#god among us david

[varmsj]

Lore is coming!! And some doodle!!!

[quakerjoe]

When asked "Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?" Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England, wrote this magnificent response:

"A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace - all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed.

So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief. Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing - not once, ever.

I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility - for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is - his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty. Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults - he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness. There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t.

We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege. And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a sniveling sidekick instead.

There are unspoken rules to this stuff - the Queensberry rules of basic decency - and he breaks them all. He punches downwards - which a gentleman shouldn't, wouldn't, could never do - and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless - and he kicks them when they are down.

It’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum.

God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set."

[mckitterick]

Christofascist Republican calls LGBTQ people "filth" during public forum

The culture of hate among Christofascists recently led to the violent beating and subsequent death of Choctaw two-spirit teenager Nex Benedict in Oklahoma.

When questioned about how 50+ anti-LGBTQ bills might have affected this case, State Senator Tom Woods said,

“We are a Republican state - supermajority - in the House and Senate. I represent a constituency that doesn’t want that filth in Oklahoma.”

Several audience members clapped at his statement, while others appeared shocked.

“We are a religious state and we are going to fight it to keep that filth out of the state of Oklahoma because we are a Christian state - we are a moral state,” Woods said. “We want to ... let people be able to go to the faith they choose. We are a Republican state and I’m going to vote my district, and I’m going to vote my values, and we don’t want that in the state of Oklahoma.”

State Representative David Hardin added, “How you live your life personally, that’s between you and God... but what goes through our public schools - I will fall back on my faith. I want to make sure that at least the children in our public schools have that faith... what I want to make sure of is that our young children have the right to grow up with that faith."

After the forum, Woods reiterated his stance on the matter: "I support my constituency, and like I said, we’re a Christian state, and we are tired of having that shoved down our throat at every turn... I stand behind my statement, and I stand behind the Republican Party values."

When asked what he thought of Woods’ characterization of LGBTQ people as “filth,” State Senator Dewayne Pemberton said, “No comment.”

Again and again, today's christofascist Republicans (any other sort doesn't get elected these days) reveal that they want to indoctrinate public school kids into their own bigoted hatred, forcing children to hate anyone who doesn't subscribe to their narrow interpretation of their religious texts. Christofascists seek to impose their personal, misguided religious biases on the general public, including creating laws codifying hate and authoritarian control over the lives and bodies of everyone, not just others in their own religion.

Make no mistake, Nex Benedict's death was caused by christofascist indoctrination of the three girls who brutally beat Nex in that school bathroom. Nex Benedict's death was caused by the school failing to take their injuries seriously, by hate codified in Oklahoma state laws designed to harass LGBTQ folks and normalize bigotry against them, by Oklahoma Superintendent of Public Instruction Ryan Walters appointing hate-speech villain Chaya Raichik (responsible for "Libs of TikTok") to the Oklahoma Department of Education's Library Media Advisory Committee even though she doesn't live in the state (but he likes that she used Benedict's school and teacher for targeted hate). And on and on - it's a systematic attack on personal freedom and human rights - and the lives of queer folks.

Nex Benedict's death is exactly what christofascists seek through indoctrinating children into their hate that perpetuates bigotry into the future and forcing their religious fanaticism into the public sphere through unconstitutional laws built on hate and control.

Do you want to live in a theocracy dictated by those who narrowly interpret their personal religious texts to promote hate? Because as long as citizens fail to speak out against these harbingers of civilizational collapse, they'll only feel more and more emboldened to turn hate crimes into victories.

We must not let another of our people become victim of systemic bigotry. To protect children and end generational indoctrination, we must fire all public officials who subscribe to christofascist hatred and, when appropriate, prosecute them for the violence they incite.

If we fail to end the careers of hateful christofascists, we fail our children.

[thewordfortheday]

Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen Me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." John 20:29

Wouldn’t it be great if life gave us a warning to let us know that a storm is approaching? But storms do come without warning. I think one of the things we struggle with is, the frustration of helplessness. Sometimes when the storm gets dark we find it hard to seek God, but that is when we need Him the most.

Questions start bombarding our mind. Has the Lord rejected me forever? Will He never again be kind to me? Is His unfailing love gone forever? Have the promises of God permanently failed? 

Pause for a moment and just do as David did( Psalm 77:11-14). But then I recall all You have done, O Lord; I remember Your wonderful deeds of long ago. They are constantly in my thoughts. I cannot stop thinking about Your mighty works. O God, Your ways are holy. Is there any god as mighty as You? You are the God of great wonders! You demonstrate Your awesome power among the nations. Remember what God has done, He didn’t abandon you in the past and He won’t abandon you now.

Hallelujah!

[creature-wizard]

A brief introduction to New Age spirituality (and some of the things wrong with it)

New Age can be summed up as spiritual movement that believes our planet is on the cusp of a new cosmic cycle (hence the term New Age) where humanity enters the next phase of its evolution. Its mythology incorporates a number of fringe beliefs and conspiracy theories, including Atlantis, Lemuria, ancient astronaut theory, and numerous conspiracy theories.

It was heavily influenced by the teachings of Helena Blavatsky, one of the main founders of Theosophy. Influenced by Victorian-age misconceptions about the nature of evolution, Blavatsky taught that we would soon enter the Age of Aquarius, where we would begin to see a new "race" of people who naturally had more powerful spiritual abilities, and then:

Then, as they increase, and their numbers become with every age greater, one day they will awake to find themselves in a majority. It is the present men who will then begin to be regarded as exceptional mongrels, until these die out in their turn in civilised lands ; surviving only in small groups on islands—the mountain peaks of to-day—where they will vegetate, degenerate, and finally die out, perhaps millions of years hence, as the Aztecs have, as the Nyam-Nyam and the dwarfish Moola Koorumba of the Nilghiri Hills are dying. (The Secret Doctrine, Volume II, page 445.)

You can see the influence of eugenics here - she's basically saying that when "superior" people arrive on the scene, then it's just the natural order for the "inferior" ones to die out.

New Age is rife with ideas informed by eugenics, including the belief that you literally have to "upgrade" your DNA to spiritually grow and the belief that humans are destined to become the most powerful beings in the galaxy because we were engineered from the best DNA each alien race had to offer. There are supposedly alien beings who are incapable of genuine kindness because it's just not in their genetic code, and these beings are said to walk among us. There are allegedly alien beings and even some people who cannot connect to the divine because it's not in their DNA.

