#anyway thats a tangent on a tangent on a disclaimer on a tag on an anxiety filled addition to a post

[coridallasmultipass]

If it's okay for me to add something related because I first saw this on Tumblr: In the mid-2010s, I heard about there being a gay Filipino deity romance (from one culture in the Philippines - there are many different cultures and beliefs) here on Tumblr. It wasn't until years later when researching Philippine deities for fun while trying to broadly connect with my culture that I found a deep dive where someone found that the Bulan and Sidapa love story originated from the same fictional blog source, and had been circulating from new sources and fan art claiming it was historical for years before the author tried to find a non-modern historical source for the rumour, creating a kind of Berenstain/Berenstein effect on the people he asked, claiming they'd heard about the love story from a forgotten source much earlier than the 2010s, but unable to give a specific name, or the source cited claimed they didn't actually know about the romance.

While I think in this instance, a shift in narrative is obviously okay when you consider it is still a living Filipino culture, and people from that clearly find identity with this modern take (which should be asked of people from the cultures directly affected by misinfo), it should also be important not to rewrite it as 'historical fact' particularly when it has a fictional modern source that someone can directly point to as the origin when they question and search down the telephone line (like the game).

(I use the word 'fictional' only in reference to the originating blog, because the blog was unable or unwilling to provide any sources that mentioned that relationship to the deep dive author. I'm not implying said gods can't be/aren't gay. I'm not from that specific Philippine culture, and I don't have enough background knowledge to make any claims of my own. There's also no like, singular religious text/'bible' that pre-Hispanic Philippine beliefs followed as a rule/that can be consulted about this - it's not like a translation debate. There's just no textual source pre-dating the blog making the claim of the romance, and historians/oral historians aren't making the claim either.)

I get variations on this comment on my post about history misinformation all the time: "why does it matter?" Why does it matter that people believe falsehoods about history? Why does it matter if people spread history misinformation? Why does it matter if people on tumblr believe that those bronze dodecahedra were used for knitting, or that Persephone had a daughter named Mespyrian? It's not the kind of misinformation that actually hurts people, like anti-vaxx propaganda or climate change denial. It doesn't hurt anyone to believe something false about the past.

Which, one, thanks for letting me know on my post that you think my job doesn't matter and what I do is pointless, if it doesn't really matter if we know the truth or make up lies about history because lies don't hurt anyone. But two, there are lots of reasons that it matters.

It encourages us to distrust historians when they talk about other aspects of history. You might think it's harmless to believe that Pharaoh Hatshepsut was trans. It's less harmless when you're espousing that the Holocaust wasn't really about Jews because the Nazis "came for trans people first." You might think it's harmless to believe that the French royalty of Versailles pooped and urinated on the floor of the palace all the time, because they were asshole rich people anyway, who cares, we hate the rich here; it's rather less harmless when you decide that the USSR was the communist ideal and Good, Actually, and that reports of its genocidal oppression are actually lies.

It encourages anti-intellectualism in other areas of scholarship. Deciding based on your own gut that the experts don't know what they're talking about and are either too stupid to realize the truth, or maliciously hiding the truth, is how you get to anti-vaxxers and climate change denial. It is also how you come to discount housing-first solutions for homelessness or the idea that long-term sustained weight loss is both biologically unlikely and health-wise unnecessary for the majority of fat people - because they conflict with what you feel should be true. Believing what you want to be true about history, because you want to believe it, and discounting fact-based corrections because you don't want them to be true, can then bleed over into how you approach other sociological and scientific topics.

How we think about history informs how we think about the present. A lot of people want certain things to be true - this famous person from history was gay or trans, this sexist story was actually feminist in its origin - because we want proof that gay people, trans people, and women deserve to be respected, and this gives evidence to prove we once were and deserve to be. But let me tell you a different story: on Thanksgiving of 2016, I was at a family friend's house and listening to their drunk conservative relative rant, and he told me, confidently, that the Roman Empire fell because they instituted universal healthcare, which was proof that Obama was destroying America. Of course that's nonsense. But projecting what we think is true about the world back onto history, and then using that as recursive proof that that is how the world is... is shoddy scholarship, and gets used for topics you don't agree with just as much as the ones you do. We should not be encouraging this, because our politics should be informed by the truth and material reality, not how we wish the past proved us right.

