#i mean they claim they're not a cult but like all cults claim that i'm calling them a cult until further evidence disproves this

[poseiben]

hi everyone i mostly moved to twitter so if you want to connect there please dm me I'll give you my @ but anyways!! yeah i'm kinda just going to be on a prolonged hiatus here i'm very sorry

[transmutationisms]

i would love to hear more about your criticisms of the BITE model! for me it always feels.. unfalsifiable? it seems to do poorly at distinguishing a cult from any other community, if you squint at the definitions

yeah so first of all i'm not particularly keen on even trying to defend the category of "cult" in general. obviously abuse and control methods can and do happen in groups, but i don't think it's particularly useful to talk about this like there's a strict dichotomy between evil malicious groups and all the others. and i think generally, when people do try to sort groups into strict categories like that, what you actually see is that the differentiating factor is less to do with the degree of control exerted by the group and more to do with how much the person doing the sorting is bothered by the group's ideology or doctrinal commitments lol. like, this is sort of baby's first cult concept critique but yknow, a group setting where you're being extremely openly financially controlled is your job and yet most workplaces, however abusive and surveilled and controlling, are not typically designated a 'cult' unless they're also peddling some kind of heterodox religious or medical claims or something.

anyway in regards to BITE in particular, yeah i think it does a really poor job of distinguishing between a 'normal' level of social pressure to say/do certain things, and the kind of control that ostensibly characterises a cult. for example steven hassan has called both MAGA and online trans communities cults, and a lot of this comes down to his persistent and pretty open belief in the power of 'mind control' and hypnosis as mechanisms of cult control. ofc any group of any political persuasion could engage in abuse and high-control of its members! usually this occurs by financial means, social isolation, etc. but hassan's BITE model isn't really good at identifying these kinds of material factors despite paying lip service to them, because it's more motivated by his desire to root out these kinds of shadowy quasi-occult forces of mental reprogramming that he fears.

i just find the whole model to be pretty silly and used mostly as a way of justifying dislike of lots of different social, religious, and political groups---some of which are genuinely mistreating members, some of which are just saying things their critics disagree with---because it's perceived as a reliable social-scientific designation and therefore name-dropping it helps the speaker feel that they're making some kind of objective scientific observation rather than a judgment dependent, as are all judgments, upon their own perspective and values. i think instead of this kind of haggling over Which Groups Count As An Evild Shadowy Cult it would be infinitely more productive and helpful to vulnerable people to talk about how high-control groups operate, what sorts of methods specific groups are using to control and abuse their members, and what sorts of resources those members are dependent on the groups for and need access to from other sources: financial and material provisions, social support networks, etc.

[stillunusual]

The word "Nazi" has a specific meaning to normal people, but to vatniks and tankies it has five basic meanings…. "anybody I don't like" "anybody who disagrees with me" "anybody who's a citizen of a country that Russia wants to invade" "anybody who opposed or simply didn't want to live in one of the tyrannical regimes I simp for" "anybody who was oppressed or killed by one of my favourite mass murderers" EDITED TO ADD: a tankie clown reblogged this post and made some typically asinine comments, so I thought I'd elaborate a little bit…. Tankie clown: @well1x is either referring to the fact that a lot of the "deaths under communism" listed in "the black book of communism" (which gives us the 10 million number or whatever) are quite literally Nazis in WWII, or they're referring to the fact that the only people who have been made to deliberately suffer under communism have been literal Nazis and fascists (generally speaking)

Joining the tankie cult requires you to live in a delusional clown world and believe in a shit ton of made up (and often contradictory) nonsense that requires a considerable repertoire of mental gymnastics (and lies) to maintain….

@well1x is literally trying to claim that all victims of communism are "nazis and facists" (sic), which - back in the real world - is a very obvious lie. It's also a blatant example of victim blaming. For example, most of the millions of men, women and children who were robbed, raped, imprisoned, sent to the gulags, tortured, starved to death, executed or ethnically cleansed by Stalin's henchmen were not Nazis or fascists, and many were innocent of any crime. The vast majority of the population in Stalin's Soviet Union also had to put up with crippling poverty and backwardness, the brutal suppression of their religious and community life and the total lack of freedom.

Based on his comment, I doubt if the tankie clown has ever read "the black book of communism" and I'm also not sure why he mentions this book in particular, when there are thousands of others that thoroughly document the numerous crimes of the regimes tankies insist on being the useful idiots for, and I think it's safe to assume that he hasn't read any of those books either (in fact, I doubt if he's ever read any book whatsoever)…. Tankie clown: Karina then shows an image of (presumably) some kids in the Ukraine famine. This is completely unrelated though because this famine was not manufactured by the USSR as say the Irish famine was by the English. Can't really attribute natural disaster to "muh communism"

Again - a typical genocide-denying tankie lie.

Tankies generally start by saying that the holodomor was Nazi propaganda, and when you debunk that they claim it was just a natural disaster, and when that doesn't work they make up some bullshit about how millions of farmers who barely had enough to live on were wealthy kulaks who burned crops and slaughtered cattle (and therefore deserved to die). And when you point out that the red army actually broke into their homes and confiscated all their grain, every cow or chicken or any other food they had, and that the Soviet authorities blacklisted villages, sometimes purely for containing relatives of Ukrainian independence fighters, and prevented the villagers from leaving, shot them for even collecting ears of grain from the fields, and watched them starve to death - tankies will just deny it, or laugh, or pretend that millions of holodomor victims were all rich landlords (and therefore deserved to die) etc etc….

I've also never seen English people pretending that the Irish famine never happened, or claiming that the victims deserved it, or that it was a good thing, or that Britain should re-conquer Ireland. On the other hand, it's difficult not to notice Stalin's smooth-brained groupies swarming all over social media every day denying or justifying the holodomor and other crimes of Russia and the USSR, and hoping that Russia not only re-conquers Ukraine but also Finland, the Baltics, Poland and other countries it has invaded and occupied in the past.

