#if your people COLONIZED THE WORLD

[skinyogurt]

my roommate and i got into an argument last night because they don’t consider spaniards, the portuguese, or italians to be white people and called me racist for insisting that they are in fact white european. i asked if christopher columbus is considered white because he’s from portugal and they said “probably not”. am i stupid?? i feel like i’ve shifted fucking realities because in what world in 2024 are italians and spaniards not considered fucking WHITE

[genericpuff]

I wonder why christian misrepresentation are rarely talked about if compared to other religion misrepresentation. Like, I've seen people really vocal about Greek myths misrepresentation in LO and such (and it's valid because it's a culture and religion) but I rarely saw the same thing with christian even though there are many media who use christian religion innacurately, to the point where it comes off as using it as an aesthetic and not a proper religion.

Is it because of rampant religious trauma especially in western world? No ulterior motives on this question. I'm not a christian and yet I'm curious about this. I apologize if this sounds harsh.

I obviously don't have The Answer(tm) to this but personally speaking (and I'm about to get VERY personal here so take this with MOUNTAINS OF SALT), I think it's just the obvious - Christian mythology is one of the most well-documented and strongly protected out of virtually any other religion on the planet. Especially here in the West, it's commonplace for kids to go to Sunday school, for couples to have Christian weddings even if they're not practising Christians themselves, even the American anthem references the Christian God. It's simply not as easy to 'misrepresent' it because the representation is written into our very fabric of society. Even Greece itself is primarily made up of Orthodox Christians.

So anyone that does 'misrepresent' it are either completely mislead hardcore Christians, or people who are doing it intentionally, such as with the intent to make a parody of it or to deconstruct it through a different context or whatever have you. And of course, people will still get mad at those things, if you're implying that people aren't vocal about Christian misrepresentation then frankly IDK what to tell you there LOL If you want a contextual example in the realm of webtoons, Religiously Gay was dragged to hell and back during its launch for having a very crude and insulting depiction of St. Michael, and frankly, yeah I don't disagree because what the fuck is this-

(like at best it's just terrible character design lmao that said, there's also plenty else to criticize Religiously Gay for, including its fetishy representation of gay relationships and the fact that it's still just the "naive person who looks and acts like a child hooks up with mean person in a position of power" trope, blech, but the character design is definitely the first thing you notice)

There are even plenty of hardcore Christians who will deadass claim "misrepresentation" over things that ARE factually correct but they just haven't read the actual Bible and simply cherry pick what works for their own agenda. And of course those people are routinely called out by people like myself who know for a fact that Jesus wouldn't have promoted the war crimes that many modern day Christians are committing and justifying today. So it really depends on the definition of "misrepresentation" here.

The issue specifically with LO and Rachel that I personally call her out for (and many others) is that she's called herself a "folklorist" and claimed she's so much more knowledgeable on Greek myth than anyone else, while making a complete mockery of the original mythologies while not being honest about her intent as to whether LO is actually supposed to be a legitimate retelling OR a parody (because it sure acts like the latter more than the former, but she still seems to expect us to take it seriously and consider her knowledge of Greek myth superior?) Which leads to a lot of her teenage audience claiming shit like "Persephone went down to the underworld willingly" and "Apollo did assault Persephone in the original myths actually" and the classic "why would Lore Olympus lie or make up fake myths?"

You just can't pull off this extent of erasure with Christian mythology because we have a whole ass book of it that's been preserved, sold on shelves, and systematically integrated into society for thousands of years. Of course, there are people who will still try their damned best to twist the Bible to match their own bigotry with the whole "Jesus hates gays" bullshit (he would never), but it's met with equal amounts of 'misrepresentation' that are actually fully well-read and are intentionally subverting and changing things to either critique, parody, or restore the original intent of a lot of stories in the Bible without all the manufactured right-wing crap.

Greek myth, on the other hand, has some stories that are well preserved, and others, not so much. And in the modern day outside of the poems and hymns, you'll also rarely, if ever, see anyone use stories from Greek myth to ostracize, torture, and murder other people. "Misrepresenting Christianity" is more often done by actual Christians who are using the Bible to commit hate crimes than the people who have actually read the Bible and are just taking creative liberties with it for the sake of deconstructing / parodying / analyzing / subverting it. Veggie Tales "misrepresents" Christian stories because obviously Moses wasn't a fucking cucumber lmao but it still accomplishes its goal by retelling Christian stories in a way that's fun and educational for children.

