abolishpickles

[s-c-l-n]

i need the internet to sit down and realize that screaming and shouting about palestine at random jewish people online is not productive nor helpful. i would actually argue its only harming your cause.

naturally this does not count for podts explicitly about palestine/israel, rather seeing someone talk about judaism and writing “free palestine” as a comment or harassing jewish people on the streets because they are jewish

suddenly it feels very obvious why american jews feel unsafe post-october 7th.

if your “activism” includes harassing people for their culture, youre not being helpful.

[frukmerunning]

How do you reconcile the Nazi-apologia aspects of Hetalia as a Jewish fan (I presume you are Jewish because you made a Passover headcanon, if you are not, apologies). I don't mean this as a callout or accusation or anything, I'm asking for advice. I'm also Jewish, and I want to enjoy Hetalia, like, I stumbled on this fandom and this anime and I want to enjoy it! But I can't get the guilt and shame out of the back of my head.

I don't think Himaru intentionally meant Hetalia to be anti-Semetic. I'm not accusing anyone of being a Holocaust denier for engaging in this fandom. But it doesn't change the fact that this anime is about the Axis Powers during WWII and they're portrayed as good guys. Like, you can't even argue they're villain protagonists or anything they're just straight up lil cinnamon rolls. And it is fucking adorable, but it makes me feel so dirty! Like, its not intentional but when I'm watching any WWII episode or reading one of the WWII strips I'm watching it feels like Nazi apologia. And when these characters' fascist uniforms are their standard designs, when the imagery of fascism is used without context, it unintentionally erases the real, extremely fucked up, and personally traumatizing, history.

So how do you personally find a balance? Like how do you engage in a way you feel like doesn't cause further harm? How do you reconcile canon, history, and your own thoughts on these characters? And do you have any advice on how I can?

I've thought a lot about this question since I got it, and I have a lot of thoughts but I don't know if I can organize them very well. （also yes I am Jewish you assumed right)

So I guess the first thing I'll tackle is that my own thoughts on the characters trump everything in canon, especially with Germany. For an American, I have a pretty strong connection with Germany. I've had a German penpal since I was 13, I've visited Germany, one of my favorite professors was German, and right before I started typing this I spent almost 3 hours talking with the German students that come to the music camp I work at. I've met a LOT of Germans in my relatively short life, so I have that personal connection to influence my thoughts on the Hetalia character. And I've completely separated my view on the German people from my view on that time in their history. I think then it was easy for me to separate the character Germany from that time in history.

Bouncing off from that, Hetalia isn't REALLY about WW2. Yes, the catalyst for Germany, Italy, and Japan being friends is WW2, but there's nothing in the anime that is explicitly WW2. The "battle" scenes take place on a deserted island, their "war meetings" amount to nothing, and no specific dates or events are really mentioned when WW2 is involved. Now in the manga, however, I kinda just steer clear of the specific WW2 stuff?? But even then the only example of Hima explicitly mentioning something that happened in WW2 I can actually recall is an old strip about the Anschluss. That strip is from very early Hetalia though and Hima has definitely shifted his focus to other aspects of world history and culture.

Another thing about Hetalia is that pretty much everyone is a "good guy". There are no real antagonists or villains. There are literally only protagonists, with the main protagonists being the axis powers.

From your ask I kinda gather that you're very new to Hetalia and maybe you have the wrong impression of the anime and fandom from people who hate it. But honestly, Hetalia is not inherently antisemetic or even about WW2 when you really get down to the meat of it. Hetalia is a comedy anime and it doesn't take itself or the things it's presenting seriously (with some exceptions). Hima doesn't really doesn't delve too deeply into ANY of the history he potrays, so it would be a little out of place to see him addressing the very serious war crimes committed by those countries.

Also idk where to fit this in, but the countries in Hetalia are not representative of their government, but their people. Which I think is how Hima avoids talking about serious war crimes committed by governments. He's more interested in talking about culture, rather than history. Or he uses historical settings to talk about fun facts or culture.

I understand feeling guilty though. Personally, I avoid the historical hetalia side of the fandom, just so I never run the risk of seeing something weird (not saying that people regularly write that kind of stuff). In my own art and thoughts about the show, I'm more interested in portraying the characters as real, modern people, based on my own experiences with people from those countries. I also do a lot with my favorite character Austria, who is jewish coded. My favorite characters in the series are the axis affiliated ones, countries I've visited and met people from and built a connection with. But I've also been in the fandom for 10+ years at this point, so it's much easier for me to entirely change Hima's characters and morph them into something that fits what I want.

I'm really tired because I've been working a music camp all week, so I hope this makes sense. I definitely have more thoughts and I'd love to talk to you more about this, please feel free to dm me here and we can exchange discords or something. I always like talking to other jewish hetalia fans, and I think it's nice to have these kinds of conversations so we can help each other.

But to answer your question in a short way - I just don't think about it. Maybe that makes me a bad person but it's what I have to do at this point, because I can't not like hetalia

[prodigal-explorer]

to celebrate together - a sanders sides fanfiction

this is a cute fluffy fic (for the most part) about human versions of the sides discussing easter, ramadan, and passover, three very prominent holidays from three different religions during the springtime!

(cws -> brief mention of anti-semetism, brief mention of anti-semetic hate crimes, honestly there are brief moments of insensitivity towards all three religions mentioned (christianity/catholicism, islam, and jewish) but they are genuine moments of confusion and not in bad faith! this fic is about learning and growing and respecting other religions, so there is a bit of a learning curve.)

word count: 2.9k

(also, i know i usually write a lot of unsympathetic patton which may deter some people. it will comfort these people to know that patton is not unsympathetic in this fic! he's actually a cool guy! so don't worry about that.)

Everyone in the house knew that Easter was one of Patton’s favorite holidays by now. They had only been living together for a few months, but it was obvious from the new way Patton carried himself in the springtime. He bought a lot of Easter-themed furniture, so by the time March 1st rolled around, the house was covered head to toe in eggs, bunnies, baskets, chicks, and crosses. Lots of crosses. 

“Why are there a bunch of plus signs everywhere?” Roman had dared to ask one day, “Logan, is this one of your math projects?” 

“You seriously don’t know what a cross is?” Patton asked, his eyes wide with shock, “Oh, that’s right. You’re balsamic.” 

“Uh…Islamic,” Roman corrected awkwardly, “Me and Remus just say we’re Muslim. And I know what a cross is, I just didn’t know that it was one of those. They really do look like plus signs with a big tail. What are they all for?” 

“Well, they’re Easter decorations!” Patton explained readily, “Since Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus, we have crosses here to commemorate all he sacrificed for his people.” 

“Wow,” Roman said, a smile forming on his face, “I guess Jesus must have been pretty brave.” 

“He’s not just brave, Roman,” Patton said, “He died for us. The least we can do is celebrate him.” 

“Yeah, that seems fair,” Roman said, still gazing around the colorful, decked out area with a gentle, somewhat cautious curiosity that was generally unlike him. He seemed to sense that this was sensitive territory. “So…why do you guys celebrate Easter the way you do? With the bunnies and the eggs? Did Jesus really like sunny side up or something? Did he have a pet bunny?” 

“Come on,” Patton said, “I want to tell everyone about this!” 

Roman grinned and followed Patton into the living room, where the others were sitting and chatting. Logan was on the recliner, working on a grocery list, while Janus and Remus were on the ground, playing Go-Fish. Virgil was spread across the couch, scrolling through his phone. 

“Guys, Patton’s gonna teach us about Easter!” Roman said, “Like, why they use the eggs and stuff.” 

“It’s because of Jesus,” Logan droned tiredly, staring up at Patton, “Is this really necessary?” 

“Of course it’s necessary, Logan!” Patton chastised, “It’s the most important event of springtime!” 

Virgil tilted his head. “But what about Passover?” 

“Pass-what?” Patton said, clearly confused, “No, we’re talking about Easter. What’s passover?” 

“I like Layat Al-Qadr best,” Remus shrugged, “It’s the only night of the year where I can get Roman to shut up.” 

“Hey!” Roman protested, “Oh, I have an idea! We’ll have a contest. Each of us will talk about what we think is the most important event of springtime, and then we’ll hold a vote!” 

“I suppose we can do that,” Janus said, “Logan and I don’t celebrate any of these things, so we will be neutral voters. We don’t have any emotional attachment to any of the options.” 

“Perfect!” Patton said, “And we’ll start with Easter, because Easter is-”

“Fat chance,” Virgil said, “Everyone already knows everything about Easter. It’s the only holiday that Americans give a shit about. It’s all over the supermarkets, it gets all the attention and respect. You don’t even know what Passover is, and do you even know that Ramadan exists?” 

“Of course I know what ramen is, I had some for dinner last night,” Patton said. 

The room was silent for a second. 

“Virgil has a point,” Logan said, but when Patton pouted, Logan continued, “But we can still hear Patton out. He may say something we don’t know about yet. Besides, if we’re going to keep this vote objective, we need to hear out every option with equal respect and attention. Can we do that?” 

“Yeah, sorry, Pat,” Virgil said softly.

“Sure,” Remus said, “Tell us about how Jesus got nailed on a cross.” 

“Why would I tell you about that if you already know that part?” Patton asked with a disgusted expression. 

“Cuz it’s the coolest part,” Remus replied with a toothy grin. 

“Well…you’re not entirely wrong,” Patton said, growing excited as he started again to speak, “Easter is the holiday that celebrates the resurrection of Jesus! It’s celebrated every springtime, after the first full moon of spring. Jesus was arrested by Jewish leaders, and he was sentenced to death on the cross for trying to lead his people.” 

“Interesting,” Janus mumbled, narrowing his eyes a bit, “Jewish leaders. That was an interesting detail to mention. Why does that matter to you, Pat?” 

“Anyway,” Patton said icily before continuing the story, “A man named Joseph asked these leaders to take Jesus down from the cross after he died, in order to bury him properly. They allowed it, and Joseph buried Jesus in a stone tomb. But three days later, when people came to put spices on Jesus’ body, they found that he was gone!” 

“So Jesus wasn’t actually dead??” Roman asked, clearly shocked by that twist in the story. 

“Well, of course he’s not dead,” Patton said, “That’s the entire point of Easter, buddy! Jesus was resurrected. Easter is a holiday that represents rebirth. There’s always hope, and Jesus will always be there for us. Even during the darkest times, and even in the face of death.” 

“Jesus is badass,” Remus remarked, “But that still doesn’t explain why there are eggs, though.” 

