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masterthespianduchovny · 3 years ago

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What fascinating about people who claim the anti Sam/Rebecca crowd are infantilizing Sam, with the implication of being racism being a driving factor, is that the aging up of Sam could also equally be argued as racist. But many lack the self awareness to see that or to account for this when lobbing out this defense and implied accusation.

More often than not, young boys and young black men are aged up to prove they knew what they are doing and are hardened criminals. They are seen as adults compared to their white counterparts even when they are legally minors and the white people are adults.

This perception of black boys and men are one of the cornerstones behind the “prison to pipeline” theory. When we refuse to see black boys and men as their age, we do them a massive disservice.

Now, this comes into play with Sam because this logic is being used for the pro Rebecca and sam defense. Sam’s consent and willingness is such a low bar to clear because many young men are interested in older women whether or not it’s to date or fuck them. This consent and willingness has nothing to do with ethics, it’s simply about legality. I’d also assert that the comparison to ted is disingenuous because it’s reactionary and not thoughtful. It pretends that these are two like things when they aren’t.

When we bring maturity into the discussion, it’s not a one size fits all type of thing either. Maturity is such a blanket term and does black children and young black adults disservice because it robs them of youth. Since they’re mature, they should know better or not act like other people their age. And it’s because in a sense, they are seen as older than they are as mentioned.

Stressing how mature Sam is and constantly accusing others of infantilizing him not only ages up Sam, but seeks to silence valid criticism about the red flags and inappropriateness surrounding this relationship.

Someone being consenting and willing isn’t enough when assessing the various power dynamics. That’s a start, not the end all be all when you see such a disparity between two people. I’d assert that due to such a large age gap and the added power imbalance, it’s even more crucial even more discerning regarding such a relationship.

There is nothing wrong with looking out and trying to protect a young black man, esp when society either demonizes them or leave them to their own devices. When such a relationship has the likelihood of blowing up in his face and him dealing with major repercussions as a result, regardless of consent.

And, although this isn’t on the same scale, it reminds me of Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton. She was 21 when they had an affair, he was her boss, and it was fully consensual. However, when the news broke, who was dragged through the mud? Who was used as punchline? Who was attacked and stated to have known better?

Monica.

Where as bill’s presidential legacy is largely intact.

As a kid, I thought Monica was so grown. I couldn’t believe she did that.

Even before I turned 21 years ago, I was like, “she was young as fuck.”

She has to deal with harassment, bullying, and death threats. But she consented and was willing, riiiiiight?

Despite admitting it was consensual even to this day, which I’m not disputing, even Monica says the relationship shouldn’t have happened with one of the reasons being her age. And it’s truly fucked up what America put her through to the point she can barely keep a job, resorted to plastic surgery to hide her identity, among other shit. She has to develop a good humor about it because what else are her other options?

When we age up young adults, we don’t prepare them for if shit goes south. We pretend just because they have a certain level of maturity, that they have the knowledge, foresight, and skills to deal with a situation that turned into a shit show.

That is deeply unfair to them. Respecting a young adult’s adulthood doesn’t mean throwing them in the deep end, it means respecting where they are at and understanding the gaps in their knowledge and experience.

Christ, this doesn’t even touch how black kids are believed to be sexually mature at super young ages like 9-10. It’s not because they are, of course; but society projects these beliefs on them and treats them as teens in their later years or younger adults.

With the constant framing of Sam’s maturity and stressing that he consented, one could argue the same is happening here.

Once we get past the low bar of consent and willingness, what’s the worse case scenario of this relationship? The fact that Rebecca doesn’t even have to intentionally seek to harm Sam in order for him to be harmed in this situation should be enough to give everyone pause.

But alas, no matter what the critics say, its alway going to be called infantilization with subtle accusations of racism because these defenses lack nuance or are performative. Undoubtedly, racism exists in fandoms, however, our efforts to combat racism shouldn’t overlook the problematic nature and troubling implications of this relationship being criticized.

Although our first instinct is to protest black characters (and POC), our analyzation of what’s happening shouldn’t end there. We shouldn’t be advocating for something that is most likely detrimental to a black character to spite fans.

And considering the down spiral Rebecca is likely going through, we should want more for Sam than for him to be caught up in that shit.

#ted lasso #sam obisanya

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yeojaa · 4 years ago

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I agree and disagree on some points about streaming, esp bcs I studied IPR Law extensively. It is futile to argue about the morality aspect imo, bcs at the end of the day its illegal. So if someone streams n it gets taken down, HYBE is well within their rights to do so. People can be hypocritical at times when trying to defend illegal streaming, bcs at the end of the day the legal basis that is used to take down streams is the same one that protects all other creators from having their work stolen. For example when accs get reported for plagiarism - the basis for that is rooted from the same law. Without these means of protection creatives wouldnt be able to make a living out of their work. However I do understand about that not all people can afford bts content - it is expensive. Even when u do have the money it is often times wiser to keep it. It also feels silly since streams get taken down but clips get distributed almost immediately after. They also can’t take down everything cause people circulating these clips/pics/gifs/etc and talking about it is ultimately what makes bts’s career - its promotion. So like, when u rather not spend money but there are readily available links, ofc ppl are gonna watch- illegal or not. Morals be damned, ppl do things bcs they can. Just to be clear I’m not at all critisizing u for streaming bcs ultimately I understand, but I’m also saying that this is inherently a complex issue. Even in the legal field, the handling of these infringements is not at all black and white. I myself advocate for other alternatives, like going dutch with friends, if u can. In a perfect world we would all have money to spend on anything we want. But this world is far from perfect. Again im not at all coming for u, frankly as far as im concerned u can do whatever you want. Im just sending this as food for thought and to put things into perspective.

as much as i appreciate you coming into my inbox to give your opinion on streaming, it really wasn't warranted. i don't think i've disagreed that streaming muster broke the law. the whole point here - which, frankly, i think you've missed - is that just because something is illegal doesn't mean it makes the person who did it a reprehensible scrounge (as the original anon put it). sure, there are criminal laws that protect people, that keep, y'know, killers at bay. murderers behind bars. etc. but there are also laws that have been put into place to protect the 1% and to capitalise on the wealth disparity. not all laws are made equal. hello, the war on drugs and incarceration of bipoc?

so studying the law is all well and good and having an opinion on things is, fine, go ahead. i've been in law for the past five years, too. but the topic right now is about whether my streaming of muster, and hundreds of people's subsequent watching of same, made us bad people. the answer? no. (and this point, dear friends, is not up for debate.)

in case you'd like some food for thought:

someone pointed out that the muster tickets were priced based on the conversion from USD. while i've not done the research to check if this is true, if it is, that's a huge deciding factor on whether people can afford things. sure, for countries where their currency does well against the american dollar (euro, gbp), this isn't a problem. but for others? sorry capitalism has a chokehold on us and we'd like to escape it.

not all army are adults with jobs. some are teenagers, preteens, whatever. they may not have money or they may not be in a position to ask for it from their parents/guardians. but if they have the option to watch something from a group they really enjoy, they shouldn't? because oof! sucks for you, kiddos, but y'all are broke and stinky. that's unfair and classist.

comparing streaming of bts content to other creators having their work stolen is so... odd. because bts is not just another creator. bts is a huge group worth millions of dollars. they are signed with big hit (or whatever, hybe, idk) that's worth billions. do you think any one of us army that streamed muster would try to steal from an independent/small creator or business? do you really equate <1000 people watching a stream that generated over $100mil in revenue as the equivalent to stealing from an artist?

by the same logic above, gifs shouldn't exist. clips of performances shouldn't exist (outside of those prepared specifically by BH or their affiliates). scans and photo card pieces shouldn't exist. only the people who can afford things (which are not cheap, by any means) should be able to enjoy them and everyone else can kick dirt. again, divisive.

how do you think bts became popular? i mean, yes, they're wonderful and great and the boys deserve all the recognition in the world. but did they do it all, purely through their own advertisement and content? i mean, sure. but how was that shared with the community? probably because of people like me, people like the incredible gif and clip makers, editors, etc. on this site. personally speaking, if i hadn't seen all the clips and gifs i had when i first got into bts, i probably wouldn't have fallen so deeply into this goddamn bangtan hole. but i did. and now i've spent hundreds upon hundreds of dollars to support them. this sort of community sharing is what keeps demand high and helps people get into bts.

anyway, those are just a handful of points i really think you and other people need to consider, as well. at the end of the day, you can have whatever opinion you want. will i respect it? maybe, if you present it like this. i don't and won't agree with a lot of what you've said but here ya go.

#incoming.eml #anon.eml #captaindumbass.txt #muster2021.txt #discourse.txt

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mithliya · 3 years ago

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Okay, so I want to be clear when I say again that white women in the suffragette movement said/did racist things, just as white women in feminists movements today say/do racist things,. Even white anti-racist activists will, at least on occasion, say and do racist things simply by growing up in a white supremacist society. I don’t want to give the impression that I’m disputing that reality. I only mean to illustrate some of the nuance (and why that matters today).

I sent those quotes in an effort to illustrate how the women’s suffrage movement was intertwined with universal suffrage, both white women and black men campaigned for each other’s right to vote. The women’s suffrage organizations grew directly from the basis of abolitionist movements. The initial suffrage (and wider women’s rights) movement was indistinguishable from the civil rights movement. When the 14th/15th amendment was proposed splits in the civil rights movement deepened — both white women and black women (and presumably some black men) campaigned against any amendment that didn’t include women. Similarly, black man and both white and black women favored the 15th amendment even without including women (of any race), who argued that women could wait. Ultimately the latter group saw their wish, and the division resulted in two separate organizations that continued to campaign for women’s suffrage.