I want to emphasize here that saying some people are just genetically incapable of kindness or experiencing God is the kind of thing people do when there's a bunch of people they really, really want to die. This is the rhetoric of genocide.

In fact, the evil aliens in New Age mythology, the reptilians, are based on antisemitic conspiracy theories. Depending on who you listen to, they're said to drink human blood and eat human flesh, or just feed on their life force or mental anguish. (Blood libel.) They're claimed to be behind everything described in The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. They supposedly disguise themselves as humans so they can exploit us. (Not all Jews are supposedly reptilians, and not all people accused of being reptilians are Jews, but Jews make up a disproportionate number of people claimed to be reptilians.)

David Icke, who is behind the reptilian alien conspiracy theory most people know today, wrote in his book The Biggest Secret (page 212):

The so-called Protocols of the Elders of Zion were discovered in the last century and tell in incredible detail the events and methods of manipulation we have seen manifest in the 20th century. These documents were very much the creation of the Rothschilds and the reptilian-Aryans. But they are not really the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, they are, in truth, the Protocols of SION, the Sun, and the Priory of Sion. So much disinformation and aggression has been hurled at the Protocols and anyone who has mentioned them - including me - because the Brotherhood are desperate to discredit their contents. It is far too close to home. Hitler used the Protocols in part to justify the oppression of Jews, but he was given the Protocols by a Rothschild agent of Khazar decent called Alfred Rosenberg. I don’t accept that the Protocols are ‘Jewish’ in the way people have come to understand that term. They are the work of the reptile-Aryans and made to appear ‘Jewish’ so that we lose the plot.

Icke is also invoking a discredited hypothesis that proposed Ashkenazi Jews are descended from a group of Khazars who converted to Judaism. No one takes it seriously anymore, except for some people who try and use it to claim that Ashkenazi Jews aren't actually real Jews. It's a very ridiculous conspiracy theory because even if Ashkenazi Jews were descended from Khazars, they would still be 100% real Jews. The only people who think your "real" culture or ethnicity determined solely by your genetics are eugenicists. (Go look up blood quantum and the Mischling test.)

Moreover, the "Brotherhood" Icke refers to is a variation on Alexander Hislop's conspiracy theory that the Catholic Church is secretly a Babylonian mystery cult. Hislop was a Scottish Presbyterian minister who claimed in his book The Two Babylons that Babylonians were behind every religion that wasn't good, wholesome Protestant Christianity. He asserted, for example, that "Easter" was derived from "Ishtar" on the simple basis that they sound kind of similar. He also claimed that nearly every pagan god and goddess was actually based on Semiramis, Nimrod, and their son Tammuz (who was regarded as a reincarnation of Nimrod). Hislop's assertions also rely on a literal interpretation of the stories of the Flood and the Tower of Babel. There is of course to evidence to support any of these claims. This article briefly explains just how bad Hislop's methodology is. (By the way, each and every conspiracy theory that claims a Babylonian mystery cult is behind everything is derived from Hislop's work!)

The rest of the alien mythology New Age incorporates also has racist origins. The existence of large and sophisticated stonework like the Great Pyramids challenged the belief that Europeans were inherently superior to the non-white people they considered primitive. So people began to propose that others had built these structures for them. (Ignatius L. Donnelly, for example, proposed that they'd been built by Atlanteans.)

One of the first people to propose aliens was Erich von Daniken. In his 1968 book Chariots of the Gods?, he tried to spin various Sumerian myths and Biblical stories as historical accounts of alien beings. He listed a number of sites as likely to have been built by aliens, such as various pyramids and the moai of Easter Island. Most of today's ancient astronaut conspiracy theories are influenced by this book in some way.

Now here's the thing: the main methodology of ancient astronaut theorists is to look at an ancient structure and say, "Well, I can't figure out how humans could have built it, so it must have been aliens." And then from there, twist and distort local legends and myths - if the story talks about beings from the sky, then they must have been aliens. If a divine being had any kind of vehicle or craft, then it must have been a spaceship. Etc. Cultural and historical contexts are ignored and archaeological evidence is cherry picked.

Oh, by the way, before writing this book, von Daniken spent time in prison for embezzlement, forgery, and fraud:

A court in his native Switzerland found Von Daniken guilty of embezzlement, forgery, and fraud, sentencing him to three and a half years in prison. While operating a Swiss hotel. it seems he fraudulently obtained money by misrepresenting his financial assets, this experience in deception later proving invaluable in his literary career.

In any case, Jason Colavito noticed that von Daniken's narrative looked more like HP Lovecraft than real ancient mythology. Specifically, The Call of Cthulhu proposed that ancient gods came from space:

There had been aeons when other Things ruled on the earth, and They had had great cities. Remains of Them, he said the deathless Chinamen had told him, were still to be found as Cyclopean stones on islands in the Pacific. They all died vast epochs of time before men came, but there were arts which could revive Them when the stars had come round again to the right positions in the cycle of eternity. They had, indeed, come themselves from the stars, and brought Their images with Them.

Meanwhile, The Call of Cthulhu was essentially Lovecraft's own response to Theosophy. Once you compare The Call of Cthulhu with Theosophy's teachings, it's pretty hard to miss that he was straight-up telling Theosophy where to shove it.

Another influence on New Age mythology was Zechariah Sitchin, who also claimed that Sumerian myths actually described alien encounters. It was he who spun the yarn that they engineered humanity to mine gold for them, and he published these ideas in his 1976 book, The 12th Planet. Dr. Michael Heiser's website sitchiniswrong.com explains how Sitchin distorted myths and language to support his narrative.

To try and give you an idea of what these people are doing, I want you to imagine someone coming up and telling you that JRR Tolkien was actually an alien contactee, and that the elves in Lord of the Rings represent an alien species he actually met. Even if you knew absolutely nothing about Tolkien or Lord of the Rings, you could research who he was as a person and it wouldn't take very long to work out that it wasn't alien visitations who inspired him, and you could easily read his books and see that the narratives just don't really suggest anything about alien visitors. So it is with the ancient cultures and texts ancient astronaut proponents plunder. Once you really get in and do the research, it's obvious that these people are cherry picking what they want to hear and projecting what they want to see.

