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the-bi-space-ace · 7 months ago

Note

for the Bad Batch ask game: 8, 24, 31, and 49! (or just a few of those if you’d prefer :D)

I AM GOING TO ANSWER ALL OF THEM THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR THESE!!

8. What song(s) do you associate with the Bad Batch?

I love this question bc I associate a really weird array of songs with The Bad Batch and I am beyond excited to list them.

I Got You by Devon Cole (tears 🥹)

Mr. Know-It-All by Young The Giant (mainly a Tech song for me)

The Less I Know The Better by Tame Impala

Brother by Kodaline

Don’t Leave Me Alone by David Guetta & Anne-Marie (acoustic)

Human by Jon Bellion

Burn The House Down by AJR

everything i wanted by Billie Eilish (mainly bc it gives me Calling Me Home series Echo vibes tbh oof)

This Was A Home Once by Bad Suns

Older by Alec Benjamin

Bonus Tracks:

Going Home by The Aces

Don’t Freak by The Aces (This one is a bonus bc in my head when I hear this song I have always imagined baby Fives and Echo going to 79s for the first time and Echo not being totally sure how he feels about it and Fives basically going ‘hey, don’t freak out. I’m here, you’re smart and capable. A bar is the easiest mission we’ve ever been on.’ idk I get so much inspiration from music tbh.)

^ The Aces are so feel good and endearing and give good fluff inspiration

24. Do you have any hot or controversial takes?

Oh yeah plenty of them tbh lol

My hottest take? Honestly? I’m super disappointed in how cruel people were to people with Tech Lives theories on this damn site. Not just in the way that I’m sad about *gestures to everything* but I have seen some really nasty takes and have blocked people over them even though they were never directed at me. It shows me who you are when you’re cruel to a stranger over simply *checking my notes* wanting their favorite character to be alive. Some people in the Star Wars fandom are mean as hell. Maybe it’s because I’m fandom old (mid 20s) so I’ve been around for over a decade in fandom spaces but I can say that Star Wars fans can be really really mean compared to other fandoms. That’s more of a problem on reddit (never again) but it happens on tumblr and twitter (which I don’t have any longer but have heard… stories.) My little corner is GREAT. No complaints about this little corner I’ve found myself in but every time I venture out I see some shiiiiiiiiit and it takes me a minute to remember that this fandom can be really volatile. This is supposed to be fun. I say my piece, I agree or disagree with other people’s piece. Then I move on. I won’t argue. It ain’t my style. I get really upset when I see people being downright nasty to each other over fandom stuff. Stop it.

Also. Listen. I started in the Teen Wolf and Merlin fandoms in high school. There’s a lot of great stuff to use from those shows but canon was rarely awesome. I got used to letting the fandom do the work, fans shipping everything under the sun, and making up wild plotlines that wouldn’t actually make sense because who even knows what’s going on in the actual show anymore. Fandoms are wild and I like different opinions and different content and everything coming together in a way that is both weird and wonderful. Sometimes people want the entire fandom to like exactly what they like and get really aggressive with other fans over it. That is not my vibe. If I see something I don’t like then it isn’t for me and I move on! Enough said.

Instead of moving on, blocking tags, or blocking users many fans straight up call people names! Start arguments! Post cruel things! It’s stupid! I’ll say it, it’s stupid as hell! Just block shit, man! You can’t control other people. Protect your peace and block stuff you don’t like. I promise it’ll feel better <3

(that was so long I’m so sorry I needed to get that off of my chest so bad lol)

31. What other Star Wars characters (regardless of the timeline) do you think would be BFFs with each Batcher?

(This’ll be fun bc I know very little of the greater Star Wars Universe so some of these are based just on ✨vibes✨)

Omega and Leia Organa! I loved the Kenobi show and I just think these two would get along SO DAMN WELL.

Hunter and…. I’m going to be honest I thought about this over night and I STILL can’t pick somebody. I need to watch more Star Wars

Tech and Luke Skywalker. Flying! Ships! Podracing! This is the only thing I know of Luke Skywalker! They’d bond over this and make ships go faster together so they’d be besties.

Crosshair and Merrin. In the way that I think he’d look at her like she hung the moon and the stars because she’s so cool and she’s scary and Crosshair appreciates intimidating people and would want to see all of the things she can do with her magic even though he’s kind of terrified of her. (I’m projecting, I love Merrin.)

Echo and Cal Kestis. This is an inspired choice, I feel. Cal has a really big connection to protecting people and Echo WOULD LOVE to work with him to protect people from the Empire (play Jedi: Fallen Order 👀)

Wrecker and Chewbacca. Wrecker really thrived in that episode with the wookiees and I think he’d have a great time with Chewbacca.

49. What has been your favorite part about being in the fandom?

All of my friends!!! I’ve made a lot of great friends in the past two years and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. It’s not very easy for me to make friends, if I’m being honest, so having friends that I talk to about the clones and star wars and fic ideas means a lot to me. It is the ultimate draw for me. I love talking to people about things I love, hearing everyone’s opinions, seeing everyone write and create art and do deep dive analysis. I love seeing people run role play blogs and come up with ask games. I love love love the fun parts of fandom just existing. Seeing people get excited about ideas and share them with others and create gifs and have fun. That absolutely has my heart. We’re all just here trying to express ourselves and that is something I think gets overlooked sometimes. This is something we do in our free time. We’re here because we want to be, not because we have to be. It’s a beautiful thing, to find connection over a shared love of something, and I love that. It’s kind of the same thing I love about concerts. Concerts are a unique place where it’s acceptable to have big emotional reactions with other people over the shared love of the music being played for you. For one night you aren’t just a fan of a band standing in a room listening to some people sing at you. You’re a part of the crowd, experiencing a million different emotions all in the same moment but not one of you is feeling the exact same way as the person next to you. It’s a wonderful thing to experience. This fandom, my little corner of it at least, feels about the same. We’re all experiencing life differently, different day to day things, different upbringings, different opinions, likes, and dislikes. But we’re all here, watching the same thing, and coming away with different emotions and opinions.

I think that’s beautiful.

Link To The Ask <3

#thanks for asking!!#the bad batch #ask game #I always really enjoy these tbh #sorry I gave you an entire playlist of songs I couldn’t resist😅

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fake-total-drama-takes · 2 years ago

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Making an intro post just to make a few things clear

I have came back into the plane of existence in order to curate the fakest of td takes. Now, this can include bad takes, but it is mostly insane takes (think the kind of takes that you never think would be around, this includes just straight up lying, lying is fun).

Call me mod scary or scary mod (up to you), the number 1 Mr. Coconut stan around (couldn’t call myself mod coconut because I can’t live up to the presence of such a character)…

Here to spread the chaos of fake td takes. I will be taking other people's fake takes but also posting my own. Moving onto the informal section (starting with the serious stuff):

Yes, this is a parody blog, don't take it seriously. The takes expressed here do not reflect my own views (and presumably the views of the askers but I won't speak for them)

Don't use my inbox to express your discriminatory opinions, proship takes, or what have you, we're just here to have fun

Asks will be replied to as soon as I have time for them, since I like to give proper replies to each one (I don't expect to get too many so this shouldn't be much of an issue)

All take posts will be tagged as #total drama fake takes (so block this one if you don't want to see them)

Non take posts will be tagged as #no takes here

All mod related posts will be tagged as #mod posting

I will also be using #not maintagging so I don't get roasted alive for takes that could be seen as controversial (probably not too many)

In honor of the upcoming total takes island, I will be using #live scary commentary to give my thoughts on the season (this tag can also be recycled if I ever end up in any other hunger games or tdi seasons in the future)

Feel free to ask questions about me (the mod), that stuff will be tagged as #mod lore

Do not be afraid to ask if I should differentiate more stuff

I'll add more if need be, but this is it for now

#mod posting #informational post

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hoghtastic · 4 months ago

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Hey guys, i hope everyone’s doing good :)

I just recently watched vikings & got invested with ivar & later on alex because of his talented funny personality. I was trying to look up interviews from the last year, and all i found was a semi funny alex der alte Antworten 1 zu 1 übertragen hat. I also saw his gf, thought not much about it. Then i discovered this blog & read & watched videos and pictures again, i definitely see a lot of the chemistry things you guys are talking about.

But I have some questions, since im new to alex & this blog; since when is he in a relationship with johanne? What was going on with his ex gf? Are there proofs that johanne is not really a good person or are u just assuming it because of his insta? What is the matter with his mental health? Are him & johanne engaged or is he about to propose?

I’m totally invested into the topic and this Block, thanks for your answers in advance.

Hope everyone has a beautiful day!🌸

First and foremost, hello and welcome, anon! 😃 I'm glad you're enjoying the blog and thank you for submitting your questions, which I'll try my best to answer in a somewhat concise manner:

1. Since when is he in a relationship with Johanne? The timing of their relationship is somewhat controversial, and all we know for certain is that they met and shot "Call me Dad" during the Summer of 2022. Around August, she still had pictures on IG with her ex-boyfriend, Mikal, whom she used to call "The best in the world". But in November, she went with Alex to Paris and stayed there with him after the "From Kattegat to Paris" con. Since her Pinterest was public at the time, people even saw that she had a board called "Paris Outfits" (or something along these lines), meaning she'd been planning this trip with him for a while. Therefore, although we don't know the exact time they started dating, we know that in a very short period of time she broke up with Mikal and started her relationship with Alex, and the two were already dating in November 2022. Although, when asked in interviews, their official version is that they started dating only by the beginning of 2023, which doesn't correspond to the truth.

2. What was going on with his ex gf? I don't think there was anything going on with his ex-girlfriend. If you're talking about Rikke, they dated when they were very young and eventually broke up, but have remained good friends ever since and they've both moved on with their love lives. There was nothing weird about them (at least that I'm aware of). And if you're referring to MK, she and Alex never dated (at least officially), even though he seemingly had a big crush on her. MK too has moved on with her love life, and so has Alex by now.

