#currently trying to censor fiction that also makes them uncomfortable

[nariko-senpai]

I mean I like hannigram because it's fucked up not cause it's wholesome lol. Also you gotta remember that a lot of people started reading kuro AS kids and a lot of people self inserted or tried to relate to ciel as how they would feel in his situation. 100% sebaciel is fucked up but it's also fiction. Censoring or policing taboo topics doesn't help anyone just cause you find it distasteful. Otherwise we wouldn't have artists like Kikuo making songs like Gomen Ne, a really fucked up banger of a song. There is some of the audience that loves the song because it's sings about their abuse and emotions they had at the time.(Kikuo is said to have experienced abuse as a child as well) others appreciate the awareness is brings out and other just like the song lol.

This one of those "Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable." Situations. You don't like sebaciel for those reasons you wrote? Good. Other like it because of that(possibly cause of past trauma), some people like to imagine that a child can actually be in a position of power over their abuser and be in charge in the "relationship". Reality isn't the same but people should be allowed to process their shit without being judged. It's that kind of attitude that prevents people from talking or exploring about their ish through art, fan art/fics/ songs.. etc I don't actually want a relationship like sebaciel but... my past younger self took comfort in Ciel being in "charge" and my current self likes to go "yep that was fucked up" it's doesn't mean people are supporting groomers or pedo, people are just trying to deal with their shit.

Let people have the time grow and realize things as they go without being judgemental. Just say the ship isn't for you because the themes make you uncomfortable and move on. Cause Kuroshitsuji at it's core is meant to be uncomfortable, that isn't going to change anytime soon. Even if only like 10% of fans ship sebaciel cause of their past, like let them... they got enough on their plate and if a fictional noncanon ship helps them process, they why not?

This. Just no. Sorry, but no.

[zeroducks-2]

{Commission Info} Closed

Hi, I'm Zero - Welcome to my pond! And if you come from the old blog, nice to see you again ♥

Blog Navigation: My Art - My Fanfiction (includes things I don't post on AO3) You can find my other socials here. I recently made one in hope to escape the rampant censorship, we'll see how it goes.

The posts in which I complain about stuff are tagged #ramblings if you want to avoid them.

I'm currently hyperfixating on DCU/Batman, especially the Sladick niche. I also post/reblog batfamily content (batcest or just wholesome), with a mix of dark/fucked up things & fluff/wholesome things. I love being gross to Dick though no one is safe from me.

I love all DC ships, just not equally! Almost nothing grosses me out and I don't have NOTPs, so know that you can find just about anything here, 90% of which is DC Centered. Feel free to send me prompts, brainworms or ficlets, I love them all and I love your ideas ♥

I am every fucked up character's apologist - they looked great while doing their thing and I stan all the evil queens, kings and monarchs, irredeemable or otherwise.

I post/reblog nsfw, but given that tumblr started trying to kill my previous blog although everything was always tagged & censored properly, the censorship here is going to be more severe. Links will be provided for uncropped/uncensored versions of my art where needed!

I am regardless uncomfortable with minors following me, so please If you're a minor or uncomfortable with kinky stuff, DNF or just block me. Fyi:

I like fucked up shit and I will sometimes post/reblog it

I'm queer, polyamorous, and a bitch who does their own thing & is interacting with fandom stuff cause real life sucks. It is not in my interest to directly engage with fandom discourse, but my stance is that if you can't make a difference between reality and fiction, and you feel the need to personally attack people who dabble in content that makes you uncomfortable, block me because you won't like what I do.

I don't bother writing out under every post the classic "I don't condone this in real life!1" because I feel it's unnecessary - I assume that who follows me has enough critical thinking skills to not need a reminder, but in case you do you can have it here: I don't condone any fucked up fandom thing in real life, this is fiction, no one is getting hurt & we're just having fun. Again if you don't manage to grasp this then please kindly block me.

Last but not least - this blog really hates capitalism, racists, terfs, swerfs, all flavors of queerphobes, ableists and exclusionists of any kind.

Again if any of the aforementioned bothers you on any level, do unfollow/block me and let's all keep conducting our peaceful existences away from each other.

If you decide to stay - feel free to send me asks, whether it's questions, art/fanfiction requests, if you want feedback on something you wrote or if you just wanna chat. I can't guarantee I'll be able to create some art/writing for you, but I really appreciate it 💚 💛 (pro-tip: if it's Sladick it's more likely that I'll do it!). You can also send me hate if that's your thing, I won't kinkshame you I promise.

Stay exceedingly handsome!

[copperbora]

❤️💜❤️Please check out my Ko-fi shop💜❤️💜 for my merch! I'm trying to make my art my career so that I can stay home with my cats and pursue a less stressful life as conventional employment has proven extremely difficult if not impossible for me with my neurodivergent disabilities.

Buy my merch on Redbubble! Tons of sticks, shirts, mugs, awesome fluffy comforter blankets and more!

I'm also on TeePublic now; still uploading art there!

Looking into more forms of ecommerce too. Here's my Linktree for finding me everywhere online.

____________________________________

🐺Beneath the cut I blather a bit about myself. Beware. 😂

🐺 All About Me (jump to the end if you wanna see my citation library about wolves and wildlife, arhrooo!)

- My birthdate is March 18th 1990 and I am therefore in my mid-thirties. I am therefore no longer a whippersnapper despite my youthful appearance (I get miss-aged constantly) which is due to my autism.

- I am autistic and I have ADHD but I am currently struggling far harder with the autism. Derpy short term memory and happy distractibility? Squirrel! That's my ADHD. Fundamental NEED to hyperfocus strongly on a task without interruptions of any kind whatsoever for hours upon hours upon hours? That's my autism and it is fucking up my life because I get extremely stressed extremely quickly when I have to spend all day masking/fawning (aka pretending to suck up to people who don't have my best interests at heart,) instead of passionately writing, hiking or drawing all day, often while happy as a clam and forgetting to eat. I have Pathological Demand Avoidance which explains why commissions make me extremely uncomfortable, but I'm perfectly happy selling prints! (Pleeeease buy my prints and shirts and stuff! I put a lot of heart into making them awesome!❤️)

- I am permasingle. Please don't try to convince me otherwise, as I am now in early middle age and aromantic asexual I have no capacity to imagine a life where I am devoted to another adult human. Become a mom? Maybe. I have no idea how to flirt and I would never do it if I did. I find the idea of someone looking at my body and wanting to sexualize it is incredibly disturbing to me. My body is nought but a vessel for mine powerful spirit, nothing more.

- I am a grumpy socialist (which is not the same thing as communism, mainly it means that I genuinely care about others,) who supports Universal Basic Income, wildlife advocacy, climate change education, LGBTQA+ (after all I am part of the 🏳️‍🌈 community,) Transgender🏳️‍⚧️ (learn about the biological science of transgender here,) Universal Basic Income, neurodivergence, Black Lives Matter, Every Child Matters, Children are People, Housing First/Safe, Comfy Housing as a Basic Human Right, immigration, racial diversity, animal rights (for example tail docking is cruel unless it is done for medical reasons as per the SPCA,) and medical science (trained in the veterinary field, so, y'know, fully vaxxed against all the things.)

- I am trying to base KNIFE EDGE as much as possible on actual wolf biology. I'm doing my best to veer away from the usual fictional wolf fare which is usually very mythical or scientifically inaccurate (or both.) I want KE to help people care about wildlife and the threats that they face like habitat fragmentation, loss of genetic diversity, and climate change. That being said, some artistic liberty has been taken for the sake of my sanity. Production of KE is slow right now for reasons.

I will never censor the sheathes of my male animal characters or their bumholes. The latter because bumholes are hilarious. The former because censoring a blatantly obvious bodypart is incredibly illogical and stupid.

- My favourite Cybertronian (Transformer) is Starscream!✈️ I definitely sympathize with the Decepticons. I don't draw Transformers stuff very often though because bipeds scare me (despite the fact that I can actually draw them quite well,) and I am a wuss. 😅 I sometimes write depraved little stories about Starscream and his trine (as well as other seekers,) and post them here.

Creative Help

- Thane's Master List of Printers for Comics & Merch

- How to get a Book Quote from a Printer by Thane

Interesting Stuff

- The Sargasso Sea (Thoughty2)

- Hilarious Snowplow Names

- Day Octopuses (Dave) Train Fish to Hunt With Them (SciShow)

- How to Eat Acorns (Adam Ragusea)

- Supervolcanoes (GeologyHub)

- Meet the Most Mysterious Man to Ever Live (Thoughty2, hilarious account of Rasputin)

- Walruses are Terrifying (Henry the PaleoGuy)

- The Great Emu War of Australia (Animalogic)

- How to build a wattle-and-daub thatched medieval house! (Quantum HD)

- Why tomatoes suck now: mechanical harvesting (The History Guy)

- Why babies in medieval paintings look like creepy little men. (A Brush with Bekah)

- The Jewish Doctor Who Tricked the Nazis (Dr Mike)

Links I Keep For Arguments

I'm opinionated. These are the scientific sources that my opinions are based off of.

🐺Wolves & Wildlife

See the citation library here.

❤️‍🔥Human Rights & 🔥Climate Change

Includes climate change, LGBTQIA2S+, women's/uterine rights, economic survival, discrimination & weird religion/cults. Main citation list here!

- NASA: the sun isn't causing global warming, we are. (The sun is actually in a cooling trend; humans are warming up the planet so extensively that we're countering this cooling trend by over 100%.) Also see 'it's the sun, stupid!' episode of the podcast The Climate Denier's Playbook.

- How to identify a CULT (and avoid recruitment.)

- How Trump abortion bans hurt and kill women.

❤️‍🩹Human Medicine & Nutrition

See the citation library here. (Coming soon.)

- Current scientific understanding of dying, near death experiences, and the afterlife.

- Vaccines are VERY safe, they do NOT cause autism, and there's more aluminium in breast milk than there is in vaccines. GET VACCINATED!💉💉💉❤️

- How viruses mutate and all about influenza!

🐶Neurodivergence

- Struggling to Get Stuff Done? Maybe it's More than Motivation. (How to ADHD)

- Times I Should've Realized that I was Autistic (Illymation.)

- Spoon theory explained! (Washington Post)

- Comorbity with Autism - having multiple neurodivergence diagnoses - explained. (AutismBC)

- Dyspraxia/difficulty in motor movements explained - common in neurodivergent folks. (NHS)

- Job hunting strategies for autistics. (AutismBC.)

- Why High Masking Autistics Struggle (Chris and Debby) - I feel all of this so much it's painful, and I desperately wish that I could have shown it to my dad while my mom was still alive, because maybe then he would not have stressed the crap out of her so badly.😣💔

🐈Mammalian Pets (Mostly Cats)

- A global synthesis and assessment of free-ranging domestic cat diet (keep your cats inside)

- Why You Should Adopt Another Cat (Jackson Galaxy)

- How to Introduce Cats (Jackson Galaxy)

- Why kittens are adopted out in pairs (Kitten Lady Hannah Shaw.)

- The Problem with French Bulldogs (thoroughly explained by veterinarian DVMCellini!)

- How to Kill a Shelter Dog

- How to clean a wound on a dog or a cat.

- How Cats Purr

- Why cats go nuts for tuna even though it isn't natural for them to eat.

- How to Make Your Dog Puke in Emergancies

- DIY Senior Feed for Horses

- Evidence of domestication of P. bengalensis (Asian Leopard Cat) in ancient China means that cat domestication goes back earlier & that there were once two domesticated species (but not anymore - modern cats descend from Felis sylvestris lybica,) plus that the modern bengal cat isn't a new idea!

- Both dogs AND cats will eat your corpse if you die and they are desperate. (And there's actually more historical evidence of dogs doing it!)

