#the kind of thing that's not teaching you anything based in theory but it's presented as objective fact that makes any piece good or bad

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Hello! Hope you're doing well! Have you heard the theory of Yuu's and Grim's souls being connected or attached to each other through the ghost camera? It's a pretty old one back before ch 4 released iirc and mostly came from some early fan translations where Crowley described the ghost camera as being a camera that can connect the souls of whoever is photographed to the photographer or something similar. So the theory is pretty much that by Yuu taking pictures of Grim, their souls become attached to each other. This theory supports the possibility of Yuu overblotting together with Grim and maybe even explain why and how Grim ended up in our dream instead of getting his own in ch 7 (that in of itself being a whole separate thing to wonder and talk about outside of this theory lol). Even though the official eng translation doesn't really support this theory anymore and we don't even know how many pictures Yuu actually takes of Grim, I'm still honestly a big supporter of it lol. But what do you think of the theory? ^^ sorry if any of my explanations were hard to follow :')

Cbjsnwkwkd I-I don’t mean to burst your bubble (especially seeing as you seem to really enjoy the theory), but the fan translation it is based on is incorrect to begin with (so, as you can imagine, I don’t believe in this early Twst theory myself) 💦 The ghost camera does NOT connect the souls of the photographer and the subjects of their photographs; this was a mistranslation on the part of whatever fan translator is being referenced.

The official English localization correctly expresses what was conveyed in the original Japanese text: “[…] when the soulbond between photographer and subject deepens... The Memories captured in this magic camera's photos come jumping out!” The specific phrase Crowley uses in Japanese is 魂の結びつきが深くなると, which is, “if the souls’ connection becomes deeper”.

In other words, the deep bond between the photographer and their subject is a condition, NOT a result. If Yuu takes a picture of Grim, the picture only comes to life IF Yuu and Grim are already friends. The act of taking the picture does NOT magically connect their souls.

Even if the ghost camera operated in the way that the fan translation said it does, I still don’t know if I would follow the theory. Yuu is not shown using the camera a lot in the main story canon (they basically are only shown using it to document Mickey once??), let alone using it to snap multiple pictures of Grim and Grim specifically. And if the ghost camera supposedly links the souls of the photographer and the subject, then why wouldn’t Yuu have OB’d from the other people whose photos they took, assuming they took pics of other peers??

It should be noted that the manga says the ghost camera “captures” souls, not “connects” them.

The light novel has similar wording as the game when explaining the ghost camera's function. There is never anything saying that the ghost camera "connects" souls; it is always the ghost camera "[capturing] parts of a subject's soul".

Secondly, this theory assumes that blot accumulation is linked to the soul when… it’s not. Blot is specifically described to us as a toxic magic byproduct. This byproduct is specifically contained in one’s magestone (or in the caster’s body if no magestone is present), NOT the soul. Yuu is not casting any magic and oftentimes is nowhere near the caster when they would be spellcasting, so there is little to no reason why the blot of one person would transfer to another via souls.

Thirdly, I think Yuu has always been presented as a blank slate self insert character with intentionally NO capacity for magic because the whole point is for them to be a fish out of water (so we can have things explained to the player) and someone who shows the petty and violent NRC students that there are alternate, peaceful ways to resolve conflicts. Yuu is supposed to show them the value of kindness, strategy, patience, etc., Yuu is supposed to teach them that even a magicless, powerless person can have a positive impact. Any circumstance that grants Yuu magic or immense power flies in the face of that messaging. I also don’t think it serves a narrative purpose for Yuu to OB with Grim, especially seeing as how Twst would ideally want to keep Yuu as vague as possible for maximum self-insert potential.

Fourthly, the first volume of the light novel opens with a scene that I presume to be OB Grim destroying the Mirror Chamber. The scene is told via the perspective of a nonspecific character (which I assume is Yuuya Kuroki, our light novel Yuu). This implies that Grim and Yuu are always considered two separate entities and not combined into one at any point in time, at least not leading up to this part/Grim's OB.

Regarding the unanswered question of why Yuu and Grim appear to share a dream... I'm not sure if Twst will actually answer that later (like in book 8, when I assume we will also unlock all of the secrets surrounding Mickey too) or if this is another "meh, gloss over it"/"we forgot to explain it" moment like how we STILL don't know who carried Yuu back to Ramshackle from the Purple Stage after Grim attacked them at the end of book 5. In any case, I don't consider this a strong point in favor of the proposed theory.

abhrqrwbufboyaaf Again, I'm sorry that I don't share the same enthusiasm for this concept and I hope I'm not coming off as disparaging 😭 It's still a very fun idea and you can still do whatever you like with the idea, it's just not one that I think canon supports or is leaning into.

[soaps-mohawk]

The amount of power you hold by making this series is INSANE LIKE I HAVE SO MANY QUESTION AND THEORIES

Like the institute, was it a bad experience? A good one? A mix? Does Omega! Reader have any specific memories that don't seem to leave? Maybe the omega's who had behavioral issues were punished but no one spoke of the punishments? I HAVE SO MANH THOUGHTS

That's what I love about reading fic series is that the readers talk to the writers and I feel like yall just sit and laugh like 'these guys have no idea how much pain I'm about to cause them' LMFAO like your the person behind the slaughter

No but really y'all have no idea what's coming. Even here very soon...y'all have no idea lmaooo

(please don't hate me I promise it has a happy ending 😬)

Institutes are not good places. I'll just clear that up right now, even though that's going to be kind of brought up here in a couple chapters. They are not good places and they never really have been. They were started in the late 19th century as a place to send omegas that had behavioral issues, health issues, all sorts of issues or perhaps were unwanted by families that couldn't support them or didn't want to have to deal with the work that goes into omegas. So think like mental institutions. They were run by "doctors and professionals" that "understood omegas" and could cure/fix/care for them.