3. Are there proofs that Johanne is not really a good person or are u just assuming it because of his insta? I do think being a "good person" is somewhat of a subjective concept, and it will depend on the importance you place on people's more "questionable" attitudes. That said, Johanne has had quite a few, which have placed her in a position to be disliked by fans. For instance, before Alex had publicly assumed their relationship, and considering how private and careful he'd always been, she kept posting hints that they were together, like a picture of her at the aforementioned Paris convention, and the fact that one of her best friends "accidentally" exposed their relationship by posting pictures/videos of them holding each other at his party. There was also a story she posted, in which Alex was clearly drunk, and she looked at the camera in a somewhat happy/triumphant manner. This didn't sit right with a lot of fans, because once again, it went against Alex's adamant wish for privacy and the "good boy" public image he'd curated along the years. Another example as to why people tend to dislike Johanne, is the "art theft" incident, during which she posted on IG a painting she'd been working on, although a very attentive fan noticed it wasn't an original idea, but rather a copy of another artist's artwork, of which she had a picture saved in her Pinterest board. When called out about this and confronted with the evidence, instead of apologizing & crediting the original artist, she first tried to pass it off as a coincidence, and ultimately deleted everything, simply pretending it never happened. (As someone who works in the artistic field, it would be expected that Johanne would show more consideration towards a fellow artist, in my opinion.) Not wanting to make this too long, I think it's also worth mentioning the infamous "You snooze, you lose" game Johanne tried to "play" on her IG, by posting a carousel of pictures of Alex during their trip to Portugal with this same caption, and deleting them very shortly after, making it some sort of "prank" towards his fans, as if she wanted to make them rush to get the pictures, otherwise they'd lose them. In addition to these, you can read more examples sent by fellow anons here.

4. What is the matter with his mental health? Alex has been vocal about his mental health in past interviews, and how during the filming of Vikings he had a digestive problem which, due to a tight schedule and his strive for a good performance, ultimately led to a decline in his mental health. According to him, that's why it was important for him to return to Denmark after finishing Vikings — to just take time for himself, among his loved ones, get therapy and overall getting better. And although we can't be 100% certain, he seems to be doing better now.

5. Are him & Johanne engaged or is he about to propose? At the moment, there are no news about them being engaged, nor is Johanne wearing an engagement ring, so it's almost certain that he hasn't proposed yet. Although, he has voiced this intention in past interviews, so it can happen at any moment.

I hope I was able to answer your questions, anon! 😊 Everything I mentioned was posted/discussed here on the blog, so if you have the time to search through older posts, you'll find more detailed info, as well as the aforementioned interviews. And if any of our anons would like to elaborate more on these topics, please feel free to do so!

I hope you keep enjoying & participating on the blog! Have a wonderful day as well! 💖

#anon asks #FAQ

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jasminesjournal · 6 months ago

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Warning Below:

I’m doing a book review. That’s right folks. I write fanfiction AND book reviews. Buckle up and an fyi I HATE people having opinions about books they haven’t read so here’s a little trigger warning because HOLY SMOKES people get triggered over Colleen Hoover and it really ruins the enjoyment for someone who enjoys a book by her. I’m also not looking for a debate and I really loved this book so don’t ruin a nice post with negativity.

I swear to both your mother and mine if you’re hateful I’ll block you. I’m literally putting a warning on this post! So all negativity is unnecessary if you saw the warning and ignored it.

So if you don’t like Colleen Hoover or you’re known to make opinions based on purely what other people say without reading the book, this post isn’t for you. If your opinion starts with “I didn’t read it but…” then I don’t wanna hear it. The next thing to follow will most likely be an opinion built off of nothing but what someone else has said.

BE INDIVIDUALS PEOPLE.

Okay. Onward below the cut.

Book: It Ends with Us (book 1)

Author: Colleen Hoover

Started: May 2, 2024

Ended: April 19, 2024

Synopsis: Sometimes it is the one who loves you who hurts you the most.

Lily hasn’t always had it easy, but that’s never stopped her from working hard for the life she wants. She’s come a long way from the small town in Maine where she grew up — she graduated from college, moved to Boston, and started her own business. So when she feels a spark with a gorgeous neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid, everything in Lily’s life suddenly seems almost too good to be true.

Ryle is assertive, stubborn, maybe even a little arrogant. He’s also sensitive, brilliant, and has a total soft spot for Lily. And the way he looks in scrubs certainly doesn’t hurt. Lily can’t get him out of her head. But Ryle’s complete aversion to relationships is disturbing. Even as Lily finds herself becoming the exception to his “no dating” rule, she can’t help but wonder what made him that way in the first place.

As questions about her new relationship overwhelm her, so do thoughts of Atlas Corrigan — her first love and a link to the past she left behind. He was her kindred spirit, her protector. When Atlas suddenly reappears, everything Lily has built with Ryle is threatened.

Thoughts: “Colleen Hoover romanticizes abuse.” Really? I didn’t see that in this book. While this is the only book of hers that I’ve read (so far) I wondered where that was coming from. Everytime it happened in the book the mc met it with negative feelings. I don’t think it’s romanticizing something if it’s not being seeing as a good thing. In fact, things that are treated negatively are not being romanticized by someone.

Anyway, there’s a reason why I rated this book four stars instead of five even though I absolutely loved it. Because this is a review I want to give my best thought with I’ve spent so much time just ruminating and not writing any review. But, after many have asked me what it is I liked about this book, I think it’s time to not let the people wait any longer.

First off, I’m not saying Colleen Hoover is a good person. However, if it wasn’t her name on the cover the book probably wouldn’t be so controversial. Let’s be real, if the author was someone else then people wouldn’t attack it so much. Are there weird bits? Yea, that’s actually where my four stars came in instead of my five stars. I’d recommend it, but only for people who are interested in reading Colleen Hoover to build their own opinion other than listening to the masses. Like me! I actually started this book with the thought process of “I like it. It’s a guilty pleasure.”

Now I’m thinking, “I’m nearly 20, I’m an individual who wants to think for myself and build my own opinions on a book. I want to enjoy my life, if that means reading a controversial book that I like so be it. If anyone has a problem with that then it’s on them.”

So, that’s my view on this book.

The letters to Ellen? That was weird. The Atlas situation? That was weird. Though, I’d like to look at the situation both characters were in. Atlas was homeless, Lilly was alone. Both were alone. It’s not like Atlas ever hurt Lilly, in fact he was trying to protect her from both her father and Ryle. He wanted to keep her safe. Was it ideal what these two had when Lilly was a younger teenager and Atlas was a young adult nearly out of high school? No.

Would I encourage that an author not write something like this? Given the situation between the two characters, I wouldn’t. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea but I don’t mind it. If I’m reading a book and every situation and decision is something I agree with then I don’t want it. It’s boring.

I like a dose of reality in the books I read.

Will everyone agree with me on this review? No. I will say that if you haven’t read this book I kindly ask that you don’t share your opinion. Nothing irks me than opinions based around “well this person said” and “I heard.”

Continuing on with some more: there’s a lot of sex in this book. A lot of dirty talking when said activity is happening. Needless to say, if you don’t like spice in books this one isn’t for you and it is definitely not for children/teens.

#book blog #book review #collen hoover #coho #it ends with us #romance books #romance #book recommendations #bookblr #bookish #fanfiction writer #ao3 writer #fanfic blog

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loregoddess · 2 years ago

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5, 8, 28 + a question you'd like to answer for the Echoes Ask Game!

5) What's an aspect of Echoes you feel is underappreciated?

Hmm, I dunno so much if it's "underappreciated" but my favorite, favorite aspect of the game is being able to move around the map and enter towns and crawl through dungeons while still having the core FE-battle mechanics intact, like especially for my second run where I wasn't as concerned about trying to level every single character up and I just picked out my endgame team in my head and used those characters for my dungeon-diving team. I really enjoyed the passive worldbuilding that comes with being able to actually walk around and explore stuff.

Both Zofia and Rigel felt like really fleshed out settings, and I could visually see the differences between the two. Not to mention getting to talk to random NPCs really grounded the game's conflict in a more believable way bc I got to see/hear exactly what the everyday people who were being affected by their gov'ts and the war felt, which gave the entire story a more somber and serious feeling without losing the FE charm of the lighter or goofier moments because the writing strikes a nice balance and knows when to be serious and when to be lighthearted.

It just adds an entirely different layer of environmental storytelling that isn't quite present in other FE games, at least not in the same impactful way.

8) A scene or character moment you really liked?

Hmm, I guess the entire sub-arc with Lutheir and Delthea. Don't get me wrong, I'm as wary of the "FE damsel in distress who sometimes doubles as a brainwashed damsel" as the next person (and I personally really hate brainwashing as a trope outside of FE, like, I just have personal beef with that trope specifically whereas I'm wildly neutral on the damsel in distress trope outside of FE). But like, there's something so human about Alm wanting to help this random village girl bc they happened to run into her brother, and the fact that Clive, despite being pretty okay for a highborn noble, like, cannot wrap his mind around the importance of taking this detour (which isn't a detour, but eh, story writing) for some random girl, it just...I dunno, something about this arc really worked well to show how shortsighted Clive is despite all his good intentions and grand words, and how different a world view Alm as because he grew up as one of those lowborn villagers, and it shows why Alm does and will make a good leader down the line because of his empathy, which is a neat bit of foreshadowing and character building.

Actually, in that same vein, Python's DLC supports with Clive are also like, extremely cathartic bc Python really does break down the flaws with Clive's ideology, which works both the highlight how intelligent and perceptive Python is, as well as how growing up a noble has a deeply ingrained privilege in Clive that he isn't even entirely aware of it. I swear I actually do like Clive, but he is so, so flawed--and because of this, his writing is very believable because of how he acts in the game.

28) Your take on a controversial topic about the game, whichever you prefer.

A-are there controversial topics about Echoes? I mean outside the usual "child soldiers, war sim, sexism, etc." takes? Listen, I have a good portion of the fandom blocked so I can browse the FE tag in peace (which, to be fair, I only started blocking blogs bc of 3H), and I refuse to haunt most fandom spaces outside this website, so I dunno what the petty arguments are about this game. I personally think it's one of the best games that I've played so far, and that it is better than 3H if we're going off the total game experience, but aside from that I don't think I have any hot takes. Even if I did, I know better than to throw rocks at hornet nests.

37) If you could make a big change to it, what would you change?

I would swap Clive and Mathilda narratively in the game. Clive says at one point that the Deliverance was Mathilda's idea (if I recall correctly?), and like, given that Mathilda is implied to be this force to be reckoned with, I think she should fill the narrative role that was given to Clive, and that Clive should just be her trophy fiancé who also got himself captured and imprisoned. It could also work for the narrative w/ Fernand leaving the Deliverance and defecting to Rigel if like, the idea of a woman leading an army for a time was already going against tradition and norms, and so when Mathilda hands the Deliverance over to Alm to lead bc he's a peasant who could unite the army better than she, as a noble, could, it then becomes the last straw for Fernand and he defects.

