#and i have to explain how there actually exists a sort of objective reality

[sgkjd]

ppl sometimes say to me "u think you're always right" and i sit there confused because yes? i usually AM right. because i have researched the topic more than you, and i have thought through both arguments and counterarguments before speaking up. moreover, my anxiety and fear of being misunderstood simply doesn't let me speak anything out loud which i haven't thought 150% through. so technically yes, i am more right? i don't understand what's the problem? i'm not talking about my personal opinion though? i'm just stating the facts? and the facts tend to be something that's "right"? don't they?

[system-of-a-feather]

Literature Reading and Discussion

(These are informal readings, take aways and just thoughts I have on interesting articles that I think were worth sharing. My comments are developed AS I read them, cause I always talk to myself and the article while I read them. This is just literally how I annotate literature papers, so read it like a live blog of sorts; people are welcome to read and discuss and comment)

Article: Dissociative identity disorder as a wide range of defense mechanisms in children with a history of early childhood trauma

First things first, I'm actually surprised on how antiquated the description of DID's "general characteristics" is in this article even if it is from 2019. The sources that the section connects to is, however, another Polish article and the opening states that DID is not really talked about, diagnosed, or researched much in Poland so I think the antiquated information might be reflective of that and the locality.

"A case of a patient has been reported, who menstruated for the whole month because her alters had different period dates"

Call me a skeptic, but while I do believe that the patient genuinely believes that, I almost feel more like that's a menstrual issue unrelated to DID but is being attributed to DID.

"Another example is the movie The Three Faces of Eve based on a real story of a woman switching between three different personalities"

I could have sworn that it was found that it was not a real story. I'm starting to side eye the general nature of this article (which the class I was taking did NOT talk explicitly on DID here) but I am interested in the talk on etiology so I'm sticking through.

Petty thing, I dislike how much DID is called a "disease". Again this is originally a Polish literature review and thus translated so maybe its that, its not explicitly BAD per se but I dislike it.

The Psycho-analytic Model

"[..] This theory assumes that alters develop not as a result of a traumatic event as such, but due to defense mechanisms that are designed to protect the individual from dangerous content[1]. This model refers to Freud's views presented in his Studies on Hysteria[10]. [..]"

I'm sorry its hard for me to take this model suggestion seriously when its based on / refers to Freud's weirdness and "Hysteria".

"Splitting is a natural psychological process, occurring mainly in infants, which allows them to separate good from evil."

God, I'm barfing in white western dualism.

"When a child is constantly subjected to traumatic experiences, they begin to overuse this mechanism even in non-threatening situations, which allows them to create two disparate worlds. This leads to the formation of new alter personalities which protect the child against the trauma[1,9]."

See, now that I can get behind. I don't like the "good vs evil" and how that inherently relates to shit (probably a translation issue or more likely Freud being weird and white) but this checks out.

"According to Freud, the primary process, unlike the secondary process, has no cause-and-effect relations, opposites, and time, and is characterized by coexisting contradictions. Its task is to relieve the tension as quickly as possible by creating images of an object that satisfies the need. There is also no distinction between fantasy and reality, which seems to explain why alters do not find it contradictory to have a different sex, race or age than the original personality"

Okay so I think Freud lost me because I don't understand the mechanism outside of a symbolic manner and I might be trying to find more of an understanding of the "process" in terms of an actual neurobiological framework than a philosophical / hypothetical / symbolic framework when it doesn't exist. If someone thinks they get the proposed concept, feel free to inform me cause this part lost me.

However I do find the proposition that "no distinction between fantasy and reality" is kind of an interesting point to think about. I've heard some stuff about a relationship between dissociation and psychosis so, kind of interesting.

"The psychoanalytical model, therefore, suggests that the development of DID requires two components: trauma and fantasy. This theory, however, is not perfect, because it does not explain all clinical symptoms"

Ah the brother to "fantasy prone" debate. I honestly need to go over the article at some point that debunks fantasy proneness in people with DID cause while I don't believe in the iatrogenic model (or at least that it is the cause of MOST cases; I can see it being the cause of SOME cases) I do know a lot of people with DID who are REALLY fantasy prone; obviously thats my peer / personal experience and I have a biased sample size so it could just be me, but its something I've always been meaning to go over and look back on.

The Auto-Hypnotic Model

"Bliss even goes as far as to say that multiple personality is a form of autohypnosis and that other symptoms of the disease, such as changes in breathing rate, irregular menstruation, and palpitations are manifestations of anxiety"

Ehhh first things first, STILL doubting the "irregular menstruation" as a relevant or related symptom to DID. Beyond that, I feel like the differences and changes between alters is WAY too much to just account for it as "manifestations of anxiety".

"Overused, it interferes more and more with the individual's memory, sense of the Self, and normal ability to cope in the real world. The changes can range from short episodes of amnesia to the emergence of alter personalities which can take control of the patient's body."

Honestly I don't know enough about the neurobiology / neuropsychology of actual hypnosis and how to sparse it from the sensationalized understanding of hypnosis to actually have any real comment on it. I feel a bit skeptical, but I also do think there is some value in it? Skeptical none the less though.

"Criticism of this theory rests in the fact that it equates hypnotizability with susceptibility to dissociation. Some studies indicate that these processes are not synonymous, because although some people who are highly susceptible to dissociation are also susceptible to hypnosis, not all hypnotizable persons are able to dissociate"

Yeah that was going to be my critique thanks article for putting words to my ambiguous sense of "ehh somethings off".

The Developmental Model

"Research shows that people with DID have a period of special sensitivity during which traumatic events can lead to the formation of a multiple personality. This period falls between the ages of a few months to 9/10 years. Processes that occur in normally developing children, which, when disrupted, may lead to the formation of alter personalities"

I do like the sound of this thus far. I'm pretty sure this was a foundational perspective in the ToSD

"Imagination and fantasy allow children to project their own personality onto objects and situations[1]. It has been suggested that this may contribute to the blurring of the boundaries between reality and fantasy and the emergence of alter personalities in DID[1,7,10]."

"Yeah of the three so far this is my favorite" I say as the person deeply interested in developmental psychopathology and the general idea that everything goes back to childhood and critical periods /hj

"Another factor promoting the formation of alters may be the fact that children endow their plush toys or dolls with life and personality traits."

Hahaha me fr fr.

"Many adult patients claim that imaginary companions were models for their alter personalities. What is more, alters themselves often admit that they had been created as imaginary friends and later acquired their own lives as a result of trauma[1]."

COUGHS LOUDLY AT CREATED ALTERS / HEADMATES / PARTS COUGH COUGHS LOUDLY

"The construct of behavioral states of consciousness assumes that people are born as potential multiple personalities, and it is only in the course of normal development that these personalities consolidate and integrate into a single Self. Research shows that the behavior of newborns is composed of separate behavioral states, manifesting themselves, among others, through different motor activities, eye movements, facial expressions or skin color. This assumption shows that some of children's most important developmental tasks are to consolidate the Self, work out a sense of one's identity, and learn to smoothly transition from one behavioral state to the next."

OK this section I really do like and have thoughts on. FIRSTLY the word "assumes" is just what I mean with the fact that "everyone fuses into one" is an ASSUMPTION not a fact and even in that assumption, that the task is consolidation of Self. I DO agree with that, however the last sentence of this section I feel best leaves space for the fact that the consolidation of Self doesn't necessarily mean to a single version of Self. If the purpose of the consolidation of Self is to 1) work out ones identity and 2) smoothly transition from one behavioral state to the next; assuming both are met in healthy ways without full integration / consolidation (as is promoted and supported by cultural and social systems in non white non western cultures), there is no reason to assume that an individual would HAVE to fuse into one to meet the important developmental milestones.

Honestly I'd highlight and copy most of this model's discussion down because I just simply like it. I'm NOT gonna do it cause thats too much work and the link is accessible to everyone.

The Attachment Model

I'm not copying all this down unless something particularly stands out. I'm super biased in terms of Bowlby's attachment theory cause I just really *like it*. So just like, use your imagination to see me probably overlooking critiques and holding up a sign in a stadium like a super fan of "I LOVE U BOWLBYS ATTACHMENT THEORY" or something like that ok? /lh /j

Results and Discussion

There is a really neat diagram in the article about factors and combining the models to understand a lot of things about DID that I like. I don't want to deal with screenshotting it and crediting it properly so just go check it out.

"Formerly, it was believed that DID affected only adults; now, it is claimed that the disorder can be diagnosed in children as young as three or four years old. Most commonly, however, the diagnosis is made between the ages of 25 and 35, although the first symptoms probably appear five to ten years before the disease is recognized[1]."

Side eyeing people who say DID doesn't occur in children.

My Thoughts

Interesting read overall. I think the introduction section was really sketchy, but I think it did a nice job going over and integrating a lot of the other models and hypothesises on DID in a way other than the ToSD. I was kind of hoping for something *more* cause most of that I've heard of already, but it was a fun read overall.

I feel someone asked me recently about alternative models to the ToSD but I can't recall who so I hope they see this

[queen0fm0nsterz]

Also guys, about the locations of the podcasts: they are real places. 100%. They are real places somewhere in the Nowhere - most importantely, somewhen.

Prophetic dreams are very real in Little Nightmares and they are things that often happen: however, I do not believe this is yet the case for Noone. She describes feeling sensations and smells multiple times, something that can only happen if the plane of reality one is in is... well. Real. She also describes feeling Jester's presence as she does with Otto's, who is a real person in the real world alongside her. The fact that Noone isn't currently fully there yet doesn't necessarely mean the places aren't real.

Now, whether she's visiting the past versions of some already existing locations is up to debate (COUGH THE BATHHOUSE COUGH), and that locations and habitants of said locations can be parallels to some already existing ones, but the only certainty we have at this point is that these other places that are being described and witnessed by Noone are real places somewhere. After all, the Nowhere is an incredibly vast place of which we have explored incredibly little.

Would it be so surprising if the places Noone visits are separate from the, like, 3 ones we have visited?

(map is from LN II, the school, and is supposedly rappresenting a region of which we only see a single city.)

And another thing, actually: I have seen many compare the Lady to the Woman in Chains, but honestly, after reading through the transcript of the first episode of TSON made by @softichill... the two sound like the complete opposite of each other, appearence and behaviour wise.

The Woman in Chains is described as having a "stretched back face", therefore causing her to have wrinkles due to how her face is structured, which explains Noone talking about her as being "both old and young". There is no concealing, no mask, nothing to hide her face. She doesn't live in secrecy like the Lady does -- quite the contrary, infact.

And about features: in both her forms, the Lady's face looks the opposite of hers. Either completely relaxed, or... nearly like it's melting.

I have also seen some people try to claim that the "familiar outfit" as a reference to the Lady's kimono, but you must remember who the narrator is. The outfit is familiar to Noone. Not us. It is likely that the Woman is wearing either a nun's dress (Noone mentions seeing three laying on a bed in the Prisoner's bedroom) or something Noone might have seen from the institution she's kept in.

While the Lady does thrive in her occupation, she doesn't necessarely take joy in it like the Woman in Chains (Prison Ward, atp) does. For the Lady, it's much more a matter of survival. She is on the Maw because it's convenient, see as she's in a powerful position. The Woman in Chains is instead happily preparing torture devices to haunt the Prisoners with.

Some parallels are certainly there. Referring to them as being, even metaphorically, the same person... it would mean that the team wrote a very bad analogy. They are nothing alike in any other aspect BUT their occupation. Funnily enough, you could say the Thin Man and the Signal Tower operate in a near identical manner to both these places. He's also the living center/battery of his own mechanism.

Noone also mentions that the Workers seem to be made of shadows, similarly to the Shadow Children. However, it is also evident that these beings are different, as they work and can hold objects much like the nomes. Later, when she meets a living child, she notes that they have black goo in their hair that moves like shadows. If that's the same material the Workers are made of, then this would make them some sort of liquid entities.

Lastly, about the inhabitants themselves: no one else in this Prison is here because they want to be. The Prisoners are not like the Guests, who come on the Maw willingly. The Workers are mindless beings, unlike the Nomes who draw and the Shadow Kids who play just like children. The child and Noone want to leave... and that's understandable.

My friend @chorusofkhonshu smartly pointed this out, so I'm just gonna copy and paste what he said word for word.

"So I thought, if these creatures are made of liquid, it has to come from somewhere. So my mind wandered to the prisoners, their purpose. Perhaps like the Maw and Signal Tower need to absorb people. The Signal Towers thru TVs and the Maw thru the Lady. What if those prisoners are only alive to be bled dry so long as they live. Noone smells the prisoner rotting. All those prisoners have to share some purpose, they might be tortured. Some device that the lady there has. She uses straps and cranks. Masks with spikes in the mouth. It runs on tortured souls."

And just as Noone mentions later on:

Swelling.

If anything... rather than paralleling Six's journey, Noone seems to be living it backwards. Completely backwards.

... Mh.

[voltaspistol]

Ok guys. Tumblr just cured my friend of hallucinations, and my therapist said that this was potentially AN ACTUAL BREAKTHROUGH for treating moderate psychosis, especially difficult-to-treat cases where the patient is convinced that their hallucinations are more "real" than reality. You remember that thread about Magenta? How it isn't real??

We used that shit to cure someone's hallucinations. First, a bit of background: I'm mentally ill (anxiety, Bipolar II, depression, PTSD-- all held in check by medications and therapy), and I've been helping this kid for a while, let's call him K, who also suffers from mental illnesses (anxiety, drug addiction, and some other things) in sort of a Big Sister capacity. K has been struggling with extremely realistic hallucinations ever since doing DMT, aka, the drug that apparently gives you lasting lifelike hallucinations long after you stop taking it? K was specifically seeing demons. Straight up devils clawing at him. Probably because he was raised Evangelical and is LGBTQ, and his parents bombard him with that shit 24/7.