Of course as the years went on people started to realize maybe not everything that goes on in them is so good and after some investigations and such there was a huge reform on institutes and they became more like they are in the present day in the fic. Actual institutes that "care for omegas and prepare them for pack life." Originally omegas didn't leave institutes after they were handed over, but then people realized there was money in institutes so naturally, they started dumping money into them to train omegas and then pretty much sell them off. Not directly like selling humans, but most institutes require application payments and then there's fees for all sorts of things like testing, files, anything they can legally charge for, they will.

Obviously we're beginning to realize a bit at this point that not everything the reader learned at the institute is...right. What omegas are taught and how they're taught varies institute to institute, usually based on the types of alphas that are seeking omegas from the institute. So institutes that have higher standing, more funding, tend to teach more subservience and obedience because that's where you have the rich alphas and the politicians and government looking at omegas. Lower level institutes might teach more how to serve and keep a pack since they might have the upper middle class, future family pack omegas. The lowest level institutes might also teach subservience and obedience less in an "I have an appearance to uphold" type of way and more of a "these are not good alphas picking up these omeags and we know that" type of way.

So, the reader didn't have a good experience because there is no real good experience at an institute. They're very strict, controlling, almost abusive in some instances (kneeling for two hours anyone?) Not every omega gets sent to an institute either. Some omegas live with their families until they're old enough to start seeking an alpha themselves. I think I did touch on that briefly in a chapter somewhere.

There's so much I could talk about on institutes omg. This is probably way more than you expected 😅 I just love this stuff so much.

[yanderes-galore]

Yay! The request is open! :D

Could you do the request I ask you other day? The one with Meenah having pitch feeling for human or Gamzee?

I don't have much practice on writing pitch so I hope you still like it!

Yandere! Meenah Peixes feeling pitched for a Human

Pairing: Pitch/Kismesis ♠️

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Human/Troll relationship, Manipulation, Entitlement, Culture shock, Black romance courting, Kissing/Biting mention, Isolation mentioned, Forced relationship.

The whole thing is certainly confusing for you.

Humans have no real counterpart for black romances like Trolls

Meenah doesn't quite understand it herself at first.

Supposedly signs of a black crush include hating someone but not really understanding why.

Meenah, for some reason, harbors a special kind of hate for you… one she can't seem to get rid of.

She doesn't get it either, it's not like you did anything.

You're just a human she met-

Despite this Meenah finds herself picking up on your traits, especially your flaws.

You're already on edge around Meenah.

Her base personality is aggressive, rude, sarcastic, and mean to generally everyone.

Her trying to pursue black romance with you just feels like her… except very condescending and probably worse.

Meenah's black feelings probably just feel like bullying to you as a human.

Or some odd attempt to start a rivalry.

It's like Meenah is trying to coax out the same reaction from you.

The point of a Kismesis is supposedly to have both parties better each other by recognizing their flaws, similar to other quadrants.

However this romance is much more volatile, even with the right pairs.

Meenah already feels a bit weird trying to teach a human such a thing.

Yet not enough to stop pursuing you.

Yeah, poor thing, you're confused and she is too.

That is until someone tells her what these feelings are coming from.

Aranea may tell Meenah she feels pitch for you, for some reason she feels she'd love this human if not for their flaws… making her pitch for them.

Meenah's confusion lessens when she has her theories confirmed, your confusion is still rather present.

Even when you have someone like Karkat try to explain the caliginous black romance quadrant, you just grow concerned.

As a human you want nothing to do with such a thing.

To you it probably sounds like some sort of alien hate mating thing and it doesn't appeal to you.

This may result in you trying to distance yourself from Meenah, which only fuels her black hate.

In fact… a lot of what you do fuels her feelings, that's the frustrating part.

If you attempt to be friends, if you try to avoid her, if you express annoyance or hate towards her…

It all feeds the obsession.

It only makes Meenah want to pursue you more, even if you don't understand how troll romance works.

If anything, she can take the hate you're festering for her as the start of black romance.

Even if you don't mean to do that….

What's worse is Meenah is an entitled troll.

She feels she deserves you and shows aggression towards others with you.

If anyone doesn't like you she'll take it as them taking her spot.

Then there's the issue that black romance can affect other relationships, which may drive her to isolate you.

In her eyes she feels she's the only one you deserve, flaws and all.

Only she can pick you apart all while kissing your face and nipping your lips until you bleed.

If this makes you hate her, then she's only winning.

Making you hate her will make her quadrant feel complete.

Meenah already knows she'll have you as her Kismesis… it's just a matter of when.

[nfumbewalk]

HTDE - Highly Transmutable Death Energy & EMF 💀

More thoughts on my theory - its getting more polished.

Our spiral of life, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) makes us each very special and generators of powerful life force, like the Chinese call Qi. Where does the Qi go when we die? It stays within and can become dormant. It cannot be destroyed, only transformed. A creation happens within our spiral from the universe - it leads that Qi out and mixes with regular Death Energy, making it transmutable. What makes Death Energy highly transmutable is the speed in which it vibrates on the hertz level - 528 hz - the "love" frequency or DNA repair frequency. HTDE is about starting life over again and healing yourself! So through death we can create a better life.

My theories on HTDE and the unveiling of how death and the afterlife work have helped me heal and deal with my dad's death. My mom too, actually. Losing both parents is soul crushing. But they are finally together again, on the way to elevation and Freedom (Heaven).

Now, my beliefs are Yoruba based, but I am not sure if I believe in reincarnation. Its something I ponder. The Yoruba believe that often, ancestors will come back through reincarnation. This one gets me. My uncle Jeff was the spitting image of my grandpa Ben! I heard that they were alike in personality too. Uncle Jeff was my favorite uncle...maybe that's why my grandpa has taken a shine to me.

