#fawning idolatry

[dougielombax]

Tumblr please stop unironically recommending me blogs run by actual bigots and incels.

As well as antisemitic shut ins who think they’re the main character in human history.

Or idiotic right wing self-proclaimed armchair “philosophers” with Roman or Greek statue PFPs. (Or anything else with similar dogwhistle-ridden connotations)

(And no, doing it for a laugh is not ok either)

It’s not funny.

Just because I study and post about history doesn’t mean I’m into that SHITE! What they’re into is propaganda, revisionism, denialism and fawning idolatry masquerading as fact.

Such idiots also unironically call themselves “centrist” or “moderate”. When even they know they aren’t.

I don’t like it.

It feels oddly threatening.

I don’t care if they call themselves Christians, pagans, atheists, nihilists, centrists, or whatever.

I don’t need to be recommended a blog run by Big Jim from Fuckitsville, Ohio who unironically refers to hisself as “Roman”, voted for Trump “for the memes”, every other sentence he speaks is rife with dogwhistles, he writes up tracts about how he believes that Germany should’ve won the Second World War, how he thinks women are just property and how we need an American crusade.

Or some deranged blog run by an unironic monarchist who believes that eugenics is somehow just and/or good and that we NEED to apparently kill all the disabled and neurodivergent people NOW for “reasons”.

Or some gun worshipping paranoid shithead with a fixation for Serbian nationalism who denies the Bosnian a genocide and starts spitting blood and shitting bullets if you do so much as mention Kosovo.

(Many such cases)

Among others.

Begone with that shite!

[kinq-sleazee]

ﾟﾟ･｡･ﾟﾟ｡ ﾟ。 thinkin’ about S. Gojo being ⟡ scary ⟡

　ﾟ･｡･ﾟ

18+ | piss , bullying, violence, reader is a teacher,

❤︎₊ ⊹ ⋆˙⟡♡

Satoru Gojo is your worst nightmare. Yeah, he might be the “honored one”– powerful, revered, respected and loved by most but apparently you’re not one for his charms. Where others fawn , you flee. You never offer praise or expected idolatry from one such as yourself. You rush past him in the hallways. Brush off his attempts at communication. Barely reacting to anything that had to do with Satoru Gojo. Who do you think you are ? He’s the strongest after all. What he didn’t know is that you were to shy and in awe to do anything but run away! After all his presence seemed limitless and suffocating. There was no way that someone like you could keep up. But Satoru didn’t know this. You see , he isn’t the strongest because he’s Satoru Gojo. He’s Satoru Gojo because he’s the strongest. And why should the strong protect the whims of the weak ?

So he was mean.

“Innocently” undermining you in front of your students, interrupting your classes , over talking you , bumping into you, pinching your thighs, and cornering you in dark hallways to whisper vicious insults and veiled threats.

“You cryin’? God, you’re weak” lips brushing against your jaw as he squeezes your neck. “What if I pulled you into my domain ? What do you think would happen?”

You tried to tell someone, anyone , but who’d believe you ? You should’ve known better, and you also should’ve known that word would get back to your tormenter. You probably would’ve kept your mouth shut if you’d known that he’d have you backed against the lockers, head locked between two meaty fists. Thumb resting against your temples and lips pressed against your ear whispering cruelly. “Did you really think they’d believe you, weakling?”. “Even if they did, what did you think would happen? No one can stop me. They’re too weak”. Honestly , you should be grateful that I even waste my time on someone as pathetic as you.” “People have literally killed for my attention” And you know he wasn’t lying. Everyone loved him. Everyone except you.

He couldn’t understand why you didn’t immediately succumb to his charms. Why you didn’t fall to your knees the moment he spoke to you. Most women did. He took personal offense to your shy and introverted nature. Getting meaner and meaner everyday. But this was the worst it had ever gotten. His knee was pressed between your legs, right against your cunt. You were shaking so bad. So scared and he was holding you in place. It didn’t help that he’d caught you on the way to restroom. “P-please Gojo … gotta go” Your pathetic pleas fell on deaf ears. “P-please Gojo” he mocked, adding pressure against your temple. “Where do you have to go , huh ? What’s more important than me ?” Fat tears welled in the corner of your eyes, threatening to spill with each twitch of his leg. “I have to go to the ladies room, Gojo” you whined, praying that he’d spare you the tiniest sliver of mercy. Prayers went unanswered because Gojo’s handsome face twisted into a cruel smile. Cerulean visionaries burning into your skin and tracing a path down to where his knee met your clothed cunt. “Oh?” he mocked, voice dripping with faux concern. “Does little Y/N need to go potty?” You didn’t answer, just whimpered and averted your eyes which did not bode well with the sorcerer . *BAM! His fists crashed into the locker, leaving a gaping hole right next to your head. “When I talk you- Gojo’s voice trailed off and his gaze fell to the darkening splotch on his uniform pants. Pale yellow liquid surged from the place between your thighs. Pretty white stockings ruined with streaks of hot piss. "G-gojo , i-” Words caught in your throat and you whimpered in humiliation. Utterly defeated by the fact that you’d pissed yourself in front of the most powerful man of your era. He was going to be furious. At least that’s what you assumed before you dared glance at his oceanic orbs. His eyes glazed over, completely clouded with lust. The wet tip of his tongue darted across his plush lips and your eyes followed the movement. Slightly parted and moistened by saliva. What you wouldn’t give to have those lips on your body. As if he were clairvoyant, Gojo pulled you into a bruising kiss. Bullying into your mouth with such skilled aggression that your brain felt fuzzy. A heady mixture of adrenaline and arousal permeated the air and the damp warmth of your cunt pulsed against his leg in rhythm with the frantic beating of your heart. Gojo pulled away hair messy and tie disheveled. Thick fingers carded through his white locs before he stepped forward to fix your hair. A hand lingered against your cheek, almost gentle. Almost. His thumb and index finger squeezed as he pulled your face close to his. “My place at 11 PM, weakling. Don’t be late.”