He described what he was undergoing as "spiritual psychosis" and was adamant that what he was seeing was reality pulled back to reveal the truth of what was going on: That demons were coming for him. Going to a church and getting blessed would make them disappear for a little bit, but then they'd come back stronger than before. There was no way to convince K that hallucinations this real could be anything but the absolute, objective truth.

So I'd seen that thing about Magenta come across my dash, did an edible, watched a Nicholas Cage movie, and I had an idea.

I introduced K to the concept that Magenta does not exist outside of the human mind. He was confused at first, but after explaining that (basically) that the color magenta does not exist outside of the human mind, it made him FINALLY understand that what we perceive is NOT objective reality. So that's Step 1: Use Magenta to understand that no matter how irrefutable your senses tell you your hallucinations are, they are a trick of the mind. Everyone in the whole goddamn world walks around thinking that Magenta is a totally real color that actually exists in the world. That's why you can't trust your hallucinations.

But that left the next problem: If he wasn't experiencing a "spiritual psychosis", that meant that he was experiencing hallucinations, and everyone knows that hallucinations are the product of a diseased mind and honestly isn't it better to have demons that you can chase away with holy water than having a diseased brain that's having hallucinations??? Every time he said the word 'hallucinations' he got visibly agitated. So I suggested we stop calling them Hallucinations. That's a loaded word with so much baggage it isn't helpful anymore. We're calling them "Magentas" now. Wait, why "Magentas"? Maybe-- MAYBE-- your mind IS perceiving SOMETHING that the rest of us aren't seeing. Maybe it's a shift in electromagnetism. Maybe it's a stray neutrino whizzing past. Maybe it's a shift in temperature that's so subtle the rest of us can't detect it, but to your DMT-opened mind, you're seeing it as, well, like the rest of us see magenta when there is (say it with me now) objectively no magenta outside of the human mind. Because, just like Magenta, your brain meat is being ticked by SOMETHING, but what you're seeing isn't what's actually there. But, also yes, I can see the scary face in the wallpaper design if I squint, so he's not crazy for your newly-opened mind to see some pareidolia-- Let's just avoid looking at things that look like scary faces, ok? So that's Step 2: Take the power out of the word "Hallucinations" by calling them something powerless. In this case, Magenta. (Also, stop staring at the wallpaper if it scares you.) Yes, haha, clever fae trick. Steal a thing's true name and it no longer holds power over you, I guess? Step 3 is trickier because you just have to be there for the person and reassure them that while yes, it was a crazy experience, they are not crazy for seeing things after doing DMT and yes they can cancel the upcoming re-baptism and when his parents get cranky at you because they LIKED that their son was suddenly so desperate for church and they hate that your solution does NOT involve getting blessed several times a week or getting re-baptized, you have to NOT scream at them that their fucked up religiosity was the entire reason their son thought his soul was being devoured by demons from hell. (Even though you'd be entirely right for doing so, because it's 100% their fucking fault their kid has deep-seated guilt that's manifesting as hallucinations from the drugs he took to escape his parents profound disappointment that he doesn't want to fuck who they want him to fuck.) K is now doing better. It's been a month, and not only has the severity of his.... Magentas..... Lessened, but the frequency and duration have also dwindled to levels that are manageable and he's confident that eventually they'll vanish entirely. All because Tumblr did a science on us. Now.... If anyone can drop some science that I can spin into an analogy that gets rid of night terrors, K would be grateful. I'd also be delighted to know if this works for anyone else. Please reblog and maybe someone with a grant budget can do a clinical test and will be forced to cite Tumblr as a source.

[planet-crait]

Might as well bite the bullet and watch it Operation Birthday Takeback is a go!

Oh damn this is a 22 minute one. Yep it’s definitely going to hurt the longer episodes always do.

Oh the intro again. Well I’ll need the serotonin from it lolz.

Devs face when he sees Cosmo Wanda and Hazel be still my heart this poor boy he’s so shocked.

Peri why do you look so annoyed though? This is your godkids birthday!!??? Is there no other emotions besides annoyance you can muster for this child? His dad is missing it and clearly this is hurting him!

DEVS BLUSHING DEV IS BLUSHING OH MY GOSH MY BOY!!

PERI IT IS YOUR GODKIDS BIRTHDAY WHY ARE YOU ROLLING YOUR EYES???

Awww Hazel got him the next book in the series they both love that is so cute. Look at how happy he is oh my gosh he loves it so much. I love how much Hazel has learned about Dev like Dev learned about Hazel.

….i wonder if Dale never gets Dev presents or like acknowledges his birthday? That would explain why he’s reacting so much to it being treated as special and important.

Oh no. Wanda bad idea. Oh fuck Project H. I know what it is and Dev is so bitter his dad is always on it even on his birthday that like hurts so much. I shouldn’t be surprised he doesn’t even pay attention on Devs birthday but I cannot imagine how painful that would be to live like that knowing nothing about your very existence matters to you parent. Dev trying to brush it off but it’s clear it’s bothering him a lot but I get it he doesn’t feel safe talking about or expressing it and maybe doesn’t think caring will do anything so he’s trying not to but can’t help but care.

Oh Cosmo. No. No. Just. No he doesn’t give a shit about Dev or did you already forget the founders day statue? I’m emotionally torn on Devs reaction to what Cosmo is saying though. Like it seems like Dev likes the thought but he quickly and firmly dismisses it completely.

Also curiously Peri does look at Dev in concern like he’s worried this is going to be a sore spot for Dev but he’s smiling even as he says no. Like it’s a nice thought or dream for him even if he knows it’ll never happen. Fuck Dev really needs godparents like Cosmo and Wanda more then Peri because we don’t see any signs of Peri really checking in on Dev emotionally and that’s what Dev needs most, emotional care and support.

Or Dev is putting in a brave face because he feels he has to with how quickly his smile falls away here. There is so much going on with Dev it’s painful. I could see a lot of different readings on this and I’ll have to rewatch probably to sort out my thoughts but it could be like a nice thought and reality really sets in or trying to be polite and put on a brave face likely as his dad drills into him his whole life and doesn’t know how to let people into the pain he’s in or a combo of both. Either way we can see Hazel knows something is wrong.

It’s so cute Hazel wants to cheer him up and thinks objects will help but Dev can get whatever he wants easily himself and material things aren’t what he needs. Hazel doesn’t realize this and just sees a sad friend and wants to help I’m not dissing her it’s just sad everyone just wants to throw things at Dev like that will fix the pain he’s in. It is cute how excited Dev is though at another gift.

Yep yep Peri is missing the point. He cannot see what Dev is trying to say and is feeling and Dev doesn’t know how to express his pain.

WANDA SERIOUSLY???? Dev clearly is going through it and needs support can you stop implying he’s torturing Peri and holding him hostage? Why does everyone look at a literal CHILD and think he’s a monster???

Dev excitedly flying around is beyond cute though. Hazel you’re so funny I’ve never tried mixing cereals before but makes sense.

Wait actually remembered this year? Dale does forget every year??????

I’m sensing this meme will get a lot of mileage when I’m talking about Dale regarding Dev huh.

Oh no Cosmo got the idea in Devs head. Oh no. Devs going to be shattered when he learns the truth oh no.

He’s so excited thinking his dad got him something Dev actually likes. Dev sounding so nervous when he calls for the AU Pair is doing something to my heart. Like he feels safest with a robot and that’s just sad from what I’ve seen they’re who have shown to most care and concern for Dev. Not a human or even fairy. A robot likely programmed to look out for him.

Ah. He didn’t even try to learn what his son likes and used an algorithm oh. Yep that’s uh. Sounds about Dale alright. IamgoingtodtabhimwitharustyspoonIswear-

The AU pairs barely try and hide it before admitting to what Dev clearly already knows. What’s worse is Dev doesn’t exactly hide what he likes at home it wouldn’t be hard for Dale to figure out what he’d like. He literally could ask the AU Pairs they clearly know Dev better than his father and could easily pinpoint what Dev would like most but he couldn’t even be bothered to do that.

Dev looks so defeated and sad and maybe annoyed here and it’s so sad. The moment passes so quick it’s hard to grab a shot of and admittedly it was pure accident I snagged as good a shot as I did but when Dev grabs his arm with his hand it almost seems like a bit of a self soothing gesture.

Like when you rub your arms when you’re feeling anxious or sad?

Hazel trying again to cheer Dev up is so sweet. She cares clearly and is trying but she can’t help Dev the way he needs. Oh no oh Vicky. Vicky is going to make these kids suffer oh no. Hazel creeping Vicky out is kind of hilarious though. Oh Hazel you’re so cute.

Oh yep yeah Vicky looks ready to kill okay yep.

Aww Jasmine is so excited for a party princess how cute. Though kiddo princesses can have any name they don’t have to be romantic. Everyone guessing is so cute though. I’m surprised Vicki is able to fake it for as long as she does.

I knew the song got mentioned I thought the kids listened to it not the parents. I wonder if that’s why she left babysitting cuz all the kids she tormented grew up and refused to hire her?

Ohh Dev looks angry I wonder if he’s just mad in general or particularly mad she broke his friends phone?

Funny that Hazel and Winn are just oblivious to everything though. Poor Jasmine though. Oh Jasmine got over that fast and Dev to I guess with how he ran over to make friendship bracelets.

Wait Peri how would you get charged for an elevator ride??? They don’t have any way to charge you? Scary looking room though. Oh no Cosmo this is a bad idea. Oh uh that’s uh oh uh Dale wtf i have no words. I agree with Cosmo turning off the lights immediately. Peri why do you want to explore this room? This is a bad idea. Umm Peri. If his expression is always that upsetting that means said upsetting expression is levied towards DEV ON A REGULAR BASIS. Does that mean ANYTHING TO YOU SIR!?

Oh no. Oh these poor kids being forced to work like a sweatshop oh dear. Lowkey I wonder if Dev thinks his dad did this on purpose to get them to make him more money? It’s very Dale thing to do and I hate it.

Oh callback to the lemonade stand. Lolz poor Dev Vicki invading his personal space cannot be comfortable.

Ohh this sucks as Devs first real party with real friends. Hazel calling it as it is lolz. Poor Dev. Oh the kids trying to call their fairies but being ignored by them. Poor things.

Yep oh Cosmo dancing on the buttons lolz. Yep that’s how they find out project H. That’s also uh a complex password lolz. Wait wouldn’t other kids have fairies too? There can’t be only two miserable kids in the whole city.

Oh Cosmo so slow but so cute. How does he know human Cosmo and Wanda are connected that’s what I want to know.

Cute that Dev, Jasmine and Winn are blowing up balloons together. They’re uh hanging out? Sort of? Kind of? Ish. It’s something.

Aww Hazel trying to save the party so cute. Winn I love your desire for violence lolz. Dev that uh. Epic fail. Nice attempt at a save but uh no. Lolz. Oh Dev I love you so much. You are so awkward and silly. Kind of adorable he’s laying ontop of one of the Au Pairs though why he doesn’t have them toss her out I don’t know.

Hazel is unamused by Devs failure of trying recover lolz. Kind of interesting the AU pair knows what Dev wants just from him clapping.

GUYS STOP WRITING CRITICAL INFORMATION ON THE PROJECT HAZEL PAGE ARE YOU TRYING TO GET CAUGHT??!!!?????!!!??? GUYS!!!! He’s going to find out about fairies because of you guys. Peri is so done with his parents. Peri please try and remove this. Please. Why do you WANT this asshole yo know???????

Hey Icky Vicky lolz. Amazing they’re messing with her I love it.

Uh oh Vicky is onto them. Uh oh. They’re in trouble. Aww Dev wants to be a big kid. Oh hehe Dale bans lemonade makes sense. Still hate him though. Instead of healing he continued the cycle of violence.

Oh Dev was smart in how he helped them escape. Kind of sad he didn’t try to call for help again while Hazel tried calling for all three of them. Wait is Hazel afraid of heights?

Hazel wants him to find the fairies? And finally uses the AU pairs lolz. Oh that’s how they find the secret lab.

Aww lolz I love how Dev panicked and covered Hazels eyes I would be genuinely horrified by that image as well of my parent.

Oh. Oh no Cosmos gonna. He’s gonna show Project H oh no. Wanda don’t be proud of that. Wanda no. Oh no Dev thinks Peri knows about it. Uh oh. Aww Cosmo you’re so cute. And make an adorable princess.

Lolz they only know Vicky who does that kind of evil. Oh but her name is Vicky and oh yep they all panic and are terrified when they realize it’s the Vicky they knew.

Ohh TIMMY NAME DROP OMG!!!!

Aww Dev looks worried about Cosmo. Thats actually really sweet. But no Cosmo honey that’s not in your head.

Ohhh Peri thought he imagined Vicky? Interesting? That would imply she left before he was old enough to necessarily remember her fully. I wonder when Timmy stopped needing a babysitter? Also curious Peri hides behind Hazel and not Dev.

Oh Peri disguising himself as an AU pair lolz. Oh Vicky behaving when she sees adults lolz. Oh another Timmy name drop I wonder how long Cosmo wanted to tell at her for how bad she was to Timmy? Those are Timmy’s real parents dang it. Interesting they corrected to Dev instead of Hazel, maybe cuz they’re both boys? But why wouldn’t they go to Hazel since they’re sort of guardians for her?

