#but i'm open to discuss this of course

[aptericia]

speaking as a textbook atheist who has never believed in a higher power of any sort, some of you really need to be normal about religious people.

Taking "religion" to mean Christianity and "Christianity" to mean whatever specific branch and church where you were traumatized by old White people as a child is inaccurate and self-centered. I firmly believe that religious trauma is real and serious and that no one who suffers from it should have to engage in triggering discussions of religion, but that is a personal right and has nothing to do with the morality of religion as a concept. Yes, people do horrible things in the name of religion, just like they do in the name of science and patriotism and many other ideals. Yes, religion (especially institutionalized religion) deserves a lot of criticism, but it deserves criticism based on the real-world harm it causes and not gut reactions of disgust.

For instance, I know plenty of scummy Christians who use their beliefs to justify terrible actions, but I know far more Christians who are vehemently feminist and anti-racist and supportive of LGBTQ+ rights, who respect both modern science and the natural world, and who I know have my back whenever I need help. It's important to criticize institutions of power, but please don't fall back on the same kind of awful, sweeping generalizations about religious people that like, TERFs make about men and masculinity, for example. You don't have to follow it or even like it, but you do have to treat your fellow humans as the infinitely complex and inherently worthy beings they are, no matter what labels they choose to use.

[bronzebluemind]

It’s been 0 weeks since the World Cup finale, 17 weeks to go until sgp and 34 weeks to go until next season.

[moreespressoformydepresso]

So I was thinking (shocker I know) about Gaul's theory about humanity. That people, when cornered, lose their humanity and become monsters. More specifically, I've been having thoughts about the moment that "confirmed" this theory in Snow's head for a while now and decided to put them into words. Which might be a terrible idea, but I never claimed to be smart.

According to Gaul, people who are cornered will do anything to survive and lose all sense of humanity to do so. The Games are supposed to be a constant reminder of this, which already raises a few questions that I was going to pose before getting to my actual thoughts here until it evolved into a whole separate train of thoughts. I'll make it a separate post instead but long story short: If it was supposed to be a reminder of this "truth" it was a sloppy, embarrasing failure at best (and also that's not how science works). Regardless of that though, the moment that solidified this delusion is his brutally murdering Bobbin while escaping the arena with Sejanus. There's a problem though. Or rather, there's several problems. Firstly, Snow chose to bash Bobbin's head in until he was unrecognizable. Chose, because he didn't have to do it. If you want my more interesting/unique(?) thoughts skip the next paragraph.

Most people would have knocked Bobbin out at most and then kept running, Snow chose to keep hitting with the wooden plank. He did this not because he lost all his humanity, but because he is a deeply disturbed individual. His formative years were filled with war and propaganda, and his family's proud name being dragged into the mud by his living situation understandably gave him a complex about power and wealth. He needed to feel above other people to cope, and the Capitol provided. Now, that does not in any way excuse his actions (and if anyone's interested I have several essays worth of thoughts on that and all the ways in which it makes me adore Collins and hate extremes in fandom), but it does explain them. Moreover, that complex and stubborn pride in his family's former high status likely fed into his belief in Gaul's theory. If it's true for someone of his status, it must be true for everyone.

Now, the actual reason for this post

Gaul's theory is that people lose their humanity when they're cornered. Emphasis on cornered here. When people are put under pressure, they will act in depraved ways. From Snow's perspective of reality, this is true because when he was cornered he brutally beat a child to death. But was he cornered though? No. Sure, he was in a scary situation, but he was not cornered. There was one child with a knife chasing after him. A starved, dying one. Snow and Sejanus could've easily outran him with some adrenaline boosting them (that shit makes moms lift whole cars to save their kids, come on now), nevermind the millions of other solutions that aren't "beat a child to death with a wooden plank until they're unrecognizable". More importantly though, they're not stuck in the arena. The peacekeepers didn't actively protect them, but they opened the fence for them. Snow could leave the arena. He could've dodged Bobbin and ran, and he'd have been able to leave the arena without murdering a kid. He was pressed, but he was not cornered. Not only does this theory have the most pathetic "proof" of any scientific theory since Andrew Wakefield's vaccine scam, the incident that confirmed it in Snow's mind isn't even a situation where the theory is applicable in the first place. It doesn't prove that people who are cornered lose their humanity. You know what it does prove, though?

People who have power lose their sense of humanity

Snow was not entirely cornered, but he did have power. As mentioned before, Bobbin is a starving child with nothing but a large knife. Snow might not be well-fed by Capitol standards, but he was certainly doing amazing by district standards. He had a wooden plank and a child at his mercy. What did he do? He maimed and murdered the kid. And throughout the entire book, stuff like this happens. Gaul showed him how the snakes work because he's her favorite prodigy. What did he do? He used it to cheat and help Lucy Gray win. When he had that recording of Sejanus admitting to rebellion, he had power over Sejanus' life. What did he do? He got the guy executed. When he had a gun and Mayfair became a possible problem, he shot her. When he became president, he kept the games going and poisoned anyone in his way because he had the power to do so. Mayfair has the power to influence who gets reaped, and uses it to try and get Lucy Gray killed. It happens on a larger scale too. It's the whole point of the series. The Capitol has all the power, and they use it by abusing and murdering the people from the districts, either to keep them in line or just because they want to. For entertainment. Because they can, and there's nothing the districts can do about it. Coin has power, and what does she do with it? She gets Prim killed to break Katniss into her pawn and suggests to put more innocent children through the Hunger Games because she can. Just like the Capitol did, 75 years before that. They can, so they do it. Who's gonna stop them? It's all over the series. And they all try to justify their actions by blaming it on people. Mayfair’s excuse is getting rid of “competition”, the Capitol claims the districts are getting what’s coming to them for the rebellion, Coin claims this new version of the games is what the rebellion wants. Snow has all his mental gymnastics.

