#like. i think the whole men's rights activism movement on here is evil and stupid. i also think they're obviously serious about what they

[astralcities]

one thing that really frustrates me is the continual branding of people on here who want to discuss in-community issues as like. secret 3rd party antagonists. like i hate to break it to these people but dismissing anyone who doesn't agree with them as a troll, russian psyop, or secret sockpuppet just means that they live in a Forever Echochamber where any views other than their own are seen as inherently destabilizing. that's embarrassing. & then they wonder why certain groups have so much vitriol towards them like. oh gee i wonder why the trans people you accuse of being terf sockpuppet accounts trying to promote infighting have no tolerance for you and continually mock your lame ass

[meetmymouth]

ooh I think #7 and #17 from the blurb list would fit very well together! if you want!

THANK YOU LINDS <3<3

prompt list here, send a number!!

#7 If we both want to fit, we’ll have to cuddle

#17 Sleeping in the same bed for the first time

THIS IS 3K IM SORRY I COULDN'T HELP MYSELF SO PLEASE REBLOG LMAOOOOOO!!!!!

"This is my room," comes a gruff voice behind you as you keep looking out the window, taking in the greenery and the beautiful ocean.

See, you knew he would be here.

You knew, because Harry and Mitch were attached at the hip, and you didn't mind. You didn't mind seeing your ex every time you were invited to hang out with MitchandSarah & co, except when said ex decided to be an evil arsehole.

Perhaps, calling him an "ex" was weird, seeing how your time alone only consisted of you both getting high, mostly naked as he whispered the filthiest things in your ear and promised to make you feel good, be the best you've ever had. Other than that, though, he was an insufferable bastard. Since you never hung out with the man without your friends around–getting rat-arsed and high... and the activities that followed aside–, you didn't know if he was always this annoying.

He seemed to be getting along just fine with the others, especially Sarah and the other girls, so you had no problems scratching off the "women hater" off your list. And you can't ever recall him being this insufferable while you both were fucking which was, in his case, miserable. So, it was definitely annoying. You weren't that interested in him to think that he was being mean because he was secretly in love with you. That was a myth, a pathetic myth, wasn't it? No, you wouldn't steep that low. He was just an arse, full stop.

You turn around with an eye-roll, and within seeing his face, you nearly clench your fists like a ten-year-old. "Do you live here?" You ask, hoping the boring expression on your face is also detectable in your tone.

It's certainly not a surprise when Harry scoffs.

"I don't, but I picked this room first. Since, you know," he looks around, and walks further into the room, finally stopping at the feet of the bed. "You were late. As per."

"Oh fuck off. This isn't summer camp. Besides, I don't see any of your shit around. The room was empty when I arrived."

"If you bothered to look inside the wardrobe..."

Seriously, you find yourself thinking, how the fuck did you ever end up with this man. Naked.

There's a commotion downstairs, so you both turn to the door, but much to your dismay, there's no one coming to check up on you and hopefully, save you from Harry Styles' pathetic gob.

You turn towards the window again, eyes squinting briefly at the last bits of sunshine that's glinting from between the branches.

"Well. You shouldn't have left then. You weren't here when I arrived."

Harry shakes his head, and you swear you can see his nostrils flaring if you look carefully. Though, you just watch him with a smug smile on your face as he walks to the wardrobe and pulls open the white doors. True to his word, his clothes are there, perfectly folded, and for a moment you feel a pang of guilt before you look back up at his face and see the furrowed eyebrows.

"See. My clothes. I'm sure Sarah will sort it out for you, find you another room or summat."

"There's only three bedrooms. Can't sleep with a pregnant woman and her boyfriend, can I?"

"What about Rachel and David? Aren't you best friend's with her?"

"Harry, you're ridiculous. Just–" you wipe the sweat off of your forehead, feeling yourself grow hotter and hotter each passing minute. "–just sleep on the sofa. This is my first vacation this year. You go on holidays every week or so. Let us commoners have this."

"Oh, please. Didn't you have a girls weekend getaway or whatever the fuck in Soho Farmhouse two weeks ago?"

You can't help the scoff that leaves your mouth, and a raised eyebrow follows. "How do you know about that?"

"Because," he rolls his eyes, and slams the wardrobe shut. "You post seven hundred stories every day."

"You're a stalker."

"You sleep on the sofa."

You smirk, noticing how he avoided your previous statement.

To be fair, you hated posting on your story. Though, knowing Harry followed you on Instagram made posting on there fun, and seeing his username on the list of who watched your stories pop up at the very top every single time whenever you posted a story almost made you let out a mingy little laugh and rub your hands together, and scream "gotcha!".

"I won't."

"You're getting on my nerves."

"What a coincidence," you ignore the stare he's sending your way and walk towards your carry on, and start taking the contents out one by one, laying everything on the bed.

He watches with a scowl on his face, arms crossed across his chest, and a satisfied smile paints your features as you take out the toiletries bag next.

"Are you seriously unpacking right now?" Harry cranes his neck so he can see better. He looks ridiculous, standing in the middle of the room with arms crossed, but you refrain from saying anything.

In fact, you don't even answer him. Perhaps, you find yourself thinking, it was silly to unpack your underwear first. It wasn't as if you brought super "sexy" shit or lace everything. You can definitely feel his gaze watching your every movement as you take everything out carefully and place them on top of each other. With most of your underwear in hand, you get on one knee in front of the bedside table and open the drawer, placing everything inside and it's surprising how he hasn't claimed the bedside table yet.

"Look," he sighs. "I'll talk to Sarah, maybe you can sleep with her and Mitch–"

"–don't be stupid we're not making them sleep with other people because you can't be a gentleman and sleep on the sofa."

"Oh for fuck's sake," he growls, and you finally look at him, eyebrows raised in hopes of making him feel as stupid as he sounds right now. Unfortunately, though, he continues, "Okay, damn it, I'll sleep on the floor."

Fool.

"Common sense, Harry. Always pick sofa. No matter what."

"Were you born to make my life a living hell?"

"Look," you sit on the bed, and look around. "This is boring me to death. I'm sleeping on the bed. If you shut your gob, you can sleep with me on the bed."

Harry lets out an obnoxious laugh. "Just admit I was here first and you didn't bother checking the–"

"Yes, I didn't and what about it? I'm here now, aren't I? I'm on the bed, babes. Anyway," you get on your feet, and with one last look at him, you start walking towards the door. "I'll see you in a bit. I guess."

You both manage to avoid each other as much as you can throughout the day, and really, it wasn't that hard considering the good company of your friends, good food and good alcohol. You mainly helped Sarah and Rachel in the kitchen as the men lounged on the sun loungers, Mitch handling the grill and David helping you guys with the drinks that came in and out of the house pretty quickly with the way you lot consumed them like water.

You spend the night eating, laughing and drinking, sometimes singing along to whatever song played on David's fancy Bluetooth speaker, and everyone begins ushering inside with full bellies and most of them–except the very pregnant Sarah–with a tipsy smile on their faces.

You leave before Harry though, leaving him smoking his last cigarette by the pool while you run up the stairs and into the room, closing the door behind you. You quickly get rid of the romper and get your favourite pyjamas on, eyes searching for the orange makeup bag so you can take off the remaining makeup before bed. You knew it was silly not to do your night routine, but you still zip the bag closed with a sad expression on your face, not wanting to see your toner and night cream any more than you needed to as you throw it on the floor next to your bags. It's pathetic really, how determined you are to get in the bed before Harry can that you forego your whole routine and stick to some cotton pads. Though, plugging your charger and getting between the cool sheets make you forget all about it as you let out a sigh, and unlock your phone to do your nightly scroll before falling asleep.

As you double tap on a selfie, the door opens, and you hear him scoff, again. You keep scrolling though, and try to sneak a few glances at him as he makes a beeline for the wardrobe, and to your surprise, begins to undress. You try to stay calm, and not to think about how domestic this whole thing seems; being in the same room as him as he gets ready for bed.

Right, getting ready for bed.

You keep your eyes on your phone as his clothes hit the floor one by one, and when you look up briefly, he's got a pair of joggers on, and he's throwing the clothes he had on in the wardrobe.

He turns around, and find your gaze, and he rolls his eyes.

"I knew you'd be in bed, here, as soon as I heard someone running. Forgot you were a literal five-year-old," he mutters under his breath, loud enough so you can still hear him. "I'm not sleeping on the sofa."

"I love how you're basically arguing with yourself."

"Like I said, I'm not sleeping on the sofa. I didn't come all the way to sleep on a bloody sofa."

"Suit yourself. I guess we're sharing. Unless," you lock your phone, and place it on the bedside table. "You want to share," you shrug, adjusting your pillow and sigh at the cool fabric against your hot cheeks.

You can feel him thinking, the wheels turning in his head, and you finally hear the floorboards creek underneath his feet as he walks closer to the bed, and pushes the sheets off of you. The whole thing.

