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writingwithcolor · 3 years ago

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Desexualized Mammy & Strong Black Woman, too busy for “frivolous love”

“Alyse” (Anon Submission) asked:

My science fiction story includes a black woman (Talia) who raises two children that aren’t her own and takes on two young adults as apprentices. One of the children she is raises has Arabic background and was taken into her home upon his father’s death (his mother’s whereabouts are unknown). She was a close friend of his father and the closest thing he had to a relative. The second child has mixed French-Latinx background and was taken in after becoming shipwrecked with no means by which to contact her people. Talia was the first non-hostile individual she encountered and one of the few who would so openly embrace a stranger. Since Talia is Master Medic (the highest medical authority in her community) she is training two apprentices (think residency) and eventually mentors the second child as well. She was once married and passionately in love but lost her husband to illness. In this setting, some technology we take for granted is inaccessible and violence against their people is commonplace. Most have experienced sudden loss. This particular loss was the catalyst that drove Talia into medicine- a desire to protect her loved ones and prevent others from experiencing similar tragedy. She is usually kind (though businesslike) but sometimes succumbs to a frigid, furious depression when, despite all her knowledge and determination, she can’t save someone.

I worry that her maternal association with the two children (one of whom is an outsider) mires her in the mammy trope. On top of that, she hasn’t pursued romance since the death of her husband. I’ve considered giving her a romantic subplot but there are already so many characters to keep track of. Furthermore, I just can’t see her engaging in the frivolous pursuits of new love when she’s dealing with kids, students, and an extremely taxing career.

In terms of race and culture in this story, practically every character can trace their ancestry back to populations displaced through war. Even Talia’s second child was shipwrecked during a botched evacuation from a military science lab. The people who live here have been isolated for generations and no longer have a real concept of their ancestry. Cultures have blended, new religions have formed, and many of our familiar racial/ethnic issues are forgotten. However, new and different but equally toxic ones have replaced them. In this way, Talia’s blackness doesn’t carry the same associations in her world as it would in ours. However, readers may still make these associations. Do you see any issues with her character that I could amend?

So! You have:

A highly educated Black-coded woman (the highest medical authority in the community)

She raises two kids alone

She also looks after two apprentices

She is widowed (not sure the race of the husband, was he Black?)

Having experienced heartbreaking love, Talia's drive to look after, protect and save people through medicine is a great motivation for the way she is. Her experiencing depression and taking losses seriously is also very human and is dynamic characterization.

However, such characterization with Black women is prone to brush across several tropes. You have a Black woman who gives and protects, but what does she get in return? Who cares for her?

Prioritize your Black character’s happiness

"I’ve considered giving her a romantic subplot but there are already so many characters to keep track of. Furthermore, I just can’t see her engaging in the frivolous pursuits of new love when she’s dealing with kids, students, and an extremely taxing career."

Priorities, priorities. Is love a frivolous pursuit in her eyes, or yours? Because I strongly disagree. You probably don't mean to but you, as the author, having an excuse to NOT give the Black woman romance is showing that you do not think she's worth being loved. TV viewers and stans who are uncomfortable when Black women characters have relationships find similar excuses to explain away not wanting BW in relationships.

"She's too strong and independent for a man/relationship"

"I liked her better alone."

"It'll take away from her character."

“A romance doesn’t feel right for her”

These sorts of statements above are grounded in racialized misogyny.

Relationships do not lessen the woman.

Relationships does not lessen Black women.

Love

Whether that love is romantic, familial, or friendship, it can come in many forms. Give Talia love. Because Black women characters deserve it! Either one or all!

Let her have a loyal best friend, a cat, and a girlfriend. Because why not? And not to downplay the love of children to parents, but please provide her love beyond what she gets on a maternal level from the children she looks after.

The stories that Black women are in today severely lack love for us, so why add to the narrative of Black women being all work and no play, and too [insert excuse here] to be loved?

Of course, you didn't provide all the details from your story, but I'm not seeing much of a balance from the struggle. She is a caretaker, teacher, doctor (or doctor-like figure).

Her position and background in itself is okay. It's the Strong Black Woman being presented with seemingly no commentary that strikes me.

Where is her team to help balance the weight of the world?

Who takes care of her when she's depressed from another loss?

What does she get in return from taking an emotional and physical toll to heal her community?

Do those around her recognize all she does for them and offer their friendship?

When does she get to relax and turn off the need to be everything for everybody?

Fitting love into a book with many characters

There are many books with several characters to keep track of. People tend to manage. Also, I'm sure some of those characters are in and/or out of relationships. Even stories that couldn’t be classified as romances have relationships of some sort. It’s unrealistic to have a ton of characters and none of them be in relationship(s) of some sort. Not when there’s so many forms of it and many sexualities.

Friends, frenemies, enemies, romance, affairs.. Relationships make stories (and life) interesting. By no means do I think adding these dynamics harm your tale. And what’s one more for a hard-working Black woman who sacrifices a lot and clearly deserves a shoulder to lean on? And, if you use an existing character to be that friend, family, or lover, then you won’t need to pencil in another character.

For romance specifically - I think a misconception when it comes to including romance in stories is that they have to somehow take over the story. Romance does not have to bombard the plot nor be described in lavish detail. Not every story is a romance and those sort of details aren’t everyone’s style or things they’re comfortable with. A sentence or two establishing relationships does not take away from the story.And how those relationships look and affections expressed will vary based on the characters, sexuality, etc.

Not every character needs to have a deep level of detail.

“Katie and Lisa, a newly engaged couple, walked into the meeting.”

“Jack and Jamie are a married couple in their 40s.”

“The two met in college. After two months of blissful courtship, they eloped, eager to start their happily ever afters. Twenty years together, they were still blissfully in love and never too far from one another.”

Sentences like the above are enough for some characters. You don’t always need to put in paragraphs worth of relationship-establishing details or plot.

When it comes to the characters whose love you would like to highlight, at least a bit, you still don’t have to go over the top.

Use subtle details.

“As soon as Talia’s back was turned, he gave her a longing look before shaking his head and getting back to the patient.”

“He squeezed her hand before taking hold of the stethoscope.”

“She kissed her wife goodbye before racing out the door.”

“You mean the world to me.” he had said, holding her face. Those words stayed with her all day, making her heavy load light as a sack of feathers.

“She soaked his shirt with her tears and he just held her tight, saying nothing, silently holding her together.”

As for Talia specifically…

Talia having the mindset you described, as love being frivolous and not a priority, is understandable knowing her background (I just don't agree with you as the creator using this as a means to keep her alone. Whether she’s romantically alone or without close friendships). She has lost so much, and continues to experience loss with patients. This can be extremely traumatizing. I gave some examples of being subtle, so perhaps that will help with the burden of feeling a thick subplot of romance doesn’t fit in your story.

And as Talia doesn’t strike me as someone who would go looking for companionship, what if she stumbles upon it without trying? Is there someone on the medical team that can offer her friendship? Someone who admires her and feels the urge to care for her that she feels the same for, or has pushed feelings down for? What happens when she can’t hold those feelings down anymore?

Takeaway

Talia deserves healthy love, even if she doesn’t believe it or feel she has time for it. That love can come in any and many forms, not necessarily romantically required, although it is a plus. A struggle-ridden novel is balanced by love, support and rest for characters that hold the weight of the world. If you do not, evaluate why you want to write Black characters in these struggle roles without at least a social commentary.

~Mod Colette

#Black women #Strong Black Woman #Mammy #relationships #romance #asks

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system-of-a-feather · 4 years ago

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How do you feel about endos? Just curious.

Oookay, Riku will probably never get around to this, and while Riku wants to “get all the aspects” addressed in a “diplomatic” manner because it is a “complex and multifaceted discussion”, but they are over thinking this and will literally never do it so I’ll go with the really rough outline that they started and fill it in with what I know of our system.

Sorry if I sound really inflammatory, I’m not a diplomatic person lel

Also, for comedy sake, I am going to maintain everything Riku kept in this outline and try my best to fill it out. A lot of this I am completely lost on so, there will be moments where I am clearly confused lel

I may get some of our opinions “wrong” because I’m kind of taking a guess from my access of the brain, so I apologize if Riku looks at any asks or reblogs we might get from this and goes WHY DID ADERIS SAY THAT?! I’m trying my best

===

Overall TLDR Opinion: So as a system, we don’t like to be too involved in it publicly. Its a multilayered complex topic with too much nuance for it to be worth advocating for or against, and with how large of a cultural phenomenon it is, it isn’t going to change with us. We don’t think it is likely that DID can be formed without trauma, but we also don’t write it off fully. We strongly however do not like “intentional” systems and find it really offensive and gross. With that being said, we also recognize issues in being too forward about that, so we don’t bother with it much.

More details below the keep reading.

-Aderis (Local Discourse Alter)

Can I follow if…

Yes. We really don’t limit or care who is following us. If you identify as an endogenic, singlet, fictionkin, a roll of toothpaste, we really don’t mind or care. I mean, we’d prefer if transphobes and homophobes and all those gross things weren’t following us because honestly - G r o s s - but also like, whatever.

I guess the only people we don’t want following are people that are actively going to use our posts to hurt others or to fetishize trauma or anything? I don’t think we have much worry for that but yeah nah. If you are endogenic or whatever, you can still follow. Just know that our writing isn’t written for an endogenic crowd.

====

Stages of Understanding DID and Endogenic Spaces

I don’t FUCKING know what Riku meant this. What the FUCK is “stages of understanding DID”? I’ve been sitting here for like... five minutes trying to understand what that meant, but I *think* they were trying to get at the idea of how people come to terms with DID.

If that is the case, then one reasons we don’t want to bash or actively advocate against endogenics is that identifying as an endogenic / endogenic-parallel concepts or finding concepts put out there by endogenics is kind of a stage / easier way to accept the situation since it doesn’t carry to baggage of having to accept that you were abused / mistreated.

It isn’t necessarily the healthiest and there is a large concern of getting misinformation and feeding the denial or learning really bad coping mechanisms through those environments, so we don’t think it is a **good** purpose or environment to be in, but the last thing we’d want is to force people who are still struggling to understand their mental state and come to terms with the past that they *have* to admit that they were really fucked up and hurt by things that had happened in the past.

We have a lot of mixed feelings and don’t have a firm stance on if that role in coming to terms with DID is good or not so we really don’t know there or have firm opinions. Since we don’t have firm opinions, we default to “we don’t want to rush / control / dictate what other people with DID are doing in their path of healing and we don’t want to rush people’s healing journey with DID” so we refrain from involving or telling people one thing or the next.

====

Intentional Systems / Tulpamancy Systems

We think they are really offensive and problematic. We instantaneously unfollow and block systems that claim to be intentional, and we tend to unfollow people who post about intentional systems. That is the part of the endogenic community we have very little patience for.

We do know there are still probably actual DID / OSDD systems out there that use those terms to write off their condition similar to endogenics mentioned above, but the amount of damage these ones do and the just straight up often horrible thoughts and opinions about DID that they have outweighs our opinion on not budding our head where it doesn’t belong.

Don’t fetishize / make our disorder a fun thing.

====

Median Systems

Uhh.... I think Riku was going to mention something about how we found out that some people have multiple people in their head through median systems and came to understand that as ourselves and learned beyond that???

I don’t really know what stands out in specific about Median Systems though. I think there might be an opinion somewhere about BPD and Median systems? But generally we also put this in the same categroy as “stages of understanding DID”. Maybe if Riku comes around they can explain if they even know.

====

Can you have a system without trauma?

Oooookaaay, this is one Riku would be 10000% better at answering because they have a lot of nerd stuff about this about science and psychology and statistics and research and shit. I’m not that savvy in those topics though? So I guess I’ll give you a quick rundown from the gist.

We don’t think that it is likely that you can have a system - a true dissociative system with dissociated parts - without trauma. That though comes with the key word “likely”. We are very much open to the possibility / idea that other methods could form dissociated parts and are actually a bit keen into maybe some day doing research on it. Science and research has backed that DID is formed due to disorganized attachment to caregivers and repeated trauma at a young age, but DID is very under researched, psychology is a soft science, and very little about the conscious, identity, and dissociation is actually firmly known.

Until the exact neurological structure / reasoning / process to how DID forms and how it differs from those that don’t have it, we really hesitate to put it in any box because that’s really not how mental health works. It might be that the majority of cases are due to trauma, but theoretically other disorders can cause pretty dissociation and if said disorders occurred at a young enough age, then theoretically maybe something like that could happen. There is somewhere in this brain a tab on ADHD or something, but I can’t go into that cause I really wouldn’t do it a service.

The really condensed version is we don’t think so with our current understanding and readings, but we don’t think it is 100% certain and there is a very reasonable possibility that there is something out there, a different path way that can cause the DID we know - or a different condition that looks and appears similar to DID but is fundamentally different.

You rarely ever *know* anything in psych, especially with something so abstract of a disorder with little research on it such as DID and how consciousness / states of consciousness work in the brain to really be claiming anything so certainly.

====

Should endogenics be considered DID?

I don’t care?? Honestly, our system is generally of the consensus that until evidence comes to show that it is possible AND the same disorder, then no. And even then, I think the question Riku meant was “should endogenics and DID be related / equated / in the same space” which is a strong no.

Even if endogenics are real and are possible, the amount of which trauma plays into what we currently know as DID is so ridiculous that there is honestly little overlap other than the “same hat” of having multiple parts in a body. So much of DID is much more about “spicy” C-PTSD with the exclusive DLC of thick dissociative barriers. A lot of our experience is centered around navigating trauma and helping parts grow beyond the trauma that seeded their existence and I really don’t know how much of that would be able to be properly understood and shared with someone who has NO trauma? I also feel as though inherently the dynamics between parts would HAVE to be extremely different without trauma because all of the “roles” in our system are fundamentally absed on how we are because of our trauma and how we cope and manage things.

====

Endogenics on Social Media / Practically Speaking?

We leave them alone for the most part. If they aren’t being toxic or spreading misinformation, its really not our deal to care about much - and even then it really isn’t. We have a lot of other things in our life to care about and we really don’t have the time or energy to get worked up, heated, stressed, or anything because we see someone claiming to have parts without trauma.

I say let people be people and do things as people do so long as they aren’t harming anyone. We disagree and are technically “sysmeds” or whatever, but like, its not that huge of a thing.

Anyways, that’s all.

#alter: aderis #syscourse #discourse #endogenic tw #ask #asks #opinion

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demi-shoggoth · 5 years ago

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COVID-19 Reading Log

No idea if there’s any interest in this, but putting this out here.

With my vastly increased amount of time stuck at home (that is to say, all of it), it’s given me the opportunity to read more. And although I’m probably never going to catch up completely on my “To Read” pile, I have put a decent dent in it. So I will be periodically chronicling the books I have read. So far, in the last two and a half weeks, I have read...

1. Moths: A complete Guide to Biology and Behavior by David C. Lees and Alberto Zilli. Published by the Smithsonian, this book is lavishly illustrated with color photos depicting moth structures and behaviors. A good overview of the biology of Lepidoptera that aren’t butterflies (which are most of them). The copy came from the library with a neat little insert of errata, mostly for image captions and missing citations. Which suggests that the editorial process wasn’t as tidy as it could have been. The writing style is fluid and light for some decent technical detail. Some types of moths serve as possible inspiration for future monster—moths with tusks, caterpillars that stack their severed head capsules on their heads and use them as bludgeons, giant puss moth caterpillars with venomous hairs.

2. Hackmaster: Hacklopedia: Rustlers of the Night by Jolly R. Blackburn, et. al. A Hackmaster monster book I didn’t know existed until I found it used in a Half Price Books. It is a print on demand product only, and is a compilation of monsters from the back matter of the Knights of the Dinner Table comic book and a few modules. Size more like a trade paperback for a comic than it is for an RPG supplement. Creatures are the usual mix for Hackmaster—some conversions from AD&D, some gag monsters, some original creatures. Some toxic misogyny (the “gargirls”, or female gargoyles, are particularly bad). Lots of fire themed monsters—apparently from a City of Brass themed adventure. High concentration of good critters, especially in the back half. I will be converting plenty of these to Pathfinder.

3. When the Earth Had Two Moons by Erik Asphang. This one was a bit of a chore to get through. It’s about the early history of the solar system and how we know what we know. Some cool concepts and science are here. There are models of collisions between massive (planet sized) objects showing how they can warp, fuse or shear apart. The ideas of what conditions are like on the surface and below the surface of planets (both in our own solar system and outside of it) are captivating and weird. But the writing style is disorganized. Concepts are jumped back and forth between, and there’s no logical flow of ideas from one to the next. There are better books about astrophysics for lay readers out there, but it wasn’t exactly bad. Just not great.

4. What’s Eating You? by Eugene H. Kaplan. I honestly am not sure if I’ve already read this book and just forgotten about it, or if this is the first time. Books about parasites do tend to repeat the same anecdotes (Jewish grandmothers contracting fish tapeworm while preparing gefilte fish, the cycle of infection for Guinea worm, a personal connection to the ubiquitous pinworm). The most striking thing about the book are the illustrations—they are stippled and depict parasites, life history stages, and people infected with parasites. Many of the people are in homage to or parodies of classical art. The author’s attitude towards people living in developing countries seems paternalistic, which is an unpleasant running theme in the background of this book. Maybe skip this one—seek out Parasite Rex or People, Parasites and Plowshares for similar, better books.

5. The Wonders by John Woolf. The topic of the book is on the Victorian era and freak show performers. The main focus on the book is Charles Stratton, who performed under the name General Tom Thumb with PT Barnum. I suspect that the project started as a biography of Stratton, and then changed focus when the author realized he couldn’t find enough verifiable material for a full length book. Other performers who receive biographical information are Chang and Eng Bunker, who are the reason conjoined twins are still referred to as “Siamese Twins” to this day; Daniel Lambert, who influenced the depiction of John Bull as fat; Joice Heth, who was advertised by Barnum as the world’s oldest woman (and cruelly exploited—her chapters are difficult reading); and Julia Pastrana (whose manager was even crueler, and weirder, than Barnum). The writing flows well, and is highly empathetic to the performers. Parts of these stories are ones I’ve read before in other books, but Woolf has a good eye for detail and for connecting the people he writes about to the events of the era. The sexualization of non-normal bodies is covered extensively in the book. The sexualization of “Tom Thumb” when he was a child performer was especially alarming and troubling. Highly recommended—best book I’ve read so far in quarantine.

6. Life in the Dark by Danté Fenolio. This was a pleasant surprise. Specifically, that the book didn’t focus solely on abyssal life, which is what I expected going in. Other creatures adapted to low light environments, such as cave dwelling species, burrowers and even parasites are covered as well. It’s mostly a photo book, with captions describing the animals and their adaptations, but each chapter has a few pages of text introducing it. The photography is uniformly excellent, and the book sent me down a few rabbit holes looking up the interrelatedness of different groups of fish. My only complaint is the final chapter—chapters on the need for conservation work are de rigueur in books about the natural world these days, but the text in this one is somewhat overwrought (and the last photograph, of a sunset over the ocean, doesn’t help matters).

