#i did say it fucking sucks

[tanadrin]

So besides "all religion is a pathetic cope" what exactly is the point of all your recent posting?

Religion isn't a pathetic cope! Religion is fundamentally hard-wired into who we are. This is something both Dan McClellan and David Bokovoy talk about quite cogently: we are evolved to detect agents in the world around us, that agency-detection mechanism errs on the side of false positives rather than false negatives (bc false negatives tended to get eaten), and that plus other cognitive systems like our relentless pattern-matching ability and our capacity for theory of mind produce some quite complex intuitions about the world, out of which a sense of the supernatural almost inevitably falls.

Dan McClellan in his interviews on Mormon Stories in particular talks about the cognitive science side of religious studies, and the experiments done to try to get at the underlying intuitions, and he points out that in these experiments it becomes pretty evident that both atheism and the more philosophically complex forms of religion most readers of this post are probably accustomed to are the result of highly reflective attitudes toward the world; the intuitive sense of supernatural agency tends to ascribe very humanlike qualities to supernatural agents--I am reminded of some of the stuff @transgenderer has posted about the Mbuti and the Ainu and their beliefs in a parallel "spirit world" that is very much like our own, where the spirits live lives very similar to the ones we do.

When you add in the ways that religion taps into other important human social functions--collective mythmaking, social organization, the creation of networks of trust and reinforcement of particular identities--it becomes clear that religion is something which fulfills what are for many people important psychological needs, and that (in some form) we will always have something like religion with us. Now, "religion" itself is kind of a tricky category--in religious studies it is apparently accepted as a truism that "religion" is just "anything we call a religion," because it lumps together what are often some quite heterogeneous phenomena, and the original formation of the category was in discourse by mostly-Protestant Europeans trying to understand the cultures and traditions of the rest of the world mostly with reference to (again, mostly Protestant) Christianity. So as long as we're aware that this is a very loose category, and everything above has to be taken mutatis mutandis so far as it applies to individual members of the category, we can talk carefully about religion in general terms.

Dan McClellan, David Bokovoy, and the guy who originated the application of cognitive theory to the study of religion are all religious. So clearly they don't see religion as cope, or as this perspective as one that necessarily implies religion is cope.

What would be pathetic is someone who cannot tolerate the existence of an outside view of religion, either because it causes them to doubt truth claims of that religion in ways that make them uncomfortable (because the truth of that religion is deeply integrated into their personal sense of identity), or because they can only read differing viewpoints as a hostile attack, and who then sends aggressive anons to strangers on the internet as a result. That would in fact be the kind of thing that only someone with really profound insecurities that they are unloading on other people does, because they don't have the strength to deal with those insecurities themselves.

[megaawkwardhuman]

[greelin]

if you remember rise of the guardians (2012) you are entitled to financial compensation

[lazylittledragon]

ok i swear i'm not going to talk about my breakup forever but the thing that just keeps bothering me:

i know that not getting what you need in a relationship is a COMPLETELY valid reason to end it but also. i feel like having a very vulnerable moment where i opened up about my struggles with intimacy and being relieved that i didn't have to keep doing things i wasn't comfortable with, then being dumped a YEAR later because of my lack of intimacy. is something i should be allowed to be very hurt by???

[fantasykiri5]

A pair of birds of prey for days 15 and 16 of @hermitadaymay !!! Definitely not a day and a half (?) late

[oifaaa]

People bring up the fact that Jason (might have) beaten up Tim that one time like it's the worst thing Jason did ignoring that he literally shoots Damian point blank in the chest all the offence in the world to tim but imo boy got off pretty easy

[harbingersecho]

HEAD LIKE A HOLE, BLACK AS YOUR SOUL I'D RATHER DIE THAN GIVE YOU CONTROL

[wasyago]

uhh umm uhm random stuff

[biblically-accurate-dca]

moon n ballora

[chaos0pikachu]

man some of y'all have never learned the home training of "keep your hate/critique out the main tags and on your own blog or in critical tags" and then wonder why ppl be vagueblogging or reblogging with disagreements like you didn't show up to the crochet lovers group telling everybody how crocheting was actually Not Fun At All and really hard and doesn't make sense to enjoy, or Problematic, actually instead of keeping it in the group chat with the haterella besties

[mainalias]

thinking about compiling screenshots of golden/silver age batman exclusively calling dick his ward to combat the allegations that it was “initially a father-child relationship”

[nachosncheezies]

In defense of late-canon x files (including the revivals)

I was thinking about this poll after I commented on it, and I kinda want to be brave and say more.

