#he's got a little bit of 4chan energy to me

[irregularjohnnywiggins]

Hey, kids, wanna hear about the worst tour I've ever been on?

(Tw: Antisemitism)

So, background: last May, me and my mum went on a travelling holiday to Cornwall - mainly to visit Tintagel, but also a whole load of other places, including Glastonbury on the way back.

Mum, in an effort to be as in-step with the intentions for the trip as possible, booked us on a walk-around tour of the town and Glastonbury Tor with a local shaman, which was already a bit of a red flag, but I figured I might as well just go along with it.

This was easily the worst mistake of the year.

Now, I'm not an expert in 'Celtic' mythology. I know enough to be able to tell what's bullshit, and I've read the Mabinogi a few times and Culhwch ap Olwen a few more, but I'm nowhere near a scholar in those fields at all, and anything more than a passing knowledge of Irish, Manx or Breton mythology is beyond me.

I say this so that when I say the entire tour felt like the Ron Swanson 'I know more than you' meme, you appreciate just how little this guy had to know for me to feel confident he was talking rubbish.

Red Flag #1: he asked us as we began the tour if he was okay to not be 'politically correct' as we went along.

He was a Norse pagan, which is not immediately a Red Flag (I know a lot of really nice Norse pagans), but combined with his previous question... yeah, Red Flag #2.

Apparently the word 'Pendragon' in relation to Arthur is derived from the Babylonian term for 'anointed one' and the 'Christians' stole it from them and brought it to Britain, and therefore Arthur Pendragon is a title passed down because apparently since MZB that's a thing everyone wants to do with King Arthur characters?

(Also, in case you missed it, Red Flag #3: he kept referring to Jews as 'Christians' even when it made no logical sense, and considering the general thrust of his arguments were 'Christians evil and weak, Pagans good and strong', that was... concerning. Gonna reiterate that tw for antisemitism, btw)

The Celts? Also had the Nine Worlds? Which, I've yet to see much evidence that convinces me 'the Celts' believed in multiple worlds at all, let alone nine of them.

Glastonbury Tor, he reliably told us, was the greatest place of learning in the Ancient World, which... I think that not only would Rome, and most of the Middle East, and Greece like a word, so would Ireland and Anglesey.

Also, he spouted the old 'Jesus visited Britain when he was a child' fanfic, but also added in that Jesus studied at Glastonbury Tor, learning the mystical arts of the Druids, and, you saw it coming, the only reason he was able to perform those miracles was because Jesus was a secret Druid.

Apparently the Tor itself was a powerful symbol of feminine energy because it's a symbolic baby bump, and the tower was put there by the Christians to violate that with phallic masculine energy, and not just because its a natural human impulse to put a building on any hill sufficiently tall enough.

He then almost immediately contradicted himself by saying that the hill was a symbol of masculine energy, and that there was this tree on an opposing hill that was symbolic of a vagina, but eeevil Christians had torn down the tree about two years ago.

If you managed to see where this is going, yes, the eeevil Christians caused the COVID pandemic.

Putting this in a general Red Flag #4 because I can't remember the exact details, but he had some familiarly weird opinions on the 'rona, like, the sort of opinions you would see on 4chan and the like.

He seemed really put out that I knew the legend of Severina and how the Severn got its name. Given the rest of his nonsense, I really don't want to know how he would have girlbossed the little girl drowning under the orders of the first Queen of England.

The discussion turned to The Green Knight, which had just recently come out, and he not only claimed that the original poem was written by Chretien de Troyes, but also that the movie was inaccurate because it did not feature the story of the Loathly Lady, which the original poem... does not feature at all.

Apparently Cú Chulainn beheaded and reanimated Scáthach's head after he was finished training with her? And this is the origin of the legend of Arthur talking with the head of Bran the Blessed, which... if you're going to assume it has a pagan origin, why not just link it to Odin and Mimir, that's actually a real legend and not something you completely made up.

That, and a brief reference to the idea that Gawain is a reflection of Cú, were the only mentions of Irish myth that I can remember.

That is, however, in large part because of Red Flag #5, which is that he seemed to... conflate, a lot of things. Like, there's the to be expected conflation of Irish, Welsh, and Gallic myths into the umbrella 'Celtic' mythology, with all of the normal syncretisms that implies, but also he threw in things like Lugh/Lleu/Lug being an aspect of Odin, who was also an aspect of Zeus, and naturally every female mythological figure north of the Pillars of Hercules is an aspect of the singular Goddess, and the Romans, Celts and Norse were all worshipping the same aspects of life and were all equally robbed when The Christians came to ruin everything, and... y'know, maybe I'm overly sensitive to this particular thing, but anytime someone treats every pre-Christian European religion and culture as homogeneous I get really wary, because it reminds me of those Nazis who keep bleating about our 'European Identity' being threatened by the sheer existence of black people.

...I will be honest, I had zoned out of most of the tour at this point, and only occasionally dropped back in so that it looked like I was paying attention, because my mum had booked onto this tour and I didn't want to be a dick about it.

