#everything is so one and done with the way social medias been evolving

[likeumeanit9497]

just like that | m.s. |

matt sturniolo x fem!reader

based on this request :))

summary: after dating for four months without having sex, y/n finally decides that she's ready to take matt for a ride

warnings: smut; established relationship; unprotected p in v; oral (fem receiving); riding; mentions of questionable consent (NOT with matt dw); dirty talk; 18+

notes: damn i completely forgot about this im so sorry:/ i've just been so busy over the past week or so it completely went under the radar. def not my best work (i wrote it all today), but i wanted to get it up because i'm going on a trip through europe for 6 (SIX???!!?!?!) weeks and will probably not be able to post much when im there. anyways i hope u all enjoy!!

p.s. working on one more fic that i would LOVE to post before i leave tomorrow, if not it might be a while before im able to write again :/ it's gonna be a good one for the matt girlies though so keep ur eyes peeled ;)

─ ⊹ ⊱ ☆ ⊰ ⊹ ─

���Do you want anything from the kitchen baby?” Matt’s soft voice in my ear pulled me from the lull I was in, curled up beside him on the couch watching a movie. My drooping eyes fluttered open and I couldn’t help but smile once I came face-to-face with my beautiful boyfriend. The late-August sun was setting, and it shone through the living room windows in just the way that made Matt’s gorgeous blue eyes almost transparent; a harsh contrast to his dark eyelashes and tidy beard. He was looking at me with such unclouded care, the way he always did, and it never failed to make my heart flutter.

Matt and I had met on social media about six months ago, and started dating just two months after that. Our earliest conversations online had consisted of occasionally discussing our shared interest in pretty embarrassing hobbies — playing Minecraft, journaling, and watching rom-coms to name a few — but those occasional conversations evolved into staying up all night messaging each other, multiple-hour long Facetime calls, and eventually meeting at a restaurant for our first date.

Although it hadn’t been long since we started dating, Matt’s soul was one that I felt like I’ve known all my life. Never before had I felt more at home around another person than I did once I met him, and his presence in my life gave it a new level of stability that didn’t exist before. I had dated a guy in high school for almost two years, but the quality in the time spent with Matt versus him was incomparable. I was sure that Matt was the person that I was meant to be with, and everyday he did something new to prove that to be true without even trying.

Another thing that I loved so much about Matt was that, even after months of dating, he hasn’t once pushed me to have sex with him. In one of our early conversations, I had told him that my ex had always made me feel bad when I would turn down sex with him. While him and I did have sex a few times during our relationship, I had since come to terms with the fact that I really was just doing it to make him happy. Once Matt got over his immediate anger for me, he had sat me down and told me that he could wait forever, but that he won’t have sex with me unless I tell him I’m ready.

That was months ago, and still, he has kept his promise. While we have done plenty of other things in bed, he has always made it a point to stop everything before it gets to the point of sex. At first, I felt riddled with guilt because I felt like I should want to have sex with my boyfriend —especially one so kindhearted as Matt — but over time that guilt has fizzled out from Matt’s reassuring words and actions. He never ever put me in situations that he knew had the potential to make me uncomfortable, and wouldn’t allow me to feel bad about it either.

Lately, though, I had been feeling slightly different. While before, I would squirm at the thought of anything more happening once Matt’s hand would slip out of my panties, now I feel a slight tightening in my stomach at the idea of more. And before, I would feel a certain level of nervousness as I felt the weight of his member in my hand, where now there is a flutter in my core at the thought of that same part of him filling me up.

Never before in my life had I felt any of these feelings, and I didn’t quite know what to do with them. I was afraid of the abundance of dirty thoughts that flooded my own head constantly, and I realized that I was ready for more, but only with Matt. I had been contemplating on telling him this for the past week, but as I watched him walk back over to me on the couch in nothing but baggy grey sweats — the black ink of his tattoos hypnotizing me — my body reacted in such a way that let me know that tonight was the night.

“Here, I know you didn’t say you wanted anything but I grabbed you a water anyways. I haven’t seen you drink any yet today and you-” I cut Matt’s rambling off by climbing on top of his lap as soon as he was back on the couch; wrapping my arms around his neck and planting a deep kiss to his pink lips. He responded with a soft hum against my lips before wrapping his own arms around the small of my back. I opened my mouth slightly before pressing it against his again and moving them in a slow but passionate rhythm. Matt quickly followed suit, slipping his tongue through my parted lips before using it to explore my mouth. I fluttered my eyes open for a brief moment and caught a glimpse of Matt’s most beautiful features up close — lidded eyes, flushed cheeks, straight eyebrows — and released a satisfied sigh against his mouth.

I ran my hands through his soft brown hair, tugging slightly at the ends and eliciting a soft gasp from him as I felt my body flood with arousal. His hands travelled up and down my back, his firm yet somehow delicate touch a comfort that eased my nerves. From my place on his lap, I could feel a growing hardness against my ass. This wasn’t uncommon, obviously, but in the past I usually pretended to ignore it pressing against me. This time however, I rolled my hips up and down, feeling it slide against my aching core. “Baby.” Matt’s voice was barely above a whisper against my lips, but the combination of shock and arousal was still evident in its tone as he grabbed firmly onto my forearms to hold me still.

I detached my mouth from his while still keeping our faces just centimetres apart. His breath was rapid, but so was mine as we stayed like that for a moment; wild eyed and equally uncertain. Finally, I repeated my action by grinding my hips against his clothed shaft; this time watching as his eyes rolled back slightly in pleasure. “Y/n, what are you doing?” He mumbled, clearly wavering between making sure I was okay and wanting desperately for more. I continued grinding my hips against him, my mouth dropping open as I felt his shaft reach my nerves. “I want you Matt.” I whispered, and I watched as his eyes widened in shock; pupils dilated. “What do you mean?” He asked hesitantly, brushing his knuckles softly against my arms.

“I mean, I’m ready. Ready to have sex again.” I blurted out, feeling my face immediately flush in equal parts nervousness and arousal as I waited for him to respond. His face was unreadable as he clearly tried to gauge whether or not I was serious. That was confirmed once he finally spoke. “A-are you sure? I don’t want you to think just because I’m hard we have to do anything, baby.” I felt his dick twitch in between my legs as he spoke, and it shot electricity down my spine. “I know Matt, but I really am sure.” I responded, running my hands up and down his bare chest and leaving a trail of goosebumps in my path.

He continued to stare at me, his eyes travelling wildly across my face; clearly still in a state of uncertainty. I, on the other hand, was growing more and more frustrated by the moment as the heat continued to grow between my legs. “Give me your hand.” I stated, and he obliged; placing his much larger hand in my own. I guided his hand down to the waistband of my sweatpants, inside of the material, and finally slid it against my dripping wet core. Intaking a sharp breath from the contact, I watched his face as it immediately darkened once he felt my arousal coat his fingertips.

“See? I told you I’m ready,” I leaned forward slightly, bringing my lips to his exposed collarbone and kissing it wetly. “So please Matt, can you fuck me?” The room stayed silent for a beat, the only sounds being our ragged breathing, and I felt fear begin to trickle down my spine; worried that Matt might reject me. Just as I was about to retract everything I had just said, Matt’s hand snaked to the back of my head, guiding it up from his chest before crashing his lips onto mine.

I deepened the kiss immediately, feeling a mutual level of desperation like a surge of electricity between our lips that had never been there before. Matt’s hands began traveling all across my writhing body — taking his time on the curves of my ass — before planting firmly on my hips where he helped them grind against his rock hard member. Breathy, almost silent moans fell from both of our lips as our bodies slid against each other, and the deep-rooted sensation was taunting.

Matt’s hands slithered from my hips up to the bottom of my t-shirt, where he toyed with the material for a moment before detaching his lips from mine. “Can I take this off?” He asked, glazed eyes staring longingly into my own. I nodded, and without a moment’s hesitation my vision was blocked for a brief second by Matt peeling the fabric over my head and tossing it to the side. Once my vision returned, my view was of Matt’s hungry eyes glued to my bare chest.

Matt had seen my tits countless times before throughout our relationship, but at this moment it was like he was seeing them for the very first time. Mouth slightly parted, his breathing was ragged as he brought both hands to my chest and cupped my tits delicately between them; pushing them together slightly and brushing a thumb along each nipple. I hissed at the feeling, and that seemed to pull him from his trance, as his eyes immediately shot up to mine. “This okay baby?” He asked, and I nodded my head wildly.

A smirk toyed at the corners of his mouth before he attached it to my left nipple. I released short moans as he sucked and nibbled it gently, still pressing my core against his throbbing shaft. I felt myself falling deeper and deeper into a trance that I had never experienced before, and it was like my body and mind had completely separated as I mindlessly tugged desperately at the waistband of his sweats. Catching on to my gesture, Matt shifted slightly below me before using one of his hands to haphazardly pull his sweats down slightly; allowing his cock to spring up in between my legs.

I gasped at the sight before me, only now realizing its true size with it between my legs and feeling just a tinge of excited fear trying to figure out just how it was going to fit inside of me. Shaking the thought from my mind, I collected a pool of saliva in my mouth before spitting it in my hand and bringing it down to his shaft.

Running my thumb along his slit, I felt his whole body shudder below me from the contact. I began pumping my hand up and down his length; spending extra time twisting my wrist around his sensitive tip, and watched as his mouth went slack on my tits. “Mmm, keep doing it just like that baby.” He muttered against my plump skin, and I continued to work his cock in my hand while simultaneously grinding my core against its base. Just knowing that I was making him feel good was making me feel good, and my eyes rolled to the back of my head in pleasure.

After a few short moments, I felt Matt’s hands snake to the waist band of my own sweats. My eyes found his again, and I watched as they searched my face. “You’re sure you want this, Y/n?” He asked, his voice gentle but laced with a huskiness that could only be explained as pure desire. I nodded desperately once again, feeling so pathetic but not capable of giving a shit. “I’m sure baby, please.” My voice had a slight whine to it, making my frantic need even more evident.

Planting a soft kiss to my lips, he grabbed firmly onto my sweats and began peeling them off of my body. I lifted my hips up slightly to assist him in this, and once I dropped them back down, I hissed from the feeling of my bare core against his cock. “Matty, I need you right now.” I practically cried out, leaning my body forward and planting nibbles and kisses along his exposed neck. The suspense was torturous, my body only just now recognizing how badly it was craving his.

His hands cupped my ass, and he used his grip to lift me just a couple inches off of him. I felt him spread me open slightly before dragging a finger once again against my aching folds. “Mmm, so wet for me baby.” I released a breathy moan at the combination of his touch and words, and squirmed in his grasp. “I’ll help you get it in, but I want you on top. That way you can take it as slow as you need to, okay?” His voice softened as he spoke, and his hands massaged me gently causing me to physically relax. “O-okay.” I muttered, so turned on that I was willing to do just about anything he wanted me to.

Just then, he placed a soft kiss to my lips before I felt the very tip of his cock brush against my opening; causing me to gasp. “Shh, it’s okay baby. I’ll go slow.” He whispered in my ear, and I pressed my forehead into the crook of his neck in anticipation. Finally, I felt my walls begin to expand as he pressed the first few inches into me. Moaning at the sensation, I felt my whole body flush in immediate lust. As if they had a mind of their own, my hips subconsciously began lowering onto his shaft; taking more and more of him as I sunk down.

A moan fell from his lips as my walls enveloped him inch by inch, and I slowly lifted my head from his neck and straightened my body up to allow more of him to fill me up. Even though he was big and I hadn’t had a dick in me in a long time, my slick arousal allowed him to bottom out without causing me to feel any pain; only indescribable pleasure. Once every inch of him was in me, I stayed still for a moment looking down at him. His desire was plastered across every inch of his face, and it made him look impossibly beautiful. There was no fear in me in that moment, only want, and so I began riding him.

As soon as I propelled my body up and down his shaft just once, I felt a pit of arousal begin to grow in my stomach. Groaning in pleasure, I continued with my moments; holding onto his shoulders to keep my trembling body stable. “Mmm you feel so good baby.” Matt moaned out, his eyes never leaving my pinched face. After a while, my body adjusted completely to his size and I was able to increase my speed. As I slid my walls up and down his shaft, Matt gripped onto my ass with all his might, using his hands to help me maintain my speed.

Moans fell from my lips as his cock ruthlessly hit my g-spot, and I felt my lower stomach build in pressure. “Fuck.” I muttered under my breath, feeling my skin go flush from the heat of the moment. The room filled with the echo of our wet skin slapping against each other, adding to the erotic air around us. Prolonged strings of moans fell aimlessly from my lips, and as I came closer and closer to my impending climax I began struggling to maintain my movements.

Matt seemed to pick up on this, as he adjusted his hips and began pounding into me from below; his hands holding me in place where I just clung onto him for dear life. “F-fuck Matty, like that. S-so good.” I cried out, my voice choppy from his rapid movements. My brain melted into a pool of liquid as all I could think about was reaching my high that was just out of reach. “You’re taking me so good baby.” Matt groaned out as he continued driving his length into me, staring deeply into my eyes with a fogged over expression.

“I-I think I’m gonna — oh god, think I’m g-gonna cum Matt.” My eyes rolled to the back of my head and I dug my nails into his shoulder blades, struggling to give into this new overwhelming sensation bubbling up inside of me. At this, a guttural moan fell from his lips and he somehow increased the speed of his thrusts even more. “Want you to cum around me baby, please.” There was a desperate whine to his voice as he spoke through his shortness of breath, and it was enough for me to reach my climax. Legs shaking, I released a plethora of moans and curses as my body was hit with multiple waves of indescribable pleasure. “Good girl, feels so good honey.” Matt’s voice was soft in my ear, and it helped to bring me back to earth as my hurricane of an orgasm left my body in shambles.

I continued to bounce on Matt’s dick slowly as I attempted to regain what little composure I had before my orgasm stole it from me, but I quickly learned that all of my energy had been stripped away. My body was trembling uncontrollably, and my head was filled with a fog that made it difficult for me to stay upright. Matt caught on to this, as he planted his hands firmly on my hips, keeping me still, before reaching forward and kissing me deeply. “You tired, baby?” He asked gently, rubbing circles on my sensitive skin. Sheepishly, I nodded, and Matt didn’t hesitate before guiding me off of his lap and helping me lay down on the couch.

As soon as my head hit the soft material, I felt my body immediately begin to relax again. I watched from my place on the couch as Matt began to slowly crawl over to me, before leaning above me. “You did so good baby,” He brought his lips to my chest and began dropping soft kisses against my skin, “Now,” His mouth travelled from my chest down to my stomach, “I want you to just lay here and relax,” He continued to move his lips down my stomach to my hips, “Let me make you feel good, okay?” His face was now hovering above my swollen heat, and I couldn’t help but nod frantically, feeling a sudden need to have his mouth on me.

Matt situated his body so that he could lay down with his face still just above my core. He brought both of his hands to my folds and I flinched as he used his thumbs to spread them apart slightly; exposing my bundle of nerves to the air. My vision partially skewed by his hair flopping in front of his eyes, I watched in awe as he brought his mouth closer and closer to where I needed it the most; before immediately gasping in pleasure once I felt his warm tongue make contact with my clit.

Immediately, Matt got to work in swirling his tongue in expert circles on my overstimulated nerves. This sensation in combination with his rough beard against my inner thighs was so intense it was almost painful in the best way possible, and I was incapable of controlling the throaty moans that fell from my lips as I watched him devour me entirely. Matt then used his mouth to suck on my nerves, bringing forward yet another new sensation that drove me crazy. It felt so unbelievably good, my hands flew to his hair where I held firmly; doing everything in my power to keep him in place. “Oh yeah baby, please, just like that.” I struggled to get the words out through my constant gasps of pleasure, but it was clear that they didn’t fall on deaf ears as Matt moaned in pleasured acknowledgement against my heat and kept his rhythm and pressure the exact same.

Feeling another orgasm begin to bear its teeth in my stomach, it was like my hips grew a mind of their own because as soon as Matt brought his hands under my ass to lift me slightly up on the couch; I began grinding my heat against his eager mouth. “Fuck.” He moaned against my clit as he continued to greedily suck and lick my nerves. I squeezed my eyes shut as a whine escaped my lips from an approaching orgasm, the pleasure that his mouth was giving me was too much. “S-stop baby.” I said suddenly, to which he immediately detached his mouth from me and I watched as his eyes scanned my fucked out face. “What’s wrong? You want to stop?” He seemed so concerned, clearly worried that he had somehow crossed a boundary, and it caused my chest to flutter. “N-no. It’s just, I was gonna cum again.” He raised a quizzical eyebrow, clearly confused by how that might be a problem. “I…I want to cum with you.” I finally said, and watched as his facial expression changed from one of concern back to one filled with lust.

He smiled quickly before dragging his body up my own, planting occasional kisses along my body on his way. Once he reached my head, he immediately began kissing me passionately, slipping his tongue through my parted lips and allowing me to taste myself on his mouth. Pulling away, I noticed my arousal laced throughout his beard, and that along with his pink swollen lips fresh off of my heat was enough to make my head spin. Just then, I felt him line his shaft up with my entrance, and immediately gasped out when he slid it in completely. Before moving at all, Matt took a moment to gaze down at my destroyed face before grabbing my legs and wrapping them around his waist. He then leaned forward and propped himself on his forearms on either side of my head; slipping a hand through my hair and grabbing onto it gently.

After noticing my body relax, he finally began thrusting into me. Starting off slow and deep, he gradually increased his speed until he was pounding his inches deep into me at a rapid pace. Already being close to cumming, I struggled to get a grip on my thoughts as the pleasure of the moment pulled me deeper and deeper into a world of euphoria. “You’re so tight sweetheart.” He muttered through his grunts, and I felt my eyes roll to the back of my head at his words. “F-feels so good Matty.” I managed to reply, tightening my legs around his waist as I tried everything I could to hold off my orgasm.

Matt’s hand snaked through my hair before he grabbed onto my cheek, brushing it gently with his thumb as he stared at me with a gaze so intense that it was almost intimidating. “I-I’m close Y/n.” He nearly whispered, and I felt his pace begin to slow slightly as he began to be overtaken by his own orgasm. My eyebrows knitted together as I felt my walls began to break. “M-me too.” I replied, wrapping my hands tightly around his biceps to keep me grounded. “Ah fuck, I’m cumming baby.” His erotic words were followed by a string of animalistic grunts as he drove his cock in and out of me — slow but hard — and it was like my body was waiting to hear those words as my second orgasm immediately ran through me like a freight train.

My breathy moans harmonized with his deep ones, and I felt my walls contract around his shaft; milking his dick as it painted them white. My legs were wrapped so tightly around his waist, he was barely able to move them as we both rode the waves of our intense pleasure. As my orgasm continued to tear through me, my back arched off of the couch and my body trembled. From above me, Matt watched me writhe in bliss as his movements completely stopped. As I finally began coming down from my high, I felt his hand brush through my hair affectionately, and watched as his face turned up in a smile before he placed a deep kiss to my lips.