There's no point trying to reason with tankies using facts, logic or common sense - and appealing to their sense of decency while they're simping for their favourite mass murderers is a complete waste of time. Tankie clown: Karina then says @well1x is defending imperialism(???), defending ethnic cleansing (which …what??), dreaming about labour camps and mass shootings (for Nazis yes plz), and does not do any praxis (based on?).

Yep - most tankie clowns claim to be communists while simultaneously embracing Russian fascism, supporting the imperialism of Russia’s mega-rich ruling class, mindlessly repeating the Kremlin's propaganda and cheerleading their war crimes. These morons seem to have no idea that the Russian Federation is an empire made up of many conquered states that Russia invaded, occupied and colonised in the 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, or that Russia's war against Ukraine is a brutal attempt to reassert control over one of its former colonies. Russia's history of imperialism is at least as bad as that of any western country - and they're still doing it in the 21st century.

And I have seen countless examples of tankies speaking openly of wanting to mass murder their ideological enemies (or people they don't like) - because they also delude themselves into believing that if their revolutionary dreams ever came true, they'd be the ones doing the arresting and killing, despite the fact that in a real revolution they'd be about as much use as a fart in a spacesuit. They also have no idea how their small dick energy is somehow going to bring capitalism to its knees, which they'd inevitably end up crying about if it ever actually happened in reality.

Most of them are complete losers who spend the majority of their time sitting in their bedrooms huffing their own farts while reading tankie fan fiction online. Tankie clowns also claim to be against western imperialism and capitalism, despite living comfortable lives in western capitalist countries and owing everything they have to capitalism, including the freedom to use their capitalist smartphones or laptops to post anti-capitalist tantrums on social media platforms owned by western capitalists (thus helping these western capitalists to maximise their profits).

This is generally the sum total of a typical tankie's - ahem - "revolutionary" activity.

The vast majority of tankie clowns wouldn't dream of ever giving up the comforts of capitalism to move to one of the authoritarian shitholes they stupidly simp for, because then they might not be able to play their favourite capitalist video games anymore….

It's also a fact that Russia and the USSR have ethnically cleansed millions of people. Tankie clown: OP takes this insane train all the way to the station, and says @well1x is talking about anyone they don't like which… no. They're talking about the traditional Nazis.

No - they're falsely claiming that all victims of communism are Nazis and fascists. Learn to read…. Tankie clown: But also let's break this down. Who does OP think is being called a Nazi? "anyone I don't like" I mean I don't like Nazis, but I don't think everyone I don't like is one lmao. Funny tho, dude throws around the word tankie until it has no meaning.

In my experience, if you disagree with tankies about anything, they will pretty soon call you a fascist or a Nazi. It's they who throw around words like "fascist" and "Nazi" until they have no meaning (and most of them hilariously claim to be opposed to fascism while simultaneously supporting it - if it happens to be Russian). Tankie clown: - "anyone who disagrees with me" if you disagree that all human beings deserve to live a dignified life regardless of race/sex/gender identity/sexual orientation/age/disability/whatever then yeah you probably are a Nazi

Straw man. See above….

It's also amusing to observe the doublethink of somebody who apparently believes that "all human beings deserve to live a dignified life" while simultaneously thinking that when his favourite mass murderers oppressed and/or killed huge numbers of people it was perfectly OK…. Tankie clown: - "anyone who's a citizen of a country that Russia wants to invade" why the fuck are we talking about Russia? Believe it or not OP, USSR does not stand for "United Soviet States of Russia" lmaoooo

We're talking about Russia because most tankie clowns support Russian imperialism and mindlessly parrot the Kremlin's propaganda about how Russia's latest invasion of Ukraine is some sort of special de-nazification operation (see above). Tankies are generally so ignorant, gullible and stupid that they will literally believe anything the Kremlin tells them…. Tankie clown: - "anyone opposed or simply didn't want to live in one of the tyrannical regimes I simp for" tyrannical regimes lmao. These were only "tyrannical regimes" for people who actually were in fact Nazis.

Again - this is the kind of reality-denying nonsense I'd expect to hear from a tankie clown. One thing that really appalls people in the central and eastern European countries that experienced the reality of being occupied by the USSR and/or Russia, is the staggering ignorance and stupidity of western useful idiots who have no idea what it was actually like, and are not only dumb enough to join the tankie cult, but insist on westsplaining to the victims and their descendants about how the horrors they and their families suffered (usually for doing literally nothing) either didn't happen ("cuz the CIA made it all up") or claiming that they somehow deserved it ("cuz they were all Nazis/fascists/kulaks/slave owners").

Back in the real world, these were tyrannical regimes for tens of millions of ordinary people who had done nothing to deserve being subjected to tyranny…. Tankie clown: - "anyone who was oppressed or killed by one of my favourite mass murderers" yeah basically that's what I've been saying.

Thanks for proving my point….

And please note that smoking weed on your mum's sofa isn't actually going to bring the world revolution closer.

That was just a joke…. 🤣😂

[khaire-traveler]

I'm a bit tentative to reach out to Hekate as my helpol friends have told me she's 'not for the naive' and that I should set up a protection spell beforehand. Is there anything in particular I should know? Sorry to bother!

Khaire!

This straight up sounds like gatekeeping lol. Every Greek deity has had some wild cult worship throughout history, so maybe this is what they're referring to, but it still feels generally incorrect. Granted, I don't know your friends, and I don't worship Hekate directly (I almost did, as she was reaching out), but every time I've interacted with her, she's been extremely friendly, kind, and welcoming; she's never given off a hint of malice towards me. The only time I've heard of needing to protect oneself when doing anything with Hekate is regarding esoteric practices; in no other context have I ever heard about some kind of necessity to protect oneself when interacting with any Greek deities.

In the recent past, there's been a lot of fear-mongering about needing to protect oneself from deities, but I personally believe deities are the protection FROM evil, NOT the cause of it. I don't think you need to protect yourself when interacting with deities in general; I feel it has the potential to come across as offensive and make a bad first impression. This is all my opinion, however, just as how your friends are of the opinion that you do need protection. I highly encourage you to make your own call. What do you feel is the right thing to do? How do you personally want to reach out to her?

