#more just that ethical cost-cutting blows up in people's faces

[lightdancer1]

In adapting any version of BTVS the Season 6 problem has to be addressed:

Fortunately it and the rise of Dark Willow has the simplest possible solution: play it straight as a fantasy narrative, particularly coupled with the irony of Season 9. The resentful sidekick goes on a power trip when she becomes an increasingly unstoppable reality warper and the result is less 'random bullet blows girl's heart out' leading to murderous rampage from grief and more Mall Goth Sauron.

It also reflects at a narrative level that Willow Rosenberg by the time of Season 6 is the most powerful Scooby and later on the most powerful sorcerer on the planet. Add to this her future destiny to restore magic and at least in the hindsight of future seasons the entire thing becomes a very typical fantasy narrative.

Novice witch wields increasingly powerful mystical forces under the belief that she can control them, the very reality that the equivalent of 'may it be' leads to 'thus it is' is itself innately corrupting because very few to no people could EVER handle a power like that well. Equally given that future destined role she reaches both the heights of white magic and of black magic in equal measure because her future destiny is to restore all of it, and destiny is a harsh, cruel pitiless, arbitrary thing.

Tara Maclay personally dying is an irrelevant exercise in narrative spite, something happening to her might or might not be the final straw when the One Ring reaches Sauron's finger and the would-be master of mankind goes forth to exercise unrivaled dominion over the Earth. It's also an outside context problem for the Scoobies as only at this point is it clear that in an otherwise urban fantasy setting they have someone who'd be able to stand up well to the most absurdly powerful magic in a high fantasy scenario, without any real context as to how to manage this or what it would require to do so.

It's a perfect storm of multi-tiered failures and people refusing to grasp that the sweet nerd who spent so much time as a hostage has an awful lot of built-up anger for a great many reasons, is utterly terrible at admitting or expressing it....and then has the power to enact vengeance and the most total means of going forth to do so. More to the point it also enables a subversion of the Big Bad formula, there is no elaborate design, there's a breakdown and a set of narrative ethics cost-cutting boomeranging back to haunt people in the grimmest kind of way, and the real villain of the Season 6 equivalent is less the Trio, who are the gasoline to the fire but did not create the fire in question, and more that the Scoobies recklessly encouraged the growth of an increasingly powerful juggernaut without ever reckoning on what the end game of that was.

I do admit that I give Giles something of an advantage here in that instead of being neglectful in quite the same ways he actually does foresee the problem and takes steps to address it specifically, with the problem being that they face an outside context problem that nothing in their prior training has equipped them to face. Between Glory and Mall Goth Sauron Willow Rosenberg there's no contest, Mall Goth Sauron could turn Glory to dust with a flicker of her finger.

They are essentially facing a higher-tier comics-style reality warper in a setting where nobody else can do this, and understanding what was building up all along is a thing they're both slow to grasp and ultimately contributing to the problem by not wanting to die facing the common variety and the higher-tier things that go bump in the night. Something like this IS set up all along in the show and sticking with it and the idea that the price of casually invoking such power boomerangs on everyone would have ultimately kept a lot of the same themes without introducing the addiction arc only to abruptly decide 'nah we were totally wrong', which is also a thing a lot of the fix-fics with Tara Maclay kind of neatly skip over. If you adapt that part of canon she is on record as believing some very erroneous things and playing a part in the final time bomb that goes off just as much.

The easier thing to do is have her, product of an abusive family with cult-like tendencies take one look at the budding Dark Lord Rosenberg on the Dark Throne in the Land of Sunnydale where the Shadows Lie and decide "LOL LMAO I'm just getting the fuck out, y'all do what you want" which is essentially her approach to the crisis as it unfolded in canon. No real effort to express to the rest of the Scoobies the scale of the crisis, entirely sound and rational 'I'm looking after me and mine' arc from someone who has a magnificent growth arc in just those ways.

And that too is Tara's growth arc, from the shy stuttering abuse victim who casually sabotaged demon-detection spells for her own advantage to someone who refused to put up with a budding mirror of both Glory and her own father and took the steps for her own safety, even if they ultimately are a part of the broader debacle. That Tara confronting the equal dilemmas of Season 7 was something ultimately useful not least as a voice of reason both useful and ignored in different ways.

In my takes on canon rather than keeping an arc abruptly retconned anyway, I simply opt for the idea that the bulk of events happened in broad sketches, that Rack is less 'magic drug dealer' and more 'magic parasite feeding off the souls of his victims', but the real arc is the rise of Dark Lord Rosenberg, Mall Goth Sauron, as a result of everything built up in previous seasons and that the Gang never quite admit they were a big part of the problem, with Season 7 very much a case of them having no choice but to do this against Buffyverse Satan who's casually trying to play divide and conquer and exploit their fears. And only by refusing to play the game can the Buffyverse Satan be beaten on his own terms.

And as long as Dawn Summers existing is innately a good thing and not a major source of paranoia fuel waiting to happen, memory magic as the 'you DARE' of choice is idiocy, either Dawn Summers is a collective exercise in cosmic dickery who should never exist, or memory magic specifically chosen as the 'you DARE' was stupid. I incline to the latter and the equivalent spells are more in the line of "God-Empress Willow Rosenberg" and her flexing those powers not against others so much as for her personal convenience, and the slippery slope in that to "making things better on the cheap means I can and should rule the world to fix everything wrong with it as I see fit."

God-Empress Rosenberg in turn is less a conventional villain and more a hero turned to the logical extremes of vast power to address vast problems, with good motivations twisted by immense power exercised with little control and less ethics. The extension, in short of 'just a little more dark magic to smash the Hellgod in the face with a brick' and 'do these extremely dangerous potentially corrupting spells and do them now, consequences be damned'.

That said I'd also play in with the communication failure that the nosebleeds and various elements of continued use of dark magic ARE taking tolls on the one hand, and that dealing with this kind of pain creates a lose-lose Catch-22 pattern where she turns to increasingly powerful physical magic as a means to cope with what is essentially a kind of chronic illness as result of earlier decisions. That would be less the addiction metaphor and more 'magic has a steep price' on the one hand and a sunk cost fallacy on the other. Equally narratively it allows for aspects of weaknesses whether or not the Gang can exploit them or not, on the one hand, and the simple inability to admit they exist plays into people being drawn into their own lives and blind to what's actually happening in front of them.

[balshumetsbaragouin]

Daily Excerpt: Passion

Everything is right on time for Passion this week, and you'll get chapter 11 tomorrow! Wow! We're almost halfway through everyone! In honor of that, have a sneak peek from just on the other side of the halfway point. This is from Chapter Thirteen: A Repose and Provocative Discovery!

_____________________________________________________________

He vowed to kill GhostTeenReignsSupreme as soon as he tracked down their real identity. The weirdo had more than 5,000 posts on their forums. They spent their time berating Huntress fans, arguing with Phantom fans, and otherwise shitting up the place. When the asshole wasn’t banned, they were actively antagonizing everyone around them in a spiral of occasionally amusing, but always disruptive, bullshit. The forum’s resident troll posted on every sub-forum and topic, like they had no life or didn’t need to sleep. While most users took their presence in stride, Danny was tired of looking at admin tickets about their raging slur and curse word filled rants or fielding the DMs from the few concerned users who got genuinely upset with the bully’s antics. Whoever this was, he’d find them in person, give them a good scare about being polite to other people, and maybe blow up their computer for good measure.

Tucker, who’d found the posts mostly hilarious, disagreed. He kept reinstating the douchebag to haunt their website and menace the people of Amity. At this point, the ghost powered teen thought the geek reinstated them to be his nightly entertainment.

He clicked through to the Phantom sub-forums, a vain attempt they’d made to cut down on the Forum Wars between his fans and Huntress, looking at the first thread at the top. It was about some prototype plush. Of course, the last poster was GhostTeen, who else would it be? He clicked through to read the opening post, scrolling down as the poster outlined their plans for an official line of phantom merch. They hoped to get Phantom’s attention…somehow, and convince him to let them produce the goods. All proceeds, absent production costs, were to go to a fund to help Amity rebuild after ghost attacks. Oh, no…that sounds terrible! I mean, not the charity part, that’s fine, but I do not want my face on sleazy, cheap tourist trap trinkets. He scrolled further, watching posters fight it out in the thread about ethics, materials, return on investment, shipping, and whatever else struck their fancy.

On the last page, containing the newest message, was another post from the OP. It was only then, taking in the little insignia they used on the forums to designate the OP of a thread, that he realized the entire plan belonged to GhostTeenReignsSupreme. Just…fuck him I guess. Of course, that was the only person weird enough to go through with this outlandish scheme. The last post had a picture of the plush prototype. It was…actually really cute. He hated that he liked it. He felt his lips thin and his eyes narrow the longer he looked at the cuddly looking plush toy.

[sortasirius]

“Drag me Away (From You)” and the Tipping Point

Anyway stan the writers of Supernatural.

As I thought, this episode felt very much like the pause at the top of a roller coaster before the big drop.  It set up A LOT, sometimes with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, and sometimes so quietly it took me a second look to catch it.

Our themes today: Dean and Sam and secrets, Dean’s trauma and how that informs his choices today, free will, escaping Chuck at any cost, and, once again, CHOICE.

So lets dive in.

Guilt is the name of the game right off the bat.  Caitlin’s guilt, Dean’s guilt, they are present throughout the entirety of the episode. 

And right out of the gate, we find out that Dean has not told Sam about what will happen to Jack if they follow through with this plan.  Sam immediately asks if he and Cas had another fight like the true brother-in-law he is, but the point remains that Dean, like he has done a billion times before, is keeping the big thing from Sam, because he knows that Sam will argue, will put up a fight and, in my opinion, Dean doesn’t want to change his mind, and he doesn’t want Sam to give him the opportunity to do that.

Also can we please discuss the “Have you told Sam yet?” from Cas?  The peak married energy of it all.

My main takeaway from the young Dean and Sam scenes was, as usual, that the abuse that they have suffered is already apparent.  Sam is already looking for a way out, looking for a way he can get away from the life, while Dean has settled into his unhappiness, accepted that this is destined to be his life.  He’s already got that edge of aggression, the survival edge that he cultivated to not get hurt.

Did I cry over the mention of Sully and Dean’s “Americana” theme?  Who’s to say.

Caitlin, Travis, Dean, and Sam are such cuties when they work together.  I feel like Caitlin and Dean have a nice compatible energy, the immediately bond with that older sibling energy.  She doesn’t take his shit which is refreshing when he literally starts the episode with pointed snark at Sam..

Another theme of the day: lies.  Dean lies to Sam about Jack and Cas, Caitlin lies to the boys about why they’re there.  Lies, and coming clean from those lies, are vital to this episode as well.

My bb boys hunting monsters, I love them.

“I’m sorry Caitlin, but that thing?  It’s not here.”

“You’ve changed.  Back then you believed him even before I did.”

Shall we remember 13x05, “Advanced Thanatology”?

Hm.  More on that later.

I also want to point out how much Sam and Dean split up in this episode, and how much they’re aided by Travis and Caitlin when they’re separated.  I think this is one of those things that we’ll see, at the end, that this is what they were leading us to.  It has to be their choice of course, but Dean and Sam are being set up to part ways.

Sam and Travis playing Boggle????  I cry???  #letthembekids2k20

Dean’s guilt.  Manifesting as his younger self.

“You failed.”

His failure sends him to his knees.

Sorta like:

Which, no biggie, was featured in the “then” for this week.

“Guys there’s one more thing...she keeps some kind of a nest.”

“A nest?”

“Yeah, when I was a kid I saw it...with a bunch of bodies. Dead kids.”

“That’s what you were hiding from me.”

 “They were all about the same age we were back then.  I guess she keeps them there, feeds.”

“Dean, why didn’t you ever tell me this?”

“Because I’d never seen anything like that before.  So after I killed it or...thought that I killed it, I phoned in the bodies, let the authorities take care of it, shoved it down the old memory hole.  I had nightmares about that for the longest time.  I’m sorry, I shoulda told you.”

“No man, it’s okay.  I mean you were just a kid.  We were both just kids.  Hell, we used to keep a lot of secrets from each other.”

OOF.

Dean’s growth.  His growth has been the catalyst of the season. And we know he’s keeping a secret from Sam, so this whole exchange is just a neon sign that says “growth potential.”

And because nothing ever slows down anymore, we smash cut right to a scene with Death herself.

“Yeah, fill him up with your cosmic TNT so he can die.  How’d you talk the kid into that one?”

“I told him the truth.  Jack killed your mother, and all he wants is your forgiveness.  And I surmise that the only way that he can get that is ending God and freeing you from the...what did you call it?  Hamster wheel?  Was I wrong?”

I mean not to be that guy but I literally talked about the repetition of key phrases in last week’s episode, including the hamster wheel here.  Once again we are being told that nothing, even the smallest details of this season, are done on accident.  Every episode is a callback to an earlier episode, showing growth, or change, or a pattern.  Nothing can be discounted, nothing is without purpose.

Also.  The Truth.

“According to Chuck’s book, I’m not in this part of the story.”

Sound familiar?  I got the receipts babey.

Ok.

“I don’t like loose ends, Dean.  I don’t like disorder.  So clean this up.  I need to know that you’ve got your house in order.”

This all feels very...deliberate in it’s phrasing.  Getting his house in order, tying up loose ends, cleaning things up.  I can certainly think of something that needs tying up in regard to Dean.  Something that is, in all likelihood, is coming to fruition in two episodes.

That clown statute was a personal attack and I will not be accepting dissenting opinions at this time.

“Hey, that thing.  Were you scared?”

“Always am.”

“You have changed.  The old you never would have admitted that.”

“Well, I’m not sure that’s a good thing.”

“I think so.  What do they say about getting older?  You tell the truth more because you know that lies, they don’t make anything better.”

So uh.  Well.  Let’s start with 13x05 again shall we?  This is also an episode about Dean’s guilt.  It’s an episode about his anger.  It’s also the first episode we see Death’s library, where we hear about the books, the books that everyone has, that not even Chuck knows the ending to.

Dean’s fear.

His guilt.

What losing Cas does to him (again).

Choice.

There is no subtlety here.  This is a loud as hell megaphone, this is a bright neon sign being put in front out our faces.  Dean’s anger, his guilt, his fear, his fear of being abandoned, his fear of losing the people he loves most, the fear of losing the battle against Chuck, it’s all right here, right in our faces, paralleled directly by the only conversation in Death’s library, where we’ll be next week. 

And Dean’s growth potential is realized.  He has finally learned his lesson.  Maybe from Caitlin, maybe from Billie, maybe from Sam himself, but he tells Sam about Jack’s fate.

Predictably, and completely fairly, Sam blows up.

The anger.  The anger that’s easier for Dean to deal with than the grief.

“So... you’ve been sitting on this.  What the hell, Dean?  I thought we were past stuff like this.”

“I know, Sam-”

“I can’t believe you, you know that?  I mean how can you keep me in the dark about something so huge?”

“Because I knew you couldn’t handle it!  You didn’t trust Billie’s plan, and then when we found out about Amara you started second guessing, you raised these ethical questions!”

“And I shouldn’t?  Jack’s going to kill himself and I should just shut up about it?”

“Yes!”

“No!”

“This is how we end Chuck!  Okay?  This is the only way we’ll ever be free. So I’m sorry, Sam, you don’t get a choice!  We don’t get a choice!”

“Oh we?”

“Look-”

“Stop!  Alright?  Just stop!  Please.”

“I’m sorry I-”

“Don’t.  Don’t.  Don’t.  Just...just drive.  Just drive.”

Free will taken.  They don’t have a choice.  Even fighting for their free will, to make their own choices, they don’t get one.

And if that wasn’t enough, our preview for next week.  With Adam, the first man.  Sam and Cas headed to Death’s library, to read (presumably) Jack’s book, to meet Billie (though they don’t know that).

Once again, there’s so much to unpack here, there’s so much to discuss, but for the millionth time, we’ve heard about anger, fear, and choice, the three main themes of the back half of the season.  Barring what I suspect is coming in 15x18, the main thing to take away is the importance of the brothers working with others.  Even as kids, they have always worked better with others, even if it meant they had to split from each other.

[blackswaneuroparedux]

Black Swan bookgasm review #2: Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun (1917)

It is not uncommon for a writer to become more known for his reputation than actual work. Not that the work isn’t of quality, just that it is easier for the public to fixate on their extreme political beliefs or their tragic life than for the very work that writer should be known. Sylvia Plath is a perfect example, since many non-readers of poetry are aware of her taking her own life by sticking her head in an oven, yet are unfamiliar with her great poetry - the very thing for which she is deservedly celebrated. Such is the same fate of the Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun who was well known in his day, for he won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1920 after having published Growth of the Soil in 1917. 