[kaurwreck]

as a Japanese fan of bsd you’ve hit the nail on the head to why i hate this fandoms tendency to go with the “oh it’s so disrespectful to the authors” bc yea it’s my hatred of Japanese nationalism and its agenda to portray their cultural exports as untouchable…it also feels infantilizing in the sense where they can’t picture asagiri doing transformative critique of his country’s “classics” and they are adopting that very same idolatry of Japan

It's also such a flaccid, insincere interpretation of respect that is itself inherently dehumanizing. There is nothing untouchable, and substituting discernment for fawning is much worse than being superficially disrespectful, especially when the subject of your disrespect cannot possibly perceive it, and the only beneficiaries of your deference are states, institutions, and ideological concepts.

I've noticed people tend to strip agency and conscious commentary from Asagiri too. It is exceptionally infantilizing.

[perrywrites]

I feel like Chigiri doesn't really have a type, but that he's drawn towards someone genuine - and like yes he's attracted to the candid bubbly ENFP type yes (because I'm writing Shirayuki as an ENFP) but generally speaking, anyone who is genuine is it. Someone who at first is either disinterested in him or doesn't see him as special - he's drawn to the people who see him as him, you know what I'm saying?

The quiet girl in his class who didn't fawn over him like his other fangirls did and then abandoned him at the drop of a dime when he got injured, citing that he was 'no longer a genius' (no bcuz seriously that moment in Chigiri's backstory I was like ??), the one who treated him normally since the beginning, the one who responded to him normally. Someone that he can take an interest in, get close to on his own terms.

Or someone who treated him like they treated everyone else - the class rep who was as kind and sweet to him like they were with everyone else, their attitude towards him unchanging and undiluted by any sort of misplaced idolatry infatuation. Someone that he can get along with normally, affection building between the two over time and organically.

Or even someone like Shirayuki - the one who fawns over almost anyone and everyone, genuine and upfront in their adoration, honest.

I think it's because Chigiri is well aware of how fast people change their attitudes at the drop of a hat - like when his leg got injured. He wants someone whose affection wouldn't change quite so easily, someone whose feelings wouldn't be shallow, but more permanent.

[therevengeoffrankenstein]

(blonde) ambition

i like to think the world wasn't fully formed around me yet and all the different timelines merge up until that point and then diverge but You and i remain connected and if circumstances would've been different We still would remain totally connected in that regard.

belief vs. knowledge is a beautiful juxtaposition!

kicked to the curb! so many ideas lost in translation and ambition.... sometimes i wish i chose different, but i like to think the connection remains and spurs me on (like a Wolf does to a Fawn) and if i were to break out of it (sever the red string) the world would shatter and i simply would have to die immediately. this is the world where We live. i have to live.

i'm doomed but just enough. it's enough to result in so many beautiful things; i'm making flowers bloom from a Corpse! once again, i am caught in this and am choosing it. there's beauty in the inevitability of it all!

mission statement: I Love Him.

that's it! all of this, all of it! for! para (for)! para (love)! paranoia! paranovia! how romantic! how persistent! how obsessed? enough! enough to drive me mad. i am plagued by prophetic visions.... i have a greater Purpose and am following it, second star to the left.

who am i to deny destiny? the stars are crossing their fingers. i have received so many visions lately that are almost enough to trick me into thinking this play house has real walls.... i will not succumb to pretend! i must have what i want. i will have what i want.

MANifestation is the key. not in the bullshit way, i mean Iconography! i mean Idolatry! i mean Golden Calves! 'Mickey Mouse has grown up a Cow.' it's real to me, i'll have you rest assured! at least, golden-plated....

(indicative, representative...! AH! how ironic! how fitting! i love how my world fits together! as i said before, everything is as it should be.)

i want too much. i try so hard. if i follow footsteps, it'll be like a map to You. take me back. i need to explore more than just the Streets.... this is all because i am separated from my Instrument and my Heart.

sweet reunion, again and again and again and again and again....

ultimately, We are meant to be together.

[pickmeforjesus]

my current pet peeve are those idiotic Westernia nostalgia posts showing old churches with people going like "they could this because they had God uwu"

First of all, the fact that you're constantly looking at the past proves even further that the Western world will not be able to get back on its feet because obsession with the past/old glories is the swan song of a decaying civilization. Your behavior shows how unredeemable the West is.

Secondly, assuming that pretty buildings are somehow the evidence of a closer relationship with God is peak idiocy. Plentiful of pagan civilizations build equally (if not more) beautiful buildings - does they mean they knew YHWH too?

God in the flesh prophecized about not caring about buildings because in the end of the day, everything will be destroyed (Matthew 24:1-2). This was not only the temple of Jerusalem - like many other passage of the Bible, those verse had double entendre which also points toward mankind idolatry of Buildings and their beauty.

Meanwhile, the Bible shows that people had direct connection with God in literal CAVES. Rahab humble mansion got the Lord protection because of her actions. Moses met God in the DESERT. God listened to Jonas FROM THE BELLY OF A WHALE(!)

The location doesn't matter. Only the Spirit does. Praying in those pretty building didn't stop the West from breeding for centuries wars & genocide oversea. Pretty churches can't put up with wicked people. And we see the results today.

You guys conflate the beauty of stones than the beauty of God because you lost focus on what actual Beauty is. How can you claim Christianhood while still linking Appearance with Essence? The Bible is very clear that everything is just vanity and will eventually go away. So why are you so obsessive about it?

Stones are literally nothing. Fawning over dead churches will literally do nothing in regards of the salvation of your soul.

