#teenage evangelist

[girlactionfigure]

THURSDAY HERO: Rabbi Jacob Tarshish

Our mission here at Accidental Talmudist is to elevate social media by sharing Jewish wisdom with everybody. We just learned about a kindred soul, Rabbi Jacob Tarshish, who almost a hundred years ago did something very similar. His mission was to elevate radio by sharing Jewish wisdom with everybody.

Born in Kovno, Lithuania in 1892, Rabbi Jacob Tarshish came to America as a teenager. He settled in Ohio and became the rabbi of B’nei Israel Congregation in Columbus. He served as a pulpit rabbi in Columbus for eighteen years before shocking everyone by quitting to start a radio show.

In the 1930’s, radio was becoming increasingly popular in America, with nearly every home owning one. Unlike today, with so many forms of media available to us, radio was the only game in town for home entertainment. The vast majority of shows were light entertainment, music or news. There were also a few Christian evangelists, including the wildly popular Aimee Semple McPherson, but there was no Jewish religious content.

Rabbi Jacob Tarshish set out to change that. He saw in the new medium of radio a golden opportunity to inspire people with Jewish teachings. He called his show “The Lamplighter,” and started at WAIU-AM in Ohio. On the show, Rabbi Tarshish shared universal Jewish wisdom with a wide and diverse audience. He was especially adept at making deep concepts accessible to all, and he had a warm, charismatic personality that gave the show its trademark combination of entertainment value and spiritual uplift. The Lamplighter was so popular that many other stations picked it up and soon the show was available in radio markets all over the country.

Rabbi Tarshish supported his family during this time by airing radio ads for cosmetics and medical supplements such as Dr. Edwards Olive Tablets, Kreml Hair Tonic, and Bost Tooth Paste. Some in the Jewish community disapproved of Rabbi Tarshish for selling air space, considering it too commercial and not befitting the dignity of a rabbi (maybe he should have formed a nonprofit like Accidental Talmudist!). Despite the naysayers, The Lamplighter was wildly successful. At the height of its popularity, Rabbi Tarshish had two million devoted listeners all over the United States, the vast majority of whom were not Jewish.

The Lamplighter ran from Jan 3, 1936 to April 14, 1941. After it went off the air in 1941, Rabbi Tarshish became an in-demand motivational speaker who traveled the country lecturing to a wide variety of religious, fraternal, women’s and educational organizations. He gave over 300 speeches a year, setting audiences on fire with his oratory skills and universal message of love and friendship based on ancient Jewish teachings. Rabbi Tarshish wrote a popular book, Little Journeys with the Lamplighter, and published a compilation of his most popular speeches, Half Hours With Rabbi Jacob Tarshish.

Rabbi Jacob died at Hanukkah time in 1960, at age 67, and is buried at the Greater Baltimore Lodge Cemetery. His headstone reads: “Beloved Husband and Father” and below that his Hebrew name Yaakov ben Peretz HaLevi. Rabbi Tarshish was survived by his wife Goldie, children Emanuel Tarshish, Elaine Eistenstein, and Rhoda Cokain, and two grandchildren.

Although Rabbi Tarshish was well-known during his lifetime, he seems to have been forgotten by history. We weren’t able to find any more information about him than what we’ve presented here. We’re very curious to learn if he has any living relatives. If anybody knows more about him or the Tarshish family, please let us know!

For inspiring millions of radio listeners with the light of Judaism, we honor Rabbi Jacob Tarshish as this week’s Thursday Hero.

[thetiredstuff]

This is just mostly a handy little post for me but I asked people to rec me some destiel AU best friends to lovers fics and this is what I got:

Recs from ltleflrt:

okay, cupid. by orange_crushed On Air by wincechesters Just Turn Around and Go by @porcupine-girl Version 2.0 by Elizabeth1985 aka @cocklesheadboop Ignore the Butterflies: Best Friend Advice from Dean Winchester by impatient14 A Match Made (and Misunderstood) by surlybobbies More Views. More Money. by herbivoredinosaur Remember When by VioletHaze aka @scones-and-texting-and-murder When In Vegas by Dmsilvis & TobytheWise

Recs from doctorprofessorsong

One of my favorite fics of all time is Evangelist by @valleydean. It's really enemies to friends to lovers but the enemies part becomes friends pretty quickly because they are deeply obsessed with each other. One of the classics if you haven't read it is To Build a Home. Childhood friends who broke up and find themselves back in each other’s life. It is very angsty but they have a lifelong friendship so you get a lot of childhood and teenage friendship moments. If I may self recommend, I just wrote Can't Fight the Moonlight in which they are in this post canon partnership and both want to add sexual intimacy but the partnership is soft so you get some really fun platonic intimacy. It's not AU, obviously, but may have something of what you want. Seraph by @dothraki-shieldmaiden is a superhero au where they are friends and roommates to lovers. It has great world building. More than Kisses by @friendofcarlotta is a friends to lovers epistolary romance. Dean and Cas are pen pals and they share an absolutely gorgeous emotional intimacy. Tiamatv has a few that fit the bill. I'm gonna mention Marchen because I love the world built in that one. Dean Winchester is a prince locked in a tower. Feel free to also skim my fic recs. @riversrecs