It frequently reinforces "Good vs. Bad" dichotomies that are at best unhelpful and at worst victim-blaming. A very common thread of historical misinformation on tumblr is about the innocence or benevolence of oppressed groups, slandered by oppressors who were far worse. This very frequently has truth to it - but makes the lies hard to separate out. It often simplifies the narrative, and implies that the reason that colonialism and oppression were bad was because the victims were Good and didn't deserve it... not because colonialism and oppression are bad. You see this sometimes with radical feminist mother goddess Neolithic feminist utopia stuff, but you also see it a lot regarding Native American and African history. I have seen people earnestly argue that Aztecs did not practice human sacrifice, that that was a lie made up by the Spanish to slander them. That is not true. Human sacrifice was part of Aztec, Maya, and many Central American war/religious practices. They are significantly more complex than often presented, and came from a captive-based system of warfare that significantly reduced the number of people who got killed in war compared to European styles of war that primarily killed people on the battlefield rather than taking them captive for sacrifice... but the human sacrifice was real and did happen. This can often come off with the implications of a 'noble savage' or an 'innocent victim' that implies that the bad things the Spanish conquistadors did were bad because the victims were innocent or good. This is a very easy trap to fall into; if the victims were good, they didn't deserve it. Right? This logic is dangerous when you are presented with a person or group who did something bad... you're caught in a bind. Did they deserve their injustice or oppression because they did something bad? This kind of logic drives a lot of transphobia, homophobia, racism, and defenses of Kyle Rittenhouse today. The answer to a colonialist logic of "The Aztecs deserved to be conquered because they did human sacrifice and that's bad" is not "The Aztecs didn't do human sacrifice actually, that's just Spanish propaganda" (which is a lie) it should be "We Americans do human sacrifice all the god damn time with our forever wars in the Middle East, we just don't call it that. We use bullets and bombs rather than obsidian knives but we kill way, way more people in the name of our country. What does that make us? Maybe genocide is not okay regardless of if you think the people are weird and scary." It becomes hard to square your ethics of the Innocent Victim and Lying Perpetrator when you see real, complicated, individual-level and group-level interactions, where no group is made up of members who are all completely pure and good, and they don't deserve to be oppressed anyway.

It makes you an unwitting tool of the oppressor. The favorite, favorite allegation transphobes level at trans people, and conservatives at queer people, is that we're lying to push the Gay Agenda. We're liars or deluded fools. If you say something about queer or trans history that's easy to debunk as false, you have permanently hurt your credibility - and the cause of queer history. It makes you easy to write off as a liar or a deluded fool who needs misinformation to make your case. If you say Louisa May Alcott was trans, that's easy to counter with "there is literally no evidence of that, and lots of evidence that she was fine being a woman," and instantly tanks your credibility going forward, so when you then say James Barry was trans and push back against a novel or biopic that treats James Barry as a woman, you get "you don't know what you're talking about, didn't you say Louisa May Alcott was trans too?" TERFs love to call trans people liars - do not hand them ammunition, not even a single bullet. Make sure you can back up what you say with facts and evidence. This is true of homophobes, of racists, of sexists. Be confident of your facts, and have facts to give to the hopeful and questioning learners who you are relating this story to, or the bigots who you are telling off, because misinformation can only hurt you and your cause.

It makes the queer, female, POC, or other marginalized listeners hurt, sad, and betrayed when something they thought was a reflection of their own experiences turns out not to be real. This is a good response to a performance art piece purporting to tell a real story of gay WWI soldiers, until the author revealed it as fiction. Why would you want to set yourself up for disappointment like that? Why would you want to risk inflicting that disappointment and betrayal on anyone else?

It makes it harder to learn the actual truth.

Historical misinformation has consequences, and those consequences are best avoided - by checking your facts, citing your sources, and taking the time and effort to make sure you are actually telling the truth.

[erotetica]

Wrote 1k in silly response to this, indeed, fic-slash-maladaptive-daydream discussion so. Winning ! -> I was talking abt fuzzy coat Seth Rollins booker abt like. Whats the deal. Monday night messiah ? (cunt. I love wrestling. Im Seth rollins’ biggest fan no I dont watch the product) but like honestly 2tone mullet kind of everything to me or like the Kenneth o’ Meghan vibe of looking absolutely horrid trash on purpose (he’s the hottest girl in wrestling) 

NICO LOOKS. He’s hard. He’s difficult to pin down. <- everyone laughs at my pun. Instinctively Im like well surely he just looks like mox like honestly I think a lot of mox’s vibes fit Nicky in that first of all this isnt actually abt Nicky but can we talk abt Jon moxley being the one whose intro song is wild thing . Wild thing you make my heart sing etc etc . Deeply fun to me. babygirl theres something wrong with him. Anyway I think Nico’s intro song would also be wild thing + I like that mox doesnt use the tunnels to come in I feel like thats a bit Nicky except then Im wondering is that safe like where does the heel/face dynamic come in w his feud w joe. But anyway. Getting off track. (also I dont think nicky:mox is 1:1 bc mox moves weirdly and languidly when coming into any event which is STRANGE btw he’s so weird. But it works for mox but I dont think itd work for nicky.) anyway all of this to say I think Nicky would just show up to the function like ‘im wearing cargo army pants.’ Except mox’s pants are still a great fit nd Nicky wouldnt have that. SO LIKE basically to wrap up this tangent I think Nicky would either wear dadjeans or cargo shorts + kick pads OR he’s go the full punk route and like even tho he’s one of the hottest things in wrestling & also a full adult w self respect he still shows up in budgie smugglers printed with the Italian flag (ultimate heel move) 

Or you’ve got dan the dad who’s great but its a different sort of Nicky vibe. Thats like. Adjacent addtional 2nd au of an au.  (btw when I said Andy’s nile’s sting I meant that more in terms of the dynamic going on there but actually Andy in sting face paint is a marvel to me.) 