7. Skeleton Keys by Riley Black, writing as Brian Switek. This is a book I’ve been meaning to read for some time. The book is about skeletons—the evolution of the vertebrate skeleton, the structure of the human skeleton and the cultural significance of it. It is heavily informed by the real world events surrounding it. As the header implies, Black came out as trans shortly after writing the book (the second, paperback edition calls Brian Switek her “pen name”). The idea of “osteological sex” correlated with pelvis shape is strongly stressed in the text as not the same thing as either sex or gender, and references exist to gender identity and personal perception when referring to people both ancient and modern. Black is a good writer—I’ve enjoyed all of her books. I would have preferred the book be illustrated, though. The only illustrations in the book are chapter plates borrowed from public domain osteology texts. I understand the practical considerations, but it’s slightly disappointing. Still, definitely recommended.

8. Monster, She Wrote by Lisa Kröger and Melanie R. Anderson. This is not exactly the book I was expecting. The subtitle is “the women who pioneered horror and speculative fiction”. I was expecting a series of short biographical sketches of a dozen or so earlier writers in those genres; something more like the approach to the various performers in The Wonders. Instead, it covers a few dozen women, from Margaret Cavendish to the modern day. And while it does give some biographical information, it is much more a recommended reading list than anything else. Fun, but I was hoping for something more substantive.

9. Invasive Plants by Sylvan Ramsey Kaufman and Wallace Kaufman. It’s a field guide. The photographs are nice, but it’s a field guide, so not exactly gripping reading. What struck me the most was how many of the plants covered I recognized from my backyard growing up. The authors are on the East Coast (in Maryland), and the East and South get a bit more attention than other parts of the country. As someone who is intimately familiar with some of the invasive plants of California, some that weren’t in the book (Sahara mustard and ice plant especially) struck me as notable omissions. It was cool to see references to plants I’ve worked on and scientists I’ve worked with in the sources.

10. Life through the Ages II by Mark Witton. This is a loose sequel to Charles Knight’s Life through the Ages; it’s designed to be a look at the state of paleoart and paleontology in the early 21th century, the way Knight’s book was a look at the ideas of the mid-20th century. The paintings in the book are gorgeous and well-informed, as Witton’s work generally is. About half of them have appeared on his blog in various forms previously, but some of the best are debuting here. Some of the paintings that stand out the most to me are a very grand stromatolite; an Atropodenatus howling at a suggestively shaped rock that strikes me as being influenced by Bradbury’s “The Fog Horn” and Harryhausen’s The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms; an Opthamalosaurus swimming by a coastline studded with dead trees that look much like the decaying columns of an ancient civilization; a Georgiacetus mother watching over her calf rolling around on a rocky shore; and a Neanderthal family protecting their curious child from getting too close to a wooly mammoth.

#long post #reading log #books

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thisiswhatascientistlookslike · 4 years ago

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Spies in Disguise: A Feminist Perspective

Fia – 15/07/2020

Last week, I watched Spies in Disguise, an action comedy animated film that came out in December 2019, with characters voiced by Will Smith and Tom Holland. Before I begin criticising it, I should say that I absolutely loved it. The characters were interesting and well developed, the story was easy to follow and fun to watch, and most of the jokes made me laugh out loud.

As an aspiring scientist myself, I was especially pleased to see the way science was brought into the spotlight (something which unfortunately doesn’t happen often in entertainment media) by Tom Holland’s character, Walter. I loved Walter. He was probably my favourite character of the film. Not only is he always passionate about science (which probably made me very biased in his favour), he is also wildly different from your typical action film male character. Walter is not physically strong and relies entirely on his brain to get him out of dangerous situations. He is also very close to his pet pigeon Lovey, adores pigeons in general, and enjoys Korean romance dramas. And most importantly, he repeatedly refuses to fight fire with fire and always seeks the solution that involves the least violence. Basically, nowhere near the traditional masculinity often depicted in this genre. He sets a precedent. I feel a tremendous joy for all the little boys and all the men who watched this film and came out of it having found a role model in Walter, knowing that they did not have to aspire to yet another representation of toxic masculinity, and instead could find joy in being kind, in being weird, in being themselves.

But I can’t help but wonder – what if Walter had been a woman instead of a man?

This is not to say that there are no inspiring women in important roles in this film. The spy agency itself is led by a woman, Joy (Reba McEntire), who keeps her cool in the tensest of situations and who recognises her mistakes. There is also Marcy (Rashida Jones), a BIPOC woman and funny, cat-loving badass who strives to fight for what’s right and refuses to allow corruption in the agency – although she does spend a large part of the film wrongly accusing the main character of being a villain and thus accidentally becoming somewhat of a villain herself.

Furthermore, Walter’s “tragic backstory” is centred around him being bullied and belittled by his peers for being a “weirdo” due to his passion for science and his creative, out-of-the-box approach to design weapons made to destabilise the enemy rather than harm them; he finds himself marginalised due to his open-minded pacifist views that the spies do not share. But now imagine how much stronger a female Walter’s backstory would have been. For every scene in which Lance (Will Smith) tells Walter that he has no place in the fight, we could have had Lance tell her to be a good girl and go back home – and of course her calling him out on his sexism and refusing to be treated like that. Because she would be a girl who grew up hearing and experiencing the stigma and stereotypes about women not being smart enough to go into STEM fields. A girl who has been through years of not being taken seriously, whether this be as a woman in science or as a passionate pacifist. A girl who has had enough of all of this and is determined to prove her ideas are worth listening to.

Another one of Walter’s character defining aspect is his close relationship to his mother, Wendy, who supports his ambitions for a less violent world – it would have been very interesting to see Wendy supporting her daughter’s aspirations knowing what it will be like for her as a woman in a largely male dominated field. Similarly, at one point of film Marcy has a conversation with Walter in which she tells him she knows how much it’s hurt him to be viewed as a “weirdo”, and she promises to help and support his work at the agency. This is another plot point that could have been made more interesting had Walter been a woman – Marcy could have directly empathised with her, woman to woman, which in my opinion would have given a lot more depth to both characters and to their relationship (we love to see women supporting women!)

And of course, as a role model, female Walter would have inspired so many. Seeing a woman in science would have been crucial not only for all the little girls watching, but also for all the boys to understand that science is not just for them, as is unfortunately illustrated by the astonishingly disproportionate ratio of male to female scientists that children are exposed to in their education (of course, there are and always have been women in STEM fields, but it is not enough for them to only exist if they are never actively talked about and presented as role models). It would also have been amazing if the film addressed the discrimination that women face in science – not to mention, action films in general are an extremely male dominated genre, so to have a woman in a main role would also have been very important and empowering from that perspective.

However, although it features a very diverse cast of characters, Spies in Disguise never once actually addresses sexism or racism – perhaps the film exists in an alternate universe where these have been eradicated, or never existed in the first place (this universe already gives humans the possibility to shape-shift into pigeons and back, so who knows)? But regardless of whether or not it is an alternate universe, the film was made to be viewed by an audience that lives on this version of Planet Earth, where these problems are unfortunately very much real and present in every aspect of our lives – so really they should have been discussed, even without a female Walter.

And even though I do love Walter as he is and think he already makes a huge difference, even though the film did not address the systemic social prejudice that most of the characters would have encountered in our universe, I still believe that seeing a woman as a confident, passionate, and dedicated scientist would have sent a very necessary message to all members of the audience and would have no doubt inspired many.

But in the end, Spies in Disguise remains a wonderful film as it is – and hopefully in the future we will have greater and better representation of science in pop culture, and especially of women in science.

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shy-petty-weirdo · 5 years ago

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Can I go on a Rant about Netflix's Tall Girl? *LONG POST*

*Note* The charator's names are not the same as in the movie, as the movie is unclear about what their names are, I even had subtitles on, and honestly can not tell you their names, non-the-less how to spell them

*Note 2* I am bad at spell, don't have my glasses and it's late, so bare with the middle-school spelling(also the color and the spacing are to not only help me keep track of what I'm writing, but anyone who has a hard time reading long things)

*Note 3* SPOILERS duh

Okay, so I am in no way 'tall' I'm barley the hight to be an astronaut, so I don't have much say in 'how it's so hard to be a tall girl'

Non the less I thought this would be a fun movie to watch with my best friend, who is a year younger than me, but taller, (The only friends I have that aren't taller than me, are the children I watch)

We are both in highschool, and have watch Netflix's orignal teen romcoms before, and loved the ones we watch, little cheesy, but still a good watch for weekly movie night.

I knew from the description of the movie before it came out, it was going to be an overload of cheesy-ness, but it seemed like a good laugh, like the kid of movies one watches for the pure stupid 'hello fellow kids' stuff.

The opening scene itself was something we thought was funny, from the color coded library (I use to volunteer at a library, so I def noticed it) to the fact that the girl who is suppose to be torrmentted for being tall, isn't reconized by not one, but TWO boys who go to HER school until she stands up.

We thought this was just cheesy fun, and her older brother even sat down to watch some of the begining, just to see if they asked her, what the weather was like up there, which they did, atleast five time, and was almost the only thing the 'bullies' actually bullied her about

I want to be clear I am extremly ANTI-bully, and so is my friends, her brother got bullied when he was young, and would get beat up, and even among their younger sibblings, bullying is NOT allowed.

So, there is some stuff behind when I say, Tall Girl wasn't really bullied, but more so teased. Now I know how small comments can over take someone's life, but the way that Tall Girl put it, she was more of a bully to her self than anyone else.

The 'iconic' scene of Tall Girl walking down the hall had us all stop, while my friend's brother pointed out she was literally friends with some one who is a minority (and later shown to be pressured at home to follow a strict life path and not one they want to) And my friend explained how, if Tall Girl wanted to make her life seem worse via shoe size, that she should have gone with a different brand, since Nike makes their shoes bigger, (Now that I think of it, this is def product placement)

Through out the movie Tall girl drags her friends through the mud, and yet plays the victem card the entire time, even though there are bigger issues that could be addressed, such as, the competing her sister does, and the pressure that is placed on her to be more, The social differenaces for the Transfer Student, the Beauty standards placed on girls, ANYTHING ELSE.

The way Tall Girl acts is nothing like any teen I have ever seen, it felt like a terrible 80s teen movie that died before production. I understand that they were trying to 'break' the teen romcom 'code' by making the mean girl not a dumb blonde, and have Tall Girl not get back with Transfer Student at the end, but they ended up with the exact opposite.

Most teens are not looking for a S.O.

Being tall is not a major hinder on a highschooler's life (espically being 6ft 1.5 inches)

Physical things that can not be changed are not something that most people even notice, non the less complain about on OTHER PEOPLE

Teens are more concerned about the STATE OF THE WORLD than any of the 2d personallity traits given to the main character

The most realistic/likeable character(s) were

1. Girl with glasses

2. Boy in the background of the scene in the science class balancing a pencil on his face

3.Tall Girl's father, who does everything he could think of to make his daughter happy and "normal"

4. Tall Girl's O.T. who was actually cultured in the world, really liked the Transfer Student, didn't know about him cheating, tried to be a good wing-girl to her best friend, even after he said that Tall Girl was hotter

5.Dudly(?) Crate-Boy who despite being possesive over Tall Girl in the movie scene, tells Transfer Student to do the right thing, which not just is so Tall Girl won't get the guy, but so Transfer Student doen't lead on the Multi-lingual Girl, which is solid advise anyway

6. Maya Hart, aka Tall Girl's sister. Through-out the movie we see Maya continusly working hard to acheive her personal goals, and simply try to be a good big sister. Though her advice to Tall Girl to fight for Transfer Student isn't the kind a rational person would give to someone, who just kissed a person in a relationship, we can really see how hard Maya is working towards her goals, and how much she wants to help her sister, as seen in the I Liked It When You Needed Me scene

7. Even though Pink hair girl doen't get a personallity in the script besides being into fashion and being an awesome amazing friend, She deserves better by Tall Girl, and her out burst at Tall Girl throwing her-self a pitty party, even though Tall Girl has all the tools to succesed in life, all the support, and everything she needs, except for a romance that, even Tall Girl's sister said was doomed from the begining

The begining of the film, gave off B-rated fun, but slowly moved down hill, as if this was the rock that us teens are forced to push up hill in this afterlife.

Tall Girl, herself slowly but steadly became more and more toxic, not only to herself, as she was in the start, but to her friends, family and classmates too.

At the start, her toxicity was contained in self pitty, which would have been a wonderful plot for the movie, being a tall inscure highschool girl, who finds her place in life, with her friends ad family, learning to love herself. Unfortunitly that's not what happened.

Tall Girl puts all of her energy and worth into finding a boyfriend, and I can't stress this enough, WHILE IN HIGHSCHOOL! I know everyone has heard it before, but the highschool years, though they seem all important, aren't that important, Humans are living into their 100s now, 4 akward years, where people just like you are trying to surive aren't going to make as big of a dent in your life as they use to make. Her friends, would probably be the only thing that she would take past the highschool years, if she wasn't so toxic

Tall Girl reminded me very much so of early 2010-2013, which may not seem like a long time ago, but it is almost 2020. Many of the traits Tall Girl showed are traits that many people stopped exibiting in 2016.

The only emotional smart charactors are Glasses and Dad,

While it IS a teen romcom, and so one would expect many 'crazy' ideas and things, This doesn't mean modern teens can't tell what toxic behavior is. I know the closer one is to the person, the hard the traits are to reconize, but just being aware of other people, and a general nice person one can see where the toxic traits are, even, if not more so in ones-self

The only time this movie seemed aware of the differance between the real world and the movie was the mother stating that her hardships in highschool was turning down all the boys that asked her to prom, and then Tall Girl rolls her eyes, and there is a very obvisous nod to the fact that being to popular is not really that much of a hardship to face

Many people often look on the 'Crate-Boy uses the crate to kiss Tall Girl' scene as romantic, and I will not tell them they are wrong for believing so, as everyone has their own perspective. I for one though saw it as Tall Girl still getting undeserved attention, and what she wanted.

The Prom scene is a prime example of this. Tall Girl doesn't like that Multi-Lingul Girl and Transfer Student are prom king & queen, and so, instead of letting them have their 15 sec of fame, she goes on stage, unanounced, Which I believe is not allowed at most proms, and make a speech, (usally these speaches show how the main charactor has changed for the better, and will not be forced to be what they are not)

This speach how ever, comes across as an ego boost, espically if one keeps in mind the very first scene where the two boy in her school didn't even know who she was. She goes on stage an makes a speach about how she is impowered by being tall and no one will make her feel bad about it.

This on paper sounds like it would be a real turning point, except THE MAIN CHARACTOR DOESN'T LEARN

Tall Girl faces no conciqueses for pushing her best friend (pink hair) to the side and using her as an emotional punching bag, she 'gets the guy' that she treated the EXACT SAME WAY SHE DIDN'T want to be treated, and nor is her self-pitty problem solved

All in all, this movie was insufferable, unrealistic, made my friend and I root for the 'villians' and side charators, and somehow make a film where it would be better off with the main charator being a side charator

I would really love to meet the writers and see the teens they are around, to see how they possible could have though such a toxic thing was okay to show to teens, espically the way they try to frame it as 'Goals'

***This is in no way against the actors/actresses that played in the film, nor those who helped backstage, (ex makeup, sets, etc) this is more aimed towards the writers of the script, and whoever thought that this was something good for teens.

#tall girl #netflix #teenager #teen #romcom #romance #movies #movienight #movie night #teen drama #review #long reads #long post #adhd friendly #rant #sorry for the rant #rants n rambles

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briangroth27 · 5 years ago

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Dora and the Lost City of Gold Review

Dora and the Lost City of Gold is a very fun all-ages adventure! I’ve never seen more than a clip or two of Dora the Explorer, but that didn’t hurt the movie at all for me. The film starts with a summation of the cartoon’s style to get new audiences up to speed on the conventions of the show and it worked perfectly. I was in the mood for a fun jungle adventure flick, saw the good reviews this was getting, and I’m happy to report that it lives up to both those standards!

Full spoilers…

Isabela Moner more than capably leads the film as Dora, whose enthusiasm for learning, exploring, and life in general is absolutely infectious. Dora’s expertise in the jungle and her drive to find the lost city of Parapata were awesome! While her childlike enthusiasm is written as a side effect of being secluded from most of modern society to a large extent, it was refreshing to see a teenage lead who isn’t dour and down on life. Her dauntless willingness to go it alone when she had to was a relatable and realistic trait, and her acceptance of the fact that she was even stronger when she had a team backing her up was a cool message. I’m glad Dora didn’t lose her exuberance by the end of the movie or change to be more socially acceptable to her new high school friends, even if she does choose to stay and get to know them better rather than go off on another adventure. Her journey isn’t that she needs to remember to be herself regardless of whether she fits in or not, it’s that she needs to let people in to her world again, so Dora getting to remain true to herself while making new friends was very cool. Of course, it’s always great to see a female-led adventure film (particularly in this subgenre) with a nonwhite lead and cast (or at least the overwhelming majority of it) too! More of that please!

Dora’s cousin Diego (Jeff Wahlberg), her intellectual rival at school Sammy (Madeleine Madden), and everyman student (and impressive breath-holder) Randy (Nicholas Coombe) provided a share of challenges for Dora she wasn’t expecting at all: high school. Diego’s embarrassment over Dora’s personality felt like a realistic (though unfortunate) reaction to a younger sibling who doesn’t want to conform to high school society’s standards, while Dora’s scientific take on Diego’s feelings for Sammy was funny and built their sense of familial bonds nicely. Theirs is the strongest relationship in the movie and emotional core. I thought the breakdown of their bond felt realistic and painful (leading to Dora largely shutting everyone out as a kid and opening that wound all over again as a young adult) and that the repairs to their relationship were well-done and satisfying. I was glad Dora and Sammy’s rivalry wasn’t over some guy and that Sammy wasn’t written or performed as a mean girl, but one who was concerned about her standing in the class GPA. She also generally couldn’t understand Dora’s outlook, which is ironic given how Diego and apparently the other students at school don’t understand her, vilifying her for her outlook and “attitude” as well. The common ground she and Dora came to with Dora’s know-how and Sammy’s contributions to the quest for Parapata created a nice build to their budding friendship. I liked that Randy didn’t have toxic vibes to his crush on Dora, and he brought a nice balance of pure terror and truly wanting to help his new friends to the adventure. These kids have their issues, but none of them were ever unlikable and they all felt like real people, not caricatures or an adult’s attempt at writing “annoying youths” (or cartoons). I also liked that all four of them came together to keep each other alive and they all contributed to solving the traps protecting Parapata’s treasure. That was a cool way to unify Dora’s quest to save her parents (Michael Pena, Eva Longoria) and finish their search for the city with her arc toward sharing her life with people and depending on friends instead of just herself.

Dora’s parents don’t have much to do here, as they’re kidnapped for most of the film, but I liked how supportive they were of Dora (even if they were just as bewildered by some of her habits as her friends at school were). I really liked that they spelled out the distinction between exploring and learning vs. treasure hunting and plundering cultural artifacts. CBS’ Blood & Treasure made a similar point of noting who should get to display what artifacts (if they are to be displayed at all), and it’s good to see a more socially conscious approach to archaeology taking hold in the movies and on TV. Films like the Indiana Jones series are among my all-time favorites, but those artifacts don’t belong in an American museum, they belong to the cultures that originated them. I didn’t expect the movie to bring in an actual Inca royal/goddess (Q'orianka Kilcher) with an army to protect Parapata, but that was an excellent addition that felt totally natural with the world they’d established! I always want the supernatural stuff in films like these to be real, so seeing these people appear was very cool. It was also a neat twist on the formula (and execution of her parents’ guidelines on exploring) that Dora & co. didn’t get to keep the treasure, only increase their knowledge by confirming its existence.