- Domestic cats are obligate carnivores who eat meat and only meat. Hannah Shaw, aka the Kitten Lady, explains this beautifully (and adorably,) here. Do not feed them a vegan diet, doing so is cruel. Cats do not need carbohydrates in their diets; carbohydrates' only use in kibble (dry food,) is as a binder which holds all the other ingredients together. Cats have just one copy of a gene which codes for starch (carbohydrate consumption) meaning that biologically they really haven't changed from their African Wildcat ancestors.

- Dogs are not wolves and therefore are not carnivores; they are omnivores. While dogs do descend from wolves (sorry, your chihuahua does not descend from coyotes or foxes,) wolves possess just two copies of a gene that codes for an enzyme capable of digesting starches (which carbohydrates contain,) dogs can have up to 22 copies of it. Dogs who do not consume some type of grain as part of their diet can develop serious health problems which can become life threatening. (Note that legumes like lentils and peas do not count as grains. Neither do root vegetables like potatoes, yams or sweet potatoes.)

🐍Non-Mammal Pets

- Reptile and amphibian keepers are NOT an animal rights issue (and actually are developing better husbandry for these largely harmless animals, are NOT contributing to invasive species, and are even helping to save endangered ones. Most reptile and amphibian pets are captive bred and the community is constantly advocating for ALL species to be captive bred! Additionally, since most species are TROPICAL, they simply cannot survive outside in northern climates. Far more endangered reptiles are killed for their skins than are ever captured to be pets.)

- How To Treat Freshwater Fish Diseases - can apply to marine fish too but avoid copper in any tank with invertebrates (Keeping Fish Simple)

Reef Cleaners Information and How-To Database (very helpful on a miriad of topics!)

- DIY aquarium fish trap!

- Ethical keeping of ball pythons with gentle transitioning to properly mentally engaging vivariums (do NOT keep them in racks! These are sentient, emotive animals which need to be given choices in their existence such as multiple - not just two - hiding places and clutter to help them feel safe!)

- Snake Discovery Reptile Keeper Cleaning Hacks (works for aquarists too, and keepers of anything with a water dish!)

- Reptifiles - concise and well-researched reptile care sheets!

- How to safely free small animals, especially snakes, from glue traps - use mineral oil! (New England Reptile)

- AVOID deep heat projectors for reptiles, they are unsafe!

- Harmful ball python myths! (Spoiler alert: racks are bad for them.)

- How to get your snake to eat.

- Budget small scale mouse breeding!

- Safe rocks & materials (and their chemical properties/effects on PH) to use in hardscaping terrariums and aquariums (including wood too!)

- DIY Plywood Aquarium! (King of DIY)

- DIY effective Hamburg Mat Filter (King of DIY)

- DIY rear sump filter - basically DIY AIO aquarium (King of DIY) This is basically what I did with mine haha.😅

- Cheap household algae control! (King of DIY)

- DIY Reef Dry Rock! Yes, you can make your own! (Australian Aquarist)

- Scaping vivaria with concrete and foam board! (Serpa Design)

- Use pool sand in your (freshwater) aquarium instead of expensive aquarium sand or play sand! (Palmer Aquatics)

- Use medium grit blasting sand in your freshwater aquarium. (Palmer Aquatics)

- Use frameless glass picture frames for glass panels in DIY terrarium builds (Terrarium Designs - video shows how to safely cut it and everything) or Ikea UTRUSTA glass shelves for the same job (Serpa Designs) or balustrade glass for aquariums (Australian Aquarist - this glass cannot be cut but it is super strong so it is worth it to design your wooden aquarium around it!)

- Male and female bettas CAN be kept peacefully together so long as their water has tanins, tonnes of plants to block sightlines, the water is kept slightly colder, and one avoids red specimens as these are more aggressive. (Fishistory)

- Snake Body Language (a twitching tail only means 'I'm happy' in dog language!)

- Budget hacks for rats (and mice)

- Safe and dangerous foods for rats (and mice)

- Scatter feed rats and mice for foraging behaviour (never use a bowl)

- Rat diet options

- Rat and mouse-safe woods for chewing and habitat

Permaculture!🍇

- Easy DIY coddling moth traps that work just as well as pesticides for protecting tree fruit! (Alternatively: bag each fruit with a large organza bag!)

- Permaculture orchard design - far more efficient land use which equals more food and less effort in maintenance!

- Program your seeds by starting them in poor soil for two months then switching them to better soil for much stronger, more vigorous plants!

- Canadian wild plant collecting guidelines (by Garry Oak Ecosystems Recovery Team)

- Municipal rainwater reclaimation in Seattle via rain garden - brilliant, cheap, and far better for the environment!

- Wool for soil improvement, slug/snail repellant, and land reclamation from desertification.

--------------------------------

And no, I am never changing my banner, I don't care if my banner is ancient lol.

[spectrum-of-ashes]

Opinion: Internet censorship is irresponsible

A Commentary by Ash Spectrum

In recent years conversations about censorship have become more mainstream than ever. In December 2018 Tumblr banned sexually explicit content,  in January 2020 Twitter restricted sensitive content, including excessive gore and explicit content, and once again there has been a growing number of people who want Archive Of Our Own (AO3) to more heavily moderate the content being posted to the site. AO3s current content policy is dictated by the laws of New York, and AO3s Terms Of Service focus on how users interact with the site rather than restricting any content from being posted. I believe that trying to increase censorship on the site is irresponsible and misunderstands or ignores the history of other websites that have tried to ban similar content. This vocal group has been focused on the site's allowance of content that many consider questionable or illegal, and on the many works of “Trauma-Fiction” on the site. The focus on these works is based on a lack of understanding of how the website functions, and banning this content will have a much different effect than expected.

“The Archive of Our Own is a place for fanworks, including fan fiction based on books, TV, movies, comics, other media, and real-person fiction (RPF).” - Archiveofourown Terms Of Service Agreement

The current systems that AO3 has in place allow users to both include and exclude tags from the search results, allowing users control over what content they want to see. Banning genres of content from being published at all takes this control away from the user. Historically these bans do not work, as users will find ways to publish restricted content regardless, but without the content being tagged. This can cause many readers to be shown works that make them uncomfortable, and that they otherwise would have avoided with the current filtering system. The restrictions that are being proposed would also heavily censor “Trauma-Fiction”, which are works written with the purpose of helping the writer to process or cope with a traumatic experience. Some of these works contain graphic depictions of violence, gore, self-harm, abuse, and other topics that many find uncomfortable to read about. These works are not meant to be read the same way as other forms of fiction, and banning this content is a fundamental misunderstanding of why these works are created in the first place.

Now, onto the biggest issue within this debate. With AO3s current Terms Of Service, as long as the content is not breaking New York State law, it is permitted to be published on the site. Under this law written depictions of sexual content involving minors is not illegal, and thus, this content is allowed to be published on AO3. Many arguments to increase content restrictions focus on explicitly banning the publication of sexual content that involves minors on the site, alongside other written forms of sexual content that many believe should be illegal, such as bestiality, sexual abuse and assault, and depictions of non-consent. Many of the works in these categories are incredibly uncomfortable and upsetting, but outright banning any content that falls under these umbrellas will not solve any of the issues that are often brought up. Users on other platforms have found ways around similar content restrictions in the past, and AO3s current tagging and filtering system is very effective at removing unwanted content from search results. The ban of this content would also not take into consideration the complexity of the situation. There is a large gray area of content with no agreement on if it is acceptable, and removing these works without considering the context they were written in is irresponsible.

Censorship requires a set morality of what content should be allowed, but morality can never be broken down into a list of “good” content and “bad” content. For many people “bad” content includes any group that they don't think is “socially acceptable”, whether that be queer identities, racial minorities, religious minorities, kink, furries, or any of the many other groups that are often not included in mainstream media. Allowing the censorship of any content opens the door for groups to censor any media they don’t find acceptable to society. For many users AO3 is a form of escapism, and to try and censor any aspect of the website is a fundamental misunderstanding of why it was created in the first place.

“Practically any attempt to sort works of fiction into tidy piles of acceptable and unacceptable material, of course, is likely to invite controversy.” - Declan McCullagh, CNET, May 31st 2007

To prove that censorship is an ineffective solution, we need to go back to 2007 and look at a website called LiveJournal. First started in 1999 LiveJournal is a social networking website that allows users to create diaries, blogs, and of course, journals. In 2005 the company was purchased by Six Apart, and in 2007 over 500 groups were deleted from the site in the hopes of protecting children. Many of these groups were created with no ill intentions, such as support groups for victims of sexual assault and abuse, fan-fiction groups that included darker topics such as rape, and role-playing groups that included discussions of illegal activities that were being done by fictional characters. Many users responded to these bans by creating petitions, creating new groups to replace the ones lost, and trying to contact support and get the groups restored. Many others left the site entirely, having been discouraged by their months or years worth of work being deleted for a reason that they felt was completely wrong. LiveJournal was a website that was home to many LGBT+ users and the decision to remove content because it "encouraged illegal activities" pushed users away from the site because in many places their identities were illegal. The site deleted their content, and so they left to find places they felt more safe expressing themselves in such as Tumblr, Twitter, and AO3.

Historically no website can set a hard boundary on what content is acceptable and what content is restricted. Groups will use these restrictions to try and remove content that they do not like, and others will publish content regardless by using euphemisms and acronyms to bypass the moderation on the site. The only way for the website to keep running as intended is to allow the community to self-regulate content on the site and allow people to write what they want to write. Some of the content on the website may be harmful, but attempting to restrict and censor the works that the community fought so hard to publish will not solve any problems, it will only hurt the users who helped to create the website in the first place.

[hihereami]

Ami Ami Ami Ami Ami Ami, pls pls, take this as an invitation to go absolutely off about your magnus studios AU because I am in love and I need everyone else alive to also love the idea

You came jusssssssssssst after I posted about it!

BUT! I'll take the chance to rant some more because the idea of Melanie and Georgie engaged in this very dumb, very chaotic dynamic while Jon and Martin peer from the sidelines at their two friends is HILARIOUS.

I also have a lot invested in the fact that the Movie they meet in is THE movie of their carreers, all of theirs-- the only time when Jon's script came through without major changes, where the female leads are complex, multidimensional and interesting to act. It's UNNERVING and everyone is deeply afraid of making the wrong move and - when they meet on set - Melanie and Georgie feel so stressed and pressured by the already watchful gaze of the media (who expects full blown diva drama) that they take it out on each other.

And that's not good! That makes them more stressed! it makes the crew incredibly uncomfortable! It makes Jon see the nuances of his script get lost! Plus the director is a studio puppet and an idiot and won't step up (and keeps encouraging method acting bs :/) !

They both decide to step up and apologise to Jon after a particular day on set where he just. breaks down at the sight of his work being so throughly torturing for everyone involved. and that's where Melanie and Georgie meet - truly see each other - on the doorstep of Jon and Martin's home, where they went to apologise.

I'm very inspired by Joan Crawford and Bette Davis for this. It's very interesting how the media was obsessed with pitting them against each other when... they never hated each other with the passion fiction says? Bette had her own feud going on with the studios, while Joan was kind of trying to adapt and survive to an industry that kept wanting to spit her out. Here's a really good video on the subject.

As a film student, even though the fic has 40s vibes for its star system and the such ... I kind of think more of critiquing the current state of cinema, specially Hollywood. Not only it keeps perpetuating the same bullshit over and over (or creating new stereotypes after it tries to redeem itself for old ones), the industry is stifling for any creative working under it. It censors, it cuts, it rejects.

The work enviroment in film- from crew member to actor to scriptwriter - insists on trapping you in a box, a role and inhumane work hours. Not unlike the fears!

(And that's not only in Hollywood. If I start talking about the argentinian film industry... I won't stop).