HTDE is present in human remains/cremains. You cannot use animal bones. Humans are intelligent beings, can function without help (mostly), and have a course in life. Animals are intelligent, but they are beasts without a course in life and cannot function well without assistance. Without humans, they become feral (no wild beasts remains can be used either!)You CAN use animal bones and ashes in spells and mixed into powders for protection, love, and loyalty.

Take a look at YouTube for 528 hz music. It is very calming. I haven't listened to it during ritual with my muertos yet. I can use my iPhone to hook up (Bluetooth) to the stereo! Yus!! I'm going to do that.

I've mentioned this a lot! Muertos HATE EMF, hence the reaction that ghost hunters get (kind of). Those ghost ppl just piss off the muertos with their stupid EMF devices. "Sensing" muertos with EMF shit is just asking my Rodolfo to come out and fuck with them! So, yeah - get Orgonite and Shungite - anything that reduces EMF and muertos will love you!! If you look at recent photos of Rodolfo and Florence's altar, you'll notice a pink pyramid. Its Orgonite. Think I'll get a necklace made of it. I'm wearing my battered Shungite that was sitting in gravedirt for many months. It feels amazeballs! 😊

Pls don't ghost hunt. It is very disrespectful to the muertos and can land you with a erythronecrotic wraith. You don't want one of those or a ancarthic larvae. Never heard? I'm in the dead business, I've seen a lot. Of course no one else knows, nor does Google! Most of the stuff I get knowledge of is true and is eventually proven. One thing I DO know is muertos! Antonio is still teaching me...he's good with Caldera and Yoruba. He loves Muerteria - of which I'll be posting more of later on my Muerteria blog!

Think I may post how to draw muertos...over there. https://www.tumblr.com/muerteria13

M.M. 💖💀💖

[traumacatholic]

Just thought I would add some warnings:

Please stay away from any app that you may think may be made with AI or openly states it uses AI for its faith based content. AI often draws from sources that are copyright protected (this includes translations!), meaning that any of these apps that you pay for can be shut down at any time because of a legal dispute. Depending on your method of paying for it, you may not see any of that money back.

One of the app developers I have seen, also made apps for Islam and Judaism. All of them developed by a single person using AI. Which means that the person making these apps does not have a connection to the religion. They cannot and do not do any checking to make sure anything is accurate. They absolutely could draw information from an online conspiracy theory site or from some heretical sect and present that as 'This is what the Catholic Church teaches on X' because an AI cannot make the analysis needed to know whether the information actually aligns with Church teachings.

A lot of them churn out loads of low effort apps to draw in money from all kinds of sources. And that money can be put towards anything. There is no transparency or guarantee about where the money will be distributed. The money absolutely could go towards funding the creation of more apps that directly conflict with your beliefs.

AI can absolutely hallucinate quotes from the Saints or from other religious books. They could even misidentify books of the Bible. There are lots of religious books that are available legally on Archive.org or that you can find through a google search. There are tons of Youtube videos covering different aspects of the faith including Bible in a Year playlists or indepth explanations from actual Priests about different things in the Mass. All of these are much more trustworthy and do not require you to spend your money

Seeing a rise in 'faith' apps where everything is just made by AI. AI collecting the Bible together without anyone even checking that the AI correctly included all of it (e.g. labelling itself as a Catholic or Orthodox Christian app and only having 66 books). Or AI renditions of Saints or of God. AI written prayers or advice. And then charging people to use it.

It just ugh, it really unsettles me?? And it feels super predatory knowing that there are people that won't know it's all AI created

[howwelldoyouknowyourmoon]

Faced with the acutely disturbing reality of the Unification Movement…

Why people follow Hyung Jin

Especially for the first generation, witnessing what is happening with the movement we once joined is, at the very least, disappointing. More likely disheartening, or even traumatic. It seems that everything we taught and believed in is being knocked down, disassembled. The very pillars of our faith, the True Parents, are being exposed as much less than perfect. Our belief in the importance of chastity suffered a big blow since Hyo Jin’s confession in 1988, followed ten years later by Nansook’s book revealing all kinds of abuse in the heart of East Garden. We heard of the Six Marys, of children outside marriage… We saw power struggles; lawsuits for hundreds of millions of dollars; persecution campaigns; money stealing, you name it. More recently we heard of the True Mother coming with a new understanding of her position and lineage and making some little changes here and there, stirring the outcry of some rigid believers. There are memos and open letters from the leaders accusing, excommunicating… Our belief in the importance of unity went out the window with Preston, Sean and Justin; our faith in ancestor liberation ended up being a lucrative business for a phony shaman… while the sacredness of marriage was stepped on by Tatiana… All of it challenging our very sanity.

What’s a person who was faithful for thirty, forty years to do with this reality? I know what that person does NOT want to do: face that reality. It’s too painful to come to terms with the high possibility that our worldview was based on a fantasy; that our dear and adored True Parents may have been two delusional people; that the True Family, a.k.a. the foundation for the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, is a bunch of spoiled, bad-tempered bullies or phony personalities. It hurts. For THAT we left our family and friends, our country? For THAT we put aside our personal goals and desires, and gave our lives? It’s painful; it’s embarrassing.

