#because I am gonna use these to talk about conservation issues when I get the chance

[bestanimal]

Round 3 - Mammalia - Peramelemorphia

(Sources - 1, 2, 3, 4)

The marsupial order Peramelemorphia contains the living families Peramelidae (“bandicoots”) and Thylacomyidae (“Greater Bilby”).

Peramelemorphs all tend to have a characteristic shape: a round, arch-backed body with a long, delicately tapering snout, upright ears, relatively long, thin legs, and a thin tail. They range from the size of a rat to the size of a rabbit. They are omnivorous, feeding mainly on soil-dwelling invertebrates, as well as seeds, fruit, and fungi. They possess a well-developed sense of smell and eyes that are adapted for nocturnal habits. They are are generally solitary, with females taking care of their young.

Female peramelemorphs have a pouch that opens to the rear, to protect their young while they dig for insects and their larvae. The gestation period of peramelemorphs is the shortest among mammals, at just 12-14 days. As in other marsupials, peramelemorph joeys are born as tiny, relatively undeveloped neonates and must crawl their way from the vagina to the pouch to latch on to a teat, where they will complete the rest of their development. Peramelemorph growth is fast, with bandicoots setting off on their own and becoming sexually mature at just three months of age. Female bilbies reach sexual maturity at five months of age, and male bilbies become sexually mature at eight months. This allows a given female to produce more than one litter per breeding season and gives peramelemorphs an unusually high reproductive rate compared to other marsupials.

Peramelemorphs originated in the Late Oligocene. Both the oldest modern bandicoot (Peramelid) and the oldest bilby (Thylacomyid) are known from Middle Miocene fossil deposits (around 15 million years old).

Propaganda under the cut:

The name bandicoot is based on the animal’s ratlike appearance. The name comes from an English corruption of an Indian word "pandi-kokku" meaning "pig-rat".

The smallest peramelemorph is the Mouse Bandicoot (Microperoryctes murina), which is 15–17.5 cm (5.9-6.9 in) long.

The Golden Bandicoot (Isoodon auratus) is especially adapted for life in hot, semi-arid environments. It has a low body temperature that is constantly changing, making it heterothermic. This allows the internal body temperature to fluctuate in response to extreme environmental temperatures without inhibiting and denaturing necessary proteins. Additionally, its low metabolic rate correlates to less heat being produced by the body, and a low thermal conductance does not allow the animal to capture and store heat well. A highly efficient panting mechanism allows for a low rate of evaporative water loss when cooling the body, conserving precious water.

The Northern Brown Bandicoot (Isoodon macrourus) is one of relatively few native Australian ground-dwelling mammals that is able to survive in urbanized landscapes, due to their generalized diet and habitat requirements.

The Eastern Barred Bandicoot (Perameles gunnii) (image 1) is the basis for the popular videogame character Crash Bandicoot, and was selected from a number of Tasmanian mammals by creators Andy Gavin and Jason Rubin for its appeal and relative obscurity.

Described in 2014, a fossil species of Miocene bandicoot found at the Riversleigh World Heritage Area was given the genus name Crash. It was given the species names bandicoot. Because paleontologists are just Like That.

Wiped out due to predation from introduced foxes and domestic cats, as well as land-clearing for farming, the Victorian subspecies of the Eastern Barred Bandicoot (Perameles gunnii) was declared Extinct in the Wild. Thanks to 30 years of conservation efforts, breeding the bandicoots in human care and establishing fox and cat-safe sanctuaries, the mainlaind population was changed from Extinct in the Wild to Endangered in September 2021, a first for Australian conservation!

The Giant Bandicoot (Peroryctes broadbenti) (image 3) is more than twice the weight of other bandicoots and adult males of the species can attain weights well in excess of 4 kg (8.8 lb).

Unlike bandicoots, Greater Bilbies (Macrotis lagotis) (image 2 and gif) are excellent burrowers and build extensive tunnel systems with their strong forelimbs and well-developed claws. Burrows spiral down, making it hard for predators to get in. A bilby typically makes several burrows within its home range, up to about a dozen; and moves between them, using them for shelter both from predators and the heat of the day, as they are desert-dwelling animals.

Greater Bilbies are generally solitary, however, there are some cases in which they travel in pairs. Pairs usually consist of two females as the sole caregivers of their offspring.

Greater Bilbies do not need to drink water, as they retain all the moisture they need from their food.

Because rabbits are invasive in Australia, introduced by European settlers, bilbies have been popularised as an Australian alternative to the Easter Bunny. Haigh's Chocolates in Adelaide made 950,000 chocolate “Easter Bilbies” between 1993 and 2020, with proceeds donated to the Foundation for Rabbit-Free Australia, which does environmental work to protect the indigenous biodiversity of Australia.

Today, only the Greater Bilby survives and is vulnerable, but the Lesser Bilby (Macrotis leucura) is a recently extinct relative, having possibly survived into the 1960s. Its extinction was much “quieter” than that of the Thylacine, and was likely due to introductions of invasive predators like the domestic cat and red fox. Other “quiet extinctions” include that of the Desert Bandicoot (Perameles eremiana) which appears to have disappeared between about 1943 and 1960, and the Nullarbor Barred Bandicoot (Perameles papillon) which was last collected in 1928.

Today, many peramelemorph species are still threatened and endangered due to habitat fragmentation and introduced predators, as well as from competition with introduced rabbits. Areas designated to conserve vulnerable populations of bilbies and bandicoots have predator exclusion fences built around them, and must be heavily monitored for break-ins. In Currawinya National Park in Queensland, high-salinity flood waters damaged a predator exclusion fence, allowing feral cats to enter the sanctuary, wiping out all the bilbies in the park.

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for not helping my family pay for hospital bills?

🎷🔥 so i can find it later

This is going to need a lot of context right off the bat. I (20'sM) am a gay man that comes from an extremely conservative family. My sister (20'sF) is also a lesbian and recently got married and adopted a child. I'm very proud of her, but that's not the issue.

My parents seem to have little to no issue with my sister marrying a woman. They do have a very big issue with me liking dudes, however. Like, it was the reason my parents got divorced "big issue." I'm not gonna go into everything, but my sister ended up with my dad and I stayed with my mom for reasons I'd rather not share.

Our last parting was on... less than decent terms. Upon finding out that I was of the homosexual variety, my dad flipped his lid. He called me several slurs and said some other very hurtful things, and even made moves to physically attack me. My mom, also a very homophobic woman, stepped in and thankfully talked him down. Then divorce, etc etc.

I saved up enough money to move out when I turned 18 and may have done some impulsive things including completely trashing my mom's bathroom, which I know I'm definitely the asshole for, but in my defense my mom kept "forgetting" to pick up my prescriptions and I was manic (I have bipolar). But, again, I know I'm the AH for that.

I now live with my two best friends R (20sNB) and P (20sM) in a house we all pay for. R comes from money so they help out a lot, and I love them both to death. We kind of have a sort of situationship but none of us are poly? Idk it's weird we're just going with it rn.

Anyway, I bring them up bc we all went to my sister's wedding together, and my parents separately chewed me out for bringing them (and for R daring to wear a dress. They're amab for context) and I obviously argued back bc hey they're my best friends and my sister specifically said it was okay for me to bring them (she and R are also friends and they wouldve been invited regardless of me bringing P) and also because R looks very good in a dress and i can handle them shit-talking me but i will not tolerate slander towards R or P.

At the wedding, I went full no contact with them and told them to lose my number. They, ofc, did Not lose my number and I got several calls from extended family saying about what you would expect them to say, so I switched numbers and gave only my sister and her wife my new number.

My sister. I love her to pieces but sometimes she gets on my nerves. She gives my number to my mom to have "just in case," but she reassures me that she won't give it to my dad or any other family. So far, she's made good on that promise, I just have to deal with periodic calls about getting a girlfriend and having kids.

Now, my dad isn't the healthiest guy out there. He has arthritis, osteoporosis, and several other things that i don't really wanna get into. As he's aged he's only gotten worse and there have been several times he's almost died, but recently he's been put on hospice and has an estimated Not Very Long to live.

Here's where I may be the AH. My dad calls me while I'm at a very important, personal event for R (he got my number from my mom) and goes on a long rant on how I'm an unlovable disgrace and how he fed me and clothed me and I could make up for all that by helping him pay off hospital debt. I say no immediately and tell him that he's never been my dad, only my dna donor, and that he's going to be dead anyway and that selling his house could cover all the bills. He calls me many more names and tells me he wishes I was never born (calling my mom some very derogatory names too (she's asian)) and that i should just go ahead and off myself to save the world someone like me. I tell him he should die faster while he's at it because God knows the world already has enough bigots in it and there could never be too many mentally ill queers.

I hung up, but now I'm thinking I went a bit too far. AITA for not helping out with his hospital bills and yelling at him?

What are these acronyms?

[lastoneout]

Something I've noticed that is like...concerning but also just really annoying about online discussions about basically any topic these days is something that probably already has a name but that for now I'ma call "death of nuance via strict binary thinking" which leads a lot of people to get very angry over the idea that two things can be true at once, or that bringing up someone else's problems does not overshadow or invalidate your own, or that you can uplift a group of people without tearing down another.

Because like, I've had this happen on several of my posts now, where I say a generally harmless, factual statement, and several people rush in to either outright accuse me of saying a different, more extreme statement or annoyingly "correct" me to fix the supposed ~dangerous implications~ of my words, which I'm not gonna lie is as infuriating as it is confusing.

I can't make a post about how sugar is one of the main things the human body runs on and thus trying to remove it entirely from your diet is dangerous and harmful without people showing up to be like "are you saying it's okay to eat an entire bag of sugar by the spoonful??" and "well if you ate nothing but oreoes and ice cream that would make you sick" even though that doesn't contradict or really have anything?? to do?? with my original statement??

I can't make a post talking about the issues men(trans or cis) face under the patriarchy without people showing up and getting mad at me for "making feminism about men" despite the fact that the majority of my feminist activism DOES center women and taking a moment to explore the ways the patriarchy harms us all in no way harms women. And I can't make a post pointing out that marginalized men, especially black, disabled, and fat men often have malice read into their very existence and maybe that's bad without people showing up to get mad at me for saying marginalized men are incapable of harm which is not what I said at all.

And this one is a bit different but still one I see a lot, which is an over-correction seeped in the idea that we can only uplift one group at a time, or if x group is good y group must be bad. Like I am all for pointing out that there's nothing wrong with not wearing makeup and having body hair and not wearing deodorant, and women who live like that are fine and valid and can still be seen as sexy and desirable, and yes there ARE things to critique about the beauty industry for sure...but then that manifests into thinking women who do shave and wear makeup and deodorant are ugly or weird or brainwashed and should be mocked, which..no? Or when the dialog shifted to talking about fat people being hot suddenly we had a lot of people acting like skinny women were ugly and weird when that actually doesn't help with fat liberation AT ALL.

(Also just to clarify I think the occasional joke about these topics is okay given how much mockery fat, hairy, and non-feminine women get BUT there is a point when you go to far and some groups of people are racing over the line.)

And like yeah you could say the internet has always been this way but there's been a real noticeable uptick in progressive leftists coming at complex issues with this kind of no-nuance thinking, when it used to be something I really only saw from conservatives. I'd see stuff like "well feminism is bad because men also have problems" and "oh black lives matter? are you saying other lives don't??" and "oh you think drug addicts aren't inherently dangerous well what about the ones who DO hurt people" or "we can't talk about trans women's issues that would take away from talking about cis women's problems" and "we can't have a fat character that's glorifying ob*sity" and we used to MOCK them for that shit. This was seen as RIDICULOUS and was generally considered a conversation ender because it's clear the people doing it aren't actually interested in having a conversation they just want to yell at you for something you didn't say or pull a huge "I am uncomfortable when we are not about me" which just...ough please stop.

So seeing like actual progressive people pull this shit is really weird and it happens so often I legit can't ignore it anymore. I don't really have a solution, but I just feel like some of us really need to wrap our heads around the idea that just because someone said one thing doesn't mean they're saying this other thing too. Which, when you put it like that, sounds like the kind of thing you learn in kindergarten but I digress. Someone saying it's okay to eat sugar, your body actually needs it, isn't necessarily saying it's okay to eat so many oreoes you get sick(or excluding diabetics or being a corn lobby apologist or whatever the hell else people on that post are accusing me of). Someone bringing up the ways the patriarchy hurts people who aren't women isn't making feminism about men or saying women don't have problems. Trans men talking about their issues isn't implying anything about trans women just like bisexuals or asexuals talking about their issues isn't taking space away from allo gay people. Someone talking about how assuming marginalized men are threats when they're just existing is bad and gets innocent people killed isn't saying OJ Simpson did nothing wrong.

Two things can be true at the same time. Nuance is important and making space to talk about one thing isn't taking away from someone else. There's no contest, no slippery slope so dangerous we can't even state facts, no pie you have to fight over. Oppression isn't a math problem where whatever you do to one side of the equation must be done to the other or a scale that can't be balanced. This kind of thought process isn't productive and will not lead to a better, more equal world. Just one where someone else is wearing the boot.

Just...idk please just stop coming onto posts assuming the worst, doing bad faith readings and then getting pissed about something the person didn't say, assuming someone else getting a seat at the table means yours is in danger, being so desperate to be a good ally that you start doing lateral violence and calling it punching up, and just full on stealing conservative talking points and argument styles and trying to make them progressive.

We're supposed to be better than this. That's all I've got really, we're just supposed to be better than this. And while I don't always engage with people like this for obvious reasons, I'd like to think they aren't beyond saving and maybe this post can change a few minds. You guys aren't wrong to be angry and want to help and protect people who need it, but this is not the way to go about it and it never will be.