Reminder that there is no such thing as a "beginner" deity, and that includes deities who are "not for the naive". I'm genuinely curious who your friends would consider being "for the naive", considering that children worshipped these gods and goddesses. There is no deity that's flat-out off limits within hellenic polytheism. I've met many people who tell me Hekate is motherly and sweet to them; I've had others tell me that they work with much more intense aspects of hers and have felt her presence more intensely, as a consequence. Experiences will always vary between people. This is to say that I disagree with your friends strongly, general speaking. To claim that any deity is "not for the naive" is such a strange take. I'm inclined to believe they're worshipping or working with her more intense aspects, which you do not have to do if you reach out.

Frankly, if you want to reach out to her, I say go for it! Just because your friends said all that stuff doesn't mean your experience with her will be like that. If you're really that nervous, I would encourage asking a deity you're close with to be with you. Just explain that you're a bit nervous and would like some support. I've asked Lord Hermes and Lord Haides to do this with me before, and all went well; just make sure to inform Hekate of the deity's presence once you invoke her, to be polite. I honestly don't know what the hell your friends are talking about lol. Best of luck to you. 🧡

-

UPDATE FROM OP

[genderqueerdykes]

One time I saw a post where it was talking about like. “I’m tired of these people saying transfeminity can be just based on vibes what the fuck is an AFAB trans woman you are all a disgrace” or whatever and it reeked of violent transmedicalism (“being trans isn’t vibes” reading very much like ‘you need dysphoria to be trans’) but also horrible intersexism. transradfems and transmeds when people lie outside the perisex notions of gender or when someone’s identity is literally not based on dysphoria

oh yeah the part about these arguments that gives me the biggest portion of the headache they cause is literally that right there- people immediately trample right over intersex people to attack people assigned female at birth which is just. how do these people not see that they're literally attacking other women for no reason like how can you claim to be a feminist and your TWO largest targets- AMAB trans women and AFAB trans women- ARE WOMEN!

radfems, transmeds, etc. not only fail to realize that their #1 target for their hatred campaigns, bullying and indoctrination into their cult are women, but they also blatantly display that they have no fucking clue that intersex people literally exist. like we are literally left out of the conversation FIRST every single time, doesn't matter what we're talking about. that one just instantly hits the trash can. like especially radfems and terfs love to just violently ignore the existence of intersex people, they are never exposed to any intersex conversations, because many intersex conversations are trans inclusive. they hate to acknowledge that some people do not naturally fall into their assumptive, narrowminded, incorrect views on what men and women are. if they acknowledge intersex people, they must admit that they're dead wrong about human biology and biological sex, and they just can't have that.

also this reeks of racism because this is completely ignoring the experiences women of color have in white countries have. MANY AFAB trans women/fems are women of color, due to how absolutely vile whites have been toward people of color the entire time they've colonized other people's lands. black men and women in the american south used to be treated like and referred to as animals- white europeans were so rattled and disgusted by the fact that in many other cultures, there is less variation in facial/body features between AMAB and AFAB people, but also because specifically women in those cultures did not look like white women, which was just so frustrating for those poor colonizers.

i'm tired of seeing people bitch about this kind of shit, so thank you. it's just tired and it's the most petty bullshit to get upset about. i've met so many amab trans men. when you deny people with these identities exist, you are being transphobic. you're caught up on one size fits all dictionary definitions of what an identity "SHOULD" mean but it's just unrealistic. you cant possibly begin to fathom how another entire ass person has lived. humanity is too diverse to be shoved into whatever the hell else these other people think is right about biology and gender identity.

[amourtoken]

Hiiiii I don't typically write for Oli Sykes however Kool aid has adjusted my brain chemistry and I have to put these thoughts out there lmao

I offer: cult leader Oli x a gullible, malleable reader who doesn't know any better than to follow him <3

*NSFW below the cut, MDNI*

cw: triggering themes possibly, cult ideology, toxic Oli, manipulation, corruption, dubcon, spanking, general torment lmao, edging, oral, raw sex, dacryphilia, hair pulling, throat fucking, coercion, guilt tripping, thigh riding, nipple play, light bondage, there may be more but this is already rlly long.

♡ he's fucking horrible, and he knows it. But you don't.

♡ he couldn't help himself but to drag you in, you were just so fucking easy. All you needed to hear was someone was "there for you" and you were in. Oli had hundreds if not thousands of followers by now as well but he never treated any of them like he treats you.

♡ you'll follow everything he says on a whim and if you question him, he'll pull you close, hold your hands, run his fingers through your hair, say "when have I ever been wrong?", kiss your forehead and send you on your way. When it comes to the more toxic sexual side of the "favors" you perform for him, he defends himself saying you're supposed to follow his order without question, he's always right, do you not trust him?

♡ everyone's used to seeing you at his side by now and you always get the most pitiful looks from people. They see someone being manipulated that's too dumb to realize and fight it but you're confused, Oli would never hurt you, why do people keep saying be careful? When you bring this up to him, he just tugs you in his lap and trails kisses up your neck and jaw while stroking your hair and telling you not to worry about it.

"They're just jealous I spend so much time with you, love. Stop thinking."

♡ he's a massive sadist, and loves seeing you cry. He'll achieve it one way or another. Either fucking your throat until you're gagging around him and crying for him to be more gentle or fucking you to tears while he's pulling your hair to add to the sting. He fucking loves seeing his mark on you too, whether it's the hundreds of dark hickeys he drowns your soft skin in or the endless handprints littered over your body be it from spanking, slapping, choking, it doesn't matter. He wants to brand you.

♡ he's a cunt, and will humiliate you to tears then wipe them away while you're sitting on his cock. He knows if he breaks you down enough, he can build himself up as your savior. The only one you can trust, the only one you can crawl back to. You're so pliant for him it's almost funny to watch.

