’m glad that he took on this story because it’s equal parts beautiful and dark like the Sandman Universe should be.

This is also in no small part thanks to how Marguerite Sauvage chose to draw, color and ink these beautiful scenes, characters and environments. Everywhere from the human world to the land of the dreaming was distinct and interesting because of backgrounds, color choice and intensity - even the use of white space was striking and amazing to look at.

I think the series is supposed to end at Issue 20, but it already feels too soon, like we need more. Of course there are the other Sandman books out like House of Secrets, Books of Magic, Lucifer and Hellblazer, but everything related to the Dreaming will always have a special place in my heart and I can absolutely say that I have enjoyed this ride thoroughly thus far. High recommend!

Also, I just started a Patreon, so feel free to support your boy.

https://www.patreon.com/join/TyTalksComics

[klbloodx]

HLS Chapter 5 - 2027.2.12 Niansi

(Source: Google search result)

 In front of Xiao Nanzhu were two labour contracts.

 A4 paper in black and white with 365 red fingerprints under the employees’ side, while the employer’s side was still empty.

 Ever since Niansi crawled out of the fridge, Xiao Nanzhu had a very complicated and twisted expression sprawled on his face.

 Perhaps he had indeed run out of ideas on how to comment on this series of supernatural occurrences. He frowned and lifted the totally unguarded Niansi up.

 Poor Niansi was only just a frail and feeble scholar. He couldn’t even budge a single bit and instead yelled and made weird noises as he was carried to the wall on Xiao Nanzhu’s shoulder.

 Xiao Nanzhu sneered as he hung the old Huangli properly back onto the wall, and then without minding Niansi’s unceasing objection, he proceeds to shove poor soul Niansi back into the Huangli.

 “AHHHH! Xiao Nanzhu! Are you crazy?! This young man’s head! AHH! This young man’s hairstyle! This young man’s face hnnn!”

 Niansi’s wailing really sounded disgraceful and embarrassing.

 Xiao Nanzhu was annoyed too, as he saw that this weirdo could not be forcefully stuffed back in. But Niansi was really frightened by this hooligan act of Xiao Nanzhu, and he quickly took out the labour contract from within in his sleeves.

 As Xiao Nanzhu suppressed his anger and looked over it, he was left speechless. Numerous employment terms were printed on an eight-page contract, from wage benefits to the specifics of the job. The main gist of it was about how to become a Huangli Shi.

 Huangli Shi…

 Legend has it that it refers to a Fangshi who can alter the effects of seasonal solstices, solar terms, and festivals and predict each day’s fortune. Up until the modern era, due to the increase in new international holidays and memorial days, what was once in the old Huangli had new blood steadily infused in.

(Source: Screenshot from PV)

Being the working partner of all calendar gods in the Huangli, the interests of both the Huangli Shi and the calendar gods were protected by this labour contract, so inevitably more details were added to the list.

 For example: the individual functions and origins of all of the traditional festivals; the responsibilities of season and changes in time shouldered by the solstices; even specific arrangements for calendar gods in case they needed sick days, maternity leave, or even marital leave were listed looking legit.

 Since it was already A.C 2027 now, things were more organised and well-regulated.

 The modern calendar has a mix of traditional festivals and holidays of the Gregorian calendar. Although this means that there would be an erosion of traditional and cultural values to a certain degree, some deviations were to be expected because of the way the solar calendar operates.

As such, the contemporary Huangli Shi is responsible for all calendar gods in the new civil calendar and the various traditional festivals and solstices of the past. But what was more important to Xiao Nanzhu lay at the bottom of the list of all former Huangli Shi: he saw his grandmother’s name, Xiao Ruhua, written there.

 Xiao Nanzhu’s grandmother had signed such a labour contract when she was alive, and she had concealed this from everyone. Even her own grandson had no knowledge of this.

(Source: Baidu search result)

In Xiao Nanzhu’s memories, his grandmother never failed in foretelling any of her customers’ fortunes. Every wedding and funeral predicted by her were sure to go smoothly. There was even one time where she was able to accurately predict that a pregnant mother living in the nearby alley would have quintuplets①.

 It should be known that even hospitals can’t detect such things at the start of a pregnancy. It doesn’t make sense that an old lady who didn’t know any science could tell from a glance.

 Xiao Nanzhu also thought that she probably made a wild guess and got lucky.

 But as he recalled, he started to feel that his old lady who never liked to dance Guangchangwu②, yet could chase him down two streets at her age to beat him up, really deserved her reputation as Xiao Shenpo③.

 If it wasn’t because of how unreliable Niansi looked crawling out of the fridge telling him all this, Xiao Nanzhu would’ve seriously considered the feasibility of taking on such a job.

 However, all things aside, he was in dire need of a proper job.

 Considering the situation he was presently in, he would rather take on this strange job than to involve himself in Situ Zhang bro’s Pyramid scam pitch. Though, this job didn’t seem to be any more reliable either. Exorcising evil spirits, praying to gods, deciphering dreams, and altering fortunes——there isn’t even a scientific basis for any of those…

 Youths nowadays aren’t like those of the past. Only the elderly would still possess the heart to fear and revere the supernatural.

 Medicine and technology have advanced greatly in the modern era. It is different from when people relied on prayer for blessings and healings a thousand years ago. Everyone eventually became contemptuous towards those insensible and foolish ways that handled people’s lives like jokes. And that also led to those traditional professions that can’t be explained by science to be deemed as feudalism dross.

 Fortune telling and astrology, once golden industries that could stir up the world, became the most lambasted.

 On a second thought, this kind of thinking may have been too biased. Especially now that Xiao Nanzhu has seen the occult with his very own eyes, he could no longer bring himself to say these antagonistic words again.

 Yet this change in mindset hadn’t managed to convince him to accept the calendar gods’ offer, because he immediately realised that…

 The Huangli Shi has to work for all 365 days! Not even a single! day! off!

 “Well, there are breaks in between work for sure, and the job isn’t that intense——it’s quite a leisure most of the time… Moreover, the contract only starts next year. Everyone is still resting right now and will start work after New Years. The one you met last night was Xiaonian. He is one of the 22 traditional festivals and is in charge of fire… If you have the time, you can also let Chuyi(1st) and Chuer(2nd) help you get accustomed to the workflow as well…”

 Niansi stammered as he took out a comb to tidy up his hair. Xiao Nanzhu silently listened but didn’t show any signs of affirmation. That arrogant attitude of his made it seem as if he was looking for a fight.

 He flipped through the contract with his eyes half-opened. His laidback manner of sitting on the sofa with crossed legs as he smoked effectively concealed his thoughts. Xiao Nanzhu’s jawline gave off a cold feeling. It’s no wonder that people find him hard to get along with if they’re unfamiliar with him. However, reality has proven that Xiao Nanzhu’s personality may be even more difficult to get along with than his appearance let on.

 Niansi sat down with him but didn’t know how to start the topic.

 After all, he’s kind of familiar with Xiao Nanzhu’s temper. He couldn’t do anything about this untamed, wild horse since when he was still young. If he really didn’t want to take on this job, then their work would have to be delayed even further.

 By the time Xiao Nanzhu noticed Niansi secretly observing him from the corner of his eyes, he took out a cigarette, nipped it in between his fingers, and slowly began.

 “Sorry for just now, well… How do I address you?”

 Fiddling with a fan in his hand, Niansi in his green robes paused as he heard Xiao Nanzhu talking to him. He covered his mouth and awkwardly coughed. he then cupped his hands④ and bowed as he spoke courteously.

(Source: Baidu search result)

“I am Niansi. I was in a panic when I came out of the fridge just now. Please pardon my bad manners…”

 Niansi spoke in a pleasant tone as if he was about to sing opera. Nevertheless, with how clean and studious he looked, it was hard to dislike him for his pedantic manners…

 Xiao Nanzhu nodded with an “oh” and couldn’t help but glance at the old Huangli that was hung back on the wall. Right now, the Huangli was flipped to the page of Niansi, which looked about the same as any other day. The only difference was that the person that should have stayed in the painting was here before him.

