#and just as you've said: just as human history has proven: ''otherness'' lets people do heinous things without shame

[alphaman99]

No, it's not "Letter from a Birmingham Jail." It lacks the scope, the erudition, and the majestic prose. But this short 2019 essay from Alyssa Ahlgren, whom I'd never heard of until this morning, is nevertheless worth the read. It traffics in familiarities, to be sure, but the thing about familiarities is that they're easy to lose sight of. You need to be reminded to notice them: If you're living in the US in the 21st century, whatever victimhood descriptors you cling to, you've already won the lottery. (Via Wesley Wynne)

THOUGHTS FROM A HIPSTER COFFEE SHOP

I’m sitting in a small coffee shop near Nokomis trying to think of what to write about. I scroll through my newsfeed on my phone looking at the latest headlines of Democratic candidates calling for policies to “fix” the so-called injustices of capitalism. I put my phone down and continue to look around. I see people talking freely, working on their MacBook’s, ordering food they get in an instant, seeing cars go by outside, and it dawned on me. We live in the most privileged time in the most prosperous nation and we’ve become completely blind to it. Vehicles, food, technology, freedom to associate with whom we choose. These things are so ingrained in our American way of life we don’t give them a second thought. We are so well off here in the United States that our poverty line begins 31 times above the global average. Thirty. One. Times. Virtually no one in the United States is considered poor by global standards. Yet, in a time where we can order a product off Amazon with one click and have it at our doorstep the next day, we are unappreciative, unsatisfied, and ungrateful.

Our unappreciation is evident as the popularity of socialist policies among my generation continues to grow. Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez recently said to Newsweek talking about the millennial generation, “An entire generation, which is now becoming one of the largest electorates in America, came of age and never saw American prosperity.”

Never saw American prosperity. Let that sink in. When I first read that statement, I thought to myself, that was quite literally the most entitled and factually illiterate thing I’ve ever heard in my 26 years on this earth. Now, I’m not attributing Miss Ocasio-Cortez’s words to outright dishonesty. I do think she whole-heartedly believes the words she said to be true. Many young people agree with her, which is entirely misguided. My generation is being indoctrinated by a mainstream narrative to actually believe we have never seen prosperity. I know this first hand, I went to college, let’s just say I didn’t have the popular opinion, but I digress.

Let me lay down some universal truths really quick. The United States of America has lifted more people out of abject poverty, spread more freedom and democracy, and has created more innovation in technology and medicine than any other nation in human history. Not only that but our citizenry continually breaks world records with charitable donations, the rags to riches story is not only possible in America but not uncommon, we have the strongest purchasing power on earth, and we encompass 25% of the world’s GDP. The list goes on. However, these universal truths don’t matter. We are told that income inequality is an existential crisis (even though this is not an indicator of prosperity, some of the poorest countries in the world have low-income inequality), we are told that we are oppressed by capitalism (even though it’s brought about more freedom and wealth to the most people than any other system in world history), we are told that the only way we will acquire the benefits of true prosperity is through socialism and centralization of federal power (even though history has proven time and again this only brings tyranny and suffering).

Why then, with all of the overwhelming evidence around us, evidence that I can even see sitting at a coffee shop, do we not view this as prosperity? We have people who are dying to get into our country. People around the world destitute and truly impoverished. Yet, we have a young generation convinced they’ve never seen prosperity, and as a result, elect politicians dead set on taking steps towards abolishing capitalism. Why? The answer is this, my generation has ONLY seen prosperity. We have no contrast. We didn’t live in the great depression, or live through two world wars, or see the rise and fall of socialism and communism. We don’t know what it’s like not to live without the internet, without cars, without smartphones. We don’t have a lack of prosperity problem. We have an entitlement problem, an ungratefulness problem, and it’s spreading like a plague.

With the current political climate giving rise to the misguided idea of a socialist utopia, will we see the light? Or will we have to lose it all to realize that what we have now is true prosperity? Destroying the free market will undo what millions of people have died to achieve.

My generation is becoming the largest voting bloc in the country. We have an opportunity to continue to propel us forward with the gifts capitalism and democracy has given us. The other option is that we can fall into the trap of entitlement and relapse into restrictive socialist destitution. The choice doesn’t seem too hard, does it?