"Bad day, princess? C'mere. I'll make it better."

"You know I love you, right? I'm only harsh when I have to be."

"You always follow directions so well, love. I wanna reward you for that."

♡ at first you were really against anything sexual but he's coerced you. He'd plead for hours, claiming you must not trust him if you won't do what he wants. Do you not love him? He's done so much for you, given you a place to stay, given you affection, you're not gonna pay him back? Eventually you felt guilty and ended up folded in half under him nearly in tears while he fucked into you like he was trying to split you in half. He praises you so fucking heavily in the moment you can't help but enjoy it now. You crave that attention and affection so much it has you needy for him. He's trained you well.

♡ you're constantly crawling into his lap, kissing all over his neck and begging him to touch you nowadays. Of course, he "gives in". His big tattooed hands running all over your body, tugging your shirt off to play with your nipples while you grind yourself against his thigh and get all teary for him cause you wish he'd just stop teasing.

"So impatient. Haven't I taught you better? Or do you just need me that bad."

♡ he figured that'd be a good chance to teach you some extra manners and by teach you he means tying you up and leaving you on his bed with a vibrator pressed right against your clit indefinitely. No squirming is gonna help, if anything it'll make it worse. He'll sit on the edge of the bed near you and coo about how if you weren't so needy and impatient you would've gotten what you wanted without being overstimulated for hours. And he does in fact mean hours.

"I'll touch you when I feel like it, you don't need to be a whiny slut to get what you want. Could've just waited and you wouldn't be here right now."

"Aw, want it to stop? I'm not sure. I think you still haven't learned your lesson."

"Maybe if you keep begging in that pretty little voice, I'll turn it down."

♡ if you're being needy and he's in a mood. He'll give you what you're whining for, just not how you wanted. He'll fuck you with one of the seemingly endless toys he has for you and drag you through what feels like endless orgasms until you're pleading for a break.

"What? Wanna stop? You were so fucking needy before, where'd that attitude go?"

"So needy you don't even need my cock, you'll get off on whatever fills this pussy up. Right?"

♡ he has the biggest breeding kink as well. Loves the idea of carrying on his whole lineage and it's a bonus you'd look pretty all round with his babies. He never let's you off without pumping you completely full of his cum. Even then, once he pulls out he's gathering excess with his long fingers and fucking it back into your sensitive pussy so you don't waste any. If you do get pregnant, he's still planning on enjoying you, just maybe a tad more gently.

♡ god forbid one of the other cultists finds some interest in you. He'd notice eyes lingering on you just a little too long for his taste and it'd end with said cultist tied to a chair across the room while Oli plays with your pussy in front of him. He's shit talking and reminding the man you're spoken for, property of your leader, no one could possibly make you feel as good as he does. Oli makes sure you're moaning his name and whimpering about how good he feels and how much you love him just to get the point across. He'll make sure no other name sends a swarm of butterflies to your stomach like his ever again.

♡ he'd be lying if he said he didn't have *some* feelings for you, but he'd never show anything other than his prior torment. On rare occasions, when you're tucked against his chest dead asleep after he's fucked you in every position imaginable, he'll press kisses to your forehead and trace circles on your back while almost admiring you. He'd never let anyone else see him so unguarded but you're just so soft and malleable, so cute. He feels lucky to have found someone who's too soft to say anything out of line against him.

[vintageseawitch]

i get this sick feeling that certain leftists, especially white leftists, who are abstaining from voting or voting third party & are still encouraging others to do the same while being the loudest at complaining about "vote shaming" 🙄 will be the type, if heaven forbid trump wins, to suddenly go silent on them being far left & will GLEEFULLY turn in their neighbors a la the 1940s if only to save themselves.

they've made it clear that only certain types of genocides count to them, they're ignoring actual Palestinians who are BEGGING people to vote for Harris, & they've been glossing over how trump is bibi netanyahu's preferred candidate because they need to focus really hard on punishingnthe black woman. these leftists are death cult accelerationists who are okay with fascism as long as it affects those who "deserve" it, such as citizens of the US & Ukraine & eventually the rest of Europe should trump win, NATO gets abandoned, & putin gets to do whatever the fuck he wants.

these leftists are vile. i don't care that you claim genocide is your hard line because i don't believe you. say as much as you want on your privileged soap box but i'm not seeing you go to prison for not paying your taxes because last i checked ALL of our taxes are funding this so like it or not you're just as complicit & your shiny slogan words won't be able to cancel that.

I DON'T BELIEVE YOU'RE THE HERO YOU CLAIM TO BE. you will ABSOLUTELY throw neighbors, acquaintances, hell maybe even friends & family under the bus after a period of time in order to save your own skin & please the authoritarians in charge. you're a dangerous enemy.

you have no plans about how to handle a trump presidency & all i hear when y'all claim we're already in a fascist country is you saying that without facing any consequences & you being too stupid to miss the irony. you don't know what that word means & you just want to see this country burn while conveniently forgetting you'll be burned right along with thr rest of us. it's stupidly short-sighted. you're hardly a revolutionary if you're so inclined to suicide. please be for fucking real.

[creature-wizard]

do you have any good witch blogs i could follow? i' a total outsider but i've taken an interest to witchcraft and would like some reliable sources i could start from

I'm not totally sure what you mean by "reliable" - like, whether you mean "they have an objectively correct understanding of magic and their spells are guaranteed to work" or "this person doesn't promote bigoted ideas or practices likely to land you in the hospital."

If you mean the former, there's really no such person out there. There's no belief paradigm or methodology that can really be shown to be objectively superior to all the rest, nor are there any spells that can be guaranteed to work all of the time. Anyone who claims there are either has some Dunning-Kruger issues, or they're trying to scam you or pull you into a cult.

If you mean the latter, I can recommend @breelandwalker, @asksecularwitch, @coinandcandle, and @windvexer.

In addition, I would also recommend you check out channels like ESOTERICA, Angela's Symposium, Bart D. Ehrman, and It's Probably (not!) Aliens, because they can give you a lot of really important historical context that will help you recognize when someone out there is making wacky claims.

