#in which case the motives would be drastically different... and they may benefit differently in that scenario

[krenenbaker]

Okay, after reading it last night, then again this morning, I can say with absolute certainty that

a. I'm definitely not entirely certain of the culprit... yet.

b. I should have expected that Crowley would be the one in that role, haha!

c. THIS IS SUCH A COOL CONCEPT :D

Ooh, I'm excited to learn more information and learn just what happened on this dark and stormy night in the halls of Night Raven College!!

One of Us is Guilty; Prologue

Eight people, nine rooms, seven weapons. One person is guilty, and until they are found, no one is safe; from the perpetrator of the crime, or of being accused.

Characters; Vil Schoenheit, Divus Crewel, Rook Hunt, Azul Ashengroto, Silver, Jade Leech, Cater Diamond

Content; Gender-neutral reader, unreliable narrators

Content Warning; Death (not described), murder (not described)

Word Count; 1.3 K (includes guide on how to participate at the end)

Find this content triggering but still want to participate? Go to this Google Form!

As a reminder, do not put my work — or others for that matter — into AI as it steals. Link to Masterlist

| Prologue |

You were making your way down the main flight of stairs, ready to go crawl into your bed after the long day.

“Attention! Attention!” Crowley’s voice echoed over the PA system, still annoyingly chipper despite the late hour. What was he even still doing here? “Due to the weather, all remaining staff and students are under orders to stay inside the building until morning!” And the PA system cut out.

You groaned, “Seriously? It can’t be that bad–” A loud crack of thunder sounded directly above the building, causing the chandelier to shake. “Okay then,” you huffed, plopping down on the stairs, “I get the message.”

Of course, you would get stuck here for the night, guess that’s what happens when you stay back to study and work on assignments.

But you weren’t the only person stuck in the desolate halls of Night Raven College; seven others were in the same boat as you.

…

Vil was in the lecture theatre, reviewing his notes for the upcoming performance that the Film Research Club would be putting on next week. He too heard Crowley’s announcement and pushed his hair back, massaging his temple. He would not be getting a good night’s rest tonight.

“Tch, no use lamenting over it,” he sighed to himself. Carefully, he put the notes and suggestions away in their designated folder, and he made his way to the main hall. If anyone was still here with him, they might be there; at least he would have some company for the night, and not be alone in the empty hallways.

…

Professor Crewel was grading papers in the teacher’s lounge, and getting a migraine from it as well. “Have those pups learned nothing from me,” he grumbled.

He would much rather be at home in his finest pyjamas, scratching the chins of his dogs, but no, he was stuck here, and would be stuck until the storm passed or Headmaster Crowley got back on the PA system saying it was safe to leave. But knowing his employer, the man had transported himself home, leaving everyone stuck at the college oblivious.

I ought to wring his neck if he did.

…

Rook was in the library, perusing through various books, just looking for something to pass the time. He knew earlier that day that a storm was brewing, he could tell by the clouds and the faint smell wafting on the breeze. He also knew that Vil would be staying late, and he wasn’t going to leave Roi de Poison alone.

After going down a few aisles, Rook finally found a book to his liking. “Hmm, this is new. Ah, how interesting!” Tucking the book under his arm, Rook made his way to the lecture theatre, as that was where he had last seen Vil.

Perhaps un meurtre mystère would make for a good plot for a future performance?

…

Silver had fallen asleep in the cafeteria, apparently he had slept for most of the day. He had only woken up because of Crowley’s voice echoing loudly in the large, empty room.

Did they not notice? Silver rubbed his eyes and yawned. If he was here, there was a possibility of others also finding themselves stuck in the school for the night. The least he could do was make sure others were staying calm, and staying safe. Even outside of his duties he was ever still the protector, and far too kind.

“Hopefully no one got hurt…” he murmured to himself. There was something off, a dark presence of sorts, and it wasn’t just the dark clouds hurling down rain, hail, and lightning outside.

Something doesn’t feel right…

…

Azul was in the alchemy lab, perfecting the most complicated potion that was in his textbook; he had a reputation to upkeep after all, and didn’t want anyone usurping his rank at the top of the class.

There, I just need to add some belladonna and— the suddenness of Crowley’s overly loud voice coming over the PA system caused Azul to add too much, and the potion evaporated. Azul gritted his teeth, but took a step back. Perhaps a walk would help calm him down… he was going to have to replace all of those ingredients tomorrow…

“So close,” he hissed, and he started making his way down the hall, still muttering to himself.

…

Jade was washing the dirt from his hands, having just come back from checking on his fungi in the botanical gardens. He already knew before Crowley made his little announcement that he would be spending the night, which didn’t bother him all that much. Perhaps he could see what was in the kitchen, since he did have that new dish which looked and sounded to be divine.

But that could wait, Azul was most likely still working on that potion of his, and knowing the house warden, he had fumbled with the ingredients at the sudden noise and probably sulking… and Jade could use some amusement at the moment, and a sulking and slightly peeved Azul would do the trick.

…

Cater was in the kitchen, retrieving something for Trey since they were all out in the Heartslabyul kitchen. Of course it was something sweet, but Cater would rather be here than see the outcome of the freshmans’ antics. Sorry freshies, you’re on your own!

But now he was stuck here for the night, and having nothing better to do, and boredom starting to creep in, Cater brought out his phone and started recording. 

“It’s Cay-kun here!~” He gave a peace sign to the camera and stuck out his tongue. “Let’s see who we can find!” And he started chatting to the camera and walking towards the main hall.

…

…

Eventually, everyone had made their way to the main hall; you, Silver, Vil, Professor Crewel, Rook, Azul, Jade, and Cater. But there was no sign of Headmaster Crowley.

“Have any of you pups seen the Headmaster,” Divus asked, turning up a brow, and looked at his students with suspicion.

Everyone shook their head no. Divus sighed, and turned around the corner, in the direction of the Headmaster’s office, but he stopped in his tracks.

Curious, you looked to where Professor Crewel was staring; lying in the middle of the floor was Crowley, and he wasn’t breathing.

Dire Crowley was dead, murdered. And everyone was a suspect, including you.

About this Event

That's right folks, a classic murder mystery in the style of the board game Clue and some inspiration from the book And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie.

At the beginning and end of each part, I will be including a link to a Google Form where people can vote for who they think is the murderer, what room the murder took place in, and the weapon that was used. There's also an optional question where you can explain your answer, just do know that everything was randomly chosen by a spinner.

The form will be active for at least 72 hours; it may go on for longer if I'm busy. A new form will be added with each part, just with the suspect, room, & weapon that was voted in the last part being removed if they were incorrect... and may take some inspo from the book I mentioned.~

In future parts there will be dark content, as this is a murder mystery; all of the content warnings will be included at the beginning, and also tagged (ie. cw death). Because of this, I will not be tagging people in future parts just as a precaution.

Now, let the investigation begin!

Link to Google Form

Suspects:

- Silver; the kindhearted knight with a mysterious past, is it just for show?  (Plum) - Vil Schoenheit; the actor who is always pigeonholed into the role of a villain (Scarlet) - Divus Crewel; the alchemy teacher with a penchant for fashion, Crowley's co-worker (Peacock) - Rook Hunt; the enigmatic hunter who always has a hunch of what's happening (Mustard) - Azul Ashengrotto; the owner of The Mostro Lounge, a businessman with dubious morals (Green) - Reader; the 'house-keeper', a role that was imposed on them by the late Headmage (White) - Jade Leech; a student enamored by fungi and seems to have a foreboding presence about him (Orchid) - Cater Diamond; the preppy beau of Heartslabyul, but his smile seems forced (Peach)

Rooms:

- Main hall - Teachers' lounge - Cafeteria - Kitchens - Lecture theatre - Botanical garden - Alchemy lab - Library - Crowley's office

Weapons:

- Revolver - Rope - Dagger - Wrench - Candlestick - Lead pipe - Magic

...

Tags; @afunkyfreshblog, @aqua-beam, @azulashengrottospiano, @eynnwwyjth, @hisui-dreamer, @hydra-sea, @identity-theft-101, @inkybloom-luv, @ithseem, @krenenbaker, @leonistic, @lucid-stories, @officialdaydreamer00, @ryker-writes, @savanaclaw1996, @silvers-numberonefan, @twistwonderlanddevotee, @xxoomiii

[duskwoodraven]

Okay! 👏👏 I’d say it’s time for the long after episode MWAF theory/pick apart everything! Of course this will be littered with lots of spoilers so don’t read if you haven’t finished ep 8 yet!

Now as a sort of disclaimer, I know that some people are preparing to throw the Richy is the MWAF theory out the window, which I do not blame them for by this point. The game has screamed over and over again that Richy is gone yet I can’t help but hold on to my theory to the bitter end.😅 I hope everyone has an open mind to what I have to say on the matter. Maybe there will be some points or reminders to help you find your own take on the topic as I explain my own thoughts in the process.

———

First of all, one of the things that has bothered me since the ending is that they still haven’t explained this very basic fact about the MWAF. How in the world did the MWAF know about the group’s investigations and MC’s involvement?

I touched upon this in my last couple theories where I pushed for Richy’s guiltiness by explaining that for the MWAF to know that Jessy would be out on a walk with us, or to know Richy wouldn’t be at Rogers Garage when he was marked, or even knowing we agreed to help this investigation at all, he would need access to the group chats. He would need to know basic information about the groups whereabouts and plan according to it. Not answering this basic fact would leave a gaping hole in the plot.

Micheal Hanson by what we know, left Duskwood more then a year ago, essentially a missing person in the eyes of Duskwood. The group apparently didn’t even know his name so none of them would have told him directly what they were up to. The only way he might be getting information about anything is from Phil, who was being told everything by Jessy herself. That might be plausible if you squint, but yet we know Jessy and Phil’s relationship was even worse in the beginning episodes, I highly doubt Jessy would tell Phil much about herself and the investigation and there is no saying if Phil would even think to move this information along to Michael if he was even in contact with the old bar owner at the time. Also we received a call from the MWAF the very first time we talked to Dan, waaaay in the beginning episodes, we didn’t even know who Phil was at that point, yet the MWAF knew who we were almost immediately.

Then I played with the idea that the MWAF was using an encryption like Alan was or using a spy mode like Jake is, to read everything secretly, but that idea was tossed out too. Michael was a bar owner not a hacker or police investigator, there is little reason to believe he’d know how to do something like that, nor would anyone in his life teach him how to do it either.

(Also as a bonus point for why the MWAF might be Richy, the MWAF didn’t seem to be aware that Jessy and Thomas were heading to the house at all, he still had his candles lit and “art” up so he couldn’t have prepared for their arrival and hide. He might have only noticed Thomas and Jessy where there when he saw the car. This took place after we removed Richy from the chat as well so...)

Secondly, the MWAF’s motivation, why would Michael wait 10 years to take revenge for his daughter and why is he mainly attacking the group over it? For benefit of the doubt, Michael is the few suspects who has a possible motive that makes some sort of sense, yet it’s such a drastic leap in logic for him to attack the group at all.

If Michael is the MWAF and he’s attacking people for revenge, then why would he take Hannah, who we know feels guilty over Jennifer’s death and seems to be working to find out the truth about the case, and kidnap her. She’s trying to bring justice to his daughter, so why would Jennifer’s own father try and interrupt that process? Even if Hannah somehow helped cause Jennifer’s death (reminder that Hannah would have been a child by this point) we know she wasn’t the true killer, it was a man who hit her with a car and took her body into the woods. If Michael really wanted further revenge, killing that man should have been on the top of his priorities, not Hannah.

The hostility he has towards the group is also strange, for a man who cares only for revenge, he seems oddly determined to wipe out everyone, that sounds more like a man who is afraid of being caught then a man who just wants to take down the people who hurt his daughter in the past. That doesn’t sound like the role of a grieving father to me.

And once again he has waited a long time to seek out this revenge anyway, this man was apparently a sheep herder of sorts according to Lily before he disappeared, why come back at all? A parent who lost their child will never lose the pain of that child’s absence, but you’d think the burning embers of revenge would simmer down after 10 years of time and reflection, what could have triggered him to come back? And why would he pick the most foolish spot to set up his base? He should know he was suspected in the past, setting up camp at his own house will easily connect him to the crime as Lilly had demonstrated by throwing out this theory at the end of the episode.

I think it’s more possible for someone else to use Michael Hanson’s house as a coverup to throw off suspicion of himself. Yet who knows? Maybe he is foolish enough to do that lol.

Thirdly, the inconsistency of the legend, the MWAF is not doing a good job at being consistent. He is not taking the people he marked at the first moon of the year and he is also killing them. The original book did not state the people who are taken will die, simply that they will disappear, yet the MWAF supposedly set out to kill Richy, but doesn’t kill Hannah.

And we now know Hannah is most likely alive at this moment because the MWAF stated so in the phone call he was going to kill her. I don’t think he’s lying because it would honestly benefit him more to kill Hannah and tell the group that he did to destroy the groups moral completely rather than keeping her alive.

With these inconsistencies, why should we trust the rules of the legend, they seem to be more like guidelines for the MWAF then actual facts.

Heck, when we talked to Darkness, he told us that the MWAF takes his victims to kill them, something not stated in the book at all.

From this, the book may very well be wrong and unreliable, perhaps the MWAF is following a different legend, a different version of the tale that Darkness might know about. Either way, it would be unwise to connect Micheal to the MWAF simply because of what the legend says until we know why these inconsistencies are taking place.

Basically what I am trying to say, the group is accepting Michael as guilty too fast for my taste, the only facts we have for Michael being the one who did it is that he’s 1. The father of Jennifer 2. The legend we first read was about a father taking revenge 3. We found the MWAF’s “art” inside Michaels old house. 4. Not many people know where Michael is.