You blink in surprise. "Stop it, dude! What the fuck."

"I'm getting in! Fuck's sake, be quiet."

"You did that just to annoy me."

You're both quiet for a minute, Harry taking his rings off and then comes his socks, and he finally copies you, laying on his back on the bed. He covers the both of you, though you know it's not intentional since he couldn't do it without covering his own body with the duvet, and then he lets out a strangled sigh.

"The bed's too small."

"Are you calling me fat?"

"What?" He turns his face to you, and perhaps it's the first time he's looking at you– really looking.

His brows are furrowed, and lips turned downwards in a pout.

"I'm taking the piss, Harry. I know you're not calling me fat."

"Good," he says, though his voice isn't exactly soft. "I wouldn't."

"Good."

Silence.

It's unbearable.

Despite the hot weather, you feel yourself shiver, and you wish you were the only one in bed so you could do the whole burrito technique with the duvet. Alas... you stay where you are. You both do.

A dog barks in the distance, the high-pitched bark coming through the open window, and you can feel Harry breathing too fast beside you. You want to shout at him, tell him to fuck off and... not breathe too fast, though it sounds a bit too rude even for you, so you stay silent and wait for the dog to pipe the fuck down.

You try to turn on your side, because you could never see yourself fall asleep laying on your back like a vampire, but you almost fall, not anticipating the tiny space you've got going on. It's bad, and you know you're not going to get a good sleep. So, you find yourself contemplating about getting up and sleeping on the sofa because honestly, fuck him.

Harry shuffles next to you, presumably trying to find a good position to sleep in himself, but he lets out a groan and it startles you.

"What's wrong with you!"

"The bed's too fucking small."

"We've established that."

He sniffs, hands clenching the sheets around his body. "I don't sleep on my back. My back hurts."

You don't say anything, hoping for him to just get up and leave, go sleep on the sofa. He doesn't, though. It's another fifteen minutes before you let out another sigh, trying to get comfortable on the bed, and Harry copies you. You both turn on your sides, facing each other and Harry groans when your knee makes contact with his thigh, making you cringe in embarrassment. A quiet sorry leaves your mouth and he shakes his head, then turns the other way, facing the door.

"Fuck," he spits after a minute. "If we both want to fit, we'll have to cuddle."

"Cuddle? Fuck no."

"Just," he turns to you again, but the bed is too small for you both so his knees touch yours. "Just come closer. Either that, or go sleep on the sofa."

"Why don't you–"

"You're so stubborn! Come closer, I won't eat you or fall in love with you. Fuck."

You groan, but oblige for some reason, feeling your heart beginning to beat faster for some ridiculous reason.

It's been a long time, you find yourself trying to convince your heart. It's been a long, long time since you've been this close to a human being. Too long since you've cuddled with someone, so obviously you were going to feel a little excited, and weird. Yes, definitely weird.

You get closer and he lifts up his arm, you both sharing a look before you roll your eyes and place your hand on his wrist, placing it on your hip. He's quiet, eyes searching yours, and the crease between his brows are gone, and you want to laugh, because who knew it only took your skin against his to wipe that stupid grimace off of his face.

"I still think you're annoying," Harry mumbles, clearly sleepy. His hold on your hip becomes tighter as his thumb strokes your skin over the fabric.

"I know. Just shut up and sleep."

[doberbutts]

this whole messed up hate campaign is "rules for thee but not for me" writ large. everyone has to respect their consent, but they can out someone's private activities and sexually harass them over it. they can speak for all POC, but if another POC disagrees with them, they're white-aligned. they can "warn people about dangerous users", but if people talk about them it's coordinating harassment. anything they do or think is good or justified by definition; everything else is evil. it's horrible.

"How dare you dig through my blog for dirt, ignore that I've been digging through your blog for dirt."

"How dare you write a callout about me, ignore that I've been writing a callout about you."

"How dare you speak on issues that don't apply to you, ignore that I've been speaking on issues that don't apply to me."

"How dare you say this racist thing, ignore that I've been saying that racist thing."

"How dare you speak as though you represent your entire demographic, ignore that I've been speaking like I represent my entire demographic."

"How dare you talk about me like that, ignore that I've been talking about you like that."

Again, bad behavior from all parties and it should have ended when everyone involved blocked each other but because some folks can't let things go and some folks can't take a hint, it's still going, 8 months later.

There's a post I've had kicking around in my head that I haven't quite figured out how to word just yet, about how just because someone is x demographic doesn't actually mean that specific person is the best one to listen to about x demographic.

Case in point, Kanye West is a black man with some real stupid ideas on black theory. What's weird is that he actually had some really insightful commentary on how society treats young black people (and especially young black men) in his raps back in the early 2000s and earlier, so seeing the downhill slide he's been on is kind of sad if you know the way he used to speak on black issues. He's a black guy and it's wrong to deny him his blackness, he has lived and experienced racism personally and holds the same generational trauma as most black men in his agegroup. But he does not currently seem to allow this history to inform his opinions, and I wonder what changed in his life to radicalize him this way.

That does not mean black people as a whole are not the experts on life as a black person- they are. But individual black people are not always the best person to listen to, are not always well-versed on theory, do not always know and understand their history, are not always interpreting facts and situations with a fair mindset.

There are black people that exist in this country, right now, that say racism in America is over and that it no longer exists here. I think most black people would be inclined to disagree with them. It is these black people that the term "white-aligned" was coined for, as it was these black people giving white supremacists the green light to murder and rape our communities. There are self-hating black people out there, anti-black black people out there, even dark-skinned black people out there who think that black people are inherently inferior to white people.

I used to work with someone who was the last example, a black man twice my age who went on a rant about how there was a difference between "niggers" ('ghetto' black people, 'uppity' black people, 'trashy' black people, 'hoot rats', etc) and "blacks". This man was darker than my father with teenage children, married to a white woman, completely denounced pan-Africanism and large swaths of the Civil Rights movement. I had told him that a (white) manager of mine at my first job had called me a "little nigger girl" as I swept up for the night, and this man who was below my rank at this job told me that I must have been "acting like a nigger" and thus I should alter my behavior so people didn't confuse my Respectable Black Person identity with a nigger next time.

That's who "white-aligned" is for. It is not for "I had a disagreement with another POC on social media". It was for black people- specifically- who sided with violently racist white people who were literally killing and raping black people by lending the excuse that those particular black people deserved it. It's the origins of respectability politics. BTW- Malcolm X once thought this of MLK Jr, and it took until they met in person and had a good sit down talk that he stopped accusing MLK of aligning himself to whiteness. Yes, the same MLK that also adopted some of Malcolm's more radical ideas after that meeting. Malcolm X was assassinated less than a year later, and they did not manage to meet again before then to further collaborate.

This post got away from me a bit, but I hope you can understand why it makes me twitchy to see "white-aligned" being flung around so readily when the stakes that phrase is associated with is far higher than "two people on social media who are both black and disagree on personal behavior".

[evilelitest2]

Why do fascists hate capitalism?

Good question.  About half the reasons they hate capitalism are the same reason most leftist do, bad people are still likely to be annoyed at a bad thing that hurts them. Here are the other reasons 

1) Fascists don’t believe in social mobility.  Capitalism core tenant is “social mobility’, that somebody can work hard and become a billionaire, blah blah blah.  Now this focus on social mobility is and always has been mostly a lie, but even rhetorically capitalism values the notion of social advancement.  fascists do not, in fascist ideology, your birth determines your place in the world, and is part of a “natural order”.  The only way to improve yourself is through war, and even that is more fulfilling your existing destiny rather than creating your own.  Thus Fascists despises any form of social advancement outside military leadership, which is a major reason why they hate liberalism, socialism and communism, but its also a reason why they hate capitalism (though they usually prioritize the left wing ideologies first).  This is even more true for them when somebody they think is “inferior” advances ‘above their station.  Fascists aren’t aristocratic, but they hate capitalism for much of the same reason that the feudal aristocrats and monarchs hated it.  It brings change and challenges the caste system 

(Speaking of which) 

2) On that note, capitalism is rarely…ideologically racist.  Now capitalism is racist, it promotes and enforces existing racial hierarchies, and much of the damage of colonialism can be laid at the feet of capitalism.  However capitalist ideology rarely buys directly into blood purity or “The Volk” style race theory that fascists so love.  Capitalism in the US makes it super difficult for a black man to advance compared to his white counterpart, but if a black man does manage to become a billionaire, capitalism is basically cool with it.  If you look at a demographic breakdown of the 1%, it is mostly old white men (and almost all people who at least partially inherited their wealth) but it also includes a lot of non white people and women.  its a minority and many of them come from dictatorships (Saudi Arabia, China ect) but the ‘richest people in the world club isn’t entirely monochromatic.  To leftists, this doesn’t seem especially impressive, but to fascists it is way too much diversity.  Because capitalism is at its heart…amoral, the system will keep going even if the 1% are majority non white, gay or women, but to fascists that is terrifying.  they barely tolerate capitalism because the ruling class are mostly straight white dudes, but the thought of the ruling class not overlapping with their belief in racial science to them is terrifying 

3) Capitalism is ultimately an amoral system.  It doesn’t really believe in a larger ideology beyond “make a fuck ton of money”  and “innovate…somehow.” It does evil things because it believes that doing so will make them money, if doing the right thing will make them more money, they will.  Capitalism is just an utterly mercenary ideology, and will gladly pretend to support progressive causes if it turns a profit.  Again, leftists (rightly) aren’t big fans of this, but fascists hate it for the same reason we do honestly.  