Stay focused.

[thatanthagirl]

Relapse In the Church

Many who attend church today were once in a life of addiction. In fact, we all were addicted to something as alcohol and drugs are not the only addiction. Some were addicted to adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, revelry, etc. (Galatians 5). Through the Power and Mercy of Jesus Christ, we have been delivered and have been set free from the chains that once had us bound.

In our previous lives where we were bound by addiction, we stated many times over, ‘I’m not hurting anyone but myself,’ ‘My actions aren’t affecting anyone else’, ‘It’s my life’, etc. In time, we experienced true clarity, and we then took responsibility for our actions and came to the realization that we had hurt everyone around us and realized we adversely affected our spouse, our children, our parents, our friends, etc.

Once we see the Light and are set free from the things that had us bound, we have a responsibility to be a light to others who are in their own struggles.

The issue is that many who sit on the church pews, relapse into the old mindset they had when they were living a life of addiction and the old, ‘I’m not hurting anyone but myself’ attitude infiltrates the church. If I am not faithful to church as I once was, I’m not hurting anyone but myself. If I don’t pray and read the Word of God like I once did, I’m not hurting anyone but myself. If I don’t have the same love I first had when Jesus found me, I’m not hurting anyone but myself. If I don’t progress and mature in my Christian walk, it’s not hurting anyone but myself. If I have lost my joy, it’s only hurting me. The truth is we are doing the same thing we did when we were addicted to the things of the world – we hurt those around us, and we have adverse effect on those who are still in the darkness and looking for a light to show them a way out. We have relapsed.

We were not saved in order to just sit on church pews, play defense, and ‘hold the fort’ until Jesus comes back. We are to be on the offensive and become warriors who go to help others find freedom. We were saved because Jesus loves us, and He saved us to be a light to others. We are to progress, grow, and mature in our walk. Many times, if we examine ourselves, we will find that we are regressing more than we are progressing.

Apostle Paul instructed Timothy to stir up the inner fire:

2 Timothy 1:6-7 (AMPC) "That is why I would remind you to stir up (rekindle the embers of, fan the flame of, and keep burning) the [gracious] gift of God, [the inner fire] that is in you by means of the laying on of my hands [with those of the elders at your ordination]. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control."

We are also to be the salt of the earth, but what good are we if we lose our strength and quality:

Matthew 5:13-16 (AMPC) "You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste (its strength, its quality), how can its saltness be restored? It is not good for anything any longer but to be thrown out and trodden underfoot by men. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a peck measure, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men that they may see your moral excellence and your praiseworthy, noble, and good deeds and recognize and honor and praise and glorify your Father Who is in heaven."

Are we progressing. We need to examine ourselves.

2 Corinthians 13:5 (AMPC) "Examine and test and evaluate your own selves to see whether you are holding to your faith and showing the proper fruits of it."

— author unknown

[livinglibertytoday]

Living Liberty Today with Charlie Earl

Celebrity

Hollywood stars, singers and musicians, athletes, and influencers are some of the most recognized for their status as celebrities. Predictably and sadly, some politicians become celebrities of sorts by relentlessly pursuing cameras and microphones. Some celebrities manage to become superstars in more than one realm: Taylor Swift in music and pro football, Mark Harmon in football and acting, Troy Aikman in football and commentary, and Charles Barkley in basketball and general annoyance. The realm of celebrity seems endless. Take Joey Chesnut, for example. One can get famous and be celebrated for consuming insane numbers of hotdogs (hooves, horns and various scraps of animals plus buns) in a short amount of time. Obviously, actively pursuing a coronary can lead to celebrity status.

Personally, I suspect that a lot of celebrity following borders on idolatry…a dangerous development in the eyes of God. Even if the celebration does not approach worship, too much weight is often given to the opinions of the celebrated. While they may possess extraordinary talent in a given field and may have diligently strived to enhance their skills or craft, it doesn’t necessarily follow that their knowledge or insight translates into other areas of life. If you have met a ‘famous’ person, you have probably noticed that they are generally normal. Perhaps they wear better makeup or are in better shape physically than other people but are like the rest of us in many respects. They are not worthy of worship or extreme fawning adoration. Those actions should be reserved for Jesus Christ and the Godhead.

Why am I discussing this now when so many other issues warrant attention? It’s because I fear that our reliance on the Main Street Media and it’s bastardized offspring the social media have corrupted the thought process for many of us. Our judgement and reasoning have been shelved because we rely on the media glitter to inform our decision making. As a result, we embrace shallow concepts and remedies that are advanced by shallow, thoughtless, and nefarious advocates. Wisdom seems lacking, and discernment is rare, thus our lives and our nation will be sorely shortchanged.

Final note: Through the years I have met many politicians, entertainers, and sports heroes. When I found myself becoming enchanted, I pictured them having a bowel movement. Poof!!! The moment passed (pun intended). Picturing one of their most human endeavors allowed me to escape the charm trap. Suffice it to say, people or celebrities are not the subjects of my faith.