 Xiao Nanzhu suddenly felt absurd.

 He never have thought he would walk on such a bizarre path when he first came back home, but he guessed he had no better choice left for him anyway. It’s just that… why does this Huangli Shi thing sound so stupid…?

 Xiao Nanzhu detested the name in his heart for awhile but didn’t let it show on his face. He continued to elicit information from Niansi in front of him. Niansi was obviously a naive one as he let loose everything he knew upon hearing Xiao Nanzhu’s questions.

 “Hmm… Calendar gods would stay in the human world when they’re at work for one day and night as part of the cycle, and after that we’d return back to the Huangli and rest for a year… What we usually do is eliminate the evil spirits and disasters that linger in the human world and bring blessings to mankind. But people have since stopped believing in such things… So the scope of our customers has become gradually smaller. We could only depend on foretelling suitable dates for weddings and childbirths to feed ourselves. Of course, us calendar gods can come out even if we’re not working; it just depends on whether we’re willing to… Your grandmother used to call out Yuanxiao and the others every New Years if she couldn’t find any mahjong friends to play with all night, but I guess you wouldn’t have remembered… You were still young at that time—— only about four or five…”

 Niansi seemed excited talking about the past. Xiao Nanzhu listened quietly and found it rather interesting.

 He was actually inclined to take up the job now, but he also wanted to know more about the profession before he gave Niansi a definite answer. Thus, he didn’t interrupt Niansi and declined Situ Zhang’s calls to drink a few times.

 It’s imaginable how Situ Zhang must’ve been hopping around anxiously on the other side of the phone. Xiao Nanzhu smirked to himself for a bit and turned off his phone altogether.

 After all, this is something crucial for his future career. He wanted to be prepared and let Niansi continue to talk more about the workflow.

 It’s no wonder people say that scholarly people have great charisma: they can make everything they say to sound intelligent by simply talking. Truth is, what Niansi knew were nothing more than trivial matters and gossip about the other calendar gods; no proper business came out of his mouth. Actually, Xiao Nanzhu was very serious coming into this, but he unintentionally got lured in by all the gossip.

 “Let me tell you this secret, don’t you tell anybody else, alright?… Actually, Qixi Festival and the one on the 24th of February are on really bad terms with each other, you know the reasons right? It’s all because of their similar names… So don’t mention about Qixi during Valentine’s in two days, or else he will surely turn crazy…”

 Niansi’s advice made Xiao Nanzhu snicker. From there, Niansi introduced to him every single calendar god from Nianwu(5th) until the upcoming Valentine’s Day. However, when it comes to Chuxi, the last day of the year, Niansi skipped it.

 “What about Chuxi? Is he special?”

 Xiao Nanzhu became interested as he saw Niansi hesitate. Niansi quickly put a finger on his lips “shh!”, and snuck up to Xiao Nanzhu’s ear and whispered.

 “Chuxi is different from all of us, I shouldn’t tell you anymore, mn. You’ll know it when you see him, en en……”

 Xiao Nanzhu didn’t bother to ask further seeing Niansi being so stealthy.

 In any case, he’ll meet him in a few days. No matter how difficult he was to get along with, it’ll only just be for a  day. Up until this point, Xiao Nanzhu was convinced to try working as the glorious Huangli Shi for awhile. Niansi also mentioned that he could quit whenever he likes——he just needed to help them find a new boss if he left.

 Because a portion of the Huangli Shi’s income goes to the calendar gods, the quality of the Huangli Shi’s life would directly affect theirs. The few days before the end of the year would be his probationary period. After New Years, they would continue discussing this.

 Night arrived unknowingly after the long talk. Xiao Nanzhu didn’t seem to invite Niansi to stay for dinner, while Niansi knowingly said “I’m going home for dinner. Your grandmother also didn’t provide meals for us last time.”

 He tidied up the contract signed by Xiao Nanzhu before he left But as soon as he was about to go, Xiao Nanzhu suddenly thought of something and called him back, then handed him a tortoise⑤ from the kitchen.

(Source: Baidu search result, soft-shell turtles bite really hard and can dash across the road at very fast speed.)

“This…?”

 Niansi was rather dumbfounded holding this big tortoise. Xiao Nanzhu looked and grinned as he pointed at the Huangli on the wall.

 “Help me give this to Xiaonian and say this is my compensation, so don’t cry anymore. Aren’t turtles much more long-lived than carps? Whaddya say?”

 1. I did my research and apparently, twins can only be detected around 5-6 weeks, provided that the mother did an early scan. I assume the pregnancy was less than 5-6 weeks in, but I’m not sure about quintuplets, that’s amazing!

2. Guangchangwu 广场舞：It also means open-air fitness dancing, it’s a popular hobby among the middle-aged and onwards women (mostly) in China to dance together in the evening or at night in an open space to stay fit and make friends.

3. Shenpo 神婆：Something similar to witch or sorceress. 

4. To cup one’s hand 拱手：This is an important form of etiquette in ancient China. This kind of salutation was formed during the Zhou Dynasty, it has transformed throughout history and there’re different forms of salutations when meeting different kinds of people. 

5. Wangba 王八：This can both mean tortoise or bastard. Usually refers to Chinese soft-shell turtles (鳖) which are really different from the harmless and slow tortoise which can be kept as pets, as seen from calling someone a wangba is a vulgarity suggests how hated and aggressive this animal is. 

This chapter is edited by Noxeru.

Chuxi is finally mentioned by Xiao Nanzhu in this chapter!! Although he still hasn’t made an appearance yet, let me know what you guys think? :))

[aslightstep]

Sorry this is so random, but I saw your tags on that Steve post and his "Sometimes you can't save everyone" line, and it got me thinking. I've finally figured out some of the reasons it rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe it'll line up with what you're thinking. They'd just said they feel guilty/responsible for the deaths in Lagos because of their mistakes (Steve missing the bomb, Wanda doesn't go into it, but I think not controlling the blast and not moving it away from the building). (part 1)

Steve’s lines after seem to ignore that though, and they should find a way to live with people dying sometimes instead of working to not make the mistakes that led to those deaths. I get trying to make sure the guilt doesn’t consume Wanda, but it also shouldn’t be hand waved away. Giving her a “here’s what we can work on so less/no people die from our mistakes” would help Wanda so much more than saying more people would die if you can’t deal with the guilt/what you’re feeling. (part 2)

I don’t know, just wanted to get your thoughts since I love your writing. Thinking of putting together a post to flesh out my reasons, and to rewrite the scene to match what I think Steve should have said. (part 3)

Groundwork: I think my main problem with that line was from my perspective, it sounded weird coming out of Steve’s mouth. And I don’t know how much of that is influenced by 616/Hickmanvengers Steve who ‘uplifts the helpless’ or however that speech went. I’ve never been shy about admitted that I don’t quite understand MCU Steve Rogers, though I try, but I know he’s different. But there’s a certain level of not only pragmatism but moral calculation to that line that I wasn’t expecting and it always just twigged something wrong with me. I don’t disagree with him on principle, either. You do have to accept losses and not let them drive you crazy in that line of work.

But, onto your post, I agree with what you’re saying for the most part, but I also can’t imagine Steve didn’t have that conversation with Wanda at some point. Of course the movie does not show/imply this at all, but still. Urgh, okay, let me try to sort out my own thoughts here. The thing with Wanda is - if she hadn’t done what she did, more people could have died. And like you said, it wasn’t completely her fault (I mean obviously the real blame lies with Crossbones, but you mentioned Steve not seeing the bomb/detonator.) But because she didn’t have full control or because she didn’t have enough training, people died unnecessarily still. Everybody in the movie was trying to protect Wanda for good reason - raking her over the coals for Lagos would help no one. But it also can’t just slide (one of the many problems I have with AoU is that everything slides). Why did it happen, will it happen again, how can we prevent it? Does Wanda need more time and training before she goes out into the field and who decides? Does Cap decide? Who does Cap answer to? Or the Avengers? Does someone need to step in? And from there, the more stringent parts of what the Accords are or could be (since the Accords are rather vague in the movie beyond you will work with some UN body as far as I remember) start to fall into place, but that’s another story. 