That is enough evidence to have someone arrested and investigated, not to convict them of a crime.

———

So do I still think Richy is guilty? Well... somewhat.

I still firmly believe Richy has the most evidence pointed to him and would have the ability to execute the actions we have seen the MWAF take, he would have had access to group chats, his body is still missing like I figured it would be, and he has the knowledge of Duskwood’s history and landscape. He truly is a perfect fit in many ways in my own opinion except for how he fits into this legend and what his motivation could possibly be. Plus the fact that his hat was bloody when it was found, I don’t know if Richy would be capable of harming himself on purpose to make everything more convincing.

All and all, questions still need to be answered and I don’t want to be too hasty in declaring who the MWAF truly is until we can rip the mask off of his face and get him behind bars for good 😌

I’ll be interested to hear your takes on this below, and I’ll probably expand on this conversation when I think of more relevant points or to explain my idea more in-depth if anyone is confused over this post, thanks for reading til the end! 💛

[scripttorture]

Hello! I have a few questions related to your most recent post and the definition of torture. You said:

"A trained person who was never tortured will always out perform someone whose training involved torture."

According to everything else I have seen on your blog, this makes sense - the mental and physical trauma from being tortured have lasting effects which make certain tasks more difficult.

However, this seems to juxtapose certain tropes I've seen in US military training advertisements. For example, "Hell Week" in the Navy SEAL training seems like it would be torture if it was forced upon someone (like if the soldiers didn't sign up for it and didn't have the option to quit.). *Hell Week is when soldiers are training continuously for 5 days in freezing, wet conditions, with little more than 4 hours of sleep for the entire week, under insane amounts of physical and mental stress.

- If someone chose to be tested both mentally and physically, I feel like it wouldn't be torture. However, if the same exact conditions were forced upon someone else (testing their mental and physical limits without their consent or understanding), does your quote above mean that the person who did not have a choice would not reap the benefits of the training/testing? Or would the Navy SEALs be better soldiers if they didn't have to go through 'torturous conditions' during Hell Week, regardless of their choice to do so?

(I used Hell Week as an example, but I meant this question generally. I'm trying to figure out how to best train an elite soldier and avoid any harmful torture apologia tropes, while also making sure that they are able to handle insanely challenging situations)

- My other question has more to do with the definition of torture that you quoted from the UN in one of your master posts. If someone is being seriously injured (pulled fingernails, whipping, starvation etc), but not for the purposes of interrogation, punishment, or intimidation, is that still torture, or is that just abuse? And, regardless of what we call it, would the effects be the same as if it were torture for any of the three motives above?

Sorry if this is long and hard to understand, I can clarify if needed!

It’s not the longest I’ve gotten and it’s perfectly clear, duck*. :) Honestly this is a difficult topic with a lot of nuance, it’s better to take a longer and more thoughtful approach.

 From the stand point of the legal definition and what we study/understand as torture any consensual activity, however extreme, is not torture.

 But here’s where it gets interesting: consent and our attitude to an activity actually changes our response to pain. It may even change how much pain we feel.

 I’m going to take a slightly different example to yours. There are a lot of cultures globally that have practiced scarification, ritual cutting to deliberately form scars. And this can be done for a lot of reasons: membership of a family or clan, coming of age, traditional medicine, religion, you get the idea.

 A lot of people in these cultures describe their scars as incredibly important and the process of getting them as a moving, deep and positive process.

 This does not mean they wouldn’t be traumatised if they were attacked by someone with a knife.

 Being able to approach something painful and see it as positive really changes our perspective. It makes trauma and mental illness a lot less likely. And being able to back out, even if it’s just for a little while to take a breather, seems to make us able to withstand more pain then we would have otherwise.

 The simplest and most famous experiment that dealt with this relationship between our mindset and pain asked people to keep their hands in ice cold water. They timed how long people could do it when they were told to stay silent and how long they could do it when they were allowed to swear. If they swore they could hold their hands under for longer. An average of forty seconds longer.

 Looking back over O’Mara (Why Torture Doesn’t Work, a very good intro to how pain works and what it does to the brain) the way he describes it as by thinking of the experience of pain as a collection of three things. There’s the physical sensation itself, the nerves firing. But there’s also an affective component, how we feel emotionally about the experience and a cognitive component, how we think about it.

 Did you ever play that game as a kid where you stuff as many chilis as possible in your mouth to see who would spit them out first? I… might have done. And from what I remember it hurts an awful lot. But those memories to me are mostly about messing about with my friends, I remember trying to be stubborn about it and I remember us laughing at each other.

 This is a completely different experience to someone being held down and having chili stuff up their nose. But the difference isn’t necessarily in the physical damage done or the physical sensation of pain. It’s in the other components, the emotional response and the rationalisation.

 I also had a filling drilled in my tooth without painkillers as a kid. I don’t know how common this is in the West? It happened in Saudi. Honestly my biggest memory of it is the language barrier between myself and the dentist.

 These are anecdotes obviously but I’m trying to show that you probably also have experiences in your own life that back up the experiments too. The way we think about a painful experience really does make a huge amount of difference. And that means consent matters enormously.

 These soldiers are going into this experience knowing what to expect, how long it will last and that they can stop at any time. That makes a huge amount of difference. Those same factors have drastically increased the time volunteers will spend in solitary confinement for research. I’m pretty sure if I dug even a little I’d find pain studies with similar findings.

 Here’s the flip side: the physical factors are still in play.

 Sleep is an important physiological process that’s essential to normal functioning. Studies on consensual sleep deprivation have shown massive negative impacts on memory along with a host of other things that you can read about here.

 Let’s take a non torture example. A student who stays up all night cramming for an exam is not going to develop the symptoms of trauma that a torture survivors who was sleep deprived would. But the effect sleep deprivation has on memory is due to sleep playing an essential role in preserving memory (and learning more generally.) So they’re both likely to have difficulty remembering things in days just before and just after sleep deprivation. They’re also both more likely to have false memories and catch a bad cold.

 As a result of this memory impairment I question the educational value of anything involving sleep deprivation: you can’t learn while messing up the processes that let your brain remember things.

 There have been cases in the UK of people dying during training for the armed forces. Because while consent makes a huge difference, mindset makes a huge difference- our bodies still have limits. We can choose to push ourselves past those limits and, whatever our motivation or feelings, it can do real harm.

 Personally? I’m unsure of the benefit of these kinds of exercises. As in I’m unsure there is a benefit. Learning is going to be shot, chances of injury are going to be a lot higher- I don’t see anything that could be improved by these sorts of exercises.

 Anecdotally people do report feeling like a closer unit after going through these sorts of routines. That might be the benefit: moral and unit cohesion, possibly self-esteem too.

 If you’re making up something for your story I think it’d be helpful for me to mention a little statistical effect that gets used to justify punishment pretty regularly. Get some dice out if you’ve got them and roll one. Let’s say the number represents performance in some kind of test (because effort and learning matter but our performance also varies because of things we can’t control.) A roll of 1 gets punished, a roll of 6 gets praised.

 Now after you roll that first 1 statistically speaking the chances are your next roll will be better. And if you roll a 6 then statistically speaking the chances are your next roll will be worse. People observe this effect in real life and they often conclude that there’s no point in praising someone but that punishment leads to improvement. Really it’s just a statistical effect, after a particularly, noticeably bad day the chances are things will be better next and vice versa.

 This effect can make it difficult for people to recognise overall, long term progress. Which is the kind of progress you should be paying attention to when designing a training program.

 If you want good performance from people, whatever the metric, the most efficient thing to do is ensure that those people are; well fed, have access to clean water, get plenty of sleep, have breaks and have access to medical treatment when they need it.

 I’d say the main things to keep in mind when designing this fictional training regime are:

Being honest about the effects you describe, ie if they’re spending long periods without shelter are they at risk from exposure? If they’re standing in cold water are they going to get hypothermia?

Remember that even if something is damaging or causes lasting trauma it would not necessarily prevent someone from doing their job. Torture survivors have serious, lasting symptoms but many of them still work.

 I think I’m going to leave that there because I’m not an expert in militaries or training people. And keep in mind that I am a pacifist, read this with my biases in mind.

 Getting to the second question, there is a little more to the UN definition then that. The primary factor is still who the abuser is. For it to be torture (legally speaking) the abuser has to be (or be ordered by) an on-duty government employee, part of a group that controls territory (ie an occupying force). Some countries also count international organised criminal gangs in this definition.

 It’s also important to note that torture can be targetted at someone other then the victim. So if the police arrest the brother of a political opponent and beat him in order to intimidate the politician, that is still torture.

 Basically there are a lot of factors in the legal definition of torture and it’s that way by design. The hope is that you end up with a framework that captures as much government abuse as possible.

 But it also means that there’s a pretty high barrier when it comes to proving torture. Which means that things which are legally torture can be prosecuted as assault, bodily harm or equivalents to these, because it’s easier to get a conviction for those charges.

 Technically you are correct: if abuse done by a government official doesn’t have one of the four motivations in the legal definition (attempts to obtain information, forcing a confession, intimidation or punishment) then it doesn’t meet the definition.

 However in practice I’ve not heard of a case failing because of the motive.

 I’m not a lawyer and I’m not an expert in international law. I won’t say it’s never happened. But it’s much more common for cases to fail for other reasons. Off the top of my head I’d say the most common reason is difficulty proving the abuse took place.

 The most common types of torture today are ‘clean’, a term we use to indicate that they don’t leave obvious marks. If someone turns up with fingernails torn out or the skin of their back lacerated by a whip that is clear physical evidence of abuse. Nothing else causes similar injuries. But if someone turns up at a doctor’s with swollen feet or reddened skin, if they’ve lost a lot of weight or they’re so tired they’re struggling to stand… Well all of those things can be caused by common tortures. But they can also be caused by common illnesses.

 A lot of the deaths from torture today are similarly hard to prove. Beatings and stress positions ultimately cause death by kidney failure. Which can mean that prosecutors are asked to prove a victim didn’t have an underlying health condition. Or take drugs.

 Honestly my instinct is that the motive is the easiest thing to prove. It’s often harder to bring charges against people in positions of authority, regardless of the country we’re talking about. Bringing those charges, proving abuse took place and proving it was done by the person in question, those are usually the tricky parts.

 The difference between torture and abuse is scale. Torture is industrial scale abuse.

 The law doesn’t define that scale but that’s what we’re talking about when we talk about abuse from organised authority. Abusers might have dozens of victims. Torturers have thousands, tens of thousands.

 If you want to explore a different motivation in your story, something outside the legal framework, consider the scale at which this abuse is taking place. Consider how organised it is. If it’s organised and large scale, with multiple abusers, with no prior relationship between the abuser and victims then torture will probably be a better model then abuse. If it’s smaller scale with a more personal relationship and if it isn’t supported by a legal framework/organisation then abuse might be a better model.

 For victims and survivors the difference isn’t so much about the symptoms they personally experience as the… side effect of that scale. Abuse victims are often very isolated and may not know anyone who has had a similar experience. Torture implies a community of survivors and possibly generational trauma. There are also effects to do with access to support, access to medical care and how likely it is that someone will be believed.

 Torture survivors are often systematically disenfranchised in a way that abuse victims are not. Torture survivors are often forced to leave their home country. Anecdotally, based on what I’ve seen globally over the last few years, I think that struggling to get citizenship is increasingly an issue for torture survivors. And without citizenship there’s difficulty finding legal work, getting accommodation, accessing medical care, accessing the legal system etc.

 I do not know whether torture survivors are more or less likely to be believed by their community compared to survivors of abuse. I do not think any one has attempted a comparative study. I do know that the prevalence of clean torture means that many torture survivors are not believed and this puts up a further barrier, making it harder to access medical treatment and bring charges.

 Rejali’s book was published in 2009, so things may have changed a tad. At the time he was writing the average wait for a torture survivor to see a specialist doctor was about 10 years.

 Abuse is to torture what murder is to genocide. And there are difference on a wider social scale as a result.

 I mention all that because I feel it’s relevant but the impression I get is you’re mostly interested in the long term symptoms? In which case, yes the legal definition makes very little difference. The physical injuries caused by particular kinds of abuse don’t change depending on whether it’s a private individual or a police officer holding the Taser.

 The lasting psychological symptoms are not particular to torture; they’re what the human brain does when traumatised. The same symptoms can manifest in people who witness traumatic events but weren’t actually hurt themselves. They can manifest in people who were injured in accidents and they manifest in people who were neglected or abused. Hell, I have a couple of them, though no where near the severity a torture survivors would experience. A sufficient amount of stress is enough for these symptoms to start developing in anybody.

 You can find the general list of symptoms here. There’s also a post specifically about memory problems over here.

 The pattern I describe; that these symptoms are a list of possibilities not ‘every torture victim will get all of these’ holds true for trauma survivors generally. Anecdotally there is some variability with chronic pain being reported more often with some kinds of abuse. That might be because it can have physical causes, psychological causes or a mix of the two.

 Whether it’s torture or abuse there isn’t any way to predict a survivor’s symptoms in advance. Much of the advice I have about writing torture survivors and their symptoms holds true for trauma survivors generally. Which is why I’ll still take a crack at some questions that aren’t about torture.

 Pick the symptoms that you feel fit the character and serve the story. We can’t predict symptoms and that means that there’s no reason why you shouldn’t pick the things that appeal to you.

 And I think I’m going to leave it there. I hope that helps :)

Available on Wordpress.

Disclaimer

*This is a weird English endearment. I had someone ask if this was me trying not to swear. 

[qoreprojects]

The Party Whip, or Lilith in the 11th House

Not long ago, I paid a visit to my 11th house to speak with Lilith. She lives there, along with my South Node - a tiny golden compass that points toward the past. It was the past that I wanted. Lilith had lived in this house alongside it for so long that I believed she’d be able to help me understand what it meant. 