[donkeylauncher]

Hi-Fi Rush is really excellent but christ its story is repellant. Not in the sense that it's half-baked or too goofy or it's incoherent or whatever, I mean it presupposes a fundamentally flawed view of the world

The story is resolved when you take control of the game's main antagonist force, a tech corporation, away from the evil CEO and restore it to the good CEO, who is good because she "solved a global energy crisis." Billionaries of any stripe being altruistic, hard-working, or rational or empathetic people at all is obviously an old fiction, but one whose artifice has been coming apart at the seams so much lately that even the most out-of-touch, bootlicking myopic dipshit has to reckon with it, even if they ultimately dismiss all criticisms out-of-hand (which they always do lmao)

Which is why it's all the more surprising that this is the game's basic fundamental message. Not surprising in an absolute sense—people and their art say shit like this all the time and it's always just as categorically false and irresponsible. But like for real? NOW, of all times, is the time you choose to say that? Your prescription for the world's ills is to trust in the magnanimity of the rich? In this particular political moment, amidst this fucking collective malaise we're all enduring at the hands of the very people this story treats with fawning idolatry? Fuck off

[muutosarchive]

@chrchgrl​​

the way the church treated them all is exactly how the catholic church should treat those who put all their faith into the priests who reiterate the word of the lord, and yet, the judgement, the guilt, it’s crippling to many, driving away those who wanted nothing but comfort in believing something. temperance never thought that the day would come where she would find herself stepping away from this organization that she grew up in, where they baptized her in the name of the father, the son, and the holy spirit. but she needed to, or else she would perhaps have just fallen somewhere emotionally of which she clawed her way out of many years ago and had no interest in revisiting even if for a while. the comfort is one she is still finding weird, if she’s honest, a word that is not normally a part of her vocabulary, but it’s the only one she has now to describe her feelings. even now as she stands before papa, the naivety and innocence twinkling as ever within those big brown eyes of hers. she will come to learn the the second papa is anything but scary and harsh. that he is in fact not a bitter old man as the ministry likes to whisper that he is. but she doesn’t know that now. but the last thing she wanted to do was hold back. her answer was an earnest one. though thank lucifer he asked his question again, now being able to receive the answer that he was looking for. those same twinkling eyes now wide with realization and embarrassment, even her cheeks flush. ‘ i apologize papa. ‘ her smile is still wide, though now it’s because she was embarrassed. she should have known. ‘ i was not a nun for the catholic church. i never felt called upon by god to go down that path. but i did leave catholicism for lucifer. ‘ now her smile falls some, something more akin to just something to be polite now. weird how negative feelings now replaced the once positive ones she held in her heart for her church. 

angelo is a man of faith, & he understands this. while openly mocking those who engage in false idolatry, it’s easy to inflict his sense of religious superiority amongst his own followers, or those who oppose his path. yet those wide-eyed fawns who have sprinted from the suffocating grasp of catholicism - he treats them as much. call it a guiding hand to lucifer’s grace. & how could he have anything besides such guiding hands, as papa of the satanic church? a tactic that has him as their mentor, their teacher. it leads to some favorable situations with some of the nuove sorelle, those that flock to his congregation like frightened chickens running from the slaughter. perhaps it’s greedy, though that is one of lucifer’s coveted sins, is it not? & he is glad that she has seen the light, & brought her many talents to their congregation. yet it is not every day that the papa sees someone of such innocence, & pureness pass his ghastly, evil gaze. piercing as a villain in the old films. it fascinates secundo greatly. head tilting, whilst the second son studies her calmly under wide brows. the way she blushes, smiles. embarrassment filling out her cheeks. even while his own mouth is even, & patient. has he affected her like so many say? all thoughts that plague his mind. despite perhaps not entirely appearing as such. he’s mulling everything over.. ever observant. “no. there’s no need for apologies, sister.” he squeezes her hands, & uses them to tug her closer to him. the satin fabric of his robes brushing her skin. nodding at her explaination. “we welcome you, to our humble path.” he bows again, in another sign of respect. “& i must say.. lucifer’s light suits you very well, indeed.” he brings his fingers to her cheek, & brushes her cheekbone with the leather of his glove. “Grazie mille. thank you very much, for your honesty...”

[dougielombax]

The study of history cannot and MUST NOT be reduced to a self-congratulatory collection of revisionists, liars, despots and other corrupt, wealthy old men furiously yanking eachother off in a boardroom over the achievements of their antecedents or wherever.

…

Okay that sounds more like the prelude to a porno.

But still.

My point stands!

I’m condemning self-congratulatory crap like revisionism and the Great Man Theory (which I refuted as part of a thesis I did for my masters degree). And other such stupid shit like that.

[felixdragonheartofficial]

Since I'm taking ap pysch next year

Im gonna redo the mental disorder/illness/neurodivergence. headcannon I did months ago for tfa

Megatron

[Chauvinism]

Chauvinism is the belief in the superiority or dominance of one's own group or people, who are seen as strong and virtuous, while others are considered weak, unworthy, or inferior. It can be described as a form of extreme patriotism and nationalism, a fervent faith in national excellence and glory

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Starscream

[psychopathy]

Psychopathy, sometimes considered synonymous with sociopathy, is characterized by persistent antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and remorse, and bold, disinhibited, and egotistical traits.

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Blitzwing

[Dissociative identity disorder]

A disorder characterized by the presence of two or more distinct personality states.

Dissociative identity disorder, previously called multiple personality disorder, is usually a reaction to trauma as a way to help a person avoid bad memories.

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Lugnut

[idolatry]

Idolatry is the worship of a cult image or "idol" as though it were god

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Blackarachnia

[Body dysmorphic disorder]

A mental illness involving obsessive focus on a perceived flaw in appearance.

The flaw may be minor or imagined. But the person may spend hours a day trying to fix it. The person may try many cosmetic procedures or exercise to excess.

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Sunstorm

[sycophancy]

Someone who's sycophantic goes overboard with compliments, usually to gain some kind of advantage. You see sycophantic behavior in Hollywood all the time, from red carpet interviews pouring flattery on movie stars to fawning autograph seekers.

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Thundercracker

[Narcissistic personality disorder]

A disorder in which a person has an inflated sense of self-importance.

Narcissistic personality disorder is found more commonly in men. The cause is unknown but likely involves a combination of genetic and environmental factors

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Skywarp

[general anxiety disorder]

A mental health disorder characterized by feelings of worry, anxiety, or fear that are strong enough to interfere with one's daily activities

Examples of anxiety disorders include panic attacks, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder

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Ramjet

[mythomania]

the chronic behavior of compulsive or habitual lying. Unlike telling the occasional white lie to avoid hurting someone's feelings or getting in trouble, a pathological liar seems to lie for no apparent reason.