--Alyssa Ahlgren

[mlobsters]

supernatural s12e23 all along the watchtower (w. andrew dabb)

CASTIEL Kelly. I told you I'd put this together. I'm very good at following instructions.

cute

welcome back, friend-o

said it many times before and i'll say it again, so glad to have pellegrino back. man, he's just so creepy as lucifer. can't get over it. they can give the same lines to someone else and it never quite lands the same

LUCIFER All right, well, I'd love to chat with ya, but, uh, why waste my time, right? It's not like you matter. I don't need to put on the old Sam suit anymore, do I? DEAN You know, if you think we're just gonna let you walk – LUCIFER Oh, hey, Dean! I know you fellas are gonna try, you know, whatever. Whatever you're gonna try. But you can't kill me. You've never been able to kill me. And with, uh, witch bitch gone, you can't put me back in the Cage, so like I said… you don't matter. Okay? Buh-bye. Buh-bye.

is rowena actually dead? i was under the impression she was in other later seasons but i don't actually know. that would be a crappy way to go out, to be sure. i know they like to kill people off, but hell, meg got an amazing episode before she was offed. made me cry! meg!! gonna assume not until proven otherwise

KELLY I'm just saying, the checkout guy looked at us like we were super weird. CASTIEL Ah, you'll get used to it.

lol. (unwanted baby tip though, even non-half-archangel newborns grow super fast so you never know how long a size of diaper will fit. some are too big for newborn sizes almost right away! lol)

what in the world. did she just leak some lucifer baby juice on the truck through her hand

how very hell-ish. so who's our mystery guest. old angel, god, benny, hell-au!dean

KELLY Hi, Jack. It's, uh… I'm your mom.

ps my youngest kiddo is named jack lol

s12e23 / star trek: generations (1994)

have to get back to the nexus!

LOL scrambling for an assist from sam, maybe not your best bet what with sam and lucifer's history

SAM Crowley…why did you do it? Save Lucifer– What did you want? CROWLEY I wanted to win. I perverted Mother's spell, put Lucifer in a vessel of my own making because I wanted to win. You have any idea how many people have made a play for my throne over the years? Lucifer, Abaddon, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Too damn many. I thought if I could put the Devil on a leash… my own personal nuke, no one would ever dare challenge me again.

talk about embarrassing, good grief. i'm not sure crowley has the capacity to feel embarrassed really? so at least i'm not feeling it really either, except from a distance. he's not really bothered, i'm not really bothered! i'd like to think crowley would know better than this, but then everyone has their weak spots

curious where this "i hate my job" thing is going. sam seems dubious (as is right). but another thing i love that they generally keep to with crowley is he's playing a long game, almost always. reminds me a bit of a line about hannibal (though crowley is more mushy human regularly than hannibal is honestly)

hannibal s3e2 primavera WILL GRAHAM Hannibal follows several trains of thought at once, without distraction from any. One of the trains is always for his own amusement. ABIGAIL HOBBS He's playing with us. WILL GRAHAM Always.

CROWLEY Well, whenever there's a world-ending crisis at hand, I know where to place my bets. It's on you, you big, beautiful, lumbering piles of flannel

true and also buttering them up but also getting in a dig, all around very signature crowley, yes please and thank you

CROWLEY So if you'll forgive my transgression, I'll make it worth your while. DEAN Which means? CROWLEY After we put Lucifer back in his cage– together– I'll seal the gates of Hell. You'll never see another demon again, apart from, of course, yours truly. MARY You would do that? CROWLEY Why not? They stab me in the back, I'll happily stab them in the front, the sides, and right up their little black-eyed asses. So… we have a deal?

LOL he wanna move into the bunker too?