But people have always been revolting against that, yknow? It's interesting to think of how this enviroment affects the characters, their relationships, their friendships and romances!

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: Yoshikage Kira

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS!)

“You can call me Yoshikage Kira. I'm currently 33 years old. Not that you'd care, but I reside in northeast Morioh's villa district. Also, I've yet to marry. In order to make a living, I work for Kame Yu department stores. After a long day's work, I return home no later than 8 PM. I don't like smoking, but do enjoy the occasional drink. I'm always in bed by 11 PM, and I make it a point to get no less than 8 hours of sleep each night. Before bed, I drink a warm glass of milk. It's always coupled with 20 minutes of stretching to decompress from the long workday. Sweet dreams are the usual result of this. I then awake as refreshed and recharged as a newborn child, ready to take on the day's challenges. And after my last checkup, I was given a clean bill of health. For as long as I could remember, I've done everything in my power to live a productive life that allows me to pursue a lasting inner peace. This may be a foreign concept, but I choose not to concern myself with winning or losing, life's troubles, or enemies who bring sleepless nights. That is how I cope with this backwards life we find ourselves living. It's what brings me happiness in a world fraught with hardship and misery. Of course, if I were ever to engage in combat, I would win the battle without question.”

JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure is an absolute wealth of fantastic villains, some of the absolute best fiction has to offer. Villains like Dio and Funny Valentine and Diavolo and Pucci have become iconic among fans for their crazy personalities, quotable lines, powerful stands, unique designs, and overall character. But one villain stands out as perhaps the greatest creation of Hirohiko Araki, the villain of what is arguably the best part of the franchise: Yoshikage Kira of Diamond is Unbreakable.

Kira is the remorseless serial Killer who has been living in plain sight in Morioh for years, killing women and taking their hands to be his “girlfriends.” He miraculously was never caught despite being active for over a decade, due to a combination of sheer luck and his incredibly dangerous Stand Killer Queen. The utterly terrifying part is that for the most part he seems like an absolutely normal, average guy who otherwise wouldn’t stand out too much in a crowd (well, by JoJo standards anyway, he does dress a bit too colorfully to fit in to a crowd in the real world). This is also what makes him so great as a JoJo villain: even among the others, he stands out. Kind of ironic, all things considered.

Actor: The dub chose to grace Kira with the voice of D.C. Douglas, who you may know as Albert Wesker or Legion. To say that his voice work is perfect would be an understatement; he truly sells Kira as a normal guy while at the same time leaving an air of uncomfortable dread around every word Kira says. And when Kira snaps… brrrrr. Douglas really outdid himself here.

Motivation/Goals: Yoshikage Kira simply wishes to live a quiet life, free from the worries that the common man has. He just wants to live and brutally obliterate women until the end of his days, never being caught or facing justice. This is the gist of his character when first introduced, but of course, things change when Josuke and the gang get on his tail; he then goes out of his way to escape them by stealing the identity and life of a man named Kosaku Kawajiri, and when even that fails due to Kawajiri’s son catching on to him he gains a new ability so he can simply obliterate them all. The long and short of it though is that Kira is very much your typical serial killer pushed too far, though with his abilities, Kira is a lot more than “typical.”

Personality: Kira’s personality when compared to other villains like DIO is actually very subdued. For the most part, he is very calm, collected, and doesn’t really ham it up to any great extent. But when he does, it’s usually extremely terrifying; just look at the scene where he invades the couple’s apartment and kills them if you need evidence of how utterly terrifying Kira can be when he raises his voice

All that being said, once Kira gets Bites the Dust all bets are off. He becomes a lot hammier, though none of it feels like a betrayal of his character; it more feels like after all his desperate attempts to escape and all the fear of being caught, he is finally winning. And then when he starts to lose… it does sort of bring back memories of DIO after drinking Joseph’s blood, with how unhinged and even maniacal he starts to become.

Final Fate: Kira has the honor of dying twice within the span of a single episode. First comes when he is pushed into the path of an oncoming ambulance, which accidentally backs up over his head, killing him. Kira’s spirit ends up on Reimi’s street, and together with Arnold she succeeds in making Kira turn around and face the hands of the wicked spirits that live there, who proceed to tear him and Killer Queen apart and drag them to oblivion.

Both deaths are fitting and have a sense of irony to them. An ambulance reverses over him and tears off his face, just as he did to Kosaku Kawajiri; there’s also the fact that his face being mangled by the wheels of the ambulance technically gives Kira the anonymity he so craved. Then of course there is the fact that Kira is dragged off by the object of his desires, torn apart and brought to a place where he will never again experience a quiet day.

Best Scene: For Kira in his original appearance, it’s almost definitely his brutal murder of Shigechi. When he’s Kosaku Kawajiri, the final activation of Bites the Dust and his final fate really take the cake.

Best Quote: You know there is only one quote that could possibly go here. The single most famous thing Kira ever said. And while the dub unfortunately had to censor the line because there are some words you just can’t say on TV, the line still managed to be as epic as promised even if it did have a bit of unintentional hilarity to it:

“When I was a young boy, I remember discovering Leonardo da Vinci's enigmatic Mona Lisa while leafing through a tome of the master's works. It was my first time laying eyes on her! The beauty before me, well, it aroused something in me... it gave me a rock hard cock!”

The “cock” was bleeped out in the broadcast. I just love how this drops all the pretense and subtlety of the manga’s translation, it’s really beautiful and really showcases just how desperate and unhinged Kira has become.

Final Thoughts & Score: As has been noted and alluded to, there is a hilarious irony to Kira. By being a JoJo villain who does his best to appear as average and mundane as possible, he stands out compared to his garish, posing, flexing, hammy peers in the series. Of course, this really does just help make him all the more intriguing and unique… which, if he were real, would just frustrate him all the more.

Frankly this is the easiest 10/10 I have ever given to a villain. I hardly even have to think about it. Kira is just my absolute favorite villain subjectively speaking, and even objectively he’s just a fantastic character who fits the story so well. The ultimate enemy of a man who can fix anything is a man who can blow up everything, it’s pure brilliance, like a shining diamond perhaps. Then there’s his design, which just oozes cool, as well as Killer Queen’s design and myriad powers, which are likewise insanely awesome. Is it any surprise that he’s my go-to inspiration for when I design serial killer OCs?

There’s also just how he contrasts with the part as a whole. Diamond is Unbreakable is very relaxed and laid-back, plot wise. Compared to the previous three stories, which were all about fabulous muscle-bound vampires trying to take over the world, this is just a simple story about a gang of teens trying to find a killer and protect their town. There’s a lot of wacky situations and side characters, and overall the tone manages to stay fun and lighthearted… until Kira steps on the scene. Kira’s every appearance brings in a lot of dark, terrifying, and truly gruesome moments, and even with some of the levity provided such as his rambling about the erection he got from the Mona Lisa he still manages to be incredibly creepy and unnerving until his dying breath.

Kira is just an utterly fantastic villain with cool powers, a great voice actor, and two really fun playable appearances in All-Star Battle (Kawajiri’s Great Heat Attack is one of my favorites, it’s so funny). And while it’s obviously sad but still expected such a fantastic villain has to die, we can all take solace in knowing that some day in the distant future we will see him again (sort of) in Part 8. Still, it’s doubtful it will fill the hole Kira has exploded in the hearts of JoJo fans everywhere. 

[timeoutforthee]

Like it or Not-Chapter 24

Taglist: @itsausernamenotafobsong, @sea-blue-child, @iaminmultiplefandoms, @princeanxious, @uwillbeefoundtonight, @zaidiashipper, @arandompasserby, @levyredfox3, @falsett0, @error-i-dunno-what-went-wrong, @scrapbookofsketches, @podcastsandcoffee, @helloisthisusernametaken, @amuthefunperson, @michealawithana, @yamihatarou, @heck-im-lost, @unlikelynightmareconnoisseur, @idkaurl, @bubblycricket, @fnp-alizay, @neonbluetiefling, @comicsimpson, @a-little-bit-of-ace

Summary: Logan, Patton, Roman, and Virgil are all struggling in their recovery. Their doctors, Thomas Sanders and Emile Picani think they can help each other out.

Aka Group Therapy AU

Trigger Warnings:  discussions of anxiety, fictionalized body horror/monsters

Read it on AO3!

Paisley wants to interrogate her son. She wants to know why she didn’t hear him sneak down last night, wants to ask if he didn’t or if he’s just gotten better at hiding it. But the second she takes a look at him, she swallows her questions.

Patton has dragged himself out of bed and down the stairs to sit at the kitchen table with great effort. The dim lights are usually nice, but right now they feel like they’re too bright.

“Honey, you look exhausted.”

“I just had a lot going on yesterday,” Patton says, which is the truth. Emotionally, he’s drained. “I couldn’t fall asleep last night.”

Technically, he fell asleep fine last night. The first time. Then, as always, he woke up at 1:28 in the morning. And he sat there. He thought about all the steps he had just made, and he felt...different. Usually he felt hollow when he snuck down to eat. But then, he just felt tired from everything he had gone through emotionally during group. He decided he wanted to sleep more than he wanted to eat, so he turned his back to his phone, and tried to go back to sleep.

He couldn’t.

Leaving him here, exhausted and trying to pull himself together for school. From what he could tell, he wasn’t doing a good job, because his mom kept shooting him concerned glances. Eventually, she walked over and gave him a kiss on the head.

“You’re doing so well, honey,” she said.

Patton winces. The last thing he wants is for people to know. He doesn’t want to let them all down when he inevitably messes this up.

^

“No!” Roman says, resisting the urge to hit the table to emphasize his point, “No! No! No!” In front of him on his desk is Remus’s sketchbook. It’s a green cloth covered notebook filled with sketches from his various projects. It’s flipped to the sketch that’s supposed to be anxiety. Remus is sat in the seat next to him, with his body turned in the chair to face Roman. The entire classroom is white, save for the show posters hung up around the walls.

Remus rolls his eyes at Roman’s theatrics. “And why not? These sketches are great.”

“These sketches are disturbing-” This one in particular is a hunched over creature, with bloody scales covering the body. There are a few stray lines, but overall it’s very clean and nicely done. Roman is still impressed that such talent could come from such a mess of a person.

“They’re monsters, Roman, what did you expect?”

“You know what I expect? A well thought out piece that makes people think, not some cheap scares that take advantage of the neurodivergent community!”

“Maybe you’re expecting too much.”

“Clearly! I don’t know why I thought you would actually care about this project-”

“I care about this project, I just don’t care to bend to these rules you’re pulling out of your ass!”

“How dare you, I’m just trying to-”

“Guys,” Suddenly Mr. Hurley is standing in between their two desks. “What is going on here? I can hear you arguing from my desk.”

“Roman is making up rules to try and restrict my creativity.”

“Remus isn’t listening to me.”

“Well, maybe you should come up with something worthwhile to say.”

“Maybe you-”

“Guys!” Mr. Hurley repeats, “Remus, is there something you can work on without Roman? I need to talk to him at my desk.”

“Me?!” Roman says. Remus just smiles.

“There sure is, Mr. Hurley,” Remus says, pulling his sketchbook back onto his own desk.

“Roman,” the teacher says, nodding to his own desk in the back of the classroom. Roman stands up and walks over, followed closely by him.

“Now tell me why you can’t get along with Remus,” he asks as soon as they’re out of earshot from the other students.

“I’m just trying to take this assignment seriously!” Roman says, frustrated.

“And what makes you think Remus isn’t? When he told me your guys’ plan he also told me he’s the one who came up with the idea, I think that shows dedication on his part.”

“But we’re dealing with real conditions here,” Roman says, desperate for his teacher to see his side, “Real people in the audience will see our representations, we don’t want to upset them!”

“So you’re worrying about censoring yourself?”