...That is, until I zoned back in for Red Flag #6, although not exactly a Red Flag as much as it was a giant flaring signal of 'this man is an antisemite'. Apparently, according to this man's head, the reason Germany lost the Second World War was because Jewish bankers plotted to bankrupt them, and therefore Hitler-

It cuts out there because that's when I lost my shit entirely and stormed off up the Tor, because I couldn't imagine any way this man ends that premise without somehow justifying the Holocaust. Mum, who's much less afraid of ruining people's days than me and just as pissed off, tore into him in front of the rest of the group, but honestly the walk up the steepest slope of the Tor was honestly less painful than listening to this fucker. On the bright side, when I finally got to the top the view was fucking spectacular, and Mum got back to the hotel room having left a negative review on the website, but still... not a good time.

Bottom line, if you're going to Glastonbury... don't hire a random shaman to give you a tour?

[weezlbot]

Tag yourself: Valar

Might do one on the Maiar at some point. love those guys

tulkas. bench pressing your wife. the smell of leather. competitive sports. you haven’t skipped leg day, ever, and you look down on those who do. helping strangers at the gym. calling others “king.” kissing the homies goodnight. eating lots of meat, lean and fat alike. embracing the chad stereotype. energy drinks.

nessa. exercising with your partner. flexibility. music. dance of all kinds. gymnastics. muscular bodies, masculine and feminine. deer. horses. dogs. hooved mammals. energy drinks. loud laughter. earth tones. strong and effeminate. braids. you can’t eat anything with hooves--no beef, no venison, no mutton. lean meats and nuts for protein. 

orome. glowing green eyes. french horns. trumpets. desiring virgins. big dogs. long walks. keen sense of smell. horses. quiet footsteps. attraction to smaller, softer bodies. coffee. strong, yet tempered emotions. being the wiser member of your romantic partnership. you’re good with ranged weapons--archery or guns. advocacy for weapons safety. you’re simultaneously very good with animals and absolutely willing to hunt your own food if need be.

vana. violets. roses. bees. honey. amber. gardening. big dogs. long walks. loving stronger people. loving older people. pastries. chocolate milk. no caffeine for you--you keep good sleep hygiene. bright colors. pastels. light colors. sunshine. flowery dresses. stuffed animals. youthful energy. innocence. naivety, but not in a bad way--you’ve got a lot to learn and you can’t wait to learn it. balancing your work and your play.  

nienna. shades of gray. the way voices sound underwater. flowy clothing. hiding your face. studying psychology. studying grief counseling. being a crybaby, and being able to accept that. drinking tea for energy. mist and fog. shade. shadows. nighttime thunderstorms. monochrome. crying as a cope. sleeping as a cope. having a few very good friends.

manwe. birdwatching. bird feeders. cool winds. dried berries. charcuterie boards. compassion and sympathy, but not as much empathy. minimalist architecture. mountain peaks. windswept cliffs. being willing to drive for days and hike for hours for the sake of a good view. homes with visible rafters. thunderstorms. drinking tea for energy.

varda. glitter. sequins. white gems. stargazing. mountains. open plains. wearing mostly black and dark, cool colors. moonlight. starlight. cool white light. travelling with your partner. being willing to drive for days and hike for hours for the sake of a good view. drinking tea for energy. 

aule. gold. brass. bronze. steel. iron. wire. upper body strength. muscle like bands of iron. well kept hair--head, facial and body alike. muscular bodies, but only masculine. liking body hair. respect for craftsmanship. being good with your hands. poor taste in friends. good taste in lovers. coffee. liking the heat. fireplaces. you like to make stuff, and you’re good at it.

yavanna. shopping at Whole Foods. keeping a home garden, or at bare minimum, a few potted plants. growing your own food. raspberries. strawberries. mulberries. pies and tarts and other fruity pastries. woods and trees. grass and fruit. it doesn’t matter if it’s manicured lawn or wild field or forest, if it’s growing, you like it. being very good at cooking. coca-cola or Pepsi or other soda as a wake-up method. you and your partner have ideological differences but the love’s still there. 

lorien. sunflowers. buttercups. roses. fine china. porcelain. smooth glass. gardening. open fields. wildflowers. benches. lawn furniture. not liking caffeine, as you keep a good sleep schedule and don’t need it. studying psychology. counseling. you have a steady head.

este. sleeping as a cope. soft blankets. sleeping pills. smooth glass. smooth stone. shades of gray. warm fireplaces. quartz. sleepy tea. not liking caffeine--it makes you jittery. studying sleep medicine. yoga. meditation. mindfulness. swearing by the above three for nearly every problem you have. 

mandos. wearing dark clothes. dark coffee. goths, emos, and other depressed, black-wearing subgroups. shade. cool air. basements. dark stone. ornate fences. shiny gray glass that holds no light. smell of dust and stone. old books. not liking the sun--it hurts your eyes and is too hot for you. ouija boards. 

vaire. needlework. knitting. sewing. gray gems. goths, emos, and other depressed, black-wearing subgroups. coffee. shiny gray lightless glass. monochrome. colorless. smell of stone. cool air. shade. delicate white silk. studying history. the smell of old books. tapestries. being a little asocial, but you’ve got a few good friends, so does it really matter? 

ulmo. shells. tubas. foghorns. deep azures. navy blues. glints of pale light. coconuts. cold showers as a wake-up method. thunderstorms. not minding the cold or the heat. doing volunteer work. giving good advice. being very good at swimming. travelling the coasts. collecting interesting shells.

melkor. iron that never rusts. burning hot sun. frigid cold. living at extremes. icicles. hot desert sand. harsh light. inky dark. sharp teeth. loving shiny things. mushrooms. the scent of copper. sharp teeth. broken mirrors. powerful stimulants as a wake-up method--caffeine pills, Bang, cocaine, amphetamines. you’ve made some mistakes. half the world wants to fight you in person, the other half would rather not think about you. bodymodding. 