“Oh! Another part of Easter is something called Lent,” Patton said, “In the 40 days leading up to Easter Sunday, Christians and Catholics celebrate Lent, which is a time of prayer and resisting temptation from sin. People sometimes give up things that they consider to be sinful during Lent. It’s a mindful thing. Right now, I’m giving up alcohol. And back in the medieval times, eggs weren’t allowed during Lent, so on Easter Sunday, eggs were used to signify that Lent has passed on by. Also, eggs…they represent rebirth in a way.” 

“Don’t they just represent birth?” Logan asked. 

“Well, I guess, but…come on, Logan! You like the egg salad I make every easter!”

“Your egg salad is quite good.” 

“That’s what I thought.” 

“Easter is pretty cool,” Virgil said, “That’s really cool, actually.” 

“So you think it’s better than your day?” Patton asked hopefully. 

Virgil laughed. “Good one. Easter sounds awesome and all, but nothing beats Passover.” 

“What’s that one?” Roman asked eagerly, “Why’s it called Passover? Do you play basketball or something?” 

“Okay, where the heck did basketball come from?” Janus asked. 

“I mean…you pass over the ball. In basketball,” Roman replied. 

“No basketball,” Virgil chuckled, “It’s actually called Passover for a bit of a complicated reason. I’ll start from the beginning. This story starts in Egypt. The pharaoh, who is basically the leader of Egypt, didn’t like Jewish people, and he didn’t want too many Jewish people living in Egypt. So he enslaved all the Jews who currently lived there, and ordered that all Jewish babies who are birthed in Egypt get killed.” 

Roman’s eyes widened, and he started to feel a bit sick. 

“But why?” he demanded, “The Jewish babies didn’t even do anything!” 

“You’d be surprised what people do to people who are different,” Virgil replied in a mutter, “Anyway, one Jewish woman decided that she wouldn’t let her baby die. She hid her baby in a basket and put him into the river, to float away to somewhere safer. The pharaoh's daughter found the baby, and decided to take him in. His name was Moses.” 

“Oh! Moses!” Roman cried out in recognition, “Like the movie, like the movie The Prince Of Egypt!” 

Virgil smiled slightly and nodded. 

“Yeah,” he said, “Yeah, like that movie. That’s a good movie if you guys want to learn more about Moses.” 

“And listen to some amazing songs by Stephen Schwartz!” Roman added. 

“Roman, let’s let Virgil finish, okay?” Logan said, and Roman reluctantly nodded, turning his attention back to Virgil. 

“Anyway, Moses grew up, and found out that he was Jewish, and he came from a Jewish family. He saw how horribly his people were being treated, and when he killed a slave master, he ran away to the desert,” Virgil continued, “There, he found a burning bush, and the bush talked to him. The bush basically said that he was God, and he was going to help Moses set the Jewish people free. But when Moses came back and told the pharaoh this, the pharaoh refused, over and over. And every time the pharaoh refused, God sent down a different plague, or curse, to Egypt.” 

“But that’s not fair,” Patton protested, “The rest of the people didn’t even do anything.” 

“Well, I don’t disagree,” Virgil said, “But God wasn’t feeling very forgiving after having his people enslaved for years. He knew that there was no other way to convince the pharaoh.” 

“Yeah, if you’re gonna get mad at anyone, get mad at the pharaoh,” Janus said, “He was the stubborn son of a bitch who wouldn’t set free the slaves. He put his people in danger by doing that just because he wanted more free labor.” 

“There were a lot of plagues because the pharaoh kept saying no,” Virgil explained, “And the tenth plague was a curse called the angel of death, a curse that would kill the first-born child of every home. In order to protect the innocent families, God told Moses to tell anyone who would listen to paint over their door with lamb’s blood. If the door was painted over, then the curse would pass over them, and nobody would die. Passover, see?” 

Roman nodded, his eyes widening as he was enraptured in the story. “Passover,” he repeated. 

“The Israelites listened to Moses, but a lot of others in Egypt didn’t, including the Pharaoh,” Virgil said, a bit sadly, “It sucked. They all had to learn the hard way. If they had just listened to Moses, nobody would have died. If the pharaoh had just let the Israelites go the first time, then none of the plagues would have had to happen. But stricken with grief after his firstborn son died, the pharaoh finally let the Israelites go, and they were freed from slavery.” 

“So that’s the story of Passover,” Logan said, “How is it celebrated?” 

“Well, it’s celebrated for eight days,” Virgil explained, “Seven if you’re in Israel. But here in America, it’s eight. On the first night of Passover, Jewish families have a Passover seder, which is a big dinner where we pray and sing, and we tell stories from a book called the Haggadah. All families celebrate a little differently, but for the most part, we do that stuff. I remember when I was little, my mom would always give me a sip of her wine.”

“Damn, just a sip?” Remus asked with a little laugh, “Shoulda given you a whole cup. Imagine a drunk little Virgil stumbling around.” 

“That would have been cool,” Virgil admitted, “Me and my cousins would drink grape juice and pretend to be drunk. After all the serious stuff was over, of course. A big part of Passover is discussing current events. Unfortunately, most places in the world aren’t very Jew-friendly. Even here in America, there are a lot of hate crimes. Actually…” 

Roman noticed with horror that Virgil was getting teary-eyed. 

“Virgil?” Logan asked quietly, “What’s wrong?” 

“I’m sorry,” Virgil said, trying to wipe away his tears before they fell, “This is hard to talk about. The synagogue that my family went to when I was a kid before I moved here, it- a few years ago- it- it got burnt down.” 

“Burnt down,” Janus realized, “As in…someone did it. On purpose.” 

Virgil nodded, his eyes completely downcast. He was crying, but his face was hardened, almost angry. But not quite. He seemed too sad to be angry. 

“All the drawings the kids made. All the food that people donated. All the copies of the Torah,” he whispered, “It was all gone in one night. My parents still can’t talk about it without crying. I guess I can’t either.” 

“I’ve never heard of anyone burning down a religious building like that,” Patton said softly, “That’s horrible.” 

“Yeah? That’s cuz they don’t burn down your stuff,” Janus said quietly, putting a hand on Virgil’s shoulder, “I’m sorry, Virgil. You…don’t deserve that. Nobody deserves that. No matter what.” 

“Don’t let me stop you from continuing the competition,” Virgil said, “Remus, I wanna hear about yours. What is this one day that can get Roman to shut up?” 

“Do we really have to bring that joke back?” Roman asked, too amused to be sore. 

“Well, the night I was talking about, Layat Al-Qadr, is just one night of Ramadan,” Remus started to explain, “Ramadan’s actually about a month long.” 

“A whole month?” Logan asked, “Wow. That’s a lot longer than Easter and Passover.” 

“Not if you count Lent,” Patton pointed out. 

“Layat Al-Qadr is the 27th day of Ramadan,” Roman continued, “And you pray the whole entire night, pretty much. We ask Allah to forgive us for the mistakes we made, and we hope that he says yes.” 

“How do you know if he says yes?” Logan asked, tilting his head slightly. 

Roman shrugged. “You don’t. That’s why you have to believe.” 

“That sounds kinda boring, praying for the whole night,” Janus admitted, “Is that seriously the only thing you do?” 

“I was worried it would be boring too,” Roman admitted, “But it’s actually really cool. You’d be surprised how therapeutic it is. It feels nice, talking to someone who you know will always listen. Reflecting on all the stuff you did, and figuring out how to do better without worrying about anyone getting mad at you or hating you.” 

“And we also have iftar,” Remus said, “It’s like a giant meal, and we get to spend time with family while breaking our fast.” 

“Wait, wait- you fast?” Virgil asked, “For an entire month?” 

“It’s not so bad,” Remus shrugged, “Especially because we have iftar, and we usually eat a little bit in the morning. Breaking the fast together as a family during iftar is cool, because, like, everybody’s breaking it at the same time. So it’s like- we all are hungry together, and then we all become satisfied together. It’s pretty cool.” 

“We also have five prayers that we say every day,” Roman added, “Along with an extra one at night. The prayers are the really important part because it’s so traditional. It’s been done for so many years before us, it’s like���passing down a torch. We don’t want to forget about it. So we do it to honor the people before us, so that hopefully, the people after us have something in common with us when they celebrate Ramadan.” 

“Well, when you explain it like that, it sounds really cool,” Virgil admitted. 

“I used to think prayer was weird, and kinda culty,” Janus mumbled, clearly a bit ashamed, “But…it actually sounds awesome. Mindful, you know?” 

“Wait, where does Ramadan come from anyway?” Patton asked, “Like the fasting and the praying. Who started it?” 

“It was started by the Prophet Muhammad,” Roman said eagerly, “He’s this really cool guy who told us what Allah wanted for the Muslim people. And Ramadan is the month on the Muslim calendar where Muhammad found the Quran, which is our holy book. It’s sort of like Patton’s bible and Virgil’s Torah.” 

“Oh, gotcha,” Patton said. 

“To be more specific, it’s the ninth month of our calendar,” Remus said, “But also, it depends on the moon. It’s like a thing. To try and spot the Ramadan moon. Roman and I did it a few times when we were younger.” 

“It’s hard to do it now,” Roman said, “There’s so much artificial light in this city. But once it’s high enough in the sky, we can see it great. It’s so cool, feeling like you discovered something.” 

“And we fast because Muhammad told us to, basically,” Remus said, “It’s one of the five pillars of Islam, fasting during Ramadan. And like Roman said, the Muslim people have done it for thousands and thousands of years. So it feels really awesome to continue it today. Even if it leaves us a little hungry and cranky sometimes.” 

“You guys should come to iftar sometime,” Roman said, “A bunch of our Muslim friends and us all come together and eat and talk and laugh, and just enjoy each other’s company.” 

“It sounds amazing,” Virgil said, “Kinda like Passover seder.” 

Remus nudged Virgil gently, smiling over at him. 

“Hey, yeah!” he said. 

“And Easter Sunday!” Patton piped up. 

“Maybe all our events have more in common than we think,” Roman said, “I mean, all of them have cool stories, and big dinners, and just…that festive attitude. That feeling of carrying on a tradition that’s so much bigger than yourself.” 

“Do we even need a vote, then?” Logan asked, “I don’t know what to vote for. All of those events sound lovely.” 

“I agree,” Janus said, “Maybe we can vote on something else. Like what movie to watch tonight?” 

“I vote The Prince Of Egypt!” Roman cried out, “Virgil made me think about it, and now all the songs are in my head!” 

“Oh! I’ll make some egg salad for dinner!” Patton said, “It’s the 21st century, we’re allowed to eat eggs during Lent now!” 

“Maybe I’ll bring in the leftover date cookies from yesterday’s iftar,” Remus said. 

“Yes, those are so good!” Roman agreed, “And I wrapped them in foil, so they should still taste fresh!” 