He gently pulled his cock out of me, causing me to wince from the raw pain, before laying beside me on the couch and pulling me into him. Face to face, we stared lovingly at each other for a moment; my mind still spinning from how good he had made me feel, and in that moment I was worried that my heart might explode. His blissed expression told me that he was feeling the same, and his hand delicately rubbing the small of my back confirmed it. “Are you okay?” He finally asked, minor concern visible on his beautiful face. “I’m more than okay.” I answered honestly with a chuckle, causing him to laugh in relief as well. “I think I actually love sex.” I continued, causing him to really laugh this time before planting a kiss on my sweat-beaded forehead. “Well I think I actually love you.”

─ ⊹ ⊱ ☆ ⊰ ⊹ ─

[sydneymykah]

☆☆THE STRUGGLE OF ROUTINE ☆☆

✧─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

Some people can just get out of bed and automatically do what they need to do to get the day started. And the same people seem to be the ones we see the most on our screens. "My Morning Routine", "My weekly regimen", "What I eat in a day", and "My Nightly Routine". These people are seemingly put together and perfect like their said routines. But here you are slouched on your undone bed, still in your pajamas, wearing makeup from the day before after waking up after 12 pm. You meaning me, lmao. ☆...

☆The struggle of routine is something we all face regardless of what social media persists to tell us. But I don't really want to talk about how "social media is fake" because that's not even fully true. Some people really do live like this and have very structured routines for their day to day lives, granted it's what pays their bills but that's still technically their routine. But I'm more concerned about talking about how DIFFICULT it is to keep a constant routine. Especially in this weird time we live in.

ミ★I'm a perfectionist. I hate when things don't go the way I want and I tend to want things one way or not at all. But life doesn't live by those rules. Life will throw whatever the hell it wants at you, whenever it feels like it. As an individual you have to learn to work around it all. For me it's an inconsistent work schedule, minor (or major) inconveniences, mood swings, and of course the main culprit is laziness/lack of discipline.

☆We've all done it. On a random day of the week you're up way too late reflecting on your life and what you're doing with it. You suddenly feel the hyperactive urge to fix everything about yourself. You want the perfect body before the summer. You want your hair to grow longer faster. You want to get all your life goals written down and planned out dow not the last minute. You want to post a 1 minute video everyday on TikTok at exactly 3 pm EST and post at least 4 pictures to your instagram every other day. So you open the notes app and make an extremely specific, unrealistic, and way too intense routine to follow everyday. You set reminders, add 30 new alarms to your phone, you fill your amazon cart with stuff you believe you'll defiantly use. And after you make yet another playlist of YouTube workout videos you go to bed confident your life is gonna change forever after this...

Now one of two things happen:

You completely throw away the routine the minute you wake up the next day

Or, you do it for a few days but eventually burnout and find yourself back where you were before, now with just more useless junk you have no room for...

ミ★I have personally been both. But we can all empathize with this because if maintaining a routine was easy it wouldn't be such a successful phenomenon online. Out of the millions of views under "my morning routine" posts, many, if not majority, of them are people who wish they can live the way these people do. I think we as people have developed mindsets that are negative first, positive later. Ever since the quarantine we've been used to online overconsumption. The idea that "more is better", and the scare that was the virus has sparked this fear in us that is wasted time. Hence us wanting to build new giant routines in the middle of the night just to eventually abandon it because our minds and bodies don't evolve or develop like that overnight. Most the time the routines are grueling and just makes us feel exhausted over accomplished. When we don't see immediate change a lot people, including myself, give up then and there.

☆Im not here to tell you how to keep a constant routine or how to become more disciplined because all that information is in the palm of your hands. Honestly at the end of the day it's about your mindset. Realizing what is around you and remembering the reality you live in. You want that body? You want that hair growth? You want to post? It's all possible but here's where the issue lies:

ミ★We forget to forgive ourselves and to be patient with ourselves. We fall under the pressure to perform for social media as well. In this digital age we try to make social media real life 24/7 and put real life on the back burner. Everything must be aesthetic or else! Or if you can't keep a constant routine for a week you're a failure! But the reality is no one just wakes up in their perfect aesthetic one day and has this perfect routine down pat the first time. Another thing that we keep doing is what everyone else is doing. Another example of putting the online first before real life. We've forgotten the beauty of growth, and how things develop overtime. It reminds me of how small artists have the potential to blow up overnight. They suddenly have all these eyes on them and then the GP turns on them simply because their exceptions don't match the artist's personal growth. I think we do the same to ourselves. But regardless of what other people, social media or even what you might even say to yourself the best way to find a good routine is get to know yourself, not someone else. And to not go by others expectations. It's good to hold yourself to a high regard and to make ambitious goals. But you should remind yourself that you want this to last and you don't want to burn yourself out trying to perfect your life like it's a speed run.

☆When following creators who makes content like this I advise to follow people you relate to first. Not saying you can't follow those extremely aesthetic ASMR morning/Night routine videos because hell I watch them too. But know that I watch them for simply that. I've come to the point where I can watch that stuff and not feel incompetent or that I'm failing in life but I digress. Don't pay attention to the many trends and what's hot, just look for people who you might see yourself in, or people who have qualities similar to yours. Physically, mentally, ect. Because if you're a black girl who wants to know how to do a specific 4C hairstyle you're not going to the white girl influencers for tutorials are you? For me I watch Jackie Aina. Her and I don't even have the same tastes in certain aspects, specifically clothing and home decor but she reminds me a lot of myself and some of my values. Her content inspires me but doesn't make me feel like I need to reinvent myself overnight. That's not realistic nor healthy. I think subjecting yourself to that will just give you an identity crisis. Her content helps me feel confident and you should follow people like that too.

ミ★My purpose of this post is not "continue to be a slob" (I'm a Taurus stellium and Venusian. Girl we don't do that over 'chere.) it's to remind and to encourage. A reminder that what you see online isn't what real life is 24/7. Doesn't mean it's all fake, it just means that life doesn't just look like one thing. Social media just tends to make our vision a bit tunneled. Yes, some peoples lives surround what they eat in a day, what they do when they get out of bed, and the steps they follow in their nighttime skincare routine. But our attachment and overconsumption to these types of creators constantly fails to remind us that they're still human. Hell even when the human creators tell y'all "hey I'm human" they still aren't treated as such but guess what? They are! So are you. You are still human. Finding a groove that works for you will take time. And many times you will fail. You will probably forget to do something, you won't have the time for certain tasks, or an inconvenience will pop up out of no where that knocks you off course. But if at first you don't succeed, try again. Social media picture perfect propaganda (lol) has made us forget that life happens and that we will essentially always struggle with routine. Some things stick, some things don't. Some routines last a long time, some only stay for a day. We live in an age where everyone's trying to move as fast as they can to keep with the trends, keep up appearances, and to make up for lost time. And as much as I love the thrill of the fast life, how can I expect to see my growth, what I like, what needs changing and how to fall into a good rhythm when I'm too busy trying to keep up.

✧─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──

Xoxo, Sydney Mykah -☆

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

This is extremely long and apparently subject to change, which is part of why I'm copy-pasting this version below. I don't agree with significant parts of it (in particular, I take umbrage with some of the delegitimizing language she uses for the Jewish/Israeli narrative and history that she doesn't use with the Palestinian narrative and history), however, I think it's a really really important read, because she addresses a lot of the real problems with the current discourse and real-world impacts that has.

I think this paragraph in particular was something I needed to read:

Arguing with the far left is a waste of time. They have no self-awareness, they are delusional, and they will never stop. They are as fanatical as any of the mob. The only way to make them stop talking is to actually sort this problem once and for all and work for the freedom and dignity of all. And when all is said and done, the ones that will keep complaining will finally be exposed for what they truly are.

She also winds up positing the A Land For All solution as the most likely to succeed, which I do agree is probably correct, for the main reason she argues, which is that it is the option that gives the most people the greatest amount of what they want, the basics of what everyone needs, and hews most closely with answering the competing narratives that exist.

There is No Magic Peace Fairy. Version 2

For anyone who might have read the previous version of this piece of writing, this is quite different from the original. Its spirit and essence are the same, but much has been added. It is very long, but it seeks to understand some extremely complicated and difficult things.

I should have realised when I first wrote it, and then sought to follow its instruction — to listen and learn from a wide spectrum of other people — that it was only ever going to be a working and evolving piece of work. This is version 2. There may yet be a version 3, 4 or 5.

Why did I even write it? Initially — truthfully, and honestly — it has been for myself. It started as catharsis, and it has become a compulsion — the way to “make it make sense.” The way to cope with horrifying scenes across the television and social media, witnessed day after day, and feeling utterly powerless to stop it.

It comes from years of witnessing, and sometimes partaking in long and sometimes very bitter family arguments. Arguments that became spectator sport for friends who would come over especially because they knew they would happen. Arguments that, in retrospect were not actually remotely funny for those of us living through that constant emotional turmoil, nor considering the subject matter. It has been the way to work through those conflicted feelings, and some things that were never really reconciled.

So, yes, it started for myself. But now I have written it, I do want people to read it. I think it may help others to work through some of the same things. And then it would have been worthwhile, especially if it may help some people to find a way to salvage lost friendships and lost relationships from the last few months, because it seems there is a giant rift forming in our communities in Britain.

This has nothing to do with ‘both sidsing’ anything, and it has everything to do with problem-solving. As far as I am concerned, in all of life, you cannot solve a problem that you do not understand. And I really want to understand it. So, I look at both narratives that the Palestinians and Israelis know as the history of their peoples, and think about the lives of individual Palestinians and Israelis, and then I wonder, how could this ever actually be fixed? Is there really any hope for the future?

It is not meant to justify or apologise for anything anyone has done.

I am sure this writing will includes things that almost everybody will take issue with, but it is my hope that by doing my very best to do justice to our collective stories that people can read without anger what it is that I have to say — and please do read to the very the end if you are intending to pass judgement on what that is.

Most of all, I think this will interest people in the diaspora with family, friends, and personal links and connections to the region — Israel or the Occupied Palestinian territories — who wish nothing more than to see their friends and family living in freedom, with dignity and security.

If you have read version 1, the stories of the 15-year-olds have only minor additions, but the narratives and the rest of the article have changed a lot. If you get to a bit that sounds very familiar, skip a bit further down — it is very long to read it twice.

~~~~~

What is the most important narrative of the Palestinian people?

(You do not have to agree with this — I am just telling it how it is told).

Something like –

“The defining event of our history is the Nakba (Catastrophe)

Before 1948, we used to live in Palestine. We loved Palestine. We lived there for centuries. We lived peacefully. We had a deep spiritual and emotional connection to the land. Our ancestors are buried there. Religious sites — Christian, Muslim, Jewish — that had great meaning to all of us were there. It was a rich tapestry of different religions and cultures containing a beautiful and sacred shared heritage.

We had wonderful villages and beloved homes that we built with our own hands. We had gardens with trees and plants that our grandparents planted. We had treasured possessions. We had friends and families and good lives. We could go and come as we pleased.

We had neighbours of all faiths, including Jewish neighbours. We lived contendly together. Some of them had been there for centuries just like us and we liked them, we lived there together happily and in peace.

In the 1900s, more and more started to come. They were fleeing persecution. We gave them refuge. We had no problem with them coming. They were being hounded in Europe and they needed somewhere else to go. Where better for them to be but here in Palestine, where the history of their people was born? And many of them were respectful and we had good relationships with them. We liked them.

But some of them wanted a country. Some of them fought with us, and some of them attacked us, and terrorised us. How could they have had a country in our land? We had been there for generations, and what would have become of us if we had agreed to it? Where would they have stopped? The problem was never them. It was them trying to make a country. And if they hadn’t tried to make a country, everything would have been okay. We could have had a country all of us together. What a beautiful country it could have been. But the country they wanted did not include us.

Some of them were clear they would have kept going until they got more and more of our land, and there is no question they would always have driven us away. Some of their leaders where unashamed and brazen in the way they looked down on us, in their statements that dehumanised us, in their disdain for us, in their colonial intent. They under-estimated us.

The Nakba (catastrophe) was a disaster for our people. In 1948, there was a war. During that war, the Israelis attacked us, killed us, stole our property and ethnically cleansed us from our land in order to create their Jewish state. We left in fear of our lives. We were not the ones that started that fighting. We wanted nothing to do with it. That is why we left.

We didn’t think we would be gone for long, surely once the fighting had subsided we would be back. But then days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into years.

Then it finally sunk in — they weren’t going to let us back. And we realised we were divided and dispossessed. That nightmare was only the beginning for us. They have never, ever allowed us back for 75 years. We lost everything. Our human rights are denied to us. More and more of our land is taken every day. We are not free. Some of us have no freedom at all and no rights.

We want to stop being ethnically cleansed. We want to go home, to go back, to see our homeland, our ancient sites, to be back where we belong, where we have always belonged. We want our dignity, and we want our freedom."

~~~~~

You do not have to agree with the way this story is told, but it has, in some form, been passed down through generations and generations of Palestinians.

~~~~~

What is life like for a 15-year-old Palestinian who lives in the West Bank?

You are told this story of your people from the day you were born. You live under a military occupation. More and more violent religious settlers move into the lands around you. They build new homes and can do whatever they want. They come and go as they please, in and out of Israel. You are not allowed to go anywhere except the West Bank. Their soldiers are always there with guns. They are in charge.

The settlers terrorise you all the time. They stop people farming their land and so you struggle to survive. A few weeks ago, a settler shot one of your friends. They never get punished and they never go to prison. But recently your best friend went to prison for throwing rocks at the soldiers. You really miss him.

Your grandparents left Palestine in 1948 with four children, and very few possessions. Your grandmother thought she would be back in a few days or weeks. Your grandmother’s sister ended up in Gaza and they never saw one another other again. She died recently. You have a cousin who is the same age as you. You know you could have been close if only you had even met.

You see no future the way things are now. There is no hope. You want a different life. You want the things your grandparents had. You don’t want to be constantly afraid of being attacked. You dream of leaving. You dream of the day you go back to Palestine where the house you should have had is, even just to see it, to be truly home, to live the life that is rightfully yours.

What do you do? You resist. In the only way that you can, with the only things that you have. You throw rocks at the soldiers. One day, you get caught, and you get put in a prison. You are tried by a military court, and you stay in prison for a really long time. In prison, people do appalling things to you. Finally, they let you out. What do you do?

~~~~~

What was life like for a 15 year old living in Gaza?

You are also told the Palestinian story from the day you were born. There are good things about your life. You go to school, have friends, and family who you love, you can go out and do things. There are hospitals, and you can get a lot of things that you need. You love Gaza. But you can’t leave Gaza. You can’t go anywhere else in the land or the world except Gaza.

Your life is still hard. Your family struggle for money and to survive, to get the things that you all need. There are a lot of things that would make your life better and easier, but you can’t get them in Gaza. You know that if you lived in Israel, you could get whatever you wanted and needed. You have family in the West Bank you have never met, but you know about their struggles. You have a cousin the same age, who is enduring unimaginable hardships.

The people in charge of Gaza are not good leaders. They can be dangerous and violent if you oppose them. A lot of people in Gaza don’t like them, although some people support them. Your own parents really can’t stand them. These people have been in charge of Gaza since before you were even born. You have learned that there was a civil war in Gaza before that and hundreds of people were killed or wounded. There has never been an election since.

You know they fire rockets into Israel because they want to dismantle it. You want a different life, but it’s never really worked or got anywhere. It seems futile. And you know that every few years, the bombs will come. Everyone you know has lost someone or something from the Israeli bombs. You don’t remember that much about the last time, but you do remember being really terrified, and you remember that your Dad cried when his brother was killed.

Then one day you hear news. News that Israel has been attacked by Gaza. Israelis have been killed, and some are even being brought into Gaza. Your heart sinks. You have a funny feeling in your stomach. You know what is coming.

~~~~~

To these two children, these cousins, Zionism can and only ever will mean catastrophic dispossession, oppression, and Jewish supremacy. The only Jews or Israelis they have encountered have either bombed them or terrorised them. Israel is a colonial entity. It never had a right to exist. Israelis are settlers. All they ever do is steal land. How could you expect them to see it any other way? There can never be any nuance, or any grey area about it. It could never have any legitimacy in their eyes. How could you expect or ask them to empathise with Israelis when you consider what they have lived and are living through?

For them, anyone who describes themselves as a Zionist in any form, even a liberal Zionist, could only ever be perceived as somebody that cannot be reasoned with, is trying to justify and support the unjustifiable, and is nothing but a settler and a tool of their oppression.

~~~~~

What is the dominant narrative of Jewish/Israeli people?

(You do not have to agree with it — I am just telling it how it is told).

It may be slightly different for secular Israelis and Diaspora Jews, but it goes something along these lines:

“We are the people of Israel. This is where our religion and our language were born, where we built temples and our ancestors are buried. We have and always have been surrounded by enemies on all sides. For millennia, we have been scattered throughout the world. We were driven from Israel and we went to Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Throughout history people have always tried to kill the Jewish people. They didn’t like us being Jewish. There were always pogroms and mass killings. In some places people would hide and pray together in secret. It is our duty to keep the Jewish religion alive in their honour.

In Europe the pogroms got worse and worse. A few of us left Europe for a better life in Palestine. But most of us stayed in Europe. And most of us died in Europe. Six million of us. They did it because they said we were responsible for everything bad that had ever happened in the world.

Most of our so-called friends and neighbours said nothing as we were terrorised and led away. They carefully planned and counted how they could get rid of each and every one of us. They tried to annihilate us completely from the face of the earth. But as a people we lived on.

Jewish people had been coming to Palestine from Europe for years before 1948 fleeing the persecution. We came and we bought land fairly and built our lives there. We were happy. We wanted to all be together again, in a place that had meaning to us, where we would be safe. We knew we needed freedom and independence, so that this time it would never, ever happen again.

People say that we never needed a country, but what do they know? Jewish history has taught us things that they can never possibly understand. Jewish history has taught us that the world will always betray us, and when that day comes, our friends and neighbours will walk on by. We are a minority, so we must stick together, protect one another, keep one another safe. We knew we needed freedom and independence, so that this time we would have a safeplace where we can go and live when the world finally turns us on again, as it always does.

And In 1947, the UN agreed we could finally have a state of our own. We were so proud and overjoyed. What an achievement for us after everything we had been through.

We never wanted to fight with the people already living in Palestine. Yes, before 1948, some of us lived together peacefully. But it wasn’t a Utopia. Some of the people welcomed us and provided us with a safe place to live. We had good relationships with them.

But some of the people didn’t want us there, we were outsiders and they never liked us. Some people went to the British to get them to stop us from coming to Palestine. And even before 1948, there was a lot of fighting between us, and some of us were massacred even in Palestine.

But we could have found a way to live together peacefully, in two states, and they could have lived in our state just as we could have lived in theirs, just so long as we had a State. That is all we ever wanted. We could have divided and shared the land.