Various ancient astronaut theorists have done this with all kinds of traditions from around the world, and it's become so prevalent that numerous people just take it for granted that these stories were actually all about aliens and somebody just covered it up. If you're one of those people, I encourage you to start chasing down the sources. Start searching for - and start demanding - citations and sources. I promise you, it's all going to go back to some racist white asshat or other. If somebody cites a holy text or legend or something, read it for yourself, and I promise you it won't actually say what you've been told it says. (You'll find that somebody just saw something talking about divine beings from the sky and projected aliens onto it, or otherwise pretend it says something that's just not actually in there.)

New Age mythology also incorporates a number of benevolent alien races. Most of them aren't too remarkable; they're mostly your one-note Planet of Hats aliens, not so much offensive as they are uninspired, bland, and even a little twee. They embody a very average western person's idea of what enlightened or advanced beings would look like. In channeled messages they often dole out generic platitudes couched in New Age jargon. Their advice is probably enough to satiate the middle class white people who make up most of their audience, but it's almost useless - if not insulting - if you have any genuinely difficult problems. Through their channelers, they deliver messages of miraculous wonders and changes ahead - always just a few years around the corner. Of course these promises never manifest, and of course the channelers keep on repeating them.

To be clear, the benevolent aliens were supposed to reveal themselves to humanity dozens of times by now. We were supposed to have miraculous quantum healing technology available everywhere by now. We were supposed to have a new economic system that would end poverty by now. The history of New Age is a history of failed prophecies and broken promises.

There is one genre of "benevolent" alien we have to talk about in specific, however - specifically, the Nordic type, so named because they are supposedly tall, pale, and blond. One might also say they look… Aryan. They pop up quite a lot. One notable alien of this type of Commander Ashtar, a high-ranking leader in the Galactic Federation of Light. Through the many people who purport to channel him, Ashtar has assured us that the evil reptilian aliens have already been defeated, and that a time of great peace and prosperity is just about to arrive.

Commander Ashtar, by the way, was first channeled by George van Tassel in the early 1950's. He published his sessions in his book, I Rode The Flying Saucer. Here are a couple of interesting quotes:

On July 18, 1952, Ashtar seemingly told us that we had to stop building hydrogen bombs or else they'd make us stop:

When they explode the hydrogen atom, they shall extinguish life on this planet. They are tinkering with a formula they do not comprehend. They are destroying a life-giving element of the Creative Intelligence. Our message to you is this: You shall advance to your government all information we have transmitted to you. You shall request that your government shall immediately contact all other earth nations regardless of political feelings … Your materialists will disagree with our attempt to warn mankind. Rest assured they shall cease to explore life giving atoms, or we shall eliminate all projects connected with such.

On August 22, 1952, Ashtar seemingly told Van Tassel to start preparing for disaster that never came:

You are constructed to work together without personal regard for individual property. You are instructed further to consolidate your unity to build structures possible to prepare for food storage due to rapid changes now affecting the financial, military and political conjunction. We advance you this information in the light of true love.

Obviously, nothing ever happened to justify any kind of prepping, and aliens never intervened to stop anybody from building nuclear bombs, which just goes to show that alien channelers have been setting us up for disappointment as far back as when boomers were babies.

Another aspect of the New Age movement that has to be talked about are starseeds. This is basically the idea that alien beings are incarnating into human bodies for essentially the purpose of spreading New Age beliefs to help the planet ascend to 5D. There are many issues with this whole concept. For one, there is a strong current of ableism - when you read any list of starseed traits, you'll inevitably see a list of characteristics more typically associated with ADHD, autism, and even just low-grade social trauma. Some proponents even go so far as to claim that autism and ADHD don't actually exist at all, but were made up to hide the reality of starseeds from the populace. Young children who are believed to be starseeds are expected to show advanced spiritual powers and wisdom, and I should think it's pretty obvious how placing these kinds of expectations on a young child - especially one who is probably struggling with neurodivergence-related issues already - could cause some psychological damage.

Moreover, the whole starseed myth is rooted in white colonialism; specifically, the idea that "primitive" cultures need to be taught true spirituality by more advanced or enlightened peoples. It's the whole "we need to send missionaries out to bring those poor unenlightened Natives to Christ" mentality in a new hat. The aforementioned distortions of cultural beliefs serves a purpose here, too; if they can just convince people that their own traditions are actually about aliens, then they'll have to convert. This is also out of the Christian playbook; for example, Christians would try and project Jesus into Kabbalah to convince Jews to convert. (Dr. Justin Sledge talks about this in his online lecture, The Dark Side of Perennialism.)

I don't think many New Agers (if any) are particularly conscious of the colonialism happening here. As far as they understand it, they are simply spreading the truth which will help usher in this new era of enlightenment and prosperity. But that's what makes it to insidious - this glittering truth they've actually fallen in love with is actually a pack of lies.

Also, many practices and beliefs within the New Age movement make it incredibly easy to manipulate people. Teaching people that information contrary to their own teachings is all the work of an evil conspiracy stifles critical thinking. Teaching them that they can always use their feelings and intuition to tell what's true or false makes them vulnerable to emotional manipulation.

Many New Agers also practice various techniques to try and learn about their past lives, including hypnosis and similar forms of trancework. There is no evidence that these exercises can help anyone remember really remember much of anything; in fact, people mostly seem to confabulate things based on what they expect to see and what they've been generally exposed to. A number of people "remember" encountering the reptilian aliens described by David Icke - the ones we've established are based on the conspiracy theories promoted in The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion and The Two Babylons, and recycle the old blood libel canard. (If you'd like some examples, you can see them over here and over here.) Interestingly, there is some research that suggests people who believe they have past life memories actually have a poor ability to recall where they learned information, which further suggests that these people are just confabulating from things they've seen or heard in this life - they just forgot where they encountered it.

Also, the pseudohistory and conspiracy theories in New Age mythology are often used to promote a lot of medical quackery. Vaccines are often claimed to be mind control technology or meant to poison us (another conspiracy theory with antisemitic roots), while treatments with little to no evidence to support their efficacy are promoted instead, such as homeopathy, colloidal silver, or whatever this week's alleged panacea is.

Now to be clear, not each and everything New Agers do is inherently bad. Many practices associated with New Age can have psychological benefits, provided they don't become spiritual bypassing. We know that meditation is good for you, and I personally find that speaking "light languages" is cathartic. There's even evidence to suggest that energy healing promotes relaxation, if nothing else. If somebody's practice is helping them in any way (even if it's just helping them relax and focus) and it's not hurting anyone else, then I think they should keep doing it. We need all the tools we can get right now.