“You thought that I would be angrier?” she laughed sharply. 

Lilith was perched on a window seat, half her face bathed in the single stream of light in an otherwise shadow-filled room. She wore a simple red shift dress. Her hair was loc’d and tumbled towards her leather-belted waist on one side of her head, exposing a shaved opposite side to the dappled sun. She held an orange and a pocket knife in her hands. 

I nodded slightly. Every movement in this room could be felt in ways that did not exist in the material realm. Palpable waves rippled away from the tiniest gestures. Shadows danced in the corners. The air was possessed, and every shift had meaning.   

“That’s funny,” she said, flicking a peel onto the floor, “I don’t know why people only recognize Lady Regret when I am in my war clothes.” She used her own title with a touch of irony. 

Several crows called to one another outside, and a light breeze stirred the distant treetops. This movement agitated the shadows in the room. All was as it should be - in flux. 

“You are here because you want to know about your greatest regret,” Lilith stated presently. 

“I suppose so, yes,” my breath rippled away from me in the cool, dark air. “At this point, I’ve run out of reasons not to know.” 

Lilith smiled a lop-sided smile and continued peeling, one foot on the sill and one on the floor. “Are you familiar with the term ‘true believer’?”

“Yes,” I said quietly, knowing where this was going. I could feel the conversation as a tangible thing, like a strong westerly wind. The shadows and the dust particles organized themselves accordingly. Lilith tilted her face to look me directly in the eye. “What about the term ‘party whip’?”

The wind of conversation changed directions, and the shift was slight but sudden. I marveled at the subtle switch, and a sense of dread overcame me. The life inside the room absorbed my response as an addition to its moving chorus of shadows. 

She paused to eat one section of orange, and then began peeling again. “The party whip is a different thing, isn’t it? Let’s examine the two…”

The True Believer and the Party Whip

The life of a True Believer can easily be confused with personal sacrifice on behalf of others. This is because, from the outside, it looks as if the True Believer is willing to give up a great deal for their party. They may give up relationships, time, effort, money, or freedom to make certain lifestyle choices. Observers who consider the party a worthy cause call the True Believer “self-sacrificing” and “a saint”; people who dislike the cause say the True Believer is silly and “voting against their own interests”.

In truth, the True Believer sacrifices little for the party because the party’s goals and the True Believer’s goals are almost exactly the same. If a True Believer does sacrifice anything for the party, it is minor and without much pain or hesitation. There is no real conflict between their motivations and that of the party. The True Believer may recognize some problems or contradictions within the party, or they may lack the critical perspective to do so. In either case, the flaws of the party and the flaws of the True Believer are largely the same. There can be a kind of innocence in that.   

A Party Whip is not the same thing as a True Believer. (A Party Whip can also be a True Believer - but for the purposes of this conversation we will consider them separately.) Unlike the True Believer, the Party Whip does not necessarily align with everything the party says and does on a personal level. They may notice glaring flaws and issues within the party. They may believe that the party’s words and deeds do not match. They may long for previous versions of the party, or hope for future ones, while considering the present party to be a mere shadow of itself. They may think of the party’s goals as good general rules that will benefit the world, but that should not be applied in every situation without nuance. 

The only things necessary for the role of a successful Party Whip are a sincere belief that the party is the best way to get things done - to have a hand in the creation of the world, to make things happen - and that the ends of this goal justify the means. For the sake of those two beliefs, the Party Whip can modify their own behavior and offer themselves up to be ‘borrowed’ by the party, in the hope that they can ‘borrow’ the party’s collective power for themselves at a later date. 

Say, the leaders and vanguards of the party have decided that its collective goals will be best served by oranges. Under no circumstances can there be apples. Other fruits are fine, though less than ideal - but absolutely no apples. The Party Whip shows up to work and receives the party line: everyone in the party is to vote for oranges, and it is the Whip’s job to ensure this outcome.

The intelligent Whip has their finger on the collective pulse and can understand exactly why the party agenda is supported by oranges. They also know that competing parties are out there voting for other fruits - sometimes even apples. This is unacceptable. The party must win, which means that oranges must win and apples must lose.  

The skilled Party Whip may not personally enjoy the taste or texture of oranges. They may even feel sympathetic to apples. However, the Whip is quite accustomed to viewing their own tastes and desires as a secondary concern to more important matters: the party line. They know how to either conceal or surgically remove the parts of themselves that are not convenient to the party and its goals - unlike the True Believer, who has never had to change very much about themselves in exchange for membership.

Therefore the Party Whip is assigned a role: to go out among members of the party, keep track of everyone who might vote for another fruit, and get them to vote for oranges instead. To accomplish this, the Party Whip is going to use whatever tools they already use to keep themselves in line with the party’s interests. 

These tools vary, and may include: 

Shame and guilt

Reasoned arguments

Coercion

Information

Misinformation

Bribery

Cost-benefit analysis

Promises of future reward for current sacrifice

Appeals to duty, loyalty and obligation

Not all of these methods are equally ethical. A Party Whip is only able to be as ethical when whipping the rest of the party to consensus as they are when whipping themselves in private. 

Lady Regret in the 11th House

Your biggest regret is being a very skilled Party Whip. 

You were good at living your life according to the party line. This earned you such compliments as ‘inspiration’ and ‘example’, which made you feel safe and valued. You were gifted at being able to distance yourself from your own instincts so thoroughly that parties rewarded you with protection and support in exchange for your skill at keeping their dissenting or individualistic members in line. This was not questionable for you - you participated in this exchange because you believed it was good and righteous, and that the party’s ends justified the means.

You privately exulted in your own savvy. You believed your differences from the True Believer - your ability to perceive the group’s flaws and issues with a bit more perspective - made you more ethical. In reality, it made you more culpable. Your clarity was a gift meant to inspire you to take risks and speak up, valuing the truth over any attachment to the party’s reaction.

You did not speak up. 

You chose to improve the party by sacrificing your unique perspective in exchange for access to the collective’s power; you were shocked when improvement never came. When push came to shove and the party’s power was threatened, for one reason or another, they abandoned you. Perhaps the abandonment was purposeful. Perhaps they simply no longer had enough clout to protect you. In any case, the party name was no longer able to get you into the rooms you wanted to enter. Your persuasiveness on others’ behalf was no longer in demand. The recognition in strangers’ eyes when you flaunted your membership card dwindled. Circumstances may have even become so drastic that mentioning the party put you in danger rather than keeping you safe.    

A lone, displaced ruler must rely on personal power and instinct. They cannot rely on an ever-present council or party membership to get things done. You were suddenly alone - the sole authority of your life. You were not prepared for this. The years, or even lifetimes, you spent living outside of your own will have taken a toll. You don’t even know how to have a thought or emotion without examining it for its usefulness to some group, even when there is none present. You walk around barefoot and in rags with panic behind your eyes. You roam the streets waving a saw and rasping through dry lips, “I will saw off anything for friends in high places! Fingers, feet! I will cut off anything for friends in high places! Eyes, face! I have experience, will work for connections!”

Most people are horrified and cross the street when they see this display. Some see you as a temporary tool and take advantage of you until you have nothing left to give. Some people see your true heart better than you do and try to connect with it, but by this time you are jaded and assume that all anyone could want from you is your skill as Party Whip. They try to love you, but you are too preoccupied with trying to dutifully serve their interests in exchange for power and validation.

Dreams shrivel and die like old fruit under these conditions - again, again, and again. This is the loop, the hoop that must be mended. 

Resolution

Lilith rose from the windowsill. Her full height compelled the room’s darkness to rearrange itself. Dead orange peels lie on the floor at her feet, glowing in the patch of sunlight that streamed through the window. 

“Who are you when you are alone?”

I sat down on the dusty floorboards and stared into the shadows. 

“What are you capable of creating - or destroying - when you only do so from your heart?”

The shadows gave me nothing but constant shifting in return. 

“As long as you sacrifice your dreams for others’ out of fear that you cannot accomplish them alone, your efforts will go to waste. Parties are not forever; empires fall and agendas shift like the wind. Learn to build true alliances based on raw love - which can only happen when you are clear and unashamed of your own desire.”

I looked up just in time to see her toss me the last slice of orange. My hand shot up to catch it, and I carefully considered its juicy ripeness against my fingers. 

It felt delicious. 

[countrysunshine]

The Pandemic Gave Us a Very New Vocabulary

China announced the first case of a Novel Coronavirus in December 2019. (Covid-19). In late 2019, it had spread exponentially and was declared a pandemic in March 2020 by World Health Organization. Modern quarantine measures, such as lockdowns, curfews, banning community gatherings, cancellation of scheduled social and public activities, closure of mass transit networks, and other travel restrictions, have been implemented internationally to halt the spread of the COVID19 virus. These have impacted the majority (if not all) of the world’s population, dramatically altering what was previously considered normal and complicating aspects of everyday life that were previously easy and uncomplicated. Many people’s daily life has been drastically altered, and “normal” ways of life as we know them have been suspended indefinitely as well.

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed catastrophic threat to human civilization in terms of health, environment, and lifestyle. The primary impact of the virus is on human health, including direct respiratory system injury, compromise the immune system, aggravation of underlying medical conditions, and ultimately systemic failure and death. Furthermore, as quarantine or isolation has been imposed that involves separation from friends and family, as well as a change from normal daily routines, it jeopardizes the social, mental, and spiritual health of individuals.

When the virus spreads, so does the risk of misinformation and false evidence, which the WHO refers to as an "infodemic." The internet has become a common resource for learning about health and researching one's own health condition before claiming, "I am healthy!" without testing its legitimacy. So, what does health mean to you? Considering our current normal environment., does your own view of health changes? Are you one of those individuals who share fake news to scare? How and why should you avoid doing it? Do you keep yourself informed? Why do you think it is relevant to be informed and learn our current health status in this time?

As we embark in this new normal, the term “health” has become stereotyped. Health appears to be a straightforward concept, but as we draw closer and attempt to define and explain it, the solidity disappears. In this feature, health will be defined along with health education in a new normal setting.

Health is dynamic and ever-changing. Each person has their subjective definition of health. However, traditionally health has been defined in terms of the presence or absence of disease. As for the World Health Organization (WHO), “Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social, and spiritual well-being and not merely the absence of disease.” The four dimensions of health are physical, mental, social, and spiritual.

Physical- characterized in terms of functional status and the capacity to perform a wide range of activities, including self-care, household work, and leisure activities.

Mental- focused on anxiety disorders, positive well-being, and self-control

Social- developing relationships with others, both with people in immediate surroundings and with the larger community through cultural, spiritual, and political activities.

These dimensions are all interconnected, which means they affect one another. If one dimension is affected, the other will follow as well. For example, if an individual tested positive for the virus, some of his/her daily activities will be restricted. Must also avoid social environments so that he/she does not infect others, which may lead to feelings such as depression.

In this new normal setting, stereotyping health would be, not being infected by the virus. Being negative with the virus could mean that an individual has strong innate immunity with a good diet and healthy lifestyle thus enable them to perform daily living activities. We can then conclude that an individual is healthy. Nonetheless, health is more than just biological elements or social role performance and absence of the virus; it is a complex balance with the world setting and the “ability to live physically, emotionally, and socially.”

Health in the new normal setting is linked to governmental regulations. COVID-19 is a public health crisis that has imposed steep obstacles. The pandemic response poses significant challenges for the physical and mental health and social wellbeing, which are essential cornerstones of overall health. These measures have disproportionately impacted the marginalized and disadvantaged populations-especially those living in poverty, working in the informal economy, or lacking stable housing-threatening sustained access to the essential determinant of health.

Orders to “stay at home” impoverish societies by limiting public life keeping individuals out of it. The general populations freedom to move freely has been limited. The social isolation associated with the new normal setting has been shown to have a negative impact on a variety of mental health indicators. Loneliness, for instance, causes mood swings, depression, and an increase in overall mortality. Health necessitates more than disease eradication; it must be described and interpreted holistically since health is a human right that must be rendered clear.

However, although the negative outcome of this new normal setting is immense, we can also say that health is much like the yin and yang concept. Whereas yin represents darkness and positivity, and yang presents light and activity like improved hygiene. These concepts are necessary to maintain life’s balance and harmony. Health is greatly influenced by personal feelings—energy, comfort, and the ability to perform. Also, health is personal but an elastic concept and must not be compared to a species-wide baseline, but a personal phenomenological baseline. If an individual has the capacity to adapt well and maintain balance, stress and resultant disease, or limitation of action including social capacity are minimized.

In a new normal environment, health can also be defined as instrumental. The idea of health as an instrument is a different way of describing a contribution to society, both individually and collectively. In short, we are talking about how an individual's behavior and decisions that can affect improvements in health status. My ‘being healthy and keeping my family healthy is an instrument for preventing the spread of this disease in the population. Coronavirus does not only affect the elderly and others who are medically vulnerable. We are aware that it has the potential to impact and us. As a result, it is also our mutual duty to prevent the virus from spreading from person to person.

Pandemic is a word that if misused can cause unreasonable fear or unjustified acceptance that the fight is over leading to unnecessary suffering and death. As the COVID-19 pandemic sweeps across the world, it has been accompanied by an enormous misinformation which the WHO described as an ‘infodemic’. At a time when reliable information is vital for public health, fake news and propaganda about COVID-19 is spreading even faster than the facts and is just as dangerous. It is important to protect the public false information.

At the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, health officials provided alerts and recommendations via various channels such as television and infographics on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. This was often accompanied by the implementation of safety parameters on people's movement, which led in some degree of success in combating the virus. Some preventive measures, such as social isolation, regular hand washing, wearing face masks, and avoiding close contact with sick people or suspected Covid-19 cases, reduce the risk of infection with COVID-19. However, putting these steps into effect regularly is a major challenge.