The only major drawback to this is, of course, the narrative has Alm take lead of the Deliverance, and a lot of fans would be pissy about "a man taking the power from a woman" even though the themes of class are more central to Echoes than are the themes of gender roles. But honestly, if the writing was careful, this switch of power wouldn't be too much of an issue since Alm's "leadership" could be a means of uniting the commoner army members, as well as putting to ease any unrest caused by Mathilda leading bc she was a woman, while Mathilda still maintains her agency as an important character and woman via the role of advisor to Alm since she actually does understand how a military works and can run it effectively, thus still allowing her most of the power but also having her work alongside Alm for a common goal, and further showing that Alm is a kid who's growing into the leader role by learning from good leaders. But fans would probably still be really annoying about it.

Overall I feel like Mathilda fits Clive's narrative role better, and Clive fits her role better. The writing can still have Clive, and even Mathilda, be shortsighted due to their privilege of being born nobles. And like, there are plenty of women characters who should have gotten more narrative importance, but I feel this especially for Mathilda bc she is one of the strongest characters in the game, both in her characterization and her actual game stats.

#given that I am a very big LoZ fan it is no surprise my favorite FE game mechanic is:#''explore dungeon and smash pots''#RIP Clive I swear I'm favorable towards his character I just also think he's extremely dunkable #anyhow 3H wishes it had the worldbuilding Echoes has #(don't misunderstand I love 3H a whole lot I just also hate the fandom for it which makes me nitpick it even more)#unsuspecting-person #ask game #I still don't have an ask tag

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system-of-a-feather · 2 years ago

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I do like this being brought up without the completely valid controversies around it and I'd like to have some thoughts put around as well so I'll put this on my blog with my opinion and invite others to do so.

I don't know if @ylva-vordr minds / their boundaries on it, but bad faith, aggressive and "debate / arguing" replies to my post will be ignored and likely blocked. I am open to discussion, not whatever goes on most of the time on here.

A) First, when do we think reducing stigma crosses the line into sensationalism* and romanticization*? *Mildly modified words / spelling fixes

Honestly to me the moment occurs when the information is no longer serving a direct educational / illustrative purpose and instead moves solely to be entertaining, click bait, or - for lack of better words - a gimmick. If the content is either directly meant to be educational and not entertaining, that's good. If the content is meant to be about some random hobby they have while having DID, that is good. But if the content is "Someone with DID doing a Thing" then it starts falling into sensationalism and that is when I tend to have personal gripes on since DID is easy to sensationalize and use for clicks, attention, and monetization.

Showing switches can be educational if done right, but using it as "SWITCH CAUGHT ON CAMERA!!!!" and most of the tiktok DID trends and all just.... It's hard to put a firm line in the mud verbally / with words, but theres not really a need to draw focus on the "fantastical aspects" that while not innately "stigmatizing" and "negative" are already huge parts of the media-driven sensational stereotype people with DID have.

If that is how your system presents that's totally fair, cool, awesome and all - but is the video being posted "going about life and a switch occurs cause thats just how things are and this is a normal thing" or is it "Oh my God! I switched! Watch me CHANGE personalities!!!"

I think "Meet my alters" are innocent enough though I guess and are like the only exception of the top of my head to "DID focused 'entertainment' content" cause that inherently has a lot more educational / normalizing value than stuff like switching videos and all.

Not a huge thing i've directly parsed my line about so I'm open to feed back and questions and adjusting it, but generally I don't think you are reducing stigma as much as changing negative sensationality to "positive" sensationality when you make DID-focused Entertainment Content.

B) Under what circumstances do we think self-diagnosis is appropriate, and how can we assist those who have gone down that route?

I think Self-Diagnosis is generally appropriate in any case where there is any reasonable reason someone can not get evaluated by and treated by a professional (financial, lack of qualified specialists, stigma, social environment, living situation, mental health conditions that make it difficult).

I think it is important to do good research in both peer communities where you can sit down with others who do have it and discuss it (not one way "peer communities" where the dynamic is parasocial / only acknowledged in a singular direction) as well as official and reputable diagnostic / research information.

There are thousands upon thousands of reasons why one might not be able to get diagnosed / treated so I am never the type to shun self diagnosis.

That said, I think its important for those that are self diagnosed to hold some space for the idea that they may be wrong, especially with DID / OSDD which can be hard to diagnose in general due to over lap in symptoms and similar appearances to other disorders which can be affected by dissociation and general egosyntonic symptoms that could hinder an individual as being an unbiased judge of themselves.

I think the "whatever you feel is always valid and true" while in good intentions and very helpful in some cases, it can be a very dangerous absolute to push because it backs people who might not be sure, who might not have the disorder but feel too deep in, into a corner where it is harder for them to authentically realize they are wrong and feel safe coming out that they were wrong (Which is TOTALLY fine!)

I also think for those that are self diagnosed and probably do have it / continue to think they have it / continue to have it and then get diagnosed, its important to just have open conversations on how things are in a non-sensationalized manner as to keep things open, normalized, and educational / helpful / productive. I think its important for those that find that the self diagnosis WORKS for them and helps them to be open to non-professional peer-to-peer notes on how to live and get by with it WITHOUT having all the sparkles and "OWO SWITCH CAUGHT ON CAMERA!" that serves more to an audience that doesn't have the disorder than those that do.

Anyways, these are just some of my loose thoughts on the matter. No real major claim. Interested to hearing other's additions.

Having watched the McLean Hospital video with regards to DID and a rise in self-diagnosis, there are some things I feel we should definitely be discussing.

A) First, when do we think reducing stigma crosses the line into sensationalisation and romanisation?

B) Under what circumstances do we think self-diagnosis is appropriate, and how can we assist those who have gone down that route?

I do not, under any circumstances, condone the use of third party media as a way to prove a point, particularly without permission.

#alter: riku #discussion #discussion time

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mickmarstookmyheart · 4 years ago

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More Espresso, Less Despresso

Part: 3/?

Pairing: Mick Mars X Reader

Summary: You have a decent conversation with your mom about Mick.

(pic from Pinterest)

You couldn't recall when was the last time you laughed that much while you were at the studio with the Crüe. Tommy was a total goofball, Nikki was kind yet a bit high, and Vince was like a gay friend you were aching for years. Doc seemed the smartest one among them, of course, beside Mick. After you all ate the food you had brought they started to tell stories of the previous concerts and backstage moments. You had a deja vu but not in a good way. Memories and feelings crossed your mind as the hours passed.

"Are you alright? You look a bit pale." Mick asked with a concerned look in his eyes. You had been quiet in the last ten minutes and he noticed it. At first, he thought it was because of your introverted self, but then he saw the tears in your eyes.

"Yeah, I'm okay." You sighed blinking fast to get rid of the tears. You didn't want to be weak. You wanted to forget that whole era of your life. And now, you were in the same deep pit.

"Hey, (Y/N)!" Vince yelled, putting his feet on the table. "You are coming with us right?" The blood froze in your veins and you even forgot how to breathe properly. You gulped then put a smile on.

"I don't know, Vince. I barely know you and-"

"That's the point! We want to get to know you." You weren't the most spontaneous one. At least, not anymore. Joining a band on tour after one day was quite a big deal. And your mother wouldn't be so happy either. On the other hand, you weren't sure if you wanted to tag along. You had enough.

"Vinnie, you met her hours ago. You couldn't force her to come with us." Nikki said. "Right, (Y/N)?"

"Yeah." You smiled.

"Well, you know where we are going so feel free to come and see us on a show." Vince winked and drank from his beer.

"Just call me and I will give you a pass." Doc added.

"Thanks, guys, really. But I think I gotta go now." You jumped down from the top of the piano and headed to the door.

"Why so soon?" Tommy pouted standing in front of you blocking the way. He didn't help your situation. You felt horrible and just wanted to go home.

"Please, Tommy." You said shyly. But he didn't move just smirked. You knew he just joked but you weren't in the mood.

"Drummer. Let her go." Mick snapped from behind earning a sigh from Tommy. He stepped aside but patted your back.

"See you soon." He grinned and hopped down on the couch next to his Terror Twin. They were so kind, you hated yourself for leaving. However, you know that you wouldn't enjoy yourself. You wouldn't be able to distract yourself from the memories they all brought back.

"Bye, guys!" You waved and left the room with Mick by your side. After he closed the door you let out a long breath you didn't realize you were holding. You didn't say a word until you weren't in the streets again. "I'm sorry." Mick turned to you while walking with raised brows.

"For what?"

"For leaving so early." You shrugged and adjusted your coat tighter. "I didn't feel like a good company."

"Yeah, I saw that something was up. Wanna talk about it?" You shook your head as a no. You weren't ready to talk about that. You didn't want to tell him the reason you moved there with your mom. Why you were the girl reading in a café. The introvert one, the shy one. Why you had to hide behind this disguise.

"Everything is alright, Mick. Nothing serious, I promise." You showed your most believable smile which he loved. He noticed that you were lost in your thoughts and those thoughts made you sad. He saw that something snapped suddenly after Vince asked but he didn't want to ask there. He asked it now but you didn't feel like telling him and he respected that.

"Got it." He stopped and stood in front of you. "But if you are feeling down or wanna talk about anything I'm here, okay?" He rested his hands on your shoulders. "And it's the most obvious thing to talk to each other every night, right?"

"Of course. Though I will miss my caffeine buddy." You sighed.

"Well, if you visit us at one of our concerts I will take you to the finest café nearby and we will drink a huge amount of that!"

"Pinky Promise?" You asked pointing at him.

"Sure, whatever it is." He looked puzzled but chuckled anyways when you intertwined your little finger with his. "Then you have to promise to me that you will come to a concert as soon as possible."

"I promise." You winked and continued walking home.

∆

"Hey, mom!" You yelled as soon as you stepped in the house and hung your coat.

"Hello, honey! I'm in the kitchen!" She shouted back as she was flipping pancakes. You sniffed in the air and hummed from the delicious smell. You stepped next to her and placed a kiss on her cheek making her smile. You loved your mom more than anyone, even yourself. She was there for you when you needed the most, where you needed the most. She always knew how to cheer you up and make you happy. She knew you better than yourself.