Recs by castiellesbian:

tiamatv's "It's the End of the World (As We Know It)" is a friends to enemies to lovers if that counts? They were childhood best friends in that one "A Midterms Night's Dream" by Englandwouldfall is an au where they're roommates (oh my god they were rommates). "In Some Sacred Place" by schmerzerling is a good one where they're friends throughout most of the fic, but it's kind of depressing overall

Recs from porcupine-girl

Just Turn Around And Go (roommates-slash-best-friends): https://archiveofourown.org/works/4228830 Like four weddings and a funeral but without the funeral (Sam POV, Sam is clueless and doesn’t realize they’re together): https://archiveofourown.org/works/6225625 Go Down With This Ship (online fandom besties, don’t realize they know each other irl): https://archiveofourown.org/works/8023642

Rec by trampledundercas

#i thought of ‘ready to fall’ by lemonsorbae on ao3

A whole bunch of recs from dean-you-assbutt-cas-loves-you

A Tale of Two Tropes by Amelia_Clark (E, 7k) As You Walk On By by MercyBraavos (E, 23k) Are We Any Different? by LeviathanBlue, SerpentCountess (T, 41k) More Than Kisses by  FriendofCarlotta  (E, 29k) things i knew when i was young by stormwarnings  (T, 16k) Alright  by  turningthepages  (T, 46k) To Build a Home by intothesilentland  (M, 383k) When In Vegas  by  Dmsilvis, TobytheWise (E, 16k) The Ocean Between Us  by  noxsoulmate  (E, 27k) Room for Two (The Mattress AU) by  almaasi  (E, 14k) Honey-Baked  by  mishaminion69, sydkn3e (E,  89k) The Ones We Choose  by  lightmyway  (E, 82k)

EDIT: MORE:

Recs by bexfangirlforlife:

The Graveyard Shift by riseofthefallenone. PurgatoryJar Evangelist by embrancsxx0 Stay with me Sweetheart by Mandalarose We are what we pretend we are by tricia_16 Tricks of the Trade by Trenchcoat_Impala

Recs by impaledbeetle:

okay, cupid by orange_crushed Seek to Know You Better (E) by ahurston Après (E) by Imogenbynight Here's a couple aus that i really really enjoy that aren't necessarily best friends to lovers: spirit of the west (M) by teen_dean Parachutes (E) by chaoticdean (this one literally changed my life it is so good) And This, Your Living Kiss (M) by opal_bullets (again, this is life changing) Roll With It (E) by saltnhalo (this is a The Proposal (movie) au) Shut Up (Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is) (E) by kototyph

Recs by butch--dean:

spirit of the west by teen-dean (everyone should read this 90's horse girl dean au where he befriends cas, a local veterinarian) I carry your heart (I carry it in my heart) by unicornpoe (I am a sucker for all "cas using dean as a vessel" fics) Après by imogenbynight (surely everyone has read this? dean and cas in paris what more can you ask for) under the midnight sun by northernsparrow (dean is the caretaker of a research station in the arctic and cas is a mysterious bird researcher) (I also rec you can keep holding on by this author but be warned that it is very grief-driven - but it is an in-depth study of the way they care for each other) though the course may change by imogenbynight (fake dating AU at a couple's retreat - another one that everyone has probably read but is so worth mentioning in case you haven't) there's no cell service in the afterlife by screamsintothesun (cas gets back from the empty and his phone blows up with dean's voicemails & texts) Gold in the Edges of Our Vision by SewingNatural (dean and cas eat peaches together on a hot summer evening. The writing style on this one is really really lovely) these are just a few from my bookmarks but also there is a really good rec list here & here (this one has a link to a specific friends to lovers list here) that I refer to often when looking for new fics/authors to dig through!!

Recs by mercurialkitty for some reason tumblr won't allow me to add them to my post so just click on their name to go to their post!

These are all the ones i've gotten up til now but will def edit if I get any more. If you see this post and think of a Destiel AU best friend to lovers fic that isn't on here or just a Destiel AU (no abo) fic that isn't on here: PLEASEEEEEE GIVE ME ALL THE DESTIEL AU FIC RECS (no abo)

Also i didn't tag the people who recommended it cuz I don't wanna annoy them but I linked back to all of their original posts or comments!

A hugeeeeeeee thank you to everyone who replied to my annoying messages for fic recs cuz I really really appreciate it. thank you all so so so much!!!!

[olderthannetfic]

Anon from 722398181104795649 again about YA as a G-D and it's failure(s). Your response is really interesting because it definitely aligns with the market research I've had to do over the last 3-ish months for work. Adult YA readers want YA to skew older superficially as escapism from the woes of adulthood (It's like someone who orders a pasta with broccoli in it because they appreciate the flavor it brings, but they have no interest in actually eating their vegetables). Teenagers feel alienated by the G-D that is meant for them no longer allows them to confront said woes with honesty or maturity for their age to prepare them for adulthood or discussing broader ideas. More teenagers skip over YA altogether or just reader adult genre fiction with some Middle Grade fiction mixed in because the teenagers feel in MG, there's still an honesty to the stories that they can understand, having once been young children. In short: teenagers think YA books are talking down to or patronizing them.

