#but god will i try spreading this propoganda

[whiskyarts]

character interaction you never thought about 

[elfkissing]

[ID in alt text]

He talks like a gentleman, like you imagined when you were young

[weprywepry]

Hatred never ends. It's a bit absurd, absurd in the narrative sense of the word. How can we expect a story about the endless cycle of violence to do anything other than perpetuate that violence? Either AOT is wrong, and there actually is some way to prevent people from killing each other, or the series will end up as just another part of the killing.

I remember defending AOT against people that criticized its portrayal of fascism. Some of those criticisms are, still, to me very hollow. Like that one Polygon article which can basically be summed up by *"guys i think there might be fascist subtext to a story explicitly about fascism"*. That much is just a kind of trolling. But there is the more serious matter of whether or not the show accidentally encourages the sort of hatred it displays.

"You can’t choose where the cat sleeps."

"There is no such thing as an anti-war film."

No matter how talented and well minded an artist is, there is no way you can actually *make* your audience react a certain way. I'm sure there are neo-Nazis out there that enjoy watching Schindler's List. If people are stupid enough to actually *do* the things portrayed in media, then why should we be surprised by their reactions to the media? There's no way AOT could kill fascism. But still, for how intelligent the story is, I wonder if that just doesn't even matter.

It is also very stupid at times (like the S1-S2 openings), but those seem unintelligent only by how easily they are taken out of context. I think the narrative structure of Attack on Titan relies on building up expectation and then dismantling them in such a way that is revealing about ourselves. The Titans are presented as an absolute, unifying, and indiscriminate evil. The Titans are actually deeply tragic beings that are the product of human choices. This may teach an audience to not trust such narratives. That sort of "bait and switch" relies heavily on the "switch." If you only ever are exposed to certain parts of AOT (like just the action or overly dramatic AMVs), then its easy to get the wrong message.

But it's hard to blame AOT or Isayama for that. Asking an author to not allow that may as well be asking an author to not tell stories at all. It's inevitable, even more so with popularly. It's hard to tell a truth about propoganda without enabling the spread of that propoganda. Context matters, but people are inevitably lazy. It's just the law of large numbers. That isn't to say there's no use in trying to provide context. An audience can be lured into a critical experience with a piece of media. But there will always be bad actors, and those bad actors will be just as cunning.

But as a more fundamental flaw with AOT itself rather than art in general, oh my god. What the fuck is the ending.

Here's my two cents:

Armin hates himself. Even before becoming a mass murderer, he viewed himself as inadequate and undeserving of respect. That self hatred never left him and never was resolved. Becoming a soldier allowed him to quell it and act rationally according to his objective, but the self hatred was always still there.

For him, to thank Eren is an expression of his self-hatred. He sees himself as at the same level of moral fault and that they both deserve the same fate. Eren is undoubtedly *worse* than Armin (80% of the worlds population), but Armin still considers himself just as culpable. So his friendliness with Eren is a sardonic, cynical expression of his own hopelessness.

This is the most charitable interpretation I can come up with. Even if this *was* an intended subtext, I think the more honest interpretation is that Isayama just got tired and lazy. The theme of "those who can't abandon anything can't change anything" needed to be reincorporated, and this was a giant flashing neon sign indicating that. Eren did certainly change something.

What I want to say is that, by this point in the story, the notion of positive change through sacrifice had been disproven. There is no common enemy to humanity; humanity is its own enemy. So "tatakae" is no longer about promoting a greater good, but promoting one's own interest over others.

"Fight! Fight to survive!"

has a very different tone from,

"As long as we have unbending convictions, a clash is inevitable. There is but one thing to do. Fight."

I wish i could say all that.

But far too much credence is given to the idea that the Rumbling is justifiable. Hange says, "I'll be damned before I justify genocide." But at almost every step, the Rumbling is presented not as a moral apocalypse, but as a solution to a problem. This is absurd. Erwin counsels Levi that, "No one will know how things will turn out." And yet these two outcomes, let Paradis be destroyed or let Eren destroy the world are presented as the only two options. Even worse, that this is supposedly the case is supposedly *the fault* of Hange and Armin and Jean and everyone else. Floch saying that Paradis will drown in a sea of blood is propoganda. This propoganda is treated as if it is the unquestionable truth.

I think Isayama wanted a moral dilemma for the characters to ponder (save ourselves or save the world), but got lazy along the way. That dilemma, "us vs. them," is never true and is used to justify atrocity in the real world. Violence never ends, and the us's and the them's change to fit the needs of whatever cruelty needs justification. I hope that Isayama knows this. It’s present in the work already. But here it vanishes in favor of a simplistic, cliche narrative. Laziness, when dealing with subject matter as sensitive as this, has a real cost. And it's a bummer beyond all other bummers that this is how the story ends.