The quotes you screen-shotted are undeniably terrible and exemplify the racism within the movements. To be nuanced however, they also span a wide range of individuals — from actual slave owners to women who said something racist but also directly participated in anti-racist activism.

To illustrate (from the quotes you provided):

Rebecca Latimer Felton - terrible human, slave owner, all out white supremacist

Carrie Chapman Catt - she later said “our task will not be fulfilled until the women of the whole world have been rescued from those discriminations and injustices which in every land are visited upon them in law and custom”, lobbied against the word “white” being added to the 19th amendment, and lobbied congress/used her presidency of the League of Women Voters to advocate for people of color and Jews

Elizabeth Cady Stanton - she also founded the Women's Loyal National League that led the largest abolitionist petition drive at the time, organized the American Equal Rights Association a suffrage organization that explicitly supported universal suffrage. The organization split when (mostly) the black men in the organization supported the 15th amendment without advocating for it to be extended to women. (She definitely said racist things around this time, similarly Frederick Douglass, who was both her friend and one of her main critiques at the time, said many sexist things.) The split was later merged back into one organization that she headed.

Anna Howard Shaw - I know very little about her. She definitely said many racist things, but she did champion universal suffrage and campaigned to end racial violence (arguing that universal suffrage would end lynchings). Still, she also failed to condemn racist actions by her peers.

Same as (1)

Belle Kearney - terrible human, slave owner, all out white supremacist

Frances Willard - confusing mix of actively recruiting and working with black women and also promoting racists myth that white women were in danger of black men that facilitated lynchings (due to her “temperance reform”). Also appeared to be more laissez-faire when president of the WCTU since she let conservative states hold on to conservative and/or moderate positions regarding reform for both women’s rights and racial justice.

Same as (1)

As for why it matters today:

No, women definitely won’t have the right to vote revoked for discussing racism in past movements. But there’s a difference between discussing racism, and perpetuating misinformation. One of the main ways the American government disrupted activist movements throughout history was to sow dissension in their ranks. (And the American government/military taught many of these techniques to foreign countries.) An excellent example of this is the COINTELPRO operation, but it’s only the tip of the iceberg. Their goal was to divide and conquer - a movement can’t make progress if it’s busy fighting itself - and poison the public’s opinions of the movements, so as to dissuade new members from joining. (At this point, I want to reassure you that while this may sound like a conspiracy theory, it is very much proven and it/other programs did much harm to domestic and foreign reform movements.)

The myth that the suffragette movement was specifically racist, rather than operating in concert with and emerging from, anti-racist activism contributes to this divide and conquer method of disrupting activism. If you (general you) can convince women of color that the “original feminist movement” (ignoring the ahistorical nature of such the label itself) actively campaigned against them, then it’s much easier to dissuade them from considering feminist activism or to divide activist movements. (And, if it were true, it would be entirely justified!)

Of course, that’s not to say that feminists shouldn’t criticize (or disavow, to the extent possible) white supremacists like Felton or Kearney, or that we shouldn’t discuss and reform the racist sentiments in past and current movements. (In fact, I believe, and expect you do as well, that doing so is not only permissible but necessary, because to deny the racism that did exist in past/current movements would alienate women of color just as much as the idea that the feminism-of-old was solely for white women, and would in fact be an expression of racism in and of itself.)

I hope this clarifies what I’ve been trying to convey.

im surprised about the claim that white women and black men campaigned for each other's right to vote. i was under the impression that the civil rights movement was largely focused on black men and often outright excluded black women having a say, so i don't really know why they would support other women (such as white women) having a say when i heard they didn't support that for black women, who were always black men's biggest supporters.

i do get your point, to a degree-- and i think we agree overall but simply word things differently. i don't think that the women's suffrage movement was Bad and i don't think the white suffragettes back then were like, all evil and more racist than the avg white person in their society. i would say overall, those women were quite forward thinking and progressive for their time. i don't doubt that a significant portion of women were far worse than that, and even opposed women's rights (bc of the society they grew up in where this was a controversial thing). my only argument is that pretending they weren't also racist and had traits worthy of criticism (such as their racism) is innaccurate. a lot of prominent suffragettes were quite racist, and that's not to say that their feminist beliefs lead to that or that women's rights is interwined with racism, but just to point out that even those women who fought for the right to vote for women were not particularly good allies to poc but most specifically black people, and more importantly, black women. i also wanted to point out that being anti-slavery and campaigning against it, did not mean they were generally anti-racism or fighting against racism overall. they were fighting against the worst and most extreme forms of racism in their time, but they were all still racist in their own right. i'd like to reemphasise what i initially shared that you disagree with (+ my tags, and my previous comment on it so as to be fully transparent), which is not that different from what you're saying imo:

now i'm not trying to argue the origin of the movement, what it rose out of, how it relates to racism or anything else; my qualms are with the claim that the suffragettes were not racist. maybe back then, they were closer to allies to black people than most, however they were still quite racist. similarly, since you brought up white allies, white allies today may be the best we have and the best in our time, but they are also still often quite racist themselves.

my main and only point is that these women were still racist, and this is not to discount the women's suffrage movement, i just think that when we deny that aspect of the past then what we're doing is alienating woc. i've noticed a general trend of white women on here saying that white women were targetted by the KKK for example, fixation on stuff that is targeted at white women like 'karen' and placed on equal grounds with calling black women 'laquisha' to berate them, arguments that white women dont have racial privilege, etc and while i don't think the people making such arguments are necessarily coming from a bad place, many woc seeing this will end up feeling like the movement is geared towards white women and does not properly consider & include woc. that's why i take issue with the claim that xyz white female historical figure wasnt racist bc she was pro-slavery abolition, like, sure that must've been really progressive for its time but at the same time it doesn't change that the same woman did work w white supremacists and white supremacy was used as an argument to support white women's suffrage. it probably worked as a strategy and helped pave the way for other women, but its good to acknowledge these issues and criticise them esp since they remain relevant today when people are still indirectly debating how much woc should be considered in feminism.

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oneshotnewbie · 4 years ago

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Hi, can you do a oneshot where Kara and Alex get really mad at B!D (Esp Kara) because when she was rlly little she told a friend her sister was an alien. And B!D being all upset runs out of the apartment and heads to L Corp, but she doesn’t see a car coming and gets hit and badly injured, Her sisters come to see her in the hospital where they apologize and all make-up? And there really worried?

„Are you both serious right now? You are mad at me for telling my friends at that time in elementary school that my sister is an alien from another planet?“ you shouted loudly through the whole apartment as you stomped back into the living room.

„Of course! Do you know how dangerous it was? You could have blown our secret up, put Kara in danger! What would have happened if she had gone to her parents and they believed her?“ the red-haired screamed back and waved her hands wildly in the air.

„Alex, I was nine!“ you stood in the middle of the room and buried your face in your hands while shaking your head. You couldn’t believe it. „Which parent believes a nine year old who has more imagination than there are books existing in our world that the sister of her friend is an alien? Did you believe me when I said that I could fly? I wanted to show it to you and jumped off the loft bed. I broke my arm.“

You held your then broken, now healed arm and remembered that time. You were young and stupid. What did she expect from a child? She had not been better. Rebellious and engulfed in her dream worlds. She did some stuff Jeremiah and Eliza were not proud of it either but they never accused her of it. Stupid things happen, no one is perfect.

„No, I didn’t believe you. Nevertheless mom and dad told you several times that you shouldn’t talk about it and you did it anyway. You have always been a stubborn, damn nothing has changed!“ Alex was now really angry. Her face blew up in an red color, she was walking through the whole apartment and you could tell by her body tension and the repeating lip bites that she was slowly reaching the limit.

But you didn’t care. You also had to give. You were full of aggression.

Kara, who was only a listener at the beginning of the conversation, rose from her seat and stood on Alex’s side, as usual. Just as she was about to start preaching to you as well, you caught the word again, directing tot he redhead. „Look who is talking! You are not better.“

„It is enough!“ the blonde screamed and stood in the middle of you both. She captured your energies and wanted to prevent you from worse. She knew how hot it could get in an argument between you.

„As always, you’re on her side.“ You spoke hurt and with a broken voice tot he blond. Tears filled your eyes. You put on your coat like a Speedster, put your shoes on and walked to the door. Before you closed it with a loud bang, you turned around again, your cheeks already covered with tears. „Nobody is perfect. Neither are you.“

----

You ran down the stairs on the street and stopped on the sidewalk. While wiping the tears from your eyes to have a clear view, you considered where you should go until a flash of thought came to you.

L-Corp to Lena. She was always there for you and you could always go to her when you had problems.

You ran again, your shoes were not suitable for winter and the white powder snow and so you kept slipping and not getting off the spot as quickly as you thought. The only thing you were happy about was that it was evening and almost no people were out on the streets anymore, you has a clear path and did not have to torture yourself through crowds. You were cold and your turtleneck and coat did not help you either.

You did not look back, did not look up to see if Supergirl was looking for you. It did not matter, the only thing you were aiming for and what your eyes fixed on was the huge, glass-built skyscraper and the blue ‚L-Corp‘.