Hence, health education may serve as a catalyst for the public to be informed to avoid risking their lives from the spreading  ‘appears to be true news’ ,  to promote behavioral change and empower communities which will assist them in adapting beneficial habits in this long battle against COVID-19 while we are in the new normal setting. Health education is not just for individual’s benefit but also that of others and to provide resources and opportunities to make such changes.

Some people may claimed they were at low to no risk because they underestimated the severity of the issue.

Therefore, improving people's habits necessitates motivating people to incorporate preventive behaviors in their everyday lives by supplying them with a clear rationale. The health education and information should be structured in a way that is understandable to the public and can connect with their own experience, but it should also be timely, factual, and acceptable to the relevant subgroups in the population.

At this time of the global pandemic, all of us can be a health educator. It is critical to remain an advocate for those in the society that are especially vulnerable—those who are facing this pandemic with all the anxiety and uncertainty that comes with it—in the context of existing mental health and related social challenges in this new normal setting. However, let us all be responsible and fight misinformation. Let us help and guide each other to pave a new path forward to the return of day amidst differences of behaviors, habits, and perspective.

[tswifttheories]

#SnakesEatRats: I Analyzed The Leaked Taylor/Kanye Phone Call

And I colored coded the conversation to contrast their stark differences in their behaviors and intentions.

To further support that #TaylorToldTheTruth I have analyzed the full phone call between Taylor Swift and Kanye West.

See the images below for their conversation, and refer to the key to see my interpretation of their intentions.

The video starts with Kanye barking at someone to “lock the door” and wait outside. Afterward, West resumes talking about himself to Taylor, then moves on to ask him to promote his upcoming single.

Taylor responds apprehensively and  subtly questions his intentions.

West says that there’s a controversial line about her in the song, and teases her several times before finally revealing the line.

Taylor’s immediate response is an amalgamation of compliments, apprehension, justification, and advice.

Kanye tells her she doesn’t have to do the Twitter post, but does not mention that he would not do the line if she didn’t give her blessing. Combined with the power imbalance here, it’s clear that Kayne did not intend to relent on the line in any way but was willing to give the appearance of cooperation to use her for promotion.

Taylor continues to lament on her anxieties, none of which Kanye addresses or reassures her of other than to say that his sound would be a “cool thing to have.”

Kanye tells Taylor that he gives a fuck about her as a person and as a friend. He says he wants to make music that makes people feel good. Then, he delves into a rant about Nike, which Taylor politely entertains.

Taylor spends a considerable amount of time thanking Kanye for his willingness to include her on this decision and how nice he is to give her a head’s up rather than doing something unexpected.

Kanye uses this opportunity to segue into Kanye talking about himself and some dumb unexpected shit he did as a publicity stunt, since that’s all his career seems to be mounting up to at this point.

Taylor responded positively. 

Kanye tells taylor that they have a “connection” and that how they met is “really important.” You know, when he yanked the microphone from her when she was 19 years-old to discredit her hard work?

Taylor defended the song by saying that she didn’t think anyone could think it was mean spirited.

Kanye dismissively addresses what she says, then reiterates her idea that they have to pick specific moments to work on really cool material together, then immediately begins rambling.

Kanye then asks “what if” he took credit for her fame in the song.

Taylor responds with clear apprehension, questioning if that was true.

Kanye responds with a vague answer, to which Taylor, completed defeated, asks what she could do about it. Kanye is dismissive of her concerns. She then goes on to defend the line by saying that he was simply speaking his truth, despite the fact that it isn’t the truth.

Taylor asked what the song was called. Kanye said it “might be called Hood Famous.” So, it might be this title... another non-answer to a valid question.

She continues to ask questions about his plans for the song, and inquires whether or not he will attend the Grammys.

The camera dies, but the conversation then picks back up to them still talking about attending the Grammys. Kanye then uses this opportunity to waste several minutes of one of the most famous women on the plant’s time by rambling incoherently in between stroking his ego.

Once Kanye finishes his pointless tangent, Taylor once again takes this opportunity to compliment Kanye, even going as far as saying that she has always respected him, and is always going to respect him. Then, she continued to defend the song and thanked him for his friendship.

Kanye simply said thank you.

Taylor continued, vowing that she would defend Kanye when pressed about the song.

Kanye dismisses what she says and then essentially declares that he’s won her over.

Taylor confirms, and then continues to say that she will defend the line and Kanye when pressed.

Taylor then gives Kanye advice on the line and how to tow the line between respecting his relationship and honoring his artistry. The artistry of spending 8 months to come up with, arguably, a really shitty line.Kanye tells the camera man once the call has ended that they “had to get that on the record.” He then goes on to say that “there’s gotta be three cameras” recording when Taylor explains that line, emphasizing that they can’t miss that part.

Taylor Keeps the Peace Despite Her Concerns

Taylor has to ask twice before West will tell her the lyric in question. West has three false starts before finally revealing the lyric, building Taylor's anticipation and anxiety of what the line will be.

Taylor specifically cites her fear that West would call her a "bitch" and West did not respond to this.

Taylor spends much of the first half of the conversation lamenting about her anxieties and expressing her discomfort with the idea.

Taylor compliments West numerous times - West does extend the same courtesy to Taylor a single time.

Kanye Is Dismissive and Self-Absorbed

West has three false starts before finally revealing the lyric, building Taylor's anticipation and anxiety of what the line will be. Using this tactic ensures that Taylor has the worst case scenario in her head (she even said as much during the call) and this allows her to feel ‘relieved’ when it’s not as malicious as she was anticipating. To me, this is another clear power move when Kanye is holding the upper hand and he knows it.

West speaks very highly of himself during  many parts of this conversation.

West gives vague answers to every single question Taylor asks (e.g. he didn't even tell her the final name of the song, never told her the final cut of the lyric, said it "might" have happened when she asked about a specific line).

West starts off his proposal by citing how many followers she has, indicating he is only pursuing her permission so that he can benefit from her influence. Notably, and obviously, Swift did not promote this song which resulted in West releasing edited footage of this call, which in turn drastically affected her public reception and influence.

West spends a significant portion of the call rambling on incessantly. This reminds me of an episode of MTV’s Boiling Points. I feel as though West did not get what he wanted out of this call, which is why only edited footage was released. Getting Taylor to blow up at him for not shutting the fuck up may have been his plan. Or maybe he frequently starts a thought and has no idea where it’s going.

They Set Out to Destroy Her

Kanye West (39 at the time) and Kim Kardashian (36 at the time) tried to destroy the life, career, and reputation of a 26-year-old woman who only wanted their respect and friendship. They allowed her to be dragged through the mud, called a snake, go into hiding, and constructed an entirely false narrative around her.

Summary & TL;DR

Kanye went into this phone call knowing he would get something he wanted. This phone call was only going to benefit him, and would only serve to keep Taylor in line or ruin her reputation.

It is clear that Taylor wanted the approval of this man - her bully and the man who humiliated her on live TV after winning a major award - so much. She complimented him, defended the song, gave him advice, and was reacted positively to the pitch despite her obvious anxieties.

���𝕏ℙ𝕃𝔸ℕ𝔸𝕋𝕀𝕆ℕ 𝕆𝔽 𝕋ℍ𝔼 𝕂𝔼𝕐

Taylor

ℙ𝕀ℕ𝕂: anything highlighted in pink is instances where I felt that Taylor was trying to defend the song Famous or convince herself to come around to the idea.

𝕐𝔼𝕃𝕃𝕆𝕎: anything highlighted in yellow are instances where I felt that Taylor was expressing apprehension or concern regarding something that West had said, something he suggested, or something related to the situation as a whole.

𝔹𝕃𝕌𝔼: anything highlighted in blue is Taylor expressing excitement for West or giving him compliments or the benefit of the doubt.

ℙ𝕌ℝℙ𝕃𝔼: anything highlighted in purple is advice that Taylor is giving to West about how the song will be received and what he should do about the line.

𝔾ℝ𝔼𝔼ℕ: anything highlighted in green is Taylor asking questions about what West is talking about or asking questions about his life/upcoming events.

West

ℕ𝔸𝕍𝕐: anything highlighted in navy blue are instances where West is telling either a half-truth or complete lie. Unfortunately, this conversation does not include lies by omission for obvious reasons.

𝕄𝔸ℝ𝕆𝕆ℕ: anything highlighted in maroon are instances where I feel as though West is using manipulative language to get Taylor to agree with what he is asking of her, or complimenting her with an ulterior motive (e.g. you have an army of 2 billion people to promote my song).

𝔾ℝ𝔼𝕐: anything highlighted in grey is West talking about himself, complimenting himself, talking himself up, or diverting the conversation back to himself

𝕆𝕃𝕀𝕍𝔼: anything highlighted in olive is West responding to something Taylor has said without actually acknowledging what she said, and where I perceive him to be continuing his own train of thought rather than having a dialogue with her.

𝔻𝔸ℝ𝕂 ℙ𝕌ℝℙ𝕃𝔼: anything highlighted in dark purple is West going off on a completely unrelated tangent

𝕃𝕀𝕃𝔸ℂ: anything highlighted in lilac is West simply repeating what Taylor said, or rewording something she just said – often comes off as though he is presenting this as his idea.

Twitter: tswifttheories

Instagram: tswifttheories

Reddit: tswifttheories

Maybe I got mine, but you’ll all get yours.

[fireflysummers]

Just Fiction (and When It’s Not)

I’ve been tying myself in mental knots for the last while about the “It’s Just Fiction” argument. At this point I’ve heard a lot from both sides that’s actually pretty valid, leading to a lot of general confusion. 

The conclusion that I’ve come to, though, is that “It’s Just Fiction” is not a universal defense, and its meaning shifts drastically when it’s shifted out of the originally intended lens.

I propose that there are three lenses through which the “It’s Just Fiction” argument can be viewed: in-universe, authorial intent, and public interpretation.

Before jumping into the analysis, I should note that there are a few assumptions here:

The fiction in question is actually fiction, and does not resemble any real life persons, living or dead in an identifiable capacity. Therefore, things like the Ted Bundy Case Files are immediately disqualified.

We are assuming innocence until proven guilty.

The In-Universe Lens

The “It’s Just Fiction” defense is most often applied to in-universe logic, and is related to the suspension of disbelief--the mechanism by which we can ignore our comparisons to the real world and immerse ourselves in a fantasy.

When you say "It's Just Fiction" about in-universe logic, it understands very clearly that fiction is fake, and that the characters and events do not exist in the real world. It may echo real life, and real people might to replicate it, but no matter how dark or gross or fluffy or fantastical the content, no matter how gritty and “realistic” it is, it is not real. 

Arguing that "It’s Just Fiction" is basically stating that you understand how to separate reality from fantasy, and treat characters and in-canon logic as the mechanisms by which an interesting story is told. While they may feel real, especially if you have a special connection with them, they fundamentally are not. 

As a result, content creators are generally allowed to use it as space to explore taboo topics and search for relationships and meaning in places that no sane person would enact in real life. 

However, this is not free reign to create whatever you want, and expect no consequences, as we will get to in our next point.

Authorial Intent

As stated earlier, the general assumption here is that the content creator did not intentionally have ill will towards anybody. Unfortunately, there have been too many case where this has proven to be bad faith. As a result, how to approach this aspect of the “It’s Just Fiction” argument is very difficult and controversial, because sometimes it is very difficult to “prove,” especially since the creative process is often multi-faceted as content creators draw from multiple inspirational and motivational sources. 

Oftentimes, content creators are young, ignorant, and lacking self-awareness. This leads to them not knowing how to take critique, especially if they are approached in a harsh, critical manner, and generally only alienates them in a way that stifles their desire to learn and grow naturally. It is generally not your job to educate strangers on the internet, either, since there are often trolls who disguise actual ill intent as ignorance.

The most surefire way to address this is to curate your own internet experience by blocking liberally those whose content you do not wish to see.

There is another case, though, that needs to be discussed: that of predatory content creators. These people usually straddle the line between “a distasteful lack of mindfulness” and “preying on vulnerable populations.” 

Accusations of ped/o/phil/ia against any individual are serious, and in process you have to consider a personal history of predatory behavior, rather than applying a blanket "if it's dark and taboo topics, then it automatically implicates the author as a pervert.”

You can usually identify these individuals based on the content’s tone and approach--that they aren't approaching a taboo topic for the sake of literary exploration, but because they are self-inserting themselves. There are heavy implications about people who  self-insert into that sort of fiction, such as people who write or draw cartoon character CP, and you can usually tell on a case-by-case basis whether or not somebody is hiding a gross perversion behind "It’s Just Fiction.”

Public Interpretation

Public interpretation is usually where the “It’s Just Fiction” argument breaks down entirely, because we are no longer working directly with the work (in-universe) or the people immediately responsible for its creation (authorial intent). Public reactions are very, very real and need to be treated as such--but first, you have to consider the likelihood that a work of fiction will actually contribute to swaying that public.

The argument here is “even if the person didn’t mean any harm, that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be held responsible.” And this is another tough one, because on one hand, yes, content creators ideally should exercise mindfulness about how their work will be received and interpreted. On the other hand, the public is beyond the control of any single individual, and things can easily be taken out of context or snowball out of their control, regardless of their intent. 

So, for the sake of this particular case, we have determined that the author did not mean to cause harm, the next question is how much harm is being done. 

In other words, who exactly is the public, and how many of them are there?

For instance, a bunch of kids filming a shitty monster movie featuring sharks may have the exact same messages as Jaws (sharks are evil and need to be killed). Neither one of them intend to do real sharks any harm; however, the one that needs to be held responsible is Jaws, not the shitty indie film. 