[idiotlittleme]

Just a reminder that both Hammas & The Israeli Government are unwanted by their own people.

This is not a war of and/or between people. This is a war of one tyranny against another.

Do not be mistaken by either propaganda. Palestinians are not Hammas. Israelis are not their government.

They want to make it seem like we all think like them, like it's black and white. But the truth is different and complicated. Do not buy this biased agenda of "it's either us or them". That's exactly what tyrants do. They make it seem like their way is the only way and if you don't think that then you are a traitor.

You are not a traitor just cause you hate killing. Just cause you don't fucking care if that baby's mom is Jewish or Muslim. Just cause you want to find another way.

And of course there are other ways. But they won't stay in power if not for the fear they are spreading amongst us. If not for the nationalist propoganda and all the racist bullshit that it's based on.

Call me naiive but I refuse. I will not die for this land and I will not kill for it. I refuse to be another pawn in their sick game. I refuse to give in to fear and hate.

We are all people here trying to make it through the day.

Are we equal? Hell no. There are a lot of work that needs to be done here. Legally, socially, culturally, and internationally. I don't want to sugarcoat it, so let me be clear - the reality is that the more white you are, the less Arab you are, you are going to get a better treatment. By the law, by the society, and by outsiders. The more Arab you are? You are considered more dangerous, less "cultured", and your education is always being questioned.

But you know what? All of these, all of these very vallid arguments about all the work that NEEDS to be done so fucking desperately, it won't change. And we can reach them with less dead bodies, less crying mothers, and less suffering and bloodbath.

The Palestinians National Authority should do their fucking job and take charge. I don't care if Hammas is allegedly more popular in Gaza, they are a terrorist group and not a state agency.

The Israeli governemnt should do their fucking job in finishing it all and not just make it all worse. No. It doesn't have the privilege to behave like Hammas - becase it's a state. Not a terrorist group. So get your shit together already.

All the other countries now getting involved - those in the middle east and those outside of it - they shouldn't aid with weapons, they should aid with getting all these maniacs to cease this and make some sort of progress that is not measured by guns and tanks.

God I wish this all will just stop.

[mayamogus]

Growing up christian, I was told multiple times in service and in sunday school that people in other countries (middle east) like to kill missionaries, and we had it drilled into our heads that if someone held a gun to your head and said if you denounce god you can live to not ever do that and loudly and proudly rejoice christianity even if it meant you and your loved ones were killed. Oh, and I was a child when I was told this too.

Take it from me. Christians genuinely don't believe they can be the oppressor in that hypothetical. They don't understand that going out of their way to try to convert people even as far as going to other countries and putting their lives at risk only for the sake of converting as many people as possible to their religion isn't a bright idea. They genuinely believe it is the right thing to do. I was a child and I was brainwashed into being scared of scenarios like this constantly.

In the hypothetical, the oppressor either doesn't like or doesn't understand what the other person's beliefs are so they think they're evil and want to destroy them. WHAT DOES THIS SOUND LIKE???? Going out of your way to try to get people to join your religion or else they'll face consequences isn't the same as people who never wanted to be born in the first place trying to just live their lives where they're stuck while being actively marginalized, targeted, humiliated, and destroyed regularly.

Don't get me wrong. There are plenty of good christians and religious people out there. I know someone can be a good person and a christian at the same time but you have to understand that the whole system is fundamentally wrong and as a whole christianity appears to be a cult built on lies and hate. Anyone who was forced into christianity as a kid can tell you that if you are queer or anything they denounce then you are not only scared to death to come out but you can easily be scared for your life.

I PROMISE you that everything they say to make being lgbt sound bad is just projection and propoganda. Please don't be afraid of being who you are. I cannot stress enough that we need the good christians to show that you can spread love and positivity to everyone and actually practice what you preach because finally leaving christianity and looking back from an outside perspective is like looking back at an abusive relationship that you don't realize was traumatizing at the time.

"Why he was conducting the survey wasn't completely clear"

Well that dog whistle is loud and clear to my trans ass. The reason is eliminationist. Full stop. It's to make us even more second class citizens than we currently are. To push us further into the margins. To make is pariahs to distract from their disasterous policies. To direct the fears and anxieties of the public on to us and have them do the dirty work of eliminating us. The history of politicians targeting an extremely small minority to demonize is... Well, do I even need to say it?

And I'll reiterate: it was never about "protecting kids." Nearly all University students are adults. That excuse is dead, the mask is off.