[mamawasatesttube]

When/how do you think Kon started like exploring his gender? Did having to change his look to fit in at smallville have smth to do with it?

you just walked into my askbox and went "i'm gonna activate tumblr user mamawasatesttube's trap card!" i hope you know this.

so YES, firstly. i do believe changing his look to fit in with everyone in smallville had something to do with it, BUT. it's not just a case of "oh small town = conservatism, homophobia, transphobia, etc". it has more to do with him having a civilian persona for the first time in his lifie, and not knowing how to do that. through all of his time in sb94, he's never really fit in with "normal people" - he was always held apart from his classmates in hawaii, then he simply never interacted with regular people while living at cadmus, and finally when he lived in metropolis in the suicide slum it was. well. not good.

so moving to smallville and having a secret identity to protect - not just his own but superman's secret identity - is a lot of pressure to perform a role he's never played before. it's not even so much about small town attitudes so much as it is just the contrast of what he's used to and the concept of "normalcy". superboy, the clone of superman who's a hero and a celebrity, has never had to worry about being normal and not drawing too much attention. conner kent, on the other hand, has to worry about that very much.

he takes out his earring. he cuts off the longer parts of his hair and lets the shaved part grow back in. he grows keenly self-conscious of being a "geek" and making too many references to this or that media. for the first time, he starts paying consistent attention to what other people think of him and how they talk about him. it's not the same as his identity crisis before, when he just was worried about being "cool" and got a makeover about it; this is about something bigger than him, something so much more important than just his reputation. he has to keep this secret. it's not freedom, at first; it's a burden he's trying to learn to carry.

that's part of why he resents smallville at first. it's a whole new set of rules and restrictions and boxes he needs to fit into. and he's used to rules and restrictions and fitting into boxes, but these ones are nothing like the ones he knew before, and the stakes feel so much higher. he misses his "freedom" from before, so he hates "conner kent" and what smallville represents.

at this point, he doesn't really know that his gender and sexuality are involved in this repression. he just knows the way he dressed before and the way he acted before get attention in a way he doesn't want now, and he assumes any feelings of ickiness and missing anything are just tied to his whole resentment of smallville. it doesn't click for a long time. he just straight up doesn't clock that he has any gender-related feelings outside the norm, and he doesn't register any of his attraction to guys as attraction. he's deeply in his "overinvested straight ally" phase (think of his interactions with hero cruz - defending him from sparx and telling her homophobia is Not Cool!!).

and then he dies.

to establish a core part of my feelings about smallville... as someone who grew up queer in small town america, i am Deeply critical of everyone who dismisses rural areas as entirely conservative, intolerant, and bigoted. these people definitely do exist in rural areas, sure, but they are by no means the only ones (and they also very much exist in urban areas, too). to that end, i don't think smallville is just a ~homophobic little town~ where kon is miserable in the closet because of external pressure.

i do think kon does languish miserably in the closet for a time. but it's a lot of internal pressure and identity issues at play, not just the worry of homophobia. he spends a lot of time introspecting after his resurrection, learning to love his life with ma; it's during this time that i think he starts to actually realize his feelings about himself are queer feelings.

one of my personal favorite headcanons is that the first person he ever admits any of this to (first that he thinks he's into guys, bc that's the first one that he actually puts together) is hero cruz. hero is definitely the friend who's been out the longest, and very possibly (though ofc this can depend on personal hcs!) his only friend who's out at this time, given that he and cassie Just broke up.

now a major reason he struggles in the closet here is the idea that being queer as conner kent would mean deviating from the "normal" as conner kent. and conner kent is supposed to be a very normal guy, to fit in and fade into the background, to not draw attention. and that's his major hangup. it's easier to consider if superboy could come out than for conner kent to come out, because superboy has never been normal. he's always been set apart. but conner kent? conner kent has a vital secret to keep. he doesn't want anyone looking at him.

he finds it harder to accept queerness as a civilian than as a hero bc as a hero he's already "weird" and "alien" (literally), right. he can be loud and proud and obnoxious there and it doesnt matter! but conner kent is supposed to be ~normal~ and not like kon-el. conner kent is keenly aware of everything that makes him not fit in, and for a long time those things bring him uncertainty and shame because he is still struggling to try and figure out how even being a civilian works, let alone living a civilian life that's """abnormal""". it takes him a hot minute to work through this.

and then senior year, there's rumors going through smallville high because this one guy wanted to bring his boyfriend to prom but the school prom committee head teacher wouldn't sell a couple's ticket to two boys who are known to be dating despite selling them to plenty of girls who say they're just going as friends, and now a bunch of students are protesting by getting same sex couple's tickets and insisting on going actually as couples, and of course kon has to join in on that, he will always stand up against injustice even as a civilian...

...and one thing leads to another, and conner kent finds himself making out with simon valentine in the back corner of the dance hall, and they crown him prom king despite it (or maybe because of it!) and he's stunned because he didn't know he was popular (because he's kind, and loved, and funny, and good) and he's still popular despite clearly being into men now, and it's not a bad thing in everyone else's eyes, and oh? that was allowed all along?

and it's freeing.

that's the first step to exploring gender. first he has to let himself admit to being queer at all, and admit to being okay with it rather than needing to repress it forever, and it's kon. of course that only happens once he can use "helping someone else" as the reason.

NOW back up a large step. there's a second component to all this i haven't dug into yet, and it's about fashion.

more to the point, it's about ttk. one of my Favorite hcs is that he practices it via fibercrafts, even before his death but especially after. first crochet, then knitting, then bobbin lace, slowly increasing the number of moving parts he's working with; he ends up making a lot of lace.

ma uses some of his little lace scraps as bookmarks. he makes a bunch of doilies and then table runners. it's genuinely great ttk practice, but really, they have a lot of lace. so kon starts learning to sew, so he can start making lace-embellished tablecloths and then some simple circle skirts and things for ma. they sell some of them at local farmers'/crafters' markets.

and kon starts wearing some of it himself. at first he's really self-conscious, but... it's something he made, and he's proud of it, and it does look really good, so. fuck it. he and ma can go to do groceries wearing matching skirts, right? (circle skirts are easier to sew than pants, okay. pants have so much more going on. he's still teaching himself, okay!!!)

it takes him a LONG minute to realize that maybe some of the "oh, i do look good in this!" feelings might, in fact, be gender euphoria. as in, he doesn't realize it until after he starts unpacking his sexuality feelings and going ohhhh. conner kent is actually allowed to be queer and that's okay. only then does he realize that uhm... maybe conner kent is, like, extra queer. like, turn up the dial and add more spice.

with time, support and encouragement from friends and family, and some exploration, he gains more confidence in exploring presentation and actually thinking about gender. he doesn't really care that much about pronouns, but he Does hate being confined to traditional masculinity - he does enjoy being masc sometimes, but he hates the idea of having to fit in it as a box. he's much happier getting to flit around from masc to femme to all sorts of places in between. he finds it freeing.

okay i have rambled so much. this is more or less my idea for how the overall arc of kon exploring queerness goes, but im sure ive forgotten bits and pieces and will remember them within like 5 minutes of hitting post. but here we are here it is ive been typing on and off for like an hour now so im cutting myself off. there it is. my kon gender and sexuality thesis.

oh one other thing. also he loves to be young justice's babygirl. okay im done now

[iliterallydecepticanteven]

Sorry if that's a dumb question but what is actually going on with milk in America right now?

Like, many years ago I heard that raw milk is basically so good and healthy and all but it wasn't really a big thing at the time. (I can tell by your post tho that that might have been misinformation back then already.)

Now it seems like milk was made political because certain groups just kinda... claimed raw milk as theirs?

I am so confused. I am genuinely from a place where milk is not that political (it is a bit but not to THAT extent) and I am just confused about what's going on.

Especially because I did NOT get my information from groups with a certain mindest politics-wise. Or let's just say it how it is. It seems to me like right-wingers are just fucking claiming milk and it fucks me up so much because how is milk even related to politics in the slightest?

Again, sorry if this is a dumb question and kind of a rant but right-wingers and anti-science people infuriate and confuse me. I am confused.

(Also I don't know what's wrong with raw milk but that might be because it's not a big deal in my country anyway. Never seen raw milk for sale anywhere. I wouldn't be surprised if it's banned entirely tbh.

Alright, buckle up because this is gonna a long answer.

For some background, food has always been tied to politics in America whether people realize it or not. The most recent popularity of raw milk in America being associated with right wing politics and conservatives has its ties in conspiracies that the government is "poisoning" us by "tampering" with our food. Additionally, it can be tied back to the libertarian ideas of having absolutely no government involvement in anything ever including food safety. This is the same thought process behind the whole bullshit of "if you can't pronounce an ingredient then it must be bad for you" as if that makes any fucking sense.

A bunch of bullshit studies that were disproven claimed that raw milk contained more vitamins and minerals and enzymes that were destroyed when milk was pastureuzed, making the milk less nutritional. This is of course bullshit as the only difference between raw milk and safe not raw milk is that it gets pastureuzed. Pastureuzing milk is simply the process of heating milk to just below boiling for a period of time to kill bacteria, viruses, and any other pathogens in the milk. You can even pasteurize milk in your home on your stove top!

But it's become a major talking point and a way for conservatives to make themselves feel important and different, by going against policies in place to make them safe, and to "stick it to the man," so to speak. Conservative and right-wing rhetoric is dependent on being right all the time even when they're very obviously not. It's also very anti-science as, if something cannot be easily explained or is considered a waste of time or money, regardless of how vitally important that thing is, it is cast aside and deemed useless.

Now you mentioned America so I assume you're not from here and this where this gets messy. Because unlike other countries, America often allows states to make their own individual laws on certain issues. For example, regardless of where you are in America, you cannot have an alcoholic drink or purchase alcohol unless you are 21 years or older, as this is a federal law and not a state law. But for selling raw milk, that is a state law, which means all 50 states can make their own decisions on whether or not to allow the sale of raw milk. South Carolina allows the sale of raw milk but it's neighboring state of Georgia does not. To further complicate things, some states don't allow raw milk to be sold in stores but it can be sold on farms.

Finally, the main problem with raw milk is that it is full of (and I'm not joking when I say this) shit. Cows are not clean animals, and while modern milking practices do require that their udders be cleaned with antiseptic prior to milking, it doesn't get rid of everything. Pasteurization is a life saving process to ensure safety when consuming milk as heating it kills off common bacteria that may be present due to contamination from the cow's udders being dirty as well as bacteria that may be in the cow's body and perfectly fine for the cow but would absolutely wreck a human body. The most common bacteria include salmonella, e. coli, and listeria, all of which would make someone incredibly sick and possibly even hospitalize or kill them. The good thing is that those bacteria and other bacteria, viruses, and microbes present in raw milk that could harm humans all die at around 165°F/74°C, and pasteurization heats milk to 182°F/83°C, killing off those microbes and making the milk safe to consume.

So, in short, right-wingers and conservatives are using raw milk as their new anti-government anti-science talking point, just like did with the COVID vaccine, and like they did regular vaccines before that. Don't drink raw milk because best case scenario you'll get sick and worst case scenario you'll die. Also, as a bonus, here is my favorite instance of fuck around and find out from a state legalizing the sale of raw milk:

Basically this guy pushed for raw milk to be legalized in West Virginia and when it was he drank a bunch of it in celebration and a few hours later they found him sick as hell on the couch in his office. It still makes me laugh whenever I see it lol

[genderkoolaid]

Hi! I’m a cis trans ally, and I was wondering about how to word trans reproduction discussions? I want to be as supportive as possible but scared to ask my trans friends.

General tips:

Find the places in your language where things are gendered, and question if that gendering is actually accurate. Women aren't the only ones who can get pregnant, and men aren't the only ones who can impregnate. I'm gonna bold all the places where I change my language to avoid gendering people while being accurate

Get comfortable just naming body parts. Get specific with what does and is affected by what.

Specific things to consider:

Take the sentence "men are trying to control women's bodies." For one, we have the issue of "women's" bodies; there are people who aren't women who are affected by having their bodies controlled. But you also have "men," which not only refers exclusively to cis men* (unless we have some trans male politicians out there making anti-abortion laws), but also ignores the way that gender and power has changed. This stuff is 10000% born out of misogyny and a desired to controlled labeled-female* bodies, centered around the uterus. But in countries where women can have political power and influence, and many cis women directly create and support laws that criminalize uterine autonomy, or create fake abortion clinics or report people for seeking abortions or birth control... its not just cis men doing this. And its important to recognize that no identity or physical condition prevents someone from working against justice and for oppression. Also, in the US, anti-abortion laws tends to come overwhelmingly from a specific political grouping, so I feel like "Republicans" or "conservatives" is just as easy to understand and accurate as "men" here

Also: when talking about individuals, try to ask them how they refer to their body! Some people are fine being called male or female, whereas some people do not feel those describe their sex. & also don't assume anyone's genitals or reproductive capabilities.

Also also: don't be scared! While I'd suggest making sure they are comfortable explaining this subject to you, there's nothing wrong with wanting to better understand how to support people you care about.

*Idk if this is a term thats used a lot, but I would prefer it to AFAB; that only describes what a doctor said you were based on your visible genital situation at birth, which doesn't say a lot about your genitals or organs or how you perform gender NOW. whereas you can be labeled female at any point, and you can even be selectively labeled female (i.e trans women being labeled male on paper but arrested for taking their shirts off in public).

*this is bolded because too often people will use "men" to mean "cis men" even while trying to be trans-inclusive; it is not acceptable. i am speaking directly to you, cis allies of trans people en masse: stop this. stop conflating manhood with cisness and oppressor status. grow you understanding of gender relations a smidge

[notsocheezy]

Brain Curd #217 - Brain Curd NaNo #4

Brain Curds are lightly edited daily writing - usually flash fiction and sometimes terrible on purpose.

Any resemblance to real events is entirely legally coincidental. Names and locations have been changed to protect the identities of the fictional.

“‘New friends,’ huh?” My mother studied my face to see if I’d crack.

“Yeah. Lots of people use these apps to find friends.” It wasn’t a lie to say so. And it was only barely a lie to say that it was my goal here. I hadn’t kissed anyone new yet, let alone fucked them. But I knew deep down that to tell her the truth would jeopardize my delicate living situation.

After all, I lived in a conservative household. I had to move back in with her, my stepfather, and my brother after COVID derailed my apartment life in Irvine. I finished my bachelor’s degree over the internet and it had been nearly a year at this point since graduation. A year entirely fruitless in career development. All the money I had was in my savings account or tied up in stocks, and I owed most of it in student loans - not exactly poverty, but if I was forced to start paying rent someplace, it wouldn’t last long.

It wasn’t a total loss of a year, mind you - I wrote quite a lot, including taking stock of the main formative events of my life in fifty-thousand words or so. But I didn’t go out much. My main opportunities to socialize were restricted to driving back to Orange County to stay with my girlfriend for the weekend once a month or so. A soul-crushing lonely drive culminating in a good night’s insomnia on a lumpy futon. I needed more than this.

“Why don’t you see if Ocean wants to hang out?”

“Ocean?” I rubbed the back of my neck. “Ocean works a lot… I never know their schedule.”

By pure happenstance, Ocean moved to the desert a few years before I did. But I could count the number of our interactions in that time on two hands - or three fingers, if I did it in binary. They moved out here because their boyfriend had family in the area, and the two of them were practically joined at the hip. He and I got along fine enough, but the two of them had enough going on that I practically only saw Ocean when they needed to get away from him for one reason or another.

“What does his schedule have to do with anything? Just ask her when she’s available.”

“Huh? Oh, no, I was only talking about Ocean. They use singular they/them pronouns…” I shrank. “Remember?”

“Oh yeah… she’s a they. I really don’t understand all that.”

“You get used to it.”

“I could never. Well…” She turned around and started poking at a spreadsheet. “Just be safe out there, okay?”

“Yeah. Uh, I’m gonna go pick up Anorma at the bus stop now, okay?”

Anorma: A bizarre name perhaps, but she picked it herself. She was my first girlfriend. We'd been together for a few years at this point, but we were apart for most of it. I'd met her smack dab in between two occurrences I refer to, respectively, as ‘the incident.’ Which one I mean must be discerned from context. If it's about sexual trauma, it's the first one. Abandonment issues? The second. And she stuck by me through it.

I pulled up to the bus stop - which was right between a Mexican restaurant and an Autozone - and waited in the car. The bus arrived shortly afterward and passengers shuffled out. She wasn't among them. My phone rang.

“Hey, babe,” I answered. “Where are you?”

“I missed the train. My parents didn't get back soon enough to get me to the Amtrak station on time.”