“No! Yes! I don’t know!” Roman yanks his hand through his hair. “I don’t care if people are uncomfortable with our portrayals, but I want them to be accurate and thought out, because I don’t want to hurt people’s feelings.”

“They’ll get over it,” Mr. Hurley laughs, “Besides, you don’t even know if people in the audience will have these...conditions.”

“Do you know how common they are? Of course there will be!”

“You don’t know that,” Mr. Hurley says, “And if I were you, I’d watch my tone when talking to an authority figure.”

“Sorry, sir,” Roman says automatically. His father has taught him well, “I’m just...passionate about this topic, is all.”

“Aren’t you passionate about everything, Prince?” his teacher laughs. “If you can, try and dial it back a bit. Remus has some good ideas. That’s why I assigned you two together. You could create something great here, you just need to step back a bit.”

“Step...back,” Roman repeats.

“Yeah!” Mr. Hurley says, “You’re brand of creativity can be a little...sweet. Like cake with too much icing. I think working with Remus and creating this story will be good for you.”

“Okay,” Roman says. Maybe he could be a little much. Maybe he was making a big deal out of nothing.

The bell starts to ring and everyone starts packing up for their next class.

“This was a good talk, Roman,” he says. Roman nods. Mr. Hurley smiles and claps him on the shoulder before going back to his desk.

Roman grabs his books and heads to lunch.

^

“But why does the anxiety monster have bloody scales?” Virgil asks.

“Because it looks cool,” Roman responds, shrugging.

“But...that’s not a good reason,” Logan says.

“Well, Mr. Hurley thought I should be more open-minded, therefore, cool monster.”

“A monster can be cool and still make sense,” Virgil says under his breath.

“How?”

Virgil tries not to shrink back in his seat at that. He had plenty of experiences with anxiety, and all its many symptoms. He was sure he could find one to elaborate on.

“Ha!” Roman takes his silence as a victory, “It’s not that simple, is it?”

“Of course it’s not simple, nothing about mental illness is simple,” Virgil says, a little harsher than necessary. He regrets it immediately when Roman pulls back, but before he can say anything, Roman continues.

“Look, I don’t really like it either, okay? But I’ve got nothing else to offer, so I don’t know what to do.”

“I’m sure you can think of something, Roman!” Patton speaks up.

“But will it even be a good idea?” Roman says. “Who’s to say my ideas are better than Remus’s? His are valid too.”

“Valid, but also stupid. If he’s just going to make whatever monsters he wants, then why even base them on mental illnesses in the first place?” Virgil says

Logan looks across the table at Patton. He’s been uncharacteristically quiet to day, and their friends’ current fight is doing nothing to help that situation. Right now, Patton’s eyes are looking at the whiteboard, the bookcases, the desk in front of him, anything but Virgil and Roman.

“Because this is what Remus wanted, and what Mr. Hurley wanted, so maybe it’s the right choice after all!”

“What about what you want?”

“I want...a good story,” Roman says, “But I think...I think I’m getting in over my head.”

“I don’t,” Virgil says, “I think you can do it, Roman. But it’s going to take work, because you don’t know the first thing about anxiety.”

Roman sputters. “I am trying-”

“How?”

“I-I,” Roman pauses, “I care! That’s-that’s something, right?”

“Of course it is,” Virgil says, softly, “But you need to put a little more work into it than just caring.”

“Virgil’s right,” Logan says, jumping in, “We know you care, you just need to show it.”

“How do I do that?”

“By doing research, so you can accurately represent the monsters,” Logan says.

Roman wrinkles his nose. “Research?”

“Yes,” Virgil says, “You really want to write a good story? You have to put more effort in.”

“Okay, okay,” Roman says, “I get it. You guys are right. But it’s just going to be so hard.”

“You’re right, it is,” Virgil says, shrugging.

“But I’m sure you can do it, Roman!” Patton says, snapping his head up from where it was trained on his lunch.

“I am, too,” Virgil says, “I really do believe you care, Roman, and that does count for something. And I think that passion will make it easier for you to write this story.”

“Thanks,” Roman says, slowly. “So...Virgil, can I ask you a question?”

“Sure,” he says.

“What is anxiety actually...like? What are the worst parts?”

Virgil snorts. “Everything,” he says automatically. Then he leans back, contemplating it a little more. “It’s like I’m afraid, but I don’t know what I’m afraid of. My body is constantly on high alert even though I don’t know what the threat is. I’m always looking out for what’s going to go wrong.”

“So if you’re always looking for something to go wrong…,” Roman says, “Maybe we could do something eye focused? Like multiple eyes?”

“That makes sense,” Virgil says, “More sense than bloody scales.”

[yeswevegotavideo]

Support AO3, or don't, but leave it the fuck alone

(I wrote this rant quite a while ago and never posted it, but seeing as people are On That Bullshit again, I figured it was time.) 

I feel like people (you know which) who bitch about AO3 holding fundraisers to support their business, even though said business hosts content they don't approve of, are rather analogous to anti-vaxxers, or anti-unionists.

The online fanfiction world before OTW/AO3 was much more dangerous and much less regulated and much harder to control, and innocent people were getting hurt all over the place.

Content creators could destroy other people's work with impunity under "copyright infringement" claims that weren't even valid. Web hosts could discover that a fic writer was posting written erotica or fanfiction in general (see copyright infringement above), on their servers (usually after being alerted to it by someone with a grudge) and respond by taking down their website, deleting their work, and banning their IP. They didn't even have to tell you if they did this, you could discover it by accident. And this happened a lot, because companies were skittish about anything even potentially legally problematic, so they erred on the side of enormous banhammers.

And on the fan creation side, there were no real content standards. There was no way to know whether what you were reading was potentially triggering. Tagging wasn't a thing. Warnings weren't standardized. There was no system, no way of either protecting yourself OR your work. And trying to find things you wanted to see was sometimes even harder, and involved associating with people you might not want to. I entered fandom (at 17, I might add) at a time when the primary way to get fanfic was through Yahoo!groups. Message boards. I had no control over who I did and didn't have contact with. I honestly don't even remember if there WAS a way to block people. And there were definitely some creeps. There were definitely some people I would never want to associate with.

When the OTW was created, it set out to fix both of these problems at once. The legal side dealt with the fair use and transformative aspects of fanwork, and AO3 dealt with the content moderation aspect. And I think they've done a damn good job with both. Of course it's not perfect, nothing is perfect, but the fact that I can go to AO3 right now and filter out just about anything I don't want to see with extremely good results tells me that they've achieved what they set out to achieve.

But people who weren't here for the before don't see the former world. Anti-vaxxers don't think of disease as a threat because they haven't been exposed to it. Anti-unionists think unions are worthless because they weren't there for life before the 40 hour work week and child labor laws. They only see what they can criticize now.

And beyond that, they come to their criticism with misinformed, ignorant, and harmful ideas about how the whole thing works. Like anti-vaxxers and their autism myth, and anti-unionists and their worship of capitalism, these people have a worldview that, frankly, scares the shit out of me.

They seem genuinely convinced that writing about something means fully endorsing it. That only the sick and twisted and perverted would ever, could ever, write offensive or gross things, write about characters who enjoy those things, explore scenarios that would be horrific in reality. That fiction not only influences and is influenced by society, but creates reality, IS reality. That abstract concepts in a story are, themselves, crimes against humanity equivalent to rape and murder. That these things ARE rape and murder. That writing a story that doesn’t explicitly condemn rape or abuse is not only endorsement but incitement. As if fiction writers were causing these things to happen in real life, to real people. They’ve said as much. If you write rape fantasies, you’re a rapist. If you write incest, you’re a pedophile. Period, end-of, no gray area, no exceptions. Though of course, the only writers for whom this is true are fanfiction writers.

Funny how they’re not going after the published authors like this. Is anyone seriously going around calling Stephen King a pedophile because IT has a weird, uncomfortable and frankly unnecessary child orgy in it? Because it totally does, for some weird fucking reason. (Coke. The reason was lots, and lots, of coke. Also the 70s.) He made thousands of dollars off of that story, he will collect royalties on it for the rest of his life. But no, he’s fine, we can leave his career alone, his book can stay on the shelf. We should definitely instead destroy the unpaid passion project of some 40-year-old housewife who writes out her fantasies to feel just a little less alone, some 16-year-old abuse victim trying to make sense of the things currently happening to her, some 25-year-old receptionist whose only escape from her soul-crushing job is exploring the inner workings of human dynamics through the characters she most resonates with, or finds the most fascinating, or most inspire her to write. These are the real villains, am I right?

AO3 protects ALL OF FANDOM and yes, this includes the unsavory and the distasteful, because it must. Because content censorship is creative death. Once an authority is allowed to decide what is and isn’t acceptable subject matter, it’s a matter of time before those subjective, arbitrary decisions start affecting people it shouldn’t. What happens when one of the decision makers goes power-mad? When they get into a disagreement with a writer and decide, oops, all their shit is banned, and anyone who commented positive things on their stories is banned, too. When somebody gets hired to do the job, and you know what they really find inappropriate and gross? Interracial dating. When somebody decides to erase all the stories involving the “wrong” kind of trans person. Or all trans people. It’s not remotely farfetched to imagine something like this happening. One trip to Fanlore and you can find dozens of incidents like it in the past. Over, and over, and over.

And the thing is, once these tools are put into place, they are never, ever only used as intended. They are never, ever only used to the benefit of the “good guys”. We don’t want censorship on AO3 for the same reason we don’t want a leftist president with unlimited power - because the people in charge today might not be the people in charge tomorrow. Because no one should be allowed that kind of authority, even people we agree with. Because humans are fallible and make mistakes and make bad choices, and we have no choice but to let them, but we sure as hell can prevent them from doing too much damage.

Writing down a rape fantasy that someone is already fucking having because they are among the most common sexual fantasies on the fucking planet does not cause tangible harm. Destroying someone’s creative outlet? Tangible fucking harm.

These people want to take away the only bastion against the wider world that fandom has, because a small percentage of it contains upsetting, triggering ideas. Not calls for action, not instruction manuals, not advocations - just ideas, put together to make stories. The site HAS self-censoring mechanisms, that's one of the reasons for its existence, but the ability to actively avoid the content they don’t want to see isn’t enough for them. That scares me, and it should scare you, too. Because once they decide you’re “problematic”, you’re next.

Because they are advocating for authoritarianism, and authoritarianism is not your friend.

[shutyourfukkenfacevirginnerdlord]

1. Michelle drew child porn!

No she didn’t.

2. Aging up characters for porn is child porn!

No it isn’t. It literally takes away the one thing that makes it child porn.

2a. If you age characters up for porn, it means you were “thinking about minors in sexual situations”, and that’s pedophilia.

This is a really fucking weird one but I’ll try to dissect it anyway. When someone picks out their favorite character, it’s usually because of a relatable trait. In other words, they identify with and relate to the character. When people write fanfiction or draw fanart of certain characters, especially doing non-canon things or things they wouldn’t do as they are canonly written, what it amounts to is the fan artist having a little wish fulfillment (also applies to when they request art or fiction pieces because they don’t feel they can draw or write). They want those things to happen to them. The same applies to porn. The person who requested the art piece in question obviously was okay with Ava being aged up because they were more into Ava as a *character* than Ava as a *body type*, as evidenced by the person who commissioned it NOT throwing a fit because she didn’t look like the Ava in the current comic.

2b. Adding titties doesn’t make a character 18!

Maybe not, but in the case of this flat-chested (in the current story), literal-chest-of-drawers Ava, yes, I think adding titties would indicate a good amount of time has passed to where she is now an adult.