CROWLEY This is what you do when I'm not here? Type? DEAN Yep.

haha crowley see it's boring being the good guys too

now what are the odds that crowley does stay there, sitting down, and shutting up :p

DEAN Saving your ass. SAM You and Kelly just taking off was a stupid move. But there's no way we're letting Lucifer get his hands on that kid. It ain't happening. DEAN Look, Sam's right, okay? We'll work through our crap. We always do. But right now, we are here to get you, get Kelly, and get gone.

interesting, feels like sam rarely gets mad at cas. he was actually a little angry here, guess risking lucifer getting jack because they skipped town was a hot button

(ok i went to go look at the script to see if it said what he was thinking and wow a ton of stuff here didn't make into the episode. crowley being wayy too human and more. ok actually all of this is way different than what is happening, i gotta stop reading)

CASTIEL It's a doorway to another world. DEAN Anoth– What, like Narnia? CASTIEL No. No, through there it's Earth, but…but different. It's a– it's an alternate reality.

haha my hell-au!dean batshit suggestion not sounding so batshit!

SAM So it's a Bizarro world? Or – or like the place we got zapped to where we were, uh, uh, actors on a TV show. DEAN Oh, yeah. The supernatural wasn't real. SAM Yeah. DEAN And you were Polish.

:p silly

LOLOL oh my god hell-au!BOBBY! i did not go batshit enough. laughed until i was wheezing

CASTIEL As I said, it's– it's Earth. But this Earth is locked in eternal war between Heaven and Hell. There are armies of angels fighting hoards of demons, and the few humans that remain are caught in between.

--

SAM Yeah. John Winchester, our father. BOBBY Doubt it. He's dead. Been dead over 40 years now. Only reason I know about him is this Hunter I ran with, Mary Campbell. You get a few pints of shine into her, and she always told the same story about the man she loved– John Winchester. Azazel killed her about 10 years ago. SAM Cas, what the hell is this? CASTIEL This is a world where you were never born. It's a world you never saved.

haha so it's like SEE this is what would have HAPPENED if mary didn't make the deal with azazel!!!! so she did the RIGHT thing!!! you know i don't think she had a choice since heaven and hell were behind the scenes pulling strings, so i never felt like mary needed absolution, but okay then

MARY Okay. I think they're less than five minutes apart now. It's almost time. How you doin'? KELLY I'm dying. MARY I know. KELLY But that's okay. 'Cause wouldn't you die for your sons? MARY Yeah.

usually pregnancy/labor doesn't get to me but man this is pushing my weepy buttons unexpectedly. some of this being too relatable to when my jack was born (without the anticipated imminent death). they also deployed the mushy music

DEAN You know, Cas has faith in this kid.I hope he's right. But me? I have faith in us. You, me, Mom, Cas. And Crowley. Sometimes.

sweet and cute

shove lucifer into the nexus!

cute. and padalecki's hair always looks best to me when it's a little disheveled

well crowley surely can't be dead after this apparent self sacrifice too, right?

and now cas going in to fight when they're trying to seal the nexus. we're maxing out the drama

cas dead but what, soon to be revived by jack? chuck? somebody. and lucifer pulling mary into the nexus while she uses her amped up brass knuckles to..... punch lucifer in the face a bunch. hoookay. which conveniently now decides to seal with them both inside. with a dead?? crowley

i went back and read through the (production draft) script and things were moved around and a lot was changed/removed. i have only recently gotten in the habit of skimming the scripts when available more regularly for the ep i'm on, so i dunno how common it is for them but so far i haven't seen one even close to as many differences from script to screen that this had

[wack-ashimself]

Russia is not a threat.

But you know who is?

China (they're turning into what the US used to be, which was a world market dominating country. Do you know how many countries owe them money/land?)

However, a 1 on 1 direct OR economic war with china would be catastrophic. America would lose. It would be the first war in forever where they would actually launch attacks (if only hacks) on american soil (pearl harbor doesn't count. We stole that land. It wasn't ours...but technically, ALL american land is stolen so...there's that).

So what does the US want to do?

Fuck up, in any way they can, everything around china so it hurts their trade. It's all we CAN do cuz china does have the upper hand in every way.

-Economically: they are the US back in the day when we were #1. They are STUPID rich and powerful.

-Technology: they can (and it has been proven) crash our entire electrical grid if they wanted to (we have NOTHING hardware wise or software wise that could stop this).

-War: they have the moral high ground. They don't do war with other countries; they buy them out. So if we attempted ANYTHING, a good chunk of the world would actually side with china (being most are in debt to them).