Most of the villains are ultimately just muscle, but Eugenio Derbez’s Alejandro Gutierrez gets a lot of screen time thanks to initially disguising himself as a friend of Dora’s parents. He was affable enough that it was reasonable Dora and her friends would fall for his lies (particularly with the stress of their situation and his apparent rescue of them). I wonder if the more comedic persona he puts on was designed to fit with and manipulate Dora’s eternal optimism, which would be a solid take on the older generation manipulating the best intentions of the younger one to fuel their greed. He certainly uses their intelligence to further his own interests (and, depending on how deep his cover was, to keep him alive in the first place). He also personifies the old-school treasure hunter method of archaeology, contrasting him nicely with the younger, more socially and culturally conscious generation. I definitely wouldn’t have included him disrobing in front of teenagers though, even if it was caused by hallucinogenic pollen in an animated sequence.

That moment not being a great look aside, it was refreshing that like Dora herself, a modern adaptation of a kid’s property didn’t take the “dark and gritty is cool and mature” path in an effort to draw in older audiences by ignoring what made the show a success in the first place. Instead, this fully embraced what I assume is the upbeat vibe of the cartoon and absolutely ran with it. They do poke fun at some of the conventions of the animated series, like Dora breaking the fourth wall to teach the audience vocabulary and science, but those self-deprecating jokes absolutely worked and it didn’t feel like the filmmakers were embarrassed by the source material or like they were outright mocking it. It would’ve been easy to make those moments part of the video diary/podcast she has at the beginning of the movie (particularly with the popularity of Instagram and Snapchat stories nowadays), but playing them straight and just having everyone else think she’s weird was so much funnier! Her Map (Marc Weiner), Backpack (Sasha Toro), and possibly her pet monkey Boots’ (Danny Trejo) abilities to talk were played as her childhood imagination and/or hallucinations, which felt like the right balance for the very fun, heightened reality she lives in. I’m glad that they kept the talking, masked fox Swiper (Benicio del Toro) here as well: he feels like a major part of the series’ world and I’m sure fans would’ve been bummed if they left him out. I loved that the questions surrounding him from our heroes were not that he was a fox working with mercenaries, but just that he wore a mask!

While Dora works for all ages, kids are definitely the main target audience and some of the other humor reflects that. I’m not a fan of toilet humor—it’s not that I find it inherently juvenile, I’ve just never thought it was funny—but the two gags in that realm here (quicksand that sounds like farts and the difficulties of using the bathroom in the jungle) didn’t go on long enough to make it feel like this was only for kids; it felt like this was just one style of comedy at play among many. Like Alejandro’s pollen trip, I wouldn’t have included everyone running by Sammy while she was using the bathroom though. Unlike so many movies described as “all ages” but which are really just for kids, the rest of the movie’s comedy, the character development, and the action-adventure sequences totally work regardless of your age and they successfully made it feel like our heroes were on a real adventure with actual dangers. Even if “jungle puzzles” aren’t a thing in the real world, the ones showcased here felt classic and were a lot of fun to see our heroes solve. The pacing moved the story along briskly, but I didn’t feel like Dora’s problems fitting in (and letting others in) were rushed or underdeveloped. The score hits the exact right vibe for this and I liked the original song at the end of the movie too.

If you’re like me and in the mood for a fun, all-ages jungle adventure with a great cast, good action, and a solid emotional core, Dora and the Lost City of Gold will absolutely deliver! I’d definitely watch a sequel. If this one’s still in a theater near you, go see it!

Check out more of my reviews, opinions, and original short stories here!

#dora and the lost city of gold

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kemeticcalloutsfromthepublic · 6 years ago

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To Light A Magic Fart

We have been made aware that our latest commentary has elicited a rant.

https://web.archive.org/save/https://smarmykemeticpagan.wordpress.com/2019/02/12/liminality-divine-intervention-and-other-heresies/

We would like begin by saying the first half of this rant is not only a misdirect but a lot of personal stuff that is outside our targeted topics of commentary so we shall be skipping that.

“As I type all this, I feel a strange sense of bewilderment. I’ve read very little on liminal spaces, magical theory, mythic time, or Dionysus; and yet I’m sitting here, trying to tell my own story and no one else’s, and finding myself describing something that I somehow, recognize as being intimately connected to all of these things at once. “

We must inform you this is very doubtful. As someone who has crusaded against actual knowledge and those who teach it, study it, and understand it, you suddenly valuing any knowledge you are adamant against giving any sense of importance, this is a contradiction. We would like to remind you, you have spent years demonizing those who are academically minded, who would possess the best supply of these topics of information. We need to remind you, you have chased, and guided newcomers away from these very informed and academic individuals with a very glib and dismissive expressions that they are somehow morally and emotionally defective.

We need to remind you, you have spent more posts declaring how unimportant and meaningless academic resources, information, and knowledgeable people who covet such information, that it boggles the mind how you can sit here now and suddenly have an appreciation for information and knowledge. We must say that is highly convenient, almost like you are a bag of contradictions and hyperbole.

“ I don’t know. Maybe I can’t know. Maybe knowing how and why this is happening isn’t the point. “

We would like to mention that in every occurrence that knowledge is passed on from a deity it is made obvious that it is given by them. We would like to remind you, this would be conferred as a minor miracle and the god that granted it would not do so with a cloak and dagger delivery.

“Maybe no matter how strange and fantastic my real life is...“

We can not believe you, as you complain constantly about how you are incredibly oppressed and put-upon by the evil capitalist misogynistic patriarchy, holding you in a death grip of poverty...strange and fantastic is not the picture you spent years painting. If you’d like to recant those lies and give a more accurate depiction of your life, feel free, no need to keep up the pretense.

“... there will always be some way that I and everyone else can convince ourselves that there must be a perfectly mundane, scientific explanation for everything, that nothing truly magical could ever possibly happen in our actual, physical lives. “

We would like to say this is a gross generalization that disturbs us greatly. We would like to mention that, something can be scientific and still be magical. Magical events do not have to be beyond scientific involvement or divorced from the world in a separate sphere. They are part of the same world, they occupy the same space. Magic is everywhere, and science just helps us understand how that natural magic works. We understand the gist of what you are attempting to say but it’s so mushmouth muddled with it loses cohesion. We would like to simplify, you’re wrong. --Memphis

Not familiar with the idea that magic is only science we don’t understand yet, are you? The world is as magical as you make it. --Cairo

“In fact, if I had done what nigh on every single Hellenic polytheist told me, 3 years ago, that I absolutely must do before I was allowed to even talk to any of the Theoi; i.e., devote far more time, money, and energy than I even had... “

You’d have a functional well structured and meaningful religious practice that you can easily make a habit to exercise, in order to have an actual religious practice and not just invent it on a whim while screeching “muh poverty lack of resources”, in a religious practice that has its ancient methodologies of worship and practice well outlined with a knowledgeable community that could inform you of them and help you? We can see how dreadful that would have been! Better you avoided any of that ACTUAL respecting the gods with their own religious practices which are time tested and just dump a can of wine on the ground, belch and in tone “amen, bro”.--Memphis

If every single practitioner of a religion is telling you that you do something, perhaps that’s how the religion is actually practiced? Just saying.--Cairo

”I would still be refusing to accept the very possibility that the Theoi are real, and trying to communicate with me, and weren’t just trying to kick the shit out of me because I ‘m not “humble” enough to be allowed to even casually worship them, or even think about wanting to worship them. That is the extent to which I have been gaslighted by an ableist, sexist, queerphobic world...”

We must inform you this is not gaslighting, and none of this is true. You’re so buried helplessly in the twisted murky interior of your own ideology that you have bought into all the lies and fables it has generated. Snap out of it!

“It’s because polytheists are, for the most part, every bit as closed-minded and self-righteous as the Southern Baptists who told me I was an abomination and a Devil worshipper and a degenerate for being a queer witch who talked back to pastors and smoked weed.“

We must inform you, you are confused. These are your actions which you committed upon every community you attempted to infect like herpes. Anyone who didn’t bow down to every word of your vapid ideology was to be summarily purged. You created an entire callout blog (which we parody), to bully, harrass and purge people you deem morally corrupt and a heretic to your divinely sanctioned and holy edicts of social justice that must be obeyed to the letter. You terrorized this community for years with it, dividing it, polarizing it and demonizing our gods, twisting them into these token puppets you can make spit out any words you want to give yourself the squishy feels.

The only ones who act like southern Baptists or medieval catholic inquisitors, are you and your friends. Don’t try to backpedal that YOU are the victim here, you are the bully, the aggressor, the one causing harm.

Some sects of polytheism have actual ancient records detailing proper practices to how their religion is followed. While following them in personal practice is largely voluntary, they are the methods espoused to have been prescribed by the gods of their own religion. It’s just respectful to those gods to follow such practices.

”Because of all this, polytheists are perfectly willing to bully, threaten, gaslight, and otherwise abuse young, vulnerable people in their midst who even for one minute threaten their perceived “respectability” in the eyes of the mainstream and of their favorite Big Name Pagans. They are perfectly willing to ignore the real problems in our community -bullying, toxic groupthink, overwhelming authoritarianism, rape culture and misogyny, TERFS and other assorted trans/homophobes, bigots of every kind, ableism to the point that the first thing anyone says to discredit me is that I’m “obviously hallucinating” when I talk about astral stuff or magic (that’s not how hallucinations fucking work you fucking morons! Read a book every now and then, for chrissake), and goddamn actual Nazis- in favor of whining about how Pop Culture Pagans or “fluffy” people or “loudmouthed brats” are OMG THE REASON NO ONE TAKES US SERIOUSLY!1!!11!!! They do all of these things, and simultaneously fancy themselves particularly enlightened, superior to followers of “”Abrahamic religions””, by virtue of simply “following the old gods” and “being connected to nature”, or whatever.”

We are touched, this is clear vagueblogging about us. What was it you said...

Seriously though, you left this on our post as if you don’t care, and then wrote this thesis of how much it bothers you and you do care. You’re pathetic.

We must inform you, this is fundamentally untrue. You’re reaching again.--Memphis

Citation needed. This mod has actually heard more complaints that name you, Devo, and your friends specifically as making it difficult to practice, than heard such complaints about other online spaces.--Cairo

“Because of this shallow, petty, and toxic paradigm that permeates basically every single official pagan and polytheist space, it is almost impossible for most of us to really, meaningfully connect and communicate with our gods. Human beings are intimately social creatures; we are constantly, consciously and subconsciously, affected by the social environment that we are in, whether we like it or not and whether we know it or not. It’s basically impossible not to be drawn in by the assumptions everyone around you makes and operates on, even if we’re ignoring thoughtforms and energies and other woo stuff. Polytheists have convinced ourselves that anything we experience that’s in any way out of the ordinary; in any way not exactly what the historical record we currently have portrays…in other words, anything that might realistically be a part of interacting with actual deities and doing actual magic, absolutely will be called a delusion, an attention-seeking stunt, an idiotic act of hubris, an attempt to “start a cult” or gain coercive power over others, an evil and sacrilegious act, or all of the above, by anyone and everyone in our community who wants to discredit whatever it is we’re saying. No wonder even people who have fantastic experiences doubt themselves, or refuse to go public with it; I’m not a particularly sensitive person by a long shot, and I often have to steel myself to be honest online because of the (attempted) bullying and public shaming that I know for a fact will result from it.“

More about us. You must love us dearly. We must inform you, again you are entirely wrong. You literally told Set in that interview post, you would start a cult. You adhere to a collectivist ideology that operates on the concept of original sin and so everyone of that group must atone for the sins of the group for every instance in history. You follow an ideology that abhors individual worth and thought over the group opinion and the group’s collective thought, in which any dissent and the individual will be sacrificed to ensure purity of the group. You operate like a wanna-be cult leader who wants a cult.

You have done alot of evil in this community and you called it righteous because your ideology decrees it must be. Your every action is dictated by it, your every thought is shaped by it to the point you declared that a god who historically always supported a theocratic monarchy...suddenly fell in love with socialism/communism...an inherently destructive and genocidal form of government and philosophy. One that has claimed over 100 million lives, and more?! That is alot ot buy, smarmy, a LOT to buy. We didn’t even mention how he just outright confirms all your political points, thoughts, beliefs, and heralds them as divinely sanctioned?! We don’t have to know how the stove top makes the coil red hot to understand touching it will burn.--Memphis

Others have said it, and this mod will say it again: It is not that you are sharing your personal experiences that is the problem; it is that you are stating them as being as factually true as peer reviewed historical sources. You can believe what you want, but it is absolutely dishonest and disgusting to expect and insist that the rest of the community treat it as fucking holy scripture.--Cairo

“I’m not a particularly sensitive person by a long shot...”

We would like to say, considering you felt the need to write this dissertation of drivel, you most certainly are sensitive.

“If you say you worship Set, but then spit in the face of his ideals in almost every mundane action you take -from the way you treat people traditionally associated with him to the way you think and talk about mundane, real-world chaos, riots, criminals, and political violence- are you actually worshipping Set, or are you just worshipping your own assumptions about Set?“

We are amazed at how unironic you write this and yet, it’s like you wrote this looking in a mirror.

“And if the very fact that someone online who you don’t like has posted UPG about Set condemning your actions and behavior…causes you to post frantic, histrionic paragraphs about how the person in question is an evil, power-hungry, lunatic aspiring cult leader who is “evidently” crazy and lying and trying to manipulate the entire kemetic community and also is in league with the Sn/ake that wants to destroy existence itself, are you really prioritizing your devotion to Set? Or are you prioritizing your own ego, because you refuse to even entertain the possibility that you could be wrong and ought to change your behavior in some way in order to better honor him? “

Wow again, you gazed in the mirror. None of our commentaries, nor those of any of your critics, are frantic, nor histrionic, but it is apparent that you are and you do. They are not the ones fueled by such deep seething hatred and rage for anything outside your own myopic and narrow minded views. They aren’t the ones demanding slavish devotion to an ideology that history has proven is murderous and dangerous. They aren’t the ones who profess to be ‘on the side of the angels’ and in the same breath long for violent rebellious war to shred the country and slaughter millions. You are a hateful person devoid of compassion and an enemy of anything resembling freedom.

We see you have again mistaken UPG for something provable. If you had written that interview and stated that you wrote Set’s dialogue intuitively, or you interpreted them, rather then composed the transcript verbatim...we’d have been more lenient with our criticisms. We point out, every word of his dialogue was verbatim your own, that you have ranted about for the years. Every bit, from his diction, to his syntax, from tone to word choices was entirely from your own and not from an external source. The fact it entirely vindicates every word of your political tripe, your beliefs and ideology, to the decimal place, is evidence that it’s not from any external source, or external spiritual entity but from you. This was a complete fiction.

To state that “anyone who disagrees with smarmy, Set and his people gunna git’ya”, is such a colossal over reach that it strains believably. We are certain that any god who loves their devotee would say they will defend them against attack, but this. We must inform you this is something else entirely.

We are quite certain we don’t need to change our behavior to profess your ideals as our own and bow down to accept communism and socialism or even anarchism as the true path forwards. We don’t need to throw away any sense of actual morality to support systems that have led to more destruction and death then any others in history and recorded memory.

We are also not above admitting if we are wrong, but when it comes to you and how you abuse the name of the gods for your own twisted ends, we aren’t.

We are however, certain you are. You are so in love with your own ideological puppetry that you not only profess that a god has endorsed you 100%, promised to smite all who oppose you, promise you power and prestige as his precious prophet of his ideals (which you forced into him). So deeply entrenched in this ideology and stances of no matter what the cost, no matter how ridiculous, you can never admit to being wrong when facing any dissenting voices or else it instantly negates all of your teachings, beliefs, and words (which it only does because you made them so absolute), that you cannot admit you are wrong and can only dig deeper down this endless trench of foolishness and madness.

We have no doubts the S/na/ke influences you, it praises you, it agrees with you, it gives you whatever you want, the sense of righteousness that you’re never wrong and always on the side of purity, everyone else is evil, everyone else is impure, everyone else is wrong, everyone else is at fault...That is the danger of isfet and the parasitic spirits that serve it, and you let them in.

“ I believe that gods are huge, ancient, and multi-faceted, so sure, it’s possible that there’s a version of Set out there that likes racist bootlickers and encourages them to follow the law no matter the human cost“

This is among the most offensive things you’ve ever said. Historical record cannot be dismissed and hand-waved away of how these gods have acted in the past and expect they did a full 180. We would like to mention, that once again, like any good cult leader, you degrade anyone who dissents. We would like to state you are completely off the mark, you have no understanding of this god if you honestly think he loves communism and loves nazism and loves racism because ‘there MUST be an aspect of him that likes it’. We need to remind you, that would make him evil. This is a complete insult to a god you claim to love and worship. This is a damning and horrible thing to say about a god you claim to respect. This shows us you have nothing but sheer contempt for the gods, so you invent a twisted and corrupted idea of them. We need to remind you, it’s bullshit like this that makes us say your a delusional child aspiring cult leader who is aligned with the sn/a/ke, if you honestly think this about Set. We are disgusted, you do this noble god, so much dishonor. --Memphis

How dare you. How dare you insult a god you claim to be even an outlaw priest of with such a foul misunderstanding of his character?! Even for hyperbolic rhetoric?! Can you not have even the barest smidgen of respect for the god you claim to serve or worship? Or are the words that describe the most basic relationship of priesthood too uncomfortable for you?--Cairo

“ ... to “keep it real” by regurgitating tired and ignorant bigoted stereotypes and acting as though the fact the stereotype exists at all is somehow evidence that you’re right to be a bigot; and believe that “illegals” seeking asylum so that they and their families won’t fucking die are inherently dangerous enough to justify putting them in motherfucking concentration camps. But just because it’s possible doesn’t necessarily mean it’s very likely, now does it? “

We would ask if you ever get tired of making sweeping incorrect generalizations that make you look stupid but we already know the answer. If you’d like to discuss what we believe regarding various political situations, we at KCFTP would be happy to chat, but do stop shoving words and beliefs into our and everyone mouths that do not apply.--Memphis

Who the fuck is Smarmy even talking about here?--Cairo

“No wonder people react to anyone showing historically common, textbook behaviors of a person being called to spirit work or reacting to being in a liminal space or state of mind, with derision and scorn and bullying. Genuine liminality, one of the main historical requirements for communicating with gods or using magic, is almost universally despised and cursed by modern-day polytheists as heresy.“

We would like to say this literally never happens. This is a bold faced lie. We knew you could not help it!--Memphis

That is really fucking weird, every discussion I’ve had with other polytheists and pagans has touched on how to communicate with gods, spirits, and other entities, magic, or other things that require having a foot in multiple worlds. Everyone usually seems pretty eager to talk about such things. Unusual for something “universally despised and cursed.”--Cairo

“LGBT+ people are stereotyped as “special snowflakes” and yelled at about “assigning modern labels to gods” when we say that deities who canonically act as multiple genders or sleep with same-gendered-beings, are queer like us. “

We would like to clarify, no smarmy, that’s just you and your ilk...and it’s by other LBGT+ people...Stop trying to be some martyr, you aren’t. Go outside, get off the internet.