But they could never let us have it. Never. And when the British finally left, we saw our opportunity, we declared our state. We had no intention of taking anything from anyone. We just wanted a state. And then every single one of our neighbours, all the countries around us invaded us, from every corner of the land. Enemies on all sides. They surrounded us and we found we were alone, again, just as we always have been.

But this time we fought back. We fought for our freedom and independence and dignity, and our right to live and exist and not just accept to be killed, and mainly, for most of us, because we actually had nowhere else to go. It was a war, yes, we took land yes, but we didn’t start that war. It was existential, because how else exactly do you expect we could have guaranteed our security and safety surrounded by neighbours who were baying for our blood? What would you have done?

Then after 1948 the Middle East erupted. The Jews in the Middle East had always experienced persecution. But this was worse than ever. It was intolerable. They blamed those Jews for Israel. Hundreds of thousands of us were ethnically cleansed out of homes we had lived in for centuries, from Ancient communities all across the continent, and we left to build new lives in Israel. Over half of Israelis today are descended from those Middle Eastern Jews.

Now we live together in Israel. We stick togehter and we fight together. We have fought war after war after war. They have tried to kill us from all sides, time after time. But each time, we fight back harder, and we win. We have and always will be surrounded by enemies, but we will always fight back.”

~~~~~

You might not agree with a single word of this story. But this story, in some form or another has been passed down through generations and generations of millions of Jewish and Israeli people.

~~~~~

Now imagine the life of this 15-year-old born and living in Israel

You have been taught this story since the day you were born.

You live in a Kibbutz. You have friends. You like the outdoors and sports. You get good grades in school.

Your grandparents live nearby. Your Grandad came from Yemen as a refugee, as a child. He told you that his family were being attacked and threatened after the 1948 war, so they left their possessions and homes behind in Yemen, and they came to Israel instead.

Mostly you are happy. You are so excited you have a new boyfriend or girlfriend who you really like, but your parents don’t know yet.

But you really hate the rockets. You have never known any life without rockets. You know that some of the rockets get intercepted, but they still get through all the time.

There are bomb shelters everywhere. At school, in the playgrounds, in the bus-shelters, and at home. The sirens can go off at any time and then you have to run to the shelter. Even if you are busy doing your homework, or asleep, or on the toilet. The noise of the sirens never stops making you jump. You are used to it, but you still get scared and you hate it, and the sounds of the rockets make you shake.

You know in a couple of years you will be conscripted into the army. Everybody goes. You do and you don’t want to go. You want to go because you know it is your duty to protect the State from its enemies, just as everyone in your family has always done. But you are scared about it, and you don’t know what it will really be like. People don’t talk about it.

One weekend, your parents agree you can spend the night with your cousin. They live 40 minutes away. She is like a sister to you. So, you go on Friday. You have fun, watch a movie, chat for ages, and you fall asleep late.

The next thing you know your Aunt is waking you both up. It is Saturday morning. She is in a panic. Something is happening. Your parents have messaged. Something is wrong. She says there are men everywhere in the Kibbutz with guns. You turn on your phone. There are messages from your parents and your brother. They are in the bomb shelter. You try to call them. You can’t get through. You feel the panic rising in your chest. No, please, no. You ring your boyfriend or girlfriend. No answer.

~~~~~

This child has never met a Palestinian that lives in any Occupied Palestinian territory. All he/she knows about them is that they fire rockets at Israel and have done his/her whole life, and once every couple of decades they commit extremely violent and horrific terrorist attacks. That is what he/she knows because that’s what they have been taught and also what their lived experience has taught them.

Many Jewish and Israeli people believe when they talk about Zionism they are talking about, “Somewhere safe for Jews to live where they will not be attacked, where they can call home, and where they have self-determination.” How is it possible for this 15 year old child, given the stories they have been told and the life they have led, to be anything other than a Zionist, when it is defined like that? And if they are told they are a ‘settler’, or an ‘evil oppressor’ and that that is why they deserve to die, they will look at you with wide eyed wonder and assume you are a lunatic.

The reason they can conceive of the Jewish people as settlers who live outside 1967 borders and not themselves is because they do not see them as being in the, ‘Right for somewhere safe to live’ group of Zionists. They are considered to be religious extremists and supremacists, what they see as a distorted and extremist form of Zionism, and they don’t consider it the same.

~~~~~

There are many incredibly sad and depressing things about all of these stories. But the part to me that makes it seem most tragically futile — is that for a very large number of individual human beings that ended up living in either Israel or in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in the 1950s -1960s — their stories are almost the same. Most of them were running away from something, and most of the time, the people who are doing the running away are not the people doing the fighting or the massacring.

It is a story of being a refugee, of fighting for survival against all odds, of 20th century dispossession and mass displacement. A story of being blamed for things they did not do and being held to account for debts that they did not owe. The tumult of 20th century history created a shared heritage — that over a very short time hundreds upon thousands of people were displaced — Jews fleeing Europe to Palestine, Palestinians fleeing during the creation of Israel, and almost all the Jews across the Middle East then fleeing to Israel in the few years after it started.

Part of that shared heritage became about yearning to return to a Holy piece of land that carries promise and a deep spiritual connection. It really shouldn’t be that hard to explain to one another — and indeed the rest of the world, why we cannot just ‘let it go’.

I am not trying to rewrite history and say that every single person in the years leading up to and including events in 1948 was an innocent bystander. Absolutely not. I am just saying that, generally speaking, as is almost always the case — when it comes to atrocities, it is normally extremists that engage in it, that end up calling the shots for everyone, and it is them that end up dictating history.

And it is extremist ideologies that are plaguing us today. One is an ideology of Jewish supremacy. God’s chosen people, Israel is God’s gift and therefore comes with a right to take land off anyone and everyone. The other is an extreme, dangerous and corrupted version of Islam — a highly repressive ideology where human rights do not exist, and it exalts in the death of Jews.

These people — all of them — they are the mob. ‘Death to the Jew. Death to the Arab’ One or the other in their rightful place, subservient to the other, or better yet, dead in the ground.

Most people are not the mob. Most people are not sociopaths. Most people just want to live and get on with their lives, they want to have their basic needs met, their human rights, and they want their children to grow up happy and healthy with a bright future ahead.

It is important to understand though that the bonds of community and peoplehood are also part of a basic human need. The need to maintain relationships with brothers, sisters, cousins and friends who live in our communities together with us, who have a shared history with us, who support us, and to whom we are loyal — it is part of the human experience.

The stories of our own and our friend’s grandparents, the loss of livelihood and dreams for the future as they packed their bags and fled — these are the stories that make us peoples. And it is these stories that bind us together within our communities much more closely than any ancient religious text or any ancestral DNA test ever could.

And so when people say, “The Jews and Israelis are not a people. They are fakers, they are ‘Europeans’ pretending to have links to a land that has nothing to do with them.” Or people say, “The Palestinians are not a people. They are just ‘Arabs’ who could have gone anywhere, who have no real history and whose only goal in life is to terrorise Jews,” these will both only ever be seen as inherently anti-Semitic or Anti-Palestinian statements that erase and deny large parts of our collective heritage, and neither will lead to any kind of constructive dialogue. Who is anyone to make judgements about what another people is that they do not belong to?

And so we end up where we have got to today –

From the Palestinian side, what I think is difficult for somebody who is not Palestinian to understand, is that telling them that they should give up on the right to return — for many — is impossible. They can’t do it. Understanding and honouring Palestinian history, which is rich, and complicated, and is largely unknown to many people, for them it is part of their identity. Poetry, art, great thinkers, great writers — they are all there for the world to see if only they would bother to look.

And even worse for a Palestinian, to suggest that everything that has befallen them was somehow their fault because they refused to give up on their history, this could only ever be met with fury and be seen as gaslighting.

It is essential as well to remember that this land — it is not just any land. It is not so easy to walk away from it as any other place on earth. It is Holy Land. It has meaning to everyone associated with it, and everyone wishes to be able to walk free inside it.

Having an enduring determination to free themselves from a brutal occupation that does nothing but dehumanises them and steals from them — and a longing, ultimately, to return to their homeland, this is inherent to being a Palestinian. They cannot ‘Un-Palestinian’ themselves.

So the Palestinians will say, “What world would you have us do? You the world have done nothing to help us. You who have been silent and you care nothing for our oppression. You have abandoned us to unthinkable injustice and suffering for decades. You who sit comfortably in your homes have no right to moralise at us or criticise us and tell us what we should or shouldn’t do. We have no means whatsoever to fight for our freedom. No one is on our side. We are alone. We will do whatever must be done to fight for ourselves, our human rights, our land.”

The Palestinians are living in an impossible nightmare. There seems to be nothing they can do to free themselves that doesn’t make their situation worse. What exactly are they supposed to do when they live under an occupation, have no civil rights, no means to fight for themselves, and the people with power that could do something are not standing up for them? And when all means of civil and non-violent resistance are completely denied or futile, support for more violent resistance will become inevitable.

And it was indeed inevitable that 7th October would come. Warning after warning has been given about the Occupied Palestinian territories and the blockade. Warnings about human rights abuses have gone unheeded. Warnings that if Palestinians are not given their freedom what would happen. Warnings that it was totally unjust, immoral and illegal for Palestinians in the West Bank to be under military occupation. Time and again it has been said it is a danger to the security of Israel, and it was ignored.

But the problem for the Palestinians is that terror was never ever going to work — because the people in Israel believe it was established and is needed as security because of the risk of terror against them. So the idea that they could be terrorised into giving it back, or into leaving — this is an absurdity. People talk of ‘Hasbara’, but terror is and feeds Hasbara. October 7th has done nothing but make people believe in Zionism even more (a safe place to live in their eyes). Zionism burns greater than ever with the fuel of the fires from the Hamas rockets. All terror has and can ever achieve is further encroachment onto Palestinian territory — the literal opposite of a free Palestine.

What happened in 1948 is horrendous. But what of it, to that 15 year old Israeli child? Whose own grandparents had nothing to do with it, and were themselves dispossessed, as is the case now for so many people living in Israel. That child who has only ever known Israel as their home.

So Israelis will say, “World, what would you have us do after October 7th? People outside Israel, you can say whatever the hell you want, but we are here alone. We have and always have been surrounded by people on every side who wish to murder each and every one of us until we are annihilated, and in the most painful and brutal possible way, as has just been demonstrated plainly for all the world to see. You, who do not have any understanding whatsoever of what that is like, do not get to tell us what to do. We will do whatever we think is necessary to strengthen our position to ensure this cannot happen again.”

What people are missing is that this conflict is unique to any other case of the ‘coloniser and colonised’ in history, because the people doing the ‘colonising’ are half the people of the land, people who have a genuine existential fear of everybody around them that does not come from nowhere, and is deeply ingrained into most people’ psyche. Most do not have anywhere else to go, because most of their grandparents came to Israel as refugees, and so they cannot perceive themselves as a ‘colonial settler’ in any way. So they will never stop fighting back at terrorism for their right to live without fear of attack.

This links to the Jewish people in the diaspora who support Israel and is extremely difficult for non-Jewish people to understand.

For many Jewish people, memorialising the repeated attempts to eradicate Jews throughout history, most notably the Holocaust, and remembering and honouring ancestors who have died to keep the Jewish religion alive is considered essential.

Every festival, every prayer book, every cultural activity and a very large number of conversations includes this on some level. It is integral and inherent to most people’s identity. So if people feel that their Jewish counterparts, and very often family in Israel are in existential danger, they can and only ever will see it as a moral imperative that they must be supported.

Asking Jewish people to somehow disavow themselves of this notion is impossible. To tell most Jewish people they need to ‘get over it’ because, “they are a coloniser and their needs do not matter,” is completely meaningless to them.

It is not grounded in reality, and something that can and will only ever be perceived as an attempt to ‘UnJewish them’. I.e. to eradicate significant parts of Jewish history and day-to-day life and community, and thus could only ever be perceived as deeply antisemitic in its very nature. The more these things are denied as relevant, the more people will fight back against what they see as gaslighting.

But for those people in the diaspora who have blindly, unquestioningly, dutifully and uncritically supported Israel, while its government drifts ever further into the grip of right-wing extremism and corruption, must surely now see that was a mistake. If you had a friend or a loved one on a destructive path of self-sabotage, would you just let them carry on?

It is great tragedy of Jewish history for both Jews and Palestinians alike that self-determination and independence for the Jewish people, at a time when they needed and wanted it so badly would come at someone else’s expense. Something that is so freely and unquestioningly given to so many other peoples, but not the Jewish people. Yes, it is unfair. But it did come at their expense. I think that most Palestinians only opposed it, not because they oppose Jewish people — it is the bit about it being at their expense.

We can argue forever and eternity about, “Oh, but it never needed to be this way. If only you could have shared with us. If only in 1947 this or that. And if only in this peace agreement this year or that year,” or whatever.

But what of it to those 15 year olds living in Gaza and the West Bank? It is an irrelevance what was ever intended. What was intended bears no resemblance whatsoever to their lived reality. The Jewish dream of Zionism became their nightmare. I know this is an extremely painful and bitter pill for people to swallow, but Zionism since its inception has resulted in nothing other than subjugation for them. And it is not normal for a country to not have any proper borders, and for one people to control another in some parts of it.

And while it continues to happen, Zionism will continue to be seen as Jewish people being allowed to have control over other people. This was never ever how Zionism was originally intended for a lot of people, and it is not what they think it means. Far from it. But this is where it has come to, and intentions do not matter, because it is our actions that count. Once you understand this, it is really not difficult to see how this is fuelling dark and extremely dangerous conspiracy theories about Zionism, which are dragging us back to a place in history that we most definitely do not want to go, and it endangers us all.

We need to open our eyes to reality. As the bombs reign down in Gaza, destroying thousands of lives, after well over 100 days, there are people dying from starvation. This must end, immediately. It is abominable. The rockets are still coming. And even if you stop them today, while there is occupation in any part of the land, they will just come back tomorrow or the next day or the week or the year or the decade after that. And surely from the Israeli side, negotiating whatever terms to get as many of those hostages out alive, going through what must be unthinkable terror, at any cost, must be prioritised above all else.

And I am very sorry, because I know people will not like this. But this ‘war’ — it is not about destroying Hamas. It is becoming increasingly clear by the day that not only is destroying Hamas impossible, but Israel’s government are violent ethnonationalists. The far right threaten to collapse it at every mention of a ceasefire — the only thing that will get most of those hostages back alive — and so it carries on. And extreme ideology is much more widespread within the government than just the furthest right that are propping it up. The very leader of Israel himself is at the heart of it.

When you hear what they are saying, it is very clear that they have far more sinister intentions, and we must take them at their word. Allowing people to starve, making plans to drive them off their land into other places, destroying heritage sites, and yes, mass killing — that is ethnic cleansing. It is the definition of ethnic cleansing. It is illegal under international law, and it must stop.

People say, “Oh, but Hamas are stealing the aid.” Maybe they are, maybe they aren’t. I don’t know. I don’t know and I don’t care. I don’t care because it is an irrelevance at this moment in time to that woman looking into the eyes of her hungry child as they wither away and die. It is enough.

Could it ever be solved?

There are those of us that would be willing to give up on the dreams of our respective peoples, and not because we wish to throw them under the bus. But simply because we would just accept any solution, in whatever form, that would bring the suffering of all people to an end, and as quickly as possible. Because we believe that none of any of this is worth the blood of anyone’s children.

Because we look at those dreams of security through self-determination, rights to return, and we look at where we are today, and we see that none of any of it has delivered on its promise. We see that the world is a very different place to what it was in 1948. We recognise that there are people on the ‘other side’ that we would much rather share a country with than the ‘mob’ on our own side.

Because we know that our histories are worthless if they demand that we ‘unhuman’ ourselves.

Because we recognise that we have inherited the most Unholy mess.

But we are few in number, because the majority of most peoples cannot let go of their respective narratives, either in whole or in part. And so the solution that must be found is one that could satisfy the majority of the narrative of both peoples.

Israel already has half of what it wants — it has the state. But it does not have security, and any pretence of it has been an illusion, one that was violently shattered on October 7th.

The Palestinians meanwhile — they have nothing of what they want.

A one state solution — this does not satisfy the Israeli narrative, because it requires the undoing of Israel. It gives many Israelis nothing of what they think they want and everything they are afraid of. If you were that panicking aunt of that 15 year old Israeli child just now, would you be agreeing to open that border?

But I do not think the two-state solution really satisfies the Palestinian narrative. Because in that narrative, things were better before Israel, before Zionism, where everybody just lived together. And mainly because people want to able to walk free across the land — the right of return. The two-state solution may bring freedom and dignity, but I am not sure if it would give enough people what they really want.

Ultimately it comes down to one of the reasons this has been so intractable for so long. The Jewish State and the desire to control and ensure the continued right of Jewish immigration to Israel, and the presumed need to maintain a Jewish majority to enable that, vs the Right to Return of the Palestinians. ‘The War of Return’ as it has been called. The thing that neither side seems to be able to give up, that seem to be in direct conflict.

So what do we do? Throw our hands up, put it down to a bad job and just give up. (What the world has done). Keep blaming each side’s ‘propaganda’, each side’s education system, each side’s unwillingness to budge. But it won’t work, because it is asking people to let things go of things that they cannot let go of, things that are integral to the history of their peoples.

Human beings have been solving problems since we existed and there is no reason why we cannot solve this one.

There are many possible ways to solve it. The confederate two-state-solution is one example of a way to square the circle: https://www.alandforall.org/.

I suggest it not because I am wedded to it but because it seems to me that it would satisfy enough of both narratives to work. There may be multiple other ways to do it.

How do we get to it? As a possible example. We start with two states. Real states. Not a bit of a state or half a state with the other bit not connected to it and some people still being occupied that could never be acceptable, and was always going to be fought against. A real Palestinian state, whose borders are secured through international peacekeeping. But with that state must also come the promise and the goal that over a reasonably short period of time, everybody who wishes to cross that border gets to cross that border, until eventually, one day, ideally, there isn’t a border. People live wherever they want, but retain citizenship in their own state. And with regards specific land and homes that cannot be returned, real reparations are made. This is just one example of how it could be done.

As we keep hearing — 7 million Israelis, 7 million Palestinians. No one is going anywhere. But at some point, it is my opinion that, probably, for this to ever end, everyone must be able to go everywhere.

Two peoples living side by side. All free to live and move freely across this ancient and Holy land that is so special and meaningful to all and must be shared. Finally able to mix and become humanised in each other’s eyes. Christian, Jew, and Muslim, free to access their ancient and Holy sites. All of us united together in the spirit of mutual respect and tolerance.

Cooperating together to fight the only war that there should ever have been — the only war worth fighting.

Everybody vs the mob.

Not a religious war, not a war of the us or them, not a war over rights to the land and houses. But a war of the moderate and the just against the extremists that have desecrated our respective religions and turned them into something ugly. The lunatics marginalised, silenced and rejected. As opposed to what we have now — the sociopaths leading the charge and everyone else marching dutifully along behind.