I sighed.

“I'm sorry.”

“It's alright,” I reassured her. “I was really hoping you'd be able to visit me this time, but -”

“I am!”

I squinted one eye. “You missed the only train out from Orange County to La Quinta. You'd have to try again tomorrow and then we wouldn't even get a full day.”

“My parents are driving me over!”

“Right… now? That's two hours each way, on a good day.”

“They felt bad.”

I found that hard to believe. I didn't think these people ever felt bad about anything. Her father once fired a guy for following health codes in their restaurant.

“I'll… see you back at home, then. Love you.”

“I love you too! Mwah!”

I hung up. I should have learned to expect this sort of shenanigan at this point.

Please comment, reblog, like, and follow if you enjoyed - I'd love to know what you think! See you again tomorrow.

[chokovit]

I'm gonna rant and vent

I'm gonna rant and vent about people I consider my brethren, my comrades, and my peers. I'm 100% not interested in debating or arguing with anyone at all so don't expect that if you message me.

I fucking hate election year. Every 4 years it's the same god damn song and dance and every other election it's worse and worse. And I'm not talking about some shitty pat ourselves on the back, circle jerking feel good about yourself garbage where I preach to the choir and we all sing "Yeah I feel that way too!"

I'm talking about Leftists, specifically, American Leftists (as I am American this will be therefore be from the point of view of one and my grievances will henceforth be specifically about "AMERICAN" Leftists so foh with your "That's an american centric view" shit).

I'm gonna preface what I'm about to say by stating the obvious. I am a leftist. Whether you fucking like it or not, whether you agree with me being one or not, I am. I don't hate leftists, as hard as this rant will make that easy to believe. I'm just very bothered by trends I see among them. They bother me because, unlike conservatives, I actually want leftists to "win". I actually want us to succeed. But in case your world view is black and white to the point you need me spelling it out for you, yes I am a leftist, I agree with leftists, and I am absolutely repulsed by Conservatism.

Now let me get into the meat and potatoes of what I want to bitch about. Basically, in the past, whenever I saw people bemoan that leftists are largely signal virtuing, morally uptight, jerkasses I thought of it as nothing more than the typically reactionary pant shitting rhetoric we've come to expect from Right-Wing discourse. And to be fair, back than, in the early-mid 2010s it probably was. But now? I don't fucking know anymore, it really does seem like at the very least a worryingly large amount of leftists think they're a part of some clique or social group and don't understand both the implications and power of their own standing. Particularly and most especially when it comes to voting. Let me tell you something, something really fucking important. You have nothing, you are nobody, and you are mostly powerless to do anything at all...EXCEPT for one thing, and that's voting. Yes, you can call your senator and congressperson but even thats only really gonna work if your congressperson or senator is one that'll even consider your interests. Do you think people in Lauren Boebert's district feel confident calling her to complain about trans issues? Yeah no. Every single fucking vote, every single god damn one matters and you can fuck off with your "both parties are the same" and "voting doesn't matter" bullshit. One party is waging a culture war on our entire nation, one party wants to make sure you're following a rigid social hierarchy, one party wants to turn Christianity into state law, one party wants to drape everything in repugnant Christian Nationalism and it's not Democrats.

Yes, yes it sucks that we can only pick from the two. No, no voting third party is not an option, we do not get the privilege of living in a country with a multi-party system. The DNC and the RNC both respectively own the two whole halves of the media industry in the United States, and no I'm not making that up. As cool and based as you think you look here on tumblr preaching about how we'll all vote for some super sick Ultra-Commie Socialist Dream party it's not going to happen. How many people will be inspired by you organizing on tumblr? in public even? on campus? Do you know the statistics you'd need? 2020 had an election turn out of 154 MILLION people! over 81 Million of them voted for Biden, and 74 Million of them voted for Trump! Now let's do a hypothetical, and lets be god damn realistic about it okay? REALISTICALLY, you and your lefty friends will never, ever, in all your attempts and rhetoric and debate, will ever be able to convince a MAGA Trump supporter from 2020 to vote for the Green Party. It will. Not. Happen. So that 74 Million? That stays, you get none of that. But, you could probably convince Progressives and Liberals who voted for Biden to do so (you know, if you actually want to shut the fuck up for 10 seconds and stop crying about how much you claim you hate them so all your friends nod and clap at you for being a super cool edgy leftist). So okay, let's be REALLY optimistic, let's say you convince like 20 million of those people who would've voted for Biden to vote for you, lets be even more optimistic and say you started with a base of 2 million people. I want you to keep this in mind that 2 Million people alone would be a record for the green party. In 2020 they had a popular vote of 406,000, literally less than half a million. But I digress. You're at 22 Million people, now lets consider people who didn't vote in 2020. That's 80 Million people, but, BUT, that's not a big pool of 80 million for you to grab from. We need to consider statistics first. Out of that 80 Million only roughly 30% of them didn't vote specifically because they either were undecided or didn't like the candidates. Therefore your actual pool of candidates interested in voting for you is 56 Million people. If you were only able to convince 20 million Biden voters, chances are you'd convince even less undecided voters. Realistically you should only get a hairs fraction of voters but, I'm trying to make a point here so lets say you get the largest share of Undecided Voters, somehow you're just super cool and based and you convince 30 million to vote for you. Not you have 54 Million votes. Congratulations, you have made US History by being the most voted for third party in the history of the US. You have beaten the previous record set by Jo Jorgensen in 2020 by a whopping 52 Million Votes (yes, really, that's the most a third party has ACTUALLY ever gotten before, just shy of 2 million votes). Despite your epic feel good win, the Orange piece of shit running against you, who has been galvanizing his base and everyone from the most fervant of maga's to your needle dick co-worker you kind of get along with despite voting republican for "fiscal" reasons, has surpassed his previous record by a little bit, he only really pooled in about a million more....which is 75 Million voters. Which is over 20 million people more than you.

Now I get it, I hear you barkin' big dog, we don't decide elections on popular vote, it's decided on the Electoral College. My point here is showing you how unfeasible third parties really truly are. This isn't a movie, this isn't like someone's gonna make some grand speech and everyone claps and comes to their senses and all of a sudden votes for "the right candidate". No, for a party that's NOT Libertarian to get even 10 million people to vote for them would be a historical precedent. And you don't need me to tell you that 10 million people is not nearly enough people spread across 50 states to make up for the electorate you'd need to win an election.

So why is this important? Why is it important we vote against republicans instead of voting for whatever helps us sleep at night, makes us feel good, and makes us look super "in" with our buddies online? Uh, because republicans will continue to do the things they're doing so long as they see it as a means to make themselves electable. Sure, some people say "well it's not MY fault it's the dems faults for not being GOOD enough for me to vote for them" and to that I say pbbbbth, you fucking KNOW better. You KNOW better, because you're a leftist, how dangerous fascism is, how bad and poisonous and terrible Traditionalism is. Consider this, another hypothetical okay? Everyone is so disgusted by the perils of conservatism they unite, as they did in 2020, to vote against them. They do it again in 2024, They do it again in 2028, and a 4th time in 2032. You've now had two full term presidents in the United States, will that make the conservatives go away? no. But will it swing the pendulum back? Yes! YES IT WILL! Politicians only give a shit about one thing and thats GETTING ELECTED. And if those mother fuckers start to realize that conservatism is an UNWINNABLE position, than they will, at the least, begin to abandon Conservatism as a platform for their party.

At the moment, that's NOT what's happening. Instead, we have Conservatives emboldened by 40 years of Reagan Rhetoric slowly shifting the pendulum ever more right. They've been doing it for 4 god damn decades okay, and you think 1 term from a dem president is going to start shifting it back? Fuck. The Fuck. Off. Dems are, from a global perspective, a centre-right party. When and if they do anything to "shift" the pendulum left, it's going to be shifted less to the left and more toward the "centre". Right now THAT IS WHAT YOU WANT!!!! YOU WANT THAT!!! HAVING THE PENDULUM FARTHER AWAY FROM THE RIGHT IS A /GOOD/ THING BECAUSE RIGHT NOW ITS DANGEROUSLY FAR TO THE RIGHT.

This shit doesn't make me liberal, this shit makes me pragmatic. I DONT. LIKE. CONSERVATIVES. I'm guessing if you've read this far /YOU/ probably don't either (or at least you claim to). But I don't hate them because they're rhetoric is bad, because they act like bigots or say mean/offensive things. I hate them because I genuinely hate their ideology, I hate their beliefs, I think everything they want for you and me and society at large is a fucking POISON to us as a modern, progressive society. And that's for obvious reason, they don't WANT us to be a modern, progressive society. If you've hated conservatives this entire time because of any "shocking" or "apalling" things you've seen or heard from them or that MSNBC or your lefty friends have shown you (including me) than I'm sorry but you're hating them for the wrong reasons. I mean, not that it isn't valid to hate someone for being a dick head. But your repulsion, your disgust should run deeper than that. You should be terrified and stop at nothing to want to crush Conservative ideology from the grip it has on American society. The vast majority of conservatives want to kill you, do you understand that? Whether that's because of their bigoted views, or because of LITERALLY CENTURY LONG WORTH OF PROPAGANDA AGAINST LEFTIST AND SOCIALIST VALUES they see you as a threat and want you dead. As much as they point and ridicule "libs" and "liberals" like you do, the liberals will be fine. It's YOU who won't be, it's YOU who should be hating them the most. And from what I see, you don't. Because if leftists truly felt threatened by conservatism they'd be stopping at nothing to rid it from our system. Instead, Leftists are more concerned with policing themselves, more concerned with having some super cool "hot take" on whoever the current president is. Leftists are more comfortable being the edgy outcasts, and if they're successful, they're not outcasts anymore. Fuck that. I haven't claimed leftism my entire life since I was 13 (I'm 30 now) just cuz I wanted to be edgy, and different. I didn't want to "look smart" and prove some "moral superiority" over people. You can do that shit with literally any political ideology. I claimed Leftism as my political ideology because it is, to me, the most pragmatic to ending universal suffering. And with that, I want leftism as an ideology to prevail and succeed. Not remain in the fucking shadows, ever caught on the side-lines of a worsening tug-o-war between Liberals and Fascists.

And most importantly of all, I want this to succeed, it NEEDS to succeed. And to do that we MUST unify, divide, and conquer. Yes, that means at least for a while we have to unify with Liberals. Our battle right now should be with the scourge of Fascism. The Soviet's didn't turn their guns mid-way through fighting the Nazi's cuz "erm actually the Allies are cringe too" no, they fucking united against a common, worse enemy. In fact, let me dive into the Nazi's cuz there's an interesting tid bit here. The Weimar republic, pre-Nazi rise, was composed of like 3 "left" wing parties. Needless to say by US standards all 3 of these parties would be considered left of Democrats but I digress. The refusal of all 3 of these parties to unite and caucus together created fractions in the political system of Germany at the time. This made it way fucking easier for the Nazi's to come in and sweep things up afterwards. There's many reasons WHY they were fractured, but those are beside the point of what I am trying to say here. It's like, that one part from Sun Tzu's Art Of War that people actually remember: "Divide and Conquer" with political division, the Nazi's easily just swept in and destroyed them. Do not forget, Fascism is an inherently authoritarian ideology. It is therefore organized and demands rigid conformity. If we do not unite, we will be easier to break apart and fall victim to it's clutches.

Finally, and lastly, I think this last part just comes from our horrible education system in the US. I understand many people probably didn't take Civics in high school, to those people I am sorry. As there's no way you could get how our system works because the system itself failed to educate you. If you did take civics in high school, or god forbid college, than you fucking know better. YOU! WILL NOT! CHANGE ANYTHING! IN A MEASLY 4! FUCKING! YEARS!

I know what we want, I know because I share a lot of the same values as you, even if I don't share your methods. I also know them because I've been reading you people post about them for the better part of like 15 years! NOTHING YOU WANT TO SEE IN GOVERNMENT, NONE OF THE CHANGES YOU WANT TO SEE HAPPEN! NONE OF THEM ARE GONNA HAPPEN IN ONE PRESIDENCY! Need I remind you that the current state of affairs has been shifted to the Right over a process that has taken FOURTY! FUCKING! YEARS!? and you think somehow that you'll just come in with some super cool epic revolutionary spirit and change shit in a couple years? That's not realistic! IT's just! NOT! But that doesn't mean we CANT change things. Yes, it does mean we have to change things slowly, it DOES mean we have to play the long game. But guess what, the Conservatives have been playing the long game since that shit bag Reagan leaked poisonous venom from his gunshot wound in DC. In fact they've probably been doing it longer, from 1965.

You wanna know if things can get worse? You already know the answer to that, yes. Yes things can get worse. Yes a society can advance forward, only to move backward. This literal exact fucking thing happened once in modern history, and it took 3 major super powers to defeat it.

Leftism isn't a fucking club, it's not a circle jerk for all of us to feel good about ourselves for being intellectuals and morally upright people. It's a fucking political ideology, that's it. It's not one of your fandoms. So no, you don't need to spend all the energy spent arguing with and debating with every other leftist and YES I know how that sounds coming from me. As much as this rant will have you assume otherwise I don't really spend much time debating other leftists. Mostly because a good chunk of leftists are way too reactionary to give me a charitable and honest platform. Anyone you disagree with is a fascist. And yes I've ACTUALLY had people call me this before. You dilute the term, you HELP the fascists this way. Fascism is a very specific evil, it's not just people who disagree with you. Sometimes, you will feel uncomfortable about the views other leftists have. That's normal. That doesn't mean they're "Liberal" or "Fascists". Again, this isn't a little pow wow where we sit around and agree with each other and get super psyched together about our favorite piece of political theory, and than if someone says something we disagree with we just kick them out of the circle. That's not how that works. That's not how any functional political movement succeeds. Right now, you and I have ZERO seats at the table, we don't exist on the grand political spectrum, as much as the GOP tries to fear monger that we do. So yes, we will have to unify sometimes with people we don't like. We will have to agree to disagree and come together for a common enemy.

I know this will change literally nobody's mind but I just really needed to get all of these thoughts out. I want them out and I want people to read them so that they can at least SEE the perspective of leftists outside their fucking echo chamber. Our division is NOT conducive to our success. We are going to /FAIL/ because the pendulum will keep going to the right. It'll fail cuz we are more concerned about making a choice that makes us feel morally vindicated than one that is pragmatic. I have nothing else to say anymore. Fuck Americans. Fuck all of them. Fuck all the American Conservatives. Fuck all the American Liberals. Fuck all the American Leftists. And Fuck all the undecided pieces of shit who couldn't decide whether or not they want to vote against fascism or let it slip on in. Fuck all of you, you uneducated, feel-good, self-satisfying, non-communitarian, individualistic, pigs of society. I sincerely wish I was born in literally any other country because at least than I wouldn't have to deal with being around some of the most inane, vapid, superficial fucking human beings on the planet. American Society is a god damn joke. Only above Israel. And that's not a bar you should be proud of.

[sburbian-sage]

Hey, speaking of Dames... I have a Dame in my current session, a Dame of Light. He's a guy. And he kinda sucks. One of those conservative conspiracy theory types.