You ran across the street and heard a loud horn. You stopped on the road like a frozen deer and white, shining light blinded you so you covered your eyes with your arms. Then you only heard a squeak, a dull impact and pain that ran through your whole body.

From there on, everything was black.

----

Slowly you woke up from your deep sleep. You saw Alex pacing in front of your bed, her fingers nervously at her mouth, chewing on them while Kara sat on the chair next to you. Her thumb rubbing circles on the back of your hand while her gaze started into the emptiness.

„Alex, stop pacing. It makes me crazy!“ Kara whispered as she let go of her rigidness and turned to the red-haired. Your hand still in hers.

„Kara, it is my fault. I should not have yelled at her for something she is not to blame for.“ The redhead said in a broken voice, as if she had spent the last few days crying.

When you looked closer, you saw her bloodshot eyes, the dark circles under them, which otherwise looked so big, looked like two small buttons, as if she hadn’t slept for a long time.

„You look like shit.“ You stated in a raspy voice and began to cough. Your throat was drier than the Mojave Desert and you could not shed the feeling of breathing sand every time you let some air into your lungs.

Startled, two heads rose and looked into your face. A smile ran through your sisters facial expressions and tears began to flow. Kara immediately poured water into the already lying glass on a bedside table and led it to your mouth where you slowly took a few sips.

But wait.

Where are you? Aren’t you standing on the street? Why were you lying in a bed that was definitely not yours?

Memories crisscrossed your thoughts and you remembered again. The dispute. Sadness. The way out. Lena. Lights.

„Babygirl, you are finally awake! You scared the hell out of us.“ the blonde pulled you out of your thoughts and you looked at her with a smile while she was hugging you carefully.

„What happened?“ you asked. „You ran across the street, a car caught you. You have two broken ribs, a concussion and a teared spleen. Not to mention a few wounds and bruises. You are lucky that you are still alive. We are lucky.“

You looked at Alex and saw that she wasn’t sure what to say or do. She just stood there in front of you and looked to the ground. Silence.

„You know, there is still one arm free.“ You tried to break the ice between both of you and she looked up. She smiled sadly and walked to you.

Slowly she lay down in your arm and shortly afterwards started to cry terribly. „I am so sorry. I am the one to blame for you being here. I am to blame for your pain. I am so sorry.“ She sobbed. „It is not your fault.“ You started but were immediately interrupted again.

„Yes it is. If I hadn’t started arguing with you for such a stupid reason you would not have run out. You would not have wanted to run away. If I had kept my mouth shut, everything would be fine now. You were nine. It was years ago. I am so sorry, I did not want to.“

You forgave her, gave her encouraging words, kept telling her that she was not the one to blame. The three of you snuggled together for a while in the too small bed and laughed and enjoyed the time.

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aetheriumwar · 4 years ago

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wait until hannah finds out that black people have been going through medical oppression for all of time and this stuff is still happening to black people right now! (not to mention other minorities esp trans ppl LMAO)

she’s so fucking tone deaf it’s ridiculous.

here’s a fun archive of the post!

id under cut

ID: A tweet from @michaelshermer that says, “Science is univeral, international, inclusive, nonpartisan, a-political, a-gender, a-race, and a-ideological. Don’t inject identity politics”

A reply tweet that says “Race eugenics was once considered science. Homosexuality was once a mental disorder. Letting people die of syphilis was once a study.”

And then Hannah’s Tumblr reblog addition that reads, “ This is what I think about when fatphobes use fatphobic "medical professionals" as proof for why fat people should be abused. Whenever they try to argue their fatphobia is acceptable with the latest unscientific, poorly done study that has a sample size of 15 and didn't take medical fatphobia into account, I remember how "female hysteria" used to be seen as a legitimate diagnosis. Whenever fatphobes try to claim BMI is good or that "obesity" exists, I remember all of the different minorities that have had their bodies medicalized in an attempt to further their oppression. All of this stuff is happening to fat people right now. It's time to end medical fatphobia. “

#hayden shut up #hannah stuff #worth-beyond-a-number-scale #fatphobiabusters #ill add to callout post later probably maybe #sorry for bad quality tumblr kills my screenies

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dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram · 4 years ago

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i really look forward to reading basically everything you have say about the many topics you discuss here. you just come across as incredibly level-headed. i think you have the ability to like, stand back and look at the big picture--esp. with 1d and HL's situation. I was just wondering if things that antis or non-fans say about larries being lunatics ever gets to you. i've been struggling and 2nd guessing a lot lately and i hate it. the gaslighting is so intense. how do you deal w/ that?

Hi anon

I’m glad you enjoy what I write - it’s really lovely to hear thanks for letting me know.

So I basically don’t know what antis or non-fans say. I don’t know if that’s a helpful starting point, but I don’t follow them, I don’t seek them out, how would I see the? I sometimes get absurd anons, but as you can see I get anons who are angry that I have an opinion on the US electoral system - so it becomes quite easy to see how wide and strange a set of view points anons.

I’ve always found self-defined antis really weird. If you’re participation in fandom is based around your insistence that other fans are wrong, then surely that’s both a miserable and boring existence?

So my first piece of advice is just disengage. But I’ll unpack things a little more in case that helps.

I think a lot of what gives these arguments power is that they play into people’s anxiety and black and white thinking. It can become very easy to buy into the logic: I think this thing is true, other people think it’s crazy to believe it, therfore the only options are I’m right or I’m crazy.

It may sound counter intuitive, but I think the easiest way to break out of that loop is to make peace with the fact that you might be wrong. Louis and Harry may be straight (I find the unimaginable, but things I find unimaginable insist on happening quite often so that’s not really a good argument against it), they might never have been together, they might have broken up - anything is possible.

If we’re wrong, we’re not crazy, we’re just wrong about celebrities. It’s really normal to be wrong about celebrities. And literally everyone in the world has been wronger about more important things than celebrities in the last twelve months. You sanity and your value on a person isn’t resting on always being right, particularly about things you don’t have enough information about.

Part of this means giving up arguing that way back. It’s reasonably common to see Larries make exactly the same arguments in reverse. That nobody could possibly believe that Louis or Harry is in straight and such a belief is inherently invalidating (particularly in Harry’s case this comes with a sider order of misogynist beliefs about women’s desire only being valid if it’s reciprocated).

I think that people who suggest that Larries are lunatics are being absurd and often cruel, but I actually don’t think it’s helpful to call it gaslighting. The important point about gaslighting in the original example (which I think does get lost in the way the term gets over used now) is that there was a reality that both parties knew. The lights were actually getting dimmer. In this case,everyone involved is telling stories based on incomplete information. We don’t know the reality of strangers’ life. I think calling it gaslighting reinforces the idea that everyone should agree about what’s going on, and it’s somehow invalidating if they don’t.

I think it’s so much better for everyone involved just to accept that it’s very normal that people tell different stories about celebrities.

#I do think being comfortable with uncertainty #is hugely important in so many ways #and it is central to how I try and set boundaries with what I do when it comes to fandom #Anonymous

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a-room-of-my-own · 5 years ago

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I'm happy to see you recognise there's a difference in scale between police brutality (esp. racially motivated) in the US and elsewhere. Whereas I don't disagree that cops are bastards, I'm not sure I agree with "abolish the police"- thoughts? I've seen people argue against increased funding, etc. and I'm happy to listen to alternative ways of policing civil society but I can't see what that would look like? Police need to be disarmed, 100%; they need better training too and maybe more /1

community involvement (?) but surely a properly trained and unarmed cop who works a 6-hour day (so therefore there are more cops in numbers) would be less stressed/ overworked and therefore less likely to brazenly kill? Again, I'm not disputing that the police as it exists now is dangerous but who are we supposed to report crimes to? Who is supposed to investigate them? Who intervenes when someone gets stabbed on the street? We need the political will to hold them accountable but abolishing? Idk

---

Oh no problem. I just thought that at some point it had to be said because I've read too many people saying that the situation in France and in the US is the same, when it's really not. I understand the idea of using the international exposure of the BLM movement to talk about our own issues with police brutality, but we just can't erase the specificity of the American situation. Black Americans need our support, and need us, I think, to understand what they fight for and what has been happening.

On the other hand, our local 'intellectuals' have been flooding TV channels and newspapers with hot takes about how France has close to zero racism / police brutality problem, some even giving their obviously uneducated opinion about George Floyd's death. Which is laughable, not to mention shockingly insulting. It's kind of a national hobby to say "look at how bad the situation is in N country" while ignoring our own issues.

Now about your question. I think it comes from the history of the creation of the police in the US. In the US the police isn't a national police force managed by a governmental authority, it's local. And not only is it local, but some judiciary positions are elected.

So people basically "managing" the police have a local political agenda. Depending on who voted for you then maybe your version of 'common interest' will be the interest of the people who elected you. Second, the police being local there isn't a unified training course for all police officers. Depending on where you live you may encounter people who had extensive training or people who are barely trained. I also believe that it's possible for stations to sell goods that were seized, which is pretty bad.

Edit: I hit publish too fast 😂

Also, the police as we know it, a professional force, is really recent in the US:

So without having an extensive knowledge of the American police, I think asking for its dissolution is not exaggerated, if it's to replace it with a national police force, with a clear chain of command, all the way up to the secretary of state. The police, I suppose, should be reshaped to actually protect and serve the people.