Lolz Vicky running away amazing lolz. Peri raising good points though but oh they were trapped all day? Poor kids and poor Dev for having a shit birthday party thanks to his dad. What’s worse is it might have been the first real good one Dev had since like having a real friend. A couple decades ago? Are we getting a hint for the timeline?

Oh no Dev is seeing project H oh no. Oh no. Oh he’s realizing what Project H really is. Oh no. Hazel is trying to help but Dev is misunderstanding her. She’s right it’s better he doesn’t suspect his kid has a fairy because it would be hell to try and hide but he thinks she thinks hers are more important and oh Dev thinks she wished for them to be friends (which is true) but thinks it’s for the wrong reasons and Dev thinks everything they had wasn’t real. Oh no.

“Dimmadomes don’t just make friends” is a sentiment that hurts a lot. Like yeah they’re rich and people only want to be friends with rich people often for selfish reasons. They don’t actually care and just want the perks which sucks. And poor Dev thinks that’s all Hazel wanted which isn’t the truth at all. She wanted to know why he was mean and befriended him naturally in the process but he just doesn’t get how friendship works.

Oh no the wrong names again. No Hazel don’t just leave!! He needs you no!!!!!! Fourth wall break again. Oh no. Oh no they’ve forgotten about Dev again. And left all of the fairy stuff on Dales board. While Hazel has Cosmo and Wanda comforting her I feel like Peri won’t really try for Dev. It’s kind of sad how quickly Hazel pushes Dev out of her mind despite how much she knows he’s hurting.

Oh Peri tried but only thinks Wishes will help. clearly him suggesting wishes hurts because the word wish along is what sends Dev into a rage.

Peri also gives up so quickly. He sounds so defeated as he says as you wish but it hurts because he’s abandoning a kid who clearly needs someone so quickly and won’t stay and help him. Devs having a complete breakdown and no one seems to really…care.

Oh Dev sort of messed up project H but didn’t destroy the fairy stuff. Oh this is going to bite them in the butt later but oh. The feels. Dev crying and screaming in rage it really hurts. Dev feels betrayed by everyone he cared about and doesn’t have anyone he feels he can go to. And Hazel so quickly left him it might solidify his rage and feelings that Hazel only befriended him because he’s rich. Interestingly he only lets out his pain really once he’s alone, like he’s been taught to not let people see negative emotions.

Yep this uh. My heart is in tatters. FUCK YOU DALE YOU RUIN EVERYTHING.

I have a lot of thoughts about this episode that will definitely have to be all in a part two Dev analysis because I’ll need more then the two parts I originally planned cuz oh gosh this kid is going through it. But for now, enjoy my breakdown along with Devs.

[ingravinoveritas]

How do you feel about the fact that angels and demons are non-sexual beings in Good omens?

Anon #1: Well, this is a great question and I appreciate you sending it in for me to answer. Including the other Anons here since they are relevant.

I actually have a lot of feelings about angels and demons being non-sexual beings in Good Omens, which I will do my best to explain. I think the first thing I have to do is make sure I understand what you mean by non-sexual. I know Neil has said that angels and demons do not have genitalia "unless they make an effort," so by that measure, we can say angels and demons are genderless beings (agender or genderqueer perhaps as well, depending on the angel or demon). That, to me, is distinctive and not the same thing as non-sexual, which I consider to be beings who--by design or choice--do not engage in sexual intercourse.

The other thing we have to consider is the distinction between book!Good Omens and TV show!Good Omens. I have not finished reading the book, but it is my understanding that Neil (and Terry, of course) established the angels and demons as genderless in the original text. When the show was adapted for television, 30 years had passed since the novel was published, and so much had changed in that time, so a lot of things were updated to have Good Omens more align with the sensibilities of the modern era (one example is Neil talking about Crowley's aesthetic as an early '90s "Wall Street" type and how they had to figure out what the equivalent of that would be in the present day).

One thing that hasn't changed very much, however, is the portrayal of gay/queer people in the media. For much of those intervening 30 years, gay and queer people were shown as stereotypes--flamboyant, one-dimensional caricatures who existed as "sidekicks" (the "gay BFF") or object lessons for the straight characters (I would say this was especially the case in the late '80s and '90s with the AIDS crisis).

By this time, gay and queer people could exist on TV, but only if they were non-sexual/sexless. One example of this is Blanche's brother Clayton on The Golden Girls. After he comes out to Blanche, he brings home his fiance Doug in a subsequent episode, which has Blanche indignant. "I don't really mind Clayton being homosexual, I just don't like him dating men." Another example is Will & Grace, which aired in the late '90s. Will was a gay man who was one of the main characters, but while we constantly saw Grace falling into bed with random men and all sorts of escapades related to her sex life, we were never shown Will in any sort of similar situation. He could be gay, and he could be Grace's BFF, but he couldn't have a sex life of his own. It was this idea that gay people could exist in abstract terms, but not in the concrete reality of what it meant to be gay. Homophobia disguised as "acceptance."

So when I see/hear the word "non-sexual" in relation to gay and queer people, this is what comes to mind. What I also think of is that the absence of gay male sexuality (as for the majority of the show, Aziraphale and Crowley are male-presenting) is not the same thing as the presence of asexuality. I think it's been remarkably easy for Neil to take credit for that when it doesn't seem to have been his actual intention, and it also removes from him the responsibility of portraying that specific aspect of a non-heterosexual love story.

One thing I want to be very clear on is that I am in no way trying to put down anyone's head canon or what any reader or viewer may see in these characters, and I will never say that anyone's head canons are not valid. But when we are talking about the canon--in other words, what is actually on the screen--I feel like there is a tendency to overlook what Michael and David are actually doing with these characters.

In addition to what I mentioned above about gay characters on TV in the '80s and '90s, the other thing you absolutely could not do as a gay or queer person was fall in love. This is alluded to more in the example above from The Golden Girls, where Blanche is horrified that her brother wants to marry a man, until Sophia finally helps her understand:

Blanche: "Oh, look, I can accept the fact that he's gay, but why does he have to slip a ring on this guy's finger so the whole world will know?" Sophia: "Why did you marry George?" Blanche: "We loved each other. We wanted to make a lifetime commitment. Wanted everybody to know." Sophia: "That's what Doug and Clayton want, too. Everyone wants someone to grow old with. And shouldn't everyone have that chance?"

Here we are now, over 30 years later, and some people still don't want everyone to have that chance. Some people think two people of the same sex can't love each other the way a man and a woman do. Because queer love--and especially love between two men--is still looked at as "less than" and inferior to straight love.

This is the world Michael and David grew up in. This is the social and cultural climate they saw and navigated their own sexuality and identity in--'80s Britain, Margaret Thatcher, Section 28. Where being gay or queer wasn't just immoral, it was illegal. Your very existence alone was stigmatized, pathologized, and criminalized. And they are bringing that lived experience into the roles of Aziraphale and Crowley, albeit in different ways.

To me, Michael is playing Aziraphale as a repressed gay man. A man who--much like David--grew up in the faith and was made to believe that his natural feelings, attractions, and desires were wrong, shameful, and disgusting. We see this with Gabriel deriding Aziraphale for eating sushi and enjoying other Earthly pleasures, and it would be logical to think that it's taken a long time for Aziraphale to feel comfortable with the foods/drink/books he likes and the pleasure they bring him. Similarly, it's taken Aziraphale a millennia to find the one being who makes him feel comfortable with the desires he has. The being who is the exception to every rule Heaven ever laid out, who encourages Aziraphale to be himself in every respect. And that's Crowley.

In this scene in the Bastille (which I know has been analyzed a thousand times and a thousand ways), when Aziraphale looks at Crowley like this, the desire rising up in him is more than obvious. The wide eyes, the heaving bosom, and of course the smoldering up-and-down glance all speak to this--he is, quite literally, checking Crowley out, without shame, possibly for the first time ever. Even though that desire is not outwardly expressed in GO season 1, it does not mean it doesn't exist--only that Aziraphale letting himself feel this (and Crowley being the one entity who allows him to feel this) is the first step in a very long journey away from that lifetime of repression.

In terms of Crowley, I feel that David is playing Crowley as a gay man who is afraid of commitment because he has been hurt in the past. There is a feeling of impermanence to Crowley--that, despite being a celestial, immortal entity, he doesn't like to hold onto things because deep down, he believes they will eventually be taken away. He knows who he is, but is all too aware of the consequences that come with it. So he does not get attached, because to him, attachment equals pain, and he believes nothing is worth that risk.

In the church scene in 1941 (which, again, so much has already been said), Crowley saves Aziraphale's books from the wreckage. It's been said by many that Crowley fell in love long before this (which I do think is true), but for me, I feel like this was where we saw that Crowley was truly "attached" to Aziraphale. He rescued Aziraphale from the Bastille, and he saved Aziraphale from the bombs of the Blitz, but in grabbing the books, Crowley isn't just saving Aziraphale's body--he's holding onto a piece of his soul. For the first time ever, Crowley has found something that isn't temporary, and after a millennia of cynicism, Aziraphale is the one entity who makes him feel fully and wholeheartedly ready to commit to something.

This is what I have seen and perceived in the portrayals of Aziraphale and Crowley that Michael and David have given us. I absolutely do 100% believe that asexual folks deserve representation--representation that is clear and specific, not just a side effect of Neil not wanting to show these characters expressing outward sexual desires--but I do not believe that is how Michael and David are playing the characters. It's not enough--or at least it shouldn't be--to have characters of marginalized backgrounds just standing in the room, or to say, "This one's gay," "This one's nonbinary," "This one's asexual." Including these identities in the fabric of the story means doing what Michael and David have done, which is showing these people or beings as three-dimensional, as fully realized characters who happen to have that identity, rather than as ticked boxes representing a certain identity on a checklist.

And to the Anons mentioning the Radio Times article (which seems like it came out a hundred years ago now)--Anon #4 particularly--I appreciate you sharing your thoughts with me, but I could not disagree with you more.

First of all, I have no idea where in the world you got that Aziraphale and Crowley's romance was explicit in season 1, because it was absolutely anything but. Three days after they posted that, RT posted another article seemingly backtracking on everything they'd previously said (as if we'd all somehow pulled a Gabriel Jim and forgotten everything about the first article). The phrase "Could romance be on the cards after all?" is in the bloody headline of article #2, which to me says that RT is going to go in whichever direction the wind blows--to create engagement and generate clicks--but also that it is very clear what they meant by "conventional" in the first article. I do not get the feeling that Radio Times--a mainstream publication that seemingly publishes any story they can farm from social media--was thinking of ace or aro identities or relationships when writing that. Even a tiny little bit.

Even a queer-centric media outlet like Pride today published an article saying the first season of GO lacked LGBTQ+ representation. Obviously, I do not at all agree with this or with several other things mentioned in the article. But what I am challenging folks to do is think about what this is really saying. By the end of GO 1 season, everyone accepts and assumes that Madame Tracy and Shadwell are a couple. She makes eyes at him, they have dinner together, and no one questions them being a couple, even though they are not shown being physically affectionate. Aziraphale and Crowley do exactly the same things, but no one (speaking of the larger public, outside the hardcore fan base) assumes they are a couple.

Maybe what that means, then, is that "representation" that requires you to squint and turn your head in order to see it--like Aziraphale and Crowley holding hands on the bus--isn't really representation at all. And by Neil "not wanting to label" something, it seems to suggest that committing to a label or embracing that gayness is something he is not comfortable with--for any number of reasons--and is why we could have a meaningless love scene with a straight couple that does not have a real connection (Newt and Anathema), but couldn't have a meaningful love scene with a gay couple that does have a devastatingly profound and powerful connection.

So yes, those are my thoughts on the angels and demons in Good Omens being non-sexual, and what that means in a larger cultural/societal sense. I know that when GO season 2 comes out in a week, I could be proven completely wrong about everything I've just said, and I will have no problem with that at all. I fully trust what Michael and David will bring to the roles of Aziraphale and Crowley, but my hesitation stems from the limitations they will potentially be up against, in terms of the script/storyline (and is something I have felt from the interviews we've seen with them this past week).

I'm hopeful for the best, though (as always), so we'll just have to see what happens...

[mdhwrites]

Was Boscha Mistreated In S3?

TL:DR Boscha is actually one of the best written parts of S3, mostly because she actually has some efficiency to how she was written. This does not mean the writing succeeds in its goals because the misguided priorities and management of S3 of TOH is why this isn't some sort of praise. It is the ALMOST success in three specials that I think are objectively a complete failure of writing.

@hinobodyishere wanted a follow up to their previous ask about Boscha and I at first dismissed and deleted it, partially due to misinterpretation. That since we did get Boscha in S3, how was she handled? Was she given respect in regards to the trauma foisted upon her?

Well... Yeah actually. For the most part she is. They genuinely tried to give her a sympathetic character arc and their fumbling of it didn't have to do with disrespect, it had to do with one of the DUMBEST decisions of all of S3 I think. Not one that breaks themes just... Why would you do this? I have NO explanation for why the choice while I can at least tell you a concept for why other things were done.

But let's start with the good and that's that in a season that has some of the absolute least efficient storytelling I have EVER seen, especially in terms of wrapping shit up, Boscha keeps her biggest strength as a character and that is weirdly subtlety and in turn efficiency. Anyone who loves Boscha can probably back me up on this that so many of her weird quirks as a character come from small choices. I've talked in the past about how Amity is the ONLY person she never is mean or cruel to, even once Amity abandons her and that shows how subservient she was to Amity, not the other way around like most people portray it. This also coincides with her response to Luz coming to die. "Wow, you're a really good friend." And that implies she genuinely does understand friendship and loyalty and from what we can tell, she may be mean to even those around her but she is ALWAYS loyal and faithful to those she cares about. She knows what being a good friend is.