Virgil smiled and closed his eyes, wiping away his residual tears gently as he listened to his friends ramble and scramble to celebrate together. Maybe tonight, this strange amalgamation of Easter, Ramadan, and Passover, the mutual respect and admiration for these three holidays, was their most important event of the springtime.

--

(i hope you all enjoyed this fic!! during times like these especially, it is so important to remember that every religion is beautiful and valid, and every religious holiday ought to be respected! now, i am not catholic, christian, muslim, or jewish. i wrote about these holidays after doing extensive research from multiple sources for each, but if i got anything wrong, please please let me know and i will correct it to the best of my ability. i promise i want to learn and grow, just like these guys, so if something is inaccurate, please tell me if you feel so inclined, and i will take what you say into account!!)

(have an amazing spring, no matter what you celebrate!!)

[absolutebitchgetter]

abg

Yea, the title is about me. So? it might sound like a fucking Kanye West song title but he is a peak artist. (i do not support anything anti semetic)

So, lets just put the nail in the coffin (Notice how im not saying final?)

I wont stop until i get an actual recognision from the entirety of Comic Studio.

I am prepared to namedrop, so you better change your ways if you know who you are.

So, lets get right into it.

There is proven to be guilt tripping and manipulation as shown by this post.

Do you really think im going to give up trying to stop pure rage filling into peoples minds?

Do you think i want them to end up like me?

I ended up horrible. Anger management out the fucking window. Ive proven many times i try to change that and i still am.

People laugh, ridicule, annoy and aggravate me.

I still havent gave up, even if the admins (clearly biased) try to silence me.

Doxxing scares, harassment, impersonation, ridiculed.

Thats what i have to go through.

Monthly, weekly, daily.

I dont know when it comes, it just does.

Everyone hates me, but do i want to change that? Yes AND no.

If everyone hates me, i get no drama while everyone blocks me. If everyone loves me, i get popular and every post i do gets a few votes or comments. However i am pulled into much drama.

Anyways, actually getting into it, everything i say is silenced or put down. Even when i mention the doxxing scares, "oh yeah sorry about that". Just some half assed apology! Are you fucking serious! (You know who you are.) Who gives a fucking shit if i am one of the most problematic users there, i got harassed and incorrectly banned. I am continued to be harassed, antagonised and made fun of. Its just irony at this point. The moderation team needs a rebuild and i will not stop until my justice is served. That includes an unbanning. The cs discord isnt any better either. I was once made fun of, but it seems to have understood me about my quest to solve my anger issues. I still cant forgive it though. However a certain moderator in there deserves a name drop. Their nickname is "homosexual" with a Binding of Isaac pfp. They proceeded to time me out and no one else for an argument involving me and 4 others. I was the only one timed out, it was not fair in the slightest. My rejoin involved me asking someone to spoiler Binding of Isaac (it is a very scary game for me) and i proceeded to get targetted for it. They also had screamed at someone and pinged someone who was very uncomfortable with pinging. The mod proceeded to scold them while the victim was asking them to stop very politely. How they were mod i have no fucking clue. Its honestly scummy how the admins do nothing either when deathzy says i "harassed them" (i dm'd them about bashing my post and the fact that i apologised for the nazi joke). They then proceeded to say they were "right" in the situation when getting Onion_rabbit involved by them faking harassment. Its scummy how both of them didnt get any reprimanding and i get a perma ban.

Honestly, if i dont get this post noticed, there are going to be much namedrops in the next post. In the Oka situation that got them banned, i do concede, the sex jokes and the f slur were kinda dodgy. Even if you can reclaim i dont think you should be saying a slur. But i think a week ban should have been more appropiate. And if we're banning for sex jokes, Deathzy should be banned aswell. Just look at their fucking posts. They also drew ACTUAL FUCKING MPREG. how the fuck is that not being called out? simple answer.

They are popular.

Popular people dont get any reprimanding or a lot of the site quit.

its actually a joke how i get banned but none of the people listed arent.

Also, if you search up "toxicomic studio" on Comic Studio, read it.

So, in conclusion.

Nobody has listened to me, and this will be the final time.

Lmao!

If i get banned in the cs discord, so be it. The world shall listen to ABG's tune of fucking facts.

People who can add to this:

@voynich-exists

@microwaved-toast

@theokatgoesmeow

@tammerz

[augustine-orlov]

I'm going to be honest fellas, I do hope that the pro-hamas people would wake up soon and realize how harmful they have been to jewish people (especially in the diaspora), but I really doubt it.

And what hurt the most is a lot of these people who were close to me pretended to listen and take in what I said, but then would rt the most anti-semetic dogshit you can find on the internet. I realize no matter how much I talk, how much I try to extend knowledge and express what's happening here, my words will always fall on deaf ears.

Me and so many other jews have been helping to other minorities, always there to learn and listen and try to raise awarness to many social issues - but the second a jew speaks up about what they experience it's "propaganda". We can't even mention dead relatives or friends because somehow it's us "playing the victim" - it's always "your pain is valid" until you're jewish.

And it would be one thing if people were honest, just saying straight up "yes I'm anti-semetic" and we could have been spared so much pain - but it's the fact that some people would end years long, sometimes a whole decade long, friendships because suddenly it's not convenient being friends with jews. Suddenly, it's trendy to say that a terrorist organization is actually freedom fighters (but somehow they only fight for the freedom of their leaders having billions of dollars, funny how that works).

And maybe these old friends of mine will wake up one day, and realize that things went awry, but even if they reach out to me again (and I say again because someone almost woke up from the propaganda until it swallowed them again) - I do not want that hand extended towards me, as I don't feel safe being friends with people who instead of trying to understand - jumped to conclusions without even fact checking once.

And for all of those trying to understand how so many leftist activists got radicalized so fast - their activism comes from a place of wanting to hate someone, rather to show love and support to someone.

[dirt-nerd]

The game uses a particularly annoying and difficult to crack DRM protection so pirating it is not very easy esp for a casual user. And, considering how antisemetic the central story is and many of the elements are, it just feels gross to play. The whole game is pretty tainted, money or not.

Yeah I get modern games are harder to crack, although I also think that piracy has lost the arms race and is just less well known/common so people lack the tools to do it. A good copy of a pirated game used to come with instructions and sometimes extra tools in the download. You played around with things until you got them working- and if it didn't work not the end of the world.

As for the content; well have you actually played the game? Keep in mind that the internet is not reliable and has a tendancy to blow things out of proportion sometimes.

The story could be truly disgusting and anti semetic or there could just be some unfortunate implications from people who didn't think things through/lacked the knowledge to even know it was anti semetic to begin with. I mean I certainly didnt know the whole goblins = jewish people thing for a long time, and I'm pretty sure most people who use goblins in a fantasy setting don't. Either way you can't actually be certain relying solely off internet discourse to inform you.

Also to be frank; I don't know about you but I didn't join a bloody cult so have no interest in self censorship. There is a big difference between actually giving financial support/publicity to a potentially toxic piece of media, and just checking it out and deciding for yourself.

Not that I'm actually recommending the game lol. Honestly there is an infinite back catalogue of fantastic indie games out there deserving of support so one probably mediocre AAA is not really worth the effort to pirate. But if someone did want to look at the game for whatever reason, its more productive to say "just don't give them money" rather than "this game I have never actually played is bad and you are bad for looking at it".

[jaythelay]

It's funny how we're treating Israel like we did christians in like the 1900s.

Unquestionable and scrutinizable and most importantly they're very definitely following their primary religion

Except ya read the bible and, woah, turns out governments aren't religion and, wow! It sure is fucked up they broke the geneva convention multiple fucking times like pretending to be Red Cross trucks and shooting toddler girls over 300 fucking times. Kinda crazy most human rights organizations call it a genocide aswell. Must be some kinda deeply rooted bigotry and nothing possible the fuck else.

Can't question that. It's anti-semetic to assume the government that absolutely does not follow jewish religion, might actually be bad and unrelated to the religion they pretend to adhere to.

Did you know America can genocide because they're christian and to claim otherwise is bigotry? Don't you understand after WW2 jews simply deserve a free genocide? If Biden loses then the worse genocide happens so go with the kid gloves genocide pls. Gays are in trouble and I will claim it to be worse to demand better than concentration camps are as a thing. I'm gay so palestinians should suffer instead, it's their turn anyways.

Absurd how fucking mind-numbingly DnD satanic panic leftists became about this issue solely because democrats were involved. Sad and pathetic.

Congrats on pushing away voters instead of demanding better. Kinda like when Biden dropped out for Kamala, I mean, obviously they just did that, not because we demanded better! But because they're literally infallible and to question otherwise is bigotry, it means they chose to do that without a single external force from any possible voter.

Really makes ya think why not demand better when it has been shown to work. But hey, ya'll just like the concept of infallibility more than accepting reality, like a child justifying not going down the dark hallway. All ya gotta do, is fucking respect yourself and accept reality.

I sincerely believe we need to compile these people so when shit fully hits the fan, they can't pretend they were ever on the right side of history. Ya'll said some depraved, immoral shit to justify the genocide. Should be held accountable when you pretend otherwise. Fucked up. Genuinely fucked up to be pro-genocide because your infant-like fear of scrutiny keeps you from demanding better.

Like hell we get free healthcare or better wages. Ya'll can't even call a genocide a Genocide if your selected people do it. Sorry but a real friend takes the car keys from their drunk friends, they don't defend them after the murder charges come. And truly, you should be in trouble for enabling it as much as they are for doing it.

[xoxo-ren-xoxo]

Just a small thing that you can definitely ignore if you want and I know this might be bad to say or even selfish but I just.. miss the old Schlatt? not the one who's now doing this content and making hurtful jokes just for money. because every day I'm losing more and more hope that off camera, he's a genuine person?

Or I just want him to improve and become better? I don't know, I know I might be selfish for being like that and I do recognise that parasocial relationships do exist and he is merely a stranger to me but I just want him to become better and to be better. curse me and my heart where I just want the best for everyone, even if I don't know them. c': I think I miss the old Schlatt - because I feel like even this persona he has is not doing him any good?

This might be a thought but you know when you look at someone and you can just see or feel that their mindset is affecting them - especially when it's affecting them negatively? I noticed that with him. Again, I know I'm a mere stranger and I don't know anything about him but even with strangers you can notice this? When he was on a break from that sort of content while he was moving, on the update "I'm Back" video he had a better energy? But when he started to embrace that persona again, his energy is just becoming worse and worse. the only times his energy was better again was when he had the moments with Jambo?

I don't know. I'm just going on a ramble at this point but I just wish he became better?