People will say this is idealistic nonsense, a pipe dream. But what is the other option? Another twenty or thirty years of failed peace agreements and more of the same all over again? And with every round of violence, the violence gets more violent, the mob gets stronger and more popular on both sides as their ideas are seeded. And the mob is hard to fight, because the mob involves fanatic religion that cannot be reasoned with.

If we keep allowing them to get stronger and stronger, I think they will eventually set each other, themselves, and quite possibly the entire world, alight. Literal World War 3 with Jerusalem at the centre.

“How can you ask us to negotiate with them?” I hear you say. “Them, who are ethnically cleansing us,” or, “Them who wish to annihilate us,” depending on which side you are on. But here is the rub — you cannot terrorise people into leaving and you cannot bomb people into submission. Neither has ever worked. We cannot ethnically cleanse or genocide our way out of this for either people, one way or the other. Any other solution other than a diplomatic solution will lead us nowhere but the abyss.

Israelis and Palestinians are not all inherently genocidal oppressors or inherently genocidal terrorists. (As unfortunately lots of people are saying) Of course they are not. Maybe right now in Gaza most Palestinians do support Hamas in what they see as armed resistance, and most Israelis do support the actions of their government in what they see as a war. But both things have become intertwined with both mobs, and so they are not what each respective side thinks they are. The ‘armed resistance’ — a pogrom style massacre by the ‘death to the Jew’ mob, and the ‘war’ a flagrant breach of international law and an obvious attempt at ethnic cleansing by the ‘God gave us Israel, death to the Arab’ mob.

I am not very sure that most of any of them either know or believe exactly what has or hasn’t happened. The information they are receiving is very different to ours. And in times of heightened escalation of violence, people retract into the respective narratives of their people as they become reinforced. “If it’s a choice between us or them, I choose us. And for me to be able to look myself in the mirror, I must choose to believe what I choose to believe.”

Both believe so deeply within their heart and soul that they are on the side of righteous justice. For one it is ‘the right to just exist’, For the other, it is ‘the right to life, dignity, freedom from cruel and violent oppressors’. So they are both engaging in the collective delusion that because theirs is the side of the right and good, their soldiers/fighters must also be right and good.

Their people can’t possibly be the ones committing the crimes against humanity, and they cannot believe the worst things that are being said about their own side, only the other. But this is not the reality of wars and fighting, and definitely not in a conflict that has gone on for this long where this amount of hatred has become so entrenched, and most of all not ones which involve religion. To me it seems very likely that most of the worst things that are being said about both sides, are in fact, the true things.

As it turns out, many of them were always, are becoming, or have become, the mob.

I think almost everyone, whatever they say, would in fact be appalled if they were actually to see the violence that has happened, and is happening with their very own eyes. But they do not want to open their eyes to see it for what it really is, because they are on the side of the right and the good.

I know there are people of every colour and creed who no doubt I could become friends with, get along with, and love dearly. But also there are people of every colour and creed that I could not stand to be in the same room as. I know this because I am not a racist. Human beings are human beings, that is all we need to know. And if we find ourselves making any collective statements about all of a people, we are probably becoming the very thing we so vociferously claim to the world we are not.

I think that racism may well have become entrenched on ‘both sides’ but I am not sure that it is exactly racism — perhaps a better way to put it would be ‘othering’. “They did this, they did that. They support this, they support that.” And the only way to stop doing it is not to tell each other that we need to unlearn or erase our respective histories and ‘un-brain’ wash ourselves. It is the opposite.

We have to first human ourselves. And then we might have to temporarily UnJewish and UnPalestinian ourselves for short amounts of time. Then we learn each other’s history. Then we will be able to find solutions together.

How can we work together to solve this?

This part of this piece of writing — specifically — it is for us in the diaspora. Hardly anyone in the Middle East is in a place to hear any of this this right now, and too many of them are much too busy trying not to die or get killed.

We in the diaspora, we are trying very hard to do what we can to stop this, and to help. But how is it possible, that all of us who seemingly so desperately want the same thing — freedom and dignity for everyone, and yet still don’t seem to be able to get anywhere without offending and upsetting one another? How can we expect people in the Middle East to co-exist, if we cannot even have a conversation?

I believe we are talking to each other in languages we do not understand, and until we realise this, we will only ever talk past each other. Almost every conversation will have the opposite of its intended consequence, and make the other person believe they are even more right.

We will only ever find it inconceivable that people or friends or colleagues that we thought were ‘nice’ could have views that seem totally barbaric in our eyes. But if we could talk in languages each other could understand, it would get easier. Or at least if we can’t, if we tried to hear what the other is really saying.

We are not listening to, or being respectful of one another and as a collective we are so much weaker and so much less powerful for it. Because the discourse has become so toxic that we cannot work together to find solutions.

I know I myself have been done these things, but even as we try to so hard to understand and explain, it is so easy to offend. I think the reason we are offending each other is because the words in the mind of the speaker sound very different to the ears of the listener.

If the conversations are had respectfully in the spirit of achieving genuine mutual understanding, that is great. But if it is an argument to convince the other person that you are right, forget it.

Take the debate about whether shouting ‘Intifada’ is Anti-Semitic.

If you tell some Palestinians that shouting, what to them means ‘resistance’ against a state which is and has been exercising immense and disproportionate power against them and has done for three quarters of a century, is anti-Semitic, they will inevitably wonder what planet you are living on. How exactly it is that you expect they can possibly fight for their freedom? And why do you continue to engage in this collective delusion that just condemns them to suffer and die?

But if you try to tell most Jewish people, that what they perceive as the indiscriminate killing of Jews in terrorist attacks is not antisemitic, it is inevitable that they will not believe you. In fact, they will see you as yet another of the seemingly innumerable people in the ‘Death to the Jew’ mob.

Every conversation is having the opposition of its intended consequence. Convincing the other person they were more right than they were before.

Think about the way that we frequently use each other’s non-mainstream diaspora voices as a stick to beat each other with. (And this is not necessarily a criticism of those voices — some of them are very important — it’s just explaining how they are seen).

People say to Palestinians:-

“Look, this Palestinian is good, they think Zionism is okay, and you should just accept it. If only you could stop being so silly like them it would have all been over a long time ago. They agree that you haven’t exactly helped yourselves.”

How could a Palestinian ever consider this as a legitimate argument? Views that surely could only be perceived as incredibly anti-Palestinian. Surely they must think something along the lines of…

“You are privileged not to be in Gaza grieving incommensurate losses. You are one of the lucky ones whose entire family is not now dead. You who are not hungry and ill and exhausted and cold and terrified of being killed. All of your hopes and dreams do not lie in ruin before your eyes. You are enabling and emboldening our enemies. You are throwing us under the wheels of the bus of occupation all the while benefitting from living in the countries that side with our oppressors. You do not, and you will not ever, speak for us.”

Equally Jewish people are constantly bombarded with -

“Look at this Jewish person or that one. They are reasonable. They believe Israel is a colonial entity and should be entirely dismantled. They agree you are weaponising the Holocaust and playing the victim. Why are you not a good Jew, like them?”

This is not in any way a mainstream Jewish view because it is mostly perceived as -

“Lucky you, not to be one of almost half the Jews of the world that ended up living in Israel, to not have been born there, to not have a friend or family member that has been killed or taken or mutilated.

Lucky you, who can align yourself with the baying mob, and in so doing throw your Jewish Brothers and Sisters in Israel under the wheels of the bus of annihilation by the people that have demonstrated time and again that they hate them, because it is not your problem. You are not and never have been part of the community, and you do not speak for us.”

If we constantly tell both groups that we don’t hate them, just so long as they agree with something that is a total anathema to them, it will never wash. I am sure it is incredibly offensive to everyone.

“From the River to the Sea.” What do you mean? Genocide the Jews? Genocide the Palestinians? Arab Nationalism? Jewish Nationalism? Or simply freedom and equality for all?

And when it comes to ‘Zionism’. Forget about different languages. We are on completely different planets.

For everyone and anyone else watching the nightmare unfold, who can’t make sense of any of it, they must be thinking, “Surely none of any of this can be okay in the name of human decency?” But they do not know what to do. Because to ‘both sides’ it is to offend everyone and convince no one. ‘Both sidsing’ it has been declared not allowed. You will always be seen as a sell-out or a bus-thrower-under, one way or the other. So they are silenced, their voices not heard, reduced into a despondent, hand-wringing depression.

Yes, in the Middle East, one group has all the power. But in the diaspora, we are more equal. We have equal rights, we mostly live in countries where we are free to speak our minds.

Both sides are busy trying to expose each other’s mob. Both sides have “traitors” who are busy helping. The traitors have totally denounced their own side as either misogynistic, or racist, or both, and have joined the other team. And most of everybody else is on the scale of moderate, somewhere in between the views of the ‘mob’ from their own side, and ‘traitor’ for the other side. None of us even agree with each other on our ‘own side’, and very often, the people on our own side annoy us even more than the people on the other, and amazingly, sometimes the people we find the most annoying are the people we agree with the most.

In the first version of this I wrote, “We are mirror images of one another, yet it seems we mainly hold the mirror up at each other, not at the self.” So we never get to see what it is that we might have been missing.

Maybe is the other way around — we only hold the mirror up at the self and not the other. Something like that.

This is a long and, yes, very complicated story affecting and involving millions of different people across the world, across time and space, with millions of different stories to tell. For there to be any genuine hope of mutual understanding or respect, every single person is going to have to concede that most things about this story they can never truly understand because they have not lived them.

We cannot know, if we have not lived it, what it means to be born and live in a country that has only ever been at war. We cannot know, if we have not lived it, what it means to be born and live your whole life in a territory that is brutally occupied, or is under a blockade, by another people. Nor can we know, if we have not lived it, what it is like to have friends and family caught up on any side of this, whose safety and wellbeing you are desperately worried about.

We in the diaspora, so desperately worried for people in the Middle East, we are all working so hard, but we are not doing the right work. We are digging the hole deeper than ever. The magic peace fairy is not coming. They will not simply just descend from the sky, sprinkle us with magic fairy peace dust and make it all better.

When was the last time we tried to have a meaningful conversation with someone who is saying things that seem incredibly offensive to us? When was the last time we took the trouble to ask them why they think what they do? Or to ask why it is that we have offended them? To ask them about their lives, what happened to their grandparents, and their families and friends, and their parents and the stories that they were told growing up. About their hopes and dreams and aspirations. About their fears for the future.

Whenever the violence escalates, the historians cash in. Suddenly people have more motivation to understand, so we start reading and re-reading the history books. But mostly history will not give us the answers that we are looking for. It is people’s stories that will do it. And reading books that reinforce things that we already agree with will not give us the understanding that we need. It is the great writers from the other side that might.

Social media has many ills. But one huge positive is that it allows us to connect with all sorts of people whose thoughts and ideas we would never have been exposed to. We can observe fascinating conversations between other people we would never have been party to before. We can gain understanding, share ideas and solutions. It is definitely happenning. None of this was there in any previous attempts to fix this. It might just be the gamechanger that we need. We must make the most of it.

We cling to our positions like shells to a rock, not budging at all, so sure that we and we alone can see this for what it really is. I know I was. We could have been working together to stop this, but we never make any progress, and as a result, inadvertently, each and every one of us is complicit in the most unforgivable human suffering.

People say that there is no point talking about peaceful co-existence because it has never worked — but neither has violence. Ultimately there are only two choices — wait for the magic peace fairy, and die together. Or we can do the work to make the ‘peace’ that we all want, and maybe we can live together.

Addendum

And now I speak “as a British Jew,” to anyone in our community who is willing to listen.

I can tell the story of the Jewish story because I know that story. I have grown up listening to it. I was taught it in the Synagogue, in Sunday school and by family and friends. I have also tried, as best as I can, having not lived it, but by listening to the voices of Palestinians and with the help and feedback of allies, to do justice to their story. I hope that I have. It may not meet the mark, after all, this is only version 2. And anyway, neither ‘side’ is a monolith, we would all tell our histories a bit differently, so I definitely cannot satisfy all.

It is important to say that there is one thing yet unmentioned about these two stories. It may be the most important thing. I think it belies the biggest lack of understanding between us.

I have talked much of the similarities in our stories. But there is one very big difference.

The Israeli and Jewish story is about running away. It is about running away from terrible persecution, and of moving forward. It is about moving on and building a new life. The idea of wanting to go back in time, wanting to turn back the clock — it is unconscionable. There was never anything worth going back to. So, for example, when some of us are suddenly being offered citizenship in European countries because our grandparents lived there before the Holocaust, this is not something that we could ever comprehend wanting.

So many Israelis feel, “Why couldn’t they have just moved on like we did? Why did they spend all of their efforts ruining things for us when they could have just moved forward, let it go, made the best of a bad lot, and made new lives like we did?”

Apart from the multitude of reasons I have already explained as to why it was never that simple and why their material circumstances and the occupation has made that impossible for most people — what we need to realise is that their story is the other way around. Our story starts from a place of misery, and moves onto something better. Theirs starts from a place where they were happy enough, and moves onto something horrific. It starts from being at least content for hundreds of years, running away — something they thought was temporary — and never being allowed to go back.

And I say this part as gently as I possibly can. There is a very deep and particular sorrow that many Jewish people will know. It comes with realising that we do not want to look back, because looking back is much too painful. Knowing that for some of us there is no point going on ‘ancestry.com’ because there is no ancestry left to trace. And is it that sorrow that was felt so keenly after the atrocity that was October the 7th. People do not understand that something cannot be weaponised when it is so genuinely heartfelt — there is no intent behind it.

But for the Palestinians — seeing that people from other countries can go and visit, go on holiday, and walk around in a land where their grandparents built their homes, left with whatever they could carry only for them and their families to encounter ever more worsening horrors on their onward journey right up until this very day — and yet they can never set foot in that land — I think what they experience when they see that — it is a very similar sorrow. And I am sure that they have been feeling that sorrow most keenly with each and every passing day, and most particularly in these last months.

I do not believe, as I have argued, that is the case that Israel must cease to exist with all the people in it, to allow the Palestinians what they clearly want, need, and, I believe, are indeed entitled to. The idea that our millenia-old right of return is still in date but their 75-year-old right of return has somehow expired is completely logically incoherent.

And I am coming to understand that suggesting that it has somehow been indulged is a bit like telling us we are weaponising the Holocaust. I think that nothing could be more insulting.

The problem with our version of the story that we were taught — The story of the Jewish people, our losses, our sacrifices, our spilled blood — it is only half a story. It is history through only one lens.

And that story is not the only thing that is taught in our homes and in our Synagogues and in our Sunday schools. We are taught values. We are taught values of respect, justice, and ‘do unto others’. We are taught the words of the Talmud ‘Whoever saves a life, saves the world entire,” (words that can also be found in the Quran).

Most importantly of all, we are taught, “Do not stand idly by while the blood of your neighbour is shed.”

And because we are taught those values — there is a cognitive dissonance that so many people in our community feel — but don’t quite understand — that parts of this story don’t really make any sense, that what happened, and is happening, is definitely not okay. That dissonance — it will not hold forever. It will tear our families and our community apart. It already is.

Yes, there is a death to the Jew mob. Yes, they are a massive problem. But I think we have no right to make mention of that mob unless in the same breath and multiple times over we are making mention of our own mob. Because our own, ‘Death to the Arab’ mob — they have been running around the Occupied Territories unchecked for decades. And it is both mobs that need to be brought under control before there can ever be any hope of resolving this. The Death to the Jew mob will come back stronger than ever while the Death to the Arab mob roam free. And who are we to lecture Palestinians for not getting their house in order, when it is our side that has all the power and all the resources, and yet we have allowed it to carry on? We who demand that they condemn the “resistance” whilst refusing to condemn the “war”.

And we must understand this — If Gaza is allowed to be resettled — it is over. Ever more untold and unimaginable horror for the Palestinians, and in our silence we will have handed Israel on a plate to those ethnonationalists, to the people that should have had nothing to do with what Israel could have been — and in fact people that have nothing to do with us and our values.

People keep talking about the two-state solution like it is some kind of utopia that, like the magic peace fairy, it will just fall from the sky. It is not that easy. Trying to dismantle settlements in the West Bank to make that possible — it is probably almost undoable as it is. Some of them have been there so long now and the Palestinians have very little faith that it could or would ever be done. In fact a confederate version of the two state solution may in some ways be easier to implement because it does not necessarily require the dismantlement of all settlements, something that looks like it is getting harder to do.

And If we think antisemitism is bad now, it will be nothing compared to what is in store in years to come if the resettlement and reoccupation of Gaza were to happen. Israel, hated among nations like never before, until eventually the world will finally not tolerate it. It is dangerous and it leads I know not where, undoing it, I know not how. An epic holy war ahead of us, and in the process we will see what we are already seeing in Israel — free speech and dissent a thing of the past — and Israel’s democracy — burned to the ground.

We are doing our cousins and our friends no favours by parroting off the same old arguments, and ignoring the occupation that has been allowed to become normalised within Israel. It is high time for a different conversation. It was a long ago, and it is now or never.

We need to speak up, loud and clear. When it comes to armed Jewish settlers running around the West bank and terrorising Palestinians, we are anti — it, and we always have been. But how can we expect other people to know this if we do not have these conversations in the open? If we do not call a spade a spade. Our refusal to use particular words and talk about things in a particular way in front of other people even if we do it behind closed doors has led to a lack of education within our community — and I am sure that there will be some people when I talk about these things, that have literally no idea what I am even saying. This is a very big problem. I hope some of those people are reading this now.

And what exactly is it that we are so afraid will happen if we put our heads above the parapet? It is evidently clear that Israel has not been abandoned by its allies. Put yourself in the shoes of an ordinary Gazan just now. Heartbreakingly, it seems to me, that being abandoned by the world — that that has become their destiny.

And, “What of the far left?” people will say? How are we to do deal with their antisemitism?

Yes, the far left think they are supporting armed resistance but have in fact aligned themselves with the ‘death to the Jew’ mob. They bleat on about ‘Hasbara’ — something they clearly have no understanding of whatsoever because if they did they would realise that they are it. Or at least that they are feeding it. Literally they are walking, talking Hasbara.

But of the multiple problems with the far left — and there are many — to me the worst is that there are those of them who have no connection whatsoever to the lives of anyone in the region — no ordinary Israelis or ordinary Palestinians, and yet they cheer for ever more death and destruction. They cheer on “armed resistance” from their comfortable homes in their comfortable lives, and it is not them who will have to face the consequences.

And maybe this round of violence will be the last round, the round that ends it once and for all — I hope so. But it has come at the most appalling and unacceptable cost.

Who are they to think they have a right to declare that somebody else’s family, somebody else’s child — Israeli or Palestinian — even one — let alone thousands and counting — is an acceptable sacrifice?

Maybe it is because they did not understand that October 7th could only ever have been a suicide mission. Because as a consequence of the rigidness of far-left ideology that does not allow for self-critical thinking, they refuse to understand this problem in more than one way. That you cannot fight evil with evil. That yes, it is more complicated than just ‘oppressor’ and ‘oppressed’, more complicated than their warped version of reality where even children are fair game.