If you give even the smallest shit about trans people as just human beings that deserve rights and even just to be alive then you have to do something. Anything. We are begging you.

[trickstarbrave]

one of the arguments i saw for "china is using the tiktok app to spread propaganda and discord in americans" was "people on tiktok keep saying the economy is bad the economy is bad. well unemployment and inflation are both going down! it must be wrong!" my groceries are consistently above 200 bucks for not enough food. rent is outrageously high. i may never own a home. taxes are more and more outrageous. i go months at a time without excess spending and skipping out on things i actually rly need like new clothes after i outgrew my old ones. like inflation might be down but greedflation absolutely fucking isnt. and companies refuse to lower their prices back down and lose the mountains of money they are racking in while quality of products goes way down and ppl have to get used to way less. like popular recipes are tinned fish and canned beans based bc ppl cant rly regularly get veggies or meat in many places so shelf stable protein and veggie sources are a must. more and more ppl are food insecure or having to stretch what they buy. many ppl are also saddled with a lot of debt from lockdown unemployment and medical bills from covid.

like tiktok has problems and DOES censor stuff. like stuff involving chinese forced labor camps and oppression of minorities and anything involving tibet and tiananmen square. but i honestly dont buy the belief "this is all started by the chinese communist party to sow discord in america!!" literally everyone is talking about it. my grandparents are talking about it and they have never used tiktok. ppl on tumblr are talking about it. this isnt a niche, fringe belief that money is tight for a lot of people.

and also i still dont like that this isnt about american safety its just repurposing old red scare tactics because mark zuckerberg wants to buy tiktok and is trying to force them to sell it. we know thats what it is. he wants to buy it. he spent a lot of money in political donations and giving hand outs 'explaining' it and generating these talking points. facebook also swings elections and spreads massive amounts of misinformation. but i guess its fine because its for a profit. capitalists swinging the election with propoganda and ruining this country is fine but god forbid a foreign government even have the potential to do that. how about both of these things are bad? no? okay

[vanilla-voyeur]

How pro-life propoganda convinced me to be pro-choice while I was still a fundamentalist

So back when I was an evangelical, I really liked to read Christian novels. One author I liked was Francine Rivers. One of her books I read was Atonement Child. It took me until after I became an atheist to realize that this book was pro-life propoganda. I didn't know anything about the book plot before reading it. I wanted to read the book because I liked one of her other books that I had read before this.

Here's the plot: Dynah is a perfect Christian girl with a perfect Christian life. She goes to a perfect Christian college, has a perfect Christian fiance, and has perfect Christian friends and family who love her. She is perfectly beautiful and white and innocent with perfect Christian blonde hair. Perfectly god-fearing because fear of authority figures is a good thing to evangelicals. Oh how blessed.

One night when she's walking from her night job, a stranger jumps out of the shadows and rapes her. Oh no! And oh no she got pergrante!

Does she have any trauma from being a victim of rape? Not really. Does she try to go to the police or at least consider it and dismiss it because the police won't do shit? No! Does her sex-negative upbringing that tells her she's dirty if she has premarital sex affect her? Not a chance!

The rape is not important y'all. It's just a convenient plot device to get her gregnant while still being a perfect Christian and not like those sluts who had it coming. One of the questions that pro-lifers (and a few too many pro-choice folks) love to grapple with is what if stranger rape? Is that a good reason to have an abortion? Let's totally ignore that most people who have abortions already have children and most perpetrators of rape are people the victim knows. The real troubling question at hand is should Dynah have an abortion?

Welp all the so-called pro-life Christians in her life suddenly are demanding that she absolutely must have an abortion. Her school kicks her out because she won't have an abortion. Her fiance breaks up with her. Her friends and family ostracize her. Also it just so turns out that many, many of these so-called pro-life Christians have had secret abortions. This is not an indication of pro-life hypocrisy but actually a sign that none of them were true Scotsmen Christians.

After grappling with the issue for most of the book, she decides she wants to keep the baby. She finds a new guy who wants to be her husband and is way better than the other guy. So in the end god blessed her for choosing not to have an abortion. The End.

My takeaway from the book: wow this woman's choice was very important. Abortion needs to be legal so that good Christians can choose life and show their devotion to god. Another banger from good ol' Francine Rivers asking the hard questions and not spreading any misinformation whatsoever (lmao).

It took until after I became an atheist to have a bit more well-rounded support for bodily autonomy and get a bit more sex-positive. Should you read the book? That's your choice.