Like you know the whole “Woke capitalism” thing that gets leftists worked up.  its doing something good but you know they don’t care and so they will abandon us the moment they feel like they can get away with it and all that.  That is how fascists feel about the racism in capitalism, they like it but because it is not ideological, they don’t trust it. 

Again this seems weird to leftists, but yes, fascists don’t like capitalism because it isn’t racist enough.  We tend to interact with capitalism more than fascism, so people often don’t realize how much worse it can get 

4) Capitalism doesn’t care about the spiritual, except as something to sell.  ironically for all the hatred capitalism and communism have for each other, the two ideologies actually share a lot in common, they are super secular, materialist, and basically assume that everything in the world is nothing more than simply products.  Communists and capitalists disagree on what should be done with these goods, but neither of them believe there is anything beyond this world.

Fascists utterly reject this world view, they hate it, they hate it with a thousand suns.  I know that there current image is a sort of ironic racism chanboard nonsense, but in terms of their actual beliefs, Fascists take everything super seriously.  The entire argument of Nazism is that they value symbols more than actual human life, and they are fiercely attached to various “spiritual” political issues even if they are officially atheists.  I mean capitalism doesn’t give a damn about “degeneracy” because it isn’t actually a material thing, its just an aesthetic preference, there is no like “measurement” of degeneracy.  same goes for honor, the family, purity, and their approach to art, fascism is in many ways about finding meaning in otherwise mundane things.  So at fascist rally to them is this transcendental almost religious experience, while a capitalist would be more It interested in trying to find a way to make money off it.   Fascism is a highly Romantic movement, which doesn’t play well with the cynical wordy perspective of capitalists, who believe in nothing.  

Fascists also dislike aristocracy, but they love the myth and romance that is necessary for aristocracy and monarchy.  They basically want aristocracy of the skin.  

5) Fascists kinda…hate the idea of money.  Like Capitalism emerged from the merchant classes and is basically came about with the argument “all of your aristocratic concerns over honor, titles, and god are stupid, what matters is who has the money and how you use it”  And Fascists just hate that worldview, one of their defining traits is their love of war and conflict, in fact fascists prioritize war over almost everything else.  It has been noted by smarter men than I (I recommend Ur Fascism) that Fascism is basically a death cult, they want effectively an endless war that they can die gloriously in destroying their enemies.  

Consistently by the way, fascists will prioritize destroying the people they see as inferior over securing their own material best interest.  Hitler probably could have run his dictatorship in Germany on his own for quite a long time and lived in luxury, but he wanted a giant war because that is what they care about.  

in fact actively seem to indulge in self destructive short term ideologies.  The Nazi economic policy was an absolute joke, with the economy serving as nothing more than something to keep the war effort going.  Stephen Miller, the most fascist like person in trump’s administration, is hyper fixated on a brutal immigration policy, even though it actually hurts the economy.  Fascists oppose freedom of movement and free trade, even though those are policies neoliberal capitalism supports.  The reason is that Fascists value the preservation of “The Volk” over profits, and would rather their people suffer than have to live alongside other races (these people are deeply stupid)

6) Fascism doesn’t enjoy having fun.   I know for most of, our experience of capitalism is misery as we work, to earn the right to work, to earn the right to give, ourselves the right to buy, ourselves the right to live, to earn the right to die.  However the way that capitalism sells itself is basically “buy lots of shit and that will make yourself happy”.    

Fascism doesn’t really…like being happy.  As i said before, they like war, they like conflict, they like having an enemy who they can destroy.  To fascists, what matters most is how you kill and how you die, rather than enjoying life.  Fascism is about fetishistic death.  Pink Floyd was right that Fascism is almost a form of intellectual suicide.  

If you look at Japanese fascism, there is big fixation on aesthetic purity focus, with the only thing mattering being conflict 

7) Capitalism tends to value the urban, the industrial, and the technology, while fascists, like the Confederates before them, are enamored with the rural and the pre-industrial.  This might seem surprising, but there are a lot of fascists who are into environmentalism, Nazis Germany was one of the first states to pass laws banning animal cruelty and limiting smoking.  Fascists are really into this sort of “Clean earth, clean people’ aesthetic which always serves as the breeding ground for cruelty.

8) Capitalism tends to be leery of state control and fascists are all about that shit 

9)Finally….we need to be frank.  A lot of the ways we talk about anti capitalism actually can fit really nicely into the antisemitic narratives that so dominated fascist thinking.  

so the Marxist says 

“Hey the entire world is controlled by a tiny elite of rich greedy parasites who are making us fight each other in order to benefit themselves”

And the Fascist says 

“Yeah….they are Jewish”

its actually really hard to depict the rich as a class without accidentally wandering into anti Jewish sentiments, because the last 2,000 years of anti Jewish racism has been about creating conspiracy theories where they secretly control the entire world.  A lot of what fascism does is taking existing issues of capitalism and being like “oh yeah…that is the fault of the Jews.  Or migrants/African Americans/Muslims/feminists ect.  Gamergate is a good example of this, they are pissed at corporations, but they blame feminists rather than you know…the inherently predatory nature of capitalism.  Many of the things we don’t like about capitalism are things they also don’t like about capitalism.  This is a major thing they do in terms of recruiting, they focus on getting people pissed at capitalism but then make it be secretly run by Jews rather than you know..Jeff Bezos.

  (nazi properganda and below are soviet Images of capitalism ) 

(and sometimes both) 

This is why btw, I am less anti capitalist than most leftists, because talking to fascists makes you appreciate things about them.  Hitler was destroyed by both a communist dictatorship and a capitalist democracy working together.  

Its worth noting that while fascists do hate capitalism, they hate socialism a lot more, and tend to ally with capitalist to kill leftists, as we see from the Weimar Republic.  Fascist are often ok with certain types of corporate authoritarianism, but in the same way the left can be ok with somebody like Obama.  

(Frank Miller’s Batman is if Libertarian and Fascism had a baby) 

The lesson I would take from this is that just because somebody hates the thing you hate, doesn’t mean they are necessarily your ally, they might in fact be even worse. Yet another reason to distrust the dirtbag left 

[cobieeliseforsh]

I'm getting pretty annoyed with the amount of bullshit in the media right now. I just read an article about the "antisemitic" conspiracy theory Qanon. Calling Qanon antisemitic is like calling the KKK a group opposed to the career of Will Smith - technically true, but clearly a small subsection of a greater whole.

So, to remedy this...

COBIE'S FRUSTRATED GUIDE TO QANON FROM SOMEONE WHO LOVES CONSPIRACY THEORIES AND WISHES THIS ONE WOULD FUCK OFF BECAUSE IT IS BORING AS SHIT BUT NOT FIZZING WITH ENERGY, EVEN ON A MOLECULAR LEVEL, BECAUSE IT IS A DUMB AND LAZY REHASH FROM THE 80S OR EARLIER!

PART 1: DA FUCQ IS QANON?

Qanon is a grooming organisation for the Christian Far Right Death Cult that has held the Republican party in its sweaty hands since the ascent of Reagan in the 1980s. They believe in some bullshit I won't reprint here because I have no intention of spreading their ideology, but if you've heard of the Satanic panic, this is Satanic Panic 2: Now With Pizza!

Qanon is, by definition of their own supporters attacks on Muslim terrorism, a terrorist organisation. And, though it seems impossible, they're stupidier than ISIS ever were, because at least there was some twisted logic behind ISIS: poor young men fighting revolutionary wars against what they see as corrupt and immoral authorities and ideologies is nothing new. Qanon is literally the powerful declaring war on those without power out of fear that those without power (Satanists) live only to physically abuse their ugly, fat, prejudiced, stupid children. Despite the statistically most likely people to abuse them being them themselves, and there being plenty of evidence that many of these hypocrites have done that in the past (numerically many - one thing I believe Qanon followers on is that the majority are gullible Maud Flanders types, so statistically it won't be that many).

Donald Trump supports them over the "violent" Antifa (Antifa haven't killed anyone since 1993 (and that was a suicide), aren't actually an organisation, and are against facism, which Trump also claims to be against), despite Qanon followers carrying and firing weapons regularly, having shot up a pizza place in a terrorist act, refusing to wear masks, and other acts of violence designed to terrorise people.