Probably there are some of them that knew what would happen after October 7th, and just decided it was probably worth it if it would eventually ‘free Palestine.’ Either way it is unforgivable because it was not their decision to make. And all that has happened as far as I can see, all October 7th has achieved is all it would ever achieve — to enable an extremely racist, harmful, problematic and untrue stereotype that ‘Palestinians are genocidal terrorists’ to be reinforced in the eyes of Israelis and the rest of the world. Around 3,000 people crossed that border on October 7th, of a population of over 2 million. But undoing that sterotype will be extremely difficult, taking us further away from where we need to be.

You cannot help but wonder where we might be right now if only all those people had used all that effort to lobby for a real diplomatic solution. But we can’t turn back the clock.

Arguing with the far left is a waste of time. They have no self-awareness, they are delusional, and they will never stop. They are as fanatical as any of the mob. The only way to make them stop talking is to actually sort this problem once and for all and work for the freedom and dignity of all. And when all is said and done, the ones that will keep complaining will finally be exposed for what they truly are.

That there are outspoken people within our community that think that the correct response to these people is for us to align ourselves with far right Islamophobes — we who have traditionally been proud of being anti-fascist — this could not be more ludicrous. It will lead us into that abyss. “I think the Jewish Chronicle is the Daily Mail for Jews.” Yes Dad, we all finally agree.

So where do we go from here? We need to start doing that right work. It is incumbent upon us more than anyone. Because it is only us who can help our friends and family in Israel, because it us who share history with them, who love and care about them. It is us who can help them see this through another lens.

We need to change the conversation, and we need to do it fast. Because the Palestinians do not have the luxury of time, and as far as I am concerned, neither do we.

There are people in our communities — both Israeli and Jewish — that have already been doing that right work for a really long time. It is time to listen to them, and elevate their voices. We need to start to be willing to be offended and to listen to other points of view. And unfortunately some of the right work does sometimes involve wading through what feels like a massive steaming pile of anti-Semitic shit, in order to get to the heart of some of the problems. But we also have an opportunity to meet some incredible people, and hear some amazing and wonderful voices that we would never have had a chance to hear. We have to get this done, to fix this once and for all.

We cannot hand this legacy to our children. We have to fight (non-violently) for a different future. This is the chance to do it. The world’s eyes are on Israel, and the time is now.

[allthesunlightwecansee]

The (Un)seriousness of My Practice

I just got done watching a short podcast episode on being an unserious witch, and it helped me to articulate some thoughts and feelings that I’ve been having over the past year. About a year ago now, I had a kind of breakthrough where I figured out how to connect with witchcraft and paganism, instead of vaguely calling myself a “person who wishes they were more spiritual,” like I had for several years prior to that. Not to sound like a YA romance novel, but my spiritualism was a slow build up that then hit me all at once that year. As I’m sure a lot of people on Tumblr will relate to, it was a really exciting seven months or so of figuring myself out before life got really stressful and overwhelming, and my spirituality kind of fell to the wayside. However, even during that period of excitement, it wasn’t like I was performing spells every day or doing elaborate rituals and ceremonies like some witches do (though I’m well aware the vast majority do not). Instead, that year involved a lot of reading and learning and altar building, since I am a collector at heart. I think I finally settled into kind of a routine with my spirituality, which I have come to accept, even though it isn’t what I thought it would look like.

Something that I find a bit intimidating about the Internet in general is seeing people who look like they have everything put together. Some practicing witches online clearly do make their whole lives revolve around their practice, particularly those who have turned it into a career via social media or YouTube. That’s a perfectly acceptable way to practice obviously, but it does mean that online spaces tend to feel a little gatekept sometimes when it comes to unserious witchcraft. I would definitely label my practice as being unserious; I rarely create spells at this point, I am very colloquial with the deities that I work with and honor, some of my altars are built almost solely around my need to house certain books (though I am quite deliberate in what deities I create altars for), I enjoy collecting crystals over working spells, and a lot of my spirituality revolves around feeling and the visual, physical objects that I have acquired for my various altars. I can think of several witchcraft Youtubers that I like and whose content I enjoy that would say that I am not a witch because of how I practice, which doesn’t reflect how I actually feel about myself and my practice. For me, spirituality feels more fluid than that. The fact that I create some spells and hold sacred space for my deities still falls under the realm of witchcraft, even though that’s not what works for other people. I have found that having discrete alters for different deities and purposes, makes it easier for me to connect with my spirituality, because I find that adding to altars, lighting, candles, leaving long-term spells, and other forms of magic work better for me personally.

Because of that, while I am not a serious witch in that witchcraft and spirituality do not rule my life, the practice that I do have, however minimal, does fill a gap that was missing in my life. I have also realized that a minimal practice isn’t a bad thing; it’s why their entire podcasts devoted to small magical practices (my favorite is Demystifying Magic), in addition to YouTube channels and accounts that depict serious career witches. It also means that I still keep my other hobbies, and that witchcraft has not become my primary “hobby,” so to speak. I have collected action figures and dolls for over a decade now, which encompasses all of my teenage and adult life. While I know some witches abide by notions of lowering consumption and just generally having a quieter living space, my living space is completely decked out in my various collections, and that hasn’t changed since I pinned down an evolving form of my spirituality. I think some people would see me as incredibly unserious for doing that, but I don’t feel as though one part of myself has to eclipse the other, just because it is more metaphysical in nature. I also know that I have a lot more learning and growing to do in my practice as I figure out what I believe in and what I want to take with me, but I don’t anticipate the physicality of how I practice changing anytime soon. In other words, my unserious practice doesn’t have less value just because it is not elaborate, and I am more secure in that now than I was a few months ago.

[localgirlbecomesobsessed]

The mad scientist

Sometimes a girl just needs to get her freak on in science.

Finally some Cathrine crumbs.

If you’ve also stayed uk for four days straight this is for you.

This is after the Ed announcement cause I think it’s so funny he just did that and peaced out, what an icon.

Cathrine doesn’t have time to romance or deal with her death but she does have time to fuck around with plants.

It’s been a couple of days since the announcement by Edward and much to everyone’s dismay barely anyone has heard from Cathrine since.

The young lady apparently holing herself up in the cathedral to lick her wounds and avoid the pitying gazes around her or so that’s what a majority believed.

She had only sparsely replied to concerned texts sent by those around her and after the last ‘I’m okay’ text, Rui has had enough.

Edward strangely wanted to join him despite it being the late day time still, the sun wasn’t going to set for another two hours as the summer days brought it out for longer,something Rui used to love as he surfed the days away but now he’s stuck waiting endless hours for his most frequent and nocturne company to awaken…except for today (kind of.)

Ed usually had him assist him in every little thing but today he was different, he even carried his own umbrella to the cathedral, Rui wasn’t too sure if Ed could even step inside the place but he seemed confident enough as he leisurely strolled to Cathrine’s place.

Now Rui just wanted to check in on her, after everything that’s happened she seemed to take it in stride almost weirdly being excited by the prospect of evolving into an anomaly. But she’s never been one to go so silent-even on social media there’s been no posts something she’d do daily, something that’s changed since future was truthfully revealed.

As they approached his concern sky rocketed as the front door was left wide open, Rui hesitantly stepped through eyes widening as he took the scene in before him.

The pews were strewn across into one side of the room, the roof was slightly greatly caved in from what seems to be an explosion as a small army of succulent plants were on the small stage that the pews used to face. The sun shone down on them and Rui could only gaze around the room as noodle cups, empty coffee cups and random dirty clothes were everywhere. The clean freak in him was about to have a breakdown, he didn’t even want to look at the room up the stairs already see in clothes hanging off the side, he turned to say something to Ed only to see him stand just outside the door, he seemed entertained at rui’s perplexed look.

“I will go to the garden💅🦇🪴 , it’s a lovely❤️‍🔥😛🥰day to explore🥵🧍🏼‍♂️.”

Rui sighed in disbelief as Ed disappeared from his sight, he cautiously wandered through the room listening and looking for any sign of Cathrine.

He got to the back of the room and he could hear the faint sound of music come through, the smell of cigarettes and chemicals invaded his nose as he hesitantly opened the door.

There he was met with the sight of Cathrine decked out in goggles a cigarette hanging from her mouth as she held up tubes of strange liquids, she was trying to see what colour they’ve come out as as she held them out into the sunlight. She was wearing a white ribbed sleeveless turtleneck and black stained joggers, her long pink hair done up in a messy greasy bun with a pen sticking out of it and black crocs that had little flower pops in them.

There was an old shed she’s seemed to transform into a makeshift lab as the overgrown garden became the grounds of her experiments, Rui suspiciously eyed the Venus fly traps that were right next to Cathrine seeming to try and grab a bite of the poor girl but his mind was quickly spun the other way as she petted the small things, watching in shock as the traps preened at the attention.

She had headphones in and oversized gardening gloves as she continued to mix and mash ingredients, a table dragged from her cathedral to the outside leaned to its side as she continued on her venture, not noticing the two new guests.

She had strung up fairy lights all around the trees and a makeshift gazebo stood up in one area with a hammock and a plethora of snacks and coffee…is that Ed in the hammock.

Rui just shook his head in disappointment before walking over to Cathrine, the girl hummed along to whatever song she was listening to as she whittled away at what seems to be the remnants of a…mermaid scale?

Rui quickened his pace in panic keeping his mind opened as he told himself to wait for her explanation and made his presence known as he popped into her view. Cathrine took one of gloves off as she used the free hand to take her headphones off, she quickly snubbed out the cigarette throwing Rui an awkward smile as she tried to hide the grinded mermaid scales in the bowl.

“Good mor-“

“It’s the evening my flower~ 🌺🌷🌹”

Ed called out to her from the hammock.

Cathrine pursed her lips as she leaned back to look at Ed, it took a moment before a small smile graced her face as she enthusiastically waved at him.

“Good evening my bad”

Rui watched as Ed lazily returned the gesture before falling deep within the hammock once more escaping being in the sights of his pointed frustration and a slightly maniacal Cathrine.

“I was so worried Catty!! You’ve barely replied to me :( super concerned with how my favourite investigator is~? What is with all the mad scientists gear anyway?!”

Winking at her as he looked around the chaos with terribly hidden concern, he watched as she started speedily grabbing a glass container that was hidden within the overgrown grass as she turned hesitantly to Rui, the smile on her face was unsettling as a crazed fire overtook her eyes, her eye twitched as she placed the container onto the table slipping her glove back on.

��Would you like to see…?”

Her voice low and eerily calm as Rui nervously nodded glancing back to Edward who had seemed to crash out in the hammock, a strained smile on her face as her hopeful eyes met his.

“Sure Catty…I mean you’ve been gone for days-is this what you’ve been doing?!”

He nervously chuckled rubbing his neck as he saw her eyes widen in surprise, she started mixing numerous chemicals together, checking through a leather notebook to ensure her measurements were correct. She turned on her Bunsen burner her back turned away from Rui as she silently stirred the solution.

“It’s been days?”

She asked surprised as Rui walked closer towards her to see what she was doing, leaning against a broken chair probably left from when Clementia still had the building.

“Hahaha Catty are you for real?”

Cathrine grabbed a green watering jug, leaving the solution to boil. When she came back she faced Rui as she patiently waited for it to cool.

“…the events of the last mission spurned my mind into what could be.”

Rui could feel the dread seep in as she grinned at him not realising how ominous her words sounded, her grin dropped at his expression yet before he could say anything to cheer her up the darkness brought by an umbrella came over her.

“Of course we would like to see it my flower🌹~🌷~🌺what light will you illuminate for us?😈🕺🏽🧍🏼‍♂️🙌🏻❤️‍🔥”

She looked up at him her smile brought back as Edward looked down at her with an expression Rui recognised as one of interest. It’s a look he usually wore when watching his YouTube videos, completely enamoured by what was in front of him…

“Right you both should go to the hammock area! There’s some wine it might be a bit warm though! Ahah”

She awkwardly pointed to a half working cooler with two bottles of wine poking out.

“Romeo sent it.”

Rui never saw Edward move so fast as he used one of cathrine’s beakers as a cup, Rui hesitantly moved over to Ed who had already poured a beaker of wine for him as they watched Cathrine disappear into her ‘lab’, he was telling himself he was going with the flow as not to upset Cathrine but this was getting a bit too much of a craze scientist vibe.

Ed was filled with amusement whilst Rui was filled with a sense of foreboding mixed with crippling anxiety, he was about to check on her when the sound of something heavy scraping against the floor filled his ears. He watched in intrigued horror as she yanked a huge pot holding a small wilting monstera plant into the middle of the garden.

She stood proud next to it arms on her hips as she turned to the two men watching her in bemusement and silent panic, it wasn’t hard to guess which one was what as Ed casually sipped on his drink whereas Rui was nearly breaking the glass from his hold.

“Behold my little stera, she was near death just a week ago but microdosing the reishi anomalas’ shell into its soil I saw vast improvement but…something was missing.”

She turned to her elixir and grabbed the bowl of crushed mermaid scales.

“How intriguing 👽 😛🥰”

Ed looked deep in thought as he carefully watched Cathrine’s every move.

“It wasn’t until the events of the mortkranken mission that I realised what was truly missing in my endeavour to heal my Stera.”

She held up the bag as the maniacal look was in full force.

“Mermaid scales!”

Before Rui could yell in protest she had already dumped the bowl of crushed scales into her elixir, she stirred it slowly with a metal spoon and pour it into her watering jug before walking cautiously over to her ‘stera.’

“An immortal plant that will tower over us all! I couldn’t wait to see my vision come to life, I almost skipped the assembly if it wasn’t my only way of getting Hyde on my side.”

She let out a crazed giggle as she fed stera her mixture, she quickly ran over to where the two gobsmacked men stood.

“You-all this time it wasn’t because you was upset…its because you-“

Before he could finish the sound of the pot shattering stole all of their attention, he watched in a mixture of horror and fascination as the monstera plant quadrupled in size, the leaves that were wilting became strong and developed into a beautiful emerald colour as it quickly sprouted up, it stopped once it reached just above the cathedral, the huge leaves now creating a massive shade over the place, Ed walked up to it in awe placing his hand against the thick stalk as he turned excitedly to Cathrine.

“How marvellous! 🤩🥰🦇🫣”

“I…when I saw what it did to that guy I knew this was the key, mermaid scales…when mixed with the correct ingredients wou-is perfect for her ailment, he who destroyed himself whilst getting his wish inspired me. I even made it so it would be held up properly by the trees and cathedral hence why I placed her in the middle.”

Rui let out a low whistle as she explained, he was mortified and impressed at the grande monstera.

“The mermaid scales 🧜 ⚖️ 😨 …where did you get them from?🥸🧐🤨”

Edward was leaning against Stera, his excitement hard to hide as he sipped at his wine.

“Yuri found the baggie under his hospital bed, I showed him my hypothesis and he helped me figure out what was needed to make the vision come true…it’s useful in experimenting cures and seeing the effects of this solution mixed with mermaid scales in a living creature.”

Rui raised an eyebrow in disbelief and Edward hummed thoughtfully.

As though summoned by the mention of his name Yuri and Jiro flew through the door, a couple of students trailing after them as they stared at Stera in wonder.

“Formula CXT91 was successful! I knew it! I knew it’d be the scales that would cure it, students look towards the plant which was previously severely diseased is now standing tall.”

Yuri dramatically spun around the plant as the students brought with him furiously scribbled into their notebooks.

“Catty…?”

Cathrine hummed in reply watching in a combination of joy and pride as the group before them studied Stera.

“When was the last time you showered?”

Cathrine hummed again more tired this time as she made it a point to avoid Rui’s eyes. A slight blush spread on her face as she became slightly flustered at the fact she hadn’t in fact showered since the assembly which was approximately four days ago, she tried to discreetly step away from Rui but instead she was met with Ed’s chest as he leaned down smelling Cathrine as she inwardly cringed at the thought of how bad her stench must be.

“Mmm I think it’s 3 1/2 days since her last bathe! 🤢🙂‍↔️😶‍🌫️🥵”

Rui’s strained smile came back as he turned to Cathrine.

“Catty~ you’re gonna stay with us for a couple of days, Lycas been worried too and it would calm him down to have you around! Oh~ you can take that room I showed you last time…”

Cathrine turned to him in slight shock as she turned back to Stera.

“But I have to document stera’s developments…”

Ed noted if Rui’s smile become even more strained his face would probably split in two.

“My presence has blessed you as I Dr.Yuri Isami will document the next 24 hours, for the next week me and Jiro will stay an hour a day to check on her progress, apprentice Cathrine you must rest, how will you be able to learn from someone as great as I if your brain is fried.”

Yuri yelled as he came marching over. He had the leather notebook in his hands sifting through with curious eyes as he nodded in approval at her writings.

“Impressive Cathrine, you’ll make a decent apprentice after all.”

Rui smiled as he leaned over at Cathrine, it was a smile of disarmament as he glanced between the two mad scientists.

“You heard the good doctor Catty~you need to rest and you can’t do it in there!”

Cathrine sighed as she nodded in agreement before shyly turning to Yuri.

“Thank you Yuri for allowing me to participate in this experiment, please let me know if there’s anything I can do to help or if there’s any changes in Stera.”

Yuri furrowed his brow getting slightly flustered as he stepped closer towards her

“Apprentice Cathrine you will address me the great Dr.Yuri isami by my title.”

His brush spread to the tips of his ears as he briskly turned away waving a goodbye without looking back as he dismissed Cathrine.

“Well…I could use a nap I guess.”

Cathrine murmured out, in blissful happiness at Yuri’s praise, gleeful satisfaction at her successful experiment.

“You can sleep in my room Apprentice 🥀 , I have videos to show you 🫣🤗😱”

Rui sighed in exasperation as he glanced at Ed.

“She has a room Edward.”

Ed pouted as he guided Cathrine towards the garden’s side exit. The students already setting up camp inside the cathedral.

———————————————————

Lyca greeted them at the door, wrinkling his nose in disgust as he got a whiff of Cathrine, she was so out of it from exhaustion that she didn’t even realise that Lyca was basically pushing her into the bathroom.

“Cathrine…”

She zoned out staring at the black bath that was filled with steaming hot water, she wanted to plant face first into it and let herself melt in the warmth as exhaustion waved over her as her bones started to burn at every movement she made.

Lyca sighed as he sat Cathrine on the toilet.

“That moth eaten Casanova wanted to bathe with you…urgh.”

Lyca growled as he crouched down to meet Cathrine’s gaze.

“Cathrine.”

His voice was firmer as he brought her out of her sleepy fog. She nodded tiredly at him too exhausted to talk as she started to pat his head making his ears twitch and his face to flush bright red as he abruptly stood up and marched towards the door.

“I’ll be right outside call for me if you need me.”

She nodded in recognition waiting for him to close the door behind him as she stiffly got back up and quickly got undressed dumping herself into the hot bath.

