#like don't be a bigot??? It's not hard?????????

[mswyrr]

I don't think of the ending of Conclave as a separate, tacked on twist. I see it as the natural culmination of the themes and theological argument of the story. For me, it went along with the reminders of women's subordinated status throughout and the necessity of Sister Agnes for the Spirit to move - what are these hard lines used to limit and demean people? The work of men, not God. In God's eyes, "There is neither... slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one" (Gal 3:28).

What are these supposedly bright lines by which we decide who is worth more than another? Where are they located exactly? Chromosomes? Certain tissues of the body shaped in a particular way? In the mind? Where? Do they truly make sense when we look at the sheer diversity of "God's creation"? Is this a world of simple dichotomies or is that what we humans crave and impose?

Lawrence seeks after the divine, which doesn't actually fit neat human labels, and saw it in someone. In seeing it, he was challenged to expand his understanding. Benitez is, like all people according to Lawrence's beliefs, made in the image of God. Is he willing to perceive something of God he's not comfortable with?

For Lawrence, it's about having the grace to be able to love beyond those limits. He truly wants something beyond him to come down and touch him. He reminds me of this one poem: "I want heaven to descend and sit on My dinner plate / and so do you./ I want God to put His steaming arms around Me / and so do you" (Anne Sexton, "Jesus Dies"). But when heaven descends and sits on your dinner plate, it is not, cannot be, an easy experience. It challenges him.

Before him is an image of God in a shape and life history he has not been taught to recognize or understand. But he will try to love and move with this impossibility, beyond his fear and confusion. It's an act of humility over the sin of certainty - instead of telling another human being (the image of God!) you should take X shape, you should make Y kind of sense, and if you don't I'll hurt you -- he opens his heart. He loves this person and he loves God too, who came down and refused to be simple or easy. "Whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen" (1 John 4:20).

From a more universal pov: what is all the horror and domination and death we see around us but a violent and twisted refusal to see ourselves as one - part of the same biosphere, part of each other? What is the bigotry we see capturing so many minds but a refusal to see each other--in religious or humanist terms--as *sacred* parts of something beautiful - nature or the divine or both? Powerful men seek to dismember humanity and the planet to deny "you are all one". Ordinary bigots look at the sacred in another person and, if that person doesn't take the precise shape that they want, they try to hurt and destroy them instead of expanding their understanding.

The final "twist" is a deep, spiritual and philosophical repudiation of that. The whole story was something I needed, but particularly that. We can embrace the light in each other, without trying to control or dim it. We can have the courage to love beyond our understanding and find grace in that. To let our sense of the sacred, in whatever forms that takes, speak to us instead of trying to make it the instrument of our own ego.

[almacambiondaughterofsaleos]

Despite Both Being Toxic Figures, I Am More Worried About Those Who Relate To Stolas Than Bojack

The reason I worry more about Stolas' fans relating to him is because of the fact he's more openly soft and effeminate than Bojack thus people underestimate him as a predatory scumbag and don't think he's as bad. While Bojack shows he has a vulnerable side, he fits more of a traditional masculine build where people will call him out more for it in comparison with Stolas where people will say bs that a "bottom" like him can't be abusive or a pos. But as Ricky and Morty stated:

And that's why I really am concerned to people who look up to Stolas because it could enable a lot of toxic traits found in them. While Bojack is someone who meant to be written as such, Stolas is an unintentionally written toxic predator because his writers don't perceive him as that and endorse his more abusive traits. Unlike in Bojack where the lessons are he has to take responsibility and not rely on his past to justify or excuse his behavior, the narrative does that for Stolas from making his wife abusive to avoid taking him to task for cheating on her to now having Octavia being mad at him taking meds so that it makes her look like a prick for choosing to cut ties with him. Also notable in his relationship with Blitzo despite making a grand gesture out of tring to win his love he still thinks he's entitled to a relationship and is ignorant about how bigoted he is towards his kind and his social status. Frankly, where he is now with Blitzo he's already shown he's leaching onto his kindness and taking him for granted but is not called out by the narrative or fanbase.

I do think another thing that really worries me about the harm that Stolas fans could find in relating in him is the victim complex narrative. I am saying that the Stolas narrative of him being a victim of abuse is used to justify his own abuse towards Blitzo and neglect towards his daughter. This is in contrast with Bojack that never lets him off the hook for being abusive towards other people just because he himself had a hard life. Having an excuse of being abused doesn't absolve you are hurting others and it hurts even more when the narrative tries to "both side" or "treat the other party as wrong" when someone points it out. The guy only pities himself but never is made to reflect on his actions and have empathy for the people around him. The narrative expects him not to really have long lasting conseuences to his shittty behavior like Bojack but instead eventually get rewarded for it like the entitled pos he is. The gives the message that as long as you can cry about how you are the victim you can get what you want and not have face the fact you brought this on yourself.