[y-rhywbeth2]

Some (in-game) people are going to be very disappointed in the Chosen of Bhaal ending:

Lord Enver Gortash: "Together we rule Faerûn as kings. No, more than kings - gods. We rule as the Absolute."

Nightwarden Minthara: "We believed we were all victims of the cult of the Absolute, but now we learn that one of us was an architect of this grand religious hoax. You helped to create this conspiracy. That means you may be the best person to help us control it, and the key to our victory."

Astarion: "You're going to sit nicely in my lap - perhaps naked - as I give orders to our nocturnal horde from my palace throne. Bhaal's army will be an unsurpassable dowry. I cannot wait for you to claim it."

Extra special shout out to Minthara, who wants a divorce if you reject Bhaal and the power he's offering. She's so fucking deluded, I love her.

Hang on guys, let me ask Daddy Dearest what he thinks about us (that is to say, me and him) sharing power with you. Considering that I just surrendered all say about the course of my life, and defiance will result in him immediately stripping me of all free will and reducing me to a feral wreck, so it's entirely up to him:

*When you level the world over, that dead world must be yours alone.*

Sceleritas Fel: "Of course [you can keep your lover], Master! We will always need to sire more Bhaalspawn! Although if they are not up to the task we may need to find you a breeding-mate. Or ten. Hopefully the near-slaughter of your partner taught them the wisdom of obeying your every command."

And interesting that Astarion talks about a dowry considering that the dialogue files describe the union of Bhaal and Durge as the "BloodWedding", and also your love interest is a "false bride".

Sceleritas Fel: "You and the Urge are wedded, now. One body, one mind."

Narrator: *Your darling would never agree to breed a spawn with you... The defiance begets death.*

Plus the stuff from BG2 where you should abandon all your companions and embrace Bhaal, and none of your mortal life matters...

Sorry guys, Dad says that I'm only to be committed to him as his self-insert and possibly worse, and that if you don't want to die then you have to be our obedient slaves and the surrogates for our murder children (alternatively referred to as "your" and "his" offspring in the narration). You have tadpoles in your brain, and we can seize control of them at any time: you have no say in this.

This is not going to end well for any of the overly ambitious villains involved in the alliance... Especially the ones who think they're the dominant half of this deal.

(I do love the horror of a good trainwreck narrative.)

I also find it fascinating that on some levels, the Chosen and Feral endings are much the same.

Durge: "My Urges are gone from me, as is any trace of Bhaal." Lord Enver Gortash: "I'm surprised Bhaal allowed you to slip away from his grasp. But this changes nothing. With me, you will have power greater than Bhaal could have given you, and you will bow to no master."

I like to think this translates to: "OH THANK FUCK."

[elbiotipo]

I'm afraid I don't know enough about different strains of communism to get the joke. How is posadism different from other kinds of communism? I mean the joke is silly by itself but now I'm curious.

It's a long story but Posadism was created by an Argentine Trotskyst (and if you know about Trotskysts, you know how wacky they can be) whose pen name was J. Posadas. It apparently was not exactly insignificant (well it was, they were Trotskysts after all) and it did have some international following and apparently was part of the Cuban revolution until Castro expelled them for claiming he killed Che Guevara or later imprisoned him. That was the last time they participated on a revolution or gained overall political power AFAIK.

Anyways Posadas got really wacky over the years. He started writing about UFOs which is the main reason he's known for, he claimed that advanced aliens would be inevitably communist societies and come here to help us realize real socialism which is kind of based ngl. He also claimed that nuclear war was inevitable, that it should be encouraged (he opposed nuclear tests bans) and that true socialism would emerge afterwards. In a not so fun note, he also ran his party kinda like a cult, forcing students to write and translate newspapers (this is not a Trotskyst joke this actually happened) and banning sex (it's always lots of sex or no sex with these guys)

(there was something about dolphins too but I'm not sure if it's just a meme or how deep he was in the whole new age stuff)

After his death his movement such as it was disolved and I don't think it ever reached more than some dozens of people. He was very obscure until recently, I remember someone asked me if I knew about him because I'm from Argentina and I didn't I had to look it up, they never were part of major left wing movements here. If you see a Posadist in the in the internet they're doing it for the memes or trolling. There is apparently still an active Posadist party in Uruguay but as far as I can tell they do nothing except have a newspaper (so like most Trotskysts)

I think Felipe Pigna has a documentary on it, I should watch it.

[highfantasy-soul]

it's so hard not to pull my hair out over staunch jedi-apologists who view absolutely nothing the order does as problematic in the slightest. I try not to engage so much, but y'all - there is no excuse for taking children from their parents and not allowing them to ever see them again. There is no excuse for training child soldiers. There is no excuse for the cult-like behaviors of the order.

I am firm in my reading of the prequels that George Lucas INTENDED us to not agree with the order! That his INTENTION was to show that their ways led to horrible outcomes and harm done to those who were raised in that situation!

I can't think of a single (good) writer who created a bureaucratic organization of super powerful beings with the intention of us hero-worshipping them and pretending they're perfect. Especially someone so against America's treatment of the Vietnamese and with a love of rebel cells rather than centralized power, I think the jedi order was meant to show that even the most noble intentions can go astray when you gain a certain level of power and absolute control.

The White Tower from The Wheel of Time is not portrayed as a 'perfect' system that is free from flaws - Robert Jordan took great care in displaying all their flaws, talking about them, and encouraging the reader to look at other issues he didn't even have time to bring up. Super hero organizations are ALWAYS being criticized in comics, etc. when they consolidate too much power and become the only source of control in the world.

Why should the Jedi Order be any different? Why are we being policed in what we're allowed to criticize about systems of power?

Hero worship is bad. No matter how cool the weapons, robes, or powers of a group, no matter how noble their original intention, no one is above criticism and most certainly not a group that has all the hallmarks of a violent cult.