"Smells good." You smirked.

"Thanks. So where have you been? How was your day?" She asked glancing at you while placing the pancake on a plate.

"The café." You lied. Well, you didn't lie just didn't tell your whole day. "Read a book, drank a cappuccino as always."

"Sounds interesting. And boring. Why don't you find a book club so you can meet new people?"

"I like being on my own." You said filling your mouth full with pancakes sitting on the counter. You tried to distract the topic but it was hell hard. "And what about you, mom?"

"But it's not healthy being alone all the time." She insisted making you groan and roll your eyes. "Don't grimace, young lady. And yes, you need to find new friends. Who may help you forget the old ones..." She sighed.

"I like the old ones. But you are right. I need to forget them as all those years from that era." You lowered your head staring at your black leather boots. She was right you knew that. And you did find friends just not the right ones. The guys didn't help you forget, on the contrary. "But enough about me. Do you like your new workplace? Is your boss handsome?"

"Hey!" She threw the kitchen towel right on your face from that last statement. "And to answer your question...FUCK YES! He is tall, dark-haired, and has blue eyes..."

"So basically, your type." You giggled watching her faking fainting.

"Girl, you know me so well!" She laughed. "And his voice...I can listen to it for eternity." She sighed hearts all around her head.

"Then, you are in the best position you can ever be. Being his assistant means hearing his thunderous voice. All. Day. Long." You pointed at her with your fork stressing the last words.

"Don't play with me. And? What about you? Don't tell me you haven't met Prince Charming in that café you go to every day." She glanced at you, but you were staring down avoiding eye contact. "So you've already met him, haven't you?" She asked in a low voice.

"You could say that." You jumped down from the counter and headed upstairs but your mother grabbed your wrist before you could reach the stairs. You didn't know if you should tell her or not. You have a deep connection with your mom, you told everything to each other so she would listen to you. However, her reaction would be quite controversial.

"(Y/N). I could see that there is something wrong." She placed her hand on your cheek giving you a warm smile. "Come. Let's eat then you can tell me everything."

"I'm not hungry. I will start now. So there is a guy." You began.

"Let me guess. Black hair, sarcasm, music lover. Am I right?" Your mom interrupted.

"Damn, mom!" You snapped glaring at her.

"Okay, I will shut it. But was I right?"

"Of course, you were, goddamn. He came to me at that café while I was reading and we started to talk. We have many things in common, more than we should, actually. He is kind, generous, and is a great company." Your stomach did a backflip just thinking about it. At the same time, your heart was aching since you knew it won't be the same. It wasn't your café, not your usual coffee, not the squeaking chair you usually sat on and not the old-fashioned table with the blue cloth covering it.

"Sounds good to me." She frowned.

"Promise me you won't freak out." You looked deep in her eyes making sure she understood what you asked. She nodded so you took a deep breath and prepared yourself. "He is a musician, more precisely, he plays in a rock band. And I know what will you say but please let me finish it!"

"Alright." She swallowed and clenched her jaws.

"They are leaving town tomorrow and when they asked me if I would like to join...I said no. Did you hear me? I said no!" You gripped her hand firmly. You didn't like when she was making that face and it broke your heart. She was disappointed, sad, furious at the same time if that was possible. "I won't meet them again if you tell me not to. But please let me meet Mick once more. Just once so I can say goodbye." You sobbed.

"Honey, you don't need permission for that." She gave you a half-smile. "I trust you, I believe that you know what is good for you. And you are an adult now, you can do whatever you like. Things happened in the past, that's why we moved here. To leave those awful and horrible events which occurred there." She gulped and pressed her eyes together trying to erase those memories from her mind. Drugs, booze, rock and roll, death.

"I love you, mom and I'm so grateful. To have such an understanding and strong mom like you." You stood up, walked over to her, and hugged her tightly. She was the strongest person you've ever known. She lost a son, you lost a brother. And still, she managed to put a smile on her face whenever you felt down, desperate. Moved to another city, found a new job, and continued being the coolest mom on Earth.

"Your brother would be so proud." She sighed letting you go. Despite the fact that your brother overdosed, she still talked about him like it hadn't been his fault. She got over it and tried to remember her son as he was before the drugs. Lively, creative, and cheerful.

"So, this means I can visit them? On the tour?" You asked with full of hope.

"If you can take care of yourself and avoid all those things, then, of course, darling. I want you to be happy and somehow that guy makes you that. I can see it in your eyes and the way you talk about him." She smirked.

∆

Days, weeks, months passed. Lonely days, sitting in the café, reading books. Every time the bell rang above the door you glanced up to see who it was. It wasn't him. You have pretty mixed feelings. Although your mother was okay with it, you just couldn't make your finger pushed those buttons on the telephone. Every time you tried, you just put the phone back to its place and continued suffering.

On the other hand, you were afraid. Scared to see them using drugs and killing themselves with it. You wouldn't survive. You have already seen your brother passing out on the couch while injecting heroin in his veins and it was the most horrible thing you've ever gone through. You shook your head to get rid of the memory and kept on reading. Hours went by and you were about to read the last page when a shadow covered all the lights.

"A moment, David. I'm on the last page then you can close the café." You said not leaving the page.

"Hey, (Y/N)." A familiar voice echoed making you drop the book and gulp.

"Mick?!" You literally jumped up from the chair on him. "Wh-what at you doing here?" He hummed feeling your arms around him and the scent of your hair.

"I was missing my soulmate." He smirked not letting you go. "Cause she didn't visit me against the fact she promised me. And it was even a pinky promise! An unbreakable vow, we are talking about." He chuckled making you grin.

"Well, the tour hasn't ended, has it?"

∆

Taglist: @leatherandheels @littlemisscare-all @safari-karrot @crazyrockrlady @savageandnikkiapproved 🖤

#motley crue #glam rock #mick mars #rocknroll #80s music #80srock #vince neil #nikki sixx #tommy lee #mick mars x reader #mick mars imagine #motley crue imagine #motley crue x reader

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blastthatsadfm · 3 years ago

Note

persona 3/arcane for the fandom meme (your choice)

LET'S DO ARCANE!

blorbo (favorite character, character i think about the most)

This might surprise you but! I think about Vi a lot, and have been defending her from fandom shitty takes in my own mind, lately. In my own mind I say, cuz I really have no patience to care enough to retort fandom shitty takes. She's simply, the best progonist of anything I have ever seen in a while. scrunkly (my “baby”, character that gives me cuteness aggression, character that is so shaped)

Hmmmm! I think that's Viktor, for me. He puts me in a loop of "Must defend him / bastard, unpleasant, lonely, little man / I want that twink obliterated" kind of thoughts. Speaking more seriously, as someone who was the smart kid from a working class background, who was also deeply lonely as well and who managed to go to the best Uni we have around here, Viktor inspires me. I relate to him a lot, including in his loneliness as a child, his hope to do good for his community with his education and work, his spiraling of nights awake working, obsessive "productive cycles", having like one friend total, managing to get into high places cuz others saw potential on him after years of only him believing in himself, and of not looking for his own health by the minute it seems like the one person who cared for him, doesnt care anymore.

scrimblo bimblo (underrated/underappreciated fave)

SKY YOUNG! Why must you die on me??? I really care for her, so much. Alternatively: Ekko. He's the best characer on Arcane. He's just the best. Rebel, anti-imperialist, King.

glup shitto (obscure fave, character that can appear in the background for 0.2 seconds and i won’t shut up about it for a week)

That's also Sky Young, for me. We got to see her on Viktor's flashback, and while this was also an interesting way to connect her place on Viktor's life and background, it does gets me thinking a lot about her, in general. She came from the Undercity, also had a brilliant mind and a research she was working on. She was very cute on her way of romantically approaching Viktor and pleasant to watch, overall.

The fact that Arcane fridged her for Viktor's man pain is one of the reasons why Arcane doesnt really get all that many points with me. Fridging the original black woman character for man's pain is not good, doesnt matter how engaging the man character in question is. This is also my Hot Take, folks. I'm not wrong. I said what I said. and btw they better not do the same thing with Mel.

poor little meow meow (“problematic”/unpopular/controversial/otherwise pathetic fave)

Oh, I think that's professor Heirmedinger for me, actually. SURE! HE DOES REPRESENTS HOW ACADEMY'S APPARENT NEUTRALITY CAN END UP PROTECTING AN EVIL, EXPLOITATIVE SYSTEM RUN BY PEOPLE FROM THE TOP TO EXPLORE THE ONES BELOW, AND ALSO ELITISM FROM THIS ACADEMY ITSELF, THAT BLOCKS ACCESS FROM THE ONES BELOW TO KNOWLEDGE AND EDUCATION UNLESS PERSONALLY OVERSEEING AND FAVORING A VERY FEW, BUT. He has a dog. He's a furry, ducentennary little guy. I dont think you understand. I like him, I think he's neat. He's to blame for a lot of crimes, but I think he's neat.

horse plinko (character i would torment for fun, for whatever reason)

Jynx! =] ... She would like it.

eeby deeby (character i would send to superhell)

CAITLY.N JUST HAS TO GO. //Shoves the cop down the toilet and watches her move in cycles until she learns To Not Be a Cop, anymore.

Caitl.yn is an engaging character, as all of the main characters in Arcane. But. She's a cop. An "enforcer". Of a exploitative state. Who gets off on the idea she can explain to Vi, the freshly out-of-prison by that same exploitative state, who also lost her parents and her youth for it, how things work. Oh, I dont think that's it, young lady. Really dont think that's fresh.

#arcane #sky young #thank you ANON!#goes and tags it just like yeah fuck it that's it #dont fight with me on it because I'm right

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the-littlest-goblin · 4 years ago

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Hey! For the WIP thing, e/c college au?

ooh this one’s fun. Shadowgast college/modern with magic au with a whole lot of academic magic talk. Caleb and Essek are research assistants to Yussa and Waccoh, respectively, who are forced to work together on a research project despite their long-standing rivalry. While their bosses go on an enemies-to-colleagues (to lovers, maybe???) journey, Caleb and Essek bond over dunamancy.