I take issue with many things about Wanda and Wanda’s situation in CACW, but just unpacking this scene alone, that series of lines certainly fit the situation - Wanda needed someone to tell her not to beat herself up - but also, idk, Wanda needed to beat herself up. In a healthy way. Does that make sense? In the ‘you can do better and this is how and I’m going to help you’ way that Steve is really good at. I agree that it would have been more constructive (but I also think that line was probably supposed to echo Tony confrontation with Mrs. Spencer.) 

And honestly, like I said, I’m pretty sure Steve did have that conversation with Wanda and we never saw it, but that’s the problem. We never saw it. I’m fine with superheroes accepting losses and processing them and moving on. Policemen do it, firemen do it, military does it. Steve’s not wrong: if they couldn’t do it, they couldn’t do their jobs. I’m not okay with that seemingly being the end of it. 

You can’t just let guilt sit. You’re right; you can’t let it eat you. But that’s not what guilt is for, if you know how to handle it. Guilt/regret is there to set an alarm off in your brain that you’ve messed up somewhere and you need to try to fix it. I’ve never had much patience for the side of Tumblr that lambasts Tony Stark for doing something ‘because he felt guilty’ because yes, while Tony’s guilt can lead to terrible things, on the other hand: Good. That’s what guilt it for. To feel guilty and do nothing isn’t much better than overcompensating for it. 

So yes, absolutely help Wanda process her guilt and her grief and her fear. Don’t let people or herself destroy her for what in the end was a terrible accident. But absolutely let her own up to her mistakes and learn from them. You’re the boss, Steve. This is what you do. 

But this is the MCU. If anyone were allowed to do that the whole thing might explode. 

(Bluntly, it’s an underwritten scene and that’s the real truth of it.)

[manicmustard-blog-blog]

Can there be a positive side to mental-health problems?

Well, it's been about a month...so article-time.  WHAM, BLAMMO, straight out the pot etc.  Nah.  In truth I wasn't sure what to write about as I didn't want to potentially drone on about the fitness or weight-loss routine and I'd prefer to stick to more positive things these days.  Unless of course they involve various customers at my workplace getting abused by a hairy Mexican cucumber called Steve.  In which case, go ahead.  Just take pictures.

So.. Having touched on the issue before of the various mental health issues I've had and still cope with on a day to day basis, I thought I'd actually go against the grain and write about some of the oddly positive effects that I've experienced having lived with clinical depression on and off for most of my adult life as well as psychosis.  Now.  This might seem a bit odd, obviously most articles touching on mental health deal with the negative effects as well as how to cope with day to day issues and all that shit.  But hey, we've read all about those and to be frank most of us have lived with our own mental health issues or most certainly known somebody with them.  So something different then.

Where to start?  Let's start by saying that what I'm about to write is obviously based on my own experiences and deals with my own philosophy on the subject coupled with my own coping strategies.  So it's my perspective.  That doesn't mean I'm not unaware of those that have much more crippling mental health problems than I've ever experienced or those that are dealing with them right now and feel like every day is hell.  This isn't meant to insult anybody or seem unempathic.  It's just my own way of seeing things.  Which you're here for I hope.  If not.  Get out.

So funnily enough, speaking about perspective.  That's one of the things that's changed for me quite considerably over the years.  I've found that as a result of spending various sections of my life utterly depressed and in some cases, incapable, I've learned to enjoy some of the simple things in life and not to take things too seriously.  You could say that I've brainwashed myself to be happy just because I'm not getting repeatedly curb-stomped by life right at this present moment in time, and you'd be partially correct.  But the interesting side-effect is that when shit happens, both mild (some idiot just pushed me out the way) or the more severe (getting cancer) you find yourself able to cope with it more.  Now, obviously some of this can always be attributed to life experience and growing up.  But part of those experiences for me have been getting utterly shat on at various points in my life by both body and mind and funnily enough, they've helped me to adapt and grow.  Also, while I still wish for better things in life, I realised that breaking your soul over the life you think you should be living is a pointless waste of the life you actually are living.  By all means, change what you can and improve, but don't fret over things that are never going to happen or simply out of reach.  It's a waste of mental energy and serves no purpose whatsoever other than to bring you down and make you even less capable of doing what you need to do to survive.

Second thing I've noticed that's improved is empathy and my general understanding of other people.  It's a weird one.  Because when your mind's hit the floor and you've spent some serious time considering whether or not life's actually worth living and if you'll ever be able to hold down a job again or even manage to walk out your front door, you find yourself suddenly not hating other people so much for their weaknesses and failings.  Sure.  The ignorant as shit chav scumbag you have to serve at work who doesn't know even basic manners would be a much more productive member of society if somebody turned him into glue or fed him to a horde of ravenous gerbils...but part of me can't help but think "Fuck.  What type of life has that guy had to become such an utter shitstain?"  Okay.  Maybe I'm confusing empathy with something else but you get where I'm coming from.

"No.  No we don't." - Everyone

Fine.  In short.  People are all flawed.  None of us are perfect and now I've come to terms with what an imperfect and occasionally cuntish person I can be, I've finally realised that the key to happiness is to simply not expect other people to live up to our expectations of what they should be, but to accept them for the lying, hypocritical and beautifully flawed human meatbags that they really are.

Basically every Disney movie ever.

"Too much Dij, too much." - Brain

So yeah.  Empathy covered.  What else?

Oh yeah.  Now this one's a bit personal to me and involves my psychosis I had several years back that had me experiencing complete delusions, visual hallucinations, a general inability to do anything and an overwhelming constant state of near suicidal misery that lasted for the best part of several months.  Oh and of course, the biggest part - the auditory hallucinations.  Aka, voices in my head besides my own.

To explain how ANY of this could have a positive effect, I should explain that in general, the lack of really living at the time as well as the utter lack of joy and lack of interest in ANYTHING coupled with a confusion about my own existence does tie in with the first point.  Perspective.  So yeah, living in such shit times obviously helps you appreciate what it's like to have your mind working normally.  Or relatively normal enough that you can function.

But the main issue is the voices.  Now, before explaining, I should explain what they are and what they were like in the beginning.  Well, they were the first noticable part of the psychosis that I really remember.  I don't actually remember the initial delusions, or the confusion, but I always remember the voices.  I remember how at the moment of breakdown, I suddenly heard friends, family members, all suddenly talking to me as loud as if they were in the room.  All conversing with each other and with me.  Some of them explaining the situation I was in, some trying to convince me that I was dead, others telling me they hated me and wished for my suffering.  Suffice to say.  It was a bit of a headfuck.

Would.  Not.  Recommend.

Now, without rambling on, these voices stayed strong for, well, years.  Even when I started my current job and despite the anti-psychotics, I struggled with voices, delusional thoughts and fantasy day-dreaming merging with reality.  But I managed.  And through coping strategies, I got better at managing them. Finally, I got off the meds and if anything, my thinking has never been clearer. But here's the thing I generally don't mention too often for fear of making people uncomfortable.  But sod it, I'll just say it because it's kinda necessary to make my point... The voices and delusions never totally went away.

Now, the delusions.  They still waft into my thoughts.  But I cope.  I ignore them. I'm firmly enough invested in "this reality" enough so that I discourage or ignore the idea that the universe might be different somewhere and somehow.  They're not overly beneficial, perhaps they make me more imaginative even when it's not necessarily appropriate but hey ho.