#Politics #Then again #Not a specialist at all so please tell me if I'm wrong!#Blm

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aft0nr0b0ticsllc · 6 years ago

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Character Chart Character’s full name: William David Afton Reason or meaning of name: Resolute protector; will. Character’s nickname: Will, Springtrap Reason for nickname: Short for William, impaled and trapped by springlocks. Birth date: 10th of May, 1953

Physical appearance Age: 66 How old does he/she appear: Corpse-like. Weight: Heavyset in life, shriveled now, around 600 lbs. in suit. Height: 6′6″ in life, 6′0″ now, 7′6″ in suit. Body build: Sturdy muscle-fat in life, emaciated now, bulky in suit. Shape of face: Rounded, strong jaw. Eye color: Silver in life, purple glow in eye sockets now, silver-white in suit. Glasses or contacts: Reading glasses in life. Skin tone: Sickly, yellowish-pale in life, dusky bruise-purple now, faded green-yellow in suit. Distinguishing marks: Full-body scars in complex patterns from springlocks. Tears and stains in suit. Predominant features: Striking eyes and salt-and-pepper hair in life. Now... well he’s stuffed into a decaying bunny robot. Hair color: Brown with silver sides in life. None now. Type of hair: Thick with widow’s peaks in life, wavy, well groomed. None now. Hairstyle: Medium length, brushed back in life. Voice: It will melt your pants right off. Rich, deep and proper. Dry, gravely tone post-death. Overall attractiveness: Isn’t that entirely subjective? Dadly, but sharp-featured in life. Might make you think “Come on, you’re the devil aren’t you”. Super dead now. Physical disabilities: Multiple chronic illnesses, both physical and psychological in life. Remnant dependence in death. Usual fashion of dress: Business professional to business casual in life. Springlock suit now. Favorite outfit: Black button up, purple vest, black or purple slacks on life. Jewelry or accessories: Ties, simple rings in life. Not many now, unless you count various upgrades like stainless steel retractable claws. Personality Good personality traits: Intelligent, curious, dedicated. Bad personality traits: Unsympathetic, selfish, obsessive. Mood character is most often in: Feral scientist mood? Sense of humor: Not immediately apparent, but more present than it seems. Both dark and childish. Character’s greatest joy in life: The joy of creation. Character’s greatest fear: Absolute, true death. Why?: Thanatophobia? He can’t imagine not existing or able to ensure that he is remembered. What single event would most throw this character’s life into complete turmoil?: I’d say that already happened and it was either the bite of ‘83 or when he was springlocked and sealed away. Character is most at ease when: Fueled up on remnant and in the presence of family and/or loved ones. Most ill at ease when: Low on remnant and/or restrained/sealed somewhere. Enraged when: Exposed to willful ignorance. Depressed or sad when: Losing/rejected by family or loved ones. Priorities: Staying alive forever, keeping family and loved ones alive forever, by any means necessary, up to and including murder/human experimentation. Life philosophy: “There isn’t a way out anymore. All there is is family.” If granted one wish, it would be: Absolutely assurance that he and his family/loved ones will live happily forever. Why?: Thanatophobia? Character’s soft spot: Anyone he considers family, be they biologically related, close by relationship alone, or simply former victims who haven’t turned against him. Is this soft spot obvious to others?: I’d argue that it SHOULD be, but his status as a murderer causes it to be easily glazed over. Greatest strength: Absolute refusal to die. “I always come back.” Greatest vulnerability or weakness: H U B R I S. Biggest regret: Not preventing the accidents that killed his children. Minor regret: Killing Henry’s daughter Charlie. Biggest accomplishment: Immortality. Minor accomplishment: Improved his pizza recipe, it’s really good now. Past failures he/she would be embarrassed to have people know about: Lacks the self awareness to be embarrassed, I think. Even failures were in the name of progress. Why?: Because science, duh. Character’s darkest secret: Well, he’s a child murderer. Does anyone else know?: God yeah. Goals Drives and motivations: Obtaining and maintaining immortality, and furthering science in general. Immediate goals: Stay alive! Long term goals: Stay alive! How the character plans to accomplish these goals: Stealing the life force of others! How other characters will be affected: They’ll probably die, I imagine. :3c Past Hometown: Cambridge, England Type of childhood: Troubled, raised mostly by a single mother. Pets: Uh-oh. Oh no. First memory: Finding his father’s drowned body. Most important childhood memory: Oof probably that same one. Why: It sure did mess him up. Childhood hero: None really, but aspired to outdo many influential scientists. Dream job: Government Scientist Education: Masters in Robotics Religion: Catholic upbringing. Finances: Middle-class. Present Current location: Vague, mostly in his underground bunker beneath his place of business. Currently living with: Circus Baby and several other “family” members. Pets: Nothing stays alive around him for long. Religion: Agnostic Occupation: Roboticist and arcade/pizzeria owner. Finances: Upper-class (Criminal) Family Mother: Name TBD. Deceased. Relationship with her: She died with his resentment. No sign of her since. Father: Warren Afton. Deceased? Old Man Consequences. Relationship with him: “Leave the demon to his demons.” OMC is a detached spirit, who both resents and pities what William has become. He is angry, but also blames himself to a degree, believing that his suicide worsened his already troubled son’s condition. Siblings: N/A Relationship with them: N/A Spouse: Deceased. Relationship with him/her: Killed herself upon uncovering William’s secret. Children: Three, dead and reanimated in various ways. Relationship with them: Good, strained, ??? Other important family members: Considers all of his “loyal” possessed animatronics some manner of family. Particularly close with Colton Candy. Favorites Color: Pink! Also likes purple (esp. on himself), sunshine yellow and spring green. Least favorite color: He doesn’t really dislike any color, but is a little put off by over-saturation. Music: Indie, mostly. Has developed a taste for Industrial as well. Food: Can’t eat. Was very fond of junk food and cakes in life. Literature: Mostly educational non-fiction. Form of entertainment: Loves cartoons. Expressions: Limited. Can’t move his corpse-face much and his suit-face is very stiff. Almost always looked tired and frustrated in life. Mode of transportation: Doesn’t fit in most vehicles. Is attempting to build his own. Drove a relatively nice four-door in life. (Irresponsibly) Most prized possession: Remnant extractor, hallucination-inducing audio mind control technology, his collection of uncanny carnival memorabilia. Habits Hobbies: Arcade games, cooking, toy making, clowning. Plays a musical instrument? Guitar. Plays a sport? Nope. How he/she would spend a rainy day: Slaughtering children in the basement I guess. Spending habits: Spends mostly on investments, pretty good at making a profit. Smokes: Enjoyed a good cigar now and then in life. Drinks: Yes, mostly hard liquor and occasionally too much. Mostly in life, but occasionally after death if he can find something that works. Other drugs: Only as prescribed in life. Addicted to remnant now, which might count. What does he/she do too much of? Working, killing people. What does he/she do too little of? Bonding with others, seeing medical professionals. Extremely skilled at: Robotics, pizza, acting, manipulation, murder, torture. Extremely unskilled at: Forming genuine and healthy connections to other people. Nervous tics: Jaw-clenching, foot-tapping, occasional head jerks. Usual body posture: Upright and perhaps too still, even borderline robotic. (Literally robotic after death.) In life he found this difficult and even painful to maintain, but did it anyway. Mannerisms: Professional and charismatic, somewhat emotionally withdrawn but not unfriendly in life. Downright ominous after death, fluctuating between too-serious and too-silly unpredictably, but always a little bit threatening. Peculiarities: “Nothing behind the eyes”. Most of his behavior comes off as “acting”. Good “acting”, but it’s all just a tiny bit off. Traits Optimist or pessimist?: Pessimist-leaning. Introvert or extrovert?: Reads as an extrovert, is actually an introvert. Daredevil or cautious?: Typically cautious with chaotic outbursts of daredevil. Logical or emotional?: Typically logical with chaotic outbursts of emotional, usually selfish. Disorderly and messy or methodical and neat?: Mostly methodical and neat, but finds the occasionally mess theraputic. Prefers working or relaxing?: Would love to relax, but typically cannot without over-working due to stress and trauma. Confident or unsure of himself/herself?: Mostly confident. Uncertainty slips in now and then, and he combats it with over-compensation. Animal lover?: Unfortunately, not really. He doesn’t dislike animals, but has difficult seeing them as individuals and feeling empathy or sympathy enough to connect with them, just as with humans. Self-perception How he/she feels about himself/herself: Typically sees himself as an accomplished and brilliant scientist and/or a superior, ascended being. Occasional bouts of self loathing as a result of his failed attempts at connecting to other people. One word the character would use to describe self: Curious One paragraph description of how the character would describe self: “I’m something of an acquired taste, not suitable for most audiences, who lack the insight to understand what it is that I’ve done here and why. I’ve made great sacrifices for things so grand that most men can’t even fathom it - the bigger picture. I truly have made fantasy and fun come to life - perhaps in a nightmarish fashion, but I’ve embraced that.” What does the character consider his/her best personality trait?: His drive or intellect. What does the character consider his/her worst personality trait?: His clinical sociopathy. What does the character consider his/her best physical characteristic?: He was fairly neutral to resentful to most of it in life. His physical body caused him a lot of pain and difficulties. What does the character consider his/her worst physical characteristic?: Being dead is kind of a turn off for most people so probably that. In life, his generally ill appearance. How does the character think others perceive him/her: A monster, and not in the nice way. He’d like more respect and sympathy than he gets. What would the character most like to change about himself/herself: He’d like to be able to love and to feel loved more consistently and deeply than he’s capable of. Relationships with others Opinion of other people in general: Mostly stupid, ignorant, self-important, tiny-minded fools. Surprisingly open to having this opinion changed, and often very quickly comes to love and admire those who are willing to put in the effort to earn his affection. Does the character hide his/her true opinions and emotions from others?: Usually yes. Person character most hates: Surprisingly, he doesn’t really hate anyone. Best friend(s): Henry, Kai, Blu, Dings, WD, Draggy Love interest(s): All of the above in different ways. Person character goes to for advice: Henry Person character feels responsible for or takes care of: Circus Baby, Golden Freddy Person character feels shy or awkward around: Henry Person character openly admires: Henry Person character secretly admires: Officer Leah Mack Most important person in character’s life before story starts: Henry After story starts: Henry

#dash memes #about #this is a good long one but it's good to have this information somewhere #because i forget some of it sometimes

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horizon-verizon · 8 months ago

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https://x.com/rhaenicentwin/status/1791621994053603489

They are always Rhaenicent fans…

Well, we are all entitled to have opinions even if I will never understand some or see how some are clearly just motivated by racism, sexism, etc.