“ Young people are bullied and publicly shamed on a regular basis if they run afoul of the wrong “Big Name Pagan”, and people smugly tell themselves and each other that it is, somehow, for the kid’s own good because they have to be “taught a lesson in humility” and “being the bigger person” or some other fucking nonsense that sounds like it fell directly from the mouths of actual child abusers and predators. “

So anyone who disagrees with you are child abusers and predators now too!? We would like to say that is astounding, almost like it’s entirely fiction. We’d also like to mention, the only BIG Name Pagans around here are you and Devo, and you guys are constantly a problem. Maybe its you who needs to “be taught a lesson in humility” because you are no where near humble and you are among the most abusive individuals in this community.--Memphis

Said it before, will say it again. We have seen you and your crew bully and publicly shame far more people in this particular community than any of us. We’re not the ones who started the Kemetic Callout war, only the ones who have arguably been more successful at it. And your callout blog only has the people who talked back and wouldn’t bend, it doesn’t count the many who bowed and broke before your bullying or those who left here altogether.--Cairo

“Until sharing UPG that goes against the more popular narratives no longer makes one a social pariah among their polytheist peers, nobody should be surprised that it’s almost exclusively the heretical, disrespectful punks who are constantly being publicly snubbed and dismissed by their peers, who ever seem to talk about seeing any results or evidence that anything out-of-the-ordinary is actually going on. “

Translation: “Until I can share my UPG and it is believed as absolute fact without any question, and be heralded as the divine truth, the community is a shitshow!”--Memphis

As long as your UPG agrees 100% with your own personal and political beliefs, it will and should be questioned. Whatever your stance, the gods have a wider experience and knowledge base than we do and will always have a different perspective. Any spirit that tells you everything you want to hear and flatters you shamelessly is no god and has no good intentions towards you in the end.--Cairo

“Until we all accept that it doesn’t matter if Christians and mainstream secular people think we’re weird and so we don’t need to constantly jump through hoops to seem Academic™ and Serious™ and Normal™, nobody should be surprised that the only public discussions that don’t devolve into nasty name-calling matches are ones facilitated by a handful of holier-than-thou assholes who treat having a PhD in Philosophy as though it’s a permission slip from the gods themselves to be a self-righteous, know-it-all douche, and never really allow any disagreement with them on anything important.“

Translation: “We need to continue being edgy punk teens who disrespect gods and culture and snub actual belief systems by turning them into comical satires of themselves, until the people smarter then us give up and let us have all the power, while we use our UPG to try and seem way more divinely important then we actually are by assigning ourselves flashy titles and divine endorsements!!! Cause if the gods support US, then we can’t be wrong!”

We would like to remind you that history is fraught with oppressive regimes who used this tactic, one example is the Spanish Inquisition. Did you agree with them torturing and killing people to force them into conversion? Another example we would like to mention is the North Korean regimes. The ones who still have ACTUAL concentration camps.

We would like to mention, China now has concentration camps where they hold and torment innocent Muslim citizens, and Chechnya who still have death camps where they send gay and LGBT citizens.

We would like to mention these go entirely against your belief and political structures about LGBT+ issues, oppression, and gay rights. We notice you never mention those. We notice you never complain about them and how evil they are. We wonder, is it because it goes against your narrative of “communism is the truth and the way” or do you just not care?

We would like to point out it would seem like those are true injustices you could fight against and for...not...how everyone needs to behave and believe how you want.

We would like to set the snark aside for a second and say, we’re always up for discussions. We need to clarify that you always reduce the conversations to insults and calling everyone who disagrees with you “racist bootlickers”, so the issue is not on our side, but with you, so stop lying that we and all your critics are the unreasonable ones.

“And until we care more about taking care of each other than protecting our deities’ reputations, nobody should be surprised when our community remains a toxic, misogynistic, homophobic, Nazi-infested shithole, while everyone is more than happy to spend hours arguing about the particulars of shrine setups and deity name pronunciations and whether or not it’s okay to offer potato chips and Netflix binges to ancient deities who, ultimately, realistically are not that likely to give a shit either way. “

Literal Nazis wandered into our community and your reaction was “meh so what” and continued bullying other innocent people, who you labeled as nazis and racists. You’re a one tune piano smarmy, and you just keep tooting the same tune. It wasn’t believable when you were “the holy ambassador, ordained by Jesus, to the hellenics” it is not believable now.

“Until we fix the problems with our collective paradigm, until we fix the way we treat each other, until we genuinely value wisdom, compassion, humility, and courage over our reputations, we are all gonna have to accept that the gods we worship are not all that interested in revealing their actual, authentic, awesome, strange and unexpected powers to people who are determined to believe they are either incapable or unwilling to do so.“

We agree, you should start treating people better, starting with inatier and all the other people you’ve spent YEARS defaming, bullying, berating, harassing, snubbing, and demonizing.--Memphis

Actions speak louder than words Smarmy, and based on yours none of these are your values. We have seen you bully and cast aside community members who did their research and were willing to share, we have seen your utter lack of compassion throughout your time here with anyone who has the nerve to disagree with you, and the idea of you having humility is a joke. You worry more about being seen as your edgy, antifa, communist [insert additional labels here} self than about having the courage to suck it up, show some compassion, and value the wisdom of trying to mend the fences you have broken so badly over the years.

Additionally, we have had no problem seeing the many wondrous and varied faces of our gods because we are not hell bent on forcing them into tiny boxes that fit only our own personal beliefs. If this is a problem you have been having, perhaps you should take your own advice.--Cairo

My colleagues have added much to these particular points of your diatribe, but I’ll add my bit here. While it seems like you may be in a better place physically (despite claiming you know more about psychology and medicine than your previous doctors do), you seem to be going down a dark, dangerous road mentally. You might just find yourself in jail yet, or worse if you don’t reevaluate your thinking.

“The insomnia is what caused my other symptoms to get so bad that they become delusions, paranoia, mania, and once, auditory hallucinations.” So you’re admitting to having breaks from reality, along with your emotional instability. Yet, you get butthurt when people are skeptical to your religious experiences. I’m no psychologist, admittedly, but I don’t automatically trust random people’s religious experiences, much less someone with a history of psychosis. Whether it’s you or anyone else.

I would also recommend you be very, very careful using THC. I don’t know what medications you’re taking, but THC can interact with several different drugs, including Prozac. High levels of THC can cause paranoia and psychosis as well.

You’re trying to act as a leader and activist when you’re still dealing with some very serious conditions. This is why so many people recommend to not use magic or occultic practices when dealing with mental health. People are not being elitist or ableist when they do this. The whole purpose is to encourage others to first attain treatment for their conditions. You’ve been claiming your own voice as Set’s, threatening violence to attain your desires in regards to politics, and using magic to harm your political enemies. You refuse to understand the motivations of people who don’t hold the same political opinions - even “centrists”, so that even the politically moderate are your enemies. This is even a symptom of borderline personality disorder, which you say you’re diagnosed with. Clearly, your symptoms aren’t completely managed.

https://www.webpsychology.com/news/2015/09/01/dangers-black-and-white-thinking-228391

You have a long way to go in terms of healing. You can blame the outside world all you like for not getting treatment or for a lack of progress, but your mental health is YOUR responsibility and you need to take responsibility and fix yourself before you’re in any position to try and “fix” the world with your ideology.

I highly encourage you to take a break and get some further professional help; wherever you are and however you can get it. Your writings are extremely troubling to us here. The last thing you need is to get arrested or committed trying to “punch a Nazi” or “take down the system”. You’re going to really screw up any chances of getting on your feet, getting treatment, and doing something actually meaningful with your life if you continue down this road.

--Karnak

#kemetic #kemetic fandom #kemeticism #Kemetic community #The Epic Tale of Smarmys Insanity #A Shadow Over Tumblr #The Call of Cruelty #Today on Dr. Phil...

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earthtoether · 6 years ago

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The Sound of Yourself

The reflection of beauty morphs through the experience of emotion. The drastic shifts of mind scape can be a challenge to capture, in a moment, in a word... nature is a perfect example of this experience, and I know, its probably been written hundreds of times before, but this is for me.

Watching the snow fall from the sky, and hearing the sounds of life all around, in the background soft, gentle, rich soundscapes; reminded of times past, let it slide through but don’t linger. It’s fun for a moment of time to go back through the experiences of the past- but only for a moment- and then let it go, maintain in the present moment. The snow is light and fluffy, there is piano in the music, and the rhythm of my washing machine... appreciation for the reality we create for ourselves is so important. It’s also important to note that it can always change, and, that we can greatly influence those changes and the direction our life takes; we are not at the mercy of fate and we have choices.

The emotions attached to the experience(s) of the memory, are in the mind, and they can also be found in the body; these memories can give us ‘good’ feelings, and ‘bad’ feelings, and, they can wreak havoc on your nervous system and overall well being if you're not self-aware. Most of us are actually living in a perpetual state of angst, stress, overworking, under nourishing, depression, anxiety, moodiness, busyness, not taking enough time for self care, causing our body of course, to be in a state of stress also, which is extremely tiring on the nervous system; it’s as if it is on ‘high alert’ all day, and then when it comes time to rest, it can be hard to settle in deep, and waking up the next morning is rarely pleasurable. Waking up unhappy is a sure sign that your living in a perpetual state of stress; like hello! you’re alive! you get to do stuff and play human today! so get to it! what kind of human are you choosing today? because really, when you think about it, it is our choice. And for the people out there suffering depression and mental illness that would like to judge and say things like ‘it’s easy for you to say’ ‘you don’t know what depression is like’ and whatever other things people say, please know, that I am writing these things through personal experience, personal and professional study, from 15+ years experience in the healing arts dealing with a wide range of clientele. I know that if we want to get to the next state of experience (or reality) then, that in turn means, that the experience of our current reality would have to fall away. Now, this is not to say that everything falls apart, though sometimes it does, but it is to say, if you want the experience of living in a new home, you have to be willing to let go of the house you’re in. You’ll pack your bags, and get the things you need, be close to the people you need, and set yourself off into the next experience. To build off this analogy, if you were to move to a new home, where would it be? would your life look the same as now? same people, different car, work? which patterns would be on repeat?

When we move through changes in our life it’s a great time to notice which aspects are leaving us, and which we are welcoming in, what patterns are we still living, and what behaviours are we attaching to? Why is this important? Well, if you're familiar with the work of Dr. Joe Dispenza (if you're not scope him out) he says, that by the age of 35 most people are basically operating on autopilot, not questioning their experience, living in a state of unhappiness, and resentment to life; not to mention, these patterns of muscle memory are extremely ingrained in their bodies and minds; what does that mean? It hurts to stretch the mind and body to new dimensions, the flexibility in the mind is reflected through the flexibility in the movement of the body and mind, and connection between mind and body; sounds hokey to those who are still asleep, but this is all science. As many intelligent people have said in the past, and still say to this day: science and spirituality are inherently linked, but science is uncomfortable with the unknown, and spirituality is home in the unknown~ so once science catches up and recognizes simply that we live in a mystery, we will really start to see the magic of life. Instead of doubting truths, experience them. I know many open hearted people, who are very closed minded when it comes to personal or spiritual development- they think it’s ‘hooey’ or ‘hippy crap’ and honestly, that is really condescending and demonstrates only your own fear of the idea of it changing your life, because life only gets more and more rich there we observe ourselves, and develop our skills at being good humans, with perspective, compassion and respect for each other, and nature, living in balance and harmony with our surroundings; these things can be done! It blows my mind how much money goes to war, when if we just simply cleaned up our cities, like actually cleaned them, installed green roofs and wall gardens on the buildings, water features and more parks throughout living areas~ trails and paths through the forests and fields to encourage contact with the outside world. Earthship buildings would be gorgeous additions to any subdivision, and could be a beautiful, cost effective and sustainable solution. people act like this is not possible, but it is, it really is. we just need the mental switch from death to life, from war to peace ~ shift the funds. We collectively need to stop arguing, and simply agree that from now on, we know better, we now how to be good humans, we know the difference between violence and peace- we understand the consequences of trauma, and how it’s affects move through generations- we understand the negative affects of the war machine and weaponry; as our oceans are polluted with nuclear waste, oil and plastic, our bodies are as well, not to mention chemicals from the atomic bomb, pesticides, and chemical warfare that have been past down through generations; we need to honour the truth of what it is to be a good human. Stop tolerating less, stop being less. Stop the patterns as they arise, in you and in others. This is not the time to reiterate patterns of the past, this is a time to actively create your future. This is not a test, you are here for real, so be here. Social media is toxic, as much as I love to share with people, I am simultaneously repulsed by the image driven, superficial culture that this world has come to in so many ways. It’s like humans are evolving into robots, genderless robots, that all look like a 22 year old in drag lol, because that’s our most approachable avatar that we’ve come up with~ no one can get upset with a 22 year old man in drag~ not possible, and I mean this in the most endearing way. Wait, is the term drag even relevant if its a genderless robot? Robot drama queen? It would probably look like Beyonce, everyone likes queen b. Enough with the robots, but really, I wish people would open up more, and I know they are in many ways, and, we also need people who are able to lead others by example, and simply be a good human, use your brain for the magic that it is, use your body for the magic that it is; and listen to your heart to know which direction to go, the heart should feel at peace. It took me many years to understand this, and abusive experiences to recognize the patterns of the heart, and how they can be misunderstood, especially when the mind gets involved~ thats when you know there is something happening. When we are in a state of love, we of course still think and use our intellect, but it is from a relaxed place, a place of being; when we are in a state of dis-ease we can still think and use our intellect, but our body is stressed, not relaxed, and the mind feels busy with thoughts, and it can be challenging to stay in the moment. And that’s why people are addicted to technology, because that way they never have to stop and listen to the sounds of themselves. The sound of yourself echos in nature. Listen to the whispers, walk your path, lead from your heart.

#writer #yoga #meditation #visionary #moderndaymystic #earthtoether #health #wellness #fitness #spirituality #deep #psychology #evolve #sound #listen #breathe

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rekkingcrew · 6 years ago

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Devaronian Headcanons Actual

So, right, actual devaronian headcanons, ranging from charming to full on dystopic.

Biological:

Devaronians have two livers and a resistance to all sorts of poisons- that’s just WASTEFUL if the planet isn’t throwing poison at you all the fucking time. Devaron is a toxic death trap, where the life forms have been engaged for millions of years in a toxin-based arms race. And devaronians are the winners.

Silver’s got anti-bacterial properties in laboratory situations. I think Devaronians are more disease resistant than a lot of other species.

Devaronians are listed as carnivorous. They seem like they’re resistant to most everything, so I’m sure they could choke down anything they needed to, but probably derive negligible nutrition from most plant matter. You might eat it for taste or digestion or something, but if it’s all you’ve got, you’re gonna starve.

Which I think means devaronian society probably stayed mobile and small in larger percentages than human society for a long time (not trying to minimize, like, human migratory and hunter gatherer populations, but by analogy if you look at meat as a percentage of diet of any given population group before, like, modern America, more meat equals more mobile), and that the devaronian analogue of the Neolithic revolution was a sort of proto-chemistry that opened up new techniques for long-term meat preservation, with permanent settlements springing up around places where you could get things like salt or caustic alkaline chemicals- though you’d still need people to go ranging.

Because devaronians CAN eat most any awful toxic thing, and because there’d be such a necessity to keep meat from rotting if you wanted to support a fixed population, a lot of traditional devaronian foods tend toward jerkying, pickling, and like, curing with lye. Lots of stuff that looks like lutefisk and hakarl, or some sort of meat kimchi. Lots of bitter, umami, sour, salty. Punctuations of insanely hot peppers. I think devaronians generally consider sweet an oddity and acquired taste.

While this preservation isn’t a necessity for modern devaronians, I do think they still season things with stuff that’s poisonous to other species, and if your host isn’t paying attention, they might forget to take their arsenic shaker off the table. Eat at your own risk. Because of this and the crazy flora and fauna, outside of the big cities, there aren’t a lot of aliens who stay on planet.

Devaronian babies are all white and fuzzy until they’re about 5-7, when they blow their coats and start being sexually dimorphic. No textual reason. I just like this.

Space-faring, better farming science, and the importation of some alien plants, have allowed post-hyperdrive devaronians a more stable and balanced diet with a wider range of stuff from which they can extract digestible protein.

Social:

Because of a relative inability to digest plant matter, devaronian society has always been very susceptible to famine. Different societies developed different strategies for dealing with this (because universal planetary culture is every bit as silly as single biomes), but one strain that gained a lot of dominance was an intense matrilinear/matrilocal strategy where men old enough to make their own way were “encouraged” to leave. There’s a rich intellectual history of justifying this behavior, from the cold calculus that it just takes fewer men than anyone else to maintain population levels, to pontification on how men are just naturally inclined toward wandering, to people making the argument that a low ratio of men to women makes for a happier and more harmonious society. There’s also a rich intellectual history of saying this is monstrous. No society always agrees with itself, and different voices have had more or less dominance at different times throughout devaronian history.

Devaron’s population is sometimes as much as 75% female.

This is the planet of nannies. Seriously. With loads of men gone and women in charge of most of domestic business and governance, childcare is a major industry. Job sharing is super common to provide time off with young children. Partnership and group ownership of businesses by several women is common.

In fact, I’m going to say there’s a mobile childcare corps, replacing a number of more traditional structures as increasingly technological devaronian society centralized; one that has some fun analogies to western conceptions of the military, ie. it’s seen by a lot of people as an important rite of passage for young people, a sign of a strong moral character, and full of exactly the sort of people who make good leaders. Compassionate. Patient. Capable of managing others. It’s hard to get elected office in some places without a service record. Men are, of course, discouraged, due to their natural tendencies. When devaron’s history takes its more authoritarian swings, the MCC is often a very visible propaganda arm, with more obvious uniforms and a chokehold on education and indoctrination. During those times, you will, of course, be expected to thank corps members for their service. Society would not run without them.

In the best of times, they run loads of public crèches and help out immensely in private homes as well. Devaronians of all walks of life often have fond memories of their MCC workers, the way you would with a favorite aunt. Or sometimes they commiserate over stories of their strict MCC workers, like you would with a least favorite aunt. Swings and roundabouts.

The most dangerous term generally applied to men is “expendable.” The second is probably “reckless.” There’s a widespread prejudice that men, as wanderers, lack the long-term vision and planning capacity necessary to manage things (the same way human idiots are prone to saying things like they don’t think gay men have a stake in the future because they don’t have children, both the premise and its conclusion are suspect.) Men who stay on devaron are often funneled into dangerous work, whether that’s the military, or construction/demolition, or less than safe factory work. Overseers and “logistics officers” will tend to be female. In more conservative media, stories about industrial accidents will often be spun as men not listening to their more level-headed female supervisor.

Most of the sources I found mentioned men sending money home to devaron. Headcanon: this is a semi-ritualized exchange with it’s own fun alien name (but for now I’ll just call it the Tithe, because I’m bad with alien names), it’s one of the foremost ways men can get social prestige, and the devaronian economy really relies on it. And it makes Devaron RICH. (American history side track: Tulsa’s “black wallstreet” was a really good example of outside money flowing into a relatively closed system).

Devaron, with early space faring, has had a few interstellar “Age of Sail” periods, where a lot of the Tithe coming in for prominent families straight up came from piracy, or “Devaronian Privateers”. Harsh on crime at home, and nominally against piracy abroad, there have been times Devaron has really profited by it. There’s an ugly vein of thought along the lines of “it doesn’t matter if it happens to aliens.” Obviously opinions differ. The dashing star pirate remains a popular romantic archetype in devaronian culture (though he often comes to a tragic end). The devaronian pirate is an archetype in a number of other species’ cultures as well, but notably less romantic.