Yassified house of black kills me. (look at this art btw. yassified house of black ily) Im now also thinking abt how itd work in a situation where Nicky & Joe r feuding but they do end up on the same faction so not to steal absolutely everything from the house of black story line but the whole spitting in the face thing that happened w Julia hart I think itd be cool if that happened w either Joe or Nicky (OR BOTH!) To get them on the same faction. Actually itd be so fun if it was like Joe and Nicky’s feud is STILL going on and its not that ppl are getting sick of it its just that ppl are getting. Sick of it. Theyre like well girl take care of it in the back stop making it OUR problem. Ppl are like well this is clearly at least 50% shoot and its getting uncomfortable. -> and then nile (house of black nile) runs in & spits black mist in BOTH their faces. And now theyre the house’s tag team. But they still hate each other a lot. But also theyve been fighting so regularly that they work like a dream bc they know exactly what the other’s gonna do. 

splitting up the response for ease of reading. Unless this is more confusing in which case well I still did it so yk) ^ u kno when ur going thru the insanity stage of thinking up a new au and all avenues r still open to u so u might say things that dont make sense w what you’ve said before / what youre going to say next bc BOTH options are good and it doesnt matter that it doesnt work together ? Disclaimer that this is what that is. Bc joenicky tag team is one thing but joebooker tag team and then booker turns heel to join capitalism Dudley (scream) is another and I have to marinate in that one for a while bc a) yes b) ough . Part of me’s like booker turns into wardlow but I actually have a deep seated love for mjf and dont want to compare capitalism Dudley to him. And ig merrick already has his wardlow in that other dude (completely forgot the names I havent seen this movie in like . forever.) but still i do feel like the pinnacle does somewhat work as an existing equivalent to the merrick dynamic. OR . Speaking of Kenneth o’meghan. Booker’s bulletclubcleaner era ? I actually think that could work bc a) cleaner is a fucking vibe of all time nd b) I think booker would do good going from one gimmicky faction to one which is if anything even more gimmicky like if we’re doing a mostly 1:1 equivalency I think house of black in general (and togofblack) might be this evil heel faction but also I KNOW they paint each other’s nails and gab about their emotions. I KNOW that faction has emotional regulation. And I know the bullet club doesnt. So then I think in booker’s mind that move also makes sense cause he’s SAD , like All The Time but he doesnt actually wanna talk about it too much so now he moves to bullet club where he can be sad but also hide it behind kayfabe. Its full circle. We’ve performed faggotry at the wrestlemania.

Anyway yes andy in daddy shorts and face paint. Andy in daddy shorts and face paint and quynh interrupting a promo and Andy swallowing her own tongue and breaking kayfabe immediately. Wrestle-nile who’s standing next to her like uh Andy ? R u ok ? <- surely she like knows who quynh is (or not it could be equally fun if nile is clueless she really was just olympic darling nile and then said nah time for a new thing idk shit about any of these ppl btw) but like if she knows who quynh is she for sure doesnt know how #Real it is btwn Andy & quynh. Very fun. Nile rly thought oh I’ll just switch careers to become more of a performer and that’ll be a good time and surely won’t cause permanent damage to my psyche (wrong) (all of this happens in like 3 months. Welcome to the business nile we’re so happy to have you here !)

Cabaret style narrative is sooooo ……. Literally I could never do that bc I’m too impatient for shit like that but it would literally be so insane and delicious. <- I feel like Im watching this play out already and already Im like in the comments on ao3 screeching my head off waiting for the next chapter. If You Were Writing The Fic Etc Etc. If We Were Writing The Fic Etc Etc and not just doing this in your inbox and the replies of my posts (though Im sure everyones having a great time clicking back and forth in btwn our blogs and sharing our brainrot. Im sure)

Also yeah catharsis kink. Thats what tog is all about. You got your joebooker for catharsis you got your nickybooker for star wars (literally such a good comparison)

WE’VE ENTERED READMORE TERRITORY & I HV A WORD DOC, WINNING IMDEED.

Booker would also be the hottest girl in wrestling, you’ve nailed his vibe. What if he looks like someone started dissolving him in lye scalp-first, AND he’s got a fuzzy coat. Dual wielding. With sheamus mutton chop + soul patch facial hair

The roadblock I was hitting was LITERALLY ‘Costco cargo shorts’ echoing in my head like an apple tornado warning. Hive mind. Bc yeah, on one hand, nicolo is not cool. On the other, bondage harness. Jon moxley vibes splits those uprights, I like that. Or the effy fit from the gif what started it all.