I really love this au but it lacks enough plot to justify the worldbuilding, and also parts of it got piecemeal-ed into other fics so it seems kind of redundant now. I haven’t totally given up on it, but it’s definitely on the back burner. since I’m so fond of it, you get a much longer excerpt than necessary:

“That’s the stupidest thing I ever heard in my life!” Professor Waccoh announced her arrival by shoving the door open like it had wronged her in a very cruel and personal manner. Yussa stormed in behind her, his robes swishing aggressively, as if they too were possessed with a righteous fury.

“Your plan will never work!” he cried. “The experiment will be over before it begins, because all our materials will have melted.”

“They won’t if we get mithril sheets instead of steel!” Waccoh countered.

“And blow a third of our grant funds on day one? What lunacy!”

Caleb and Essek exchanged long-suffering looks. Their first day as co-lab assistants to the joint research team of Waccoh and Errenis was not looking to be a pleasant one.

“Are we still on for tutoring later tonight?” Essek whispered under the noise of their bosses’ continuing argument.

“Of course,” Caleb answered. They were both standing against the wall at the edge of the lab, awaiting instruction, writing utensils at the ready to take down notes, but neither Yussa nor Waccoh seemed to realize they were even in the room. They had eyes only for each other.

“Of course we have to enchant the materials first! It will be so much easier than waiting until everything is assembled!”

“So what am I supposed to do, just sit here twiddling my thumbs and wait an eternity for you to cast your stupid spells? No way! I’m building the engine first, then I can move on with my life while you spend another decade enchanting it.”

“If you would just listen to reason, Tuss…”

Essek leaned over to Caleb again. “Perhaps it would be more efficient if we start now?”

Caleb looked up from the cat he’d been doodling in the margins of his notebook. It looked more like a sausage with legs and a tail—he was no Jester.

“What do you mean?”

“Here.” Grabbing his bag in one hand, Essek put the other on Caleb’s elbow and guided him to the next table over. Neither professor commented.

Sitting down, Essek pulled a cinderblock of a textbook out of his bag. The front cover showed a galaxy of stars overlaid with geometric designs and bold, block letters reading: Fundamentals of Dunamancy. And under that, in slightly smaller letters: Leylas Kryn, PhD. It was littered with sticky notes poking out the side of nearly every page.

Essek flipped open to one marking about a fourth of the way through the book, labeled CALEB.

“So,” Essek began, and Caleb scrambled to turn his notebook to a fresh page. “We left off last time talking about dunamis, correct?”

“Yes,” Caleb confirmed. “And the beacons.”

“Right. So you understand the origins of dunamancy.”

“I am a little unclear,” Caleb admitted. Curious, he glanced over to the other side of the lab. Yussa and Waccoh had migrated to the chalkboard, where they appeared to be laying out their respective arguments in bullet-point form. They did not seem to be in need of any assistance. He turned back to Essek.

“The beacons are fonts of magic, but they are also religious relics, correct?”

Essek nodded.

“But dunamancy is an arcane subject,” Caleb continued. “It does not come from worship of this Luxon figure, the way clerical magic is derived from deities. It is a realm of academic study.” Essek nodded again. “So, where does the religious connection come in?”

“Well, you have stumbled upon a matter of great controversy,” Essek answered. “Personally, I believe religion has nothing to do with it. If you ask me, the beacons’ connection to the Luxon is a historical note, a misguided invention from a time with a more primitive understanding of magic. If we were wise, we would disregard any writings that talk of its divine origins and approach the subject from a fresh perspective. But,” Essek mouth twisted into a bitter smile, “if you ask Professor Kryn, you will get a very different answer.”

“I see,” said Caleb, mind whirring as it mulled over the new information.

“But that debate is not essential to our lessons. You don’t need to understand the depths of the beacons in order to practice basic dunamancy. Although, I appreciate your curiosity.” His smile softened as he surveyed Caleb. “You have an uncanny talent for getting directly to the heart of the matter.”

Don’t ask so many questions, Bren.

Caleb blinked hard against the voice echoing at the back of his mind.

“Have these beacons been studied very closely?”

Essek tilted his head to the side, considering. “A bit? It’s difficult, with them being such cherished cultural artifacts. Most of the examination that has been done was conducted by archeologists and historians. A handful of arcanists in recent years, including Leylas, have been permitted to study them, but it’s an extremely thorough vetting process.” He paused, jaw working as though he was unsure about whether to allow the next words past his lips.

“The vetting is mostly done by high level clerics within the worship. I imagine Leylas’ long history of devout practice made them more inclined to allow her access.”

Caleb noted the tinge of sadness—and was that resentment?—in his voice. But Essek was speaking again before he could comment.

“I can send you some articles on the topic, if you wish to investigate further,” he said. “In the meantime, we move forward.”

Though it remained open in front of them, Essek hardly consulted the textbook once as their lesson continued. It was difficult not to pay attention when he talked; the smooth timber of his voice paired with the undeniable enthusiasm he had for the subject kept Caleb enraptured, Even the most basic elements, clearly known by rote, Essek explained with a spark of passion in his eye, which grew brighter with every question or clarification Caleb parried back.

He was an excellent teacher.

They had almost entirely forgotten about the job they were meant to be doing, and their bickering superiors, until over an hour later. While Essek was guiding Caleb through a diagram of common somatic movements for dunamantic spells, Yussa called out,

“Caleb! I need you to go to my office and retrieve my copy of Otiluke’s Guide to Enchantment, Volume IV. I have a point to prove!”

ask game

#my writing #mettasutcliff #critrole

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wrongfullythinking · 4 years ago

Text

Twitter and the “Public Forum”

There is a very large looming legal question about whether or not social media sites, such as Twitter, are “Public Forums.” Most would agree that they are not... at least... not yet. But the question is... should they be?

First, a look into why it matters.

In a public forum, all First Amendment protections apply. So you can say any number of very objectionable things (https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=12634874511090553174) and be protected. In a private forum, this is not so. I can kick you out of my house for wearing an Abercrombie shirt, and you have no Free Speech/Expression reason to contest my staggeringly good decision-making.

Second, the public forum cannot be policed for any content that may be stated. This is why if you go to reserve time at a public park, you don’t have to tell the Parks and Rec department what your event is for. Just things like how many people, how long the event will last, etc. This is well-established and well-backed by many years of precedent.

Finally, there is the very serious matter of personal liability. In certain circumstances, officials can be held personally liable if their policies deliberately and knowingly infringe upon Bill of Rights protections (most often First Amendment protections). This means that you could literally sue for the property and assets of a person. (Also, this is why those of us who own either physical property [like a house] or intellectual property [like a book] buy “Umbrella Coverage” from insurances... I recommend State Farm, but that’s totally irrelevant and I’m not getting any kickbacks for that shill =P.)

But hang on... so if the government owns a billboard and rents it out to whomever can pay, can I rent it and post a naked lady?

You could try, and you might win! What you can’t do is post something obscene. And yes, whether or not a naked person is obscene is staggeringly controversial. There’s a 3-part test from the Burger court, a host of vague terms like “average person” and “contemporary community standards,” and “lacks serious artistic/literary/political/scientific value.” And then there are protections for children, a whole separate piece, as well as child pornography, which is always classified as obscene... except when it is not, like in the cases of naked cherubs in church windows. So, confused yet? We’re off topic, but I make this point to explain that even in public forums, where First Amendment rights are fiercely protected, there are still outstanding issues of content censorship.

So, is Twitter / Facebook / Tumblr a public forum?

At this point, the answer is no. They are privately controlled by companies, not owned by the feds or states or local municipalities, and thus can make almost any policy they want. The idea here is that the free market dictates the life or death of these platforms... and that idea tends to hold true! Tumblr itself is a good case-in-point, because it has lost millions of dollars in value due to bad leadership decisions, and at least partially because of censorship. There are countless examples of others... I remember when Yahoo! was the primary search engine of the internet and Xanga was the biggest blogging platform. While you can still Yahoo, I’m not sure there are more than a few hundred people on Xanga, if it still exists in any useful format. So, since places like this are subject to the free market, and thus can die... they should be allowed to make all the good or bad decisions they want about their content. Or at least, that is how the theory runs.

But really... ARE they subject to the market? Now we’re getting into the really interesting territory. If Facebook shut down tomorrow, would it be a problem? Maybe, but life would continue. But if Google shut down tomorrow? Well, millions of schoolchildren are in GoogleClassrooms right now, so that would certainly be a problem. It would at least cause massive disruption... and Facebook shutting down would cause some disruption. Likewise, Twitter controls so much speech that instead of publishing headlines from Newspapers, newspapers publish headlines from Twitter! The 14-year-old looks at that line like “well, duh” and the 44-year old reads that line like “wow, we’ve come a long way,” and the 84-year-old reads that line with just a sad headshake.

So, now we’ve joined one of the most controversial points of the last 20 years... the Fannie Mae “Too Big to Fail” problem. Basically, a set of banks and big mortgage companies (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) made a bunch of bad decisions in about 1995 - 2008. [As an aside, whether or not Fannie Mae {technically, the “Federal National Mortgage Association”} is actually a company comes up as an issue... it originated as a government program, but is today a publicly-traded company and has been since the late 60s, though it was delisted from NYSE and is only traded off-exchange]. And the government had to step in. You can read all about that issue at another time, the bottom line is that actually Fannie Mae has paid back more than it borrowed, but there was a ballooning of the debt ceiling by over 800 billion. Some people care about the national debt, some don’t, and again, not the subject of this commentary. The point is that it set a very odd precedent, whereas a company could make extremely bad decisions and then the burden would be placed on the taxpayers to fix their decision, because the company itself was a part of so many people’s lives. Would social media fall under this guidance? Unlikely, and I think we would all run from state-sponsored social media... but hey, what do I know.

So... get to the point. Should they be public forums, or not?

My two cents always comes down against censorship, especially censorship by entities that don’t have my best interests at heart... so basically, everybody else. I think that it is so easy to self-censor the internet at the personal end (for example, by installing filters and blocking services for objectionable content), that companies should not be unilaterally making these decisions, especially if those companies want to be venues for mass public communication.

