#and people tried to make up rumors saying he would be shunned lol

[noahschnappinfs]

now that the stranger things cast had their official wrap party: let’s remember how noah is so loved by all of them.

he was invited and went to every possible event with all of them! this is family!

[mariaiscrafting]

You know, what think I like when you are critical of a content creator is that you know how to separate a fact from especulation, unlike a blog out there that took especulation as facts.

Example, that night when we were critical of Karl, or any instance you have discussed about him, a lot of anons were saying that he gave them clout chaser vibes to them, and despite your opinion, you expressed that those were only especulation and not the truth, and to keep that in mind. That's good critical thinking.

But this blog had some similar anons, saying that he only is friends with the Feral Boys gro clout- In fact, they said the Feral Boys were only in it to benefit from clout and money. And they took it as a truth. I know you instance on them is neutral, but come one, they are friends. All of them. Karl isn't friends with them for clout. Like today Karl was playing golf with salad gang plus Sapnap and George at first and then Quackity and Dream joined bc they had spared time and it all devolved into typical chaos (Poor Corpse and Tina and Brook, had to endure those children lol/lh /j). Like, the stream wasn't planned with the 5/5 yet they joined, missing Karl and just having fun.

Idk, I guess that blog's superiority (They were a SBI focused blog) just irritated me. It's as if they were putting both groups at each other as if those streamers aren't friends or close. They were singing prayers of one while shunning the other based from especulation. Criticissism is fine, in fact recommended to be critical of your interests, but taking rumors as facts to base your crit is yikes. It's as if I wanted to crit SBI and base it only of "Philza hanging only with people younger than him is kinda weird ngl.." or "Sbi doesn't care about Tommy cuz he joined late" like that dumb Tumblr post did or some fuckers in Twitter imply.

The main reason I take so much care to separate speculation from evidence-backed theories and confirmed truths is because I feel like that separation is what distinguishes us from mcyttwt the most. One of the main reasons for mcyttwt's toxicity, imo - for its relentless cancelling of everyone, for its bandwagon campaigns - is that people oftentimes criticize and defend based on their personal feelings rather than rationale or evidence.

For example, I complain a lot about Dream stans on here, but you know the reason I didn't stop watching Dream directly after the cheating scandal broke loose, even though I thought he cheated? Because of mcytblr Dream stans. Mcytblr Dream stans engaged with me in discussion, both publicly and in DMs, about the cheating scandal, and even those who eventually came to the conclusion that Dream didn't cheat accepted the facts and statistics they were given and kept a healthy skepticism throughout the process. On Twitter, Dream stans were defending him before he even made a video following up to the mods' initial accusations because they felt that Dream wasn't the kind of guy to lie or cheat. They were replying to screenshots of statistical analyses from subreddits and to articles from mathematicians and staticians with extremely reactionary responses because of that feeling, which they believed in so adamantly, they had accepted it as fact. The thing is, to believe that Dream didn't cheat in the face of all the statistical and rhetorical evidence to the contrary is, in itself, speculative. Usually we think of speculation as a baseless theory that something is a positive truth- that is to say, that something did happen. But speculation also applies to those theories of someone not having done something, when the opposite has been nearly proven to be true.

For this same reason, I chose not to ignore the anti-technotwt threads with screenshots of Techno's old tweets in them. For me to have simply ignored these screenshots and continued supposing that Techno never expressed bigoted beliefs and/or currently doesn't would have been speculative on my part, and to boot, blatantly wrong, given the evidence to the contrary.

People in this fandom, and in all RPF/RPF-adjacent fandoms need to understand that almost everything they believe about the CCs they watch is speculative, at least to some extent, because of the nature of the content they make. Even if someone, in your opinion, displays evidence of some aspect of their personality - whether that be some form of bigoted, sweet, rude, clout-chasing, or anything else - because of the extremely one-sided nature of sharing one's life through a screen, that theory of ours will almost alwyas only ever be speculation, not a solid conclusion that can be drawn. We will never know these people's true intentions behind something shared to us via the Internet.

That vagueness leads to virtually every viewer creating a different theory in our heads about the CCs we watch, and we can't treat those theories as facts, especially not when sharing them with the rest of a fandom. I'm not a very big blog, but I consider even over 50 followers to be way too many people to spread a theory too, without at least clarifying that what I'm posting is speculation. If I have evidence, I like to list it or, if I can, provide sources; but otherwise, I take care to qualify most things with phrases or disclaimers that will clue followers into the speculative nature of whatever it is I'm saying. This is because theories and "feelings" can blaze through a fandom like wildfire, especially somewhere like Twitter, where so many things are word-of-mouth or based on summary due to character limitation.