In the same way the French have come to wrestle with acknowledging the literary greatness Louis Ferdinand Celine’s in tension with Celine’s Nazi sympathies during World War Two - so Norway has had its own ‘Celine’ problem with Knut Hamsun. Hamsun was well known for having been a Nazi sympathiser, and upon winning the Nobel, he apparently mailed his medal to one of Hitler’s closest associates, Joseph Goebbels. Then, after Hitler’s death, sources claim that he made some sorrowful eulogy, lamenting over the dictator’s life and death. As result, readers have adopted ambivalent feelings for the write - hating him for his politics yet loving him for his work. It should be also noted that Hamsun was in ‘mental decline’ after the war, so one can’t be sure what he would have believed in a healthier state of mind. But all this should be no matter, for what counts is the work, and Growth of the Soil is a work worth the read.

Hamsun had his admirers in the literary world including H.G. Wells who wrote, “I do not know how to express the admiration I feel for this wonderful book without seeming to be extravagant. I am not usually lavish with my praise, but indeed the book impresses me as among the very greatest novels I have ever read. It is wholly beautiful; it is saturated with wisdom and humour and tenderness."

Though the novel’s setting is in rural Norway, civilisation and its discontents are never far off. There are telegraphs and newspapers. People read. It's not as though this is a bucolic idyll in a sheltered Eden. It is a novel full of contrasts - most obviously between the remote, traditional agrarian life and the rapidly encroaching modern world. This is a very typical Norwegian subject—and typical for many small countries that have gone through such dramatic changes in just a generation or three. Nostalgia looms large.

The book tells the story of Isak and Inger, a married couple seeking to make a living off land that many believe to be a bad business move. We begin with Isak's first steps to create a home in the Norwegian wilds: 'The wilderness was inhabited and unrecognisable, a blessing had come upon it, life had arisen there from a long dream, human creatures lived there, children played about the houses. And the forest stretched away, big and kindly, right up to the blue heights.' He finds a woman, Inger, initially a simple soul, whom life gradually makes more complex. Inger is physically disfigured, but Isak is devoted to her, and the couple works to raise a family and make a life off their land, furrow by furrow, ax blow by ax blow, grows a life. He is the first, the trailblazer.

Gradually other settlers move in  - the idle, the industrious, the promiscuous - creating over decades a community of sorts. This includes the self-seeking Oline, “Never in life would she give in and never her match for turning and twisting heaven and earth to a medley of seeming kindness and malice, poison and senseless words.” One of the most enigmatic characters is Geissler, originally introduced as a decent official with whom Isak has dealings; he helps him at other times and made me wonder if Hamsun was equating him to some Viking deity, “I’m something, I'm the fog as it were, here and there, floating around, sometimes coming like rain on dry ground... There's my son, the lightening.” Years later, men come for the stringing of telegraph wires, the mining of ore in the adjacent mountains. Hamsun presents the incursion of man into nature, the imposition of will on a pristine Nordic first world.

There's a ‘worldly’ balance to the drama, yet Isak's simple virtues prevail - although he's constantly challenged by events, some beyond his control. There, to a degree, he's protected by his guardian angel of a friend, Geissler, a man as complex and mysterious as Isak is simple - but a man equally as virtuous.

Hamsun’s lovely prose pulls the reader into this pioneer ethic where you rejoice which the construction of a new hay loft and dismiss with contempt the inept farmer who sees to his own comfort before that of his stock. On more than one occasion our protagonists easily reject the offer of a few days’ work for ready cash to tend to the more pressing business of hay that needs cutting or timber that needs hauling, much to the puzzlement of the befuddled capitalists in search of local labour.

Many a Scandinavian will recognise Isak’s inscrutable personality, his lack of expression, his need for time to consider a change. And while Isak plods on in life, prospering by the virtues of hard, unceasing labour, those gathered around him demonstrate every other variation of humanity. There’s the flighty and the money-grabbing, the gossip and the fearful… all stand in contrast to his unerring purpose. By the end of the tale our lone walker has become a wealthy and well-respected margrave, patriarch of the richest farm at the heart of a growing agricultural community, whilst the more speculative endeavours of mining and commerce have boomed and busted around him.

The novel is full of biblical motifs from the Old Testament but it’s not a religious themed story. Rather the book is somewhat critical of city life and culture, especially when it threatens the preservation of land and family values. Hamsun’s far right roots poke through at times with his attitude toward the indigenous Lapps, “maggots”, and fairly non-stop jabs at the less than intellectual bent of the otherwise admirable peasantry.

Hamsun convincingly writes of a beautiful celebration of the rural life: “Nothing growing there? All things growing there; men and beasts and fruit of the soil. Isak sowing his corn. The evening sunlight falls on the corn that flashes out in an arc from his hand and falls like a dropping of gold to the ground. Here comes Sivert to the harrowing...Forest and field look on. All is majesty and power - a sequence and purpose of things.” One of the most fascinating aspects of the story was the prevalence of infanticide in Norwegian rural culture (the extent of which is truly shocking as much as it is known by Norwegians today).  

Although Hamsun is never preachy, the lure of the city is something that recurs throughout the tale, and although the city itself is not something shown to be evil, it is more or less, just like the rough parts of nature: indifferent to human happiness and fulfilment. And in some sense, the imposition it can cause is inescapable. Though when asked which will outlast, land will always live without the need for humans, for the city is nothing more than peopled wilderness, or: “the wilderness was peopled country now.” Without the people, the wilderness will always return.

Growth of the Soil becomes the growth of generations - the passage of time and the growth of land that makes its way within the creases of one’s face and hands. The people become their land, and by the end of the novel, Isak is balding, and what the narrator calls “a stump of a man.” He is older and not as physically strong as he once was, but he is not beaten. He continues sowing his grain. “Growth of the soil was something different, a thing to be procured at any cost; the only source, the origin of all.” Later this point is expounded further: “’Tis not all that are so, but you are so; needful of earth. ‘Tis you that maintain life. Generation to generation, breeding ever anew; and when you die, the new stock goes on. That’s the meaning of eternal life.”

In many ways, reading Growth of the Soil is like reading a preview for the later great writers, for one can see American writers like John Steinbeck and Thomas Wolfe have picked amid the themes in this work and made them their own. Yet there are moments when Growth of the Soil can feel a bit verbose for the impatient reader. Yet Hamsun is worth reading because there is no way around him. In the same way what Louis Ferdinand Celine did for French literature, Hamsun tore apart both the grammar and the lexicon of our Norwegian language, mixed high and low, dialect and aristocratic speech, and put all the pieces beautifully together again - in the totally new fashion we call contemporary Norwegian literature. As every Russian writer is rolled out of Gogol’s coat, every Norwegian one is an offspring of Hamsun, admittedly or otherwise.

One can wonder how the story of Norwegian peasants in the 19th century can be relevant today? But as we live so far removed from nature, are so surrounded by words and noise (mostly meaningless) and spend so much time worrying about our psyches, "Growth of the Soil" provides the exact antithesis of our world. It provides a perspective of what is really necessary for life and contentment and what needs to be let go of and what needs to be retained. It is a simple story of simple people, but it is far from shallow. The writing is beautiful and conveys so well the nuances of relationships and the impact of nature on humanity. In all, this is a a very Scandinavian work. Like an iconic Viking ship which combines beauty and simplicity with function, and is capable of navigating both rough seas and shallow rivers, Hamsun's writing has a biblical simplicity that narrates elegantly both life's small and meaningful events as well as its epic arc.

[violentviolette]

So I was on your fandom blog and I saw that you believe Bakugou (at least in assuming) to have ASPD. Is wondering if you could expand on that? I personally see him as NPD but I'd love to hear your side of things

first off anon bless u for being on my fandom blog that takes courage cause it’s a wicked hot mess over there lol and secondly to everyone else yes im about to spend an embarrassing amount of effort overanalyzing an anime man, no u shouldn’t apply this logic to diagnosing real people u don’t know or urself, no its not that deep but yes u can fuck right off if u wanna cry about me headcanoning ur favs with “shitty” illnesses. eat my dick.

But now down to the good shit! So I actually think bakugou has comorbid aspd/npd. But for this since u said u already see him as having npd I’ll just focus on the aspd criteria but im totally down to talk more about npd as well if u wanna. (the rest is under a cut because frankly mobile users would have drawn and quartered me otherwise)

So first im gonna go thru the dsm v criteria that are required for diagnosis that bakugou fits/exhibits (leaving out the few things that don’t pertain to him just for length and also because not every person has to fit every single criteria to qualify)

1. Significant impairments in personality as manifested by

a. identity (self esteem derived from power, pleasure, or personal gain), self direction (goal setting based on personal gratification, absence of prosocial standards and culturally normal ethical behavior)

katsukis entire sense of self is built upon his ability to “win” and to always be number one and come out on top. He absolutely cant stand to be viewed as less than that because if so, his entire sense of self begins to crumble. Part of the reason he’s so antagonistic towards Izuku in the early chapters is the fact that Izuku challenges that identity. He (unintentionally and intentionally) challenges katsuki and wont give way to him (which is the right thing to do, but we see how “well” katsuki handles that). He also doesn’t have a good sense of “prosocial standards.” katsuki has created his own internal sense of morals and values, he’s decided whats worth his time and effort based on his own opinions and not on what society deems worthwhile behavior. He’s constantly getting admonished that his attitude “isn’t that of a hero” because his values are different than the ones of the society around him. But he doesn’t care, as long as he “wins” then everythings good. And its not until he stops “winning” and his behavior begins to get in the way of his goals does he begin to realize that he has a problem.

b. impairments in interpersonal functioning as manifested by lack of empathy (lack of concern for feelings, needs, or suffering of others) and lack of intimacy (incapacity for mutually intimate relationships, use of dominance or intimidation to control others)

I could frankly write a whole essay about just this bit alone but I’ll try to condense my thoughts. So. Lets talk about katsukis lack of empathy. This boy wouldn’t know another person’s emotions if they walked up and punched him in the face. Which they do. On multiple occasions. But I digress. Katsuki is known for his shitty bedside manner, his lack of concern for the feelings of others is literally what cost him his provisional license, but aside from with Izuku (who we’ve established is a source of Baggage for katsuki and shouldn’t be counted among his normal behavior because at the start of the series they BOTH bring out the worst in one another and overcoming that is part of both of their character arcs and growth and a main theme of the damn story. Win and save. Save and win. Ahem. But again I digress) katsuki isn’t vindictive or cruel in an unnecessary way about other peoples emotions. He doesn’t use them against people, it just doesn’t occur to him that they exist. But as we see katsuki grow and begin to try and change his unhealthy behavior, we see that he’s not oblivious of others emotions in the same way todoroki is (who I headcanon as autistic along with izuku (who also has adhd), but that’s a whole nother post lol), he just doesn’t know what to do with them. He can handle things like kirishima feeling insecure, because he can logically talk to him about how strong he is to encourage and support him, but really struggles with more intimate and open forms of emotional support, like with Izuku.

He also struggles with forming prosocial bonds and friends. At the start of the series katsuki doesn’t have friends, he has lackeys he controls with intimidation and fear because he doesn’t know any other way to be. He has trust and intimacy issues and doesn’t like people getting too close to him because he feels displays of vulnerability are what makes someone weak (see those asocial morals and values we talked about earlier). After his time at UA, a few large helpings of some humble pie, and the diligent and hard work of a small group of fearless idiots (aka kaminari whose literally too prosocial for his own good and has zero self preservation instincts, and kirishima who has an endless supply of patience and understands empathy and other peoples emotions to a degree that’s baffling to me) he is able to start deconstructing that idea and realizing that u can be vulnerable and let people close to u and still be strong. That the mortifying ordeal of being known isn’t actually the worst things ever. Also that when confronted with people who aren’t actually afraid of him, he doesn’t know how else to deter them from getting close to him. The fact that none of the other kids in 1-A take katsukis shit and even go so far as to pick on him and mock him and call him out on his bullshit is a MAJOR turning point for his socialization skills.

2. pathological personality traits in the following catagories

a. antagonism, characterized by hostility (persistent and frequent angry feelings, anger or irritability in response to minor slights or insults, nasty mean vengeful behavior), callousness (lack of concern for the feelings and problems of others)

I mean. Do I even have to expand on this point? I feel like no

b. disinhibition, characterized by impulsivity (acting on the spur of the moment in response to immediate stimuli, acting without a plan or consideration for outcomes, difficulty establishing and following plans), risk taking (lack of concern for ones limitations and denial of the reality of personal danger, engaging in potentially risky and self-damaging activities without regard for consequences)

this is a criteria where u have to adjust for the world these characters are living in. but even then, by hero standards, katsuki is still impulsive. His teachers are constantly admonishing him in the early series for charging headfirst into a situation, loosing himself to his emotions and anger, and letting things get the better of him because hes not taking the time to properly assess the situation, this also bleeds into katsukis inability to work with others or ask for help. He charges headfirst into a situation by himself, blows up anything in his way, and then asks questions later. His teammates are often left totally in the dark to his plans, motives, or other moves and have to just play catch up to him the entire time. In the deku vs. kacchan 1 fight we see this behavior come out in full force. He has no plan, he blows up half the building with zero regard for their goals, and leaves iida completely in the dark. Momo pointing this all out and dragging him for filth during the recap is another wakeup moment for him, having to confront the realities of his impulsive and negative behavior whereas before he was only praised for it.

so if we take a look at even just that, which is still about ¾ of the diagnostic criteria, I think u can see where this really starts to explain his personality. Katsuki is hot headed, angry, impulsive, stubborn, selfish, he gets in his own way more often than not, he struggles with prosocial behavior, making friends, and relating emotionally to others. He has a hard time comforting people and usually does so in a blunt and logical way, he isn’t great at sympathy and being soft, kind, or gentle with other people. It takes a considerable amount of effort for him to realize where his world view and his morals and goals are warped and doing him more harm than good, and he absolutely cant stand to be vulnerable or honest about his feelings with others. 

All those things, imo, as someone with aspd & npd, are what make me feel like hes a good character representation of what the complexities of living with these disorders is like. Katsuki isn’t inherently a bad person, and as we see him grow and change, we see the ways in which hes becoming better, but its still hard for him. And despite what a lot of fandom thinks, if u look at the canon, the main person katsuki hurts with his behavior is himself. And I think that’s really important because people with aspd & npd are so often catagorized as abusive villians whose only goal in life is to hurt others. Whereas with katsuki we see where these things and this kind of thinking gets in the way of his goals and ultimately hurts him. and thats what I think makes him the most relatable and makes his growth all the much more satisfying. Katsuki is both fundamentally the same and an entirely different person from when we first meet him. his personality didn’t magically completely change, hes not just a tsundere whose suddenly all mushy feely and hyper empathetic, he’s just learning how to deal with his emotions and the world and getting better at being a healthy person.

So yea, those are my thoughts! There was apparently a whole 1600 words of them so my apologies for writing u a literal dissertation on this lol I just really love this fucking character

[silentexplorer18]

Into the Viper’s Nest: A Jughead Jones Short

Summary: After finding herself in a life of trouble, a bright student steps into the viper’s nest, meeting some rather charming snakes.

Paring: Jughead Jones x Reader

Warnings: Mentions of being beaten and a few curse words.

Read it here on AO3.

Masterlist

You’d lived on the South Side for as long as you could remember. Although you didn’t want to encourage the prejudice the North Siders had against everyone on the “wrong” side of the tracks, you had to admit that your life on the South Side had been far from ideal.

Your father had been involved with the Ghoulies, mother scribbled out of the picture, and you learned that gangs were harsh, cruel things, not anything you ever wished to be involved in.  But that wasn’t really your choice to make.  At thirteen, your father had traded you to the Ghoulies to settle his debt, retaining his freedom at the cost of your own.

You weren’t a member of the gang, merely a servant to their whims.  They kept you locked away from the world, trapped in a basement and schooled in obedience.  However, that obedience was fear based, not based on your ethics.  You didn’t believe in the Ghoulies, and knew wholeheartedly that what they did to the South Side was wrong.  That didn’t matter, though.  At risk of being burned, beaten, and/or cut, you practiced a silent obedience toward their harsh, unforgiving orders.

Typically, they kept you removed from the world.  Although you went out on occasion, you spent three years of servantry primarily in a Ghoulie basement until they decided keeping you hidden wasn’t enough.  They needed you for more jobs than that.

Apparently such a job was being a Serpent spy.