The problems lie with the conspiratorial and pseudohistorical narratives the belief system pushes, and the uncritical acceptance that mystical or spiritual experiences that seem to confirm them should be taken at face value. These things to justify the oppression of minorities and the erasure of their cultures, justify colonialist attitudes and behaviors in general, and promote dangerous medical quackery. It's these things specifically that must be challenged and fought.

[deadpresidents]

Formal Presidential Proclamation Announcing the Death of President Carter

December 29, 2024

By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation

To the People of the United States:

It is my solemn duty to announce officially the death of James Earl Carter, Jr., the thirty-ninth President of the United States, on December 29, 2024.

President Carter was a man of character, courage, and compassion, whose lifetime of service defined him as one of the most influential statesmen in our history. He embodied the very best of America: A humble servant of God and the people. A heroic champion of global peace and human rights, and an honorable leader whose moral clarity and hopeful vision lifted our Nation and changed our world.

The son of a farmer and a nurse, President Carter's remarkable career in public service began in 1943 as a cadet at the United States Naval Academy. He later served in both the Atlantic and Pacific fleets before becoming a decorated lieutenant and being selected to join the elite nuclear submarine program.

After his father died, he shifted from active duty to the Navy Reserve and returned home to Plains, Georgia, to help manage his family's peanut farm. He worked hard stewarding the land while leading his community as a church deacon, Sunday school teacher, and board member of a hospital and library. His deep faith inspired a passion for public service that led him to be elected State Senator, Georgia's 76th Governor, and ultimately President of the United States.

As President, he understood that Government must be as good as its people -- and his faith in the people was boundless just as his belief in America was limitless and his hope for our common future was perennial.

With President Carter's leadership, the modern Department of Education and the Department of Energy were created. He championed conservation, and his commitment to a more just world was at the heart of his foreign policy, leading on nuclear nonproliferation, signing the Panama Canal treaties, and mediating the historic 1978 Camp David Accords. His partnership with Vice President Walter Mondale is one that future administrations strived to achieve.

Following his Presidency, President Carter advanced an agenda that elevated the least among us. Guided by an unwavering belief in the power of human goodness and the God given dignity of every human being, he worked tirelessly around the globe to broker peace; eradicate disease; house the homeless; and protect human rights, freedom, and democracy.

Through his extraordinary moral leadership, President Carter lived a noble life full of meaning and purpose. And as a trusted spiritual leader, he shepherded people through seasons of pain and joy, inspiring them through the power of his example and healing them through the power of his guidance.

As we mourn the loss of President Carter, we hold the memory of his beloved Rosalynn, his wife of over 77 years, close in our hearts. Exemplifying hope, warmth, and service, she and her husband inspired the Nation. The love Rosalynn and President Carter shared is the definition of partnership, and their devotion to public service is the definition of patriotism.

May President Carter's memory continue to be a light pointing us forward. May we continue to be guided by his spirit in our Nation and in our world.

Now, Therefore, I, Joseph R. Biden Jr., President of the United States of America, by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, in honor and tribute to the memory of President James Earl Carter, Jr., and as an expression of public sorrow, do hereby direct that the flag of the United States be displayed at half-staff at the White House and on all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions for a period of 30 days from the day of his death. I also direct that, for the same length of time, the representatives of the United States in foreign countries shall make similar arrangements for the display of the flag at half staff over their embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.

I hereby order that suitable honors be rendered by units of the Armed Forces under orders of the Secretary of Defense.

I do further appoint January 9, 2025, as a National Day of Mourning throughout the United States. I call on the American people to assemble on that day in their respective places of worship, there to pay homage to the memory of President James Earl Carter, Jr. I invite the people of the world who share our grief to join us in this solemn observance.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-ninth day of December, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-four, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-ninth.

JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR.

[mervynbunter]

Much of our modern theater seems rooted in the Shakespearean discovery of the modern mind. We’re stealing instead from an earlier, less-traveled construct—the Greeks—lifting [The Wire’s] thematic stance wholesale from Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides to create doomed and fated protagonists who confront a rigged game and their own mortality. The modern mind—particularly those of us in the West—finds such fatalism ancient and discomfiting, I think. We are a pretty self-actualized, self-worshipping crowd of postmoderns and the idea that for all of our wherewithal and discretionary income and leisure, we’re still fated by indifferent gods, feels to us antiquated and superstitious. We don’t accept our gods on such terms anymore; by and large, with the exception of the fundamentalists among us, we don’t even grant Yahweh himself that kind of unbridled, interventionist authority.

But instead of the old gods, The Wire is a Greek tragedy in which the postmodern institutions are the Olympian forces. It’s the police department, or the drug economy, or the political structures, or the school administration, or the macroeconomic forces that are throwing the lightning bolts and hitting people in the ass for no decent reason. In much of television, and in a good deal of our stage drama, individuals are often portrayed as rising above institutions to achieve catharsis. In this drama, the institutions always prove larger, and those characters with hubris enough to challenge the postmodern construct of American empire are invariably mocked, marginalized, or crushed. Greek tragedy for the new millennium, so to speak. Because so much of television is about providing catharsis and redemption and the triumph of character, a drama in which postmodern institutions trump individuality and morality and justice seems different in some ways, I think.

An interview with David Simon

[charleslee-valentine]

The Lost Boys name etymology:

As the leader of the group, we’ll start with David. The name David means ‘lover.’ His approach to vampirism is somewhat romantic. The ritual and the wine mixed with blood, takes on an erotic edge for example. Their lips touching the same bottle and the exchanging of fluids, and the haze that follows. His role as the leader could be violent given his power, or indifferent like Max’s way of running things- but he chooses to genuinely savor each member of his little pack. The tears he sheds for Marko are shed with love. The words he whispers to Michael, conscious or not, are endearing and soothing. Whether these bonds are more than platonic to him, or even approached in an acceptable way, he still has loving and sharing that love deeply in his nature, amplified by his powers.

Following him is Dwayne. Dwayne can mean ‘dark.’ Not just referring to his hair among the group obviously, his name could give a tiny glimpse into his character. Being less than a main character his screen time and thus his analytical depth is limited, but something about Dwayne is he can go from smiling with the group, to taking on a very stoic or cold expression fast. The ‘darkness’ inside Dwayne could be festering more than the other boys and making the whole -slightly irritating but mostly harmless teenager facade- a lot harder to keep up for him. Notable especially around Max is that stoniness. Part of his depth, it seems, is distrust for anyone outside of his boys, even his own sire. Dwayne’s edge (and weakness, actually) is his quickness to hold those dark and bitter feelings.