This is the exact reason I still watch the guy! I completely get where you're coming from, and it can be hard to have these sorts of conversations without speculating about what goes on 'behind the scenes' (something we know Schlatt is uncomfortable with and is possibly one of the reasons he puts on such a contrary persona).

I agree that his content has taken a downturn lately. But I don't think it's the fault of the persona, I think it's the fault of him misusing the persona. Of course he can do whatever he wants, I don't really care cause if he decides he wants to keep being a bastard then that's his problem and I'll stop watching cause that content isn't for me. However, I have some ideas about why the more recent videos have been 'worse':

His heart isn't in it. Jackbox games are fun and all but they aren't the kind of content Schlatt likes to make. In my opinion. His old channel had videoessays, but he's said before that they don't make enough money for him to keep doing that. I think he likes the little slice of life videos more because they're easy and because they're fun. I think the Wii videos were great, well-structured and good examples of well-done satire, but I feel he got a bit bored of it so he tried jackbox, which just isn't the same.

The satire doesn't work with jackbox videos. In the Wii videos it's just him and the game and some props. He plays his character and clearly makes fun of the kind of person he's portraying, or he just makes fun of himself, which is cool too lol. For example in the Wii fishing video, he plays the character of a misogynistic guy who loves fishing and hates his wife. Then proceeds to be terrible at the game and get angry to the point of making himself look like a fool. That's why we laugh! We laugh at the dumbass he's portraying. And obviously this is the same for most of the bits he does. The classic one being the gay Catholic patriot. The unexpected clash of traits makes it funny. With the jackbox vids you don't really get that. It's him and some friends. And yeah, they make fun of themselves and each other, but it has the unwanted side effect of being easy to turn into something that starts to make fun of other people, such as minorities or victims of tragedy, which isn't okay.

Mans is just trying to get a rise out of people. We all know this. The last video was purposefully offensive to try to scare the dream stans away. Which was dumb, and he shouldn't have done it, but I get why he did it. With everything that's happened recently, I'm sure Schlatt doesn't want to be associated with that sort of fanbase. Unfortunately, he went the wrong way about scaring them off.

Moving, the entire thing with lunch club and cmc, getting a cat, and Connor moving in, all while making near-weekly videos, two podcasts, and being on streams. That's a lot to think about, which is probably another reason for the lazier content and falling back on 'easy' jokes that often turn out offensive.

What I'm saying is that I feel he's in a rut. He hit a dead end, tried to fix things, then fell off and made a shitty video as an attempt for controversy. If I'm right, then I feel that he's gonna take a bit of a break (he's already taken a pretty long break if you look at how long it's been since the last video on his main channel) and come back when he's actually ready to do some better content.

The video was bad, and I get why people don't feel comfortable watching him anymore. I've made my peace with it and I'm hoping for some better content soon. But not too soon!

Lots of his friends have spoken about the whole thing, and the general consensus is that yeah, it was bad. I think Connor talked about him and Schlatt seeing a kid watching The Video and Schlatt having this 'oh shit' moment? I might be wrong, if anyone has a link to the clip or stream where Connor talks about this lmk. But regardless, I think mans is taking a break and sorting himself out. There are also rumours he might stream soon but idk idk.

I feel that off-camera he's a completely different person. Minx said she sees it that way, Ty also said he's very respectful and chill off-camera. So I don't think he's a bad person (I don't think he's racist or anti-Semetic, he fucked up but I highly doubt he believes that shit irl and I think claiming that he does is just performative and kinda weird. I understand microagressions are also very bad and can be used by racists/be racist but on their own they do not make you a racist especially if it's poor taste jokes that went too far etc).

You're right though, he definitely wanted to make money. That didn't really work out for him though (if you look at the stats on The Video, it performed terribly) so I doubt it's a mistake he would make again.

For now, if you want to see better content that (I think) reflects Schlatt in a better light (aka he's still doing a bit but he's much more chill and less of a bastard about it) I recommend the chuckle sandwich podcast and sleep deprived podcast. He's on OTK streams a lot too but that sorta thing isn't really for me.

Also stan connoreatspants bringing us Jambo content all the time. 🙌

Idk if that was helpful, but it's more a gesture of solidarity since I agree with and feel everything you're saying. Of course, this is all speculation, please don't spread this as fact because I don't know Schlatt any better than you do. He's just a comfort CC and guy I think is kinda neat when he's not doing dumb shit.

Sorry for the long post. Also, you can disregard the shit I said about racism if you want cause I'm not qualified to talk about it really. There are good points for calling someone a racist for jokes like the ones in the video, but I feel like the rest of the factors should be looked at too since this is a complicated situation. Again, just my opinion, please no hate. If you have a complaint DM me or send an ask. I'm open to hearing other povs.

Have a nice day !

[animeandcatholicism]

Children Props

There really is this disconnect with progressives when it comes to children as a category like they only have them as a means to an end. On one hand, there is a vocal contingent simply advocating not to have kids at all and to just do away with the concept of reproducing in the first world entirely because they're "too much of a burden.

On the other hand, when children are an actuality, then they become the most important resource possible. Encouraging "non binary and trans" ideology in toddlers, the props for the detainees (until it's their side and they simply go silent), the next climate change activist (Greta wasn't the first) and the refugee as long as they come from the right area, are the right ethnicity and religion or just something to virtue signal around to show them "doing their part".

The truth is though, this is a terribly destructive thing because it reduces actual people into mere categories to be checked off a list in the name of advancing the cause that will usher us into some type of utopian future. At the same time, they keep on isolating themselves and radicalizing your average person because, they're not an extremist and just wants to get on with their lives and live that out peacefully but, then gets painted into a corner for not wanting something like drag queen story hours and that is possibly being put on by convicted pedos, then it gets decried as misinformation and then we're told instead to support it and not worry about the consequences, otherwise we are the big bad meanies who are enabling the NAZIS to rise from the grave but we're already super racist and white supremacist but at the same time, have some of the most progressive policies out there and not like the places and people who promote what they are opposed to (supposedly), unless it's like the one time, the progressives platformed a woman who wanted to institute Sharia law and promote Islamism or the anti-semetism that seems to happen with regularity.

[vampireshdtw]

Nosferatu (1922)

Tonight Henry, Eve, and Matt watched the 1922 classic, Nosferatu!

Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror, directed by F.W. Murnau and released in 1922, is a movie about Count Orlok and his plot to drink the blood of his estate agent’s wife, Ellen Hutter, while simultaneously bringing a plague to their now shared town of residence.

---

Nosferatu is a slow, precise vampire with little to no humanity present in his actions. He bites his victims with his characteristically long, sharp incisors, controlled by his ceaseless desire for human blood, which he needs to consume in order to live.

His body, despite being very lithe, is capable of lifting heavy weights and moving at extraordinary speeds, which also extends to horses he’s driving. Doors open and mortals stumble back with the aid of his telekenetic powers, which make his entrances all the more horrifying, paired with his long fingernails.

Bats, mosquitos, and most notibly rats seem to follow him wherever he goes, carrying a plague that can easily wipe out an unsuspecting village, making the aftermath of his feeding habits all the more inconspicuous.

However, Nosferatu, also known as the Death Bird, is not a free creature. In order to rest and regain his strength, he must sleep in the damned soil he was buried in, usually packed into coffins. In his coffin, he sleeps like the dead, open-eyed and near-impossible to wake before dusk.

In order to kill Nosferatu, he must burn to ash in the sun’s rays. This is made difficult with his caution, but can be aided with the temptation of a sinless maiden offering him her throat- only this can make him forget the coming of the dawn.

---

Finally, I finally got to see this absolute classic! It’s as slow and over-the-top as I expected from a movie this age, but there were some genuinely impressive moments, and somehow it was more loyal to the source material than its 1979 remake, despite that one actually having the rights to use the original names! I absolutely love how the movie’s limitations influence how Nosferatu’s powers work, turning them into modern-day canon! However, as much as I liked the initiative of the female lead and all of the oldschool charm of this film, Count Orlok is a glaring anti-semetic stereotype, which feels even weirder, seeing as this is a German movie. Overall, I’m glad I watched it, and I think any vampire fan should have watched this film once. (Matt)

I enjoyed this, the original Nosferatu, moreso than its 1979 remake, primarily for the ending and score. While this leans far more heavily into the source material's antisemitic stereotypes (and might have some historical significance given the decades to come), it remains watchable. I enjoyed this version's Lucy/Mina stand-in, but I found their Harker stand-in a little manic. Overall I enjoyed the middle-ground it struck between Nosferatu (1979) and the original book, but think it misses out on the creepiness of Herzog's revision. I had fun, and it was an interesting watch, even if the vampire and his weaknesses seemed really stripped back and minimal in comparison to a lot of other media. Almost certainly a limitation of the time. (Eve)

If you're interested in vampires at all, I recommend you watch it as a curiosity. It's interesting to see not just where a lot of the vampire tropes come from, but also to see how far film-making has come as well. It's really brisk and well-paced for a movie this old, I never found it slow or boring. The characterisation of Hutter was entertaining and Ellen having more agency compared to her remake counterpart was great. Max Shref as Count Orlok was a great screen presence (aside from the anti-semitic makeup) but I found Klaus Kinski's portrayal far more menacing and impactful. I think I prefer the Werner Herzog remake overall for its tension building and sense of dread and bleakness but I'd watch this movie again before that one. Definitely give it a watch! (Henry)

[wonkastarshine]

A Willy Wonka Prequel?

Ever since the news broke a couple weeks ago, I have been thinking non-stop about this new prequel. My boyfriend and I had a conversation about it that lasted almost an hour. So many thoughts and questions have swirled around my head, but the only thing that has really stuck with me is simply this: why?

Why do we need this movie? Why is Warner Bros. thinking this is a good idea? Why is this existing when Taika Waititi is already doing another version of CATCF on Netflix?

It just honestly baffles me because the main complaints against the 2005 film were targeted at Wonka’s added backstory. Audiences said it was unnecessary and dragged the film down. I personally don’t mind it. I think it is a very Dahlesque addition. I mean think of all the nasty and abusive parents in Dahl stories from Matilda to James and the Giant Peach. John August and Tim Burton gave Wonka a backstory and people rejected it. We saw Wonka as a child, run away and then a slight glimpse of when he was on Cherry Street. The trouble with a prequel is that so much of the character of Willy Wonka is up for interpretation. Even with Depp’s added backstory, there were still so many gaps that the audience had to fill in for themselves such as the whereabouts of his mother, full motives for his father hating candy, what he did after he ran away and how he actually gained the skills and knowledge to become the genius candymaker he is. And the reason we don’t know is because Roald Dahl never intended us to.