[aawesomepenguin]

SONIC RANGERS, EVERYTHING WE KNOW ABOUT IT, LINK FOR ALL SOURCES AT THE END

Ok, the time has come. I spent my entire day doing some searches on the 4chan website, picking and trying to find every nugget of information I could find that I was 100% sure it was connected to Sonic Rangers.

I’ll get this right out of the gate: I’m 95% sure the next main Sonic game will be open world, and what will follow is all my evidence towards it. It’ll be uncharted territory for the Sonic franchise, and we’ll need to see how it pays off.

Also, spoilers for Sonic Rangers, but kind of broad ones, so in my opinion, your experience wouldn’t be ruined if you read all of this. But if you’re one of those that want to go 100% blind, then I think the time to jump off this ship is now.

Here we go.

As it turns out, as I did some digging of my own, and thanks to other observant people, I can confirm that the “Sonic Rangers” name has been circulating on the Internet way, WAY before the accidental leak revealed on May 27th. I will show an entire timeline of these discoveries, and how they connect.

But okay, before we dive in, a general vision of Sonic Rangers: the game will take a brand new approach with the character, placing Sonic in an open world for him to explore. Where through his speed, he’ll do platforming challenges, do puzzles, fight against badniks, etc. When fighting against enemies, the player gains XP, that can be used to give Sonic different abilities. Spread through this world are bosses, where after you defeat them, Sonic obtains orbs, and when enough of them are gathered, Sonic can enter Special Stages, that are structured like a Sonic Generations/Sonic Unleashed boost level. When you complete them, you get a Chaos Emerald.

Ok, now let’s go to the 4chan leaks. From what I can tell, SEGA has been inviting different test groups to testplay their next main Sonic game, under a strict NDA. After it, SEGA collects feedback from the testers. I can’t exactly pinpoint when SEGA began to do these tests, but if I had to guess, it has been around as early as March 2020.

1st Occurrence

In July 2020, another fake leak claiming to be the 30th anniversary game showed up on 4chan, but then, as an answer to it, a person that has really played a test version of the next main Sonic game called the fake leaker out. The person that has put their hands on the next main Sonic game had the following to say:

“I playtested the game back in march and played it for an hour. There were no levels just an overworld. You’re full of s***.”

In another post, the person that got their hands on the testing version of the next main Sonic game, had the following to say:

“It was called Sonic Rangers when I played it.”

1st Occurrence analysis

I believe that the person that played the test version of Sonic Rangers has erroneously interpreted the open world as an overworld, which makes sense. Sonic Rangers name gets dropped for the first time.

2nd Occurrence

In August of 2020, another person that played a test version of Sonic Rangers, stated the following about the next title on the Sonic series:

“It’s not an adventure remake. I playtested it. They ARE working on something, but if they take feedback me and the other panelists gave them, SEGA might change quite a bit from what I ended up playing.

Open World

Set on a gloomy, grassy, uninhabited island dotted with ruins.

Big BOTW influence, little korok-like puzzles scattered everywhere.

Robot/alien bosses scattered throughout the island, defeat them and you get a Chaos Emerald.

Get all Chaos Emeralds and you gain entrance to the final boss area, a foggy forest you couldn’t enter before.

No major characters appeared aside from Sonic.

No story, just dumped in.

Turn Super Sonic to fight the boss, he’s a giant colossus-like entity that you climb, hit his weak points.

These could all be changed because I played a couple of months ago and there still hasn’t been any reveal, so I assume they might be reworking a lot.”

2nd Occurrence analysis

As you can see, in this version, some of the elements that were talked about in the most famous leak aren’t present, some missing elements were added later, but the basic was already present and in place. Sonic can travel through an open world, doing puzzles, defeating badniks and fighting against bosses, to then fight against a final boss as Super Sonic. 

The most interesting thing is how the person that leaked these details claimed that they played it “a couple of months ago”, meaning that this version could take place after the build shown in the first occurrence. Some things have changed since then.

Another cool thing that I wanted to point out was that this build uses placeholder from previous Sonic games. During the final boss, the theme for the first boss fight against Infinite from Sonic Forces is used.

3rd Occurrence

In January of 2021, another anonymous 4chan user talked about Sonic rangers, once again mentioning the name “Sonic Rangers.” As their version is pretty edgy, and negative because Sonic Negativism gets clicks, I’m going to present it in a unbiased manner, and be direct to the point on what they said.

Sonic Rangers, around the end of 2020, was presented once more to a select group of people, two demos were shown. The first one allows exploration of the open world under a time limit of twenty minutes, and another demo that has an apparent Final Boss battle.