Maybe you're not immune to propoganda but I'm built different 😎

[mae-i-scribble]

Today is the day that I spread my propoganda about how Sparkle by Radwimps is the most joongdok song to every joongdok by explaining the pmv that lives rent free in my head because on god i know it would be amazing if I could ever do it

I’m using the english translation for simplicity’s sake, also spoilers for all of orv.

Caught in a never-ending game Seems like the world's still trying to tame me If that's the way, I will obey Beautifully struggle every day Should we have a little kiss While seeing both of our hourglasses Let's make a plan to meet somewhere that is Most far from "goodbye"

These first 2 verses are such a nice summary of yjh. The ‘never ending game’ as the scenarios, and the constellations and stories trying to tame him. Beautifully struggle every day is yjh’s continued fight alongside his companions to try and find a peaceful ending. Then jumping to the “should we have a little kiss” it’s suddenly juxtaposed with 0th round yjh, living happily. ‘Let’s make a plan to meet far from goodbye’ as yjh agreeing to take on regression if it means learning about himself and about his sponsor.

Finally, the time has come Everything up 'til yesterday was a prologue Skimming through the days of old It's my turn to bear the load My experience and my skill And all the courage I had let start to mildew At an unprecedented speed, I will Dive right into you And when I dozed off into a lukewarm can of soda, I Dreamed of a world so far from here that's not on the map Searching outside of the classroom window Or in a summer morning that's brought from the commuting train

Now we jump to kdj, with kimcom in the subway now that the scenarios have truly begun (everything up ‘til yesterday was a prologue). ‘It’s my turn to bear the load’ onwards is kdj helping/taking yjh’s place, guiding the world to a happy ending. Then at ‘when i dozed off into a lukewarm can of soda’ we are met with 15yr kdj, sitting quietly in the classroom reading. ‘Searching outside of the classroom window’ he glances at the window and the sky beyond, then goes back to reading. For the last line the background turns into a subway train sitting in space.

Words like "tomorrow" or "future" or "fate" No matter how far they extend their hands We breathe, we dream, we raise our love In a timeless land that is far out of reach Even the second, hour hands of the clock They look at us sideways as they tick and tock How I hope to have forever to spend This life, no—all future lives Right here in this world with you

Next is a montage of sorts. Going through the important moments like the convo around the 6th scenario, yjh freeing paradise in kdj’s name, the prophecy death, meeting in the demon realm/the pocketwatch, kdj sacrificing himself for them in the demon world, final shot is of kdj waiting by yjh’s bedside during the divorce arc but yjh leaves, the pocketwatch staying behind.

Let's put away them far ahead "How do you do"s and all the "Nice to meet you"s And breathe over a thousand-year cycle in a single day

This is their reintroduction on reincarnation island. Each of them greets the other but at ‘breathe over a thousand-year cycle in a single day’ we see thousands of yjh’s echo his introduction, secretive plotter’s outline visible in the sky above.

How I hated lifeless world That's made up entirely of dictionary word that I saw through my kaleidoscope On a monotonous August morn' When you appeared in front of me You acted shy but I didn't miss your grinning face like If it's the textbook of this world Of how to make your smile on your face

Now we go back to a primarily kdj pov, except him as an adult still feeling out of place and completely alone in the world, contrasted to now (maybe during company vacation section) where he is surrounded by people. ‘I didn’t miss your grinning face as if it’s the textbook of how to make a smiling face’ is kdj looking at yjh smiling ever so slightly at their companions.

I've been looking for "incredible"s, the meaning of "unbelievable" I even hope for tragedies if it goes with the thrill But when you were standing in front of my door With every piece in your hand that I could ask for Words like "tomorrow" or "future" or "fate" No matter how far they extend their hands Let's breathe, and dream, we'll play together in this place What do you say?

This focuses on the latter half of orv, showing the final scenario’s important scenes. At ‘but when you were standing in front of my door’ its yjh stopping kdj from killing himself in the subway after meeting od. We see od and sp/999gang connect to each other and walk away, then kimcom looking hopeful as the train doors open. At ‘What do you say?” yjh and hsy look back to kdj, who is smiling at them from the train car.

Even the way that you loved I swear I could smell the scent of yours And in the way that you walked I could hear that bright laughter of yours Since one day you will disappear I'll keep every part of you Make sure that it's burned into the back of my eyes It's not a right that I'm due My duty that is must have been kept

We go back to yjh’s pov, watching 49 and seeing the bits of kdj that are missing from this avatar. ‘Since one day you will disappear’ is yjh reaching out for kdj on the train, trying to hold onto anything he can. ‘It’s not a right that I’m due, my duty that must now be kept’ He opens his eyes and he is drifting in space with the manuscript, making sure it reaches kdj somehow.