He has, shall we say, some OPINIONS on transgender people. We can mostly put up with it though- I'm agender, which is technically trans, and he's not tried to kill me for it or anything (gotten into heated arguments about it sure, but it's not gotten violent).

The issue of course is that he's totally convinced the game is trying to "turn him trans", and that's why he's been assigned Dame.

I've tried to tell him that the game just bugs out and gives supposedly gender-restricted classes out to just anyone sometimes, but...

Well, I think deep down, he's actually just fucking trans. I think he's using the game assigning him Dame as an excuse. "Oh no, I HAVE to act girly or it'll mess with my ARC levels!" that kinda thing.

Well, that all sounds fine, right? Just let him delude himself into thinking he's being forced into this, he'll (or rather, she'll, by then) probably come out of it a better person.

But like... I do have some concerns.

Firstly, he might just be right? Like, Sburb is not above doing fucked up shit to get people to mature. Forcibly transing a transphobe's gender doesn't feel like it's typical style, but like... how would I know, right?

This presents a problem. Maturity tends to go away at the end of a session. Is he gonna load into a new session, and just have a fuckton of trauma immediately from the game making him think he was trans, when he actually wasn't/isn't anymore/once more thinks he isn't?

Secondly, I consider myself a gender abolitionist. I try to be chill about it, I don't hassle people over having genders or anything, but when people ask why I'm agender, I will bring out my arguments about why I think the concept of gender is stupid. I'm sure there're people who'd find what I have to say upsetting. Is Sburb gonna decide one day that I'm a problem, and try and force a gender on me or something? I would assume not, but if it really doesn't care, why are classes ever gender biased at all?

Thirdly... IS HE FUCKING UP HIS ARC LEVELS IF HE DOESN'T ACT LIKE A GIRL??? I had assumed of course not, that the game doesn't give a fuck if Dame's "act girly" or whatever. But... why does the Dame class get assigned to girls more often? He's the Dame, and he's saying that's how this shit works, and it's not like I've ever rolled Dame, so is he actually right??? If I roll Dame one day, will I need to act girly for the stats?????

"Maturity goes away at the end of a session"? I don't know what you mean by that. Putting aside issues I'll get to in the next paragraph, the game doesn't mindwipe you or anything once you're done with a session. "Losing maturity" typically refers to the metaphorical slump in your soul that comes naturally when the game yoinks all your stats (and your powers and your items and your everything) when you begin a new session, which will naturally make anyone feel worse. Or like all that personal development they went through doesn't mean anything because now you gotta do it again. It's a figure of speech, not a literal construct, and you get used to it eventually.

That nitpick aside, no, SBURB doesn't forcetrans anyone. Another mistake is being made here, SBURB only assigns a meaningful title the first time. I was a native Sage of Mind because I needed that, all those years ago, and here I am now. Literally everything after that was purely randomly generated nonsense. Nonsense I had to "play the role" for, but nonsense nonetheless. If SBURB decided that you being agender was an issue, it would have done that in your first session. And I'm assuming it didn't, because the game is never that direct about stuff like that. If you're trans or genderqueer or whatever, any effect this has on your "maturity arc" is incidental at best. Some people have talked about how "SBURB made me realize I was trans", but that's flowery language, they went on their self discovery lovequest while playing the game and maybe they got some special insights they wouldn't have if they weren't a replayer. I couldn't imagine what that "special insight" is though, unless it's referring to the replayernet. Most people tend to realize they're queer through online communities, the replayernet is the only online community now (split into several sub-communities but still), and as we all know everyone who has ever touched a computer is gay and all the funniest shitposters are trans.

Now the elephant in the room. It is true that the game does sometimes bug out and give gender-restricted classes to people of the wrong gender. There's some debate that the "gender-restricted classes" just have a heavy gender bias but it's ultimately random (the dearth of female Knights supports this), but for all intents and purposes let's imagine that they ARE gender-locked. Dame is a female class, and it going towards this guy is a bug. However... Because SBURB does take data from your mind, it does mean that if you identify as female and your body isn't, the game registers you as female, and will assign classes accordingly. The "gender restriction bug" is extremely consistent in that manner. To the point where, let's not kid ourselves, it's not a fucking bug. Not to say that "every time you encounter this bug it's because the game knows", only that the game does recognize player gender, even if the player themselves is unaware. We're currently at a crossroads where it could be a sincere bug, or a sincere closet case, and there's not enough information to tell. If you're Weird and determined to get to the bottom of this transvestigation, you might want to check what gender their dreamself is. "Wrong gender dreamself" happens for the same reason "wrong gender class" does, but if BOTH happen then it's probably not a bug.

And no, the game doesn't count "acting girly" as part of the Dame's roleplay coefficient, that's stupid. The game hands out RP for acting as your title, not acting as your title's gender. I can't tell you why they made Dames a female class, because I didn't design the game, but it's probably an aesthetic flourish. Same reason why Princes are a predominately male class, it's called Prince, and Prince is the male form, ergo it's a male class. Except when it's not, but it's still called the Prince. If you're dead set on transvestigating, making up this obvious lie and then bemoaning the fact that "oh no, I have to act like a girl now or else the game will kill me, I hate that I have to act like a girl now but I have no choice" is either some MAJORLY sussy pantomiming, or he's cis and just very, very sexist.

My final note is that if you determine he's cis and don't want to hear him complaining about WOKE SKAIA'S plan to FORCIBLY TRANSITION these MINOR PLAYERS (with the brains of adults), think provocation might "pierce the veil and help bring her home", or just want to be very funny in a way that makes them not want to talk to you for a while, try busting out the classic "it's obvious that you're a woman because you're acting hysterical about this" line. Tactical Misogyny is a foolproof idea with no possible recourse or downsides.

[darkx-the-dragon-kn1ght]

Chapter 7- Part 10

And then I went to sleep. It was very nice.

Okay, next day, morning, time to evolve Bloom and finish level grinding him and Prong! And yes, this time I did utilize the free battle Trainers in Grand Hall.

I think it was in Chapter 5, when I was training to rechallenge Fern, where someone pointed out that I could’ve level grinded on said Trainers instead of the wild Pokémon. My kneejerk reaction would have been to respond and explain that I didn’t forget the free battle Trainers existed, but they weren’t there on the day of that Chapter 5 play session, but…honestly? Even at that time, I couldn’t remember if that was true or if I legitimately just forgot to check Grand Hall, and needless to say I remember even less by this point, it’s been so long. Knowing me, maybe I really did just forget to check back then, but it’s impossible to know for sure now.

Besides, I’m not making that same mistake here, I am very much utilizing the Grand Hall Trainers. Not just for leveling, but for money as well! And that money was very vital for buying extra PokéSnax to more easily raise up Bloom’s friendship- I think it took me, like, three or four to get it to where it needed to be? Plus the battles and running around with him at the front of the party? 

But it all worked out, because…

BOOM! Evolution! And this time, we’re actually keeping this Pokémon! So now, the team looks like this:

With Bloom slightly overleveled by nature of trying to level him up with high enough friendship, but it’s not enough of an issue to use a Common Candy. Plus, I’m planning on leveling everyone up a little more anyways, this is just the baseline for battling the Gym Trainers, who will likely give us even more exp. points. Speaking of, let’s get started on that! 

There’s also this guy in green I saw before, but didn’t talk to. Well, let’s go and talk with him now.

They’ve got full teams of six, huh? I figured they weren’t gonna have just two or three, even this first Gym Leader, but…six? Was that…said anywhere before this and I just forgot? Given my track record, that’s entirely possible. Welp- good thing I’m bringing a full team anyways.

Oh, I’m sure it will be, but never let it be said I’m going in unprepared.

Alright, here we go- like I said, we’re not challenging Julia just yet, we’re just going in to fight the Trainers and maybe solve any puzzles if need be. I’ll be heading in and out of the Gym to the Pokémon Center to conserve resources and money- I’ll only be buying stuff once we’re actually about to fight Julia.

Hm- alright, this is definitely the inside of a factory if I’ve ever seen one, one of the factories of all time indeed- featuring Voltorb! Now, what’s that computer up there?

Hey, it’s Ame! So she’s our “gives information about the Gym at the start” person for this game as well, huh? Fine by me, if it means we get to hear from her more.

Huh- so is Grand Hall connected to all the Gyms in the Reborn region in this way, even the ones outside the city and far away? Does Ame personally respond to those calls too? What if there’s more than one person in more than one Gym trying to call in, are there multiple people there to answer calls like this, or does it create a backlog?

“A little” tougher???

I mean, we already got a rude introduction in Mosswater Industrial, and that only led to disaster like…twice! Out of, like, ten or so battles (or however many there were)! So, I think our track record’s looking pretty good so far.

I mean, I don’t have anything that would be able to do anything to Electric Terrain, so turning the Field against anyone won’t be happening in this Gym.

Expanding the amount of moves affected by each terrain effect is still a curious decision to me, even though I already knew about it before this thanks to the Fields Notes, but- I’ve only fought in one and read about two via the app, so I won’t knock it until I try it.

Oh, also! I couldn’t recognize this BGM at first (though I thought it sounded nice), but by this point in the track, I can now! And might I reiterate, this is a very nice Sky Tower remix, very fitting for Julia’s Gym.

I mean, Xera’s got two Grass-types, one of which is evolved- is that good enough?

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[aidenknow]

Gonna say something before I get busy

With the situation going on with me with allegations such as inappropriate behavior with minors, stalking, harassment etc while also have involvement with the MoA group and Cashew, I have to say something about it especially since it seems like I’m the main problem to it. Though I cannot say much of it at the moment due to the complexity of the drama itself while also have to deal with IRL stuff like university

The main reason why I blocked the callout accounts was for the sake of my mental health and stopping myself from making myself paranoid and bothered going back and forth looking at what I had done, despite it was stopped a few months ago. Wherever you are, yes I am aware of what I had done, just that it really drained me a lot to process this. Most of the decisions were done with advices from others. Talked to my close friends and taking with someone and their advices on the things I dealt with lately. It takes a while for me to calm myself down to a stable state especially when things going on right now is busy for me. When this post is done, that is when I have calmed myself, though there are things in my head that still lingers in me.

Anything involved with Cashew was me fawning over her, mainly because I dont want to hurt her feelings. I was clueless on what is going on other than comforting Cashew, despite the things I comforted her ends up feeding the hate towards her victim. When Cashew said that we (me and the people in the MoA group) manipulated and enabled her, I was furious by it while she also provided screenshots of the MoA creators tracing the art from other artists (note that they only traced the poses, while also had a different understanding what tracing were in their definition) despite the fact it was from months ago. Plus, the issue regarding the “traced” art was brought up before to me by Fortress. Fortress did not brought the issue up directly to the MoA creators but instead at other people who are newly acquainted with them, one of which was me. I felt violated and I was shaken by it because its not something I was not supposed to deal with. People say they wanted to settle in DMs. If so, why are you settle with someone who is not responsible with that particular issues? Why did you bring up about the tracing issues as if its a big deal if the MoA creators already stop doing it since February?

The fact that someone attempted to call the police on me is too far, in my opinion. Thankfully it never happened since I lived from a different country. But even when they did called on me, that would’ve considered as doxxing. They probably aren’t aware that the country I live in is really lgbtphobic which could’ve got me into physical punishments and my family is pretty conservative. Additionally, I would’ve been discarded from uni if they tried to attempt it which make it difficult. Though, it is more likely it would not work since my country have laws that are possibly different to the laws in the US, and most of the situation happens online and not IRL.

To those who stayed, I am grateful for it and I wanted to thank to those who reassured me due to the situation going on while being at my side. Though I apologize if those issues I shared regarding the situation I dealt with bothered you, along with those people who also got into the mess similar to me. For the people who stayed neutral with the situation, I’m glad that people make the decision to analyze the situation going on and pointed out certain points that does not add up, or when something is missing.

I’ll be only lurking here liking and reblogging some art here. Art stuff will be posted less frequently and it’s mostly going to be doodles and possibly some art stuff I did for uni. Social interaction will be only done within my remaining online friends (mainly those from the MoA group and people who were in the server(s) I’m formerly in) on Discord, unless I decided to reconnect with the people I rarely talked to. Adding on, I’ll also be interacting with my IRL friends on Twitter and Instagram since those are the only social medias that they are active roaming around the most and I wanted to (re)connect with them esp since I’m in uni now.

I’m planning to do a response to the Cashew doc if I have time, since I already talked to the writer of the doc and it was already settled on the decisions before the acc itself deactivated, but the doc itself is still up. Once I made the response, I will also share the post my friend made regarding it too

Anyways, I’ll see you around.

[greatwyrmgold]

I just want to vent about my dad on a website I know he doesn't use. (He's a Reddit/Facebook man.)

These are two texts from our D&D group's groupchat. In it, Dad reacts to finding out that WotC hired the literal Pinkertons to intimidate someone who got sold the wrong trading cards by criticizing the guy who the Pinkertons intimidated.

This is typical for my dad. When these tales of corporate misdeeds happen, Dad always defends the corporations. If they are not breaking the law, he takes that as evidence that they're in the right. If they are breaking the law, he tries to downplay the severity of the crime. He's a corporate bootlicker, and I don't think he realizes it.

This bootlicking is a bit ironic, since my dad is a "Don't Tread on Me" libertarian. Well, if you asked he'd say he had disagreements with the Libertarian party, but he's never explained exactly what those disagreements are. Which is actually pretty similar to his relationship with the Republican party; Dad will say he holds Democrats and Republicans in equal disdain, but he's complained long and often about Democrats with their gun control and Obamacare and taxes. By contrast, the worst thing he's said about Donald Trump is that he doesn't protect gun rights.

Now, I don't think Dad actually agrees with the alt-right. He's voiced support for minority rights and stuff, even if it's in a milquetoast "We've basically achieved equality, and also the government shouldn't stop businesses from discriminating because the free market will put them out of business" way. But when he talks about politics, he doesn't complain about conservatives. He complains about liberals.

And he talks about politics a lot. My dad might espouse disinterest in the country's political parties, but he has strong opinions about politics. His political discussions, which he made sure to include me and my brother in, are a big part of why I care about politics as much as I do—and to his credit, he encouraged us to think for ourselves instead of just following his politics. I too was a dumbass libertarian for a while, but when I was presented with new evidence, I could change my mind.

But, well. Having a politically-opinionated dad, while being politically-opinionated in the opposite direction is a bit of a problem. And in case you didn't pick up from the way I described my dad defending WotC and also have not noticed any other political post I've made on this blog, I am firmly opposed to capitalism in general and capitalists fucking over employees (or other individuals who annoy them) in specific. So there's a bit of tension there. And I don't know what to do with it.

So far, I've mostly tried to avoid it. That's successful most of the time, but not all the time. Everything is political; even if my dad wasn't the kind of guy who talks with his kids about the president's health care policy or California gun control, politics would come up sooner or later. The friend in the group chat wasn't trying to be political; he just relayed an interesting news story relevant to the group's shared interests. But corporate malfeasance is a political issue, whether you want it to be or not. Politics are gonna come up.