Faced with the acutely disturbing reality of the Unification Movement, some people would rather hold on to a fantasy which now Hyung Jin is trying to embody. It’s a way to create hope from hopelessness. Not having enough guts to leave the asylum altogether, they remain under the wing of the “heir,” just in case… It doesn’t matter to them how he behaved during his chairmanship… Yes, he did a few weird things, he believes in conspiracy theories and other questionable stuff; yes, he’s trying to build a church financed by his gun-making brother… but hey! following him keeps their eyes in a future that will be better (or so they want to believe) – anything but facing what is. Afraid of being their God-given selves, they’d rather follow someone; they need “the lineage” to feel safe, to feel their value. They dug for some words of the Rev. Moon that support their present fantasy (while ignoring a whole lot that point in a different direction) and they’re ready to pledge absolute obedience to the new king! Personally, I’m among the ones who decided to look at reality right in the face, lower my head, and admit that I have made a mistake; that I committed the crime of ignoring God – that compass within me – to follow someone in the name of the Principle of Restoration. I was young then… Today I see that such Principle is the perfect tool to control the minds and hearts of good, idealistic people like me.

The very philosophy of Hyung Jin is: to become a Zero in front of Christ. Those words may sound lofty and true, but in the practice they mean you have to put aside who you are. That is seen as a merit – and a necessity. However, I’m convinced that mindset is an aberration of God’s design. Beware, people! I hold the Reverend Moon in spirit world to his own word – his single, most truthful teaching, “Follow your conscience,” as I do just that and move on.

YR

Adam and Eve were not real

Reflections on a very Korean “messiah”

Reflections on the significance of lineage and of Jesus

[ramshacklefey]

Not to be outdone by Florida for long, the Ohio State Senate just passed this monstrosity of a bill to assure "intellectual freedom and diversity" in state universities. Among other things, it suggests:

Forbidding any kind of required DEI training;

Forbidding any form of affirmative action or scholarships based on race, gender, sexuality, etc (the official wording is that no one is to be "advantaged or disadvantaged" based on these things, but I'm sure you can see that this is the logical fallout from that);

Forbidding "training" about any kind of systemic oppression or privilege;

Forbidding anything in the university that would group students by sex, race, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender presentation. This includes extracurricular activities. The intention is pretty obviously to get rid of clubs, fraternities, and sororities for queer students or students of color, or events like Queer Proms, or graduation ceremonies for students of color. (Somewhat hilariously, it would also require co-ed dorms, and I sincerely hope that if this passes someone has the balls to turn all restrooms on a campus gender-neutral);

Requiring that all course syllabi be made publicly available on the University website, including a description of every single lecture or discussion, to be made available by the first day of the term;

Requiring that all faculty allow students to draw their own conclusions about "controversial matters" and not attempt to inculcate any particular belief about them in students. Controversial matters, btw, explicitly includes climate change. But this also means that an instructor is not allowed to tell students that systemic racism or sexism is real or a problem, and could easily be stretched to include things like vaccines or conspiracy theories. Additionally, considering the fact that many people consider any discussion of LGBT topics to be "indoctrination"... I'm sure you can see where this might go;

Requiring that all student evals for courses include the question, "Does the faculty member create a classroom atmosphere free of political, racial, gender, and religious bias?" Honestly, this could go a number of ways, but given the rest of the bill, it's pretty clear why they included it;

Requiring all students to take a course in American history. Seems legit, but combine that with the fact that we're not allowed to talk about any kind of systemic oppression;

Forbidding any state university employees from striking;

Requiring post-tenure reviews for faculty every three years, submitted to the university chancellor. At least 50% of faculty members' teaching evaluation is to be based on student evals; and

Forbidding any relationships with the Chinese government or Chinese universities (including exchange or study abroad programs).

If you live, teach, or attend a university in Ohio, please contact your state house rep.

[yukidragon]

Hello~ So I think there's a flaw with swwsdj actually..... Everyone says, Jack can't do anything the MC wants right? Thaaaats not entirely true, I don't think anyways...

Example: Jack starting to disappear when MC says No when Nick asks about dating....

Why? Why does he Suddenly start to disappear? The demo starts Months after meeting Jack, if MC doesn't truly like him to that point, then how is Jack still around to begin with??

I theory that he's kiiiinda lying to that extent! Cause MC feels Horrible for saying No, but why? If they don't like Jack, why would they Suddenly feel bad, and why would Jack only then start disappearing? See I think Jack has more control over us then we are lead to fully believe, warping our minds so we struggle to hate him and rethink our No options.

That’s just it, MC doesn’t want Jack to leave. We see it in their desperation to keep him after they can’t touch him.

However, that doesn’t mean that MC’s need for them didn’t weaken in that moment.

Jack is an actor, and a good one at that. It can easily be argued that he faked the incident to teach MC a lesson for that reason alone. However, there’s very strong pieces of evidence to indicate that it wasn’t faked.

For one thing, Jack’s expression and reaction, dark and traumatized, is similar to his reaction to the bad choice in the yogurt mini game. There’s no reason for him to fake that negative reaction, so this seems to be how he looks when he’s genuinely haunted.

However, the bigger piece of evidence is the monologue Jack has afterwards.

...That was close. Too close. ... Haha...I thought I was doing everything right. ... Wasn’t all this what you wanted? ... Or was I meant to be giving you more? ... I can do better. ...I WILL do better. ... You’ll see how good I am for you. ... I can make you whole. You’ve just got to trust me.

The red text that results from the “yes” or “no” choice doesn’t seem to be a direct conversation with MC. Rather, this seems more like Jack talking at them, or perhaps thinking.

Jack expresses fear, frustration, and confusion. This is in direct contrast to his quiet, sad reassurance to MC when he was directly speaking with them. Saying that he just had a close call is the opposite of what he implied, that he was still there and he wasn’t disappearing. It kind of makes him out to be a liar if he suddenly switches like this, doesn’t it? That’s something he certainly wouldn’t want his sunshine to believe him to be after all...

I think that the red text here is us, as the players, hearing what Jack is thinking about MC. Maybe they subconsciously hear it, but it’s not on a level where they are aware of it. This suggests that anything said here isn’t meant to be a direct manipulation tactic.

