#and using twitter as a threat? Can you not be even more of a pussy?

[ryuseiphilia]

my issue(s) with the kpop community

(ignore the image i tried to make this aesthetic but this whole post is me complaining so my dearest apologies)

ok, i KNOW i'm a kpop stan myself but can we pretty please use our noggins for their intended purpose?? obvs not targeted towards ALL stans, but some of y'all jump the the wildest of conclusions very quickly.

one of the things that truly baffled me at first sight was that some internet dwellers decided to sit on zb1's gunwook for eating strawberries. literal fruits. i get it, it was nawt bro's cake but cut my homie some slack!! if the other members felt shit that he devoured eleven strawberries then they probably would've expressed that by now. i don't think zb1 wants some little internet pussies to convey their emotions for them.

another thing that got me bewildered was the whole eruption after the taeil from nct announcement. like, this paragraph is not defending that man by the slightest... however why are some of these people coming on here being like "i feel so bad for taeil stans..." and "omg ppl that spent money on taeil must be in pain :(("... girl... what about the victims??? what about the people that were actually violated??? you're saying you're sorry for someone that spent a flabbergasting amount of money on a male idol instead of firstly expressing condolences for the victims?? like, yeah, i DO feel bad for people that have spent money on taeil's merchandise... but girl there are worse things happening right now. the world isn't going to collapse because you didn't burn your taeil photocards. instead, you should try validate the real victims by not discussing such unnecessary things.

the whole seunghan thing genuinely made my jaw unhinge and drop several feet below because GIRL... people dancing casually after sending hundreds of FUNERAL WREATHS (with death threats on them) is actually batshit crazy. no, because.... mans came back just to instantly be pushed away. what? because you k-netizens couldn't handle the fact he had a life before debut and that he, i dunno, is a human??? parasocial ahh because GIRRRRRRRRRLLLLLL. yk i want to be an idol (my ass has NOT auditioned yet) but it's things like this that stop me from wanting to become one. if my twitter, instagram, tiktok, all that jazz resurfaced as an idol and especially during debut... i'd sob because people will over-analyse it all. like, just because seunghan did this does not make him horrible now!!! i know the smoking was slightly more controversial because it's unhealthy, but dating?? DATING??? i was genuinely baffled beyond my utmost belief at the sheer SHOCK. the photos.... people on weverse setting the photos as their pfps, people on twitter posting 'reminders' with the photos... why dod they have those saved??? it's not only obsessive, but kind of parasocial that you're acting like you got wrongingly cheated on by a guy who doesn't even know who you are. i really hope our GOAT seunghan comes back as a soloist or something (hopefully under good management too) because he, everything aside, spent a lot of time training to be an idol just for this to happen.

also not directly a certain idol but why do we, as kpop stans, care about an idols weight and appearance so much?? i know majority of stans are normal and not weird af but there's a minority that actually put their little nerd glasses on and their fingers up that complain like "omg (insert female idol) lowkey lookin big back these days) LIKE HUHHH??? girl please weigh yourself and tell us the result before calling someone fat. especially a random celebrity of all people. all jokes aside, i'm sure the person criticizing an idols weight would feel quite stink if someone did the same to them. so just, uh, dont??? also people that complain when idols dye their hair something different because they like a certain color on that idol are genuinely crazy. like, take a step back and relax. because.... wdym you're having cardiac arrest just because your fave left their blonde era...... i think we as fans shouldn't be so focused on the little things and just enjoy the art!! the music!! the dance!! yes, appearance comes along with it, but it isn't like their stylist is going to make them look like that ratatouille rat....

N E WAYZ if you've read this much already i really applaud you and hope you have a WONDERFUL WONDERFUL WONDERRRRRFUL day for putting up with this yapping for a whole post. my complaints might not be as many or as long as they should be, but i'm simply venting my utter frustration as best i can without getting banned off of every platform i have. so yeah. follow me for more hit posts like this one 🤫🥶😈

[gravedirtandbriarthorns]

Man I've never had any real faith in the United States government but I feel like if I were to go back and explain to my younger self "Okay so 2016 presidential election, right? Basically a white supremacist twitter account--that's a social media platform like Facebook or MySpace btw--'uncovers' evidence suppsoedly linking the Democratic Party to a human trafficking and/or pedophile sex ring (this will later be thoroughly debunked btw, though not before the pizzeria named as the venue for this is broken into and the owners and employees harassed and sent death threats, and also I don't think it's necessarily a stretch to assume people in power are probably using that power to exploit people in any number of ways even if this specific thing isn't true) which then gets picked up all over the internet and a fringe element of ultra-right wing assholes decides that somehow the only person who can save the US from this horror is the reality TV star with several failed business ventures who is both a close personal friend of Jeffery Epstein and also was recorded claiming that he just like. Sexually assaults women and they 'let him get away with it when you're a star. You can do anything you want, you can grab them by the pussy.' Then those ultra right wing folks go on to start a literal conspiracy theory cult of personality around this dude that gains a disturbing amount of traction. And stay with me, this is the start of the insanity like it just keeps getting worse and more outlandish as time goes on? Some white supremacist cosplayers go on to storm the Capitol four years later when their Orange Messiah loses, the SC rules that everyone involved in an (admittedly half assed) attempted coup gets to write it off as a little Whoopsie! Teehee!, and then the Orange Messiah starts campaigning for a second term explicitly promising his fanatical cult of personality that if they vote for him it will be the last time they have to vote ever again because he's going to do away with that silly little (veneer of) democracy."

I'm just Screaming.

[lacefuneral]

the thing that prompted me to Release This Into The Wild last night is this.

so, i am an individual that combs through TERF blogs to manually block/report/add to the shinigami eyes database. in the process, i also study the most recent transphobic rhetoric they are pedaling

i saw a series of screenshots that originated from a trans man on twitter. a thread that is, quite literally, indistinguishable from that of a TEHM.

for those not in the know, a TEHM is cis gay man transphobe that focuses their energy on attacking transgender men rather than transgender women because they view transgender men as a Threat to Male Homosexuality. the acronym stands for Trans Exclusionary Homosexual Male. they are often seeing posting alongside TERFs to Dunk On Trans People. however! their ideologies are incompatible, as TERFism is rooted in women/lesbian separatism with hatred for all men (and people they perceive to be men) - but especially people they view as Mocking Womanhood, which ALSO includes gay cis men due to the mannerisms and speech of our fem/mes. whereas TEHMs tend to be heavily misogynist and even Gay Male Separatists that want to break off from the entire community to have a Boys Club. so it's very funny to watch these two groups fight each other when they aren't complaining about The Transexual Menace.

anyway! (sorry, got a bit carried away there, but it's good info to know in general and provides context to what i'm going to say.)

so. this twitter thread by this trans guy. it begins by him stating he has genital preferences. this part is perfectly fine! i also have preferences! most people do! there is nothing inherently wrong with this bit! but then the explains Why he has them and. ugh.

he states that, as a gay man, he is only interested in penis. because being attracted to penises is what makes a man a gay man.

NO! NO IT IS NOT! EXPLODE!

you can be a gay trans man that is exclusively interested in cis men (and/or to trans men/nonbinary persons with penises.) that's allowed. no one is going to strike you down for doing that. in fact, i would argue that is the most common configuration of transmasc homosexuality, due to a combination of dysphoria, THIS kind of rhetoric, and lack of familiarity and comfort with transmasc bodies. actually, all three of those are interconnected, but i digress.

but there's this very real thing that happens WITHIN the trans community where people like. they actively deny transmasc participation in gay spaces both historically and now, and view themselves as The Only Exception. it's Just Them, The Main Character, who gets to be transmasc in gay male space.

it's such a slap in the face to literally all of us. to every gay man that says "i love men, the parts don't matter." - whether he be cis or trans. erases the T4T relationships forged. erases the transfem mlms (very real demographic, just like transmasc wlws) who have bottom surgery. erases intersex gay men. erases asexual gay men. and so on and so forth. gay male culture is NOT defined by penis. just as lesbian culture is NOT defined by vaginas.

what does it say about you, too? if gay men are not allowed to be attracted to pussy? is the conclusion that your partner is straight?

....well. this guy ends the thread by saying he is closeted and dating a straight man. which, okay. very common predicament for transmascs. but it makes me so fucking sad. please find a man that will treat you as a man.

men will come out as trans but not do any sort of deconstruction of cisnormativity and then fully parrot TEHM rhetoric instead of just saying the Considerably More Normal and Less Hurtful: "i'm gay, and i happen to have a genital preference for penis." AND STOP THERE.

and if someone asks why. just say "that's what i'm comfortable with/find attractive."

you don't have to tie it to your identity as a gay man. which i see a LOT of transphobic transmascs say. i remember seeing one guy SO happy and SO excited to get phalloplasty because it distanced him from us Yucky Yucky Pussy Havers and that he "felt connected to gay history and culture now." man, shut the fuck up.

this is what i mean. we need to normalize yonic imagery in gay male space. we need to break down the idea that Gay Man Equals Penis. i am so tired of hearing that not just from TEHMs but my fucking. brothers in arms. my fellow transmascs

making my male homosexuality yonicentric to combat phallocentrism coming from both cis and trans guys alike

[high-on-copium]

Let’s talk about MCC17 and Buildmart

lk I rarely post anything on Tumblr, hell, the last time i posted anything here was months ago, but I feel like I want to have a discussion about the whole Buildmart discourse. 

Personally, I don’t think either Dream or Sapnap is wrong for hating Buildmart. They have their rights to hate a game and I am pretty sure all CC’s have a game they dislike as well. The problem with Dream and Sapnap speaking publicly about Buildmart is because of their large fanbase. 

Now I know not everyone on the dtwt is toxic, but a lot of them are. Neither Dream or Sapnap calls out their toxic stans, that why when they spoke out about something, there’s discourse. This happen during MCC 14 as well. When Sapnap and Dream spoke about Hbomb and Scott possibly cheating, both of them got a lot of death threats and homophobic comments thrown at them. 

Sapnap saying things like “People who likes buildmart are a pussy” is also very distasteful. It only adds on the toxicity for his fanbase and make him look bad. I think him calling people who enjoys buildmart names is not a good thing  and is a bit irresponsible of him to do, and H, rightfully so calls him out on that.

A problem I have with this whole drama is because it overshadows Orange’s win. When I look at reddit, tumblr, or twitter, I don’t see much people being happy for Orange’s win, I see so many people just arguing about Buildmart. The way people word their arguments feels like they’re saying that Orange’s win is purely because of Buildmart, especially since it’s one of their better games. It feels like a lot of people are saying that their win is undeserved. This causes some outrage from Orange’s supporters and fans, especially since they were all so excited and happy from the two 1st wins, a 3 times win, and a 4 times win. It feels like this whole argument is destined for hermittwt and dsmptwt to fight against eachother.  

Do I think Buildmart can be improve? Oh yea, 100%. Alltho I personally enjoys Buildmart and think it’s a fun game, I do see a lot of flaws in it, and anyone has the rights to critic it. But I don’t think it should be removed. Buildmart’s charm is that its a game that values team coordination and communication. It’s a chance of non PVP players to shine. To excel on Buildmart, it doesn’t require you to be a builder or to be creative, it requires you to talk with your teammates. If a teammate is being quiet, ask them, talk to them. If you think memorizing is a bit of an issue for you, maybe try a different role, like being a floater. There are many ways to improve on Buildmart. 

In conclusion, I feel like Sapnap and Dream, should called their fans out about this. They can’t control their fans, sure, but they can call them out. They should watch what they’re saying more carefully next time. They’re not wrong for having these opinions and frustrations, they have their rights to feel how they want to feel, and us as a fanbase can’t change how a content creator thinks. We can also have our own opinions and critics for MCC’s minigames, but we should not attack anyone for it. And also, please just be happy that orange won? even if you weren’t rooting for them, its annoying to see “cyan should have won” UNDER ORANGE’S CONGRATULATION POST. What you are doing is literally asking for a fight. 

[arcticdementor]

I concede that this first bit is insufferable.

I have been an activist since I was old enough to be politically conscious. I helped organize gay rights rallies when I was 16, participated in the admittedly vague anti-corporatism of the late 90s, then dove headfirst into antiwar activism when the bombs started to fall on Kabul and Jalalabad. I spent five dispiriting years devoting myself to anti-Iraq activism more or less as a vocation. Now I do housing work here in the city. I’ve been in more groups and committees and “circles” than I care to remember. I’ve had the glamorous banner-unfurling moments and many more of the tedious “who’s going to rent the porta potties” moments. I’ve done the tabling and waded through the interminable listserv posts. I’ve been in group after group that was wracked with toxic left shit but still got it together to put on great events. I’ve waved signs, chanted the chants, occupied buildings, lied down in the street, made speeches, handed out leaflets, and sang the songs. Did any of it matter? No idea. But I did it all the same and I wouldn’t change a thing.

The preceding paragraph will, I’m sure, invite accusations of insiderism or big-timing, which I understand. I would prefer to leave it out. But it’s necessary to establish experience, and experience is useful because I have been forced to consider “the antifa question” since before many people who call themselves such were born. And so I enjoy the perspective of understanding that radical left opinion on the whole scene has traditionally been vastly more complicated and critical than it is today, where people on social media who have no protest experience that doesn’t involve pink pussy hats doggedly defend antifa for naked culture war reasons. Antifa has always been complicated, but its new admirers insist it can never be complicated.