One of the major ways the Empire controls Devaron is controlling the flow of Tithe, requiring all transfers go through imperial channels and making it much harder to send money back to anyone suspected of dissent.

A lot of men remaining on devaron are locked in a vicious cycle of having limited potential to advance because they’re traditionally seen as less invested in the future; and in turn being less invested in the future because they’re locked out of moving forward into it. Leaving all together is often an enticing proposition. This is often pointed to as evidence of both lack of ambition and a natural tendency toward wandering.

Exploration and travel for men are often deeply romanticized- a real source of meaning in their lives and a chance for something better. There is loads of poetry, literature, music, and other popular culture about it. This is encouraged. A number of female devaronian writers and thinkers have expressed the same. These are often considered scandalous and bad influences.

Obviously there have been, across the vast expanse of history, loads of counter cultures, different fashions, and changing ideas. But these’ll be the big ones, and what people talk about when they say “traditional” devaronian culture.

Anyway, that’s my attempt to reconcile canon! Hope some of it is useful!

#devaronian headcanon

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nebris · 5 years ago

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The Simulacran Republic

December 24, 2005 JL Bageant

The hologram ripples with the cry of a thrush

"It’s a world of appearances… packaged to the showroom specifications of a sit-com. She asks her hairdresser for ‘tinted highlights’ he mumbles something about going to the gym. He feels he should do something that requires him to clutch a bottle of mineral water and wipe his brow with the firm conviction that he’s accomplished something more than providing the illusion that his presence in his own life is necessary. They believe in nothing as fervently as their own goodness. When she’s asleep, he absently gazes at porn sites, before he checks out his stock portfolio online."

—Writer and social critic Jennifer Matsui

By Joe Bageant

A while back it was announced that a Japanese inventor had successfully created an invisibility cloak using a material made of thousands of tiny beads called "retro-reflectum." I found this so amazing that I told six friends, three men and three women, about it over the next two days. Not a one of them found it even interesting, much less amazing. Two of the men subsequently showed mild interest when I pointed out that it could be used to mask tanks and soldiers in combat, and one speculated on its terrorist implications. Our techno hyper-reality has so gutted and rewired the brains of Americans that ordinary intelligent people are not even capable of amazement at such a thing as invisibility! To me, this is an indication of a near-total death of the individual mind and imagination caused by our over-technologized, effects glutted sensory environment.

The pure miracle of invisibility is uninteresting unless it can be linked to, say the rumbling terror of an armored tank — made perhaps even more attention-grabbing by squashing the bloody guts out of an Iraq under its tracks? It’s the sensory effect that matters, the simulacrum, not the reality. It’s the kind of thing about America that drives me to thoughts of emigration daily.

Americans, rich or poor, now live in a culture entirely perceived through, simulacra-media images and illusions. We live inside a self-referential media hologram of a nation that has not existed for quite some time now, especially in America’s heartland. Our national reality is held together by a pale, carbon imprint of the original. The well-off with their upscale consumer aesthetic, live inside gated Disneyesque communities with gleaming uninhabited front porches representing some bucolic notion of the Great American home and family. The working class, true to its sports culture aesthetic, is a spectator to politics … politics which are so entirely imagistic as to be holograms of a process, not a process. Social realism is a television commercial for America, a simulacran republic of eagles, church spires, brave young soldiers and heroic firefighters and "freedom of choice" within the hologram. America’s citizens have been reduced to Balkanized consumer units by the corporate state’s culture producing machinery.

We no longer have a country — just the hollow shell of one, a global corporation masquerading electronically and digitally as a nation called the United States. The corporation now animates us from within our very selves through management of the need hierarchy in goods and information. Sure there is flesh within the machine, but its animating force is a viral concept, a meme run amok. Free market capitalism. We got to move them refrigerators, got to sell them color teevees.

Meanwhile the culture generating industry spins our mythology like cotton candy. We all need it to survive, Hollywood myths, imperial myths, melting pot myths, the saluting dick male myths. They keep the machine running. And when the machine is running correctly, it smoothes its own way by terrifying uncooperative people into submission in prisons and torture rooms, where we do not have to look at the corpses on ice and the naked hooded bodies handcuffed to the bars. We are innocent as long as we keep our eyes taped shut. And only with our eyes shut can we keep seeing the hologram. And with duct tape over our mouths, we can recite its slogans with one hand over our heart with the other one resting on the trigger.

The average American spends about one third of his or her waking life watching television. The neurological implications of this are so profound that they cannot even be comprehended in words, much less described by them. Television creates our reality, regulates our national perceptions and our interior hallucinations of who we Americans are (the best and only important tribe on the planet.) It schedules our cultural illusions of choice, displays pre-selected candidates in our elections, or types of consumer goods. It regulates holiday marketing opportunities and the national neurological seasons, which are now governed by the electrons of the illusion. We live within a media generated belief system that functions as the operating instructions for society. Anything outside of its parameters represents fear and psychological freefall to the faceless legions of within it.

Our civilization, our culture, in as much as it can be said to exist in any cohesive way, is based upon two things, television and petroleum. Whether you are a custodian or the President, your world depends upon an unbroken supply of both. So it is small wonder that we all watch a televised global war for oil. As in all produced illusions, everyone we see is an actor. There are the television actors portraying what passes for reality, and real people performing for television. Non-actors in Congress perform in front of the cameras, grappling over the feeding tube on Terri Schiavo; real actors portray non-actors in "reality shows." Michael Jackson shows up for court in pajamas and Jeff Weise shows up for class with a gun. The demand for "newsmakers" is relentless as the empire’s corporate cultural machinery weaves the warp of consumer illusions that make up our notion of individualism, and the weft of democratic mythology that constitutes our political system. This is by no means a free country and given the intense luminosity of the hologram, we cannot even see freedom from here, and probably would not recognize it if we could. Moreover though, we cannot tear our eyes away from the great flickering glow of the hologram.

As my late friend Timothy Leary put it, "An enormous industry, similar to the national projects of pyramid-building in Egypt, cathedral-building in medieval Europe, and prison-camp building in Stalinist Russia has emerged in America — the production of political martyrs, fallen heroes and concept outlaws. … The essence of ‘news’ is, of course, the modern version of Roman coliseum shows and gladiator combats." And like clockwork, there is the nightly ritual bloodletting through televised wars and domestic murders, with detective Lenny Briscoe finding the corpses at seven, eight and eleven PM weekdays.

The hologram that is our cathedral of consciousness and our national mind is an ever-darkening one. The average American, if he even thinks about the mind, thinks of it in the obsolete "mind-contained-in-the-brain" way. A few intellectuals and a handful of old dopers like me understand that reality is consensus based and is an interconnected network consisting of many minds operating along a theme. And the theme seems to be pathological.

America suffers from a psychosis, a psychosis being nothing more than an insistence upon staying in an untenable state of consciousness, despite the normal modeling of those around you. This is not out of meanness, but rather an indifference so profound as to be a sickness. The hologram IS the psychosis made manifest. Psychotics love to play ominous games with those around them, just as America does with the world today.

It always comes down to the one thing we never study in school, the one thing we cannot learn about in this country without a great deal of personal extracurricular effort — consciousness. As we have known at least since the Sixties, the core issue of our existence is consciousness, which our corporate state is compelled to control at all times. That’s why drugs are illegal; that’s why we have hundreds of television channels; and that’s why you will never find anything much resembling the truth in U.S. newspapers and magazines. But there are still those of us who remember our consciousness experiments in the Sixties. Remember what it is like to peer into other realities, not to mention observe the inherent folly and frequent horror of our own war-profit-driven, animal murdering, death-and-sex-without-love obsessed culture. There are those of us who know that when a thrush cries out from the branch it echoes throughout the galaxy. All things are connected and ownership of things is meaningless. The purpose of life is to know this. Lao-tsu knew it, just like Einstein knew it. But you and I are not allowed to. It would shatter our revered hologram, the one that threatens to shatter the world.

To even begin to dissolve this dangerous hologram we would have to examine the biggest lie of all — that technology is neutral and that people determine its ultimate effects. What divine horseshit! Consider what even the best use of nuclear energy leaves in its wake over the long haul an uninhabitable planet. No matter who is in charge we end up with millions of tons of waste with a half-life in the tens of thousands of years. But the hologram we revere asks us to judge the technology at its heart in strictly personal terms — cars, vacuum cleaners, and digital amusements. Pay no mind to the toxic rivers and a sky turning red. Science and technology are our religion and all philosophical decisions are made in the corporate world whose function is to sell commodities. Easily the most terrifying aspect of the industrial/media/political hologram is that we are trapped. There is no way out of a technological industrial machine where you need at least a car, a phone, etc. to function, to participate at all.

Thanks to the hologram, American culture, as such, is nearly over. It is not sustainable. It is not reformable. Not only are TV and all digital media unreformable, but they are sure to accelerate our demise more rapidly because of the technological capitalist paradigm of growth at all cost. We cannot eliminate the generators of the hologram, television and electronic media. They are the glue of the hologram, the mediators of our human experience. We will all die without them, now that they have replaced all other previous forms of knowledge, the ancient forms, and have colonized our inner lives like a virus. The natural world is not only boring but does not even exist, as we sit mesmerized, while the hologram sells our very feelings back to us. Are we adequate? How are we supposed to act? Did you phone someone you love today? What and whom are we to fear? You are rendered numb by a hypnotic medium, react to your own feelings which have been stolen and doled back out to you, and pay money to do so. Brilliant! The commodification of human consciousness is probably the most astounding, if ghoulish, accomplishment of American Capitalist culture.

Meanwhile, there is the omniscient "one voice that speaks out to the many," the disembodied military/corporate voice, that all but guarantees an authoritarian political scenario. Unlike the humans who constitute their living innards, the corporations animating the hologram are themselves deathless. The citizens cannot harm them. Under U.S. law corporations have all the rights and protections of individuals, and they cannot be regulated because corporations are "fictional persons" and have the same right to free speech as persons. Of course, given that the media are corporations, their speech is a helluva lot more impactful and significant than any one person’s. "But," as the brilliant author of In the Absence of the Sacred, Gerry Mander puts it: "They have none of the commensurate responsibilities. Communities cannot control them because they can always move to other communities. They do not have corporeality; they can’t be executed. You can imprison certain people within a corporation if they engage in criminal acts. The corporation itself, however, lives beyond the people in it."

The light of the hologram plays on material reality and remakes it in its own image, destroying all connection with the natural world. Malls and suburbs and hyper-real surfaces and speed — meaningless but dazzling technology. The earth gets a makeover in the image of Disneyland and becomes inhabited by humans who are commodified versions of themselves.

It is difficult for people to grasp that we are in an age of corporate dominion just as we were once in an age of domination by royal families, kings and warlords. Somehow it is hard to equate our tribute rendered to the credit card companies, the insurance companies, the IRS, the power cartels, the mortgage banks, with the kind of bondage it is. Yet we must do these things to be allowed to live in society. The only other choice is to sleep under a bridge. And these days, whether due to an on-setting depression or creeping wisdom, I often contemplate just that. I really do. Of course I understand that even under a bridge one cannot escape the hologram’s blue flicker issuing from a hundred million encroaching suburban windows. But like I said, there are still a few of us old bastards out here who remember. And we can still hear the cry of the thrush echoing, still out there shattering galaxies. Freedom is possible.

https://www.joebageant.org/2005/12/24/the_simulacran_/

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notsoivorytower · 7 years ago

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This month, we spoke with Ph.D. candidate and Anzaldúing It podcaster Jackie Cáraves. An L.A. native, Jackie talked to us about navigating life and the ivory tower as a QWOC, first-yen college student, and first-gen grad student in the borderlands. She shares her insights on the LGBTQ Latinx Community, impostor syndrome, code-switiching, and QWOC survival. Follow Jackie on IG @getitgirrl and @anzalduingit !

Hey Jackie! Tell us a bit about yourself and your academic journey. What is your field of study and what does your current research focus on?

I grew up in East Hollywood in Los Angeles with a single mother on welfare and two older brothers. My dad left when I was 18 months old and I’ve only seen him a handful of times throughout my life. As a unit, my mom and my older brothers Martin and Rudy are extremely close. We went through a lot together. My brothers really influenced my journey to academia. Martin showed me that it was possible to go to college by attending UC Berkeley after high school. My brother Rudy tried to provide for us by joining a gang, which really made me question why he had to go through that trauma as a necessary part of our racialized poverty. It made me want to understand the systems that put us all in those really difficult situations. When I went to UC Santa Cruz, I was inspired by my feminist studies classes and latino studies classes. In those classes, I learned about intersectionality and about my own family’s experiences in a systemic way. When I read the works of these chicana feminist scholars, I saw myself and I wanted to be just like them. I wanted to create knowledge and bridge academia and community.

I am currently a PhD Candidate in Chicana/o Studies at UCLA. My research focuses on the experiences of Trans and Gender Non Conforming (GNC) Latina/o/xs. My work really aims to highlight the ways in which Trans and GNC Latina/o/xs embody resilience and so my dissertation will mainly focus on family, chosen family, and spirituality as sources of resilience. I was connected to Bamby Salcedo, the president and CEO of Trans Latin@ Coalition, through a friend. After Bamby and I had developed a repoire, Bamby asked me to work in community with Trans Latin@ Coalition to co-produce the first report about health in the Trans Latinx community. Our report, The State of Trans Health, was published by Trans Latin@ Coalition last year and involved surveying 129 members of the Trans Latinx community all over Southern California. Based off of the work that Bamby and I did, I am conducting more in depth interviews with Trans community members about their methods of resilience.

Can you speak to your experiences as a QWOC in academia? You certainly seem to be vocal about attempting to break down the Ivory Tower. What are some obstacles / inequalities / disadvantages you've encountered and how did you deal with them?

For me being a QWOC in academia has come with imposter syndrome. My mom was only able to obtain an elementary school education. I am a first generation college student and a first generation grad student. So, my background only fills me with doubts about whether I can be an academic and a scholar. As I entered the MA and PhD, I became very uncomfortable being in those spaces, often feeling like I didn't belong or that I wasn't supposed to be there because I somehow felt I wasn't qualified to be there. I felt like someone was going to find out I was truly unqualified and kick me out of the program altogether. Even being in a program like Chicana/o Studies where my peers and professors are all People of Color didn't make it easier. Because ultimately academia is still academia and there is a culture of competition and performance that exists.

Academia is isolating, competitive, and based on production. My cohort is the first Chicana/o Studies Cohort at UCLA and I think we are keenly aware that we are the first. Being the first cohort is special because we are really building the culture of our program. We have tried together to build community, mentorship, and support each other. However, building this culture took time, so the first few years were especially difficult. Now, however, I think my main sources of affirmation and validation are my cohort members and my adviser. We are trying to break down, as much as we can, the sense of competitiveness and alienation that academia puts on grad students.

I also want to use academia to do community work. It is really hard to be authentic in a place that is so competitive and so based in what you “produce.” The ways in which I try to break that is through my scholarship and through my teaching.

You focus on Latin American Studies and have been a big advocate for LGBTQ visibility. Can you tell us more about your goals for implementing your studies within the larger LGBTQ Latinx community?

Being in Chicana/o Studies and Latino Studies, I’ve learned a lot about race, class, and even gender. However, there is a dearth of social science literature that focuses on queer Latinx experiences. We see a lot of that scholarship, specifically chicana lesbian feminist scholarship, be relegated to the humanities. My goal is to bridge the literature and center current Latinx struggles. We have a lot of conversations now about intersectionality but a lot of our conversations have only one or two dimensions and we don’t include queer or trans identities in those conversations. They should. Centering the queer and trans community can help us understand heteronormativity, another structure that oppresses all of us. At least that’s what I want to bring to a university and academic setting.

In terms of the larger Latinx community, I want to use the resources of a university and my own social capital to collect information and make it useful for community members who are trying to empower and elevate themselves. For example, when Bamby and I did this study together last year, we knew what kind of data the study would produce because of our lived experiences. But we wanted to show the results in a printed, digestible way for grassroots organizations to bring to funders, politicians, and community organizers.

After listening to your recently launched podcast, "Anzaldúing It," we knew we had to feature you on Not So Ivory Tower. We appreciate you speaking on your experiences as a QWOC in L.A., touching on issues like being a child of immigrants, welfare, toxic relationships, and self-care. Can you tell us more about this project?

Thank you for listening to the podcast! It brings me so much joy to be talking about the podcast and to be in a place where we are now putting together the 10th episode! The idea of a podcast started with a conversation I was having with my best friend, Angelica Becerra. Earlier this year, I brought up the idea of doing a podcast to Angelica. I suggested it to her because we always come together and have these conversations on our own. What we talk about on the podcast is really how we talk to each other in real life and how we heal and bring joy to our lives. We learn a lot from each other and I just wanted to start recording these moments of our lives that have really felt cleansing and soothing for both of us.

In the podcast we talk about our personal lives, academia, and those things that help us get through: spirituality, astrology, our families (both chosen and not) and food! We never thought that we would have so much interest, but we are so happy and excited that people are listening and that people seem to be taking joy in listening. This podcast is a way for us to stay connected to the world, ourselves, and our community. Especially in times like these, I think we need these brief moments of laughter, love, and honesty, almost as a respite from the news. We are super excited about sharing with you!

In one episode, you talk the roles code-switching and accents play in academia. This seemed like a perfect reflection of Gloria Anzaldúa's writings on performing multiple identities to survive. Can you speak more on your experiences with this?

As I’ve mentioned in the podcast, code switching is something that I have had to learn since I was little. As first generation students, child of immigrants, we learn this from a really early age. We switch from English to Spanish whether we are at school or at home. I also was in very white spaces from middle school and onwards and I learned the different borders I had to cross with my language whether it was with friends, teachers, or at home.

In academia I’ve had to learn a new language. I’ve had to try to find an academic voice that still remains true to who I am. I’ve tried to hold on to the way I speak and not assimilate. I try to keep the way that I speak from growing up in the hood and not try to erase where I come from.

Even though we are talking about language, I’ve also “code-switched” with my gender presentation and with my queerness. Code-switching is often about performance of your different identities and for a long time, I performed femininity because I thought that was what was expected of me. I’ve learned to live more authentically in the last 2 years too in my gender presentation. So in that regard I’m trying not to code-switch in my queerness.

What advice would you give a young QWOC just starting out on her academic journey? Are there any strategies, support systems, or tools that you think would help them navigate academic spaces better?

I would say, find those people that you feel safe with, share with them what you’re going through, and know that you’re going to have to be vulnerable. Community, friends, and family are essential for productivity. Also, don’t look for academia to validate you. It is important to remember that you are not a machine and productivity is not the only marker of your worth. Mental health is a real thing! Go to therapy, ground yourself in spirituality, get the support and help you need. It is important to laugh, love, and heal and try your best to remain true to yourself through this process.

#WOC #wocinacademia #qwoc #qwocinacademia #ucla #podcast #latinx #translatinx #academia

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militant-holy-knight · 6 years ago

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Re-Thinking the So-Called “Islamic Golden Age”

During the Middle Ages, the Islamic world glowed brighter than Europe. Or did it really?