All we learn from the book is:

Opened a shop on Cherry Street

Opened factory

Chocolate Palace

Spies

Factory Closes

And we saw all of that in the 2005 version. It’s told via exposition in the 71’ film, even though some of the stories were left out all together. So… the screenwriter will be left to either

a) stretch out what was from the book  

or

b) completely throw out his original story

I don’t really want to know where Wonka gets his top hat from or how he gets his loans to build his candy empire. This is again where my main problem lies. I am very nervous that they will make Wonka a very boring, typical, heteronormative character to appeal broad audiences. Willy Wonka has become such an icon because his full backstory is up for grabs. They could surprise us and not give Wonka a love interest at all, in line with the book and both movie adaptations. But, the most common trope of prequels is to introduce a love interest, but this does not align with Willy’s future of becoming a recluse and hiding out in his factory. So much of the Wonka character is who he is because of his isolation from humanity. Maybe I’m being overly picky, but I’m very defensive about Willy Wonka as a character. I believe there is only so much you can do with him that still stays true to him in the book. 

And it all comes down to who will play the candyman himself.

I am not a big fan of either Holland or Chalamet reportedly being in the runnings. If we are doing a new version, I want someone completely unknown. I want a fresh new face for Willy Wonka. Don’t get me wrong, I think that both of these men are fine actors, I just do not think they would be right for the part. Most likely, ⅓ of the movie will be with a child actor, as we watch a very young Wonka and then transition to the actor who will play Wonka for the rest of the movie. I just want a brand new actor to grace the face of a young Wonka. I can think of some older, adult actors who would be good as Wonka such as Taika Waititi, Oscar Isaac and Bryan Cranston (don’t @ me, I have my reasons lol). But, I honest to goodness cannot think of any young actors right now who could be the not yet reclusive candyman. Since Tom and Timothee are just rumors, I take it with a grain of salt, especially Tom because he has contractual agreements with Marvel and his schedule might not allow for it. 

But besides the issue of casting, we simply cannot ignore that this could possibly be erasure of both movies, the 2005 one specifically. Because the story of CATCF has been around for over 60 years now, it’s embedded into our consciousness and culture. While the story is known, everyone loves a different Wonka, whether it be Wilder or Depp. Wilder Wonka has the advantage of being around for over 50 years now versus Depp’s 16. Due to the 2005 version still being fairly recent, all things considered, it is in danger of being erased from the public eye even more than it already has been. And that is very apparent by the Wilder vs. Depp arguments that have risen again since the announcement of the prequel. Those arguments are silly since everyone has the right to an opinion, but it also shows the really nasty side to a fandom. With the arrival of a prequel movie, I think the fandom will be split even further. Depp’s version will be ostracized more. Wilder’s could see a surge in praise, if the prequel is terrible because it has the advantage of being older and more widely accepted. It angers me, just because CATCF 2005 is so hated upon, for many times no good reason other than “iT’s nOt thE oRiGinAL.” 

A prequel could serve to burn every bridge connected to 2005 and leave the fandom in the dust, with no new material to be released such as anniversary editions, box sets or a 4K blu-ray remaster, which we so desperately want.  Or it could be what we see currently on social media with younger generations discovering a new version. Both Wilder and Depp could be erased and new generations could see this new Wonka as the only Wonka. That’s a scary thought. No matter which version you prefer, I would hate to see a fandom be completely obliterated by the prequel or taken over by influencers. (no hate to influencers, but sometimes they can do some damage without knowing it.)

Overall, I do think this movie will get stuck in development hell. They announced the development of this prequel in 2016 and only now in 2021 do we get a release date. I think that Warner Bros. is desperately grasping at strings. Upon seeing the general negativity following the announcement, they could be thinking twice. But, I believe this movie won’t be made. It’s a difficult story to tell and the main character has spanned generations of people. Also, with the increasing awareness regarding Roald Dahl’s anti-semetic comments and the ongoing pandemic, they could ultimately decide to shelf the film. Which is what I genuinely hope happens.

[hws-denmark]

Very off-brand but literally just venting and vitriol under the cut about recent-ish hetalia discourse, if you don't wanna see it then don't read it! Cheers.

Alright idk what the fuck happened to fandom spaces over the past 5 years but this shit is super toxic now. It's like the internet has over-corrected from "it's the wild west baybeeeee, ship wars and death threats and downright awful behavior galore" to "have you consumed anything problematic or made a mistake anytime in the past 30 years??? Literally go fucking die you deserve to kys!!". Both are shit. But in my experience, one is a fuckton easier to avoid. Hetalia is a problematic show. This is a fact. There's an anti-semetic joke in the dub. There's whitewashing in the earlier anime seasons. Hima's characterisation of South Korea is horrific. France's earliest characterisations are done real dirty with the amount of sexual assault present. You could write essays about this shit, but honestly it's all been said in better ways before so I don't particularly care to. But quite frankly the amount of harassment from sad trolls and bullies online is nuts over this shit. Five fucking months and it's unavoidable- "Your a nazi! Facist, japanese imperialist anti-semite!!" NEWS FLASH- YOUR KEYBOARD WARRIOR CRAP ISN'T DOING JACK SHIT! YOU AREN'T PREVENTING A-NY-THING, YOU AREN'T HELPING A-NY-ONE! GET OFF YOUR ASS AND CALL OUT THE HATE I GUARANTEE WILL BE HAPPENING IN REAL DANG LIFE IN YOUR LOCAL COMMUNITY IF YOU ACTUALLY WANNA EDUCATE AND MAKE A POSITIVE CHANGE. There's a world of difference between calling out shitty fandom behavior and whatever the fuck this is. It's madness that I have to point out how saying that people talking about cartoon characters from a five minute OVA even holds a single CANDLE to the worldwide rise in nationalist sentiment and anti-semetic conspiracy theory, bourne from a mass refusal to acknowledge history, is so severely minimising. I take it that's okay though because you can wank yourself off on your nice little high horse without actually doing anything to combat hate or improve the world in any way though? The show has so many faults and for multitudes of good reasons you might never want to see it ever again. So block it. Don't interact with it. Blacklist the tag. But it is downright RUDE to be coming INTO the tag and talking shit. That doesn't tell me you're earnestly trying to avoid the series- it tells me you're really really trying to start fights. Bc I have been using the block button pretty liberally recently, and for every normal user venting I see, there's always an equal amount of people who, ironically, seem to dedicate their blog to bigotry against others and cyber-harassment. I've seen anti-hetalia blogs that have been sexist, racist, panphobic and, maybe most hypocritically, one that was bizarrely insensitive to the connotations of a past political regime. And yet minors look to these same people and parrot what they say for clout. In my experience, in a whole lot of anti-hetalia circles, there's a severe case of "mocking because I think it's cringe, but disguising it as concern for others to not look like a straight-up dickhead and have the moral high ground". Is it seeping from twitter? Bc I see that shit there all the time even in non-fandom spaces, the black/white, we're angels/they're devils thinking that real life and sane adults just do not fucking operate on. What I do know is, in the midst of a difficult pandemic, the one announcement in months that was happy and exciting for me left me feeling like dogshit by the end of the day. The weekly episodes that I should be excited for are just making me dread what I'm gonna see online. The nordic five are kinda like comfort characters for me, since I grew up in an emotionally abusive household and so I treated them like the family I never had. And yet, when I wanna go online and look at headcanons and read cool au fanfics, I always seem to stumble upon the implication that doing this is somehow severely hurting someone and that I'm a terrible monster. Logically, I know this is a load of shit. And yet I've noticed I've been putting myself down and looking at more and more self-harm content again recently bc

guilt-tripping with that much weight seeps into your brain like a nasty case of sepsis. Even the more casual "haha hetalia not another pandemic/more brainrot/will punch you on sight" lark starts to fucking drag when it's just SO widespread. Might just queue nice art, drop the occasional fanfic and otherwise stop interacting with the fandom tbqh. This bullshit is not healthy and some of the people on this hellsite are genuine psychos.

[lyricalimerence]

10 Things I Hate About You • 002

masterlist • 001, 002, 003... coming soon

Chapter Two — Heinous Bitches & Cliché Bets

summary: intro to kacey & the bet is made between kelce + topper

word count: 2196

warnings: mentions of smut like two or three lines total, swear words, and high school stupidity. oh, how i miss the dickstains i go to school with 😌.

a/n: i actually love writing kacey's character. n e who, this is for @popcsheyward because i'm making jj simp for u

Deep in the heart of the high school, a class of bored and inattentive seniors doodle in their notebooks and up the exposed skin on their arms; others text, their phones “hidden” beneaths their desks. Kacey Brooks was in the middle of it all. Everyone knew her, whether that was a good thing or a bad thing. It was the advent of spring, encroaching on summer, and on an island, that means it is hot. But, there Kacey sat, in baggy denim jeans, cuffed above her ankle so the hems didn’t drag along the floor. Her hands were tucked underneath her denim-clad thighs as she leaned over the desk, tracing the looping font that said “Romeo and Juliet” on the cover of the book on her desk with her eyes. God, she hated that book. They read it in Sophomore year, and she didn’t understand why they had to read the stupid play again.

The English teacher, Mr. Martin stood from his swivel chair, picking up his own copy of Romeo and Juliet just to drop it down on the podium, catching the drifting seniors’ attention. “Okay, slackers. What did you think of the play?”

A girl in the back of the classroom, another clean cut Kook with pink lip gloss and tight crop tops raised her hand. With a smile, she rushed into her opinion, not bothering to get permission to speak. It was a well known fact that in the Outer Banks it was easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. “It was so romantic. I loved it.”

Kacey’s brows stitched together, not mulling over her personal rebuttal for more than a moment before looking over her shoulder at the girl. Her eyes were glossy, lost in her romanization of the play. Ever since the second semester of her freshman year when she just snapped, she had been braving each day, treating it as a singular battle in the war against high school ignorance. “Romeo and Juliet was not romantic. It was two people having a teenage rebellion and wallowing in their own angst. They simply wanted an escape from their family lives. And Shakespeare? He was a racist, anti-semetic misogynist who is praised when he couldn’t decide on one way to spell his own name.”

The entirety of the class rolled their eyes, including Mr. Martin. It hadn’t been the first time Kacey had spoken out on her take on the social issues that came with the authors of novels and how they correlate to modern day society. Kelce, a Kook Prince of the highest degree and sitting to the left of Kacey, pokes at the metaphorical bear. “As opposed to a friendless, holier-than-thou wench?”

The girls pining after Kelce for his looks or trust fund giggled, despite his dig into the girl next him not being all that funny. Mr. Martin slapped the wooden podium with his Folger Shakespeare Library copy of Romeo and Juliet. “Pipe down, Slick.”