Open world is filled with small enemies, puzzles, and platforming challenges.

Completing puzzles, challenges and defeating badniks gives XP to the player as a reward, that can be used to unlock abilities for Sonic.

Among the abilities that Sonic can unlock, there is the “spincycle”, where after pressing the Y button, Sonic begins to create a line behind him, and if the player creates a circle-ish shape around the enemy or a group of enemies, Sonic attacks all the enemies that were “marked” within the spincycle line.

Homing Attack that can target multiple enemies at once, from Sonic Lost World, is back.

There are lots of bosses spread through the open world, when they are defeated, Sonic gets some “orbs”.

If the player gets enough orbs, he can access the “Cyberspace”, essentially this game’s special stage.

The cyberspace levels are like the boost levels in Sonic Generations.

When beating a cyberspace level within a certain amount of time, the player obtains a Chaos Emerald.

New voice clips for Roger Craig Smith were used.

Some new music was made for this build.

In regards to the demo where the player faces the final boss:

After reuniting all the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic can go through a dense fog that the player couldn’t access before in the open world.

A Giant Tree Robot is the apparent final boss.

Fly as Super Sonic using the spincycle and other abilities that were unlocked throughout the game to help defeat the final boss.

Can’t take damage, on a timer of rings. A Ghost girl refills the player’s ring count multiple times.

Demo ended after defeating the boss.

3rd Occurrence analysis

As you can see, this version polished even further the concepts that were talked about in the second occurrence. Instead of getting Chaos Emeralds after defeating a boss, Sonic gains orbs, where after this Sonic has to go after EVEN more bosses to get more orbs. With these orbs, the player can access a Special Stage, named Cyberspace, where you’ll be able to play a more traditional like Sonic game, to get the Chaos Emeralds.

This certainly helps the game longer, which is a plus for me. We’ll probably have seven boost levels, with them being treated like a Special Stage. They also added a XP system, and the main gimmick of this game, the spincycle, was shown in the trailer for Sonic Central.

Sonic will keep building up abilities, which is something I believe the player will be able to use them as different strategies on how to beat different types of bosses.

4th Occurrence

Sonic Central takes place, with a trailer for a new Sonic game at the end. Sonic is running through a forest, and then he begins to glow blue, creating a pixel effect, with a line following him. Sonic then runs in a circle with this new ability that makes him glow blue, and then exits screen.

4th Occurrence analysis

With the context we’ve piled up from previous occurrences, you can put some pieces together. Sonic is clearly activating a spincycle, the main gimmick for this new game, just like how it was said in the January 2021 leak. And just like how the leaker said, Sonic formed a circle-ish shape with this ability in the teaser trailer. Sonic creates a blue energy, creating a line behind him, allowing him to make patterns with it, maybe creating a shape that could surround his enemies?

5th Occurrence

Dataminers and modders are able to get their hands on the 4K trailer for the new Sonic game, finding out that the name of the game is, Sonic Rangers.

5th Occurrence analysis

It perfectly fits with what was stated previously in 4chan threads, specifically, the one from July 2020 and the one from January 2021. Helping give the 4Chan leaks even more credit.

6th Occurrence

SEGA, while sending out press kits to news websites, ends up slipping out the name for their next main Sonic game, Sonic Rangers.

"Announcing new console experiences, Sonic Colors: Ultimate and Sonic Rangers, further details on Netflix's Sonic Prime, mobile news, musical events and much more!"

-SEGA

It was an accident, and SEGA stated they sent an erroneous version, and when pressed about the Sonic Rangers name, it didn’t dwell into it any further.

6th Occurrence analysis

Coming straight from SEGA’s mouth, the name for the next main Sonic game is gonna be Sonic Rangers. This fits a lot with the rumours that came from 4chan from July 2020 and January 2021, making it EVEN MORE likely that the next main Sonic game is gonna be an open world game.

Conclusion

And that’s where we’re at now in terms of Sonic Rangers news. In my opinion, I’m 95% certain that these leaks are legit. Keep in mind that after the Sonic Rangers name came to light, 1001 other rumours were created, but these I have my doubts, since they now have a sturdy base, they can make up more stuff to go along with it.

My opinion: I’m particularly excited for this next main game. Sonic Rangers deals with uncharted territory for the Sonic series, and I feel like it could be very fun. But of course, I’m a guy that’s mostly chill and cool with most Sonic media out there, so form your own opinions.

Anyway...

HYPE FOR SONIC RANGERS!

Source 1, Source 2, Source 3, Source 4, Source 5 and Source 6.

[adambstingus]

5 Ways The Modern World Makes Mass Murder Easier

OK, Christ, let’s get one thing clear here: The internet isn’t a bad thing. At no point will the world become a cartoonist’s caricature of some smoldering dumpland surrounding a cow pen of millennials checking their smartphones. I get that no one under the age of 70 wants to hear some hand-flailing diatribe about the dangers of modern conveniences or how video games and Twitter turn supple minds into itty Patrick Batemans (Batemen?). It’s horse poop.