…

The wagons are being circled as we speak. Antifa are in the news, as they have once again attacked a journalist for reporting on them while in the process of, well, I don’t really know. I would be opposed to attacking journalists regardless of the purpose of any group of protestors - I believe in the press and rights and see, the whole idea is that we show people our values and invite them into our movement, publicity is the point - but it’s particularly hard to have sympathy for the cosplay crew here, given that they’re not acting as part of any organized movement for any coherent purpose. It’s never been particularly easy to grok what any little group of antifa think their goals are, or how exactly their tactics will help them achieve those goals. But now they’ve got a media relations team, which conveniently for them is literally the media, and so no critical considerations of their goals will be forthcoming. Efficacy? Darling, efficacy doesn’t even come up.

…

Which is all righteous and makes sense. The trouble is that these historical conditions are totally different from those of the 21st century United States, and it’s never been clear how these principles connect with contemporary antifa’s tendency to only appear at protests. Though many people would love to pretend that this isn’t the case, we are not in fact living in an America where Proud Boys wander through Chelsea randomly beating up gay people without resistance from the police. This is the part that they will snip and post to Twitter to mock, but that’s cope. They don’t genuinely believe that we have the same level, rate, or lack of consequences for extreme right-wing violence that once justified historical antifa tactics. (A country that has seen a near-total takeover of its institutions by fringe left social justice politics is not a country that is slipping into fascism.) Every time the Proud Boys do some of their pathetic antics it makes the news, which is to say that it’s rare enough to be worthy of making the news. You don’t actually think that torching a Walgreens in Chicago in 2020 is the same as getting into a street fight with the PNF in 1926 and this conversation would be less tedious if you stopped pretending you did.

Meanwhile porting these tactics to protests has never made perfect sense to me. The vast majority of protests feature no violence, which is good, and the biggest violent threat is from the cops, who antifa fight far less often than some people think. (Which, by the way, is also good.) Typically antifa raise the underlying level of tension in a protest, particularly with the cops but also with the local community, for no benefit to anyone’s security. When violence does erupt I have never in my life seen antifa actually deescalate to reduce the risks to protesters. I’m just being real with you. At most protests I’ve been to where shit got hairy, most antifa seemed to just want to hurt people. And suddenly we’re a long way from looking out for the Hasidim when the brownshirts are making trouble in Stamford Hill, aren’t we?

This is why there has been distrust and profound misgivings towards antifa from within the radical left protest movements since before I was born.

Yes, my friends. Dedicated radicals, old school commies, Quakers and trade unionists and environmentalists, people who need four digits to number the protests they’ve attended - all kinds of no-bullshit far-left activists have had ambivalent or worse feelings for antifa for a very long time. That shouldn’t be surprising; some people, a minority but some, declare themselves antifa because they lack satisfying opportunities for violence in their lives, and protests create conditions where it’s easier to find targets and easier to evade arrest. Of course the stock move when something done by a protester crosses the line of basic decency is to claim that they weren’t “really antifa.” (There’s no Scotsman less true than antifa.) People insist that antifa is not a group and has no membership or organization, which is true but also makes it nonsensical to say that there is such a thing as “really antifa.” Either way, the problem is that this refusal to subject antifa to basic moral evaluation is quite new and very bad. Let me be clear: the bullshit universal exonerations that people on the “left” perform about antifa today, their absolute refusal to judge any antifa actions for any reason in any context, is not an expression of solidarity but its betrayal. Lefties of all stripes have often had conflicted feelings about antifa, going way back, including some dedicated people who self-describe as antifa themselves.

…

Well, hey, I agree: antifa is harmless. Certainly they’re not generally destructive. Most of them are well-meaning, if a little cringey. In the vast majority of the circumstances in which they gather antifa are simply irrelevant, making no material difference to events (marches and rallies and protests) that are fundamentally communicative in nature. Conservatively speaking I’ve been to 400 street protests in my life and antifa have been at most of them. They almost never do anything but stand around in their ridiculous Matrix cosplay and try to look tough, which is hard to accomplish for a movement made up of slam poets and people who have nowhere to put the energy they used to put into Division II field hockey. I’ve been to fucking Earth Day celebrations where the kids were hanging out in their black hoodies going “uh, is anyone doing a fascism here,” and nobody could tell you why, certainly not them. But who cares, right? At a protest you want numbers and you accept that some percentage of them are there for clout and some are protesting chemtrails and some are feds. You let them get folded into the broader meaning of the event and if someone really acts out of pocket you throw them out. Now, though, the internet has decided that antifa are blameless in all things, so when we see genuinely bad behavior like neckbeards beating up girls for filming them in public places (great optics guys!) the avatars of the contemporary left celebrate rather than insist they knock it off.

…

Once upon a time people said “I support this movement and these ideals, but this behavior, this event, this person, no.” That would seem to be a basic aspect of adult maturity, to recognize that no political tendency, no matter how idealistically envisioned, can be healthy without good-faith criticism and social pressure from allies. But where once movement leaders with intrinsic credibility would lead the conversation about whether antifa were crossing the line at an event and needed to be confronted, now antifa gets discussed by a PR team of Twitter bluechecks who have never protested anything, know nothing about the myriad weird social realities that afflict all protests, don’t live in the neighborhoods where protest violence is happening, and have mostly already forgotten about the spasm of meandering, much-hashtagged protests from last year.

Someone who does Ted Lasso recaps for Buzzfuck.com thinks that antifa has to be good because the name says they’re against fascism. The poetry editor at the Times, who wouldn’t deign to sit through a boring organizing meeting in a million years, wants you to know that anyone who criticizes antifa is part of “the fash” by definition. Some shithead PhD at a nonprofit that gives report cards about how dedicated defense contractors are to recycling likes to throw on the black bandana he got at Hot Topic and march around at protests like a fucking circus clown and wants you to know that everyone must support our antifascist warriors. No skin in the game, no philosophical backing, no wisdom, no leadership. I am baffled by why people who work in media think I should give a single fuck what they think about antifa, given that the first time they saw the letters A-N-T-I-F-A strung together was about 15 months ago. These people pretended to care about protests for exactly the socially prescribed length of time, have moved on to pretending to care about Afghanistan, and in five years will look back on it all with mild distaste, when they aren’t preoccupied by their kid’s orthodontist appointments.

Meanwhile, the movement will shamble on, strange unkillable creature that it is, and the people who turn up will march and chant and yell and demand, and I will be among them, and I will accept the protests for all their faults. And we’ll all have to live with antifa. How they act will be, in large measure, an expression of what the rest of us tolerate, what our protest culture accepts. Will this new left, impassioned but immature, develop a set of communal values that define rights as well as demands, an ethos that recognizes that all true radicalism comes packaged with its own constraints, and rein in the kind of masked children who are raging against nothing in Portland?

It would be hard for me to give you any answer other than no.

[mingkii]

Woah anon, ion like that energy you just created🤨

Coming at her on anon shows how much of a pussy you really are. Why are you so mad about a fanfic that you willingly chose to read, no one forced you to read under the cut. We write fanfiction As a hobby And we have the rights to choose on our own whether or not we want to to continue or just stop— being this pissed off over a fanfic? Get a life, maybe touch some grass. Educate the person properly and politely without asking them to kill themselves because you wouldn't want to be the reason for someone's death.

Sorry but fuck you for putting an au with a racist ass group with tbz genuinely go fuck yourself I'm going to expose you on twit and I'm going to dox you why do you hate black folk. Why is it funny to you to support a group who had a member say a slur and then you continue to support them. Get fucked and kill yourself.

…okay.

First of all, I know exactly what you are talking about and I honestly, don’t give a shit.

Don’t get me wrong! I know that saying a slur that is racist to a culture is horrible, believe me, I know since as a Chinese I’ve been told way too many slurs myself. I’m saying that I don’t think this is the first time an idol or artist has said the slur and I’M PRETTY SURE that it was just an allegation and that it was never confirmed rather he said it or not.

And until it has been confirmed, I will continue to support that group, plus, again, I’m positive if he did, then their company would take action to make the said artist to apologize. Also, please remember that the member is a foreigner. He might not understand what is right and what is wrong in your culture just like how you don’t know what is right and what is wrong in his culture. Everyone is ignorant to somethings and it’s not their fault, the world is just too big to understand everything.

Second of all: go ahead. Dox me on Twit. I did nothing wrong, and I’m not ashamed of what I did. I love all the members equally and if the member really did say the slur then I hope he will get educated. All I did was write out something I wanted to write out. It’s MY story with MY plot made with MY imagination. Who I want to put in my story as characters is NOT your business. If you don’t like an idol I put as a character, well then it’s simple.

DONT READ IT????

Third of all: Just because I put something you don’t like doesn’t mean you can just come onto my blog and say all this shit about me. Because from what I’m seeing, me supporting a member who isn’t even CONFIRMED that he said a slur is better then you who came ANONYMOUSLY onto my blog to tell me to fuck off and kill myself.

I’ve had those thoughts a lot when I was young and I don’t think I’ll ever recover from it. I’m lucky that I have many people who loves me around me that I grew up with a strong mindset that if I keep going I can over come these said thoughts.

But do you know? It’s people like you that makes me feel ;like sometimes I just want to give up and leave this world, because I’m so fucking tired from all the things in this world, I’m so fucking tired of this society and the people in it. And all it takes is a push from people like you, then I can and I will jump form this ledge I’m on.

And last of all, if I really did offend you in any ways, I apologize. I never mean to offend nor hurt anyone with my writing, and I hope I never do. If you really did think my writing will or did offend/hurt you then please just don’t read it or just tell me and I can change somethings. But telling me that I was rude, and that I should just fuck off and kill myself just makes me think that I shouldn’t change anything for people like you.

[ahgastae]

phantasm (pt.1) – namjoon x reader

➥ word count: 1.6k | fluff

➥ m.list

➥ a/n: this is a wip i’ve been saving for a while lol. it’s *technically* a rewrite of an extremely old one-shot i had that didn’t quite turn out how i wanted it so here we are!! i’m thinking of making it a series that i kinda just update whenever i feel like/have time to work on it but idk. feedback is always appreciated, and thanks for reading! ♡

An aggravated sigh leaves your lips, giving up on yet another failed attempt to force the basement door open. The metal handle remains stuck no matter what you do or how hard you push, and at this point you’re starting to run out of ideas. 

Part of you wonders how you managed to get yourself into this situation; locked in the basement of some musty, old abandoned hospital. It’s not exactly everyday people willingly wander into places like this, and you would normally be one of the ones who stayed as far away as fucking possible.

So what changed? What made you take the risk? And how the hell are you going to get yourself out of this?

“Why in the hell would I ever want to do that?” You quirk a brow at your best friend, popping another fry into your mouth as you do. “Actually, scratch that, why the hell would you ever agree to that?” 

The unamused look on Hoseok’s face makes you want to laugh, but you cover it up with another sip of your chocolate shake.

“Because,” Hoseok grumbles with a roll of his eyes, “those little shits can be very persuasive when they want to be. I didn’t want to be the only one in the group who didn’t go, you know?”

You nod your head understandingly, “So you didn’t want to be the one to pussy out.”

“Y/N!”

You burst into a fit of laughter, barely dodging the onion ring he throws your way. Hoseok rolls his eyes again, and the furrow in his brow makes you realize he’s a lot more serious about this than you first thought.

“Okay, okay.” By the time you manage to contain yourself, his scowl has softened slightly. “But if all the guys are going, why do you want me to go so badly?”

Hoseok scoffs, “Uh, are you kidding? That place is going to be creepy as all hell, and I need my best friend there to provide some serious emotional support. And to keep Jungkook from posting videos of me freaking out on Twitter again.”

You both cringe, clearly remembering the last time he got sucked into one of these “adventurous” outings. Jungkook got the silent treatment for a solid three weeks because that clip of Hoseok screaming at a pigeon went viral. The kid still apologizes to this day, but you have a sneaking suspicion he’s behind some of the (admittedly hilarious) edits that have cropped up.

It makes sense for that reason alone as to why Hoseok would want you to tag along, but you’re honestly just as much of a scaredy cat as he is. You’re a lot better at keeping it under wraps, though, always coming up with some excuse for why you can’t go exploring whatever creepy abandoned place his friends want to check out next. But Hoseok has never been the one to ask until now, and you’re more than a little conflicted about it.

“I don’t know, Hobi,” You sigh, glancing down at your half eaten burger. “This has always kinda been your guys’ thing, you know? I’m not really into any of that.”

“Honestly, most of us aren’t, either,” Hoseok shrugs. “The only ones who really like it are Tae, Yoongi, and Kook. The rest of us are kinda just along for the ride.”

“You mean the ride through every possibly haunted, definitely dangerous place in the area.”

“Yeah…”

A small silence falls in between you, and you briefly wonder how in the hell he ever thought this was meant to convince you. Sure, he took you out to lunch, said you could get as many milkshake refills as you desired, put on those heart wrenching puppy dog eyes that you always have to struggle to ignore. But is it really worth getting the shit scared out of you with him and his six friends? One of whom might “accidentally” post a video of you losing your mind over something stupid?

