#and why are our representatives being so lazy about fixing the root of these issues?

[blindtaleteller]

Ultimately, know wtf you’re talking about before making some fiction up about a thing, person or place lmao. also tags (which might get cut off heh), cause no: ‘Americans’ are not alone in doing shit like this and yes, I have seen it done in the reverse too lol! And architecture isn’t the only place it’s done, either. A lot of this is cultural assumption: rather than appropriation.. though I’d say it’s right there at the line of it, when people are slapping their own definitions and more in context on there that doesn’t belong. Which yes, Europe does all the time too. Is that really a surprise, when that’s where the majority currently here came from?

so funny when americans make photosets with pictures of normal eastern european buildings and describe them as "melancholy" or "desolate." like my brother that is an apartment complex. my friend Милош lives there.

[fatliberation]

I’m Abandoning Body Positivity and Here’s Why

In short: it’s fatphobic.

“A rallying cry for a shift in societal norms has now become the skinny girl’s reassurance that she isn’t really fat. Fatness, through this lens of ‘body positivity’, remains the worst thing a person can be.” (Kayleigh Donaldson)

•  •  •

I have always had a lot of conflicting opinions about the body positivity movement, but it’s much more widely known (and accepted, go figure) than the fat liberation movement, so I often used the two terms interchangeably in conversation about anti-fatness. But the longer I’ve been following the body positivity movement, the more I’ve realized how much it has strayed from its fat lib origins. It has been hijacked; deluded to center thin, able, white, socially acceptable bodies.

Bopo’s origins are undoubtedly grounded in fat liberation. The fat activists of the 1960s paved the way for the shred of size acceptance we see in media today, initially protesting the discrimination and lack of access to equal opportunities for fat people specifically. This early movement highlighted the abuse, mental health struggles, malpractice in the medical field, and called for equal pay, equal access, equal respect, an end to fatphobic structures and ideas. It saddens me that it hasn’t made much progress in those regards. 

Today, the #bopo movement encapsulates more the idea of loving your own body versus ensuring that individuals regardless of their weight and appearance are given equal opportunities in the workplace, schools, fashion and media. Somehow those demands never made it outside of the ‘taboo’ category, and privileged people would much more readily accept the warm and fuzzy, sugar-coated message of “love yourself!” But as @yrfatfriend once said, this idea reduces fat people’s struggles to a problem of mindset, rather than a product of external oppressors that need to be abolished in order for fat people to live freely.

That generalized statement, “love yourself,” is how a movement started by fat people for the rights of fat people was diluted so much, it now serves a thin model on Instagram posting about how she has a tummy roll and cellulite on her thighs - then getting praised for loving her body despite *gasp!* its minor resemblance to a fat body. 

Look. Pretty much everyone has insecurities about their bodies, especially those of us who belong to marginalized groups. If you don’t have body issues, you’re a privileged miracle, but our beauty-obsessed society has conditioned us to want to look a certain way, and if we have any features that the western beauty standard considers as “flaws,” yeah! We feel bad about it! So it’s not surprising that people who feel bad about themselves would want to hop on a movement that says ‘hey, you’re beautiful as you are!’ That’s a message everyone would like to hear. Any person who has once thought of themselves as less than beautiful now feels that this movement is theirs. And everyone has insecurities, so everyone feels entitled to the safe space. And when a space made for a minority includes the majority, the cycle happens again and the majority oppresses the minority. What I’m trying to explain here is that thin people now feel a sense of ownership over body positive spaces. 

Regardless of how badly thin people feel about their bodies, they still experience thin privilege. They can sit down in a theater or an airplane without even thinking about it, they can eat in front of others without judgement, they can go the doctor with a problem and actually have it fixed right away, they can find cute clothes in their size with ease, they do not suffer from assumptions of laziness/failure based on stereotype, they see their body type represented everywhere in media, the list goes on and on. They do not face discrimination based off of the size of their body. 

Yet diet culture and fatphobia affects everyone, and of course thin people do still feel bad about the little fat they have on their bodies. But the failure to examine WHY they feel bad about it, is what perpetuates fatphobia within the bopo movement. They’re labeled “brave” for showing a pinch of chub, yet fail to address what makes it so acceptably daring, and how damaging it is to people who are shamed for living in fat bodies. Much like the rest of society, thin body positivity is still driven by the fear of fat, and does nothing to dismantle fatphobia within structures or within themselves.

Evette Dionne sums it up perfectly in her article, “The Fragility of Body Positivity: How a Radical Movement Lost Its Way.”

“The body-positive media economy centers these affirming, empowering, let-me-pinch-a-fat-roll-to-show-how-much-I-love-myself stories while failing to actually challenge institutions to stop discriminating against fat people. More importantly, most of those stories center thin, white, cisgender, heterosexual women who have co-opted the movement to build their brands. Rutter has labeled this erasure ‘Socially Acceptable Body Positivity.’

“On social media, it actually gets worse for fat bodies: We’re not just being erased from body positivity, fat women are being actively vilified. Health has become the stick with which to beat fat people with [sic], and the benchmark for whether body positivity should include someone” (Dionne).

Ah, yes. The medicalization of fat bodies, and the moralization of health. I’ve ranted about this before. Countless comments on posts of big women that say stuff like “I’m all for body positivity, but this is just unhealthy and it shouldn’t be celebrated.” I’ve heard writer/activist Aubrey Gordon once say that body positivity has become something like a shield for anti-fatness. It’s anti-fatness that has been repackaged as empowerment. It’s a striking double-standard. Fat people are told to be comfortable in their bodies (as if that’s what’s going to fix things) but in turn are punished when they’re okay with being fat. Make it make sense.