It's just very funny (frustrating) when people claim those of us pointing out those issues are using 'Dark Side Logic' and are 'Siding with the Sith'.

Baby - these aren't real organizations. It's not an 'us or them' situation. I'm grown - I can understand that two things (even things diametrically opposed to each other) are BOTH bad (or have bad aspects to them). Get rid of your ideas of false dichotomies. Just because you deem one side worse, doesn't mean you now have to ignore all the flaws of the other.

Please take that thinking back into the real world, too. No real-world organization is above reproach either - always speak out in order to ensure we all keep moving forward to a better future rather than stagnating and letting corruption and abuse thrive because 'well the other side is worse - don't shine a light on our side's issues or the other side might win!'

[system-hottakes]

Hottake:

The way (some) systems treat other systems who are questioning something is ABHORRENT

When we were 14, trying to figure out if we went through RAMCOA (not even 2 MONTHS after we got abandoned by our abuser) we would get paragraphs apon paragraphs of OTHER SYSTEMS screaming at us about being fakers

Flash news: what was done to us WAS RAMCOA, just not the "mainstream" type of ramcoa (aka we weren't in a cult), it took a pretty popular system (who was also harassing us before for that) to be like "hey, maybe we (ADULTS) shouldn't harass a minor" for people to leave us alone

To all ramcoa and questioning ramcoa system: I wish you all luck in your recovery journey, and if you're questioning, PLEASE go to a professional instead of trying to discover it yourselves before you're mentally ready to, because that was the biggest mistake we did

- can I claim 💻🪽 If it's not taken?

!!! Yeah. Guys please be nice to people who are questioning, they're confused, that doesn't mean you have a right to berate them. Not everyone discovers themselves right away and not everyone can do so without some help. I'm sorry you were harassed anon and I hope you're doing okay now <3

And yeah, please don't look into trauma until your ready or in a safe space (preferably with a therapist). This goes for all trauma, not just RAMCOA trauma

[crossdressingdeath]

Memoirs by Gortash, Outline for Chapter 4. - I reestablish worship of Bane in Baldur's Gate as a hidden cult. - I realise the secret worship of Bhaal is also on the resurgence and acquaint myself with the local leader, an actual Bhaalspawn. - The Bhaalspawn and I work together on a heist from the House of Wonders and, discovering common goals, forge an alliance. - In dreams, the Bhaalspawn and I are visited by Bhaal and Bane, who name us their Chosen and command us to seek out and ally with Ketheric Thorm, the Chosen of Myrkul. - Visiting Ketheric at Moonrise Towers, I learn of the mind flayer colony in the Underdark below and conceive a plan to conquer its elder brain using the Crown of Karsus. - The Bhaalspawn and I employ a diabolist's services to gain access to Mephistar and steal the Crown. - We three Chosen use the Crown to enslave the Colony's elder brain - but during that raid, the Bhaalspawn is betrayed by the Bhaalist second-in-command, Orin the Red, who usurps the Bhaalspawn's power and declares herself Bhaal's new Chosen. - Following my master plan, the new trio brainstorms our grand hoax of the Absolute. - Note: Where to put in the Astral Prism and the adventurers who took it after its theft from Vlaakith? And when to admit considering taking them as my new allies?

Hm. Gortash is claiming that the Absolute hoax came about after Orin usurped Durge? Well, that doesn't fit. Considering he mentions to Durge that the two of them planned the whole thing together, including the bit where Durge would use the Bhaalists to spread terror in the Absolute's name, methinks someone's telling lies. I wonder if it's to do with him being a Banite? I mean, he's also claiming that it was his master plan when again at the coronation he tells Durge that they came up with it together. Either he's lying to Durge about their part in it, or he's claiming full responsibility in his memoir to make himself look better. Personally I suspect the latter, and also I'm wondering if it might be at least partially because they're no longer in the picture.

Anyway, more importantly. One thing I find really interesting about this: Gortash never uses Durge's name. I mean, it's not hard at all to add in a variable to use the character's name! Even I can do that with my incredibly limited knowledge of programming; Larian definitely could've. Which means him not doing that is more than just a necessary evil of having a character the player names. And it's not that he's trying to avoid naming names in his memoir, because he's happy to refer to Ketheric and Orin by name. I won't lie, I'm now combining this with the idea that Gortash was basically the only one to refer to Durge by name and thinking about Gortash deciding that Durge's name belongs to him and the general public doesn't deserve to ever know it now that they're gone. Something like... this one piece of them he gets to keep for himself.

[bi-hop]

my thoughts on rgu ep 2

and we're back to watching rgu! my thoughts so far can be found here.

it's funny and cute how those girls fawn over utena. no further thoughts, I just enjoy when that happens in yuri

I was so fucking worried that Wakaba wouldn't want to talk to Utena anymore after All That. I think Utena did the duel for a good reason but it's not like Wakaba asked her to. but nope, that wasn't the point of all that. it's okay, girl, you're better than Saionji's abusive ass anyway

... is the student council a doomsday cult?

you'd think for a group trying to 'bring revolution to the world' or whatever, they'd be more comfortable with a chaos agent added to their game LMAOOO anyway I'm pretending I understand what the fuck is going on with the letters but I don't <3

current working theory: End of the World is a supernatural force guiding them to achieve ends on the material plane. source? I have none. do not tell me what's going on or I will scream at the top of my lungs and embarrass us all

I had the feeling Anthy would be in the dorm but her writing her name underneath Utena's because her placement was an afterthought is... cute... kinda heartwrenching...

also is Anthy meant to look like a housewife? they're really hammering home the patriarchal nature of engagement and marriage here, and we haven't even gotten to another duel

speaking of their situation... while Anthy being like "you dress like a boy because you like to and I do the role as a Rose Bride because I like to" is an interesting conversation to have, I don't know if I believe it. I'm not claiming Utena's reasoning for dressing the way she does is false, I just also don't think it's the full story considering how she was also inspired to dress a certain way by a figure in her past. As for Anthy though, I do think it's false. I think she certainly believes what she's saying but the idea that she just naturally enjoys being subservient (cooking, cleaning) and being an object (more on that later) does not seem organic or 'true' to her.