You know why mcyttwt was cancelling Andi? Only a handful of original Tweeters under the cancel Andi hashtags actually knew what clips or tweets to criticize her for, or tried to elaborate on that criticism. But because every other mcyttwt user was getting bombarded by their mutuals hate-posting about Andi on their TLs, the "negative feeling" towards Andi grew and grew, even if most people didn't even know what they were supposed to feel negative about, exactly. Our judgement works on a quick trigger on the Internet because of the amount of information we're receiving, and so, even a single bad word against someone you don't have too strong of an opinion on can fundamentally alter your perception of them, usually subconsciously. If the first thing you see about Andi, who you've only seen on a couple LOH's or a couple Punz streams before then, is a tweet along the lines of, "disappointed in Andi for her homophobia and joking about suicide," despite you having no context, you will most likely be pushed to the negative side of her. Thus begins the cycle of hatred, building up and up, leading to you searching for more and more criticism about Andi, whether speculative or not, until you solidly and genuinely believe she is a Horrible Person. It all starts with the vaguest fucking feeling, because that's all speculation has to go off of, and it snowballs into a fucking wildfire across an entire fandom. I'm not about to be another person to let feelings snowball and spread like that.

Now, I don't know what exact blog you're referring to, but as an adamant SBI enthusiast, let me flip the argument many SBI stans have for their speculation upon the genuity of Karl's friendship with the Feral Bois, onto SBI. What do we have to go off of for the genuity of SBI's friendship, anyways? Our perceived brother dynamic between Tommy and Wilbur could very well just be Tommy capitalizing on Wilbur's brand and continuing the charade until now because it's been profitable. Maybe Techno only continues to associate with SBI because he knows how much his fanbase likes headcanon'ing about SBI, so he puts up with streams with them so he can continue to feed his fanbase with dynamics he knows they're obsessed with. Maybe Phil would rather play MC with people his age, and actually dislikes that he's friends with a teenager, but sticks around because he profitted so much off of Dream SMP and SBI-related content. And what could any SBI stan have to argue with me on any of these theories? Just because SBI laughs around each other and seems fond of each other doesn't mean they're actually like that behind the cameras. They so seldomly stream or make videos together anymore, anyways, so maybe they've grown tired of keeping up the dynamic.

Everything I said could be interpreted as utter bullshit, and that's because it fucking is. I don't actually know what Techno wants to do with his life, or how Wilbur and Tommy actually feel about each other, or who Phil wants to fucking befriend. The same goes for Feral Boys. There's nothing wrong with stating your theories or speculation, but to treat them as fact or not at least qualify such posts with the fact that this is all based on your bias and opinion, and no substantive evidence, is irresponsible. Just because you feel like one or more of the Feral Boys is "clout-chasing" doesn't mean you have the right to tout that feeling as truth. I feel a lot of things about a lot of CCs, both negative and positive, but no matter how strong my feelings, unless they have substantive evidence backing them up, I have no right to treat them as facts with my followers.

[shokugeki-no-kimiko]

All numbers yasu and chieko ;)

I’ll try to take care of your other ask tomorrow ;w;