Marko involves some mythology to understand his meaning. The name itself stands for ‘dedicated to Mars,’ and Mars is the God of a few things, prominently war and feral nature. What this means for Marko is possibly strength and power. Of course, he is the smallest and that’s why he’s picked off first, but had the fight been between an awake Marko instead, his name hints at him possibly being the most brutal of the pack. It would make sense, that smaller stature equates to speed, in addition to the heightened vampire powers. Marko probably strikes like a feral animal. His tendency to drift to David and, in the words of Alex Winter himself, serve as something of a lap dog to him, is also possibly because of this nature. The idea being that he sacrificed some of his humanity to the brutality of vampirism and turns to David like a handler of sorts.

Finally is Paul. Maybe unexpectedly, the name means ‘humble.’ Where this personality trait can most prominently be seen is in Paul’s treatment of Star, Michael, and Laddie. He seems to be the only one to empathize with how unsettling vampirism can be and offers gentleness to each, at least in the novelization. There are also still distinctly human traits to him like his substance use, his more enthusiastic expressions, and turning on the radio, which he initiated out of the group. Even refraining from harassing (though affectionately, as we know from the deleted scene) Maria the video store worker. It seems that Paul uses being a vampire to intimidate humans and half vampires much less than the others. This makes him a branch towards humanity. Where he loses his humbleness is when he dies. He takes the time to brag about the stupidity of the Frogs and it costs him time. In his grief he gave up a trait that was so woven into him, and thus became reckless enough that he gets killed.

That’s the case with all of the boys really. Their rage and grief over Marko’s death meant letting those qualities either amplify or disappear to the point of losing themselves, and then losing the fight. In Dwayne’s case, he embraced the violence in himself and targeted Sam even when he knew it wasn’t safe because of Michael’s proximity. The ‘dark’ quality of him took over the common sense. As for David, he trusted in Michael so blindly that he was still trying to coerce him to their side. Even after Marko was gone and now the boys were dropping like flies, it was too hard for him to just stop loving someone. It only becomes clear too late, and then Michael has the upper hand and David’s the one dying.

[harrisonarchive]

George with Dr. Smith and unknown (probably one of the clinic staffers); photo courtesy of drdave.org.

The proceeds from sales of George’s 1974 Dark Horse Tour program benefited the non-profit Appalachian Regional Hospitals. George’s tour also included a stop in San Francisco, California; the proceeds from that went to the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic: “The clinic had grown but had lost federal revenue-sharing money marked for 1975. It was set to shut down part of its medical sector, which, the previous year, spent $67,500 to treat 10,000 patients. Harrison donated net profits from his first Bay Area concert to the clinic — a total of $66,000. The day after that first concert, Harrison, future wife Olivia Arias, who was at that time working for his record label, Dark Horse, and several others visited the clinic. This time, he was no pied piper leading an adoring mass. Patients at the clinic recognized him. But, as founder Dr. David E. Smith said, ‘Nobody gaped; nobody mobbed him or kissed his ass.’” - SFGate, December 2, 2001 “Harrison visited for about a half hour, just before a concert. His party toured the facilities and, in a back room, chatted with several staff members. He gave them gifts, among them a Dark Horse necklace and pieces of embroidery, and asked for a Free Clinic T-shirt. ‘He said he hoped to start a ripple with other musicians doing the same kind of things,’ writer Amie Hill, a clinic volunteer, said later. ‘The doctors gave him a plaque, and — I didn't hear this, but — someone told me he said, “Don't thank me; it's not me, it's something else over us that acts through people like me. I'm just an instrument.”’ […] ‘For me to be able to do some act which is nothing, really — they need much more money than they got from that — but just to go and see what they're doing there is nice, and it's comforting to see that there are nice people in the world like in Haight-Ashbury Clinic, and it's God bless 'em, you know.” - Rolling Stone, December 19, 1974

[housederiva]

Guess who just got an email about stray gods being on sale...

(David Gaider was the lead writer for it) ((Gaider was the previous lead writer for dragon age))

[varmsj]

Some peaceful day for Jessie and David💞

Well…

[meglosthegreat]

So, Veilguard was bad and Dragon Age is probably done forever. What now?

If you, like me, spent the past ten years in anticipation of the next instalment of your favourite series of all time, and were then grossly and horrifically let down by what we ended up getting, you're probably feeling pretty bummed out right now. You might be wondering if anything out there will ever make you feel how Dragon Age did, and may be at a loss for what media to develop unhealthy levels of attachment to next.

With that in mind, I have compiled a list of my own personal, 100% Dragon Age fan-certified recs across media of all types. In the interest of presenting these in a way that feels more relevant in comparison to Dragon Age itself, I will not be grouping them in any kind of logical category but will instead be going purely off Vibes. I will also not be listing in detail certain titles that I think are too well-known to be useful in this list - namely Bioware's other games, among others. I will give brief mention of these, but I want to focus on less widely-known properties, or things that you may have heard of but have not seen recommendation for specifically from a fellow DA fan.

I may be updating this list further if I find something good to add, or if I think of something I hadn't before. And if you have further recs not present here, please feel free to reblog with your own additions!

Vibe #1: Good ol' High Fantasy

This category pertains to works that fall under the same broad genre definitions as Dragon Age, with similar overarching tones and themes. Not listed: Baldur's Gate 3, The Elder Scrolls, Avatar: TLA.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 (Video Game) - Easily my top pick for other RPGs that elicit the big world stakes and sweeping plot of DAI. There's even an EXTREMELY Solas-coded character who I won't spoil but let's just say as a Solas enjoyer myself they did absolutely nothing wrong and I would die for them. D:OS 1 is very good too, but they are both standalone stories and 2 has more of the DA feel than 1, so it takes the place on this list.

Unsounded (Webcomic) - This one hits so many DA boxes while at the same time being something extremely unique in itself. It's got deep, multifaceted characters. It's got a fascinating world and huge amounts of fantasy politics. It's got humour interposed with horror and tragedy with neither undercutting the other. It's got not one, but TWO extremely pathetic war criminal dads, who somehow are constantly at odds with each other and yet are forced together into Situations nonetheless. And it's free! Go read it right now, there's absolutely nothing stopping you.