PART 2 WHO DO THEY HATE?

Um... like, 98% of people.

Qanon is primarily an Apocalyptic Christian Far Right Death Cult. They believe in what they call SRA (Satanic Ritual Abuse) which happens at such a low frequency as to make it as serious a problem as being invaded by pookas. You might find anecdotal evidence here and there, but the majority of cases are hearsay spread by people who weren't there who were a part of or raised by people who were a part of the Satanic Panic. If you hear about it, it's likely bullshit. Just look at the West Memphis 3: accused of Satanic Ritual Abuse, they were sent to prison for wearing black clothes and being teenagers without any evidence. Now, whoever killed those boys is still loose, because Qanon, like all right-wing groups, is about being obeyed, not about justice.

So, with Satanic Ritual Abuse being fucking vapour, they can accuse ANYONE. And if there is no evidence, they cry COVER UP. There is no way, at all, to prove this mindset is wrong as it always self corrects, because being religious in origin, it is driven by BELIEF, not evidence.

So, whoever they believe is evil, is, as far as their reality tunnel goes.

Muslims? Evil child abusers. "But there is no evidence of that. In fact, the Muslim community is actually very protective of their children and other children. They're amongst the kindest people you can meet, even if their political leaders in their own countries are jerks." Well, says Qanon, that's because their community covers up the abuse. There wouldn't be any evidence. But my cousin went to school with a girl who was groomed by a Muslim. It's clear it is something all Muslims do. "But that's stupid. That's like saying that because Ted Bundy, a heterosexual white Republican, murdered loads of women, all heterosexual white Republicans want to murder women!" Now, says Qanon, you are just being silly. Besides, I believe Muslims are bad and Republicans aren't. You can't question my beliefs.

But we can, and we should.

Qanon followers use this vague structure to create complex webs that link up various conspiracy theories, but they aren't a complex web. They're just a list of petty grievances they have from living in their own personal echo chamber.

They hate women, they hate girls, they hate boys who don't conform to their expectations, they hate men who vote left-wing, they hate gay people, bi people, really anyone who isn't heterosexual, they definitely hate trans people (see: trans people want to use bathrooms to abuse children as merely an extension of the Satanic Ritual Abuse claims), they hate people with coloured hair, bright clothes, they hate Jewish people, they hate Muslims, they hate anyone from a fringe religion that doesn't look right, they hate foreigners, black and brown people... anyone they define as different. And to back this up, they claim to be "the majority" being dictated to be a "minority" - they aren't. They're a minority of gobby cunts, a Karen of Nazis (Karen being the best collective noun to describe these childish crybabies who were so desperate to remain in a state of childlike innocence they embraced both religion and then keep insisting their imaginary friend, Jesus, is following them everywhere, like a psychotic stalker ghost).

PART 3 WHERE DOES THEIR BULLSHIT COME FROM?

This is probably the most important part. Not what they believe, but where these ideas come from, and why they aren't new.

Qanon is a mixture of young-and-edgy YouTube/8chan influencer, white supremacist religious manipulation, pro-Capitalist Protestant religious "life is shit, embrace misery" ideology, pedophile hysteria, and "we hate the idea people have rights because we're power mad, but we're going to frame this as a backlash, normal people making their voices heard, a culture war, or whatever else we can rebrand PREJUDICE because even we don't want to admit we are bigots".

So, first of all, the angry white online teenagers: have always existed, will always exist. Their parents don't give a shit about them unless they cause trouble. So, they learn quickly that the best way to get attention is to cause trouble, which leads to kinship with other troubkemakers, forming an echo chamber of escalating troublemaking. But they're also angry, and often poor (in their eyes, or in actuality), so they're drawn to outrage, and like causing it. They're attracted to movements like this because they believe it's a chance to get some attention, someone to notice them.

And who notices them? White supremacists are always on the lookout for recruits. They feed their need for outrage and attention by misrepresenting everything. They take puff-piece news articles and shoddy journalism and further twist them into movements around positions that have no basis in reality. Vaccines? Designed to hurt you. "Uhhh, no," you say. "That's literally the opposite of what a vaccine does." I don't believe that, they say, and you can't question my beliefs. BLM? Terrorism. "No, they just want to not be shot." No they don't, they want to take over and put the Jews in power, and you can't question my beliefs! "You have no evidence!" COVER UP! they scream.

So it goes, so it goes.

Meanwhile, the Protestan work ethic of, "If you didn't suffer, you don't deserve it," goes on and on. They believe that shit things just happen, you can't stop them. Capitalism is founded on this very, very relugious principle: work should be pain for it to have value. This justifies promoting assholes, and making things difficult. But it also promotes the idea that you can't do anything to combat inequality, as that is natural, and you can't do anything to stop bad things happening, they always will, so why try? This lends Qanon a specific pattern: complain, do nothing, complain nothing is being done, still do nothing, repeat. It's wrong to intervene, you see. This allows them to say racism is bad, but God wants us to suffer so we deserve phony-heaven, a paradise they think is built on bricks of human misery... does that sound glorious to you? And if you have something, clearly you did suffer to get it, and so you are worthy, which is why Trump is a hero to them and they believe his every utterance of verbal diarrhea about him being persecuted (to be fair, he is, but he deserves it because he's lazy and incompetent).

Pedophile hysteria is also generally religiously motivated. Children should be protected, but they are not innocent angels. I've worked with children. Some are nice, some are sneaky, some are violent bullies, and so on. The one thing that unites all children is that they are ignorant. That's why we send them to school. And there are people who want to prey on children. The world we usually use to describe those who most often hurt, abuse and damage children is, "family". Promoting the idea of gangs of rampaging pedophiles snatching children into vans and harming them in shadowy rooms, or murdering them in some Satanic ritual, is laughable compared to the epidemic of children being harmed by those parents terrified the pedophiles are out there. Such fear motivates them to do untold harm to children, restricting their freedoms and their growth, teaching them that all sex is bad so they never enjoy it, forcing them to be things they aren't, and turning a blind eye to obvious abuse because those doing it are not the model of abuse being put out by the press and Internet communities. In that last way, Qanon is a driver of child abuse: it actively encourages Apocalyptic Christian Far Right Death Cult members to nit even ask the obvious question: if Epstein was abusing kids, and Epstein was hanging out with Trump, was Trump maybe involved in some way?

And then there is just the prejudiced crowd, most notably the American-exceptionalism delusional whack jobs. Let me be clear, all forms of exceptionalism are prejudiced, as they suggest that those who are exceptional are better and mire deserving than others, and the real world does not contain such hierarchies, just stuff that happens until it stops happening. A monkey may be the alpha, but one day they won't be. It's not a hierarchy, it's just a thing that happens that we project a power structure onto. Who knows what monkey culture is like? Maybe to them deference is more honourable and respected than being in charge. No-one has asked monkeys for their views of ideology or power structures.

This often manifests itself in ideas of, "We shouldn't be ashamed!" and that movements they don't like are, "Against us!" Well, if you're setting out to hurt people because you believe you are better than them, you should be ashamed. That queer Pakistani girl you keep out of college could have been the one to cure cancer! She might have had the unique perspective to make that breakthrough. And, yes, some of us are against Qanon, because Qanon is hurting people. That is the point of the movement: to harm its enemies, by denial if freedom all the way up to outright murder. It isn't a Pride parade or BLM demanding equality and an end to deaths, its a hate movement driven by a desire to punch down, and ultimately perpetuate the very system that isn't even working for those who follow its own ideology.

It's based on fear of the new, even if that new place is better than the old one, change can be scary. They think equality will hurt them, the way collective bargaining would hurt them. But we don't live in a system where resources are so finite you have to do without, we live in a system where resources are finite but we throw away an excess because capitalism couldn't make rich people richer by giving it to those who need it, so they dispose of it and introduce scarcity to drive up the cost. Working together would force them to stop doing that, which is why movements like this exist: to perpetuate a form of exceptionalism more like a cult, where only the leaders reap the rewards.

PART 4 WHAT IS THE END GOAL OF QANON?

It doesn't have one.

Qanon is a right-wing movement. Right-wing movements are about winning arguments now, and then feeling smug, even when the damage is undone later. It's about a sense of self-satisfaction, and not anything else.

Plus, Qanon has so many stake-holders who hate each other that the movement will eventually descend into cannibalism as all these things do.

Finally, being primarily religious in its design, it won't take long for many religious types to realise Q is kind if a God-like figure, a false idol, and when that happens, plenty if their leaders will become worried that their followers are so focused on Q they might "stray from the path" of donating all their money to their church.

Unless it turns out that Q is Q from Star Trek, in which case their end goal is to test Jean-Luc Picard.

PART 5 SHOULD WE FEAR QANON?