I guess I could argue with him, point out that WotC's actions are morally bankrupt, no matter how legal they are. Question why making a video about some cards that you bought is grounds for getting goons sent to your house. Hell, maybe I should do that, push back against shitty political ideas. But what would the result of that be? I'd get mad, my dad would get mad, neither of us would change our minds, and it's not like the rest of the group would care.

For now, I guess I'm venting my frustrations on Tumblr. I hope that's a healthy outlet.

[papirouge]

I'm the anon that sent you the message about hating the term PoC. Yeah, I pretty much agreee with everything you say. I don't believe much in POC solidarity because our struggles are very different between each other, and trying to paint everything as us vs whites does not really work. Perhaps for americans it does, since they have a very diverse population, but it's more difficult when talking about other countries.

Like latin americans do not have the best relationships between each other, they might share language but have very different cultures. Like the other day I was reading about this cartoon named "Oye primos" that was going to premiere and it was made by a second gen latina, where she looked to represent her growing up in a latin community in the USA, but she was clowned by pretty much every latino leaving outside of America. First, because the name of the cartoon is gramatically wrong (it should be "OIGAN primos, not OYE primos), second, because she used the word "LATINX", which latinos hate, and third, because she named the town the characters live in "Terremoto (Earthquake) Heights" or something like that (people though it was offensive because Mexico and Chile have suffered through a lot of earthquakes). And there's other stuff, like people saying the animation is ugly (very calart) and so on. Some people even started praising Los Casagrande, a spin off of The Loud House with a main mexican family thats not even made by latinos, but its considered far superior.

Sorry, I got a little carried away with that, what I wanted to say it's that its pretty common for latinos to kinda tear each other up, but they unite if they want to clown a "gringo" or something (and yes, they pointed out that the author basically being a 2nd gen makes her a gringa... I guess). Plus a lot of latinos dont like anything that looks "woke", and they considered that show does, so it was doomed from the start. The creator of the show felt pretty overwhelmed by the negative reception, received a lot of backlash and it apparently affected her a lot. I feel pretty bad for her actually.

And yeah, argentinians are actually pretty white, not only because a lot of italians and germans migrated there (if you ever read the names of their national soccer team, you'll notice many names are of italian origin), but because they're at the very south. Chile is also pretty white. But yeah, argentinians have always been pinned as being pretty arrogant and full of themselves, so it doesnt surprise me that they feel they're superior because their team is white. I remember that argentinians and fans of Messi in general were clowning Mbappe for allegedly being in a relationship with a transwoman, so they invented some pretty homophobic chants... soccer fans be like that

Ugh, this got so long,... I was gonna mention asians and their own issues too, but i think it's enough. I did wanted to ask you something though: is France a racist country?? How has your experience being impacted by being black?

Don't be sorry anon, I love these loooong asks where I get to know more my followers 🧡

It's pretty ironic you're talking about Asians because in one of my post where I'm talking about White conservative weaponizing minorities against each other somehow triggered A LOT of people. I even got a comment saying "put the reblogs back I have to give my perspective as someone with Asian/japanese ancestry" and I got like..... "Hm no?" LMAO This girl REALLY thought her opinion was remotely relevant when this was my perspective as Black person and I am not interested about some random Asian take on that issue. Sis really thought my post was a diss against Asians success (I mean every single person who interacted with that post had a negative IQ and entirely missed the post that's why I muted the reblogs) and got like "the cOnsErVatiVes aRe jUst acKnoLedgiNg oUr sUcCesS uwu"...... There's no wonder East Asians are looked down as White people's cucks 💀 IDK, if my community was being weaponized by racist scrotes to dogpile on other I wouldn't go uwuwhy do you mean?uwu about it. How can people have so little self awareness? ...That's why I don't believe in POC and that some communities will actually be more than willing this silence us. Sis really tried to all lives matter my take and I have no patience for that.

And soccer is brain disease tbh. Case in point : the racist Argentinians players dragging Mbappé... Which is a shame bc Messi and him seem to be very cool. Fans are the worst. I think I realized how racist these people were when they said ANTOINE GRIEZMANN (France NT player) wasn't White enough just because his mom was...... Portuguese (when his dad is German)💀

Imagine thinking this man is not White enough when them Argentians be looking like tragic mulattos themselves 💀💀 HE'S LITERALLY THE ARYAN PROTOTYPE 💀💀his name is ANTOINE. THAT'S THE WHITEST FRENCHIEST NAME EVER!! NEVER IN MY LIFE DID I MEET SOMEONE CALLED ANTOINE THAT WASN'T WHIIIIITE 💀💀💀💀

Argentinians living up their nazi heritage ; Portugal ain't white enough lmao...

What's funny with Latins is that they have this thinly veiled superiority complex with Black people.....but highkey are envious of the cultural impact of Black culture worldwide. Latin culture has a load of influence on music, but its impact is not as multifaceted as Black culture (beside music, fashion, hairstyles, make up, slang, etc.). I saw some Latins seethe about Black Panther and the hype the Black community was having from this movie, and Black twitter, in its usual shadiness got like "hmmm don't you have Rio? 🤔" LMAOOOO (it was before Encanto though)

And is France racist? hm... I mean, it's a European country 🥴🥴 but it's definitely one of the least racist one for sure. Non french netizens will do the most about how islamophobic France is, but Islam isn't a race so the problem our country has with Islam isn't much related to race. Because of colonization, France has many territories oversea where its natives are Black, so France is inherently already multiracial, and that's something that many French people acknowledge. I feel like french are more worried about culture than race (ln many aspects, I, as a Christian Black woman, have to bear much less prejudice than a Muslim male, for example). That's why our country is very defensive against Islam (which comes with a whole cultural set) rather than race.

We consider assimilation as a staple and reject self IDing communities (whether they might be sexual, racial, religious). Any stats trying to quantity race, religion or sexuality are ILLEGAL, here. That's why when I see foreign rightoids be like "France is already 25% Muslim!! #greatreplacement" I just know they are full of shit, because such stats are technically illegal...

To give you an example, France leader of the far-FAR right is a Jew...(Eric Zemmour) and a significant amount of people from North Africa/muslim are in the (far) right too.. (many of them change their names to make them sound more french/less Arab such as Jean Messiha lmao)

France itself is a mixed nation between Romans invader and Galicians (basically France indigenous) also some viking mingling in the north(?) That's why french people can be very phenotypically diverse. If you look Griezman (France North type) and Kenji Girac (Southern France type - he's also a gypsy) who are both White french while looking quite different.

Unfortunately nationalism is on the rise, there's an actual revival of neo Nazi (which is hilarious bc France has been invaded/defeated by Nazi and that actual self respecting French rightoids hate Nazism because of that 💀) so I feel like France is getting less sale for foreigners/non Whites. I think France is the best place to live in Europe if you're afraid of racism but yeah, it's getting quite heated here....

[plucky-passerine]

Yeah, I probably should update my about page (or honestly just remove it altogether, it’s really old).

I’m gonna try to respond to as many of your points as possible, but I wanna preface this by saying that I’m not trying to be accusatory or hostile at all. I know tone doesn’t come across well over text so I wanted to get that out of the way.

First off, yeah, sorry, I got confused. I thought I’d clicked on the reblog from the blog that made the comment, so I was mostly responding as though it was to the commenter. I’d blame tumblr’s ui for being confusing, but it’s honestly my fault for not double checking. I do appreciate you replying to me though because whatever you might think of me I am trying to be open to these conversations.

I think it’s extremely fair to bring up race here. I brought up gender identity for the same reason, because the history and policies that affect us on those levels are deeply important to these conversations. As a white person, you’re right in that I’m not impacted by this history on the same level that black and indigenous people are, and I agree that white liberals have been seriously dropping the ball (which I admit is a fairly light phrase for such a deeply systemic issue). In fact, a lot of white liberals have been taking some extremely concerning stances on the Palestinian genocide, especially given the fact that it’s been going on since long before October 7th.

I didn’t say anything about voting independent or republican specifically because I did read your tags, and I don’t think voting independent is the same as voting republican for the same reason I don’t think voting democrat is the same as voting republican. However, I’ve also never seen any substantial evidence that voting for a third party in the general election will yield substantive results. I believe in voting for an ideal in the primaries and voting for strategy in the general, in part because conservatives don’t seem to have the same problem with voting as we do. At least in Florida, conservatives are really big on voting and they vote red. That gives them a huge boost in numbers, which is in part what has led to our state having an absolutely awful Governor for the past two terms. And actually the voting initiative to get people to the polls has led to us finally getting the minimum wage in our state raised from $8 to $15. Which I also admit, you can make those changes regardless of who you vote for, so this isn’t directed at you or anyone else who is voting, but per the original post, we do have to vote, if only for the amendments and representatives that have a more immediate impact on our lives.

Also, I don’t like Nacy Pelosi either. Personally I really like Elizabeth Warren, who’s actively trying to put pressure on Biden to stop arming Israel and call for a ceasefire, but that’s splitting hairs and I know that’s not your main point.

I actually do have a Palestinian-American classmate right now. I haven’t tried to talk to her about this stuff directly because I don’t want to stress her out, since I know the shit happening now can’t be easy to deal with, but she’s talked a lot in class and I’ve been listening to what she’s had to say. Granted, right now we’ve been talking about postcolonial studies, so I’m actually not sure what her position on voting is yet. I also know I have to look more into that because I’ve been seeing a lot of posts talking about Palestinians and not a lot of posts by Palestinians so I need to take some time to seek those out.

Honestly, I don’t know when the right time is going to be. I can hope it’s when we get our shit together with a couple more terms and get in some actually impactful candidates, but I’m worried things are going to get worse before they get better. I know I’m incredibly privileged that I’m white and I don’t have to personally worry about these issues, but I do worry for my friends who aren’t, and I do worry about the rising transphobia and ableism and the other ways fascism is gaining more power.

I have looked at the ship and I don’t like it either, but it’s leagues better than the one that actively wants me dead. And I also think we can criticize things without removing nuance. We can acknowledge that democrats are part of a long running colonial and imperialist power and that a lot of its policies and positions are still heavily entrenched in those problems and also acknowledge that at least the people (in large) are making efforts to do better.

I do wish we had better options. I’m mostly just scared of what will happen if another republican gets into office right now, especially with what I’ve seen them do with power at the state level. That’s why I started off with the personal angle, because that’s my stake in it. I don’t see a way to avoid that on a federal scale while also not voting for whoever gets the primary vote.

That said, if you have more information on large-scale efforts to get an independent vote on the board, could you link me them? I’d at least be interested in reading about it.

[mitigatingacademics]

{11.06.23}

This past week has been absolutely insane.

Fav coworker started her new regular which has us working 3 nights a week together.

Unfortunately, for every single one of the past FIVE nights that I've worked, another co-worker has been assigned as extra coverage.

I never get anything done when he's around.

To be fair to him, I'm not always mad about it.

Two of the nights that were Fav, other co-worker and I resulted in laughing so hard it caused physical pain.

Night before last other co-worker decided we were going to discuss politics.

I am always game for this. If you disagree with me, all the better. I play fair, too, but if you ask for it, you're gonna get it, so you better be able to hold your own. 🤣

Fav and I, unsurprisingly, have more in common with each other than we do with other co-worker.

Other co-worker brought up Issue 1...and I'm fairly certain he regretted it, though no one's position changed.

He tried to explain to us what 'religious conservatives' are trying to accomplish by voting the way that they do.

We're aware, thanks.

He never did come up with answer to the several times I inquired why said 'religious conservative' voters felt it was alright to attempt to enforce their values on the rest of us.

At some point, thank you time change, it became 2:00 that was 1:00 again and we re-lived an hour.

Co-worker pointed out that the Founding Fathers were Christians.

I pointed out that said Christians made a very clear point of including protections against a national religion in the Constitution.

It went back and forth like that for awhile.

Fav and I explained how abortion is HEALTH CARE, using the example of another fellow employee who almost died from a wanted pregnancy that turned out to be ectopic.

I used that opportunity to remind everyone that there are actual members of the Ohio Legislature that believe that pregnancy could have been viable if it had just 'been transferred to the uterus'...and that these men have displayed a level of confidence in their wrongness that should preclude them from making laws about ANYTHING, EVER.

Co-worker concluded, much to Fav's dismay, that the issue 'just should have been written better' so that it, somehow, encompassed answers to all of the concerns we were able to raise about a 6 week heart beat law.

THEN he said 'this should have been settled a long time ago.'

I asked how, exactly, it 'should have been settled' and he said he had more important things to think about...like the lithium shortage.

So...

Last night I didn't even start out with a goal of accomplishing anything meaningful. I was hoping, however, not to end up down that same rabbit hole again.

Alas...

Co-worker shows me a magazine produced by our union and asked me if I get it/read it.

I do not in both cases.

I'm trying to read my book and he starts telling me about why he enjoys it. I can't concentrate while he's talking so I take a closer look and the magazine happens to have Magic Kingdom on the cover.

I made a comment about how I might have picked that one up had I seen it somewhere due to a passing interest in Disney. ...this was a miscalculation.

The next thing I know, he's telling me that he won't use his money to support Disney because of their harmful attitude towards children.

I'll be honest, this one took me a minute.

59 seconds longer than it should have.

I'm like 'in what world is DISNEY being anti-child a positive move for their business model?'

Co-worker is big into business. 'Capitalism with a cap' is what he keeps coming back to. There's absolutely no reason Jeff Bezos needs all the money he has, he says, but also, new last night, he can't wait to sign up for Elon's first colonizing trip to Mars 🤦🏻‍♀️ - at this point I'll help him pack.

He keeps tap dancing, not committing, but as it begins to click for me I make a comment about how the only real controversial stance I've heard about Disney taking anytime lately was actually just pro-worker.

Meaning, of course, their respect of the right of their LGBT employees to exist.

And that did it.

The gays are a threat to the children.

They don't need to see that.

It doesn't need to be shoved down their throats.

'My brother went to college, lived in a dorm and they brain washed him into thinking he's a woman. I treasure the old pictures I have of him.'

Did I mention that co-worker's Dad is a former coworker...currently in a relationship with another man?

When I pointed out that your sexuality is not something that you choose through conscious effort ('Did you choose to be straight?' 'How do the pious evangelicals that 'protect' their children from the influence of the gays...end up with gay offspring?' I am, without objection, 100% in love with the wrong Cheney daughter) he responded by saying he doesn't think his Dad is really gay...he's really straight though, because he managed to father children with a woman.

Y'all...

Several times throughout this exchange and not for the first time during this kind of discussion, co-worker points at a poster on the wall about work place safety (physical, see something say something safety, mind you) and comments that we really shouldn't be talking about these things at work. Someone might consider it harassment.

...and he might have an actual point there. A different, regular co-worker is a religious man of convenience who probably, even jokingly, takes things too far.

I actually enjoy my conversations with him, but I could do without the time he came to me 'looking for the baby killer perspective.' It's not like I'm going to report him, though, I wasn't actually offended and I give him a hard time, too. We've worked together a lot and I feel like we've developed a fairly good natured disrespect of each other's politics. 🤣

This co-worker did call THAT co-worker a 'Commie,' however. More than once. And that co-worker is reactionary plus not at all a fan of the other guy's. That seems a little dangerous.