Bone (Comic Series) - This is almost a reverse-recommendation in a sense, because I read it years before Dragon Age ever existed and is probably one of the reasons why I was drawn to DA in the first place. It's epic, sprawling fantasy but constantly grounded in the small, personal stakes of it all. Imagine an isekai but the isekai'd are from a pseudo-modern maximalist cartoon land and have been thrust into a gritty medieval fantasy. Don't let the jokes and the goofy main characters throw you though because this series gets dark.

Vibe #2: Found Family

If your favourite part of Dragon Age is the character dynamics, and you don't particularly care about genre trappings, this is the section for you. Not listed: Mass Effect, KOTOR

Farscape (TV Series) - Oh my god I am begging you, imploring you, to PLEASE watch Farscape. David Gaider has said before that he loves the show, and it's the reason Claudia Black became the voice of Morrigan. If that isn't enough of an endorsement for you, it also has THE MOST fucked up little blorbos the world has ever seen. Literally nothing, and I mean nothing, comes close to the wet cat/kicked puppy energy that these characters exhibit, and what's more 50% of them are dressed in early 2000s tight leather getups 24/7 while the other 50% are composed of the most incredible puppetwork and prosthetics you've ever laid eyes on.

Unavowed (Video Game) - This is a point-and-click adventure game about a team of supernatural investigators, and for such a relatively small indie game compared to the likes of DA, it does a hell of a job creating compelling and complex characters who you get to know and love. The opening act of the game has a bit where a monster rips someone's face off, and yet there is something so cozy about it I just can't explain.

Aurora (Webcomic) - This one has all the good found family vibes, with a cast of characters that each has their own Deal, who bicker and squabble incessantly but manage to pull together when it really matters. And when they don't, you can be sure they will Get Into It with themselves, and with each other. It's got tons of heart and soul, gorgeous colour work, and is also totally free!

Vibe #3: Worldbuilding & Political Machinations

If you love digging into theories and lore, and appreciate stories with complex fantasy politics, look no further than here. Not listed: The Witcher, Game of Thrones, Fallout: New Vegas

Pillars of Eternity (Video Game) - This is a broad rec for both Pillars games (and hopefully, if it ends up being good, the upcoming Avowed). While the gameplay is on the whole more difficult to get into and there isn't as much time dedicated to party members as in DA, PoE1 has some of the tightest, most well-thought out lore I've encountered. If the factions of DATV were a huge disappointment to you, PoE2's main focus is a handful of incredibly complex ones that pose you genuinely difficult questions about ethics and morality. Also like half the characters are voiced by Matt Mercer, it's great.

The Wheel of Time (Book Series) - The reason I didn't put this under Vibe #1, despite it being solid high fantasy, is that I didn't connect so much with the story and plot developments as much as I did the worldbuilding and politics of the series. Fair warning, this rec does come with several giant asterisks, as it is notorious for having infuriating characters and baffling gender dynamics, but if you are able to look past all the weirdness, you'll find what was clearly a lot of the inspiration for DA's world underneath. The recent TV show is... a mixed bag, but probably the only alternative to reading fourteen tome-sized books if you don't have the stomach for that.

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines (Video Game) - You've probably seen this one recommended before, but if you're having a hard time getting past the early 2000s graphics and weird engine jank, let me assure you that it is well worth the hassle. There are lots of games out there that try to make you feel like a pawn in someone's greater plan, but none of them come close to matching what VTMB managed. If you like your politics and scheming more personal and visceral than grand and world-spanning, with excellent roleplaying options to back them up, this is the game for you.

Vibe #4: Fucked Up People in a Fucked Up World

This one is easily the most "hear me out, bro" category, but if Dragon Age 2 specifically is your jam, and you crave more Kirkwall energy and Greek tragedy in your life, I have a feeling you will really like these. Not listed: Arcane, Disco Elysium

Dishonored (Video Game) - This one has always been a tough sell, because despite it being, imo, one of the best designed games of all time, the way it was marketed makes it seem like a real Gamer's game, with super epic stealth powers! And badass kill animations! But behind all that, you'll find some of the most Characters of all time, including a soggy wet twink god who gives you magic powers but will be such a little bitch about it. The whole thing is steeped in potent atmosphere and incredible worldbuilding. Also everyone is gay.

Planescape: Torment (Video Game) - This is widely considered one of the greatest RPGs of all time, and though you have to deal with a fair amount of jank and perhaps a little more reading than you'd like in a video game, the design and atmosphere of Sigil alone make it worthwhile. Then there's the cast of characters, most of which are like two bad days away from becoming a supervillain and all of whom hate each others' guts. Need I say more?

The Magnus Archives (Podcast) - TMA is definitely not for all DA fans, but if your favourite part of DAO was the broodmother section, and you really enjoyed the slowly unfolding tragedy of Kirkwall and the feeling of Hawke being doomed by the narrative, you might find yourself hooked, as I did. There are also some extremely good characters in here, all uniquely fucked up in their own way, and getting to know them in between the main segments of episodes was the definite highlight for me.

That's all for now, and again, if you'd like to add to this list, please be my guest! There are a handful of things I think would probably fit here but I haven't watched/played/read yet, so if you think something extremely obvious is missing, that's most likely why.

[sjmattson]

The Bible is a compilation of poems, lists, histories, witness accounts, and stories from many different authors who lived during many different times and came from many different backgrounds. But within this menagerie of literature there is a narrative that’s attempting to convey an important message: Jesus is the hope of the world.

In the Old Testament we see prophecies:

“Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” Isaiah 7:14

These prophecies infer that God will arrive on earth.

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

In the beginning of the New Testament we see that the prophecies are fulfilled through the birth of Jesus:

“Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way. When his mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly. But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet…” Matthew 1: 18-25

The Bible then provides accounts of Jesus’s words and life, with the narrative unfolding to the reader that Jesus is indeed God, bringing love, hope, and salvation to the world.

But we see in the Bible that not every believes that Jesus is God. Some follow Him, some don’t, and eventually Jesus is crucified on the cross.

“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.” 1 Peter 2:24

As if to reiterate the importance of Jesus, the Bible continually tries to remind people of Jesus’s divinity.

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” John 1:14

Jesus is equated as being the perfect manifestation of God:

“He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,” Hebrews 1:3

This is why the Christmas story is so important, because it’s the beginning of Jesus being with us: The Prophecies. The Word becoming flesh. Salvation. Emmanuel. Jesus.