Words like "tomorrow" or "future" or "fate" No matter how far they extend their hands We breathe, we dream, we raise our love In a timeless land that is far out of reach Even the second, hour hands of the clock They look at us sideways as they tick and tock How I hope to have forever to spend This life, no—all future lives Right here in this world with you

This would probably be another montage of sorts, more focused on everyone but 100% ending with kdj coming back and him and yjh reuniting in the hospital room.

[gentil-minou]

oh my god you are literally a sheep you watch someone on tv say something and you take it as fact you dont think for an instance that msnbc which like many other western media outlets has been airing non-stop propoganda because its interests are in the US war machine. if you spend maybe five minutes digging deeper, looking into the history and narratives from Palestinians and Jewish Holocaust survivors alike you would see that this has never been a conflict between two groups it's been the systematic oppression and slaughter through subjugation and discrimination spread by Zionist Israelis who believe they somehow have the right to steal indigenous land and have funded Hamas (because yes, Israel did that too bestie) and then saying ouchie look at all the mean things they did to us whole ignoring 75 years of Israel's nonstop war crimes and crimes against humanity.

anyways, i screenshotted this because i blocked you and then you came on anon to try and spread bullshit and now i will block you on anon so you can talk to the wall and maybe grow a heart one day

Reminder to ignore Zionist, Pro-Israeli bs when it comes into your posts with badly sourced propoganda

"actually look Israel says Hamas says this and this is fact actually i got it from this site run by a former IDF guy" Bro have you ever used your brain for ten seconds?

also you dumbass that's not what the muslim definition of martyr means (source: me, raised muslim who has had martyred relatives from other incidences. fuck you)

[c-is-for-circinate]

Thinking today about viruses, allergies, oppression, and anti culture.

(under a cut because WHOOOPS this got long)

Racism is a virus. Homophobia, transphobia, sexism, antisemitism, ableism, etc etc etc, they are all viruses--a topic that many of us have learned a great deal about in the past year. They are ideas, yes, not literal physical diseases, but the analogy holds up. They are infectious, and often spread from person to person without anyone involved realizing they have it. They can sit latent for years, never showing up because the carrier never finds themselves in a situation where the issue comes up, only to flare up and take over when you least expect it. And they mutate, just like the flu, just like the common cold; they put on a new jacket every year and slide in undetected yet again, slip past our internal sensors and bury themselves in our brains until we go in and deal with them as best as we can.

One more thing we've learned about viruses this year is how we can fight them. The viruses of oppression are a little different because they tend to hurt the people around their carriers even more than the people they've infected (although let's talk about internalized anything-ism sometime), but in a lot of ways the attack is the same. You treat the symptoms even when you don't know how to cure the disease: we invest in respirators, antiviral treatments, hospitals; we create and sponsor programs to help those who've been hurt by various oppressions, we uplift our neighbors, we try to keep people safe from violences both big and small. You work to stop the spread: we wear our goddamn masks, we stay home when we can; we train ourselves not to say racist shit that might foster a culture of hate, we stop that guy in our office from making rape jokes, we make slurs unacceptable. You pay attention to your immune system: we seek medical attention when we experience symptoms, we get COVID tests, we talk to our doctors before the symptoms get deadly; we protest and we pay attention to the people who do, we take them seriously when they tell us that something is wrong.

You vaccinate. We train ourselves and our immune systems to recognize the thing that infects us, the thing that we fear. We try to teach our children about history, bit by little bit, on fragments of dead violence the same way we train our bodies on dead virus shells, so that someday they'll recognize the live disease when they see it. We learn about slavery and Jim Crow and the Holocaust. We tell kids bedtime stories about why hitting and bullying is bad, before we ever start teaching them the specific shapes that violence so often takes. As we get older, as we get stronger, we learn about the living stuff, all the new forms that same old virus has mutated into; we educate ourselves, we listen, we read. Just like vaccines, of course, there are anti-vaxxers and denialists shouting about how racism and sexism are already dead and they don't need any propoganda besides Fox News. Hell, just like anti-maskers, there are plenty of people screaming about how political correctness is ruining the world and they demand their right to spread their virus to anyone they can. Often these are the same people.

But we try. And make no mistake, we all of us are already infected, and just like a real virus, once you've caught it once it probably won't ever go away again--but we can prepare, and we can try to lessen the severity of our cases, and we can support our immune systems of activists and protesters and our own internal sense of this is wrong, and we can work, bit by bit, if not towards eradication (not yet, not in this world, but maybe someday in another), then at least towards control.