By comparison (on the whole, I'm not comparing LO to Veggie Tales LMAO) LO just isn't clear in its intentions beyond Rachel's initial statements that she was trying to "deconstruct" the myths, while labelling herself as a folklorist. Therefore, I'm going to criticize how she does it because the way she's done it up until now has been very mishandled and has resulted in a lot of misinterpretations of the myths simply for the sake of fandom. And yes, these people exist in Christian media as well - they're called TV evangelists.

And that's my (very heavy) two cents.

[sharpth1ng]

Im not going to reblog the posts these are from because I don't want to give them reach, but if you see shit like this

It's not fucking real! There is no "Native American zodiac" because Indigenous people in the americas are not a monolith! In the US alone there's more than 500 federally recognized groups, and thats just the ones the government has legitimized (and there are massive issues with a colonial government getting to decide who counts but thats another story entirely).

All of these groups have different beliefs systems, languages, systems of symbology, ect. Im sure there are Indigenous groups somewhere doing something like astrology because there are Indigenous groups all over the world doing a wide variety of practices, but I've never heard of anything like this. And even if there were a zodiac system being used by some Indigenous groups it would not be the "native american zodiac", it would be specific to whatever group was practicing it.

Im really tired of people making up new age bullshit, assigning it to "Native Americans" like we're all one thing, and then passing it around the internet like it's real. I did a cursory google search for this term and there's loads of sites talking bullshit about it like it's legit. The few named people I've found claiming to have knowledge about this don't mention connection to any specific group or band, they don't claim to be Indigenous at all, and Ive never heard anyone in my real life talking about anything like this.

So yeah, anyways if you see this know it's fake. I'm tired.

[hussyknee]

No spice in your food, no bidets in your bathrooms, no expansive culture of generosity and hospitality...the way white people live is a tragedy.

[eenochian]

it’s very funny how this fandom suddenly cares so much about sensitivity, meanwhile no one was up in arms about folks calling valeria shit like “cartel mommy” and simping for her. and, if you point this out, you get told that it’s “less important” or incomparable. way to tell victims of cartel violence that they don’t matter. y’all can’t preach about sensitivity and mindfulness while doing the exact opposite of that.

sensitivity is something that needed to be brought up a long time ago. people need to be mindful about the content they’re engaging with and producing. COD and its characters are based on very real issues and very real situations, mindfulness is needed for every single character.

seeing this only be brought up in the context of makarov and graves is honestly so, so frustrating. they’re not the only problematic characters that you need to consider when making content. western militaries like the US and UK are incredibly controversial and have devastated vulnerable people and their countries. price, ghost, soap, gaz— any member of the military, especially the special forces, is problematic. they’re not good people and should not be treated like saints, nor should they be idolized for what they do.

that all being said, the concepts of “be mindful and sensitive when making content” and “let people enjoy problematic media” can absolutely, 100%, co-exist. art is not meant to be a paradigm of moral goodness, it has always been a medium for people to explore things that are considered "taboo" in a safe space. there's a reason why "dead dove: do not eat" exists as a genre – with proper warning and precautions put in place, people can explore darker topics. for some, it's morbid interest. for others, it's a way of coping with trauma and experiences they've had in real life.

i want to repeat this just to make it very clear: be mindful and sensitive with the content you're producing. do not romanticize topics that should not be painted in a good light. don't minimize the impact of characters' actions or act like people are in the wrong for being uncomfortable with them. in this fandom especially, people treat atrocities like jokes because we're becoming desensitized to them. it's up to every individual to ensure that they don't forget how impactful a lot of this stuff is in real life. war is not a joke. terrorism is not a joke. people dying is not a joke. do not romanticize any of these things in your content, even if you're exploring the different sides of the people behind these things.

humanize the characters all you want. horrible people are still people, after all. humans are not one-dimensional beings. humanize them, but do not romanticize them.

be kind to victims, be sensitive, and be mindful about what you engage with. no one is perfect, no thing is perfect, but we can always do better. we need to approach every topic through this lens instead of picking and choosing who to support. everyone is deserving of it, everyone is entitled to basic respect. we don't need to compete and argue over who has it worse, we just need to be better across the board. support real victims. don't let media warp your perceptions of reality. be conscious of the content you make and consume.