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Slipstream

[Self loathing][>directed at starscream]

Self-loathing manifests itself through consistent negative thoughts which are closely tied to excessive self-criticism. While self-criticism is a healthy aspect of life, it can start to overshadow other thought patterns when you're going through a self-loathing phase.

[doctornolonger]

I've got a silly idea. I like to think the Gallifreyan obsession with venerating relics of Rassilon was extreme. To the point where they'd have bits of his beard on display (THE BEARD OF RASSILON), or pretty much anything else he had from his furniture, to his slippers to his ring (if I recall correctly the version of him in The Five Doctors (who reminds me of the English king Henry VIII) has a ring as well, the Ring of Rassilon (ASH NAZG DURBATULÛK). Proper fawning idolatry kind of stuff.

Love it. I like to think that the first step of making each of the Nine Gallifreys, Homeworld colony, or House Military base is to bring over some relic of Rassilon to bury or exhibit inside the new base (like what Catholics do with church altars). House Military leadership really couldn't care less, of course, but they do it to appease the more traditional of the ruling Houses, and secret cults emerge among the House Military grunts to revere the buried relics, even if it's just the Toenail of Rassilon…

[infinitewarden]

Osiris isn’t Savathun.

Great! Now that I have your attention:

Man you guys tire me out about Osiris. If you truly believe this is Osiris I don’t mean to sound like That Guy that’s like “you don’t know what you’re talking about” but... You don’t know what you’re talking about.

So.

Let’s talk about how much Osiris cares about the City and humanity and why the Osiris in Epilogue is not actually Osiris.

Alright. Let’s start off with context. I think it’s super important to see what we do know as Osiris’s views. From my heavy analyses of him since 2020 I can confidently say these are what he views as the most important things a person can do:

Keep promises

Speak their truths

Protect the City & Humanity

Know that the Vex are true Evil.

Now, I won’t be doing a breakdown of each one individually but I will be talking a great deal of how important honesty is to Osiris, the City, and his views of the Vex.

Speaking honestly and bluntly.

I don’t know how many of you were into Destiny before Beyond Light, so if you were unaware of this it’s not your fault. However I’ve seen a very strange change in tone when it comes to how people view Osiris. Before Season of Hunt people hated - and I mean hated - Osiris. Why? Because he was blunt. They viewed his bluntness as rudeness.

To see a sudden switch to him being secretive and scheming is... alarming, to say the least. (And to see people think that this is the norm is also alarming but in other ways.)

The Osiris before Hunt was not secretive and scheming. He sought knowledge openly. He sought, specifically, the truth. I must stress just how open he was about his plans. First I’ll give you a few in lore examples:

I admit, I found your questions divisive and disloyal, and I feared you might be capable of breaking our unity when the City's position had grown so tenuous. Why divert attention away from the Traveler, our only hope? And then it got worse, dabbling in thanatonautics, Ahamkara-lore, chasing after Xur and the tricks of the Nine. Launching expeditions into the Reef and beyond at a time when ships were irreplaceable. Your quest split Guardians along ideological lines. This was your greatest crime: Hunters chose to pursue your visions instead of protecting refugees, Titans assembled teams to chase the legendary Vault of Glass instead of striking the Fallen, and Warlocks turned away from the study of the Traveler in favor of  your  ultimate obsession... learning the exact nature of the Darkness. ... Perhaps what drives a Warlock to madness is truth.

Osiris.

"Do not romanticize this burden. We wield a weapon." The Speaker shakes his head. "The Light wields you, Osiris. You are what you make of it. A glorious extension of its majesty, in many directions." Osiris paces at cadence with his words. "Then it would do well to speak clearly. To better direct me." The Speaker cocks his head. "Without will? Then it would be no better than the Darkness." "I am asking only for guidance; it is a delicate game we are playing." Osiris's voice, distressed. Regal again, the Speaker motions to the stone garden. "Will you sit with me?"

13: Margins Part II.

And, while I don’t particularly like using the Fall of Osiris comic as a source, it does have very important lines on his viewpoints that I find relevant yet.

Fall of Osiris #1.

Hell he was open about his plans to fuck with time itself to bring Saint back.

Sagira narrowed her eye at the rogue Lightbearer and lowered herself to Osiris’s shoulder. “Why’s he here?” she asked quietly. “I asked him to consult on the engineering work,” Osiris replied, crossing his arms. “You sicko,” the other man declared, walking a circle around the Warlock, his eyes darting along every surface of the Sundial around them. ... “Just one more question, then. Why all the fuss?” “I owe him.” “I owe a lotta people, Warlock. You’re opening the gates of hell with a Vex key.” “When the Traveler brought me back, I had no friends. No family—” “No one had anything in the Dark Age.” “But Saint was always there. And I saw him grow from neophyte to demigod.”

The Sundial.

"You haven't left the Forest in years," Ikora said to Osiris, the only one to address him directly. "I need help," Osiris replied. "I know," Ikora responded, hands clasped behind her back. She stared intently at her former mentor. Back in her Crucible days, that uncompromising gaze was often the last thing her opponents saw. Aunor glanced sidelong at her superior. Harper coughed and looked down at his datapad. "Two years ago, Guardians entered the Infinite Forest," Osiris continued. "They aided me in defeating the Axis Mind Panoptes, preventing a Vex apocalypse from befalling this system. "In the process," he looked between each of them in turn, "Some Guardians reported a body they found in the Forest depths." Ikora sighed. "Saint-14 never came back from that last mission to Mercury. We finally knew why. I reacted to it the only way I knew how."