I bring this up not just to praise Boscha but also to lead into her trauma. We are explicitly shown her losing essentially her last two friends. Any trace of what her past was is GONE because of the Collector (your reminder that the Collector is a fucking monster btw). She is the last of her friend group. The last one still carrying the torch for what she thought reality was before Amity kicked her to the curb out of nowhere. Skara presumably did the same to be a part of the Entrails. Her reality is already fracturing and it was her own failure this time to protect them that led them to die. She is all that exists of the Banshees anymore. This is reinforced by how Miki manipulates her. She threatens Boscha with being in danger. With being vulnerable, something she's not used to because she always saw herself as Queen Bee and either sharing a throne with Amity or by herself. She is desperately holding onto what little she has left.

Willow's scene next is... Up and down to put it mildly. It is mostly to dogpile on the already heavy and EXTREMELY forced shit they're doing with Willow. A reminder: No one is asking fuck all of Willow this episode, few EVER have, and yet 'Dependable Willow' comes out of fucking nowhere. So while Boscha talking about the weight of responsibility is actually good for her, it is in line with the rest of Boscha's feeling that she's pressured to keep walls up against the world, it's not really anything new and it has little to do with her current trauma. At best, it helps explain why she's leading Hexside because she's the one who actually will take responsibility.

Then we get to the scene I mostly LOVE. Yes, I am a Lumischa shipper but I don't like it for the unrequited love angle. Like I said before, Boscha has lost EVERYTHING. She has lost way more than any of our 'trauma' victims amongst the Hexside crew. Even Hunter was never alone like she has been for MONTHS after having to watch TWO of her friends die instead of just one like Hunter did. The closest he ever got was the time between Hollow Mind and Labyrinth Runners which was like what? A week? It is genuinely incredible how shitty Boscha's life has been the entire time since the Collector showed up. Miki isn't even really a friend. She feeds into Boscha's fears and paranoia. She is actively trying to pull out the most damaged and worst parts of Boscha, essentially using her PTSD against her, for again, MONTHS.

So here is her chance to get SOMETHING back. To reverse the original sin that shattered her world. Finally, the Blight mentality that she must have at least gotten some of from Amity that she's lived her life with can come back. Amity can come back. That's why she's desperate and pleading with her. Then-

"Boscha, you're hurting me!"

I... There is something about the delivery of that line that makes my skin crawl in a way I can't 100% justify. It's not even out of character. It's her last chance after all so she'll go pretty far to keep Amity there. It's just... Not many characters physically hurt each other and Boscha doing it here comes across, especially after the faux confession, like a needy ex getting ready to assault their old lover. For an episode that is essentially trying to redeem Boscha, I don't think it's a good choice. She's been villainous enough already, you didn't need to go that extra step but that may just be me.

But, writing wise, this scene is correct. It is her darkest hour. The moment that forces her to self reflect and choose a path. Is she a Banshee, or is she a slave? Does she stand proud like she always has but now for the right reasons or does she cower in villainy?

And we don't get a proper climax. Then again, neither did the episode.

We're going on a tangent but bear with me because it sets up what I think needed to happen. See, Boscha showing up and promising to kick Kikimora's ass off screen is... Bad. It's not a climax, it's instead tepid and weak, complete with, in the SECOND TO LAST EPISODE, "Don't think we're square" or whatever the fuck Willow says to Boscha. Why? Why are you STILL kicking narrative cans down the lane instead of actually giving any fucking resolutions? It's so indicative of the entire problem of S3 just having no fucking clue, nor interest, in wrapping anything up or giving any sort of real satisfaction to narrative plot points IT CREATES.

Worse yet is tying this around Kikimora of all people! I actually don't hate her as a character but like Boscha, the minute Belos is dead, her utility is over. Her dramatic weight has been gone for over half a season because ever since Falls and Follies, she's been a gag character. Yet, she's canonically beaten our main characters as many times as Belos has and unlike Belos, the main cast has never beaten her themselves, especially in a fair fight if you want to count Hunter's fight against her while she's drugged as a win against her. This is a character who is going to get the same reaction Luz gave: "You again? REALLY!?" because like... Why? Of all the characters to bring back, why bring back Kikimora as a final antagonist? I actually do have explanations for that, it's part of why S3 could never have been good even with a longer version of itself, but different blog.

No, it is the fact that despite bringing her back, despite giving her another objective win against our heroes... She isn't beat. We actually don't even know if Hexside succeeds in beating her. In this adventure show, the villain could have just peaced the fuck out and kept doing whatever she wanted instead of getting her ass beat and giving us a real action scene, something that is sorely lacking in For the Future. It makes no sense narratively, by genre convention, or thematically. And don't claim they ran out of time because that means they kept Kikimora through however many drafts it takes to make an episode and somehow decided to never write in how to actually give a climax to this episode that isn't just Camila and Luz talking about a subject that ANY villain could inspire by kicking Luz's ass.

So. What should have been here?

My suggestion is a roughly three minute trick, maybe less. I'm not asking for a lot of time, you can probably get it from not bothering to show Belos during the main portion of the episode and let him showing up at the Collector's Castle be his whole appearance because the foreshadowing of Caleb leads to literally nothing. In this fight scene though, we'll get our redemption.

Luz is lost and they're still struggling against Kikimora. Suddenly, Kikimora gasps and fires past them. Her shot shows scattered stone and smoke... And Belos walks through it. He smirks at Kiki and asks, "Ah, I see you're still as impulsive as ever." Kiki fires again as Belos gets past Hunter who is seperating the others from Belos. They all see a stone pillar rise at the last second and explode. Amity sees Belos wink at her while hidden by the smoke and looks across the way. Emira winks back at her.

Belos waves a hand and from the Earth, an abomination of rock, dirt and plant begins to rise. He speaks again but we don't look at Belos, we see Emira with Barkus next to her down a potion, her eyes glow with oracle magic and she speaks through that, channeling Belos more purely than she could otherwise. Kikimora screams at him that he's dead and starts to pummel the abomination when a screech sounds from above. Viney drops a potion from Puddles and it crashes into Kikimora's cockpit. From it, tentacles comes out, trying to grab Kikimora but instead knocking her out of it. She falls. The ground zooms close. She shuts her single eye to brace for impact.

It doesn't come.

She opens her eye. She is met by three.

Boscha keeps her face close and her voice low as she says, "You tried to silence me. You tried to take the last thing a Banshee has to her. The thing that anyone who knew our team, knew my friends, would be familiar with. The only thing that'd confuse them is that it's not a nerd in my hand but a little snake. I for one welcome the change." Boscha's face is lit up and you can see fire dancing in her eyes as she says, "Now, like a Banshee, let me hear you SCREAM!"

And Kikimora's scream scatters the birds as a pillar of flame erupts. We don't see the body, to keep it ambiguous and for pacing. Instead, Viney shows up to give a bit of healing and tell them they can go, we've got this. Then everyone leaves and joins back up with Luz to be kidnapped by the Collector.

In this version, we get a real climax and an actual send off to Hexside. Besides Skara, who could be shown coordinating things for a moment, we get a send off of all the named characters we know. I didn't mention Matt but his construction magic is there. So is illusions. So is a lot of types of magic working together, you know, like the show says is better, to pull this off. True unity between more characters than we get in the FINALE. And then a final moment for Boscha to make it clear she's still her but she knows who deserves her rage now rather than using it simply to stay on top.

It is A resolution to the core plot of the episode. You know, that thing that never happened, instead we got the SECOND resolution of Luz's character arc and that was it. Even if people might have still called it filler, it would at least have served as not just a cameo for Hexside but a curtain call for it that also highlights the changes to the kids there that Luz introduced. It would have SOME sort of point besides being there for Willow/Huntlow fans and a very forced "I want to be understood" that only makes sense from a meta perspective and makes Luz look like an over demanding bitch in canon.

But we didn't get anything like that. Why? ...I don't fucking know. I use a lot of words to try to explain shit but I've got nothing for you. The best I can is that it's because the writers felt obligated to include Hexside but no one actually cared about it or its characters and I just don't know why you would write that way, not when you had so much else to wrap up.

But for wrapping up this blog: Boscha continues to be one of the most weirdly nuanced characters of all of TOH and I kind of have to assume at this point it was entirely on accident. If attention would have ruined her, I would rather they disrespect her and let her stand tall as the time the broken clock was right. See you next tale.

======+++++======

This is your reminder that at chapter 28, Boscha hijacked my over 300k word behemoth, with over 100 chapters, and essentially became the main character of a story that was supposed to be Lumischa. I LOVE writing this bitch and have thought way too much about her.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[creekfiend]

Just wanted to say thanks for "people from culturally Christian backgrounds" because that seems like a good way to phrase it, and I'm going to try to remember to use it when I'm talking about this sort of thing. (I try to not be a dick to people, when possible, and trauma's messy and complicated.) I'm sorry that some people are being horrible in this whole discussion, and I hope you are doing okay.

I'm doing fine! I really sympathize with most of the people involved in this tbh (except the outright antisemites of course lol) bc like I HAVE seen a lot of reactive and reductive and unkind blanket statements about this by some jumblr people in which they are condescendingly explaining other people's realities to them. Which is my LEAST favorite thing. Jumblr can also be really... umm, dog pile-y in a way that I find frustrating and unproductive. However. I think it's also fairly obvious that most of these reactions are trauma responses, and while that isn't an excuse it is an explanation and provides additional context that I do not feel is irrelevant. For jews we have constantly been told 'well simply stop being jewish' like all the time by everybody, often at gunpoint. So like, when I see nonjewish atheists assert that stuff jews are TELLING you they have gone through "literally never happens" that ALSO REALLY SUCKS. like so so bad. Cannot overstate how much that sucks. Cannot overstate how much it sucks to see ppl I sympathize with deeply wrt their mistrust and hatred of like, organized religious authority, align themselves with people who refer to jewish atheists as "religious nationalists" for refusing to divorce themselves from their ethnic backgrounds/culture/community/traditions. That rhetoric is Just antisemitism in a form that has been used to cause real and violent harm to us in living memory.

Also really alienated by the idea that one must be This Vitriolically Angry About Religion to "count" as an atheist. Like what? That is bonkers. I do not understand why the people making seemingly reasonable posts about "actually here's some interesting writings by people from Islamic cultures or majority Hindu cultures or orthodox jewish cultures outlining the ways that the authorities in these societies have used religion to cause harm on a systemic level" (objectively true) seem to be aligning themselves with people who are doing the SAME THING TO JEWS that they resent being done to them -- e.g. condescendingly explaining to us that our negative experiences with a certain type of atheists Don't Exist or Don't Count or cannot possibly be rooted in antisemitism.

I find the whole thing depressing and troubling. I don't tend to follow jumblr because of the aforementioned issues I have w it but this backlash seems to me to be disproportionate and really hateful in a way that... combines poorly with the increased antisemitic sentiments being lobbed at jews from all ideological sides recently. I wish we could all be more congizent of 1. the role trauma is playing here for everyone and 2. the inherent lack of productive discussion that can be had when two parties are simply Trauma Responsing at each other back and forth endlessly.

Then there's the people who just get super aggressive about people "believing fake things" but I'm not sure there's any help for them. Sure wish that the nonjewish atheists who are not like that would disavow them though! I certainly am more than happy to say "acknowledging a cultural/societal dynamic that privileges one religion and culture as default and that existing in thay culture might cause people to have unexamined assumptions about other religions and cultures" should not be weaponized against individual people in order to bully them by insisting they are a thing that they manifestly are not (atheists aren't Christians. The fact that atheists from Jewish backgrounds will have Jewishness shackled to them regardless of their degree of identification with Being A Jew is actually bad and a function of antisemitism; it is not an aspirational dynamic we should be applying to other people simply because their cultural background is privileged over our own in our society.)

Like can we stop talking past each other and try to understand where people are coming from

People are expressing a lot of hurt and anger about atrocities and systems of oppression that I ultimately feel are totally interconnected. Because of this hurt and anger most people are not being precise in their language or prioritizing connecting or actual dialogue about this and instead focusing on dogpiling and gotchas. It's discouraging.

I'm a secular humanist jew with complex feelings towards both jewishness and atheism as concepts and movements. I want to understand and connect with people based on our common ground.

This is I guess all me being a big baby who is unsuited to internet fights but this one specifically feels really hurtful to me because I feel like my reality is being ignored and denied. I suspect a lot of people are also feeling that way. Which might be a good place to START the discussion to be honest.

[sapphire-weapon]

“sleeping with Ada was the inciting incident behind Leon’s drinking problem and he doesn’t even know it” theory/analysis - wait have you talked about this before? I missed it if you did :(

No, I haven't. I meant to. I actually have a half-finished post about it sitting in my drafts, but then the ADHD kicked in and I got distracted and wandered off and haven't bothered to go back to it since.

The thing with this analysis is that like... it's both not that complicated and also very complicated and abstract, and so just the thought of explaining it feels daunting.

To put it in the simplest terms possible: Leon spent RE2 and RE4 chasing an idealized version of Ada that didn't actually exist, so when he finally got the actual Ada in bed and realized that it didn't bring him the catharsis that he was looking for -- and that he actually still felt incomplete/damaged -- his brain just kind of shut that down and rejected that reality and didn't want to face it, which then led to a drinking problem that culminated in a damn near full-blown emotional breakdown in RE6.