Of course, you were too timid to be a real Serpent, but they insisted that you needed to get close to the action in any way possible, utilizing your silence to gather intel for the gang.

You started school again.

Stepping foot into Southside High for the first time, it felt like the eyes of everyone in the world crawled against your skin like slimy cockroaches.  You felt lost, alone, dirty.  The Ghoulies would harass you in public as to “not blow your cover.”  However, you knew it was really just another excuse to litter your skin with bruises and mind with hateful remarks.  The Serpents didn’t approach you.  They noticed your arrival to the institution, if you could even call it that, and the way you tried to avoid everyone.  You were quiet, skittish even, in their eyes, nothing to waste time on.

But you were bright.

No one was prepared for that, neither the Ghoulies nor the Serpents.

You weren’t boastful of it at all, sitting toward the back of the class away from everyone else, bashful whenever the teacher called on you for an answer, always correct.

It was only a matter of time before your teacher informed you that you needed to get involved more with the other students, introducing you to Sweet Pea and Toni.  They barely regarded you, and you only gave them a small, shy smile in return.  When your instructor said that you would need to tutor them, your eyes grew wide at the thought, Ghoulies snickering behind you, knowing you’d gotten an opportunity into the viper’s nest.  Toni and Sweet Pea scoffed, turning to march out the door, before the teacher’s harsh voice rang out.  “If you do not get tutored by (y/n), we will hold the both of you back a grade.  You will be repeating this class and several others next year.”

“That’s not fair!” Toni growled, Sweet Pea grumbling similar sentiments.

“I’m giving you a solution,” the teacher said, gesturing toward your trembling figure.  “Take it,” she hissed before stepping out into the hallway.

Your eyes met theirs, round and saucer-like in terror.  “Whyte Wyrm.  After school.  Don’t be late,” Toni spat, whirling around with her gangmate and slithering down the hall.

The Ghoulies left in the room surrounded you.

“Don’t screw this up, whore,” one spat.

“Yeah.  You know the price,” growled another.

A few reached out, slapping your face and batting your head, reminding you that obedience was absolutely necessary.

After a few more hours of uneasy existence, you padded up to the bar, eyes tracing the door warily.  Quite literally, you were about to step into the snake pit, and you were far from ready.

The door clicked as it closed behind you, the embroidered eyes of snakes on leather jackets greeting you.  Without meaning to, you let out a shaky breath.

“Sit down over there,” someone shouted.  Looking up, you saw Toni behind the bar pointing at a table in the corner.  You nodded to yourself, settling softly into the shadows.  Placing your mathematics textbook and copy of Pride and Prejudice on the table, you studied the scene before you.  The room was dark, but lively and warm compared to the dank areas the Ghoulies would lurk around town.  Booze and brawn rippled through the area as people chatted, played pool, and threw darts.

Eventually, Toni and Sweet Pea ambled over to you, eyes dragging your moth eaten clothes and skittish eyes.  “So you’re gonna keep us from failing?” Toni addressed you.  You nodded shyly before she continued, “This is Sweet Pea.  I’m Toni.”  She paused for a moment, staring you down.  “And you are?” she drawled out in an annoyed tone.

“(Y/N),” you murmured quietly.

She nodded, pulling a book and some paper out for her and her less than studious counterpart.  The night was rather awkward, you timidly explaining things they didn’t understand as they plundered through algebraic expressions and basic trigonometric equations.  The rest of the week followed in a similar fashion, you arriving at the bar and explaining enough for them to pass without insulting their dignity too much, each night being beaten by Ghoulies for not retrieving any useful information about the rival gang.  Hiding bruises and diagramming problems had become your two strongest skills, though, so you didn’t have much of a problem keeping the Serpents from becoming too suspicious of your unsuccessful spying.  Earnestly, you were really beginning to like the Serpents; their gang proved to be almost homey in a way the Ghoulies never had.

Yet the rhythm couldn’t just continue as normal; life would be too easy that way.  Eventually, the Serpent King himself had to stride into the bar.  Only, sillily enough, you hadn’t the faintest idea who he was.

Toni and Pea had been working on a study guide for the latest exam, and, to be honest, they were doing really well.  To pass the time, you were now nose deep in The Great Gatsby, eyes fluttering over Nick Carraway’s exhilarating adventure.  Typically, you blocked out the idle chatter of the bar, but a clear, confident voice broke through your reverie.  “Gatsby?  Isn’t that a tad elementary?”

Your eyes drug up to meet his icy blue gaze, feeling your face pepper red in shame.  “I didn’t get to read much where I used to live,” you said softly, glancing back down to the worn pages of the novel.

The boy arched a brow at you.  “Where you used to live?”  You nodded, eyes back to scanning the page again in an attempt to avoid his question.

“(Y/N), this is how you do this, right?” Toni asked, shoving the paper in front of your face.

Scanning the page, you nodded.  “Make sure you carry your tens, though.  It should be 62, not 52.”  She let out a curse under her breath and continued working.

The dark haired boy smirked slightly before continuing his questions.  “Where are you from?”

“Here and there,” you replied softly, avoiding his gaze.

Toni finished her paper, smacking it down on the table with a grin the size of the Cheshire Cat’s.  “Done.  Sweet Pea, you good?”  He nodded, scratching down the numbers on his last problem.  “Right in time for the meeting.  Sorry, (y/n), you’re gonna have to leave.  Official Serpent business only.”

You nodded, gathering your things carefully.  “Monday, then?”

Needless to say, as your nervous figure slipped from the bar that evening before the meeting even begun, the Ghoulies took the weekend to remind you who you belonged to, fists and hot metal meeting your sensitive flesh as a reminder of your worthless behavior rang through your hot ears.

Things moved on in a fairly regular pattern, you helping the Serpents with their studies, and occasionally you and Jughead (you’d finally learned the crowned boy’s name) would discuss novels.  You were surprised by his intellect, and he yours.  However, there was something about you that he just didn’t understand.  You were so shy, skittish.  It didn’t matter if it was Toni or him or some stranger in the bar, you seemed to be afraid of everyone, jumping at sudden words or actions, eyes widening slightly every time someone entered the bar.

Yet the cool of Riverdale’s fall soon permeated the air, adorning the world with frosty, slushy rain.  You’d been able to walk back to your residence, a makeshift box beneath a bridge near Sweetwater River, after being confronted by the Ghoulies each night.  But tonight was different.  The wind was howling, rain piercing the ground like bullets, and you were dreading the thought of going out in the cold.  Of course, it wasn’t like you had much of a choice.

So after pulling on your backpack and wrapping your arms around your already frigid frame, you stepped out into the war of weather, trembling as you tried to push toward the storm.

You weren’t that sneaky, though.  Although Toni had been too distracted behind the bar to notice you pad off into the storm, Jughead had not failed to notice your foolish escape.  Pulling his leather jacket on, he marched out into the cold, jumping on his motorcycle and racing down the block to find you.

“What are you doing?” he shouted at you above the wind.  Your eyes were wide as you gazed at him, lips already beginning to pale.  You didn’t know what to say.  Oh, you know, just going back to my box under the bridge where I’ll probably freeze to death unless I get killed by a Ghoulie first.  What about you?  “Get on!” he shouted again, handing you a helmet.  You stepped near his bike, placing it on your head, but not clipping it.

“I don’t have anywhere to go,” you said back.  If he hadn’t been listening closely, he wouldn’t have heard it over the deafening wind.  But he did.

Reaching out, he clipped the buckle under your chin.  “Get on.”

You never imagined to confront Jughead Jones’s home that night, but as his roaring motorcycle rumbled to a stop beside his trailer, you didn’t argue against his welcome inside from the cold.

Sopping wet and slightly frozen, he ushered you inside his house, pulling the door shut and locking it tightly.

Pulling off his beanie and shaking out his damp locks, he asked, “Where have you been staying?”

You looked down, not daring to make eye contact with him.  “Don’t worry about it, Jughead.  I’ll just wait for the rain to stop and then get out of your hair.”

“No,” he said a little more forcefully, “Where have you been staying?”

Your eyes met his, and embarrassment filled your chest.  “Under Foxcole Bridge.”  It was barely more than a mutter, but he heard it.

His first instinct was to be mad you hadn’t said anything to anyone, but standing there staring at your trembling figure, he knew there were more important things to rectify at the moment.  Turning on his heel, he pulled an old shirt and some sweatpants out of his room as well as some socks, offering them to you.  “Take a shower.  You’ll be warmer.”

You stared at him warily for a moment, but the absolute numbness of your feet drug you from your position near his door into his bathroom.

Within twenty minutes, you had showered and dressed in his warm clothes, and Jughead had dried off his hair, changing into dry clothes and sitting down on the couch with his laptop.

When you emerged, curiosity drew you toward the boy whose hands flew across the worn keys.  He didn’t look up to you at first, finishing the last few of his sentences before clicking his laptop shut and turning toward you.  You’d sat next to him, eyes gliding over his every movement, but now it was his turn to survey you.

Devoid of makeup and clad in a tee shirt, he’d managed to expose the exterior you’d been hiding in the Whyte Wyrm.  Bruises, cuts, and scars all littered your battered arms, revealing the truth behind your nervous behavior.

He moved cautiously, attempting not to scare you.  “Who?” he queried, scarce more than a whisper, as he trailed a fingertip down your arm.

Realizing with shame your fatal mistake, you jumped, from the couch, turning away from him and wrapping your navy kissed arms around your figure.  “I’m sorry.  I should go.”

“No, no,” he said softly, rising from his seat.  “I’m sorry.  That was a little forward of me.  Here, sit down.  Let’s just talk.”  You eyed him warily, but the invitation of a blanket soon lured you into a spot next to him, socked feet curled under your body.  “What book are you reading now?” he queried softly, attempting to tread gentle ground to make you comfortable.

“Frankenstein,” you said softly.

He nodded.  “Are you liking it?”

You smiled to yourself a little, finally glancing up into his eyes.  “The scientist is kind of a whiny bitch, but the actual writing is really good.”  He chuckled, a smile cracking on his own lips.  “How is your novel coming?” you queried softly, earning a confused glance from him.  “Toni said something about you liking to write.  I just figured…” you gestured toward the laptop beside him.

He gave you a reassuring smile.  “You’re more astute than I gave you credit for.  Actually, yeah it’s-”  His words were broken off by a sharp banging on the door.  You looked at one another warily as he got up to answer it.

He cracked the door open slightly, two dark eyed Ghoulies gazing back at him through the cold, one obviously drunk.  “Where the hell is (y/n)?  We saw her leave the Wyrm with you,” one spat, the other glaring at Jughead menacingly.

“I dropped her near the bridge.  Said she’s been staying out there for a few weeks now, camping or something,” Jug said gruffly, glaring right back.  “What do you want with her?”

“She belongs to one of ours,” the drunk Ghoulie spat back.

Jughead scoffed.  “Then maybe you should find her before she freezes to death.”  With that, he slammed the door, turning the bolt to lock it, and silently ushering you into his room away from the windows.

“(Y/N), what’s going on?” he asked softly, sitting across from you on his bed.  “Those were Ghoulies at the door.”  Your eyes widened, and he couldn’t help but notice the way you uneasily glanced toward the living area again, terror flashing across your face.  Your fingertips curled around your arms, wrapping yourself in a small layer of protection, though you knew that the Ghoulies entering the trailer would make said protection worthless.  His eyes followed yours, glancing back to your worried figure.  “Will they hurt you?”  You avoided his gaze, but nodded, letting your hair fall in front of your eyes.  “Would they try to break in to get to you?”  You’d barely finished nodding before Jughead was up, yanking his phone from his pocket and dialing.

Within a half hour, the trailer was full of snakes.  They milled around for a while, conversing and planning what to do.  Toni sat on a chair in Jughead’s room, you snuggled into his sheets.  She was telling you something or other about how the Serpents took care of their own, how the Ghoulies wouldn’t be able to get to you, but as your eyelids began to slowly droop, lulled by the comfort of a real bed, Toni slid from the chair, reuniting with the snakes in the hall.

They were taking shifts guarding the door, the rest forming sleeping bodies curled on chairs and the floor.  When you awoke, startled from the roar of thunder through the thin walls of the trailer, it was an ungodly hour.  Frightened from the dark and unnerved by your surroundings, you rose from Jughead’s bed, padding gently down the carpeted hall.  You found a den of sleeping snakes, Jughead sat on the floor, raw eyes staring at the front door.  His body was illuminated by the television, flickering white light across his glossy Serpent jacket and dark shocks of hair.  The sound wasn’t on, and the snores of Serpents littered the room.

“Jughead, what are you doing up?” you whispered softly, kneeling beside his stiff frame.

“Keeping watch.  No Ghoulies are getting in.  You’ll be safe.”  His eyes never left the door, and his diligence brought a small smile to your lips.

“You need to rest.”

He rolled his eyes, but it only accentuated just how dark the bags under those oceanic orbs were.

You didn’t know Jughead that well, and you could feel shyness bubbling up in your chest, but you were determined to make this right.  He was sacrificing too much for you.  “The Ghoulies are too dumb to try to break in at this hour, Jug,” his eyes flickered to you at the use of his nickname, “Besides, I can keep watch while you get some rest.  You’ve done enough for me.  Tomorrow morning, I’ll leave and everything will go back to normal.”  Your voice caught at the end of the sentence, and though you tried to mask the fear that caused your voice to waver, Jughead could see right through it.

“No.  You’re staying, (y/n).  You’ll be safe here.  I’ll protect you, we all will.”  His eyes had left the door, fixated on you as he gently reached for your arm.  “I don’t know what normal is, but I have some guesses, and you’re not going back to any of that.”

His action of comfort was empowering, and you gave him a gentle smile of encouragement.  “Then come protect me in the bedroom?  I don’t like the loud noises,” you said, gesturing toward the window shyly.

With a sigh, he rose, triple checking the locks before stepping over dozing snakes on the way toward his room.

He tried to sit down on the chair Toni had occupied earlier, but you grabbed his arm, yanking him from his position and pulling the stiff jacket from his exhausted figure.  He attempted to object, but after some prodding, you were able to get him into his own bed.  You climbed in with him, the air chilly in the trailer despite the influx of bodies littering the floor.

You were facing one another, his eyes already drooping as you jumped, the thunder reverberating loudly around you.  As tired as he was, he still managed to notice you jump, gently placing a comforting arm around you.  “You’re safe,” he murmured.  “The Ghoulies won’t try to break into the snake’s den.”

You hummed, letting yourself fall back into a peaceful slumber in rhythm with the Serpent leader’s slow breathing.

You woke to the pale gray of morning filtering through Jughead’s thick blinds.  Your back was to his chest, his arm protectively around your battered frame.  He was so warm, so safe compared to the life you’d always known, and you felt yourself slowly realize how happy Jughead Jones could make you feel.

He shifted awake, mumbling an apology and going to pull his arm away.  You rolled over to face him.  “It’s okay,” you whispered back.  “It’s nice.”

He almost went to argue with you that it would be kinda creepy were it not him, a vaguely familiar boy holding you while you sleep, but then he realized that you probably hadn’t gotten that much affection in a while if the Ghoulies were the ones blossoming your skin with blue and violet bouquets.  Laying there amongst the early hours of the morning and staring into your lovely eyes, he realized that was something he needed to address.

“Listen, (y/n), I have to ask,” he began gently, “can you tell me what’s been going on?  I want to help you, and I will,” he reassured, “but I need to know what we’re dealing with here.”

You took a shaking breath, momentarily unsure if you should tell him you “belonged” to the Ghoulies, before divulging the words you’d never imagined you’d say to another living person, eyes glossing over at the quivering tales of your family, the Ghoulies, your eventual befriending of the Serpents.  By the time you had finished, tears were slipping from your eyes, and you tried to quickly wipe them away, but Jughead still saw them.  Reaching forward, he said softly, “Can I hug you?”  You nodded, and within seconds were pulled against the soft tee shirt, arms enveloping your world worn figure.  “You’re gonna be safe here.  No more Ghoulies.  Not ever.”  He rubbed your back soothingly for a while before you pulled back and noticed his glossy eyes.  You didn’t have to ask why; he could see the question in your eyes.  “I’m just sorry I didn’t notice.  That’s why you were so eager about going to the Wyrm, wasn’t it?  To get away from the Ghoulies?  And the books, that’s why you were so excited about the books.”  He sighed.  “I’m just so sorry I didn’t realize what was going on.”

You shook your head, the fervor pulling him from his guilty reverie.  “No, Jug, don’t be.  You weren’t meant to notice.  It would have been worse if you had.”