Through the thousands of words and array of books, and amid the often confusing and disorienting passages, the Bible is ultimately pointing readers to Jesus. May we always remember to follow the Jesus way.

[mulderscully]

i've been really nostalgic about the x files revival lately. not necessarily the show itself, though it was a gift as a younger fan to watch xf live, but the fandom experience we had. i miss david and gillian. i miss the fun we had, i miss their banter and them egging us on about it which made it feel much less taboo than this sort of thing usually feels. i miss david apologizing for his behavior during the original run, i love feeling his genuine love for the show, for the fans and his respect for gillian as an actor. i miss gillian being on tumblr, i miss chewiesgirlfriend, i miss making fun of the revival wig here and her seeing that and getting the wig changed bc she knew were right.

and i miss the hope of what the show could have been, the hope for a better ending.

and bc of this i'm looking back on the numbers, the ratings on the revival and like... this is not something i am imagining as bigger than it was. 24 MILLION PEOPLE tuned in LIVE in 2016 to the premiere. this is the highest numbers fox had been in AGES, it's one of the most viewed x-files episodes ever.

the public never fell out of love with the x-files.

now, after the premiere ratings did drop, but they remained insanely high for a fox show in 2016. s10 stood at a proud 8-10 million viewers a week til the season finale.

s10 is not what pissed people off until the finale.

when s11 premiered it premiered to a 62% decrease in viewership, which only decreased even more after the god awful csm "plot twist."

and what i find the most frustrating about this is that season 11 is good. "this" has an approval rating of 97% among critics and was recieved positively by pretty much the entire fandom. but by then people felt so betrayed that they had stopped watching.

and it just makes me sad because when people think of the revival they think of how chris carter fumbled the bag with the mythology, understandably, but often forget the fun we had, how special an event it all was and how there are genuinely fabtastic episodes in there with some of david and gillian's best performances maybe ever.

[londonspirit]

Was there ever any doubt that Our Flag Means Death Season 2 wouldn't end in thrilling fashion after taking all of us on a rollercoaster of emotions? Probably not, but show creator David Jenkins and writer John Mahone, who teamed up on the script for the finale episode, seemed distinctly driven to squeeze as many tears out of us watching as possible. With the dynamic between Stede (Rhys Darby) and Ed (Taika Waititi) seemingly fractured as of the season's penultimate installment, it was unclear how — or if — the two men might eventually reconcile, but a new threat to the Republic of Pirates, alongside Ed's realization that maybe he isn't meant to be a fisherman after all, sends the two back into each other's arms, literally.

While some characters are afforded something resembling a happy ending, with Stede and Ed deciding to try their hand at being innkeepers as they watch the Revenge sail off into the sunset under Frenchie's (Joel Fry) command, not every single crew member emerges from the finale battle unscathed, chief among them Ed's first mate and formerly ruthless right-hand Izzy Hands (Con O'Neill), whose parting words to Ed may be the very thing that the former Blackbeard needs to hear in order to fully come to terms with accepting the man inside him all along.

Ahead of the Season 2 finale premiering on Max, Collider had the opportunity to reconnect with Jenkins to discuss some of the episode's biggest moments. Over the course of the interview, which you can read below, Jenkins explains why Izzy's speech is both a eulogy for the character and a statement about the show itself, how the Season 2 premiere and finale bookend each other with those beach scenes, and why he wanted to use that Nina Simone needle drop in particular. He also discusses why the season concludes with a wedding at sea, what the finale sets up for Season 3, and more.

COLLIDER: I feel like my first question, in a completely non-serious way, is: how dare you, and my immediate follow-up is: what gives you the right?

DAVID JENKINS: I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Also, I am God to these creatures! But it was hard. It was a hard decision.

The episode kicks off with a somewhat more lighthearted moment, which is Ed realizing he's not cut out for the fishing life after all. On the heels of Stede and Ed’s big fight in the episode prior, why did it feel important to have Ed humorously have the revelation of, “This isn't what I really want after all?”

JENKINS: Well, I like the idea that Season 1 is about Stede’s midlife crisis, and Season 2 is about Ed's midlife crisis. I like that he had a little prima donna moment where he thought he could go and be a simple man, and then it's revealed that he really isn't a simple man; he’s a complicated, fussy, moody guy. No, he's not gonna be able to catch fish for a living. For him to be told that, “At your heart, you're a pirate. You have to go back and do it,” he doesn't want that to be true, but it was true.

Speaking of characters that have a revelation about themselves, Izzy's speech about piracy, about belonging to something and finding family, feels like the thesis statement of this show. Was that the intention behind it?

JENKINS: When I wrote that, I wanted to give Izzy a proper eulogy for himself. He gives a eulogy for himself, but it felt true writing it. Yeah, this is how he sees piracy, and also that's not how he would have viewed piracy in the first season. He would have viewed it as, “I'm here to dominate you, so you work for the boss.” By the end of his journey in the second season, he sees that they built him a unicorn leg, he learned to whittle, and he mentored Stede. He's learned that, actually, a pirate crew works differently than what he thought and that they are all in it together, and they do this for each other. So it felt right for Izzy’s arc, and it is kind of an overall statement about the show.

It's interesting that you call it a eulogy, because, by the time we get to the scene where we know Izzy's not going to make it, it feels like he's using his last moments for Ed more than himself. He has those final words to Ed of, “They love you for who you are. Just be Ed.” Is that the kind of the thing that Ed needs to hear in the moment — even as he's losing, arguably, someone he's known even longer than Stede and is just as close to on an emotional level?

JENKINS: Well, I like that Izzy gives that to him, and then Izzy also apologizes to him because he says that he fed his darkness and that they were both Blackbeard together — that Blackbeard wasn't just Ed, that they did it together. In a way, it's very much for Ed, that speech. The “we were Blackbeard” is claiming that he is also Blackbeard, that Blackbeard is not just Ed’s creation, and I like that for him, too, because he's worked so hard for that — and then just to say, “You can give it up.” There can never be a Blackbeard again as far as Izzy’s concerned because he's dying, and they did that together.

I wanted to ask you about the Stede/Ed reunion. We get Ed finding Stede's love letter that was written all the way at the beginning, and then also the beach fight/reunion. It's definitely a callback to the dream, but was that always the way that you wanted to bookend the season? Here's the dream and the fantasy, and then this is the real moment that we get to have?