Since thin people feel a sense of ownership over body positive spaces, and they get to hide behind “health” when they are picking and choosing who can and cannot be body positive, they base it off of who looks the most socially acceptable. And I’m sure they aren’t consciously picking and choosing, it comes from implicit bias. But the socially acceptable bodies they center are small to medium fat, with an hourglass shape. They have shaped a new beauty standard specifically FOR FAT PEOPLE. (Have you ever seen a plus sized model with neck fat?? I’m genuinely asking because I have yet to find one!) The bopo movement works to exclude and silence people who are on the largest end of the weight spectrum. 

Speaking of exclusion, let’s talk about fashion for a minute.

For some reason, (COUGH COUGH CAPITALISM) body positivity is largely centered around fashion. And surprise surprise, it’s still not inclusive to fat people. Fashion companies get a pat on the back for expanding their sizing two sizes up from what they previously offered, when they are still leaving out larger fat people completely. In general, clothing companies charge more for clothes with more fabric, so people who need the largest sizes are left high and dry. It’s next to impossible to find affordable clothes that also look nice. Fashion piggybacks on the bopo movement as a marketing tactic, and exploits the very bodies it claims to be serving. (Need I mention the time Urban Outfitters used a "curvy” model to sell a size it doesn’t even carry?)

The movement also works to exclude and silence fat Black activists.

In her article, “The Body Positivity Movement Both Takes From and Erases Fat Black Women” Donyae Coles explains how both white people and thin celebrities such as Jameela Jamil profit from the movement that Black women built.

“Since long before blogging was a thing, fat Black women have been vocal about body acceptance, with women like Sharon Quinn and Marie Denee, or the work of Sonya Renee Taylor with The Body Is Not An Apology. We’ve been out here, and we’re still here, but the overwhelming face of the movement is white and thin because the mainstream still craves it, and white and thin people have no problem with profiting off the work of fat, non-white bodies.”

“There is a persistent belief that when thin and/or white people enter the body positive realm and begin to repeat the messages that Black women have been saying for years in some cases, when they imitate the labor that Black women have already put in that we should be thankful that they are “boosting” our message. This completely ignores the fact that in doing so they are profiting off of that labor. They are gaining the notoriety, the mark of an expert in something they learned from an ignored Black woman” (Coles).

My next essay will go into detail about this and illuminate key figures who paved the way for body acceptance in communities of color. 

The true purpose of this movement has gotten completely lost. So where the fuck do we go from here? 

We break up with it, and run back to the faithful ex our parents disapproved of. We go back to the roots of the fat liberation movement, carved out for us by the fat feminists, the queer fat activists, the fat Black community, and the allies it began with. Everything they have preached since the 1960s and 70s is one hundred percent applicable today. We get educated. We examine diet culture through a capitalist lens. We tackle thin, white-supremacist systems and weight based discrimination, as well as internalized bias. We challenge our healthcare workers to unlearn their bias, treat, and support fat patients accordingly. We make our homes and spaces accessible and welcoming to people of any size, or any (dis)ability. “We must first protect and uplift people in marginalized bodies, only then can we mandate self-love” (Gordon).

Think about it. In the face of discrimination, mistreatment, and emotional abuse, we as a society are telling fat people to love their bodies, when we should be putting our energy toward removing those fatphobic ideas and structures so that fat people can live in a world that doesn’t require them to feel bad about their bodies. It’s like hitting someone with a rock and telling them not to bruise!

While learning to love and care for the body that you’re in is important, I think that body positivity also fails in teaching that because it puts even more emphasis on beauty. Instead of saying, “you don’t have to be ‘beautiful’ to be loved and appreciated,” its main lesson is that “all bodies are beautiful.” We live in a society obsessed with appearance, and it is irresponsible to ignore the hierarchy of beauty standards that exist in every space. Although it should be relative, “beautiful” has been given a meaning. And that meaning is thin, abled, symmetric, and eurocentric. 

Beauty and ugliness are irrelevant, made-up constructs. People will always be drawn to you no matter what, so you deserve to exist in your body without struggling to conform to an impossible and bigoted standard. Love and accept your body for YOURSELF AND NO ONE ELSE, because you do not exist to please the eyes of other people. That’s what I wish we were teaching instead. Radical self acceptance!

As of today, the ultimate message of the body positivity movement is: Love your body “despite its imperfections.” Or people with “perfect and imperfect bodies both deserve love.” As long as we are upholding the notion that there IS a perfect body that looks a certain way, and every body that falls outside of that category is imperfect, we are upholding white supremacy, eugenics, anti-fatness, and ableism.

[disasterhumans]

i swear this isnt malicious, im curious. if its not okay to have a sentient species be 'evil' or 'good,' (and yeah, both are lazy at best), why is it okay for /creatures/ in DnD to be 'evil' or 'good'? why is it okay for less humanoid sentients, like dragons, to be 'chromatic is evil' and 'metallic is good'? and if we recognize traits even within species in real animals (like labradors being really mellow dogs compared to huskies being high strung) why is it awful for sentients to be different?

[Heads up to critters avoiding C1 spoilers that there is some discussion of the Chroma Conclave arc in this post. It’s not super detailed, and doesn’t spoil specific plot points; it’s mostly general analysis of the framing plot of that arc.]

I’m not sure that I do think it’s okay for sapient creatures to be “evil” or “good.” Or at the very least, I’m not sure it makes sense for sapient creatures to have ingrained moral alignments. At the same time, even just bringing it down to semantics, it’s different to have an evil “race,” versus an evil “creature.” It’s a distinction that gets wibbly, because of course Orcs are just as fictional as dragons. But where Orcs were derived from existing racial stereotypes, dragons are derived from folklore and fairy tales. Part of the point I was making in my previous post is that the moment the word “race” got involved in the project of essentializing traits in fantasy species, the concept became inextricably linked to our real world understanding of race.