He gave you a sad smile, pulling you back against his chest gently.  “But I know now.  I promise, I’m never letting anything bad happen to you again.”

And lucky for you, Jughead Jones found himself exceptionally skilled at keeping promises.

A/N: Thank you for reading my story!  Let me know what you think, and feel free to shoot any suggestions or requests my way!  I hope you’re having a lovely day.

[palukoo]

so a couple months ago i relistened to w359 and made a 18000 word document while doing so containing iconic quotes, my reactions, feelings, et cetera. heres some highlights with varying amounts of context. (theres lowkey spoilers for the whole series btw)

""""i empathize too much""""

crazy how i still vividly remember walking outside [my old job] and to starbucks while listening to the spider ep... trauma

i mean i dont love it but it makes me feel things

GABRIEL THATS TOO ON THE NOSE

"let me have my badass space chick victory cocktail"

god like i AM team what wrong with handcuffs but I WOULD NOT HESITATE to kill hilbert for hera

the girlssss are fightinggg

THE SAD W359 MUSIC IS KILLING ME

like memoria who maxwell who jk jk

i love you renee minkowski marry me

local idiot's heart is in the right place

HARPOOOOOOONSSSS

lovelace lovelace lovelace loveLACE LOVELACE

"maybe she's some kind of clone thing" EIFFEL... this is day 1!!!

i hate these self sacrificial idiots

no no no not this music again ill cry

yall are so emotionally stunted it fucking hurts but damn if you dont care

literally how are they still alive

i want to hug her so much omg

alan rody shut the FUCK up im crying

rip zach valenti's throat

face the death reality via math

jacobi being a piece of shit

maxwell said lets kill hilbert rights

this is a kepler hate blog

minkowski thinking her emotions dont matter to the mission oh ho ho

"youre gonna straighten up" cutter they cant theyre not straight

maxwell and jacobi show up and blow up lads

"and you should really be more careful with your queen" KEPLER WHAT DOES THAT MEAN

wolf 359 stop making me stan these literally terrible people

FUNZO FUNZO FUNZO

i am caring about men tonight lads

theyre both awful sure go ahead have history

hilbert you interrupted their emotional moment they wouldve had a MOMENT

hera said im gay

ohhhh nooo interpersonal conflict makes me sad

hug minkowski rn

FRIENDSHIP IS MAGIC jacobi and maxwell are iconic

minkowski how did you not kill him

how much do yall use the words "good enough" and "cant"

"are you an alien" GOD the Hints

"one of our... sexier jobs" vs "this is gonna said less sexy after that"

eiffel stop cockblocking them

y'all's choice of pronouns IS illuminating

PROTECT HERA AT ALL COSTS

aw eiffel... minkowski... communication is KEY

oh yeah THATS what the psi wave regulator is for.... SURE

hilbert read the room

JACOBI you can't just describe minkowski like that without giving me a heart attack

how many times have all these bitches almost died

SORRY ANYTHING THEY SAY I LOSE IT

oh minkowski finally flipped (VALID)

oh wait that fact isnt fun at all and im literally crying

LIKE sometimes you save someone's life at great personal risk only to kill her a little while later

minkowski cries to “back to before” from ragtime

i feel to many things about the gals here idk what to tell you i love them thats the problem

its gay and it hurts!

lovelace laughing at people who can and will kill her... hot

OH WERE STARTING LOVELACES SELF SACRIFICE ALREADY

they let lovelace say FUCK

OH WAIT NO I FORGOT ITS WORSE

THANKS FOR MURDERING ME WITH YOUR TEARY ANGRY VOICE

ouchie anyways gay or no but also gay

hilarious and sad at the same time?

MAXWELL dont be a bitch... i expect this from jacobi and honestly i actually expect this from maxwell too but i dont like it

NO NOT THIS MUSIC

BROTP BROTP BROTP

i cant say anything else im too busy crying

UGH I COULD WRITE ESSAYS ON MY THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS THE MESSAGE THE TAKEAWAY BROADLY THE PERSONAL EMOTIONAL ANGUISH THE DESIRE TO HUG HERA ITS

im mad but thank you... all of you... explain... 

stop stop stop im literally so tense gone straight from sobbing to freeze instinct

GOD I HATE ALL THESE SURVIVALS GUILT IDIOTS

OH theyre all about uncertainty... the what ifs... okay... ouch ouch ouch

give everyone awards for bolero

eris are you gay

she said gay rights and AI rights

like i know i know we been knew but goddard really is so awful

Hera stop narrating Lovelace’s ongoing existential crisis

HOW IS THIS NOT GAY (I know how it’s not gay but. Let me have this)

KEPLER stop giving Lovelace insecurities and existential crises

Team back off lovelace for the win

like not to be dramatic but her arc is beautiful

oh boy thats my girlsssss

THATS FLIRTING MINKOWSKI

god i love that concern for your gf keep it up minkowski

COMMUNICATION? WITH THIS CREW? BOLD

GOD angrey hera is great

you know hera is having the time of her life witnessing it

eiffel you just ruined their romantic moment

minkowski is gonna kill them

a much better gayer more altruistic light

WE’RE ALWAYS TALKING ABOUT COMMUNICATION

WAIT I WAS BEING CANON DAMN I THOUGHT I WAS BEING CREATIVE AND PERHAPS OOC BUT IM IN THE CLEAR I GUESS

god hera has needed to snap at eiffel for so long

i can already feel myself about to get hit with the tears... the emotions

that shit hits different renee

The implications that Goddard like destroyed global warming omfg

it’s the moral grayness babeyyy

when it hits you with minkowski's shaky sigh first thing you know its gonna hit different

MINKOWSKI i need you to. love yourself as much as i love you

GOD the mutual concern they always have for each other is touching whether or not you think its gay. i think its gay

HERA WOULD YOU ASK A COW TO NOT BE A COW

oh of COURSE they cut coms first

lovelace is man, butterfly is quote, it says "is this flirting"

jacobi i need you to chill

but jacobiiiii thats lovelaces schtick

oh eiffel... you fucking idiot who gets really lucky sometimes

this game of chicken where theyre both chickens and kepler doesnt know any of that and each of them only know half

minkowski said im an ethics teacher now

who taught minkowski empathy in high stress situations?

yeah so i stay hitting the nail on the head

“kepler SHUT UP” is what brings everyone together

this is, como se dice.... kinda gay

this statement does not bode well for that

“Maybe less talking to yourself” he says to himself

ugh, to be Pop Culture Man™️

RACHEL i love you even tho I also hate you

Rachel if you make one more hand joke I’ll lose my mind

HER NAME!!!! IS HERA!!!! And I love her!!

i have a vivid mental image of post-series eiffel doing stand up like chris fleming style 

"my crew has made it very clear through a series of looks and gestures that one more slip up and i am out, thats it, so im taking this job very seriously"

"minkowski is very overprotective in a weird, erratic way, like when your seat belt randomly locks and its like i appreciate what youre trying to do but im going 4mph in a drive way."

"so when something like this happens you have to at least consider going away for a long time and living on a cursed space station"

"you know how when maxwell and hera are talking ive never felt less needed, you know, like ‘cause you guys would be totally happy alone on a rock in the middle of a lake"

"this is the kind of body you look at and go he'd probably be ok in space without a space suit"

the whole "theater kids" video is actually him going off about minkowski

minkowski is too swole for her own good

jacobi im gonna need you to take the redemption arc more seriously

i love my crazy crazy bitches

this FUCKING music

GOD HOW DOES PRYCE JUST ALWAYS GET WORSE

she just like mutilated that man he is doa absolutely destroyed one hit ko

can you tone down the gay, sweetie

you did it you broke rachel and Goddard down to their bare essentials

GOSH shes so AWKWARD 

so damn jacobi was just IMMEDIATELY ride or die for maxwell

this is too much for my poor baby heart

pryce & carter literally are just like lets do eugenics, lets do genocide

when hera says ill pull a yall and sacrifice myself for minkowski and lovelace 

god like cant believe KEPLER got a redemption arc (well not arc but you know)

ah yes the most tragic scenes all take place at once :)

I HAD TO STOP LISTENING TO BRAVE NEW WORLD CAUSE IT MADE ME TOO CRAZYYYY

THE SCRIPT SAID IT NOT ME

i love space moms!

this fucking music ALAN RODY IM SUING FOR DAMAGES

like the document also does have a lot of like deep thoughts and meta and parallels and discussion of motivations but this is just fun random things i said

[samwrights]

The Game // [1]

Summary: Tom Holland, Harrison Osterfield, and Jacob Batalon started a game back when they first began filming Spider-Man: Homecoming—to sleep with as many different extras as possible before the movie premiered. Their current targets are the ladies of the band Navy Skies, a ragtag group of young adults that were blessed with the opportunity to play in the homecoming dance scene. Fed up with the boys’ sick game, Laura and Zendaya are taking bets on who gets their heart broken first.

Pairing: fuckboy!Tom x OC, fuckboy!Harrison x OC, fuckboy!Jacob x OC, hints of TomDaya

Words: 2643

Inspo: Kick It // Neck Deep

Disclaimer: Lyric graphics were created by me, y’all. I’m not saying don’t steal it cause they’re not that impressive tbh but like don’t steal them.

Life was a pretty simple concept. Some people really wanted to complicate things and find deeper meanings within it, but at the end of the day, all there really was to it was to ensure you were living your best life. Dream big, work hard, and don’t allow anybody to take that from you. At least, this was the mentality that Cameron Lucia had adopted at a young age. She never let things like friends and family keep her planted in one spot. If they were truly family, they would never hold Cam back from chasing her dreams.

Or best case scenario, they came with her wherever she went; entirely inspired from her nomadic, carefree spirit. That was the situation she was currently in, anyway. At the ripe age of twenty four, Cameron and three of her closest friends she had met at her day job ended up packing up with her and moving out of state. It wasn’t that far fetched, or so she believed. The four of them had formed a band on top of their friendship and collectively decided they were going to move closer towards the music scene in Nashville, Tennessee in hopes of getting their big break. But after long debates about cost of living and not wanting to lose their city charm, the four of them settled on living in a northern suburb just outside of Atlanta.

The four of them had been living in their spacious, two bedroom apartment for the last six months and were still loving every second of it. Cameron always thought it was funny that people assumed they would be tearing out each others hair being in a band, living, and working together. With all of their different personality harmonizing, she knew they would prove everybody wrong.

The youngest of the group was Malachi, or Mac as he preferred, was freshly twenty one. Though lazy, he was the star socialite of the bunch. His charisma made their lives easier when it came to booking shows and just being the go-to person to have a one on one talk with. Ruby was the second youngest, but also held a very mature composure due to growing up way too soon—taking on the role of ‘Momma Bear’. Her incredible work ethic helped put all of Cameron’s dreams into motion. Danielle, or Dani, was a mere week younger than Cam and always focused on getting shit done, but they never held her back from being the life of the party. Cam was clearly the dreamer—always comping up or collaborating with her group of friends on proposing new insane schemes.

Together they supported each other in any which way they could, whether it be financially or trying to rationalize whatever impossible dream came to Cameron’s mind. They always started off crazy, like when she started booking their band at every single bar that she could possibly find in downtown Atlanta. They always ended up working out in mysterious ways, like when booking agents and producers wanted to feature Navy Skies in an upcoming unknown film right here in Atlanta. They couldn’t pass the opportunity up.

That chance brought them to where they were today, sitting in make up getting their hair done for their brief cameo on this unknown film project. Cam, Ruby, and Dani did their own make up at their own request. Since Mac had a buzz cut and the girls were only getting their hair done, he took the liberty to get his make up done, enjoying getting pampered with the miniscule amount of make up they gave him. “It feels like a facial that I so desperately need.” He laughed, causing his friends to laugh with him.

The band was called to set, and they followed a stagehand down the hallway of the school they were filming in, and entered the gymnasium. Heads turned upon the group entering—everybody was dressed in semi-formal attire while a banner that read ‘Homecoming’ hung behind the stage. That explained why the outfit selection they were all given were all dresses and dress pants.

“So for you guys, we don’t need anything super directive.” The stagehand said. “Think of this as a recording session, we’ll ring an alarm when we need you to kill the sound completely.” He explained that the amplifiers were going to be kept to a minimum; just loud enough to be ambient noise but not enough to overpower any dialogue. They were only required to do a half hour set, and none of the band mates didn’t have to talk throughout the set as they normally would have for a show.

“Okay, cool. Let’s get set up.” Said Ruby as they got on stage and unloaded their instruments. Cam set up all the microphones while Dani assembled her drum kit, and Mac and Ruby tuned their bass and guitars respectively. The gymnasium was packed with unknown people pretending to be students. If anyone would have known any of them, it would have been Malachi. But the only one he had recognized in the crowd was Zendaya, which was enough to leave Mac the slightest bit starstruck.

The experience was actually pretty cool and almost felt like a real show to the band. The fake students bopped along and some even danced with each other. When cameras weren’t zoomed in on actors, whom Navy Skies assumed to be major characters of the film, said actors were dancing amongst themselves and just being goofy. Zendaya was swinging along with the people she had grown close to over the duration of them film—Harrison, Jacob, and Laura. “Hey, these guys are pretty good.” Z said as she danced with Harrison. The students in the crowd were yelling along and cheering on the band, nearly forgetting they were extras in a film. Jacob and Harrison were no exceptions to Navy Skies’ hypnotism as they paused their movements for a brief moment. Jacob nudged Harrison, a knowing look in his eyes with a devilish smirk on his lips.

“Who you calling dibs on, mate?” Haz asked, reciprocating his friends now wicked features.

“I like the little blonde one on drums.”

“Perfect, I’m digging the guitarist.” He said, staring at the girl with a curly pixie cut. Harrison’s eyes were immediately drawn to the tattoos that covered both arms from shoulder to wrist. Zendaya and Laura rolled both of their eyes.

“Are you guys playing your stupid game again?” Laura asked. The boys just grinned in affirmation. See, since the beginning of the filming Spider-Man: Homecoming, Jacob, Harrison, and Tom started an unnamed game to see which of them could sleep with the most extras from the set. Right now, Harrison was the front runner, despite being an extra himself.

“I’m going to laugh so hard when this stupid game blows up in your face.” Zendaya sneered, a sly grin on her face at the mere thought.

“How do you figure?” Jacob asked. “They’re extras, they’re here for like a day and then it’s like it never even happened.”

“One of you guys are going to fall for your flings, and then she’s going to find out she was just a part of some stupid game and hopefully she puts your asses in place.” Laura added, taking a firm stance with Zendaya that what they were doing was wrong on so many levels. “You guys need a reality check.”

“Nah, that won’t happen.” Both Harrison and Jacob said in unison, their eyes focused on their targets. No, it wouldn’t happen.

Navy skies finished their half hour set with the alarm buzzing within in the gymnasium, signaling that sounded needed to cease. After setting down their instruments, the band mates took a seat off the edge of their stage, taking a drink from the water bottles provided from the film crew. Each of them were panting slightly, covered in a thin film of sweat from having to continuously perform. “I think we sounded pretty great.” Cam said as she tried to catch her breath. The band talked amongst themselves, only pausing when they noticed the same stagehand from before walking up to them. Behind him stood Zendaya and the people she was dancing with earlier in the scene, plus one more that none of them recognized.

“Hey guys, everything sounded amazing! But the cast was wondering if you could play an encore show? We’ll make it worth your while.”

“Keep talkin’.” Dani said, immediately switching to hardball mode despite being the smallest member of the band.

“We were thinking of tossing you guys an extra grand?”

“What?! Hell yes!” Mac screeched before the band could discuss it. Which, in any other circumstance would have angered the girls, it weren’t for the fact that they just earned five grand off of a show that didn’t require them to put a down payment for the venue. There was no argument to even be had.

“I guess that’s a yes.” Cam laughed. “But can we get a couple minutes to cool off?”

“Oh yes, of course. Take a breather, you guys can go change back into your street clothes if you want. I’ll let you guys know when you go on and you can treat it like a real show this time—no cameras.” The stagehand walked away, leaving the band to head off in the direction of the dressing room they had used earlier to change back into more comfortable clothes.

While the cast waited by the stage, Harrison and Jacob got Tom up to speed, letting him know who claimed who so far. “I guess that leaves me with the singer, is it?” He asked, staring at the girl with incredibly long brunette hair as the band returned to the gymnasium. Even in a simple baseball tee and ripped jean shorts, the front woman’s tattoos were the most noticeable features about her. They covered every visible inch of her arms and hands, even up her neck. He wondered what other parts of her body were tattooed. Tom, unfortunately, had been filming a different scene and didn’t get to see the band play. But judging from Harrison and Jacob’s infatuation with them, they must have left some kind of impression. With a couple of strings being pulled, Tom was able to get them to put on an encore show.