But also horse poop: pretending that society has lurched into a tubular hack-the-planet age without any detrimental consequences. And one correlation that’s always troubled me is the FBI’s report about the rise of spree shootings adjacent to the rise in the web’s popularity. While it would be horribly irresponsible to use that data alone to point fingers at the world’s favorite new cat and porn depository, there’s certainly enough circumstantial evidence to at least support suspicious squints toward your cable router. For example …

5

The Internet Attracts Depressed, Emotionless People (According To Science)

Like I just got done saying, the internet isn’t turning people into psychopaths, just as video games and movies aren’t. But to quote the great modern mind Skeet Ulrich: “Movies don’t create psychos. Movies make psychos more creative.” In other words, troubled people can draw inspiration and solace from anywhere, and science has found that one common place to hide has been the internet.

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You’ll Have Mo’ Money & Less Problems With These 4 Courses

If a person tends to be introverted, or isolated, or generally uncomfortable dealing with other people (like I’m sure a lot of you reading this are), then the internet is a great place to find peace. There’s nothing wrong with that. But it also means that the more rejected from the world a person feels, the easier it it for them to live their life solely through a computer screen. And while we’ve only just begun to study the effects of this, what little results we have seem to indicate that excessive online use tends to go hand in hand with addiction, depression, impulsiveness, and anxiety. Getting more specific, things like online forums and file sharing tend to attract those with depressive personalities. In other words, you don’t have to be an isolated, depressed loner to enjoy 4chan and Reddit … but it helps.

And going back to the fact that these websites absolutely don’t turn you into a sociopath, they are fan-fucking-tastic if you’re already one of those to begin with. Forums and Twitter are great ways to pass the time if you have no empathy, considering how impersonal they can be. And you know who tends to fit into that? Teenagers. Specifically, teenage boys.

“Cognitive empathy” — aka the ability to relate to other people’s perspectives — is not something that develops right away in people. For girls, it happens around the age of 13, but for boys it tends to start a bit later … right around the time they become parentally untethered online. And while I’m totally speculating, it makes way more sense to me that the reason so many spree killers are young men isn’t that men are inherently terrible crime monsters, but that they are biologically more susceptible to violent actions in an age in which you can escape into a faceless digital world. After all, I remember being that age when the internet first became a thing (I’m fucking old, you guys), and can personally attest to the hours I spent on sites like rotten.com and Limewire seeing just how much my adolescent brain could take. That doesn’t mean I’m a psychopath, right? Right, guys? We wouldn’t want that.

And since my early days, it’s gotten easier to find not only just about any corner of darkness you want, but also a whole digital community lurking there with you …

4

Online Communities Make Unhealthy Interests Seem Normal

Hey, let’s say I’m really into pictures of cars having sex with dragons. Hypothetically, of course. Let’s say it really gets my hammer slamming to see a Toyota Matrix squat behind some nubile hydra and give it the full business. Twenty years ago, that’s something I would have to keep to myself, quietly understanding that it’s kind of messed up I would be into such things. Don’t get me wrong, I’d like to hope I wouldn’t be ashamed of my vehicular fetish, but it’s certainly nothing I could build a whole lifestyle around. With luck, one day I might meet a woman who shared my dark secret, and together we could dress up like Herbie and Draco and go buck wild on each other. Just a honking good time.

But today, I don’t have to worry about any of that. There’s already a Reddit community of over 3,000 people who share my interest:

I know, I know, it’s a joke subreddit. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The point I’m trying to make here is this: One of the strengths of the internet is that it unites people from all over the country and world … which at times is also one of the worst things about it as well. Because along with political advocates, LGBT groups, nerd communities, people who drink beer in the shower while naked (hey, NSFW), and any other innocuous lifestyles like cosplayers and furries, we’re also seeing the garbage unions of Nazis, child predators, animal abusers, weird-shaped egg enthusiasts, and a fucking 2,000-strong group devoted to Taylor Swift’s armpits:

Reddit Which somehow forced the dragon-fucking out of top spot on the “weirdest fetish in this article” list.

This is something we’ve talked about before with online MRA groups. In the same way that a cult isolates and bubbles people into a false interpretation of reality, some online groups find the equally susceptible and gather them under one obsessive interest. And to keep repeating, it’s not that the internet is making them this way, but rather that it’s creating a nurturing place where those beliefs can be not only unchallenged but supported. Someone like an anti-vaxxer or Sandy Hook truther would be booed out of an everyday conversation, but online, they are not alone. Online, they have a community to assure them that what they are doing isn’t bat-dong wacky-sacks.

And then it’s only a matter of time before that person grows to believe that the rest of the world is the problem. Their awkwardness, isolation, and social anxiety is suddenly a justified reaction to a backwards society. It’s only a matter of time before they proudly lash out against the non-digital world, and what was once a quiet hobby becomes some dude fucking a neighbor’s Tegu dressed like a Transformer. Or, you know, a man shooting up Planned Parenthood after enveloping himself in anti-abortion YouTube videos edited to falsely assert that the organization sells baby parts.