Let’s go with another example... let’s say you wanted to call up your buddy and have a nice long phonesex session. Good for you. Or just chat with them about the latest Dr. Doe video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXgT8WXaPUY), because enthusiasm is important. Would you be okay with Verizon telling a robot to monitor your call, and then automatically hang up if you said ��penis” too much? Or “Trump”? Or “Black Lives Matter?” What about “Nazi,” “Rohypnol,” “Mary Jane,” “negritos” [I’ve got your back, Mr. Cavani], “snowbunny,” or “Insane Clown Posse”? I think most people would be upset about any of those, and they would rightfully tell Verizon that they will find another provider. So Verizon doesn’t do that, although it could. But Twitter does do that. And the availability of another Twitter is in question. Will something succeed Twitter? Absolutely. But right now, Twitter is under no market pressure, so it is succeeding at taking off its platform any number of conversations that it probably should not be policing.

There’s also a social-justice side of this. So, let’s say that we all decide Twitter is a bad platform and move to something else. And that something else costs us 10$ a month. I wouldn’t notice this fee. Others would. So that’s an access issue. Or, let’s say that some people start migrating to a new platform, and they only tell their friends about it. That’s okay, right? Absolutely... but imagine that college student who is trapped at home in a pandemic right now who cannot get any viewpoints outside of what her parents approved of, and previously used Twitter to explore and challenge her upbringing. If she doesn’t get an invite to the new platform, is she just lost?

And that brings up the Pandemic. Many, many common public forums have been shut down due to the pandemic. This alone has caused serious controversy (see: BLM protests on crowded streets where state governors participated, while those same governors implemented executive orders enforcing 6-foot distancing in churches and stores), so the argument for Twitter censorship “but you have many other public forums!” is tough to substantiate during the COVID-era. And this is a HUGE problem. Historically, taking away public forums is always an early move of totalitarian regimes. Taking away rights to assembly and speech follows soon after. We’re now in Phase 2 there... and our governors keep assuring us it is temporary... while at the same time, encouraging Twitter to take off any viewpoints they don’t like, under the guise of “false or misleading information.” Soon, they start moving into the schools, and that leads to...

SCIENCE!!!

So, to talk about what rigorous debate means, we need to understand a bit about Science. And specifically, the philosophy of science, what scientific discourse looks like, and why review and critique are parts of the scientific process.

Point 1: “Scientific consensus” is hogwash. Yes, we all agree that the Earth orbits the Sun, and the Sun itself moves, but beyond that, there isn’t much scientific consensus. If you see an article that starts with the phrase “Expert say,” you can go ahead and close your browser window right there. The rest is bull****.

Point 2: The limits of science are boundless. Any specific scientific paper is, by necessity and the peer review process, very strictly bounded. “Whether or not a vaccine is efficient” is an entirely different paper than one titled “Whether or not 80-year-olds with lung cancer should get the vaccine,” and both of those are different than “How the US should achieve herd immunity, and if it is even possible for COVID-19 before significant mutations cause current immunizations to be ineffective,” and all three of those are different from “Do we need to vaccinate our cats from COVID in order to reach herd immunity?”

Point 3: There is no “finalized” science. The answers are never finished. What is “cutting edge” science today is out-of-date tomorrow, barbaric and backwards by the end of the year, and grounds for an abuse lawsuit by the end of the decade. The best examples of this are from Psych treatments.

Point 4: I get very worried when anybody starts to censor scientific content... especially those without any qualifications. Okay, so this one is a personal sentence (note the “I”), but I’m going to go ahead and guess that Twitter robots and interns flagging posts don’t have any idea the difference between sensitivity and specificity, the background as to why the FDA has never approved an mRNA vaccine previously, the difference between statistical and clinical significance, and how to read a limitations section. The people who are qualified to do so are peer reviewers... and in the case where those fail (which happens!), the rest of the writer’s peers. And we do that. Anything published is open to critique, which leads to the final point, that...

Point 5: Critique and Review are THE MOST IMPORTANT PARTS of scientific publishing. If a piece is published without review, it is called an “opinion” and not science. Even more worrisome than the censoring of unpopular papers is the censoring of the opinions of scientists on the papers of their peers. Should someone publish a paper where I believe they overstretched their claims, it is a HUGE part of my job to call that out. For an agency like Twitter to be able to say “you don’t have the right to say that they overstated their claim, because expressing a concern about a vaccine is against our Terms of Use” is a very big problem for science.

The flipside is that you get into the part where now a company can, through its policy, dictate what science gets done. For example, lets say I wanted to examine an unpopular question... and I’m a social scientist, so there are plenty of those, but say I wanted to do something semi-controversial but apolitical. I’ll say my research question is “How do the happiness of those in committed multi-year polyamorous relationships compare to the happiness of people in similar economic and social situations but in closed marriages where additional intimate partnerships would be viewed as grounds for relationship termination?” There are plenty of ways I could conduct this study and I’ll spare you my methodological musings, but safe to say there are platforms who would not want me to publish my results. And that’s fine.

But let’s say that I did publish my results, and a commenter took to Twitter. And their response was “I read your paper, and I see your conclusion that those in committed multi-year polyamorous relationships score no differently on a happiness scale than those in the closed marriages. However, I disagree with your use of this scale, because it was tested on populations of retirees, and most of the people in your sample are in their late 20s or early 30s.”

That is an EXCELLENT and VALID critique. And let’s say that Twitter was heavily into the social justice and had a policy that said “you can’t say negative things about polyamory.” And they deleted this person’s comment. Now, Twitter has interfered with the scientific process. That comment IS PART of the dialogue and that dialogue is part of Science. Yes, there are other places that those comments could be made, and not be censored... but we should not be encouraging that censorship ANYWHERE. And Twitter has vastly overstepped the line on this point. Random Twitter employees have no business removing professional critiques about a study, even if there are other platforms for those critiques.

Other Thoughts

1) Generally, you can’t prohibit meetings in a public forum based on prior behavior. Thus, “X group was violent in the past” is not a reason to prohibit X group from accessing a public forum for speech. So there’s no saying “Proud Boys were violent once, so no Proud Boys on Twitter” if it were to be declared a public forum.

2) I’m really not aware of any large precedents for taking a private company and declaring it a public forum. That may seem redundant (obviously, if there was precedent, this wouldn’t be such a hot-button issue), but it bears specific mention.

#twitter #public forum #legal #science

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downwiththeficness · 5 years ago

Text

In the Blood-3

Pairing: Brasa/Female OC

Words: ~2,000

Warnings: None

Part One

Part Two

Part Four

Part Five

Part Six

Part Seven

Part Eight Part Nine Part Ten Part Eleven Part Twelve

The bed was glorious. Soft sheets, soft mattress, soft pillows. Lilah stretched long, arms above her head and toes pointed. It burned in her muscles, pleasing and warm. When she relaxed, she noted the very low light. Had she slept with the lights on again? She wouldn’t put it past her. Turning over, she closed her eyes and buried her face in the pillow. It smelled so, so good. Like coffee and liquid caramel. She pressed her nose into it and groaned, burying deep.

When she was young and working her first job, she was accidentally gifted a man’s cologne at a dirty Santa party. She’d liked it so much that she’d sprayed it over her bed sheets so that she could roll around in it. At that time, it was the closest human connection she could get. A short time later, she’d taken more controversial work. This smelled so much better. She wanted to add it to her bath so that she could smell it on her skin for the rest of the day. She wanted to pull the pillowcase in her mouth and taste it.

Body lax and pliable, it took far too long for her realize there were fingers running down the length of her spine, from neck to hips and back. The touch was soft, almost hesitant, continuously moving. Eyebrows coming together, she peeked outward to a form blocking what little light was in the room.

“Who are you?” She grumbled, feeling cranky. Lilah was too comfortable to muster up much more than that, certainly to comfy to feel fear.

His breath fanned across her shoulder, “Someone who has waited a long time to meet you.”

“That,” she replied, as she buried her face further into the pillow, “Doesn’t answer my question.”

He leaned over and pressed his mouth to the place where her scapula met her spine, “No, it doesn’t. But, it is true.”

Lilah frowned, though he couldn’t possibly see her face well enough to appreciate it, “Why are you following me?”

He tilted his head to the side and fixed her with a look that told her that her question was absurd, “It can’t be helped.”

It wasn’t until she started to flip over to face him fully that she realized she was naked under the silky slick of the sheets. Embarrassed, she bunched it against her chest as she tried to slide away. His expression turned disgruntled and he reached over to hold her by the forearm. The grip was firm, stopping her with little more than the pressure of his fingertips.

“Where are you?”

“What?”

He repeated the question, this time slower, lower. The timbre of his voice was laced with an undercurrent of something that vibrated over her skin. She just barely managed to suppress a full body shiver.

She swallowed and looked around, “No idea.”

The room was unfamiliar to her, and too dark to give her any clues. She couldn’t see beyond the obscenely comfortable bed and the man who lay within it.

With noticeable frustration, he rolled his eyes and lifted to rest his weight on the palm of his hand, looming over her. Lilah had to force herself to keep her eyes on his face and not the flex of muscle over his chest and arms. His body completed blocked the light and most of his face was in shadow, but she could see the faint outline of his mouth, pressed thin in displeasure. Lilah didn’t know what to do with the urge to catch the pouting lower lip with her teeth.

“Outside of here. Where are you?”

She blinked, “A hotel.”

“Where?”

Things started to go fuzzy and she felt her body sink and fall. She jerked away, the sheets tangled in her legs and the comforter kicked to the floor. She was sweating. Taking deep breaths, she tried to steady her galloping heart.

With a grunt, she pushed from the bed and made her way to the bathroom. This hotel was lower rent than the last few she’d stayed at. The bathroom barely had running water, let alone a working water heater. She turned on the lights and twisted her body around to look at the damage.

The job had gone a little sideways and she’d gotten scraped up a bit. Carefully, she pulled the bandage away from her skin. It was healing really nicely. She removed it and tossed it in the garbage can sitting below the sink.

After showering, she dressed and checked out. The car was already unbearably hot when she slid into the driver’s seat. To combat the arid air, she rolled all four windows down about two inches and pulled out of the lot. She had about four hours to make it to the next location and get set up. There would be no on-site work today, for which she was grateful. Just her, a computer, and the voices of the team filtering into her headphones.

The drive was short and she made it with plenty of time. She entered the empty building and climbed the stairs to the fifth floor. Hauling her equipment up that many flights taxed her, despite the cardio she made sure to do several times a week. It didn’t matter how many miles she ran, stairs were a fucking nuisance.

She set up and logged on.

“McNamara online.”

A round of call signs sounded in her ears.

“Cool. Are we in place?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Good. This is a smash and grab, guys. Get the artifact, get the fuck out. Don’t go off-script and we’ll be through this in less than an hour.”