You aren’t ready to become a Twitter meme!

With that terrifying thought, your mind is finally made up. You’re just about to open your mouth and tell Hoseok you just absolutely cannot–

“Joonreallywantedtoknowifyouweregoingtocome!”

The words leave his mouth in a jumbled mess, but you make them out clear as day. You should’ve known that’s the game he was playing. There’s no way Jung Hoseok would come to you with a request like this without having some kind of backup plan. And, unfortunately, his role as your best friend means he knows all about your little crush on the de facto leader of his friend group. You just never thought he’d be so prepared to openly exploit it.

“So what do you say?” Hoseok bites his lip from across the table, and you have a sneaking suspicion he already knows what your answer is going to be.

“...Fine. I’ll go on your stupid ghost trip,” You grumble, a bright smile appearing on Hoseok’s face as he starts to thank you rapidly. “But I’ll break that kid’s phone if he so much as tries to record me!”

Your threat falls on deaf ears, Hoseok already whipping out his phone to presumably tell the other guys. Part of you wants to be mad that you let yourself get played so easily, but does it really count if you knew that’s what he was trying to do?

Eh, whatever. At least he’s happy. And who knows? Maybe you’ll actually end up enjoying yourself after all.

So that was a fucking lie.

You haven’t even been out of the car for five minutes, and you’re already starting to regret leaving your apartment this afternoon. Hoseok said you guys were going to check out some old hospital on the outskirts of town when he picked you up, but you had no idea he meant this far out.

The woods surrounding the “hospital” aren’t particularly thick, but it’s just enough to where you know it’ll terrify the shit out of you when the sun starts to go down. You’re honestly not sure if you’d rather be stuck out here or in the creepy ass building in front of you when that happens. But, if all the guys currently standing around Taehyung’s truck are anything to go by, that decision might be made a lot sooner than you think.

 “Y/N!” One of them suddenly calls, breaking you out of your thoughts. “Stop being a weenie and get your ass over here!”

Rolling your eyes, you push yourself off from your spot leaning against Hoseok’s car and make your way over to the truck bed. The three younger ones are huddled around some sheets of paper in the bed while Jin and Hoseok fiddle with some flashlights and batteries near the open passenger seat. You head over to Hoseok first, curious about the two missing from your party. 

“Hey, where are Joon and Yoongi? I thought you said everyone was coming.”

“Don’t worry, they’ll be here,” Hoseok laughs. “Joonie just had to finish up some stuff at work real quick. I’m sure they won’t be long.”

You nod, crossing your arms and scanning over the building in front of you. It definitely looks old. What used to be white paint has faded to a dark, muddy grey, and the windows are either smashed to bits or boarded over with moldy planks of wood. There’s stray graffiti scattered all over the place, the parking lot barely distinguishable from the overgrown weeds and shrubs surrounding the area.

Honestly, everything about it just screams “Danger! Stay the fuck away!” to you. How in the hell did the guys even find this place?

“Ah, fucking finally!”

You’re jolted out of your thoughts once again by one of the boys shouting from the truck bed. It must have been Jungkook, since he’s the one who jumps out and starts running towards the car pulling into the clearing.

Wait, a car? That could only mean-

The car slows to a stop behind Taehyung’s truck, and sure enough, you can just barely see the two boys you were asking about waving to you all inside. Well, one of them is waving. The other seems to be focused on parking without running over the energetic Kook jumping around the car.

You can kind of relate to the younger boy’s excitement, but the butterflies in your stomach are for an entirely different reason.

“What took you guys so long?” Jungkook whines, greeting the two newcomers as soon as they step out of the vehicle. “We were supposed to get into the building before it got dark!”

“I know, I know,��� Namjoon apologizes. “We would’ve been here a lot sooner, but-”

“But someone kept insisting on grading ‘one more spelling quiz’ before we left.”

Yoongi’s grumpy pout is as evident as ever as he wholeheartedly throws his roommate under the bus. The three of them have joined the rest of the group now, the other two youngsters leaning over the side of the truck bed.

“You weren’t thinking of ditching us for some second graders, were you, Mr. Kim?” Taehyung teases, quirking an amused brow.

Jimin falls into giggles, “That sounds exactly like something he would do!”

“Hey, I promised the kids I would have them all handed back by Monday!”

Namjoon’s desperate attempts to defend himself are ignored, and you can’t help but smile at the small pout that crosses his face. It’s short lived, though, as Jungkook soon calls everyone’s attention back to him as he hops back up onto Taehyung’s truck.

“Alright, losers, now that we’re all finally here,” A mischievous grin grows on the maknae’s lips. “let’s get down to business.”

[guccixcoochie]

mandyslytherpuff()tumblr()com/post/617772344384061440/gluten-free-pussy-drag-me-if-you-want-but-i-feel

I dunno what u want me to say anon. I lost most of my brain cells reading this. 'gentle and expressive'? Where? picking up juvenile fights on twitter with literally everybody, acting like an overgrown toddler in interviews(I hope he grew out of this)encouraging his already deranged fans to send death threats to a woman all bcz his fragile egoistic arse is hurt over smtng silly she said(not true, Ash wasn't the one who called him a rat face), hating everything trendy jz to be a pretentious fuck. I used to like him anon, I really did but what he did with Ash London situation was the final straw for me(to your other ask which I'm not gonna post, we can drag him without talking about his sisters).

Coming to the screenshots, sorry I have strayed away a little lol. I can't! that unnecessary shade towards harry. As if they don't spend every waking minute wishing he acted more like H. If louis is out there waving pride flags, wearing fishnets and a colour other than black/blue, they would be calling him the second coming of christ. Also what's this about him breaking gender norms?? What gender norms is he breaking by wearing the same 3000£ adidas tracksuit, flipping off, refusing to even look at a pride flag, refusing flowers his fans offered him I could go on. The bar is so fucking low. What's next ? Call him a feminist king? The male Gloria Steinem ? Give me a break

[g0thb4rbie]

@princessrabies , mind u half of this was written high and i didnt edit this . also dont steal it lol

{title}

the hours of knocking finally stopped but the migraine that eliza had was still raging. her phone was thrown across the room sadly still ringing. eliza had entertained a few toxic people in her life but none of them acted like casey. casey was a 3 week old fling who became severely attached.

*27 missed calls*

“answer me”

“answer or ill kill u”

“i kno where u live”

“this is torture”

“ill kill u bitch”

“how could u do this to me”

“god i fucking hate u”

“u know how much i loved u right”

“nobody will ever treat u better”

“u dont even deserve better”

“ur such a fucking whore i hate u”

“i have pics of u”

“ill show everybody”

eliza sat sobbing in the corner opposite of the device, letting the insults sit on the home screen. she’d heard it all before. he had nothing. she barely even kissed him let alone send him photos of herself. they talked romantically and hung out 3

times in total. she used to fall for it but after the second time she gave up believing anything casey said. her head was buried in her knees and her sobs echoed through the room.

“can you shut that fucking thing off?”

her roommate cherry was sitting in the living room watching tv. footsteps followed the path from the couch to eliza’s room. eliza looked teary eyed fearful of what was to happen. she couldn’t handle that much more emotional distress. if cherry yelled at her she didnt know what she would do. the door flung open and cherry stood calmly with a tub of ice cream held between her arm and side and a lighter in her other hand.

“is that casey” she slurred, her mouth filled with melting ice cream. cherry never had a good feeling about casey. she’s right about most people eliza talks to, saying they give her “bad vibes” or that they “seem weird and off. “ she claimed she was psychic but maybe its because most of the people eliza dates say weird or off shit within the first few minutes of meeting cherry. cherry always brought out the weird in people. she was the weird in people. she constantly spoke about the devil and cults; sometimes spoke about how cool it would be to have one of her own.

“follower or leader” she said, “im there for the ride. “

“yes...” eliza spoke between breaths.

“oh lord” cherry walked toward eliza and handed the tub with a spoon stuck in the ice cream down to her. “i’ll handle it”

cherry found her way over to the phone. buzzing less often with the same threats of exposing eliza. cherry picked it up and pushed her thumb on the home button. eliza and cherry decided that in case of emergency they should have each other’s passcodes.

“cherry don’t... please. you’ll make things worse”

cherry raised a joint to her mouth and lit it.

“shut up. everything will be fine. he needs to know his fuckin’ place” she spoke through clenched lips. cherry waited for the line to pick up while pulling smoke tricks. the smoke rose to the ceiling and the call ended. “oh so now you don’t have anything to say” she called again this time the rings ending after thirty seconds. “pussy...” she chuckled and padded towards eliza, still teary eyed but distracting herself with the ice cream rather than focusing of the situation at hand.

“did you seriously buy the neapolitan kind again?” eliza stabbed the spoon into the strawberry section and dug out a small piece.

“yes its good, suck my dick.” she retorted. sitting down next to eliza and taking another hit. “what’s he even doing? he was begging like a minute ago”

“let’s pray he gave up.”

“he shouldn’t get off the hook that easily!”

“no, but i should.” eliza reached over cherry for her phone and turned it off.

“he has to pay... somehow.”

“he is. he’s a lonely scumbag who jerks off to Instagram models. he’s not worth my time.”

cherry sighed, “i just think that we both deserve better. i’ve had to deal with that prick for far too long.” she pulled up Twitter and began scrolling.

“i don’t even know what i could do to him. he shouldn’t even matter. it was three weeks.”

“yea and the terrorist activity has been going on for what. a month? i’ve lost sleep over this fucking guy. im pissed.”

silence fell over the two as cherry finished smoking.

“im serious. you always leave me with the strawberry, i dont fucking like it. just buy-“

“shhhhhhh, this might make you feel more empowered. check out eileen wuornos here. “

“who?” eliza turned her head.

“shut up, look.” cherry turned her screen to show a news headline that read: LOCAL WOMAN USES “DEVIL MAGIC” TO PUT HITS OUT ON ABUSIVE EX-LOVERS.

“Ha, that’s what they get.” Eliza scoffed and looked back at her lap.

“Wouldn’t that be so cool?”

“What, giving our souls to the literal Devil himself?”

“Well no, not the part,” Cherry looked off to the side in annoyance, “but the idea of getting anything you wanted, if you just chanted a few words and drew a little blood.”

“I would love to be invisible and never ever have to deal with being weak again.”

“Weak? You’re not weak.” Cherry’s brow furrowed.

“Yes, I am. I can’t even deal with this stupid guy.” Eliza dropped the spoon and put her hands on her face muffle her cries.

“I’ve dealt with guys like this before. I’ve done the same shit you do. You’re not weak.” Cherry sat on her knees and rubbed a comforting hand on Eliza’s shoulder. “Come on, let’s watch this video of that lady. I bet she sounds crazy! Crazy like ‘Oh fuck, you aren’t going to prison but you’re going somewhere for a long time.’ Cherry played the video as Eliza sat the tub next to her and rested her chin on her knees.

“So... May I ask? Why did you do this?” A T.V doctor spoke through a grey mustache. He wasn’t required to do anything but make her a laughing stock. She sat in front of him with long stringy hair, sunken eyes, and pale skin. She looked crazy but refer to his job description to figure out why.

“I felt compelled to the dark side of magic. Someone through the mirror called to me, asked me what my desires were. I told them simply and they said that for a price. I could be an elite. “ Her voiced was calm and pitched down. Her dark eyes stared at the camera as the last words trickled out of her mouth.

“What did you pay?” He watched her intently; waiting for her to jump at him or exorcise herself *LIVE ON CAMERA!!!!*

“The only money that matters... My soul...” She leaned forward, now glaring at the doctor.

“Right... So what did these men do?” He looked away.

“Well, they cheated, lied, stalked, beat and revealed pictures of me nehkid. “ Her southern accent poked through.

“You mean, naked?” The doctor dismissed it as soon as her asked, “And how do you contact those in the mirror, as you said?”

“I lit a few candles, said a few words, drew a little blood and asked for what I wanted.”

“Did you want them dead, initially?”

“No, I wanted them to feel as hurt as I felt when they did all that stuff.”

“And where did you find this... this chant?”

“Well the internet, obviously.” She rolled her eyes as the clip came to an end.

Cherry pulled her phone back closer to her and began looking for “Satanic rituals” as Eliza stared in thought of what she just viewed.

A small gasp left Cherry, “Eliza.”

“What?”

Cherry clicked a link and showed Eliza a website filled with gothic and bloody font and pictures of goth girls in corsets. “I know exactly what we’re doing tonight.”

[phroyd]

The Proud Boys want the public to believe that they’re a “drinking club” who only resort to violence to defend themselves from anti-fascist protesters during political rallies.

But in private, these extremists have discussed injuring and even killing their adversaries, plotting tactics and optics for months in order to assert a claim of self-defense should they face charges.

According to private chat logs obtained exclusively by HuffPost, the punch-happy, pro-Trump street gang was particularly excited for its “Resist Marxism” rally, scheduled for April 6 in Providence, Rhode Island. With the right plan of attack, members said, this one could put them back on the map.

This mother f**ker needs to meet a 7mm [Magnum rifle] from about 500 yards.Proud Boy Shaun Hufton in private chats.