And there's something to be said about how some of these characters on the black side are boring because the writers have removed some scenes we find out about a whole ass year after the first season. Plus, they simply didn't develop them or explore the children of the first set of characters enough in the first season: Baela and Rhaena, esp the latter, had almost no lines.

It's still a bit crazy when they try to argue the moral character or just plain "coolness" for "interestingness" of the greens when the "interestingness" of the green character(s) they like are really about either how physically attractive they find them or from the show's deliberate giving black traits to greens to "balance" the sides out in their misunderstanding or just noncaring about why the greens and the blacks are characterized the way they are towards this tale about misogyny and how it frames "deserving".

There's Jace, who the writers thought it'd make sense to have him not understand High Valyrian in all the time he's lived with High Valyrian-speaking people since birth (Rhaenyra, Laenor [esp with Rhaenys as his mother, and Daemon) who would all have been very proud of their heritage.

Then there is the fact they chose to emphasize how Aemond was the one to devote himself to "philosophies" and try to be the ideal "prince" or educate himself in being a proper leader...

when that has canonically more been Jace, who had the more reason to really apply himself because of the pressure of people's doubting his parentage and the belief of bastards not deserving/capable of inheriting certain types of leadership.

Aemond might have been a second son, but he was still legitimate and the son of a woman who is in her "proper" place as the consort to the King instead of a woman who is the first heir/woman also thought to be undeserving of the position. And not primarily because she's suspected of having had extramarital relationships but because she is female. The extramarital relationships and having children not her husbands are really just additional excuses made against her, to argue that she is not "responsible" and doesn't act like a "good" woman to be the next ruler of their society. Aemond doesn't have all of this to contend with, just his family's jealousy and desire to reinforce patriarchal authority.

Aemond canonically believes that it is his & his brothers' birthright, the throne. He was described/proven as "fierce" and very impulsive--more than Daemon--not just because he was much younger and eager to prove his martial and masculine prowess but also because his side of the family is so much less free & unconditional with their love in lieu of their more obsessed compulsion to "take back" what they thought should have been theirs by virtue of their male children's very existences. Further proven by how manically both he and Aegon insulted Rhaenyra or were fixated by going head to head against Daemon in the book.

In Westeros, there is actually a bit of a stigma of noblemen being "too" scholarly and not focusing more on being skilled at martial practices, especially swordsmanship. Because, again, that's how men get their glory and obtain more resources aside from inheritance or gifts. Look to how Pre-warrior Rhaegar the musician and Samwell Tarly are described by the people and historical writers and you will understand.

Therefore, I tend to think canon!Aemond would be less inclined to actually study "philosophies", and even if he did, he'd likely just read those that don't expand his world view but those that reaffirm his idea of his birthright & copy those medievalesque authors who aren't the sort of philosophers that try to challenge status quo like some people ight have assumed?

Would Aemond care to really ponder and reflect over men like Benedict rivers, who lived as a bastard of a Bracken and a Blackwood but became a king anyway to begin a long line of Justman kings? Or would that be Jace?

Jace, of the two, would have an equanimity and knowledge that Aemond just wouldn't have. And that also makes me dislike how much they didn not really show Jace having to battle between his frustrations, fears, and how he regulates his emotions and how ehe might slip up to contextualize his relationship with his family, esp with Luke. Who we see him seemingly mistreat or at least unfailry take his anger out on with no apology. And "seemingly" because again, we are not given any other scenes of his development and interactions with his family. That and his fighting w/Aemond in episode 8 give more leeway to the impression that Jace is not as leader-quality as he should be, esp in comparison to Aemond (for some people, I still thought Aemond wasn't either, but the points that it leaves more room for that impression).

But many people want to just watch the show and not really engage with the themes of ASoIaF or think about stuff too "deeply". Or they already see some stupid shit in the writing and want to stay "positive" about it and enjoy the show, so if they express such I tend to leave them to it because I don't want to ruin their fun. As long as they don't say actually prejudiced stuff, and I don't just mean racist, sexist, etc. stuff. I mean where people severely try to make one feel guilty for actually understanding the story GRRM set out to make with the Dance. Like Daemon's fatherhood and the constant "he was a groomer" to try and somehow negate the effect of his presence in the black children's later post-Dance actions (Maiden's Ball). Some people either never read the book and/or do not plan on it. Or they have and they either quickly took Gyldayn's/Mushroom/Septon Eustace/Munkun/Orwyle's interpretations of mysterious/non-mysterious events to be unbiased fact. OR they read it and don't really compare the blacks to the greens and how/why they might do the things that they do themselves because, admittedly, the text is built from biased interpretations and thus it feels often like a futile pursuit sometimes with some specific phenomena that the book covers. Finally, some don't look to the So Spake Martin website for research or GRRM's own blog to see how he talks about his characters in F&B's Dance portion.

Therefore, it's not just Rhaenicent fans but some from Aegon stan circles and team black. People want to just watch the show 🤷🏻‍♂️.

#asoiaf asks to me #hotd fandom #fandom critical #fandom commentary #hotd writing #book vs tv comparisons #jacaerys velaryon #jacaerys velaryon's characterization #aemond targaryen #aemond's characterization #fire and blood characters #hotd characterization #character comparison

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elcorreodetorreon · 6 years ago

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“IQ is largely a pseudoscientific swindle”, Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Background : “IQ” is a stale test meant to measure mental capacity but in fact mostly measures extreme unintelligence (learning difficulties), as well as, to a lesser extent, a form of intelligence, stripped of 2nd order effects. It is via negativa not via positiva. Designed for learning disabilities, it ends up selecting exam-takers, paper shufflers, obedient IYIs (intellectuals yet idiots), ill adapted for “real life”. The concept is poorly thought out mathematically (a severe flaw in correlation under fat tails, fails to properly deal with dimensionality, treats the mind as an instrument not a complex system), and seemed to be promoted by

racists/eugenists, people bent on showing that some populations have inferior mental abilities based on IQ test=intelligence; those have been upset with me for suddenly robbing them of a “scientific” tool, as evidenced by the bitter reactions to the initial post on twitter/smear campaigns by such mountebanks as Charles Murray. (Something observed by the great Karl Popper, psychologists have a tendency to pathologize people who bust them by tagging them with some type of disorder, or personality flaw such as “childish” , “narcissist”, “egomaniac”, or something similar).

psychometrics peddlers looking for suckers (military, large corporations) buying the “this is the best measure in psychology” argument when it is not even technically a measure — it explains at best between 13% and 50% of the performance in some tasks (those tasks that are similar to the test itself), minus the data massaging and statistical cherrypicking by psychologists; it doesn’t satisfy the monotonicity and transitivity required to have a measure (at best it is a concave measure). No measure that fails 60–95% of the time should be part of “science” (nor should psychology — owing to its sinister track record — be part of science (rather scientism), but that’s another discussion).

Some argue that IQ measures intellectual capacity — real world results come from, in addition, “wisdom” or patience, or “conscientiousness”, or decision-making or something of the sort. No. It does not even measureintellectual capacity/mental powers.

If you want to detect how someone fares at a task, say loan sharking, tennis playing, or random matrix theory, make him/her do that task; we don’t need theoretical exams for a real world function by probability-challenged psychologists. Traders get it right away: hypothetical P/L from “simulated” paper strategies doesn’t count. Performance=actual. What goes in people’s head or reaction to a screen image doesn’t exist (except via negativa).

Fat Tails If IQ is Gaussian by construction and if real world performance were, net, fat tailed (it is), then either the covariance between IQ and performance doesn’t exist or it is uninformational. It will show a finite number in samplebut doesn’t exist statistically. Another problem: when they say “black people are x standard deviations away”. Different populations have different variances, even different skewness and these comparisons require richer models. These are severe, severe mathematical flaws (a billion papers in psychometrics wouldn’t count if you have such a flaw). See the formal treatment in my next book.

But the “intelligence” in IQ is determined by academic psychologists like the “paper trading” we mentioned above, via statistical constructs s.a. correlation that I show here (see Fig. 1) that they patently don’t understand. It does correlate to negative performance (as it was initially designed to detect learning special needs) but then any measure would work there. A measure that works in left tail not right tail (IQ decorrelates as it goes higher) is problematic. We have gotten similar results since the famous Terman longitudinal study, even with massaged data for later studies. To get the point, consider that if someone has mental needs, there will be 100% correlation between performance and IQ tests. But the performance doesn’t correlate as well at higher levels, though the psychologists will think it does.(The statistical spin, as a marketing argument, is that a person with an IQ of 70 cannot prove theorems, which is obvious for a measure of unintelligence — but they fail to reveal how many IQs of 150 are doing menial jobs).