“Copy.”

From her vantage point, she coordinated security feeds and worked to cut alarms and then reset them as the team moved through the museum across the street. The objective was simple: A staff of some importance to a tribe in Mexico was on display. Steal the staff, deliver to the buyer.

True to her word, the team had exited the museum in less than an hour, no alarms set off, no police on site. She closed her computer and pulled the ear buds from her ears, wrapping the wire around her hot spot and shoving them in her bag.

With as little ceremony as possible, she exited the building and got in her car. The team would be waiting for her at a designated location where she would take the staff, pay them, and haul ass to her handler.

Everything went as planned, and Lilah had the staff in hand as she headed for the rental. She looked at it, a long length of wood topped with a crudely carved snake. Turning it her hands, she wondered what its significance was and why someone would pay a total of half a million to get it out of the collection of the museum.

After folding it into roll of fabric for protection, Lilah slid it into the back seat of the car and closed the door. She turned and ran her gaze over the parking lot, seeing no one, and opened the driver’s side door. The engine turned over and she pulled out with little incident.

Her body drove on automatic, her mind taking the time to parse the details of yet another dream. What kept coming back to her was the heat from his hand as it held her still. She could still feel it, if she focused on the skin of her arm. It was unnatural, feverish.

Her fingers twisted around the steering wheel. She was stressed. She was tired. She would finish this job and take some time off. Go up north and stay in a cabin until her brain worked out whatever this shit was. Jaw set, she nodded to herself, having made her decision.

Her handler’s name was Javier and she saw him a couple times a year. Most of their communication was either over the phone or through a secure email server. She liked him. He was extremely professional and always paid up. Any deal they made was written in stone, and he seemed to value what she brought to the team. Well, team was, perhaps, too generous a word. Lilah rarely worked with the same people twice—her deal with Chewie notwithstanding. It kept people from getting too comfortable, and kept the inevitable vendettas from getting too out of hand.

One of his favorite places to meet her was at the base of a mountain in the desert. With the sun setting, it had turned a bit cold and she threw on a hoodie before grabbing the staff out of the back and heading for a large, flat rock formation. The air was dry, and her shoes crunched on the ground as she walked across it.

Reflexively, she checked her watch. She was early. Leaning the staff against the rock, she hopped up and let her legs dangle over the side. Far outside the city, the light pollution was low enough that she could clearly see thousands of stars. The moon was just rising over the horizon, a sliver of a crescent that cast a blue glow over the landscape.

From far away, she could see the headlights heading towards her. As she watched them grow bigger and brighter, she slipped her hand to the pistol in her waistband and waited until the car pulled up next to hers and Javier stepped out. He left his headlights on, but turned off the engine. She let go of the gun and relaxed, resting her forearms on her knees.

Javier was short, clearing about five foot—barely. He was also well dressed. Crisp, three piece suits were his sartorial bread and butter. Tonight’s color was a deep burgundy, pink shirt, and black tie. Lilah thought he looked very smart.

“Looking good, Javier,” she called out, giving a little wave.

He stopped and gave a curt bow, “Thank you. You look as if you haven’t slept.”

“Gee, thank you,” she snorted, crossing one leg over the other, “And, here, I brought you what you asked for.”

Javier’s eyes glance at the staff and he approached it with something resembling reverence. With careful hands, he unrolled it from the fabric and held it aloft for inspection. Lilah didn’t think he was even breathing.

“What is it?” she asked lowly, afraid to break whatever spell seemed to hold him captive.

Javier’s dark eyes looked up at her, “A relic, used in blood rituals for hundreds of years.”

“Ew,” Lilah murmured, picking lint from her pants..

He chuckled a little, “I don’t expect you to understand. But, a long time ago, when my people were young, they sacrificed one of their own to the gods to guarantee their favor.”

She shrugged, having heard the legends off hand here and there, “What does the staff have to do with it?”

Javier held up the bottom end, “If someone was discovered to have betrayed the group, they were executed. The sharp end was shoved into their chest. True death.”

A shudder went through her, “Isn’t that a bit…” She trailed off.

“Barbaric?” He prompted with a smile as he rolled the staff into the fabric once more.

“Uh, yeah.”

Javier shrugged, “Only the greatest betrayal could warrant it. Its still done, even in modern society.”

She thought about it, “Good point.”

Tucking the staff beneath one arm, Javier changed the subject, “I have another job for you.”

Lilah was already shaking her head, “I can’t. I need a break.”

“Its easy. Just a visit to some old friends to pick up a package.”

She sighed and dropped her chin into her palm, “I need a break.”

Javier’s expression was soft, assuring, “After this, you take as much time as you need. And when you come back, I want to bring you up a level.”

Blinking, Lilah leaned back and studied her handler. She’d been working at this level for at least two years, and she had no ambition to move up in the hierarchy. She’d never once voiced the want to do more than what she was doing. And yet, here the opportunity was. Run the job. Get the promotion.

Javier waited patiently while she decided, though she doubted he had any thought that she’d turn it down. She’d never been the least bit shy about him knowing that she could be motivated by money. A steady pay check was security, a home she could buy when she wanted to retire, protection from the enemies she’d made when she was a younger, brasher, woman.

“Where is this job?”

#brasa #fdtd #from dusk til dawn: the series #from dusk til dawn #maurice compte #In the Blood

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ohoshi · 4 years ago

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omg first i need to talk about nct at song festival (gayo daechukjae) umm first of all mark and taeyongs rap was so good but ofc we all knew they would kill it. and then in nct U class, teacher taeyong looked so good...the way he bit that pointer stick thing in the beginning was so sexc (and the hair and the glasses ahdsfasjf) 😳 but also sungchans rap in that?? i was not expecting that but why am i even surprised anymore.. and also misfit live?? i loved nct's school uniform concept too for some reason ahahaha

and then xiaojun in resonance!! wow yes go shine xj!!! (also idk why but i found it so funny when it was doyoung's turn after xj, but xj was kinda blocking dy (who was really walking with a PURPOSE) so dy lightly pushed him out of the way) and then omg shotaro!! offstage he is so 😊 but damn in hard carry he was so good!! ahh and then also the thing where all the kpop artists at gayo daechukjae sang that song was so cute (i smiled so hard when nct came up 🥺)

yea for my job situation i think it will be okay, i talked to some people i know/mentors about it too and i think things will work out...they always do in the end right? 😊 now about anime LOL this is making me wanna start/rewatch an anime now hahahah! honestly i kind of have phases where i alternate between kdramas and animes, but i havent rly watched anime much lately besides haikyuu (which i was also surprised was still airing (but it's only season 2 so far?)). kpop (aka NCT) has been consuming my life lmao but im here for it 😂

weightlifting fairy was also my first kdrama!! yes i can totally give u some kdrama recs! besides the ones i mentioned before (which are most of my top ones), i also liked chicago typewriter, marriage not dating (i love the fake relationship trope hahaha), dinner mate, sky castle (it's kinda intense but it's so good and an iconic kdrama), cheer up, another miss oh, kingdom (if you like zombie things)...i heard startup is good and i want to watch it soon too! also i continued watching more of uncanny counter these past few days and i love it (but it's ongoing so no binging)

okay now svt: i watched some of your recs and youre so right all their choreos are so satisfying?! i also actually agree with you about black on black, i liked black on black and it was cool but it only featured like 5 members lmao and in the svt choreos it does feel like all of them are featured in some way in each performance? plus their choreos are just so great to watch!! also i've had left and right stuck in my head since i watched it LOL but i agree it's objectively better than dynamite (not an army though; also pls nobody come at us for this lmaoo)

also super random but can you tell me who is the one in the red/purple plaid shirt in the svt home dance practice?? i am kinda attracted by his dance moves LOL and i havent learned names yet 😭 i will continue watching all ur svt recs though hehehe and update you on the status of my fangirling :))

omg wait also i would never have guessed that you're not an english speaker just from these messages!! how did you know that i was prob a native speaker haha (i guess *technically* cantonese is my first language, but then i learned english in school so now i'm obviously more native in that lol and english is the only language i can read/write in)

OMGGF IKR as a multi stan i really enjoyed the rap collab especially because i really love monsta x's rap line (esp i.m!!! his rapping skill 😍) and of course mark and taeyong!!!! 😭 our boys 😭 our golden rappers 😭 SLAYED IT! omg the nct u got me 😳 taeyong looked so good???? wtf? and also sungchan? damn that boy keeps surprising me! the interesting part to me was when one member(johnny if i remember correctly) bumped into taeyong but it was done on purpose and how he uhhh kinda shook his body and his head but it all looked so cool and he never stopped rapping!!! love how they all 'performed' misfit manifesting wild teenagers in school (as they are tbh) IT WAS SO FUN AND COOL!!!

XIAOJUN!!!!!!!!!!!!! WAS SO!!!!!! GOOD!!!!!!! THE CONFIDENCE??? THE STAGE PRESENCE????? XIAOJUN CENTER???? XIAOJUN BEING RELEVANT????? i live 😭 he was so good he looked so good i was so happy and i'm so proud of him 😭 from here the only way to go is up! i hope he keeps surprising us! and omg i haven't noticed that part when doyoung pushed him bc he blocked him?? and i just rewatched it and it looks funny 🤣 but they held everything professionally 😌 no surprises there 😌

OH MY GOD THE HARD CARRY PERFORMANCE!!!!!!!!! first of all our boy shotaro DAMN 😳 he looked so good you couldn’t say that he just debuted a few months ago!! such a dancing machine! (but honestly i am not surprised because in make a wish he was rly good and he debuted as a dancer i expected from him to be good™ as he is!) and i love the duality od him <3 yk that kind of idol that you want to protect at all cost but the next second they're the one you seek protection from? yeH sign me uP! and don't even get me started on hyunjin, juyeon and moonbin!!!!! but i mean all 3 of them are main dancers of course they would look good™ 😌 (yeah shotaro performed with 3 main dancers of 3 different groups i mean the honor??????)

the end of the festival was so wholesome! It was a serotonin boost and me too i also smiled the whole time! so cute 😭 and ot23 were cutiesssss

yes! everything will work out in the end! don't stress about it!<3 oh haikyuu only has 2 seasons? wtf hsgsjsgs ok then i just watched when it had like 13 episodes, WHEN IT FIRST CAME OUT that's when i watched it lmao