Nah. It's a group of fringe lunatics whose time in the spotlight will be fleeting. As I've already said, even their ideas aren't original - this is the Apocalyptic Christian Far Right Death Cult version of Fortnite stealing dances: everyone goes crazy about it for a bit, but it's so insubstantial in its original form, nevermind the cover band version, that almost all people with a lick of common sense will dismiss it. Plus, it doesn't serve any agenda: Trump could easily find himself on the receiving end of it, that one Qanon politician just elected will likely be marginalised the moment Trump vanishes, and having a single person won't sway any votes in such divisive times, which means they'll be proclaimed ineffectual soon enough, and with Epstein it is already showing that it isn't something which helps the powerful, meaning a lot of people who do have secrets will want it gone sooner rather than later lest it bite their own hands. Plus, they are actually harming people - and say what you like about the Republicans, they don't tend to respond well to the PR disaster of groups they side with directly attacking or killing people unless they are their own ACAB stormtroopers.

Plus, it's a bunch of saddos on the Internet. Chances are if you see someone screaming about Qanon and waving around a gun, they'd have done the same and screamed about lizards had it never got started.

PART 6 WHAT SHOULD I DO?

Stop giving them attention. This is one of the most BORING conspiracy theories ever created. Seriously, since 9/11, conspiracy theories have really gone downhill. They used to be about aliens and subterranean kingdoms, and now they're just attempts to misdirect pedophile hunters from the right-wing types who have covered up child abuse, and tie it to phony "think of the children" and "Satan is out to get us" religious hysteria.

With covid-19, the press is having a very slow news cycle, so they're desperately grabbing at anything that can drive search engine algorithm clicks to their sites, so they're covering Qanon because they've seen it trending. I doubt most people involved with it really believe in it, but it is so directionless that it wouldn't matter if they did. Qanon Con would descend into bloodshed fairly quickly because everyone would be angry and arguing that the tater tots are secret SRA code for cannibalising children or that it reveals that Hilary Clinton buries children beneath fields of potatoes. It's stupid, the people involved with it are stupid, and the bigger question is what they believe that led them to this:

Disenfranchisement. Having to respect the beliefs of others. Prejudice. Anger.

Well, boo-fucking-hoo. If these shitbags actually want to stop harm to children, maybe stop supporting gun rights so kids aren't being gunned down in schools, and black kids don't keep getting gunned down everywhere. Until you do that, Qanon, you're the child abusers.

[bonbonswirl-blog]

Your sanity. Part 5

ALL CHARACTERS BELONG TO ONLY @brueklynn I OWN NOTHING.

If today isnt the worst day in Blondie life he dont know what other day will be. Monroe toke his place on the stage at the speech desk microphone since blondie was insecure to do it after the conflicts he had caused, staying at the back of the stage watching what is inside monroe head. Henry down there trying to take back control of the situation. "Everybody Everybody, why so mad?~" Those words, surprisingly, made everybody stop fighting and drive their attention to the new guy on the stage, Who is that? "My name is monroe gooder, if you know me im the environment agent" when half the group heard the name "gooder" every face swiveled around to look at jim, even blondie. The storyboarder just wanted the ground to swallow him and never turn him back. "Here you see, your loser boss who couldnt save you and this company" Everyone was so quiet, blondie sat there on diabelief, did someone just make fun of him in front of all his workers?! Henry was so annoyed with that environment man. "I like the mess you all done here, great job-" "Booo!! Get outta the stage Moron monro!!" "Shut UP BANJOAS*!! You better hear me out before you g-" monroe stopped talking when he saw one of the people on the crowd rising his hand. "Can I ask a question?" "No" "How exactly are you going to save the studio?" Isaac asked him, wondering how all those financial issues will be fixed by that new guy who give them a boring speech. "Who said im going to save this stupid place? Im just here to comfort you one last time~" that only made a surging perplexity to everyone. Blondie wanted to tell monroe to move back, to leave his friends alone, but that odd feeling inside him just started to...grow..Monroe looked at him in deep thoughts that reflected on his merciless eyes, oh no....."Are you seeing this blondie? Your whole studio is coming to an end, everyone you hired will have no assistance in life after this. Your whole world is shattered, just like your heart in disarray of pieces. Come on blondie...Let it all out, the wrath, the hate, the pain, the malice~ show them all what you have been through, show them all mischief and devilry teach them how they should truly be treated, you are a proper establishment of evil or sinister intentions, show them those sinful activities so that you have a rightful claim to their immortal essence. Every action we take is a new discovery, and we continue making discoveries, this is a new discovery son...Give it all you have~" Monroe demanded, elatedly going back to that microphone afflicting those poor workers with damaging words.

Blondie couldnt take it anymore. He lost it.

gritted teeth from effort to remain silent, his hunched form exuded an animosity that was like acid, burning, slicing, potent, face was red with suppressed rage, anger would come like an impossible build up steam, burning him inside and out, ready to burn the one on the receiving end. Ready to burst with pain and fury, he decided to go all out on this felonious man. What kind of heart does he have?! Nothing!! He doesnt have one! He is heartless!! He was lost in that moment and the torment his brain was in. anyone could see it first in his eyes, then a tension of his muscles, an inability to think clearly soon followed.

But before he could take any single one of those steps he didnt feel.....alright...

He couldnt hear whatever monroe was saying anymore, only some indefinite vibrations of his venomous voice. Negative symptoms like nausea started to appear, his focus was diminishing, chest heaving violently. The world was a blur, random images seemed to float aimlessly around in the pool of his thoughts, as though they were being blown about viciously by a hurricane. He felt. Plethora...plethora of negative emotions being pumped in his veins. With the influx of negative emotions on his body his cells are infected, reprograming the others to create more infected cells, those extraneous cells overtaking him. He winced as he tried to order his hands to catch and move those wheels, he want to get off the stage now and go with henry to the nearest hospital, but he felt his muscles dont even act. Sharp pain lanced through his head, colorful spots flashed in front of his eyes, it felt like his whole body had been beaten and every movement caused some muscle or bone to ache, Regardless. This was the moment he fell of his wheelchair to stage floor hissing in pain.

Everyone stopped listening to monroe, their awareness only for blondie, what happend to him made them all so worried, he was sick with something unhandled, his natural golden skin has sunken in tone to something so lifeless it scares them just to look at him. Many people called his name, only being rewarded with a resounding crack of a broken ribs and gasps of immense pain. Then they saw it...his back...something coming out of it, his bones??! Nobody have an idea!! They all just stand there witnessing this terrible scene..something bigger than his bones was forming, so vigorous, so tapered, so dangerous, then it started to spread in the air.

ARE THOSE WINGS?!??! IS THEIR BOSS BECOMING A MONSTER?!??! WHAT IS HAPPENING?!??

His wings were dark red, like if they are Made entierly of coarse scales, they flapped threateningly with the power to strike a group of men in one hit. The bones were visible around the sides and similar to bat wings, only their veins stook out greatly in contrast, a large ivory spike on top, curved like an elongated shark tooth, the sight was hideous, only assosiated with images of the devil himself.

[freedomsoapbox]

Dear “Moderate” Liberal Millennial Christians: It’s Time To Pick A Side

I  went to a conservative  Christian high school.  Most of my friends from  high school are  Christian.  It may surprise you to learn that many of  them are liberal  Democrats or Democrat sympathizers, though if you  yourself went to a  Christian high school this may not surprise you at  all.

It’s  no secret that many Americans  who claim to be Christian are liberal   Democrats.  But I mention the  phenomenon of graduates from Christian   high schools being (often  becoming sometime during their senior year if  my suspicions and  experience are any indication) openly liberal to   highlight the known  fact that even conservative Christian institutions are producing,  attracting, and harboring liberal activists.

I   say “liberal activists” because, in my generation at least, there is no  other type of liberal. Donald Trump’s election has resulted in what  few  of them were not openly political effectively being conscripted   into  The Resistance.  Most of those millennial liberals who went to my high  school are not as extreme as the stereotypical college feminist. They  don’t talk about “safe spaces”, they don’t sympathize with Antifa  (at  least not openly), and most will be careful not to be seen   defending  Planned Parenthood too loudly.  Their activism is mostly   restricted to  Facebook, just like most activism from liberals and   conservatives alike  seems to be restricted to Facebook.

But   being friends on Facebook is enough to know which side they have   picked.  And as moderate as they may try to appear, they have picked a   side. A few shared memes, liked posts, etc. communicate that they are   members of The Resistance, even if they are only part of the reserve   force.