It is a false comparison to claim that IQ “measures the hardware” rather than the software. It can measures some arbitrarily selected mental abilities (in a testing environment) believed to be useful. However, if you take a Popperian-Hayekian view on intelligence, you would realize that to measure it you would need to know the mental skills needed in a future ecology, which requires predictability of said future ecology. It also requires the skills to make it to the future (hence the need for mental biases for survival).

Real Life: In academia there is no difference between academia and the real world; in the real world there is. 1) When someone asks you a question in the real world, you focus first on “why is he/she asking me that?”, which shifts you to the environment (see Fat Tony vs Dr John in The Black Swan) and detracts you from the problem at hand. Only suckers don’t have that instinct. 2) Real life never never offers crisp questions with crisp answers (most questions don’t have answers; perhaps the worst problem with IQ is that it seem to selects for people who don’t like to say “there is no answer, don’t waste time, find something else”.) 3) It takes a certain type of person to waste intelligent concentration on classroom/academic problems. These are lifeless bureaucrats who can muster sterile motivation. Some people can only focus on problems that are real, not fictional textbook ones (see the note below where I explain that I can only concentrate with real not fictional problems). 4) IQ doesn’t detect convexity (by an argument similar to bias-variance you need to make a lot of small inconsequential mistake in order to avoid a large consequential one. See Antifragile and how any measure of “intelligence” w/o convexity is sterile edge.org/conversation/n…). To do well you must survive, survival requires some mental biases directing to some errors. 5) Fooled by Randomness: seeing shallow patterns in not a virtue — leads to naive interventionism. Some psychologist wrote back to me: “IQ selects for pattern recognition, essential for functioning in modern society”. No. Not seeing patterns except when they are significant is a virtue in real life. 6) To do well in life you need depth and ability to select your own problems and to think independently.

Functionary Quotient: If you renamed IQ , from “Intelligent Quotient” to FQ “Functionary Quotient” or SQ “Salaryperson Quotient”, then some of the stuff will be true. It measures best the ability to be a good slave. “IQ” is good for @davidgraeber’s “BS jobs”.

Metrification: If someone came up w/a numerical“Well Being Quotient” WBQ or “Sleep Quotient”, SQ, trying to mimic temperature or a physical quantity, you’d find it absurd. But put enough academics w/physics envy on it and it will become an official measure.

Notes And Technical Notes

“IQ” is most predictive of performance in military training, with correlation~.5, (which is circular since hiring isn’t random and training is another test).

There are contradictory stories about whether IQ ceases to work past a threshold, since Terman’s longitudinal study of “geniuses”. What these researchers don’t get is these contradictions come from the fact that the variance of the IQ measure increases with IQ. Not a good thing.

The argument that “some races are better at running” hence [some inference about the brain] is stale: mental capacity is much more dimensional and not defined in the same way running 100 m dash is.

I have here no psychological references for backup: simply, the field is bust. So far ~ 50% of the research does notreplicate, and papers that do have weaker effect. Not counting poor transfer to reality (psychological papers are ludic).

How P values often — rather almost always — fraudulent: my paper arxiv.org/pdf/1603.07532…

The Flynn effect should warn us not just that IQ is somewhat environment dependent, but that it is at least partly circular.

Verbalism: Psychologists have a skin-deep statistical education & can’t translate something as trivial as “correlation” or “explained variance” into meaning, esp. under nonlinearities (see paper at the end).

The “best measure” charlatans: IQ is reminiscent of risk charlatans insisting on selling “value at risk”, VaR, and RiskMetrics saying “it’s the best measure”. That “best” measure, being unreliable blew them up many many times. Note the class of suckers for whom a bad measure is better than no measure across domains.

You can’t do statistics without probability.

Much of the stuff about IQ of physicists is suspicious, from self-reporting biases/selection in tests.

If you looked at Northern Europe from Ancient Babylon/Ancient Med/Egypt, you would have written the inhabitants off... Then look at what happened after 1600. Be careful when you discuss populations.

The same people hold that IQ is heritable, that it determines success, that Asians have higher IQs than Caucasians, degrade Africans, then don’t realize that China for about a Century had one order of magnitude lower GDP than the West.

Mathematical Considerations

CURSE OF DIMENSIONALITY A flaw in the attempts to identify “intelligence” genes. You can get monogenic traits, not polygenic (note: additive monogenic used in animal breeding is NOT polygenic).

The Skin in the game issue

How social scientists have trouble translating a statistical construct into its practical meaning.

Psychology

Data Science

Black Swan

Racism

Alt Right

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John Gordon

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I’m surprised no one has mentioned the book, “IQ: A Smart History of a Failed Idea,” by Stephan Murdoch. I read it recently and recommend it. Even without Taleb’s math prowess excoriating it, IQ’s legitimacy is unconvincing.

Taleb drives a stake through the IQ corpse and helps unveil the shame of 20th

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titsoutfortalmud · 3 years ago

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mad gigantic feelings rad and frantic feelings

i might rewrite this to be like, , , legible, and post it on sefaria sheets for my adoring audience of myself

Additionally… not sure if this should be part of the d’var torah - i don’t think so, as it’s only tangentially related

But I was thinking about the history of queerness and of slavery. Because i AM only consulting around a dozen rabbis

Sefaria is by definition non-orthodox by virtue of its goal to spread knowledge indiscriminately, but its sources are restricted - not too recent (due to copyright), not too obscure, not hard to verify and to transcribe

And i’m like, i already knew that. Any corpus of historical literature is subject to the same biases as the people who collected it.

That’s always a problem for history esp when it comes to queerness - anything non-straight up until 19XX may not have gotten translated or otherwise not recognized as religious literature (due to its perceived smut)

[edit: hi this is me from 2022. want to contextualize that this is about how im reading a specific part of torah as being definitively anti-slavery (in the context given) but it was interpreted by rabbis as the opposite]

[the reason this relates to slavery is because of course most modern people and almost DEFINITELY black american jews would have read that verse as it is written! Despite the lack of rabbinical support in the english section of sefaria. I am not the first one to interpret it this way! So where are the other opinions??]

So we are always in a process of rebuilding our own history by trying to read between the lines, looking for the parentheticals that imply we existed (see a rainbow thread including so many homophobic passages just to say LOOK, HOMOPHOBES WERE SCARED OF SOMETHING, SO WE WERE AROUND)

But that’s the jewish experience too, right?? Of any minority. History is intentionally wiped out. We take the pieces that we’re left with and rebuild it again and again and again. It’s not on us to complete the work

[to me, (and this may refer to worldview more than the specific movements) orthodoxy takes the halakhah / torah literally and sanctifies those opinions; reform judaism is content to say “it’s wrong” and move on. The rabbi does want us to wrestle with torah but i am not content with that. I want to wrestle with talmud! I want to learn the logic and arguments and i want the rhetorical tactics and the vocab! I want to be able to take the rabbinical interpretation seriously on its own merits and be able to argue against it too!

Because yes on the one hand torah is flawed because gd is flawed, and saying that would already get me kicked out of any historical beit din lol. But that does not mean that the torah (as is plainly read) is automatically less valid than the interpretetations thereafter

There is a reason the rabbis disagreed amongst themselves and that’s because there is room for disagreement in the torah AND talmud AND halakhah. And if that’s not reflected in the historical record, it’s our work to fix it!!!!

Who is “our”? Anyone who reads and understands and has the capability and inclination. Us as a group. Jewish people who care. The generation, time, culture I belong to. Anyone who can carry that burden.

Until we find those texts that interpret torah in a way that makes sense to us, we have to write them ourselves!

Tl;dr more reform responsa

I need / want to make a differentiation with the terms i use because they don’t seem quite right.

I use

Orthodoxy, conservative, homophobic, old-school, strict, old-school

And

Reform, liberal, human-rights-friendly, modern, positive

As if they all mean the same thing when i am fully aware they do not, excluding modern orthodoxy and conservatism altogether and conflating religious understanding w politics w homophobia specifically w the incorrect notion of humanity progressing to something better (eg social darwinism)

So being aware is the first step. Would like to have some other terms. Usually i just mean to refer to their stance on human rights and especially lgbt+ friendliness. Other times i mean to talk about how strictly they follow or care about halakhah. Other times i mean to refer to following an older set of jewish practices (eg no electricity on shabbat)

On the one hand maybe i should hang out in more orthodox + conservative circles but on the other hand, a lot of the content is triggering and specifically hits that Religiosity trigger for me. I am baffled how few people seem to realize that, the more focused on exclusively jewish ideas they are, they actually seem to get stuck in the Jesus-y mental framework that i feel is totally un-jewish. But that may be a cultural thing about religion that manifests in diff religions eg the horseshoe doodle

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monkey-network · 7 years ago

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Good Stuff - Unikitty!

WARNING: M&Ms and Honey Nut Cheerios in yogurt is the best thing you could do for breakfast. Thank you, take care out there, and enjoy.

Sunshine! Sunshine! Ladybugs awake! Positive vibes in an accurate state!