Kacey pulled the hem of her army green crop top to cover the slight bit of tanned skin exposed before quipping, “I guess having a dick and being a dick makes you entitled to our time.” The brunette pushed the hair falling over her forehead out of the way before waving her copy of the play in the air. “What about Sylva Plath or, I don’t know, Emily Bronte for all I care.”

Before Mr. Martin could respond with his own activistic rebuttal, Rafe Cameron walks into class, holding up a copy of the first Harry Potter book and raising his eyebrows, silently questioning whether that was the right book. He knew it wasn’t. “What’d I miss?”

A Pogue who was a known theatre nerd started humming the tune to the song from Hamilton titled What’d I Miss while Kacey all but spun in her seat. “Just the patriarchal values that run this lovely institution and corrupt the minds of dimwitted Kelce’s everywhere.”

Rafe nodded along to Kacey’s statement and through to her next breath, not having stopped in between words to breathe. “Good.” After his simple response, he immediately turned on his heel and walked back down the hall, rather enduring more uncomfortable conversations with the Dean than English class.

Kacey and Rafe had no ill will towards each other, only being able to base an opinion off the presumed stereotypes of each other that get passed around the school. Kacey and Rafe had known each other for a long time. When they were six, Kacey’s father was Rose Cameron’s obstetrician, seeing as he’s the best on the Outer Banks and the Camerons are the richest on the Outer Banks. That’s where they met: outside his stepmother’s hospital room, playing chopsticks with their fingers while they sat cross-legged on the tile floor, drinking apple juice from juice boxes. That’s where their friendship ended. They hadn’t really spoken since, only having that snapshot into reality before the doors were closed. Kacey was popular, had many more friends than Rafe did, and boys trailed her. When freshman year rolled around, he kept his distance because he knew he would walk away with a sharp pain in his groin. That was just how she carried herself, and he carried himself differently.

Mr. Martin attempted to call after Rafe, only to hear the cicadas buzzing outside.

“Mr. Martin, do you think we could get Kacey to take her Midol before class?” Kelce asks, his signature smirk gracing his face as he continued his quest to make Kacey’s life a living Hell. Snickers erupted from the class, causing Kelce’s smugness to go to his head, lifting himself onto his selfmade pedestal.

“One day, you’re gonna get bitch-slapped right across that brazen face of yours, and I’m not gonna do anything to stop it. Kacey, thank you for your input.” As Mr. Martin took a brief pause, Kacey smiled to herself, please that her social activism finally was justified by authority. He continued, “I can’t imagine how hard it must be for you to overcome upper-class, Kook oppression. It must’ve been awful.” Her chest puffed out with pride deflated at his words. She knew he was right. “But the next time you storm the school board campaigning for more recycling bins or whatever you white girls complain about, ask them why they can’t buy a book written by a Black man!”

“Understood. Anything else?” Kacey asked, looking straight past Mr. Martin and out the window overlooking the quad behind him.

“Yeah, go to the office, you’re pissing me off.” Her neck whipped to look at her English teacher at his words, opening her mouth to argue, but he shot her a stern look and pointed towards the door. In Kacey’s rageful frenzy, she decked Kelce in the face with her bag as she stormed out of the classroom towards the office.

The Dean sat in her office, her rouge painted nails clicking against the keys on her keyboard as the sleazy thoughts in her head transferred onto the Word document housing her novel. She whispered to herself as her fingertips ghosted the letter labeled keys on her laptop. She snapped her head up, calling out to the secretary, asking for her to look up another word for ‘engorged’ despite being able to pull up the thesaurus on her computer.

“Tumescent?” Kacey suggested as she walked into the small, pink office.

The Dean snapped her fingers, pointing at Kacey as she morphed her hand into a finger gun. “Perfect!” Kacey swung her bag off her shoulder and onto the ground next to the chair in which she seated herself. “I hear you’re terrorizing English class again.”

“Last time I checked, it wasn’t just English class, and expressing my opinions is not a terrorist action.” The eighteen-year-old raised her eyebrows indignantly, her head nodding slightly in authoritativeness.

The Dean smiled sarcastically at Kacey, “The way you expressed your opinion to Topper Thornton? His testical retrieval operation went quite well, if you’re interested.”

“I maintain he swung his own golf club up his legs like a field goal.” Kacey crossed her arms over her chest. She settled into her chair. Her conversations with the crude woman in front of her always went the same way; Mr. Martin threw her out of class for existing, and her previous deeds suddenly have updates that the Dean thinks Kacey should know about.

“The point I’m trying to make is that people think you’re a heinous bitch and you should work on it.” Her eyes flickered to her still open laptop and back up to the eighteen-year-old. “What do you think about blood sex?”

“Okay, yeah, this has been lovely, however,” grabbing her backpack, she swung it over her shoulder as she rose from the uncomfortable chair. “I think I’ll let you get back to Chris chokeslamming Jackie into a wall.”

As Kacey left the office to walk the halls of Kildare County High School, the Dean seemed to take her words into serious consideration, whispering Kacey’s final sentiment under her breath as she typed the word ‘chokeslam.’

. . .

Kelce leant against the stone wall that surrounded the courtyard and only rose to about waist-high of even the shortest of students. His best friend and fellow poster child for the effects of affluenza, Topper Thornton ( who is very acquainted with Kacey Brooks and her golf club swing ), stood next to him, the two of them surveying the inhabitants of the grassy lawn in the back of the school. Topper noticed Gracie walking through the gap in the stone wall, her Spanish textbook pressed to her chest as she nodded along to what Arianna said next to her. The familiar breeze carrying the scent of the ocean and the feeling of home blew the short strands of Gracie’s hair that framed her face in almost an angelic way, and her sundress that fell to her mid-thigh swayed as she walked. Gracie and Arianna were picturesque, almost like they actively strived to be compared to Cher and Dionne from Clueless.

With a carnal smirk, Topper elbowed Kelce, muttering “Virgin alert” as the sophomore passed the two guys, smiling and waving at Kelce as they went.

“Lookin’ good, ladies.” As if Kelce’s remark was a que, Gracie and Arianna pushed forward, leaving the hormonal teenager guys watching them like they were prey for them to catch.

“No way, Bro. They’re outta your league.”

“No one’s out of my league.” Kelce’s eyes didn’t leave Gracie as she distanced herself from them.

Topper pulled fifty dollars out of his pocket, “Wanna bet?”

“Nah, I’ve got money. This’ll be for fun.” Kelce pushed Topper’s hand that was holding onto the bill away and dapped up his empty hand, sealing the deal. Kelce was about to embark on one of the most cliché, tropical bets of his high school experience.

“Just look at her, man.” JJ watched Gracie and Arianna pass him, John B, and Pope. He followed her with love struck eyes and wistful pining.

Pope tilted his head, the cap that sat on his head almost falling off his head as he tried to understand his friend’s mindset. “She’s just so…”

“Perfect?” JJ offered.

John B and Pope shared a glance, rolling their eyes at JJ’s suggestion. “I was going to say ditzy.” John B replied.

“How can you say that?” JJ turned to glance at his friends who were totally unimpressed by the girl that captured almost all the guy’s hearts at the high school. “She’s totally…”

“Narcissistic?” Pope said, getting a nod from John B in agreement.

“That’s her sister, c’mon, guys.” JJ waved his hand in the air for emphasis. There was no way Gracie was like Kacey. They were too polar. “There’s more to her than you think. See her smile? She’s totally pure.”

“Yeah, pure money. She’s a Kook, dude.” John B ran a hand through his overgrown brunet locks. “What’s there is a snotty princess wearing a dress that was purposefully planned to make Pogues like you realize you can’t have her and Kooks like Kelce and Topper want her.”

“Besides, JJ, you know the rule. It’s not like she could date you even if she wanted to.” Pope added on, readjusting his baseball cap to fit snugly on his head.

“Put her in the Spank Bank and move on, Bro.” John B and Pope started walking in the opposite direction, lunch was about to start.

JJ jogged to catch up, shaking his head in denial. “Nah.”

“Move on, man. Jizz Wizz and then dip.” Pope reiterated John B’s sentiment as JJ held his arm out, stopping them in their tracks in front of the bulletin board to the right of the door into school.

“She needs a Spanish tutor,” He ripped the paper advertisement off the cork board.

“You can’t even speak Spanish.”

“What do you mean?” JJ looked at John B as he traced Gracie’s phone number printed on the paper.

“Broken Spanish and fantasizing about lobsters from Yucatan doesn’t mean you know Spanish.” Pope pulled the paper out of JJ’s hand, ready to tack it back to the board before JJ took it again.

“Okay, so I don’t know Spanish, but I will.”

tags — @perkily @mortifiedposts @poguequeen @abigailpankow @curlybrownhairedboys @steverogers123 @outerbankslut @jayjaymaebank @jjssarah @whOreforharry @wowitswondergurl @anonymous0writer @kodi8314 @outrbank @aestheticcraze @kylosleftbuttcheek @x-lulu @dailygrace06 @calswildflower95 @insanitysparkles @prejudic3 @ilovejjmaybank @apoguecalledjj @xxxxxxxxxxxxxooooooooooooo @calumbroutledge @rudys-pankow @bxllasanosa @write-from-the-heart @thelocalpogue @fandomsinapile @starkeymarkey @lovingxjj @beatement-l @drew-starkey @beckester @butgilinsky @kayak-huesgen @everydayimfangirling @delinquentstarkey @g4bster @crumpetsandmarmite

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[devilsrecreation]

You know what? Just have a LIST of muppet headcanons

Deadly can walk through walls (he IS a ghost) and it scares pretty much everyone (especially Link)

Polly likes to sit on his boyfriends’ hats. He could be chilling on Monty’s hat, or he could be on Clueless’. He prefers to be on Monty’s hat, really. His favorite spot to be in is in Clueless’ arms....with his shirt off...he cannot help his gayness with that one

On a different note: All the muppirates (even Clueless, though he just complains) hate bathes. If you try giving it to one of them, they’ll go apeshit. Deadly tried it once with Pew and it was torture for the both of them

Deadly sometimes acts like a damsel in distress to amuse Link. What Link does next varies and by “varies”, I mean sometimes he’d play along and try to impress him and other times he either gets confused or it goes over his head

When Clueless wants to flirt with Polly and/or Monty, he uses his deep voice (the voice he uses for singing, but this time he’s just talking) and it always gets them. Bonus: Sometimes Clueless takes his shirt off (you know, since I hc that he’s kinda buff) and they just freeze up