Speaking of his manipulation tactics, Jack’s tactics aren’t threat based, at least when it comes to MC. He does his best to present a gentle, supportive persona for his sunshine. He doesn’t lie directly, but rather he misleads through lies of omission. While he does make it clear that what’s happened to him is because of them not wanting him there, he doesn’t condemn them for it. He is reassuring, trying to be cheerful and supportive of them despite being sad. Yes, his sadness can be a manipulation tactic, but given his shocked stammering for words earlier and his red text thoughts after, I doubt it would entirely be for show.

I think what happened was that Jack started to lose his grasp on being real because MC was pulling away from him. They didn’t need him as an excuse to say no to some random guy hitting on them at work. They’re deciding not to get closer to Jack. They don’t need him in their life to do things, to stand on their own.

Wants and needs can be different. MC might want Jack, but it could be that unless they need him too, he goes away.

Hell, for all we know, Jack might even be on a time limit. Similar to the Little Mermaid needing the love of her prince before a deadline, if he doesn’t get his sunshine’s love in time or loses it to another, then maybe this big yandere clown ghost(?) will turn back into a lost memory in static...

It can take a while to trust someone. It takes time to develop a relationship and a strong bond where you feel that you need a person. Love needs time to grow, and that’s what Jack wants ultimately - he wants his sunshine’s love.

Jack is patient though, as we’ve seen. He’s gently doing his best to coax MC into choosing him. He can’t force it, and he won’t do anything they don’t want.

MC was scarred by love before. Ian betrayed them in the worst way. Someone they grew up with who they loved and wanted to spend forever with cheated on them. That’s a deep scar that takes time to heal. It takes time to trust anyone, especially if they are as suspicious as a ghost(?) clown suddenly appearing one day.

I think, for as strange as the situation is, for whatever it might say about their mental state, Jack’s presence has brought MC a twisted sense of comfort. They’re not alone when he’s around. He makes them feel good, and it’s hard to want to give that up after they’ve felt bad for so long.

However, wanting to feel good isn’t the same as needing someone, let alone forever. That’s not love.

That’s where our choices come in, and where Jack is going to be desperate to guide those choices towards loving him.

That’s what make Jack’s tactics scary. He’s not taking control, he’s convincing others to make the choices he wants. He’s making the idea of surrendering control too attractive to refuse. He does it to MC, and he does it to the unknown people in those teaser pictures Sauce drew when he convinces them to use a knife on themselves...

There are a lot of people out there who convince people into surrendering control through words alone, including with technical truths that lie by omission. Reality gets twisted around until the victim feels as though it was something they wanted all along. They are lured into the cage and lock the door behind themselves willingly. Jack is that type of antagonist in this horror game, and those type of people can be just as scary as axe wielding maniacs.

Is a few months enough time for MC to start to fall in love with Jack? Well, that’s up to us, the player. If it’s not, then, well... this colorful little mermaid is at risk of turning into seafoam, isn’t he?

@channydraws @earthgirlaesthetic @sai-of-the-7-stars @cheriihoney @illary-kore @okamiliqueur  

[starcrossed-sky]

No, see, this makes perfect fucking sense.

Because how Fox and QAnon and Ancient Aliens and all of these conspiracy people Get You is because they target people who have nothing better. People who are isolated and have both nothing to talk about and nothing to do with their days except absorbing whatever's put in front of their eyeballs.

Both of these cases? The conspiracy-theorizing was stopped in its tracks because they had better things to do. Things that were actively engaging them and allowing them to connect with other humans in some way that was based in joy, rather than hate.

That's what it takes. You can't just tell them that the conspiracy they've gotten into is garbage. You need to give them something to replace it with, otherwise as soon as you're not physically present anymore, they're going right back down the hole, because the hole is the only thing that gives them the "you matter and what you're doing matters" brain chemicals that we all need to be functional human beings.

(It's really easy to get those brain chemicals from watching conspiracy theory videos. They get your brain to attach that reward to the nebulous "be informed" (about the conspiracy) and "spread the truth" (talk about the conspiracy and convince other people to believe it) goals. It's the same kind of braintrick as convincing yourself that fighting with other queer people online is actually advancing queer rights - because it's something you can do that's concrete and immediate in reward.)

So yeah. Get grandma into Wordle. Get really into painting minis with grandpa. Teach Uncle Tom to play a tabletop game. Literally anything that gives them something that 1) fills the time 2) gives them a sense of achievement 3) gives them some way to connect with other people. That's what they go looking for, when they find QAnon instead.

wordle and bts may seem like they have nothing in common but both have been cited by redditors as the reason why their elderly relative quit watching fox news and started acting normal again

[suvarnarekha]

I was studying my History book - Themes in Indian History - 1 for Revision. And I came across small interesting things that mostly escape our attention.

"It is likely that social relations were more complicated." Alright. They might be. But why should I believe that? Who said that? Your leaned opinions on Historical instances?

"We're going to teach these highschool kids this kind of history."

"But, shouldn't it be based on facts? What's 'probably used by ordinary people'?"

"Ah, but where's the fun in that? Besides, It's just a book! They're gonna mug anything up anyway right? Lol."

Again, Who hotly debated? Are we gonna be presented with your conspiracy theories as itihas now?

Let me guess. By "some" you mean your UwU fantasy characters? Or the Sahebs you suppose are incarnated by god as they can speak nothing but the truth?

Or should I say, Your truth?

Sure. "1st millennium BCE is the turning point in history" sounds plausible to me. Um, but I'm afraid-

"Tch tch tch. Mug them up, will you? Who cares about facts in History anyway?"