The voices however.  Now this is where from my perspective, things have taken an odd turn.  Of course, the negative personalities that seem to gain utter joy from my occasional bad fortune and actively wish me harm and indeed sometimes will it with all their strength are still there, but I've learned to ignore them so much over the years that now it's second nature. As for the positive side?  Well, I remember before the psychosis, I used to think my way through problems or life in general by doing just that.  Thinking about it.  Weighing up pros and cons, looking at the various outcomes and deciding what seems best at the time.  Same shit no doubt that everybody does.  Now though, I do all that but the different voices (or personalities would perhaps be more apt) chime in and give me their perspectives on the matter and actually discuss whatever's on my mind.  With occasional input from me of course.  Of course, occasionally they talk utter shite for their own amusement but to be fair, who doesn't?

Before I finish I should point out that of course I'm aware they're just different aspects of my subconcious.  Not demons.  Or spirits.  But, to be honest, who cares?  They come in useful and seem to help for the most part.  Weirdly enough from my own musings, they occasionally point out things and even ideas or viewpoints that I hadn't or wouldn't have normally been consciously aware of - difficult to explain, because of course, as soon as an idea pops into your head, you're aware of it, but this is different to that.  It's hard to describe, same mechanism probably, but a different way of delivery.  Suffice to say, it's quite different to thinking to yourself and having something occur to you.  But it's a positive, so what's not to like?

Either way.  Perhaps the greatest ability I've learned from all of my experiences so far is to follow the constant advice of many grandparents everywhere and simply try to always look on the bright side of life.  It doesn't mean you can't be cynical, or angry, or even hateful...but it's how quickly you turn it around or turn a shit situation into a manageable situation in your own head.  Because at the end of the day.  That's where it counts.  Not how somebody else feels about something, or how they manage something, but about how you manage to live with something.  You won't always succeed at fixing your head when something goes wrong, but try your damndest anyway and refuse to let the universe win.  That way you can't kick yourself too hard in the balls if and when you mess up.

So anyway.  Hope you've enjoyed reading my somewhat self-indulgent post.  To be totally honest, writing about it for others to read (judge/hate/lambast/poo self laughing at) has been kind of relaxing.  Who knows?  Maybe I am a people person.  I'll have to dig one out the freezer and find out.

[cielb]

and for more bs. wooo. “I think we should all just relax and laugh at how most of Peterson's critics don't get him. “ yes, he snakes out of answering questions in a straight forward way all the time, while in his own book bitching about people doing this. for instance, you can see how he responds when asked if he literally believes the bible, or what he believes “truth,” is. “Jordan Peterson is a clinical psychologist. End of story.” yeah, a clinical psychologist who divulges the personal account of his own fucking patient and slut shames her for allegedly getting raped multiple times.  “He also happens to be erudite in expressing his observations of the human condition to an audience. That does not a political demogogue make. “ but....there’s got to be a but. “But, it seems the average Peterson critic is so ensnared in their politically correct critical social theory narrative that they are incapable of a fair and balanced appraisal.” oh that’s, i see. so lobster boy is an erudite psychologist and his detractors are just snowflakes, okay. “They malign his character simply for his addressing the psychological damage caused by the far left’s political correct thought police and their misguided application of neo-marxist critical social theory” conservatives: SJWS need to stop using buzzwords like “patriarchy,” or “microaggressions,”  also conservatives: anything i disagree with is “neo-marxism/ cultural marxism,” and i won’t explain exactly what that is but is has to do with bossing people around and creating a new order that is unnatural, i guess? thus any criticism by feminists or lgbt rights activists means they’re marxists who want to controllll you not that they want equal rights.  “...to undermine the rights and responsibilities of the individual. Peterson is castigated by these people for identifying the cause and correction of the current widespread psychological damage these people are causing.

Since those who are at the polarized extremes of the political spectrum are mostly incapable of impartial observation,” ah, the good old, us centrists are the more reasonable ones....even though your idea of what the “center,” is are defined relative to whatever culture you happened to be sharted out of and thus assuming moderation is inherently rational is just intellectually lazy. oh, also, yay. nice job blaming minorities, the poor, disabled, and le gays/trans for their problems. great class analysis there. very clever. if we point out obvious disparities in wealth, police brutality, poorer k-12 education, homelessness caused by unaccepting parents, landlord bullshit, etc. that shows discrimination, we’re radical neo-marxists. we’re just feeding a victim mentality. if you just had a better attitude, you wouldn’t be fucking poor, silly! fuckity fuck fuckkkk.  “we should be prepared for quite a bit more Peterson name-calling and character assassination.” he himself has a martyr complex. he’s a white, heterosexual man with a fucking Ph.D., but he has to somehow be a martyr. if that is by defending traditional values with weird pseudointellectual postmodern word salad, and then getting booed by college lefties, than so be it.  like, it’s apparent he has a martyr complex and the fact he is Christain cements it you can see how christians in the u.s. act like they’re persecuted when it’s so obvious they aren’t. ugh.  “We should just laugh at it because all they are really doing is showing how disconnected from humanity they actually are.” you know who’s disconnected from humanity? or at least, female humanity? Jordan B. Peterson. Because he spent so much time talking about a female patient who he paints as having a tumultuous childhood due to being neglected by her father, that in his Freud-esque long debunked psychobabble, he goes on about how that’s the reason she gets drunk and whores around in bars and she was asking for it. Keep in mind this is how he talks in a book he fucking publishes, about a woman who comes to talk to him about how she might have been raped.  THAT is disconnection from humanity.  “In spite of their missionary zeal for social justice through name-calling and character assassination, their observations are mischaracterizations.” The Amazing Atheist and The Bible Reloaded both do great work taking apart his book line by line. TJ Kirk is far from a fucking sjw given he spent years lambasting feminists on youtube, but yeah okay.  “ They are incapable of appraising Peterson fairly. They haven’t cleaned up their own psyches before telling others what to do.” it’s funny because Peterson and other snakes like him will constantly talk about how myopically controlling leftists are, and given the rise of SJWs and political correctness, there’s criticism to be made. but their insistence on traditional gender roles and all this other homophobic bullshit undermines all that criticism because how can you talk about how evillll and controlling the feminazis are when you are nostalgic for a time when men had more power and thus more self worth and how can you bemoan everything is falling to chaos while simultaneously saying leftists are so controlling?  it’s just so hypocritical.  “They will continue to parade their war for social justice while spinning adolescent caricatures of those they fail to understand, and that includes themselves. They don't really understand themselves and that's why they are having such a hard time with Peterson.” to be fair, you have to have a high iq to understand why femininity is chaos. you know....even though it’s mostly white far right young men doing all the domestic terrorism yeah okay the real problem is women and gays have too many rights and i won’t say it aloud cause that’s bigoted but i will dogwhistle the fuck out of it and frame a narrative where that must be the conclusion and then if anyone points it out i will cry victim and my fans will talk about lefties fear mongering.  k bye. 

[theconservativebrief]

If you are not a fan of the critically acclaimed NBC sitcom The Good Place (which you should be! Why aren’t you watching it??), then you may not be familiar with Jameela Jamil.

Jamil plays Tahani al-Jamil, an image-obsessed socialite who lives in her accomplished older sister’s shadow. Recently, however, the actress has also become known as a vocal feminist and body positivity advocate. In the last month alone, Jamil has come after everyone from Cardi B to Iggy Azalea to Khloe Kardashian for advertising “detox teas,” or beverages that are purported to help you lose weight, on Instagram.

For the most part, the media has embraced the portrayal of Jamil as an outspoken advocate for feminist empowerment, a 2018 version of a 2014-era Jennifer Lawrence or a 2016-era Chrissy Teigen. “In an industry that reproduces so many limiting ideas of how women should look, speak, dress and think, it is so refreshing to see an actress speak her mind,” Paper magazine wrote in a profile of Jamil.

Recently, however, that narrative has gotten more complicated. This week, Jamil generated backlash for a BBC op-ed she wrote, along with a series of tweets, which called for Photoshop and airbrushing to be made illegal.

Jamil’s tweets started out innocently enough, pointing out how often magazines airbrush photos of female celebrities in their 40s and 50s while leaving male celebrities untouched. (Jamil has famously refused to let any publications Photoshop images of her.)