The band returned to the stage, trading in their dresses for ripped jeans and solid tees and looking much more relaxed. The cast walked up towards the stage, Zendaya being the first to break the ice and introduced herself to the band. “Hey, guys. We just wanted to say how much we all loved hearing you guys play and hope you don’t mind that we asked the film crew to have you guys play an encore.” She said, gesturing to herself and Laura and the boys. “I’m Zendaya, and this is Laura.”

“Oh, party. Mac, I’m the bassist.” The only male member shook both of the ladies’ hands firmly.

“Ruby, guitar.” She gave a slight wave to everyone. Harrison’s mouth twitched with the slightest smile as his target introduced herself.

“Dani, drums.” The petite blonde gave an awkward wave.

“And I’m Cameron.” One by one, the boys learned their prey’s names. It was officially game on now.

“I’m Tom, lovely to meet you, darling. I play Spider-Man.” He held his hand out to Cam, awaiting for her to shake it. Instead, the band all looked at each other before letting out a collective laugh. Tom looked at them confusedly, retracting his still empty hand. “What’s so funny?”

“We’ve been trying to figure out what movie we were going to be in for the last month.” Ruby said, still chuckling. The collective group shared a laugh briefly. As they waited around for the encore show to start, the group chatted amongst themselves, the boys buttering up their marks while Mac, Z, and Laura hung out.

“So, Spider-Man, is it?” Cam asked, her natural teasing tone coming through as she spoke to Tom.  “How did you land that role?” He laughed, answering with charm that he usually reserved for interviews. Cam was nodding along, showing she was listening.

“How long have you lot been in a band?” Tom fired back, his British accent resurfacing as he pulled himself out of character for the day. He knew he needed to keep his questions as innocent as possible to earn the trust of his prey before he could corner her and go in for the kill. Though she had answered, he hadn’t quite heard it due to focusing on his own thoughts more than their conversation.

The stagehand came back, clipboard in hand along with four sealed envelopes that he distributed to each of them. “You all ready to go?” He asked, looking at Navy Skies. They all nodded before hopping back up from their seats on the stage, getting ready for round two. By now, all of the actors, main crew and extras, gathered around.

“Ready guys?” Cam asked into the microphone while looking at her band mates.

“Let’s kick it!” Malachi enthused, signaling their start to a newer alternative set list that they had been working on in recent months. Cheers amongst the crowd erupted as heavy, fast paced chords blared along the amplifiers—this time at full volume. The cast took immediate notice to their stage presence, seeing how Mac and Ruby were in six with little head bangs as Cameron walked the length of the stage. She crouching real low to be face to face with the front row that was made up of Laura, Harrison, Jacob, Zendaya, and Tom before walking up beside Ruby. As she wrapped an arm around her guitarist, harmonizing their siren song as they sang out their next verse.

Cameron took back center stage, opening her arms wide while her bassist and guitarist joined in for the last line. The final words lingered before rapidly moving onto their next song. It was no help that Zendaya and Laura were looking at the boys, each of them unknowingly jumping along to foreshadowing words.

“Do you think they’ve realized?” Laura asked, yelling into her friends ear to be heard over the music. Zendaya shook her head.

“Definitely not. These girls don’t even know them and they’re calling their shit out.”

“Wanna make a little wager?” Zendaya raised her eyebrows, giving Laura an intrigued smile. “I’m betting all of them are going to fall for their targets. Whoever loses has to be the one to tell the girls they’re just another name to add to their list.”

“I’m betting Harrison falls for his.” She replied with a deep set smirk on her lips. Honestly, it didn’t really matter who won this bet—Z was just excited to see someone break it to them that they couldn’t just run around doing this to poor, unsuspecting girls. They had learned to tune out Laura and herself after the game had been established.

“Harrison? He’s the one winning their stupid thing!” Laura said in disbelief.

“Well, let’s get real, Jacob’s girl seems like she would only go for a one night stand.” At Zendaya’s statement, their eyes turned to the drummer. “And I could see Harrison falling for a girl like her. He’s the only one who’s got a real chance of being heartbroken.” She said, discreetly pointing to Ruby.

“What about Tom?” Laura asked.

“Please, Tom may be a participant in this silly game, but he’s in dead last and he would never fall for a girl like that.” There was the slightest sneer in Z’s tone as they glanced at the lead singer. “Besides, we all know I’m the one he falls asleep with at night.”

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[garywonghc]

The Natural World

by His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

If there is one area in which both education and the media have a special responsibility, it is, I believe, our natural environment. This responsibility has less to do with questions of right or wrong than with the question of survival. The natural world is our home. It is not necessarily sacred or holy. It is simply where we live.

It is therefore in our interest to look after it. This is common sense. But only recently have the size of our population and the power of science and technology grown to the point that they have a direct impact on nature. To put it another way, until now, Mother Earth has been able to tolerate our sloppy house habits. However, the stage has now been reached where she can no longer accept our behaviour in silence. The problems caused by environmental disasters can be seen as her response to our irresponsible behaviour. She is warning us that there are limits even to her tolerance.

Nowhere are the consequences of our failure to exercise discipline in the way we relate to our environment more apparent than in the case of present-day Tibet. It is no exaggeration to say that the Tibet I grew up in was a wildlife paradise. Every traveller who visited Tibet before the middle of the twentieth century remarked on this.

Animals were rarely hunted, except in the remotest areas where crops could not be grown. Indeed, it was customary for government officials annually to issue a proclamation protecting wildlife: Nobody, it read, however humble or noble, shall harm or do violence to the creatures of the waters or the wild. The only exceptions to this were rats and wolves. As a young man, I recall seeing great numbers of different species whenever I travelled outside Lhasa. My chief memory of the three-month journey across Tibet from my birthplace at Takster in the East to Lhasa, where I was formally proclaimed Dalai Lama as a four-year-old boy, is of the wildlife we encountered along the way.

Immense herds of kiang (wild asses) and drong (wild yak) freely roamed the great plains. Occasionally we would catch sight of shimmering herds of gowa, the shy Tibetan gazelle, of wa, the white-lipped deer, or of tso, our majestic antelope. I remember, too, my fascination for the little chibi, or pika, which would congregate on grassy areas. They were so friendly. I loved to watch the birds: the dignified gho (the bearded eagle) soaring high above monasteries and perched up in the mountains; the flocks of geese (nangbar); and occasionally, at night, to hear the call of the wookpa (the long-eared owl).

Even in Lhasa, one did not feel in any way cut off from the natural world. In my rooms at the top of the Potala, the winter palace of the Dalai Lamas, I spent countless hours as a child studying the behaviour of the red-beaked khyungkar which nested in the crevices of its walls. And behind the Norbulingka, the summer palace, I often saw pairs of trung trung Oapanes blacknecked cranes), birds which for me are the epitome of elegance and grace, that lived in the marshlands there. And all this is not to mention the crowning glory of Tibetan fauna: the bears and mountain foxes, the chanku (wolves), and sazik (the beautiful snow leopard), and thesik (lynx) which struck terror into the hearts of the normal farmer - or the gentle-faced giant panda (thorn tra), whi.ch is native to the border area between Tibet and China.

Sadly, this profusion of wildlife is no longer to be found. Partly due to hunting but primarily due to loss of habitat, what remains half a century after Tibet was occupied is only a small fraction of what there was. Without exception, every Tibetan I have spoken with who has been back to visit Tibet after thirty to forty years has reported on a striking absence of wildlife. Whereas before wild animals would often come close to the house, today they are hardly anywhere to be seen.

Equally troubling is the devastation of Tibet's forests. In the past, the hills were all thickly wooded; today those who have been back report that they are clean-shaven like a monk's head. The government in Beijing has admitted that the tragic flooding of western China, and further afield, is in part due to this. And yet I hear continuous reports of round-the-clock convoys oftrucks carrying logs east out of Tibet. This is especially tragic given the country's mountainous terrain and harsh climate. It means that replanting requites sustained care and attention. Unfortunately there is little evidence of this.

None of this is to say that, historically, we Tibetans were deliberately 'conservationist'. We were not. The idea of something called 'pollution' simply never occurred to us. There is no denying we were rather spoiled in this respect. A small population inhabited a very large area with clean, dry air and an abundance of pure mountain water. This innocent attitude toward cleanliness meant that when we Tibetans went into exile, we were astonished to discover, for example, the existence of streams whose water is not drinkable. Like an only child, no matter what we did, Mother Earth tolerated our behaviour. The result was that we had no proper understanding of cleanliness and hygiene. People would spit or blow their nose in the street without giving it a second thought. Indeed, saying this, I recall one elderly Khampa, a former bodyguard who used to come each day to circumambulate my residence in Dharamsala (a popular devotion). Unfortunately, he suffered greatly from bronchitis. This was exacerbated by the incense he carried. At each corner, therefore, he would pause to cough and expectorate so ferociously that I sometimes wondered whether he had come to pray or just to spit!

Over the years, since our first arriving in exile, I have taken a close interest in environmental issues. The Tibetan government in exile has paid particular attention to introducing our children to their responsibilities as residents of this fragile planet. And I never hesitate to speak out on the subject whenever I am given the opportunity. In particular, I always stress the need to consider how our actions, in affecting the environment, are likely to affect others. I admit that this is very often difficult to judge. We cannot say for sure what the ultimate effects of, for example, deforestation might be on the soil and the local rainfall, let alone what the implications are for the planet's weather systems. The only clear thing is that we humans are the only species with the power to destroy the earth as we know it. The birds have no such power, nor do the insects, nor does any mammal. Yet if we have the capacity to destroy the earth, so, too, do we have the capacity to protect it.

What is essential is that we find methods of manufacture that do not destroy nature. We need to find ways of cutting down on our use of wood and other limited natural resources. I am no expert in this field, and I cannot suggest how this might be done. I know only that it is possible, given the necessary determination. For example, I recall hearing on a visit to Stockholm some years ago that for the first time in many years fish were returning to the river that runs through the city. Until recently, there were none due to industrial pollution. Yet this improvement was by no means the result of all the local factories closing down. Likewise, on a visit to Germany, I was shown an industrial development designed to produce no pollution. So, clearly, solutions do exist to limit damage to the natural world without bringing industry to a halt.

This does not mean that I believe that we can rely on technology to overcome all our problems. Nor do I believe we can afford to continue destructive practices in anticipation of technical fixes being developed. Besides, the environment does not need fixing. It is our behaviour in relation to it that needs to change. I question whether, in the case of such a massive looming disaster as that caused by the greenhouse effect, a fix could ever exist, even in theory. And supposing it could, we have to ask whether it would ever be feasible to apply it on the scale that would be required. What of the expense and what of the cost in terms of our natural resources? I suspect that these would be prohibitively high. There is also the fact that in many other fields-such as in the humanitarian relief of hunger-there are already insufficient funds to cover the work that could be undertaken. Therefore, even if one were to argue that the necessary funds could be raised, morally speaking this would be almost impossible to justify given such deficiencies. It would not be right to deploy huge sums simply in order to enable the industrialised nations to continue their harmful practices while people in other places cannot even feed themselves.

All this points to the need to recognise the universal dimension of our actions and, based on this, to exercise restraint. The necessity of this is forcefully demonstrated when we come to consider the propagation of our species. Although from 'the point of view of all the major religions, the more humans the better, and although it may be true that some of the latest studies suggest a population implosion a century from now, still I believe we cannot ignore this issue. As a monk, it is perhaps inappropriate for me to comment on these matters. I believe that family planning is important. Of course, I do pot mean to suggest we should not have children. Human life is a precious resource and married couples should have children unless there are compelling reasons not to. The idea of not having children just because we want to enjoy a full life without responsibility is quite mistaken I think. At the same time, couples do have a duty to consider the impact our numbers have on the natural environment. This is especially true given the impact of modern 'technology.

Fortunately, more and more people are coming to recognise the importance of ethical discipline as a means to ensuring a healthy place to live. For this reason I am optimistic that disaster can be averted. Until comparatively recently, few people gave much thought to the effects of human activity on our planet. Yet today there are even political parties whose main concern is this. Moreover, the fact that the air we breathe, the water we drink, the forests and oceans which sustain millions of different life forms, and the Climatic patterns which govern out weather systems all transcend national boundaries is a source of hope. It means that no country,  no matter how rich and powerful or how poor and weak it may be, can afford not to take action in respect of this issue.

As far as the individual is concerned, the problems resulting from our neglect of our natural environment are a powerful reminder that we all have a contribution to make. And while one person's actions may not have a significant impact, the combined effect of millions of individuals' actions certainly does. This means that it is time for all those living in the industrially developed nations to give serious thought to changing their lifestyle. Again this is not so much a question of ethics. The fact that the population of the rest of the world has an equal right to improve their standard of living is in some ways more important than the affluent being able to continue their lifestyle. If this is to be fulfilled without causing irredeemable violence to the natural world-with all the negative consequences for happiness that this would entail-the richer countries must set an example. The cost to the planet, and thus the cost to humanity, of ever-increasing standards of living, is simply too great.

[deniscollins]

Airbnb Fights Its ‘Party House Problem’

Bad behavior at Airbnb “party houses” is damaging the company’s reputation. If you were an Airbnb executive, what policies, if any, would you enforce to stop the problem? Why? What are the ethics underlying your decision?

The luxury cabin in Incline Village, Nev., just north of Lake Tahoe, has a hot tub, a sauna, a pool table, a fire pit, two patios and a backyard full of towering pine trees. It sleeps 14, according to its listing on Airbnb. And it has been a nightmare for Sara Schmitz, a retiree who lives next door.

The home is frequently the site of raucous bachelor parties and weddings, Ms. Schmitz said. Recently, a crew of college students stayed there, blowing weed smoke into her house. When she asked them to stop, they threw trash in her yard.

“It’s a constant party house,” said Ms. Schmitz, 57. She has called the police a dozen times about the property and joined the Incline Village STR Advisory Group, an organization that fights short-term rentals — for which the largest source is Airbnb.

What Ms. Schmitz encountered is part of the “party house problem” facing Airbnb. That’s when guests who book its properties hold parties in them, something that appears to be happening more frequently in the coronavirus pandemic, as people look for places to socialize with bars closed and hotels appearing risky. In July, police officers in New Jersey broke up a party at an Airbnb with more than 700 people in attendance.

The party houses pose a risk to Airbnb’s reputation and business as the $18 billion company prepares to go public this year. In many neighborhoods, people have been turned off by the rentals’ noise and annoyances. Complaints about party houses across sites like Airbnb and Vrbo soared 250 percent between July and September compared with last year, according to Host Compliance, which provides local neighborhood hotlines across the United States and Canada.

Worse, the party houses raise safety issues. Between March and October, at least 27 shootings were connected to Airbnb rentals in the United States and Canada, according to a tally of local news reports by Jessica Black, an activist fighting short-term rentals. The tally was verified by The New York Times.

Over the years, Airbnb employees have pushed executives to do more to address the party houses, said six people who worked on safety issues at the company. But they said the start-up had largely put a priority on growth until a deadly shooting last Halloween at an Airbnb made national headlines. Five people died.

The issues are now fueling Airbnb’s many fights with communities over how to regulate home rentals. Groups like the one in Incline Village are becoming more vocal and are sharing their strategies for fighting short-term rentals. Cities including Chicago, San Diego, Ann Arbor, Mich., and Atlanta have recently proposed or enacted stricter rules or bans on the properties.

“Airbnb’s long-run viability and profitability is going to have a big question mark” if the party issue is not resolved, said Karen Xie, a professor at the University of Denver who researches the short-term rental industry.

Christopher Nulty, an Airbnb spokesman, said the company was combating the party houses with “robust new policies, products and technologies to stop large gatherings, which far exceeds measures taken by others.” He said Airbnb had made changes even though the moves “knowingly impacted growth and nights booked.”

Airbnb began rolling out new rules against party houses around the time that it was preparing to file to go public. In July, it said guests under the age of 25 with fewer than three positive reviews on the site could not book entire homes near where they live. In August, the month it filed for a public listing, it placed a 16-person cap on reservations, banned parties and sued guests who were responsible for the events.

Last month, it started testing technology to block suspicious last-minute bookings and suspended some party houses from its listings. And ahead of Halloween — the one-year anniversary of the shooting at the Airbnb in Orinda, Calif. — it banned one-night rentals on Halloween.

Some said the measures were too little, too late.