[dandansposts]

trans did vergil wrt nero below cut baybey!!!!!!!

tl;dr vergil knows he has a kid but hasnt seen that kid since he was a newborn by dmc5. v feels like theyre more entitled to being nero's parent than anyone else in the system for reasons

let us get some basics out of the way. vergil is trans, he's asexual, and he has DID according to me. i also think he's autistic. also according to me, eva was a witch and while she did teach both her sons how to use magic as a sort of companion activity to sparda training them in combat, vergil was the one who really took to it; dante for the most part didn't have the attention span for the kind of book learning needed to learn the ins and outs of magic. he can do some basics, has taught himself some things as he's aged, but doesn't really consider himself to be a witch. (witch being a gender neutral term here)

vergil, on the other hand, hyperfixated on it even after eva died, though from there it would have become more v's thing than anyone else's. v considers themself as well as the system as a whole to be a witch, but there's some discrepancies between alters based on opinions on eva and degree of attachment to her memory. (v's a total mama's boy (gender neutral) and i wont be argued w about it. source of strife btwn them and vergil. delicious)

i'm going off my headcanons so i will be including nelo angelo in this, as well as altered pronouns from canon, so

pronoun list:

v: they/them

vergil: he/him

griffon: he/him

shadow: she/her

nightmare: it/its

nelo angelo: he/him

nero: he/they

dante: he/him

vergil system collective pronouns: they/he

yeah im an enby nero truther as well and what of it.

basic summary of events leading up to nero's conception is this:

vergil is in his late teens. he is attempting to transition via magic though this is entirely homebrewed, entirely a spell of his/v's own making, and entirely untested

this backfires horrifically, almost killing them in the process. the ramifications of this leave them physically weak and as we all know this is unacceptable.

prior to this the plan to raise the temen ni gru is already in the works but this just spurs them on. weak, recovering slowly bc as previously stated they nearly killed themself, they head to fortuna looking for information; if you're gonna find anything on ancient demon towers and hell gates its gonna be in the dusty church basement libraries of thee sparda cult id think.

i have 2 branching theories here but the end result is pretty much the same and results in them getting pregnant and carrying baby nero to term. theory one is Unpleasant and i'm going to leave it at that but theory 2 is a sex for information type dealie. makes more sense to me for vergil to view sex as a largely transactional thing and not really have a problem with using it to get info. given that he kinda, y'know, is an orphan and i imagine hasnt had any sex ed, i'm really operating under the assumption that he doesnt really know where babies come from? or at the very least isnt fully aware that this is a risk.

demon baby proceeds to wreak havoc upon an already very weak vergil; abortion attempts are made but are unfruitful. information quest continues despite this.

to make a long story short v is the alter who's most present at nero's birth; they're the one who first lays eyes on this baby, they're the one who holds him, who cleans him, who has a horrible little panic attack wherever the fuck this happens bc what in the fuck tbh. i imagine here, vulnerable and tired and extremely weak, they see Baby and theyre like oh.... youre small and defenseless and yet you have caused me so many problems.... my baby now

power quest takes precedent, nero is abandoned in fortuna days after being born. v later claims to have been against this but at the time would have agreed that power comes first; how else are you going to protect yourself or your baby when you're a heavily traumatized half demon teen dad

raising the temen ni gru becomes a pretty much suicidal endevour from here. it's stupid and dangerous and will probably end with them dying awful and bloody but they've just experienced true weakness; it's power and therefore safety and stability or death. canon pretty much happens from here.

now. i have done a lot of world building on witches in my dmc headcanons and am SO willing to talk about it but the necessary information here is the ability to practice witchcraft is generally inherited mother to daughter (strictly in the biological sense) as it was a gift bestowed upon human priestesses by demons prior to sparda cutting the human and demon worlds off from each other. eva's family goes waaaaaay the fuck back as the original priestesses of sparda's family line. vergil and dante both inherit this ability but crucially so does nero, despite the fact that according to me he is for all intents and purposes amab. chalk this up to either nero being intersex or vergils fuckshit genetics messing with things. either way, nero inherits this ability. or if you are taking my ideas and running with it, which by all means please do, and you decide he's a trans man, that literally works lkke i dont care all that you need to know here is nero inherits the ability to preform witchcraft from vergil.

a very good friend of mine has allowed me to bounce ideas off him and has given me many ideas so should i talk about neros witchcraft at any point, a lot of the credit for the ideas goes to him.

and if he is reading this and would like me to credit him for his baller ideas he should dm me on discord but ANYWAY.

i am now going to breakdown how each alter relates to nero. i feel its worth it to note that no matter what happened in fortuna to create nero, the whole pregnancy was probably pretty traumatic and dysphoria enducing.

as i'm sure most DID havers and systems can tell you, interpersonal relationships when you are like this can get wildly complicated. you're balancing differing opinions and outlooks and gut reactions and it can be really difficult! so it follows, to me at least, that vergil & co have a very complicated relationship w/ their kid post DMC5 and just. super complicated feelings about nero In General.

vergil

now, vergil has extremely limited experience with people and a very narrow, very warped view of what family means. he also has a massively warped moral compass and tends to put self preservation above all else. this is really obvious when he doesnt have the other alters holding him back; he would have killed both dante and nero if they weren't so durable just because they got in his way. that said, it's not like he doesn't care about them. dante's his twin brother, the one thing he wants more than anything is for dante to join him and i imagine it's similar with nero.