Desperate Times.

“I do not understand all of this code. This is Geppetto’s specialty,” Saint-14 says while standing bent over a wide desk covered in data tablets. Holographic images of the Lighthouse shimmer in the Hangar lights. “We could use the Crucible right now. Your trials. This will be very helpful. You mean to stay, yes?” “I will. Long enough to show you how to implement the simulation; but tonight, I must disembark,” Osiris says. “So soon?” Osiris tenses his jaw in forced silence. He twiddles with code. “I’m worried about what Vance found.” Saint places a heavy hand on Osiris’s chest. “Let go of your obsession. Do not leave chasing phantoms again.” “Phantoms… You think the Darkness is satisfied? This is just the first move. I need to know the next before it’s made.” “If there is something you fear, let me help you. We face this together.” Osiris’s mind drifts to the Dark anomalies. Saint doesn’t need another burden. “The safest place for you is the Tower, Saint. Time... tends to renege on its gifts.” “So, your mission is dangerous?” Osiris considers lying. “Potentially.”

Immolant I.

There are many more sources I could list on his bluntness and honesty but there’s honestly too much. What is important to extrapolate from all of it is this:

OSIRIS SPOKE THE TRUTH NO MATTER IF IT GOT HIM IN TROUBLE. IT IS ONE OF THE MAIN REASONS HE GOT EXILED.

Protecting the City & Humanity

Idk where people get the idea that he’s abandoned the City and humanity. And I don’t understand where people think it’s “typical Osiris behavior” to choose to put the City in danger.

I want to make something very clear here:

Osiris was exiled. He did not abandon the City. And though others view him as abandoning it, that wasn’t his intention. He never intentionally abandoned it. Everything he did was in pursuit of a brighter future for humanity. Let’s look at one of his lines from the Sundial activity during Dawn.

“By the time I left the City, many believed my practices to be sacrilege. But my methods have prevented countless futures not unlike the one you walk now. When it is laid out before you, would you not sacrifice anything to see this future shut?”

The Sundial.

He left because he weighed his options and he saw that humanity would have better use of him if he left. He cares A great deal about the City. He cares almost too much about it. He would never give Lakshmi the technology to cause it harm, especially knowing that she’s unstable. And I’ve seen some people think he’s playing 5D chess? In what world would he ever choose to bring harm upon humanity for some sort of... agenda; which I’ve already cleared up earlier, he’s open about his plans.

Let’s look at more known lore about Osiris’s feelings of the City & humanity.

"You've wrapped your mind around an idea of your own making. I have always tolerated this fawning 'movement' of yours, but this is a step too far." Osiris seethed. Brother Vance was awestruck. He stared blankly at Osiris, unsure of what he could say to quell his anger and dissolve his frustration. "What I have discovered…" "…is dangerous enough to destroy every man, woman, and child in existence. You're meddling with forces outside your grasp," Osiris reprimanded. "I warn you here and now, remove yourself from this Lighthouse. Find a simple life. Start a family. Write music. Leave Mercury and this fool's errand behind."

Chapter 8: Idolatry.

Osiris was furious to find out Vance was experimenting in his name by endangering people for his goals. And he was especially mad that he would dive into such dangerous areas so much so that it had the potential to destroy humanity.

"It's truth." Osiris considers this. "Truth seems subjective these days," Osiris says, finally observing his entourage for the first time. Among them, a small group of men and women, stand two wayward Guardians—Warlocks, it appears—and a child. Their forlorn faces resonate with him. Castaways and believers. The weeks since his departure from the Last City have worn on him. He was used to working alone, knowing he could fall back to the City's resources should he need them. Now, adrift in the expanse of purpose, he finds himself longing for a place he could return to. A sanctuary.

Chapter 2: Postexilic.

Here’s a few lines from Season of Dawn:

“The Traveler, mutilated. Mercury, a desolate warzone. This is the bleak future the Cabal wants for us all. We do not know what has become of humanity here. I hope we will not find out.”

.

“There are many terrible futures, but I have not grown numb to seeing them. The future the Cabal wish for is a nightmare for humanity.”

.

“If the Traveler fled the system, there is a chance that the Darkness would ignore our region of the galaxy entirely. It would sacrifice our second awakening, our ability to wield the Light, but potentially continue our Golden Age. There are too many variables at risk, but it's a variant path worth investigating in the Infinite Forest.”

.

“This battered Mercury is a blueprint for our system. Lightless, bowed, and nothing more than fuel for an endless war. It must never come to pass.”

The Sundial.

There are many. Many. More lines I could put here about how much Osiris doesn’t want to see humanity suffering. And especially how he doesn’t want the City to be at risk. But I think you get the picture.

Know that the Vex are true Evil.

So. We all know Osiris as “the Vex guy.” His whole thing is on fighting the Vex. However it seems people think that he’d be okay with using them for grounds of a higher purpose? Or something? I don’t know, everyone I see rebuffing Osiris’s actions with Lakshmi don’t seem to be interested in explaining this one.

So anyways. Let’s talk about how Osiris views the Vex as true evil compared to other species.

“The Fallen are not so different from us. How hard would you fight if the Light were taken from you?” “Those stories ring false to me,” said Saint. “They are not a noble people. I’ve fought them, and so have you.” “I have not fought them all,” the Warlock replied, pulling his hands apart to create an intricate web of hovering cubes and points of light. “They are nothing, no threat—not like the Vex. Not like the Darkness.”

Vanguard Commander.

[u.2:06] Have you spoken to the House of Light, like I asked? [u.1:07] I would rather not speak with Fallen. [u.2:07] They may need our help. Their cause is just. [u.1:08] What happened to “trust no one?” [u.2:08] What happened to your sense of right and wrong, hero?