JENKINS: It was nice. I knew that I wanted to have the Republic of Pirates at the beginning and end up with the Republic of Pirates. I think the reunion of it was a nice surprise, but it felt right. And finding the letter in a bottle — if you have a letter in a bottle, it's thrown out somewhere, it has to pop up somewhere, you have to see one of them at some point. But yeah, there's a circular nature to it, and that's why I thought it would be good to use Nina Simone at the beginning and at the end as a callback. This dream in this way did come true, and they made it come true.

When I talked to you at the beginning of the season, you mentioned the Nina Simone needle drop, but couldn't say anything about the significance of it at the time. I talked to [music supervisor] Maggie [Phillips], as well, about the needle drops throughout Season 2, and she said you always had a very clear vision for what song you wanted there. A lot of people know the original, but why did you pick Nina's cover? It strikes a different tone; there's a hopefulness to it in a lot of ways.

JENKINS: Yeah, it's wistful. There's a lovely part that sounds like church bells, which is great for the wedding part of it, and then it's just moving. I love her interpretation of it. It’s wistful, positive, and it felt like the end of the show to me. There's a size to it that, up against these images, I just was like, "Yeah, this would be really good. I want this to be in the show."

I did want to ask you about the wedding because on the heels of Izzy's death, it's bittersweet, but also, it's a sign this crew has become a family, and they can still find happy moments and reasons to celebrate. We’ve seen Black Pete and Lucius reconnect, but also reconcile and navigate through Lucius's problems and have their own, almost parallel trajectory journey as a couple alongside Stede and Ed in a way. Was that something that you always wanted to close the season on, the two of them getting hitched?

JENKINS: Yeah. We knew we wanted a matelotage in the season, which is the real term they had for marrying crew members. And yeah, they've always been in relief to Stede and Ed, and they're a little bit ahead of Stede and Ed in how much they can talk about things. So to have a bunch of family things in the season, like a funeral and a wedding, and have the parents kind of watch the kids sail away, felt right, and all of those things seem to work well together and build on each other.

Speaking of Ed and Stede watching everybody sail off, that was an outcome that was somewhat surprising, I think because where they are, you think maybe they're going to end up sailing off with everybody else.” But no, instead, it's just this sweet, lovely note of them getting to play house for a little while. What inspired that turn for them?

JENKINS: I think that they've come to the point in the relationship where they say, “Yeah, we're gonna give this a try,” and that's where the story really gets interesting. That will-they-or-won't-they is interesting to a point, but the real meat of it is always like, “Can they make the relationship, and can they do better than Anne and Mary?” That's the question that we all ask ourselves when we end up in a serious relationship is: can we make this work, and can we get through the hard times? Then they're both very damaged, and it's gonna be a challenge for them, and that's where the story gets interesting.

I'm not sure you can really tease much for a Season 3, but we talked before about how you have your vision for where you want to take this, and based on what we see at the end of Season 2, the implication is that we're going to have Stede and Ed off together, but is the plan to also continue with the other characters as well in their own places?

JENKINS: Yeah. Frenchie’s in charge of the Revenge, and I think Frenchie's Revenge would be an interesting place to work and an interesting ship to be raided by. Then I think that the Revenge means a lot to Stede, and it would be very hard for him to give it up, and he hasn't had a great track record of that. So I think the odds of them all finding each other again are quite high.

All episodes of Our Flag Means Death Season 2 are available to stream on Max.

[jewish-vents]

I’m Jewish through my dad but I wasn’t raised in the community(i learned what Purim was two weeks ago, i was fully not in it), so when I got to college last august I decided to really dive in and it’s been a beautiful sort of homecoming for me. I joined SAEPi and got into Chabbad leadership at my campus, and I’m almost at the point where I can do the Chabbad Shabbat prayers before and after dinner without stumbling over my words. Gonna surprise my grandma if I see her in the summer. Anyways.

When October 7th happened it was a shock to my system, because I was a baby Jew barely getting my feet. My parents never mentioned antisemitism to me as something that could affect me in the future, it was always a thing of the past. But I was right there standing in the doorway between jew-ish and Jewish, and it pushed me over the edge. I had many friends with family in Israel. I had a couple friends whose friends died in the attack. Everyone in that group was my family. It felt personal.

When the march in dc happened I went with one of my friends, and it was sad, but amazing to see in person how strong we are. In the plane terminal on the way home he and I got cornered and called baby killers, among other things, because he was wearing a kippa and his Israeli first responder coat. That was my first time experiencing antisemitism and it was terrifying, even though I didn’t get hurt. It was terrifying even though my friend was built like a tank and would’ve protected me. It was terrifying just to sit in the train car with him and watch a woman stare at him with wide eyes like he was some kind of criminal. I stepped closer to him as if to remind her he’s human. I stared back at her with just as much fear and watched her snap out of it, confused.

Last week was holocaust awareness week at my college, and one of the things I did was spend a couple hours in the plaza reading the names of people that died. I found 34 Feldmans and Fotts. I found family names, Chana and Fayge and Jeshua and Sophia Feldman one after the other, and still am wondering if that was part of my family that didn’t make it to the US in time.

I called my grandma and asked for everything she could remember about her family lineage and how we got here, everything she had from that part of her life. I thought that there would be plenty to lean into, family recipes and heirlooms and stories, but there was barely anything. She has a Star of David necklace and a ton of repressed memories, next to nothing else. The recipes I could find were through my great aunt, some short instructions from my great grandmother on the back of a letter she sent to the aunt about what to ask for from a kosher butcher.

My family made it here in 1915 and 1921, they escaped before the holocaust, but they still weren’t untouched because of the ways they were ostracized and othered when they got here. My grandmother will barely admit she’s Jewish because none of her kids passed it on, it’s easier for her to let it go. I didn’t understand this until I realized that one couldn’t be hurt by the grief and pain of a family they aren’t part of.

Even those that survive are not left unscarred.

How could this not be personal? How could it not be generationally affective when it’s pushed so many to minimize their Jewishness out of self preservation? Raise their kids thinking they aren’t Jewish and hope their names never end up on a list of living or dead Jews? People still don’t see us as human. the antisemites still want to scar us. They want us to forget who we are.

It’s unreal to me when goyim act like American Jews in the current day are unaffected by the past and safe from antisemitism. I’ve been here less than a year and have been screamed at in an airport, have uncovered serious intergenerational trauma, and realized that of my Jewish family I have nothing to hold on to but a torn in half piece of paper with a sentence long tangent about brisket.

We are strong and we will outlive them, but god are we still fucking fighting for our lives.

.