“Monsters” and “creatures” are often used as allegories in the stories they appear in–this is how the Chroma Conclave works in campaign 1. Sure, Vorugal, Umbrasyl, Raishan, and Thordak all have character and personality traits. But Matt’s construction has them representing traditional “vices” (wrath, pride, greed, vanity, etc.). It doesn’t make any particular sense why a red dragon is vain, or a green dragon is deceitful, but those details are drawing from a narrative tradition of using symbolism to represent specific themes and attributes. I don’t think that having inherently evil dragons contributes to the problem of implying race has a determining factor in morality in the same way having inherently evil Orcs, Goblins, or Drow does. At the same time, I think that it’s a weak narrative tool if you’re planning on having dragons populate your world as actual characters (and not just allegorical figures). 

The fact that J’Mon Sa Ord is a fully developed character with motives, beliefs, and goals, where most of the Chroma Conclave exist as caricatures* doesn’t make a whole lot of logical sense. What allows metallic dragons to be paragons of virtue and to operate within humanoid cultures, where chromatic dragons are seemingly only interested in acquiring wealth and power? What prevents J’Mon Sa Ord from being a black dragon versus a brass dragon? There may not be anything “wrong” with chromatic dragons being inherently “evil,” but what purpose is it serving? I get that when it comes to role-playing games and world-building that it’s sometimes easier to paint with a broad brush: if your hero can identify an evil dragon on sight, it makes saving the world a lot easier. That doesn’t mean those decisions don’t have broader implications.

I think this question hits at two separate–if intertwined–conversations about some of D&D’s fundamental building blocks. You’ve got the conversation about representations of “race” in the game, and the moral alignment system that makes up a large mechanical component of the game. I have a objections to D&D’s morality system that are entirely separate from my issues with how D&D canon handles race. Morality (much like racial traits) gets simplified into something that can be quantified or fixed, ignoring the ways morality actually operates in the world. I understand the way mechanizing this concept provides a foundation for entry into a complex gaming system. I even think there are creative ways to use and explore the alignment system–sometimes the constraints of a rigid system allows you to explore what happens when you push up against those very boundaries. But the alignment system often logically falls apart the longer you look at it.

As far as personality traits in other species goes: first off, I don’t think dog breeds exist as a helpful point of comparison for this conversation. I am not an animal behaviorist, nor a biologist, so I’m not going to go into the concept different dog breeds having different observed temperaments. I am also not a philosopher, so I’m not really equipped for a larger conversation about sentience vs. sapience. But, the important thing about sapience over sentience, is that sapient beings generally understand the concept of there being “right” and “wrong” actions, and make decisions accordingly. There’s a reason why beasts in D&D are unaligned: non-sapient creatures act primarily on instinct, without regard for morality. 

I will also point to something I said toward the end of my earlier post–“seemingly inherent racial/species differences can be rooted in things that are legitimately value-neutral qualities of your fantasy race.” I don’t think that it’s “awful” to suggest there might be inherent differences across species. You could, for example, have one race in your world have, on average, higher levels of serotonin. That’s not going to markedly affect their actions and morals, beyond them generally having a happier disposition and better executive functioning skills, perhaps. 

The idea that different races are inherently more aggressive, or virile, or “lazy,” are all based in racist and eugenicist logic. That’s without even getting into the way specific fantasy races have drawn on specific racial stereotypes. The very idea that there is some biological imperative involved in morality or behavior is specious. And, look, I get that not every sci-fi/fantasy writer has studied race, gender, and sociology. I get that these things are ingrained into our understanding of the genre. It’s easy to fall back on those narrative and world-building shortcuts when creating a story or setting. I’m not trying to make a value judgment or moral accusation against the writers at Wizards of the Coast. However, I think it’s important to point out the places where creatives are (often unintentionally) reifying negative social dynamics.

At the heart of it, I think the idea of inherent morality is limiting. It limits the stories you can tell, the types of characters and cultures that exist, and it limits an audience’s understanding of what their own world looks like. Fantasy isn’t exempt from acting as a mirror to the “real” world. Its representational work may happen on the level of metaphor and allegory more often than realistic fiction does, but it’s ultimately still exploring themes that connect to the world the audience lives in. By questioning the default assumptions we’ve come to take for granted in the genre, we open up new, and more complex stories to explore and share.

*Two things on my Chroma Conclave comments: 1) I think Raishan exists outside my framing of the Conclave as caricatures–on an allegorical level her “vice,” pretty much requires she have more dialogue. We also see Raishan interact with VM more than any of the other conclave members. At the same time, Raishan plays into a whole other narrative trope which links disease to corruption and failed morals. That’s not a conversation I really want to have right now, but I think it’s generally important to keep in mind that a lot of tropes that exist in fiction are drawn from stereotypes and prejudices aimed at various disenfranchised populations. 2) Absolute none of this was meant as a dig on Matt. I enjoyed the Chroma Conclave arc, and found the allegorical aspects of it to be intriguing.

[doctormead]

Death of a Conservative

I was born in June of 1974.  Two months later, Richard Nixon resigned from the Presidency.  The Cold War was in its final stages and would end before I graduated high school.  But its shadow defined my upbringing.

I was raised in a Evangelical Christian, conservative, Republican home.  And that is what I was raised to be:  a Christian, an Evangelical, a conservative and a Republican.  I was never actually told that you couldn’t be a good Christian and be a Democrat.  In fact, I was explicitly told the opposite…but there was this underlying attitude in everything every adult around me said and did that said otherwise.  I’m pretty sure that the adults in my life didn’t mean to come across this way, but this was the “logic train” that I absorbed over time.  