And then there's allergies.

An allergy is what happens when a human body's own immune system freaks out over an enemy that wasn't particularly harmful in the first place. All our immune defenses--those precious immune defenses, which work so hard to protect us against all those viral, deadly ideas--go screaming into high gear. All of that fear and fury and attack power gets brought to bear all at once, against a bit of pollen or bee venom or cat dander or peanuts, and your body is left itchy and runny-nosed and gasping--sometimes literally--as it tries to keep up. Allergies are miserable. Sometimes they're life-threatening. And the biggest danger isn't the foreign agent that triggers the allergic reaction; it's the immune system trying to fight it in the first place.

Which, yes, brings us to anti culture--but not JUST anti culture. It's a good example, a little internet-centric microcosm of the same force that drives progressives to tear bloody shreds out of moderate liberal politicians. Hell, it's the same force that enables both TERFs and the Capitol rioters. It's a combination of an immune system that points in the wrong direction, flagging the wrong thing as bad, terrifying, danger, NO, and a freaked-out response that can manifest as anything from mildly irritating to absolutely deadly.

To be clear, I am not by any means equating the scale or even the source of these things, any more than hayfever is the same as anaphylactic shock. Likewise, the sources are different. Sometimes, a disease can infect an immune system and point it in the wrong direction. (Terror of the other is the absolute cornerstone of white nationalism, and when that terror gets triggered by a harmless environmental condition like, god forbid, other people asking for rights, the allergy response can be deadly.) Other times, it's the other way around. Our internal immune systems, so well trained to protect ourselves and those around us from the insidious viral ravages of prejudice and oppression, start seeing traces of it everywhere.

And they freak out. And we suffer for it.

We talk a lot of well-deserved shit about TERFs, but it's useful to remember how much their nastiness feels to them like activism. Their immune system, trained and primed and sensitized over years of exposure to misogyny and sexism, catches the tiniest whiff of something that might seem at some point to have possibly been taken for male, and freaks out, because why is that trying to get into our system. Never mind that they're wrong. An immune system that flips out over penicillin is wrong, too. It's still trying to help, and it's still doing more harm than good trying it.

So bringing this back around to anti culture, which was absolutely where I started thinking about all of this this morning: anti culture, the terror of porn and the attempt by antis to protect themselves an other people from sexual content, is an immune response. It is a trained immune response, in people who have been taught and re-taught again and again that rape culture is a dangerous insidious virus that should be fought at all costs. And, right, there's more than a bit of 'the sexism virus infected this immune system and reprogrammed it to fight itself' involved here, but look, we are all of us infected with all of the viruses at least a little bit everywhere. If we tried to direct our immune systems to rip every last shred of -ism out of every last bit of us, we'd rip ourselves apart. Which is exactly the problem.

Porn, in and of itself, is natural. As natural as environmental pollen, and living near dogs and cats, and eating wheat or nuts or citrus fruit. It's even healthy, for a whole host of reasons that belong in another essay. And citric acid and nut-based proteins and whole grains are nutritious, and pets are physically and psychologically helpful, and being exposed to lots of different environmental substances as a child can actually help train your immune system in the first place. Porn can help us figure out what we like. It can help us figure out what we don't like. And while the processes that create it are sometimes unethical and awful, we don't condemn all dogs because puppy mills and dogfighting rings exist, even if we do have dog allergies.

What we see in anti culture is often a good-faith attempt on the part of antis to attack and subdue an environmental trigger that they read as dangerous. It's a panic attack over something that is by nature harmless or mildly harmful, blown out of proportion by the very instincts that are supposed to keep us safe. It's the response of an immune system that's been taught over years and years, by everyone from parents to school systems to the activists they look up to, that negative stimulus is to be feared, avoided, and fought. Of COURSE they're going to freak out.

And of course, early exposure to controlled amounts of allergens can help prevent later allergies from developing. Of course when kids are raised with abstinence-only education, sheltered from the very concept of sex, they're going to grow up allergic to it. (Of course they're going to try to protect other kids from the same, like worried mothers who refuse to let peanuts or wheat products or dirt near their precious babies, whose kids grow up with a whole suite of allergic triggers because their bodies never learned what was okay in the first place.) And no, that doesn't mean we hand pornography to ten-year-olds any more than we should give raw honey to an infant--but of course if our culture refuses to introduce kids to the fact that sex and desire and the inside of their own brain can be messy and silly and kinky and downright weird, we're going to have a higher rate of allergic reaction to the entire concept in adults.