With Bojack there is an encouragement to change, while Stolas there is a message stay shitty self while everyone around accommodates you. Stolas isn't encouraged at all to stop treating people like crap just because of the issues that Goetia life foisted on him but instead have everyone else do the heavy lifting. The show has an idea of Stolas being wrong, but doesn't go through with it because of his creator's pet status. They treat his shittiness like it's a quirk little aspect rather than how it should make him justifiably hated by others. They treat him like he's has the worst life out of all the characters while not being sympathetic to anyone else's circumstances but his. He is essentially what the show condemns Bojack for doing, but is going to continue to be rewarded because it's deluded he's just some sad boy whose only crime he loves too much.

[kick-a-long]

It might be just because I have a zero tolerance policy for antisemitic bullshit and block users on sight who engage in really clear forms of hateful bigotry, but I have started to see less antisemitism online/in media and more in the real world. really obvious hateful bullshit in the real world, not like a friend saying something ignorant, random antisemites really yelling slurs and words on walls and being followed, things like that.

at the same time I have seen a rise in very tenuous anti islam opinions online and in the media, not just from far right sources but from centrists pissed at leftists and trump winning. one problem is that a lot of the rhetoric is based on verses from the Quran and laws from all muslim governments, which is hard to refute because the Quran has a ton of stuff that I can't get behind and many many of the laws in muslim countries are disgusting to me. I think it's fair to critique religions and laws but as a jew i know how fast that kind of thing spirals when the critiqued isn't part of the predominant culture.

the problem is that I don't know how to advocate or word support for moderate muslims and jews who are being hated for racist reasons and at the same time tell people how dangerous, murderous and inhuman even, islamism and arab nationalism without hitting moderate muslims (who want reform in their communities or countries) in the crossfire. moderates in my definition: are muslims but like or love their democracy, the countries they live in (even living in more tolerant all muslim countries) but want commonsense changes, who don't take the Quran quite so literally, and don't want to live under a muslim theocracy or force muslim law on others.

I also don't know how to tell people that the right wing, the only people decrying radical islam terror and pointing out the parts of liberal culture that are bending over backwards to ignore and in some cases support terrorism, antisemitism and racial bigotry, are only saying it as a way to attack the liberals by lumping leftist, islamists, terrorists, communists, and democrats together so they can bolster the right wing. They are not protect jews, not protect democracy, just creating a stepping stone to more conservative christian laws and eventually authoritarianism.

In a lot of ways I'm faced with the same problem that people who are actually trying to advocate for Palestinians are. I don't want to foster hate against all muslims, just the radical ones who drive cars into crowds and rape and murder people at peace festivals, but I have to point out how much damage is being done by the second group. how do i minimize friendly fire to the first? In my opinion isreal is 100% in the right and has used unimaginable restraint, but if someone 100% supports Palestine they should have faced this problem (obviously this person is hypothetical since no pro Palestinian since oct 7th gave two shits about how much jew hate they were trafficking in.)

I don't want to foster a culture that subjects muslims to the same bs racist loyalty tests so many jews have lost friends over: "are you a zionist? i hate zionists! you kill and eat babies!" because they don't understand what zionism is or what is happening in the middle east and why.

how do you fight against let alone learn about islamists, terror supporters, arab nationalists, muslims that want to expand globally and impose muslim law globally, without turning around and doing the same thing to other groups that jews have been putting up with for at least two years since the world found out that Israel and a few months ago when they found out muslim antisemitism exists?

this all might sound like Mary Sue, "think of the poor defenseless future victims!" bullshit but it's an important question. I want the bigoted pendulum swinging from "everything is the jews fault!" to "muslims are all terrorists" stops swinging, not just that it swings away from "i hate jews." I don't know how to do it. I don't know how to head it off at the pass. I don't know how to advocate something practical or ideological that would be fair.

antisemitism is my primary concern. it's the most violent and it's the most open. it effects my safety and future daily. but how can jews help advocate for preventing the bullshit of tomorrow? it takes a smarter woman than me... and it fucking sucks. we should at least talk about it.