Here’s where the U.S.S.R.’s cold shadow crept in.  Russia was the boogieman for every churched kid in those days.  We were fed horror stories about religious oppression in the Soviet Union and inspiring sagas about good Christian people who held onto their faith in spite of the danger.  We were given pamphlets and Christian comic books about heroes who smuggled bibles behind the Iron Curtain.  We were told over and over that the Russians wanted to do that to everyone, and that the U.S. was the bulwark that kept them from grinding all of us under the heel of state-established atheism.

And, if that wasn’t bad enough, Russia wanted to impose its economic system on us.  “Socialism” and “Communism” were words to conjure demons by.  We heard tale after tale of how poor the Russian people were because of prices fixed by the state.  How nobody was motivated to do their best because there was no way to really advance.  That the lack of competition kept everything stagnant and miserable.   Then Capitalism was set up as the Aslan to Communism’s Tash.  Capitalism was why things were so much better in America!  Capitalism provides competition and incentive for people to get off their asses and work hard.  This creates better, cheaper products which makes everything better for everyone!

This was the dichotomy I grew up.  Russia/Communism = evil.  America/Capitalism = good.  Enter the liberals in general and the Democrats in particular.  They weren’t “tough” on the Russians.  Worse, they wanted to erode good Christian institutions like prayer in schools which would put us on the “slippery slope” (yes, that logical fallacy got a lot of play in school time lectures and political discussions around me ) toward outlawing Christianity outright.  This made them foolish dupes at best and collaborators at worst.  And, since no good Christian would stand by while the Evil U.S.S.R. and their liberal sympathizers in the U.S. pushed us down the road toward atheistic totalitarianism, you couldn’t REALLY be a good Christian and be a democrat.  Simplistic, I know, but I was a kid and, for an embarrassingly long time, even into my adult years, I held on to that simplicity even if it was only in the back of my mind.  To paraphrase John Fischer, this was something that I wasn’t so much taught as something that I “caught”.

But, as I got older, cracks started to appear in the facade of “Righteous Capitalist America”.  The benefits of the sweeping, upper level tax cuts and the repealing of economy-shackling regulations that were supposed to “trickle down” to everyone never seemed to reach us.  Looking back, we were doing pretty well, but I remember mom and dad seeming to constantly worry about finances.  Costs of living kept going up while wages were stagnating for the middle and lower class.  As corporations merged into virtual (and sometimes literal) monopolies, I learned that Capitalism doesn’t guarantee competition.  It is “good business” to eliminate your competition from the viewpoint of a corporate overlord.  Thus an in-theory “free market” can become just as locked in and stagnant as any State run economy.  This made it easier for hard-working people to fall into financial trouble and cutting of social safety nets in the name of “fiscal responsibility” and “not encouraging freeloaders” made it harder and harder to climb out of that trouble.  And the continual gutting of public education only exacerbated matters.

I slowly grew away from the Republican Party, because, well, they weren’t living up to their hype.  Take the War on Drugs.  You’d think we’d have learned something from Prohibition.  Yeah, they “got tough” on drugs with the “three strikes you’re out” policy and militarizing the police to a fare-the-well.  All they actually did was explode the prison population and didn’t really make a significant dent in drug trafficking and use.  Drug use is the same between white and black people, but black people are disproportionately arrested and convicted which exacerbates the issue of poverty in that demographic as families lose providers and young people get a black mark on their records that will bar them from many opportunities for the rest of their lives.  At the same time, they advocated (and followed through) with cutting assistance programs for inner cities and other impoverished areas, making drug dealing one of the few available means for having an income that is above subsistence level…and the cycle continues.  (And, then in the last year, I learn that the War on Drugs was pretty much started by Nixon to target his political opponents:  i.e. liberals and African Americans.  And this isn’t “fake news”.  One of his aides confessed to this.)  Then there were the incessant wars overseas (granted with strong support from Democrats in many cases) which, in the long run, only seemed to exacerbate the problems they claimed to be solving.  There was also the outright hostility to science.  I admit, I was a climate change denier to begin with, but then the evidence finally piled up to a point where I couldn’t deny it any longer and remain intellectually honest with myself.  Also, the stifling of research into areas that might hurt their platform (for example, preventing the CDC from even starting to research gun violence/fatalities).  The party was gradually adopting a stance that facts should be discounted and ignored when they are inconvenient.  Then, to put the cherry on the top of this toxic sundae, there was the courtship of racism  When hordes of angry, white southerners left the Democratic party over the party changing to support the Civil Rights Movement, the Republican party tried to bring them into their fold to bolster their voter support.  It was subtle.  So very, very subtle at first.  The used “dogwhistles” instead of obviously racist statements and/or policies to let them know they’d be welcome.  And, as they took root in the “Party of Lincoln”, they started throwing their weight around becoming more and more openly racist.  It finally came to a head for me half-way through Obama’s first term, when Republicans flat out refused to even try to work with the President or the people across the aisle.  Their entire policy was “obstruct everything”.  The Republican party no longer represented my ideals…if it ever in fact did.  After that, I no longer considered myself Republican or conservative.  I was an independent with increasingly “leftist” leanings.

I still considered myself an Evangelical Christian but “cracks” were starting to appear there as well.  Evangelical Christianity was the vanguard of conservatism and the Republican Party.  They led the charge against the “moral erosion” of our society.  As I got older I and got to know more people outside of the Evangelical bubble, I became more and more uneasy.  Many of the things that were being railed against by Evangelicals and the Moral Majority were…simply applying the rights of the 1st Amendment to everyone.  Prayer in schools?  Unless you’re going to give a service for every religion represented in that school, it’s not fair to people who aren’t Christian.  And, even if you could do that, it singles out members of minority religions to be picked on (and, if you think minority religions wouldn’t be picked on in school, you haven’t been paying attention).  You can make it “all right” in the rules for people to abstain from the opening prayer, but see what I write before about minorities being picked on.  When I was in undergrad at Bryan College, there was a program where our students would go to the local grade school to teach bible lessons in their classes.  I’m pretty sure they only got away with it for as long as they did because Dayton, TN was pretty insular.  Looking back, I cringe at the idea.  Yeah, kids weren’t “required” to attend the lessons, but the lessons were held in each of the homerooms.  It would be painfully obvious if you left and…minorities being picked on, etcetera etcetera.  Gay marriage?  Folks, homosexuality isn’t forbidden in all religions (and certainly not in any atheist or agnostic creed I know).  If you’re going to have a religious/legal hybrid of an institution in the first place, you have to let it be applied across all faiths or lack thereof across the board to be in sync with the idea of Religious Freedom.  I kept hearing respected voices in the church rail against Islam and the stifling theocracies its followers created…but, from the way they talked about other issues, they seemed to be longing for a Christian version of Sharia law: a theocracy where the outward behavior of one sect of Christianity was enforced by the government.