The result is YA authors pushing for NA, New Adult, as a G-D, which hasn't taken off within tradpub outside of romance circles. Mostly, because what they're pushing for is already an established genre for around a century: campus novels--books about characters 18+ who are entering college, establishing independence, beginning to explore sexuality and enter the workforce, etc. But, again, YA adult readers refuse to engage with adult genre fiction because there isn't the facade of protection from adult themes or topics, and there's an aggressive refusal among many agents in literary fiction (and some adult genre fiction) to encourage authors to sanitize their stories. YA authors began attempting to cross over into adult genre fiction with mixed, but overwhelmingly negative, results, as they cannot shake the stigma of writing YA. And the genre fiction crowds they want to appeal to have higher standards, typically, than the average YA writer is able to meet. YA authors then complain about the differences in publishing YA and genre adult fiction. It's like when MCU actors and directors get upset when prestige film directors don't consider MCU movies to be "cinema."

--

This is fascinating.

I pretty much missed the YA boom (slightly too old, not paying attention, etc.), so I've mostly encountered YA through its worst evangelists of the Hunger Games knockoff era, and often a good bit after their favorite books were at their height.

As I've said before, this really strikes me as that pattern where something is big when you're at a formative age, and it becomes the Normal Default to you.

I'm sure some of it is refusal to engage with adult nuance, but I'll bet a lot of it is resistance to leaving the name of YA behind. People spent so much time defending this niche that they started believing their own rhetoric about it being the only place the good queer stuff was or the feminist stuff was or whatever. They identified really strongly as A YA Fan. It's hard to let that go.

And if you don't remember much about pre-YA boom publishing, the fact that all that YA-tastic Mercedes Lackey stuff was filed under fantasy, not YA is completely obscure. The places you find stuff you'd like that aren't called "YA" are not obvious. The fact that YA in its boom era form isn't universal and eternal is not obvious.

I think people are waiting for their Cool Era of their early 20s to return and for the things they think should always be in fashion to come back... Like everyone else aging ungracefully, they may be waiting a while.

Gotta say, every New Adult book I've been shown sounds like a hideously boring contemporary romance that would probably make a good coffee shop AU against a backdrop of a canon that's dark or magical but that isn't really pulling its weight even if you like contemporaries.

[postmoderntongues]

Hey can you recommend any disturbing movies aside from the usual ones that appear on all the lists (Salo, Cannibal Holocaust, Serbian, Vomit gore)?

First off Serbian Films, Salo, Cannibal Holocaust, and Vomitgore have about an hour and ten minutes of interesting watchable footage between all of them and are overrated because fratboys can stand to consume their violent content when chocolate-coated in 90% of the film being sex scenes.

Im giving these recommendations under the assumption that they are both legal in your place of residence and that you are of age to view them. If you are a minor do not watch any of the following films:

Right now I would say 'Nothing Bad Can Happen" is the most disturbing horror movie I've ever watched, which dethroned "Eden Lake". "Last House On The Left" (the original) is a close 3rd place. Im also an evangelist for the glitchcore robotussinesque classic "Where The Dead Go To Die".

"Happiness" is not a horror in the traditional sense, and neither is "Requiem For A Dream" or "Pixote", substituting drooling hungry monsters for unflinching examinations of social issues that nobody wants to acknowledge. "Unicorn Wars" and "Birdboy The Forgotten Children" are fantastic and emotionally devastating examples of animated horror. Another animated film not billed as a horror movie but that hits all the beats devastatingly is "Grave Of The Fireflies" and also "Barefoot Gen". "Oldboy" is more of a thriller but its a cant-miss. "Human Centipede 3" is one of my favorite modern splatterpunks and you do not need to view the previous two in order to understand it. "Funny Games" is another must-see, Im of the minority that likes the American version because I had a big crush on Mike Pitt as a teenager.

For true crime inspired I'd suggest "Concrete", "Juvenile Crime", "The Girl Next Door", "Bully", "Boys Dont Cry", "An American Crime", and "Henry Portrait Of A Serial Killer". Again while not traditionally considered a horror film, "The Plague Dogs" is a must watch for horror lovers as is "Fat Girl". Girl Hell and Eraserhead are also good (Id recommend taking DXM or some other dissociative with psychedelic properties like K or dust to watch Eraserhead). "Antichrist" is pretty extreme, as is the French film "Martyrs" and the historical piece "Philosophy Of a Knife".

Some Troma Studios favorites are Toxic Avenger, American Nightmare, Dumpster Baby, Redneck Zombies, Honkey Holocaust, And Beware Children At Play.

Visitor Q and Audishon by Takahashi are worth watching but he tends to write with his erection and insert unnecessary scenes filling his incest and lactation fetishes.

"Tumbling doll of flesh" is a good gore flick as is "suicide club". "Victim" is weird and not gorey but was controversial. The short "Cutting Moments" is unforgettable.

Again not horror but the suffocating escalation of tension and catastrophic climactic blowout of both "do the right thing" and "when the wind blows" may appeal to you.