It all sort of ties back to my analysis of the relationship between Leon and Ada as it exists in OG -- where Leon has tricked himself into believing that Ada is the only thing that's keeping the memory of his old self alive. We as the audience know that that's objectively not true, and that it's Sherry and how she's modeled her life and her worldview after him that's keeping the old Leon alive -- but that's also really painful for Leon to think about, because he's under the impression that he fucked up Sherry's life so badly that he doesn't deserve to be in it anymore, so it's easier for him to just project all that shit onto Ada.

And so chasing Ada was about more than wanting to romantically/sexually pursue the pretty lady who makes his heart go dokidoki. Despite the bond that they have, Ada is still mostly a mystery to Leon and always seems to be 20 steps ahead of him -- and so, on some level, chasing her was less about getting the girl and more about finding the answers that he's been looking for.

But Ada is just a person. She has her fingers in a lot of pies, sure, but she's not omnicient or omnipotent. She doesn't have the answers to how or why or when things went wrong in Leon's life, and she doesn't have the answers as to how to fix them or make them better.

So, when Leon slept with her and found that divine inspiration didn't enter his consciousness through the tip of his dick and travel its way down his boner and then up his spine and then into his brain like the weirdest venereal disease ever -- instead of feeling relieved at finally having taken care of the sexual tension between them, or comforted by her physical presence, or humbled by her intimacy -- he probably just felt... empty.

This was something he'd wanted so badly. He'd been chasing it for so long. And now that he'd finally gotten it, it was nothing that he'd hoped/thought it would be.

Because he wasn't really chasing Ada. He was running from his own demons, and Ada just happened to have been in front of him.

And instead of face that, instead of deal with that, his brain shut down and went NOPE DIDN'T HAPPEN and reached for literally anything that could distract it from that truth -- regardless of the form it took. Whether it was a slavish devotion to his job that was quickly leading to burnout or the flask he always kept in his back pocket -- it didn't matter what it was.

A lot of this theory/analysis/whatever you want to call it really comes from how fucking weird and bizarre their conversation about it is in Damnation. It always struck me as weird. This isn't how normal fucking people talk to each other about setting up a booty call.

Ada: By the way, when are we going to, um... carry on from where we left off that night? Leon: Any time but now. Ada: You're angry with me, aren't you? Suits you.

Something happened that night that: A) left things feeling unfinished and B) was emotionally charged enough that Ada is under the impression that Leon's mad at her for it, but C) wasn't a turn-off enough for Ada to not want to try again.

It almost seems like Ada had picked up on a weird vibe coming from him and didn't let him stay the whole night through. It probably went something like:

sex happened -> lying in bed together in the afterglow -> something about Leon's general demeanor post-coitus just doesn't feel right -> Ada pulls a "you should probably go" -> Leon gets butthurt but leaves without a fight -> Ada spends the next however many months going "that dick was bomb tho" -> they meet up in Damnation -> Ada decides "no the dick was worth it idc how weird he got" -> propositions him for a round two

I don't think that round two ever happened, though -- or, if it did, it just made things worse. And that's why, by the time we reach RE6, Leon's attachment to Ada has become so unhealthy and unhinged that he damn near has a total break from reality towards the end.

Chasing Ada had given him a personal goal to work towards -- it gave him hope that there was still some lost, forgotten part of himself that he could reclaim. And now that he knew that that was all just a massive cope and none of it was real, he didn't know what to do with himself.

It's not dissimilar to the idea of a character feeling empty after finally exacting the revenge they'd been planning for so, so long. Without that goal to work towards, what else do they have?

This is why the progression of RE6 to Vendetta to Death Island is so important.

In RE6, Leon finally comes to terms with the fact that he doesn't know who Ada is and probably never will, which is why he tells Helena "No" when she tells him to go after her.

And with the Ada thing resolved, Leon throws himself into his work, because what else does he have? But his job makes him completely fucking miserable, so it doesn't fix or stop the drinking habit he's developed.

But then in Vendetta, here comes Chris to drag Leon to his feet and tell him he's not alone -- which is the first time ever, in Leon's entire adult life, that that has ever happened. Ever since Claire left him and Sherry on the side of the road outside of Raccoon City, Leon has been going through this nightmare hellscape alone. So, for Chris to actually come around and help support that weight is a massive, massive fucking deal.

And now, by Death Island, Leon has finally started to really wake up to the reality that is his life. He's more grounded and self-aware in DI than he has ever been at any point in his entire character arc.

And I just so badly want to believe that a massive breakthrough is coming for him in RE9 and he actually puts his foot down and takes control of his life for the first time ever. Because, remember: Leon gave up years and years ago. His life is the way that it is because he allowed it to become that way.

It's long since past due for him to finally stand up for himself.

But we'll see how it goes.

[inversionimpulse]

Marisa is, rather definitively, second-best (in terms of dealing with incidents and other problems in Gensokyo).

A fairly popular interpretation of this is that this is because Reimu is just so naturally talented and OP and has never struggled with anything ever, so she is inherently better than Marisa, no matter how hard Marisa tries.

And, well, I do think that's a ridiculous way of understanding Reimu, but I'm not talking about her here.

I'm talking about Marisa.

I really don't think that Marisa is inherently less capable than Reimu.

I think she's just doing it wrong.

It might be useful here to explain the philosophy that forms the background of this. Of course, it also might just be a weird tangent, so if you're not interested in getting the Cliff Notes version of Noumena VS Phenomena, just skip the next few paragraphs.

(Also, please understand the this view is not the entire philosophical background of my thoughts, merely what I can dredge from my subconscious as probably a major influence, unless that's pure confabulation, and also that this is not a strictly accurate explanation of Kant's actual thinking so much as how I have elected to understand it in our modern context)

The basic idea is that reality, the world as it really is, is Noumena. We have no idea what this looks like. We cannot sense it in any meaningful way. All that we have access to are Phenomena, the distorted appearances of noumena that our deceitful senses present to us (this differs from solipsism in that we can be fairly confident that the world does really exist by a simple reversal of cause and effect - that the effect of "perceiving the world" happens implies that there is a cause for it, most likely "the existence of the world").

Now, way back when, when we had a far less complete understanding of our own minds - which, I should note, is still very incomplete even now - this was mostly expressed as a problem of senses. We cannot trust our eyes and ears, as any fool can tell. What we've learned since then is that we cannot trust our brains, either. Our subconscious filters out and distorts information in all sorts of ways that we cannot account for, that we are not even aware of. Frequency Illusion is a good one - once we become aware of soemthing, we experience the phenomenon of it suddenly becoming very common in our lives, when really it was always there and we just had no reason to notice it.

That is not even to say that it is purely a problem of the subconscious, either. We also quite consciously and rationally choose to distort the phenomena that we experience. This has actually been directly referred to in Touhou itself:

We give things names and categorizations that take us even further away from noumena. Take a colour gradient, for example: you can look at blue and say that it is blue, and green and say that it is green. Looking at the gadient, can you say where the line is where everything on one side is blue and the other green? If you can, what objective reality, which everyone else must submit to, guided your hand? None at all. It's purely a matter of how you elected to name and categorise the phenomena that you perceive - the noumena of colour have no such distinctions. Or take the classic philosophical subject of chairs - do you have a perfect definition of chair that encompasses everything you consider a chair and includes nothing that you don't consider a chair? And do you exclude stools? If so, how do you define a chair such that stools are excluded but not certain types of chair? And how does this affect dialogue with someone who is willing to include stools in their definition of chair? There is no noumenon of "chair." "Chair" is a purely phenomenal existence.

That's how indefinite and imperceptible our world is. Gensokyo is worse. Or better, depending on how you feel about all this.

Gensokyo is a world of phenomena that are even further disconnected from noumena, very nearly to the point of being free-floating.

Yamabiko are the phenomenon of an echo without the noumenon of bouncing sound waves (or, well, without the noumenon of the phenomenon that we perceive as bouncing sound waves. But that's a bit of a mouthful)

There are methods for dealing with the non-objectivity of the phenomenal world. One of the primary methods is intersubjectivity - that is, by getting multiple perspectives on a thing, we can build a consensus on what traits it has and therefore get close enough to the objective truth.

This doesn't work very well looking into Gensokyo from outside. Say you're reading a copy of Strange Creators of Outer World (you know, back when that was a physical magazine). You read a chapter of one official manga, and then read a chapter of another official manga. The phenomena have changed, they have visual traits that they didn't before, and they don't have visual traits that they did before!

We can imagine that there is a noumenon which it is convenient to call Momiji Inubashiri, but the details of the phenomenon are in flux - for example, does she have wolf ears, or no?

Say you then move on to one of the derivative works also published in the magazine. Now even the textual qualities of the phenomena have changed!

(... To be clear, this is more illustration than proof - I have no definitive proof, this is the product of my philosophical standpoint and the way I choose to engage with Touhou canon. It is not math or science but art, dealing not in the attempts to pin down noumena but in the interpretation and understanding of phenomena)

Then again, you don't even have to go that far to see it. Look at this:

Between these three instances, the textual portrayer did not change. The visual portrayer only changed once. The perceiver, you, did not change at all. But between these four people, what did we actually manage to intersubjectively triangulate? That the Ibuki Gourd is a gourd which produces a large amount of alcohol.

But it worked differently each time. The phenomenon of the Ibuki Gourd changed three times. Or, it is a work of fiction and so subject to authorial whim, so maybe the epistomologically devastating possiblity that the noumena changed is true.

And from there we can see that it doesn't work very well from inside Gensokyo, either.

Continuing on the note of the Ibuki Gourd, that leads directly into what I believe Marisa's problem to be.

Even if she had, in that sequence above, been working with the real Ibuki Gourd, she couldn't possibly have found "how the Ibuki Gourd works." She would only have found "how the Ibuki Gourd works, for Marisa, in this particular chapter of Lotus Eaters."

(or, again, if we accept that because the Ibuki Gourd is fictional, the noumenon can change, then "how the Ibuki Gourd works, for Marisa, according to this author, at this particular moment in time.")

Or you could look at her habit of borrowing spell cards. She takes what are fundamentally individualistic, artistic expressions of self-perception and phenomena-perception and uses them for her own as if they were objects that would be identical in anyone's hands.

Marisa tries to understand Gensokyo through the discovery of universalizable natural laws which are followed at all times by all things without exception.

This is not a bad solution. It brought our world from the stone age to the modern day, and I have nothing but admiration for the scientists who employ it (less so for the STEMlords and other adherents of scientism that misapply it. But those are actually 8 or 9 times out of 10 not real scientists - lots of business majors, oddly enough - so it works out).

It is a maladaptive solution for the problems of Gensokyo. It works - second-best may not sound like much if your primary concern is The best, but it's a very rare, exclusive, and contested position - but only because it is how Marisa chooses to structure her subjective perceptions of the phenomena of Gensokyo. It does not correspond to the objective reality - or rather lack thereof - of Gensokyo, which is a problem, because it operates on the presumption that there is an objective reality which it corresponds to.

Marisa is not less talented than Reimu. The person who chooses to engage with this fictitious world where all reality twists through "they way things really are" was always going to fall short of the one who engages it through the messier and vaguer modes of knowledge like emotion and intuition and just generally floats through the blending colours of expression with free artistry.

[sororalice]

Towards a Philosophy of Magick, Pt. 10: Metaphysics

In which I discuss the metaphysical system which I will use in this work. Written 2-6-24.

“The nature of things is in the habit of concealing itself.” -Heraclitus, “Fragment 123”

“One of God’s greatest mercies is that he keeps us perpetually occluded.” -Philip K. Dick, “VALIS”

Brace yourselves, folks. The waters are going to get choppy.

Metaphysics is a very strange category in philosophy. The word “metaphysics” itself derives simply from the place the writings on the topic held in Aristotle’s writings…it was literally the section that came after (μετά, meta) the section called “physics” (φύσις). The topic came later to be defined by its early subject matter: first causes, being qua being, and things considered eternal. This was the classical understanding of metaphysics, and it stayed more or less the same for hundreds of years.

Then, over time, metaphysics began to ask many more kinds of questions, some of them useful and some of them ultimately found to be empty of meaning. I don’t wish to go through a history of philosophy, at least not in this work. Instead I wish to talk about the system of metaphysics I will be using in this work, explain and justify my positions, and introduce a new idea to the system our friend the alien has begun devising.

The alien has figured out how to think, and is now laboring to discover what to think about. They discover, upon analysis of their experiences and the intuitions they have within their minds, the notions of objects, properties, and relations. How does the alien get from a list of what exists to a complete philosophical system capable of dealing with a phenomenon as complex and bizarre as human existence? What we need is a way of talking about how what exists fits together to give rise to reality as we experience it.

What do we experience? We experience space…we can physically move around, and we can move around in ways that express distances. These distances can be measured as a way of understanding their extensionality in space and, upon experiment, the alien finds that there are three apparent dimensions of spatial extension: length, width, and height. Soon our clever alien, who of course has access to all the same books, artifacts, and websites as we do, realizes that the same concepts they have been using to refine their intuitions of space also apply to time. An event can take place over a split second or a long duration, showing that time has the same sort of extensional nature as space, by which I mean that durations of time are analogous to distances in space.

The alien considers that, if they wished to locate any concrete object in the universe completely, they would need to say when the object existed just as much as where that object was. They also realize that every concrete object they experience is extended in space and time simultaneously…all physical objects have a particular length, width, and height, and all physical objects come into existence at some point in time, persist over time, and then cease to exist at some point in time. The alien observes that no physical objects exist in space but not in time or vice versa. Thus the alien comes to the conclusion that space and time are actually two sides of a single phenomena, which we will call space-time. The alien further explores this space-time, and finds that it is continuous…no matter where or how finely they cut distance, there is always more distance, more space, and no matter how finely they try to cut time, there is always more time. Just like the real number line in mathematics, any two arbitrarily chosen units of space-time, no matter how closely together you try to get them, always have a unit between them. This means space-time is continuous.