The group had been floundering ever since 10 of its members were arrested for assaulting protesters outside a GOP event in New York City last year. Their leader, Vice Media co-founder Gavin McInnes, reportedly arranged for his followers’ surrender.

In the chats, covering a time period between February and March of this year, members claimed they needed a conclusive “win” this time around, which they defined as a bloody battle against “antifa” in Providence. If this brawl were bigger and more violent than previous iterations, they might regain some of the street cred and followers they’d lost.

“We’ll grow this group of patriots and we’ll never back down,” wrote the event’s organizer, Proud Boys member Alan Swinney, in the private chat messages. “If we win, it will make more patriots come to the next rally. We just need to go there and we’ll beat them. We’ll have enough to crush them at some point.”

A source with direct knowledge of the exchanges confirmed to HuffPost that the logs were authentic. Swinney also responded to several screenshots. When asked about discussions of violence in the chat logs, he told HuffPost, “They’re warriors. ... Choir boys don’t go up against people like that [anti-fascists]. It takes a person with a certain type of mindset.”

The logs contained a revolving door of up to 30 Proud Boys and their allies, including militia members and other “patriots,” as Swinney called them. Those named in this story either publicly identify as members of the Proud Boys or affiliated groups, or have been identified as such in national news stories or by the groups’ leaders.

Looking forward to Providence, members in the private channel were pumped for the opportunity to cause mayhem. One Proud Boy named Anthony Mastrostefano said:

“All I want to do is smash commies too. Actually I’m lying, I’m way past just hitting them. When the time comes I will stop at nothing to fully eradicate them all!”

“We’re A Drinking Club”

The Proud Boys have a yearslong history of violence, and they’ve built an entire brand off of the fights they’ve helped organize in American streets, from spars in Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon, to attacks in Providence and New York.

McInnes created a set of rules by which his gang members could gain clout in the organization, which include forgoing masturbation, getting a Proud Boy tattoo and fighting in the name of the gang.

Their leadership has always claimed that such violence is incidental, acts of self-defense necessitated by their anti-fascist opponents, who show up to each of their purported free-speech events in protest.

They’ve gone as far as to file lawsuits to maintain that facade ― on Monday, several of their members stood at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and announced that they were suing the Southern Poverty Law Center for labeling them as a hate group. McInnes himself filed a defamation lawsuit against the civil rights organization in February.

“We’re a drinking club that stands behind Donald Trump,” said Proud Boys chairman Enrique Tarrio at the D.C. event. “That’s enough to earn hate of the left.”

But private chat logs leaked to HuffPost fly directly in the face of that sentiment, showing Proud Boys premeditating violence they hope to commit. They spent months before the April rally meticulously planning strategies for injuring protesters.

Members discuss what weapons they might use against the “commies” they’ll meet in the street, which police officers might be sympathetic to them, how they’ll raise funding to fly out their long-distance compatriots, and how they’ll “bait” protesters into throwing the first punch so that they can claim self-defense.

HuffPost has reviewed dozens of private messages shared among a small group of Proud Boys and their allies, mostly on the social app Telegram, in the months leading up to the “Resist Marxism” rally they had planned for April. The chat logs were leaked by a source who wished to remain anonymous out of fear for their safety.

The rally ultimately didn’t happen, but the logs provide an inside look into the extremist group’s strategy as well as evidence that such planning continues to this day.

The Proud Boys Premeditate Violence

“Group, meet Kindness,” wrote Proud Boy Jason Cardona on Telegram, above a selfie in which he’s holding his pet, an ax.

“Ahhh, Kindness,” crowed Proud Boy Peter Scott in response. Scott then posted a picture of himself holding a large knife. Another member, Jake Adkins, posted a short video depicting an unknown device, asking the group, “Think I can get this thru in a checked bag?”

On Telegram, the Proud Boys privately fantasized about the weapons they might like to use against anti-fascist protesters at the rally in Providence. But they were also cautious about what weapons they told others to bring, as they didn’t want to face more arrests.

Scott noted that mace is “100 percent legal for self-defense” and directed everyone else in the chat to “armor up boys!” Makeshift armor is a common sight among Proud Boys, militia groups and other far-right extremists at these rallies. Depending on where a gathering occurs, concealed guns are also a possibility.

“If you’re in a state that can show up with your guns that’s fine. Up here in New England you can’t but some of us still show up,” wrote Proud Boy member Kenny Lizardo. HuffPost reported on Lizardo last year after he showed up on the doorstep of a comedian to intimidate him over his tweets

“I carry but it seems like to [sic] much could go wrong with that,” wrote Proud Boy Jason Lewis. “Big patriot fists and boots will do just fine.”

The gun-measuring contest was interspersed with analysis of street-level warfare. They explored how to counter “black bloc” tactics used by anti-fascists, in which protesters wear all black to make it hard to distinguish individuals, and they shared stories about previous exploits, most of which included getting a solid punch in without getting caught.

In some chats, the Proud Boys claimed to have ties to local law enforcement, though it’s unclear how legitimate those relationships were. As reported by the Portland, Oregon, alt-weekly Willamette Week, the Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer ― their close allies on the West Coast ― have had some success garnering police sympathy during their fights.

“Last year we had two different cops ‘admiring’ our work,” said John Stewart. “One told us ‘they don’t want to fight you guys again they are pussies.’ The other thanked us as we walked by him.”

But they would never learn if their apparent clout with police would help them stage their April 6 rally in Providence ― it fell apart before it began. The national Proud Boys “elders” announced at the time that the gathering was postponed while they focused on the trials of those 10 Proud Boys arrested and charged over last year’s attacks in New York City.

They Know What They’re Doing

The Proud Boys repeatedly acknowledged that their plans could get them in trouble.

“I advise all of you to only speak in terms of self-defense and never speak of premeditated violence,” wrote a man who identified himself as Kyle “Based Stickman” Chapman, an extremist who has previously been convicted of violent felonies and is known for his attacks at rallies and repeated parole violations, among other crimes.

He added: “I could be liable for what happens in Providence. So please stop making it easy for these people to prosecute us by putting threats of violence in writing that can be used against us later.”

Few seemed to listen, and leaders like Swinney had to attempt damage control on a regular basis.

For example, Proud Boy Shaun Hufton at one point made a direct threat to kill an anti-fascist activist who goes by the pseudonym Antifash Gordon on Twitter:

“This mother fucker needs to meet a 7mm [Magnum rifle] from about 500 yards,” he said, to which Scott responded, “Do not post any threats on here, the feds will use it against [us] in court.”

For his part, Swinney often repeated the “defense-only” deflection, demanding that other Proud Boys characterize their “rallies against communists” as acts of preservation and their presence as a security detail for rallygoers.

In an interview, Swinney corroborated the authenticity of chat screenshots HuffPost showed him and said he personally agreed with statements about “smashing commies” like Mastrostefano’s.

“He specifically said ‘when the time comes,’” Swinney told HuffPost, adding later: “When the time comes, and the order is given, I’ll do whatever it takes to stop these people. The constitution is the greatest document of freedom ever written. I’ll give my life to defend it if nessicary [sic].”

Phroyd

[a-miraculous-confession]

There is a thing I want to say about this thing:

HOW SICKENING....

HOW SICKENING I SEE THIS ISSUE!

When I read it for the first time,I'm literally crying.I'm not making that up.My heart was broken.Why?

Because Hope doing something right,that is defending those who offended,yet they were blocked by,suprisingly,their own friend.I'm going fucking mad rn.

Is this how the writer behave? By blocking every person who want to make this show better(aside from some giving a death threat which you should block them anyway)and avoid the controversy?!

Also,blocking people is not a good vibes and a hobby,it(some)can affect people's mental health!

And literally,NOBODY CALLING YOU A NAZI,YOU JUST THINK THAT UP.

HOW FAR DO YOU WANT TO BE STUPID,THOMAS?

HOW FAR DO YOU WANT TO BE A DUMBASS?

AND HOW FAR AND HOW LONG DO YOU WANT TO SHOW THE WORLD YOUR EGOISM,HOW EGOISTIC YOU ARE AND HOW POPULAR YOU ARE?!

I'm telling you,Thomas.Why? Why you treat your friend like that? Is treating your egoism better than treating your friend?

I'm literally disappointed with you and your handling of this controversy.I'm very VERY disappointed.

This is my verdict:

I'M STANDING FOR HOPE MORPHIN,KOREAN MIRACULERS AND ALL OF THE PEOPLE(except those who send death threats)WHO WAS BEING BLOCKED FOR NO REASON AND I'M CONDEMNING THOMAS ASTRUC FOR BLOCKING FOR DUBIOUS REASON WITHOUT A SINGLE REMINDER AND NOT ADRESSING & AVOIDING THE CONTROVERSY IN THIS SHOW.

If he wants to block me then I'm ready to face it.

HE IS A COWARD,A PUSSY WHO WANT TO SILENT EVERYONE!

I'm doing this not because I want to be famous or toxic(which I admit this fandom is very toxic)but because I doing this for you,for us,Miraculers.

This is not just my fight or your fight,this is our fight as Miraculers who want to make this show better than before while also maintaning free speech and constructive criticism & respecting each other's opinions,thoughts,perspectives and many more,even satire(but at the same time not tolerating with toxic person and not endorsing and giving death threats).

I'm not saying that Thomas is a bad guy,he might be a good guy offline(and I agreed with some of the post also some good tweet) and I thanked him for making this great show but what he's done to his fans was totally unacceptable or should I say 'ridiculous,utterly ridiculous'.

My advice to Thomas is he should publicly apologize to not just the Korean people but to all Miraculers including his friend,Hope(not just in Twitter but in live TV,I'm dare,in the name of God,challenge him to do just that) and unblock everyone(except if that account is previously giving a death threat and toxic fandom,don't unblock it immediately).

And also,change your behaviour to your fans,Thomas(if you want to put curse words,it's permissible as long it's a good thing) but if you don't want to,then go fuck yourself.

I'm standing up for truth and justice as well as free speech and freedom of expression but at the same time intolerance toward hate speech,death threat,toxic environment and many more.This is why I'm making this post.

And definitely,I'm not a person whose going after someone's daughter and throwing hate on that little girl(which is why I hate those fandom who does this thing and should be blocked immediately).

I hope you enjoy it.Please give this post a like❤,comment down below what I missed about this topic👨‍💻👇,share this post🔄 and please FOLLOW me on my account🙏.

I'm really pissed,really fucking pissed rn.This might be controversial to talk rn.

I'll see you in the next post.In the meantime,have a miraculous day🤗,stay safe😷 and

Bug out.🐞✌🙂

#21: The Rising Sun Flag Controversy

Well, of all the things I thought would happen in the hundredth episode of the series, “Ephemeral”, I certainly didn’t expect this to come from it.

For those who aren’t aware, the recently aired episode had a scene where Ladybug explained how time zones work to Cat Noir for her plan to save the day during the final act, and to represent one of the later time zones, a simplified image of what looks like Japan’s Rising Sun Flag was used. As a result, a lot of Korean fans were upset, as they viewed the Rising Sun Flag as a symbol of Japan’s imperialistic past and their treatment of Koreans during the former’s occupation in the early 1900’s (NSFW, but look up “comfort women” to see what their treatment was like), to the point where the flag has been compared to the Nazi swastika in terms of being a negative symbol.

To be fair, it’s hard to say who did this, and I’m not entirely sure if Astruc himself was behind it as he isn’t an animator, so it’s entirely possible someone else was responsible for this, or it could have just been an animation error. There’s also the fact that the debate on the use of the flag has been very controversial because of how it all started (while Japan and Korea have always had a tense relationship, some argued the debate around the Rising Sun Flag started around ten years ago when a Korean soccer player used the presence of the flag in a stadium to explain him making a racist gesture during a game against a Japanese team, when other reports say it was supposedly a mask that resembled the flag, Koreans have still had a tense with Japan for a while, not helped by the things Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said trying to downplay the things Japan did to Korea). But still, the point is whether or not you actually agree with the protest of the flag, several fans, many of them Korean, as in the ones who felt personally offended by the image, were still angry at Astruc, and took to Twitter to protest and politely ask him to address the controversy.

And according to some later tweets regarding the flag, Astruc responded by blocking anyone who questioned him about it.

It’s kind of sad that Winny Pain, as in the dude who once drew NSFW art of the two underage leads, came across as the better person here, as he actually bothered to address the backlash to the episode in a simple way while not belittling anyone in the process.

He basically said, “Look, we get what happened with the flag, we realize we screwed up, and we’re not going to brush it under the rug.” Less than three lines of text, and he managed to at least somewhat apologize for the flag’s presence, even if he didn’t actually say that he or anyone else on his team was sorry.

What did Astruc say when he finally acknowledged everyone calling him out for blocking everyone who brought up the flag to him?

Instead of actually explaining what happened with the flag, Astruc went on a tangent about how he always gets treated unfairly by people online, and that’s why he blocks anyone who doesn’t blindly praise him or his work. Let’s go over all the flaws with his argument here.

Friendly reminder: I don’t block people because I’m a Nazi. I block people because when you’re followed by hundreds of thousands of people, you receive DAILY hundreds of messages from people pissed for whatever reason.

I can’t believe I have to say this, but nobody is calling you a Nazi, Astruc. The closest thing to that claim is that people have compared the Rising Sun Flag to the Nazi swastika due to the similarities Japan shared with Germany while they were allies (as rocky as their relationship was) during World War II.