“The damage has really been done to the neighborhoods during that time,” said Austin Mao, an Airbnb host in Las Vegas. He said the costs of repairing damage from parties at his properties, which host as many as 2,000 guests a month, had been tremendous. Neighbors complained so much about parties over the summer that he converted a third of the listings to long-term rentals.

In 2016, Christopher Thorpe, an entrepreneur in Lincoln, Mass., said he faced $28,000 in damage after an Airbnb guest threw an 80-person rave, complete with ticket sales, at his home. Mr. Thorpe later learned that other hosts had reported that guest for parties, but Airbnb had not removed the renter from the platform.

“Airbnb put up as many roadblocks as they could to avoid dealing with this,” Mr. Thorpe said.

Airbnb has long grappled with safety issues, said the six former employees who worked on trust and safety and who asked to remain anonymous.

Two of them said they had asked Airbnb to sue people who frequently threw parties at the rentals for the damage, but executives feared that would draw attention to the events. Several also said they had pushed to limit or remove the “Instant Book” option, which confirms bookings immediately without requiring approval from the host. But the feature, which was used by almost 70 percent of listings in 2019, improved convenience and made Airbnb more competitive with hotels. So Airbnb did nothing, they said.

Mr. Nulty said Airbnb promoted Instant Book so hosts could not discriminate against guests by denying some of them a booking, adding that hosts can turn off the feature. He denied that executives had been urged to sue party promoters and said its legal team did not reject proposals because of concerns over public attention.

In Incline Village, which has a population of around 9,000, the Airbnb party houses have increasingly grated on residents. Shortly after Joe and Edie Farrell, retired physical therapists, moved permanently into their vacation home there last year, the house next door became an Airbnb. Blasting music and drunk people created “10 days of anxiety” around July Fourth, said Ms. Farrell, 70.

“Airbnb is basically helping people set up a hotel in our neighborhood,” Mr. Farrell, 68, said. “Now you have to worry about your safety and peace and quiet.”

Then came last year’s fatal shooting at the Airbnb in Orinda. A Vice news article that outlined Airbnb’s fraudulent listings and fake host accounts also went viral, raising questions about trust.

In response, Airbnb said it would ban parties thrown by professional organizers that were promoted on social media. It also said it would verify that all seven million of its listings were as advertised by Dec. 15, 2020, and announced a global hotline for neighbors to report parties. And it promoted its head of policy, Margaret Richardson, to be vice president of trust. (She has since left.)

But when the pandemic hit in March, executives scrambled to keep the company afloat. Verification stalled. (Airbnb said 40 percent of listings had “begun the verification process.”) The neighborhood hotline, which was supposed to be available globally, is accessible only in the United States, Canada and the Netherlands.

In May, Airbnb cut a quarter of its staff, including a large chunk of its safety team. In an internal Q. and A. with Brian Chesky, Airbnb’s chief executive, employees protested the layoffs. One said the decision would leave guests without support for weeks, according to a list of the questions viewed by The Times. Another wrote that he would feel unsafe staying in an Airbnb or renting his home on the site because of the lack of a safety plan.

In the first week after the layoffs, safety cases piled up, former employees said. Airbnb asked many of those it had laid off to return temporarily to work through the cases; many of those workers have remained, current and former employees said. In Dublin, the layoff plans were rescinded altogether, they said. Airbnb said the team that manages user safety is now the size it was before layoffs.

In August, Airbnb introduced more changes to improve safety. It sued a guest who held a party in Sacramento that resulted in three people getting shot. It then sued another guest who hosted a party in Cincinnati, where a property manager was shot in the back while trying to break up the event.

On Oct. 19, the company sued Davante Bell, a party promoter in Los Angeles who threw parties at Airbnb mansions. “Airbnb has suffered and continues to suffer reputational harm and potential liability to third parties as a direct result of Bell’s actions,” the company’s lawsuit said.

Mr. Bell, who declined to comment on Airbnb’s suit, has been selling tickets to a new party called “Nightmare on King Bell Street Halloween Mansion Party” on social media. This week, he continued posting fliers for the event. When asked if the party would be held at an Airbnb, Mr. Bell did not answer.

[muthur9000]

Prometheus (2012)

1. Jon Spaihts was originally brought on when the film was simply the “untitled Alien prequel.” After a general meeting, where he riffed for about 45 minutes about what could happen in the film. When faced with a studio saying they wanted to go back to the Alienuniverse but wasn’t sure how to do it, Spaihts said, “The only way to do it was to go back in time.”

2. After his first meeting, it took only ten days before Spaihts had a meeting with Ridley Scott and the 20th Century Fox executives. He wrote his first draft in only 3 ½ weeks.

3. Although Scott has said that the location for the opening sequence is not necessarily Earth, Damon Lindelof describes it as a “sort of nascent, pastoral, lifeless Earth” and later identifies it as “the dawn of life on Earth.” However, several minutes later, Lindelof says it’s up for debate whether this was Earth.

4. The opening sequence included dialogue between the Engineers, and this was shot and included in the deleted scenes. However, the dialogue was removed because it was felt the Engineers speaking robbed them of their mystery. Lindelof, who recorded his commentary before the film was released, suspected he would be criticized for not saying exactly what happened.

5. Lindelof says that he and Scott had “a long and involved conversation” on what to call the film. “Ridley would constantly bust my balls about calling it Prometheus because he thought it was pretentious and hard to pronounce,” he says. “I said I agree it is both, but as I am a very pretentious person, I was able to sort of bludgeon him into it, and I think Fox thought it was cool.”

6. The name of the ship in Spaihts’ original script was the Magellan, and the name Prometheus was added by Lindelof. Continuing to admit he’s a pretentious writer, Lindelof says he chose the allusion to Greek mythology because Weyland (Guy Pearce) is trying to get immortality from his creators as Prometheus stole fire from the gods.

7. Even though the dig where we meet Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) was in Spaihts’ original script, Scott didn’t shoot it initially, choosing to start the action in space. This scene was added during reshoots. Other versions of the archeology scene includes one in which Shaw and Holloway make their discovery in a submarine, but it was cut for budgetary reasons. Another version had them finding archeology on Mars, but Spaihts felt that was too much of an easy sell to convince someone that aliens seeded Earth.

8. In regards to Prometheus being labeled a horror movie, Lindelof states, “I think Prometheus certainly has defined horror elements… They just can’t stay out of the attic even if they know that it’s dangerous.”

9. Spaihts identifies what he believes is the biggest shift between his script and Lindelof’s revisions: the amount of alien creatures in the film. Spaihts’ script had traditional facehuggers, chestbursters and xenomorphs. Lindelof removed many of those elements in order to avoid telling a standard Alien story.

10. Spaihts also felt a big difference in the script versions was there was “a pretty long drum roll at the top” in his script. Initially there were extended sequences of Shaw and Holloway making their case to find alien ancestors, using puzzle pieces of language, genealogy and pre-history. “By the time we got onto a ship, we’d been running really the ghost story of human past, the mystery story, for a solid twenty minutes of screen time in the scripts I wrote.” In Lindelof’s script, this exposition is put in during the crew briefing. Lindelof says he did this to be more dynamic by presenting the information to the crew members at the same time it’s presented to the audience.

11. Lindelof compares this exposition scene to the crew to his work on Lost. The scripted scene was 8 or 9 pages, and it throws a lot of exposition at the audience. He said when he worked on Lost, he avoided expository scenes “at all costs.” As a result, he says, “people hate me because the show was very confusing.”

12. Lindelof points out that David (Michael Fassbender) is perfectly happy to be a robot. He doesn’t’ have a Pinocchio complex. “Robots are like iPods,” he says. “You can put your own case on them or put your own apps on them.” This is why he emulates Peter O’Toole from Lawrence of Arabia, to personalize himself rather than to emulate humanity.

13.After she wakes up from cryosleep, Meredith asks David if everyone is still alive. She is specifically asking whether Peter Weyland survived. If he were dead, she would have turned the ship around and gone home.

14. Both Spaihts and Lindelof express disappointment in the casting of a younger, extremely fit actor like Guy Pearce as Peter Weyland. Originally, there were scenes in which David talks to Weyland in his dream, and he appears as a young, fit man. However, Scott dropped those scenes because he didn’t think they were needed. This led Spaihts to refer to Weyland as “a strapping old man” and Lindelof to point out the inherent silliness of not just casting an old man rather than using old-age make-up.

15. Spaihts addresses a common complaint about the Prometheus being so much more advanced than the Nostromo, even though this film takes place many years before the events of Alien. He points out that the Nostromo was “a tugboat,” and it’s possible that cruder ship had been around for 150 years. “I don’t trip too much over the anachronism of the technology.”

16. Lindelof compares Weyland’s quest for more life (rather than more money) to Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) in Scott’s Blade Runner. However, instead of an artificial being seeking more life from humanity, this film features a human going to his creator and asking for more life. He says, “For me, Prometheus was all about making an Alien-Blade Runner mash-up, using the best themes from both movies and dropping them all into the same world… I just assumed they were sequels of each other.”

17. Spaihts wrote five drafts of the film, generally adhering more to the original Alien and including more of the derelict spacecraft (which is later referred to as a “juggernaut”).

18. In Spaihts’ original draft, the pups used to map the caves rolled and crawled along the ground instead of flying. He admits that they look cooler in the air.

19. Both Spaihts and Lindelof address the often criticized helmet removal by the crew. Lindelof calls it a “leap of faith” for the characters and compares Holloway’s helmet removal to the scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind in which Richard Dreyfussremoves his gas mask to prove there’s no danger. Spaihts calls the issue an inevitable tug-of-war. “Logic demands the helmet stay on almost always for head protection, for atmosphere, pressure could blow, infection could set in,” he said. “The director and actors will always want their helmets off for performance’s sake. And there will always be pressure to give the actors a good excuse to take their hats off.”

20. Spaihts originally conceived that the Engineers saw a greater spectrum than humans did. However, so did David, and he could see signs and symbols in the corridors that the humans didn’t.

21. Lindelof says Holloway gave Shaw “probably the worst STD you can possibly get, an alien in the belly.” What emerges is progenitor of the facehugger, and he says, “Shaw and Holloway are kind of that facehugger’s mommy and daddy.” Spaihts also independently calls the alien embryo a sexually transmitted disease, adding, “A chestburster was actually conceived by the love of a man and a woman.”

22. Lindelof further discusses the motivation of the Engineers: “That’s kind of the point of the movie, I think. The idea that our creators really don’t have a particular sense of great ambition or meaning behind what they’re doing as Holloway described it in an earlier draft… The idea that Earth was just these people’s Petri dish. But perhaps there is more to why they created us in the first place, which is sort of the spirit in which the movie ends. Again if you’re listening to my commentary it’s probably because you’re interested in what I have to say or you hate me. In either case, one of the things that I love to do in my writing is not answer questions definitively. As frustrating as this is I rely much more on the human imagination and your ability to sort of theorize as to what you think may have happened. And although that’s why its’ frustrating, people talk about movies after they’re over.”

23. Lindelof anticipates fans taking issue with the explanation and human connection to the space jockey, as he did initially when he read Spaihts’ script. He says, “It’s a controversial idea because anything in a prequel that essentially recasts your understanding of the original movie has the opportunity to lessen that movie and therefore, it’s a risk.”

24. On how the film actually ties in directly with Alien and its sequels, Lindelof is continually vague: “We still don’t know what happened on LV-426. Maybe we’ll never know. This movie goes off in its own direction. But again we sort of wanted to have the sense that if Prometheus had never occurred, maybe Alien still would’ve happened. But we’re seeing a similar chain of events going in an entirely different way.”

25. Lindelof explains that David is hesitant to spike Holloway’s drink with the alien mutagen possibly because of his ethics programming. However, because Weyland has instructed him to do whatever is necessary to bring a solution, but more importantly because Holloway admits that he’d do anything to get his own answers, that allows David to override that part of his programming.

26. Spaihts originally conceived Janek (Idris Elba) as a Captain Nemo type. While Elba doesn’t physically resemble the bearded type Spaihts had envisioned, he did fit the part extremely well. In fact, Lindelof makes several mentions throughout his commentary that he would do anything to add more Janek moments.

27. The sex scene between Holloway and Shaw was originally more antagonistic, in which Holloway was upset because he wanted to disprove the existence of God. Lindelof rewrote the scene for a reshoot to make it more congenial. This allows the audience to feel sympathy for Holloway when he is eventually killed by Vickers (Charlize Theron).

28. In Spaihts’ original script, Holloway was impregnated by a facehugger in the tunnels of the pyramid, after being startled by the holograms and falling down on an egg. The chestburster then emerged while he was making love to Shaw. Spaihts specifically chose this moment to tie together sex and violence, as is often done in the Alien universe.

29. Lindelof added the element of Fifield (Sean Harris) getting stoned in his suit to match the pattern of a horror movie, in which characters that have sex or get stoned often die.

30. After Holloway and Shaw’s sex scene and the attack on Millburn (Rafe Spall) and Fifield, Spaihts elaborates: “It’s interesting to see the Alien franchise’s built-in sexualization of menace play out in different fronts here. And it’s something that I think Damon did well, you know, obliged to part company with facehuggers and chestbursters which are very rapey and sexual phenomena. Pregnancy. And you, know, oral rape and impregnation as the way of being done in a by a monster, really ghastly. It’s why there is an Alienfranchise and not one scary Alien movie… The blasphemy of it, the fact that it is so vile and it’s so transgressive in the way it victimizes a human being I think is what makes it resonate, what makes it so dark.”

31. In Spaihts’ script, David finds a huge cargo hold of eggs, which was meant to undo the experiment on Earth. David captures and restrains Shaw when she confronts him in there. She is impregnated by a facehugger, and because she witnessed Holloway’s death, she knows what it will do to her. This is what causes her to escape and use the Med-Pod to extract it. Spaihts says that this deliberate exposure of Shaw to the aliens is what he misses most about his screenplay.

32. Spaihts says his idea of the C-section alien removal is what got him the writing job because no one had ever survived that before in an Alien film. “The real trauma is the exit wound,” he says, “so if you get it out clean, you might live.” In his script, once the creature was removed, it was ejected from the Med-Pod, and Shaw stayed in there for hours to heal, all the while watching it grow and eventually kill people. “Either way, she ends up running away, bloody and half-naked,” he admits.

33. The imagery around David accessing the Engineers’ stellar cartography hologram was inspired by a painting from Joseph Wright called “The Orrery.”

34. When Holloway is torched by Vickers, Spaihts points out the challenges in Lindelof’s script: “This is a difficult moment. And I can see Damon here looking for answers. You know, deprived of the facehuggers and aliens that otherwise killed these characters, how do you do away with them and how do you provide a moment for the evil for your villains to play out?”

35. Lindelof identifies what he considers to be the fundamental difference between his and Spaihts’ scripts, which influenced the name and direction of the film: “Weyland was not a character in Jon’s draft other than at the opening. He’s not on the ship. He was driven by the idea that finding the Engineers would result in breakthroughs in terraforming technology and thus could make the company a lot of money. In this version, Weyland is not driven by money at all. He’s driven by the one thing his money can’t buy him, which is some iteration of eternal life.”

36. When the surviving Engineer awakens, Lindelof points out that there are no answers to what exactly the Engineers were doing. David gives a theory, but there are no answers, though Lindelof hints at some ideas that could be developed in further films. Spaihts offers a more concrete reason why there’s no explanation: “If you’re gonna wake up God, you’re gonna have Him talk to you, what on Earth could he say? What speech can he give you that will satisfy you that will be good enough, cool enough, deep enough? Here’s the alien super-race that made us what we are. What do they have to say to us?”

37. The Engineer originally did speak to David, which is included in the deleted scenes, but Lindelof said it was removed from the film because “it robbed him of any coolness or mystery.”

38. At the end of Spaihts’ script, after the juggernaut crashes, Shaw has to fight a xenomorph which emerged from the Engineer pilot. Lindelof decided to change it to the Engineer fighting her because he felt it was a movie about a creation confronting its creator, rather than a woman fighting an alien.

39. Spaihts chose the name “David” for the android because the first three androids were Ash, Bishop and Call, in that order. Alphabetically, David was the next logical choice. David was also a reference to Michaelangeo’s famous sculpture, which was a physical model for the Engineers. He’s also the first android to be referred to by a first name instead of his surname, and he was the first in chronology.

40. As he wraps up his commentary, Lindelof goes back to the question of whether this is an actual prequel to Alien or not. His final argument is: “This movie doesn’t end with a bunch of eggs on LV-426, and that’s partly what makes it not fit as a direct prequel.”