Short answer to the poll's question before I go any further: If you're a new fan and a sensitive sort who thinks you'll struggle with your blorbos Really Going Through It and you really need a happy ending, I suggest you stop at the end of season 8. Do not pass go, do not look at spoilers. Disregard this post entirely, close the internet, and go look at something that makes you happy. (Also fuck every part of society that characterizes sensitivity as inherently weak and bad and some kind of personal failing, you are valid.)

That said, "quality" as a concept is entirely subjective, and the question of whether or not there's a decline in quality for any story is wholly subjective, too. In the case of x files? I'm not convinced there is a decline. I am going to be upfront that I haven't yet watched past season 8, though I am almost completely spoiled on events after that - and the reason I haven't watched yet is not because of how I know events are going to unfold, but simply because I don't want it to end!!! Ohh, the tension between "I CAN'T WAIT!!!" and "Nooo don't be over D:"

When I first came to txf fandom on tumblr and gradually became spoiled about what happens in late canon though, I was often left uncomfortable and tbh kinda queasy about it. As I said in my comment on the poll, the hate for especially the revival and IWTB, or to a lesser extent even seasons 8 & 9, is very well documented. But! There are other takes to be found here on tumblr if you figure out where to look, and my feelings have changed!

The thing is, I have yet to find myself in any fandom where there isn't a vocal subset of fans who dislike the story after a certain point. I am not joking when I say that no one hates the things they love as passionately as sci-fi and fantasy fans. In my experience, it often hinges on the extent to which a viewer has strong notions on where they would like the characters to end up. In particular with series where shipping is a dominant component for the bulk of a fandom, I have almost universally found that there comes some turning point in the story where "let them be happy you cowards" is the dominant view, and things that compromise the attainment of a degree of romantic stability and/or domesticity are, to many fans, annoying at best and despicable at worst. But! As one tagset on the linked poll said:

and I think for any fandom, that last tag especially is so so so important. (I think that's harder for people watching a weekly series live, bc you have so much time to analyze and speculate and dream before the next breadcrumb drops, but I digress.)

So why am I saying this and how do I apply it to x files? Well, I eventually found that there are also a subset of fans who find redeeming things right up to the very end and actually quite like the whole thing! The things that I had seen people rage and ventpost so much about honestly never quite sounded to me as "out of character" or "untrue to the story" etc as those same ventposts made them sound. And I've discovered I'm not the only one who felt that way. Do I love that the spooky squad had to go through all of those things? No, those poor guys D: Life is hard and they have been through so much trauma. But do those events and their choices make sense to me in light of everything that came before? Yes! And I honestly can't wait to see them fight to overcome those things, breaking, healing, always learning, always growing, always getting better.

So if you're wondering "where does it go wrong"... well, I'm a completionist, as many people who've answered that post are, but also my personal opinion is that I don't think it does go wrong. If you're new and interested in exploring why I've gone from "vaguely queasy" to "excited" about the whole thing, or want to maybe balance out the impressions you're getting about the later seasons before deciding whether or not you want to see the whole thing, I'll put a few blog names in the comments.

Final admission: even once I started feeling a little more confident in the possibility that "actually ok maybe I'm not crazy, maybe this all kind of is in character and does make sense", there was one big plot point that I was NOT looking forward to and I thought I would never be comfortable about. In hindsight, I think my discomfort came from the negative responses being SO seemingly universal that I hadn't stopped to let myself truly consider other possible interpretations on that point. (I mean my initial instinct when I first read about it was, why are we mad about this?? CSM is literally the most unreliable narrator in history???? it's obviously fake news?????? this must be either a fever dream someone's having or it's a misdirection ploy against whatever shadowy forces might still be lurking?????????????? but for whatever reason I guess I had halfway written that off.) Happily, just last month there's a new post-s11 novel out, and although reviews for the book as a whole are mixed, it seems to have laid the groundwork for resolving that plot issue in a way I think most fans would be broadly happy with. If you're interested in being spoiled about that and seeing how, I recommend searching #perihelion on @agent-troi who liveblogged reading it with receipts, scroll back chronological-style to the first post on the subject and see how it unfolded. (And never forget that Dana Katherine Scully is the queen of denial as a coping mechanism lol)

Everyone's mileage will vary. Each person can feel however they want! But for anyone new, I wanted you to know that the very many ventposts you might be seeing are not all there is to this show or its fandom. Some of us love it despite - or even because of - all the things that went "wrong". I think we just don't talk about it as much.