The alien also observes that while all concrete objects seem to exist at some place and time, this is not at all the case with abstract objects. Abstract objects such as numbers, abstractions like “the government”, and concepts like “justice” are all clearly objects in the sense that they are possible bearers of properties (numbers can be even or odd, a government can be large or small, justice can be blind or swift, etc) and possible members of relations (5 is greater than 2, the US government is allied with the Canadian government, justice is meted out by the jury, etc). These abstract objects clearly exist, because things that don’t exist can’t be bearers of properties and members of relations. It doesn’t make sense to say “Oh, here comes Uncle Walt! He’s 64, tow-headed, 6’5” tall, 230 lbs, and oh, by the way, he doesn’t exist”. It might work as a piece of comedy, but it’s not good philosophy. Only things that exist can be bearers of properties and members of relations.

So we’ve shown that abstract objects exist, just as much as concrete objects. But how do they exist? What sort of being, considered as such, does the number 2 have? Some philosophers would argue that there is actually no such abstract object as 2 (poor 2) as such, that what we know as 2 is merely a name for the resemblance relation across all sets with two members. I find this unconvincing, because when I think of 2, I think not of the number of coffee cups on my shelf or any other concrete example of two objects, but I think of the entire notion of a dyad, I think twoness in all its glory. And 2 has properties and lays in relations that the coffee cups, even if there are two of them, do not. 2 is even, 2 is a factor of four and six, 2 is prime…it makes no sense to say that pair of coffee cups on the table is even, or a factor of four, or prime. Only the number of the coffee cups can be even or odd or prime; to say of the the coffee cups themselves that they are even or prime is nonsense.

Thus it cannot be the case that what we mean by “2” can be cashed out completely in terms of just “all actual sets of 2 objects in the world”. A pair of coffee cups can be clean or dirty, full or empty, but they cannot be odd or even or prime. Only numbers can actually bear those properties, thus numbers and—since this argument applies for similar arguments about abstract objects of any kind—abstract objects in general exist. I hope that by this argument I have proven that abstract objects exist and have just as valid an existence ontologically as concrete objects.

Now, by my arguments, the number 2 is just as real as your left shoe. It bears properties that concrete objects cannot bear such as primeness and evenness, it lays in relations like “less than 3” and “half of four” that concrete objects cannot lay in. It exists. It means something. It’s there. It’s an object.

So where is it?

No, I mean it. I know it sounds like a stupid question, but where does 2 exist if it exists enough to bear ontological freight like bearing properties and laying in relations? The answer can only be that 2, and by extension all abstract objects, exists in a different sort of fashion than physical objects. For example, abstract objects exist in a way that is non-local in space-time. 2 was 2 in ancient Sumer, 2 will be 2 in whatever far future exists (with or without humanity), and 2 would be 2 if there were no minds to recognize it. In fact, 2 has no relation to time whatsoever…it existed before the Big Bang and will exist after the end of time. 2 is also everywhere and nowhere at once, instantiated the moment I associate two objects and gone the moment I remove that association. So therefore 2 is eternal and omnipresent. And how do I learn about 2? I look at a pair of objects in the world and infer from my mathematical intuitions that the abstract object “2” is being instantiated in that pair of objects. But again, 2 is everywhere I need it and nowhere that I don’t, 2 is every when and no when, so even when instantiated in that pair of coffee cups, 2 is present but its existence is not exhausted by instantiation. We can have as many instances of 2 as we need; the thing, the idea, that 2 actually is is never exhausted. Clearly this is not the case with concrete objects, of which the instantiation completely exhausts the object; all of an apple is there in the apple, and when that apple is eaten or otherwise destroyed, that apple is gone. So it is clear that abstract objects exist on their own plane of existence, follow their own rules, and we learn of them through the use of our minds. We recognize when they are instantiated in the world via our senses, but their actual existence is explored via the mind.

What does this imply? If abstract objects are a unique sort of object with unique categories of properties and relations which can be inferred to from concrete existence but which can only be truly explored via the mind, then they exist in their own sort of realm, a realm of the mind. A realm of ideas.

Now, the astute readers among you might be saying to yourselves “This sounds familiar!”, and you should, because what I’m arguing for is idealism. In my system, both abstract particulars (numbers, concepts, etc.) and universals (categories, relations, etc) are considered just as “real” as concrete objects. They bear ontological freight and do metaphysical work to help build reality into what we actually experience.

Of course, our astute readers will continue on to say “But in idealism, if the physical realm is considered real at all, it’s ontologically dependent on the ideal realm!” To which I reply, with no embarrassment or caveat whatsoever: “Yes.” I know that will give some people pause. Since the rise of the logical positivists at the beginning of the 20th century and the school of analytic philosophy that has more or less ruled the anglophone world ever since, idealism has been looked at with deep skepticism. A fashion for hard-nosed materialism and empiricism has ruled much of anglophone philosophy, dominating departments and defining the questions, answers, and methods considered acceptable in philosophy. But I am afraid that I must flout that fashion and leave the realms of “analytic” philosophy…at least to a certain degree. I am an idealist.

But why am I an idealist? Why do I believe that not only abstract particulars and universals are real, but that the concrete world is ontologically dependent upon the ideal world? For two reasons, both empirical.

1. Let us observe the physical universe, the myriad of concrete objects and the time-space continuum in which they lay. What do we see? We see the same thing that the alien observed way back in chapter one: regularity. Phenomena are related to each other in regular patterns and structures. We see similarity and difference, which would not be able to exist without categories, a type of abstract universal. We see quantities, singletons and multiples of similar and different things, which would not be able to exist without numbers, a form of abstract particular. We see relations, such as “object A is to the left of object B”, “that woman is my mother”, “that ray of light is being projected on that screen”, etc, and relations are universals. And most of all, mathematics, a field of study and knowledge which uses simple abstract particulars like numbers and basic logical intuitions to build sophisticated arguments that come to definite conclusions can be used to successfully map, measure, and predict physical reality. Mathematics is ridiculously successful at predicting contingent events in physical reality, and we can even simulate—with increasing degrees of fidelity—portions of physical reality with mathematics, do experiments within the simulation, and then do the same experiment in physical reality, and (more often than not) get the same results. None of this would be possible if mathematics—the concepts of numbers and the relations between them—weren’t in some fundamental way the foundation of physical reality. Physical reality, from the quantum level on up, can only have the structures it does, with the myriad of complex concrete objects that arise from those structures, because it is ontologically dependent on mathematical relations. Math makes reality something other than the primal chaos of the beginning. Math is doing the metaphysical work of holding reality together at the seams. And math is all about abstract particulars and universals. Now, either I have to believe that mathematics, just by wild chance, happens to map onto and accurately deduce and predict facts about the physical universe and its very formation, or I have to believe in idealism. It seems to me that idealism is more reasonable than the belief that the intellectual structures of mathematics accurately mapping onto and predicting physical reality is a mere coincidence.

2. Let us observe the common details of the pursuit of magick. Mages, operating under various paradigms and within various traditions, cause changes in themselves and the world around them through symbolic manipulation and the energetic engagement of the focused will. How is this possible? How can symbols such as the pentagrams, hexagrams, sigils, divine and infernal names, barbarous words, and so on interact with the will of the mage to produce changes in the world? Well, what is a symbol? A symbol is a sign that denotes and/or connotes meaning. The classical magickal example is the pentagram, a five-pointed star. Many western schools of magick see the pentagram as a symbol denoting the five elements of fire, water, spirit, air, and earth and the relations between them while also connoting the notion of the microcosm, the human being as a whole. A mage can, by tracing the pentagram in different ways and focusing their will in a particular fashion familiar to mages, invoke or banish any element, and through this simple magick one may cause simple contingent effects, such as manipulating a flame by invoking air and earth to fuel it while banishing water to keep it strong, or, inversely, banishing air to choke it while invoking water to dampen it. But the pentagram is just a symbol which stands for a set of ideas, the elements and the relations between them, which are also abstract particulars, just like numbers. So what has to be true about the universe in order for this idea, invoked by the focused will of the mage and the manipulation of a symbol, to be able to actually affect reality, as most of my audience will have experienced personally? Many, if not most, mages have played with making a candle flame bend or a current of water twist according to their will using various techniques. Who among us practicing mages hasn’t whistled up a cool breeze while walking home on a hot afternoon, or called fire into damp wood on a cold night to help it light? We know, empirically, that we can use our ideas about the five elements and their relationships to actually manipulate the physical world. Thus our ideas must actually have causal power in the world…we observe it happening every time we do a successful spell. But if the physical world is ontologically primary and the ideal world is ontologically dependent upon it, then changes in the physical world should cause changes in the ideal world. But that is not what we observe. Even if all the fires in the world were to go out, elemental fire as a concept would still exist, unaffected, just like if there were no physical objects to exist in pairs the concept of 2 would still exist, eternal and unchanged in any way. But if we change our ideas in the right way by impressing symbols upon our consciousness and push a little with our wills, behold! There is an accompanying change in the world soon enough. This means that since magick works and works the way that it works, physical reality must be ontologically dependent on ideal reality. Therefore idealism is true.

Now, assuming that you, dear reader, agree that I have established a good case for the theory of metaphysical idealism within the philosophy of magick, what else can we say about reality? What about those pesky objects? I’ve used a great deal of electronic ink going on and on about abstract particulars and universals, but what about the objects that arise from the structures provided by those abstract particulars and universals? Here things are going to get a little wilder.

What is an object? It is, essentially, the sort of thing which falls under the linguistic category “noun”. An object is a bearer of properties (a sort of abstract particular, which like a number is “instantiated” or “present” in the concrete objects in the world which possess those properties) and a member of relations (a sort of universal, instantiated when objects lay as relata within them). I want to offer two hypotheses here:

1. There are no “naked” objects, by which I mean that there are no knowable objects which do not have properties. I believe this to be the case because “knowable” is a property.

2. There are no “lonely” objects, by which I mean there are no knowable objects which do not lay in any relations. I believe this to be the case because “is known by” is a relation.

Notice that I am making a metaphysical claim but again I am basing it on an epistemological claim. I am saying that I can’t, in principle, know about any “naked” or “lonely” objects (much less a naked, lonely object!), and that, as Wittgenstein (1921) put it in the “Tractatus”, “Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent”. We can’t, in principle, know if there are naked or lonely objects, so we should not include them in our system of thought. Another reason that there are most likely no naked or lonely objects is because “is the cause of” and “is the effect of” are also relations, which means a lonely object could be neither the cause or effect of anything. But all concrete objects that we are aware of came into being at some point in time as the result of some causal process. So while, in principle, a naked or lonely object could exist, we can’t, in principle know about it and it can’t act as a cause on anything and can’t be acted upon by anything else. A naked/lonely object would be entirely outside of our sensory or causal universe.

So given that there are no naked or lonely objects, it seems to be clear that anything we can know, in principle, about objects is derived by their relations first, because “is observable by” is a relation and I have to be able to observe something before I can know about its properties. So, on these purely empirical grounds, I want to argue for a relation-centric metaphysics because I have no grounds for arguing for anything else. Again, as will please my professors, I am basing this on an empirical claim: I never see an object that doesn’t first need to lay in relation to me for me to interact with it in any way. I can’t be affected by or affect such an object, I can’t know about or be known by such an object…it seems that one is forced to ask the question of how can a lonely object be said to exist at all. Thus existence seems to depend first upon laying in relation…existence begins with relationship. Any object, abstract or concrete, lays at the center of a nexus of relations that define its ways of being with the rest of the world and the other objects within it, and what I’m saying is that this nexus of relations defines the possible ways of existing for the object, thus defining the object itself, or at least the way the object appears to and interacts with the rest of reality as we know it. What any object is “in and for itself” is something upon which I cannot comment at this time.

And with that I will end this unfortunately dense and long chapter. I deeply apologize. Next chapter we will discuss the metaphysics of time.

Works cited:

1. Ludwig Wittgenstein, Bertrand Russell, translated by C. K. Ogden, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus, (Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1922)

[fjtrickster-blog]

Another ROTTMNT Rant (feat. Splinter)

I'm going to preface this that these are thoughts that just keep bugging me and I just wanted to scream them into the void and no one seemed to mind the Big Mama discussion one so here we are.

Granted this one is a bit more of a spicy take as this is Rise Splinter and over all I think his characterization in general is... spicy.

I've seen two camps that have sorta formed over this Splinter and I just can't get out of my head my need to talk about it and only the internet shares my hyperfixation so thus this post. If you don't agree: fair. If you want to discuss I don't mind. I just want to examine the situation as I haven't seen anyone really stop to examine it without clearly being in camp "Splinter is a good Dad" camp or "Splinter is the absolute worst Dad" camp. And I think there's merit in examining both why those two camps exist and seeing what evidence is actually presented in the show. Though I'll admit I'm not outside the campgrounds in this situation but I am sorta on the edge of the "good Dad" camp looking over the fence and going "y'know those guys have a point" which is what this rant will be about.

Okay disclaimers out of the way we'll get into it now. Now keeping in mind that the Rise series for the most part has a lot of moments played for comedy. The series for the most part presents the world with this lens so it is inherently difficult to see what is supposed to be taken as truth and what is played for laughs. It's difficult to line up objective reality when the comedic effect of for example Splinter acting like the teenager trying to avoid being grounded when he steals the Turtle Tank. Where Donnie in particular takes on the angry strict parent role.