-Population: they have more workers, working harder, producing more, and are FAR more loyal than average americans.

-Culturally: again, more people on the same page (and if not, they're in jail. I never said china is the GOOD guy, I just think they are the smarter bad guy).

So what can we do?

1-make sure no war happens. With anyone (unless like they're gonna end the world or genocide). Spread truth and up to date information 24/7 so that way we can't be lied to by the mainstream media and buy into their lies (how many wars have they lied us into?)

2-Make every community (in every country) self sustaining and independent. Can't hack a grid and crash it if it's like blockchain. I may not like digital currency (it's the hottest trending pyramid scheme, no more noble than the fake american dollar), but it does have a few good ideas. All businesses-worker owned. All utilities-locally owned and controlled. All basics of survival-covered for everyone. People forget that the WHOLE POINT OF ANYTHING is to make it as good as possible for us to...enjoy. Live. Thrive. Don't need to fight if everyone's got what they need.

3-Stop pollution. Almost every major non war* issue we have is linked to pollution. In our food, air, water. They found microplastics in a vast majority of the human race! Even island nations that don't produce plastics!

4-Kill all the major banks. Wall street. And the federal reserve. They dictate the world and SHOULD NOT EVER. If you let people die for profit, you should die. Period. (my argument will always be the same-why by DEFAULT do heartless faceless banks own a majority of the world? THAT IS A CON GAME!!!)

5-Hold those accountable (in EVERY country) who lead us to where we are today. Justice dept, cops, military, political heads, bankers, big business, etc. If they are not held accountable now, history will repeat itself cuz WE DID NOT LEARN YET AGAIN.

6-Be patient. Adaptable. Change like this is bumpy, rough, not pretty, and will have to be changing as needed. Even tho the above is vague as all hell, each and every person will have a different idea in their head on how to get there. The only way they can have a bad idea is if don't have good intentions. 'The road to hell is paved with good intentions.' No. Bull shit. May have started good, but there was a point where it was clear they wanted control in the end. But they kept going, with a smile.

Just...be ready to do something you never did before so you can get something you've never gotten before.

We got this (or we don't and we are doomed anyways).

*war actually accounts for some of the biggest contributions to pollution. Look into burn piles. It's as primitive and barbaric you can get to taking out the trash-burn it all with jet fuel.

[witnessthesky]

The Manifestation Manifesto, an incomplete work-in-progress

How many posts or blinks of the eye can transmute the foretold "trying times" into something more relatable from the past? Nostalgia, or “That thing that I remember” seems to be all anyone cares about, especially now, when we are as far from what we remember as we’ve ever been.

Talk of a "new normal" even sloppily evokes a re-imagination of what was once had, rather than facing the spectacle with a completely fresh field-of-view, understanding that as our cells change our physical selves into actual, entirely new beings, only our minds bring the context of our history, trauma, persona, into reflection regarding the present.

The body works on its own volition, and has the potential to be reborn a completely new being, time and time again. Yes, I said it! Metaphysical mumbo-jumbo! But this jumbo is for real, dawg. Let's be selfish. It's Leo season.

When we are told to "plant seeds," on a New Moon, it is done with the intention of some form of manifestation. Here we are looking to bare new fruits into our lives.

There are many caveats, however, that get in the way of our full psychological understanding of what it means to create, and cultivate, and I am certainly no stranger to these hiccups.

One of the first red flags is simply the desire to want or need something that is not already had. There is no difference between a want or a need, in these circumstances. But, isn't that the whole point of hashtag-manifestation? To bring something new into our lives? Isn't everyday something new into your life? Isn't every breath something new into your life?

Let's say, on an inhale, an intention is set. Let's say that intention is to breathe, to inhale. The exhale releases that intention--or are you now intending to exhale? When an action is thought, and it is done, it is then concluded. To thrive without getting wrapped in the mundane wants and needs, it is to completely release the thought entirely.

That is not to say the wants won't arrive, because, of course they will. But, they will then have the freedom to be treated with the same space as if they were never there in the first place. Dare I say, even appreciated more. Relished, in fact. Breathing is automatic.