Also, funny how you’re downplaying the reason so many people are pissed at you. Like I just talked about, many people found the image of the Rising Sun Flag, which has been associated with one of the darkest periods in Korean history, to be offensive, and all you’ve done is block them instead of at least trying to explain yourself. Was it an animation error or something like that?

I don’t care if they’re right or wrong. It’s just physically impossible to deal with, as my account is not a corporate one, handled by multiple CM. If I had to, it’d be a full time job, and it’d just endanger my mental health.

If you’re so tired of being harassed by people on Twitter, toxic or not, why don’t you just set your account to private so you can approve anyone who tries to follow you so they don’t send you negative feedback?

It’s also pretty rich that you’re citing your mental health when several abuse victims have come forward to my blog to say how much they felt hurt by the things you’ve said to downplay the emotional abuse Adrien and Chloe have gone through while comparing the latter to an abuser, or how that every character in your show who doesn’t immediately move on from mental trauma is a villain. And don’t forget all the times you’ve insulted or blocked anyone who’s criticized your show, including the people who have a problem with the Rising Sun Flag right now. What, does their mental health not matter somehow? How exactly can we take your claims about your mental health being in danger when you’ve ignored the mental health of people in your show and in real life?

On social networks, people who want to complain are always more vocal than people who want to share positive things. Anonymity and distance makes it easy for some people to shift and behave in a toxic way.

Seriously? You seriously said that? Are you in any position to claim you haven’t been “toxic” to anyone online? Because newsflash, I kind of have a little evidence for that.

Like I keep saying, people are complaining because of the use of a symbol that is a very touchy subject for a certain group of people in the East.

As I want to be able to keep on interacting with the nice people here, and don’t penalize them because of the behavior of a minority, blocking is unfortunately the only way to do so.

And by “nice people”, I’m assuming you mean the people who don’t question the writing of your show. Look, I get it. I can understand how upsetting criticism can be, and the way a lot of people have phrased their problems with the writing has been insulting. I’ve also been somewhat harsh with some of my criticisms of several episodes like “Queen Banana” and “Rocketear”, so I can see where you’re coming from when you’re talking about critics.

I know that there are probably a lot of people on this site who don’t agree with what I do (I’ve also seen a handful of posts questioning the effort I put into talking about one person), and I’m personally still trying to make peace with that, to try and move on while still taking concerns like that into consideration. Believe me, I know it’s not the same as your work, but I get stuff like this can be tough.

But sometimes, you need to be criticized in order to help you get the ideas needed to improve your work. It isn’t just a writing thing, but something we need in everyday life. While I can’t say for certain how many critics are people who just love harassing you, I can assure you I’m not one of them (and if anyone reading this thinks I am, tell me on how I can improve), and I feel like you’re underestimating the amount of people who actually give constructive criticism to help you.

I believe in dialogue and education. Sadly, experience taught me it is not possible here. I block people because they don’t come at me to discuss. They only come at me to have their views validated in any ways.

You know what? Fair point. This is a common mentality people on the internet share. The problem is that you can be just as guilty of this at times, especially when talking about Chloe and how stupid people are for daring to think she’s not as bad as the actual main villain.

So here we are: yes, I block whoever who want to mess with me. Whatever the reason. Because it’s the only thing possible here to preserve what’s worth: sharing with people positive energy. And I don’t feel guilty about it.

If by “mess with you”, you mean “call out problematic aspects of the show I work on even though I claim to be a progressive writer”, then yeah, I get it. It’s one thing if people are sending you death threats or say you don’t deserve to be a father, because those people are assholes who deserve your scorn. It’s another thing to ignore people who think your show is offensive to certain races and put them in the same group as the aforementioned assholes.

I know some won’t understand, disagree, use it as a proof I’m the Devil incarnated. That’s exactly the reason why I’ve been forced to do this.

I don’t understand, I disagree, but not once did I think you were the Devil incarnate. My problem is with you as a writer, not as a person. I do think this is proof that you can’t really take any form of criticism, constructive or not, and will block anyone who disagrees with you. As much as the people who call you names like “Thomas Ass-Truck” can be insulting, that doesn’t make them the same as other critics who word their criticisms in a calm and rational way.

I don’t work to please everybody. If I did, I’d do cartoons based on surveys, which would probably end up with puppies driving cars. I’m not on social networks to be popular. Unlike YouTubers, singers or actors, I’m not my own product. I wouldn’t be less happy if I was unknown.

I guess now we can add Paw Patrol to the list of popular cartoons you think your show is better than. Is it because that show actually has a consistent toyline, unlike Miraculous?

And didn’t you use surveys as justification for Chloe’s arc, saying kids understood it perfectly according to the surveys you supposedly gave them?

It’s amazing how almost so many points I can use to refute your defense relates back to something you’ve said about Chloe.

Plus, if you want to separate your personal account with the Miraculous Ladybug related stuff, why not just create another account to answer questions related to the show like the Miraculous FAQ Twitter account, which is also private?

I’m here to share positive things with people who love the show. (Except spoilers) That’s all and that’s all that will be.

Translation: I’m here to be praised by fans online while telling them how wrong their differing opinions and fan theories are. That’s all and that’s all that will be.

But the thing is, we’re not even done yet. It’s time to talk about what’s arguably the saddest part of this whole debacle. It’s one thing for Astruc to block a bunch of strangers who question the use of the flag, but this controversy actually led to Astruc blocking one of his close friends.

If you remember in my LGBT representation post (as in the one I personally feel like I could have done better with instead of blaming Astruc for things that could have easily been the result of executives screwing with his work), I mentioned that the character Marc was based off a close friend of Astruc’s, Hope Morphin.

While we don’t know much about their relationship, it’s clear if Astruc was willing to base a character in his show off a friend of his, it must mean their friendship was very deep. Unfortunately, After being made aware of the flag, Morphin themselves (Hope is genderfluid, so I’m using gender neutral pronouns) questioned the inclusion of it, and got blocked for their troubles.

From what we know, they just learned about the controversy, they mentioned their feelings on the matter to Astruc, and then they got blocked after that. Granted, we don’t know if there was a private conversation through message or in person before the block, but let it be said here that Thomas Astruc would rather cut off all ties with a close friend of his rather than acknowledge a controversial moment in his show.

Morphin later talked about the block, and they just seemed so hurt by it when explaining it to others. Their friendship with Astruc clearly meant a lot to them, and now they’re wondering if he even liked them in the first place.

And on top of that, they decided to delete their Twitter account entirely afterwards.

Even though I know nothing about what their friendship was like, this was just heartbreaking for me to go through. I try my hardest to separate the work from the artist and never criticize Astruc as a person, but I’m just dumbfounded at learning about all of this. Whether or not Astruc played a part in the inclusion of the flag, the fact of the matter is that this shows just how stubborn Astruc can be. I understand that he probably isn’t responsible for the flag problem, but he’s still choosing to ignore the fallout from anyone who questions him, including one of his own friends.

[cumbersomelift]

The Trumpification of Evangelicalism

About 85% of white evangelical voters cast their ballot for Trump in 2016. In 2019, 77% of white evangelicals approved of his job as president, and 81% said he fights for what they believe in. Whether we like it or not, Donald Trump has become an avatar of white evangelicalism and this has substantially damaged the reputation of the church. Rather than being known for it’s love, it’s known for it’s president. 

In an interview with the Atlantic, an unnamed pastor tried to describe what the infusion of Trumpism means for American Christianity. He put it like this: 

“There are many reasons why young people are turning away from the Church, but my observation is, Trump has vastly accelerated that trend. He’s put it into hyperdrive.”

“For decades Hollywood has portrayed conservative Christians as cruel, ignorant, greedy, and hypocritical. For 20 years I have worked, led, and sacrificed to put the lie to that stereotype, and have done so successfully here … Because of how we have served the least of the least, city officials, school officials, and many atheists have formed a respect for Jesus and his church. And I’m watching all that get washed away.”

“Yes, Hollywood and the media created a decidedly unattractive stereotype of Christians. And Donald Trump fits it perfectly. Made it all seem true. And sadly, I now realize that stereotype is more true than I ever knew. It breaks my heart... He’s everything I’ve been trying to say isn’t what the church is all about. But sadly, maybe it is."

Many who saw the church as institution of moral clarity in our youth are now left disoriented by its enthusiastic endorsement of Donald Trump. In the words of the pastor, we began to feel like we were wrong about what the church actually stood for. What if what the church stands for is Donald Trump? 

I suspect that many Christians wince at this suggestion. Maybe it sounds derisive or unfair to draw the conclusion. Maybe it's the empty generalization you'd expect from an embittered nonbeliever. In this post, I want to explain why linking Trump to the church isn’t a symptom of “Trump derangement syndrome” or a product of liberal ad hominem memes in my news feed. I believe this because it’s what the church tells us. When researchers asked white evangelicals about their political attitudes, their warm feelings toward Trump consistently set them apart from other Americans. Even apart from other believers. 

In the Pew results I mentioned earlier, 77% of white evangelicals said that they support Trump in 2019. For reference, in 2018, the percent of American Christians that said that they "believe in the God of the Bible" was 80%.

Based on these results, Christians are about as likely to believe in God as white evangelicals are to support Trump.

Reconnecting with evangelicals is harder to do when their political icon gets his kicks from pwning the “liberal snowflakes” like me. But more importantly, it’s harder because the church is being remade in his image. If you compare Pew results from early 2016 to now, it appears that the white church has moved from tolerating to accepting to celebrating Trump’s pugilistic style. 

From Tolerable to Upstanding

A 2011 poll from the Pew Religious Research Institute (or Pew) asked Americans this question: If a politician committed an immoral act in their personal life, are they unable to act ethically in their public life? Compared to other religious groups, white evangelicals drew the hardest line -- 60% agreed that if you're unethical in your personal life, you can’t be trusted to do the right thing in politics. Trump’s Hollywood Access tape leaked in 2016 in which he bragged about sexually assaulting women, saying that he liked to “grab ‘em by the pussy.” That year Pew asked this exact question again. This time, white evangelicals saw things differently.

In 2016, only 20% of them agreed.

This 40% swing is one of the wildest poll results from 2016 (which was a wild year for poll results). In the span of 5 years, white evangelicals went from being the most concerned about a politician's personal conduct to the least concerned. Shortly after, a bulwark of the moral majority allied itself with a thrice-married reality TV star who had previously featured on the cover of Playboy magazine. Over time, white evangelicals grew not just tolerant of his behavior but began to identify with it. 

Fast forward to 2020. In a poll this year, a majority of white evangelicals described Trump as “morally upstanding” (61%) and “honest” (69%). I don’t mean to overinterpret two polls, but this result is a remarkable extension of the 40-point swing we saw earlier. Together, it seems like the majority of evangelicals said in 2016 that, “Look, even if Trump’s unethical in his personal dealings, he can still be a good politician,” and now say in 2020, “Actually, he’s not unethical at all, he’s morally upstanding.” That’s a remarkable shift in moral judgement across four years. 

When I think of Trump’s behavior between 2016 and 2020, here are three things I remember:

On August 7th, 2017, Trump complained that it was “ridiculous” of Megyn Kelly to question his past treatment of women on the debate stage. He proceeded to insult Kelly on live television, saying she “had blood coming out of her eyes. Or blood coming out of her wherever.” 

On October 16, 2018, Trump used his Twitter to call an adult film star with whom he had an affair “Horseface.”

On July 14, 2019, Trump told four congresswomen of color to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.” 

From the outside looking in, it’s strange that in the same four years Trump moved from being not-quite-disqualified to being “morally upstanding” to a majority of white evangelicals. I've wondered whether this would change if we read Trump's tweets aloud at a Sunday worship service every week. Take a look at his latest and judge for yourself. For whatever reason, he’s grown on the church. 

Fifth Avenue Evangelicals 

A striking majority of white evangelicals viewed Trump favorably in 2019 (71%) but many believers took it a step further. About three in ten white evangelicals checked a box that said, "I approve [of Trump] and there is almost nothing Trump could do to lose my approval.” Famously, Trump joked that he could shoot someone on Fifth Avenue in broad daylight and not lose support. That's why asking if "there is almost nothing Trump could do to lose my approval" is worth the ink. It appears Trump's Fifth-Avenue supporters are largely in the halls of the white church. 

Maybe you're thinking, "Sure, but those people aren't real churchgoing Christians. Upright believers are straight-laced and polite and love thy neighbor.” Well, not exactly. It turns out that white evangelicals who are fondest of the president are usually the ones who attend church weekly. Those who attend church less frequently are less supportive. 

So, the idea that evangelicals are holding their nose to vote for Trump I have to reject. I mean, most Americans (74%) wish Trump would be more presidential in his personal conduct, but that view is only shared by about half of all white evangelicals (53%). The other half don’t see an issue.  In fact, over one in ten white evangelicals said that Trump’s personal behavior makes them more likely to support him. 

God-and-Country Believers

Trump has reputation for fear mongering about immigrants, but many believers share his view. In fact, these attitudes have become an empirically defining feature for a major swath of the American faithful. Pew’s new typology gives them their own category called "God-and-Country Believers." They’re defined as "Those who are socially and politically conservative, most likely to view immigrants as hurting American culture” and about a third of highly religious Americans fit this description. 