She almost melted within the water as she let out a sigh of relief at the soothing feeling of the heat on her muscles.

She scrubbed and scrubbed until she was red raw as she attempted to get the feeling of sweat and dirt off her being, washing her hair twice to ensure it’s properly clean.

Now that she was out of the euphoria of a successful experimentation, the feeling of four days of grime was starting to destroy her soul as she literally wanted to rip her skin off at the feeling.

She was satisfied after her ferocious scrubbing and then quickly got changed into the clothes left for her. An oversized hoody and shorts. The hoody a maroon colour with a black rose on it and the shorts were a grey tartan.

She walked out meeting Lycas gaze as he looked her over nodding in approval to himself as he grabbed onto her arm leading her to the room Rui claimed was hers.

“Sleep, you need it”

He pushed her in and she flopped onto the bed grabbing onto the pillow and immediately snuggled into it.

“Night Lyca.”

She crashed out almost immediately leaving a sighing Lyca as he turned to Edward and Rui. Rui had a bag of clothes, which he quickly collected from the cathedral whilst she was in the shower, Edward seemed disappointed in not being allowed to join Cathrine whining about it to Rui who could only roll his eyes in response.

“Let’s leave her to sleep, we’ll see her tomorrow.”

[kustas]

can you talk about your issues with blue eye samurai

I can! warning: i will spoil the show here.

This show has an incredible issue with consistency, among other problems which make it one of the worst series i've watched in a long time. It has a basic plot thread it wants to follow and everything it does is malleable for the sake of said plot beats. The main character's personality can change from one scene to the other depending on if they want the moment to be funny or sad. Battle wounds, established personality traits and other Deus ex machinas vanish randomly when they become irrelevant. The show also has no idea of the tone it's going for. It wants to be everything at once, funny, tragic, epic; and does so by lazily copying better media of reference down to at times remaking shots nearly 1:1. It does nothing it attempts well.

The historical setting is a mess. For a show who's premise is entrenched in a particular historical period you'd expect it to be a major part of the story, but Japan is mostly used as a cliché set dressing. Each episode pulls out a few cultural setpieces in a shallow way that felt ridiculous if not borderline offensive. It's Japan right? Oh we gotta reference the Sakura. The sumo ring. The matcha tea. And I say Japan and not historical Japan because I have doubts about the veracity of every cultural element and how well researched it is. Keep in mind I am no expert, I know very little of either the country and the time period but even with that every episode made me go huh? This is not true. There is little to no effort spent on accurately representing a foreign culture's history and it is very visible in how the characters act - aka like modern american TV characters. The worst part? The cultural things its cast casually goes against are referenced...as jokes or as set dressing for each episode's look we are in Japan;););) scene. So, they know. They just don't care.

When it comes to...a bit more troubling topics, the show sucks too. The first episode reveals its main character is crossdressing to make her way across the world and the show has many secondary female characters in female social roles to contrast her to. This premise is a great one: watching a woman evolve in a sexist society by disguising herself into something she's not. Is it well done? Lol, nope! Gender remains explored in a very surface level way. The thing is, if the characters indeed acted like their time period would imply, I would be fine with much more, as this is a society with very strict gender roles. But given most of the times they act like modern american TV show characters, it stings that despite the MC's position, said gender roles are not much explored. Notable examples that made me facepalm damn hard: a side character who's established as a rich brat trying to work her way out of an arranged marriages ending up finding satisfaction in said arranged marriage; and the main character herself who i will repeat spends her whole life passing as male and fighting dudes, getting found out by the villain mid-fight because of her "fragile female bones". What the fuck?

Additionally, the show has two disabled characters, a blind man and a man born without hands. The former is written okay, the latter is not. He is treated like a comic relief and spends his time on screen (where he's not being a buffoon) sucking up to the other characters. It feels frankly insulting to have your fat guy with a deformity be this archetype and he is not allowed much growth or serious moments.

I'm not a woman, I'm not japanese and I am not disabled so all of what I say here should be taken with the grain of salt of: it's my impression, as someone who's not been on the recieving end of things. Seeing this show being celebrated for being progressive is a fucking joke.

[calypsolemon]

I'm curious, wdyt about Imperium now that s1 is over? I asked a similar question when part 1 aired, but I wanna see if you've changed your mind. Ik a critique you held was that Ninjago never seems to go too far with exploring anything like this (and with MotM I recall you mentioned smth ab not liking the "one bad king" thing, so I'm also asking b/c recently Doc did confirm Imperium was still a bad place before Beatrix, it's just she made it worse) so do you like how they handled Imperium? Or do you think there was more they could've done?

I have my own minor nitpicks but overall I feel like it subverts a lot of other media (and also previous installments of Ninjago) by having Imperium's totalitarian/fascist nature be a more deep-rooted issue than just one evil ruler. (Also love how they didn't just have every single person turn on the Empress, and Sora's parents remained scummy. It's more realistic lol, and if anything MORE people should've been pro-Empress I feel.)

Well I don't know if I'd say my opinion has "changed" so much as "evolved now that we actually have the full context of the season," since last time I answered an ask about this it was when we only had half of it.

To be honest I would still stand by my assessment that ninjago never really goes too far irt digging into like harmful social structures and whatever, and I don't really expect it to. It's just not that kind of show, and that's fine. I also stand by my criticism that it should have been... a little harder for Sora to become disillusioned with Imperium to the extent that she did? But I will give with further context it makes a lot of sense that she empathized with a caged creature being tormented quickly, since we now understand her parents really did not ever care for her beyond her use as a way to gain prestige.

That being said, I think overall Imperium improved LEAPS and bounds over Shintaro. Mainly because, as you said, its clearly been bad for a long time because of a longstanding, corrupt ruling class, rather as the result of one shitty ruler. If anything, I kind of admire it for letting me be right about Beatrix not seeming very fit for her position, and in fact I think thats one of the more interesting aspects of the season and what it has to say about Imperium's philosophy; A society that functions in such a cultlike, controlling fashion will inevitably breed deeply jealous, prone-to-violence, but ultimately ignorant people who will fumble the power they hold in disastrous ways. Beatrix's betrayal of her family to gain hold of the throne basically doomed Imperium to crumble the moment anyone was willing and able to push back.

It is also definitely good that there's not a universal acceptance of the loss of Imperium, especially considering the distrust sewn was more towards Beatrix than towards Imperium as a whole. (If I'm honest, I think the "beatrix spills everything live on camera" bit was a little goofy even if its the most efficient way to get a big turnaround in the general populace, but what is ninjago if not goofy). Realistically I think there would be a significant chunk of Imperium citizens who would disown Beatrix but still regard their past emperor in a godlike fashion, and attempt to rebuild the society as it was at some past point. I don't really know that the show will continue to explore much else about Imperium and potential pushback against change but the fact that I'm unsure rather than POSITIVE it will never get back to it is a big plus for me (thank GOD for DR actually having cross-season plotlines!!!!).

Overall I like most of what they did, its not prestige television but its the best ninjago's ever been with social commentary and that pleases the cal.

[ravenstargames]

✦ Lost in Limbo 2022 wrap up

As the end of the year approaches, we wanted to look back at these past months to let everything really sink in. We people sometimes forget how hard we have worked to get to where we are and tend to focus instead on what's still left to do, on what is missing—so I think the best way to remind us of how far we've come is to write down some achieved milestones and some goals for next year!

We wanted to first and foremost thank you all again for the overwhelming support we have received in the short time we have been active on socials. We weren't expecting it whatsoever, and the huge welcome you all gave us is everything we could ever dream of! 💜

This is another long post of what has been done and what's to come, so feel free to skip it if you want to! We hope you finish this year surrounded by love and that your start of 2023 is full of energy and good vibes!

✦ One of the most important milestones of the year was our social media release.

As we worked on the game this past year, there were times where we thought it would never happen. It was never the right time for one reason or another, and the world seemed to throw a punch at us whenever we were about to take the plunge. To be here writing this post doesn't feel real yet!

The week prior and the first week of our social media release on Twitter was frantic for the team; designing the many posts, planning them and the objects game, writing everything down...Plus the anxiety of what would the response be. I'm sure a lot of fellow devs reading this (specially those like us who are working on their first project) can relate to that feeling.

And then the response came, and in almost two months we have exceeded all expectations we had. We tried to be realistic with them, so waking up each day to comments, likes, asks on tumblr, even DM's from professionals wanting to work with us was just...ah. There's something indescribable about putting something you love out there and have people be interested in being part of that love. I could cry. So let's just jump to the next milestone before I keep writing :').

✦ We had our visual identity established! Our GUI is on the way and it's looking amazing so far! We have Re.Alice to thank for that 💜

✦The script for the demo is done!

The first draft was oficially finished September 2021, and I have been editing it since. There were major changes done as Lost in Limbo's story and characters kept evolving, and to this day I'm still doing some changes to perfection it as much as possible. I write a lot and I'm trying not to do that, so I found myself deleting as many "useless" scenes as possible. Right now the demo sits at 33.168 words!

✦All the sprites for the LIs were finished!

We finished Pride, our last one, back in April. As a fun fact (which was absolutely not fun for all of us), we wrote down some fixes to be done to the sprites one week before the social media release. It was little things like a piece of clothing, move this to the left...and then the sprites were basically revamped in the spawn of a week. Specially the faces. We had grown so much as artists since the day we finished them, so Rachel started doing some edits and one thing led to another...And all LIs got plastic surgery! We'll show you the before and after someday, haha.

The sprites are all full bodies so as we saw ourselves overworked, we decided to just edit them from the waist up for the social media posts. Thankfully not all of them needed their lower body fixed—except for Envy, who had no legs. There were no legs under his clothing layer. Now there are. They were our first character designed and the first sprite to be done, so obviously the poor thing had the most flaws.

✦All routes were outlined!

Every LI has a more or less established route, and the main story of the game is slowly blooming into something really strong.

If any, Ara is the one I'm most unsure about as the writer, because I have so many ideas for her that could work! I'm sure a lot of things will change, even for the most solid routes, as we progress and specially as I keep writing, but it will always be for the better!

✦We started coding!

This past month I have been toying with Ren'py and so far everything is coming along great. Right now there's around 4k words coded with the respective music, sound effects, transitions...I have been learning along the way and there's still a lot of things for me to learn and investigate, so it's taking a while. My goal is to have the demo fully coded with placeholders so when all the assets are done, it'll be just swapping files!

We initially settled on Unity but then questions arised, so we decided to work with Ren'py at least for the demo, and then move to Unity if the game needs it.

✦We made a teaser trailer!

Yep! There's a teaser trailer for LiL! We were ahead of the curve with this one because initially we were going to post the teaser as soon as the game was announced, but then we decided it would be best to save it for the demo release. It's an animated teaser of the events of the demo (among other stuff)! As the demo release approaches we will surely edit it some more (I almost descended to madness thanks to After Effects, but here I am) but we are very happy with it right now.

✦And some extras!

We finished our two first supporting/secondary characters and are working on the third! In the demo, there's a total amount of six secondary characters you'll meet!

We worked on some backgrounds! It may sound silly, but this has been an uphill battle for us most of the year. We have four backgrounds ready to be painted, and we'll have one last concept done before the 31st!

We met amazing people. Personally, if I could tell the Seyl from a year ago that she'd be talking to a lot of devs she admires, she would laugh at my face. What do you have to say now, huh?! But on a serious note; it takes me the world to just find the courage to even leave a comment to someone I admire, and managing Lost in Limbo's accounts has given me the push I needed to just stop thinking about the many what-ifs that are never going to happen and just make the possitive thoughts and emotions I feel inside something real. Daily reminder to let the people you love and admire know!!

You thought the post was over? No! YOU ARE TRAPPED HERE FOREVER!

Ahem. Here are some of the goals we'd like to meet in 2023!

✦Finish all the assets for the demo!

The most obvious one! We have a calendar planned for the entire lenght of 2023, but life gets in the middle, three of us are studying a master degree that is testing our sanity, and there will be, of course, unexpected problems along the way. So we'll deal with them as they come!

There's still expression charts to finish, secondary character's sprites to make, backgrounds to paint and animate, CGs, key and promotional art...But we'll get there! And hopefully you all will be here with us to see the process!

✦Open a ko-fi page!

As you may know, Lost in Limbo is a passion project made by four friends who have no money and no future prospects. Rachel and I have been working as freelance artists for a long while now, but it's hard to work on LiL, work on our commissions to support it financially (and getting work is getting harder), and focus on our master degree, which also asks a lot from us.

So far, everything Lost in Limbo has needed that we couldn't provide ourselves with the quality we wanted has been paid out of our dusty pockets, so one of our goals next year is to open a ko-fi page so everyone who may be interested in supporting the project until the Kickstarter drops can do so! 💜

✦The demo? The demo.

This point is dependent on the first one, because if we do not manage to finish all the assets, we will not be able to release the demo by the end of 2023. If everything goes smoothly and as planned, we'll have all the assets done before the last three months of 2023, and we'll use those three remaining months to sort out everything else. This is the most possitive prospect we could think of, so there's a chance we won't make it.

We are adamant not to rush the demo release no matter what, but we will work as hard as we can to make it happen as soon as possible. There's a lot to be done; I'd like the demo script to be proofreaded, we would love the demo to be at least partially voiced, we will have to get the demo tested for bugs...

We know reading this is kind of sad, but we want to be honest with you all. We are the first ones who want to see the demo out there and who want you all to experience the world we have created, but we don't want to sacrifice quality because of it. What we can promise is that you'll get regular updates and that you are all welcome to ask us anything, anytime, about the game, the process, or about us.

✦Be more active in the community!

To end on a positive note, something we'd like to do next year is be more active in the indiedev community. There's a lot of places and ways for indiedevs to interact, but we haven't felt ready to join them yet. We have been following and silently admiring so many projects for so long that the thought of being in the same space as them sometimes feels overwhelming (blame it on social anxiety), but the brief time we have been managing these accounts, we have been given a lot of love and support from other devs, and we want to give it back. We know we will be welcomed when we decide to take the step! Thank you all so much, from the Ravenstar team, for giving us and our project a chance! 💜

✦Stop confusing 'in' with 'on' and viceversa.

Because in is like inside and on is like on top, but sometimes that's not it, and for non-native speakers is confusing as hell and I want to stop googling every two seconds

What a year has been! From starting the project around July 2021 to being here doing a wrap up of 2022, it doesn't feel real yet. And there's so much more to come! Thank you all so much for believing in us and in Lost in Limbo, for taking your time to write a comment or an ask, leave a like, or even just reading our posts.

This final toast goes to my team; to Rachel, Astro and Kayden for being amazing people full of love and creativity. Thank you for a year of passion, hard work and laughter every step of the way. Lost in Limbo could have never been what it is today without the three of you.

Let's all make 2023 something great! 💜🥂 See you all next year!

[gemsofthegalaxy]

watching Sarah Z's new video on Queerbaiting and i wonder if it's gonna be kinda similar to Rowan Ellis' video on representation where like,

calling out queerbaiting is similar to calling FOR queer representation, where we (a certain subset of nerdy bookish/moviesh internet queers) have been focused on those specific things for a while and they've both kind of evolved past their usage

because queerbaiting imo is still shitty, when done as an intentional marketing tactic by PR and higher up executives for a fictional show. but it's also really hard to tell if it was just the case that nobody on the show had the will to fight for explicit queerness, if it came down from on high as a directive, if it was someone trying to sneak something past the censors, etc. and it ends up just encouraging bickering among fans and in some cases eating our own. as well, some people have pushed back to the point that they prefer queerness to be non explicit, and i've gathered this is sometimes because queerness is transgressive but what popular media tells us tends to be filtered through a marketable lens, therefore things that are truly queer and transgressive come from reading in what may or may not be intentional, but it still queer anyway. i don't fully get this, because i would like full frontal unabashed queer romance, personally. i love romance regardless of the gender of the people involved, shoot me i guess?

and on that note. "representation". it's just, like... i get why people want representation and why they frame their argument in this way- that showing queer stories is a Good, because it allows people to see themselves, and also for people to learn about queerness by sympathizing with fictional characters. but it also ends up getting sticky and into a lot of politics around what is "good" and "bad" and "problematic" representation... and yet, at the end of the day, nobody should be getting their full understanding of a social issue from fictional media alone, first off, and not everything can, will, or should be relatable to every single person out there, so nitpicking about what is good and bad might get into the territory of invalidiating real experiences just because one person has no concept of frame of reference even though, there's also a very real person who has experienced that exact thing.

still. as a fat woman, i do in fact want more fat "representation", as in, i want to see more characters who are fat, especially in stories where they are the leads and their fatness is incidental and not mentioned at all, especially not in a derogatory way. other people might want more stories about fat people facing adversary and rising above it, or other facets of fatness, or somewhere on the spectrum. i do think there is value in showing more diverse bodies on screen. in addition, people who are from different cultures, have different skin colours, etc. having representation is "good" but that is not the only reason to do it, either...

because another thing that can happen when representation is the single goal is like.. well.. what if the story isn't even that good? like. first and foremost i want stories that i Enjoy, regardless of any diversity aspect. a story is more likely to be enjoyed by me if it shares my values, sure, but it's not a guarantee. it still needs some level of quality, or at least something to sink my teeth into. this opinion is one ive involved into over time and still shift and change a bit on, day by day. currently my fav blorbos are horrible rich men ! like, sure, theyre gay (to me.) but like. theyre bad people lmao. and that's fine. but if i was still adamant about not watching stuff that doesn't have mostly women characters in it, i'd never have given this show a chance. i still do like to watch shows by and about women, though.

anyway. rambly, idk. i barely even started the video lmfao.

[thecurioustale]

Social Media Sucks and I Think I Have Used Up Most of My Lifetime Tolerance for It Over the Years

I "hid" my first Tumblr ad the other day. It was a body horror thing of some lifeguard shaped like a snake with lots of ab muscles, and the first couple times it showed up were whatever but Tumblr pushed it so hard that eventually I had seen it like twenty times and it was starting to make me feel icky, so I decided that it was time to take action!

I may be a Tumblr idiot, and a social media idiot in general, but I did have enough knowledge to know that if you press the Ellipsis on an ad post you might get the option to "hide" it, so I did, and it did, and I did, and it didn't.

That's right: No one-and-done when it comes to making Our Sponsors the slightest bit inconvenienced. First, of course, I was presented with an automated survey asking me why I was hiding the ad. And, of course, the survey was terribly designed.

Let me go on a quick side rant here: IT IS ASTONISHING HOW BADLY DESIGNED MOST SURVEYS ARE. Corporate ones, academic ones, governmental ones...it's like most people never took any kind of instruction, nor applied even the most basic common sense, on the principles of survey design. Well, here, in a nutshell, is the number one tip and trick you can use to life-hack your way to a better survey:

IF YOU ARE MAKING A MULTIPLE-CHOICE SURVEY, EITHER MAKE THE OPTIONS CONCEPTUALLY COMPREHENSIVE OR PROVIDE AN "OTHER / NOT APPLICABLE" OPTION.