[torahtot]

you can always tell when someone doesn't have maga men in their life and god it makes me angry.. "if you're nice and compassionate you can be the one woman that makes them realize women aren't mean!" my mom bent over backwards for my dad for 25 fucking years he has plenty of other women kissing his ass and it never changed anything. do you really think that before being radicalized they never knew a single kind woman? they were never friends with a nice girl? alt-right men's problem with women isn't just that they've experienced too many mean women and they need to be shown that women can be nice, it's that they think women are inferior and don't deserve rights and don't understand anything so you can do what you want with them. and it takes a lot more than being nice to show someone that you aren't inferior. this isn't a case of being nice even when it's hard for the sake of deradicalization, it's about spending every fucking interaction with someone trying to get them to see you as a human being with value and a functioning intellect while they just laugh and show you that's never going to happen.

i cannot stress this enough: random women are not just going out and Being Mean to men. ur average guy interacts with plenty of women throughout his life- close women amongst their friends and family, casual interactions etc. most people don't start out being shunned by women, they start out being treated as NORMAL. & when they show their disrespect in normal society, it isn't tolerated, but when they go to alt-right spaces (which they're pushed towards online) they're told they're allowed to be as horrible as they want with no consequences because they're entitled to everything. it isn't "women aren't welcoming and the alt-right is so friendly so i'll become alt-right," it's "women don't let me disrespect them and the alt-right tells me fuck them, do whatever you want, you're entitled to it all" and why would you choose the group where you have to be a normal accountable person when there's a group that will reward you for being a shithead who gives no fucks?

the alt-right can afford to be more friendly and welcoming because they can allow bigotry. this can't work the same way for progressive spaces because we can be as kind & welcoming as possible but at the end of the day we have lines where we have to say "this behavior/speech isn't allowed in this space," and for certain people, that just can't win against a space where you can be as nasty as you want. these posts always end with a disclaimer saying "of course being kind doesnt mean you need to tolerate their bigotries" but what they don't realize and what drives me crazy is that women not tolerating bigotry IS the "women are mean" that radicalized them in the first place. they perceive you pushing back on any bigotry or bullshit as you being a meanie and treating them like they're ontologically evil. the 'kindness' they need to be deradicalized is you letting them walk all over you.

idk what the answer is to deradicalizing them and im sure relationships are part of it but you can be as kind as you want and all it will do is destroy you ime. i cant stand to see people (who have never even successfully deradicalized any man by being nice btw they always speak in hypotheticals and not from experience) double down on telling women to do things that will see no results and only hurt them, especially when any woman who has tried can tell you exactly how it went

[robotsafari]

redrawing my favorite gba chain of memories scenes with my own interpretations part 1(?):

“You’re thinking about me… You’re afraid of the darkness I command.”

[fraternum-momentum]

maaaan this is why i just stick to smut and horror or some shit bc romance stuff just makes me miss the times when i had my crushes,,,,, i would always try to say hello to them during class and my heart would beat so fast whenever im near them. i would get so nervous and jittery whenever we would talk. then at the end of the day that one small interaction we had would be the only thing in my mind before i go to sleep. i miss the butterflies in my stomach whenever i think of them. the constant overthinking of every little thing they say to me, wondering if they like me back or not. i miss fantasizing about our future together, what it would look like to slowly grow old with them. and whenever i listen to the cheesiest love songs, their face would be in my mind. i miss being in love.

[scentedluminarysoul]

It's just disappointing seeing all these "progressives" bending over backwards to wish Trump well and condemn violence

No, George Takei, I don't want to keep Trump in my heart