Then there was Evangelical Christianity’s increasing lack of compassion for the poor in our country.  Oh, Evangelicals had tons of compassion (and open wallets) for poor people as long as they were overseas, but, if you were poor in America, you were out of luck.  The attitude seemed to be that it wasn’t the fault of people overseas if they were poor.  After all, they didn’t have all the advantages of living in America - the land of opportunity.  But poor people in the U.S.?   Well, if they can’t bootstrap themselves up like the American Dream says, it’s their fault.  They’re too lazy or irresponsible or “not right with God”.  I overheard or participated in many discussions about kids growing up expecting to draw a check like momma or single mothers having baby after baby just so they could get a bigger welfare check.  I’m sure that some people abuse the system.  Some people always find a way to abuse systems, but it became increasingly hard to believe that so many did that it negated the good such safety nets do.  I’ve gotten to meet and get to know some people who had come out of a background like that and they were nothing like the “entitled, lazy welfare-queen” of the stories.  At the worst, the poor became scapegoats for the failure of “trickle down” economics.  If those leeches weren’t being supported by the rest of us, we’d have much more money, or so went the logic.  I heard several people advocate for getting rid of the welfare system entirely and “let churches and private charities take over that job”.  The thing was, churches and private charities were around when these programs were set up.  If they were doing such a good job of it, government wouldn’t have had to start them.  Quite frankly, I didn’t see these advocates for private and church based welfare giving anywhere near enough to the local poor to make the governmental programs redundant.  And the racial component of this kept getting more and more pronounced.  The “welfare queens” were increasingly cast as black or Latina.  Stagnant wages were the fault of all those illegal immigrants who would take pennies for hours of work.  The lack of well paying jobs in your area was because they were given to less qualified minorities to meet “racial quotas”.

And, finally, there was the demonization of the “other”.  People who didn’t agree with us weren’t just mistaken.  They became “The Enemy”, and somehow Jesus’ admonition to “love your enemy” didn’t apply to them.  They weren’t to be listened to.  They weren’t even to be tolerated.  They were to be shouted down and attacked.  Grace?  Who has time for grace?!  There’s a war on, so get down to the battlefield and hold the line at all costs!  

Now, I hear you Evangelicals out there objecting to this.  “We’re not all like that!”  you say.  I know, but THIS is the public face of Evangelicalism.  “That’s not fair!” you say.  “The liberal media just focuses on that minority!”  Folks, I know that argument.  I’ve MADE that argument for years to my friends outside the Evangelical bubble.  Over and over again and, after a while, it began to ring increasingly hollow.  I could SEE what was going on inside Evangelical churches.  I could hear what my fellow Evangelical Christians were saying and “liberal slant” couldn’t excuse all of that.  And, quite frankly, this last election year was the nail in the coffin for me because Evangelical Christianity (mainly WHITE Evangelical Christianity) as a whole showed its true colors for all the world to see.  Evangelicals were a major help in putting a mysogynistic, bigoted, entitled bully in the White House.  Numbers vary, but the figures I find most likely are 58% for Evangelicals as a whole and 80% for white Evangelicals.  Let me say that again.  Of the people who identified as Evangelical who turned out for the 2016 Presidential Election, over half of them voted for Trump and a particular subset had over three quarters vote for the Orange Anti-Beatitude.  Even if a large population of the Evangelical community stayed home, that’s a pretty damning percentage and no amount of yelling that liberal media is doing a smear job can overcome it.  And Trump *still* has strong Evangelical support!  I could forgive what happened on election night if it wasn’t for the fact that the majority of white Evangelical Christians still seem to support him in spite of everything he’s done and all the lies he’s been caught out in.  Top Evangelical voices like James Dobson, Jerry Falwell and Franklin Graham still staunchly support him in spite of the fact that he is the opposite of what they’ve been saying a Christian leader should be for years and years.  And, you know what?  I don’t care why they’re doing so.  Because I’m out.

I am a Christian, and it is because of that that I can no longer consider myself an Evangelical.  There are no doubt pockets in the Evangelical movement that haven’t been corrupted, but, when the rot is THIS far spread, I don’t see how I can do otherwise.  If Jesus and the current Evangelical movement are in conflict, then I must go with Jesus.  A huge chunk of Evangelicalism has sold its birthright of grace for a mess of political pottage.  And, let me give you a word of warning, Evangelicals.  I came to Christ in the age of Billy Graham, a man of grace.  If my introduction to Christianity was Franklin Graham and his ilk, I’d have run far, far away.  There is far too little of Christ in the lives of these Christians.  Think about that.  If I was growing up and seeking truth in this day and age, I strongly suspect that I would reject Christianity due to the hateful behavior of His servants.  Think about all the young people who ARE looking for truth in this day and age…and how you’re driving them away.

[channellingenigma-blog]

Notes and conversations with low vibrating entities and enlightenment of higher forms

Edgar Cayce - On Reincarnation Chapter 3 - Man’s subconscious mind is immortal. Thought can be compared to molten lava- malleable, perpetually moving, changing, capable of resuming any form. Solid mater is its inanimate aftermath, responsive only to the chisel and the hammer.