(unfortunately nero's a little too much like his uncle to join vergil's crazy power quests but y'know.)

he absolutely would not have been a good dad to a small child but with nero grown up and not dependent upon him for anyrhing, i can see vergil really being the one who tells nero about their family, about where they come from, and just all of the history there, which like... nero's an ophan, i can see that being very important to him.

i also think the whole arm thing like... in vergils mind, thats a mercy. he didn't try to kill him, just ripped off his arm bc he Needed the yamato for self preservation reasons. like, you get in his way, vergil will kill you. he didnt kill nero, to him that is almost positively a mercy and i imagine he has significant difficulty understanding why nero might hold that against him- vergil's been torn apart and remade and just destroyed more times than he probably remembers, like... this isn't anything to him.

as for interactions with infant nero, i can see vergil having a similar Oh... My Baby initial reaction as v, but this is Vergil- he needs to be strong, and if he can't protect himself, how's he supposed to protect a baby? i think he's fully aware that the temen ni gru quest is almost certainly a suicide mission, but in his mind, he has no choice.

in summary, i think he tries. i think he is a terrible father but i think every decision he's ever made has just been him Trying in his own fucked up way. whether or not he ever has much of a relationship with nero is entirely up to nero.

v

v is really interesting to me wrt nero. i see them as viewing themself as being somehow more entitled to being nero's parent than anyone else. on top of that, v is manipulative, they're cagey, they're the first alter who actually talks to adult nero, they're the kind of person who'll tell you only what you need to know to the point where it's basically a lie of omission.

this is all self defense, but it's still something that makes them wildly unpleasant to be arnd. couple that with feeling like nero Belongs to them, they actively sabotage other alters attempts to get to know their kid (until confronted about it). the non-humans are just "familiars", vergil and nelo angelo are "dangerous", etc. they honestly probably dont even really tell nero that they're All Vergil, Technically. this is probably something nero finds out from either dante (thinking nero already knew) or griffon (just telling him bc vergil doesnt think it's relevant information and v is actively keeping that from him)

that all said, v cares very deeply about nero and about what he thinks of them. they love him Dearly, would do anything for him, and genuinely just want what's best for him, though their idea of what's best for him doesn't always match up with reality.

they'd delight in sharing their witchcraft with him, in sharing the history of that, sharing everything they know, just... Teaching him like eva did them.

as with vergil they are just doing their fucking best. they just kind of happen to be an asshole. they also just happen to be emotionally unavailable. these things make interpersonal relationships difficult. i imaginr they also make connecting with your long lost son extremely difficult as well.

griffon

as v's kinda direct protector, griffon's heavily entwined with their bullshit but that does Not mean he puts up with it. post dmc5 and post hell, griffon? he is not pulling punches. nero wants Truth, in all its gory details? he should talk to griffon.

out of all of them, griffon's the most... mentally sound, shall we say. he's generally levelheaded, he's very silly, and is the most openly affectionate aside from shadow.

he very much considers nero to be Their son, rather than His son; nero's as much his as he is any other alters, they're all nero's dad, full stop.

how he shows affection, however, is by relentlessly bullying and he Definitely takes it too far and nero Definitely does not always understand that he's joking.

what v won't admit and what griffon has given up trying to tell them is that he was just about as present during nero's birth as They were, they are Very closely tied as alters, but . well. u try telling that to a wildly unstable witch.

shadow and nightmare

to be honest, i don't have a whole hell of a lot to say about them. they love nero, they both consider him the system's kid, etc, but they don't tend to front unless there's some.kind of imminent danger be that psychological or physical.

That Said, shadow can be VERY snuggly if you catch her fronting outside Danger Time. she's extremely sweet and loving to anyone she likes, and she Likes nero, that's her BABY.

angelo

and finally we come to the one that is entirely headcanoned. i'm gonna keep this relatively brief bc im running out of steam anf patience to keep.typung this but angelo's intial gut reaction to nero is about the same as it is to dante, which is just . sheer, gut wrenching terror followed by the worlds most aggressive fight response. consequently i Do think he's gutted nero once or twice.

as he begins to recover, begins to get out of the mundus brainwashing and starts to really just. be a person, if nero is willing to let him in he is the most fatherly. he's gentle but firm, he's patient, he's the kind of person who will do little things for you just because he wants you to be happy. i also don't see him pulling a v; he's very honest, very humble, and *very* willing to apologize and admit to wrongdoing- for fuckssake, he gutted his son, who he really does want a relationship with. gotta start somewhere, u know.

i can talk more about system interpersonal relations but as a tldr v Does Not Like Angelo Whatsoever; angelo represents the single worst time in their life, and he's also just everything v isnt.

anyway. thank you all for reading if youve gotten this far. if you wanna hear about anything else i may have mentioned in passing i am ABSOLUTELY willing to babble about my dmc headcanons.

[mandareeboo]

SU Music Rankings

Bc I can and I wanna start some Disk Horse rip. These are all in order of preference, with explanations, etc. It’s a long bitch. That said, I’m not counting little short jingles or small joke songs like Little Butler. This is the meat and potatoes of SU music- just under 30 songs. I might do the rest if people like my takes lol.

I scored it mostly on three bases- how dear it was to my heart, how much/often I relisten to it, and also what it means to the plot. That said, little fun songs don’t automatically go farther down than big, plot-heavy songs either! It’s a strange little balance.

Special Note: I don’t dislike any of this music! I love SU and that includes its bumps and glitches. I just pick favorite children lol.

1.) Change

Was there ever a more Steven moment than when he wiped the blood off his face and kissed it into sparkles? I think not. 

If “Be Wherever You Are” is an ode to young Steven, then this is teen Steven’s. Talking about change, and how much and how little it can do. How he holds his arms up for Spinel to hug him, so trusting. How he seems able to just. Break into soft tears at will, and not to be manipulative- it’s just his kind nature. The warmth in his voice. Fuck yesssss.

2.) Change Your Mind

This song is only fifty five seconds and it’s EVERYTHING to me. It really felt like someone was speaking the words I’d always held deep inside of me, unsure of how to say. It feels like a goodbye to someone who never really loved me. 

As much as I enjoyed Future, if this was the finale of SU, I would’ve been perfectly okay with that.