If the data is any indication, the majority of God-and-Country Believers are white evangelicals - they consistently report the strongest, most negative attitudes toward immigrants than any other faith group. 

More than frequently than any other group of believers, white evangelicals:

said they have a negative view of immigrants (17%)

said that immigrants are invading the country (75%) 

said immigrants increase crime (62%)

said that immigrants create a burden on communities by using social services (71%)

were least likely to support sanctuary cities (27%)

were most likely to support family separation policies for undocumented families (39%)

I personally believe that Trump is a major force shaping these attitudes, too, but I could be wrong. Others say that Trump is just the embodiment of beliefs white evangelicals have always held and is finally “telling it like it is.” Robert Jones, the director of Pew Religious Research Institute and a white evangelical himself, explained this in his book The End of White Christian America. Jones describes these attitudes as the result of the "symbiotic relationship between Christianity and white supremacy" that's existed for centuries. 

He explores this further in his newest book, White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity. Here, Jones argues that white evangelical support for Trump is best understood in the context of that racial history. MLK remarked that America’s most segregated hour is always 11am on Sunday morning, and Jones explains why this isn’t a coincidence. Many of these faith traditions were originally predicated on a desire for white protestant cultural dominance, and until now, that dominance has never been challenged. He writes: 

By activating the white supremacy sequence within white Christian DNA, which was primed for receptivity by the perceived external threat of racial and cultural change in the country, Trump was able to convert white evangelicals in the course of a single political campaign from so-called values voters to “nostalgia voters.”

Trump’s powerful appeal to white evangelicals was not that he spoke to the culture wars around abortion or same-sex marriage, or his populist appeals to economic anxieties, but rather that he evoked powerful fears about the loss of white Christian dominance amid a rapidly changing environment.

The book is meant to provide a historical explanation for the trends he’s discovered in his research. Many of these findings I’ve reporting throughout the post. Jones argues this history explains why the white evangelical church has historically lagged in support of racial justice efforts where it hasn’t directly opposed them. 

Why This Matters to Non-believers

I’ve spent a lot of time here writing about why the association between Trump and the white Christian church is warranted. I haven’t said a lot about why that’s a problem. I’m not sure I need to, but here are few reasons, anyway. 

It’s a problem because Trump bragged about sexual assault on tape. It’s a problem because he shared a video saying “the only good democrat is a dead democrat.” It’s a problem because Trump peddled conspiracies about Obama not being a real American. It’s a problem because he tweeted a white power video. It’s a problem because he ordered an alt-lite militia group to “stand by” in case he needed them to fight after the election. It’s problem because it’s now genuinely unclear to me whether the church finds these behaviors morally objectionable. 

I think it’s also unclear to Trump. 

Here’s why I say that.

Do you remember at, the height of civil unrest, when secret police fired without warning on international journalists and peaceful protestors in front of St. John’s church in DC? The clergy demonstrating for racial justice were forcibly removed so that Trump could be photographed in front of their church with a Bible that wasn’t his. That display of fraudulence and tyranny was ostensibly a performance for Trump’s base: the white evangelical church. 

Trump thinks he knows what that church wants and he’s largely correct.

It’s possible that white evangelicals find all of Trump’s bullying and lying are consistent with an upright life. It’s more likely that they were overlooking what I’ve described here entirely. Either way, I think it requires explanation. Why the church is willing to support or even overlook this behavior needs to be talked through. That the church was even capable of this was a shock to many.

This is, I think, one of the most urgent and difficult conversations between evangelicals and nones that’s required for our mutual understanding.

[kootenaygoon]

So,

I was watching music videos again. 

Dragon smoke unfurled before me, my living room throbbing with purple Targaryen magic, while Tove Lo sang from my glowing laptop. I gotta stay high all the time to keep you off my mind. I was shirtless in my Shambhala tights, allowing YouTube to send my mind careening through what some algorithm had decided should be my mental breakdown playlist. Repeatedly it returned to a haunting electronica track from Disclosure: You help me lose my mind, and you believe something I can't define. Help me lose my mind. Mika was at class at Selkirk College while I raved, trampling her rabbit’s shit pebbles into the carpet with my slippers.

All around me were canvases, procured with my final cheque from the Star, at various states of completion. I’d finished a couple more flamboyant self-portraits, but now I’d moved on to psychedelic dinosaurs, shape-shifting jelly-fish, and paintings of both Mika and my barber Jesse Lockhart. Right now I was working on my first nude, a beach scene set on the fictional island of Quatsino, with my UBC manuscript’s protagonist knee-deep in the surf. Paisley’s dreadlocks hung blonde around her shoulders, and on her forearm I had painstakingly recreated the rose tattoo her real-life counterpart got back when we lived together in Victoria. I could’ve easily been painting Kessa. A joint hanging from my lips, I felt tears slide down my cheeks like fat slugs, my mind flashing back and forth between fiction and non-fiction. Sometimes it seemed like there was no difference — these were all just characters in my mind, and real or not they spoke to me. 

Stacked on the kitchen counter was three or four copies of my last issue of the Star, the one featuring the #MeToo story with Mharianne and Laela. I’d asked Ed about the story while collecting my things from the office, and he’d hinted that it may be on the chopping block due to my departure. I insisted it was done, everybody was interviewed and signed off, it was all ready to go — “you would literally be silencing sexual assault survivors,” I made sure to say. Then I called the president of Selkirk College, begging him to talk sense into Aaron Layton and letting him know I was planning to publish it online myself. They couldn’t kill it, not now. They could take my job away, but they couldn’t take that story. They ultimately ran it without my byline—a masterpiece without a proper signature.

Meanwhile, I had other things on my mind. 

“You didn’t wear a condom?” Mika asked, when I told her about Natalya’s potential pregnancy. She was looking increasingly more concerned when she returned to the house to find me manic and monologuing.

“I hate condoms.”

“So what were you using for birth control? Wasn’t this chick married?”

I dragged my knuckles against my temple, my skin trembly and sweat-slicked. “I thought she was too old. She’s like 42 or something. And she’s already got kids, right? I thought she was on top of this shit.”

Mika rolled her eyes. “You have nobody to blame here but yourself. Seriously, you don’t get my sympathy.”

I had initially intervened in Mika’s life because she was in the midst of a break-up, and I empathized with the struggle of going through something so publicly embarrassing in such a small town. It wasn’t until we moved in together that I encountered her real personality — she was a hyper-nerd, into science and learning and the weekly Bingo night. She was one of the bud tenders at the local dispensary, which was a convenient way for me to meet the owners.  Amidst my chaotic and prolific dating life, I was trying to keep her on a platonic level. 

My Nelson sister, something like that.

“This is toxic masculinity, right here. I’m such a fucking asshole,” I said. “This is what Me Too is all about.”

“Not everything is about Me Too. You’re just obsessed with that lately.”

I shook my head. “Kessa’s dead, Mika. That’s a real thing. Fucking pedophile rings and rape everywhere. This is what the woman are raging about. They’re dancing.”

“Dancing?”

“Like those girls on roller skates, in the Chet Faker video. You know the one?”

By this point she knew me pretty well, and as her eyes narrowed I realized this was more than a normal high. I was operating from an extra elevated plane, like I’d lost sensory hold over my body. It was an intoxicating place to be, far from the shame and darkness of the banal. I’d tried one of the pills Natalya gave me, and it was making the room vibrate.

“You’re on something,” she said.

“Natalya gave me this shit to micro-dose. Like mushrooms and speed or something. I just had one like an hour ago.”

She sighed. “You need to be careful, Will. You’re acting strange.”

However I was acting, things finally made sense. I felt like I’d peeled back a layer of existence and discovered the writhing snake-belly of reality. Trump was grabbing everybody by the pussy, waging Twitter war with Kim Jong-Un, while here in Nelson there was some sort of conspiracy to ruin my fucking life. Was it really the Kessa situation that did it? How did they convince Ed to betray me? I thought of that cop who punched a woman, how he sat on the pay roll for years while they figured out his outcome. Was I worse than him? Did I deserve to have my life up-ended for going to a fucking funeral? What were they afraid of? I rattled through my theories on this as I drove Mika to school, and she mostly looked out the window. I wondered if she regretted moving in with me. I’d become that mentally ill freak people talk about, posting my shit all over social media. I just didn’t care anymore.

“So is she going to get an abortion?” Mika asked. “Did she say?”

I shook my head. “She hadn’t even taken a test yet. She said she was just feeling funny, and when she was leaning over she felt something weird.”

“Something weird like what?”

“She said it felt like a tear, like a muscle tear maybe? I don’t know, I was fucking panicking. I told her to call my sisters.”

“Your sisters?”

I didn’t feel like explaining this to Mika. She wasn’t tuned into the greater conversation that was going on, the one coming at me through social media. Men were failing to acknowledge their complicity in rape culture while women bled in public. Nobody was willing to admit they were wrong, because everyone was worried they lived in a glass house. Lately, though, I was wondering if I could break my own glass house. That way I could throw some stones.

“What do you mean throw stones?” she asked.

“These men need to be held accountable.”

“What men?”

“These rapists and abusers and pedophiles who took away my job.”

“I thought you got fired because of Kessa.”

I grunted in annoyance. “I wasn’t fired. I was let go without cause.”

Back in my bedroom, Lt. Aldo Raine marched before his carefully assembled killing team in Inglorious Basterds. I’d watched this clip multiple times, and had the words memorized. Brad Pitt sneered, his throat sporting a nasty scar. I sure as hell didn’t come down from the goddamn Smoky Mountains, cross five thousand miles of water, fight my way through half of Sicily and jump out of fucking aero plane to teach the Nazis lessons in humanity. Nazis ain’t got no humanity. They’re the foot soldiers of a Jew-hating, mass-murdering maniac and they need to be destroyed. 

That’s what was happening here in Nelson, but with rapists instead of Germans. Andrew Stevenson was sitting on the edge of my bed, wiping down the barrel of his shotgun, as I lit up another joint. Now I was watching that scene from The Sopranos, the one where Tony wants to kill the local soccer coach for molesting one of the teenage players. This shit was real life, right here. Like my Trent situation. I thought of the local soccer team, and all the abusive shit-heads that were coaching there. I wondered if one of them had crossed the line, if I’d have to add him to my kill list.

I want my scalps. 

Somewhere around that time, I realized I was expected soon at Tony’s Taphouse for my Friday night shift. That was how I was battling rape culture now, working the front lines on the bar scene. My favourite moment of each night was when frightened women approached me at the end of the shift to ask me to stand guard until some creep moved on. I took this role very seriously. This week I’d purchased a new accessory to my vested get-up: a bright red bow tie. I checked myself out in the bathroom mirror, trimmed my moustache, and thought of how Tony stumbled home drunk after choosing to spare that soccer coach of his mobster justice. 

“I didn’t hurt nobody,” he said to Carmela. “I didn’t hurt nobody.”

As I grabbed my things and headed out the door, I noticed the Ziploc of pills. There were four left now. The first one had gotten me into this productive headspace, so maybe another would help me tap-dance through this rest of this night. Why the fuck not, right? I’d been receiving upsetting emails, crazy messages, death threats. I couldn’t comprehend it all. Unzipping the bag, I cradled one pill in my palm then threw it back, washing it down with tap water. I was tired of feeling morally exhausted, defeated, exiled. I deserved a little pick-me-up. The clientele at Tony’s Taphouse would have no idea their doorman was rip-roaring high. I would be like Bodie from The Wire, standing on his corner while the hitmen descended. 

This is my corner! I ain’t going nowhere!

Before leaving, I decided to re-listen to Eminem’s duet with Rihanna, “Love the Way You Lie.” I watched my favourite rapper rock rhythmically back and forth amidst hip-high grass, his voice filled with regret and grief. Here was the ultimate embodiment of rape culture right here, the meta-Chris Brown taking swings at Megan Fox while Rihanna curls her lip. Thing was, Meghan Fox looked exactly like Paisley. The real one. And as Slim Shady rapped in front of a burning trailer, I couldn’t help but think of Ryan Tapp. I can’t tell you how it is really is, I can only tell you what it feels like. And right now it’s a steel knife in my wind pipe. 

Andrew Stevenson was waiting at the door, in a black balaclava, with the shotgun sticking out of his backpack. He cracked his knuckles together as I reached the top of the stairs.

“I need your help. You can never ask me about it later, and we’re going to hurt some people,” he said.

I blinked in surprise. “You’re quoting from The Town. That Ben Affleck bank robbery movie. Right? That scene with Jeremy Renner?”

He opened the front door.

“We’re going to hold court in the streets.”