If you like horror that is a little more psychedelic, I cannot recommend "Pink Floyd's The Wall" highly enough.

If you are just looking for gore/special effects showcases I would recommend the series Guinea Pig, American Guinea Pig, August Underground, All Night Long, Amature Porn Star Killer, Angel Guts, Faces Of Death, Men Behind the sun, tokio gore police, or compilation series like MDPOPE, Orgrish Collection, How To Clear A Room In 90 minutes, Stars of TheYNC, fist pig, Gusomilk, Fetus Munchers, or SNuff r37. Due to recent legislation some popular compilations such as Amber Alert, Scream Bitch, and Suffer The Little Children are no longer legal to own or distribute in the united states so check the laws regarding both crime footage and obscenity in your area before viewing compilation collections.

For documentaries if you're really feeling saucy: Imposter, The Act Of Killing, Face On A Milk Carton, Paradise Lost (all 3), Just Melvin Just Evil, Swansea Love Story, Afghanistsn's Secret Shame, Rare: A Dead Person, Traces of Death, Child Of Rage, The Cove, Blackfish, The Bridge, The Barbie And Ken Murers, The Toybox Killing Audio, The Lesley Anne Dauty Audio, Children of Leningradski, Angels But Not Angels, Children underground, Jesus Camp, Afghanistan's Child Heroin Addicts, Black Metal Vains (although much is staged), Mondo Cannes, Invisible Children, The Jonestown Death Tapes, The audio collage "Buyers market" by Peter Sotos, And Who Killed Pixote are all real life examples of horror too horrific to feel true.

I would also recommend on a much lighter note small independent animators like Lee Hardcastle, Happy Tree Friends, Alfred's Playhouse, Jack Stauber, Dont Hug Me Im Scared, The Sad Man, Salad Fingers, The short animated films of Product, The Mandella Catalog, Whos Hungry, The Operator Series, or the work of Trent Shy just to name a few easily found on youtube.

Finally, if you're really nasty, I would recommend the following gore clips to anybody involved in the consumption of that stuff: Unknownrussiansoldiers.avi, Checlear, The Gurraro Flaying, Funkytown, The Russian lathe Incident, The Russian Daschcam Brick, 3 guys 1 hammer, Isis Human Slaughterhouse, Isis High Definition Headshot Montague, Killer Children of Isis, The Mexican Cartel Chainsaw Murders, Ghostrider, Porsche Girl, The Demigorgan Dive, Sponcered By Addidas, The Dagestan Massacre, The Morocco Backpacker Beheadings, The Body Cam footage of the first responders to the Travis The Chimp incident, and the Post-Arrest Interrogation Footage of Andrea Yates. These clips contain real footage of real death so please look them up at your descression. I will not be linking anybody to any of these clips of actual footage. They are perfectly legal for an adult to view and easily findable by googling the name of the clip on the surface web with no IPN or tor browser needed and I am violating no law or term of service by acknowledging their existance.

Other "famous clips" like Dafu Love, baby Burger, Green Ball, and the "extended cut" of Snuff r73 as well as "lost horror movies" like The Full Directors Cut of Last House On The Left or titles like "The Grifter" are urban legends perpetuated almost entirely by a single guy named Takedownman who was a predecessor to channels such as DisturbedReality, ColdravensNest, and PlaguedMoth without the proof of sources. The only confirmed footage to have been "exposed" by takedownman was a mostly inaccurate description of Daisy's Destruction that painted it as a snuff film (The little girl known as Daisy is alive and well, healthy, and cared for by loving adoptive guardians. She is receiving extensive trauma therapy. Due to injuries sustained during her abuse, she is infertile but otherwise in good health. Her abuser will never see the outside of a jail cell).

I would advise, for moral reasons, against looking up suicide footage like the death of Ronnie Mcnutt whose family has clearly and politely asked for their loved ones death to stop being circulated or aftermath footage of the 9/11 jumpers but also I'm not your mom or your priest and you owe me no display of morality.

Im more well-versed in transgressive/splatterpunk literature than in films Im a pretty normie edgelord with cinema but I'm in the Mariana Trench with books.

[fancyfade]

Raven's love interests, ranked from worst to best!

Everyone knows that Beast Boy is currently Raven’s true love, according to DC, but what many readers may not know is that in their first comic together, New Teen Titans, Raven and Beast Boy never dated! Gar in New Teen Titans was quite a ladies’ man, in fact, and Raven was the only lady who was immune to his amorous overtures. That didn’t stop Raven from having her own dating life, of course. Following are Raven’s love interests, rated from worst to best!

10: Brother Blood

Brother Blood expressed romantic interest in Raven twice, which is two times too many if you ask me! First he brainwashed her after she died and came back to life and used her to promote his Tele-Evangelist cult scam! Then, the next Brother Blood raised Raven into a teenager’s body and wanted to marry her as well. What a creep!

9: Eric Forrester

Eric Forrester was the sex-fiend who wanted to use Raven for her body – or rather, her soul! He was her first ‘real’ boyfriend and she easily fell for him. Sadly, he was a scumbag who wanted to use sex to steal Raven’s soul so that he could preserve his human body. The only reason he’s not the worst love interest Raven had is because Brother Blood exists!