Also I skipped a few questions TTwTT

Yasu

1: What is your character’s biggest fear? Being Dishonor. 2: What is your character’s favorite memory?/3: What is your character’s least favorite memory?/4: Does anyone have a crush on your character? Is your character aware of this?Yasu has quite a few fangirls actually (this is what happens when you‘re the offspring of two very attractive people). He does know about it and feels rather uneasy about it since he can‘t return the feelings but does also not want to hurt them. He just tries his best to be nice and friendly with them and makes it worse. 5: Describe your character’s dream date.Picnic on a beautiful clearing in the Forest. Preferably at night at full moon when the fireflies come out :D 6: What is your character’s sexual orientation?straight7: How does your character feel about their name?He likes it and kind off adores the meaning that‘s attached to it (Yasu means something in the way of Peace/Peaceful or quiet) since peace and quietness is something that he values a lot. 8: Does your character hate anyone? Why?It‘s really hard to earn Yasu‘s hate since he is rather forgiving and also very calm. The best way to get him to hate you is hurting any of his friends.One name that certainly makes Yasu grit his teeth is the name of upper classman Shigeo Eizan. Yasu absolutely cannot stand this person, which is much about the fact that Shigeo is not leaving Chieko alone. 9: How does your character feel about religion?He‘s Buddhist and takes quite a bunch of it quite serious. He would never force his beliefs on anonye else though.10. Would your character ever kill someone?Lol….No11: How did your character meet their best friend?Yasu and Chieko just always knew each other since they‘re babies, due to how close they are. So you could say…? In the hospital? A few hours after Chieko was born and Shun and Ryoko came along to visit.12: How would/does your character feel about roller coasters?He‘s not very fond of them to be honest. He‘d go on one if his friends are going but he‘s not all that excited about it.13: What would your character die for?His friends. 14: What is the cutest thing your character has ever done?/15: What music genre would your character listen to?Basically almost everything that sounds good to his ears but his number one pleasure is defiantly Rock actually. He also really likes Classical Japanese Music though (it‘s something he bonds a lot over with Hiroshi)16: What other fictional characters remind you of your character?I‘m more sure there is someone but I can‘t come up with someone right now17: Does your character have any irrational fears?Yeah his main one (dishonor) is a little bit, because he‘s not even near of causing dishonor. 18: How would your character feel about having their life recorded?Nothing bad, he‘s all around quite satisfied with his life. 19: What is your character’s deepest, darkest secret?He‘s later going to develop a crush on someone that will be quite problematic as this someone is in love with someone else. And Yasu will be burning with strong, dark jealousy. But he keeps it hidden as he does not want to hurt anybody and he knows that he‘s being irrational.20: What is the most surprising thing about your character?He‘s able to laugh.It often surprises a lot of people how competitive and passionate he actually is.21: Is your character flexible?Depends.22: What is the worst thing your character has ever done?/23: Is your character morally gray or black or white?It‘s more of a black or white (but not entirely) 24: What prejudices does your character have?Barely any. He usually keeps an open mind and is also never listening to rumors or gossips and rather gets to know the person himself. However these traits completely disappear when he‘s being jealous and he almost wants to see the person he‘s jelaous of in a bad light. 25: Would you want to hang out with your character?Yeh! A friendly and polite dude :D26: What is your favorite headcanon for your character?Him being into a lot of Classical Japanese Stuff, like music, food and clothes. He bonds a lot with Hiroshi about that.27: What would be the worst way for your character to die?I think on an electric chair… (this is so dark..)28: What pet would your character like to have?Any kind of forest animal would be fine for him.29: What would be your character’s favorite food?Mostly what his parents cook. He really digs Japanese cuisine though and has a very, very weak spot for Adzuki Beans.30: Would your character have any hobbies?Aside from cooking, he spends most of his time with wood-carving, something he learned from his father. He‘s very talented and has already created beautiful crafts. Also it relaxes him. 31: What social media would your character use?What‘s App and Twitter. At some point Hideyoshi would talk him into Instagram though.32: What does your character look like?

33: In what ways is your character like you?I think we share the same appreciation for nature!34: What is cliche about your character?/35: What is unique about your character?/36: Does anyone want to harm your character?Yes. 37: Do people have justified grudges against your character?Shigeo, maybe….but really just maybe.  I mean Shigeo is after all a cunt so Yasu does have right to to dislike him.38: What role does your character play in their story?Reeeead it! He‘s more of a side character in the fanficiton, but he will defiantly have his moments. He‘s the mysterious and calm side-characters who shines here and there and when he shines, he shines brightly and just shows off how much loyalty and bravery there is in him.39: What would be your character’s niche on Tumblr?Nature Aesthetics!40: What would be your character’s favorite school subject?Chemics! He also likes English though41: Would your character want to have any children?It‘s not a necessity but he finds the idea endearing because he likes children a lot.42: What would be your character’s dream career?Cook duh. 43: What is your character insecure about?His own feelings in some way.44: What is your character proud of?His fermentation products!45: What would your character change about themselves?He would reduce the jealousy. 46: Would you want to trade places with your character?Nope, I would not survive on a cooking school ;w;47: What fandoms would your character be in?Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones I think. Maybe also Gravity Falls and Undertale (I have no idea about these by the way…I can just tell my looking)48: How would your character type?Understandable and decent but still short-cut and not taking too much care of all the grammar rules. 49: How does your character stand politically?In the middle but slightly leaning towards the left-wing. 50: What is your favorite thing about your character?I think I created a nice balance between Shun‘s and Ryoko‘s personality ;w;51: What is your character’s favorite animal?Bears and Deers also…Cranes!52: How would your character act in gym class?He‘s good but not amazing. But good enough for decent grades and he does not mind gym class. 53: What clubs would your character join?He‘s not in any club. 54: What is the saddest thing about your character’s life?/55: Would your character do the Ice Bucket Challenge?No56: What’s one of your character’s quirks?He drinks the same way his father does (not holding the cup with his hands), he‘s also quick to advertise fermentation products. Very quick. 57: How would your character feel about feminism?He thinks it‘s a good thing.58: Is your character dorky or more athletic?Athletic59: What is your least favorite thing about your character?Sometimes he can be a bit of a challenge to write. 