[pitchburgh]

hey just letting you know that the op of this post (https://www.tumblr.com/pitchburgh/711264942712619008?source=share) is a terf and all of the commenting reblogs are also terfs

Ugh thank you for telling me. time to go nuts on the block button 🥜 🚷

update: took the post off my own page but here is an easy link to it w all comments for anyone else who'd like join me

[juney-blues]

why do i keep seeing posts about hypothetical allies who "don't know the correct terms but are enthusiastically supportive"

why are we making up this specific guy so much. why are you so obsessed with the idea of a straight person who would call you faggot but mean it in a nice way, because they just don't know any better.

this is an incredibly weird rhetorical advice, why am i seeing posts about it again

[femme-ftm]

idk i know it's a kink and people like to enjoy it in different ways but like. are you sure about exploring shit like misgen and de/trans with people who involve unwilling participants in them. do you actually feel safe enough to indulge in this with people who misgender trans people who have nothing to do with it. are you sure about being vulnerable like that with a person who actively diaregards the choice of pronouns of a third party. like you do you i suppose but shouldn't that be at least a little alarming

[kjzx]

I've been playing slitherio these past few days, and after some time messing around with nicknames and my own experience with the stuff, I've realized anger is something very easy to weaponize. On my second attempt of having "trans rights" as a nickname I killed a huge ~5k point worm as a teenie tiny 200 point worm simply because it was so desperate to kill me specifically. Anger makes your life harder, but it also makes people really unwise. I fucking bet this is in "the art of war", even though I haven't read it.

[1411411989]

dragon age is so funny because you can feel the games, especially after 2, struggling to be like "only modern multicultural liberal attitudes can point the way forward to a society that is healed, peaceful, and advances the dignity and welfare of all people" and it's like, okay, but you guys made the game where the different races all have literally different origins.

"racism is bad. most of our villains are racial supremacists of one type or another. also, humans and elves and dwarves and qunari are biologically, metaphysically, and ontologically distinct. racial intermixing literally reduces the number of elves and threatens elvish society and heritage in the long run. qunari are implied to be the way they are in part because of genetic engineering." like do you guys fucking hear yourselves? you made a racist game, dipshits. it's wholly unsurprising that veilguard relegates a lot of its coverage of race to small bits of the banter and the codex, because engaging in good faith with race in the dragon age setting without accidentally saying something racist is hard. because they baked the racism into the worldbuilding.

and that's before we even get to the genetic determinism nightmare that is magic in thedas

[gemgdynamight0]

When there is zero disagreement or arguments between two parts of a ship and they exactly look like each other and are with the same personality, it's extremely boring. No matter how much you want to force it or whine about ppl who don't like it, there's a reason it's not popular. Don't expect ppl to like sth bland and unseasoned like that lol

Also It's funny for me that ppl think healthy relationship means zero fight, zero arguments, agreeing to everything your partner says and being smiley and cheery all the time lmao

[diluc33rpm]

the romance/relationship system in bg3 is genuinely some of the worst designed shit i've ever seen in any game with that feature but at least the memes we get out of it are funny. once saw someone comment something along the lines of 'patch note: waving at gale will no longer cause him to buy a house for the two of you to retire in' and i've never recovered since

[h0dge-p0dge]

EVERYONE NEEDS TO KNOW ALL OF MY HEADCANONS FOR THE CHARAVTER IN EXCRUCIATING DETAIL BECAUSE I AM RIGHT AND EVERYONE ELSE IS WROMG

[bakingrecipe]

can't shake the feeling that they had two youth icon awardees because one of them was trans and they wanted to save face by giving it to a cishet person and they chose a singer lmao like okay what has he done to be consider youth icon lolz did no one else rsvp to the award ceremony or what

[spookyjudgement]

I cannot overstate how much easier it is to live day-to-day when I don't have to go into a european dominated space every day.

[phantastragoria]

Preview for GotG #03...

[deadlylittlemiho]

So I'm genuinely concerned

Are we really all gonna just pretend not to like Harry Potter anymore? Because of one terf with a million bad ideas and a superiority complex?

When the fandom has long since denounced her and started making their own fan works and headcanons? The existence of Harriet Porber makes me feel like ???? We don't need to destroy the series just because the creator is a bigoted moron???? Stop me where I'm wrong but I thought the point was to separate art from the artist, and as long as we're not supporting HER, where is the harm?

[deadlydelicious]

tw for casual transphobia i had to deal with at work today below (i just need to vent)

really is exhausting talking to middle aged middle class cis people about their friends trans kids and just hearing the most casually unsympathetic and transphobic shit. like oh really? your best friends child 'suddenly' came out and transitioned at age 21 after having never shown any indication of queerness before and having spent time on trans forums? is it perhaps possible that said person....didn't feel fucking comfortable coming out until they felt secure in their identity and were independent from their parents just in case it went badly for them when they told their mum? just in case they had to sit through endless months of casual bigotry just like this at home? is it possible that they maybe wanted to ensure that they could easily remove themselves from that situation if need be? is it possible, perhaps even super fucking common, that queer people often hide their explorations of their queer identity from their parents out of fear, sometimes even trying to lean even harder into their assigned gender at birth to appease them? noooo it must have been those radicalizing trans forums.

i swear its not even the whole 'talking with philosophers vs talking to a baby' meme. it's more like talking to a group of other witches vs talking to a bunch of angry villagers with pitchforks talking about how you're one of the good witches that they're not going to burn