An example of Photoshop being weaponised against women: This is how we portray men in their 50s on magazine covers and women in their 50s. Look at the difference. Men who age are sexy in HD. Women mostly just shouldn’t dare age. Men can celebrate the inevitable, we must fear it. pic.twitter.com/XKykaZuiYf

— Jameela Jamil (@jameelajamil) December 2, 2018

One of her anti-Photoshop tweets, however, featured a photo of a glowing Jamil wearing what appears to be makeup, while simultaneously enjoining women to “say no to airbrushing” — a message that many interpreted as a statement that self-love is liberating, provided you’re super hot. Others accused Jamil of exhibiting Tahani-esque levels of privilege and lack of self-awareness. (Jamil has since deleted the tweet.)

Jameela Jamil posting a picture where she looks luminously beautiful with the captain “say no to airbrushing …. I want to look like a person” is so extremely Tahani

— Festive Winter Sea Witch (@theKatriarch) December 2, 2018

Jameela Jamil’s “airbrushing should be illegal” essay reminds me so much of Alicia Keys’s “women should be makeup free” campaign. It’s like they forget they inhabit the very bodies upheld as ideal. pic.twitter.com/zBHdP2YXIL

— Evette Dionne ‍ (@freeblackgirl) December 3, 2018

Some even questioned Jamil’s motives for making body positivity such an integral part of her platform. The response may signal an impending backlash — not just against Jamil, but against celebrities who have used body positivity and female empowerment as a self-branding tactic.

(Jameela Jamil is the Matt McGory of 2018)

— Caroline Moss (@CarolineMoss) December 3, 2018

Although she’s been famous in the UK for years, Jamil has become well-known in the US media fairly recently. A former British “it girl,” she first became famous as a presenter (that’s British for “TV host”) for the TV program T4, as well as the breakfast show (that’s British for “a show that airs in the morning”) Freshly Squeezed. Three years ago, she moved to Los Angeles, reportedly with no intention of starting an acting career, and landed the lead role of Tahani on her very first audition.

Jamil has spoken publicly about body positivity throughout her career. She’s been open about her own personal struggles with body image, such as an eating disorder she grappled with in her teens and her experience being body-shamed by the British press after gaining weight from using steroids for asthma. She has said that her difficulty finding clothes in her size during that time prompted her to launch a size-inclusive collection in 2016 with the UK brand Simply Be, which included sizes 10 to 32 (or US sizes 6 to size 30).

In a 2015 interview, Jamil said she wanted to provide more options for larger women, while simultaneously refusing to call them “plus-size”: “The concept of plus-size is so derogatory and weird. What does that mean? Plus the normal size? It shouldn’t exist anymore,” she told Femail at the time.

In March of this year, Jamil launched the Instagram account I Weigh. In the caption on the inaugural post, Jamil wrote that she was “fucking tired of seeing women just ignore what’s amazing about them and their lives and their achievements, just because they don’t have a bloody thigh gap.” The account now has more than 249,000 followers and features more than 2,000 user-submitted posts from women.

Since then, Jamil has publicly weighed in on a number of issues related to body positivity and cultural beauty standards. Last June, she announced her no-Photoshop policy; in October, she reiterated this stance, sharing unretouched photos from a Marilyn Monroe-inspired photo shoot in which stretch marks on her breasts were visible. Like Teigen and Padma Lakshmi before her, who have also shared photos of their stretch marks, Jamil posted the images along with a message of self-acceptance.

Since she started building her US brand, Jamil has taken aim at celebrities and social media influencers for promoting what she says she views as toxic, body-shaming narratives.

Arguably her highest-profile target has been the Kardashians, most notably Kim Kardashian, who promoted appetite-suppressing lollipops by the Instagram weight-loss company Flat Tummy Co. “No. Fuck off. No. You terrible and toxic influence on young girls,” Jamil wrote on Twitter back in May. (Kardashian did not issue a public response.)

In an August interview with podcast host Krishnan Guru-Murthy, Jamil slammed the Kardashians again, referring to them as “double agents” for the “patriarchy.” “It’s a wolf in sheep’s clothing: Just because you look like a woman, we trust you and we think you’re on our side, but you are selling us something that really doesn’t make us feel good …. You’re selling us self-consciousness,” she told Guru-Murthy.

While some criticized Jamil for taking issue with the Kardashians rather than the patriarchy itself, Jamil attempted to clarify her comments on Twitter, specifying that she wasn’t criticizing the Kardashians specifically, but the beauty-obsessed culture they were endorsing.

No. Fuck off. No. You terrible and toxic influence on young girls. I admire their mother’s branding capabilities, she is an exploitative but innovative genius, however this family makes me feel actual despair over what women are reduced to. pic.twitter.com/zDPN1T8sBM

— Jameela Jamil (@jameelajamil) May 16, 2018

MAYBE don’t take appetite suppressors and eat enough to fuel your BRAIN and work hard and be successful. And to play with your kids. And to have fun with your friends. And to have something to say about your life at the end, other than “I had a flat stomach.” pic.twitter.com/XsBM3aFtAQ

— Jameela Jamil (@jameelajamil) May 16, 2018

Last month, Jamil publicly lambasted Cardi B, whose latest Instagram post had endorsed another detox tea; she also criticized Iggy Azalea, Amber Rose, and Khloe Kardashian for promoting similar weight loss products. “GOD I hope all these celebrities all shit their pants in public, the way the poor women who buy this nonsense upon their recommendation do,” she wrote.

(As Vox previously reported, many of these teas have a laxative effect; taking laxatives can lead to cramping, indigestion, and dehydration, which makes them an unsafe and unhealthy means of losing weight).

They got Cardi B on the laxative nonsense “detox” tea. GOD I hope all these celebrities all shit their pants in public, the way the poor women who buy this nonsense upon their recommendation do. Not that they actually take this shit. They just flog it because they need MORE MONEY pic.twitter.com/OhmTjjWVOp

— Jameela Jamil (@jameelajamil) November 24, 2018

Cardi B, for her part, told Jamil, “I will never shit my pants because there’s public bathrooms….and ooh, bushes.” Emboldened by Cardi’s response, Jamil leaned into the joke further, posting a video of herself pretending to chug a detox tea, then rushing to the bathroom.

In the past, Jamil (who in her Twitter bio refers to herself as a “feminist-in-progress”) has been accused of harboring some anti-feminist views, specifically when it comes to women she appears to deem overly sexually provocative.

In the past, she’s called out Miley Cyrus for her “overt use of her sexuality and her vagina to gain a platform”; in a column for the UK website Company, she also criticized Rihanna for posing pantsless on Instagram, imploring her to “put away her minge” (British for female genitalia).

In a blog post, Jamil also accused Beyoncé of “behaving like a (Bloody amazingly beautiful) stripper” with her “buttocks spread apart by a pole…air-humping a piano” in the music video for “Flawless.” Following backlash, Jamil deleted the post — but an archived version is still viewable. Jamil was also accused of erasing the work of black women like body positive activist Stephanie Yeboah, who claims that Jamil once quoted her in an interview without attribution.

“She loves low-hanging fruit, especially when it comes to women who make a living by being sexual in any form”

In an October 2018 op-ed for Pajiba, writer Kayleigh Donaldson took aim at what she referred to as Jamil’s “diluted version of body positivity,” one that does not necessarily include all women of all different sizes: “She loves low-hanging fruit, especially when it comes to women who make a living by being sexual in any form,” Donaldson wrote, noting Jamil’s previous criticism of Beyonce, Cyrus, and Rihanna.

Donaldson also questioned whether Jamil, as a conventionally attractive, straight-size woman, is necessarily the best representative of the body positivity community. “It would be silly of us to pretend Jamil didn’t get where she is today if she weren’t astoundingly beautiful and the ‘right’ size for American TV,” Donaldson writes.