I have  also been able to intuit   what they tend to think of the group comprised  of me and the other   students from my high school who chose to remain,  or even become,   conservative Christians.  Now I want to make it clear  that none of   these liberal classmates have ever individually  disrespected or   mistreated me, and I have good relationships with most  of them. But as a  whole, they view us as relatively intelligent peers  who have simply   not been fortunate enough to break away from the mental  shackles   imposed on us by our church denomination through our parents  and the   conservative faculty at our high school. I could picture their   collective advice to us being something like “Dr. Peterson (made up name   of our Dean of Students) isn’t here anymore to fine you for not   wearing  a belt.  You need to take some of what they taught us at that   school  with a grain of salt.”

That’s   not to say I think all of them necessarily thought the strict dress   code at our school was a bad thing, but the point is that our high   school was very conservative, had its share of nonsense and bullshit   from the administration, and in general they are kind of glad to be away   from it.  Well, I know for a fact that I and several other of my   conservative peers are glad to be away from that place as well, but   liberal millennials tend to view themselves as supporting characters in a   real-life dystopian story, and it is clear that these liberal   graduates  view our Alma Mater as being beholden to the conservative   dystopia that  is currently headed but not entirely controlled by Donald  Trump.  And  as for their classmates who also remain beholden to this dystopia, we’re  kind of like that kid in the terrible movie Dead Poets Society   who ratted out the Society to the school administration and got Mr.   Keating fired, not because he really wanted to but simply because the   agents of the dystopia convinced him that it was the right thing against   his better judgement.  They, on the other hand, are standing on their   desks, and they are trying to convince us that it’s alright to do so.

This   dynamic is not unique to alumni from Christian high schools.  It is  the  same attitude with which many of the more “moderate” liberals of  all  age groups regard their conservative friends.  It’s not that we’re  bad  people, it’s just that we don’t get it. It is the same attitude  conveyed  a little more condescendingly in articles like this,   which explains a study that purports to demonstrate that being a   steadfast conservative is often reducible to having stronger primal   self-preservation instincts than liberals.  If you want to drop the   clinical facade and judge the article as the propaganda piece that it   clearly is, what the author is really saying is that conservatives in   middle America, by and large, are at best the unfortunate victims of   repressed mild emotional trauma from our parents never letting us leave  the house alone until age 13 for fear of kidnapping, and at worst   atavists whose genetically predetermined responses to stimuli are more   fitting for societies of a more, ahem, simple state  of development.   But don’t worry, society needs folks who possess such  mindstates as   well, after all the root of such attitudes is a healthy  drive for   safety and prudence (wink wink).

You  see  the liberals in my friend circles, especially liberal Christians  who went to my high school, like to share articles like this on social   media.  They will also, without directly addressing us conservative   peers, delineate on how such findings relate to the rise of Nazism and   other hyper-nationalist movements in a manner that they no doubt think  is erudite.

First  of all, as a quick   aside, I’d like to address this narrative of the  rise of Nazism.   Someone needs to point out that while the ability to  regurgitate this tired thesis that Hitler was able to rise to power by  manipulating   people’s primal urges in a population that was starving and   war-traumatized, by giving them an internal enemy (the Jews) to project  their fear and bitterness onto, and by promising them a better life   while not telling them very much about the uglier side of his agenda   until they had been fully initiated, on an essay exam may have impressed   your AP World History teacher, it is at best an oversimplification of   history and at worst disingenuous.  Germany in the 1930s was not just a   country of poor farmers and unemployed Great War veterans who simply  let  themselves be led down Hitler’s path to hell before they realized  their  mistake. The fact of the matter is that Weimar Germany was  already a  society of people who by and large did not value freedom and  democracy  and which already suffered from widespread moral bankruptcy  before  Hitler became prominent. Hitler did not recruit the Brownshirts  by  inviting young men with no future to be part of something greater  than  themselves so much as he simply organized and militarized the  criminal  element of several major cities to serve his purposes.  The  Germans had  to be carpet-bombed and then occupied before they were  ready to finally  be a part of the civilized West. And any attempt to  connect the  narrative of the Nazis to the rise of Trump is, you know,  stupid.

But  anyway, getting back to the  point, I’m focusing on my liberal peers  from Christian high schools  across the nation because I know that we,   conservative millennial  Christians, will have to deal with them in the not-so-distant future.   My liberal classmates may not have much respect  for the conservative  traditions of our school, but they will likely  comprise a large share  of the school’s future teachers, staff, PTO  leaders, Alumni Association  officers, and major donors.  And that’s a  problem. We know where their  loyalties lie, and it is with the  Democratic Party first and Christ  and His church second. You cannot be a  loyal Democrat and have those  priorities reversed. These people will be  leaven within the church’s  institutions.  We’ve seen what their so-called “moderate” liberal parents from the Boomer generation can do to such institutions   simply by being tolerated within them even if most of them don’t go   out  of their way to be liberal activists. And they will be active   soldiers  in the war against conservatism and Christianity, whether they  know it  or not.

And  so I’d like to   address the remainder of this piece to those people.  Not  just my   liberal classmates, but all moderate liberal Christians of my   generation (hereafter “you”):You  have picked a side, and it is the   wrong one.  You think that we  conservative millennial Christians   (hereafter “we”) are on the “wrong  side of history”, but it is actually  you who have chosen the wrong side.   You may very well have chosen the  winning side,  but your side remains  objectively, morally wrong (alternative title for  this piece: Some  Things Young Conservative Christians Wish We Could Say  To Our Liberal  Christian Friends If You Guys Would Hear Us Out).

We   can still be friends.  We have remained friends with you even after   you  have indirectly called us homophobes, fundamentalists,   reactionaries,  woman-haters, and the like.  Many of you have not   directly addressed us  so to our faces, but we happen to fall into the   group of people whom you  regard as such. Nevertheless, we remain your   friends.

But  you need to realize that we  have also chosen a side, and it is  decidedly against everything you   stand for.  That does not mean we stand  against justice, fairness,   charity, and the like. It’s just that those  are the things you claim to   stand for, and I am speaking of the things that you are actually   willing to stand for.  When the chips are down, you will stand for the   evil of abortion. You will stand for middle school students being forced   to share shower facilities with members of the opposite sex, including   adults.  You will stand for police officers being railroaded by the   media and the justice system for doing their job in cases where a young   black man happens to end up dead.

And   you will stand for the persecution of Christians.  Specifically, you  will stand for the persecution of Christians who have not thrown their   lot in with the American persecutors of Christians, which means   eventually that you will stand for the persecution of us.

For   example, whenever you guys rail against a certain Christian artist or   business owner for not accommodating a same-sex couple or someone who   identifies as transgender, it never seems to occur to you that your   Christian friends on the other side of the political aisle could and   probably will be in that same position in the future.  We are afraid to  open our own businesses or go into creative professions because we know   that the minute we cross the LGBT agenda, or possibly the abortion   agenda, we are liable to have our lives destroyed by the government.

And   you support this.  You will side with the government when they come to   take our businesses away from us or even impose criminal sanctions.    Perhaps you will reason that it is regrettable but necessary, and that   it’s our own fault in the end for resisting civil rights.

You   know, I’m not going to go as far as to pull out the “if you’re a   liberal Christian then you’re not really a Christian” card here, but   Jesus does have some strong words of warning for those who persistently  side with the world over Him.  We all side with the world over Him, and   we all do so often. Even the Apostles did. But you have formally   chosen a  side, declared it, and it happens to be the side that is   waging war  against Christ and His Church.Your  excuses that you would   actually be furthering Christ’s love are totally  hollow.  Jesus would   not have baked a cake for a gay “wedding” (or  built a gay couple a   house to live in, being a carpenter), he would not  (does not) support   Planned Parenthood, and he would not (does not)  support the gender   transition process.  If you disagree with this, you  are disagreeing   with Him, the Apostle Paul, not to mention the Church  Fathers along   with every serious prominent theologian throughout the  history of   Christianity until the past three or four decades. Of course,  the   church fathers never spoke about transgenderism, but that’s only   because it is an insane demonic dystopian agenda that even the ancient   pagans could hardly have conceived.  They did speak on abortion and gay   marriage, and their opinions on the matter hold a lot more weight than   yours. Ecumenically speaking, the scholarship on these matters, along   with evolution and some other things, within Christianity is as settled   as you claim the scholarship is on climate change. The denominations  and  clerics that claim otherwise do so ashamedly and uneasily, and can   accurately be described as “Bible deniers”.  And don’t try to bring  lame  arguments regarding shellfish and eating pork into this, because those arguments have been quite thoroughly debunked,   and if you haven’t heard the debunking it’s only because members of   your side ban us from the message boards (one of the things that annoy  us about debating with you liberal Christians is that, while you guys  are generally more willing to at least debate us in the first place than   your more extreme SJW allies, many of you have a tendency to need to   have very basic theological concepts explained to you as if you've never   heard them before.  It makes it difficult for the discussion to   progress when we constantly have to stop and do your liberal pastor's   job for him.)