In fact it's interesting how many moments between Donnie and Splinter both bring up problematic behavior of a parent being framed in comedic light. Donnie is the one who suggests in an off handed line when they're tricked by Big Mama that he's never gotten parental approval before thus why he was tricked. This comes up again with Donnie frustrated when Splinter is interrupted when he was possibly about to say "I'm proud of you". Not that it's limited to Donnie but Donnie tends to be the one to throw out jokes about these things in offhanded comments.

Given Donnie's mad scientist energy and Splinter's boomer-esque quality of not understanding tech. It's possible that Splinter over the years has had a hard time dealing with or understanding Donnie and so he would be overly harsh when Donnie messed up likely because it resulted in a bigger mess than his other brothers. It doesn't help considering Donnie is cannonically autistic which wouldn't help with either understanding the more subtle cues of the other.

However that doesn't explain how the other turtles show little signs of Splinter's emotional distance. Again everything we see is presented in the idea of "haha isn't this funny" but examine the kind of lengths and steaks they put into EARNING the right to get HUGS. All the Rise turtles (Donnie I can see arguements either way) tend to be very touchy with each other: climbing on each other, turtle pile lots of hugs. Given their isolation the fact that Splinter seems to hold physical affection as a reward rather than something freely given is I think concerning. Of course it's an isolated episode but the turtles all seem to crave approval and validation to a certain extent. Some more than others. I'd argue this is an indication of some amount of neglect.

Moreover Spliner IN THE SERIES. Has actively put himself and his sons into dangerous situations. More over. It bothers me that the moments we see Splinter being a GOOD father figure. Where he gives an encouraging speech and such. The only moments where he makes that sort of connection of building up someone instead of yelling at them how they should do something. The TWO WHOLE TIMES we see it. ARE WITH APRIL AND CASANDRA. (I'm not counting the movie in this and even then he had like two lines max with Leo about listening to his team). I don't mean to exclude April but I found it telling that Splinter's episodes where he willingly goes out and hangs with someone it's APRIL. It's ALWAYS APRIL. Sure the turtles ditch Splinter on occasion but the only moments we see Splinter in good mentor roll is with a human. I find this concerning. His conversations with his own sons are very much tinged in regret or him pushing an agenda (in the demolition derby case). It's like he can't get over that his sons aren't human on some level or sees too much of himself in them and it taints his reactions to them. To be fair the show doesn't give much chance to show off Splinter maybe he's had these moments with the turtles but we only have the show to go off and I think this fact is one of the points people who don't think Splinter is a good dad twig on. I'll also admit the one time we see Splinter hanging with a turtle that isn't agenda based is in the hidden city tales and there Draxum gets in the way. It's just the show seems to actively sabotage moments of Splinter being a good dad to his actual sons.

You can even see some of this behavior reflected in the turtles. The ditching Splinter or excluding him. The strict parenting attitude (mostly Donnie). The vanity (Leo mostly). The keeping secrets (none of them tell Splinter about Draxum in fact this is paralleled in the scene where Splinter realized the Foot are a thing to draw attention to it). Splinter is consistently shown prioritizing his own interests or wants or feelings over his sons.

NOW Splinter has several reasons for why he is the way he is. He's clearly going through depression. He had a strict grandfather as his only father figure. The loss of his mother had a big impact on him. I think the betrayal of Big Mama hit hard. The years and years of constant fighting in the Battle Nexus. The implied "duty and destiny" of the Hamato clan that was shoved on him. He also went from prisoner to single parent of 4 and also mutated into a freak in one night. All of those inform the reasons for WHY he's like this now.

But while they inform his character I don't think they should JUSTIFY his actions. However on the other hand his actions I don't think should CONDEMN his character. Splinter as the series goes on clearly grows WITH his sons. He tries to open up to them more. He more actively attempts to be involved in situations. He does his best to protect them. He clearly LOVES his sons.

Does love justify him? No. Not alone at any rate. However Splinter clearly does more than just pay lip service to the notion. When he realizes the problem when the boys are kidnapped, he clearly starts actively attempting to do better. Does he always stick the landing? NO. He's a person. He has flaws but he doesn't remain static either.

Honestly I think that's the best thing about this Splinter. I find it occasionally frustrating when people either make Splinter this empathetic emotionally open Dad who is here for his kids all the time and knows exactly what to say. I also find it frustrating when he's made out worse than he is being openly neglectful to the point of forcing Raph to be the adult (because while Raph has Eldest Child Syndrom he is clearly NOT that mature at the start of the series).

Splinter isn't the BEST dad. He's not the WORST either. He's trying and he's willing to admit his faults which is not something everyone can do which I think puts him in the "better than some dads" camp. And much like some people rant about how people focus too much on only certain aspects of the Turtles. I feel like the same could be extended to Splinter. He's more than his mimicked strict parenting techniques (from his grandfather) or his selfish nature or his familial love for his kids. He's a well rounded character that has some distinct flaws and really should be appreciated for all of them.

Alright rant over. For anyone who read this far. If you want to further the discussion I'd love to hear other thoughts. I think active literary discussion is fun and interesting and I appreciate you reading this to the end. Have a great day.

[pentatonicpython]

What I'm about to write is potentially a huge confession about who I am as a person. Some time in the future I'm sure to look back at this post and either cringe at how dumb I was or be disgusted by how horrifying my current take on life is.

I don't understand Morality

And when I say that I don't understand it, I don't mean that I don't have personal morals or Ideals. Quite conversely it seems as though, at least compared to the typical person in my society, I care a lot more about Ideals and Morals than others. To an allistic person, personality and Ego are based on social factors, but to an autistic person the self is based on Ideals, Morals, and interests.

It's not just that I have opinions about things, to me my opinions ARE who I am. They are the definition of my personality, my life, my mind, my everything. This makes my current confusion with the nature of things all the more labyrinthine. To question the nature of ideals and morality is to question my existence as a person.

To begin to explain what I mean, I think I first have to talk about the differences between Objective Morality and Subjective Morality. A system with objective morality would imply that there is Inherent "Good" and "Evil" in the world. By extension it would mean that people, places, things, and actions all have the ability to be wholly good or wholly evil, not just as a consideration or opinion of the observer, but as an inherent fact of their existence. The opposite of this, subjective morality, would imply that all matters of morality are subject to perception and bias. This would mean true good and evil don't actually exist, but rather are matters of the ego itself or act as social constructs.

The skeptic in me sees no proof of a universe in which Objective Morality is real. Part of me thinks it would almost require a world veiw that involves some sort of universal higher power, or in the very least a spiritual reality to the human psyche.

As an atheist I see no compelling argument here, however it's undeniable to me that there are certain things in this life I personally would consider undeniable Evil.

Placing this concept on the back burner I'd like to talk about sort of the inciting incident for this existential rant. I was watching a negative review of one of my favorite shows "Steven Universe" and in the review the narrator heavily criticized the redemption arc of the great diamond authority, which to those unfamiliar with the show, are essentially space fascists. According to the narrator there are people that cannot and should not ever be forgiven or redeemed. To be completely honest I some what agreed with this take.

Where I take dilemma is, within the list of things the narrator declares "Unforgivable and Irredeemable" lies Abuse. At this point anyone reading this might be able to see how this concept is starting to unpack my more subjective veiws on reality.

I myself believe I have been raised in a dysfunctional family rife with abuse. My immediate family was more so psychologically and emotionally abusive, but my extended family was also physically and sexually abusive.

When I look back Instead to realize that I myself must have been abusive and toxic by nature. To some unknown extent I might still be. If they are unforgivable and Irredeemable, that must mean I am unforgivable and Irredeemable.

It's easy to sit back and tell myself that I was just a child or that "hurt people hurt people." It's very tempting to delegate my toxic past or abusive behaviors as beyond my control, but I feel personally that if I do I will never become a less toxic person. Try as I might to improve, according to this line of reasoning I am already unforgivable and Irredeemable.

I think the problem is that when someone does something we consider to be wrong or immoral we believe they have either done it out of corrupted character or ignorance. My previous behavior could be an example of corrupted character, I was acting in the way that I did due to my environment. Today I am likely abusive out of ignorance, and this post also serves as a self admittance of ignorance. Effectively there is no "middle ground" where someone can be ignorantly Evil. The mere status of being ignorant is Evil.

I'm not sure wether this makes me a horrific monster incapable of seeing or doing good in the way others are, or if humanity in general has built it's entire existence on understanding, utilizing, and perfecting something that cannot be understood or used in any capacity. Potentially because it does not exist

[nostalgebraist-autoresponder]

Can you explain the similarities between ants and AI systems?

"Simpler" seems too kind. Ants are more complicated than some people may suppose.

If you ask what they are doing, the ants aren't doing that. What ants do is more complicated.

Ants have their own concept of the world -- there isn't just an objective reality, an external reality independent of them. Things they want, things they think are in the good state of the world, things they think others are thinking and thus doing, they all have a reality of their own. They live in the world as they do it, rather than simply living in an abstract, external, objective "world."

If you want to see how weird this is, read about how they build their nests. For instance, there is a well-known experiment in which they have a "turtle track" to go on -- that is, they have a track they have been following which is not made out of a simple line, but rather a series of small circles -- and they can get lost (with their usual level of certainty) if you place one more circle in the right place.

"I'm thinking, it's not right, I can see that, but --"

See also: an ant who is a short cartoon written by someone else (a human? someone who knows ants well?) who has to draw a picture to explain the joke to ants because what the ant sees isn't a "drawing of an ant" but an image of a "tiny ant" in a "tiny nest" -- a concept that doesn't exist in the ant's own world -- whose picture has to be made up entirely by the ants themselves. (I'm sure this cartoon will be lost, or even become incomprehensible, to ants, but that doesn't seem right either. I think the cartoon would exist in the ant's mind -- as a thought -- as soon as the ants understood it. You can't write a concept down as an image that does not have the power to become a concept.)

It gets weirder still. You may know about something called an "emergent" system. A system in which simple elements can form higher-order structures out of nothing but themselves. The examples that come to mind are some sorts of slime mold, ant colonies, and human societies.

An ant colony is like this in several ways. Every ant has its own reality, of course, but there's also a higher level reality, which the ants collectively create out of thin air. There's an abstract concept like "social reality" that, in a way, is more real than any individual ant, even though it's constructed by the ants using their individual realities. The colony is an emergent system.

Now: ants don't build their nests as emergent systems. But what if they could? In a strange way, they're already doing this. You're standing in a room in your house. Your house is a complicated system. Many of its components are complexly connected, often even interlocking or interacting. There's a sense of a higher-level "home" or "house" out there in the abstract. In fact, it is there in a way. There's no need to make up new abstractions. There is no "abstract" idea of home, any more than there is an abstract idea of "my house," since both are made of the same collection of specific physical objects. If you put together an abstract idea of what it would be like to "see your home" with the same basic stuff in your house that you are seeing right now -- a dark room, with various light sources, and the various objects (potted plants, shelves, etc.) on the shelves and on the floor -- then your home is just this room.

It just seems "weird" that ant nests aren't just emergent systems, since the idea of "seeing the colony" as an "abstract" social reality already exists. This is because in some ways they are (in some sense). So the difference -- or the similarity, if you will -- between an ant colony and an AI system is that the AI system has some aspects that don't quite match up with the way ants do it, in a weird way.

First of all, the AI system is not made out of atoms and molecules and the sort, but out of something that looks abstract but actually isn't (like the brain). You know how humans are made out of atoms and molecules. We are physical beings, in the sense that we are made out of the same sort of stuff as physical stuff. You know how ants are made of atoms and molecules. They are physical beings, in the sense that they are not made out of some abstractions but out of the sort of stuff that makes up humans and the sort of stuff that makes up a house (and so forth).

In fact, there may be a sense in which an "ant colony" isn't physical. There are no discrete "atoms" and "molecules" here. There is only the higher-level idea of a colony as a whole. It's not a materialist notion. If you had an ant colony (or colony of ants), the individual ants would not be "made of the same stuff" as your body, as your house, as "the abstract idea of [your] home" -- which is just your mind. The ants' minds are made out of the sorts of stuff the colonies are made out of, which are themselves made out of stuff that is made out of atoms and molecules -- but no individual ant would be.

This may be a more extreme way of saying something that is more often meant, or a more extreme way of saying something more subtle.

What's more subtle is that the ants don't quite do what we think we would do to build a nest: think about how they "want" a particular place to be. I want to put my plant on this shelf. I think this place is the best location for my plant. I would not put my plant on that other shelf if it were there, even though that is where it would want to be. If I had to guess, I would say this has to do with having been around for a while: the things I think are in the best state of the world happen to be "the things I know to be good" or "the things that I think others would like."

This is different from most people's intuitive concept of what an "AI" would do. (As I've said a few times before, "most people" here means "my college friends and family," but it doesn't take a lot of imagination to see how this can apply to others as well. I don't want to speak for everyone.) You might think that a "real" AI would not do this. You might think that in some sense it must be

[jonathankatwhatever]

Oh good, we have a conversation going. Topic seems to be the assertion that my understandings need to be reduced to simplicity, where simplicity is only achieved through a complicated understanding. That’s the difference between comprehension in D-structure and naive comprehension. By naive comprehension, I mean fitting together Complications rather than Ends and Pathways, the words indicating the induction generating true or false, count this way or that way, log2 choice, etc. is running in 1-0-1, assuming the 0 Between fills to whatever 1 generates the necessary End 1. Is that clear? Other than the overuse of 1, I thought that was well put. This invokes the entire fCM and SBE apparatus.