It’s pretty unavoidable to hear the topic of the Islamic Golden Age whenever someone observes how Islamic countries today have lagged behind to everyone else where back in medieval times, Muslims were ahead culturally and scientifically than European Christians. By some measures, it’s an correct assertion because they did have some advantages that their counterparts did not at the time. However, most people tend to exaggerate or give them the wrong credit they don’t deserve. Which is I intend to clarify in this blog post as competently as I can.

Historical Context

To give you a brief overview on the rise of Islam that is closely associated with this period: Shortly after the death of Muhammad, the Rashidun Caliphate led by his companions (also known as the rightly-guided caliphs) lasted only 25 years and had only 4 leaders, but succeeded in conquering all of the Levant, Egypt, the Caucasus, Eastern Anatolia and Persia. The following dynasty, the Umayyad Caliphate formed after the death of the final Rashidun caliph Ali (Muhammad’s cousin and son-in-law), grew even larger and to this day remains the largest Islamic empire to have existed stretching all the way from modern-day Spain to India.

This is all very impressive for an nomadic people from the desert that had supposedly existed since the Biblical times as descendants of Ishmael but never represented a real challenge to superpowers like the Greeks, Romans or Persians before them. Even more impressive that they’d be considered so advanced compared to other cultures at the same time, in spite of the ideology they created being the most antithetic to science that has ever been produced. It almost looks like it was designed to stump any attempt to better understand our world (pure coincidence, kafir). It achieves this wonderful result thanks to its two fundamental principles.

Divine Revelations Are Superior to Empiricism

From Wikipedia: “Empiricism [says] that all hypotheses and theories must be TESTED against observations of the natural world rather than resting solely on a priori reasoning, intuition, or revelation.” You might recognize empiricism as "the foundation of the scientific method", or "the main reason western civilization invented everything it has invented". Well, Islam rejects it and states that divine revelations MUST have the priority, always and in every circumstance. After all, divine revelations come from the all-knowing, mistake-proof Allah, so of course they can't be wrong. The Quran is right because it comes from the perfect Allah, and Allah is perfect because the Quran says so.

This lovely piece of circular logic lies at the very core of Islam, and if it ever were to be rejected, the entire house of Islam would crumble like a sandcastle hit by a wave. It has influenced every Muslim thought, theory and practice for the past 1400 years, and still does. As a result of this principle, if facts and divine revelations clash, the facts are wrong:

A man came to the prophet and said, 'My brother has got loose motions'. The Prophet said, 'Let him drink honey.' The man again (came) and said, 'I made him drink (honey) but that made him worse.' The Prophet said, 'Allah has said the Truth, and THE ABDOMEN OF YOUR BROTHER HAS TOLD A LIE.' (Sahih Bukhari 5716)

What about dangerous shit like putting toxic antimony in your eyes? Lots of doctors say it's bad, even though Muhammad said it was beneficial. This fatwa clarifies the issue:

Ithmid (antimony) is known to be very good for the eyes. […] Trustworthy doctors are the ones whom we should consult on this matter (https://islamqa.info/en/answers/44696/pure-kohl-is-beneficial-to-the-eyes-and-is-not-harmful)

“Trustworthy” is code for “Muslim”. After all, medicine comes from human minds, and human minds are flawed and subject to constant changes, so medicine is also flawed and constantly changing, while revelations come from the perfect and timeless mind of Allah (actual argument you'll hear in debates). Plus, we all know kuffar are all liars hellbent on pushing Muslims on the wrong path. The “revelation over empiricism” principle is at the root of much Islamic (hilarious) retardation. Such as:

Scantily clad women cause earthquakes.

Evolution is a lie from Shaytan.

The Earth is flat and the Sun revolves around it

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Still in 2017, a Tunisian PhD student wrote a doctoral thesis that said that the Earth is flat, only 13,500 years old, and the center of the universe. Oh, also relativity is wrong. And Newton too. The thesis (which took 5 years of work) was accepted by two assessors. Only after passing the first approval stage did its retardation come to light (thanks to a leak) and the faculty stepped in to reject it, but it was too late to avoid the media shitstorm. The student claimed that all she did was unmasking the kuffar lies and reshape science in a way respectful of the Quran's divine revelations, so her conclusions were right. Every time it's accused of being an intellectually crippling religion, Islam claims that it's a kuffar lie. In fact, Muslims say, Islam ENCOURAGES rational thought. Problem is, Islam likes to play with words and change their definitions to fit its agenda. In this case, it has traced a fictitious distinction between "critical" and "rational" thought. This glorious essay explains it clearly:

There are two different things; critical thinking and rational or independent thinking. There are categories where the mind should play its role and where it should not poke its nose. The clear and apparent meanings of the Glorious Qur'aan and the Hadith [...] have no place for criticism. Here, rational thinking to find out the depth is not only permissible but also encouraged in Islam [...] but it is not allowed to criticize since the mind has its own limitation as other human faculties have. (http://www.irfi.org/articles/articles_351_400/does_islam_permit_critical_think.htm)

Get that? It's fine if you use your brain to analyze the scriptures and understand how to better please Allah and fully respect his rules... but you're not allowed to question them, point out logical or factual flaws, or criticize them because they run contrary to your morality.

This is why other Muslim talking points thrown around in every discussion, like this hadith which supposedly encourages scientific research...

The Messenger of Allah (pbuh) said: Seeking knowledge is obligatory upon every Muslim.

...don't really mean what a Western reader might think they mean. As explained in this fatwa, “What is meant by knowledge here is knowledge of sharee’ah (Islamic knowledge)”. (See here, which also specifies that hadith is probably false anyway.)

This is what Islam says when they talk about “knowledge”. They mean the wisdom of Allah revealed in the Quran and (through the words and actions of Muhammad) in the Sunnah. Nothing else is worthy of being considered actual knowledge, because science is achieved through the workings of the human mind, which is flawed and subject to mistakes. Muslims always point at past scientific theories that are now recognized as wrong to “prove” that science is inferior to divine revelations, not realizing that the ability to distinguish right from wrong and discard the latter is precisely that which makes science superior to revelations. Science realizes its mistakes and grows, constantly improving. Divine revelations CANNOT change, because that would imply accusing Allah of being imperfect. Which brings us to the second principle.

Progress is Actually Regress

This second principle is a logical consequence of the first. Since divine revelations are perfect and forever valid in every time and place, this means that our scientific, philosophical and moral knowledge have all peaked 1400 years ago, when Muhammad transmitted us Allah's wisdom. Islam calls Muhammad “the perfect man” and considers his generation the best that ever existed:

[Muhammad said:] The best among you (are) the people (who belong to) my age. Then those next to them, then those next to them, then those next to them. [...] Then after them would come a people who would give evidence before they are asked for it, and would be dishonest and not trustworthy... (Sahih Muslim 2535. Also, Sahih Bukhari 6429).

Since the Quran and the Sunnah that Muhammad gave us are perfection, changing a single thing from them is regress, not progress. And it's considered apostasy:

ACTS THAT ENTAIL LEAVING ISLAM:

to deny the existence of Allah, His eternality, or to deny any of His attributes which the consensus of Muslims (ijma) ascribes to Him;

to deny any verse of the Koran or anything which by scholarly consensus (ijma) belongs to it;

to deny the obligatory character of something which by the consensus of Muslims (ijma) is part of Islam, even one rak'a [bow] from one of the five obligatory prayers. (Reliance of the Traveller, paragraph o8.7)

As a consequence, the role of the Islamic “scholar” is reduced to that of a broken record: all he can and must do is repeat his predecessors' opinions. Old ideas and interpretations of the scriptures are considered more valid than new ones BY DEFINITION. Current scholars simply can't contradict the ijma (the established consensus of ancient scholars we've discussed in the previous lesson). This makes Islamic theology a desiccated corpse.

This is an essential point that western liberals have a very hard time understanding, because they grew up in a culture (ours) where scholars have the freedom, and even the expectation, to subvert old thinking and innovate the intellectual landscape. But Islamic scholars are the exact opposite. Chained by every intellectual restriction imaginable, incapable of denying, questioning, criticizing or ignoring even the smallest rule of Allah or of his prophet on pain of apostasy, the Islamic scholar has the role of PREVENTING innovations. Of preserving Islam during the centuries like a mosquito in amber.

Which is why a fiqh manual of 800 years ago like “Reliance of the Traveller” is pretty much identical to a manual written in 2001 like “A Summary of Islamic Jurisprudence”, despite belonging to a different fiqh school. Individual fiqh schools almost can't deviate from each other because of the intrinsic limits of Islamic theology, and indeed, they all agree on the most essential questions: the treatment of infidels, women and gays, admissibility of pedophilia and slavery, refusal of the scientific method, obligatoriness of aggressive jihad even without provocation, etc. All the things that make Islam problematic are clearly stated by every fiqh school.

This doctrinal rigidity is also the reason why the objection “anybody can write a fatwa” is not a valid reason to reject its content. First of all, no, not anybody can write a fatwa. You need a specific license to issue them (not even Osama bin Laden was considered a qualified jurist - he was a businessman - despite issuing two fatwas in the late 90s calling for war against the USA). But the most important point is that fatwas are NOT PERSONAL OPINIONS of the issuing scholar. They're always expression of orthodox Islam. They MUST be, because Islamic scholars can't state their personal opinions if they differ from the orthodoxy. That would be apostasy. Proof is that fatwas are always very well sourced with a profusion of sahih hadiths and Quranic verses (ayat). To reject a fatwa, you need to explain why the hadiths and the ayat it's based on are not valid. Good luck.

This rigidity also invalidates the common objection “but there is an imam in [liberal country] who says [liberal opinion which contradicts orthodox Islam]”. Some Western imams even claim that homosexuality is fine. In Germany they have a female imam who spouts all kinds of liberal feel-good stuff, and is portrayed by the media as the face of “modern Islam”. The problem is that in this case we are truly talking about ENTIRELY PERSONAL OPINIONS, which not only are not supported by the holy texts, but directly contradict them. So what these liberal imams say (either out of ignorance or because they're looking for attention), doesn't change Islam in the slightest. Orthodox Islam still states that gays must be killed and that women can't be imams. The principle is very simple: if a fatwa or a statement from a Muslim scholar are supported by sahih hadiths, excerpts from the Sirat and/or (not abrogated) Quranic verses, they're theologically valid, otherwise they're not. It should be obvious, but liberals don't seem to get it and regularly choose to believe only the unfounded claims and to ignore the theologically solid ones.

As we were saying, according to Islam itself, our understanding of Islam (and therefore of the universe and of morality) is constantly DECREASING instead of increasing. The further we go from the time of the Prophet, the more we deviate from the perfect path. This view is in direct opposition with the Western one, which considers every scientific discovery an improvement. The time of the Prophet was considered the best period of time in existence, which explains why groups like the Taliban want to revert whatever societies they operate to one from 1400 years ago.

“But wait”, you might say. “Muslims are not like the Amish, they don't seem to have any problems using technology. They gladly and immediately accepted our cars, fridges, electricity, computers, automatic rifles and cellphones. How can you say they're against scientific progress?”

Once again, Islam avoids this schizophrenic contradiction by playing with words, twisting concepts and, if it needs to, inventing new ones. Islam distinguishes between IDEOLOGICAL innovations (bid'ah), which are negative until proven otherwise, and MATERIAL innovations, which are positive until proven otherwise (proof that can only be found in the scriptures, of course, not derived by logic or facts):

Allah's Messenger (pbuh) said, "If somebody innovates something which is not in harmony with the principles of our religion, that thing is rejected."» (Sahih Bukhari 2697)

[Bid'ah] means anything that is not referred to specifically in Sharee'ah, and for which there is no evidence (daleel) in the Qur'aan or Sunnah, and which was not known at the time of the Prophet and his Companions.

At the same time, it is quite obvious that this definition of religious inventions or innovations, which are condemned, DOES NOT INCLUDE WORDLY INVENTIONS [such as cars and washing machines, etc. – Translator].» (https://islamqa.info/en/answers/864/bidah-hasanah-good-innovations)

Muslims always quote this hadith where Muhammad said:

Whoever starts a good thing and is followed by others, will have his own reward and a reward equal to that of those who follow him.

...and this should prove that Islam just LOVES innovations. Problem is that once again Islam gives a different meaning to words. As clarified in the above quoted fatwa:

From the context of the story, it is clear that what is meant by the words "whoever starts a good thing (sunnah hasanah)" is: Whoever revives a part of the Sunnah of the Prophet (pbuh), or teaches it to others, or commands others to follow it, or acts according to it so that others follow his example. [...] It should be clear from the above, with no room for doubt, that the Prophet (pbuh) was not allowing innovation in matters of deen (religion)

So only teaching somebody an islamic rule that he might not know is "a good thing". To sum it up: ideas, theories and philosophies which were “not known at the time of the Prophet” are bad, but “wordly inventions” are good. This very convenient distinction allows Islam to take all the fruits of the infidels' work, all the electronics, the factories, the medicines, the weapons, etc., while rejecting their ideas, which have the naughty tendency of disproving some part or another of Islam's “perfect” revelations. As a result, Islam creates very obtuse but dangerous cultures.

Islamic societies are scientifically stagnant, because science is first of all a specific MINDSET that says everything can and should be questioned and nothing should be accepted without valid evidence. You simply can't do science without this mindset, and Islam utterly kills it... But Muslims are also armed with all the latest gadgets and convinced they have the right to own them (since the kuffar were created to serve Muslims, their achievements are gifts from Allah to them – actual argument I've heard) and even to use them against the same kuffar who created them.

What About That “Islamic Golden Age”?

That Islam inevitably generates scientifically infertile cultures might appear like a preposterous statement. In which case, you're probably squealing: “But what about the Islamic Golden Age? Without Islam we wouldn't have our science because Muslims were inventing shit and Wakandin' around while our ancestors were still in caves and didn't even know how to bathe” yadda yadda. This apparent contradiction ceases to exist when we realize that the so-called “Islamic Golden Age” never existed. At least not as it's commonly meant, as a time when innumerable Muslim scientists were creating whole new scientific disciplines and discovering the secrets of the cosmos.

What REALLY happened was that Muslims invaded and conquered scientifically advanced but militarily weak societies like Persia, India and eventually Greece, and then absorbed all their useful infidel knowledge. The “Islamic Golden Age” should be more accurately called the Greek-Hindu-Persian-Dhimmi Golden Age, since it started when in the 9th century caliph Abu Jafar al-Mamun ordered that all the scientific and philosophical treaties written by the infidels be translated in Arabic (which is actually commendable considering some of his predecessors burned down the Christian Library of Alexandria or erased whatever traces of Zoroastrianism in Persia by destroying pretty much all its sacred texts and killing all their priests). All the translators were Christians or Jews (like abbott Probus of Antioch and Hunayn ibn Ishaq and his son) which translated and released into Islamic societies the works of Aristotle, Plato, Archimedes, Euclid, Hippocrates, Ptolemy, Galen, and many other Greek mathematicians, thinkers, astronomers and doctors.

Many Indian discoveries were also appropriated by Islam. Like the number zero, invented by Brahmagupta in 628 AD and described in his book “Brahmasphuta Siddhanta”. Or the so called “arabic numerals”, which Muslims keep telling us we owe to them... even though they were invented in India in 700 AD. (http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/HistTopics/Indian_numerals.html) Arab societies don't even use our same numbers, but very different ones. Islam even brags about giving us coffee, even though it was already well known by their black slaves. Yeah, Muslims had black slaves. Oh, they had so fucking MANY black slaves.

This massive translation enterprise had the positive effect of preserving many treaties that otherwise we might have lost, but the Islamic Golden Age didn't really generate anything new. Consider this: Pre-Islamic India was renowned for its universities: Takshashila, Vikramashila, Nalanda, Ujjain and other places attracted students and scholars alike from far and wide, much like the United States of today .After the establishment of the Delhi Sultanate, not a single center of learning (other than Islamic seminaries) was established for over seven centuries.

In 1400 years, Islam produced no relevant scientific discovery, no new paradigm, no major breakthrough, no revolution even remotely comparable to the Copernican or the relativistic one. Or the germ theory of diseases. Or the Newtonian laws of physics. Or the atomic theory. Or the discovery of continental drift. Or the taming of electricity. Or the development of the theory of evolution. Or the periodic table. Or the discovery of DNA. Or, hell, the goddamn SCIENTIFIC METHOD, which Islam keeps rejecting to this day. And of course, even in the philosophical, political and social realms, Islam has rejected every major breakthrough, from freedom of speech, to inalienable human rights, to the idea that authorities should not be above the law, to independence of scientific research. Hell, they didn’t even make any military breakthroughs: the Turks may have used gunpowder to take Constantinople down, but they were given by the Chinese, who discovered it ages ago while the Europeans improved it, many, many times and now we have modern weapons because of them. For a religion that revolves created around and for warfare, that is quite an unimaginable slip up.

As we've seen, fiqh manuals state clearly that denying the smallest rule of islam is apostasy. But they don't stop there: even believing that natural phenomenons might have causes which don't depend on the will of Allah is enough to be considered an apostate:

ACTS THAT ENTAIL LEAVING ISLAM:

to believe that things in themselves or by their own nature have any causal influence independent of the will of Allah. (Reliance of the Traveller, Shafi school of law, paragraph o8.7)

The same manual, on paragraph o8.1, adds that apostates must be killed. The other fiqh schools agree:

Maliki school: Malik Ibn Anas, “Al-Muwatta”, book 36, paragraphs 36.18.15-16. (PDF:http://traditionalhikma.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Al-Muwatta-by-Imam-Malik.pdf)

Hanbali school: Saleh Al-Fawzan, "A Summary of Islamic Jurisprudence", Al-Maiman Publishing House, Riyadh, 2005, Vol. 2, Part X, chapter 9, pp. 637-8.

Hanafi school: Mawlana Ashraf Ali Thanvi, “Bahishti Zewar”, Zam Zam Publishers, Karachi, 2005, p. 375. (PDF:https://archive.org/details/BahishtiZewar_201307)

See also this fatwa: http://www.askimam.org/public/question_detail/34653

How can you have science when you get killed for even attempting to understand the world without assuming the existence of an omnipotent puppeteer directly controlling every atom? The Islamic concept of the universe is that of an ultimately unknowable concoction whose workings depend on the whims of Allah. The universe might respect the laws of physics 999,999,999 times in a row, but there's never any guarantee that on the one billionth time, Allah wont decide to violate them. So every conclusion reached by observation and experimenting is inevitably uncertain. This view of the universe is in direct opposition with the western one of an ordered machinery that can be understood and predicted by analyzing it with our reason.

In 14 centuries, Islam produced nothing besides some minor advancements in optics, algebra, astronomy, medicine and trigonometry, and some new words: nadir, zenith, elisir, assassin, algebra, etc. (Note: algebra was invented in India and developed by Europeans, Muslims simply invented its name.) Not a very impressive trophy room for such a massive culture, so widespread, so old and which counted untold billions of followers since its birth. I wonder what could've caused this intellectual drought...

How About Any Scholars?

Muslims love to name-drop lots of amazing Islamic scientists which supposedly taught us lowly infidels all our science. Too bad basically none of those were actually Muslims. They were heretical thinkers which achieved their results precisely by REJECTING Islam's suffocating dogmas. And sure enough, if they lived even today, there would have been calls for their deaths.