Needless to say, my reason for wanting to hide the ad—I'd been fed it so many times that the body horror had gone from off-putting to actively disgusting—wasn't on their damn list. The two closest options were "offensive" and "too frequent." I decided on "offensive," and when I clicked the button the offending ad was instantly snapped away back to Hell where it began, and I went on with my life.

UNTIL THE VERY NEXT IN-FEED AD, where it returned like some #&%%@*$ demon in a dark comedy, grinning as if it had never left. So this time I "hid" the ad and selected "too frequent," and I'm not holding out much hope on the matter.

Social media, even Tumblr, has evolved to make you as powerless, immobile, and docile as you can possibly be made through the long reach of an electronic series of tubes. While some social media networks are better than others, the general rule is that you have very little options to control your own "user experience"—and this is by design, because "UX" is something they optimize for on their end from their perspective of what "optimal" is.

Increasingly gone online are the days when Buttons Do Functions. That is a form of direct control: Click a button, and a pre-knowable thing will happen. Like flipping a light switch. Or pushing Stop on a tape deck. Baring some kind of malfunction, you know what will happen. That's less and less of a thing on the Internet now, especially on social media, where buttons are treated more like data inputs to an algorithm somewhere, and god only knows what output will be spat out at you—if any at all! Sometimes the buttons literally don't do anything.

Oh and by the way they PERIODICALLY REARRANGE EVERYTHING so that you have to find everything all over again, and relearn the whole damn GUI, and some of the functions that actually did work are probably gone now for good measure.

This is so dehumanizing, and it is going to be generationally rebelled against SO HARD someday. And the rebels of that era are going to think themselves sage and wise, and turn up their noses at our "dark ages" of user-alienating barbarism, never knowing that the original Internet didn't do this at all; it was a societal development fueled by the lust for profit and a failure to empathize with users.

But in the meantime, stuff like this has a cumulative exposure for me. Every time I get fed the latest indignity, the latest of infinite variants on some gross thing that won't go away and which can only be temporarily dispelled by lying on a poorly-designed survey that no one will ever read, a little text pops up that says "Josh will remember this."

And one day, I'm just gonna stop. I already don't use most social networks, and, of the ones I do use, I flat-out do not need this kind of bullshit in my life. My 6-week Return-to-Tumblr experiment is nearly over (come the Equinox), and I may or may not write a post about it at that time, but if I do then this is one of the points I intend to make. I can feel my interests and utility both steadily diverging from whatever this weird direction is that social media continues to evolve in. I am both outgrowing it and drifting apart from it.

I just don't like being treated this way, and I think that's not unreasonable of me. I understand they'alls gotta make their money. I understand it's their platforms, their rules. I understand that "most users don't know what they want and Numbers Go Down when we give them more control." I understand all of that. And I am willing, to some extent, to trade a modest of dignity and agency in return for the benefit of being able to use a service with lots of fascinating content and the potential to reach people with my own ideas. But I have my limits.

I know there's no one at any of these social media companies who actually cares if one of their advertisers' ads not only fails as an advertisement for one particular user but also estranges that user from the entire service—not all by itself, of course, but as the proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back. And if not an ad, then some other inanity of the functionality of the service. It doesn't even matter what the last straw actually is, really. To the people running the show, we're not even people. Just metrics. And there's always another sucker, so for the most part the people who finally give up on this stuff after a long season of exasperation and small cuts are more than drowned out by the rising tide of new users joining. Until suddenly one day the ratio crosses the inflection point, the tide reverses, and the whole company folds like a house of cards...by which point the original looters have long since cashed in on their fat salaries and benefits packages.

We live in an era of no loyalties and no pride. The notion of caring about the products you make or the level of service you show your customers (or, more to the point, your users) is positively quaint. The people have spoken: We want it cheap; we want it easy; we want it now. That's what gets the clicks.

This is all increasingly dystopian and I am getting tired of it.

[lazylogic]

TL;DR: I’ve let my online art presence and the internet as a whole become so weighty to me that I’m constantly having a meltdown over how the internet has changed and how I present myself online, so I’m cutting myself off from being an artist on the internet, because it seems like the only healthy option for me right now.

I think I need to stop posting online entirely. As drastic and melodramatic as that sounds, I’m spending time on an internet that I hate, wishing for an internet that no longer exists. I’ve repeatedly ~taken breaks from social media to try and detox~, and it does help in the short term, but eventually I just fall back into my “existential art crisis” and become anxious, stressed, and frustrated again, hating myself and hating every choice I’ve made up to this point. I’m happy when I draw at my own pace, but I’m quickly overwhelmed by the “I’m not posting enough so people won’t like me anymore” anxiety I get.

I know I’m like, the only one who feels this way, the only one who cares this much and takes art this seriously that I’ve let it crush me so much. For some reason my art and my ability to draw is so deeply ingrained in my identity and sense of self, and it’s become so monumentally important to me that it’s worn me down this much. But I know I’m not the only artist online who feels pressure to perform every day, who compares themself to others, who feels burnt out every month, and who is constantly fighting with the evolving technology and society that seems to be consistently designed to screw us. I know many have been able to adapt, and have done it smoothly, and I commend them and am incredibly happy for them. I’m proud to have happy and well-adjusted art peers! I can’t do that. I want to put in the effort to adapt, I have to many ideas to share and stories to tell, but I’m just…spent. Every time I try, it takes up all of my very limited energy, and I’m back to hibernation mode again. I am tired. I’m too small, sensitive and self-conscious to simply keep trucking along. My fragility makes every effort so painful. I really cannot do this anymore.

Posting my art online used to be fun. I loved connecting with people over fan art, OCs, gushing with other artists about each other’s creations, and getting love and support from people who found enjoyment in it. I used to get kind asks on Tumblr just complimenting my art or encouraging me when I posted a vent piece. Tumblr especially used to be my chill place. Most of those people, along with that happy and peaceful environment, are gone now. Old Tumblr is dead, old DeviantArt is gone, I feel detached from FA more than I ever have. Everything feels scattered and divided, and people are so jaded, which I really can’t blame anyone for. No matter where I go, I don’t feel like I belong anywhere anymore, and I don’t really want to be anywhere, either. I feel like I don’t even fit in with my own demographic, no matter what I try. I can’t emphasize enough that I’m trying to post for and enjoy an internet and online community that no longer exists. It’s my own fault for living in the past. Everything is far too fleeting now, engagement is king and constant streams of new content, as well as outrage, equals that. Everyone else seems to be able to change so readily with it, and I’m still stuck figuring things out from five years ago. I can’t seem to recognize or understand anyone anymore, either. I can’t keep up, and I don’t want to try to anymore.

I think what I wanted the most for my art was for it to resonate with people. It’s always been my favorite thing to do for fun, and it always made me so happy knowing my art made someone’s day better, even if it was just Hattie being silly or cute fan art. The idea that I could make someone breathe easier because I drew something soft and comforting is incredibly meaningful to me. But my art was always a powerful emotional outlet for me, too. I know my vent art would often dip into edgy territory, especially in my teenage years, and I withdrew from drawing vent art as a whole because I became too self-aware of it and I felt too exposed. But it was real, and it came from a real place and real emotions, and that’s still important to me. I feel emotions very strongly. I wanted to say something and be understood. And I guess that’s what I still want? To be understood, like anyone else would want, I guess.

I don’t even know what I want out of posting online anymore, or why I bother to check it. Every bit of engagement I get feels more empty than rewarding, and that discrepancy keeps growing. I hate it, because I know it’s because my brain has been trained to want more. I hate that I need more and more validation that people care about me via my art, because it used to be purely mine. And I want so much for it to just be mine again. It’s really felt like I’ve been drawing for everyone else for such a long time, and I guess that’s also my own fault. I feel trapped here. I really don’t enjoy drawing anymore, and I never get the urge to like I used to, and I cannot express how much that absolutely guts me. I always say social media is what ruined it for me, but I know that my participation in social media was my own choice, so I know I actually ruined it for myself.

I have a lot of work to do. I need to just get better as a person, fix my mental health, gain any semblance of self-worth so that I’m not breaking down every week over my value as an artist being synonymous with my value as a person (before you wonder, I am working with mental health professionals regularly now). I know I complain a LOT about the internet and how it’s changed, but I need to make it very clear that I don’t meant to put the blame solely on all of that for my mental state. I recognize that I just have a lot of issues and I make things harder for myself all the time. I’m chronically living in the past and unhappy with the present, and that’s 100% a me problem. This is the only move I can think of that will allow me to actually focus on getting my shit together; removing the option of being an online artist altogether. I can’t cheat and peek at Twitter and slowly make my way back after three weeks. While I’m at it, I will probably stop posting everywhere else too (not that I was really posting much anyway). I don’t want to say I’m leaving forever but I will say that I want no more expectations, I’m not gonna be posting anymore, basically until further notice. I have to figure my shit out for real. I’m not sure if this will even work, it might just make things worse for me. But I’m just at a loss and I feel like I need to do something. I don’t know if my absence from online art posting will cause me to miraculously enjoy drawing again and a year from now I’ll have a massive backlog to show everyone, I’ll be fixed and happy…I don’t know. I just know this isn’t for me, not right now.

I feel guilty doing this, because I have people who have been following me and supporting me for well over a decade, and I think you guys deserve better than this. It’s a big part of my motivation for doing this to begin with - I’m kind of ashamed to show myself to these awesome people every day, I feel like I owe everyone more than just my gratitude, but I haven’t been able to deliver consistent art or content in years. I feel like I'm letting so many people down every day, and ultimately I feel the same about leaving. But I need to get better first. I think about everyone all the time and feel so lucky and so stupid. I know it’s dramatic, but to everyone, thank you, and I’m sorry.

For anybody going, “it’s not that deep,” I’ve heard that plenty. This post isn’t for you.

I’m not completely disappearing from the internet. If you want to get into contact with me, you can add me on Discord at RealaChao#7312. I will still accept commissions privately for now, so just reach out to me (I’ll update my commissions Carrd site if I decide to close them). I won’t necessarily be deleting my accounts, but I will be logging out of everything at least and disabling notifications, so please don’t message me on Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, or anywhere else expecting a reply. You can also email me at plutoeffoart@gmail.com. Lastly, my main focus these days has been my Neocities, so you’re welcome to check that out (though it's largely a draft right now). It’s not going to be an art site, though, at least not only art. It’s gonna be my quiet home.

I also posted this here. Genuinely, thanks for everything.

[vardhanworld-123]

Vardhan World Startup Entrepreneurship course: What is Branding?

The process of building a presence in the minds of customers is called Branding. This is essentially building a brand. The brand is the unique identity of your company, product or service. This unique identity has to be one that is positive and motivates the customer to engage with it repeatedly. 

Branding can be done both online and offline. The different modes or aspects of branding are Logo design, taglines, color and style themes, and tone of voice. However, consistency in the different aspects of your brand over all media is of prime importance. This consistency creates an overall experience that becomes the major draw toward your Brand.

So why is it so important?

Establishes Uniqueness: In a market filled with competitive products, it creates a way of distinguishing your brand from others. Your Brand identity makes you unique and helps the customer to tell your brand apart from the rest.

Provide Advertising: Promoting your Brand is vital. Having an established Brand identity provides a much needed boost to your advertising and marketing efforts.

Helps customers remember the Brand: When a customer interacts with a Brand, they absorb the entire experience, and if that has been a positive one, the customer is bound to remember the Brand and hence become a repeat customer and also spread the good word about the Brand.

Creates an Employer Brand: When your brand gains good mileage in the market, your customer base gets bigger. With this increases the size of your company. It is an established fact that employees prefer working for well-known companies or brands.

Now that we know why let’s find out how to build a Brand.

Ascertain your target audience and understand them: Your product or service could be the best in the business, but if you are not selling it to the right customers, then you will never achieve your business goals. Create a buyer persona to help you understand the customer and conduct a complete cognitive analysis. This will help you design your product, brand and also market it the right way.

Form your mission statement: Establish why your brand exists. Clearly define its purpose and what it is aiming to accomplish. When the customer connects with your mission statement, they automatically become a part of your journey as a brand.

Outline what defines your Brand: Have a clear perspective of what makes your brand unique among a multitude of other brands. Identify the qualities your brand has, and others don’t and make those qualities your feature. Earmark those qualities that will enrich your customer’s experience.

Work on the visual aspect of your Brand: The Logo design, color palette, styling, website design, fonts, and other such visual components are all a part of the visual aspect of your Brand. People are attracted by visual appeal. A hallmark color or style increases the chances of your brand being noticed by more than 80%.

Voice and Tone of the Brand: When communicating with customers via any channel, ensure that the tone of your message stays consistent. Email communication, advertisements, blogs, social media posts, etc., must convey all messages in the same tone. This helps maintain the uniformity of the Brand across all channels.

Apply contemporary tactics and Polish your game plan at every opportunity: Evolving and staying ahead of the game is vital. Branding in a dynamic market requires attention to detail. Developing your Brand can employ everything from using a personalized approach toward a customer to building return and shipping policies. However, all this should be done in keeping with the promise made in your mission statement. 

Creating a Brand requires building a relationship with your customers. Remember, the market is already filled with other brands in the same niche as yours, so the customers already have many alternatives to choose from. Your Brand identity can set you apart and be the motivation for the customer to choose you. 

Branding for Startups is a monumental task, especially if you are new to the market. At Vardhan World, we offer Startup Entrepreneurship courses that will prepare you for successfully launching yourself and sailing through the advancement of your business.

[bone-marreaux]

As a recently graduated teacher (and I have ranted about this many a time) when I was in teaching college I was told very early on that there is a massive issue with “educational neglect” on behalf of parents and a massive issue of teachers being so underpaid and overworked that not only do they not have the time or resources to teach all of these things—they do not have the energy. Teachers’ jobs don’t stop when the school bell rings. We often have mountains of work to finish when we get home. Our entire evenings and weekends are spent lesson planning and grading. For a salary that is quite literally a joke given their credentials and importance in society.

I witnessed this firsthand multiple times in my practicum work. I was told by the elementary practicum teacher that most parents don’t even teach their kids how to tie their shoes anymore. They don’t teach them how to properly hold scissors, how to properly socialize with their peers. Teachers have to do all of the heavy lifting but then get blamed when their students fall behind. As if a teacher can adequately teach every single student in multiple 30+ student classrooms how to do basic life skills they should be learning at home. Kids are struggling to know how to read at ages that are not concurrent to normal reading development skills because their parents never taught them the alphabet.

Tech illiteracy is just one of the many many many ways that not only the education system is failing students but also parents. It is also on the parent’s shoulders to teach their kids online safety, how to be safe on social media, and how to use things like scanners. Parents can also google these things if they don’t know how to do them, and much of Gen Z and Gen Alpha’s parents are at an age that they *should* know these basic tasks and if they don’t then they *should* know how to google something. Much of these parents are younger Gen X and Millenials. They may not have grown up with the tech like it is now, but they’ve been there as it’s evolved and unless they live under a rock they should know how to send an email properly or how to use a laptop and printer.

In teaching college it was massively stressed that we ***must*** teach students technological literacy because in this day in age EVERYTHING is done via tech. You don’t fill out job applications at the workplace with a pen and paper anymore, you apply for jobs online with a résumé. They need to know how to format résumés. They need to know how to format an email properly and not send the whole thing in the subject line. I sat in on an English class of 9th graders (14-15 year olds) and the teacher was having to teach them how to properly format an email and all the students had to do was have a subject line, a short message, and a sign off with their name and student ID. She walked them through step by step how to do it. A toddler could have followed her instructions because she was going at such a slow pace and explaining things so thoroughly. Less than 50% of the students did it correctly even still. It was painful to watch.

These issues are further exacerbated (at least in American schooling) by the school’s desperate need for funding, so even if students are doing no work or bare minimum work, schools are asking teachers to fudge student’s grades so that their graduation rates stay high. They teach only to the standardized tests so that their funding stays high enough to be able to properly pay for what the school needs. Which means teachers have to give students As on work that would normally be Ds, or give them credit just for putting a name on a page and nothing else. When I was in student teaching, I was told that even if a student did not turn anything in, if they were in class I would have to give them credit for their projects, even if they had not even touched their paper. This was what kind of disenchanted me from the realm of teaching, because students now are not actually learning anything and are instead being thrown through the education system as fast as possible just to get them out of there, leaving with absolutely zero skills and understanding about anything whatsoever. It’s disheartening to see, and only getting worse.

And teachers often get blamed for a lot of this, even though these are direct orders from not only admins but districts. Parents get angry their kids learn nothing but don’t stop to realize that maybe they should read books to their kindergarten aged child instead of assuming they’ll learn everything at school. To give parents some credit, I understand not everyone has the means or the time due to working multiple jobs just to make rent in this awful economy we have. However, you *must* make time. You chose to have a kid, which means no matter how tired you are you must make time or your child will be a college student at a seventh grade reading level not even knowing how to format a word document properly.

seriously, though. i work in higher education, and part of my job is students sending me transcripts. you'd think the ones who have the least idea how to actually do that would be the older ones, and while sure, they definitely struggle with it, i see it most with the younger students. the teens to early 20s crowd.

very, astonishingly often, they don't know how to work with .pdf documents. i get garbage phone screenshots, sometimes inserted into an excel or word file for who knows what reason, but most often it's just a raw .jpg or other image file.

they definitely either don't know how to use a scanner, don't have access to one, or don't even know where they might go for that (staples and other office supply stores sometimes still have these services, but public libraries always have your back, kids.) so when they have a paper transcript and need to send me a copy electronically, it's just terrible photos at bad angles full of thumbs and text-obscuring shadows.

mind bogglingly frequently, i get cell phone photos of computer screens. they don't know how to take a screenshot on a computer. they don't know the function of the Print Screen button on the keyboard. they don't know how to right click a web page, hit "print", and choose "save as PDF" to produce a full and unbroken capture of the entirety of a webpage.

sometimes they'll just copy the text of a transcript and paste it right into the message of an email. that's if they figure out the difference between the body text portion of the email and the subject line, because quite frankly they often don't.

these are people who in most cases have done at least some college work already, but they have absolutely no clue how to utilize the attachment function in an email, and for some reason they don't consider they could google very quickly for instructions or even videos.

i am not taking a shit on gen z/gen alpha here, i'm really not.

what i am is aghast that they've been so massively failed on so many levels. the education system assumed they were "native" to technology and needed to be taught nothing. their parents assumed the same, or assumed the schools would teach them, or don't know how themselves and are too intimidated to figure it out and teach their kids these skills at home.

they spend hours a day on instagram and tiktok and youtube and etc, so they surely know (this is ridiculous to assume!!!) how to draft a formal email and format the text and what part goes where and what all those damn little symbols means, right? SURELY they're already familiar with every file type under the sun and know how to make use of whatever's salient in a pinch, right???