Chieko

1: What is your character’s biggest fear? The complete loss of all safety2: What is your character’s favorite memory?/3: What is your character’s least favorite memory?/4: Does anyone have a crush on your character? Is your character aware of this?Quite a few people in the Enomoto-Seminar are crushing on her. She‘s pretty oblivious about that though. 5: Describe your character’s dream date.Strolling through the city and visting museum after museum. And visitng a high-class restaurant in the evening.6: What is your character’s sexual orientation?straight7: How does your character feel about their name?She does not mind it and given her father‘s personality she‘s not surpised at all that they gave her the name that she has. (Chieko means „child blessed with wisdom“)8: Does your character hate anyone? Why?Chieko certainly dislikes a good bunch of people. It‘s quite easy to earn her dislike. Just be really ill-mannered for example and boom! However true hate….No, she does not really feel that towards anyone. 9: How does your character feel about religion?She herself is not religious, but does show interest in it.10. Would your character ever kill someone?Nope11: How did your character meet their best friend?Yasu and Chieko just always knew each other since they‘re babies, due to how close they are. So you could say…? In the hospital? A few hours after Chieko was born and Shun and Ryoko came along to visit.12: How would/does your character feel about roller coasters?Depends on how the rollercoaster looks like. If it looks safe in her eyes, she would not mind to ride and will also be excited about it. But if the roller coaster has like 3 loopings or so, she will not have a great time and be mostly worried. 13: What would your character die for?Friends….I guess?14: What is the cutest thing your character has ever done?/15: What music genre would your character listen to?Well, she‘s very into everything smooth and soothing. She really likes Classical Music actually and also listens to a lot of Soundtracks from Movies or Games. She‘ll listen to other stuff too though. 16: What other fictional characters remind you of your character?I‘m more sure there is someone but I can‘t come up with someone right now17: Does your character have any irrational fears?Chieko can be much of a worryward sometimes and does overthink situations that are not nearly as precarious as she makes them out to be. 18: How would your character feel about having their life recorded?She would be almost kind off enchanted since this would make her truly realize how many nice moments she actually had in her life already. 19: What is your character’s deepest, darkest secret?She sometimes does feel jealousy for Mika or Kimiko.20: What is the most surprising thing about your character?A lot of people see Chieko as this meek girl who has to be protected at all costs. Deep inside she‘s quite competitive though and she is certainly stronger than a lot of people make her out to be.21: Is your character flexible?No, not really. Chieko is barely a spontaneous person and always freaks out about changes in plans. 22: What is the worst thing your character has ever done?/23: Is your character morally gray or black or white?More Black and White.  24: What prejudices does your character have?Sometimes she almost automatically assumes the intelligence of a person based on his appearance. She tries to ingnore these assumptions though.25: Would you want to hang out with your character?Yup! We would get along greatly!26: What is your favorite headcanon for your character?She‘s like such a giant nerd for theatre. She absolutely loves watching all sorts of musical, operas, dramas etc. 27: What would be the worst way for your character to die?Everysthing that happens incredibly slowly. 28: What pet would your character like to have?She actually has one! A cat and ofc Megane-cchi!29: What would be your character’s favorite food?Again, pretty much her parent‘s food.Her favorite Eastern cuisine is Korean though and her favorite Western one is Hungarian cusine. She also loves everything that includes Matcha, because she loves Matcha and she‘s also a big fan of Macaron.30: Would your character have any hobbies?READING! 31: What social media would your character use?What‘s App, Twitter and Instagram. Also does Wordpress or so count?32: What does your character look like?