Maintenance Operations Log 30037.

The unenlightened wonder at my so-called "fixation" upon the Vex. They believe our gravest existential threat is the Hive, for those beings have made a pact with the Darkness itself via the medium of the Worm Gods (according to Toland, at least, and I see no reason to doubt him in this). But Darkness is not merely absence of Light. Darkness is an entity unto itself. Put simply, Darkness is not Nothing. But the Vex? The Vex seek neither Light nor Darkness. They seek Convergence, the reduction of all life to its simplest, most meaningless form. An entelechy of zeros and ones. "Evil" is a word for sentimentalists and fools. But, in the ontology of the sentimental, the Vex are more deserving of the term than the Hive. Given a choice between Darkness and Convergence, I would choose Darkness. It is a logical choice. Yet for this they banish me.

Kairos Function (Hunter).

This one is important because Osiris doesn’t subscribe to the idea of “good” and “evil”, and that he would go so far to say that the Vex are Evil shows just how much of a threat he views them as.

It’s just. Mind boggling to me that people think that Osiris would be okay with a Vex invasion. That Osiris would encourage Lakshmi to open up a rift to “send the Fallen away” (Despite being one of the earliest sympathizers!) Osiris isn’t ineffable, he’s just a man trying to do his best to help humanity. His actions aren’t difficult to understand, they have been written to be very clear and with understanding his motives.

Saying that it’s natural for him to be secretive and have contradicting opinions and actions is just. Wrong. It’s not him. It’s not how he’s supposed to be understood. Even in Curse of Osiris I don’t think his actions didn’t make any sense.

This is going to sound very mean but I want to be 100% clear: If you think that Osiris would actively choose to put the City in danger of the Vex, if you think that he would actively choose to stand calmly and watch as his lover was about to die to the very things he spent millions of lives to save... You don’t understand Osiris. Go back and reread his lore.

I leave you with this:

The Vanguard is dubious of our intent and ability, fearing corruption and displacement. They do not trust me. You were held in similar contempt for speaking your truth and empowering free thought. You know what it feels like to be chastised and labeled a traitor. We are mere steps away from a disintegration of our institutions, and they cannot see destruction staring them in the face. ... For so long, we have clung to the Light, denying the strength offered by the Dark. By using Stasis, we will end this war. We see this contest for what it truly is: a game, played by our adversaries. And we have been the pawns. We are pawns no more. This is not a battle I want to wage without you, although we may not have a choice in the matter. Wherever you may be, please come back to us.

To Osiris.

[weedle-testaburger]

Me again. I hate when biopic movies portray their subject matter as utterly flawless in every possible way. It's boring! not to mention it's essentially what I call FAWNING IDOLATRY (a term I gleefully stole from a Dr Who novel to use in my literature review as part of my history dissertation at university earlier this year). What do you think? As odd as that question may be.

Yeah agreed. But ironically one of the worst has to be Bohemian Rhapsody because it makes the rest of the band utterly flawless and Freddie very flawed.

[johnrossbowie]

LEAVING TWITTER

I wrote this earlier in the fall, before the election, after dissolving my Twitter account. I wasn’t sure where to put it (“try up your ass!” – someone, I’m sure) and then I remembered I have a tumblr I never use. Anyway, here tis.

How do you shame someone who thinks Trumps’ half-baked policies and quarter-baked messaging put him in the pantheon of great Presidents? How do you shame someone so lacking in introspection that they will call Obama arrogant while praising Trump’s decisiveness and yet at the same time vehemently deny that they’re racist? How do you shame someone for whom that racism is endearing and maybe long overdue?

You don’t. It’s silly to think otherwise.

Twitter is an addiction of mine, and true to form, my dependence on it grew more serious after I quit drinking in 2010. At first it was a chance to mouth off, make jokes both stupid and erudite and occasionally stick my foot in my mouth (I owe New Yorker writer Tad Friend an apology. He knows why, or (God willing) he’s forgotten. Either way. Sorry.) I blew off steam, steam that was accumulating without booze to dampen the flames. Not always constructive venting, but I also met new friends, and connected with people whose work I’ve admired for literal decades and ended up seeing plays with Lin-Manuel Miranda and hanging backstage with Jane Wiedlin after a Go-Go’s show and exchanging sober thoughts with Mike Doughty. When my mom passed in 2018, a lot of people reached out to tell me they were thinking of me. This was nice. For a while, Twitter was a huge help when I needed it.

I used to hate going to parties and really hated dancing and mingling, but a couple of drinks would fix that. Point is, for a while, booze was a huge help, too.

But my engagement with Twitter changed, and I started calling people my ‘friends’ even though I’d never once met them or even heard their voices. These weren’t even penpals, these were people whose jokes or stances I enjoyed, so with Arthurian benevolence I clicked on a little heart icon, liked their tweet, and assumed therefore that we had signed some sort of blood oath.

We had not. I got glib, and cheap, and a little lazy. And then to make matters much worse, Trump came along and extended his reach with the medium.