Im-Pro-Vision Thought is a builder A series of chain reaction that survival of the soul molds its destiny Thought was the original motivating force positive thought can eventually release the soul from solid matter and return it to freedom of its fluid state at the astral level.

E. Cayce was able to contact his superconscious by means of his own quite unique form of self-hypnosis, it must be born in mind by the reader that he is the expectation, a glimpse of ourselves as we will be Tomorrow. (Tomorrow is now.)

*******The still small voice of consciousness~~~~ Reflection (personal thought which resides in me) Thought: -Waiting for re-entry- ********Quiet~~~~

Souls are like installments of a serialized novel in a magazine. To be continued is our next issue.

so, your soul dies at the end of life and appears again in a new body, you do not start from scratch, you pick up exactly where you left off.

(intuitive question: If you pick up where you left off…. whats the point of waiting for re-entry? You’ll be in the same predicament) =Answer. The idea of being younger and picking up where I left off could potentially have better results then making any attempt to fix where I am at right Currently there is a lack naivety=

The next “para”-graph. *clarity level: Moderate Quick synopsis Failed to curb a passion for through rocks through greenhouses Next life you can resign yourself to owning a greenhouse where you you’ll have to enjoy being at the receiving end. Grin and bear every clash of a rock as it glides through the window. Every bash makes the score as even or karmic value. If you dip into self pity, insisting you’ve done nothing to deserve such a fate, simply put you lose.

So… (smart ass remark) reincarnation……. Grin and bare it.

_developing understand_ The Im-pro-vision at the top, cryptically and figuratively describes this as well

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Sub-chapter: Free Will is stronger then Destiny %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Karma is memory, thus the laws of cause and effect were elastic. However sore the traits may be in which you find yourself there by your own previous indifference. You broke your own free will. Knowing this allows you dignity and self-respect that you made your own mistakes.

Chapter 4 Physical and Emotional Karma %%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Sub-chapter 4 Arrogance and Self-righteousness %%%%%%%%%%%%%%% Condemning of others is already a condemning of self

Reflection Meets Smartass***** *based on a conversation I just have, i apparently find myself to be a lazy sack of shit, being I stated others perceive me that way.

*observations* I may have been active in another life, so this one, I’ve slowed down. I may have been wealthy in another life and lived beyond my means, ad this one I am average and live only within my means, I may have been extremely social in another life, now i like a life of isolation (Focus on above during mediation/trance)

Done onto others shall be Done onto you, Done onto others we do onto self.

*observation/breakdown of Sub-chapter* I may have chosen this chapter also to help my own soul growth/understanding. The sub chapter is about one woman’s readings of her emotional karma which i seem to be relating too, or at least there is internal resonation which is creating reactions within the tension of muscles in my face and body heat. It also seems to map out this particulars woman’s soul journey through 3 lives and how they may possibly be intersecting and where she may have missed or gained opportunities for soul growth.

Chapter 5 - The element of fear in emotional karma Sub-Chapter - The Root Cellar A woman asked Cayce why she has so much fear in the present. His response: She had be subjected to many fears in a physical sense in her pervious lives, and these have come through to her in the present through her subconscious memories.

*Im-Pro_Vision* (in the form of a rhyme) Harvest energy, expending fear. Create some kind of positive ideal. Profit rather the Lose, the Karmic Dues.

Another reading, of a girl, chosen intuitively to read which again resonates with persona inflictions seen within myself.

*quote is speaking of girl mention above* “Once she understood the source of her social timidity, it had the effect of exonerating the innocent people she had needlessly been fearing and enabling her to see them in an objective, congenial light.”

Being: Why don’t we remember our past lives? E.C: We do not have to remember. We are the sum total of all our memories.

Slight improvisation, “time catch up” *Im-Pro_Vision* We are the manifestations of our habits, idiosyncrasies, likes and dislikes, or talent and blind-spots, our physical and emotional strengths and vulnerabilities.

Strange… odd… I’ll have to make a photocopy when i return the book but Page 522 unto 523… all have key points of thinks PFJ have said to me during our time in union with one another. Im pretty sure he side them before his discovery of E, Cayce. His voice kept transmitting at the parts he once said to me. (He was in my dream once again, Only long enough to look one another in the eyes while in a convenient store.) (Remove para-graph before final print out, insert photocopy. Make side notes)

Final Note on Chapter….

“you will know the reasons deep within self”

Chapter 8 - Man__ The stranger in the earth.

There is a scenario given about E. Cayce being evicted from his physical body by the self-hypnotic process. (This is now considered an OBE/Astral projection) He makes reference to levitating above about a foot above his physical body. A gentleman in the room was handing a note across E. Cayces body to another person in the room and Cayce could feel the impact of the mans fist going through his astral equivalent body, as though he was being punched.

The body has the ability to separate itself into at least three separate levels of electric vibration. (this is much like dividing atoms into separate energies, all different but coexistence.) Its liking moving from plane to plane of consciousness with the ease of a man switching from AM to FM and then to TV on the same console. (now thats something to think about)

(Not in book, from Wiki) AM Frequency ~~~~~~~~ (250 - 50000 Watts) FM Frequency ^V^v^V (Uses VHF frequencies, see below) TV Frequency (54-216mzh) VHF (470-890mhz) UHF (Also TV also adds in projections)

*Sub-Chapter - The Same Law Governs all Planets* “Each individual must lead this own life, whether in this sphere or in the other planes”

-A quote similar to above hangs on my wall-

**Observation** Its not stated here, but each of the planets represent part of the souls path. Earth is know to be bound with knowledge. We learn here, while on other planets our soul energies grow differently. https://youtu.be/b6Zt37aMROM What I believe E. Cayce means by “All insufficient matter is cast to saturn” is its kind of like in incubator, its helps parts of souls which have fallen to far behind. Now I prose a question, if we are all interconnected, our soul origins must be as well. SO the question is, What if within this human shell, a part of our soul reaches a level of growth. I am beginning to believe we are not designated one soul as a whole through out our time here on earth. Parts of the developed soul leave the shell and is replaced by another soul/energy. Considering how often people change through out their time here on earth its quite possible this could contribute to the reasoning.