Of  course, I wouldn’t   expect that to hold much weight with atheists and  hardcore secularists who don’t believe the Bible to have any authority  anyway.  They have   chosen their side, and they are proud of it. But at  least they won’t be  attending a Christian college claiming to want an  authentic Christian  education and then working to tear down  Christianity within that   institution.

Your  Christian brothers and  sisters are being persecuted by the side you  have chosen, and you will  be required to assent to and sometimes  participate in the persecution  in order to be a loyal member of your  Resistance. Although the gap may  be closing, you are still the  out-group within American Christianity,  and yet you demand equal  (greater) say and status. You call our kind  Pharisees while enabling our  persecution at the hands of the side you  have chosen.  You have gone  out of your way to declare yourselves  “allies” to every group from gays  to transgenders to feminists to  Muslims, but we never seem to part of   your alliance. Not that we would  want to, because you’re allied with   enemy powers.

You   see, we don’t disagree with you because we are more afraid or less   college-educated or whatever else you have in mind.  We disagree with   you because the Bible is on our side, the facts are on our side, common   sense are on our side, and moral principles are on our side, and not   yours.  We showed you footage of Planned Parenthood trafficking in baby   parts, and you ignored it. You might be a little uncomfortable with it,   but you would never be as vocally outraged as when a police officer   shoots a black person and it gets the attention of the national media,   despite the fact that in almost every single case your side has been   objectively and completely wrong about both the facts and the law of the   matter.

This  is the point where many of you decide to pull out the “personally  opposed” card. Mainly, you   will use this card in the abortion debate,  since you have long ago   given up pretending to be “personally opposed”  to gay marriage   (although you might be one of the few left who will  admit the inability  to defend gay “marriage” on Biblical grounds but  simply sidestep the issue by repeating the lie that the Constitution  requires the   government to recognize it even though it does no such  thing, which is to say you think that the despot Supreme Court has  absolved you of   having to make any further defense of this abomination  to others or to your own conscience) or gender conversion. Conveniently,  you have   already passed the point of having to worry about being a  scared   freshman girl who now has to share a locker room with a boy. And  come   to think of it, you’ve also conveniently passed the point of having  to worry about being aborted. I’d just like to point out that your  sudden  “personally opposed” fig leaf when it comes to especially morally   uncomfortable topics like abortion kind of clashes with your persona as  a fighter for justice in the face of dystopia.

Of   course you don’t have to use that card often, because compared to your   more extreme, non-Christian contemporaries, most of the political talk   we hear from you centers around the somewhat less controversial topics   like gun control, immigration, environmentalism, welfare, etc. Much  of  what you have to say concerns how “uncaring” our side is more than  it  does any actual evidence, but at least you could hold the Democrat   positions on such issues and still theoretically be a member in good   standing of Christian orthodoxy. These are issues that the Bible does   not give explicit guidance on like abortion and gay “marriage”.  But   there are still two main problems with you siding with Democrats on   these issues. The first is that in most cases your opinions are wrong,   often unconstitutional, and easily debunked. But more importantly for   your case specifically, even your stances on these issues and the way   you argue them betray a mentality that is fundamentally at odds with   traditional Christianity.  For example, when you argue that the New   Testament commands us to accept waves of refugees from Islamic nations,   or to expand the welfare state, or raise the minimum wage, or whatever   else you think is “caring”, claiming that “Jesus would want it”, you  are  twisting His words and putting your own words in His mouth, you  know,  like how you claim we are doing whenever we articulate what the  Bible  clearly says about homosexuality.  Twisting the words of the  Bible to  make them say something they do not and advance an agenda that  is not  Biblical is called heresy. Heresy is not something people who  have  chosen the side of God should be comfortable with. The Bible  leaves room  for Christians to disagree on the worldly, practical merits  of things  like welfare, immigration policy, and gun control. It does  not leave  room for you to make Jesus the champion of causes he never  took up,   especially since there is no reason to believe Jesus would  take up a   political cause despite most of the evidence being clearly  against it.

What’s  more, your  championing of such lesser causes is often used as a fig   leaf to  deflect from your moral cowardice concerning bigger issues like   abortion and homosexuality.  You know you can’t win a serious   theological argument about those issues, so you, like the Pharisees,   make a show of how “caring” you are for others, mostly by making arguments that have no factual basis and usually require someone else to do the “caring” for you.    And in so doing, you show signs of where your loyalties lie. When you   got angry about Harambe being shot, you betrayed your anti-life   colors,  because many of your arguments boiled down to the implication   that the  kid somehow deserved to be mauled by a gorilla or at least   that the  gorilla had an equal right not to be shot as the human child   had to not  be mauled at the zoo.  When you defended Michael Brown and   said his  death was a murder in bold spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary,   you betrayed your warped sense of justice or general disdain for true   justice. Whenever you demand that the welfare state be expanded or   advocate socialism, you ignore the evidence reagarding the welfare state   and socialism. Ignoring the evidence regarding such issues does not   automatically reveal that you harbor anti-Christian values, but it does   indicate that you care more about your public image than you do about   the lives and families that have been destroyed by the welfare state and   socialism, especially when you ignore the historical link between the   abortion agenda and the welfare state and population control and   socialism (or environmentalism).

And when you protest against the Trump administration for wanting to favor Christian refugees from Islamic countries despite that making every kind of humanitarian sense   while simultaneously demanding that millions of unchecked Muslim men be  let in and allowed to stay indefinitely, one has to wonder: whose   side  are you on?

And  if most of what I have said does not actually describe you, if you  actually are appalled  by abortion, would defend my rights as a business  owner if I were ever  targeted by a vindictive gay couple, if you are  willing to take an  evidence-based or at least moderate and balanced  approach to   immigration and environmental regulations, and you don’t  want to put   cops in prison for doing their sworn duty, then one has to  ask: why   have sided with the American left?

Note:   “Trump scares me” is not a good reason.  I was a firm “Never Trump”   conservative in 2016, and did not vote for him.  That didn’t cause me to   throw my lot in with the party that wants to force me to fund Planned   Parenthood.

And one more thing: your  more extreme secularist liberal friends that have gone full-SJW are not  impressed with you.  They aren't impressed with your virtue-signaling,  they aren't impressed with the constant apologies you make for us, they  aren't impressed with your attempts to prove yourselves as [the  Christians that are cool and will respect you](http://thefederalist.com/2015/12/02/an-other-christian-responds-to-buzzfeeds-questions-christians-have-for-other-christians/)  while treating us like an uncle who sometimes says racist things at   Thanksgiving dinners but whom you love anyway.  To them, you're still in  the same group of square losers as us, it's just that they may think   there is a little more hope for you.

I   realize my words so far have been harsh, but they could be a lot   harsher.  I don’t want to burn bridges with my friends on the other side   of the aisle, and I certainly don't think every cause they take up is   completely without merit (for example, I do think conservatives have  railed just a little too hard on the #MeToo thing, wrought with   hypocrisy though the movement has been). But I’m writing this piece   because, frankly, things are going to have to come to a head between our   two sides.  Your side has engaged an unrelenting campaign of attacks  and persecution against those of us who have remained faithful to   Christian orthodoxy for the past two or three decades at least, and we,  orthodox Christian conservative millennials, are not going to defer   responsive action against the agents of those who seek to destroy the   church indefinitely, even if those agents include our friends. So when   you take up teaching positions at Christian institutions only to reveal   your sympathies with the militant LGBT movement, we are going to have  to  move to get you fired. When you start advocating the leftist social   agenda within the church itself, we are going to excommunicate you.  When  your church is caught harboring illegal immigrants in brazen  defiance  of the Biblical command to submit to the civil authorities, we’re going  to speak against your church and possibly work with the   government to  root them out.  The Democrats and the liberal   establishment have  declared total war on conservatives and the   Christian Church in  particular. We are under no obligation to sit back passively and take it  all the time.

So with that in mind, I ask one more time:  whose side are you on?

[imagitory]

Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi Review [Spoilers]

Hey all! So I just got back from seeing The Last Jedi, so I can finally put my two-cents in on the newest installment of the trilogy. Before getting into spoilers, I will say this film is a worthy addition to the franchise, building upon concepts from previous movies while also creating new, creative imagery for this film that fits alongside the stuff that came before it. While I successfully guessed a few twists this film took, it also surprised me just as much, and I greatly appreciate that. It kept me on my toes the entire time. Overall, I would say every Star Wars fan will get something great out of this, even if they end up not liking the film as a whole.

Now then...spoilers ahead. Beware, all ye who enter here.

The Good!

+These action scenes...DAMN! I think they were easily some of the most creative and thrilling in the entire film series. Rose and Finn’s chase through intergalactic Las Vegas Canto Bight, the opening battle with the fighter jets, the confrontation at the rebel base, and the battle between Rey, Kylo Ren, and the First Order officers were all fantastic. The effects were spot-on, the music matched the movement perfectly, and the choreography of both the CGI and the actors was really well-done.