Why? Because Jaws was a box-office success that became a cultural phenomenon. It impacted the opinions of the millions of people, leading to a sharp increase of shark hunting. 

Yeah, the indie film was equally bad in the messages it was conveying, but it just fades into obscurity without actually doing any harm. 

It’s the same spiel with fandom works. Because fandoms are insular spaces, they feel a lot bigger than they actually are. That’s why fan-content creators are not held to the same standards as mainstream content creators, because the public they actually affect is actually quite small. 

When people say “It’s Just Fiction” in relation to content that is not intended to do harm, but is controversial in content, what they’re really saying is “fandom is a small, in-bred pocket of the internet, and and because it is not written by somebody intending to cause harm and will never likely see the public eye, the damage that it does is negligible, and any energy that you put into causing an outcry over it is merely a petty waste of time.”

At which point, again, the best course of action is to just block what you don’t want to see.

Applications

This is a long read, and the basic point is to exercise your own critical thinking skills. My general rubric for what I keep versus what I block is:

Is the content actually fictional.

Is the content creator acting out of a desire to hurt others?

If the harm is unintentional, how many people are affected, and how wide-spread is the damage? 

Let’s Practice

Case 1

Person A is obsessed with a villainous character from an anime.

They know that the character is completely made up.

They have no desire to hurt other people, since this affection for a fictional character is literally just them. Their actions do not pose a threat to vulnerable groups. 

The number of people even directly aware of Person A’s special interest is pretty small, and if you’re squicked out by it they’re an easy block.

Therefore, by this rubric, “It’s Just Fiction” works just fine as an explanation for their actions.

Case 2

Person B’s fanfic reduces your favorite character to LGBT+ stereotypes. The tone of the fic, though, is fluffy and light-hearted.

Again, this is entirely fictional and all parties know it.

It’s difficult to gauge whether this was done intentionally or not; sometimes a quick chat with the author will clear things up; otherwise, the tone of the fic and the lack of mean spirit in any of their other works, so it’s probably unintentional. It’s probably safe to give the benefit of the doubt.

The general readership on the fic and the number of kudos is pretty low, which means that it’s not getting much attention anyways. It was distasteful, it made you feel gross when you read it, but overall the damage is pretty contained.

Therefore, by this rubric, “It’s Just Fiction” still generally works, because of the limited number of people even aware of the fic’s existence.

Case 3

Person C made an AU with characters aged-up from the canon, and there are some N/S/F/W scenes or jokes!

AU = fictional

This is a tricky one sometimes, because there are absolutely people who age up characters just to “legally” draw them in N/S/F/W situations. 

However, there is a difference between people who do that, and others who say, project out an entire timeline full of unique character interactions and are looking to explore the various aspects of adult life, which sometimes involves consensual sex. The authorial intent here is usually pretty easy to pick up on, because a well thought-out aged-up AU often takes a lot of mindfulness on the part of the creator.

Again, things limited to fandom spaces are by default pretty small in the public that they reach. 

“It’s Just Fiction” absolutely applies here because of the amount of work that has been put into it to create an adult version of the world and characters, and it’s clear that the intent was not to expose minors for the entertainment of perverts.

tl;dr: If you’re going to treat fandom with academic scrutiny, please apply critical thinking to situations as they come. “It’s Just Fiction” does not work as a general statement because it wasn’t originally meant to be a general statement.

[argentdandelion]

Betty You Fool: GlitchTale Analysis

Featured: a fool with bad plans.

Note: The following article analyzes Betty's evil motivations and actions to explain how foolish it all is. In Season 2, Episode 5 of GlitchTale, Betty refers to Frisk as a boy once. Up to that point, Frisk is called a "they". As this article almost entirely focuses on Season 2 Episodes 1-4 with only a little Episode 5, it will adhere to episode Episode 1-4 customs.

In brief: Betty’s plans (or "villainy", in general) are ill-conceived and doomed to backfire on her. Supposedly, her goal is to ensure humans and monsters never live in peace, for a civilization where the two coexist would eventually threaten humanity’s survival. However, her goals are based on unfounded fears, and her motives are contradictory. Furthermore, trying to achieve her goal by killing all monsters quickly, with herself as the obvious perpetrator, and killing many humans (including children) for her plan, is just going to unify humans and monsters by giving them a common enemy.

Introduction

In GlitchTale, Bete Noire ("Betty") is a being said to exist for the sole purpose of ensuring humans and monsters never live in peace. Her creator was Agate, the Wizard of Bravery and one of the wizards who created the barrier. Her opinions on monsterkind differed from her brother, another wizard that helped make the barrier. While her brother wanted to destroy the barrier, Agate thought it a good measure to keep the peace. Agate challenged him over the fate of the barrier, lost the fight, and exiled herself. Later, she used a forbidden spell to increase her power, returned, and killed her brother. Dying from the spell, she used her soul and the corpse of her little sister (who she killed to weaken her brother) to make Betty.

Betty herself was released from the barrier itself when it was broken. Soon after she woke up, Agate “uploaded” her memories to Betty, and told Betty her purpose.1 Disguised as a sweet human girl, Betty befriended Frisk. She also manipulated Jessica Grey, head of the Anti-Monster Division, who wanted revenge on monsters after learning Asgore killed her missing child 20 years ago. Betty promised to Jessica to turn all monsters to dust (kill them). However, she later showed her true nature: when Jessica wouldn’t give her the hate vial (a noxious power-up), Betty tormented her with a gruesome illusion of her dead child and attacked her.

Jessica, having survived, turns against Betty very quickly. She apologizes to Asgore, asks for his help in defeating Betty, and gets him out of prison/jail to this end. This is all for her daughter’s killer, which shows just how drastically Jessica's beliefs changed. Jessica also cooperates with several other monsters to take down Betty, and gets many humans to team up with monsters as well. She even sacrifices herself so that W.D. Gaster, a monster, may live.

If Betty’s goal is to ensure humans and monsters never live in peace, she really messed up.

Betty's Ill-Conceived Motivations

In roughly a month, humans adjusted very well to living with another species of sentient beings. From Season 2, Episode 1.

First, Betty’s beliefs are unfounded, and sometimes even contradictory. She (or possibly Agate) wants to “ensure humanity’s survival.” As she believes monsters are a threat to humanity, she wants to ensure the two never live in peace, or for that matter coexist.

Yet, as Frisk points out in the first episode of Season 1, monsters are harmless2: as of that episode, humans and monsters co-existed for about a month without any problems. Furthermore, integrating them into human society with more rights could only benefit humanity, increasing their likelihood of survival. (e.g., Gaster’s CORE expansion becoming a non-polluting, unlimited, self-sustaining power source that will make electricity free and blackouts a thing of the past)

Furthermore, if they somehow did turn hostile to humans, they couldn’t do much and they would be easy to kill off. As Betty knows from experience (and Agate might know from the war) humans are far stronger than monsters and can kill them easily, particularly since humanity as a whole massively outnumbers monsters now. Though Betty evidently believes a civilization with monsters and humans existing together “is just a time bomb waiting to go off” and “that [she is] doing good by speeding up the process”, in going through with her plan she causes problems and casualties where none previously existed.

It's possible Betty fears monsters would gain godlike power by absorbing seven human souls, just as the Waterfall plaques claim. Though the plaques also claim this had never actually happened, they then say humans attacked monsters out of paranoia they would take their souls. It is possible Agate told Betty about this, which is why Betty thinks monsters threaten humanity.

However, monsters living together peacefully with humans have no reason to do this, and might not even believe it possible so much as a myth humans made up. Indeed, if some monster went rogue and killed a human to absorb a soul, it's likely other monsters would team up with humans to take down the rogue monster.

Notably, Frisk went up against a god and won. If Betty only knew of Frisk's track record against beings with godlike power, she'd be even more eager to make Frisk an ally, just in case a monster did get seven human souls and cause the worst-case scenario humans evidently feared so long ago.

Betty's Plan is Doomed to Backfire

An example of cooperation: Jessica Grey, showing the extent of her reversal in beliefs.

Of all the ways she could operate on her (irrational) beliefs, her plan is the worst. First, she tricks a monster (Papyrus) into accidentally killing some humans by dropping metal girders on them. Sans (a monster) uses blue magic on the bars (represented as telekinesis) to try to stop them from landing on anyone, but Ms. Grey (secretly allied with Betty) disables his ability to use magic. The girders then crush some humans. Later, Betty's plan involves killing hundreds of humans (including many children) in a short time, to use their souls as a power-up so she can kill off lots of monsters very quickly.

Even if she’s evil enough to disregard the obvious moral issues of her plan, it would still have two problems. One, her aim is supposedly to “ensure humanity’s survival”, yet big parts of her plan are blatantly anti-human, and she makes herself a threat to humanity’s survival. Two, since she’s neither human nor monster, kills both, and makes it obvious she’s the killer, monsters and humans have very good reason to team up to kill her and, in the process, lessen prejudice between them. This would get them to cooperate more, increasing the chances of long-term peace between them.

Therein lies a contradiction: though her plans are supposedly for humanity’s sake, Agate tells her she can't trust humans, and Betty has no loyalty for humans. Betty evidently corroborates “humanity can’t be trusted” by seeing into Frisk’s memories (stated in supplementary material) and seeing their Genocide Routes. However, she apparently doesn’t check anybody else, and, if anything, wouldn’t she trust Frisk more for those routes if she hates monsters so much?

What Betty Should Have Done

If Betty were smart, she’d act like Batman. Batman is aware Superman is nigh-invulnerable, super strong, and has quite a lot of useful powers. Were Superman to turn evil for some reason, he would be a massive threat to other superheroes and perhaps all of humanity. Yet, Batman tempers his distrust/caution with evidence: Superman is very morally principled and (unlike some other superheroes) never kills.

So, rather than attacking, trapping, or disabling Superman immediately because he could pose a threat, or even just being mean to him, he acts friendly (by Batman standards) and secretly has a plan to take him down if necessary.

If Betty believes a civilization where monsters and humans live together is “a time bomb waiting to go off”, why not disarm the bomb? Wouldn’t it fall within her interests to solve inter-species conflict as much as possible, delay it as long as possible if diplomacy can’t solve it completely, and develop (proportionate) monster-killing plans in case of emergency? Even separating monster society from human society (which, by the way, would deprive humanity of monsters’ benefits) would be a better plan than all that murder.

Why Didn't She Do It?

The most likely cause for Betty’s irrational and contradictory behavior is: she’s an impatient, short-sighted, and probably also lonely species-ist who fears and distrust monsters for no good reason, wants to make her species-ist mother happy, and she doesn't consider that her creator or she herself could be coming to the wrong conclusions (e.g., checking Frisk but not anyone else afterwards). (Note that Betty, though not human, is still a child. It’s plausible she didn’t think this through.)

As far as can be inferred from the supplementary material; it doesn't have any dialogue or explanation. The interpretation was based on how TVtropes described it. ↩︎

In GlitchTale, it’s specifically stated that Asgore killed the seven fallen humans, who were all kids. Jessica Grey later visits him in prison; apparently he was in prison for killing those kids. ↩︎

[bluesheepstrawberry-blog]

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[valkyrieelysia18]

RWBY Rewrite: WTCH

Hello again! Welcome once again to the RWBY Rewrite series of posts I’ve been working on if under the unlikely chance I was asked to consult on a reboot. Unfortunately for my opening line, this is not the Pyrrha Nikos post (believe me, I’ve got a bunch to talk about on that one), but instead this one will focus on the villains, specifically the main four of Salem’s underlings: Cinder Fall, Arthur Watts, Tyrian Callows, and Hazel Rainart.

Now, villains are always fun to work with; often times they are the most memorable part of a story. A hero is only as good as their villains, as showcased by certain heroes’ rogues galleries. Unfortunately, RWBY’s treatment of its villains has been.....not the best. With the way the heroes have been prevailing lately, it’s been kind of downgrading their threat factor. Not to mention the current writers’ inability to deal with morally gray conflicts and characters. As such, I feel the need to break up the villains into more manageable sections, starting with the villains that will serve as the immediate antagonists to Team RWBY.

Now it’s not going to come up too much here, but it should be made clear that these four are merely this generation’s evil team. There have been many members of Salem’s council, but all that have served previously are dead, mostly due to battle against Ozpin’s forces or by Salem for a number of reasons (betrayal, insubordination, became too much of a liability, etc.). In each of their cases, Salem would reach out to them, whether through a seer or one of her other subordinates, and they would join her cause of their own free will. She’d save her main manipulations and threats for those she’s going to use as scapegoats and those she’s planning on killing. But when it comes to her long term lieutenants, it’s generally best to try and set as positive of a relationship as she can.

So, why would each of them join her? Well, the thing about the great worlds of fiction is not just their positive traits, but also their dark sides. Take the world of My Hero Academia. You’d think a world where almost everyone has super powers would be amazing, but the more you look into the society, the more cracks you find and it becomes very understandable of why some people would want to tear it down. Each of these characters are going to be associated with a problem found in the world they live in, that directly played a part in why they are villains. It’s all going to contribute to the question “Is Remnant and it’s people truly worth saving?” I’ll deal more into this question when I get to Salem.

For this, I’m also going to run with the head canon that each of them comes from a different kingdom and that problem they’re associated with relates to that kingdom: Hazel Vale, Cinder Mistral, Watts Atlas, and Tyrian Vacuo.

Hazel: Apathy

No, this is not about that Grimm. Apathy is generally defined as the complete lack of emotion about a human being, a thing or an activity. And in this head canon, this would describe Vale’s biggest problem. Vale (or at least most of those in charge) doesn’t care about what happens outside of the kingdom’s borders. So long as the life that they’ve become so accustomed to is safe, the rest of the world could be on fire and they wouldn’t lift a finger. And that especially relates to how they, and other kingdoms, view huntsmen and huntresses.