2c. Ava still looks too young / basically 18 in name only

Well, first off, no—and secondly, rude? The censored version of the art in question conveniently had her adult titties blacked over by a huge circle so you couldn’t see whether or not anything was different. As for the second point, plenty of adults have small titties ANYWAY. Their relationships are not pedophilic and literally all of us would be fucking pissed if anyone dared try to say so. People trying to compare it to Nowi from FE are way off base here because the Ava in the commissioned piece doesn’t look too young. Have you seen an 18 year old standing next to a 15 year old? A senior next to a freshman? How about an 18 year old next to a 23 year old? Trust me, the development into what LOOKS like an adult doesn’t stop at 18. The Ava in the piece is a far cry from Nowi.

3. But think of the children!

The one person in question who started all this is the only one who exposed any minors to the porn. It’s behind an 18+ pay wall. All reasonable precautions were made to keep anyone who shouldn’t see it out.

You’re allowed to feel uncomfortable because YES it’s a weird thing for a person to commission and not everyone is ok with porn. BUT calling Michelle a pedophile or a pedophile caterer is stupid at best and cause for legal action at worst because it isn’t true and it’s harmful to her reputation, which she depends on as a self-employed artist.

Also all the people jumping on her dick for her being willing to pony up money to get rid of a group of people who’ve been harassing her for years, and literally have a dedicated chat for it, are fucking stupid. An IP address isn’t doxx you fucking newfags, lurk more.

[howling--fantods]

Ah this RPS thing… I don't think there's anything wrong with having little "headcanons" as long one can tell fiction from reality. And I don't think there's anything wrong with fan fictions/arts since they're fictional and creativity shouldn't be censored. But of course not everyone is comfortable with this kind of content, so warnings/tags are necessary to make sure people who don't want to see them do not come across them by accident. (1/2)

So it’s definitely not okay to straight up ask the person involved about it since that would be shoving it under their nose. So yeah… That’s my take on this matter… Sorry for spamming your asks… Have a lovely weekend! X (2/2)

for the most part i totally agree with you, i think most of it is harmless and isn’t meant to ever reach the people involved and is just fans having a little fun. the problem with gramon is that it is RELENTLESS and people constantly bug graham about it bc he is uncomfortable and the fans don’t want that to be true. even in the post from last night the person asked graham directly, he said it made him feel uncomfortable and shitty, and the person still came to the conclusion that he was wrong. and he always is fielding questions about it, he keeps saying, “no you don’t understand, it wasn’t like that, we were like brothers” and people won’t take that as an answer bc in the 90s they made out and stuff, WHILE HE WAS SHITFACED. it is so inconsiderate in context, he is a recovering alcoholic and ppl keep showing him this shit that happened when he was using, jumping to conclusions about things even when he says flat out that it wasn’t like that.

i think it is completely inconsiderate of both graham and damon’s current relationships, especially graham’s bc he is so obviously not okay with it. there are ppl who will say every song graham wrote was about damon, which is simply untrue, i can honestly only think of one that might be. graham has this whole life away from blur, he has worked so hard for it, he and essy have such a lovely little family, and yet the fans don’t want to celebrate that as much bc it isn’t damon? he is so much happier now! i also think that something really sad about fandom culture that a relationship is only seen as meaningful if it is sexual. damon and graham DO have a really lovely friendship and it doesn’t have to have been sexual for that to be true. there are a lot of things about their friendship that is about pure love that is just as sweet and meaningful seen platonically, perhaps even more so! there is so much to celebrate about gramon even without the sexual component.

i don’t think graham is going on AO3 to check or anything and i know a lot of people who write fics that are actually quite lovely (even the sexual ones) and dont want graham EVER to find them bc they know it upsets him. i think that these fans are trying their best to be considerate and that writing fics is just a fun thing that is meant to be harmless. they always write warnings and are clear about the it being pure fiction. but continuing to insist that what he says isn’t accurate isn’t cool. and fanart is fine too but if you are gonna send it directly to graham then don’t make it reflect the parts of the relationship he has said are untrue. i don’t believe censoring ppl is okay but constantly harassing someone about something they have explicitly said is untrue and makes him uncomfortable is not.

ahhhhhhhhhh sorry for the rant!! thanks for your input and i do agree with you for the most part, the fans just really need to chill about gramon and stop bugging graham about it. i hope you have a lovely weekend too!! <3333

[darthsuki]

Why are teenage rape survivors considered criminal for saying mean things on the internet while adults creating media with which they can be re-traumatized or backslide into their abuser's arms with can send harassment campaigns and try to intentionally trigger people? Why can adults excuse their behavior with the arguments IRL child rapists use while teens are considered to be saying nonsense because some of them are mean?

You can say “I’ve never seen this happen”, but I can say that 90% of shippers in the discourse do this, and you wouldn’t have the power to contradict me, because that’s proving a negative. It’s virtually impossible to say “most antis/shippers would never do this and those that do are a vocal minority”. 

Let me be a little more clear here. I was raped as a child, repeatedly, and as a teenager, shippers made rape jokes and drew adorable rape shota porn. This made me think what happened to me was fine. This made me stop IDing red flags in the people around me, made me stop hearing about a 15-year-old dating a 20-year-old and thinking ‘that’s awful’. This is my experience. A lot of people have the same history. To contradict this is to say 'the danger you were put into doesn’t matter’.

You can’t say that it’s okay something is a danger because call out culture is bad. I’m not participating in callout culture. I’m sending asks you can reply to privately calmly explaining that I’m aware there is a danger and being angry on the behalf of grown adults not being able to post whatever they want and not on the behalf of survivors and children being unsafe in fandom is narrow-minded. Shippers constantly tell me that being raped is no reason to be mean just for saying so.

ARE they being harassed? Or are they just nervous and attacked because too many people at once dropped by to tell them that they hate what this artist is doing, for very valid reasons? You don’t know. You aren’t there to see what the actual proportion of harassment vs calm discussion on either side looks like. I see shippers harass more than antis, and you see vice versa. We can only judge based on what little we do know. What I know is something I have personally experienced.

You don’t have to try to stuff words into my mouth to prove that yes, there are always negative, hurtful people in the world who do terrible things, shipper or not, anti or not.

However, it’s not my responsibility as a creator if a rape survivor sees my work that contains rape. It’s not my responsibility to protect you or bend to your triggers in what I produce, though I will always advocate to give someone the ability to avoid your works through tagging or similar. That is up to the person viewing the content to protect themselves and their internet experience, as it always have been. 

I’m deeply sorry for the trauma you endured in life–that is however, the fault of your rapists for doing that to you, and nobody but the people who did the acts to harm you or contribute to such abuse and trauma. It does not give you the ability, nor anyone else, to censor someone’s work, written or artistic. Do I enjoy rape shota porn? Absolutely not, but I can’t stop someone from creating it–but I can sure as fuck blacklist that shit so I don’t need to. Adult creators aren’t excusing anything, because they haven’t committed any such act. A creator of content containing rape does not equal a rapist. A creator of age gaps does not equal pedophile. A creator of incestuous works doesn’t equal condoning of rape or nonconsentual incest.

Again, I’m sorry you went through such an event, but you can’t place the blame on others, especially very self-aware creators in the current creative culture, in something like that. It’s not that children or survivors are unsafe in fandom, it’s that they need to learn how to filter their viewing experience of the internet. That’s how the internet works. You tailor your own experience of the content that you seek, and no matter what, it’s not the responsibility for a creator to do that for you. It sounds really harsh, but that is the raw truth to the internet in reference to the consuming of fictional creation. This is true for children in fandom, though many things are already in place to protect them–safesearch, tagging, filtering. Especially with the new implementation of tumblr censoring nsfw content for underaged bloggers–regardless, the user is always responsible for curating their own internet experience, and not for a creator to be obligated to curate to or worry about.

Also yes, creators are being harassed. They have been doxxed. They have been threatened (you can see plenty of that with someone like @lvtro, who is probably one of the most prolific in gaining hate and harassment for enjoying ‘problematic’ content). Some have had their lives ruined, a couple simply for having their name accidentally mentioned in massive rumor-spreading or callout posts. What I know is also what I have experienced, and I am not nor ever obligated to use my past emotional or sexual abuse as a weapon against creators. There is content I don’t like, content I will never be able to look at because of my past experiences, but that doesn’t give me the right to demean or vilify creators because they happen to create content that hits far too close to home for what I’ve been through. 

I’m not responsible for the media that you consume; you are, and saying that does not dismiss or contradict sympathy to someone’s trauma. If you don’t like it, if it hurts you, if it makes you uncomfortable, then do not consume it. 

[swipestream]

Sensor Sweep: Skullsplitter Dice, Fantasy divisions, Future Firearms, Samson Pollen

Fiction (DMR Books): I have a real attachment to the supernatural tales that appeared in what is often called the golden age of the English ghost story.  Ranging from around 1880 to somewhere in the 1920s its boundaries are as vague as its achievements are remarkable.  For a time, in that difficult to imagine world in which fiction had yet to solidify into specific genres, any author might try his or her hand at a tale of the supernatural, writing primarily motivated by the desire, as M.R. James put it, to make the reader feel “pleasantly uncomfortable.”  While dozens of authors who would later distinguish themselves

  Genre (Perilous Worlds): Sometimes it seems like the myriad sub-divisions of the fantasy genre cause more confusion than clarity. Terms like Epic and High Fantasy are often used interchangeably, labels like Sword-and-Sorcery and Dark Fantasy are commonly applied indiscriminately, and books with seemingly nothing in common can be found right next to one another in the fantasy section. A novel set in modern times featuring a heroic, magic-wielding protagonist and one set in a medieval-flavored secondary world devoid of the supernatural and concerned with the selfish adventures of an amoral rogue are both works of fantasy – but if only one of those sounds like a book you’d want to read, it helps to be familiar with the broad categories of contemporary fantasy.

  Weapons (Future War Stories): Any leap forward in design, fashion, and/or technology can be greeted as the harbinger of the future or a laughing stock by the masses. While this can be applied to personal electronics, clothing, and architecture; it can also be applied to firearms. During the 1980’s, the western nations invested heavily in advancing weapons technology to overcome the numerical superior of the Warsaw Pact. This was the time of cutting edge weapon system like the Apache attack helicopter, the M1 Abrams, the Steyr AUG, night vision, laser sights, and the H&K G11.

  Weapons (DMR Books): Hank Reinhardt would have turned eighty-five today. Though I never knew him personally, Hank affected my life in some unique ways and he shall receive due honor from me for that. If you don’t know who Hank Reinhardt was, check out the hyperlink above or read on.

I first learned of Mr. Reinhardt when I bought the DAW sword and sorcery anthology–quite possibly the greatest ever published–Heroic Fantasy. Hank was co-editor of that book along with Gerald W. Page.

  Art (CBC News): Semi-nude women, sadistic soldiers, and animal attacks aren’t exactly high art.

Yet those were themes that appealed to the millions of men who read “sweat magazines” — adventure digests sold across North America from the 1940s to the 1970s​.

Publications like Man’s Story, World of Men, and Man’s Epic weren’t exactly pornographic — but were the opposite of politically correct.

  Authors (Socialist Jazz): Theodore Sturgeon was by all accounts a confounding personality, genial, personally irresponsible, questioning many of the more basic matters of human relations, perception and emotion, and a man who could certainly write a sentence…and then be hung up by how badly he’d done so for years-long writer’s blocks. And yet managed to be very prolific over a long if troubled career.

          Art (Mens Pulp Mags): Simply put, Samson Pollen was one of the greatest of the many artists who provided illustrations for the men’s adventure magazines (MAMs) that flourished from the early 1950s to the late 1970s.

My publishing partner Wyatt Doyle and I had the good fortune and the honor of working with Sam on two books featuring his artwork before he passed away in December of 2018.

The first, POLLEN’S WOMEN: THE ART OF SAMSON POLLENwas published last year. It quickly became one of the best-selling books in our Men’s Adventure Library series, which features classic MAM stories and artwork.