8: Wally West / Kid Flash

Wally West was Kid Flash when he and Raven met and she saw him throwing a fit on Mount Everest because his girlfriend dumped him. He was also in the process of quitting being Kid Flash, a theme that would repeat itself during his tenure on Teen Titans. Raven used her emotion powers to make him fall in love with her so that he would help her save the universe from Trigon. He expressed interest in her at later points in the comic, but there was no way their relationship was going to go anywhere with how it started.

7: Dick Grayson / Nightwing

Dick Grayson was Nightwing when Raven was brought back from the dead. She immediately fell in love with him, probably due to that V-neck, and accidentally used her powers to make him fall in love with her. Dick’s girlfriend at the time, Koriand’r, was amazingly understanding, but sadly did not suggest a threesome. Instead, everyone just talked about their feelings to resolve things. How boring!

6: Garfield Logan / Beast Boy

Yes, as we mentioned in the start of the article, Raven did date Garfield for some time. This was after she was reincarnated as a teenager, so what the heck Garfield? Anyway, their relationship is this high in the list because there was no intentional or accidental power usage influencing emotions on her part, and he didn’t have evil intentions for her. Poor Raven! Her love life never goes well!

5: Paul (Azarathaboo)

Paul is a student from Raven’s college (Bet you didn’t know Raven was in college) who is in love with her because he’s obsessed with Azarathian culture! He then punches someone in Raven’s defense, indicating that perhaps he doesn’t understand the pacifist Azarathians very well.

4: Koriand’r / Starfire

Now, Raven and Koriand’r don’t technically date in the comics, but neither do Raven and Paul, Raven and Dick, or Raven and Wally, and they’re all still on here! After Dick confesses his feelings about Raven to Kory, Kory takes Raven skinny-dipping in Tahiti. They’re definitely gay!

3: Joseph Wilson / Jericho

Joey is the only guy Raven has good sexual tension with! She genuinely appreciates his compassion and listening skills, and he’s always there for her, even though he’s the newest member of the team and doesn’t know her well! She starts learning sign language from a book for him! They’d be adorable!

Sadly she goes evil and he gets traumatized by trying to possess her with his powers. Oof

2: Donna Troy / Wonder Girl

The other lady who makes this list, Donna Troy definitely was one of the Titans most consistently present for Raven during her slow slide into evil. She even begged Raven to turn good at one point, and it worked!

She’s rated higher than Kory, because Raven’s emotional repression would bother her less than it would bother Kory.

1: Donna and Kory combined:

I think that if the three of them were in a polycule, they could make each other better.

----

This is mostly tongue in cheek, except about donnakoryrae being the best raven ship, that is true

[stairnaheireann]

#OTD in Irish History | 5 February:

1703 – Birth of Gilbert Tennent, a pietistic Protestant evangelist in colonial America. Born to a Presbyterian Scots-Irish family in Co Armagh, he migrated to America as a teenager, trained for pastoral ministry, and became one of the leaders of the Great Awakening of religious feeling in Colonial America, along with Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield. 1811 – Birth of journalist and…

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

"You see, there is one rotten canker that is in so many churches, as well as it was before-- Envy.

What does it say about Joseph? His brothers sold him. For what? For envy. What does it says about the Lord Jesus? The priests sold Him for envy. That festering thing in the heart of men and women. They sold Him because of envy. They sold Him because they hated Him. He was only a little baby, less than two years of age, when they had what history calls the Massacre of the Innocents.

I said to you before, I'll say it to you again, whether you love me or hate me for it: If you've got children you ought to be up an hour before they go to school and cover those children every day with the blood of Jesus and really lay hold of the promises. They live in a hell of a world in the day in which we live. If you don't do it, I'll do it for you. Remember, when Satan thinks there is something going to happen, he is going to dog that child. I prayed, and I still do, whether you know or not, I pray for some of our kids, if I am here or not, if Jesus tarries, they will become some of the leaders half a generation, a decade from now.

God will make them missionaries and evangelists, and teachers, and apostles, in the last great awakening, (which men are trying to work right up now and you can't do it.) But He is going to get youngsters and fill them with the Spirit, and teenagers in their early years."

Leonard Ravenhill

[dankxsinatra]

I swear if dumb teenagers run Mr J off this site, I will become the biggest AI evangelist you've ever seen.

[larathia]

Look, when I say I am ruthless with the block button, I'm pretty sure I mean it. Here are some examples:

People who do not respect the tags. If I am following a tag for Ship A, and you post art for Ship B in Ship A's tag, when Ship A is nowhere to be seen in the art, I'm just going to block you because either you're a troll or you're an evangelist, and either way I find it annoying and don't want to deal with it.

People I see no need to argue with. I enjoy a great debate. I really do. However, there are some arguments that go past a 'difference of opinion' and into 'bad faith' or just 'troll' territory as far as I'm concerned. People almost never change their minds as a result of something they've just had a verbal asswhuppin about on the internet. I might bother in person, where I can tell who's just being an annoying little troll and who I'm getting through to (or not). But online? I'm just going to block you and move on.