Jamil herself seems at least somewhat aware of her own shortcomings as a representative for the body positivity movement. In an interview with Marie Claire, Jamil bemoaned the fact that body positivity has “become a marketing slogan, and that’s not what it was originally for. It was supposed to be inclusive, and again now, it’s been taken over by very slender, often Caucasian women.”

Indeed, one of the most common critiques of the body positivity movement is that its primary representatives have very little in common with the vast majority of women. “For instance, a conventionally attractive Instagram model clapping back at her haters, or a literal supermodel who feels the need to publicly answer her anonymous, powerless social media critics. Or that supermodel’s cousin who is a hero to women everywhere for displaying one single fat roll,” as Amanda Mull wrote in a Vox piece.

Kristen Bell and Jameela Jamil in The Good Place. Colleen Hayes/NBC

To be fair, the body positivity movement has gotten (slightly) more diverse over the past few years, with women of color and LGBTQ women slowly becoming more visible. And as a woman of Indian and Pakistani descent, Jamil contributes a welcome perspective to a movement that, as she pointed out in Marie Claire, is still pretty damn white.

Still, it’s easy to see why a woman who doesn’t look like Jamil (or Teigen or Emily Ratajkowski, a literal bikini model) would be skeptical of their messages of self-empowerment and body positivity. If you look great without makeup, then it’s easy to say that airbrushing and filters and Photoshop should be illegal; and if the rest of your culture loves your body, then it’s easy to love your body, too.

In addition to building a brand as a body positivity advocate, Jamil has also garnered fans for her goofy, eminently relatable persona. She frequently refers to bodily functions in interviews and has referred to herself as a “potty mouth” and a “constantly inappropriate person,” filling something of the Cool Girl vacuum left by Jennifer Lawrence, who rose to A-list status in large part by talking openly about butt plugs and dropping F-bombs at awards shows.

(In a somewhat similar vein, Jamil also frequently insists to journalists that she was awkward and unattractive as an adolescent, a time-honored narrative of ugly-ducking-turned-swan right out of the Victoria’s Secret model playbook.)

It remains to be seen whether this strategy will backfire for Jamil, as it ultimately did on some level for Lawrence, who was subject to much debate over whether her frat bro persona was little more than schtick. If the backlash against Jamil’s anti-Photoshop tweets is any indication, it certainly seems like a possibility.

However well-intentioned celebrities may be, the privileges afforded by beauty and wealth and status are simply too great to allow most of them to retain a cool and relatable image for very long.

But for now, it appears that Jamil’s lean into Cool Girl feminism is still working: The media has lauded Jamil for her tweets and her “refreshing” take on celebrity and body image. More than one effusive reporter has gushed that they wish they could be Jamil’s best friend. So for now, that’s the pop cultural role she primarily occupies in the public consciousness — even if she arguably has more in common with the Kardashians themselves than she does with the women who retweet her takedowns.

Original Source -> How Jameela Jamil built a brand around body positivity

via The Conservative Brief

[askjonfreeman]

Comey and the News Media

I'm not going to be talking about anything that's particularly obscure today.  It's not like healthcare or anything complex, everything I'm saying here is stuff that you can easily find with a single search.  That's why i'm not gonna post links. The reason I'm posting this, then, is simply to illustrate and ridicule of mainstream news' marriage with the regressive left (by that i mean the numbskulls that played right into Trump's hands during the election). So, here's the punchline and supporting clauses, just so you know where i'm going - The regressive left and the news outlets are showing outrage over the firing of FBI Director Comey because (I suspect) they fear that Trump will go after Hillary for TREASON    - in case you already forgot, Hillary (and generally everyone else who tried to promote her) blamed Comey for the election loss ... i suspect Comey was the patsy    - Trump isn't an idiot, if you look at his actions and "stupid things he says" he actually gets what he wants by making key gullible people angry    - If Hillary does get indicted for Treason (plenty of evidence) it would be ruinous for the regressive left. FLASHBACK Immediately after the election, Trump gave his customary acceptance speech, offered the usual concise polite letter to the defeated opponent, etc.  Hillary's camp barely gave a concession speech (it seemed apparent they didn't even have one ready) then fell silent for a week.  THEN ... Hillary came out and blamed FBI Director Comey for the loss.  As you remember: he launched 2 investigations against Hillary, both of which were basically a farce.  Tons of incriminating evidence with all the leaks and everything then "oops, we won't proceed".  This happened about 2 months out, then roughly a week or two before (the second attempt was just embarrassing because they had obscene thousands of emails to sift through and claimed they did it in under a week. ... So to recap: Hillary was mad at Comey because he launched an incomplete TREASON investigation.  (instead of ... say ... Hillary lost because she was a horrible candidate) Since then, because the news media was in bed with the DNC (see also leaked debate questions via CNN), they kinda hopped on board to paint Comey responsible and a bad person.  When he got put on the congressional panel, the media covered it because Comey is a bad person. So, Trump fires him for these mishandled investigations (along with everything else). ... And now people are angry. The most sad example is the Cobert show.  He tells his liberal audience that Trump fired Comey and the audience cheers.  Then Cobert has to correct and re-educate his audience why it's suddenly a bad thing. THE REAL QUESTION IS WHY Biggest thing I've learned is not to take the news at face value.  Always assume there's a motivation behind why the editors are picking the stories they choose to run. "But, Jon!  The news plays an important part in our society by telling us unbiased information!" - correction, the news has an important RESPONSIBILITY to do so; largely they don't.  Much like everyone has the responsibility not to murder each other (see also Chicago daily murder rate). I'm not one to be content with "because they're idiots."  It's tempting to say it's part of a brainless "anti-trump on everything" mentality.  But that doesn't really get you much of anywhere and relies solely on reinforcing stereotypes.  So for a blatant flipflop of suddenly trying to defend someone that they blamed the election on ... over something that Trump ultimately has every right to do ... there's probably an ulterior unspoken motive. MY GUESS AS TO WHY Trump said pre-election (and actually within the first week of election, once) that he would indict Hillary for Treason.  (Again, this isn't without reason, unless you played blind to all the corruption in the DNC email leaks.)  He retracted the statement shortly after ... but my suspicion is that this was simply a politically savvy move. You have to remember that Trump's team has been expertly manipulating the VERY GULLIBLE media. - Brief example: I believe Spicer was acting the Patsy when he made the holocaust statements.  Trump wanted to get in and take out Assad after he used the gas weapons that Hillary said he didn't have.  But if he just went in, the media would cook this against him as a warmonger.  So ... Spicer makes the dumb comment.  Now ... the news media all lambasts Spicer ... which means they all spread the news that Assad did use gas attacks which puts him on par with Hitler.  ... ultimately that's a Trump win with dealing on Syria, because ALMOST NOBODY has criticized his use of force against Assad. - Other example is releasing his tax returns to the most viewer hungry incompetent reporter on the planet. Being said ... Trump lets his committee build up this massive case against Comey.  He also gives the media a chance to relive their "Hillary didn't lose the election, Comey did" rhetoric (and during this whole time they also kinda destroy any credibility to EVIL RUSSIAN HACKERS).  So now that the media is kinda stuck with pants down, Comey's no longer in there. IF Comey was acting the patsy in botching the investigation (it's been suspected he did so in a weird attempt to paint Hillary as innocent), then that would make him a DNC stooge.  If he was a DNC stooge, working under Trump, he would have botched any further investigations against the DNC.  (given they rigged the primaries against Bernie and all that) - With Comey now OUT of the FBI (now with good reason of incompetence put on public display) this means Trump will appoint a new director. - With Comey gone, you can bet that a lot of other FBI agents will be receiving pink slips as well - With the FBI cleaned, that means Hillary can be indicted and PROSECUTED for TREASON If the regressive left's former champion of Identity Politics falls into the meat grinder of a trial for TREASON ... that kinda destroys the entire movement.  (i.m.o. that's a great thing, the whole movement is nothing but an excuse for bullying fueled by Marxist contempt and neo-puritan witchhunts) - Frankly, it'll also make everyone who voted for Hillary feel embarrassed to.  but we'll burn that bridge when we cross it. To me, this is why I think the left is now suddenly upset over Comey's loss of job.  They fear for the structure of their movement and the trial of Hillary. Sorry for the long post, have a political potato https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/73/af/40/73af40e2926e6ea0f129a15d3bc43195.jpg

[theconservativebrief]

Speaking to reporters briefly at the White House, Donald Trump repeated the most consequential of the many lies of his presidency — that the federal government did a “fantastic job” in its response to last year’s Hurricane Maria catastrophe that killed nearly 3,000 people in Puerto Rico.