And I know that it seems super weird to lump violence with joke subreddits about celebrity arm fetishes, but there’s a deliberate reason I’m doing this …

3

For Every Stupid Offensive “Joke,” There’s Someone Out There Taking It Seriously

Lemme tell you about being a young punk in the very liberal state of Massachusetts, which is what I once was. In order to rebel in a place like that, the goal was to be as offensive and politically incorrect as possible. And so derogatory bands like GG Allin, GWAR, and something terrible called “Anal Cunt” were often blasted with a smirk from my shitty car. It wasn’t necessarily that I believed the screeching lyrics, but rather that I enjoyed the immature shock value of it all. And while a lot of these bands were also simply in it for smirks, there comes a time when you realize that not everyone is interpreting them ironically. At some point, you find yourself moshing to a live performance of “Hitler Was A Sensitive Man,” only to notice that the dude next to you has a swastika tattooed on his chest. That isn’t to say I don’t still listen to bands like GG Allin, but rather that I do so quietly and in more personal, adult situations — like in the shower, or doing my taxes.

And as we sort of touched on before, this shock value is likely what a lot of 4channers and younger right-wingers think they are creating:

See, the joke was this: Pretend that certain symbols like the “OK” hand sign are Nazi salutes to freak out the media into thinking it’s real. Only guess what? “Pretending” something is a Nazi salute is ultimately the same goddamn thing as using an actual Nazi salute. And the more you do it, the more you end up attracting actual Nazis. Being “ironically” racist is just being racist, especially if you’re not building to any punchline beyond “Look how racist we’re being!”

And what comes next isn’t pretty. Ever hear of Alt-Reich Nation? It was a Facebook group all about “jokingly” posting racist and sexist memes. I say “jokingly” because its creator came out and clarified just that — as he put it to The New York Times, “Nothing is meant as true; we follow none of the beliefs.” And if you’re wondering why he had to make that public correction, it’s because one of their members recently stabbed and killed someone in what appeared to be a hate crime. But I’m sure he was just doing it for the lulz.

2

No One Can Tell You’re Being Radicalized If It’s Happening Online

Going back to my own edgy punkness (and frankly the reason this whole subject feels personal to me), I got into that genre and style because I spent my junior high years feeling like a complete outcast. And not the cool kind spelled with a ‘K.’ I gravitated toward something that turned my depression into energy, something that boosted my self-worth and made me feel part of a community.

So I can’t really say it’s a bad thing if young people are doing the same with the internet. However, what makes it vastly different is that before computers, taking part in a community meant being seen doing it. There was a level of accountability toward your family and friends. That goes for the unhealthy hate groups as well. It used to be that racist and violent groups congregated in a very visual way, and anyone joining would have to physically do so by attending rallies or shows or meetings. For communities and law enforcement and parents and peers, if someone became a white supremacist, that transition would come with a lot of huge red flags (ya know, like the swastika one). But now? Not so much.

A guy like Dylann Roof, who shot up the church in Charleston, certainly posed with his fair share of Confederate Flags and guns, but so do a lot of people. His indoctrination into violence and white supremacy happened quietly online, as it does for most everyone who joins some kind of hate group these days. It can be so goddamn under the table that a respectable member of society can not only be a part of a hate group, but fucking create one:

And what’s worse is that this problem is especially evident with law enforcement. That Mr. Roof? He had run into the cops multiple times in the past, even being questioned by the police for owning parts to a firearm. But since there was nothing physical linking him to any potential violence, there was no reason to keep an eye on him. Same with the Orlando nightclub shooter, whose neighbor flat-out reported him to the FBI for potential radicalization. They thoroughly investigated it and found no hard evidence, despite it being completely true. How did they miss it? Because it was happening online, while he was alone, with nobody noticing what was happening. He was radicalized into committing mass murder without leaving the comfort of his ergonomic office chair and microwave nachos. And while that certainly speaks volumes about the delightful convenience of the digital age, I’d like to hope you’re seeing what the big problem is here. Especially because these two instances aren’t the only ones by a long shot …

1

Every Goddamn Modern Spree Killer Fits This Pattern

Guys. Literally every time some asshole suddenly kills a bunch of people with an ideological motivation, we find out that they belonged to some kind of online community spouting their exact motivations. Dylann Roof described in detail his long nights pouring through racist stories on the Council of Conservative Citizens webpage which eventually led him to be radicalized. The Oregon community college shooter from 2015? He declared his intentions on a 4chan thread he frequented (adjoined with a Pepe meme). The Dallas shooter who targeted cops? Yet again, he was a part of online hate groups and posted about the killings online. Remember Elliot Rodger, who went around targeting women in Isla Vista, California, killing seven? Not only did he post YouTube videos leading up to it, but he was also a member of anti-women forums online.

I can keep going. You probably don’t even remember the guy back in 2007 who shot up a megachurch in Colorado, killing four. He was a member of an anti-Christian site the feds were alerted to hours after the incident. And just recently, there was the unhinged and racist Portland train attacker, who was deemed too intense for a right-wing rally and kept to the internet instead.

Look, I really can’t stress this enough: Nowhere am I saying that the internet is changing sane people into racist lunatics. Nor am I trying to ignore the millions of other factors, like mental health care and gun control, which play into the uptick of spree killings. And to be honest, I can’t even offer a definitive solution beyond personal responsibility and attention toward people around you who may be troubled. But maybe it would be a good start to at least keep a compassionate eye on your friends and family, and be there to let them know that the non-meme world is pretty cool, too. Otherwise this will just continue, and not even our sexy lizards will be safe.