I wish I had a better answer for what to do with understanding that this is what's going through so many people's brains. The best I have is a prescription for allergy-sufferers, who probably haven't read this far through this wordspew of an essay in the first place--but we all get a little hayfever once in a while, and we all sometimes run into content that makes us angry. So some thoughts on how to deal with metaphorical allergic reactions, inspired by the ways we deal with literal ones?

First: we recognize that what is happening is an allergy. The thing we're reacting to might be gross, or irritating, or even unpleasant, but the danger is not and never has been the thing itself. Whether it's triggering a response because of its similarity to an actively dangerous pathogen, or our immune system just doesn't like it, our aversion to one kind of story or another universally says more about us than about it. Luckily, we have a lot more control over our social responses than our biological ones!!! If vocal activism is our sociocultural immune system firing itself up to fight an infection that may or may not exist, then we get to tell our metaphorical white blood cells to stand down. We get to decide.

Second: we get some space. The funny thing about allergies is, while early exposure to allergens can help prevent them, re-exposing yourself to dangerous allergens after you've already developed a reaction to them can make them worse. Anaphylaxis is always more likely after someone's experienced it the first time. Repeated exposure to triggers, whether biological or psychological, can make the effects worse. So stop exposing yourself.

If something makes your throat itch every time you eat it, stop eating it. If something makes you mad every time you read it, stop reading it. Obviously this can be easier said than done in a world that's a lot worse about warning labels on stories than ingredients labels on foods, but that's why fic tags exist. And: sometimes, the croissant is delicious enough that we decide we're willing to suffer through the way the almonds make us feel, just this once. Sometimes the ship or the characterization or, hell, those other kinks that we really like are tasty enough that we'll put up with the trope we hate. We're allowed to do that. But we do it knowing there will be consequences, and we don't blame the baker when they hit.

We also don't have to blame ourselves. It sucks to be allergic to shellfish when all your friends are raving about the new seafood place. But that's not our fault any more than it's theirs.

Third: sometimes, if we need one, we go to the doctor. Or a therapist. Yes, really.

Not because there's anything really wrong with an aversion or even mild breakouts of hives, annoyance, and bitching in your friends' DMs--but it sure isn't pleasant, and sometimes your doctor might have a better solution than 'avoid it and take a Benadryl' that makes you feel a little better in the long run. And sometimes, it's not a mild breakout. Sometimes it's the kind of story that lingers with you for days, makes your skin crawl; sometimes your throat swells up and it gets hard to breathe. Sometimes we get angry enough about something we've read that we can't stand down our immune system, don't want to stop ourselves from writing that angry comment, that tumblr post, that abuse report to the mods for something that didn't actually break any rules. And that's dangerous, because when our immune response can flare out of control like that, we don't always know where and when it will happen next, and the risk of what we'll do if it happens gets way, way higher.

Sometimes it really is worth getting a second opinion. Sometimes you need somebody to tell you, "actually, it is not normal to get tingly and sweaty every time you eat potatoes." There are ways to train your brain and leash your white blood cells that I sure as heck am not expert enough to address. There are, it turns out, ways to feel better. There are ways to mitigate the damage your own well-meaning defense mechanisms might do to yourself or other people along the way.

And: we can take a deep breath when someone with an allergy to something we've baked, something we've written, something we like, is lashing out trying to protect themselves and everyone around them from something they've registered as a threat. Of course they're wrong. Yes, we told them there were tree nuts in the brownies ahead of time; yes, they chose to eat them anyway. But it can be worth reminding them and ourselves that there's a difference between "this thing is toxic" and "this harmless thing has driven my own system into a defensive response that sure makes it feel like I've been poisoned." And it can be worth reminding ourselves as well as them that sometimes, that difference can be really hard to spot.

[jitterbugjive]

SEXIST AD ON YOUTUBE

Great so not only did youtube allow a transphobic propoganda ad (they removed after many reports and complaints thank god) but now they’re circulating a pretty sexist sounding ad called “War on Boys”.

The ad basically claims boys are rude and therefor not smart, and it tries to be positive and talk about helping more boys get in to school but...

Can you fucking imagine if they said the same exact shit about women in this ad? People would be FURIOUS.

Let me put it in perspective: If we switch this around to women, then it’s the equivalent of saying women aren’t as smart or intellectual as men and they need stuff like classes that focus on cooking and knitting because that’s clearly what women are more interested in. 

I don’t care what people say, men can be victims of sexism and gender stereotypes too, and just like sexism against women, sexism against men is not okay either. Sexism is shitty no matter the gender.

This ad is TRYING to advertise equality but it uses statistics (not sourced or numbered) and stereotypes in order to make its point which is the exact opposite of what the intention is supposed to be.