Fucccc everybody’s music tho. Digressing for Joe and la hafla. Or Sophie. His face is the front of shop :)

ANYway I think wild thing would work for Nicky, bc it’s ironicsexy. Is he coming onto u with a boom box? No but you had to ask. However—like, ok, in my opinion modern au Nicky should feel like he’s done meth a LITTLE. So I also wouldn’t mind him w/ a Funeral Derangements intro. Or hank Williams III Hellbilly. Especially if he’s normal, the fuckedness of the music should rise w/ how many pockets his pants have. If his outfit is Dan the dad’s then he comes out to Cocaine the White Devil. Also I’m still a lil stuck on Nicky/booker tag teaming from the orig posts, & their intro is stooges’ I wanna be your dog SEND POST!!

Not using tunnels is killing me bc Yusuf absolutely has a curated parkour entrance. He gets up on the fuckin. Corner pole thingy and backflips into the ring, and starts almost eating shit looking for Nicky. Without fail, when his dumb psychobilly wraps, that motherfucker appears and swings under the ropes like the satan of gym teachers. It kills Joe bc he gets over w/ what he KNOWS is just low effort disguised as jumpscare. It also kills him bc he can’t find him either but that’s different. (Nicky is usually in the empty behind-camera seats, eating stolen popcorn like ‘he looks good. I should learn to backflip.’)

Andy should absolutely have face paint. And cowboy BOOTS. I hv a rollerderby wip where I gave her an optio helmet plume, and like. Just saying. Also I can’t thread the needle between Andy and Memphis style right now but I want to

Being willing to alienate the audience/ruin their careers to beat ass is extremely yusufnicky. Getting vibes of like…a, ppl are getting sick of the shoot, and so Joe tries 2 rebrand w/ Andy and quynh’s face clique (replacing lykon who dipped bc [dialup noise], also I just Feel andy starting as a face). & Quynh, who strikes me as very gimmick savvy/a great storyteller being like ‘Hey. brosuf. you know what would fuck severely. bring ur weird dog and we have a deal.’ And they have a face run until The Fuckening. This also works 4 me bc I feel, before he internalizes and seeks out booing simultaneously, Booker’s baby-depressed, a jobber dying to live vicariously thru being a face and winning abt it. But like, AS he joins house of guard, Quynh is gone and Andy’s done a heelturn bc she’s emo in real life, and Booker is like *sad wojack*

Or b, the four of them aren’t a faction but they’re always on the same cards. Joe and Nicky fuck up so sincerely. Like, they fuck up through 3 cameras, the ref, and the parking lot. I think it would be funny if it was a ‘last ride’ match that went off the rails. They get blackballed from most sane venues is my point tho. The quynh fuckening happened offscreen. Andy comes up craving conflict, don’t ask why, but do they want to do fucked up hardcore so niche it’s barely profitable? And Nicky is like ‘BET’ bc again, there is something so wrong with this man, and Joe is *sad wojack but disgruntled*, bc he wanted to get WWE-famous & say something fucked up on live Saudi tv. Like Kanye. But then he realizes he’s doing impact play on straight ppl professionally, and it’s a smaller victory, but equally funny.

This one works for me bc they give starving artist vibes. Like, they should be poor and obscure. Disgraced post-fame. Do not know why. It’s funny if Nile is like, didn’t I sneak out of bed to watch you on Monday night raw? and Andy is like yes, now hit me with the thing they beat Jesus with.

Either way you’re so right abt Julia hart Nile.

Is Copley the ‘smark’ that helps them take down the merrick team for like, insider trading or whatthefuck?

Vibing to the bullet club thesis. That’s the perfect bimbofication of his canon conflict. Also. Booker trying to wallow around heterosexuals. ‘The risk I took was calculated, but FUCK’

Nile’s like OH THE OTHER MILF I COMMITTED KID CRIMES @ 9PM TO SEE—oh you’ve taken back the cat o nine tails—oh you’re committing seppuku with it. I’m going to have an investigative journalist moment with this later.

Nile as a fan who has a ‘hm’ moment abt how oh, you’re fucked up. I see. The POV introduction to the cabaret thing, 1st look behind the curtain into the binary.

Speaking of songs. Which we weren’t anymore but. Speaking of them. Quynh & sympathy for the devil. She comes back from [etc etc] w/ a masked gimmick. Part of it is legitimately no one knows who she is. Andy splashing her face in a shitty bathroom after the interrupted promo & the lights are flickering bc the arena is taking so much power. In the bg you hear PLEASED TO MEET YOU. HAVE YOU GUESSED MY NAME?