Hmm, a spicy series dedicated to a character from an amazing movie; said character is a magical unicorn kitten that is chipper, quirky, and boundlessly optimistic yet prone to short bursts of unbridled rage that rules over a vivid, colorful domain with her unicorn/puppy brother, her fox friend that is the kingdom’s staple wild scientist, her bodyguard whom is a hawk and crocodile hybrid, and her pragmatic and stoic royal adviser that is a literal grey blockhead? My god, is this not a valiant Sunday afternoon with a blessed trip to Eden full of color and style, kinks and dinks, curves and wiggles, pricks and spindly dead ends, with every flower dancing with elegance to the endearing melody of positivity under the eyes of human life’s chilling stare?

It’s an active victory road of surreal, easy-going entertainment! BUT...

I’m getting ahead of myself; I should at least present the possible cons this show could wring in the future. First, it’s upbeat, nonsensical nature can be a major turn off for those who are wanting more “serious” endeavors (esp. those who considered something like The Last Airbender on and want nothing more than for lightning to strike twice) and can find this obnoxious and loud. As a followup con, people might find Unikitty herself, a supporting, pretty minor, character from the popular Lego Movie, to be obnoxious with her generally manic demeanor; in addition to the track record of spin-off cartoon shows based on secondary characters nnnnggggnnnot being a pretty one. Now I will say, standard rule: this show won’t be for everyone, I’ll agree to that. And I have a bias towards liking gung-ho characters, won’t deny, but I can see that they’re not trying to have our main character steal the show all the time and have her in your face at all time; giving the others a spotlight. I can safely say this is better than other spin-off shows I’ve regrettably seen like [shudders] Planet Sheen, Adult Party Cartoon, or Shag and Scoobs: Get A Clue.

Like zoinks, Skooks. Where were you in 2006?

One last thing, and this has been bothering me a bit, people keep wanting to bring the Lego Movie and Teen Titans Go in when thinking about this because it’s made by people that made the Lego Movie and Teen Titans Go........[sigh] Y’know? This might be late, but I’m gonna speak small on this last part for a sec, if you mind? [deep inhale]

[exhale] A show from an existing property can provide continuity from said previous work; that is doable. However, and this might sound stupid, I see that Unikitty! takes place in its own realm, it’s own universe, so can we not judge it on its own unique merits until it actually brings ties from the Lego Movie into its show in some.......coherent way? Can we let it.....be its own thing? Furthermore, even when we’ve all had our thoughts on Teen Titans Go, is there nothing else we can compare it with to give it a....glass half full approach towards looking forward to it, since TTG is not the end all, be all for Cartoon Network? I mean, CN may have boosted TTG like the black plague, but has the show or the channel’s actions really plagued our minds with a level of pessimism that hype for new shows are met with a bleak to meh outlook? Now I will say this could be just Teen Titans Go with Unikitty slapped on it, or it could be a more child-friendly version mixtape between...

One of my favorite online cartoons

and one of the most perfected adult cartoons imaginable.

Dick Figures and Superjail! are what I love about cartoons. I can harp and sound intellectual about the best cartoons having a strong narrative, what the writers do with arcs and such, and so on; those are important elements. But honestly, if it’s competent and entertains me, I will be hooked. And if I can tell the creators are having fun with their work, I’m there with them and these two shows are prime examples. I could argue for hours on why Superjail worked so well. The episodes may not have added to any thought provoking lesson or idea, but they didn’t need to. They were simple, hedonistic adventures that had the art and animation to compliment it.

And the color to give ‘em their uniqueness

That is what I believe is channeling Unikitty! With those behind Dick Figures and the Lego Movie working on this, a serious surprise to me, I see they’re wanting to make our unicorn feline more than just a one note character while still giving her the characteristics of her movie appearance. Like the Warden from Superjail, they’re juggling an upbeat narcissist, a reckless yet capable leader, and a quick tempered yet sensible character all around. It’s not gonna be perfect, but then again...never expect perfection. The animation’s top notch, the coloring is not a sore to the eyes, they’re making the most of the character’s simplistic designs, the lego clicking sounds from characters is a clever detail but not a annoyance to the ears, and all technicalities aside, the sunny side attitude is just a plus for me, especially when I’m in a bad mood. The new year speaks for a positive stance of change, and I say Unikitty’s the character to boost a spirit or two. That’s what she’s all about and that’s why I say, benefit of the doubt, the show’s in good hands. Fun-filled effort put into a fun fulfilling show. Do give it a shot, support it and the other CN shows if you can/wish, and remember to stay positive.

Boops For The New Year

#unikitty!#unikitty #cartoons #animation #cartoon network #Good Stuff #superjail #lego #the lego movie #kittens #reviews #roy macintosh #awesome #ye #stay positive

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numinousmysteries · 7 years ago

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Vanquish by Wisdom Hellish Wiles (2/?)

Chapter 1 On AO3

@fictober @today-in-fic

Chapter 2

One Year Earlier

For as long as he could remember, William Van De Kamp couldn't wait to leave his boring hometown behind. His classmates' families had been in Wyoming for generations and their only dreams were taking over their family farms or going into mining. William liked to think he might study medicine and find cures for devastating diseases, or become a physicist and solve the mysteries of the universe. He was only three years away from graduating high school and even though his parents would prefer he went to college in-state because of the cheaper tuition, he was willing to do anything he could to get scholarships or financial aid to go somewhere far, far away from middle of nowhere Wyoming.

It didn’t help that he had freakish abilities like knowing what someone was going to say before they said it or making an object move without touching it.

He’d known from an early age that he was adopted. Even if his parents hadn’t told him, it would’ve been obvious. At fifteen he was already taller than his mother and nearly as tall as his dad. and he shared none of their features. His parents had given him everything he needed growing up, but as small town farmers there was only so much they could do to satisfy his fierce intelligence and bottomless curiosity. All through elementary school his teachers urged his parents to let him skip a grade since he was so far ahead of the other students, but they held firm that they wanted him to be as normal as possible. He argued that there wasn’t anything abnormal about being smart, but they just sighed and told him to try to be less of a smart aleck around the other kids. Needless to say, he didn’t have the easiest time making friends.

He'd just gotten in trouble again for correcting his biology teacher and finishing her sentences in class. At yet another strained meeting between him, his parents, and the high school principal, his parents made him apologize profusely for his behavior and promise to never do it again.

“What do you know about my real parents?” he asked his parents when they returned home.

“We are your parents,” his father said.

“You know what I mean.”

His mother gave an aggravated sigh and his father just shook his head.

“We’ve told you everything we know,” his mother said. “Your birth mother was a single mom who couldn’t handle the responsibility of a baby. She probably wasn’t much older than you are now.”

“Especially the responsibility of a kid who’s a freak,” William said. “I bet you wish you could give me up now, too.”

“Don’t ever say that, William,” his mother raised her voice. “You are the best gift we could’ve asked for.”

“Whatever,” William said. He got up from the kitchen table and stomped up the stairs to his room.

He had to suspect that his real mother knew something about why he was so different than all the other kids. Maybe she even could’ve helped him deal with his abilities. But instead she just handed him off to some unsuspecting couple who couldn’t have a baby of his own. He almost felt bad for his parents. They thought they were getting a nice, normal baby but instead they got stuck with him.

The principal of his school insisted to his parents that he see a therapist and gave him the name of a woman who came highly recommended. Neither of his parents had ever seen a therapist and they weren't sure how they felt about William talking to one, but when the principal said it was go for an appointment or face expulsion, they felt like they had no choice. Before his mother took him to his first appointment, though,she made him promise to not tell the therapist about his special “talents,” as they called them.

William sat with his mother quietly in the waiting room. It was set up for younger kids, with a chest of toys and some building blocks. The room was empty except for the two of them, and for a place that supposedly had a lot of little kids running around it seemed oddly sterile.

"William Van De Kamp?" William looked up and saw a thin woman with short black hair. She was pretty. He'd been expecting someone more like his frumpy teachers but with her black pantsuit she looked more like a city businesswoman than a small town therapist.

William and his mother both stood up. "Do you want me to go in with you?"

"No, thanks," he said.

"Alright," said the therapist. "You can follow me."

Her office was small with jam-packed bookcases lining two walls that made it seem even more claustrophobic. But it was impeccably clean and there weren't any traces of the kid toys from outside.

"Hi William," she said. "My name is Monica Reyes."

She extended his hand and after a pause he reached out to shake it. "Nice to meet you, Miss Reyes."

"Please, Monica is fine."

He didn't like the way Monica was looking at him. She kept smiling as if they were old friends who hadn't seen each other in years.

"William, your parents told me you were having some trouble at school. Do you want to tell me, in your own words, what's going on?"

He sat quietly. nervous that anything he said would make him sound more like a freak.

When he didn't speak, Monica said, "Before you start, I do want to let you know that everything we talk about here doesn't leave this room--not even to your parents. Unless you tell me you've hurt yourself or someone else--or you plan on doing so--I won't tell your parents or anyone from your school anything we discuss."

"Okay," he said but he still felt hesitant.

"Why don't we start with your classmates," she said. "Do you have any close friends?"

"No," he said. "I don't have any friends."

"None at all?"

"No, I can't stand anyone in my school. They're all so dumb and even if I tried to make friends with them, they'd just be mean to me anyway."

"That sounds like it must be difficult," Monica said. She had a yellow legal pad on her lap but she didn't have a pen. William thought that was strange based on the few times he'd seen a movie or TV show where someone went to a therapist or psychologist.