People who feel the need to post about their DNIs. Mostly, I genuinely think people who post DNIs are young and/or very new to Tumblr. That said, I don't regard it as my job to educate them, especially if I'm not being paid for it. People who talk at length about who they demand never contact them? I just block. So I won't contact them. Problem solved.

People that are clearly too young to have interesting conversations with. This is where I say yeah, I'm pretty liberal with the block button. Sure, some teenagers are really cogent and have well-developed critical thinking skills and are in general a delight to talk to. But y'all, I'm nearing 50, and most teenagers are just not that interesting to me. Especially teenagers who are obviously crushing on characters. It's not that I haven't Been There. I have. That's why I block them rather than interfere with their happiness. I mean really, they're not doing any harm. I just don't find it interesting, and having it clutter up my feed (which is much more about the critical thinking/rational discussion of Stuff) where I might wind up annoyed enough to snap at a kid for being a kid, I block. Nothing personal there, kids. Just me going my way and taking steps to let you go yours in peace.

As a result, I generally enjoy my time on Tumblr. I heartily recommend Harsh Curation Methods to all tumblrites, because it really does reduce one's stress levels significantly.

[lumonceo]

53k words of this manuscript but it still doesn't feel like a half a novel. partly bc it's a novel in stories i think so writing it in pieces and then trying to make them work together is different than just writing a novel but also i think the stories i've written so far are a little at the outskirts of the thing (right wing evangelist teenagers) that this is the big overarching dome everything is happening within and i'm fearful about really delving into that. BUT rereading what i have and tweaking/tying together threads that want to be tied but aren't quite there yet is giving me hope

[footytea]

endrick's family comes from poverty. that isn't his fault. unfortunately, the age of consent is only 14 and teenage pregnancy is a norm (the government has forbidden sex education due to evangelists & given the fact that a majority of especially black brazilians live in favellas with limited access to education.)

i'm not trying to say that they are dumb and ppl from those quarters don't know what they do. the governments across the globe, culture and also conservative ultra religious ppl are the problem.

so, endrick's family having a say over him dating a literal groomer is little because i can imagine them being happy that he has found someone 💀 but they haven't realized the depht of it due to how normalized it is in brazilian culture.

ik that girl has had the privilige to go to school so why does she have 0 shame. tells us a lot about her lacking maturity.

hmmm yeah i have read that his family is supposedly happy with their "future daughter-in-law"

[sadsongsandwaltzes]

Did you grow up Lutheran, or did something about the Lutheran church draw you in?

Both! I grew up ELCA then AFLC so it was kind of a weird hodge podge of Lutheranism combined with evangelicalism.

As a kid in the ELCA, we had strict Lutheran liturgy (confessions, creeds, call and response, etc) but simultaneously very progressive theology

Then we went to the AFLC which varies so much church by church, but basically it was very evangelical type church except we still baptize babies for some reason. So a lot of the core tenets of Lutheranism were kinda fallen from and I didn’t understand them or like them. And I couldn’t understand why I was expected to believe the answers in the catechism when the general attitude of the entire congregation was that communion wasn’t more than memorialism etc. it left me in an intellectual rut cuz I could see a clear hypocrisy. People Lutheran in name only but not giving their own self professed beliefs the reverence they deserved. I think this played a great deal into my teenage agnosticism — people clearly didn’t believe what they said I should believe.

Then when I became Christian at 18, it was baptist ministers who reached me tbh. So I had done away with Lutheranism entirely. And for whatever faults Baptist theology has, I have to hand it to them that they are better evangelists than anybody, and that they do have a very sincere love for the Bible.

As it goes, diving so deep in the Word is exactly what made me no longer able to hold to baptist theology, however lol. I found myself in a state of cognitive dissonance. And I eventually came across pastors like hans fiene who slowly chipped away at my theology. And it was a Bryan Wolfmueller video that finally made things start clicking in my brain. And beyond that, Lutheran sermons are so much more edifying than baptist sermons. Lutherans have a better law/gospel distinction than anybody. Starting to listen to truth Lutheran sermons absolutely changed my world. I had never heard these distinctions made so clearly. And Lutheranism is the most straight forward way of reading the Bible. Which is why people who come from stronger theological systems have a distaste for it. Because where things don’t make sense to us theologically, we’re content saying “it’s a mystery.” It’s a phrase that comes up often when discussing Lutheran theology.

I also found myself missing the liturgy. For however off track I got as a teen, I never fell into false trinitarian beliefs or anything like that and I 100% attribute that to saying the creeds every Sunday as a kid. The liturgy exists for a reason. It has its place. And it is good.

Not to mention that the more you study history, it’s pretty much impossible to deny some form of baptismal regeneration and real presence and honor towards tradition (not in the Catholic sense obviously) These are all historical Protestant beliefs.

[tracybirds]

HEYOO 16 and 17 with Scott / Virgil??

As you wish <3333 Thank you!

16. The queer media they'd obsess over

Scott: While not technically queer media, I can totally see Scott watching things like Top Gun and M*A*S*H and just being like.... these things are queer bc i am queer and i say they are queer and i'm sorry were we watching the same screen?