Avicenna (Ibn Sina): He credited his achievements in medicine and logic to Aristotle and Hippocrates. His theology was a fusion of Plato’s and Islam. He denied physical resurrection and thought prophets were simply "inspired philosophers". Also, he believed Allah only knew the universal principles of the workings of the universe, but couldn't or didn't care about controlling the small daily events in our lives, which denied his omniscience. (Arthur J. Arberry, “Avicenna on Theology”, John Murray, 1951.) For these ideas, he was accused of blasphemy by Ibn al-Qayyim and Ibn Taymiyyah (both of whom are considered the most influential Islamic theologians today) and other major scholars, who considered him even more deviant than the pagans who opposed Muhammad! Nowadays, the Muslim scholars who aren't too busy taking credit for his discoveries are busy accusing him of apostasy and forbidding Muslims to respect him. (See for example: https://www.bakkah.net/en/the-reality-of-ibn-sina-avicenna-famous-scientist-and-philosopher.htm)

Averroes: Also strongly influenced by Greek philosophy. Dared to say that truth could also be discovered using reason and logic and not only the holy texts, and that Muhammad's way of treating women was disgusting. Was accused of blasphemy, persecuted and forced in exile by the Almohad Caliphate in the 12th century. He also wasn't considered a Muslim in his time (before Muslims started to feel the need to repaint their blasphemers so they could have some scientist to brag about).

Abu Bakr al-Razi: Often considered the best Muslim thinker who ever lived, he called himself a disciple of Socrates and Plato, denied that the world was created from nothing, that faith is superior to reason, that Muhammad only taught the truth, and that revealed religions in general are of much use, besides igniting avoidable conflicts for retarded reasons. He considered them needlessly nitpicky and irrational. He had the balls to write 3 books on the subject:

"The Prophet's fraudulent tricks",

"The stratagems of those who claim to be prophets",

"On the refutation of revealed religions".

He also called the Quran "a collection of absurd fables". Was obviously accused of apostasy and NOT considered a Muslim, despite his titanic testicles. (Source: Deuraseh, Nurdeng, "A Comprehensive Bibliography of the Works of Abu Bakr Al-Razi and Al-Biruni", 2008, Journal of Aqidah and Islamic Thought, 9:51–100.)

Al-Sarakhsi: Philosopher. Studied the Greeks and dared to apply rationality to the study of the holy books and to deny the veracity of prophets. Was executed in 899 AD for apostasy by the Abbasids.

Al-Farabi: Philosopher. Thought that reason was superior to faith and that the body couldn't resurrect. Was accused of apostasy.

These were only the most famous (and most name-dropped) """Islamic""" thinkers, but the trend should be evident. Some heretics managed to get away with it because the ruler at the time wasn't too stringent about following Islam himself and preferred to enjoy the fruits of their labor. Islam wasn't imposed with the exact same severity in every Muslim culture and in every age. Others had to spend their entire lives using deliberately ambiguous language in their writings in order to maintain plausible deniability. Others still simply hid their heretic work while fronting as strict Muslims. The intellectual sterility of Islam is made evident by the fact that his ideas about the scientific method were completely IGNORED by Islamic societies, and continue to be so.

With very few exceptions, like the historian Ibn Khaldun, the mathematician Al-Khwarizmi, the polymath Al-Tusi and a few others (whose actual faith we have no way of knowing since they weren't suicidal enough to openly reject Islam), every supposed Muslim genius was actually not a Muslim at all, according to Islam's own rules. To do good work, they needed the freedom to explore new ideas, and to have that, they had no choice but to reject Islam's stringent limitations. They were persecuted, exiled, tortured, killed and had most of their work burned by the same kind of obtuse Muslims whose intellectual heirs now brag about the very achievements they couldn't destroy. As Ernest Renan said:

Whatever science managed to flourish within Islam during the Middle Ages did so IN SPITE of Islam, not thanks to it. Giving Islam the credit for these discoveries would be like giving the Inquisition credit for Galileo's. (Ernest Renan, "Islamisme et la science", lecture given at the Sorbonne on march 29, 1883)

Apologists always blame the Crusades and the Mongol invasions for ending their Golden Age. But even before Mongols sacked Baghdad (the intellectual capital of the Islamic world) in the 13th century, and before the Crusaders took Jerusalem, Muslims could never really achieve any scientific breakthrough in their centuries of almost uncontested hegemony. Maybe because Muhammad really hated people who questioned his divine revelations and tried to improve on them, and has explicitly forbidden it:

The Prophet (pbuh) said, “Leave me as I have left you (i.e., do not ask me questions that go beyond what I’ve already told you). For those who came before you were doomed because of their questions and differences with their Prophets. If I forbid you from doing something, then abstain from it. And if I command you to do something, then do of it as much as you can." (Sahih Bukhari 7288.)

Just asking questions about something is enough to make that something haram (forbidden) even though before it was allowed:

The Prophet (pbuh) said, "The most sinful person among the Muslims is the one who asked about something which had not been prohibited, but was prohibited because of his asking." (Sahih Bukhari 7289.)

This obviously made Muslims fearful to question and to investigate. As Rodney Stark said:

What killed Islam's science was Islam itself. How can you do research in biology, chemistry, physics or philosophy, when the law explicitly forbids it?

Unlawful knowledge includes:

philosophy;

the sciences of the materialists.

and anything that is a means to create doubts (n: in eternal truths) (Reliance of the Traveller, paragraph a7.2)

This little paragraph is enough to kill any hope of scientific development and to qualify Islam as the most backward religion currently in existence.

Imminent Christian Apologetic

For all the shit people give Christianity and accusing us of “holding back progress”, the development of Western civilization is intrinsically tied to it. The first modern universities established in India after centuries of Muslim occupation were made during Anglican British rule. The Jesuit order were regarded the Catholic Church’s best educational system in its most innovative thinkers and their suppression was considered an unmitigated disaster for Catholicism. The Earth being spherical was already a consensus among Christian scholars before Galileo Galilei (which I will get to it in the future). Even things we take for granted like question marks, upper and lowercase letters were created as a result of Charlemagne’s policy to make his people literate. Muslims themselves benefited from their Christian dhimmis translating texts for them. It was Christian scholars like Mendel, Copernicus, Bacon, Magnus, Ockham and countless others that developed biology, chemistry, mathematics and physics and the list goes on.

Meanwhile, their Muslim counterparts were too busy memorizing doubtful anecdotes about Muhammad, even more doubtful “divine revelations”, and writing obsessively detailed rules about the most mundane daily act, from the right way to sit to how to wash your ass. The difference is striking, and mostly due to the Christian view of the cosmos not as something subjected to the whims of Allah, therefore unpredictable, but as a collection of stable, harmonic mechanisms which could be studied and understood. An act which, rather than irritating God, would reveal His glory. Even during the so-called Dark Ages, Christianity was still doing seminal scientific work while Muslim clerics today issue fatwas against building snowmen because it's an act of creation which challenges Allah's power (Drawing pictures or creating sculptures is considered illegal because muh idolatry).

Conclusion

Islam's problem with science, which unfortunately is the most basic belief at the core of the entire doctrine is therefore unfixable: the belief that Islam is PERFECT. This inevitably creates a mentality where science is impossible, because progress and research are seen as not only useless but harmful. A step back from the perfect path. When Muslims claim to believe that the universe is ordered and harmonic, what they mean is that every atom is under the complete control of Allah, so there is no chaos. The Islamic Golden Age is a giant meme, they were only ahead of the Europeans during the Middle Ages because they stole information from the peoples they conquered rather than producing anything new and was the job of infidels to do that shit for them. It’s no wonder that Islam's scientific progress stopped so abruptly once they exhausted the Indo-Greek bag of gifts they stole with their bloody wars of conquest and even now, rather than training actual scientists, Islam is too busy misunderstanding science (and Christianity for that matter) in an attempt to prove the “scientific miracles” in the Quran (like a Grand Mufti who insisted the Earth was flat and the Sun rotated it, only changing his mind after a Saudi prince who went to space told him himself), while at the same time accepting all the useful trinkets and rejecting the ideas and the mindset which generated them.

This intellectual poverty, inability and unwillingness to question old dogmas and research new ideas are inevitable in a culture ruled by Islam, and explain why the entire Muslim world, with all its 1,7 billion people, is still so insignificant in the scientific community, and can claim virtually no achievement to its name. In its entire history, Islam has produced only three Nobel prizes in scientific disciplines: Abdus Salam (physics), Ahmed Zewail and Aziz Sancar (both chemistry). Not surprisingly, all three of them received their education and did their research in Western countries. I will also make an separate blogpost in the future showing how the Islamic world “rewards” the geniuses it produces.

But you know what? Maybe refuting the so-called Islamic Golden Age is an exercise in futility because as Salafism proliferates and festers in the Islamic world, they don’t really genuinely care about that period (they only use it to rub in the face of infidels and make up for their loss in prestige) because this era as its understood peaked during the Abbasid Caliphate. The only period they most want to emulate is one of Muhammad’s time and the Rashidun Caliphate (the so called “rightly guided”) - i.e. the one where Islam was mostly spread by the sword - since all the following ones: the Umayyads, the Abbasids and the Ottomans were considered “corrupted” and “non-Islamic”. You might be familiar with that better as what Taliban and ISIS were trying to do. So yeeeeahh....

#history

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jerrytackettca · 6 years ago

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Weight Watchers Profits Plummet as More People Embrace Ketogenic Diet

Weight Watchers, one of the world’s largest diet companies, is struggling yet again as shares dwindle amid “competition” from ketogenic diets. In 2011, the company gave up on calorie counting, admitting it was “unhelpful.” Now, CNN Business reports people are increasingly turning away from carbs — and diets that promote them.

“CEO Mindy Grossman attributed the problem to the keto diet, a popular eating regimen that makes bread and other carbs taboo. She said during a call with analysts … that keto is ‘becoming a cultural mean’ and she even called it a ‘keto surge,’” CNN writes.1

As a result of rapidly shifting consumer behavior, Weight Watchers’ stock value has dropped by more than 80 percent since its high in July 2018.2 Weight Watchers won’t be changing its diet strategy though, Grossman says.

Nutritional Ketosis Is a Natural State

While Weight Watchers appears to view the ketogenic diet as another fad destined to eventually fade, there’s plenty of evidence to suggest nutritional ketosis is a most natural way of eating for health and weight management. The same clearly cannot be said for the Weight Watchers program.

As noted in a 2014 article on ketotic.org, “Newborn infants are in ketosis. This is their normal state.”3 The article makes a compelling argument for ketogenic metabolism being “normal and desirable” because babies are in ketosis when born, and breast milk is ketogenic, so they remain in ketosis for as long as they’re breastfeeding.

Ketones — water-soluble fats your liver produces when converting fats into energy — appear to be particularly crucial during brain development.4 The article also presents the hypothesis that:

“… [E]xtending the period of ketosis after breastfeeding, by weaning onto ketogenic foods such as homemade broth and fatty meat, rather than cereal, fruit and starchy vegetables, would further promote brain development and reduce risk of disease.”

Ketones Mimic and Support Benefits of Fasting

Indeed, we know that ketones mimic the life span-extending properties of calorie restriction5 (fasting), which includes improved glucose metabolism, reduced inflammation, clearing out malfunctioning immune cells,6 and reduced IGF-1, which is one of the factors that regulate growth pathways and growth genes and is a major player in accelerated aging and cellular/intracellular regeneration and rejuvenation (autophagy and mitophagy in the mitochondria).

Historically, the generous amounts of food most of us eat simply were not accessible throughout the entire year, let alone 24/7, and evidence shows your body simply isn't designed to run optimally when continuously fed.

Unfortunately, research by Satchidananda Panda suggests 90 percent of people eat across a span of 12 hours a day, and many across even longer timespans. This is a prescription for metabolic disaster, and will radically increase your risk for obesity and chronic degenerative disease over time.

Part of the problem is that when you eat throughout the day your body adapts to burning sugar as its primary fuel, which down-regulates enzymes that utilize and burn your stored fat. If you struggle to lose weight, this may well be a significant part of the problem — your body has simply lost the metabolic flexibility to burn fat for fuel.

Moreover, research has confirmed that many biological repair and rejuvenation processes take place in the absence of food, and this is another reason why all-day grazing triggers biological dysfunction. In a nutshell, your body was designed to:

a. Run on fat as its primary fuel, which you do on a ketogenic diet, and

b. Cycle through periods of feast and famine, which you do when intermittently fasting

Maintaining Robust Autophagy Is an Important Health Strategy

As mentioned, ketones have a biological impact similar to that of fasting, a major benefit of which is accelerated autophagy and mitophagy. Autophagy literally means "self-eating" and refers to your body's process of eliminating damaged and defective cellular parts that are targeted for lysosome, which then digests them.

It's an essential cleaning out process that encourages the proliferation of new, healthy cells, and is a foundational aspect of cellular rejuvenation and longevity. Because partial fasting also activates stem cells, when you start eating again this rejuvenation impact is further amplified.

However, autophagy tends to slow down with aging, and autophagy defects are known to contribute to a wide variety of diseases, including metabolic diseases, neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, infectious diseases and cancer. Logically, researchers are now looking at autophagy regulation as a viable way to treat these and other diseases.7

Based on the research that has emerged in recent years, I'm convinced that intermittent fasting is one of the most profound metabolic interventions you can do to radically improve your health, as it allows your body to naturally upregulate autophagy and mitophagy to remove damaged senescent cells, including premalignant cells.

It's also an effective way to shed excess weight and extend your life span. The key is to not eat for at least 14 hours at a stretch, as this is the time needed to activate autophagy. Fasting for 16 to 18 hours seems to be the most effective metabolic window for the long term and is something I do most every day.

Fasting, Exercise and Certain Hormones Combat Disease by Clearing Misfolded or Toxic Proteins

In addition to fasting, recent research reveals vigorous exercise can also trigger autophagy and the elimination of defective proteins that contribute to neurodegeneration and other diseases, as do the fight-or-flight hormone epinephrine (adrenaline) and the antidiuretic hormone vasopressin.

Alfred Goldberg, professor of cell biology at the Blavatnik Institute and senior author on the study, told The Harvard Gazette:8

“Our findings show that the body has a built-in mechanism for cranking up the molecular machinery responsible for waste-protein removal that is so critical for the cells’ ability to adapt to new conditions.

This is truly a new way of looking at whether we can turn up the cellular vacuum cleaner. We thought this would require the development of new types of molecules, but we hadn’t truly appreciated that our cells continually activate this process.”

The study9 in question was published online ahead of print in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). In it, the researchers suggest exercise and fasting may reduce an individual’s risk of developing conditions that arise from accumulation of misfolded or toxic proteins, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s being but two common examples.

Is a High-Fat Diet Bad for Your Heart?

While a ketogenic diet is high in dietary fats, it’s crucial to understand which fats are good for you and which are not. Most Americans consume harmful fats like processed vegetable oils, which will invariably worsen your health.

So when we're talking about boosting consumption of dietary fats, we're referring to natural, unprocessed fat, found in real foods such as seeds, nuts, butter, olives, avocado and coconut oil. A more extensive list of examples can be found in “Basic Introduction to Metabolic Mitochondrial Therapy.”

Dietary fat serves two purposes. As explained by Jeff Volek, Ph.D., a registered dietitian and professor in the Human Science Department at Ohio State University who has done a lot of work in the field of high-fat, low-carbohydrate diets, dietary fat is a “cleaner” burning fuel than carbs, as it creates fewer free radicals and reactive oxygen species in the process.

Dietary fat is also a foundational structural component of your biology with one of its primary roles in building your cell membranes. If you're trying to lose weight, training your body to access your body fat is key, or else you cannot shed it. Unfortunately, many have been brainwashed into thinking that all dietary fats are bad for your heart and cardiovascular system.

Healthy Versus Harmful Fats

It’s really important to understand that not all fats have the same effects on your body, and that the fats most commonly found in processed foods are among the very worst. One of the most recent studies looking at this found that when mice were fed a “Western high-fat diet,” arterial stiffening rapidly developed, and that the primary culprit was oxidized low-density lipoproteins (LDLs).

As noted by study co-author Manuela Ayee, “To our surprise, a very small amount of oxidized LDL dramatically changes the structure of the cell membrane for the worse.”10 The research was presented at the Biophysical Society Annual Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland the first week of March 2019.

According to the late Dr. Fred Kummerow — who researched lipids and heart disease for eight decades and died at the age of 10211 — oxidized cholesterol is the primary culprit that causes heart disease, not saturated fats from foods such as coconut oil and butter. By triggering inflammation, oxidized cholesterol promotes the clogging of arteries and associated cardiovascular problems, including heart attacks.

And which types of fats are most prone to oxidation? Processed vegetable oils. These oils are also very high in omega-6 polyunsaturated fats which, when taken in large amounts, cannot be burned for fuel. Instead, they’re incorporated into your cellular and mitochondrial membranes, where they are highly susceptible to oxidative damage that harms your metabolic machinery.

To learn more about the ins and outs of dietary fats — which are beneficial and which need to be avoided to protect your health — be sure to pick up a copy of my book, “Superfuel,” co-written with James DiNicolantonio, Pharm.D. The following list from Dr. Cate Shanahan, author of "Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food," also details some of the best and worst fats found in our modern diet.

>>>>> Click Here <<<<<

Feast and Famine Cycling Is an Important Component of Nutritional Ketosis

Getting back to the ketogenic diet, one key detail that most promoters of nutritional ketosis overlook, or simply do not understand yet, is the importance of cycling in and out of ketosis once your body is able to burn fat for fuel. At that point, you begin cycling in and out of nutritional ketosis by upping your carb and protein intake once or twice a week.

Cycling in and out of ketosis will negate side effects and is especially important when you’re doing strength training. After a day or two of "feasting," you then cycle back into nutritional ketosis (the "fasting" stage) for the remainder of the week.

By periodically pulsing higher carb intakes, consuming, say, 100 or 150 grams of carbs opposed to 20 to 50 grams per day, your ketone levels will dramatically increase and your blood sugar will drop. I go into the details of this in my book, “Fat for Fuel,” for which there is also an accompanying online course that guides you through the entire program, which is designed to optimize your mitochondrial function.

Ketone Supplements May Boost Results

Ketones made by your body are called endogenous. But you can also supply your body with exogenous ketones from supplements. One example is medium chain triglyceride (MCT) oil, which is readily converted to ketones. Coconut oil is another. However, while coconut oil does contain some MCTs, straight MCT oil is a more concentrated source.

Most commercial brands of MCT oil contain a 50/50 mix of eight-carbon (C8) and 10-carbon (C10) fats. I prefer taking straight C8 (also known as caprylic acid), as it converts to ketones far more rapidly than do C10 fats, and may be easier on your digestion.

Scientists have also created synthetic ketones. In a 2016 podcast,12 Ben Greenfield interviewed Dr. Richard Veech,13 a leading expert on ketosis, senior researcher and laboratory chief at the National Institutes of Health and an inventor of exogenous ketone esters.

In it, Veech discussed the benefits of and uses for synthetic (exogenous14) ketones, which mimic or replicate your body’s natural (endogenous) ketones. One of my personal favorites is KetoFast, a supplemental exogenous ketone powder. Some of the key points made in Veech’s interview are that:

• Nutritional ketosis is a survival adaptation, as your brain only has two options for fuel: glucose and ketones. Ketones can also be used by most organs and cells in your body with the exception of your liver, which lacks the enzyme needed to utilize them as fuel, and your red blood cells, which don’t have mitochondria, which is where ketones are metabolized.