33: In what ways is your character like you?I have a ton in common with Chieko actually. But that‘s because her father is basically one of the most relateable characters in SNS to me :D34: What is cliche about your character?/35: What is unique about your character?/36: Does anyone want to harm your character?At the moment…No.37: Do people have justified grudges against your character?Some are jealous on her grades and I‘ll leave it up to you if that‘s a justified grudge or not.38: What role does your character play in their story?Reeeead it! Much like Yasu, she‘s more of a side character but not in any way an unimportant one. And she‘ll defiantly get her big moments!39: What would be your character’s niche on Tumblr?Rants. ….Also, History Memes. 40: What would be your character’s favorite school subject?EVERYTHI- Her absolute faves are History, Japanese, Math and Politics.41: Would your character want to have any children?She does want to have children someday! 42: What would be your character’s dream career?She‘s not sure about that yet, she defiantly wants to do something in the culinary field that‘s for sure. But she does not see working in a restaurant as a necessity. 43: What is your character insecure about?Her looks.44: What is your character proud of?Her research skills. 45: What would your character change about themselves?More confidence46: Would you want to trade places with your character?Nope, I would not survive on a cooking school ;w;47: What fandoms would your character be in?If her Historic Dramas have fandoms…I could also see her being into Avengers.48: How would your character type?Atriculated, Full sentences, the only shortening she uses is „tf“49: How does your character stand politically?The middle! Defiantly the balanced middle. 50: What is your favorite thing about your character?She‘s incredibly fun to write! I like writing characters who tend to overract since it reminds me of myself.51: What is your character’s favorite animal?Cats, Owls, Jellyfish and Dolphins!52: How would your character act in gym class?Well, she does not die of exhaustion. But she is complaining because it‘s Chieko. 53: What clubs would your character join?She‘s part of the Enomoto-Seminar.54: What is the saddest thing about your character’s life?/55: Would your character do the Ice Bucket Challenge?No56: What’s one of your character’s quirks?She adjusts her glasses a lot. She‘s also a little bit of a mood-swinger and often exaggerates. Her voice also usually getsone octave higher when she‘s upset or very excited. 57: How would your character feel about feminism?It had huge importance in the past and is still important today. But she does think that some of the arguments don‘t really make any sense. And she‘s against all sort of extremes.58: Is your character dorky or more athletic?A little bit more dorky I guess.59: What is your least favorite thing about your character?Here and there she feels a little inconsistent. I am working on it.

[brokenmusicboxwolfe]

I saw:

Raw- It’s a familiar tale in a way. A quiet, extremely studious, virginal, “good girl” arrives at school where here wild child older sister pushes her to try to fit in among the cruel peer pressure cooker surroundings. Brutal hazing leads her to do something she does not want to do, and has never done before, which leads to a downward spiral and dire consequences. The thing here is it isn’t sex, drugs, or alcohol that triggers her change but....meat.

See, her family have always been vegetarians. Her sister had until she started school, but now she gleefully partakes. Now our heroine’s first taste causes a reaction that builds. A hunger for flesh, the more raw the better, overwhelms her until one day it goes beyond the meat from a grocery store. In an accident her sister cuts off a finger and, instead of saving it to be reattached, our girl eats it. The sister isn’t too shocked by being stuck without a finger for life. See, she’s got the cannibalism bug too, and she has decided to embrace it. How far will the sisters go in indulging the hunger unleashed in them?

The film takes cannibalisim and uses it to comment on growing up, both in the obvious off to college way but also with the connection to family.  I’m not sure that the hazing aspect isn’t more horrifying than the flesh eating, but that’s because my own anxieties are based of social interactions with bullies and not a fear of being eaten/eating people. Still, an excellent little film, a sort of cousin to Ginger Snaps in using horror to deal with the adolescent female experience. 

Black Death- In the 1300s the plague ravages the land, but a young monk has a personal problem. He sends his secret lover to hide in a forest, but is then torn whether to join her or stay true to his vows. When Sean Bean rides up to the monastery needing a guide in the direction of his beloved he takes it as a sign. Well, anyone would take Sean Bean riding up as a sign! He discovers that the bishop has sent the group of men he joined to go to a remote village that has not been sickened and so is believed to be involved with demonic forces. They are to uses barbaric forces to take out the leader and get conversions. Funny about that. The vilagers are pagans and just as devote to their religion, and just as willing to use violence. The young monk had discovers his girlfriend had been killed by bandits in the woods, but the village priestess seems to have the ability to raise the dead. Which side will he turn to with he is offered his love returned? 