The Kootenay Goon

[ntdstories]

This Ain’t Play Play ( Christopher One Shot)

   The day is here! Next Town Down comes to Miami as one of the stops on their “Good Times” tour. I found the complete outfit I wanted to wear to this event. Easy to put on, comfortable and had my “ gluteous maximum ” looking right in this Fashion Nova bodycon dress. “Your man is out there on the loose!” I sang from the top of my lungs in the front row as if my ex who did me dirty was in the room. Seeing the boys perform was amazing. They were on point with the melodies, notes and dance moves. I was so appreciative to be a Townie. Especially, a Chris girl gazing at him hit those high notes live. In a blink, just like that, the concert is over. I went to go stand in line to encounter the boys. I purchased the most expensive I could get. I wanted to encounter the boys that I’ve spamming on Twitter for months almost getting my account deleted on several occasions. “NEXT!” the security guard shouts. Finally, my turn is here. I hugged and greeted all the boys and ending with Chris. Y’all know I had to leave the best for last ya dig? So Chris and I spoke a little bit since I was the last in line and they had a little Townie party for those who paid for that VIP Meet and Greet package.    I was assuring him who I was through social media. “So how long have you’ve been a Townie?” He questioned. “For a couple of months now since November of 2017. I’ve tweeted you a couple of times and sent some DM’s your way. I’m @annathegemini on Twitter and Instagram.” I replied. Suddenly, his eyes darkened. Christopher looked around to see if any witness would be around for what he was about to do next. “Come here.” grabbing me aggressively yet swiftly by my left ass cheek luring me into what he tried to make it seem like he was just giving a supportive hug to a fan. He whispered into my ear "So you're one that keeps talking all that shit, huh?"At this point, I am alarmed but aroused so I proceeded with his little game."Hmm, you sound kinda pressed?" I said mocking him in a baby voice. Silly of me to think I wasn’t going to regret that. He gripped my ass even harder and stated to me "You know what... I'm gonna put that mouth to work since you like to run that shit so much." I bite my lip and uttered "That’s so cute. Is that suppose to be a threat or a weak ass promise? I don't like waste my time on the very small things."He let me go and gave me stank look as he adjusted his belt but it wasn't over.

    A few minutes later, I got a DM on Twitter from Chris to encounter him the bathroom. “What are you smiling so hard at?” The words of my friend who came to the concert with me snapped me out it. “Oh, nothing. I’m just overjoyed I got to witness the boys living their dreams.”I lied.“Whatever I guess.”She rolled her eyes. She’s really isn’t the biggest fan of the boys. My phone started vibrating and flashing like crazy as if it were the fire alarm during a primary school drill. It was Christopher blowing me up with messages because I want coming fast enough. “Leave me alone, Eisenberg…” is what replied before I happily skipped my ass to the bathroom. Walking to the bathroom not thinking too much about it. Chris came out the boondocks grabbing me and urged me up against the wall as he was locking the door. "Shit" is what I thought to myself because I know my walls were gonna be ruined by a Jewish light skin. I flicked him on the forehead, “Are you crazy? Grabbing me like that!” Before I could flick him again he caught my hand in the air and retained them. “Stop hitting me!” he barked at me. We were wrestling like dogs in the bathroom. He was growing more and more frustrated with me.    Christopher put his hands under my dress as I was kicking him and pulled my panties to the side and slide his fingers. I stopped opposing him. I continue to slight moaned, but I still spoke my shit because I wasn't letting go on this foreplay easily. "Listen here... Tickle me, Elmo." I done pissed his ass off, and that's when I knew I fucked up. He shoved his fingers in way past knuckle deep. We stared at each other knowing this was going to get dangerous. His eyes lacked mercy and mines lacked regret. His fingers were soaked in my honey just dripping as he slid them out of me and into his own mouth, licking around his own his own fingers just to taste what's about to come (no pun intended).    Internally, my soul was shaken but Christopher unbuckled his belt to pull out this thing was more going to destroy more than just my walls. Erect and ready to go. Christopher was frustrated with me. He pushed me up against the wall firmly grasping me by the throat. Kissing me sloppily, dragging his lips to my ear breathing heavily into it. He turned me around said " I… am… fucking… tired of your shit."He broke his grip on my neck and I gasped trying to recollect my conventional breathing pattern. Bending me over, he inserted himself into me. I let out a deep loud moan.

   In haste, he put his hand over my mouth and put two of his fingers down my throat just to gag me. "Shut the fuck up!" he growled towards me into my neck as he was beating my walls! With the other hand, he tightened his grip on my wrists as he possessed my arms down behind my back putting pressure on my arch so I wouldn’t be competent to move. He knows I will try to fight him, and he wasn’t having it anymore with me. Christopher was totally in control. Every stroke, every hit, every wall that went down like a tree in the middle of the rainforest. He finally let me go and flipped me over dragging my ass closer to him. He was nowhere near finished with me. “Chri-chri-christopher!” I moaned as a tear streamed down my cheek. He smiled when he noticed the tear and told me “ Don’t punk out me now.” giving me long and slow strokes just to tease me. He tosses my legs over his broad shoulders leaning in over me putting his body weight on me while pressing his thumbs into the back of my thighs gripping them hard so he can make sure that I felt every single hit he laid out into me. Biting my lips to brace myself for the impact of his manhood ramming inside just rearranging my organs. Chris’s stamina consumed me.Digging my nails into his back absorbing everything that was him. He elevated himself up, and his strokes were slowing down. “No! Please!” I pull his face back towards me kissing him passionately. I didn’t want him going anywhere. “Shit!” he whispered.“Ugh, you’re so damn wet. Fuck.”Out of nowhere, Christopher pulled out still fully loaded. Nevertheless, my legs were still on shoulders. He stood there staring down. “What’s wrong?” I asked. He looked up at me and started rubbing his thumb against my clit. “Man, your pussy so pretty.” I blushed at his words. Christopher wasted no time demonstrating me his appreciation. My left rolled like Terence’s in the first Q&A video when he kissed. His tongue was putting in that work down there. As Tre would say he was locked in. Up, down, left, right… There wasn’t a particular place that his tongue didn’t explore. He was worse than Dora. This man was a complete genius paying gold to my clit the way he did. Every single flick and suck possessed my whole entire body to quiver. Bitch, I was drained. He notices that I was starting to slip off the counter from spazzing so much and didn’t want me to get hurt by anything that wasn’t him so he kissed my inner thigh, gathered me up and deposited me down on the floor so he can accomplish what he established prior. Christopher was getting tired so climbed on top of me to execute the last couple of good strokes he had left in him. I wrapped my legs around his waist locking my ankles tightly to get him in there even deeper. Noticing that the fatigue was starting come over him I wanted these last few strokes to be soul snatching. His moans were in sync with mines as we were both achieving our climax. Holding my hands over my head just digging in deeper and deeper. He pulled out to stroke himself a few times to release his milky colored gold across my stomach. Being the freak bitch that I am… I decided to taste what he was made of. I wanted to grasp what he was about. His kids were using my belly button as a community swimming pool. I was his cum rag in human form and I've never been so proud of myself. Christopher collapsed next to me on the floor smiling from ear to ear. Both us just on the floor just trying to regain our breath. He kept kissing and wrapping his arms around me as we were fixing ourselves to go back to the public.”Boy, are you in love or something?” Instead of him giving a slick answer, Christopher blushed and said “Maybe.”

    He tapped my ass again and told me " I'm gonna make you respect me, little girl."I turned around and joked "Little girl? I'm older than you by 3 months."We started cracking up. He kissed my shoulder, neck, and cheek before he leaves the bathroom first. I forgot my friend was waiting for me. I came out about 5 minutes after he had left and caught up with my friend. "Damn, girl you were in the bathroom for over an hour! Are you okay?" I blushed and said, “Nah, I’m alright.” I was trying to hide my crooked way of walking so she wouldn't know that I had just gotten my ass pounded in the bathroom by one of the members of the group. “YO CHRIS!” Tre shouted, “Where were you, man? We're looking for you for an hour.”He just smiled looking down and said “Sorry man. I was talking to a Townie, and you can say we kinda got carried away…”

The end.

[peachriffer]

Review: Kendrick Lamar - Damn.

Strap in folks. We’re talking about Kendrick Lamar again... This is gonna be a long one.

It's official. Kendrick Lamar just went pop and this album has sent the music world into a frenzy. I've made a point of riding out the hype because of all the noise on twitter that came with it. I was extremely excited going into this thing too and wanted to make sure my true thoughts weren't guided by the internet's endless praise machine. I was listening to it though. Late thursday night I got a fresh tank of gas and spent the next hour riding out to it. I was instantly wowed.

The concept for this album comes in two parts. In the first part, death sneaks up on Kendrick. He's shot and, as he's dying, he spends his final moments believing he's been damned to Hell.

"Wicked or weakness?!" He cried in the music video for Humble. "You gotta see this." This is important because DAMN features Kendrick confessing to his many of his earthly sins and we’re the judge.

In the second part of this concept, (revealed to us on DNA) we learn more about how Kendrick has structured this record when he raps: 

"Bitch, your hormones prolly switch inside your DNA. Problem is, all that sucker shit inside your DNA."

DNA, as we know, forms a chain and comes in two parts forming the double helix. Kendrick covered this ground already on TBAP with the tracks U and I. This duality also exists between the butterfly and the caterpillar. They are completely different yet one and the same, just like the different sides to Kendrick himself. He's a Gemini, who has two first names, and is rich despite being raised in a ghetto. A walking contradiction, an oxymoron just like King Kunta.

The "sucker shit" he's referring to are all the sad songs that weave this album together with all the bangers like... well... DNA. One always follows the other. They are two halves to the same whole. 

On YAH, Kendrick throws away his blackness to follow Yahweh, a God only marginally different from his own Christian God.

"I'm a Israelite, don't call me black no mo'. That word is only a color, it ain't facts no mo."

This calls to mind, for me personally, how people kill in the name of religion despite the fact that all religions carry similar practices anyway. The Israelites are lord's chosen people while also being cursed on earth. Black and White, Christian and Jewish, Wickedness and Weakness. The value in these (seemingly) different attributes we assign others are really only worth what we choose. "You decide. Are we gonna live or die?"

Kendrick then proclaims on the very next song, ELEMENT. 

"Cuz it’s all in your eyes. Most of y'all tell lies. Most of y'all don't fade. Most of y'all been advised last LP. I tried to lift the black artists but it's a difference between black artists and wack artists." 

Here Kendrick is warring within himself over that "sucker shit" again. He refuses to fall into a what he now views as a vile mentality. 

"They won't take me out my Element. Nah, take me out my Element. Damned if I do, if I don't (Yah) Goddamn us all if you won't (yahhh) Damn, damn, damn, it's a goddamn shame. You ain't frontline, get out the goddamn way."

On FEEL, he falls into the very mentality he wants to avoid... hard.

"The world is endin', I'm done pretendin' And fuck you if you get offended I feel like friends been overrated I feel like the family been fakin' I feel like the feelings are changin' Feel like my daughter compromised and jaded Feel like you wanna scrutinize how I made it Feel like I ain't feelin' you all Feel like removin' myself, no feelings involved I feel for you, I've been in the field for you It's real for you, right? Shit, I feel like- Ain't nobody prayin' for me" 

It’s a mentality that’s just objectively not true but it’s one that we all fall into on our worst days. We watch the news, browse nonsense on twitter, chat with friends, go to work, go to school, and at the end of the day feel cheap. Like, even for all our hard-work, time, and effort, we gain nothing of value in the end. The mysterious it Kendrick is vying for will just remain in it’s same, fixed spot on the horizon, ready for him tomorrow when he ultimately gets up again to walk on that treadmill some more. 

LOYALITY comes next and here, with the help of Rihanna, Kung Fu Kenny recognizes that he needs a safety net to rely on when times get tough. He meditates to make sure he’s, as Ri-Ri puts it, Loyal to himself in advance then goes on to drop one of my favorite lines on the record: 

“Is it unconditional when the ‘Rari don’t start? Tell me when your loyality is comin’ from the heart.” 

Or in other words, “When shit hit the fan, are you still a fan?”

On PRIDE, Kendrick knocks himself down a peg again. Maybe he’s trying to reconcile a conflict between Pride and Loyality. It reminds me, personally, of that scene in Pulp Fiction where Marseilles Wallace talks down to Butch because he’s demanding his Loyality. “FUCK PRIDE.” He shouts. “Remember... Pride only hurts, it never helps.” The second verse is my personal favorite:

“Now, in a perfect world, I probably won't be insensitive Cold as December but never remember what winter did I wouldn't blame you for mistakes I made or the bed I laid Seems like I point the finger just to make a point nowadays Smiles and cold stares, the temperature goes there Indigenous disposition, feel like we belong here I know the walls, they can listen, I wish they could talk back The hurt becomes repetition, the love almost lost that Sick venom in men and women overcome with pride A perfect world is never perfect, only filled with lies Promises are broken and more resentment come alive Race barriers make inferior of you and I See, in a perfect world, I'll choose faith over riches I'll choose work over bitches, I'll make schools out of prison I'll take all the religions and put 'em all in one service Just to tell 'em we ain't shit, but He's been perfect, world”

HUMBLE is anything but humble. It’s on an album with tracks written in all caps and reminds me of the way trump tries to put his points across. “I’m the humblest man in the world. You’ll never find anyone more humble than me. Trust me, folks.” 

This song might serve to express another conflict Kendrick has with himself. He’s trying to be humble as a rapper and those two things rarely go together. Hip-hop is maybe the most bravado driven genre ever conceived.