Best in Commentary

Lindelof: “That was my attempt to get Charlize Theron naked, but cooler heads prevailed.” (Regarding Meredith Vickers doing push-ups in her underwear after waking from cryosleep)

Lindelof: “How far away is that from LV 426?” About 185 LVs, whatever that means. Yes, I’m not as nerdy as I should be.” (Regarding the location of LV-223)

Lindelof: “David is not really the guy you want as your OB-GYN.”

Lindelof: “A spoiler alert here. If a man and a woman have sex, you can make a baby. And if that man has just been infected by a crazy android with weird black goop, that baby is going to be strange and upsetting.”

Spaihts: “Both of the women in this movie are in insane shape. It’s terrifying how muscular and powerful they are. Either one could kick my ass.”

Lindelof: “If you hated the movie, again, I apologize. And hopefully this made you hate me even more. And if you liked it, I’m really grateful that you did. And hopefully we’ll get to spend some more time in this universe because it’s one of my favorites.”

[gokuchulainn]

because apparently i'm not allowed to ask all about morgen i guess you have to do 1-10 rose, 11-20 ayo, 21-30 your seafolk girl i can't remember how to spell her name, 31-40 morgen. i expect you to write a book

WHOOPS I’M GONNA WRITE A NOVEL

ROSARY

Does your character have siblings or family members in their age group? Which one are they closest with? Rosary is the lone teenager! Both of her cousins are under the age of 12 and her mom and aunt are early 40′s and late 30′s respectively! She doesn’t know her dad’s family well and isn’t really familiar with whether or not she even HAS cousins her age on that side. 

What is/was your character’s relationship with their mother like? She loves her mom so much. She respects the shit out of her mom’s work ethic and will do whatever she can to support her mother in her endeavors. However, she misses her mom because their schedules don’t overlap much, since her mom works a lot and Rose is either in school or off solving mysteries or some shit. Her mom is very supportive but generally isn’t in the loop about her daughter, which drives a wedge between them.

What is/was your character’s relationship with their father like? Rose’s dad is dead but he was very supportive and involved with his daughter. He was very open about his culture and encouraged artistic endeavors from her. However, she was 9 or 10 when he passed and Rose feels a temporal distance from his love and support now.

Has your character ever witnessed something that fundamentally changed them? If so, does anyone else know? Oh boy. Having her abilities sealed off, seeing her mother break down after learning her father didn’t make it after the accident that killed him, reading the final missing page of Sharon’s diary (the one chronicling the leadup to her untimely death). The only people who are aware of ALL of these things are Ayo and Morgen. 

On an average day, what can be found in your character’s pockets? She has a lot of twine in her pockets because she works as a florist. She usually also has receipts from the coffee she purchases before school, and the change from that. She also usually has eyedrops in her pocket because she cannot stand if she gets dry eyes while wearing her contacts. 

Does your character have recurring themes in their dreams? Rose doesn’t remember most of her dreams, but if she does, it’s usually super bizarre shit.

Does your character have recurring themes in their nightmares? See above. Rosary isn’t really a dreamer. She doesn’t have enough information to draw from to draw off patterns.

Has your character ever fired a gun? If so, what was their first target? Rose’s weapon of choice isn’t really a gun, so N/A.

Is your character’s current socioeconomic status different than it was when they were growing up? Rosary has always grow up pretty smack-dab in the center of middle class, but money was very tight after her dad passed. When her aunt moved in with her kids, they were able to return to the smack dab of middle class sort of position. (Also they live out west so that cost of living tho).

Does your character feel more comfortable with more clothing, or with less clothing? Rosary likes to show more skin, but she’s also a 17 year old with tattoos, which is considered pretty illegal or is at least frowned upon by others. Also her mom has no idea that she has them, so she’s very careful about how much skin and what skin she shows, which feels stifling for her.

Ayo

In what situation was your character the most afraid they’ve ever been? Her first time out with Rosary investigating her friend’s murder kind of tosses her unceremoniously into the underworld of demons and spirits and stuff and she definitely doesn’t sleep for a few nights after that. In what situation was your character the most calm they’ve ever been? She’s really chill when she’s spending time with her boyfriend, Al. He keeps her grounded.Is your character bothered by the sight of blood? If so, in what way? This is an interesting question. Ayo is pretty rough-and-tumble and plays catcher for her softball team, so she’s used to getting roughed up and bloody from time to time. However, she really HATES seeing other people’s blood. For example, Rosary uses blood magic, and Ayo has to look away whenever Rose cuts herself to use it.Does your character remember names or faces easier? Ayo has a great memory for both! It’s one of her predominant character traits. She can hear a full name once and remember it always. When she met her boyfriend in freshman year of high school, he introduced himself by his full name, and she was able to greet him by it when she met him again for the second time months later. Also, her facial memory is kind of nuts.

Is your character preoccupied with money or material possession? Why or why not? Ayo kind of grew up in a pretty wealthy household, so she has that rich kid “doesn’t really understand the value of money” thing. She kind of just assumes she’ll be successful in life. In short, she doesn’t really have a preoccupation with it: it barely crosses her radar. 

Which does your character idealize most: happiness or success? Before Sharon’s passing, Ayo was never truly unhappy in a broad sense. Her dreams are usually about the sort of job she’ll have and the sort of house she’ll live in, so I suppose success is what she idealizes. 

What was your character’s favorite toy as a child? Ayo’s favorite toy was her older sisters lol. She liked to bother them and get them to play make believe with her rather than play with dolls or action figures or other toys. She has a stuffed dog from when she was a child named Dottie that you would have to pry from her cold, dead hands.

Is your character more likely to admire wisdom, or ambition in others? Ayo’s parents are both from cultures where elders and their advice are heavily respected, and this has passed on to Ayo. She views heavy ambition as a way for people to undo themselves. Ayo generally doesn’t value this quality as much.

What is your character’s biggest relationship flaw? Has this flaw destroyed relationships for them before? Ayo tends to overinvest in relationships at the beginning of them, which usually drives people away or makes them take advantage of her. She had a number of short-lived, unhappy relationships before she met Al because of this, but he was patient with her as they began to date. (note that they were friends for two years before they began to date). 

In what ways does your character compare themselves to others? Do they do this for the sake of self-validation, or self-criticism? Ayo tends to compare on a level of “what is x person doing that I’m not?” She’s fairly confident in her body image and appearance, not caring if she has slobbish days. However, if she feels that a friend is doing more than her, she may begin to internalize that she’s somehow lesser for not being as involved or as busy. (A large flaw of hers is equating busy with productive or fruitful). It’s more self-critical than anything.

Caarda

If something tragic or negative happens to your character, do they believe they may have caused or deserved it, or are they quick to blame others? Caarda is a young teenager by her species’ standards. She tends to blame others before looking at herself, although the tragic events that happen to her in her story are generally just terrible luck rather than anything she can actively control.

What does your character like in other people? Caarda enjoys altruism (she hates sensing ulterior motives) and confidence. She likes people who hum or sing to themselves, too, especially if they think no one else is watching. Also, those who actively swear without a filter.

What does your character dislike in other people? Caarda doesn’t like people who are closed-off or hard to read. Her biggest pet peeve is also when people touch without asking, and will actively do her best to avoid these sorts of people if she can.

How quick is your character to trust someone else? Though flighty, Caarda tends to trust people pretty quickly if they speak nicely enough and smile genuinely. 

How quick is your character to suspect someone else? Does this change if they are close with that person? Caarda’s trust is quick to die if someone does something that speaks against her morals. For example, if someone were to actively lie in front of her (with her knowing the truth of the situation), then Caarda would begin to distrust that person. It doesn’t change if she’s close to someone, but it can cause her more angst/grief if she’s familiar with them.

How does your character behave around children? Caarda is a child lol. But with younger children she’s the “fun older kid” who teaches them shitty behaviors and fun games. 

How does your character normally deal with confrontation? Caarda is very avoidant with confrontation. She’d rather someone else deal with it while she hides away. Again, she’s pretty flighty, but that’s sort of to be expected from a young kid.

How quick or slow is your character to resort to physical violence in a confrontation? Caarda is very slow to resorting to physical violence. While she may horse around with friends or play-fight, she doesn’t want to actually fight and gets scared the minute things come to more than shoving and splashing. If necessary, she will do incapacitating blows and swim away as fast as possible. 

What did your character dream of being or doing as a child? Did that dream come true? Caarda wants to visit every major ocean and sea on the planet and meet all other seafolk (current stand-in name for her species). I’m hoping she gets to!

What does your character find repulsive or disgusting? After being taken aboard a research vessel, Caarda finds needles and human men repulsive. She doesn’t mind women, like Ayelet or Lillian (two other female characters in this story), but MAN OH MAN. If a human man ever touches her again she may resort to violence.

Morgen

Describe a scenario in which your character feels most comfortable. Morgen is most comfortable when doing something he’s good at, especially if he looks good doing the thing he’s good at. For example, if Morgen got to play a really wicked violin/fiddle solo in a well-lit, gorgeous building, he’d feel really comfortable and happy to the point of being showoffish. He’s kind of a vain little creature.

Describe a scenario in which your character feels most uncomfortable. Morgen would be extremely uncomfortable in a situation in which he has no prior knowledge of what to do but is expected to perform/do a task perfectly. If someone gave him a task with no direction and not enough time to do it, he’d be uncomfortable to the point of excessive defensiveness or even tears.

In the face of criticism, is your character defensive, self-deprecating, or willing to improve? Morgen and criticism don’t mix well. He tends to get a bit defensive or deflects, asking if the critic could “do it better” or something like that. He can also get darkly self-deprecating, mockingly saying things like “Yeah I know, I fucking suck” etc etc. He’s pretty caustic when it comes to that, and he often has to be reminded that he doesn’t have to be perfect and criticism is okay.

Is your character more likely to keep trying a solution/method that didn’t work the first time, or immediately move on to a different solution/method? Morgen will strive toward perfection and the best-fit solution, so he will get really pissed off that it didn’t work but then invest quickly into finding a new solution or method to solving a problem. He’s the sort of person who would write like 80 drafts of something trying to find the “perfect” one.

How does your character behave around people they like? Oh god, this boy is so sappy and sweet, almost to the point of being overbearing. He likes to be physically affectionate and hug people or touch them, which can make some people uncomfortable.  He’s also very chatty, because he likes to share what he’s thinking and feeling.

How does your character behave around people they dislike? Quiet. Cold. Distant. He will not look them in the eye, might use words they don’t understand (whether it’s a language or knowledge barrier), and will do anything to keep them from continuing to talk to him. He’s kind of childish in that regard.

Is your character more concerned with defending their honor, or protecting their status? Why not all of the above? Boy’s super worried about he’s perceived both physically, mentally, and any other form. He’s worried about looking good in all facets.

Is your character more likely to remove a problem/threat, or remove themselves from a problem/threat? Morgen will eliminate a threat as efficiently as possible. He doesn’t scare easily in the face of danger and would rather make the threat pay for being a threat than anything else. This sometimes can lead to what might effectively be an execution.

Has your character ever been bitten by an animal? How were they affected (or unaffected)? Dude gets bitten by cats constantly. He loves them but they do not love him back. It depresses him because HE WANTS THE CATS TO LOVE HIM OH MY GODDDDDD. 

How does your character treat people in service jobs? A waiter could spill coffee on Morgen and he would apologize for sitting where the coffee fell instead of demanding an apology. 

[tariqk]

So every time I hear a dude1 bring up the specter of a super-intelligent artificial intelligence, I roll my eyes, but this current bout of wight hand-wringing has gotten me wondering if these dudes are just blowing smoke at our faces to distract us from the real issue.

Cut for some angry ranting (and footnotes, because nothing feels better than angry research!) about this subject.

Like, do I care about superintelligent Strong AI? Not particularly, for the following reasons:

Strong AI takes a lot of effort for questionable results

I think it's pretty self-evident that intelligence doesn't self-organize by you just mashing as many processing units as you can into some kind of platform, and you can get a mind. You kind of can't. At this point, jamming as many neurons as possible into a skull will just leave you with a mass of neurons and not a brain, and jamming more memristors or whatever it is that you're using for computation won't give you a brain. Or maybe it will, but that's like the beginning. You still need to train that brain, so unless you can tell me that that's been automated and that neural networks are training themselves, what's the problem? Yes, deep learning systems are outperforming humans (slightly) on tasks that were previously the province of human minds2, but right now? It's not self-directed. And yes, that's something you can do.

But the basic argument here isn't that it won't be hard to do, because it is! It's hard to do, it costs money and time, and your final result is...?

If you were going to say, “something very much like a human mind, but better”, I'm going to stop you there for a minute, and have you reconsider. You want to create an entity that has it's own volition, it's own motivations, be essentially a person... because...? You want to exploit that entity? How are you going to make it do what you want?

Let's be real here. There's a difference between “getting work done faster and more effectively” and “creating workers to exploit”. And that difference is huge. Like, one is focused on results, the other is something we've never really done before, and frankly, the idea is horrifying, from an ethical, legal and financial perspective. You're talking the mother of all liability suits, here. Or the beginnings of an atrocity. If we're talking about minds that can be killed with a switch3, created to... work tirelessly for you?

That's slavery. That's horrifying. And you want to work towards it, when the cost of being found out, or your workers demanding to be treated like people, is likely too high, and the ethical and legal cost of creating new minds might be astronomical...?

Why4?

More importantly, who the fuck would want to finance this5?

Super-intelligence may actually be impossible

Okay, let's say, because we don't really know, and it's totally plausible, that instead of aiming to create Strong AI, you focus your efforts on Weak, specialized AI, without a sense of self, that aren't people, because the ethical concerns are horrifying bad and you don't want that sort of legal and moral entanglement. And yet it happens anyway, because the space between what you're doing and Strong AI might be so porous and thin that one day they just break through.

Okay, congratulations in creating a person. Also, my condolences to your legal and ethical entanglements.

Are we doomed, though? Probably not.

Like, Robin Hanson kind of covered this in The Betterness Explosion, so I'll just quote the relevant section:

After all, we seem to have little reason to expect there is a useful grand unified theory of betterness to discover, beyond what we already know. “Betterness” seems mostly a concept about us and what we want – why should it correspond to something out there about which we can make powerful discoveries?

But a bunch of smart well-meaning folks actually do worry about a scenario that seems pretty close to this one. Except they talk about “intelligence” instead of “betterness.”

Considering the fact that our history of intelligence is not only incoherent but also indefensible, because intelligence was never seen as something to strive for, but used to exclude and murder, the fact is that well, there isn't a theory of intelligence that could be used to, I don't know, build a damn machine?

I'm remembering a time when people were buzzing about AIXI, which, well, for one thing, it's not computable6, and for another, why?

Like, end of the day, the reasoning behind artificial general intelligence is that you want to resolve AI-complete and AI-hard problems like computer vision, language translation, image classification... but if you look at the stuff that's happening in Weak AI research, that's already happening. You don't need to make smart people to solve these problem. You don't even need people.

The problem with artificial intelligence isn't the AI itself, but the people who own the AI

Basically.

Like, do I give a shit that we'll end up making people? No. because, do you know how fraught it is to actually make people the natural way?

They're expected to have rights, and you're responsible for them because you made them, and it opens the world up to this whole universe of liability that you really ought not to get into unless you really want to.

And if that happens, so what? What, they're going to destroy humanity? There are already human beings dying by the busload because there are human beings who already don't give a shit about other human beings... so what if they're replaced by not humans? Are those human beings getting killed not going to get more killed? Not particularly.

The only people who are terrified are the ones who worry that what they've visited upon the poor and the not-white and the not-abled will happen upon them, and let's be honest: if their track record for treating sapient beings is of any indication, the day that fucking happens is the day that they had it fucking coming.

Like, as if Mark Zuckenberg, Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Eric Schmidt, Travis Kalanick or any Silicon Valley puke gives a flying fuck about algorithms they use to fuck people over... but they're trying to get us to care about systems that go out of their control?

Mmm-hmm, yeah, okay. Sure. Sort out your own fucking problems, assholes.