[junotter]

sometimes researching for avatar redesigns has you 6 layers deep into the Japan's Meiji era allies wiki

[antarctite]

treating a form of oppression like a neverending force that you can’t fight against, you can only identify it (and to many of you identifying it just means swinging your arms and naming whatever you hit,) is not a surprising stance by any means when you consider how white this website is,

think about it in terms of decolonization. we need to fight for colonized land to not only be freed, but to remain free, of colonizers. once the colonized have been freed, we can never let colonization happen again. we need to STOP it. that is the goal.

but to much of this website, they do not see it that way. they do not hope for a future for oppressed people. just what is happening now, that they can see in front of them (or rather on their screens.) and you wonder why people feel dehumanized by you! you can’t genuinely understand their needs and wishes this way!

if you view oppressed people only as their oppression, you are contributing to their oppression. you don’t see them as people. you don’t want them to escape that oppression. because it’s all they are, to you.

[zhuhongs]

just found out the lead singer of taiwans biggest death metal band is also an active parliament member since like 2015.... and is still active as a death metal singer. he's a pretty standard taiwanese center left anti communist from what i could gather. which like as a leftist i dont really agree with but i also dont know enough abt taiwanese politics to like make a full judgement. though he seems to be a standard liberal nothing remarkable, radical, or new, not overtly horrible but just bland. but that was something i definitely did Not expect. apparently he's very pro indigenous rights and self determination for indigenous people but being in a centre left mega party like the DPP does not seem like the best way to achieve that. But yea, just thought I'd share

[jynjackets]

I finally watched The Creator and holy shit why didn’t any of you tell me it was going to be that beautiful

[hylianane]

every time i think about that fucking Oye Primos disney channel show i shake with rage like i hope it never sees the light of day i hate gringos with latino grandparents so fucking bad

[neechees]

Oh Christ I can only imagine the seething frothing rage that the average white terf on this site must feel whenever they read about two spirit ppl being more connected to the spiritual and supernatural

Strongest white terf witch who doesn’t wash her fucking ass and thinks she can worship Lilith < weakest two spirit indigenous person who doesn’t have to prove shit to people online (I hope that little symbol looks correct once this sends)

Literally Literally. Terds also try to colonize & lie about the history of what "twospirit" actually means, & will lie & say it only applies to cis gay people, when that isn't true & very specifically includes trans people & Native gender identities that are otherwise ignored. It's an umbrella term & was adapted from the Ojibwe understandings of gender & sexuality, which acknowledges & respects trans people (& they have similar ideas about the sacredness of trans people). Saying otherwise is literally colonizing our cultures and histories, but they don't care. And ter/fs & their ideology is inherently racist, & this is partially why, because it disregards, ignores, and discriminates against nonwhite cultures & peoples that value & love trans people for who they are.

[kaustic]

the moment a european tiktoker opens their mouth about the us or americans i just know they’re gonna say the wildest shit i’ve ever heard in my life and be so confident in their inaccuracy

[fuck-em-up-your-grace]

Academia is so left-wing until you actually have to read research papers and then it’s just 20 different papers on why colonization was okay

[homosociallyyours]

(cw for gun violence & racism mentions in tag post)

[mylovelyrainblog]

the US is both unwilling and useless in reining in Israel’s colonization of Palestine.

The only hope to save not only Palestine but also any semblance of international order, seems to be in the Arab World. Either they can prevent one of their own from getting erased statehood, or we all live in the jungle now.

Israel was created on blood and injustice, and now it seeks to replace the entire land of Palestine and its people. Such evil at such a grand scale will not go lacking waves. Its effects will be long and broad. All on this earth is connected. No one can escape its effects.

[lastwave]

too disabled to work a full time job not disabled enough to have that recognized. "you can still work part-time so youre part of the labor force" BARELY. too broke to get diagnosis or a doctor that will even think about trying to diagnose me. i jest a lot but im genuinely so fucking tired. the sick day and calling out policies at most places just cannot accommodate someone with frequent flare ups. "we love disabled people we'll accommodate you however you need :] just try not being sick 💕" i think im in hell. only reason my current job is so accommodating is because its an unpaid internship and it literally does nothing if they punish me for being sick all the time. it is so fucking hard to envision a future that abled people would like for me right now. "where do you see yourself in 10 years :)" a hospital. or i stay living with my dad and take care of him. i dont know if i can find a life partner that's also willing to be a carer so that we can move in together. some people get lucky. i dont know if i will. i wanna be hopeful i really really do but its so so hard.