THEY MUST CERTAINLY know, innately, as one knows how to inhale, how to type in business formatting and formal communication style, how to present themselves in a way that gets them taken seriously by formal institutions, how to appear and be competent in basic/standard digital skills. SURELY. Of course. RIGHT!!!!

it's MADDENING, it's insane, and it's frustrating from the receiving end, but even more frustrating knowing they're stumbling blind out there in the digital spaces of grown-up matters, being dismissed, being considered less intelligent, being talked down to, because every adult and system responsible for them just

ASSUMED they should "just know" or "just figure out" these important things no one ever bothered to teach them, or half the time even introduce the concepts of before asking them to do it, on the spot, with high educational or professional stakes.

kids shouldn't have to supplement their own education like this and get sneered and scoffed at if they don't.

[nowherequiet]

On Regret: Echo Chambers and the Importance of Values in Gaining Ownership Over Ourselves

I recently have been thinking that I don't have very few substantial regrets regarding my past, and that's because I believe regret, along with guilt, are the consequences of actions which are in disagreement with our values. To put it simply, we have higher chances of regretting something we've done impulsively or when our judgement was clouded, rather than something which was analysed thoroughly.

Regret cannot be avoided, and it shouldn't be, as it has its role in our social development and a healthy amount of regret could set us back on the right track sometimes. However, I believe there are ways of minimising it by staying true to our values, with all the actions it involves like being in touch with ourselves, setting boundaries, taking time to reflect, and acting in a way that accurately represents how we are within.

I believe our nature is to be good, as good as an animalic nature can be. (Here I make an exception to the obvious rarer cases in which extreme circumstances or neurological imbalances drive others to commit heinous crimes and have a severe lack of empathy. The essay is aimed towards the largest demographic, the average person). Yes, it is easier to harm than do good, and yes, we are inclined towards selfishness and cynicism, but I'm certain that comes from a hyper fixation on the things exterior to ourselves. In short, in my opinion (and John Stuart Mill's), people can be better individuals and be content with each other if first and foremost, they are at peace with who they are.

We don't need to fix the society, we need to fix the individual, but we can only fix him if he wants to. No help can be given forcefully.

Whenever people notice deviant, harmful behaviours, they all start yelling "Let's do better! Let's be more united! We need more love!" in unison. Or worse, they start wishing them worse. Neither of these approaches help in any way, and if anything, only reveals the character of the one who points the finger. To those people, I don't wish happiness, love nor to find God. Instead, I wish they can get to the essence of who they are, live according to their values, and be able to say wholeheartedly one day that they are glad they did so, as it's a state just as rewarding as it is difficult to get to.

We're constantly being bombarded with all sorts of information, to the point that it feels as if we don't have any discernment over our actions, and that our minds are everything but our own. I believe that this might be a hugely overlooked reason why more and more people seem to have identities fluid to the point of disassociation, being easily propagandised and radicalised against one another, turning towards all sorts of distractions to stop themselves from introspection, and being overall extremely dissatisfied with their lives (whether they like to admit it to themselves or not).

Without beating too much around the bush, it is obvious that technology evolved way quicker than humans could realistically properly adapt to. Here, by adaptation I don't mean being able to learn a new gadget with ease, but the deeper implications of what having to give in to endless new devices and media implies. Socially, mentally, and most importantly, spiritually, humans weren't ready for such a rapid technological development. And this is precisely why, despite living in the so-called most convenient times, the omnipresent frustration which can be felt every time you go on the internet is evident.

A behaviour I noticed among my close ones' social media usage, and which I'm sure represents a common practice, is that whenever a new post catches one's attention, before even finishing to read or listen to the entire video, the person opens the comment section. This pattern is so wide-spread, that many videos which have even the slightest shock effect to them, one of the top comments will always be somewhere among the lines of "I ran straight to the comments when I saw-".

"Humans are social animals, of course it is instinctual to constantly seek a sense of community and be concerned with what others will think" you'll say, and that is something I won't argue against. But now the current context makes me involuntarily draw a parallel in my head whether this extreme of a concern for others' opinions has always been part of our society, or is something that we are yet to become aware of as is a phenomenon still so fresh. Naturally, is easier to analyse the past: it gives us a bunch of information which we can put together like a puzzle should we wish to dedicate some of our time to it. While in the middle of an event, the judgement is clouded by all the information we're fed. It's difficult to accurately judge how big a crowd is until you're out of it and you see it from a distance.

'How do you even get out?', you might ask. And to that I will answer 'One step at a time'. 'And how do you know when to get out?'. 'When you start feeling suffocated.'

However, through the refusal to engage in this mass-psychosis, it is essentially impossible to live in today's society. And as much as I do recommend occasional periods of minimal contact with others, I am aware it's increasingly more difficult to have the privilege to do so, and that it is also certainly not for everyone; just as it can be beneficial, if approached incorrectly, it can also cause more harm than good. So the key approach towards engaging with today's media and overall culture, all while keeping a sense of autonomy over ourselves, is moderation, self-awareness, combined with the so-needed grain of skepticism.

With the constant exposure to information, and the implicit impossibility of avoiding it altogether, it naturally becomes extremely difficult to accurately categorise everything that's thrown at us. 'Thankfully', the internet gets to decide to categorise everything for us, including what kind of person we are and what is suitable for us through the ever-present algorithm. As with any kind of categorisation, while it seemingly benefits the one who makes the assumption and gives them clues on how to best approach another, it comes at the disadvantage of the one who is put in a box. Why? Because it makes it increasingly difficult for the 'victim' to be seen as anything more than X or Y and further isolates the individual into a space 'suitable for others like him'.

So while a person can now much easier find communities of other people exactly like them thanks to the algorithm, it also limits their expansion anywhere further beyond that space. If a social platform picked on the fact that you like cooking videos, gaming, and cats, that's all you will ever see on your page unless you decide to look for something else. From a highly-complex individual perspective, the way the algorithm works will never seem advantageous, human beings are more than a 2D image on a screen, can have more than the maximum of 5 interests, and the internet is not designed in any way that does human individual complexity justice. If anything, through excessive internet usage, people are developing in a strangely-linear, inhuman way.

In relation to this, I can't seem to avoid mentioning an idea I came to recently. The internet, through the way it's designed, feeds into a false sense of identity and community which is exclusively valid within its parameters, and automatically cancels out when returning to the real world. Through engagement in echo chambers, the individual gains a feeling of an utopian community that is fundamentally null when not in a virtual space.

After repeatedly gaining sense of comfort through the overestimation of the prevalence of people similar to them, when the daily real life seems to be otherwise, the frustration one feels is much more intense than if they weren't to experience any sense of community to begin with. A notable disadvantage of habit.

When belonging into any sort of community, online or offline, you naturally get 'plagued' with ideas, ideals, and images of how the typical person from the group should be like which the members more or less consciously adopt. The absolutely necessary parallel to draw and carefully observe in this particular situation and which connects to the entire concept of values as a way of minimising regret, is the following:

A person unsure in themselves will see the community as an advantage, with an extreme appeal; after all, it gives them the opportunity to 'explore' who they are. A person who already knows what they stand for and what they believe in will see the community as disadvantageous, and will be substantially more hesitant to engage in group activities.

It is important to note that here I'm not advising being close-minded and firmly rejecting everything that stands in opposition to what you think ('I will not be dancing with you at your birthday party because I am not a dancer'). Staying open-minded is very much in the centre of the grey area of self-discovery, while communities of any sort tend to step out of the grey area.

'But you can learn so much from within a community!'. Yes, you can, but can learning from one side of the coin only be considered valid knowledge? And are you doing it because you want to learn something, or because you lack a sense of self and are seeking to be attributed a definition from outside? Certainly, most people are in the second category, but very few, if any at all, would have the courage to admit it.

Most times, knowing alone doesn't seem to be enough when part of a group, as many of them have systems similar to a loyalty card when it comes to how dedicated one is to the cause they're promoting, and how 'good' of a member they are. The first example I can think of is the notorious Christian missionaries, as I believe everyone has interacted with them at least once and probably even viewed them poorly for being so 'brain-washed' at times. Of course, it is much easier to notice certain behaviours in others, and especially when they show up as religious extremism, but instead of pointing fingers, we should take it as an opportunity to self-reflect.

'Oh, but I'm not extremist like they are and I'm not trying to convert anyone!'. I'm not suggesting self-reflection for this reason alone. Obviously, no two cases will be the same, and just because you might be an atheist doesn't mean the advice doesn't apply to you. Think of how many times you acted extreme in discussions with others, of any nature, but particularly in the ones concerning debating of some kind. In my opinion, if you find it impossible to stay composed during a debate and not turn aggressive or persuasive, you shouldn't engage in debates. Not being able to have an objective conversation, and repeatedly implying the another is of lower intelligence unless they share your point of view is substantially more disrespectful and shameful than simply refusing to discuss to begin with.

That is something I'm still working on myself. For this reason, I'm extremely selective with who I choose to engage with in conversations of sensitive matter. The ones who use the internet and television as their main information source are automatically ineligible for the reasons previously mentioned. It takes two people to tango, and it is up to each of us to learn how to dance before we step on a stage.

'But only through conversation we can get to the essence of things!'. Yes and no, and that depends exclusively on the type of person you choose to discuss with. Anybody who thinks radically will not respect your opinion, and a debate should be had only in the case you fancy arguing and winning yourself an enemy for free. It is also important to consider the person's education, and here I don't mean formal education (diplomas and certificates aren't proof of intelligence, but that's an essay for another time), but how wide their general knowledge is. The wider the knowledge, the higher the chances they will be able to see your perspective as well even when at opposite poles.

Just as it is important to choose our information sources carefully, it is equally important to know who we can have certain conversations with, and who to be more careful around.

When discussing politics for example, knowledge in politics alone doesn't instantly make one apt enough to be having political debates with others. In order to properly analyse an event in its entirety, knowledge of economics, history, sociology, and even cultural psychology is needed. So a bit of self-awareness regarding the size of our boat is necessary before we decide to embark on a difficult journey. Having someone else make you feel foolish is a shameful ego hit. Admitting to yourself that you are a bit of a fool, recognising when a situation is out of your expertise, and choosing to not embark on the boat until you feel better prepared is a much wiser decision.

Especially if you hold unconventional beliefs and you wish to live harmoniously with lots of people, I advise not sharing them freely with everyone not because they don't deserve to be heard, but because once they are out in the world, people use them to judge your value based on them. People promote freedom of speech, but realistically, they don't want to surround themselves with people who contradict and question their worldview. While someone might not instantly turn against you after you voiced your opinion, you can still notice a slight expression of disappointment and disgust. That is, because it's easier to moralise others, and a lot of people would much rather close their ears off and point fingers than attempt to understand; the latter requiring a level of understanding that a majority hasn't reached within themselves.

How could you pour into another's cup when your jug is empty?

So you have to choose between lying and betraying yourself for the sake of social harmony, and leaving the constraints behind to live the difficult, yet increasingly rewarding individualism. Friends and family aim to teach us how to be better with others. Time spent alone teaches you how to be better by yourself.

Turn your attention within and keep digging. You will find your heart beating, and underneath it lies your truth.

So, if you want to learn something new, and objectively be able to analyse for yourself what is closest to the truth, is best to keep searching independently and quiet down your mind from others' screams. When alone, you are absolutely free to make mistakes, correct and come back to a different result over and over again. You are your own judge. And what better way to exercise your judgement and power other than when you have complete freedom over both action and consequence? You can either rise or bury yourself; it's entirely your responsibility to keep yourself balanced.

Most importantly, it makes you value time, and not take others' presence for granted whenever you do choose to pursue relationships with others. As you grow to see the time spent alone highly, you become increasingly aware of how you get to spend it, and most importantly, on who.

In the age of technology, attention is the most valuable thing we could offer as consumers. Attention, just as time, is something that many give to others freely without thinking much about it. As it isn't a physical good which we can feel with our hands and see with our eyes, we don't seem to be as attached to it as we would be with our valuables. Paradoxically, the things which we don't keep track of, seem to slip through our fingers the fastest, and we wake up one day to realise we threw years, decades of our lives in the fountain. If there is something we should, and it is absolutely justified to be selfish with, that is our time.

No matter what you do, there'll always be regrets. But no regret is worse than realising you lived a life that's not yours; a life full of rules that weren't your own, opinions you didn't come to yourself, experiences you never got to experience first-hand. A life without a clear beginning, with an ambiguous open conclusion.

22:50, Sun 10.11.24

[rabbitcruiser]

National Cake Decorating Day

Try your hand at cake decorating. From sheet cake to cupcakes, complex frosting flowers to simple sprinkles, there’s something out there for everyone.

Every year, on October 10th, we celebrate a unique and delightful holiday that brings joy to both the eyes and the palate – National Cake Decorating Day. This day is dedicated to the artistry and creativity that goes into making cakes not just delicious, but also visually stunning. Whether you’re a professional pastry chef or a home baker, this day is a chance to showcase your skills, learn new techniques, and appreciate the beauty of decorated cakes.

History of National Cake Decorating Day

The art of cake decorating has a rich and fascinating history that dates back centuries. The earliest cakes, which were enjoyed thousands of years ago, were simple creations. One of the earliest known cakes was a flat cake known as plakous, made using flour mixed with milk, eggs, nuts, and honey. This was a far cry from the elaborately decorated cakes we are accustomed to today. The word we use today, “cake”, comes from the Old Norse word “kaka”, which was what Vikings called a dessert that was quite similar to modern cakes.

The trend of decorating cakes didn’t start until the 17th century in Europe. At that time, decorating a cake was a simple matter of adding flavor. However, as the centuries passed, the art of cake decoration evolved and was refined. Today, how a cake looks is just as important as how it tastes, pushing both amateur and professional cake decorators to take their skills to the next level. The evolution of cake decorating has been influenced by various factors, including cultural trends, technological advancements, and the creativity of individual decorators.

How to Celebrate National Cake Decorating Day

Celebrating National Cake Decorating Day is all about creativity, fun, and of course, cake! Here are some ways you can join in the festivities:

Decorate a Cake: This is the most obvious and fun way to celebrate the day. Bake your favorite cake and let your imagination run wild with the decorations. You could use frosting, sprinkles, edible glitter, fondant shapes, and more. The possibilities are endless, and the best part is that you get to eat your delicious creation when you’re done!

Learn New Techniques: Use this day as an opportunity to learn new cake decorating techniques. There are plenty of tutorials online that can teach you everything from basic frosting techniques to advanced fondant work. Learning a new skill can be incredibly rewarding, and who knows, you might discover a new passion!

Share Your Creations: Show off your cake-decorating skills by sharing pictures of your creations on social media. Use the hashtag #NationalCakeDecoratingDay to join the wider conversation and see what other cake enthusiasts are creating. This is a great way to get inspiration for your next cake-decorating project.

Appreciate the Art: Take some time to appreciate the work of professional cake decorators. You could visit a local bakery, attend a cake decorating demonstration, or simply browse decorated cakes online. The intricate designs and attention to detail that go into professionally decorated cakes are truly a sight to behold.

Host a Cake Decorating Party: Gather your friends and family for a cake decorating party. Provide plain cakes or cupcakes, a variety of frostings and decorations, and let everyone’s creativity shine. This can be a fun and delicious way to spend time together.

Remember, the goal of this day is to have fun and enjoy the process of decorating, no matter your skill level. Whether you’re a seasoned pro or a complete beginner, this day is a chance to have fun, learn something new, and indulge in some delicious cake. So grab your frosting, sprinkles, and edible glitter, and get ready to celebrate National Cake Decorating Day in style!

Source

[doved-icelebrity]

Week Two : MegaWatt Celebrityhood in the Social Media Era - Assignment and Reflections

The Evolution of Celebrityhood and Social Change

Celebrities can wield their immense influence and power in a variety of ways that could positively influence society in profound ways. With such a large amount of eyes on them, they can choose the content that is being seen by vast, often impressionable, audiences. Social media platforms can easily be used to raise awareness about critical issues in real time. Followers and fans can be encouraged to donate to causes directly or through proceeds of merch sales. In this modern internet age, the flow of information is never ending and it benefits celebrities to stay consistently visible, the relationship between these two concepts could benefit a large scope of individuals and issues. This highlighting on a grand scale could have lasting, long-term impacts on critical sociopolitical issues.

Of course celebrities are given the same 24 hours in a day as anyone else. They do not possess otherworldly qualities in most senses. Though the resources they have access to are superhuman when compared to what most of us are working with. I believe that we all have the capability and duty to do what we can to enact change and help others. The ability to reach such wide, vast audiences instantly is a quality Spider-Man could only dream of. “With great power comes great responsibility” is an adage that never gets old. Yes, they can impact much-needed accelerated change for good, and in fact they really ought to.

Celebrityhood is transforming at the same pace as everything else- all at once, all of the time. With greatly increased access to information, the average person is made aware of so much more on any given day than they may have been in a past reality without a super computer in their pocket. As the everyday Everyman shifts and changes, those we look up to must evolve at the same capacity. As our societal, cultural, and environmental awareness expands, so does our desire to actively contribute to positive change. Our humanity is constantly being activated and called upon. The disparity between the people we know and love in our real lives struggling and suffering and the luxurious overconsumption of celebrities on our televisions / social media feeds becomes more shocking and more difficult to actively or passively support as time goes on.

I believe that more structures being put in place to regulate the climate destruction free-for-all is something that is long past due. We desperately and urgently need to fight against climate catastrophe and discourage endlessly excessive consumption. Tax proposals are controversial, and I do agree that policies should be well considered and made to be fair, however, I am far more concerned with the health and endurance of our environment. The blatant irresponsibility and carelessness expressed by those with enough financial freedom to live luxuriously at the expense of our one and only planet is something that deeply disturbs me.

Perhaps the best award for aligning with social causes would be the ability to sleep well at night, knowing you are doing the right thing for this world. However, as we have seen over time, this is not always the most motivating experience for some reason. In this case, public recognition, positive coverage throughout media, and receival of various pertinent awards should get the job done. Discernment between greenwashing and true commitment is something that can be evaluated over time and sustained impact. However, it is possible that even a symbolic gesture could motivate/encourage real change, reflection, or contribution within the sphere of audience reach.

In the imagined future generations, it would be beautiful to envision a class of celebrities that are known for their authentic impassioned contributions to making the world a better place, to put it quite simply. A celebrity of the future might be lauded for their activism and environmental engagement. A celebrity of the future may be admired for their showcasing and highlighting of social and cultural inequality and their efforts to make sincere impacts that send beneficial waves of change far beyond the realms of entertainment. An imagined future audience would praise these efforts and acts of loving devotion to the planet. The most praise-worthy act one can do is give a voice to the voiceless, to shine light on those suffering in the dark, to aim their powers towards those that most need a helping hand, when they most need it.

There is hope where there is humanity. When focusing on the disaster of capitalism, consumerism, and negative celebrity impact, it can feel like this life is on a dark path. In spite of the harsh realities we are facing on a global scale, I believe that hope is essential. Faith in a better future is the most important tool we have. From hope onwards, we can take the steps we must to create change.