Virgil: Sense8!!! I haven't rewatched this since it first came out so the details are shaky but I think he'd enjoy it :) The kind of thing that's totally overt in being queer and doesn't shy away from it at all but also has a mind bending scifi-action plot and examines queerness and worldview and politics and all that jazz on a more philosophical level while also holding up this ideal of people can love so deeply and in so many ways and yeah :D

17. A queer artist they'd listen to

Scott: Listen to me. L I S T E N to me. Scott is a secret MIKA stan and it's only secret because he's a little insecure about liking pop music because he's 16 and imperfect and one day Gordon discovers MIKA and basically becomes a MIKA evangelist and it annoys Scott SO MUCH because this is HIS thing and YES actually Gordon he DOES know this song and eventually he snaps and it all comes out and Virgil's like ??? none of us would have cared about you liking pop? and Scott's just all *mumble mumble* embarrassed lol bc self-conscious teenager ahaha anyway, everyone should listen to MIKA <3

Virgil: I love the idea of him listening to queer jazz musicians!! I saw @firstonthescene suggest this for Scott (and I agree!) but if feels very right for Virgil as well :D Of course, I also think Virgil listens to all kinds of music, from all kinds of people playing all kinds of genres from all over the world! It fits him well imo <3 I don't know much about jazz outside of like Count Basie and Louis Armstrong and that sort of thing although I do enjoy it! I will say though that although there have always been queer people involved in jazz, it doesn't seem to be the genre that really made a movement out of it, not like other genres have in more recent history, and I think to suggest it was some safe haven for queer musicians would be fairly revisionist. There'd have been pockets that were safe and more open, and other spaces where being closeted would have been the only option and how could you ever tell who was closeted vs who was straight and pinning down identities of people now dead for the sake of queerness doesn't seem to be Virgil's style to me. However, I do think that he'd make an effort to diversify his playlists in as many ways as he could because it gives him an opportunity to explore new ideas and perspectives and I think he'd really enjoy that. Anyway all this to say I don't have a real answer lol. I think he'd enjoy everything from Mozart to Elton John and everything on the spectrum between them and beyond :P

[asherlockstudy]

their religion wasn’t “cult-like”, they were just regular southern baptists using church programs as an outlet for their creative endeavors. They do kind of lay it on a little thick when they talk about it but I think they’re just overcompensating for how weirdly ashamed they feel about their origins. They do the same thing with being southern even though they aren’t from the Deep South, they’re just from a rural white town, and they’re like apologetic over it. And it DOES stand in stark contrast to life in LA but so do most American upbringings, and their kids certainly didn’t have the same upbringing as LA transplants that LA natives had. Their relationship with Christianity is an awkward mixture of cultural heritage and white guilt atm. They were still Christians by the time they decided to never bring it up again (citation: Rhett’s komm post in 2007) but they were hiding from debatebro atheists, and the embarrassment of being goodie goodies on the 2000s internet.

That wasn’t me - that was Rhett verbatim. He said in a recent GMM episode that their background was “semi-cult”.

On one hand I totally agree that they are too ashamed of certain aspects of their background. Sometimes the way Rhett beats himself up can get annoying. I agree there is a lot of white guilt involved and I am not entirely sure it is 100% sincere. I believe it comes down to their obsession with their conviction that they must stay relevant at any cost plus the fact that they really are very impressionable people. There was no case LA and its money wouldn’t get to their heads.

On the other hand, I kinda take their word for it. I am not in a position to have good knowledge of what could make it qualify as semi-cult and how much. I am from a country which… does not officially have a state religion but it looks exactly like it has one and that religion is Christian Orthodox. Atheists aside, this means it is easier to find a non-Christian religious person here than a Christian who’s not an Orthodox. I have only known one Evangelist ever and heard about one Jehovah’s witness becoming friends with my grandma, though the ulterior motive was to convert her I assume. And these denominations are the only ones I have heard existing at all here alongside very few Catholics. So, I don’t know, Protestants and their denominations especially in America practice Christianity very differently than what I am aware of here but, with my non-existent exposure, the way Rhett and Link have been describing some things sound to me like cult-like indeed. I mean, to us, again, from the perspective of living somewhere where 98% belong to the same denomination (though atheists are included in this percentage too, very long story!) , anyone who knocks doors trying to talk you on changing your denomination or something earns cult-status automatically. But it is not just about Orthodoxy being an overwhelming omnipotent power here because I believe even Orthodox church in America also doesn’t knock doors (could be wrong, very sorry if I am). It claims to view it as a huge no no and so such practices are definitely viewed as cults. Then there are other things, like nearby churches of the same denominations having different views and beliefs on certain things and then regular people being funded by other regular people to spread the faith. Taking a bunch of kids and teenagers and talking to them about (not having) sex over and over again until you drive them crazy for it. There’s still one teaching they revealed that gives me nightmares to this day. There’s a lot of things Rhett and Link have mentioned that made me uncomfortable, I just can’t remember them all one by one right now. They definitely used the funding mostly (but Rhett not exclusively) to fuel their creative dreams but it doesn’t change the fact that young randomers knowing nothing about life and the world were funded by other randomers to make their denomination appear “cool” and draw people into it. That is a cult-like situation in my book that has too little to do with practicing a faith. They weren’t just people honouring their faith in their households and living by their beliefs - they went beyond that.