Ironically, follow Dave on his Twitter, where he spends a lot of his time.

Also check out We Asked A Mass Shooter Why The Hell This Keeps Happening and I Hunt Serial Killers: 6 Facts You Thought Movies Made Up.

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from All Of Beer http://allofbeer.com/5-ways-the-modern-world-makes-mass-murder-easier/ from All of Beer https://allofbeercom.tumblr.com/post/172012394162

[sending-the-message]

Be Careful Where You Shed Your Hair by ljhall

I think I’m starting to lose my mind, and I need to document it. I need to warn people.

Be careful where you shed your hair.

I first heard those words on the bus, heading to class in the last few days of the spring term. I was minding my own damn business, as one does on a bus, even had earbuds in so I didn’t have to listen to intra-bus nonsense.

Idly, I looked down and noticed a stray hair on my shirt. I didn’t even think about it, just plucked it off and flicked it to the floor.

Suddenly someone grabbed my wrist, hard, and jerked my hand back.

I was never a fighter or anything, so I don’t have any real reflexes developed for when a stranger grabs my hand on a bus. I yanked my hand out of that grasp, twisting in the seat to see what the hell someone thought they were doing.

The woman who stared back at me was…crazed.

I would have taken her for homeless, meth-ed up, something. She was skinny, her eyes too bright and wild, and everywhere her skin showed it was scratched and red and sore. She was sitting right behind me. Strangely, her clothes were nice. Clean and new. Also strangely, she wore her hair tied back in a neat bun so severe and tight against her head that her hair looked almost drawn-on.

“Don’t do that,” she said to me, her voice too high and thin. “They’re watching. They’ll come for you.”

I looked around for help, but earbuds and ignoring nonsense seemed to be most people’s ways of surviving the bus. I eased back away from her and shook my wrist out.

I shouldn’t have asked, probably. Shouldn’t have said anything. But I did. “Don’t do what?”

She leaned in to me, and the strain in her eyes was uncomfortably intense. “Be careful where you shed your hair,” she said.

“What?”

“Be careful where you shed your hair,” she said again, her voice getting louder, rasping its way out of her mouth like her throat was paved with gravel. “They’re watching. They’ll target you! They’ll come for you!”

“What the hell are you actually talking about?”

“They’re real! Don’t look at me like I’m crazy, they’re real and they’ll come for you!”

The bus pulled up to a stop, and thank god the driver actually put it in park and turned around in his seat. “Hey! That’s enough. Off the bus if you’re just gonna shout at people.”

She looked around the bus as if there was someone she was looking for. But she slid off the seat, not arguing. Her eyes were wide and so round the whites showed in a perfect circle as she pushed out the side door of the bus. She pointed an unsteady finger back at me before she left.

“She did it too! Follow her now! Leave me alone!”

She shouted it out to the bus in general, not looking at anyone in particular, and just as the bus driver got out of his seat she slipped from the doorway and headed off down the sidewalk. The driver sat back down. The side doors shut. The bus pulled back onto the street.

I felt a little shaky, but only in that uncomfortable way that happens whenever someone makes some emotional scene in public around me. I glanced around the bus, and a few of those people who had been so content to ignore me when the lady was shouting met my eyes, offered me those thin what-can-you-do smiles before looking away.

I was clueless. Be careful where you shed your hair. It didn’t mean anything. She was nuts or something.

But then I glanced down, meaning to make sure my wrist wasn’t bruising from where she’d grabbed me, and saw another thin strand of hair on my arm.

It happens a few times a day, right? No big deal, hair falls out. Even with her words echoing in my head I didn’t think twice about flicking the hair off my arm and down to the floor.

In fact, I zoned out again entirely, because. Bus.

My campus is the route’s last stop before it turns around, so the bus usually empties out there. But I noticed as I was getting up that somebody was staying behind. Just a guy, white, forties, unassuming. Thin hair in a comb-over, button-down shirt that was a little too small for his stomach. Nobody I would have ever noticed normally.

We made eye contact as I was heading out the side door, though, and he gave me the single most bland, forgettable smile I’ve ever seen.

Something about it weirded me out a little. I looked back at the bus as it let its new passengers on. I watched that guy get up and move down to where I’d been sitting. I watched him bend over and carefully pick up something invisible to the eye.

He turned to go back to his seat, and looked out at me. Smiled that same bland, unremarkable smile as the bus pulled away.

It was right around finals time, so I really didn’t have the energy for Some Bullshit. By the time I got out of class and back on the bus, I’d pretty much forgotten everything that happened.

I live in apartments that are really just a long strip of studios, half on ground level and half downstairs. Not the best part of town, but I’ve never felt unsafe there. It was quiet, and I had studying to do, that was all I cared about when I got home.

The night passed, morning came.

When I headed out to get to class, there was a note outside my door. The building would leave us messages like that all the time, so I grabbed it as I locked the door and headed out.

Here’s what it said:

Be careful where you shed your hair, Don’t leave a strand behind. A little bit is all We need To begin the bind.

That first line was enough to freak me out. Everything that happened the day before came back to me, and those words…had someone followed me? They would have had to watch me in class, back on the bus, and all the way home. That crazy lady couldn’t have done it. The man I saw on the bus hadn’t been on when I came home from class.