There was a while there where I thought I could be a sort of voice for the voiceless, and I thought I was doing that. I tried very hard to only contribute things that I felt were not being said – It wasn’t accomplishing anything to notice “Haha Trump looks like he’s bullshitting his way through an oral report” – such things were self-evident. I tried to point out very specific inconsistencies in his policies, like the Muslim ban meant to curb terrorism that still favored the country that brought forth 13 of the 9/11 hijackers. Like his full-throated cries against media bias performed while he suckled at Roger Ailes’ wrinkly teat.  Like his fondness for evangelical votes that coincided with a scriptural knowledge that lagged far behind mine, even though I’m a lapsed Episcopalian, and there is no one less religiously observant than a lapsed Episcopalian. But that eventually gave way to unleashing ad hominem attacks against his higher profile supporters, who I felt weren’t being questioned enough, who I felt were in turn being fawned over by theirdim supporters. If you’re one of these guys, and you think I’m talking about you, you’re probably right, but don’t mistake this for an apology. You suck, and you support someone who sucks, and your idolatry is hurting our country and its standing in the world. Fuck you entirely, but that’s not the point. The point is that me screaming into the toilet of Twitter helps no one – it doesn’t help a family stuck at the border because they’re trying to secure a better life for their kids. It doesn’t help a poor teenager who can’t get an abortion because the party of ‘small government’ has squeezed their tiny jurisdiction into her uterus. It doesn’t help the coal miner who’s staking all his hopes on a dying industry and a President’s empty promises to resurrect it. I was born in New York City, and I currently live in Los Angeles. Those are the only two places I’ve ever lived, if you don’t count the 4 years I spent in Ithaca[1]. So, yes, I live in a liberal bubble, and while I’ve driven across the country a couple of times and did a few weeks in a touring band and am as crushed as any heartlander about the demise of Waffle House, you have me dead to rights if you call me a coastal elitist. And with that in mind, I offer few surprises. A guy who grew up in the theater district and was vehemently opposed to same-sex marriage or felt you should own an AR-15? THAT would be newsworthy. I am not newsworthy. I can preach to the choir, I can confirm people’s biases, but I will likely not sway anyone who is eager to dismiss a Native New Yorker who lives in Hollywood. I grew up in the New York of the 1970s, and that part of my identity did shape my politics. My mom’s boss was gay and the Son of Sam posed a realistic threat. As such, gays are job creators[2] and guns are used for homicide much more often than they are used for self-defense[3]. I have found this to be generally true over the years, and there’s even data to back it up.

“But Mr. Bowie,” you might say, though I insist you call me John - “those studies are conducted by elitist institutions and those institutions suck!” And again, I am not going to reason with people who will dismiss anything that doesn’t fit their limited world view as elitist or, God Help Us, fake news. But the studies above are peer-reviewed, convincing, and there are more where those came from.

“But John,” you might say, and I am soothed that we’re one a first name basis - “Can’t you just stay on Twitter for the jokes?” Ugh. A) apparently not and B) the jokes are few and far between, and I am 100% part of that problem.

I have stuff to offer, but Twitter is not the place from which to offer it.

After years of academically understanding that Twitter is not the real world, Super Tuesday 2020 made the abstract pretty fucking concrete. If you had looked at my feed on the Monday beforehand – my feed which is admittedly curated towards the left, but not monolithic (Hi, Rich Lowry!) – you’d have felt that a solid Bernie surge was imminent, but also that your candidate was going surprise her more vocal critics. When the Biden sweep swept, when Bernie was diminished and when Warren was defeated, I realized that Twitter is not only not the real world, it’s almost some sort of Phillip K. Dickian alternate timeline, untethered to anything we’re actually experiencing in our day to day life. This is both good news and bad news – one, we’re not heading towards a utopia of single payer health care and the eradication of American medical debt any time soon, but two, we’re also not being increasingly governed by diaper-clad jungen like Charlie Kirk. Clouds and their linings. Leaving Twitter may look like ceding ground to the assclowns but get this – the ground. Is not. There.

It’s just air.

There are tangible things I can do with my time - volunteer with a local organization called Food On Foot, who provide food and job training for people experiencing homelessness here in my adopted Los Angeles. I can give money to candidates and causes I support, and I can occasionally even drop by social media to boost a project or an issue and then vanish, like a sort of Caucasian Zorro who doesn’t read his mentions. I can also model good behavior for my kids (ages 10 and 13) who don’t need to see their father glued to his phone, arguing about Trumps incompetence with Constitutional scholars who have a misspelled Bible verse in their bio (three s’ in Ecclesiastes, folks).

So farewell Twitter. I’ll miss a lot of you. Perhaps not as badly as I miss Simon Maloy and Roger Ebert and Harris Wittels and others whose deaths created an unfillable void on the platform. But I won’t miss the yelling, and the lionization of poor grammar, and anonymous trolls telling my Jewish friends that they were gonna leave the country “via chimney.” I will not miss people who think Trump is a stable genius calling me a “fucktard.” I will not miss transphobia or cancelling but I will miss hashtag games, particularly my stellar work during #mypunkmusical (Probably should have quit after that surge, I was on fire that night, real blaze of glory stuff I mean, Christ, Sunday in the Park with the Germs? Husker Du I Hear A Waltz? Fiddler on the Roof (keeping an eye out for the cops)? These are Pulitzer contenders.). Twitter makes me feel lousy, even when I’m right, and I’m often right. There’s just no point in barking bumperstickers at each other, and there are people who are speaking truth to power and doing a cleaner job of it – Aaron Rupar, Steven Pasquale, Louise Mensch, Imani Gandy and Ijeoma Oluo to name five solid mostly politically based accounts (Yes, Pasquale is a Broadway tenor. He’s also a tenacious lefty with good points and research and a dreamy voice. You think you’re straight and then you hear him sing anything from Bridges of Madison County and you want him to spoon you.). You’re probably already following those mentioned, but on the off chance you’re not, get to it. You’ll thank me, but you won’t be able to unless you actually have my email.

_______

[1] And Jesus, that’s worse – Ithaca is such a lefty enclave that they had an actual socialist mayor FOR WHOM I VOTED while I was there. And not socialist the way some people think all Democrats are socialist – I mean Ben Nichols actually ran on the socialist ticket and was re-elected twice for a total of six years.

[2] The National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, “America’s LGBT Economy” Jan 20th, 2017

[3] The Violence Policy Institute, Firearm Justifiable Homicides and Non-Fatal Self Defense Gun Use, July 2019.