  Fiction (Perilous Worlds): If you love The Hobbit and The Lord of the Ringsand want to follow the third road of the J. R. R. Tolkien fantasy triad, these first words of The Silmarillion might trick you into putting the book back on the “May Read … Someday” shelf, right beside War and Peace and Les Misérables.

I’m making a plea for you not to shelve it. Or for you to reach up to the shelf and take down Professor Tolkien’s 1977 volume of the Elder Days of Middle-Earth and try again. Too many people have let The Silmarillion’s reputation for difficulty—and its actual difficulty—keep them away from discovering what may be one of their favorite works of fantasy.

  Fiction (Tellers of Weird Tales): A month ago I wrote about Vikings and other medieval subjects on the cover ofWeird Tales, and out of that I received a couple of comments from readers about Viking fantasy stories. That got me thinking that there may be a missed sub-sub-genre of fantasy and science fiction dealing with those men and women of the north, with their winged and horned helmets, long, braided hair, conical breastplates, and raiments of hide and fur. So here is a first shot at stories of Vikings and Norsemen, with some also of Saxons, Geats, Goths, and other early northern Europeans thrown into the mix.

  History (Men of the West): The Turk has long been known as the “sick man of Europe,” and the story of the Ottoman Empire for a hundred years has been a tale of gradual dismemberment. Thus it is no easy matter for us to realize that for centuries the Ottoman power was the terror of the civilized world.

It was in 1358 that the Ottomans seized Gallipoli, on the Dardanelles, and thus obtained their first footing in Europe. They soon made themselves masters of Philippopolis and Adrianople. A crusading army, gathered to drive the Asiatic horde from Europe, was cut to pieces by the Sultan Bajazet at Nicopolis in 1396. On the day after the battle ten thousand Christian prisoners were massacred before the Sultan, the slaughter going on from daybreak till late in the afternoon. The Turk had become the terror of Europe.

  Authors (A Shiver in the Archives): The legend* has altered in the retelling, from a slip found in Robert E. Howard’s wallet after his suicide in June 1936, to it being the last thing Howard typed on his typewriter before going out to his car where he shot himself in the head. The couplet is now legendary:

All fled, all done, so lift me on the pyre; The feast is over and the lamps expire.

Rusty Burke published an article “All Fled, All Done” in The Dark Man: The Journal of Robert E. Howard Studies (Winter 2001), in which he identified Howard’s source for the final line of the couplet, a poem titled “The House of Cæsar” by Viola Garvin, which appeared in a poetry anthology Songs of Adventure (1926), edited by Robert Frothingham.  Each of the five stanzas of the poem ends with the line “The Feast is over and the lamps expire!”

  Gaming (Table Top Gaming News): These little gems are one of my favorite things, and so when Skullsplitter Dice asked if I’d like to review one of their sets, and not only that, their first-ever limited edition set, I was like, “(censored) YEAH!!” So, they sent me some dice. I rolled them around a bit, and I’m here to let you know about it.

It’s time for another TGN Review. This time, it’s the Huntress Limited Edition Dice from Skullsplitter Dice.

  Cinema (Kairos): In my work as a freelance editor, I’ve noticed a common tendency among the current crop of science fiction authors to write books as if they’re writing movies. That practice is understandable since most science fiction and fantasy novels published after 1980 suck, and therefore today’s authors are disproportionately influenced by film.

However, writing a novel by playing a little movie in your head and transcribing what you see in your mind’s eye hobbles the final product. Because this generation of authors don’t read as much as their forebears did, few of them realize the storytelling advantages that books have over movies.

  Fiction (Cirsova): Per Michael Tierney, the original fragment that Burroughs wrote was just found this morning.

Apparently, Danton Burroughs had sent it to be transcribed by Bill Hillman of ERBzine.com, who has announced today in a thread on the ERBzine facebook group that it is still in his possession!

Danton sent me this ERB handwritten script. I typed it out and returned the typed copy to him. He offered it to a few writers to see if they would be interested in finishing it. I still have the handwritten copy plus my transcription.

We have updated the copy in the original piece.

Cirsova’s spring issue featuring Young Tarzan and the Mysterious She is available for digital pre-order now and physical pre-order in February.

  Fiction (Glorious Trash): I had a tough time with this third volume of Conan. In fact I read it over a year ago, but at the time I found myself skimming the collected stories, to the point that when I “finished” the book I didn’t have any idea how to review it! So I waited a while until getting back to the series, only to find my interest again sagging at times.

    Sensor Sweep: Skullsplitter Dice, Fantasy divisions, Future Firearms, Samson Pollen published first on https://medium.com/@ReloadedPCGames

[therealjammy]

All the other questions for the author's ask :)

1. Is there a story you’re holding off on writing for some reason?

I’ve always loved stories and movies that take place at boarding schools and so I’ve always wanted to write a story/novella that takes place there but I’ve never found the right setting or time period or characters or events and it blows

2. What work of yours, if any, are you the most embarrassed about existing?

The very first novel I ever wrote and finished. It still hasn’t seen the light of day or an editing and it’s been 4 years 

3. What order do you write in? Front of book to back? chronological? favorite scenes first? something else?

I usually try to write everything in chronological order but when I get stuck, I dive right in to the meat of the story/my favorite scenes and then try to work the story around that

4. Favorite character you’ve written

In terms of fan fiction, my character Nikita Mikhailov, who is Villanelle’s new handler in my fic Stands the Lonely Tree 

In terms of original work, I really like my character Marjorie Addams, who appears in a novella I wrote a year and a half ago called Eden, which takes place at a music camp over seven days and somebody dies 

5. Character you were most surprised to end up writing

Villanelle, tbh; I love writing from her POV

6. Something you would go back and change in your writing that it’s too late/complicated to change now

I would definitely change how melancholic it is because I really feel like people hate that 

7. When asked, are you embarrassed or excited to tell people that you write?

Excited, most of the time; I’ve never had anyone in my life tell me that what I want to do is useless or not worth pursuing, and for that I’m incredibly lucky

8. Favorite genre to write

Realistic fiction but my guilty pleasure is post-apocalyptic and attempts at period pieces (like my latest play!)

9. What, if anything, do you do for inspiration?

I watch my favorite movies or I go to the bookstore or to the movies and other times I read my favorite books or fic authors or listen to new music; all these things have helped spark inspiration at some point or another!

11. What aspect of your writing do you think has most improved since you started writing?

Definitely dialogue; I used to struggle with that so much but now it’s relatively easy in prose form anyway; plays are a whole different beast but I won’t go into that right now lol

12. Your weaknesses as an author

Humor. I feel like I can’t make anything light-hearted or funny to combat the seriousness of my stories (Phoebe Waller-Bridge please take me under your wing)

13. Your strengths as an author

People tell me my writing flows quite well and that I’m very detail-oriented and that they really like my style (how it sounds poetic at times), so I guess those would be strengths

14. Do you make playlists for your current WIPS?

Sometimes, yes, particularly if I’m writing a scene that has a certain vibe to it, I have to find a song that matches that vibe 

15. Why did you start writing?

Ever since I was a tinier human, I’d always been making up stories, whether I was outside playing with my horses and zoo animals and dolls or just writing random sentences. I remember once, when I was 9, I was thinking of this story and I started writing it down and I had a moment of ‘I can get what’s in my head onto the page?!’ and it was just this giant revelation, and so I’ve been writing ever since then. I didn’t start to take it seriously until I was in high school, and that’s when I began writing “for real,” I guess you could say, and I also took it up as a sort of therapy because between middle school and high school there was a lot of trauma, and writing about it helped. 

16. Are there any characters who haunt you?

Ah, there’s my character from my very first novel, Abigail Leatherby, who I haven’t been able to stop thinking of ever since I first met her; and then there’s Winnie Andersen, my sassy OC from a post-apocalyptic novella I was working on a year and a half ago; and also Marjorie Addams, who I have a lot of feelings about

18. Were there any works you read that affected you so much that it influenced your writing style? What were they?

The first book I ever read as a “serious writer” was The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold and it influenced me in terms of the melancholy and nostalgia department, because it was a character literally looking back at life while she wasn’t able to live it anymore (because she’s dead); then there was Donna Tartt and her fucking Dickens style of writing that’s so elegant and refined and detailed and I stole a few detail-writing tips from her; and now I must say the lovely Luke Jennings has influenced me too in terms of not shying away from rather explicit things, because if you have a character that’s into those things, you may as well be explicit about it. Reading his novel gave me more confidence to not censor myself as much. 

19. When it comes to more complicated narratives, how do you keep track of outlines, characters, development, timelines, etc?

I’m the kind of author who rarely plans their shit out; I just write as it comes and hope for the best in tying everything together in a neat little bow, but when the story is really complicated, I usually like to outline major plot events and then try to string together all the little things that lead up to those major plot events. It’s a pain in the ass but it helps so much

20. Do you write in long sit-down sessions or in little spurts?

I do both depending on how much of an asshole my brain is being

21. What do you think when you read over your older work?

“There’s potential lurking under these really badly written lines and dialogue, I just have to get my hammer and chisel!”

22. Are there any subjects that make you uncomfortable to write?

Really explicit sex is one of them, especially if it has to be anatomical… I just can’t; it makes me cringe so much. And there’s also some violence or trauma subjects I won’t write about simply because I’ve yet to get a distance away from a few things that happened to me in order to write about them without being taken back to when they happened

24. Have you ever become an expert on something you previously knew nothing about, in order to better a scene for a story?

The only thing I can think of right now is film photography and how you had to develop it in a darkroom (although personal experience helped with that too)

25. Copy/paste a few sentences or a short paragraph you’re particularly proud of

Anna Leonova’s apartment is sealed off by bright crime scene tape eventwo months later. There are signs of traffic but other than that there isnothing. Her precious belongings are collecting dust. The place smells staleand lifeless. It had once been full of it, a warm place with conversation andbooks and passionate sex and as she retraces old steps, Villanelle takes in theold details. There is the table they’d had lessons at. There is the couch she’donce slept on out of a sort of fear that, after being in Anna’s bed for sexualreasons, Anna wouldn’t want her there for any other intimacy. There is thechair they’d defiled. There is the bathroom where Villanelle had first kissedAnna. And there is the bedroom, that precious place, the last place anythinggood had happened between them. It isn’t yellow with morning’s light. It’s greyand sour.

Thank you, Anon! 

[lindyhunt]

Why Are We so Obsessed With Cults Right Now?

As a child of the ’90s, I was first exposed to our collective train-wreck-like fascination with cults in the spring of 1997, when 39 members of Heaven’s Gate took their own lives in San Diego, believing it would get them onto an alien spacecraft. And growing up in Quebec, I’d often hear about the high-profile publicity stunts of Raelians, whose followers believe that life on earth was scientif­ically engineered by an extraterrestrial species named the Elohim. The free-love-minded Raelians would distribute condoms at the entrance to high schools, claim to have cloned the first full human being and organize internships that taught the fundamentals of a cosmic and orgasm-inducing meditation technique.

Having what’s arguably the world’s largest UFO-based religion in my own backyard—the Raelian movement set up its world embassy UFOland compound just outside Valcourt, Que.—made me wonder about the kinds of people who relinquish some of their critical-thinking faculties in the hopes of achieving a greater sense of purpose and belonging. Lawrence Wright, author of Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood and the Prison of Belief, argues that all humans are vulnerable but cult adherents are particularly reliant on absolutes. “I’ve always been interested in religions and why people believe one idea rather than another,” he explains in the documentary based on his book. “I’ve studied Jonestown and radical Islam; there are often good-hearted people, idealistic but full of a kind of crushing certainty that eliminates doubt.”

“I’ve studied Jonestown and radical Islam; there are often good-hearted people, idealistic but full of a kind of crushing certainty that eliminates doubt.”