As far as I'm concerned, however, I stayed in the accounting office trying to read during our downtime and co-worker kept showing up at the door for the next round. ...I was happy to oblige him, but if he was offended when I tried, early on, to summarize with "Oh, so you're homophobic"...he wasn't offended enough to let it go.

When I pointed out that our company has a similar take to Disney on LGBT acknowledgement and support he went off about how our company shouldn't have been able to require vaccination and he thinks that's what caused his cataract.

I've been off work for almost 5 hours at this point and I still have the headache.

I didn't go away mad, though.

He actually thinks starting a new society on Mars and governing with a 'city council' will move humanity beyond social issues.

It was later clarified that he fully intends to take his Christianity to Mars and that others will be welcome to bring and practice their religious as well, but it won't cause any problems because they won't be 'tied to Earth.'

This is not a serious person. 🤣

Despite all of this, an effort HAS been made to be somewhat responsible.

I got a 5 mile walk in at the park Friday morning. I didn't get nearly enough face time with fall this year.

I've almost made my way through the entire LSAT Trainer, completing a lesson every night save for last night.

I've got one chapter left in How to be Sort of Happy in Law School.

I finished one audio book and started another.

I think I would have liked the first book better if I had read it rather than listened to it...and, determining that the second book is both short and has a lot of potential, I'm probably just going to buy it (the library only has the audio version).

It's ironic, I think of myself as a audio learner. I've always gotten a lot out of lectures. With audio books, though, there's just too much opportunity for my mind to wander...and if I'm really into it I'm going to want to notate as well.

I started Adam Kinzinger's book Renegade.

Five chapters in and, while I feel like I might have had disproportionate expectations due to how much I loved Cassidy's book, literal war stories, outrageous ego, and doubling down on hot takes that indicate we've learned nothing at all from our experiences wasn't exactly what I was hoping for.

...I have started responding to his wild tweets about Israel with direct quotes from his book about his opinions on Iraq. Which is fun.

Speaking of, I finally finished the notes for the first Israel book (and took a star off my Goodreads review in the process 🤣) and started a second.

Early in, the second book is already more satisfying in an interpreting the situation realistically kind of way.

Now, unfortunately, I also feel compelled to educate myself on Iran and Turkey.

...who has time for all of that?!

[hanzi83]

This Blog is Probably the Rough Draft of a Better Version That I Will Write Later

I am just gonna warn from the get go, like always because my process in writing shit down is always to go with random thoughts I had covered on the podcast, but by the time I accumulate enough topics to talk about or write about, more shit comes out and then I am behind, but I need to write down thoughts even if it is not the best writing I will do. Luckily I am not a destination account or brand so only people who are consuming the stuff I write or podcast about, are normally people who have a hard on for me and want to use shit to weaponize against me. They know when I am feeling irrational or feeling really depressed, not from just my issues, which are supposed to officially be nonexistent, my mental trauma is not worthy of people giving a shit until it becomes convenient to do so. And sometimes with the world going further to the right, and people who are supposed to be “good” limiting narratives, it feels like this world is destined to go the way it goes and I don’t know if I belong on this planet because I really don’t want to regress and become a sophisticated version of a right winger, and this is why they define shit by the most transparent while letting fundamentalist bullshit sophisticate where everyone always becomes more susceptible this shit, and because going in that direction has become the new “cool” aesthetic, and if you want to be more socially conscious you get dirty looks, even from people you might know, because they think that shit is someone too afraid of being edgy and being pressured to be politically correct, when the regressive shit and the need for edge lord shit is what is politically correct for the people with white supremacist and fundamentalist ideology. So it is disheartening to see there is a funded movement of the new right funding different groups from different backgrounds to be anti LGBTQ, I never seen people who have always hated Muslims especially, and have used the “homophobic” excuse for why they need to bomb the shit out of everyone in different Muslim countries so you make it seem like you have some values, yet now when you have Muslims buying into that anti LGBTQ shit in this current day, the same Western fundamentalists suddenly are in favor for Muslims who are following this new age fundamentalist bullshit which has to be funded in my personal opinion. All these people from different backgrounds are being used as tools, and the conservatives see them as useful because they are pushing back against any kind of “wokeness” so they can play the tokens who act like claiming racism is the most ridiculous thing ever and the right wing will then use them as the “good ones who don’t have to claim racism” even though they wouldn’t support these different minorities if they were not there to white wash what is going on so this new right wing shit takes over. People go off about diversity and like I have said, there hasn’t been so much forced diversity than there has been with embracing white supremacist and fundamentalist ideology. My biggest worry is not knowing what people I know have embraced because I have been kept out of the loop for the last 13 years with what is going on and what people are associated with. It makes me lose hope because even if you oppose this shit, there will never be a complete honest conversation of how mafia like this world is and how there are different delegations within the system having faction warfare, and the rules we are seeing on the surface don’t really matter because literally everyone is breaking them, they have you arguing within limits so it constantly helps the more conservative leaning narrative, it is so powerful they make you think that “liberal minded” shit is what runs the narratives because the on surface and transparent establishment might have a positive message about social issues, where now other establishment types who make themselves the “anti establishment” can push back on the limited narrative and not to expose how it is all run, but to empower shit that is designed to go further to the right while disguising it with “progressive” because if people flat out admitted they are pivoting to the right, it would take their credibility or whatever is left of it so they have to pivot in that direction but they are so pussy they need another label for what they are doing so if anyone claims they are moving more to the right, they can constantly complain at the behest of the right wing, and go off about how they are the sane left and people on the left have gone more insane like it is even equatable compared to what the far right wing is doing with the laws being passed while also using celebrities for these storylines to manufacture consent so people start advocating for regressive conservative values in this modern era, because they make it seem like liberation or wokeness is going too far, like the right wing aren’t normalizing child marriage, taking away abortion rights from women, wanting to erase the racist history that exists, wanting to inspect children athletes genitals, wanting records of menstrual cycles, that never counts as “going too far” but you will fall for sensationalist shit that helps target people in marginalized communities. They use the celeb shit to help manufacture consent, and people who report in the media on some of the social media discourse storylines as an actual news story to help facilitate the pro fundamentalist side, they are the biggest pieces of shit and I wish they are haunted mentally for life and people they love walk out on them and when they are alone with all that “success” they will realize selling their souls to be part of the new regime will not be good enough in the long run, in fact a lot of people who have sold their souls to be aligned with their favorites in the system, even if it is exploiting their loved ones as guinea pigs, will not ever feel complete. If all those perks and what not were so fulfilling you would not have to monitor mentally ill cogs in the system, and work hard at gaslighting with manipulative abuse to keep people under your thumbs. The more you do that, the worse you will become. I get it you think if you can conceal your sociopathic ways and present your aesthetic, you think it will be enough so people will never know what kind of person you are, but there will be more effort every day being put in protecting your sociopathic ways, that any minor exposition of your motives, it will bring out an uglier side that will be more difficult to hide as your life continues. I know I will never be able to flourish the way I want, but seeing what it takes to have to flourish the way these people are doing it, I don’t want to be someone who uses my power to brainwash dumbed down people and get them to torment other people because I am so desperate in having my name in the discourse and selling my soul for the entertainment dollar, and this is what all this shit is now in the discourse, it is sports entertainment for the purpose of moving into a fascist world. That is why the writer and actor strikes are happening and I support the people in these strikes, but while this is going on, it feels like it is its own storyline, and even if Hollywood officially loses its quality with overproduced AI shit, the showbiz world is not just overproduced Hollywood shit, the showbiz world has expanded to social media storylines, streamers on these platform, the alt media, and in politics, and you can’t look at what is happening on the surface with all this theatrical bullshit and tell me this is not being written, like we are moving in a dangerous direction but all of this shit on the surface is gimmicked filler bullshit, until it takes us into on surface faction warfare, and even the people who are supposed to be educating you, are not really educating you because they will limit the narratives which always end up helping the right wing narrative be the dominant one, despite them claiming they are being suppressed. Everyone uses online shit to sports entertain right, so even people who are on the good side, they don’t want to admit that online shit is limited kayfabe bullshit, but doing that, helps the right wing take advantage to convince apolitical people, who don’t believe the world is what they say it is, that the right wing are the ones who are truth tellers because there might be some blind truths they put out there, but then a lot of what they say is propaganda to direct people into thinking more fundamentalist, this is why people on the left shouldn’t deny conspiracies blindly or put everyone who is into conspiracies in that right wing pile. There is a reason why the right wing are embracing the conspiratorial shit because if there are valid ones out there, they get credit, and the system is such a right wing trajectory system, that the “conspiracies” they are propping up will be designed to be true so then even bad faith “left” people will then start pivoting to the right wing 

Like right now, to help the right wing narrative of Covid, they are now putting out leaks and when things get “leaked” out and they claim that this was not supposed to be known, it is a complete and utter lie, like if the democrats really had all this control of the narratives and nothing else is there, we wouldn’t know about cocaine found in the white house, and by design they will say that they couldn’t find who it belonged to, it gives the impression cover ups are happening and there is favoritism to Hunter Biden, when literally no one from the right wing is paying for their consequences, they are supposedly being investigated, yet they are still allowed to go on podcasts and speak against this case and continue to spread their narrative, Trump can literally go and run for president again despite being twice impeached or whatever his crimes he committed, they give you the impression that the right wing are the ones who are targeted, and I know people on the left are not cheerleaders of the FBI etc, like they are happy about someone powerful facing some consequences, but dumbing down the narratives and your villains is not gonna help and it just makes people who are leaning right run the narrative that their side is targeted when it is working in their favor even if it looks like the system seems to be anti Trump when the system needs someone like Trump to exist, they need people like Tucker to exist. Their bases can keep repeating they are fighting the good fight despite being some of the shadiest people on the planet, if the right wing trajectory system is supposed to always go further to the right, they can use sports entertainment leaks to make it seem people oppose these cult of personalities and the people who want to blindly use anything to hate Trump will think it is an own to go “Oh look Tucker is being nice to Trump despite the texts saying he hates him” you ever think this shit is a storyline and they are using these leaks to kind of manipulate favor for their side and since we are supposed to hate Trump or Tucker etc, we are just happy that someone is transparently a hypocrite like that even means anything anymore, when people who support who they support are gonna justify why they are gonna support them. Denying conspiracies like a lab leak theory has been dangerous as well as these right wingers are using it to weaponize for their white supremacist agenda, but anyone who is apolitical, they are gonna suspect what is happening in this world and the direction we are moving has been by design, and it was like the establishment denied it and censored people for the purpose of when the information comes out that there could have been something where there was a lab leak, then those people feel vindicated and if I am of the belief that this pandemic was gonna go in the direction it went while also facilitating revolutionary or fascist world,  it would to me, imply a lot of world leaders knew the direction of this shit but they are just making it seem like China is where it all started at, when over the last decade, there were always reports time to time of stuff leaking out from US labs, and predictive programming from movies and television that there could be this life threatening pandemic going down, I always felt that something would end up happening in our lives, so while yes I think this pandemic is real etc, but giving the right wing the carte blanche to act like they are the only ones calling out this being planned and purposefully done, makes it seem like it is a liberal plot, but what if this was a right wing plot and the people who the right wing think are shady like Fauci, they might be guilty of some shit, but you can only call them out if it is weaponizes it against the left leaning narrative, but how do I know Fauci isn’t someone who is actually aligned with the new right? People who are democrat will blindly praise Fauci, even if he did or said some good shit but now that there are leaks that they didn’t want to put out that it could be a lab leak and they didn’t want to politicize this, by this being leaked out to show there was a cover up, it is being used for politicization. If we weren’t supposed to know about this suppression scientists had to face, we wouldn’t know about it, but we know about it because the people who are highly platformed and are leaning right wanted to get ahead of it and pretend they were the ones calling it out, and while calling it out they then added their anti vaccine propaganda. They had to have planned for this shit to come out, and because people on the liberal side don’t get conspiratorial even if they are liars, the people on the right get to be booked as people who were purposefully censored so they can brag about being right about the entire thing even if they probably had an insider script as well to know where the world was going. It feels in an overall sense, because on the surface the information is limited and no matter who is in charge, the stuff on the surface will transparently implode, it feels like the people who claim to be calling out know where it is going and they self preserve so they can act like they were chastised for their conspiracies while it is being designed for them to win. Like if it is revealed there was a leak, people will them boost up RFK Jr and claim his conspiracies are right, even though he is twisting it into an anti Asian and anti Jewish conspiracy about how they were spared while it was used as a bioweapon against other people etc, thing is if I believe this shit was planned, then yes maybe important people in these delegations are spared and they probably have access to the treatments and cures that most people would not be privy to, so if let’s say there are wealthy people who were spared from being really sick etc, and some of these wealthy people fit under the description of what RFK is saying, then his ilk will blindly think “specific races” were spared when it could be powerful and wealthy people from all backgrounds. Thing that also makes me think this shit was planned, because if the discourse over the last decade online was help building up trust of the transparent establishment, they were already setting the seeds of anti vaccine shit throughout the mid 2000’s to the 2010’s and while I never was a full anti vaccine guy etc, when I was really dumbed down, they had celebs like Jim Carey etc being propped up talking about there were dangers in some of these vaccines and no one seemed to have had a problem with it, it was being promoted in mainstream settings etc, so it was never that I was anti vaccine, but if you told me in some cases that something in them can do damage in certain cases, I could believe it, but I was never against vaccines as a whole, but now this discourse over the last 10 years now makes sense because they were planting narratives online, and when people think we are consuming info online in the last decade, me specifically thought I was getting secret information because the MSM and the establishment were not covering this shit, but it feels like they always knew the internet narratives would drive different countering narratives that would eventually become their own MSM establishment, if you don’t think social media and the internet are just as much the establishment than the MSM you claim to hate, then you are a fucking liar. When most shit has always been lies for the most part in our world, it has become easier for bad faith actors to take advantage of the lies the establishment tells, and then put their own twist on it. Anything that I write or say on a podcast, I don’t claim I am 100 percent right, but people who have witnessed my journey have known that when it comes to official information I never been the smartest person on the planet, I fully admit I am a dumbed down guy who never understood shit, which has probably been a reason why I have been susceptible to propaganda in a sophisticated way, especially if you consume entertainment to get the hot takes on the narratives in our world. Thing is RFK will say some anti Semitic shit and then praise Israel as a defense of why he can’t be anti Semitic, but being aligned with fundamentalists who support Apartheid doesn’t mean you give a shit about the innocent Jewish people that exist in the world, like why would someone like Ice Cube, who people claim with his dog whistles over the course of his career, is talking about the fundamentalists in the industry, but then he will be seen with someone like RFK who is into the fundamentalist shit that you have claimed to be against in your career, it is like some of these public figures who have controversy to their name during their careers will have enough truth that outweighs the negative, but as they are approaching this modern era, everyone who has always had propaganda spewed to some extent, will now be defined by that because they are all moving in that direction and that is why these celebs and public figures who take pictures with other far right wing public figures, they are signaling who they are gonna align with but in the middle of doing that, they will be chastised for it but they will also tell some truths in the middle of it, so people will think they are being canceled for telling the truth. I know I am all over the place, and if you feel this blog doesn’t make any sense, keep in mind, when I am writing this, I have had this in my system for the past week, there is so much more discourse coming out, and now I am kind of just going step by step with whatever notes I have, and I am just speeding through some of the points, so some of the shit I will write about won’t have the smooth segues, maybe it will, because when I write I don’t plan what I am going to write and sometimes that can work in my advantage but a lot of times it works to my disadvantage and guess what no one's gonna take me seriously as a writer, like they were going to take me serious anyways. My mind is too cluttered right now and at this point I was thinking about even bailing on this blog because I am not really feeling it and I don’t think I am expressing myself properly, not that I ever really do. Listen to the podcast and listen how much I fucking stammer my thoughts away. 