Now, we don’t really know much about Gretchen Rainart’s death, only that Ozpin said that it was due to a training accident, but that’s not what this is focusing on. I imagine that after Gretchen died, Hazel might have tried to raise concern about the Academies’ practices and get answers....only to find that no one really cared.

So what if some no name huntress in training got killed in some sort of accident? Huntsmen and huntresses die all the time. Surely she knew what she was signing up for. And there will be many more just like her.

You know that lyric “Or are we weapons pointed at the enemy, so someone else can claim a victory?” That’s how many people would view huntsmen and huntresses in this Rewrite: weapons to be used and replaced when necessary. This also gives Hazel more of an understandable reason as to why he sided with Salem. Revenge against Ozpin is still his primary motivation, but he also wants to destroy the system that would label his sister and others like her as expendable pawns just so people who know nothing about fighting and sacrifice could live peacefully.

Cinder: Prejudice

Now I know the word prejudice usually comes in when people talk about racism (we’ll get to Adam and the White Fang another day), but as a sociology major I also know that prejudice applies not just to race but also gender, social class, sexuality, family unit, where you grew up, religious beliefs, and more. In the show, Mistral is said to have the most diverse environments and lifestyles. That I think would lead to some serious divisions in the country, particularly after the Great War. 

I always thought it was a missed opportunity that after that conflict, the King of Vale (Oz) essentially dismantled and restructured the governments of four different kingdoms to streamline world peace. Even if it may have had a greater long term benefit, there should have been lasting consequences to drastically changing established governments that had been probably been around for centuries. Entire ways of life may have been altered or destroyed and the power structure must have been completely scrambled. Like, what if most of Mistral’s population is in Central Anima and is more Asian themed, but after the Great War the southern trading ports that are more Greco-Roman (where Pyrrha is from) gained more influence due to being more cooperative with foreign powers? This would make Mistral much more complex compared to Vale and showcase that when you get a bunch of people with differing statuses and beliefs together you’re going to have problems.

Then there’s the royal family and that is where Cinder comes in. In my head canon, Cinder is in fact a direct descendant of the Mistralian royal family which fell into ruin with the deposal of the monarchy. That would perfectly tie into her fairy tale inspiration of Cinderella, a young woman of great status brought to the lowest of circumstances. Only instead of taking it all with grace and kindness, Cinder would grow resentful and bitter. Constantly having to deal with people mocking her for her status and her blood, hearing what family she had left reminisce about what was once theirs, and hearing everyone look down upon the last emperor and all that came before him who styled themselves like gods but turned out to be nothing more then men.

This would give Cinder a much more personal reason to join Salem’s cause, considering that Ozpin, more specifically his last life as the King of Vale, was the reason she and her family would have been in that state in the first place. Her desire for power, strength, and to be feared would be tied up in her desire to reclaim her family’s honor and status, to strive to the image of the old Mistralian emperors. The things she should have had by right and so she’s going to do whatever it takes to take those things back.

Watts: Corruption

While many might cite Atlas’ obvious racist issues and the elitism of its upper class as problematic, Atlas’ upper class and those in power have also exploited those beneath them in order to stay on top. A missed opportunity when it came to the racism subplot is the lack of human allies because when if you really think about it, there must have been human miners in the Schnee Dust mines alongside the Faunus. Mantle is still very much there and the Atlesian hierarchy have most likely exploited those from it who where just trying to live their lives, Jacques Schnee most certainly has. And some of Ironwood’s power plays are definitely overstepping his bounds. As such, I’m using Atlas to highlight corruption. Unlike Vale, the Atlesians do care about how the world sees them and they will do anything to come out on top.

So, how would the good doctor fit into all this? The show has stated that Watts is a disgraced Atlesian scientist, but we don’t know why that is. Well, what if it wasn’t because he went behind his superiors’ backs in making deadly unethical weapons (because that seems like something Atlas would be completely on board for), but because they needed a scapegoat?

In this rewrite, Watts would be Professor Polendina’s protégé and they and others were performing certain experiments for the Atlesian government. The exact type of experiments I’m a little fuzzy on (I’m a writer, not a scientist), but I think it would interesting if these experiments were what laid the groundwork on Penny’s creation. Given Pyrrha’s reaction back in Volume 3, you get the impression that messing around with Aura and souls wouldn’t be the most....moral inquiries. And naturally someone would find out and the government would need someone to put the blame on. Professor Polendina would have been at the head of things and thus would be too important to lose, his protégé on the other hand would be much more expendable. Heck, the professor might be talked into going along with it in exchange for support to build Penny.

Now in this rewrite, Watts is by no means a good person, he’s just not a hypocrite. He knows full well what he’s done is pretty terrible, but he doesn’t deny it or sugar coat it. However, he is extremely pissed how he alone was blamed while others got away scot free. Salem would promise him both freedom to conduct his experiments as well as promising the opportunity for revenge against his former superiors. This could lead to an angry confrontation with Professor Polendina down the line, tearing into his old teacher. Ultimately culminating in Watts telling him that for all his attempts to convince himself he was doing things for Atlas or the greater good, Polendina is no better if not worse than the ones who ordered the experiments.

I also a couple ideas for Watts involving Ironwood, Jacques, and Willow, but those didn’t tie into his motivations so I’ll save that for a backstory post.

Tyrian: Anarchy 

Of the four kingdoms, Vacuo is definitely the worst off. Shade Academy is literally the only form of order in the kingdom, with the rest as a harsh merciless desert. While it may be welcoming to those who can survive, who are the kind of people who would survive in such an environment? I get the feeling that we’d be seeing Raven’s philosophy ‘The weak die, the strong survive’ be taken to quite the extreme. While we certainly complain about our governments (when Donald Trump was elected, I felt the immense desire to beg the UK to take us back), they do provide certain things that keep our lives relatively stable.

And that’s where Tyrian comes on. Unlike the other three, I don’t think Tyrian needs an intricate backstory or compelling motivations. He’s just someone who wants destruction and death. Rather, it’s because of the lack of order that someone like Tyrian was able to live and grow so strong. Perhaps Salem reached out to him with the potential of stronger and more difficult opponents than he was used to. Over time, he would begin to view Salem with an amount of reverence given that she leads the Grimm and the Grimm are essentially made to kill and destroy.

Well, that’s it for this post. Now I’ve got a bunch of ideas, but no idea what I want to do next. If anyone has a request, I’d be willing to hear it. Hope to see you all again relatively soon.

[gemmaashe0317-blog]

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Thanos, I understand that you're trying to accomplish something good from your perspective, but I think you're overlooking the resilience of human nature. Even if the Earth gets destroyed humanity would be able to find a way to escape, to go to another planet or solar system perhaps. That's the beauty of human nature, we adapt under any condition and overcome to survive.

Since you have come to me with a rational, at least in comparison to others, approach, I am inclined to humor your argument.

Even though of course the very thought that you believe you were able to come up with an angle that I, an immortal all-powerful being, was not able to is still naive at best and insulting at worst.

Now, I have many counters to your points, as just about everything you said is deeply flawed under closer inspection. First of all, the human race isn’t the only species I did what I did for, far from it. So even assuming your arguments were correct, which they aren’t, the same couldn’t be said for all the other species.

As always, you humans remain self-centered and assume everything revolves around you, which is part of the problem that got you into this mess in the first place. To me, your kind is merely one infinitesimal grain of sand in the beach of the universe.

A particularly stubborn and irritating piece of sand, rougher than many of the others, mind you, and one insistent on getting into places it shouldn’t be, but still a single grain nonetheless.

Now, aside from that, as I said before I am immortal, which means I have been alive for a very long time. Long enough to have changed drastically since I was young.

I wasn’t always so intent on my current mission. Before I reached the conclusion that I would have to erase half of all life, I considered other options first. As in, all of them.

I was raised as a scientist, and so my first approach was naturally to eliminate all other possible solutions, the ‘nicer’ ones, first before resorting to drastic measures.

After my planet was destroyed, I traveled to many different worlds that were similarly on the brink of collapse, and ran experiments to test out my different options. Thousands of them. Even accounting for all of the variables, they all inevitably failed and the result remained the same: total self-destruction.

Believe me, I never wanted to harm anyone, and I never would have chose to do so without good reason. Had you known me as I was as a naive and helpful young man, you would believe me.

Now, from the experience of what I have observed and lived through, as well as just basic common sense, here is the truth. For convenience’s sake, let us merely talk about humans and Earth, since that is all you understandably know of.

The first flaw in your argument is that you are assuming that your planet will even see your own doom coming before it is too late. But all it takes is one event, one second to change everything.

For example, my own planet, Titan, appeared completely fine to the naked eye. It was only from studying and looking into the patterns and signs that I was able to predict what happened. But to anyone who simply lived there, everything seemed relatively fine.

Sure, there were massive population issues, as well as a shortage of food and other resources, but the same can be said for your planet, and you certainly wouldn’t consider that an apocalypse by any means.

Because you have grown up in a time when this is very normal, and likely haven’t had to deal with it yourself, slowly escalating warnings and catastrophes are expected for your society.

So even though your climate is changing and more damage is being done environmentally, you don’t take the increasing rate of hurricanes, floods, disease, starvation, fires and earthquakes to mean the world is ending. No, it is normal to you, what you have always known.

It is easier to get used to something when it is increased in gradual increments, and naturally humans as a whole are complacent in their ways of life until they are forced not to be, so as long as these inconvenient natural disasters are manageable, you will find a way to persevere through it. The sad fact is that most of you wouldn’t even notice your own total doom until it has already arrived.

After all, it is such an ugly concept that denial is truly the only option for most people until they are slapped in the face with the cold hard reality. But wouldn’t you rather take control of your own destiny for the better than to be at its mercy on its terms?

Regardless, as I was saying, on Titan things looked relatively fine on the surface, nothing to visually indicate the end of everything was near, which is why people were so quick to deny me. But I knew the truth, and just as I predicted, the first catastrophe to strike Titan came from the depths below.

Our planet’s surface was littered with cryovolcanoes, and our main center of population, the Eternal City, was surrounded by them. Everything seemed fine, up until the very moment when they erupted.

The initial wave of eruptions wiped out two-thirds of our population in one fell swoop. No one in their path even had time to escape. Most, I suspect, didn’t even see it coming. The spew of liquid nitrogen exploded miles above into the sky and flooded down, freezing the people solid until their corpses were reduced to broken little bits.

Unluckily for me but luckily for the universe, I was not on Titan during this time, as I had been banished into space by my own father, by my own government, for trying to help. I was spared the fate that so many suffered below me.

Of course, the volcanoes were merely the catalyst in a long series of resulting disasters that within days wiped out everyone who had survived that initial disaster. And that part I was there for but couldn’t ultimately do anything to help but put people who lay half-dead on the streets out of their misery.

The point is, chances are you won’t see destruction coming unless you know where to look and have the motivation, intelligence, opportunity and resources to look into it like I did.

But alright, let’s say for the sake of the argument that you are correct and enough people will see it coming. The first problem with that is that not everyone on Earth is of the same credibility and privilege.

Because you place your value socially on wealth and other material criteria, the smartest people are often not the ones in power. If someone smart enough to predict this sort of thing was able to in time, who’s to say anyone would even believe them?

Damn, you already have actual respected scientists on your planet coming forth daily with strong warnings, and no one of consequence listens or cares. Even citizens who do believe them forget about it quickly and go back to their daily lives and distractions. It’s all background noise until it affects them personally.

So somehow, the people who figured it out on Earth would need to convince the governments, the powers that be, of their validity, just like I had to try to do on Titan and many more planets.

And in my case, I was actually the son of the ruler of Titan, so I had the connections to back me up. On Titan our higher classes consisted of the most intelligent individuals rather than the wealthiest, and you would think rational men would be easier to convince of the truth than those who could profit from denying it, but alas.

All in all, even though I was not popular among my people, I still had more in my favor than a human would as your leaders are often corrupt and foolish and uneducated on scientific matters. I had all those advantages going for me, and yet I still wasn’t able to convince my government. That bodes ridiculously ill for the average human.

But again, let’s give you the benefit of the doubt and assume the best case scenario despite all reasoning. The next problem that comes up is that even if both the masses and the government do listen, the result is that only people with power and influence will be able to save themselves.

Rest assured that were the apocalypse on your door, the only people who would be able to buy a ticket off your planet would be the people who could literally buy a ticket off your planet. And trust me, it wouldn’t be cheap.

Why should it be the rich and powerful who get to live on to continue humanity’s legacy, when they are quite plainly the worst among you, the ones who got you into this mess in the first place? Would they not just repeat the same mistakes on their new planet?

The human race would quickly die out in these hostile foreign conditions not meant to host them, seeing as these are not the best of you to begin with. Your chance of survival as a race would die out with these people who do not carry the necessary traits for survival and are not qualified to represent you or anything greater than their own self-interest.

Keep in mind as well that these people are mostly older since the elderly tend to be wealthier, so they would not be able to reproduce very quickly if at all and would not have a lot of time to actually implement their changes to a new planet that they would need to terraform it to be suitable for human life. All signs point to them being one of if not the last generation regardless of leaving Earth.

Which brings me to my next point. Would those who escaped not just end up destroying other planets, either quickly or in the future? How is that fair to other planets, to other species even who may get invaded and corrupted by those unpleasant humans who were rich enough to escape?

Why continue the cycle to its bitter end until everything is gone and ruined, when my plan halts that downward spiral completely? Sure, you get to live, but at what cost?

As I said, I don’t only care about whether humanity lives on, but life as a whole. If humanity surviving means other life being negatively affected, then the choice is very clear to me which takes priority.

You see, you self-righteous humans who fight me claim to desire only to preserve the life I will take, but the truth is you think only of preserving your own lives and, selfishly, the people you care about, not life itself.