This is not a movie about magic but the horrors of humanity, filmed to try to keep a sense of dirty reality.  If anything the pagans have a hint of moral high ground by having simply been keeping to themselves until the christians, out to destroy them, kept arriving. It’s a slim advantage though, because both groups are equally willing to be unmercifully cruel for their faith. For me this is far more chilling than anything that goes bump in the night. Humans have always been the source of my terrors, and fundamentalists of all sorts in particular.

(I went on a bit about my anxiety on the subject, but since it’s about my being an agnostic in the fundamentalist christian bible belt I’m making it so you have to click. I tried not to talk about some of the more upsetting things, but it still ended up a lot of venting. LOL    It is NOT about the movie!!!!!!!!)

Alright, to be honest, because I have lived surrounded by them here in the bible belt, christian fundamentalists scare me the most. Sure, many of my family are christians and all the friends I had were christian. I know them, and have first hand experience with how quickly they can turn on you. Not all of them of course! But enough.

See, in first grade I became an agnostic. The exact train of thought at that age I won’t go into here. But yes, yes, go ahead and be disgusted. I joke it’s the one thing every religion and atheists agree on: they believe agnostics are wishy-washy. Nah, it’s about not thinking the unknown is anything other than the unknown. It’s embracing doubt and uncertainty as rational. Basically it’s “can’t prove it? Then I can’t claim certainty”

The point is, also in first grade my teacher would have us recite a prayer before going to lunch. She was NOT supposed to, but it is very likely I was the first non-christian she’s taught and I was not talkinging about my views. Heck, I didn’t have the terminology yet! All I did was simply remain silent while the prayer was said, what with having a lifelong dedication to NEVER say things I do not believe. My silence was noted by the meanest boy in the class, who actually happened to be a preacher’s son. He started shouting how I wasn’t praying. Obviously the teacher couldn’t punish me since she wasn’t supposedto be doing it to begin with. For days afterwards everyone shunned me. This would not be the last time.

Actually the shunning would become almost an annual occurance. In between everyone would seem to forget. I think it was simply I didn’t fit their ideas of atheists (the catagory I was lumped into, which is fine. It’s closer than any actual religion). I was quiet and friendly. I never got into any trouble, never sweared in public, was famously honest (heck, I paid back a kid that had loaned me a dime even though he was out of school for more than six months after an accident). I always tried to help people, including many of them with school work. An atheist (agnostic) was evil, but I wasn’t evil, so they had to reject the label. But something would come up, like my not saying the “under god” part of the pledge of allegience. And there would be the shunning.

Well, one time I did out myself. In high school a couple of girls were talking about non-believers. Apparently we were all devil worshippers pretending to be nice to seduce christians into evil. I turned around and asked if that’s what they thought I was and they were stunned. They had forgotten!!! They actuallylooked embarressed and hurriedly asked for a bathroom pass. One guy did say “Just ignore them.” and it meant the world to me. A bit of kindness from an unexpected corner when most just stared at me in confusion  and horror.

Christianity is REALLY big here. I had a junior high teacher, a born again christan, who talked about seeing witches. Witches, satianist, demon possession seemed to start to be believed in seriously in the 1980s. I am not sure how it happened, how it got to the point where a Star of David spray painted by some kid on a street sign could be seen as proof of local satanists, but I argued about just that with a freaked out lady myself.

In the 1970s and early 1980s the school Halloween Carnival was about the bigget event of the year and all the kids went trick or treating, but as the 1980s wore of the local churches got very active in insisting the holiday was satanic and evil. Heck, every October we will get at least one lecture from the person checking us out in stores about Halloween being the devil’s holiday. They tried to relabel the Halloween Carnival as a Harvest Festival to get the churches to stop deliberately doing counter events to keep people away from “sin”. One year a rumor started that satanists were going to kidnap a child to sacrifice, so Halloween was cancelled! Really, Halloween barely exists in this town any more.

I dunno. I could go on about the local views on religion. The point is, I know seemingly perfectly nice people that can turn on you out of fears and religious devotion. They half expect the devil to be mucking about in every shadow and those of us that don’t share their faith are subject to suspicions and misunderstanding. Considering the fact that before I was born  my family got shot at  and death threats, for being “yankees”, having black friends, and the (untrue, but whatever) rumor they were jewish, I never can feel comfortable with being reminded of how they really feel about non-believers.

Truth is, I expect if they ever started a witch hunt around here I’d be top of the list. First to the gallows......