I can’t believe I live in a world where it is becoming real discourse that someone could be a clone. Like I have had a fun thinking of how advanced public figures are, whether they are clones, or transfer their consciousness into a new body etc, but even the cloning discourse has to be limited, like “They cloned this person and the real one died” like I could see that, but if there was cloning, why wouldn’t the real version still be alive and this serves as a convenience to get more work done with different gigs so you make even more money from it. I do think there is something going on and that Jamie Foxx conspiracy shit was designed for a marketing tool and they are finding gimmicked ways to have this kind of exposed, it will never really ever be exposed but it is like we are moving into a direction to show you there is more to what they say is going on but the people who are gonna lead the charge are anointed that duty so they can seem like they are the ones who are right, because most establishment people in the MSM will never entertain those kinds of conspiracies and since those people are automatically discredited to people who consume online shit, like that online shit isn’t also scripted or organized shit to present a new version of the establishment, it makes people who blindly take in the stuff they are taking in then just regurgitate, even if you think you are consuming the more enlightened narrative you will not really know how to explain shit, you will just regurgitate the talking points and I say this as someone who has done that through his lifetime, which is probably why I have been the perfect mark for someone to propagandize which is why I have jumped from mindset to mindset thinking that I am discovering this big truth that they don’t want you to know, but if it is out there and it is coming from people who are funded, then it is clearly they want you to know this exists, so I have been seeing more accumulative shit about cloning and different things happening with public figures in general. It is funny because the shit they show you on television and movies that is supposed to be grounded in reality comes off as being the fake shit, and all the movies dealing with AI and technology and superheroes etc, are somewhat telling you the truth in a gimmicked way. You have to extract the symbolism from it and see the overlaying message of where this world is going and it feels like since our world resembles the entertainment we consumed in the 90’s and early 2000’s, then I can only imagine what we will manifest from our entertainment in the next 20 years. I know immediately talking about cloning etc takes me out of the race of being credible and that is fine, but people who pretend to be thought leaders and educators in the sports entertainment political world, they might have a nicer aesthetic, but they are not telling you all the angles that exist, they limit the angles that exist so they end up conceding to the right wing to prove they are the sane leftist, so what they are spewing out is just as crazy as what my theories are, but at least I will use my “theories” not to regress, even if there is more profitability with dumbing yourself down and regressing. If my shitty theories help me not to regress then I think it is a win in this world. I can see many people transforming into the right when they do stories where right wing violence is prevalent and then to prove to their new right wing audience they are fair, they will equate left wing violence like there isn’t an overall right wing trajectory that is pushing people to the brink of insanity. They will even take the bait with obvious shit that is supposed to be sports entertainment, like I am noticing that in the 2010’s where it was becoming more socially conscious to push back against the systemic narratives of racism and even if the theatrics with public figures and sports entertainment felt a bit gimmicked, I knew it was to counter the already sports entertainment theatrics the right wing has made normalized, and then when they propped up certain Karen videos as being the gimmick, I knew it would be a formula of some of them being more to the story where maybe race might not be the issue, so now we have a plethora of sports entertainment viral shit that people report on as news to now push back on the idea that people who claim racism might be overdoing it, so the system is so racist that even when racism is discussed, it has to be limited so it makes the racist side actually come off better in sophisticated ways, that is why there are so many gimmick ways to discuss racism and other bigoted stuff so you don’t notice the sophistication of other normalized shit that will always seep in. They will do obvious shit like Tuberville where you end up giving him the benefit of the doubt because you are so far gone into the right wing direction, like the guy is admitting what their movement is while making it seem like if him and his ilk are gonna be called white nationalists for their patriotic beliefs then so be it. We know these people are racist and they are finding their gimmicked ways of establishing it all over the fucking media. That other person Eli Crane, this guy is already a racist and passing off racist amendment, and the thing people are focusing on are if the term colored people is racist or not, I saw more focus on debating that issue over the fact that yes a racist person who is trying to advocate for a bigoted and racist amendment did just say something racist, it is like the bare minimum of the racist shit he is doing is being focused on so jerkoffs like Matt Walsh can do videos about “Well actually here is why colored people is not a racist term” and then we have to talk in circles with more sports entertainment fascists about this, like is anyone surprised Charlie Kirk who uses his turning point shit into funding culture wars that advocate for bigoted and racist shit would say some racist shit, I am not saying you shouldn’t call them out but the worst part of their racism is already on display, and people online think by engaging in these nowhere to go discussions, they think they have woken up to the propaganda. They think because what was considered mainstream in the 90’s and 2000’s and they think that it is the same value now when that shit that would have value back then has been devalued in their influence because the online shit has replaced it, and maybe some of the alt media is not as big as the MSM in size but they have powerful people protecting them to spew more sophisticated right wing narratives that seem like it is opposite of what the system wants, if that were the case we wouldn’t be hearing about nonstop what the right wing are always bitching about. 

It is like we create these people who are gonna be problematic in the discourse, who are not playing by regular rules, it might look like it but it becomes a fucking new professional wrestling way of debuting people who are gonna be known in the background for a bit but then once they are canceled, that is when they get the new marketing and they end up flourishing. I never really knew of Colleen Ballinger, I may have seen some of her sketches time to time, I knew she was a Netflix person because I would see her but I didn’t know much about her but now I got a WWE promo package of all of her questionable material from the past to correlate into what her current controversy is which is grooming her kid audience, and we act shocked by each individual case about this, when there is an overall pattern with showbiz and politics where there are some fraternity like rules of doing some of this shitty stuff and this has always been going on but now people are becoming characters from it and nothing really happens other than internet scoffing but it feels like we live in such an exploitative world, that this world is such a game that each of us will be systematically abused mentally or physically so the system then vindicate us while making money off the trauma. We can keep promoting Andrew Tate and Nick Fuentes and act like condemning will be enough but these people exist for the discourse because this is where the exploitative entertainment world is going. It is sad that a bunch of people have to be abused and we continue to let the system do it only to then promote the troublemakers who are now method acting and playing the role. People think that guys like Crowder and Shapiro have failure of showbiz careers, because they didn’t make it in the traditional showbiz settings of comedy and Hollywood, but their showbiz careers have actually skyrocketed because their trajectory is where showbiz is going, it would be so entertaining if it wasn’t so fucking tragic, because horrible shit is happening and instead of focusing on the systemic issues of it, we have to deal with sports entertainers fascists who are advocating for right wing fundamentalism shit and presenting it with culture wars. You can expose these guys for being creeps and racists and pedos etc, but nothing is happening to any of them. If they were really going to be punished, they would’ve disappeared but they are still the talk of the town, there are definitely methods under  the table where people will profit off discourse, even if they have to be arrested and get their mugshot out there for viral shit, they will use relationship shit in showbiz world to now advocate for more fundamentalist beliefs of women going too far with this liberation shit and they make hypersexual and over the top on purpose so people can sophisticate their propaganda of advocating for more control of these people, and the celebs who don’t even really have these healthy relationships and most of it is probably arranged, they will have their followers judge these things like they are regular relationships because people love to live vicariously through their favorites whether they want to admit it or not. And I just feel all this fundamentalist shit is seeping into the entertainment world or it has for the longest time but they disguise it with other gimmicks and presentations. Like the discourse knows what is up when you have a rapper named Sexy Red go to a high school and it is like is meant for the discourse of “LIBERAL SHOWBIZ INDOCTRINATING YOUR KIDS IN THE SCHOOLS WHERE TRANS TEACHERS ARE BRAINWASHING THEM” even though from what it seems, Sexy Red just went there to give back and do charity. I don’t think she was performing, but the overall accumulation of presenting that narrative that the right wants you to believe. And then at the same time they will throw funding to right wing causes in the entertainment world like having billboards to promote Nick Fuentes making some podcast appearance, they will promote a hairdresser who has her own salon preemptively promote she is banning LGBTQ people from her store, and people who then promote this woman’s business in their “news show” then go “Hmm I don’t know if this person is a fundamentalist” well she went famous for this purpose and she will probably get support, so she isn’t some regular person, she got propped up because she probably made a deal with the devil to be a fucking bigot and her business would probably get more support because people will support bigoted causes because they view it as victory to push back on “woke agenda”, or you will have obvious villains that are supposed to be the culture vultures like an Adam 22 who is hated so he can capitalize off it and you think he looks like a chump for having a porn star fuck his girlfriend when these people probably have open relationships but since we apply regular rules to the aesthetic, and we are supposed to hate the guy, we think we are dunking on an L he took because regular people don’t necessarily do that shit with their spouse or significant others, like if it makes you feel good dunk on him, but this shit is just sports entertainment to me. I doubt he gives a shit who is girlfriend is fucking. This is the kind of entertainment you can expect with the strikes going on, it has already been brewing there for the last 10 years on the social media world, it is like the sports entertainment there will catch traction from other sports entertainment news personalities who think covering this is actually news and you are just giving us a kayfabed level storyline that is supposed to help manufacture consent with real issues but the real issues take the backseat because this sports entertainment takes precedence 

I know I am all over the fucking place, but I am just kind of doing a rough draft of another blog that will come out where I will try to explain my shitty theories in better ways. It has been a long fucking week. It is hard to keep up with discourse, which have become their own mini storylines and miniseries and it used to be a lot more easier to keep up with when I was scaling off kind of catching up with every movie or televisions show, because there is so much content, and now that they are doubling down with sports entertainment, while moving the world more towards a very far right wing fundamentalist direction, it is just too much to keep up with. Instead of just discussing about what corruption is going on a systemic level, it gets reduced to making a mini spy thriller with Hunter Biden being involved with Chinese spies and if it isn’t that, it is him fucking hookers while being high on crank, and then we compare politicians kids on who the bigger drug addict is, listen they are are with wealthy and powerful families, they are all probably on fucking drugs at some point. It is not a big deal, but it feels in the midst of all of that, it is just finger pointing at who is more corrupt and who committed crimes, and none of these people are gonna face any consequences for whatever they have fucking done, they promote it like they give you hope they will do something but they take you on twists and turns and the destination to piss you off even more is these people will not face any consequences. Thing is I don’t even know what exactly Hunter or Don Jr did, I know Don Jr’s way more transparent and it suffers from the MSM hammering home how bad the family is while promoting them all the time, so it feels like there is MSM targets on their family while the Hunter Biden shit feels like it is being “exposed” because we are “not supposed to know about it” even though highly platformed people with millions of listeners are hearing about it nonstop, and because you don’t view that shit as the “establishment” you think no one in the “establishment” is calling out Hunter Biden at all, and it used to work in the 2010’s because social media promotion was kind of new, even though it was a mainstream version of the chatrooms in the 90’s and early 2000’s, and now it has become even more of a promotional tool and maybe because people on the left have to partake in sports entertainment to counter the right wing shit, no one wants people to know that people are given incentive to promote shit online, but acting like we are not supposed to know when literally everything out there is meant for us to know. It’s just compromised alt media needs you to think we are not supposed to know so they get credit for being the ones to speak up, when that is what is in the script. They will still promote crime wave shit and won’t tell you how this crime could possibly be funded to happen, it is amazing people think that other shit can be funded for think tanks, but never ever do they think the violence and homeless crisis could be made to happen, and when you limit the possibilities, you will always have to eventually cave into the right wing think. 

They can keep saying they are going after Trump as much as they want. They can keep promoting indictments that will happen and the more this goes on and it seems like nothing might happen even as much as they are promoting, it feels like it is designed for him to overcome, whether it is proven that they set up him and his followers or whether they finally get concrete evidence that he fully instructed specifically for this to happen, it will give him and his base which are funded to basically run amok, that is why I don’t shit on the idea of the feds being involved in my personal opinion and just my theory, but to me it would not indicate they did this to set up the Trump supporters, but maybe these feds are on that side and this entire thing was just a testing ground and run through where a lot of money is being made for the coverage of all of this shit, and not even with regular currency, probably some social media currency that is very profitable, but they promote this shit and make it look like parts of it were comical because some guy with a viking costume rubbed his asshole on Pelosi’s stapler while you have evidence on the surface of this shit getting violent etc, but because the media in general had to give you not so layered presentation of how this happens, or what actually happened and the inconsistencies from all angles, they know that this was just a test for whatever is to come, which is guy that token Vivek can promote it under the guise of disgruntled people and then hammer home the culture war points etc, because they want another one to happen and they somehow prove that there were elements of this being planned, they will win the narratives, even though if it were planned, it would be planned for their benefit, to look like the victims. That is why a bunch of the alt media types who think because they dunk on democrats can confidently say that Ray Epps was a fed, and people on the left will think it is Trump people who did this but for some reason are not capable of thinking that maybe the feds are on their side, why because you think the feds are actually going after Trump, and because nothing is happening to him that really makes him face consequences, his followers think that he is so innocent and the attempts at going after him are not working so it must mean he is really innocent. I don’t know who Ray Epps is, but the videos you see online, he seemed like someone who is supposed to play a role, but because he denies being a fed and is suing Fox, suddenly they make him a character, because if he were just some regular random guy, he wouldn’t even be getting any attention at all, it feels like because the right wing is accusing him of being something against their side, the naive “baby faces” on the democratic side then start to make him some kind of hero who has been discredited by the Trump people. This is how sports entertainment works, they can get you to side with a piece of shit just based off them being better than the other piece of shit. You will buy into shit like Geraldo actually being anti MAGA so he can get a little babyface run from this shit, and because people on the anti Trump side are so desperate to hear someone who hates Trump in the bare minimum ways, they will fully embrace it because the MAGA people might become contentious toward that person. 