Which yes, saving loved ones first is still selfish because you only wish to save them because you personally would be affected by their absence. You save your children from me, yet you give no thought to the futures you leave those same children you leave behind.

The truth is that you only have selfish reasons for saving yourselves. You, the generations who have ruined the Earth to begin with and left this mess for others to clean up.

But then you get mad when I, a person with the desire and ability to fix things, come around and do exactly that cleaning for you. You are simply unhappy because you have to live to see it instead of shifting it off to your descendants once its not your problem anymore.

They deserve a voice advocating for their best interests too, you know, arguably more than you do, and I will always seek to stand up for the little guy, the ones those in power overlook and bully.

Just like the rich people who would leave this planet behind and go off to a new world, you, the very generations who have caused this mess, would simply ‘leave’ to a peaceful death content in being able to preserve your own moral self esteem and leave everyone else behind to suffer.

These people will die either way. At least with my plan, they disappear painlessly, with a snap of my fingers, a merciful end compared to the prolonged suffering and fear and confusion you would leave them with. I do not wish to cause them pain, they simply cease to exist in order to be spared a torturous life.

As I said before, I am old, and so this truth is all very apparent to me. I see the long game because of my age and experience, so quite frankly I care more about maintaining a future overall than I do about your individual happiness right now, because the generations of the past and present have done nothing to deserve what you would leave those of the future with.

The future is innocent and savable, seeds of potential and hope, whereas you are sinful and damned and your plight self-inflicted through selfishness and ignorance and laziness.

I know because I have seen it time and time again. I have not only thought this out, but lived it, for millennia upon millennia. Can you say the same? Do you have any right to call me crazy or deluded when you’ve never been through what I have?

I know people have taken to calling me 'mad’, but I am not insane, as many would have you believe. Especially because you simply cannot use human terms like 'crazy’ to compare to me because I am not human, and cannot be compared. There is no human word for my state of consciousness, it is beyond anything you could ever even comprehend.

And so the word 'insane’ as it relates to me is not only false but irrelevant because humans have no idea what it is like to live for thousands of years or the kind of change in perspective that brings when you can see the bigger picture outside of your own existence.

It brings wisdom, and eventually you reach a point where you achieve the highest form of yourself possible. I have already reached that potential through all of my experience.

I am a visionary, and historically, visionaries have not been treated the best. They all get called insane in their time, simply for seeing the larger story and daring to defy the norm.

So for you, a human who has never had to think about anything outside themselves, to consider life as a whole beyond the eighty or so years of your own life, my ideas seem mad. Because they affect your whole life, and to you, based on your perspective, eighty years is a long time, so obviously it seems much more harsh than it is objectively.

But the truth is, your individual eighty years don’t matter in the grand scheme of things once you are gone, and whether you’d like to believe it or not, the world doesn’t stop once you and everyone currently around you is dead. Your legacy continues only through the new generations who you have set up to take your place.

To you it might not matter what happens in the future because you won’t be around to see it, but for me, I see it all, generation after generation, and so each one is all the same to me.

I am not blessed with the same ignorance as you, I have been cursed with responsibility and opportunity that cannot be overlooked. Your flawed if noble intentions to preserve your lives matter to you, but not everyone is human and not everyone sees things that way.

There is an order to the universe, one that mortal beings have no business meddling in because they cannot fathom the big picture, how everything connects. 

And so like your gods from your religions on Earth, you simply must trust in your higher powers and believe that they have a grand design in mind that makes it all worth while, such as the Christian god did when he flooded Earth, an objectively cruel and vengeful act, for the greater good.

Which, curiously, people still defend him for and worship him regardless yet hate me for doing the same thing. You wouldn’t question whether you know better than a god, who can see all ends and beginnings, so why do you question me, for whom the same can be said?

The answer, I can tell, is simply because you do not like me on a personal level, and because it is easier to defend the actions of a god that occurred in the past and which you are standing on the other side of unaffected. Which is a foolish reason.

I have always said that if any of your very gods came down to Earth and stood before you, they would be rejected, attacked, defied, just like Christ himself was, to use another Christian example.

Society hated Christ in his time, it was only with the benefit of hindsight that people realized and appreciated his divinity, his pure intentions, the necessity of his actions, just like those of his 'father’s’.

Like the Romans, you may crucify me now, but my work has been accomplished and your future generations will thank me for it whether you like it or not. History will look down upon you, the selfish and misguided blasphemers who tried to save themselves at the cost of goodness.

Now, I believe I have explained everything adequately, so I will leave you with one final thought to counter your last claim.

If you humans are so resilient and capable of adapting under any circumstance, why weren’t you able to adapt to my snap? I agree that you are able to adapt theoretically, but your choices and refusals to adapt play a bigger role than your potential capabilities.

So long as you are unwilling, you will not adapt. The same applies to any potential disaster situation you are referring to if I were to have not intervened and let nature run its course.

Accept it, you will always deny and cling to your ways to the bitter end, unless you are forced to change. In this case, you were forced by me. You’re welcome.

[hildegardepalazz-blog]

Ketosis - The Cyclical Ketogenic Diet Burn

Another thing that kept people from attaining their fat loss goals may be the way they train. Consumption have the erroneous belief that fat can be spot shrunk. This is one amongst the most cherished weight reducing fallacies involving most time. Nothing can be further coming from a truth. Should you be still doing crunches and sit-ups the particular hope of melting away your belly fat, then you are on a bad track. The case is different between a bodybuilder or athlete as well as the children enduring epilepsy. Messy has been used to the keto guidelines consider about eighteen months and ending a cyclical ketogenic diet may have drastic effects particularly when perhaps not performed . Just like when you started out with the diet, the weaning period also uses a lot of guidance and support throughout the parents. You have to make toddler recognize that there're going being changes once again but this time, a youngster will a lot more go for you to the keto guidelines plan. Ask your physician about it. It does not imply that when you are already on sticking to your diet you additionally become substantial. Actually, it is one of the most affected inside your life a person are not ingesting enough food to provide the nutrients that it has. You may become slimmer nevertheless health will be going to in great danger. Earn money . thing that you simply can do is to invest into natural supplements that other than losing weight it furthermore provide the system with the nutrients that is required. There can easily lot of products that promises this form of benefits however when you of it not provide your body the correct quantity of energy to do intense venture. With the ketogenic diet several not just achieve an excellent body that you wish for but can also acquire huge volume of energy which you can use to do other job or the aerobic apply. Will it take getting accustomed to? Absolutely. It's going take a few weeks to get your body accustomed to eating this way and rebuffing the carb cravings. Be persistent and rehearse some self-discipline. You will win in the end so think long term and deal with the attitude of a finisher. It been declared all diets and each and every programs work. It the people they like not function with them. Home security system mental attitude together and learning the right way to think extended will function key to your ultimate success on the diet plan. What your current products continually change your meals all of the time, therefore it is always the most current meal day to day. Of course you defintely won't be bored but what realize that some find impossible to do is stick to the advice your plan and conserve a steady search. Another secret to weight is small frequent adding. Eat smaller amounts with smaller periods. Like example, instead of eating three large meals, you eat six smaller meals. That was way, Fit Body Keto Ingredients you will stay full by eating less. Three large meals often have extra meals in between the two so it's better to ditch that sort of ketosis diet plan menu for women. You likewise to remember not eating anything and starving yourself to death will not do you any fine. A lot of teenagers resort to the just to realize weight dissapointment. You would somehow develop eating disorders if you will continue doing that. And worse, you might develop metabolic disorders at the same time. Not good. Also, inside your start fasting, all excess fat you lose will just go back when you start eating again. You first have to motivate yourself and fitbodyketo.org have a goal. Just how much weight style to use up? How many months? You have to take note of individuals. Try writing it down in your notebook or perhaps in a large paper and include it on your own wall. With that, Fit Body Keto Reviews might be easily reminded you have a certain goal anyone could have to gain.

[pinehub]

Get On Board with Leadership

By Megan Schrader

           The worst employer that I ever had was the manager at a part-time job I held when I was 18. I was a cashier in a sporadically busy restaurant, and the only time that I would see this manager was when they had a job for me. Regardless of the good work that I did and the many early hours I put in, I was constantly reminded that I was in no way unique from my coworkers. I was simply a sales tool, and nothing more.

           Simultaneously, I was working as a cashier at a local cafe. The manager here was always nearby for support without crossing over the line into overbearing. They would thank me for working hard, and give praise when I did something well. I felt appreciated, and respected. I never thought I was just “another number”. I was a valued part of the operation, so in turn, I was motivated to work my hardest for this company.

           I remained at the first job for a total of nine months. And the second? I worked at that café for three years.

           A major factor in a company’s success and happiness is the people it has leading. A good leader is able to unite a company and motivate its employees, regardless of external social or market factors. They are the difference between an office that exceeds expectations and one that barely reaches quotas. They are the reason that employees choose to dedicate themselves to the business. They are the individuals trusted to make major decisions, and determine the course of the business going forward. Being able to lead effectively is of huge concern for company bosses and managers. However, understanding how to lead is far from a simple matter.

 Leadership Styles

           There is no one system used to categorize leadership styles universally. Since as early as the 1930’s, researchers have attempted to create clear labels for the range of unique leadership styles with varying degrees of success. The most enduring of these systems, established in 1939, breaks down leadership into three basic categories:

Autocratic leadership is a leader making decisions individually. This leader issues orders for others to complete without debate, and is completely responsible for the implications of these orders.

Democratic leadership is a leader discussing decisions with other teammates. This leader works with other members to determine what decision is ideal, but ultimately has the final say in what is chosen.

Delegative leadership is a leader entrusting a decision entirely to other teammates. This leader plays little to no role in the decision process.

           Later researchers have continued to take this framework into account when considering leadership. Some have reflected the great variation in leader types by expanding upon this basic system. These researchers have chosen to consider additional factors such as whether leaders issue rewards (Positive Leadership) or punishments (Negative Leadership), and whether they focus more on individuals (Considerate Leadership) or tasks (Structured Leadership). Others have proposed that rather than remaining categorical, this system should be considered on a spectrum, with many leaders falling somewhere in-between these three labels. But while all of these additions provide valuable insight into leadership and are worth your consideration, for the sake of both time and simplicity, our focus in this blog will remain on the three categories as originally proposed.

Looking Back

           Before elaborating upon the different leadership styles further, it is worth noting one additional influencing factor to consider: time. The reason that researchers have worked so avidly at defining these leadership styles is the hope of discerning what differentiates a great leader from a mediocre one. Perhaps much of the difficulty in establishing one standard system for defining leadership is the fact that what defines a leader is in constant flux.

           Over time, the popularity of the different leadership styles has varied. While past power-holders tended to be autocratic leaders, there has been a relatively recent shift towards more democratic approaches. This has occurred because of the changing state of the world—in particular, drastic changes in technology. In terms of practicality, leaders are now more able to share ideas with those they manage over phone, online, or by travelling to meet face to face, allowing much more input from all teammates when it comes to decision making. An increased reliance on industry specialization on account of business growth has also contributed to the change. One leader is often unable to manage every aspect of a large company by themselves, and a more democratic approach allows additional, perhaps more knowledgeable individuals to provide their own input on decisions.

The emergence of social media has potentially also forced leaders to closely consider their team’s emotional investment in the company; the emergence of online job searching sites and recreational social sites means that many employees can now find work elsewhere should their current management be less than satisfactory. And these employees can publicize unfavorable work conditions, potentially leading to serious consequences for a company’s reputation and its bottom line. Now more than ever, it is vital that a leader listens to employee input, even if only long enough to address the issues that they are experiencing.

 Leadership in Action

           This shift towards a democratic leading style does not necessarily mean that democratic leadership is preferable to the other two styles. Each of the leadership styles that we have established has its own benefits and shortcomings. To briefly summarize a few:

Autocratic leadership allows for fast action as decisions only have to pass through one person, and relieves the amount of stress placed on employees. However, autocratic leadership can exacerbate employee’s feelings of powerlessness, resulting in frustration and/or an inability for the team to function in the leader’s absence.

Democratic leadership promotes better decisions as many individuals are able to provide their input. Employees feel more recognized for their contributions, and feel more united as a team. However, the decision process is significantly slowed down, and conformity pressures could result in an over-representation of the support for a decision.

 Delegative leadership establishes a feeling of personal responsibility in employees, and departments can act quickly without the need to seek supervisor support. However, this leadership style places the greatest stress on employees. Additionally, if overused, delegative leadership practices could serve to diminish a leader’s value within a company.

           A great leader is then not one who adheres to a specific leadership style. The best leaders are able to analyze a situation and lead in the style most appropriate for each specific case. Sometimes, the leader should provide clear instructions for teammates to follow to a tee; other times, they may need to step back and let someone more qualified address the issue at hand. A vital aspect of leadership is knowing how and when to step in, and not letting pride stifle one’s ability to adapt.

           At this point, it is important to take a moment of self-reflection. After all, these styles are not mere hypotheticals—most, perhaps all, leaders will align with one or more of these categories, and this alignment has dramatic effects on a work environment. How do you think you or your leaders utilize these styles, and are they effective? If you are having difficulty answering that question, look to those you work with for support. Ask coworkers how they view you as a leader, request anonymous feedback, and pay attention to the body language of those around you. It may feel uncomfortable or like a waste of time, but discovering ways to manage a team effectively can absolutely impact the performance of each individual involved. Had my restaurant manager found ways of better leading their team, I am certain that they would have found themselves leading happier, more hardworking, more committed employees. I know that I would have been one of them.