On the other end of HUMBLE we have the disturbingly forthcoming LUST. Kendrick’s fame puts him in a position to take advantage of others, abusing his power over them like he did on These Walls. This calls to mind Trump’s famous scandal. “When you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ‘em by the pussy. You can do anything.” It’s a point K dot addresses with his second verse: 

“We all woke up, tryna tune to the daily news Lookin' for confirmation, hopin' election wasn't true All of us worried, all of us buried, and our feeling's deep None of us married to his proposal, make us feel cheap Still and sad, distraught and mad, tell the neighbor 'bout it Bet they agree, parade the streets with your voice proudly Time passin', things change Revertin' back to our daily programs, stuck in our ways; Lust” 

I love LOVE FT. ZACARI. It’s in many ways indebted to Drake’s “Hotline Bling” but the situation is just the opposite. Kendrick reminisces on the early days of his relationship with his, now fiancee, Whitney Alford. In contrast with LUST, it forms a flawless juxtaposition between a relationship that’s true and one that, because of Lust, is all yours. It’s most hopeful song on the entire album.

LOVE’s hopefulness then gets completely dashed by XXX. FT. U2. Here Kendrick acknowledges the great lengths he’ll go to in order to defend those he loves. 

“He was lookin' for some closure Hopin' I could bring him closer To the spiritual, my spirit do no better, but I told him "I can't sugarcoat the answer for you, this is how I feel: If somebody kill my son, that mean somebody gettin' killed." Tell me what you do for love, loyalty, and passion of All the memories collected, moments you could never touch”

He later says “Alright kids, let’s talk about gun control.” like he’s an authority on keeping the peace. Kendrick knows he could easily be driven to do ridiculously heinous things too but still provides lip service to an issue. This conflict continues to persist despite Kendrick’s, now, long standing success and calls to mind Hillary Clinton, someone who tried to hide having a public and private position throughout the campaign last year.    

This propels us into FEAR, a song that moved me to tears the first few times I heard it. On this goddamn masterpiece, we're guided through fear from three different stages of life. 

"If I could smoke fear away, I'd roll that motherfucker up and then I'd take two puffs." 

Presumably, one puff for U and another for I. 

This song, to me, addresses the most painful aspect of fear: It's all yours. It's all specialized and unique on an individualized basis. Your fear, worries, and anxiety were specially designed within you on a personal level. It’s largely inseparable from who you are. The threats become less and less real as Kendrick ages, sure, but the feeling remains to haunt him. The final verse messed me up so hard because in the end it's revealed that Kendrick isn't talking about losing his wealth or his dad beating him or violence in his community. No. It's not that at all.

"I'm talkin' fear, fear of losin' creativity I'm talkin' fear, fear of missin' out on you and me I'm talkin' fear, fear of losin' loyalty from pride 'Cause my DNA won't let me involve in the light of God I'm talkin' fear, fear that my humbleness is gone I'm talkin' fear, fear that love ain't livin' here no more I'm talkin' fear, fear that it's wickedness or weakness Fear, whatever it is, both is distinctive Fear, what happens on Earth stays on Earth And I can't take these feelings with me So hopefully they disperse Within fourteen tracks, carried out over wax Searchin' for resolutions until somebody get back."

It's the real resolution to Kendrick's problems. On this verse, he finally bites back at this fear. 

GOD gets back to Kendrick by gracing him with the ability to express these feelings on wax. His message has resonated with millions. Now he feels revived in knowing that whether he's Damned or not is totally out of his hands. Kendrick argues that this must be what God feels like while he’s working on his music but he never actually refers to himself as a "God". Kendrick knows his true nature. He’s a King, a man among the people. That's part of why the second album theory doesn't work. Kendrick ain't Jesus. He’s just like all of us, a mortal man.

DUCKWORTH drops some crazy shit on us. It's essentially Kendrick Lamar's origin story. Basically, It all sums up into a situation where Top Dawg, his mentor, could've killed his Dad. This would mean that Kendrick would've never been famous. Top would be in prison and that he'd grow up fatherless in Compton, California. These people are in his DNA though, now. Their choices were essential in producing the environment needed to turn Kendrick into a chart-topping success story.

Conclusion

And that's it. That's the album. It's impressive as hell. Although, I have a few problems with it. 

The biggest is the production. It's good, even flawless on some songs but it's not consistent like on his previous two records. FEAR sounds so radically different from almost everything else and I might like it so much because it reminds me of Kendrick's earlier work. 

Rihanna's vocals and the backing track on LOYALTY are real iffy. Sampling 24K Magic and putting Rihanna on a track this straightforward reads as a very naked shot for the pop charts. It works but feels somewhat dumbed down at the same time. 

U2's appearance on XXX is acceptable. I really enjoy their almost insane inclusion but it kinda feels like a usable but deflated basketball. Sure, it works but it doesn't work as well as I want it too. 

Luckily though, Kendrick is a flawless MC on this project. He provides so much substance on these tracks that I almost forget the actual music part of the music. He went pop. It's excellent too but, ultimately, it's not why I listen to Kendrick Lamar. I love this album. It arrived at a very appropriate time in my life. It's better lyrically than Good Kid, Maad City for me but it ain't got nothing on TBAP. On TBAP, Kendrick had the sound and the lyrics. Here, he has the lyrics. I hope he dominates the year with this stuff. Hell, It might finally win his ass album of the year at the Grammy’s this time around. I’m still salty at Taylor’s win with 1989 but it’s whatever. 

Another great album by Kendrick Lamar though. Goddamn and God bless, Kung Fu Kenny.

Favorite Songs: FEAR, DNA, HUMBLE, FEEL, PRIDE, & LOVE 

Least Favorite Song: LOYALTY FT RIHANNA

Listen. 

[horseytown]

Caitlin Johnstone: One Leg In The Audience, One On Stage

In September, Caitlin Johnstone urged everyone to admit that they had Trump wrong. She didn’t include herself, of course. As usual, she was positioning herself for a claim to be ahead of the curve. 

Johnstone, like Eva Bartlett, is one of the new darlings of the fringey pro-authoritarian anti-liberal left. The sort that demonstrate their dedication to radical politics by suggesting that the far-right nationalist candidate would be better choice the centre-right Wall Street & War liberal. Trump was the better, more revolutionary candidate because it would make the "Deep State" angry if he won.

Caitlin Johnstone generally appeals to the kinds of people who took over the Counterpunch Facebook group that I used to frequent. Sadly, since the death of Alexander Cockburn, the quality of the paper (and its readers) has dropped. Admittedly, the group had always had its share of NWO paranoiacs, 9/11 Truthers (lots), and crystal-healing new age flakes into extraterrestrial fantasies about Nordics and Greys. But after Cockburn was gone, the group (not Counterpunch itself) began to slide so far to the left that it came around the other side, right into neofascist territory. It took little time for anti-immigrant white nationalist conspiracy videos out of Eastern Europe and Holocaust denial to be posted there.

Right alongside this sort of neofascist propaganda (and posted by the same individuals), were pieces by RT puppets and Assad-groupies Eva Bartlett, Vanessa Beeley and Johnstone. As with Bartlett and Beeley, some longtime leftist commentators speculated that Johnstone was a Russia plant/operative. However, as with the others, I think it is much more likely that she was simply just another useful idiot. 

Johnstone's online history reveals that was nearly politically mute only few years ago. At most she tweeted new age-y schlock about 'energy' and homeopathy, Eckhart Tolle, Christian Christensen Course in Miracles, Osho Zen, etc. The first signs of overt political content were lite political youtube links about Russell Brand and how Sanders was the choice of sweet old grandmothers everywhere. Besides that there was nothing radical, only mentions of her non-political writing projects. One of her writing projects was the book on astrology. While she claims that she was tasked with this by her publisher, it's clear from her other writings that she is new age flake (and this would be why she was given this task).

This suggests that Johnstone was not a plant, but just another flakey but well-meaning left-leaner who fell into the abyss of clickbait (and "fake news") and propaganda of the past two years. Go through her twitter and you can see multiple examples of her ignorance of political history and politics (not that she displays much knowledge of the politics of her native Australia). As with many people, this ignorance made her an easy mark for conspiracy theory.

Later she began dipping her toe into American politics singing the praise of Bernie Sanders. Not just enthusiastic, but fully smitten. Around the same that she was posting these comments on Twitter I was asking if we could just fast forward to the part where Bernie Sanders withdrew and endorsed Clinton. Not because I wanted him to do so, but because it was obvious that that was how it would end. I was hardly alone, many on the left saw him as a nothing more than a sheep-dog. She did not. Not necessarily because she is an idiot, but because I do think she knew very little about American politics as recently as late 2015. At least she comes off that way.

When Clinton took the nomination Johnstone went into reactionary mode. She was well-primed to accept at face-value any attack on Hillary Clinton. Only a few days later she was stating that Bernie Sanders and his family were being held hostage (somewhat figuratively, I think) and that he was being forced to endorse Clinton ("He has to say what he needs to say to get him and his family out alive.") She later added "50 of her [Clinton's] personal staff have died mysteriously." So, she was not being facetious, but actually believe Sanders' life was under threat from Hillary Clinton.

She quickly went from being Bernie-or-Bust to endorsing anyone-but-Clinton.  She was unconcerned about Trump, because she became convinced early on that he was a plant for Clinton. As with many Assange-worshipping Wikileaks leftists, she misread Podesta email revelations like the so-called "Pied Piper" memo. She became convinced that Trump was a heel, and that he was there to "hold the door" for Clinton. She really thought it was all staged.

Even in the wake of 'grab her by the pussy', Johnstone's feminism took a back seat to the popular MAGA supporter fear-mongering that a vote for Clinton was a vote for immediate nuclear war with Russia.

Everything that came after this seemed to compliment and confirm her entrenched anti-Clinton bias. Blind to Trump and looking for more to hate about Clinton, she was easy prey for RT, Russia Insider, Assadist Propaganda, Putinite propaganda, Seth Rich conspiracy, etc. When James O'Keefe's Project Veritas videos appeared, there was not a word from her about O'Keefe being in the employ of Bannon/Breitbart and having taken money from Trump. She became another voice screeching about how the polls were fixed for Clinton all along. She bleated that this was all set up back in April 2015 (a reference to the Pied Piper thing she misread). As her resentment of Clinton deepened, her susceptibility to right-wing propaganda increased. None too surprisingly when Pizzagate appeared she fell for that, too. Interestingly, she announced that a couple of days before some of the earliest major threads on 4chan collecting the earliest details of the Pizzagate hoax. With no mention of pizza, her November 1st tweet citing Infowars regular, Steve Pieczenik, suggests that Alex Jones was the source of her new direction. Her thank you to “Assange and all those in the intelligence community for ur courage,“ suggests she was also keeping abreast of the Podesta email angle. 

Around the same time she also revealed to the world she was ignorant of Alex Jones’ origins. She seemed unaware that he was a right-wing conspiracy theorist who had always pandered to the nationalist fringe, scoffing at the idea that the press that once called him left-wing was now referring to him as right-wing. She added, "He's been the same guy poking at power, just the administration has changed." This also suggests that she was beginning to ingest Jones' ravings on a regular basis. Her Pizzagate posts only became more aggressive. Soon thereafter she started posting heavily from Wikileaks and Assange, posting that Podesta revelations revealed that it was all just a psy-ops to destroy the will of the voters.

Predictably, she was not forthcoming about her failure to see Trump as a serious candidate when the election results rolled in. Instead she changed her tune and said that Trump was a good thing, because the evil DNC was routed. It was now also a good thing that Bernie Sanders was defeated. 

It is also no shock that she would be trying to sell leftists on the idea of teaming up with alt-right to take down the 'Deep State'. "Many Sanders voters have been lulled into backing the Democratic party’s platform-free Russophobic gibberish with the help of Sanders himself, to the point where whenever anyone initiates a debate with the phrase “I voted for Bernie” you can be 100 percent certain that they’re about to parrot an establishment-friendly line they were taught by the corporate media propaganda machine." 

Pretty heavy smarm for someone who was lazily tweeting "@BernieSanders is SO impressive" only 19 months earlier. Caitlin Johnstone is a good measuring stick for how rapidly people's politics were radicalized during the election process, and how misinformation and online propaganda and media manipulation made a mess out of people. It was no shock at all when she shifted from Pizzagate-Infowars enthusiast to claiming that she had seen through Donald Trump’s schtick from day one.

What's interesting is that she was not able to let go of the conspiracy theories once they had a grip on her. She still defends Pizzagate, Seth Rich , etc. It is no surprise at all that she would go deeper into Assadist, Putinite murk, or to continue to push 9/11 Truth.

My overall impression of Caitlin Johnstone is that she is just another semi-conscious progressive who got sucked into the election and spat out convinced that she was on the front lines of a War With The "Deep State". She is not even really aware of why she is where she is now. She certainly can't keep her story straight and shows no clarity of mind or consistency. Her only consistency seems to be a desire to be right and for others to be wrong. Hence the appeal of conspiracies that others are 'fooled by' (unlike her).

It might be tempting to accuse her of being a Russian bot or troll, but even a cursory glance around social media reveals that there are hundreds of thousands (if not millions) like her who have fallen into the very same abyss of ignorance. While the timing of her announcement that Clinton was a pedophile is somewhat suspect (as is her shift against Trump along with other Russian media), her writing reflects the propaganda lines disseminated by RT English et al. not because she is one of their agents, but because she has internalized their work and that of others.