In the Muppet Character Encyclopedia, it says that Mad Monty likes to make lacy pillows with messages on them and now I’m imagining him making them for all the muppirates. What they do with said pillows is anyone’s guess (Polly and Clueless, however, treasure it)

Even though Big Mean Carl fights with his family, he’s still pretty protective of his siblings. For example, if someone were bothering his sister, Carla, he’ll punch them in the face....or eat them, whichever comes first

Sometimes, Clueless’ beard tickles Polly and/or Monty when they’re kissing. Polly and Monty act annoyed, but they secretely love it

All of my otp’s accidently said “I love you” to each other

Polly hates crawfish/crayfish and will 100% butt heads with one

Zoot lowkey shows off any Jewish stuff to protest against Anti-semetism Like if he’s hearing shit about Judaism or the stereotype that Jews are greedy, he’ll quietly put on a necklace with the star of David. If he’s feeling ballsy, he’d cuss them out in Hebrew

Lew Zealand is the type of guy who wants to be friends with everyone. The only muppets he doesn’t like are Walleye Pike (which I have mentioned before) and my oc, Serpico. Why? Cuz Serpico ate Lew’s boomerang fish

Joe and Clueless sometimes team up to spy on their otp’s

You remember how I said Clueless writes fanfics? Yeah, they’re actually GOOD (like, well-written)

The Mayhem’s #1 nickname for Zoot is “Mr. Saxobeat”

The band likes to give Zoot funny nicknames just to annoy him. However, when Lips does it, he doesn’t mind

You know how Clueless has knowledge in fashion (based on the At the Bar sketches)? Deadly sees that as a threat

Lew Zealand has two moms. That is all

https://youtu.be/xBCGVqyWrSQ is Lew Zealand’s favorite song

While the gilts (Miss Piggy, Annie Sue, Spamela, etc.) would try to avoid the mud in any way possible, the boars would gladly yeet themselves and wallow in it

Link LOVES belly rubs. At first, he didn’t think he’d want/need one, but when Deadly did it, he was like “O-oh yeah. Ohh, right there. Wow, that feels so good! A little on the top—yes!!”

Clueless likes to go swimming with Walleye just because. It’s a friend thing they do just for fun

Blind Pew just knows whenever someone is looking at Sally in a certain way. And by that, I mean whenever other kids are looking at her in a romantic way. That’s when Pew has to get REALLY overprotective (as if he wasn’t already)

When Zoot tried drinking coffee for the first time, the band was like “Who are you and what have you done with Zoot?”

Bobo’s daughter’s name is Ursa and she’s a toddler

Strangepork went on ONE date with both Emily Bear and Mama Fiama (not at the same time) and they actually enjoyed it. No, Fozzie and Johnny were NOT happy. For example, Mama Fiama said she was going on a date and when Johnny saw Strangepork at the door, he was like

[honey-bird-04]

this is my first post

Hullo. This is my 3rd time rewriting this, because sumthin’ kept fucking up every time I tried to write it. But let’s hope this time goes smoothly cause I got a lot to say. I don’t have anywhere else to put this, so I decided, why not come to Tumblr and see what everyone else thinks. So, let’s get started. I have been a Gleek since I was in 6th grade. And as much as I know that the show is cringey and hard to watch, my sister and I genuinely enjoyed it (although now we mostly watch it ironically). And we always had a favoritism system going, our favorite characters were blatantly obvious, and we were fishing for least favorite characters when we could. So, our lists of favorite characters/ships looked a little something like this: Favorites: -Kurt Hummel -Finn Hudson -Rachel Berry -Santana Lopez -Brittany S Pierce -Blaine Anderson Least favorites: -Quinn Fabray -Noah Puckerman -Terry Schue -Sue Sylvester -Jessie St James -Sebastian Smythe Favorite ships: -Finchel -Klaine -Brittana -Wemma And even though that doesn’t seem like there’s anything wrong with that set up in particular, I’m going to explain to you why my views have changed. Especially on my least favorite characters. And disclaimer!! Any and all of these characters that I list on my least favorites have nothing to do with race, gender, disability, sexuality etc. They are solely based on personality and how their actions affected others. That’s it. That’s what I’m basing it off of. Same goes for my favorite characters as well. And believe me I will give a lengthy explanation for each and every one of them I promise. So I’m going to be listing the least favorites from LEAST bad/toxic to MOST bad/toxic. And don’t be upset if one of your favorites are on here. Just because I don’t like them doesn’t mean you can’t like them. Just make that clear. These are only things that I’ve picked up and I’ve noticed throughout the show and watching back important clips and such from the show. Coming in at #7: Mercedes Jones: I know what’s coming already. And I’m going to have to tell y’all this loud and clear. Mercedes is not a diva. She’s just a bitch. I’ve never liked Mercedes, and not because she was black, but just because she had an awful personality and she was awful to the people around her. I think the only time I really saw her being nice to someone was when she was dating Sam, or when she was dating that football player. And a few times when she was with Kurt. The main problem I have with her is in S1E3: Bust Your Windows, she busted Kurt’s front windshield all because he had a crush on someone else. And I can guarantee you guys this. If a guy did that to a girl, like if Kurt had done that to Mercedes instead, y’all would’ve been outraged. She had no reason to bust his window like that and then get all sassy to him when he got upset about it. Coming in at #6: Santana Lopez: And this is another character that y’all are so set on saying that she’s a diva. But no. Santana is a straight up bitch. And before you guys say “she was closeted/insecure/outed!” etc, Kurt was also insecure and closeted in the first season and he was never rude to anybody in the way Santana was. And secondly, Finn didn’t out her until S3E6: Mash Off, and I can tell you she had been acting like a huge bitch way before then. All I have to do is pull up all of the times she’s been anti-semetic to Rachel, fatphobic to Finn and Lauren, attacked people’s insecurities and was just being god awful. One of my least favorite scenes from her is when she went on that entire rant about why Blaine and Kurt didn’t work out, and she attacked Kurt’s teeth, his sexuality, his dancing, his s3xual appeal, and just about everything Kurt was insecure about. All because he said that he thought Santana and Brittany were too young to get married. And I honestly agreed with him, Britt and San were 19. Definitely too young to get married, and Kurt was just trying to relate his failure with Blaine to warn them that getting married this young wasn’t something that they wanted to do. But no. Santana didn’t listen to him trying to reason with her, she just told him basically “you suck, Blaine really hates you, get your crap together.” And I have always had a problem with it. Not to mention she called Quinn a slut. And no matter what situation you are in, I don’t believe it’s okay to call any girl a slut. Actually, I don’t think it’s okay to call anybody a slut. Because I’m bringing this back. If Finn had called Quinn a slut, you guys would be all over him and cancelling that character so fast, but as soon as Santana says it, it’s okay? That never sat right with me either. And again, the way she relentlessly bullies Rachel for everything she’s insecure about, especially her height and nose is not okay. It doesn’t matter how much you dislike someone. Making fun of her nose to the point where as soon as she breaks it, she’s immediately thinking of getting a nose job. That is not okay. And there’s a speculation that Santana was the one who pushed Rachel over the edge to try and fall into bulimia. And I don’t doubt it. Santana is not a nice person. And her internalised homophobia does not excuse anything that she’s said or done. Not to mention she has Britt wrapped around her finger and she knows that she’ll do anything she asks. Like when Santana was fantasizing about forcing Britt to break up with Artie if she became Prom Queen because it would be “the law of the land” that is absolutely inexcusable. Because we all know Britt is naive and has some sort of DD or autism, and the characters in the show take that and use it to their advantage. Especially Santana. Coming in at #5: Artie Abrams: Now before you come for my ass, let me tell you. I actually used to really like Artie. He was pretty high up on my ranking Glee characters lists that I used to make all the time. But now that I’ve rewatched and I’ve noticed more things, I just cant like him with a good conscience. Remember in season 1 when Tina told him that she doesn’t really have a stutter? Well, if you remember, he broke up with her after that. But if you were closely watching the show, you should’ve realised that Tina has some sort of social anxiety, (not that I’m excusing her faking a disability), but she has a reason for doing it. She (presumably) took up the stutter because she needed a way to avoid having to speak so much in public. Which is totally understandable! Artie didn’t have to break up with her. She confided in him to finally tell him what she had been hiding for so long and he just breaks up with her??? Are you kidding? That just goes to show that one of the only reasons he was dating her was because of her disability. If he broke up with her so fast for not actually having one. Even though she had an actual reason that she did it. Another thing about Artie that I hate is that he called Britt stupid. And that is a huge deal. Everyone in the school calls Britt stupid or something along those lines (even Santana) and as soon as she finds the one guy who doesn’t think that way of her, he breaks her trust. She technically did cheat on him, but as I said earlier, she bends to Santana’s every order and she has some sort of DD or autism and didn’t understand that it was cheating. She even told Artie she didn’t understand it. And instead of sitting her down and explaining to her and giving her a second chance to prove her new knowledge to good use, he just calls her stupid and makes her cry. And then this one is obvious. Artie didn’t fucking wear c0ndoms while he was having s3x with those two girls in New York and didn’t actually tell them he had chlamydia. Which just pissed me off so much it makes me angry just talking about it. Coming in at #4: Finn Hudson: Oh ho ho. Finn Hudson makes me so angry. Let me just start off with everything he did (and didn’t do) to/for Kurt. Starting with the infamous “faggy scene” after Kurt tried to make amends with Finn for all the arguing they had been doing by redecorating their room. As ugly as it looked (lmao), he did his best to try and appeal to what a straight guy would like without making it too masculine so he would feel comfortable sleeping in there too. He tried to appeal to Finn’s interests as well as his own and had to do it all on short notice. But as soon as Finn saw it, the first thing he said was “are you freaking insane?” and Kurt just deflated. If you watch the scene, you can see it. You can physically see Kurt’s hard work all go to waste because of that comment. But then Finn follows it up with saying “I can’t live here, I’m a dude.” That line for me is the one that really made me dislike Finn very very strongly, because he not only said Kurt wasn’t a man to his face, he also views Kurt as nothing but his sexuality. That is further proven when he describes how uncomfortable he is around Kurt just because Kurt has a crush on him. And yes, Kurt was creepy, but after then, when they started living together, he just tried his best to make Finn feel as welcome and as comfortable as he can make him feel. But then sees that everything has been pointless, because Finn makes it a point to tell him that he puts his underwear on in the shower before he comes out when Kurt’s around. And that’s just fucked up. And a lot of people say that Finn “didn’t mean it” when he said the f-slur, but let me tell you something. You don’t just accidentally say something twice out of anger. If you really didn’t mean it, you would apologise right when it left your mouth. But Finn’s lack of an apology only proves that he meant every word of what he said. Next is when Finn refused to help Kurt out with Karofsky. I can only talk briefly about this because it actually makes me so fucking mad I can’t explain it. So, Rachel asks him to help Kurt out and confront Karofsky, right? And Finn refuses. Because, and I quote: “We both know I can help him more if I stay on top.” And I think he even says “Kurt will be fine” too, completely ignoring the fact that Kurt is so terrified to go to school, he’s losing weight (there are speculations that he cuts), but Finn doesn’t care about that. He only cares about the fact that he needs to stay popular. Oh and the fact that Karofsky plays right guard and wont guard him during the football game is he’s pissed and they’ll lose. He picks FOOTBALL and POPULARITY over his soon-to-be stepbrother’s MENTAL/EMOTIONAL/PYSICAL H E A L T H. I cannot explain how angry that makes me. Not to mention, the amounts of times he’s played victim. Especially with Rachel. One time that really pisses me off is when he goes “have you ever thought about what I’m going to do in New York?” and Rachel starts stammering over herself and assuring him that she’ll find something that he fits into since he doesn’t know what he’s going to do with his future. And then he asks her about California and Puck’s pool business. Even though he knows Rachel has been set on New York and NYADA since she was a little girl. He knows that she has all of those ambitions and she has an entire plan in her life and she’s already trying to shift those plans to fit Finn in with her. And for him to tell her that he wants her to give all of that up to come with him and Puck to California is actually more selfish than Rachel is. Oh! And not to mention he outed Santana too. Let’s not forget that. In front of basically the whole damn school too. He also kissed Emma. And he also cheated on Rachel with Quinn. And then actually broke up with Rachel when she made out with Puck a bit because she wanted to get him back for cheating on her and sleeping with Santana (even though it doesn’t excuse what she did at all, I just think Finn was being a hypocrite.) And he also cheated on Quinn with Rachel in the first season, and he led Rachel on for the entire first season, Or most of it at least. Coming in at #3: Mr. Schue: I’m just gonna speed through this: -He was a creep/pedo with both the girls and the boys -He had a savior complex and tried to force Emma’s OCD away and fix it instead of help her -He encouraged Emma’s crush on him even while he was married -He twerked with a bunch of minors -Suspended a minor for not wearing a bra she was uncomfortable in -He dealt really badly with Rachel’s crush on him -Never listened to his students’ input -hallucinated children while he was sick -Was very awkwardly touchy with his students -His best friend was 19 -refused to stop twerking even when offered the exchange for a trans student to use a staff bathroom to avoid getting bullied -overreacted after finding out Terry wasn’t pregnant Now the moments you’ve all been waiting for. Coming in at #2: Noah Puckerman: Now I was stuck on Puck for a while, I didn’t think he really was that bad of a guy for a long time. But just one thing Quinn says was enough to sway me and put him this high on my list. In one of the earlier episodes, Puck starts teasing her and being a dick after finding out she’s pregnant. And so she says: “You got me drunk off of wine coolers and I was feeling fat that day...” Now if you break that sentence down, she literally says “you got me drunk.” implying that Puck himself wasn’t drunk when this all took place. Meaning, Noah Puckerman r@ped Quinn Fabray. She never cheated on Finn. Puck purposely got her drunk just so he could get what he wanted. Especially considering she never put out and she was president of the Celibacy Club. Now must I say anything else? No. I didn’t think so. And finally, coming in at #1: Blaine Anderson: I know Blaine is everyone’s smol bean gay bb boy. (*gag) but I have to tell you that he is not a good person whatsoever. I’ll give him credit though. In the 2nd season he was really sweet and I actually really liked him. But as the seasons progressed, he got worse. In S3E5, Blaine and Kurt go to a gay bar together, and Kurt helps Blaine out after he gets too drunk. Then as soon as he tries to get Blaine in the car, Blaine starts coming onto him and kissing his neck and trying to convince him to have s3x with him, even though Kurt keeps repetitively saying no. And then he plays the victim after Kurt blows up at him and says “well I’m sorry for trying to be spontaneous and fun!” and then proceeds to walk home, getting mad at Kurt for nothing. Then in another episode. I think it was later in season 3, Kurt meets Chandler. And Blaine had been ignoring him for a while before that, so Kurt starts talking to Chandler only because he makes him feel good about himself. And he obviously thought it was okay because Blaine did the same thing with Sebastian but called him all the time and flirted with him and dirty danced with him etc. So when Blaine goes through Kurt’s phone, he finds the messages and makes a huge deal out of it and accuses Kurt of cheating on him. Then publicly humiliates him in front of the Glee club with a song about cheating. And then proceeds to go and cheat on him anyway. And then as soon as they were going to NYADA together, Blaine didn’t like all the attention Kurt was getting after he started to get more fit and more attractive and he was extremely jealous of him and over protective, not letting Kurt have any other male attention. At all. And Blaine is just super stingy with Kurt and doesn’t let him live his life and then pays victim whenever he gets confronted by him. Oh and not to mention he dated the one person that made Kurt’s life a living hell for the longest time and decided to rub it in his face. So there we have it folks. My new least favorite Glee characters and all the reasons why. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[tropicaldruid]