Trump defends the government response in Puerto Rico the day after Puerto Rico raised its death toll from Hurricane Maria to 2,975.

“I think we did a fantastic job in Puerto Rico … I think most of the people in Puerto Rico really appreciate what we’ve done.” (via ABC) pic.twitter.com/r3K2ylTB9w

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 29, 2018

That’s a line that Trump has maintained ever since he made a belated visit to the island after two straight weekends golfing, followed by the observation that “it’s been incredible the results that we’ve had with respect to loss of life.”

In fact, the results they had with respect to the loss of life were awful. Awful in terms of the sheer number of dead, but also awful in terms of the reluctance from the very beginning to deliver an accurate death count. That the disaster turned out to be deadlier even than Hurricane Katrina is shocking, and the fact that it took the government until this week to finally acknowledge that fact is an entirely separate shock.

And it’s a reminder that while Trump’s time in office has shown that the macroeconomy can remain remarkably robust in the face of a president who has no idea what he’s doing, there are other aspects of national affairs where this is not the case.

Trump is a president who can’t even properly execute a relatively simple presidential task like leading the national mourning for the late Sen. John McCain in an appropriate way. Faced with something genuinely difficult like a strong hurricane hitting an island whose electrical infrastructure was already in rocky shape, he just totally failed with catastrophic consequences.

Trump’s instinct from Day 1 has been to simply turn the island’s devastation into another front in culture-war politics, a strategy that has helped keep his political career alive despite his lack of substantive command of the job.

The rest of us just have to pray for good luck.

That Trump spends an almost inhuman amount of time watching cable television is something we now all take for granted as part of the background noise of our lives. What’s often forgotten is the role that Trump’s preference for television over proper briefings played in creating the crisis.

But back in 2017, Hurricanes Harvey and Irma were massive cable television events that dominated coverage on all the networks. Hurricane Maria, by contrast, was relatively invisible on cable, according to reporting from Dhrumil Mehta at FiveThirtyEight.

“People on TV news shows spoke significantly fewer sentences about Hurricane Maria than about Hurricanes Harvey and Irma,” he writes, and “the spike in conversation about Puerto Rico right as the hurricane hit was also much smaller than the spike in mentions of Texas and Florida.”

Cable producers surely had their reasons for this. But something anyone in the media could tell you is that cable producers’ news judgment is not an infallible guide to the substantive importance of various stories. In particular, a broad range of issues — potentially including natural disasters in outlying US territories — have an asymmetrical quality to them. If handled appropriately, most people won’t care that much; but if botched, it eventually becomes a big deal.

This is why presidents have traditionally relied upon staff and the massive information-gathering capabilities of the American government for information rather than letting television set the agenda. Trump has a different philosophy, however, and spent the post-storm Saturday glued to his television and letting the hosts of Fox & Friends drag him into an ill-advised Twitter spat with NBA star Steph Curry and various NFL players.

Because Trump wasn’t paying attention, the situation evolved into a catastrophe. And because the situation evolved into a catastrophe, it eventually ended up on television.

The Washington Post reports that by Monday, Trump “was becoming frustrated by the coverage he was seeing on TV.”

By the time Trump’s sluggish response became a national issue, the White House was full of excuses.

Trump emphasized in public remarks last fall that Puerto Rico is “an island surrounded by water,” which makes relief difficult.

An anonymous administration official told the Washington Post that “the Department of Defense, FEMA and the federal government are having to step in to fulfill state and municipal functions that we normally just support.”

Officials have also cited the Posse Comitatus Act as a complicating factor that helps explain why Trump was so much slower to dispatch assistance to Puerto Rico than the Obama administration was to send help to Haiti after it was devastated by an earthquake in 2010.

Last but by no means least, the reality is that this was a really big disaster. The storm was huge and powerful, and it knocked out electricity and communications — that’s hard to deal with.

This is all true, and it goes to show that being president of the United States is a difficult job. But all of the issues that the federal response is wrestling with were known in advance. The world had days of warning that a hurricane was heading toward Puerto Rico. The perilous state of the island’s electrical grid has been apparent for years — as has the weak financial health of its electrical utility and municipal governments.

A president who was focused on his job could have asked in advance what the plan was for a hurricane strike on Puerto Rico. He would have discovered that since Puerto Rico is part of the United States, FEMA is the default lead agency, but it’s the US military that has the ships and helicopters that would be needed to get supplies into the interior of a wrecked island. And he could have worked something out.

Instead, he didn’t get worked up about Puerto Rico until more than a week after the storm hit, when he saw the mayor of San Juan lambasting him on television. He lashed out with his usual playbook — one that will only make things worse.

The substantive problem that Trump — and America — is now facing is that you can’t go back in time and do the preparatory work that should have been done. You can’t pre-position satellite phones, schedule timely visits from top administration officials, or quickly dispatch ships and helicopters once you’re starting with an eight-day lag. The best you can do is admit you were too slow and throw everything you’ve got at it.

But admitting wrongdoing isn’t part of Trump’s playbook.

Defensiveness and counterpunching are. So instead of fixing things, Trump got into a fight with the mayor of San Juan and inflected his attacks on her with some ugly racial implications.

…Such poor leadership ability by the Mayor of San Juan, and others in Puerto Rico, who are not able to get their workers to help. They….

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017

…want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort. 10,000 Federal workers now on Island doing a fantastic job.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 30, 2017

The Puerto Rico debate then got embroiled in America’s ongoing debate over whether the real problem is the president being racist, or liberals being too eager to accuse white people of racism. Since most Americans are white — and since white people are overrepresented among voters, and white voters are further overrepresented in the congressional map — this political argument over racism arguably helps Trump politically, and thus solved the political downside to having botched the response to a huge disaster.

Now, nearly a year later, Trump just insists that everything is fine, as if the sheer force of denial can make problems go away.

In the intervening months, we’ve seen the botched implementation of the cruel family separation policy, a tariff war with China that has no clear goals, a weird international crisis related to Montenegro’s NATO membership, an inability to get the White House flags flown at half-staff to recognize the death of a war hero senator, and dozens of other examples of an administration that simply isn’t up to doing the job it was hired to do.

To a perhaps surprising extent, it turns out that the basic machinery of the American government continues to more or less function under these circumstances, and with some reasonable people tapped to run the Federal Reserve, the national economy manages to keep chugging along nicely as well.

But things happen in life — sometimes very bad things — that test a president’s mettle, and we saw in Puerto Rico that Trump isn’t up to the test. Bismarck supposedly said that God has a special providence for fools, drunks, and the United States of America. If we’re lucky, he’ll be proven right, and nothing much else bad will happen for the next three years. If not, buckle your seat belts.

Original Source -> Trump’s continued indolent response to Hurricane Maria is our worst fears about him come true

via The Conservative Brief

[theconservativebrief]

The second season of The Handmaid’s Tale was, in almost every way, a marked improvement on the first. It was bolder in its storytelling, more incisive with its character arcs, and knitted together with stronger thematic underpinnings.

Without Margaret Atwood’s book to fall back on, for the most part, the series pulled back just a bit (literally, in the case of the camera, which dropped more often into wide shots) to examine the ways totalitarian societies hollow from the inside out, taking and taking and taking, until they become the only way of life you know. It was as timely as season one, but in a very different way, less triumphal and certain of the power wielded by large groups of people raising their voices as one.