**Sub-Chapter** The Planetary Influences

Few things on this sub-chapter, its rather short.

1. The planet influencing earth minds was mars And by 1924 mars would be 35million miles away from earth. Currently in 2016 Mars 33.9 million miles away…. I made a video based on mars influence in Nov. 2015… while mars was at its farthest position from the sun. (Not sure what the significance of the last part is, but i feel it coincides)

Okay. Now this is were it gets interesting….

Next Cayce says The influences (of mars) will be felt as it recedes from the earth and those who have sojourned on mars will be express, in their lives upon the earth, the troublesome times that will arise.

This will only be tempter from those of jupiter, venus, and uranus by means of love and strength.

Now…. how to we know who is from where? Do we use our astrological birth charts which reads what stars where in what place at the time of our birth? Is it purely intuitive?

*Sub-Chapter* The Astrological Influences,

The planets of man are ruled by the planet under which is born. The strongest force affecting the destiny of man is the Sun, then the closer planets to the earth, those coming to accession a the time of the birth of the individual.

Mans own will power is stronger then any action of a planet or of sun and moon phases. (Yet becomes extremely helpful when one loses their on will power. This could possibly be why intuition steps in. Its a quick glimpse of the magic of energy, energy has “power” properties, just as energy is needed to put will into motion.)

**Sub-Chapter - The Soul;s immunity to Death**

A soul freed by death could be compared to anything which is capable of floating free from restriction A soul encased in a living body can be compare to anything being held in place yet has movement.

Thought-Forms: Concentrated thought yet lacking solidity of mundane matter. Souls could be considered a thought-from when they are free from a body,

*Observation,Refection,Rant,Connecting the Dots* Regardless that there is truth to “thoughts are things” I still strongly believe it should be worded “Things are thoughts” A lot of thoughts never become things, yet things normally originated as thought. A few years ago a massive brainwashing went through mainstream media, which is still known to this day as “The secret” The company apparently coined the term “thoughts are things” then added the threat “pick good ones” Well quiet frankly ever since my eyes have open up to this horrible nature of this world of massive mind control I’ve been trying extremely had to kill myself through thought froms and manifestations which clearly hasn’t happen yet. So why would that be!?

What Cayce says is this: On all mental levels other than the conscious mind, “Thoughts are things” and thus a thought-form, once its created, is as real and tangible as the mind which created.,,, Now this is what the Secret doesn’t tell you….. It (as in thought-forms, got to keep you with me here) can only manifest itself to the conscious mind as a vision or a hallucination (which yes, makes you delusional) Now Cayce makes reference to LSD being able to break down a “protecting barrier and submit the “user of lsd” to a direct contact with thought-forms not only of his own, but of others.

&&&Inner Thoughts Woven&&& Now myself personally, i have never done LSD, Mushrooms, DMT, Peyote or Acid, I have been effected by thought-froms not only of my own, but of others.

Cayce died in 1945 something must have change.

I will allow your imagination to build up a conclusion. I have about 5 of my own ideas, so being Its a thought now, does that make it a thing? No. ONLY a manifestation with a possibility of truth, yet unproven, I can develop the thought form enough that it projects as real, yet it is still only a hallucination or a delusion, DMT is a powerful psychedelic compound which was synthesized in 1931, 1946 it was discovered in plants, 1960 it was detected in mammalian organisms, in 2011 DMT was found present in primates, located in the pineal gland, retinal ganglion neurons, and spinal cord, and in 2013 DMT was located in the pineal gland of rodents. There is record is DMY also naturally occurring in the human brain.

The Pineal gland is also known as the third eye…. the minds eye. Allow you imagination to digest that. &&&&End&&&

#####When Laura occupies Cayce##### The creator never intended for souls to manifest on earth. in human bodies; there was no division of the souls into males and female, therefor the animal reproduction wasn’t available to them. So the souls would occupy animal bodies, (think of a hermit crab trying to occupy a koch shell, the “shell’ was already occupied.) Two entirely alien forms of life were sharing a common physical heritage. This may very well be the start of evolution. Hence why we are linked not only to primates but reptiles as well. (all hypothetically “thinking”) #########

Cayce Quote “We find these sons of the Creative Forces looking upon those changed forms, the Daughters of Men. And there crept in thsoe pollution’s; or rather, they polluted themselves with those mixtures, This brought contempt, hatred, bloodshed, and those impulses which build for self-desire, without respect for another’s freedom.”

What the quote is making reference too:

Bolder souls employed their free will to intrude into a denser vibration of animal matter, the wiser hesitated, and it was well that they did.

The souls who found themselves entrapped into their flesh prisons where unable to extricate themselves….

&&&inner thought&&& (oh the many times in the last year my soul seems to be realizing its entrapment. The time the inner voice has screams “GET ME OUT OF HERE” as if begging for death, but knowing it can’t be self inflicted. &&&&

The alien matter of the material world now acted like a gears of a machine. It engorged the souls and swept them souls along with it, unable to conform to or escape the laws of animal evolution, it was a planet of half man and half beast.

The souls who had remained free were unable to come to the rescue. They could only look on, helpless and bewildered.