And it is a dude, and usually a white one at that ↩︎

I really need to recommend Károly Zsolnai-Fehér's YouTube channel, because not only is his channel full of insightful (and accessible!) videos on not just artificial intelligence research, but also other things, but he delivers it in this really charming way that I find very enjoyable. ↩︎

Oh, okay! You can restart them from their last state. Great, so it's not a switch to murder sapient beings, it's a switch to imprison them indefinitely. WOW THAT SOUNDS SO MUCH BETTER (it does not). ↩︎

Seriously, why the fuck, though? We already have people tirelessly advocating for the rights of non-human beings, and the thought of having another corporation, or some rich bastard like Elon Musk, creating his own fucking slaves... like, yes, we do, as a society immersed in a racist capitalist system, tolerate slavery, we just don't call it that, we spend endless amounts of time working so that less people don't get outraged about that, but can you imagine when they do? You wouldn't only be fighting against your workers, but all of these angry people who've found out that you're keeping slaves in the basement. ↩︎

I'll be fair: in this age of Trump? Maybe there are sick fucks who'd want to do this. That's depressing to behold. ↩︎

Based on this thread on Stack Exchange, it's like… basically abstract everything that's difficult about AGI and push it to computing? That's fucking lazy. I mean, as it defines the universe of possibility great, but doesn't make it any easier to make AGI, and it might not even be the final form of what might eventually be AI as people? ↩︎

[namelessblacksheep]

BULLSHITTING YOUR WAY TO THE TOP

The desire to be a success is a healthy and normal concept in life. Whether you apply that to a hobby, career or how you live your day-to-day existence.

Being ‘successful’ will vary from person to person, but generally speaking, success is a gradual and progressive upward curve with a few peaks and troughs along the way. It takes time and effort and it brings with it a sense of achievement.

We live in this fast moving society with countless messages to encourage us to be the best we can be, but that is often offset against pressures to see the fruits of our labours. By our very nature, humans like to quantify and measure the progress of success, which can often skew the true path to achieving it. Success involves a goal and a path in its most simple form. You take steps down the path to get you to where you want to be. Some victories can be achieved more quickly than others.

A diet, dependent on your starting weight can lead to a successful body transformation or weight loss in a matter of months. Learning how to do the requisite tasks of a new job perhaps 6 months or so dependent on the complexity of the role. Becoming a legendary guitar player who would make Jimi Hendrix blush, might well take a little longer.

All of these are examples where success can be achieved by taking measured steps with tangible measuring points to see progress towards the end goal. Straightforward and not rocket science. However, many people in society today for whatever reason, seem to not want to follow this most simple process. Everything is about taking shortcuts and getting there faster than others.

This concept of cutting corners making you the smarter guy or gal than the fools who follow the long and lonely path to destination ‘success’ is very enticing. It’s quicker, not everyone takes that path and who wants to follow the crowd anyway, right?

A place where cutting corners and rising to the top is increasingly prominent is in the world of work. With a diet you can cut corners, lose a lot of weight and achieve your goal, it might only last a week or two despite punishing yourself with starvation and some weird potion that you only drink between the hours of 12 pm and 2 pm for a month.

There is a belief that the corporate world is not the same as the real world. Working hard is for idiots. Playing the game and presenting in such a way that makes you get seen is the quick path up the corporate ladder to a plum job and a nice benefits package. Boom, you’re now killing it and sticking up your middle finger to the tried and tested path to success.

Just stop to think for a second of a colleague (or colleagues) and co-workers who are successful and have done so by failing at every turn, never delivering anything and somehow always seem to be in line for a promotion or have got to a level way above their station. If you can’t think of anyone that fits that mould, congratulations one of the following statements is true:

You work for a kick-ass company that rewards success, weeds out failure and operates a corporate culture of constant improvement and development.

You are a ‘corporate bullshitter’. AKA a deceitful and self-entitled lazy so-in-so.

The rise of the Corporate Bullshitter

These people are typified by high levels of self-belief, self-entitlement and they tend to have the gift of the gab. Now, it’s not to say that people who have these particular characteristics automatically are corporate bullshitters.

The thing that makes someone progress to that modality is someone who is lazy, has narcissistic tendencies and is willing to do whatever it takes irrespective of morality to get what they want. Corporate bullshitters want success like everyone else, but they perceive themselves (quite often incorrectly) as someone special and above the ‘normal rules’.

They describe themselves as ‘big picture people’ and are not concerned with the minor and irrelevant things like ‘details’. That kind of thing is for the other minions in the workplace, the little people who do all the work and get none of the credit.

These individuals have a persona that emits a sense of importance and authority (even when they really don’t have any). They always seem to speak the same language, full of jargon-laden nonsense that when actually translated doesn’t even relate to what they are actually talking about.

When someone who knows more about a subject than them, they are inclined to vehemently agree with everything the person says to their face, but probably subtly undermines the same individuals when in other arenas. Or, they will seek to belittle the more intellectual counterpart by emphasising their elevated status and connections. They may also try to go toe-to-toe with the person by throwing out terms until one is not recognised and then harp on incessantly about it until the other person gets bored and ends the conversation.

All of the corporate bullshitters I have ever come up against always have at least one go-to subject area that they twist a conversation to when things are not going their way just to preserve that perception they have, that they are ‘smart’. Most, if not all, corporate bullshitters are not really that smart. If they were, they would be experts in the jobs they somehow manage to inhabit, having put in the work to command the authority and respect for the role.

These hapless miscreants are not satisfied with their current role. They are aiming for one of the highest positions within the company. The one with all the status and money, where they can sit back and delegate like a true boss. Like a Bond villain swivelling in their leather chair, feet up and supping 10-year-old whiskey from a crystal tumbler. The fluffy white cat is an optional extra.

Aspirations of elevation to a senior level are absolutely admirable. Investing all your time and effort in achieving this by taking shortcuts rather than by hard work and dedication to do the job well, and having the requisite skills and knowledge to be there, is not. Eventually, like a poorly executed diet, these people will pull the fat parachute chord and everything will blow up.

That may sound relatively harmless, but when you really think about it, what if the person in charge of major catastrophes that have occurred in the world achieved that position, not by being the best, but by playing the game the best?

People see the whole ‘fake it until you make it’ thing as a part of life, a choice that some people make. I have met people who talk of their admiration of such characters saying things like ‘fair play to them’ for getting to where they did, despite not doing things the moral way.

How people achieve success is up to them, and I’m not about to start preaching about who should and should not be successful or how they achieve it. But ask yourself, if you had to have major surgery or were about to invest your life savings in some venture, would you want the person performing the operation or brokering the deal to be someone who has an ethic of hard work or one who was much smarter and saw a shortcut to get there?

How to identify a Corporate Bullshitter?

The list is meant to highlight potential characters to be mindful of but not all will immediately mean that someone is a feckless lying fuckwit, or has the potential to be:

They send emails at late hours or on weekends but are often late in and leave early. they complain about how endlessly 'busy' they are whilst you catch them checking social media and planning their next trip away.

Corporate Bullshitters are experts on all topics, but rarely challenge other experts when that specific topic is being discussed. They will often become quite sycophantic in an effort to be seen in the same light as the visiting expert (as if they were separated at birth by God).

They know all the movements of the higher-ups and regularly spend their time trying to break into higher level meetings they don’t really have a place at. They are likely to have all senior diaries saved to their calendar.

They dress in a manner to be noticed beyond the norm, often in a quite eccentric way. Think here: ‘Chino Wanker’ meets ‘Townie Twat’. However, when the big boss is visiting they look like they are dressed for a meeting with Queen.

These people have a very high profile presence on company social media platforms. They communicate messages in support of the status quo or from persons of authority. Their presence on such platforms is noticeable to all. They also are one of the first people to like any article or message from a senior figure regardless of how dull the subject is. (Insert winking emoji here, you know who I am talking about).

They are ‘ideas people’ and take credit for other people’s work, truly believing that they contributed in some way. Like a having a notion that time travel would be a cost and time-saving means of transportation, but having no idea how to make it happen (get a Science guy in). Then when it is invented, quite rightly pat themselves on the back for a job well done. Inventor extraordinaire!

They attend many non-work corporate networking events (often with other, fellow Clint and Cythnia types from other companies) and they do this within work time. Nothing of substance ever comes from these events, but they never miss them.

During projects, they demand to be part of the project team, make lots of elaborate and convoluted comments during the meetings but are often the ones who make excuses about competing demands that means they didn’t deliver their assigned actions.

When talking to people that don’t know them well (like a new starter) they will convey themselves as more senior and in charge than is actually the case. ‘Oh yes, John is in my team and Margaret’. John and Margaret may well be in their team but they are likely to report to someone else because the CB in question is in charge of making the tea.

They gravitate towards fellow Clint and Cythnia personality types (Cockney rhyming slang for 'Jeremy Hunt' type individuals) and form little cliques (otherwise known as hierarchical structures of management). They cover for each other in public but conspire in private to create the next opportunity. There is no honour amongst this band of thieves.

They don’t do ‘details’. This would require them to actually have some knowledge of what they are doing. The work they produce is often for a ‘big picture person’, not joined up at all and entirely self-serving. Their portfolio of work is littered with ‘pet projects’ and when they inevitably fail, they just claim credit for the ones that someone else made a success of through some associative properties.

Never do they do anything wrong. These people have skin made of Teflon and nothing ever sticks. They are the embodiment of cockroaches following a nuclear fallout.

They go on to become ‘consultants’, giving the genuine consultants out there bad names. These folks would ask to borrow your watch to tell you the time and then charge you a mortgage payment for their effort.

Corporate Bullshitters are always trying to promote new fandangled approaches rather than tried and tested ones where others are already likely to be experts. If it’s not fanciful bullshit they just don’t want any part of it.

They attend learning events, but reject everything they are taught because they don’t agree with the philosophy. In short, they have zero capacity for learning, because they believe that they are already the finished article and don’t want to learn.

These people like their status symbols and like everyone to know about it. Whether it’s the brand new sports car in the car park, the elaborate meal they went to on the weekend or the lavish fourth holiday they are taking this year. They want people to know they are doing well to keep up the pretence of their rise up the ladder.

They don’t have any real friends or the ones they do are called Clint and Cythnia. They also struggle to form relationships with colleagues that go beyond the work.

Not always the case, but they often don’t have the qualifications, knowledge or experience to do their jobs and justify that such things are not necessary. Or they make claims of having other skills and expertise that is more than adequate. Kind of like a Doctor with no formal training, who watches ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and ‘Casualty’ religiously and knows how to use a chainsaw.

Total opportunists. Whenever change comes around. Restructures, mergers or downsizing activities always bring these people out of the woodwork. They might be forever out of the office, but when the big announcement is made, suddenly they are everywhere like an infestation of termites. They sign up to everything and their usual absent manner is replaced by a sycophantic presence, especially when the important people are around.

They suffer from a rare affliction known as ‘delegationitis’ whereby they pass off all work to others due to their allergy to doing anything. These people talk the talk, but tag in a lackey to put the leg work in.

There are no shortcuts to success

Even in the situations where the corporate bullshitter breed ascends to high offices, this is often time-limited. Eventually like any ill-performed approach to any path, they get found out in the end.

If the route to the top is achieved at a fast pace, then the road down will be as quick. They will then have to start all over again. The alternative is getting to a place of high authority and holding the reigns when a tragedy occurs. Money and status are only part of the picture when you fall from grace the effect on the things that really matter could be a bigger price to pay.

Anyone who read this article as a means to find the quickest way to the top or to become a success, the message is simple: work hard and be good at what you do. Do all the things that experts in your field have done and put your hours and effort into the tried and tested. Slow and steady wins the race, and if the climb up is long and steady the path down will be equally so.

Malcolm Gladwell once suggested that it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at something. If you invest your time wisely and diligently, you can become an expert in anything within 5 years. Sooner, if you put the hours in over and above. In the span of a normal career that means you could potentially become an expert in up to 9 areas.

If you spent time thinking about what you want to achieve, where you want to succeed, chances are you wouldn’t choose to become an expert in bullshitting your way to the top. Perhaps the key is using those 10,000 hours to actually be good at something and then the fruits that come with that labour will be even more satisfying and worthwhile.

Perhaps the seduction of money, status and prestige has become so rife that people give up on improving themselves to become a better version of themselves. One day the ‘shortcuts’ taken bullshitting your way through life will come calling for payment and what tangible things will be there for all that time wasted?

Here’s something to consider: if the apocalypse, or some other significant change, comes calling, who are going to be the people who prove to be of use and in demand? Those who can actually do something, or, those who wasted their time talking utter nonsense and not learning a goddamn thing?

‘If you focus on success, you’ll have stress. But if you pursue excellence, success will be guaranteed’ – Deepak Chopra.

[marymosley]

OSC Rules In Favor Of Kushner On Hatch Act Violation (Sort of)

The Office of Special Counsel (OSC) ruled in favor of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner on whether he violated the Hatch Act in boasting Trump’s reelection in an interview. The Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has asked for the complaint to be reopened. There is an interesting twist in the case separate from the merits. The OSC rejected the claim not because it found Kushner’s comments were apolitical but because the interview was not broadcasted but ran online. That seems like a bizarre and facially invalid distinction under the Act.

As we have discussed previously, the Trump Administration has had a long history of violations of Hatch Act, which remains the law in prohibiting electioneering activities by executive branch employees. There have also been alleged Hatch Act violation on the Democratic side and prior administrations have faced valid complaints. The Hatch Act can be a delicate balance for officials who are often asked questions that easily lead to a type of political advocacy or defense. However, the Trump Administration has had a litany of such complaints, including clear violations of the Act as we have discussed over the years.

This controversy was triggered by Kushner’s February appearance on CNN with host Fareed Zakaria where he defended the president in a piece captioned as a discussion of “Trump’s Reelection.” The discussion is clearly political and focused on the election and the Trump strategy:

“KUSHNER: Yes, I think there’s just a big difference between what the voters see and what the voters want, and from what the — what people maybe in the Washington or in the media are calling for. What we’ve seen since the impeachment started is that most people by the way are not paying attention to it. We’ve seen the president’s numbers go up by seven points. We got polling back last night that showed that the president’s approval rating nationally was over 50 percent. It was the highest that it’s been since right after the inauguration. So we’ve seen —

ZAKARIA: Yes, the RealClearPolitics average is more like 44 percent.

KUSHNER: I think it was about 46 percent, but again everything is relative, right? Again there is a lot of polls that were wrong in the last election. I think our data proved to be more right than the public holds and I think that it will continue to be. But I’ll also say about approval, though, is in the last election, when Romney ran, two percent of the people who disapproved of him voted for him.

In the last election, 15 percent of the people who disapproved of president — of Donald Trump as a candidate, and they’re voting for him. So look, I think his base is strong, getting stronger. Last night we were in Iowa, we had a massive crowd. We were around in New Jersey this week. About 160,000 people signed up for it. I mean, the energy that I’m feeling today was stronger than what we felt at the end of the campaign last year. I think that President Trump has not lost many supporters. If any at all. And I think that a lot of people who say well, what he’s talking about, now he’s actually done all the things he’s promised. He’s actually done more things than he’s promised. He got done criminal justice reform work done. He did promise he was going to do that. He did a lot of things that he didn’t even promise he was going to do. And again, the American consumer has never been stronger. He’s created seven million jobs. You have 2.5 million Americans that have been — that have entered the work force, and 2.5 million Americans who’ve been lifted out of poverty, almost 10 million Americans that have come off of food stamps. The numbers are unbelievable. But I will say this, the more time we spend in Washington and the more the administration gets better and better at it, and the more the president has his vision for what he wants to do, he believes that the potential for this country is unbelievable. And so as we finish implementing our deregulation agenda, our tax reform agenda, hopefully we’ll do more tax cuts as we, you know, focus on becoming energy independent, which is critical to our nation’s security, bringing down energy cost for people, folks on workforce training, training people for the future economy. We have a lot of things. We have folks in the judiciary where the president has been very successful. The potential for making this country strong is unbelievable and the president has been very enthusiastic about what he’s been able to accomplish so far.”

That does seem to stray pretty deeply into electioneering under the language of the Act. Kushner is clearly identified as speaking as an adviser in the White House and Act prohibits the “use his official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election.”

The Hatch Act now appears honored primarily in the breach and this interview certainly danced along the edge of the law, if it did not blow past it. However, I am less interested in the merits than the technicality cited by the OSC. I think that there is a a valid argument raised in CREW’s open letter to OSC Henry Kerner. I know of no precondition of a broadcasted interview. Such a distinction would be nonsensical and effectively gut the Hatch Act. It also ignores the shift over to online coverage and interviews.

What is particularly bizarre is that the OSC seems to view Kushner’s statements as unacceptable under the Act and confirmed that he did use his official title in the segments. However, the means of the communication appears to be determinative in the analysis.

The key prohibition is that executive branch employees from “us[ing their] official authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election.” This has been violated in the past in a way array of forms. I think the OSC got this one wrong as a matter of law. It should rule on the merits and not the means of the interview.

OSC Rules In Favor Of Kushner On Hatch Act Violation (Sort of) published first on https://immigrationlawyerto.tumblr.com/

[ggdbcheapforsale-blog]

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