From the terrifying desert commune of the Manson Family to the spiritual rehabilitation of A-list celebs drawn to Scientology, pop culture has long been obsessed with the plight of those willing to blindly subscribe to a fringe ideology. And lately the topic of cults seems to be beckoning our attention at every turn, with Netflix’s much-talked-about true crime series Wild Wild Country, about the controversial Indian guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh; Hulu’s fictional cult drama The Path; “I Admit,” R. Kelly’s 19-minute R&B response to allegations that he ran a sex cult; and the impending high-profile trials of the members of NXIVM, another sex cult in upstate New York, now linked to Seagram heiress Clare Bronfman and Smallville actress Allison Mack. That’s without mentioning American Horror Story’s cult-themed seventh season and HBO’s Rapture-esque The Leftovers, which features Liv Tyler as part of a chain-smoking, blasé-looking all-white-clad cult known as the Guilty Remnant.

So why this sudden spike in cultish entertainment? Commenting on Wild Wild Country’s recent Emmy nods and broader cultural resonance, executive producer Mark Duplass told Deadline that he loves how viewers are able to identify with the series’s niche religious movement, given that “nobody in this country is identifying with anyone right now who doesn’t believe exactly as they do.” And he has a point. The rapid polarization of political discourse in the United States and also abroad is making people less inclined to feel any empathy for those with differing world views and more likely to retreat even further into their extremist enclaves.

The rapid polarization of political discourse in the United States and also abroad is making people less inclined to feel any empathy for those with differing world views and more likely to retreat even further into their extremist enclaves.

Take, for instance, the viral video of a New York City lawyer threatening to call immigration on employees and customers for speaking Spanish at a Fresh Kitchen. Or that of a Black Lives Matter Toronto organizer calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a “white supremacist terrorist” at an anti-Islamophobia rally shortly after the Quebec City mosque attack. On the surface, these two news items couldn’t be more different: One shows an unwarranted tirade initiated by a racist client; the other, like-minded members of a community coming together to express their anger. Nevertheless, both seem symptomatic of what happens when people stop engaging in dialogue and resort to shouting matches. And, ultimately, could chanting mantras such as “Lock her up” at Republican rallies and gratuitously calling people out using immutable identity markers stand as modern iterations of cultlike behaviour? Wearing oversized capes and attending clandestine retreats in secluded forests might not be so popular in 2018, but punishing those whose perspectives are deemed heret­ical to a movement appears to be all the rage at both ends of the political spectrum.

Of course, the Trump cult is way scary. First and foremost because even fellow Republicans and the president’s own son seem to acknowledge he’s running a cult. Take Trump Jr.’s answer to Republican senator Bob Corker’s remark that the GOP is fast devolving into a cult: “If it’s a cult, it’s because they like what my father is doing.” When someone from Trump’s own party dares to contradict his version of reality—like when Senator Marco Rubio was chastised on Fox News for not following the president’s lead in recognizing the “talent” of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un—you have to wonder how many other party members are holding back for fear of being excommunicated. As a head of state, when your supporters and the media outright reject any interpretation of reality that contradicts what you’ve said, you have to congratulate yourself for taking a page out of the cult playbook.

As a head of state, when your supporters and the media outright reject any interpretation of reality that contradicts what you’ve said, you have to congratulate yourself for taking a page out of the cult playbook.

While in no way comparable to the fear mongering and sheer verbal (if not outright physical) violence of the alt-right, the damage being done at the other end of the spectrum can also be pernicious. While it’s entirely justified to ban hate speech targeting marginalized groups, it’s quite another to discourage people from expressing ideas considered uncomfortable or unresolved. The dangers of groupthink apply to the left as well, and it has contributed to making Trump’s ascent so spectacular.

When controversial speakers such as British polemicist Milo Yiannopoulos are prevented from speaking at public events (thereby shutting down the possibility of challenging their short-sighted world views), when trigger warnings are issued at Cambridge University to flag “potentially distressing topics” in Shakespeare’s plays and when British broadcaster Cathy Newman spends a half-hour trying to shame Toronto psychology professor Jordan B. Peterson for his impassioned contempt of postmodernism instead of unpacking what he actually says, you realize just how contained the algorithmic bubbles we live in can be.

“In order to be able to think, you have to risk being offensive,” Peterson tells Newman when questioned about his right to offend. On that matter, I’m with him, as the opposite—censoring your ideas out of a fear that they may appear “divisive,” to borrow a word Newman repeatedly uses during the interview—might resemble something akin to The Handmaid’s Tale’s totalitarian Republic of Gilead.

Among the many markers of cultlike behaviour identified by the American Family Foundation, you’ll find leaders using guilt to control their members and an overarching “us versus them” mentality. Left- and right-wingers alike could be accused of such manipulative tactics. Peterson’s dismissal of anthropology and sociology classes as “indoctrination cults,” for instance, merely reinforces caricatures about left-wing activists instead of framing his critique in shades of grey. But it’s hard to rise above the current phenom of 24/7 preaching and online information cocoons, where followers chase enlightenment by binge-watching hours of content on YouTube or social media platforms that will conveniently validate their world views. That’s behind Peterson’s rapidly ascending popularity but also that of figureheads of much graver concern: conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s InfoWars platform or even the sophisticated propaganda of ISIS—one of the most successful cults when it comes to online recruitment and self-radicalization.

It’s hard to rise above the current phenom of 24/7 preaching and online information cocoons, where followers chase enlightenment by binge-watching hours of content on YouTube or social media platforms that will conveniently validate their world views.

So what to make of our renewed interest in cults, and should we be concerned about the seemingly insurmountable divisions we face? I’m a firm believer in the power of the fifth estate to take gurus, spiritual leaders and assorted extremists to task on their most dubious claims. I’ll never forget when Rael—birth name Claude Vorilhon, self-described “gardener of our consciousness”—appeared on Quebec’s top-rated talk show Tout le monde en parle in 2004 with his topknot of hair to promote a Playboy spread featuring three topless females from his so-called Order of Angels.

The pull-no-punches TV panel picked apart the guru’s outlandish call to create a geniocracy as well as his boldfaced claim that he had used women’s wombs for cloning experiments. Once that TV appearance was over (it’s still regularly cited in media circles nearly 15 years later) and the man’s wonky assertions had been debunked, few people could claim with a straight face that they subscribed to Raelianism, and the movement eventually had to put its UFO compound up for sale. Think of it: A single entertainment talk show played a pivotal role in challenging the mind-manipulation techniques of a prominent international cult. I’m guessing that that media appearance didn’t help with its recruitment efforts.

As the first NXIVM trial gets underway and Trump continues to confound what many expect of world leaders in the 21st century, we have to remember to think critically about claims being made at either end of the political spectrum. In a world that seems like such a messy minefield, where the potential to be shamed or silenced for having an independent thought seems so great, we must remember to be courageous, speak up and, in the wise words of one great Canadian heartland rocker, keep on rockin’ in the free world.

[melindarowens]

The Corporate Media Continues To Torch Its Reputation

Authored by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

Last December, I noted the following in the post, ‘Then We Will Fight in the Shade’ – A Guide to Winning the Media Wars:

It is when you get desperate, scared and panicky that you make the biggest mistakes, and the legacy media is currently desperate, scared and panicky.  As Napoleon Bonaparte allegedly said:

 “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”

 Whether or not he actually said them, those words still ring true. We mustn’t get in the way of the legacy media’s inevitable self-destruction. Part of this means that we do not self-destruct in the process. We need to recognize that there’s a reason independent, alternative media is winning the battle of ideas in the first place. For all the warts, mistakes and bad actors, the emergence of the internet is indeed the historical equivalent of the invention of the printing press on steroids.

 Only a clueless self-important elitist actually believes that the smartest, most informed people in America are the pundits on tv and the journalists employed by the mainstream media. With a handful of companies and a few oligarchs in charge, you’d have to be the most naive fool on earth to not understand that legacy media is driven by well defined narratives, and that these narratives are not in your best interest. The rest of us understand that the Internet has served as a much needed countervailing force, and has been an incredible blessing to human knowledge, connectivity and the marketplace of ideas. Just because some people can’t distinguish truth from fiction, doesn’t negate the incredible progress that decentralized information dissemination provides. It is only those who do not wish to engage in public debate on the issues themselves who want to censor stuff. The rest of us are more than happy to have an open discussion.

In a pathetic attempt to reinflate the discredited and failed neoliberal/neocon status quo bubble it supports, corporate media has been relentless in its attacks on anything or anyone that offers an alternative vision. These attacks more often than not focus on Donald Trump, but it’s important to note that contempt for Bernie Sanders and his supporters is not far behind. It doesn’t matter what the alternative vision is, if it falls outside the neoliberal/neocon status quo, it must be demonized and destroyed by the likes of billionaire-owned media properties such as The Washington Post and The New York Times.

The alarm bells really went off for me regarding the hatred of Sanders by the New York Times upon reading the paper’s nonsensical endorsement of Hillary Clinton during the primary. You should read the entire article, but here’s some of what I wrote at the time:

One of the biggest trends of the post financial crisis period has been a plunge in the American public’s perception of the country’s powerful institutions. The establishment often admits this reality with a mixture of bewilderment and erroneous conclusions, ultimately settling on the idea people are upset because “Washington can’t get anything done.” However, nothing could be further from the truth. When it comes to corruption and serving big monied interests, both Congress and the President are very, very good at getting things done. Yes it’s true Congress doesn’t get anything done on behalf of the people, but this is no accident. The government doesn’t work for the people.

 With its dishonest and shifty endorsement of Hillary Clinton, I believe the New York Times has finally come out of the closet as an unabashed gatekeeper of the status quo. I suppose this makes sense since the paper has become the ultimate status quo journalistic publication. The sad truth is the publication has been living on borrowed time and a borrowed reputation for a long time. Long on prestige, it remains very short on substance when it comes to fighting difficult battles in the public interest. Content with its position of power and influence within the current paradigm, the paper doesn’t want to rock the boat. What the New York Times is actually telling its readers with the Hillary Clinton endorsement is that it likes things just the way they are, and will fight hard to keep them that way. It is as much a part of the American establishment as any government institution.

Truth be told, the paper continues to act just as upset about Sanders as it is about Donald Trump. What really seems to get under the skin of people of who write there is that her highness, Hillary Clinton, had her coronation disrupted. As such, the paper’s writers seem to be throwing daily temper tantrums filled with lies and misdirection at anyone who doesn’t swallow status quo neoliberal/neocon garbage.

Earlier this week, I highlighted one recent case in the post, Lee Camp Explains How The New York Times Manufactures “Hit Piece Propaganda.” Then yesterday, we had yet another embarrassing example. Here’s the title of the much maligned, and utterly shameful article, written by Yamiche Al Cindor.

If that title doesn’t betray that what’s to follow is a piece of unabashed propaganda, I don’t know what does. Then here’s how the piece begins…

WASHINGTON — The most ardent supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders have long been outspoken about their anger toward Republicans — and in some cases toward Democrats. Their idol, the senator from Vermont, has called President Trump a “demagogue” and said recently that he was “perhaps the worst and most dangerous president in the history of our country.”

 Now, in Mr. Sanders’s world, his fans have something concrete to grapple with: James T. Hodgkinson, a former volunteer for Mr. Sanders’s presidential campaign, is suspected of opening fire on Republican lawmakers practicing baseball in Alexandria, Va.

My lord, where to begin. First of all, the vitriol and conspiracy theories directed at Donald Trump have been far worse from Hillary cultists and NeverTrump neocons than from Sanders supporters. In fact, the Sanders supporters are far more focused on taking over the Democratic Party and pushing aside discredited neoliberals than they are about demonizing Trump. If any group of people is singularly obsessed with removing Trump from office it is establishment, corporate Democrats, not Sanders supporters. As such, Sanders fans have absolutely nothing unique to grapple with, and to suggest otherwise is shady and dishonest. Then there’s this.