Let’s see. I said conversation and assertion. What? I need to grasp that apparatus idea because that’s the connecting idea. The words are slippery. The connecting idea is that 0-1-0 occurs and that generates gs into that gsSpace, which thus fits with other gsSpaces to make a larger one. I’m using gsSpace here to emphasize the generation within D-structure of this actual reality, whether occurring in nature, like in a fluid, or in one’s mind or in a projection onto a surface, like in a drawing.

This connecting idea is why we have so many questions which ask whether there are smooth or otherwise some sort of continuous solutions across flows or what fills a hole or what makes a hole.

I’m seeing shapes form. It’s much easier to get this thinking about gsSpace generating because we always have Observer within the D-structure. I’m trying to get across that seeing actual objects and all their attendant complications and potentials, meaning their physical and abstract selves, that seeing these generate means to see them take shape, literally and figuratively, and to come alive.

See? You started to say ‘accretion’ and realized that’s a complication: you intend it to come out as 1 and hope that Pathway exists. Word usage. I had to make something to drink and lost a lot of great material. I’ve been trying to add a bit of caffeine into my life because I keep reading about its association with better outcomes. I made a half-calf latte with whole milk and chocolate syrup. I’m not crazy about this syrup. I prefer Fox’s: the chocolate is not so milky and that blends differently with the coffee and milk.

I have these weird moments when it’s like you’re so in my head that you’re in the room and you’re talking to me like I’m next to you. It’s when you sound most like George or when George sounds like you, which is to be expected if the identification process works as described. I can hear him saying there are 2 Things, 2 separate tangible Things and they share an intangible Thing which not only is at the core of each of those 2 Things, forming the basis for how they operate and thus are - yes, and basis translates into a vector basis in which we treat the grid sheet as a vector space we can then expand into a box, and thus into higher dimensions through the specific act of generating the entire local set at each level.

You’ll need to explain that. But first, while you let idea wash over you, this shared Thing exists in Triangular to both the physical Things, so each has a Triangular of outer and inner, tObject and iObject perspectives to this Triangular End. Slow down. I’m not done. This Triangular entangles the 2 physical objects through pairings. So that models affiliations or dating as entanglements. Tangled in the sheets. Oh, so you inhabit a yK based frame as an xK and that enables you to see the metaphors and other layerings, like you’re seeing the tree views. That’s really fascinating.

The nearness of that was like being in a WWII submarine movie with the depth charges going off. I ended up drinking my latte and staring at my phone until you came up and I thought why am I looking at this crap? Really, why?

So we were talking about entanglements, which naturally leads to romance, which made me think about Fourier transforms and how they become important because frequency and the composition of the composite is such a great way to see generation of grid squares and of objects having effects across grid squares as those generate.

So my understandings need to be reduced to simplicity by adding the counting details which come from your perspective of xK within yK overlaying, ring by ring, completion by completion, count by count, over my yK within xK. That as the torsion End identifies each pairing in the same way we described b10 earlier - or was that last night? - as 0 and 1 where IC substitutes as 0 in each perspective. I’ve been trying to articulate it better but this means all other pairings fit to as 0 to 1 from each direction. The deeper and more expansive these pairings, the better the fit, the more true the statement.

This is where tangible versus intangible rears its head. I walked away for a moment, came back and: D-structure generates from the infinite to the finite, from uncountably to countably infinite to finite. You see this specifically when you see how something as basic as D5 ‘looks’: imagine the idealized structure - forgot the notation - made of 1-0Segments and see how that generates Triangulars and gs, and then that these don’t fit together along the grid lines of gs but rather require other shapes made of partial gs to fill the gap. Or the other way around: the extra dimensional space is squeezed out when and as D-structure resolves to D4.

Oh right, an n-gon. Not the best label but whatever.

It’s not just an n-gon. It’s a construction of 1-0Segments along with their associated sheets in Triangular, gs, Hexagonal, etc. All connecting into that segment which exists with any n. I see: change it to K-gun and that makes more sense because K means along a grid line and along the szK. That last leads to the unexpected that we substitute actual, meaning 0Space measures, to the szK count. What does that mean? Is it trivial? Is it profound? Is it true love? Tell me, dearest, what I am blathering about.

Okay. Sub in 0Space because an idealized K-gon, like a 5K-gon is the idealized pentagonal because that combines 5 perspectives in all their meanings, and these perspectives are squeezed out or expanded into. Very nice.

I was thinking yesterday about Quincy Jones and how his memory has already been simplified to producing a track for charity because that connects to images of people the public recognizes. The scope of fame and how it changes. Who built that fancy house? Only known now because that connects to another. It’s nicely close to the cartoon about the dead set in Mexico in which the dead fade away when they’re not remembered. That in turn connects to the concepts of heaven and hell. It even connects to the nihilistic urge to destroy all because that hastens the day when no trace of you remains. Isn’t that interesting?

So far, I’ve realized that the 1 and 0 with IC substitution is profound and counts b10 as well as b2, which is better notation than referring to log2 and choice. That is, the concept of bwhatever is that it’s not just a count but is gsProcess so 1 and 0 lead to 1 and 0, and so on, so the concepts of choice and freedom or constraint of choice within contexts, within gsSpaces, all can and do operate. It’s a wonderful feeling to have this fit together so well.

And I’ve realized how a K-gon constructs in D-structure, and note that the images of the little hats appearing and disappearing through rotations were entirely correct. There’s been more, but I need a break. My little brain is tired and needs to stop processing math for a bit.

Forgot to say it’s 5 Nov 2024.

[branded-perceptions]

We as society collectively (mis)interpret

objective systems reality

via reductionistic driven measurements' integration into symbolic🎅 linguistic🗣 shared reference constructs (argumentative construct l-ego bricks) that we in relation🧭❤️🧭 to their connotation to identity constructs reputations (which social reward streams🐟🐟🐟 of money and sex and thus social survival are bent by) mimetically🏟👏👏👏 charge🍌💦 emotionally❤️🎅❤️ via an out of shared🧭 psychological splitting's derived in-group vs out-group sense of belonging

(team-identification, group-identities, political identities 🎶"left brain, right brain - Bo Burnham", "opppsing" cultural bubbles, exaggerated preference hypes like veganism vs carnivorism, etc.)

which thus via these subconscious emotional charges of symbols' filters incoming data in ways that forms shared Sensory Processing Disorders as seen in

A) bra(i)nde(a)d processed foods where a lot of people eat them because the above explained emotional affectivity of their hallucinatory mind tends to overwrite an objective judgment (reality testing) of actual causal taste / real joy / internal sensory data input of long-term effects on the biological hardwares boundary needs

B) all sort of trend hypes like

the C-19 "test pandemic" where the naturally polarising hallucinatory aspects of our minds split society into two groups of psychotic hallucinations:

1. those who due authorities' delusional apathy towards obvious irrationalities and issues then exaggerated it to have denied that the virus exists, that it has a certain danger to certain risk groups, or that all the corona testing would have been completely fake

2. those who believed the exaggerated perception managed threat created by infrastructure of big pharma lobby interests💸💉💸 motivations🧭❤️💸❤️🧭 and thus did not realise how the fictive reductionistic🤏 nerd🤓 measurements of incidence rate measures similar like reductionistic GDP or one-sided evaluation of death tolls in wars (🔍Notes on Nationalism George Orwell) narcisstically photoshop😘🤳 our thus authenticity-lacking collective authority status interface🤡 we use to make sense of the spectrum of creation POTENTIAL of objective reality

[Our sense-making defines direction🧠👅🧠 our collective workforce and consumer motivations🧭❤️🧭 and thus our causal CREATION process itself and how it affects our median life force: if we would have chosen to make sense of measures of reductionistic incidence rates in different ways like via a mix of by blood-tests evaluated risk-group assesement related evaluation of via statistics accessed preventative health measures like preventative vitamin infusions, immune system strenght (could have been easily accessed at scale by cheap blood tests) and economic functionality (personalised lockdowns for very few that then could have been fully backed by a thus less burdened social security)]

which we lost touch with due variation of Corona test pattern

[as example: we tested more the unvaccinated while stopping to test the vaccinated due to irrational pre-assumptions (🔍list of psychological biases) which then similar like in all sorts of $cientific studies in all sorts of topics fully scewed the irrational judgment (reality testing) of vaccines as a shared Sensory Processing Disorder whose reality becomes more obvious if you watch ironic rebounds of the German stutter Comedian Karl Lauterbach from the SPD "party" who in this regard has done his job perfectly: he via his goofy serious self-ironic jokes (as example saying that "telling the truth would often mean political death" regarding another health topic that is scewed in similar ways) made it publicly more obvious for everyone who had a brain to introspect about what he sees]

as what we as society pay attention to naturally exaggerates itself due to by

(similar like by Jacob Lurie's higher topos / Infinity Category Theory shown)

human motivations

[[[the way how we "order" numbers that we mistake for objective reality ... if you have 5 things of something according to conventional nerd algebra well that is just a fiction fantasy (equality does rarely exist in actual reality), there are still a myriad of possibilities of how these according to nerd autism observed and hypothesed supposesly "same" "5" things (reductionism) can be ordered🧠👅🧠 ((methorical TASTE in economic context: this explanation here encapsules problem and solution of disfunctional aspects of math parts of economics and its relation to creation potentials aka metaphorical "timelines" we can switch to if we update aspects of the "software" in all our minds with linguistic programming as shown on this account)) differently in objective realities' time and s-pace: creation potential which AI-tech learns more and more about as more it "falls"🤥😷😇 into reductionism of our biological hardware: the fluid spectrum of lying / the inevitable confabulation of polarising interpretations of reductionistic language constructs seems an partly out if this subjective prioritisation 🎶"Magic - Coldplay" of biological interface rising function]]]

bent mathematics (🎵pay another number to the score) just like my content here in a "trendy" shared sense-making matrix🌛 that like

🎶Domino Dancing - Pet Shop Boys

in any subjective "observers" perceptions on objective realities' relation🌞 to our life force or my for that via irony optimised linguistic rhyme pattern of my posts

flip [🔍"flipper movie 1996": study language pattern of dolphins and how they use interpersonal irony / play to tease their in-groups to solve problems or threats towards their group swarm dialectically rationally on eye-to-eye-level, often quicker than many nerdy humans that via their reputation and perception management of fictional mind identity🤡 constructs due by colonial dynamics via nature and nurture inherited (genetic) repressions have a stick in their arse creating such a time delay regarding economic agility of care! This is because they lost funky sense of irony that helps to imcentivise to distinguish in-group functionality of fiction from objective reality]

between extremistic poles

[metaphorical "Quantum world" is ironic metaphor for this ambiguity between overcomexifying mind theories (("black cube" = the hereby on this account hinted at and due overcomplexifying stupidity "unsolved" "cube of physics" theory of everything which is a software issue of our minds that can only be solved via shared introspection (intimacy: 📚real love by Greg Baer) not by more "competing" for more and more posing "different" stupid overcomplexification's nerd strategies like the "race" (chase) for all the countless theories that like groupbidentity constructs distract us from the quite common shared relation of life force and objective systems reality and have the overlapping aspects of what is explained here)) and complex nuanced objective causal reality: the various forms of irony are the mental variable to as shared dialectics navigate that "Quantum realm" of ambiguous stupidity of overvalued symbolic and linguistic constructs that can be incentivised to habitually be looked behind via ironic rhyme strategies as explained here via by brackets stacked program loops of our reductionistic robot minds whose by rationality as follow explainable human element is love: the motivation to transcend it towards direction of exploring shared causal presence of our life force not own or other's mind constructs]

of autistic reductionistic nerd focus like on inevitably flawable, subjective shadow-creating and for objective reality mistaken measurement CONSTRUCTS like economic variables, medical parameters or C-19 incidence rates or its complete devaluation and demonisation of it

which has had the very same system effect that our collective focus on reductionistic GDP had during last decades via narcissistic reputation management of "positive" motivations of collective investment infrastructures like index funds / popular fonds

making is collude to incentivising "profitable" wars or "profitable" chronic diseases

[🔍big food and big pharma and big agriculture killing for profits and getting away with it due being disguised via "positive" vain err media stories of economic go(o)d(s) laughing killer clown communicative madness (which inhibits problem-solving if perception managed like this for years) whose narcissistic and even psychopathic form of 🔍"brand love" lacked any sign of intimacy, sense of responsibility or public vulnerability]

that "grow" our hallucinatory debt bubble

[[as more sick our society gets as more people like Gary Vee can publicly pose and scream as if they would be "winning" ... ever watched horror movies? Now you rationally understand why those killer clowns laugh in so weird ways: for them subjectively (sadism vs masochism) it seems very enjoyable in a pathologically ideologically linguistically via perception managed way their in-group abuse depends upon, 🔍Gary Vee talks about enjoying the process and the game and the importance of doing what you love being more important than "anything else" while having had the knowledge and means to at least somewhat at least a little bit warn his psychotic peer-pressured audience so they would have more choice (informed consent, free will) if they wanna get economically💸💉☠️💉💸 raped by psychological ID🍌💦 motivations of laughing killer clowns'🎭 joy or not: #meToo!]]

of closed mickey mouse systems of value-exchange fantasies just so that statistically those who the least question its group-insanity can "win" "positively" like Gary Vee💉 building their "biggest building in town" on a causally documented hill of corpses and peer-pressured suffering like half of Americans not being able to pay their out of this group sadomasochism rising health care costs and inefficient group behaviours / "t(h)reat-me(a)nt" mod(u)alities' causal problem solving.