• An easier, although not necessarily better alternative to nutritional ketosis, can be achieved by ingesting exogenous ketones. There are two types of ketone bodies your body can use for energy: beta-hydroxybutyrate (BHB) and acetoacetate (AcAc). (A third ketone body, acetone, is excreted as waste, primarily through your breath).

Exogenous ketone supplements are usually some combination of BHB salts, MCT powder and ketogenic amino acids such as leucine or lysine. If you use a ketone supplement, follow the package directions for dosage. The best supplements are the ketone esters, and is the one I regularly consume when flying to lower my DNA damage from ionizing radiation.

Ketogenic Diet Basics

I believe adopting a cyclical ketogenic diet — which means cycling in and out of eating foods high in healthy fats, with moderate protein and low net carbs (think nonfiber carbs) — can benefit most people. It’s very effective for weight loss, and as discussed earlier, works with your body in such a way as to improve regeneration and renewal.

Maintaining net carb (total carbs minus fiber) intake at or below 50 grams allows you to enter into nutritional ketosis (the metabolic state associated with an increased production of ketones in your liver, which is the biological reflection of being able to burn fat). However, we are all different in how we respond to foods, so expect this amount to vary from person to person.

Some people can be in a full fat-burning state with full ketosis at a level of nonfiber carbs that’s higher than 50 grams, sometimes even as high as 70 or 80 grams. However, if you’re insulin resistant or have Type 2 diabetes, you may need to limit your net carbs to as little as 20 or 30 grams per day.

To find your personal carb target, it’s important to measure not just your blood glucose but also your ketones. One of the most accurate and least expensive ketone measuring devices on the market right now is Keto Mojo. This will give you an objective measure of whether or not you’re truly in ketosis, rather than just relying on counting the grams of carbohydrates you consume.

Using a nutrient tracker will radically improve your ability to understand your ketogenic diet nutrient targets and assess the nutrient value of your food choices. There are a number of trackers available, but my first choice is Cronometer.com/Mercola. That's my revision of the basic Cronometer tracker, and it’s already set to default to macronutrient levels that will support nutritional ketosis.

Once you’ve confirmed that you’re in ketosis, start the cycling procedure described earlier, where you add in higher net carbs and protein once or twice a week, ideally on days you’re strength training. Intermittent fasting works very well with a ketogenic diet as well, and can further speed up and optimize your results.

from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/03/11/weight-watchers-vs-keto.aspx

source http://niapurenaturecom.weebly.com/blog/weight-watchers-profits-plummet-as-more-people-embrace-ketogenic-diet

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paullassiterca · 6 years ago

Text

Weight Watchers’ Profits Plummet as More People Embrace Ketogenic Diet

youtube

Nutritional Ketosis Is a Natural State

Ketones — water-soluble fats your liver produces when converting fats into energy — appear to be particularly crucial during brain development.4 The article also presents the hypothesis that:

Ketones Mimic and Support Benefits of Fasting

Historically, the generous amounts of food most of us eat simply were not accessible throughout the entire year, let alone 24/7, and evidence shows your body simply isn’t designed to run optimally when continuously fed.

a. Run on fat as its primary fuel, which you do on a ketogenic diet, and

b. Cycle through periods of feast and famine, which you do when intermittently fasting

Maintaining Robust Autophagy Is an Important Health Strategy

As mentioned, ketones have a biological impact similar to that of fasting, a major benefit of which is accelerated autophagy and mitophagy. Autophagy literally means “self-eating” and refers to your body’s process of eliminating damaged and defective cellular parts that are targeted for lysosome, which then digests them.

It’s an essential cleaning out process that encourages the proliferation of new, healthy cells, and is a foundational aspect of cellular rejuvenation and longevity. Because partial fasting also activates stem cells, when you start eating again this rejuvenation impact is further amplified.

However, autophagy tends to slow down with aging, and autophagy defects are known to contribute to a wide variety of diseases, including metabolic diseases, neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, infectious diseases and cancer. Logically, researchers are now looking at autophagy regulation as a viable way to treat these and other diseases.7

Based on the research that has emerged in recent years, I’m convinced that intermittent fasting is one of the most profound metabolic interventions you can do to radically improve your health, as it allows your body to naturally upregulate autophagy and mitophagy to remove damaged senescent cells, including premalignant cells.

It’s also an effective way to shed excess weight and extend your life span. The key is to not eat for at least 14 hours at a stretch, as this is the time needed to activate autophagy. Fasting for 16 to 18 hours seems to be the most effective metabolic window for the long term and is something I do most every day.

Fasting, Exercise and Certain Hormones Combat Disease by Clearing Misfolded or Toxic Proteins

Alfred Goldberg, professor of cell biology at the Blavatnik Institute and senior author on the study, told The Harvard Gazette:8

Is a High-Fat Diet Bad for Your Heart?

So when we’re talking about boosting consumption of dietary fats, we’re referring to natural, unprocessed fat, found in real foods such as seeds, nuts, butter, olives, avocado and coconut oil. A more extensive list of examples can be found in “Basic Introduction to Metabolic Mitochondrial Therapy.”

Dietary fat is also a foundational structural component of your biology with one of its primary roles in building your cell membranes. If you’re trying to lose weight, training your body to access your body fat is key, or else you cannot shed it. Unfortunately, many have been brainwashed into thinking that all dietary fats are bad for your heart and cardiovascular system.

Healthy Versus Harmful Fats

To learn more about the ins and outs of dietary fats — which are beneficial and which need to be avoided to protect your health — be sure to pick up a copy of my book, “Superfuel,” co-written with James DiNicolantonio, Pharm.D. The following list from Dr. Cate Shanahan, author of “Deep Nutrition: Why Your Genes Need Traditional Food,” also details some of the best and worst fats found in our modern diet.

>>>>> Click Here <<<<<

Feast and Famine Cycling Is an Important Component of Nutritional Ketosis

Cycling in and out of ketosis will negate side effects and is especially important when you’re doing strength training. After a day or two of “feasting,” you then cycle back into nutritional ketosis (the “fasting” stage) for the remainder of the week.

Ketone Supplements May Boost Results

Ketogenic Diet Basics

Using a nutrient tracker will radically improve your ability to understand your ketogenic diet nutrient targets and assess the nutrient value of your food choices. There are a number of trackers available, but my first choice is Cronometer.com/Mercola. That’s my revision of the basic Cronometer tracker, and it’s already set to default to macronutrient levels that will support nutritional ketosis.

from Articles http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2019/03/11/weight-watchers-vs-keto.aspx source https://niapurenaturecom.tumblr.com/post/183374187931

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robin-hood-for-freedom · 6 years ago

Video

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Its been a LONG time since I’v done anything regarding Anita Sarkeesian. And to be honest, I wasnt going to make a response to this. But I feel like he actually raises some interesting points that are worth discussing.

to the skeptics and anti sjw's she'sseen in all ways as a force for bad adishonest critic opportunist a scamartist and ideologue a huge dick

I guess thats fair. At this point I dont think most anti-sjws really care about her though. I will say that, I, personally never got on board with the whole idea that she was a scam artist(though I can see why some people came to that conclusion). Imo, even if its true(and I doubt it), its largely a red herring.

so what I'll call the Internet left however she was broadly understood as an all-around decent critic who was unfairly maligned harassed and abused because she was a woman who spoke about feminism and about her unfair treatment on the Internet

Since you are part of the ‘internet left’ I’ll take your word for it.

I genuinely like Anita sarkeesian I agree with lots of her points and thought she was pretty cool before I knew she was somebody who everybody hated

I’m gonna be honest: Even if I was inclined to agree with anita’s criticism(I’m not), I dont know if I would really like her as a person or say she was ‘cool.’ Her videos and public appearances to me just come across as boring and uninspired.

To be fair though, my only interaction with her has been through those videos/appearances. So its possible she’s actually really nice and funny in person.

even if I didn't like her though I still wouldn't think she deserved the ire of the public you know threats and harassment from people who hated every fiber of her being

Looking back I’m actually somewhat inclined to agree with you. Aside from the obvious that nobody deserves threats and harassment(although those were grossly exaggerated), I actually think the attention given to her was unwarranted. That said, I think most of was less hatred for Anita as a person, or even as a woman, and more concerns about her potential influence and how that might affect games(and other media) we love.

Looking back that influence turned out to be ‘basically none’ but you know what they say about hindsight.

I'm gonna be looking closely at a few people mostly Thunderfoot and sargon of akkad

I’m going to point out at this point that I’m not really that interested in defending Sargon or Thunderf00t(especially not Thunderf00t). I have my quibbles with their takes on Anita.

the first big argument that Anita sarkeesian wants to make that looking at games we can see a general tendency toward centralizing narratives of male and particularly straight male empowerment and what's more that this narrative tends to place the women of video games into some pretty weird positions women are less likely to be the protagonists of games they're more likely to be presented as sexually appealing to have their bodies put on display they're more likely to take on passive or victimized positions as damsels their to be rescued by predominantly male heroes

You cold argue that there are games that do this. I could point out loads of counter-examples of games that dont.

But, more importantly, I think, is that she doesnt really make an argument for why this is bad. And even the limited attempts she does make, you explicitly reject later in this video. In other words, we’re left with no reason to accept this as a criticism, unless we’ve bought into feminist ideology prior to clicking on Anita’s videos.

If you want to argue that these videos were meant to be specifically for a feminist audience and that its silly for non-feminists to care, I guess thats fair as far as it goes. But I dont think thats what you are getting at with this video.

not being an expert in games myself I can't really go through er work fact-checking each and everyone of those examples besides that's not really something that interests me

I guess thats fair as far as it goes. I’m actually glad you acknowledge that you dont know that much about games(unlike anita). But I think you’ll miss a lot of the criticisms of her in that case, which tended to focus on how fairly she was presenting the games she looked at(not very in most cases).

He then posts and summarizes a Thunderf00t video here, I’m only gonna respond to one point then pick up later(watch the full video for context)

Jamie's girlfriend didn't need to get beaten up we didn't need to see her panties as she was taken away

I pointed this out when I responded to Anita, but compare the amount of Marion porn, to the amount of Chung-li porn, and then tell me how much men desire weak or disempowered women(granted this isnt overly relevant to anything he said, but it was something that always bugged me about anita’s arguments).

Double Dragon might be a story about heroism in some broad sense but it's also a male power fantasy it makes you feel good because you get to play as a badass

No, it IS a story about heroism. I can agree that the game sidelines and ‘damsels’ Marion(although again I’m not sold on the idea of that being inherently a bad thing). But the fantasy isnt just about beating people up for no reason, its about being able to protect and save the people you care about. I’m seriously skeptical that Double Dragon(or most other games) would resonate as much without that aspect.

I’m skipping most of the rest of the Thunderf00t stuff, because I dont think thunderf00t made the best arguments, and dont have much desire to defend them.

here's her second and much more important position that games being like that that's a problem Anita isn't just here to make a bunch of neutral statements about what video games are like she wants to say that video games have some relationship to things like sexism misogyny the patriarchy negative and pervasive stuff she sees in our culture

And since I’m not convinced that games can cause people to become sexist or other have other negative views(and neither are you as we shall see). The only problem is that the games in question offend her feminist sensibilities.

[these youtubers] nitpick small errors in her analysis see she spoke too broadly about hitman her general observations about video games must be totally off-base

Its not just hitman. That was just one of many, many examples of her misrepresenting or deliberately using game mechanics to painting games in a worse light than reality is. Also she shows no understand of how gameplay affects player attention and focus(presumably because she doesnt know as a result of not playing them)

cultivation Theory cultivation theory is an area of research and psychology that attempts to study and demonstrate the impact that media has on people the sorts of behaviors and dispositions it cultivates and when these youtubers talk about this theory it is always to point out that the research has proven it false

Not so much that its been proven false. But that the effects shown are much more subtle than is commonly portrayed, tends to reinforce previously held beliefs rather than implanting new ones, and may not even apply to games. Liana Kerzner(funny how you dont cover her despite the fact that she got a decent amount of attention for arguing with Anita), and AydenPaladin have both discussed this extensively, so I’ll just leave links to their videos.

let's say for the sake of argument that these people are absolutely right about their science every study we've done shows that video games cause no shift in behavior or disposition our research into cultivation Theory has given us nothing but a bunch of bummed out psychologists now assuming all this let's ask a question what exactly would these findings mean to Anita sarkeesian's claim that video games can be harmful

It would mean she’s wrong. Actually she’s wrong even in the real world where cultivation is a thing, just more subtle and might not apply to games.

but to me it would mean absolutely nothing and why is that well here's one big reason I don't think that science is actually capable of disproving obvious facts about the wa ypeople work media's abilities are cultivate behaviors emotions and dispositions isn't some incidental point about it that requires further proof rather it's the entire reason why media exists in the first place

You’re conflating two very different things here. Nobody denies that media has an ‘effect’ in the sense of causing an emotional reaction or giving some new information to people. But thats a VERY different thing than saying media can alter peoples long-term attitudes, beliefs or behaviors.

I agree the former is obvious. The latter isnt. And in fact the effect media has is pretty small.

let's do a little thought experiment say a film is made that is unabashed Nazi propaganda let's call it Lubin'sLubin

You obviously dont speak German, but okay.

every moment in this film conveys an anonymous and an explicit hatred of Jews let's say that this film is so horrendously racist that nobody in society can possibly be influenced by it to become Nazis the vast majority of people watch it critically tear it apart maybe even reflect on how silly and gross Nazism is

So you’re saying this film may, unintentionally, have a net positive effect on society. Go on.

now if what's argon and Thunderfoot says is true if the only way to say a work of art is toxic is to look at its literal impact on society then we would be unable to condemn Lubin sh Lubin since the film has no tangible effect on anyone's behavior

Oh we could absolutely condemn the film, say its gross or bad or stupid or whatever. What could not do is say its harmful. Because it isnt.

everybody with a brain knows that this movie is bad politically not in a way that means we should ban it but in a way that is worthy of our scorn and disgust

Sure such a film would be disgusting. But disgust isnt harm. And to conflate the two is not only disingenuous as fuck, but potentially dangerous.

By this logic, Anita Sarkeesian’s videos are harmful, because lots of people are disgusted by them.

watching Anita sarkeesian's videos she does site cultivation Theory a few times says there's a causal relationship between video games being the way they are and people being sexist and to be honest I kinda wish she hadn't said those things

Do I even need to comment?

you can see that she means something very similar to what we described in our thought experiment we can see this whenever she talks about games it's pretty obvious

Indeed. Her main reason for condemning video games is that they offend her feminist sensibilities. So non-feminists have no reason to accept her criticism.

she didn't wait for the Double Dragon studies to come in and prove that the game causes regressive behaviors and of course she didn't do that because she doesn't have to she is a person who experienced this work of art and she's claiming here that what she saw in it

Or in other words:

it stipulates that violence against women can be understood as erotic

Again, who is the bigger sex symbol: Marion or Bayonetta? hint: its NOT the one who is passive recipient of violence.

it just doesn't make sense to reserve our judgments of media to only those things that the work is actively calling for we also have to look at subtext and coding

And the subtext here is ‘kidnapping and beating up women is bad. And real manly badasses protect and care for the ones they love.’

keeping with our Nazi propaganda theme which I guess we have here let's use let's use this boy as an example:

image posted for reference.

this image obviously sucks because in the society it was used in it conveyed terrible ideas it serves to implicitly justify racial hierarchy and to normalize the idea that Jewish people were subhuman it

The difference here is the image in question was used in explicit anti-semitic propaganda. There is a history here that directly links this imagery to Nazism and anti-semitism more broadly.

Video games dont have such a history. Even the tropes anita discusses that pre-date video games, such as the damsel in distress dont really have such a history. The story of Saint George and the dragon(one of the earliest DiD stories, and the oldest anita cites) was about faith and knightly duty, not gender relations. Hell Double Dragon isnt ABOUT how helpless your grlfriend, but about being the hero who is willing and capable to protect her.

Skipping some more, because I dont care:

what he[thunderf00t] seems to have forgotten is that you can buy cigarettes under capitalism and you can buy an apple under capitalism cigarettes kill 400,000 people every year but apples they don't do nearly that much damage it's actually said that they keep the doctors away you might think that cigarettes should remain legal and I'm sympathetic to that idea but you'd have a hard time convincing me that they're not harmful to the people who use them

The difference is that we have loads of evidence that cigarettes cause real, tangible harm. The same cannot be said for media. Even cultivation theory says that media tends to reinforce existing beliefs than implant new ones. And its not always clear that those beliefs translate into tangible actions.

And I’m gonna say it again before anybody brings it up: disgust is not harm.

you may think that you can talk about the worth of art from a political or moral perspective but in fact that's just a mirage anything you say about media is just an unverified and likely unsupportable position and you should probably forget about

I would phrase it differently: You can talk about media from a moral or political perspective all you want. However, anybody who doesnt share your perspective would then be perfectly justified in simply dismissing what you have to say.

hate Anita sarkeesian not because of what she says but because of who she is and the damage she causes

More precisely the damage we thought she might potentially cause. Which admittedly in hindsight was an overreaction.

they talk about how she sucks because she released her video slowly

Usually its less about her being slow, and more about she failed to keep her kickstarter promises. I dont really go in for that because because I frankly dont think its that big a deal.

didn't like being harassed on the Internet

Look, what she has shown as harassment is no worse than what most people(men and women) experience. The vast majority of it wasnt even harassment but responses and criticisms.

I guess you could say that online harassment shouldnt be a thing at all. But I also dont think thats very realistic.

talk about how she's a fraudulent grifter who gets her lackeys to phony bomb threats so she can make more money

I dont know about the bomb threat thing specifically. I DO know that she used the harassment she received(real or not) to get attention and money.

about how she's a fake gamer and so she shouldn't be talking about games

Thats a perfectly valid criticism though. Media criticism is best done by people who actually have knowledge of the media in question.

these guys are unapologetically anti-feminist and because of that they see no reason to change media to make it more feminist

So you DO get it!

and they don't criticize and Anita sarkeesian's work because of cultivation theory I mean where are the studies that show that these videos are causing murder rates to increase

I honestly dont know what you’re getting at here. The only reason anybody ever brought up cultivation theory is because Anita did first.

And they dont criticize Anita Sarkeesian's work because she explicitly calls for immoral actions

Nobody said she did? Although I think if you read between the lines she has some really negative views towards men.

and they don't criticize Anita sarkeesian's videos because they exist outside some benevolent capitalist structure I've got some hot news for you Anita sarkeesian's work is actually facilitated by capitalism

I’m not sure what you’re getting at here. But it does make Anita a massive fucking hypocrite.

no they hate Anita sarkeesian's work mostly because she says stuff they think is bad she's a feminist who wants various things about games to change and they disagree with her vehemently about it

And more importantly, that with all the attention she was getting at the time we thought the kind of changes she wants might actually start to happen. Not that her videos would turn game developers into feminists(because lets face it, theres basically zero chance of her videos turning anybody feminist). But because they might become convinced that there is an audience for the kind of games she wants.

Like I said multiple times: We were mostly mistaken about that.

Theres not really much else here. he just repeats himself. so thats all for now.

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