           Great leaders inspire those around them. They know how to communicate with their team to bring about success without sacrificing the well-being of those involved. They are able to navigate high stress situations with confidence, and demonstrate to their employees all that their company is capable of achieving. Inadequate leaders alternatively fail to impress. They misjudge their co-workers abilities and feelings, they do not connect with those they lead, and they prove themselves unable to manage the decisions with which they are faced. As a result, the entire business may find itself struggling to establish and maintain profitability.

 Looking Forward

           After self-reflection and discussion with those around you, perhaps you are worried that your own leadership skills are lacking. Even if those around you seem satisfied with how you manage, when you are the one in charge of company decisions, both major and minor, there is always a need to build upon your current skills. While your current leadership skillset might be adequate at present, the future likely holds challenges that will require more than what you already know. So consider your future as a leader now, and determine how you can work on improving your skills to prepare.

           There are some aspects of respected leadership that cannot be taught. People are inherently more likely to trust a leader that is considered physically attractive, connect more readily with a leader who is boisterous and/or extraverted, and relate to a leader with whom they share characteristics (i.e. race, gender, religion, etc.). You cannot control how those you lead will perceive these external qualities, consciously or subconsciously. However, there are a great many aspects of leadership that are well within your control. How you choose to present yourself, how you communicate, and how you interact with your team will all impact how your leadership is viewed.

           If you have the resources, it is worth investing time into researching these factors. Signing up for a course on leadership or working towards a certificate in leadership skills are both powerful avenues to consider. Professionals in these courses are well-informed on leadership practices and inspiring others, and they can help you pinpoint your own skills that could be improved upon. Completion of these courses can provide you with tools and knowledge to integrate into your own leadership practices, and can prove to those around you that you are committed to becoming an even greater leader. Courses on leadership are starting constantly all around the world, so if you are interested in enrolling, there is likely one available to you not far from where you are currently sitting.

 Making the Abstract Physical

           There is no simple way to measure one’s ability to lead. Unfortunately, you cannot meet a person and know that they are 65% leadership material, or that they are a five on the leadership scale. This can make leadership measurement and improvement seem daunting at best, and entirely impossible at worst. There is no direct tool to determine a concept as abstract as leadership.

           However, you can measure the impact that a leader has on their team. You can ask employees how satisfied they feel with company management. You can analyze records of work quality and output. You can watch the way a team interacts with one another, and how they interact with their leader. If a business is successful, if its work is high quality, if its workers display pride and content for their jobs, then you know that the leader is a great one. The value of a leader is determined not by who they are, but by the way the world around them responds.

 Sources

Asch, S. E. (1951). Effects of group pressure upon the modification and distortion of judgement. At H. Guetzkow (ed.) Groups, leadership and men.

Ayers, Ryan (2017). How Leadership Has Changed in the 21st Century. Mick’s Leadership Blog at https://www.leader-values.com/wordpress/how-leadership-has-changed-in-the-21st-century-ryan-ayers/

Clark, Donald (2015). Social Leadership. Big Dog & Little Dog’s Performance Juxtaposition at http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/leader/social_lead.html

Geoghegan, Denis (2018). Leadership Styles. EPM: Expert Program Management at https://expertprogrammanagement.com/2017/02/leadership-styles/

Lewin, K., Lippitt, R., & White, R. K. (1939). Patterns of aggressive behavior in experimentally created “social climates.” The Journal of Psychology, 10, 271-299 at https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1939-05843-001

Pine Hub at https://www.pine-hub.com

Scivicque, Chrissy (2019). Are Professional Certifications Worth It? Eat Your Career at https://eatyourcareer.com/2017/06/professional-certifications-worth/

Winch, Guy (2015). Can Leadership Be Learned or Are You Born with It? Psychology Today at https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-squeaky-wheel/201502/can-leadership-be-learned-or-are-you-born-it

About the Author

         Megan Schrader is a writer and content creator for Pine Hub. She graduated with honours from St. Mary’s College of Maryland, receiving her BSc in Psychology in 2018. Megan has since emigrated to Ireland and settled in Dublin, where she enjoys discovering the local culture. She is passionate about writing, art, coffee and all things psychology.

[mylpoholidays-blog]

Best time of year to travel to Europe

Making a decision about what is the best time to travel to Europe for holiday can be the toughest part of decision making, especially for the first time traveler. There is no best time to travel to Europe because every traveler has different preferences. LPO Holidays have the best Europe tour package which is 10 nights 11 days Europe tour package known as Europe Elegance.

Best time to visit Europe climate-wise

The sort of climate you need to revel in goes to be the primary attention of your holiday planning. Are you hoping to enjoy a white Christmas in Europe or the beautiful snowy scenes of northern wintry weather or would you opt to tour while it's warmer and you could enjoy the longer daylight hours?

Your response to this query should help you to decide when the exceptional time to tour to Europe from Australia is for you.

The great season to go to Europe is going to be exclusive for everybody so we indexed a few of the execs and cons of journeying within the various seasons below.

Pro and cons of visiting Europe in wintry weather

If a Europe winter revel in is what you are after, a number of the professionals of visiting at this time (December/January/February) include lacking the Australian summer time, experiencing surroundings and Christmas food and traditions definitely unique to what we're used to at domestic (in Australia) consisting of the first-rate Christmas markets.

Mid-December through to the stop of February - and once in a while even into March - is honestly the exceptional time to go to Europe for snow.

Each year plainly Europe’s Christmas markets become more and more famous with vacationers and they are a high-quality purpose to go to Europe at this time of 12 months.  Many markets open from overdue November until just after Christmas, with a few buying and selling until early January.

Of route you furthermore might have to take into account the downsides - shorter daytime, some points of interest (mainly in rural regions) can be closed for the wintry weather, heavy snowfalls can motive transport delays and make using tough, and there are the cold climate and cumbersome clothing that you’ll need to take to ponder, too.

Excursion and cruise corporations additionally have a tendency to have a reduced range of itineraries on provide at some point of the chillier months, but educate offerings nevertheless run regularly.

Christmas marketplace in Tallinn

Christmas markets are the main motive for vacationers to visit Europe in iciness time. This one is within the Estonian capital, Tallinn.

Pros and cons of traveling to Europe in the summer

Throughout the European summertime, there's a quite truthful danger you'll experience a few heat climate. Southern international locations like Spain, Italy, and Greece (and the south of France) tend to have a lot better temperatures than principal and northern Europe, however, there can be some surprises.

If you are traveling one of the southern regions, temperatures can be stifling warm – so test in advance that your lodging has to air-condition.

Another benefit of touring for the duration of the European summer (June/July/August) is the longer daytime - with daytime saving it's far usually light till as a minimum 9.30 pm, and plenty later inside the Scandinavian nations.

Timetables for ferries, lake cruises, cable automobile rides, and so forth are also typically increased over the summer months.

Throughout the summer season months, motorways can also be extremely busy, in particular on weekends, as EU excursion-makers head off on their annual ruin.

Flower bins in Riquewihr

Colorful flower containers are at their blooming best all through the ECU summer time.

What about Autumn (Fall) and Spring?

Autumn and Spring are popular times to tour for folks that do not enjoy extreme temperatures.  Early Autumn and past due Spring, particularly, can nonetheless offer warmish days without being both too warm or too cold so that is considered with the aid of many to be the nice time to visit southern Europe.

Irrespective of how cautiously you plan, even though, the unseasonal climate can arise. essential flooding in Germany, Hungary, and Poland in June 2013 induced havoc and disillusioned plenty of holiday plans, now not to mention livelihoods.

On the other hand, expected snowfalls can fail to eventuate as early in the season as normal - your snowy Christmas would possibly end up greater of a 'slushy' one.

If the weather isn’t the essential element in determining the excellent time to journey in order to tour to Europe, there are some other considerations to hold in mind.

Special Occasions

In case you are heading to Europe to attend a special character like a wedding or are hoping to capture a major occasion including the Tour de France or the tulip show at Holland’s Keukenhof Gardens, you're glaringly going to must be in a particular area on a selected date.

Remember that whilst primary activities occur (just like the Olympic games or Rugby international Cup, for example), lodging, flights and different journey services can be stretched to the restrict - and expenses can boom drastically.

Excursion de France

Primary occasions will have a large impact on the charge and availability of lodging and flights.

Crowds

If you do favor to travel while it is warmer, be wary of traveling throughout August. that is the month when many Europeans take their summer season vacations (loads of expert places of work in Paris definitely near for the whole month!) so anyplace you pass it is probable to be extremely busy.

If you don’t like crowds, August is certainly now not the pleasant month to visit Europe.

Principal points of interest and attractions may be a nightmare throughout August with queues of hours or extra simply to buy access tickets now not remarkable!!  I constantly you already know you'll virtually go to, but especially so if journeying within the top summer season months.

The past due European spring (April/might also) and early autumn (September/October) can make a very good alternative. in case you're not too fussed approximately excessive temperatures and genuinely need to keep away from the crowds, those are suitable months to visit Europe.

Rate

Every other thing to consider while planning when you will go to is a charge. I have previously written approximately some of the hints you must recognize before you ebook your flight to Europe, and this kind of is that touring just out of doors of the airline's 'top' season can save you a few hundred dollars.

So, to visit Europe and to experience your best holidays visit https://lpoholidays.in

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Tax Savings With a Health Savings Account - Smart Choice!

Wellbeing Savings Accounts are a moderately ongoing financial balance choice, having been made in late 2003 and accessible to US occupants starting in 2004. The motivation behind a Health Savings Account, likewise alluded to as a HSA, is to take into consideration charge conceded reserve funds that is expected to be utilized for present and future restorative costs. People and families may open a HSA, or Health Savings Accounts might be offered as a feature of a work environment benefits bundle. In either case, the standards, commitment breaking points and qualification necessities are the equivalent. Click here to know best banks for savings account .

Who Can Open A HSA?

HSAs are not accessible to everybody; qualification relies upon the kind of medical coverage plan you at present have.

There are distinctive kinds of medical coverage plans accessible in the US, going from plans that spread each specialist's visit, methodology, emergency clinic remain, solution and medical procedure, to those that give inclusion just to critical restorative costs. The previous sort of plan naturally costs a considerable amount more in month to month protection premiums, yet the guaranteed realizes they will be monetarily secured for the greater part of their therapeutic needs. The last is ordinarily more affordable and furthermore has a higher deductible, which the safeguarded must pay every year prior to the protection will pay for secured therapeutic costs. HSA's are not accessible to people and families secured by the principal sort of plan; just to the individuals who have selected the high-deductible protection plan alternative. A HSA is a route for high deductible protection plan holders to set aside extra cash to use toward their wellbeing plan deductibles, and furthermore for wellbeing related costs that are not secured by their particular arrangement. The hypothesis behind these records is that individuals who are more responsible for the cash that is being spent on social insurance will be additionally segregating in the wellbeing administrations they look for, and will shop more at better costs for the administrations they need. Along these lines, the administration is confident that the expense of medicinal consideration may not ascend as fast or as drastically as it generally has, given the more aggressive nature of the business when buyers are in charge of costs out of their own pockets.

Notwithstanding being a high-deductible medical coverage plan client, the person who wishes to open a HSA must not be a subject to any other person's expense form, and furthermore should not be secured under any extra medical coverage plan. There are a couple of exemptions to the inclusion rule; it is OK to have inclusion, for example, dental, vision or broadened care office protection.

How Does A HSA Work?

HSAs have likenesses to both customary bank accounts and to particular sorts of retirement accounts, however they work uniquely in contrast to both. With a customary investment account, there are no restrictions to the measure of cash that can be kept yearly. Furthermore, in spite of the fact that banks may have punishments for the number or measure of withdrawals set aside a few minutes time span in certain investment accounts, what you do with the cash you pull back from a customary bank account is totally your choice. The cash you place in an ordinary bank account is burdened as pay, similar to the premium earned on that account. With a HSA account, cash stored into the record isn't exhausted as salary, and despite the fact that you may acquire enthusiasm for your HSA, the premium is likewise not assessable in the event that it stays in the record, or in the event that it is utilized to pay for qualified therapeutic costs. Dissimilar to an investment account, there are points of confinement to the measure of cash that can be kept into a HSA every year. The aggregate sum that can be saved changes every year dependent on expansion and different elements. It has progressively ascended from $2,600 every year for a person in 2004 to $3,100 every year for a person in 2012.For family accounts, as far as possible in 2004 and 2012 were $5,150 and $6,250 individually. Likewise, those beyond 55 a years old store an expansion charge conceded $1,000 every year.

With most venture or retirement accounts, the objective is to put something aside for what's to come. Like a HSA, there are yearly breaking points to the measure of cash that can be kept, tax-exempt, into an IRA or 401K record. With those sorts of records, there are by and large punishments for pulling back cash rashly, before retirement age. At any rate, cash pulled back from an IRA or 401K will quickly wind up assessable as salary in the year it was pulled back. A HSA works all around in an unexpected way. Since its will likely set aside extra cash for use when required for therapeutic costs, assets might be pulled back whenever with no assessment obligation as long as the pulled back cash is utilized to pay for "qualified restorative costs". Most HSA accounts give a plastic, checks or both to their HSA accountholders so the cash is effectively open when required. Record holders do need to keep great records about their buys, so they can archive each buy as a certified medicinal cost. This is vital, as there are substantial punishments when cash from a HSA is utilized for costs other than what is viewed as qualified. That cash would be assessable and a 20% punishment would be forced upon the record holder.

Are HSA Popular?

The numberof HSAs in the US has been consistently expanding since 2004. For instance, in 2006, as per studies done by the Employee Benefit Research Institute, there were 1.2 million HSA accounts. In 2008, the number had ascended to 4.2 million records, and by 2011, that number had expanded to an aggregate of 6.8 million records across the country.

With the expense reserve funds accessible through these records, just as the simplicity of utilizing them, there is no motivation to trust the quantity of HSA records won't keep on developing in the coming years.