At this point the practice becomes recognizing that you do indeed have all you need, want, etc. Perhaps what you think would make you happier is a ruse to sell consumers more products. Perhaps happiness is one thousand times more relative than you have ever been raised to believe. Just a thought.

With every one of these mind-breaking revelations, there will likely be an impulse to deny, discredit, or push away the new awareness. In fact, it is almost guaranteed. One of the mind's biggest roles is to formulate a sense of self, and understanding with the way of the world, and then latch onto it, and make it real. News flash: that world is crumbling, and minds will either go extinct or evolve.

The mind is also excellent at creating loops to trap the new mindset into fresh versions of past cycles. This is another red flag, and something that has infected the "yoga movement" and "new age millennials" of the past decade. The person becomes trapped in a shroud of high-minded righteousness, unaware that they are in a cycle just as any other, it is simply dressed in more refined, intellectual, and spiritual clothing. While it does help to have a singular focus, which the depth of these practices and teachers do offer, the outer layer which skims and trensd does nothing more than to make one feel like they're living a little better than the average other.

There is ultimately no difference between a monk meditating on a hill for thousands of years and a gritty stevedore drinking on the docks every night. We all carry the intent and expression of every man, woman, and child on this planet. The moment we begin to see ourselves as different, or of a higher spiritual or moral ground is when we begin to lose our humanity.

That doesn't mean that action shouldn't be taken--because it should. Perhaps, action void of emotion. Justice should be served when necessary, but only because it is necessary, not because we are overwhelmed with psychosis. And the world that we live in feeds us psychosis on a daily basis. The nightly news may as well be a mutant with supernatural powers that infects our brain with frustration, confusion, and utterly one-sided belief systems (on both sides), painting others as glorified demons.

And our minds are weak. We don’t want to admit it, but they are. We become addicted to the nonsense because we have to belief that somewhere, someone believes in the good of all things. I guarantee you someone does, but there are few on television. This weakness fills in the blanks with our own narrative, hoping that the other stories you've heard aren't true--deep down, you know they are.

And so we forget about those stories, because there's no time for that nonsense, and we continue to blindly follow narratives as if they were imaginary books written two thousand years ago with the proven intent to politically unify the world under one imaginary being, so that only a small group of non-imaginary people might benefit.

Obviously, all of this is subject to re-investigation, as much as can be willed. That is the process. Your body urges to be dug up, disheveled, and placed back together, time and time again. Some of this rambling will be relatable, some not. Some of this will be downright offensive. Good. That isn't the point. The point is that you investigate yourself constantly to re-engage with your cells, and tap into the change that is naturally occurring within you. This is where the seeds are already being planted, unbeknownst to our minds. That seed is your sun, your joy, the very essence that connects you to every other human being on the planet, and every life-form, and the planet itself.

Wake up, and allow yourself to be different. Allow yourself to have a new mind, and let go of everything you ever thought you knew about yourself. Allow yourself to break your own heart, and mourn for your countless past selves. Utterly shed your entire skin--belief systems, religion, politics, work, relationships-that-were, relationships-that-are, anything on the horizon--rise from your bed a pure child, completely free, where everything is new.

Then, the manifestation can begin.

[pepplemint]

Personally I assumed it to be not so much human experimentation, simply because we mostly got more advanced techniques now that doesn't require it, but more of a DNA/genome editing thing. Human experimentation is more prevalent on No Mans Land because they are basically working with scraps and ethics are looser. But I mean yeah hands on experimentation was the norm for most of human history too obviously.

But I am also pretty sure it's supposed to be representative of God creating humans in his image.

So I’ve had a bit of a thought about plants ever since reading Trimax (no spoilers because we get no answers though lol), and I can’t help but wonder if anyone else has reached the same conclusion? Given the twisted, often mutilated but human-adjacent form that plants have in any given version of Trigun, and given that independent plants are nearly built just like humans…

Are plants the product of human experimentation?

In every translation of what little info I’ve seen, it’s stated that plants were created by humans. Not the product of alien life or anything, but of humans themselves. And given how they look, and given Tesla… Well, I just think it makes an awful lot of sense.

It also makes both Knives and Vash’s plight a bit more interesting, if we’re all growing off the same branch.