I am at the point of my blog where I have jotted down things to cross off to incorporate into this writing for some reason. I kind of want to stop because I am not feeling it as much as I thought, but I will still end up putting it out because I don’t mind publishing my mediocre works, sometimes I can do this properly, and other times I write and I leave my laptop for a bit, come back after a bit and then try to write down more shit that won’t segue properly nor will it even make sense. I am thinking I should’ve aligned some of the notes to put in different categories because now I am looking down it and there are some points that would’ve fit from the top where other shit was being discussed so now I have to find some fancy way to transition into this, the people monitoring me as I write this in private are probably howling with how disorganized my scattered thoughts are, but I am in the middle of writing and mid way, I am stopping and envisioning myself in future and past scenarios and it feels like I am experiencing it and then I break out and then my thoughts written down cannot convey that, and I have to find another way to bitch about the world going into a more right wing direction while tying professional wrestling into the whole thing. I noticed even within wrestling discourse, it feels the political shit is really seeping in and right now it is just problematic individuals, but if people knew the institutions are giving incentive to people, who are supposed to be social media and discourse characters, to say or do problematic shit, because their entire industry is tied to some fundamentalist shit, and it has become more obvious, like Rick Steiner getting canceled will give him his further push because if I believe WWE are kind of funding or giving incentive to fundamentalist beliefs since there seems to be a pipeline between then and right wing politics, again my theory and opinion, it is not surprising why someone they have signed to a legends deal, and somehow is on some school board will be in public making anti trans comments and we present it like someone out of touch who may or may not have made a mistake so we discuss if this person could grow, but if this person is a public figure and they are doing this currently, something tells me he is not gonna change and it will be beneficial to him because being bigoted might get you scoffed at on a social level, but nothing happens to you rarely because it will always be a way for them to proclaim that they defeated the woke mob and cancel culture. As much as I have enjoyed pro wrestling during my lifetime, it is difficult for me to accept the possibility of this industry being a mafia industry and sometimes I don’t know if my assessment is 100 percent correct, it is more of a reminder to me that their entire industry still has corruption and it is like fraternity with bump cards because as a public figure and being in this club, you gotta sacrifice years off your career and life, that is why if they are bringing up safety protocols and how to update shit, it could’ve been done before, but it is like everything has to go so far that there is no choice but to lay down the law and present it like wrestlers are their own worst enemy when they are booked in real life to be what they are, because once you become a public figure in this current day, everything about you is for sale, even the discussions of safety when these people who make it their entire personality trait to act like they are concerned to counter the ones who don’t seem to give a shit, it is like you are putting them as the target of being the worst of them all when those people are just cogs in the system playing a role. To me, these bump cards and invitations always existed, but now in this era, we are making discourse out of the discussion about it, because if shit is supposed to happen, it is gonna happen. That is why to stop my mental from being fucked from these possible exploitative rules, I tend to believe maybe they are going so hard with these stunts now because these guys will get advancements that will heal them from whatever injuries they have, or maybe they have a bunch of disposable clones hanging around. I can’t stomach the thought of someone’s health mentally and physically being damaged to help facilitate online discourse, does this new protocol even exist to reinforce shit or is it meant for more rules that are gonna be broken so it further cements these wrestlers are the problem, and not the exploitative mafia industry that have their self destruction rules. And if you get any benefit of the doubt, you will have to be a CM Punk, because if you think someone like Alicia Fox has been designed to get shit on because she never was the super credible talent, if she complains about issues or she goes through shit, she just becomes another cog that people will constantly undersell because she couldn’t flat out and say that being in the mafia industry and seeing the shit you see and shit you experience in a fraternity like way, it would explain why so many people end up having drug and alcohol issues, and some people will be helped and be okay and some people won;t be okay and even if WWE helps them and gives them a documentary or some shit, it will never be disclosed that the mafia industry controls the cogs by being addicts and being mentally ill because they can control these people. This again is just my theory, that is why when someone like Cornette who is clearly funded by some people to shit on people, like a mercenary podcast, people can request what narratives they can get him to put out there while also having valid critiques of things, can come out and get his cult to pile on hatred, thing is everyone in the system has their own mini cults, but Cornette is someone who has had booking power and been at the top of seeing how the game is run, so when he makes fun of a wrestler for being an addict etc, it is extra cold to me because you know industry higher ups design for these people to have the issues they have, but I guess because Cornette shits on WWE booking and dumbs Vince McMahon down to a cartoon villain, that means he is actually opposing WWE or for that matter TK, and maybe these companies get podcasters like him to shit on talent for the discourse, so you can’t talk about wanting to protect someone’s physical health and then blame it on them fully and not hold the mafia rules in the industry accountable. Again just a personal theory. I will always have that kind of feeling toward how the overall patterns operate, but it is obviously not official, but thinking that my assessment could be correct, it makes me feel like I regret being into this fandom or other fandoms that have a design to make people self-destruct. I keep thinking maybe there will be a grand change but it feels it is more profitable to debate if change is necessary and the change being talked about comes in a limited package. It doesn’t help matters pushing a fake brand vs brand rivalry so social climbers online can get their gigs they have been looking for, because you helped put other mentally ill cogs on front street but not talk about how the industry itself gives incentive or forces their  incentive in people method acting for social media discourse which will take a toll on their mental. These people don’t play by the regular rules and a lot of these celebrities, especially pro wrestlers now, are now using the online shit and the social climate that exists right now, and are using it for their online characters because there will be people who can fund that shit to happen where they will still be allowed to function. Does Kevin Kelly really support the sound of freedom movie, or is he being given incentive to have to promote it, it was like the final coffin for people to want him off commentary because before this reveal, they were getting at him for his commentary, and now they found a just reason to now shit on his commentary even more etc, but how do you know the people replacing him are not also Q Anon types, it wouldn’t just be an individual problem, it would be an industry problem. Sure we can get at the people who are going out of their way to be this characters, but it feels that is where the world is going and that is how they are recreating the attitude era, they can’t do it fully within their programming, so now this online shit is literally designed for it. And there is never anyone with a progressive message or a leftist message able to cross through because the conservative contingent without admitting it is political will shit on any type of diversity and inclusion, it is like they forced it so it could fail so they can justify why they need to regress a bit. There is also a reason why the last couple of years we have seen David Benoit pop up time to time, and it feels like they need someone related to the situation to just merely exist, because that case will turn into a true crime investigation of people wanting the case reopened because people don’t believe what happened on that day, and I notice some of the more prominent ones that are getting hits off this on youtube have also mixed in right wing shit with it, so on hand you don’t take it seriously but if there is something fishy about that, then it is another case of the right wing being “right” about something. It doesn’t feel like an accident over the years that David Benoit is seen and the reason I worry is because people think if he wants to get involved with wrestling, there is nothing wrong with it because he didn’t do what his dad did, but if you are going into the same industry as your father, in my opinion, they played a huge role in what he ended up becoming etc, so why would I want his son to be in this same industry and even though they say it is better now etc, there is still dirt you gotta do in a mafia system, there is no true well adjusted person in the industry. So yeah I worry. I know I am throwing away more credibility because I feel I can sense where a lot of these tragedies and discourse is designed to be put on front street in the future which is why they have these documentaries exist because it is fresh in everyone’s mind before a new narrative comes out and that becomes a fact. That is why people in the industry here and there will give their thoughts on more to the story and those people would not be going against what the system wants, because maybe it exists online so down the line it can be used in documentaries when newer narratives are set. I don’t necessarily buy into every conspiracy surrounding it, but even back then I always thought shit was weird and inconsistent about it, but gate keepers limited the convo on it. And I am not saying it is 100 percent true, but if I am looking from afar at the overall bad patterns that exist and what people have gotten away with and covered up and what powerful people they are tied to and no one really suffering any consequences, I can come to the conclusion this industry and the entire entertainment industry for that matter there are disturbing things that go on but whenever right wing conspiracy people talk about it, it has to be under the weaponization of showbiz being this great liberal evil, when most of it has always kind of leaned more to the right even if they have to look like it is socially more liberal from the aesthetic. Can you tell me we live in a fucking regular reality when you have Raka Khan suing many people in the industry plus home debut and police departments of some kidnapping shit, and this includes the Rock, and honestly it feels like for the last 10 years, everytime this story comes out, it is the same shit and it is just there to remind you and on the surface that seems so random to accuse all of these people are kidnapping etc because if we judge this industry like a mom and pop industry, how would the Rock have any connection to Raka Khan, she was just in Impact for a bit, and she was never heard of again, but isn’t that telling that maybe this industry is such a mafia that it has people from the underworld of their industry who do the foot soldier work and maybe sex work, who then become celebs for a bit and then they disappear, who is to say she is the only one this has happened to, I normally dismiss it because it just seems like one of those random stories that pop up here and there but we keep seeing more of it and I am wondering if there is more than meets the eye with it, is this the first of many claims going to be made about some kidnapping plots etc, like I legit don’t know but I think any conspiracy put out there anyways is always put out by the system, it isn’t some random thing that got created but in order for it to exist, it has to be considered some random conspiracy. It is not that I buy into every conspiracy but I do like to observe the narratives being planted online and looking back at how they would seep into the message board world and I really don’t think has been a mistake, I think the internet has been a tool from the beginning to have a certain underground vibe to it but it could be used a recruiting tool into different institutions and industries. Nothing about this world makes sense, it is like institutions or billionaires have control of an underworld and it feels like they are now becoming discourse, like there is someone who was a serial killer, who has been free and he was caught with a lot of guns and he had 92 legal permits to have them, and people will genuinely think these people slipped through the cracks and dumb the police down, but I feel this shit exists for that purpose to show you law enforcement or the feds let people operate and function even if they are aware of them, and nowadays you can then go after him and then they will make a documentary about the person and how crazy it is that this person slipped through the cracks, these people exist because powerful people have allowed them to exist. This is why I don’t trust the narratives with the crime wave because it feels like it could be funded and then present people not going to prison for their crimes and make it seem like it is because there is claims of systemic racism and that is the reason they got off on it, so not only are you weaponizing crime to scare citizens, but now you are making people think that the claims of racism is a reason why they are scared to lock someone up, these people literally kill minorities on tape, you think they would be scared to enforce a fucking law, to me it feels like if they didn’t go to prison for a violent crime and it is being used for fear mongering then I can theorize that maybe you are doing that on purpose so you make people think there needs be more funding to the police and also more reason for more vigilante justice. Again, just my theory. I can’t prove a lot of this rambling that probably doesn’t make much sense anyways. Even with people who are public figures, when they have to sports entertain and talk about racism they have to present it in a generalized way to talk about white people, and even though people who know what the system is can tell they are referring to people with the most power and privilege, to regular white people who might not be as educated on their privilege or systemic shit that goes on, and probably judge racism as any generalization, they could be lured in with the bad faith actors who want to recruit those kinds of white people to tell them they are never gonna be accepted and they will be hated for their skin, that is why when they promote those DEI conferences or meetings at these corporations and promote it on social media, it is always some sensationalist shit where they allowed a black woman to slap white workers and call them a Karen, and that gets the representation of what this DEI shit is and then people think the claims of racism are going too far, that is how racist the system is that even when it is being discussed or solutions being presented to the table, it has to be this kind of theatrical shit for social media so people can push back on claims of racism, it feels just like the early 2000’s again. I think generalizing in general leads to problems by design, and bad faith actors who become social climbers and sports entertainers have to exude it in some way even if their message is good, it always has to be obvious about the sports entertainment when it comes to pushing against the status quo narratives. Like I don’t understand this problem but now that TYT is pushing something that I see propped up by right wingers, I can see the patterns of at first entertaining decriminalizing drugs and now that some studies or some poll said that doing that in Portugal has backfired on them, since I am taking in the “alt media who are better than MSM” then I could buy into their sophisticated argument, but now seeing people kind of shit on the article that was put out and why it is just pro establishment propaganda, so by a news outlet who are supposed to be better than MSM, they have found a way to sophisticate an establishment narrative while pretending to have a progressive aesthetic over it, and it feels like these stories are just bowing down to right wing sports entertainers online who are gonna praise them for getting it right. Someone like Ana will go off on conspiracies but she is pushing establishment conspiracies to advocate for more right wing shit, she is normally the one who claims that people’s funded opinions cannot convince people to do horrible shit and it is just an idea, which is why she is going in the direction she is going because she is propping up more right wing shit and giving positive light to right wingers to basically manufacture consent that they are more sane and curable than the left that is calling her out for going the sensationalist route with the trans issue, whatever progressive audience is left is being manipulated by her propaganda that is essentially right wing talking points and now leaning into the “both sides” issue when the system is in favor of the right wing no matter how much it makes it look like the establishment is left leaning. If the system is like WWE, it is easy to shit on the establishment baby faces who are being booked by conservatives and then your viewpoint starts to always side with the heel who might make a valid point, but not disclosing what propaganda they are engaging with. If this were 10 years ago, I would’ve probably bought into Tucker Carlson speaking some truth about shit and thinking they are trying to censor him, and people who say they are against Tucker think that doing this stunt of a twitter show is hurting him when he is probably being allowed to do it even if they have a feud with Fox over it and that is just to give you the impression there is some in fighting going on which helps his cause because not only does he have the notion of him getting kicked off for “telling truth” people will dumb it down and think they got rid of him because of the Dominion lawsuit, when maybe the reality could be that the establishment media is not credible anymore and other alt right media is being funded under the table so it looks like Tucker is actually beating his old news network because he is more popular and you don’t think that is by design at all? You have to dumb this shit down and buy into the “leaked texts” that are facilitating this storyline and it is all filler until we get to the implosion of everything before it is revealed who is on whose side and they declare a takeover of this shit. I am not saying I am right, but I don’t like to dumb down the villains, and by doing that people can’t come up with the probabilities because we insist these people are not that smart because they come out and start acting like parodies. I think this blog is long enough. I am dreading going back and reading it, I like to make a habit of trying to vent out some thoughts to show how my mind operates and sometimes I can run this smoothly but other times I am jumping point from point and I know if people who are important take notice of this blog, it will make better writers who actually know how to articulate their thoughts more concise will get mad that someone as useless as me might be getting people interested so they feel threatened despite having the connections in the system and the access, I just come on here and try to articulate and get contaminated thoughts out of my head. I don’t claim to be right on anything I say and a lot of it is, unfortunately, just vibes that I go off and that is frowned upon in writing circles. I just need to vent at times and sometimes it might make sense, but I don’t even want to read this back, if you lasted this long you must be a fucking glutten for punishment. This is why I am mostly alone, read all of this and you wonder why most people don’t want to interact or talk with me on a regular basis. Maybe just this overall view of seeing this world come to an end and it all turns to shit and it scares me how we are using entertainment and comedy in this reality to levitate the reality of this world just coming to a complete end and all this tension and vitriol is leading to more chaos and violence, and I worry about the future. I thought I would’ve been dead 20 years ago because I knew back then I would not be able to handle this world and where it is going and that was when it was just the Iraq invasion, but the overall feeling I had made me wish I was not here and somehow I have lasted and I don’t know why. I will never understand why I have been chosen to live this long to see all of this just crumble and I become a nihilistic towards myself because I have missed out on celebrations, weddings, birthdays with people from my past and part of me is frustrated that it will always be put on me when it was because I was not in the inner circle of this mafia world and people instead used that time to kind of undermine me and make me feel less than at gatherings because Stern Show like people may have given them incentive since they are like a mafia that tries to destroy your life, so between missing out on shit and being isolated, and also not knowing what people I used to be cool with are up to as far as political beliefs and ideology and what mafia they are with, it makes me scared of what is to come. So I assume the worst and lash out because if this is it for me and I missed out on so much while people I know were able to make backdoor deals and use my Stern show status to help their climb up, it eats at me that this is what all that “fame” was for when I don’t think I got as much out of it but then if you think you are worth more, they think the powerful think you are entitled, when they are the ones who are entitled, when they think they can just intrude and manipulate people for their own benefit, just because they can, that sounds like entitlement to me. People who have to monitor my private thoughts, that sounds like entitlement to think you are owed to listen and watch over every part of my existence. Again that doesn’t exist because it is all in my head.