"Shouldn't you be taking notes?" he asked.

"What?"

"You're just holding that pad but you have nothing to write with. Don't therapists usually write stuff down?"

Monica smiled, an even wider and somehow creepier smile than the one she'd had before. "That's a good point," she said, but didn't make a move to get a pen or pencil from her desk.

"William, have you ever felt that you were different from all the people around you?"

William squinted at her. He wasn't sure if this was a trick question, something to make him admit how weird he was. He didn't answer.

"Or maybe that you're destined for something bigger than your life now?"

"Yeah, I guess so," he said. "The second one. Like I can't wait to get out of school and start doing something exciting."

She grinned at him again and reached out to put the yellow notepad on her desk. Now she just held her hands in her lap which was very strange.

"William, I have to be completely honest with you. I'm not really a therapist. I used to work with your parents--your real parents--and now I've come to work for your paternal grandfather. It's very important that you not repeat anything I'm about to tell you, not even to your parents."

This was really messed up, William thought. Adults weren't supposed to have secrets with kids. But he felt intensely curious about his birth parents and now his grandfather that he resisted the logical voice in his head saying he should run out the door and tell his mother this woman was crazy.

"This is going to sound strange, but it will also explain some of your special abilities."

"What are you talking about?"

"It's okay, William, you don't have to hide any of that from me."

She went on, "Your grandfather was once part of a global organization that made contact with extraterrestrial life in 1947. They learned that a species of aliens had visited our planet millions of years ago. The were returning soon to recolonize it through spreading a virus that would infect all of humanity and turn us all into hosts for their kind."

William couldn't help but laugh. "Are you serious? Aliens?"

"Let me finish, William," she said. "Your grandfather's organization included members of government from all the most powerful nations, but for reasons that will become obvious it was kept a secret. These men wanted to save humanity so they offered the aliens a deal--put off colonization in hopes that they'd buy some time to develop a vaccine against the virus, and in exchange they would each surrender a family member to the aliens for them to study our genome."

William was speechless. His small town library had a very limited selection of books on ESP and telekinesis when he had tried researching what was going on with him, they all suggested such abilities were probably were the result of abnormal brain activity. He'd read nothing about flying saucers and little green men.

"I know it doesn't make sense. But neither does your ability to read minds and move things without touching them, does it?"

"I can't do it all the time," he said.

"That's alright," Monica said. "That's one of the reasons we've come to find you. Your grandfather wants me to work with you to develop your abilities, so that when colonization comes you will be part of the new global elite that will rule alongside the extraterrestrials."

"But what about the vaccine?"

Monica sat back in her chair. She wasn't smiling anymore and instead looked sad. "I'm afraid it's too late for that. All of the efforts to develop a vaccine failed and time is running out. We only have around a year before the virus is activated and begins to spread."

This had to be bullshit. It had to be one of those tests psychologists give you to see if your crazy.

He arched his eyebrows. "I don't believe you," he said. "Aliens don't exist."

Monica smiled.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing, just...your face right now....you remind me so much of your mother."

William paused. This woman knew his birth mother somehow and she knew about his abilities so he had an inkling to trust her even though what she was saying was insane. He tried to focus his attention on her thoughts. This rarely worked when he actively tried it so he wasn't surprised when nothing clear came to the surface.

"Where is my mother now?"

A pained expression passed over Monica's face. William closed his eyes and the image of a woman with red hair appeared in his mind's eye. It's a vision he'd had before. The woman's face was never in focus but he'd sometimes think he could see tendrils of her hair falling around his face. When he reached out to grab a strand, his hands were small and chubby like a baby's. This time, though, he must've been seeing the woman through Monica's eyes. Her face was much clearer. She had piercing blue eyes, like his own and she looked like she was crying.

"Your mother gave you up for adoption because she was afraid for your safety. She thought that if people found out about your abilities they would want to hurt you."

"Why?"

"Well, the reason you have these talents is because your genome contains both human and alien DNA in a proportion never seen before. For decades, your grandfather's organization had tried to create an alien human hybrid that would survive the alien takeover."

"Ok, so now you're trying to tell me I'm part-alien? That my real dad was an alien?"

"You're genome contains alien DNA because both your parents were exposed to it before you were born. For a short period of time, your father was even able to read minds like you can. We need your genetic material to ensure that our group is able to survive the invasion. Would you be willing to meet with me, and eventually your grandfather, to help us?"

This was nuts. This woman had to be out of her mind or was trying to prove he was out of his mind or something. But there were parts of the story that made sense. He did have the ability to read minds, but it flickered on and off like a light bulb. It also might explain why his mother gave him up. And maybe this was the moment he felt he'd been destined for his whole life--to transcend his boring reality and do something heroic.

"And William, one more thing. If you tell your parents, or anyone else, about what I've told you today you will be putting their lives in jeopardy. Do you understand?"

William realized his heart was pounding. Was she going to kill his parents if he didn't agree to meet with her?

"Fine," he said finally. "What do I have to do?"

Monica smiled. "I knew you'd do the right thing. I'll just keep setting up weekly appointments with your mother and all you have to do is keep coming. I think that's all the time we have for now. It was so good to finally meet you, William."

"Sure, okay," he stammered.

He let himself out of the room. His mother was still waiting where he left her pretending to read a magazine but he could feel her thoughts on him. She looked up at the sound of the door opening. "How'd it go?" she asked.

"Good," William said. "I think I'd like to see her again."

His mother smiled. "That's wonderful. She comes very well recommended and she's actually charging us much lower than her normal fee since she knows we don't have much money, so I'm glad it worked out."

"That's nice," he said, wondering if Monica had also threatened someone at his school to recommend her to his parents or how she knew how to find him.

Over the next year, William met with Monica once a week. While his mother waited in the always empty waiting room, he learned more about his role in the coming invasion. Even though he wasn't actually receiving any therapy, he tried to act better in school, partly because he wanted his parents to think his "therapy" was working and partly because he was so distracted thinking about the plans. He also tried to imagine his grandfather, who Monica promised he would meet when the time came.

As the date approached, he felt both excited and terrified. He asked Monica more than once about the vaccine but she kept insisting it was too late. There wasn't anyone else he could ask so he had to believe her. She was preparing him for leaving his old life behind--including his parents and everyone he knew--but he didn't like the idea that everyone else had to die so that he could live. Monica told him when the time came, they would take him to a safe house where doctors would harvest stem cells from his bone marrow to implant in the rest of the group. He couldn't understand why they wouldn't just do it earlier so that more people could get his stem cells. But Monica told him if anyone knew what was going on, there would be mass panic and no one would survive. She promised if he came with her he'd have the chance to do truly great work and advance the future of mankind.

Finally, Monica told him the date when it would all begin. The plan was that he'd leave for school as usual but instead of going into the building he'd turn a couple of blocks earlier and see Monica and his grandfather waiting for him. It's a plan he'd rehearsed in his mind for months leading up that moment, but as he lay in bed that morning it had felt like the last thing he wanted to do.

He'd had the dream again the previous night. It was a dream he'd been having for as long as he could remember. He's building a sand castle on the beach with a tall, dark-haired man. He'd never seen the man before in real life but his face was always so vivid unlike other hazy figures like the red-headed woman he'd see sometimes. The older he got, the more William realized he resembled the man. They had the same jawline and the nose his mother called "strong," but he always thought of as way too big for his face. He liked to imagine that the man was his real father, but Monica told him he'd only spent two days with his father and it'd be impossible to remember him.

In his most recent dream, the tide was rising and each wave inched closer to the sand castle they were building, threatening to wash it away.

"It's going to get ruined," William said.

"It's okay. We can fix it," said the man. "Do you trust me, William?"

"Yes," he said. And he did. For as long as he'd had this recurring dream he always felt safe with the man on the beach. He'd had other dreams of people chasing him or trying to hurt him, but in this dream he always felt happy and at peace, like he was home.

"Good. I trust you, too, son" he said. "And I trust that you'll do the right thing."

A wave broke at the shore and rushed toward their sand castle. Before William could see if the wave got close enough to wash over it, he woke up in a cold sweat to the shrill buzz of his alarm clock. He pounded the snooze button.

Something was wrong. What was the right thing that his father wanted him to do? Was it to go along with Monica and join the small group that would survive the apocalypse? For months he'd believed that was what he had to do, but he felt like his father was trying to tell him something else. Monica said his real parents couldn't be included in the group that survived because they were determined to reveal the project which would put everything in jeopardy. She seemed to have answers to all his questions, but in the back of his mind he kept thinking it didn't add up. What if his real parents knew a way to save everyone?

The alarm clock went off again and he finally sat up. His parents were already off at work when it was time for him to go to school. He had his backpack filled not with textbooks and notebooks, but with a change of clothes and some toiletries like Monica had instructed him. He dressed and walked down the stairs of his house. He tried to memorize the way the old wooden steps sounded and felt under his feet, and where all the dimples of paint and old nail holes were on the walls. He'd most likely never see his house or his parents ever again. He shut the front door and turned around to face the house. It was the only home he'd ever known.

Monica and his grandfather were probably already waiting for him at the meeting spot. It would be so easy to just go with them and let them guide him through the next phase of the project. As he took his first steps away from the house and toward the school, though, he heard his father's voice from the dream echoing in his ears and he knew he wasn't doing the right thing. Without a plan or destination, he turned in the opposite direction and began to run.

#xfiles #xfiles fanfic #xfiles season 11

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