The Survivor’s Guide to Leaving Your Birth Religion Part 4: Tear It Down

It’s 1998 and I’m on a road trip to North Carolina with my youth group. Like a Bridge Over Troubled Water plays, and my youth pastor lowers the volume, “Have y’all ever heard the story behind this song?” he asks. None of us have.

“The man who wrote this was a drawbridge operator. He had brought his grandkids to work with him one day and despite several warnings, his granddaughter was climbing on the bridge. The man had told his grandkids how dangerous it was but the girl wasn’t heeding him and was playing in the works of the drawbridge. There was a boat full of people coming and the man had to make a choice between his granddaughter, and the lives of all those people on the boat. Rather than risk the lives of all those people he made the ultimate sacrifice…” his voice trailed off for a moment “Years later he wrote this song.”

That story stuck with me. It’s a bizarre and sad story that doesn’t really seem to have a moral that actually holds up to any kind of scrutiny. Of course, it doesn’t help that the story was also bullshit. Paul Simon wrote the lyrics to that song after committing zero bridge-related murders. 

Yet somewhere along the way somebody made that story up. I think it’s inspired by the tragic story behind It Is Well With My Soul. Like Virgil borrowed heavily from Homer, someone decided that Like a Bridge needed a more palatable foundational myth and made one up for it. And apparently thousands of people know this sad backstory that never happened as if it were truth, and bellieve that it serves as a cautionary tale about listening to your elders. 

Stories are so fascinating in the way they can convey some values and undermine others merely by being convincing, whether true or not. For years I believed Charles Darwin renounced “evolutionism” and accepted Christ just before he died. What a damaging idea, a simple one, but one that set my actual academic progress back by years.

It’s time to put the previous months of research to work. 

It’s time to tear down some of the untrue things we’ve been led to believe over the years. 

It’s time to face that we might be idiots a little bit. 

Leaving my religious bubble, I was shocked at how little I knew about the real world and how it worked. How unacceptable my internalized and externalized bigotry actually was, just how bigoted I actually was. 

For someone indoctrinated to believe I was a shining example of God’s love to the ungodly world, this came as quite a surprise to me. 

I needed to identify and challenge a lot of problematic ideas I had, I needed to look at the stories I had learned these ideas and values from and test those stories against other narratives. 

If I had ever stopped to challenge the narrative that Charles Darwin rejected “evolutionism” in favor of creationism I would have learned how absurd the dichotomy was in the first place. 

So the homework for this section is to start identifying these problematic ideas. Make a list of things that maybe you’ve been challenged on in the past. Have you been called a bigot before? A racist? Write that down. Think honestly about that moment and write down what action or words on your part caused it. Google words, read articles with an open mind. Join some discourse and emotional labor groups on social media and ask polite questions. Enter these spaces with humility, you’re in someone else’s sanctuary; and although we are survivors of trauma, we aren’t the only ones traumatized by these institutions and depending on our involvement, we may be culpable in the trauma of others. Be ready to listen and learn rather than defend or explain. 

Maybe that’s not something you can relate to, but you’ve always had a problem with some teaching. Often questioning the highly questionable is met with accusations of non-belief and scorn. “Those bone shaped rocks were put there by The Debbil and if you fall for his tricks then you’re a heathen too!” These ideas would be a great place to start. If you’ve got some questions like this, again google is a great place to plug in a few key words and get a ton of information. Look for academic papers, peer reviewed articles, books by reputable publishers.

Check out this article https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/fake-news.htm and learn about vetting the information you consume online and in the real world. 

Sit down and compile a list, maybe make three columns. In the first write what someone else told you was problematic, or what idea you’ve had a problem accepting. In the second, write what specific issue was addressed in your words or actions (homophobia, racism, misogyny, anti-semetism, etc) or what specific detail of teaching you take issue with (Eve’s curse makes no sense because all mammals experience pain during childbirth?) Now in the third column write the specific steps you will take to find better information on the topic. 

Be Honest. 

Be Tireless.

This is probably the hardest part of this guide to address because it requires us to be very critical of ourselves, of truths upon which we have founded our identities . We are presented here the opportunity to grow beyond obsolete ideas, or cling to familiar ignorance. 

Admitting we’ve been wrong is hard, and it’s counterintuitive when one has been surrounded by the pretense of absolute, infallible certainty for their whole lives. But facing this stage of our growth with resolve and honesty is so important. Many of these stories we have told ourselves have led to so much harm done to so many innocent people. So we begin this active stage of our growth by minimizing the harm we do to others moving forward. 

When I was in basic training the drill sergeants loved the phrase “Pain is weakness leaving the body” and as much as it grates my nerves to this day, it’s a mantra that has helped in this sort of endeavor. This is a rough time to get through, but we are becoming stronger people for it. By letting go of the familiar, by challenging the things that don’t add up, we are becoming more grounded in what we believe, our beliefs are starting to line up with our true values instead of blindly and unsteadily following the path someone else laid out for us. Be patient with yourself, but be honest in your motives and intentions as you work through addressing these ideas. As you do you may need to make a second list, of people you have harmed because you have believed things that are not. While writing this list, acknowledge the harm to each person in detail. Go as far back as necessary, be as thorough as you can. Decide in each case how to address it, is an apology warranted or would the situation be better healed by a change in behavior moving forward? Commit to it.  If you’ve been following along at home, you’ve got your work cut out for you. As you list the ideas and stories you need to challenge, repost this and share some of them if you feel like it. Let’s shine some light on this misinformation. I have a few I wanted to include in this post but it’s already long enough so I’ll share them later. 

Blessins Y’all