That shooting on Wednesday, which wounded four people, may prove to be an unexpected test for a movement born out of Mr. Sanders’s left-wing, populist politics and a moment for liberals to figure out how to balance anger at Mr. Trump with inciting violence.

Again, this is ridiculous. While I do think the political dialogue in this country has descended into a dangerous gutter and must be reexamined, the notion that this pertains particularly to Sanders supporters is simply preposterous. But it gets even worse.

But long before the shooting on Wednesday, some of Mr. Sanders’s supporters had earned a belligerent reputation for their criticism of Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party and others who they believed disagreed with their ideas. Sanders fans, sometimes referred to derogatorily as “Bernie Bros” or “Bernie Bots,” at times harassed reporters covering Mr. Sanders and flooded social media with angry posts directed at the “corporate media,” a term often used by the senator. 

Sorry, what’s wrong with accurately describing corporate media for what it is. This clearly seems to have gotten under the author’s skin. Meanwhile…

The suspect in the shooting in Virginia put a new spotlight on the rage buried in some corners of the progressive left.

 Mr. Hodgkinson filled his Facebook page with photographs of the senator and quotes from his speeches. Mr. Hodgkinson also wrote messages filled with expletives directed at the president, and a post in March said: “Trump is a traitor. Trump has destroyed our democracy. It’s time to destroy Trump & co.”

Perhaps we should ask the question, which wing of the Democratic Party tends to use this sort of language most often, Hillary dead-enders or Bernie supporters? The answer is obvious.

Next we have this gem.

On Tuesday, Mr. Hodgkinson posted a cartoon on Facebook explaining “How does a bill work?” “That’s an easy one, Billy,” the cartoon reads. “Corporations write the bill and then bribe Congress until it becomes law.”

 “That’s Exactly How It Works. ….” Mr. Hodgkinson wrote.

 That is not far from Mr. Sanders’s own message. 

But that is exactly how it works. Are we supposed to pretend that’s not the case just because some lunatic went on a shooting spree?

Recall: Citigroup Written Legislation Moves Through the House of Representatives.

Remarkably, it isn’t until the final two paragraphs that the truth is finally able to peak its stubborn head above the drivel.

RoseAnn DeMoro, the executive director of National Nurses United, a union that campaigned heavily for Mr. Sanders and continues to work with him, said some were hoping to discredit Mr. Sanders to slow down the continuing success of his brand of politics. She called it a “boldface lie” to connect the shooting to Mr. Sanders’s push for opposing Mr. Trump’s proposals.

 “He’s the most popular politician in America,” Ms. DeMoro said of Mr. Sanders. “That doesn’t sit well with establishment Democrats or Republicans. They are trying to delegitimize and discredit anyone who is speaking out for a better society. That’s what’s happening.”

Winner, winner chicken dinner. This is the real issue. A lot of very powerful people are extremely concerned that Sanders might dare run again in 2020, so the attacks must escalate to bury him ahead of time. It won’t work.

Finally, I think the following tweet sums it up perfectly.

The NYT is uncomfortable because some psycho took their Russophobia at face value, so their shining the spotlight elsewhere.

— Brian Eppert (@BrianEppert) June 15, 2017

source http://capitalisthq.com/the-corporate-media-continues-to-torch-its-reputation/ from CapitalistHQ http://capitalisthq.blogspot.com/2017/06/the-corporate-media-continues-to-torch.html

[everettwilkinson]

The Corporate Media Continues To Torch Its Reputation

Authored by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

Last December, I noted the following in the post, ‘Then We Will Fight in the Shade’ – A Guide to Winning the Media Wars:

It is when you get desperate, scared and panicky that you make the biggest mistakes, and the legacy media is currently desperate, scared and panicky.  As Napoleon Bonaparte allegedly said:

  “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”

  Whether or not he actually said them, those words still ring true. We mustn’t get in the way of the legacy media’s inevitable self-destruction. Part of this means that we do not self-destruct in the process. We need to recognize that there’s a reason independent, alternative media is winning the battle of ideas in the first place. For all the warts, mistakes and bad actors, the emergence of the internet is indeed the historical equivalent of the invention of the printing press on steroids.

  Only a clueless self-important elitist actually believes that the smartest, most informed people in America are the pundits on tv and the journalists employed by the mainstream media. With a handful of companies and a few oligarchs in charge, you’d have to be the most naive fool on earth to not understand that legacy media is driven by well defined narratives, and that these narratives are not in your best interest. The rest of us understand that the Internet has served as a much needed countervailing force, and has been an incredible blessing to human knowledge, connectivity and the marketplace of ideas. Just because some people can’t distinguish truth from fiction, doesn’t negate the incredible progress that decentralized information dissemination provides. It is only those who do not wish to engage in public debate on the issues themselves who want to censor stuff. The rest of us are more than happy to have an open discussion.

In a pathetic attempt to reinflate the discredited and failed neoliberal/neocon status quo bubble it supports, corporate media has been relentless in its attacks on anything or anyone that offers an alternative vision. These attacks more often than not focus on Donald Trump, but it’s important to note that contempt for Bernie Sanders and his supporters is not far behind. It doesn’t matter what the alternative vision is, if it falls outside the neoliberal/neocon status quo, it must be demonized and destroyed by the likes of billionaire-owned media properties such as The Washington Post and The New York Times.

The alarm bells really went off for me regarding the hatred of Sanders by the New York Times upon reading the paper’s nonsensical endorsement of Hillary Clinton during the primary. You should read the entire article, but here’s some of what I wrote at the time:

One of the biggest trends of the post financial crisis period has been a plunge in the American public’s perception of the country’s powerful institutions. The establishment often admits this reality with a mixture of bewilderment and erroneous conclusions, ultimately settling on the idea people are upset because “Washington can’t get anything done.” However, nothing could be further from the truth. When it comes to corruption and serving big monied interests, both Congress and the President are very, very good at getting things done. Yes it’s true Congress doesn’t get anything done on behalf of the people, but this is no accident. The government doesn’t work for the people.

  With its dishonest and shifty endorsement of Hillary Clinton, I believe the New York Times has finally come out of the closet as an unabashed gatekeeper of the status quo. I suppose this makes sense since the paper has become the ultimate status quo journalistic publication. The sad truth is the publication has been living on borrowed time and a borrowed reputation for a long time. Long on prestige, it remains very short on substance when it comes to fighting difficult battles in the public interest. Content with its position of power and influence within the current paradigm, the paper doesn’t want to rock the boat. What the New York Times is actually telling its readers with the Hillary Clinton endorsement is that it likes things just the way they are, and will fight hard to keep them that way. It is as much a part of the American establishment as any government institution.

Truth be told, the paper continues to act just as upset about Sanders as it is about Donald Trump. What really seems to get under the skin of people of who write there is that her highness, Hillary Clinton, had her coronation disrupted. As such, the paper’s writers seem to be throwing daily temper tantrums filled with lies and misdirection at anyone who doesn’t swallow status quo neoliberal/neocon garbage.

Earlier this week, I highlighted one recent case in the post, Lee Camp Explains How The New York Times Manufactures “Hit Piece Propaganda.” Then yesterday, we had yet another embarrassing example. Here’s the title of the much maligned, and utterly shameful article, written by Yamiche Al Cindor.

If that title doesn’t betray that what’s to follow is a piece of unabashed propaganda, I don’t know what does. Then here’s how the piece begins…

WASHINGTON — The most ardent supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders have long been outspoken about their anger toward Republicans — and in some cases toward Democrats. Their idol, the senator from Vermont, has called President Trump a “demagogue” and said recently that he was “perhaps the worst and most dangerous president in the history of our country.”

  Now, in Mr. Sanders’s world, his fans have something concrete to grapple with: James T. Hodgkinson, a former volunteer for Mr. Sanders’s presidential campaign, is suspected of opening fire on Republican lawmakers practicing baseball in Alexandria, Va.

My lord, where to begin. First of all, the vitriol and conspiracy theories directed at Donald Trump have been far worse from Hillary cultists and NeverTrump neocons than from Sanders supporters. In fact, the Sanders supporters are far more focused on taking over the Democratic Party and pushing aside discredited neoliberals than they are about demonizing Trump. If any group of people is singularly obsessed with removing Trump from office it is establishment, corporate Democrats, not Sanders supporters. As such, Sanders fans have absolutely nothing unique to grapple with, and to suggest otherwise is shady and dishonest. Then there’s this.

That shooting on Wednesday, which wounded four people, may prove to be an unexpected test for a movement born out of Mr. Sanders’s left-wing, populist politics and a moment for liberals to figure out how to balance anger at Mr. Trump with inciting violence.

Again, this is ridiculous. While I do think the political dialogue in this country has descended into a dangerous gutter and must be reexamined, the notion that this pertains particularly to Sanders supporters is simply preposterous. But it gets even worse.

But long before the shooting on Wednesday, some of Mr. Sanders’s supporters had earned a belligerent reputation for their criticism of Hillary Clinton, the Democratic Party and others who they believed disagreed with their ideas. Sanders fans, sometimes referred to derogatorily as “Bernie Bros” or “Bernie Bots,” at times harassed reporters covering Mr. Sanders and flooded social media with angry posts directed at the “corporate media,” a term often used by the senator. 

Sorry, what’s wrong with accurately describing corporate media for what it is. This clearly seems to have gotten under the author’s skin. Meanwhile…

The suspect in the shooting in Virginia put a new spotlight on the rage buried in some corners of the progressive left.

  Mr. Hodgkinson filled his Facebook page with photographs of the senator and quotes from his speeches. Mr. Hodgkinson also wrote messages filled with expletives directed at the president, and a post in March said: “Trump is a traitor. Trump has destroyed our democracy. It’s time to destroy Trump & co.”

Perhaps we should ask the question, which wing of the Democratic Party tends to use this sort of language most often, Hillary dead-enders or Bernie supporters? The answer is obvious.

Next we have this gem.

On Tuesday, Mr. Hodgkinson posted a cartoon on Facebook explaining “How does a bill work?” “That’s an easy one, Billy,” the cartoon reads. “Corporations write the bill and then bribe Congress until it becomes law.”

  “That’s Exactly How It Works. ….” Mr. Hodgkinson wrote.

  That is not far from Mr. Sanders’s own message. 

But that is exactly how it works. Are we supposed to pretend that’s not the case just because some lunatic went on a shooting spree?

Recall: Citigroup Written Legislation Moves Through the House of Representatives.

Remarkably, it isn’t until the final two paragraphs that the truth is finally able to peak its stubborn head above the drivel.

RoseAnn DeMoro, the executive director of National Nurses United, a union that campaigned heavily for Mr. Sanders and continues to work with him, said some were hoping to discredit Mr. Sanders to slow down the continuing success of his brand of politics. She called it a “boldface lie” to connect the shooting to Mr. Sanders’s push for opposing Mr. Trump’s proposals.

  “He’s the most popular politician in America,” Ms. DeMoro said of Mr. Sanders. “That doesn’t sit well with establishment Democrats or Republicans. They are trying to delegitimize and discredit anyone who is speaking out for a better society. That’s what’s happening.”

Winner, winner chicken dinner. This is the real issue. A lot of very powerful people are extremely concerned that Sanders might dare run again in 2020, so the attacks must escalate to bury him ahead of time. It won’t work.

Finally, I think the following tweet sums it up perfectly.

The NYT is uncomfortable because some psycho took their Russophobia at face value, so their shining the spotlight elsewhere.

— Brian Eppert (@BrianEppert) June 15, 2017

from CapitalistHQ.com http://capitalisthq.com/the-corporate-media-continues-to-torch-its-reputation/