I don’t know how to report youtube ads but if anyone knows how, please consider reporting this ad and spreading the word.

[woo-sustainability]

Taiwan not being a part of the WHO/UN because of China is a fact, reiterated by the WHO and United Nations due to their not being recognised by China. They were actually voted OUT of the UN, while communist-ruled China sits on the human rights committee. Those are UN facts from the UN. As for the racist comment. The person who replied said I was spreading racist propoganda. You literally reblogged it with "that's what I thought was going on." That's the same thing as saying it tbh. (part 1)

I'm not even going to address the anon stuff. I'm on anon because I don't need hate mail. Simple. I have anxiety too, especially around this issue. My life has been severely displaced since February because of this to the point where I have persistent physical symptoms every day. I couldn't go outside if I wanted to honestly. I still take the time and effort to understand and fact check before just reblogging to ask for a change to be made politically/financially. THAT was the main issue for me

First, that’s a misunderstanding of a statement I made poorly. Apologies. There were phrases in your original ask that resembled conservative American racist propaganda. I come across so much of that on a daily basis, it’s been gut instinct to see things through that lens. Not an excuse, just a reason. You corrected me, and I’m grateful. And I’m not criticizing you for being on anon. I don’t need to know your main. No one here needs to know my main. I would never expose someone to hate. I wouldn’t like getting it myself. Which is why I’m more than willing to preserve your anonymity if you choose to send me articles.

We deal with our anxiety in different ways. I’m still learning how best to deal with mine. And if I am causing you anxiety, feel free to block this blog (not that you need my approval in the first place.) In any event, I’m going to try to dig up the post and delete it. If it’s incorrect, then having misinformation is not doing anyone any good.

Edit: my god, I can’t read. Your original ask didn’t say anything about the US government, I put words in your mouth. I am so sorry.

[bitchesgate3]

What I imagine of the Githyanki people is that they are seriously and intensely entrenched in Vlaakith's regime.

Vlaakith is exactly as you say. And we can assume that Orpheus only intends to fight mindflayers and would not be a warlord. Thus - who would those warlords support? The leader who allows the framework to compete for power? Or the leader who seeks to end that entirely?

Vlaakith CLVII has maintained rule for thousands of years due to not producing an heir and becoming an undead Lich Queen.

She has churned out a propaganda machine and has ch'r'ai inquisitors to shape her image upon the Githyanki people as the closest thing an atheistic people see to a god. Her aspirations are to become an actual god in the dnd pantheon. I prefer a more realistic view about what we're up against.

Every Githyanki is fed propoganda from birth to revere her. She is the one that blesses them with knowledge of the many planes. She is the one who gifted the library of K'liir. She is the one who blesses a cure through the Zaith'isk. She is the one who promises the world to the people through the Grand Proclamation. Many Githyanki are raised to be zealots and dream to fight and die in Vlaakith's name. We see this in Lae'zel.

It's such a good story premise because that's what makes Lae'zel's story arc so good. While the game doesn't explore this to the depth I desired (I wanted ego death!), we are told that her whole worldview is upended when giving up on Vlaakith. The worldview given up on (which was the basis of her original hopes and dreams) were what I've outlined above.

When systemic powers have existed for as long as anyone can remember, the obstacles to overcome it are immense. Simply spreading the idea of an alternative view is not enough. You have all these true believers to contend with. Trying to convince a populace (who still exist and survive within that system) that their figurehead has been lying to them - its a cute premise in a story, but in real life is easier said than done. It can be assumed that many Gith model themselves in Vlaakith's footsteps as far as what they see as success. In early access, Lae'zel dreamed of Vlaakith's approval as the thing she wanted most.

Orpheus has been locked in a prism since Vlaakith I. To the Githyanki people, that may be seen as weakness. How could they be inspired by someone who had already lost to someone better?

While WotC and Larian have chosen a less intense interpretation of Githyanki lore, and thus have encouraged the presence of less fanatic gith, (which thankfully opens up the lore to make good aligned characters) I still wholeheartedly believe that in this day and age, we need stories that handle this harsh lore because of the real world parallels.

What I'm saying - to be frank - is that Orpheus is an unpopular democratic incumbent running against a popular, already established well-revered leader in a non-democratic state. He would lose by a landslide.

And to be FULLY clear - Vlaakith is 100% THE BAD CHOICE for the Githyanki people.

Unfortunately, the Githyanki are still choosing the "Leopards ate my face" party in 1492 DR. 😔

Personally, I don't buy that Orpheus would be able to lead a successful overthrow of Vlaakith.

I think he would lose by landslide.