It was also so, so, so much harder to watch, in a way that maybe sort of broke the show.

This is the paradox of series like The Handmaid’s Tale. Sometimes, making your show better can simultaneously make it worse, can expose the flaws in the template that were always there that viewers were better able to overlook when there were more obvious and glaring flaws to point to.

Make no mistake: The second season of The Handmaid’s Tale will be very high up on my year-end “best of TV” list, and I feel it made only very minor mistakes. (Mistakes that, sadly, include the very last scene of the season, leaving a bad taste in the mouth.)

But I’m more worried than ever — and I was already pretty worried — that the series has no long-term plan beyond rubbing viewers’ noses in misery. And worse, even if it does have a plan to alleviate the sorrow, embarking on such a plan might be antithetical to the spirit of the show, breaking it even more.

Well, unless you’re Fred Waterford. Hulu

The first two seasons of The Handmaid’s Tale form a loose diptych, mirroring and subverting each other in fascinating ways. They’re about survival in the midst of dystopia, about the idea that those who are oppressed continue to find ways to live and hope, even when doing so seems pointless. My guess — more of my hope, really — is that by the end of the show’s run, we will realize this was a “first chapter,” of sorts, as the show pivots to a new chapter about how unsustainable the theocratic hellscape of Gilead is.

But the first season kept stepping back to remind viewers, “Hey, this is a TV show.” Pop songs would turn up on the soundtrack with weird regularity. Handmaids would stride toward the camera in formation, in ways that seemed designed to underline their force as a potential army against their oppressors. It was laced through with hope and triumphalism, with a sense that the series was always about five seconds away from having star Elisabeth Moss flex her bicep in a Rosie the Riveter pose.

This stuff was easy to point to as a problem with the series. After all, the world the Handmaids live in is one that offers little hope or triumph for them. They’re held as rape slaves by a theocratic patriarchy, and even if they theoretically outnumber their oppressors, they’re systemically kept down by a government that believes them to be little more than chattel.

But the more season two wore on, the more it stripped away the hope and the triumphalism, the more I realized that these flaws were part of why the show was able to break out in its first season. It’s similar to the way that Mad Men’s first season was riddled with lots of ridiculous reminders of how different the ’60s were, which critics could point to as flaws, but viewers could welcome as punctures in the show’s immersive nature.

It’s really easy to get lost in Handmaid’s Tale, which is sumptuously designed and filmed at every level. It all but invites you into its space, through those frequent, eerie close-ups, shot with wide-angle lenses to blur out the backgrounds. Hearing pop music deployed as a clumsy metaphor for not losing hope is a great way to break the spell, to lure the viewer back to reality, where things are not this bad. Not yet.

And in season one, early in the Donald Trump administration, it was easy for progressives watching The Handmaid’s Tale to believe that hope and triumphalism could exist side by side with worry and sadness. In season two, that was harder to believe, as it became clear that the actions of Trump, even if he is booted from office before 2025, even if he’s booted from office tomorrow, won’t take years or even decades to overturn, but likely generations. The few times hope punctured the Handmaid’s Tale bubble — one time featuring Oprah Winfrey herself — felt more like dispatches from another universe than ever before.

And The Handmaid’s Tale kept accidentally releasing episodes that directly seemed to comment on what the administration had done just that week, including an episode about Gilead’s squabbles with Canada (in the wake of Trump’s lambasting of Canadian leader Justin Trudeau) and then another in which June’s daughter, Hannah, is ripped from her arms, which aired almost directly in the midst of the family separation crisis at the US’s southern border.

None of this is the show’s fault, of course, nor is the frequently clumsy marketing surrounding products meant to tie into it. But they all increase the noise around the show, which can make it harder to see the series for whatever it still is. (This, again, is reminiscent of what happened to Mad Men.)

And what the show has become is, in essence, a horror series. All of the hope in season one has been ground out of the show. Its shift from close-ups to wide shots in many episodes underlines the ways all of these characters are at once trapped by Gilead and a part of it, unable to escape their own complicity.

The show weaponizes what we know to be true about television — there will always be a status quo for the characters to return to, most regular characters have “plot armor” that keeps them safe — and it uses it to remind us, over and over again, that if you had to live through these truths, unable to change or evolve, it would be an unending horror.

And in that sense, perhaps, it has become a kind of progressive Walking Dead. That show crystallized conservative fears about America under Obama by depicting small communities of stalwart traditionalists being beset by hordes of outsiders.

But where The Walking Dead could always fall back on metaphor — I might be a progressive, but I love zombie movies and can enjoy them purely on the level of genre — The Handmaid’s Tale can’t. It keeps trying to make Gilead a metaphor for reality in a way that would crystallize progressives’ fears about Trump while allowing just enough remove to keep watching. But reality keeps refusing to be made metaphorical.

June goes on the run. Hulu

The final moments of season two of The Handmaid’s Tale don’t seem to radically shift the series’ status quo. Indeed, they seem to underline just how hard it will be for the series to run indefinitely with that status quo in place. Sooner, rather than later, and maybe even right now, that status quo will become untenable.

But the more I thought about those final moments, the more I came to realize that they really do change the show’s status quo considerably, should the series follow through on it. Up until those final moments, the resistance to Gilead within the series was mostly whispered about and in the extreme background of the story. At the end of season two, it steps out into the light, in a way that suggests this is where the story will pivot going forward. June will find a way to take up arms against Gilead, will become a revolutionary, a resistance fighter, maybe even a “terrorist.”

But this, too, might be against the spirit of the show.

To be clear, I’m not precious about the Atwood novel. I think it is a remarkable feat of literature, but an ongoing series adaptation of it is inevitably going to have to widen the scope of what is, ultimately, a very claustrophobic book. It’s going to have to world-build and add character arcs and introduce its own new characters who can stand alongside those from the novel. (The lattermost of these is something the series still struggles with.) And even in the book, it’s clear that Gilead eventually falls, though it happens way off-page.

What strikes me as a “problem,” however, is the idea that June herself might be instrumental to the collapse of Gilead. It’s not against the novel, which ends June’s story on one of literature’s most famous cliffhangers, since there, the future of Offred (we don’t know her pre-Gilead name in the book) is so unknown to us. For all we know, she started making homemade Molotov cocktails and burning down whole cities.

But Offred/June is a character defined by her normalcy and by how horrifying her “normal life” has become, by the idea that in some other life, she might have lived a “Tale” of long, rainy Sundays and seeing her daughter off to college and finally a hard-earned retirement.

Making that woman into a revolutionary hero feels like a difficult leap. And every time I’ve talked to someone who works on the series’ writing staff, they’ve referred to June as a “hero,” not in the sense of her being the protagonist (and, thus, “our hero”) but often in the sense of her building toward some great destiny.

That said, it’s basically what the TV show has to do to survive at this point. (Though add me to the chorus of TV critics calling for the show to set a hard and fast end date in season four or five.) As much as I find the twisted dynamics within the show’s central settings intriguing (especially when they involve the remarkable Yvonne Strahovski slowly awakening to the oppression she submitted to live under), making the series stumble through them for many more seasons would exhaust it and tarnish its legacy.

Sending June into the midst of the resistance could work as a way to find new stories to tell within this world, and could also find a way to re-inject a sense of the hope that season two abolished back into the storytelling.

But that would, in the end, cut against what made season two so remarkable and so hard to watch. Those wide shots took The Handmaid’s Tale away from just one woman’s story and turned it into a country’s story, into a tale of what happens when you become complicit in monstrosity by accidents of history. I’d say that story is timely, but it always is. The show’s trick will be seeing if it can find a way to make a story of burning that system to the ground just as vital. Stories of struggle, of unending doom are easy to tell on television. Stories of release are much, much harder.

The Handmaid’s Tale is available on Hulu.

Original Source -> The Handmaid’s Tale season 2 was masterful. But it may have broken the show.

via The Conservative Brief