This when Cayce says the Creator made man. These are what he calls the “Sons of God” The souls who inhibited animal bodies are the “Sons of Man”

The Sons of Gods consisted of 5 race catagories. Black, Brown, Red, Yellow, Whtie

Cayce focused most of his attention on the Atlantis which cradled the “red race” yet he does make mention to the Lumiera which cradled the black race.

Atlantean Influences apply particularly to those soul-groups who chose NOT to reincarnate at a steady rate of progress. Atlantean’s commanded the powers of ESP and telepathy, harnessed electricity, mastered the mechanical propulsions of air and sea vessels, established short wave communications, induced longevity and performed advance surgery using their “source energy” and the misuse of the same energy destroyed them. (sound familiar? or is someone excreting a lot of DMT, the perspective is yours… lets continue)

Atlantean’s strived to alter and improve the laws of Nature, to attain a fantastic height of power and then proceeded to abuse it. The rejected the creator to worship their own vices. The remained perfectly aware of the laws of Karma, but made error of assuming there accumulated debt could easily be paid off at any given time in the future. When mans senses were reduced to a minimal of 5 they found themselves as impotent as a hermit crab without a shell.

The karmic debt was extended to infinity (incarnations), instead of two lives (incarnations) for their offensives against the creator, he now demanded thousands (incarnations).

Possible recognition of someone carrying the karmic debt of an Atlantan soul: Extremists Know no middle grounds Worship Lust, violence, and death

the living and the dead, is a metamorphous. The souls involved in the final armageddon will be the same souls he always were in the beginning. Nothing will have changed except the plane of consciousness they occupy. They will move from the confines of matter to the eternal plane of their origin.

Chapter 17 - The present attitude toward reincarnation. *Sub-chapter - The Public*

Basically the public sees reincarnation through the eyes of the masses. The more people who are “about something” makes it closer to truth, regardless if thats the actual case. Sure horrors are inevitaby assimilated by what Carl Jung calls the collective unconscious of an entire nation. When people contract an infection of the psyche, taboos retard its intellectual reason for generations to come.

We all have so much doubt, not only in ourself and each other, but our beliefs. We confine ourself to restraints of what the majority of people are doing, and we base our thoughts and actions on that alone. We stop thinking for ourself and conform to whatever one else is doing, and if you are one who steps away from the crowd, your quickly trampled by current of others. If your not trampled your ridiculed. You’re singled out. Not because you dared to be different but because the mass of those whom you refuse to be like all became one united judge, bang the mallet and declared you insane, or retarded, something in which they certainly are not.

When in the end, the difference should have been accepted,

Yet we all rather, and notice I said we, rather point fingers and cast blame.

Chapter 18 Reincarnation in the Future.

If reincarnation lies inherent in these deeper truths, it will be automatically recognized and accepted by the human race as they attain to that plateau of deeper perception. He could read minds and see auras. He would think of people in connection with their auras, the aura was the weathervane of the soul, it shows which way the winds of destiny are blowing. He felt the lost of eye sight may very well be a result of a constant straining on our eyes to see more, and to bring us to the next step of evolution. E. Cayce felt a possible from of our next evolution would be seeing auras, I second that, but I also think it involves projecting auras as well.

An aura is an effect, not a cause. Its caused by atoms and molecules how ever simple or complex to tell a story of itself, its patterns, its purpose through vibrations. As the soul travels through realms of beings creating the story, changing the patterns, as it may use or abuse the opportunities presented to it. The human eye sees all this through vibrations through color. Now I’d like to take a second to allow the imagination to accept, even if its pretending that auras can be seen by the human mind. If its vibrations there is movement and movement creates patterns, (think of a cup of water sitting on a table, then you slam your fist down the water in the cup begins to move) the ripples are projecting, so the auras could project with moods and thoughts to the point its visible to the eye which can already see an aura. Now, lets say a person is aware that yes, then can see auras, yes there is movement within the aura, what if you could control the movement of the aura to the point, its not surrounding you but is standing in front of you while you look in a mirror. Its interesting to humor to say the least if your a creative person who like to think different.

Now of course, everything one can get excited about, naturally has to have some kind of negative weight to create a balance. E. Cayce came up with an “imagine” scenario on the opposite side of the spectrum…. A soul could radiate history through aura vibrations. If another being is conscious enough to apprehend those vibrations in his self, that being would know the plight he us in the progress he’s made. Also imagine everyone who sees auras would know if your lying, you will have to be direct and there will be no more deceit.

Danger, Death, Catastrophe, will not come unannounced, no more surprises. All the information behind these examples as well as wealth, virtues, weaknesses will instantly be known by all those around you base on your vibration in the atmosphere. It is difficult to project ourselves in such world, a world where we see each other faults but then again how many vices would persist when they are known to everyone?

Every phase of phenomena may be explained by the activities of the subconscious mind. There are Do’s and Dont’s to telepathy. Through telepathy anyone who wants to control another person, can do it— but beware. The very thing you wish to control in the other person will be the thing that destroys you. Anyone who would force another to submit to his will is a tyrant, Do not ask another person to do anything would not do yourself.

At times we are able to sense what people are thinking and we learn the trend that their thoughts take. Going back to the history of Atlantis, such forces of mental telepathy where highly developed. There were numbers of people able to think with such concentration that the power of their will could bring material things into existence

Such forces for selfish purposes can result only in self destruction.

Back to the now… Few people allow other individuals to ive their own lives. Most people want to tell others how to life, wanting to force them to live their way and see things as they see.

If first a person seeks to know themselves then the ability to know another’s mind will come.

We have the right to tell people of our personal experiences and let them decide for themselves.

The answers come to each one of us, as to whether these abilities are worth developing or not. (In reference to abilities beyond our 5 sense)

Remember,

“When we use the forces within to serve the Creative Force then we are using them correctly. If we are using them for our own selfish interest they are being abused.”

End of Notes on “Edgar Cayce on Reincarnation”