OMG OK I HAVE WRITTEN DOWN ALL OF THESE DRAMAS (and from the previous ask) IN MY NOTES SO FAR im mostly excited about the fake relationship one 👀 i love fake relationship trope, too 🤧 oh no binging?? is that your thing?? usually i love to wait for the show to finish airing and then i binge watch it in a few days (or one day depends how busy i am)

SEVENTEEN!!!!: yeah all of their choreos are so satisfying (pointing this out one more time) they always pay attention to details (for example in home, bc you're familiar with it, they even choreograph the hands and pay attention to them while most of the other kpop choreos very often freestyle the whole arms sjagaj) here's a fun fact abt svt that makes me love them so much agsgsj: they're self produced! they produce their own music and they even come up with their own choreos!! (of course not on their own, woozi is a producer but he's not making songs on his own he coproduces them with [a producer name bc i guess that's irrelevant but if you’re curious: bumzu], they come up with their own choreo (to be precise, hoshi does! he is 1/2 main dancers in group and he is the main choreographer! he doesn't do everything on his own of course, he gets help from the rest of the performance team (which is a svt subunit consisted of their 2 main and 2 lead dancers: hoshi, dino, the8, jun) and of course some other infamous kpop choreography teams) and i think that, by now, all the members were credited at least once for the lyrics

I'M SO GLAD YOU HAVE LEFT AND RIGHT STUCK IN YOUR HEAD HAGSJSSGSG but i mean of course you would it's soo good and soo catchy (yeahhh no worries, this army has already gotten minor hate for having controversial opinions™ and for criticising her faves so idc anymore 💁🏻‍♀️ it's my opinion as a dancer and i stand by it, even can't you see me by txt is better than dynamite so literally 3 dance performance were better!!!! in a way!!!! and neither of the 3 won!!! yes i am salty!!!!!)

the guy in the red/purple shirt (the center guy when they do the 3 dances for the first time right??) IS DINO!!!! he's the maknae and 2/2 main dancers in svt so!!! of course you would be attracted by his moves!!!!!! JSGSJSN i'm curious to see if you end up staning svt and biasing dino hsfsjsgsha

CANTONESE IS YOUR FIRST LANGUAGE? damn i thought you couldn’t get more interesting here's a dumb question: can you understand xiaojun, hendery and lucas without titles??? not that i would know if they ever speak cantonese in front of the camera for i don't know the difference between chinese dialects</3

#thank u for saying you wouldve never guessed that english wasnt my first language #that makes me happy!!#also your english is so good that's how i knew you were a native speaker lmao #ss20

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anexplanationofunfortunateevents · 5 years ago

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Spooky Stories at Camp Quarantine: The Tale of the Swift Boat

Campfire story (n): a ritual where we all sit under the vast darkness of a midnight sky and tell ourselves a story about the big, scary monster that isn’t lurking just out of sight. You know. Probably.

2004 was a dark and stormy year.

The world pulsed with the still-raw trauma of the September 11 attacks. It was an anxious year of denial and bargaining, a desperate search for the loophole after Sirius Black fell through the veil. The twentieth century was dying and the third millennium was struggling to be born. It was the time of the Swift Boat.

The Usurper Bush the Lesser was in a tough place. If you were paying attention, you could see the signs that his stolen presidency was going to end in disaster and disgrace. And it was an election year, so people were about to start paying attention. So he took a lesson from his dear old Dad: he would unleash the hired help to unload a relentless fusillade of lies against his opponent.

Lying was an important part of the strategy because he was up against a strong challenger. John Kerry of Massachusetts was one of the most liberal Democrats in the Senate; he was also a tall, fit, well-educated, impeccably diplomatic, Irish Catholic patrician who didn’t challenge anyone’s idea of what a president looked like. He talked like Barack Obama and looked like Mitt Romney. He was allowed to get pneumonia without anyone losing their goddamn minds, that’s how white and manly he was.

Most critically, though, he seemed to have almost unique standing to campaign against the Bush administration’s spectacular failure in Iraq. At the time, Republicans had – cynically, but effectively – made themselves synonymous with The Troops. Anyone who questioned their lies or challenged their reckless foreign policy was axiomatically discredited as “hating the troops.” Kerry, however, was A Troop, with a track record of telling the hard truth about an unjustified war. He had earned five medals in Vietnam and then used that moral authority to call for an end to the bloodshed. His service gave him a way to connect to a massive group of voters for whom the war had been a generational trauma – and it was a strong contrast to Bush, who had used his wealth and family connections to dodge the draft.

Enter the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. This was a group of Vietnam veterans who, in mid-2004, collectively realized that Kerry had lied about his heroism, hoodwinked the military into giving him an award, not once but five times, and successfully covered up his perfidy for thirty-odd years, despite having been scrutinized by Massachusetts voters and press in half a dozen statewide elections. This fantastical tale was largely spun by Jerome Corsi, now known for spreading birtherism (the racist conspiracy theory that former President Obama was not an American citizen), narrowly escaping prosecution by special prosecutor Robert Mueller, and, most recently, hawking Trump’s favorite quack coronavirus cure. They were, naturally, bankrolled by obscenely wealthy Bush supporters.

Maybe these Swift boat veterans were purposefully lying; maybe they were sad old men whose trauma was manipulated by right-wing propagandists. But they did what they were supposed to do. Kerry’s campaign lost its footing and never quite got it back. Instead of being able to challenge Bush’s lies about about the war in Iraq that was happening at the time, he was stuck on the defensive against Bush’s lies about the Vietnam war, which had ended decades before. In one retrospectively critical moment of priming the conservative base for Donald “I like the people who weren’t captured” Trump, delegates at the Republican convention wore silly purple heart bandaids to mock the wounds Kerry received in combat.

We know how that ended. Bush won the popular vote by around 2%, which back in the day actually used to be enough to win the election. Thus, ISIS rose and New Orleans drowned.

The thing is, the bad guys don’t actually forget the past as easily as they hope you do. When a play works, they run it again. When a play almost works, they run it again but better. When a play doesn’t immediately work, it still rallies the right-wing base and softens up the general public for their authoritarian politics of lies and abuse, so they keep it in their back pocket. So we should probably try to understand the specific elements that made the Swift boat propaganda campaign particularly effective.

Imagine you’re an amoral Republican candidate and I’m your mercenary sociopath of a campaign manager. I’ve just said, “look, you’re getting your ass kicked, we’re going to have to swiftboat your opponent” and you’re like “what’s a swiftboat? Write me a memo!” So, here it is. (You may be thinking “but you don’t know anything about me, and I’d never be a Republican candidate for anything!” Lesson the first: it doesn’t matter, because your swiftboat attack has nothing to do with you.)

A swiftboat attack is bullshit. We like to think the truth is the most effective political weapon, but what if there really aren’t any disqualifying skeletons in your opponent’s closet? If you’re going to sabotage them anyway, that’s kind of liberating. After all, true stories depend on facts, which can be too boring to stick with people, and don’t have made-to-spec story arcs that conveniently fit with your campaign’s themes. Plus, if you’re relying on some actual truth that exists in the universe, you’re running the risk that there’s some mitigating factor out there, some witness who can give different context or a wronged party who can say they’ve buried the hatchet. Worse, your opponent already knows about stuff they actually did. Campaigns do a ton of background research into their own candidates, specifically so that they’re prepared for a predictable attack. They can’t prepare themselves for literally anything your army of political strategists can imagine, so you will always have the element of surprise.

Swiftboating isn’t an attack on your opponent’s policy. It’s an accusation that they’ve violated some taboo. There’s some sticky detail that people won’t quite be able to forget, even if they are exposed to the eventual debunking. The story, whatever it is, should be most upsetting to a large, important block of voters who are inclined to support your opponent.

The allegations don’t come from you, your campaign, or even a sympathetic journalist. They’re laundered through apparent private citizens who are part of a group of people that the general public tends to find sympathetic. This makes your story seem more credible to at first glance, wrong-foots anyone who wants to defend your opponent against the allegations, and lets you get credit for insincerely denouncing the attack while continuing to benefit from it.

This is a dick-swinging exercise, so be shameless. You’re not just putting your opponent in their place by showing you can get away with lying about them, and maddeningly rejecting responsibility for your lies. You’re showing off an authoritarian contempt for truth itself.

You need a relentless multimedia assault, impossible for people to miss. You might have to bully legitimate media into teaching the controversy, but they’re wimps. You’re not trying to convince most people that this specific story is true, you’re just trying to plant some seeds of doubt, and to sap time and enthusiasm from your opponent and their supporters. Make the election as miserable as possible and voters will reward you for it.

The most important thing is that you want your swiftboat attack to be on some area where you have a real liability and your opponent has a real strength. You want them to have to defend themselves on something they should get to use as a selling point. Even better, you neutralize a totally fair criticism of yourself – no matter how accurate they are or how ridiculous you sound, the press will dismiss it as “both sides point fingers.”

Kerry’s campaign gets used as some kind of object lesson about the futility of primary voters trying to pick a candidate they think will win: “Kerry was supposed to be electable and Kerry lost, so there.” (You’ve probably heard the even stupider cover version, “if Hillary was so electable, why’d she let herself get targeted by all those criminal conspiracies, HMMMM?”) This is 20/20 hindsight spiked with the just world fallacy. John Kerry seemed like a good candidate because he was, in fact, a good candidate, which is why he did significantly better expected, and he came pretty close to beating the odds. If there’s a lesson here, maybe it’s that swiftboating can keep a clearly electable candidate from being elected.

That’s a real buzzkill because it means we can’t treat the primaries like a round of playoffs where we root for the most exciting player and then kick back to watch the finals. But what it lacks in self-gratification, it makes up for with agency. If a swiftboat attack is supposed to affect how people respond to a candidate, then people get to choose whether or not we play along.

Trump, a textbook narcissist who instinctively projects his infinite failings onto others, is almost a swiftboating savant. His campaign is being handled by the professional Republican operatives behind the original Swift Boat campaign. (Literally, some of the same guys.) So as we move into the general election, know that this is in their bag of tricks. If you start to hear alarming stories about presumptive Democratic nominee former Vice President Biden or any other prominent Democrats on the ballot …. give it the smell test, is all I’m saying.

#disinformation #2004 election #2020 election #swiftboating #john kerry #george w bush

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