my girlfriend wants a Chu-Chu plushie... ruh roh

okay back to the duels. I was already thinking she'd object to further duels because the one she partook in was exclusively for the benefit of Wakaba and she has no interest in the power plays over the Rose Bride. she doesn't even know about what they're fighting for, right? so why would she care

god, Saionji is such an abusive ex. I mean, obviously, but wow. I do think the situation is worsened by the fact that the duels confer a sense of ownership over Anthy, but the entitlement... the way he feels like she's betrayed him when he's the one who lost while also having THE ADVANTAGE? rotating him calling her shameless... Saionji-senpai vs Utena-sama... hm

I honestly didn't really notice the castle at the top of the sky when I was watching episode 1, so now the dialogue about entering it makes sense lmao

Utena claiming not to care about Anthy's situation but then immediately getting into the Sword of Dios rite and subconsciously moving to protect the rose even at the potential risk to her... yeah okay. Even Saionji calls her out on it lmao

final thoughts on the way Anthy is rendered an object to be possessed and owned but the way Saionji literally talks about her and the Sword of Dios in the same breath as 'glory' rather than, you know, Anthy being a person he cares for says it all. Her worth is only in the sense of possessing the power of Dios (whatever that means)

... is the prince Dios??? is he dead? what the fuck.

.... is Dios End of the World?!??!!? I'm so confused

Next episode is a ball episode and I'm excited for that one. I love balls, I love intrigue, I love messes.

This episode was good though, even if the pace felt different than the first episode. I think my central interest so far in the series is unraveling the mystery of what the fuck is going on at this school (the student council being powerful enough to make kids vanish is so funny btw), but I'm also deeply invested in Anthy. her passivity in the face of everything is alarming and I just want to understand it. how much of it is facade? how much of it is genuine conditioning? I want to know!!!

[one-time-i-dreamt]

I invite everybody who took the other users side in that situation to find me a single situation where I was fatphobic and or went out of my way to be cruel or malicious to another user. After these crickets end, I'd like to invite the OP to prove that my reblog asking what their post means caused them hundreds of harassing messages in mere minutes, like they claimed. I will wait.

They posted one single message they got, from a person who wasn't a follower of mine and who responded to them after another user reblogged their post, which was confirmed by that other user. Before they closed their replies and closed themselves in an echochamber of people agreeing with them, I checked the notes a final time and though they did get criticism, as did I (and you all do know I listen to you and hear you and am always, ALWAYS open to conversation), those hundreds of messages of hate were nowhere to be seen.

Do you know why I know for sure they're lying about getting soooooooo much hate because of me? First of all, I've never cultivated a bullying culture on my blog. My followers can attest to that. I never supported users brigading for me. I don't have a cult following either way, but you can say I even discourage brigading. I always ask my followers not to fight others on my behalf. Not that it's necessary, because no one can say I get into drama often. Since making this blog, I can count maybe 5 situations that would be considered 'situations' to begin with. I don't have fans. I have bloggers that enjoy the content I post.

But secondly and more conclusively easily proven with numbers, I simply don't have that reach, nor do I have that many followers who are both active and fatphobic. I don't support fatphobia. I spoke out against fatphobia on this site. I've experienced it myself and I know how hurtful it is. My activity for this blog is abysmal due to me all but abandoning OTID in throes of my mental health battles. My posts get maybe 300 notes in total, over a 1000 if they're a hit reblog but that's it.

Hundreds of hate messages in minutes? Very unlikely. I'm not ashamed to admit OTID isn't what it used to be and that's completely on me and it's completely fine. My struggles stopped me from giving you the best possible OTID experience that you could've gotten and I feel very sorry for that, but I can be realistic and admit that this blog is just not that active anymore, and that's okay. All things die out with time. Lying on me wont change the facts that you're lying.

I also invite the people who say I should've known better and that my intent was unclear in asking the question, to explain about what I should have known better and to prove I was somehow malicious. Why would I be malicious? Why would I attack OP in the way they claim I did? When do I ever do that? How does that even make sense? You can still go through the notes and see that after I asked them for an explanation, nobody attacked them. You can also see that the OP went out of their way to attack me, while they explained calmly to another user what they meant.

What makes us different? Neither one of us understood. I can't read tones online, neither can that other user. I also am not a native speaker, so I sometimes get things wrong, hence why I asked. Why do they deserve kindness and I am accused of ill-intent for asking the same thing? Their replies and notes were off. I couldn't see the replies. This isn't Twitter. If you close those things off, other users don't see them and can't know you've made them. Why would anyone post things publicly but not expect a public response from anyone else?

I'd understand if I was attacking OP and they reacted like this, but I wasn't. My response wasn't malicious. I asked the source to explain, because I didn't understand. How is that malicious? To the people who say they see their point, please explain, because I do not see it and I really want to know. How is me genuinely asking what something that I don't understand means malicious? Even after publicly saying that I actually agree with a lot of things they said on their blog about fatphobia and so on. Supporting the cause? Understanding their points? Agreeing? I'm malicious?

I would also like to invite the people who claim I asked them in a known and rude/malicious meme format kind of way to prove that I did that. I did not know of this meme you speak of, but after checking for it online and finding the "well-known meme format" that was mentioned (which wasn't that well-known since I've never heard of it), my wording was not the same. It wasn't even close. So this argument, how can you claim it to be true?

And lastly, can anyone sincerely tell me how does it make sense for me to suddenly have a complete personality change, decide to reblog something to troll a user I don't even know just to be cruel to them, suddenly be malicious and fatphobic and be a completely different person that you all have known me to be for the past six years? If that was really who I am, wouldn't have the masked slipped way sooner? Why would I pretend to be not a complete POS all this time to have "What does this mean?" hill to die on? This is silly.