Again this was from my perspective which is fundamentally different - I do not know how they compared to the average practicing Baptist or Evangelist or what. Obviously, there are all sorts of Orthodox as well, from open-minded to oppressive, except door-knockers. But it’s all in a kinda different way so I mostly take their word for it.

[soul-dwelling]

Maybe it's just because of my personal views, but I wish Ohkubo would have maybe subverted his whole "God is just human imagination/subconsiousness" thing in the end, cause the thing he did seems just very standard for manga (heck Berserk did that in the late 80s with the idea of evil). Like it was teased that Arthurs father was an actuall prophet, and he wasnt really involved with the white clad. Maybe leave it ambigious that maybe sometimes mirracles happen that cant really be explained? Idk

In theory, I don’t mind an author pursuing “God is the totally of humanity’s imagination.” It’s very transcendental, oversoul kind of stuff. It’s “Sympathy for the Devil” kind of talk, that what humans consider God and the Devil is just manifesting whatever good or bad we see in ourselves, a way to excuse ourselves from saving ourselves or from our own responsibility for harming ourselves. 

It just isn’t the story Ohkubo was telling. 

I do think ambiguity would help here. I’m going to end up talking about how I wish some things were more concrete in Fire Force (how did the Tabernacle get there, why does it resemble Amaterasu). But the metaphysical, the philosophical, the allegorical? Leave that stuff vague to perpetuate discussion and let this text mean more than one thing, rather than just one thing. Religion is rarely just one thing, one message--we have multiple denominations of religions not only due to humans bickering but also because ethics vary, meanings vary. 

So, sure, yeah, let Arthur’s dad just be a prophet, that’s fine. The story is silly enough, you’re not breaking anything by just letting some things just happen because they happen. I know, I want the Amaterasu and Tabernacle stuff explained--but I also don’t need everything about pyrokinetic abilities, weapon transformations, and why the Sun and the Moon are like that explained: after how badly Fire Force turned out, I have learned that lesson, just let some things be vague. 

Plus, Soul Eater in canon has gods. Like, not just Lord Death. One Soul Eater audio drama had Poseidon--does Fire Force now retcon that, or did Shinra somehow create literally Poseidon? Tezca Tlipoca may not be the same literal god Tezcatlipoca--but isn’t it fun to imagine that he may be? I thought Soul Eater was more interesting that these gods just existed because; I didn’t need an explanation that saps some of that magic by saying, “First there was our godless real world, then an apocalypse that made everything into a 2D cartoon, then an edgy teenager made the Soul Eater universe because he saw a woman in a cloak and skull stuff on his commander and his teammate and this guy who tortured him as a child.” So, if the gods existed anyway, sure, let a prophet exist. 

(Again, I speak as an agnostic, but giving me a story that says, in our real world, all religions are bullshit, hence the Evangelist just tapped into belief systems to fashion their own religion to trick people, then have Shinra make Lord Death as the primary god? Again, agnostic here, but I find this offensive--it discounts all religions just to make a story that says, “Nah-uh, the fictional religion I make in my fictional story is the only real religion!” …Then just make Soul Eater without the prequel, literally no one was thinking somehow other religions were made invalid because Lord Death was walking around. Hell, various religions didn’t get voided in Marvel Comics just because Thor, Hercules, Jack Kirby as the Abrahamic God, and other deities were walking around.)

[nerdby]

First of all, a lot of the songs written about sex were not so much about sex as they were about important political themes. Like the song "Blurred Lines" was really about whether or not it was rape if a woman changed her mind during sex. "No Diggity" by Black Street was written during the AIDs pandemic and was meant to encourage people to practice safe sex hence the line, "You better bag it up." The song "What's Love Got To Do With It?" was about rape culture, misogyny, and fighting the stigma of slut shaming. In the early 2000s songs about sex were made in rebellion to the evangelist purity culture which was prevalent having peaked in the 1990s with shows like 7th Heaven encouraging sexual abstinence.

Today, we are seeing an uptick in songs about sex and queer sex for the same reasons. To celebrate female sexuality, inclusion and diversity, and because purity culture has started to make a comeback as is evident in the censorship of TV shows/series like SpongeBob and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles -- compare Rise Of TMNT to the 2003 TMNT series or to the original 1990 movie or the 1980s comic books, and you'll see what I mean real fast. Those shows don't exist for children or for nostalgic adults -- that's the just the excuse they use to justify the censorship.

The renewal of purity culture is seen via book bans and the censorship of PG-13 horror movies. The found footage horror film The Fourth Kind (2009) was a PG-13 horror movie. Go compare that to Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark or Five Nights At Freddy's which are also PG-13 horror movies. Songs about sex are an act of rebellion. Just like the 1970s horror movies which relied heavily on excessive gore and shock value were an act of rebellion against rightwing politics and The Hays Code which was used in the US to illegally censor TV and film during the 1930s-1960s.

Whether or not you realize it, ALL media is political. To say otherwise is anti-intellectual ideology meant to silence artists and minorities.

Source | Day 58