+Mark Hamill as Luke. I mean, yeah -- what can you say here except “duh?” Mark really went above and beyond here. Yes, I knew I was going to love seeing him as Luke again for nostalgic reasons, but what I love most is how much more depth Mark brought to the character, after all of the trials and tribulations he’s gone through between the films. He depicted a character who most would think would solely be a mentor figure, given his age and his beloved status, but who it turns out has his own learning curve to take on. He needs to acknowledge that while the Jedi were flawed, their philosophy shouldn’t just be completely thrown out and their old religion shouldn’t just be forgotten -- there are pieces that are still of use and should be passed on. It’s something Rey also realizes, and Kylo does not -- Kylo wants to burn everything down, including the past, regardless of the shreds of good there might be in that past along with the bad. And like Rey, as much as I was sad to see Luke go, I felt peace as it was happening. He is now one with the Force. Now he can guide Rey into the future and haunt Kylo for his mistakes -- both of which I will support him in wholeheartedly.

+Carrie Fisher as Leia. This truly was a shining performance -- I feel so beyond blessed that she was able to finish shooting her scenes before her sudden death, because hail to the motherfucking Queen, baby. When the Rebel bridge got blown up with Leia inside (good touch having it be Kylo’s men and not Kylo who did it, by the by), I literally felt myself stop breathing. But then she FLOATED HERSELF BACK TO THE SHIP TO SAVE HERSELF AND HOLY SHIT. It was actually eerie seeing Leia unconscious on the ship, as I couldn’t help but think of how Carrie had also been in a coma just before she passed...it was beyond merciful that Leia survived in this installment, and that she got to kick so much ass here. I do wonder how the filmmakers are going to handle her loss in the next movie...but wow, am I glad we got to see Carrie one last time on film, especially when she gave such a good performance.

+The focus on Poe. Honestly, Poe Dameron didn’t get that much attention in The Force Awakens, and I’m glad he got his proper share of spotlight here. I love the arc he went through and how he came to appreciate Vice Admiral Holdo’s leadership, even despite their differing approaches and distrust of each other. I think he’ll truly be able to step into Leia’s shoes as leader of the Rebellion in the future, now that he’s learned the value of human life over glory.

+The theme of rebellion being a symbol of hope to the oppressed, best exemplified by Rose and the other marginalized citizens of intergalactic Las Vegas Canto Bight. Yeah, I keep referencing Las Vegas when I talk about that planet, and yeah, they clearly modeled the look of the wealthy casinos and buildings off of it...but after having visited Vegas recently, and since I’m living in another wealthy tourist town myself (Anaheim), I must applaud the fact that they modeled the planet’s ugly underbelly to the same one that you can find in Vegas and cities like it, and actually took the time to discuss it. Where there is obscene wealth, there is also sickening, crippling poverty; where there is privilege, there will always be abuse. It ties back into the lesson Luke taught Rey about light and darkness -- how they constantly balance each other. But just like how Rey and Kylo mirror each other, being strong in the light and the darkness respectively, so too can rebellion become an equal to tyranny...and the end of the movie with the children likewise invigorated to take on the fight about to come left me feeling empowered.

+Finn’s arc from solely focusing on his friends and himself to seeing the Rebellion as something just as important to fight for. I’ve always seen Finn as a Hufflepuff or a Slytherin, morality-wise, in that he values his inner-circle over the whole world, but it was really neat to have him learn about how the world must be safe in order for the things he loves to be safe too.

+Kylo Ren killing Snoke. It felt in character and I think it will allow Kylo to go darker and become the real Big-Bad of the trilogy, since he won’t have to skirt around Snoke’s coattails anymore. Plus, admittedly, I always found Snoke sort of disappointing as Star Wars villains go, and I think it establishes how very treacherous the First Order is -- Kylo turned on Snoke, so who is to say Hux or any of his other subordinates won’t turn on Kylo? Unlike the Rebellion, whose bonds are strengthening, we’re already getting the hint of just how fragile the bonds binding the First Order together are...and that means Kylo has no one who he can truly rely on, unlike Rey, who of course has friends she can trust.

+I like that for all of the “mirroring” this film tried to do with Rey and Kylo, Rey still refused to follow him. She’s strong enough in herself and her moral compass to use her head and not trust him, even if he tries to lure her with knowledge of her parents and a promise of companionship. (I mean, seriously, Rey -- who gives a damn about your deadbeat parents, Finn and Poe and Chewie and BB-8 and Leia love you like few other things in this world! They’re your real family!)

+All of the actors gave very strong performances. I can honestly not pick out any weak links here -- they all gave it their all.

+The hacker character DJ I hope pops up again in the next movie. He seems like an interesting chaotic neutral character and since he didn’t get much of a resolution in this film, I look forward to what he’ll get in the next one.

+FINN KICKED CAPTAIN PHASMA’S ASS, HELLZ YEAH, THAT’S MY BOY. (Also, good to see Phasma having more screen time than in the last movie, even if it still wasn’t that much.)

The Not-So-Good...

+All the Reylo shipper fuel. *dodges knives* OKAY -- LISTEN. I do not support Rey/Kylo, and I probably never will, but shipping aside, here’s my problem with it -- the film did not properly convey why Rey has forgiven Kylo enough to let him into her mind. I’m sorry, it just didn’t. Kylo killed his father -- Rey’s mentor -- one of the first three protagonists that we all fell in love with in the original trilogy -- who went to bring his son back to the Light, only to get stabbed through the chest for his trouble. I just didn’t feel anything close to what Rey did when she started going, “Why? Why did you do it?” and questioning why Kylo destroyed the Jedi Temple -- I’m sorry, all I saw from Kylo in this film is that he was conflicted, not that he was sorry or had any interest in fixing his mistakes. It doesn’t matter if killing his father was painful for him -- it should be. He committed first-degree patricide. Feeling bad for your actions alone is not enough -- you then have to do something about it -- and Kylo did not do that. It felt like in some ways they were trying to parallel Padme and Anakin, where Padme likewise fruitlessly implores Anakin to come back to the Light Side even though it’s too late -- but there are a million and one differences between Anakin and Kylo, most relevant in this case being that Anakin’s reason to not turn back was out of misguided love for Padme (and later because he had no choice, since he’d alienated all of his allies and his suit basically left him tethered to Darth Sidious and the Empire), and that Kylo’s was to assert his loyalty to Snoke (and later to take vengeance against those who wronged him and assert his power). Anakin was trying to protect one of the people that meant the world to him after having known so little love in his life, while Kylo had a family who supported him, taught him, and trained him and he decided that Snoke’s approval and his own pride were more important than that. Anakin was raised to think that he was nothing -- a worthless slave -- while Kylo knew likely from the time he was very little that he was special and decided to act out because of it. Anakin’s initial fall was out of ignorance and a selfish kind of love, but Kylo’s was out of active vengeance, teenage angst, privileged frustration, and a toxic need to dominate and control. Snoke was right when he said that Kylo was no Vader, and that he instead was just a child -- he’s too immature to even acknowledge that his rationale for falling to the Dark Side and doing what he did was WRONG AND EVIL AND STUPID. That’s why I still don’t forgive Kylo Ren, that’s why I don’t think Rey should’ve been as open to him as she was, and that’s why I was satisfied by the ending where Kylo proved himself to be just as vile as I always thought he was, by blaming Snoke’s death on Rey so he can take over the First Order himself and go about terrorizing the galaxy. Someone who was truly sorry for what he’d done and had the capacity to change would’ve at the very least taken the “Zuko Alone” route and tried to recollect himself and redefine a new moral code that he can follow. As of now, the way things are now, I hope that in the final movie Kylo Ren burns, leaving nothing behind but a pile of ash, same as the Jedi Temple he burned to the ground.

+Rose/Finn. I know a few other people have said this, but...yeah. It was WAY too rushed. Honestly, the only thing I can hope for is that in the next film, Finn has to politely turn Rose’s feelings down, because honestly there was just not enough romantic chemistry built up between the two characters. I’m not a rabid Poe/Finn or Finn/Rey shipper, but I still think either of those couples had much more behind them than what this film gave Finn/Rose. Maybe this couple could’ve been written better, maybe it couldn’t have been, but regardless, it was a misstep for this film, the way it was handled.

+C3PO and R2D2 were pretty much dead weight in this movie. BB-8 remained relevant and necessary throughout the runtime, but our old veterans were basically props. They didn’t even really get that many laughs.

+Porgs may be cute, but...wow, were they oddly forgettable. I liked the crystal foxes (Vulptex?) much better.

I definitely look forward to seeing how this new trilogy ends. The messages and action of this movie definitely make me eager to see how the filmmakers will follow it up, and I hope that the few problems I did have are properly addressed. The new Star Wars trilogy is truly exciting...the possibility and potential for the next one truly are limitless, as far as I can see.

Overall Grade: B