I wasn't being fatphobic. I wasn't mocking OP. I wasn't attacking OP. I wasn't being 'snarky'. I simply asked them what something they said meant, because I didn't understand what they meant. My brain wasn't computing. I didn't get their wording. I stumbled upon their post on the explore page, and wasn't seeking them out to antagonize them or anything else they might have claimed. I don't like hurting people. I don't go out of my way to hurt people. If I do hurt somebody I want to do everything in my power to correct it.

My followers weren't harassing them after that question. The OP didn't receive hundreds of hate messages after that question. OP is lying and it's easily to prove that they are. I don't know why they're lying and I'm not willing to get into that because I can't even assume, but one thing is clear - OP had a disproportionate reaction to a question that shouldn't have warranted such a reply. They doubled down and continued claiming victimhood in a situation where they haven't been victimized.

I genuinely feel sorry for them. I believe they've been victimized before. I know this sounds patronizing, but I really do feel sorry for them. I just don't appreciate that they've decided to do a victim cosplay over this and tried to villainize me for asking this question:

Ending this with my final thoughts: fatphobia is real and hurts people. I don't support fatphobia. I don't stand for it. I've met a lot of fatphobes in my life and all of them were deeply hurtful and insecure people who took out their insecurities on others. Here on OTID we don't vibe with shaming people for their weight nor for how they look. Fat people are people. Skinny people are people. We're all the same on the inside, bones and organs. What matters is how we treat others. I want to spend my days treating others with kindness and receiving kindness back. I like putting smiles on people's faces, not hurting others. I do get it wrong sometimes, and I acknowledge that, but I always try to correct myself, learn and be a better person. I admit when I'm wrong.

If this is my hill to die on, then so be it. But I promise you that I did not reblog OP's post and asked that question to make fun of them or invite harassment to them. I can't believe I even have to repeat this so many times, but I was asking because I didn't understand. I stand behind everything I've said. If your claim to fame is trying to fight me, you highly overestimate how many active followers I have and the kind of community you'll find here. If you want to cancel me for being fatphobic, I'm sorry to say but the only person I've ever been cruel to and who I've bodyshamed was my own self.

[blazehedgehog]

Do you agree with Gaming Journalists and what do you think of gaming journalism in general?

What does this even mean, dude.

"Do you agree with gaming journalists"? On what?

Do I agree with Shacknews that Super Mario Bros. Wonder is a 10/10, and with Digital Spy that it's also a 7/10? Do I agree with Let's Clear Up Those Halo Battle Royale Rumors?

Like, I've gotten some bait on this blog before, but this is 2/10 stuff, man. This is some hot 2014 garbage. Like no matter what I say, you're gonna go all

"Very interesting. Then do you care to explain why..." No thanks.

My real answer: Something I learned during my time at TSSZ and being around a few people who were deeper into "the biz" than I is that everybody needs journalism more than they realize. Corporations are pushing for consumers to become their personal cheerleaders more than ever before, which makes criticism and the journalistic exposing of information seem villainous.

After all: Xbox is my friend now, so how dare you attack the Xbox. Behavior that used to be reserved for the most dedicated fanboys is now the expected room temperature. I've talked about "The Cult of Naughty Dog" before, and that's the same thing. If a corporation can get you to be parasocial with them, then they have won, and being parasocial with a corporation means shunning real investigative journalism that would otherwise undo them. Journalists and critics used to be marketing tools, but by undoing the press pipeline and talking directly to fans, journalists and critics are painted as untrustworthy for being wildcards that don't always toe the company line.

And there has been more than a decade of people with a "I choose to be stupid and ignorant on purpose" outlook, which just makes that more frustrating. We've all seen screencaps where some brainless rando tries to explain something to a person who is an expert in that field. The rando thinks they're flexing their brain, but in some cases they are arguing with the person who literally wrote the book on their topic of conversation. Some people don't want to know anything but still pretend like they know everything, when there are real people out there doing real work to uncover real truths.

Misinformation is the real problem. It should not surprise anyone that there are people out there deliberately eroding the foundation of journalistic integrity, because the less people trust journalism, the easier it is to get away with lying. The easier it is to lie, the easier it is to control the mainstream, the easier it is to scam people out of their money, so on and so forth.

And misinformation is more than just "this one news article is fake." There are long running campaigns to install people into news organizations themselves to publish false information for all manner of different goals, but it's all the same: nobody trusts anyone and it's making everyone dumber.

That's when we get crypto currency. And NFTs. And now people claiming that generative AI will save humanity. Grift after grift after grift where the people at the top of the snake oil food chain make off with billions of dollars while the rest of the world is left scratching their heads.

The law isn't going to catch them. If they do, it'll take years. Look at how long it took for Sam Bankman-Fried to get caught -- he operated for almost half an entire decade. The amount of damage somebody can get away with in five years is significant.

We need journalism. Real journalism. Good journalism. Watchdogs that keep an eye on things and blow the whistle when it goes bad. Somebody to enforce accountability that isn't a cop.

Where do you find that? That's the hardest question. I'm lucky enough that I know people I trust because they are long time friends, or friends of friends, and thus they've been properly vetted in my circle as The Real Deal. But there are a lot of outlets out there who claim to champion "truth" and "intelligence" in a way to prey upon insecurity. I mean, c'mon, Trump's social media platform is called "Truth Social" and is basically the furthest thing from the truth you will ever get from anyone, ever.

The more obsessively they try to convince you they're telling the truth, the less likely it is they actually are. Which in itself could be an attack meant to undo the foundations of trust in people who actually know what they're talking about. By casting doubt on the very concept of truth itself, they can lie with increasingly greater efficiency.

Any advice I give feels like it is incredibly circumstantial. Which is the point, and is why we're in the state we're in.

Here's a good pdf by The News Literacy Project that's probably a good place to start. The general gist is "you'll have to do a lot of fact checking for yourself" but that's unfortunately where we're at these days.

But by and large I would say life is a lot harder for real journalists right now than I think some of their critics have ever thought about. There are people out there trying to do actual good work and being a bubble-brained moron about it just makes everything harder for everyone.