It's not desperation that turns people into monsters, it's power.

And those with power will always convince themselves it's not the power, it's the people.

[extra-venomous-tentacula]

Bold of JKR to assume we'd find Snape unattractive, based on her description of a hook-nosed, black-haired, sallow-skinned, thin dude

Miss ma'am.

I am Italian. That is what most men in my country look like. That is literally what my dating pool is.

Ma'am.

Please.

[aceredshirt13]

gang i have to share this P. G. Wodehouse quote with you all because ever since I found it I can't stop thinking about it. it's from a letter he wrote when he was 78 years old to his friend Guy Bolton (many thanks to P. G. Wodehouse: A Life in Letters)

I have been on the sick list myself, but am better now. Inflamed bladder or chill on the bladder or something, the symptoms being agony when I passed water, as the expression is. It brought back the brave old days when I used to get clap.

he really said "yeah the pain from my bladder issue reminds of the days when I used to have so much sex I repeatedly got venereal disease"

[livvyofthelake]

a thing about the big bang theory is that raj would be bisexual if he knew that was a thing but if he knew he was bisexual he wouldn't be best friends with howard so the whole dynamic would fall apart. leonard might also be bisexual if he knew that was allowed but that's a more complex topic. he knows about bisexuality and even knows men can be bisexual but i think he doesn't know it's allowed for him specifically, he has layers he's complicated we can't waste time worrying about it. howard wouldn't be friends with bisexual people because he's an ally in only a vague sense where he thinks gay people are okay but only as long as he's never around them. howard himself would not be gay in any universe except maybe the universe where he played sports as a child instead of computer nerd shit. probably the universe where his dad didn't leave. and then he would be a completely different person so there's no point worrying about it. it of course goes without saying that penny would have loved being bi for clout on social media. my problematic queen <3 bernadette naturally is your classic heterosexual woman with a gay boyfriend. except of course her boyfriend isn't gay. it's complex. amy would be a butch lesbian if she thought about that stuff but the thing is she has a mission tomorrow so she can't really think about that stuff. which is of course a tragedy but we move. many things could be said about sheldon let's not get into it. if the big bang theory was in the heartstopper universe though leonard wouldn't have 80% of the problems he has i can tell you that much

[bookshelfdreams]

y'all realize engaging with the Izzy Safe Space guy is just indulging their humiliation kink right

[cakemoney]

i don't want to put my uninformed foot in my mouth or get involved with the Discourse but i've been seeing the two extremes of reactions to the korean low birth rates issue (on tumblr and twitter both) and i'm just kind of like. look. i feel like "low birth rates (in many countries but especially japan and korea as part of this conversation) are more broadly the result of capitalism/a culture of overwhelming overwork that makes social relationships and having families incredibly inaccessible to young people" and "low birth rates are very much a part of the current conversation about misogyny and social expectations for women in korea especially in the context of reproduction as 'unpaid labor' for women" are statements that can both be true

[smile-files]

this might be a hot take... but if you care about disavowing media made by bad people out of fear of looking like a bad person yourself more than you care about actually doing good things... you might have your priorities (and your morals) screwed up a bit :/

(see my tags for more of my thoughts on this topic! please try to avoid making make bad-faith assumptions about what i mean!)

[neathbound-fiends]

copy pasting from DMs and expanding on this a little actually

Thinking abt the fact that Elliott is an unreliable narrator and will just outright lie about things about himself, or twist them so severely that they threaten to break in order to be palatable and not say anything he thinks people won't want to hear. Man who spent a lot of years lying about his family, and upbringing, and sexuality, all because none of it was something someone else would want to hear and he doesn't want to be seen as broken, or a bummer, or to speak ill of the dead. It's better to mangle the truth until it fits whatever narrative you want to spin than it is to say something that's going to horrify someone

[tittyinfinity]

constantly being in online arguments absolutely affects your mood and how you treat people in real life

being under that level of stress and agitation that often is extremely unhealthy. if you're constantly seeking out arguments, it most likely means you're trying to distract from stressors in your life with other stressors that are easier to control.

I'm not saying never stand up for yourself or argue with people at all, just don't make discourse the primary way you use the internet.

[reflective-muses]

Okay, I'm still working on some replies and I'll get those out soon either tonight or tomorrow.

If anyone wants an open starter please give this a Like ❤ and specify the muse (both mine, and yours if you're a multimuse blog).

I'm excited to write with more people and I figure I'll only get better at starters if I actually practice writing them. xD

If you have an idea in mind you'd want to plot out or discuss beforehand drop me a DM! It helps a lot to have some kind of direction to lean into. ^^

[therevengeoffrankenstein]

the implications....

folie a deux meaning / folie a deux album cover / pete's bear hat(s)

[verdiesque]

And like. I've wanted to talk about some stuff with her for a while now but it's impossible to do through a video call so like. Guess I'll shut up forever lol

[magentagalaxies]

officially going to be taking a standup comedy class next semester!!! now my schedule is literally:

improv class

sociology class about queer history

standup class

buddy cole documentary which counts as a class despite only meeting with the professor when i want to and being a project i would work on even if i didn't get college credit

god i love majoring in comedy in college

[daz4i]

normally when analyzing characters and such you probably already noticed that i go "but that's just my interpretation!!!! i could be wrong here!!!!! feel free to correct me or offer your own take ^_^" even with characters i love or study a lot for any reason. that's up until i see an annoying fan theory and then i become an expert on said character and no one knows them as well as i do