It made no sense that anyone could have, and I didn’t understand why anyone would want to.

But there I was, heading back up to the stop to get on the bus again.

Still, finals, it wasn’t like I had a choice. I ended up throwing the note in a bush as I passed, and telling myself not to worry about it.

I didn’t notice anything weird on the bus or during classes that day. I got irritated, because at one point I ran fingers through my hair and a couple of strands came out, and for some reason just looking at them scared me, got my guts churning.

I threw them in the bathroom trash.

That was a Thursday, and Thursday nights are party time for students on my school’s schedule. I went out that night, hung with some friends, got a little too tipsy. Danced with a guy I probably wouldn’t have looked at twice when I was sober, and got annoyed when he kept running fingers through my hair, so I ended up going home early. Which was good, because I wasn’t so drunk that I lost my whole Friday recovering.

I didn’t leave my apartment until Friday night, though, meaning to go out and do it all again.

But I found this:

Saliva on an empty glass Or on a cigarette. You leave your pieces everywhere, And We always Collect.

I decided to stay in that night. Catch up on Reddit and youtube and whatever. A nice chill weekend was probably best anyway.

Sunday morning I went to take my trash out to the dumpster, and was relieved to find no note. Relieved until I peeked out my front window a few minutes later and saw someone digging through the trash. I almost went out there, but I told myself it was probably some homeless person. I tried to just let them live, they had a hard enough time.

I hoped it was some kind of viral prank, something 4chan would have come up with. I couldn’t find anything about it online, though.

It was right around Sunday night, while I was looking things up, that I started to itch.

It happened slowly. Those little ticks of sensation you get that you scratch at absently and they never bother you again. Some in my hair, on my arm. I never had allergies to anything, but had a run-in with poison ivy as a kid that reminded me of the sensation.

I told myself I was being paranoid, that whoever was doing this was just getting to me. But every time I stopped paying attention I found myself scratching at different places on my skin or through my hair.

I ended up going to sleep early, looking forward to class the nest day and something else to think about.

The itching didn’t bother me much when I was sleeping, but when I hopped in the shower the next morning it felt like the water was reviving every single absentminded itch I had scratched the night before.

I thought, allergies. I thought, there must be something new around here that I’m allergic to. Or maybe something I ate was doing something strange inside me.

It was ignorable, but really unpleasant.

On the bus to campus I looked around at everyone, trying to figure out if anybody was watching me. It was when I was getting off the bus that I felt the faintest brush on my chest and found a hair. It had come out and drifted down to my skin right around the collar of my shirt.

It made my stomach lurch. These people, whoever the hell was doing this, were really getting to me. I picked that hair off my shirt and pinched it between my fingers, looking around to make sure nobody was watching. I ended up shoving it deep into one of the manicured bushes that lines the walk towards my building. Nobody would find it in there.

And I tied my hair back in a quick ponytail, just to be safe.

Over the next few days that was my routine. Study, class, scratching at my skin until I realized I was doing it and could stop myself. I kept my hair in ponytails, and whatever fell out or ended up in my brush at home I just…gathered up, stuck it in a plastic bag from the 7/11 and tried not to think about it.

I knew it had to be some prank, but my skin was starting to burn. I’d scratched myself red in quite a few spots on my arms and over my chest, and I tried everything I could to stop doing it: I soaked rags in cold water and slapped them over my skin, I painted my fingernails so I’d be too conscious about the polish to touch anything.

I thought about that woman on the bus, the crazy woman with her hair pulled back tight and sores all over her skin.

It’s only gotten worse in the last two weeks. Everything has. I’m scared to leave my house, scared to throw anything away. They only left me one other note:

A sliver of a fingernail, A Kleenex left behind. First We collect your pieces Then We collect your mind.

I can’t help but obsess. How many hairs had come out the last few weeks when I wasn’t paying attention, just fell to the ground for someone to find? How many times did I pick at a hangnail, or leave behind some empty food container or a cup with some piece of me still on it? How many skin cells do we lose, walking around every day? It’s supposed to be continuous, right? We’re always shedding skin too microscopic to see.

God, I should be getting my period soon, how much blood does that leave behind for someone to find and use?

I’ve scratched myself to bleeding, and I can’t stop doing it. It’s not even that the itching has gotten worse, it’s just always there. I wake up in the mornings with skin and blood under my fingernails.

I’ve tried looking things up - superstitions, curses, things that involve using actual hair and skin from a real person - but it freaks me out so badly I can’t stop. I just hope maybe if I stay inside, if they can’t watch me or follow me, if I give them nothing to collect, maybe they’ll switch to someone else. Some other person on a bus who finds a hair on their sleeve and flicks it away without thinking.

I don’t know who’s doing this, or what’s in it for them. I don’t know if someone reading this knows who they are, these people who collect bits of other human beings and uses them to torment them. I don't know if this itching is going to get worse, or just going to go on until I've scratched away all my skin.

But I wanted to warn you all, all the same. There’s obviously some kind of power in the things that come off of us. Pay attention to what you lose and who might be watching.

Be careful where you shed your hair.