3.) Drift Away

This song gave me legitimate shivers the first time I heard it, and it still haunts me to this day. Spinel stayed, and waited, and all she got was a transmission thousands of years later. Fuck.

4.) Here We Are In The Future

THE MOVIE IS SU AS ITS BEST AND I WON’T BE SWAYED ON IT. Steven being a teen who loves his weird family but is growing just a bit sarcastic to their drama. The adorable love he and Connie share. His slow realization that he will always be working, always have things to do, is both somber and real. The Crystal Gems won’t be safe with one epic battle. They’ll be safe with years of hard work and love. HIS LITTLE HANDSHAKE WITH AMETHYST.

This is a helluva bop and a great way to summarize the main character’s backstories.

5.) Let’s Only Think About Love

Did ya’ll know that Zach Callison killed his throat with that last note? He gave his all for this performance in a vocal range he no longer comfortably do and by god did it SHINE. The FLAIR. The FORESHADOWING. All of the Gems all being awkward about Rose and Steven trying to bring them to the present. Peridot having a mini-existential crisis in a cute yellow dress. I love Zach Callison’s normal singing voice but man is that a fucking bop. Nothing will ever beat it.

6.) Here Comes A Thought

This bad boy helped me out a LOT with some mental issues I was dealing with in high school. I was unmedicated, unsupervised, and full of anxiety. I’d have break downs when I tried to speak about certain things. I couldn’t function. This song inspired me. It helped me feel okay with my intrusive thoughts.

And the episode! -chef’s kiss-. Once again bringing up the morally gray area of training child soldiers. Connie expanding her social group. Steven’s trauma hauling ass in that second half. The ANIMATION. Stevonnie’s gorgeous singing voice. GOD yes.

7.) It’s Over Isn’t It?

Just barely squeaking above Stronger Than You, this ballad is everything gorgeous. The whole episode is. I think Mr. Greg stands in the top five of my episodes for the entire show. It even got nominated!

There’s just so much about this song that I love. The gentle melancholy of Pearl’s voice. How the crew had to redo the shots for this bit bc Deedee went so fucking hard. The hard cuts between Pearl, remembering the love of her life, and Steven, who has begun to feel like he took her away. I’d recommend this song to anyone, regardless of what they do or don’t know about SU, simply bc it tugs so many heartstrings of love, loss, and responsibility.

8.) Stronger Than You

Did you realize this episode aired SEVEN years ago? This bitch was what got me into SU! Hearing about Ruby and Sapphire made my little gay heart so happy inside, and then getting a whole song confirming that they were a couple, that their love powered the strongest Gem on the team? Aaaaaaaaa

To this DAY I get excited when I hear Estelle start singing. This song is timeless. This song will live in media history. God I fucking love this song.

9.) Other Friends

I’m not the biggest musical person, so I hadn’t heard of Sarah Stiles before her casting as Spinel, but JESUS CHRIST the lady went hard. She went SO fucking hard. Sarah Stiles started on 100 and somehow just kept CLIMBING. You can just hear the sheer manic energy building in her voice, the anger and resentment. 10/10 Sarah Stiles is a queen.

10.) Independent Together

This made the list entirely bc the crew was like “you’re gonna get a himbo ass Steven-Greg fusion singing with Opal while Garnet flies across the moon on Lion while floating” and I am forever thankful to them for it

11.) Who We Are

Bismuth deserved more songs. ‘Nuff said.

12.) Peace and Love (On the Planet Earth)

It Could’ve been Great is EASILY one of my favorite s2 episodes. I love the entire concept of this song. Of Steven making music to reflect how much Earth means to him and his family. Of him teaching Peridot some self-care. Also Peridot’s singing voice is really cute and squeaky. 

I know it’s silly, but I would’ve really enjoyed a flip around of this in Future! Like Peridot reminding Steven how much he loves music, that he needs to take time to relax for himself, maybe with a new verse or just a remix of the original song!

13.) Something Entirely New

I watched this episode as it aired, and I legitimately almost cried. I love Charlyne Yi’s voice so much ya’ll- her raspy, not perfect singing voice against Sapphire’s deep soothing lull is great.

And to have Ruby and Sapphire’s meeting be the way it was- for Ruby to bemoan Sapphire losing Homeworld, to being stuck with a single Ruby, while Sapphire is a noble who has always been taught everyone in her “caste” is vitally important (and has, in her own mind, taken that to mean every Gem, as she should) and how they come together and make each other happy. Good shit good shit.

14.) I’m Just a Comet

The fact that Greg’s music career never really blasted off pisses me off to this day bc Tom Scharpling’s voice is fucking BUTTER. Also the song really feels like a jab at his parents now that we know the kind of dynamic he had growing up. “This life in the stars if all I’ve ever known” is definitely him wiping away their existence after reminding them (and himself) the things they used to say about him.

15.) Do It For Her

This episode. This fucking episode. This episode got me permanently hooked on SU. I’d just binged season 1 and was kinda meh about it overall after the bop of Stronger Than You. “Oh,” I thought to myself, foolishly, “I’ll probably just casually watch this from time to time.”

Like three days later Sworn to the Sword aired and that was it. I was hooked! Pearl’s gentle training song turning darker and darker, Connie’s accompaniment from nervous to determined to fully into such a toxic mindset. The fact that SU had the BALLS to discuss the repercussions of training child soldiers, now and later. This episode was everything to me, STILL is everything to me.

Six years and well over 100 fanfics written later, I think it’s safe to say this show swallowed me whole and never let go.

16.) System/Boot.pearl_final(3)

I debated putting this on the list because it’s not anything crazy important, just a way to show things are Wrong, but I had to do it entirely bc Pearl is so damn SALTY.

Like telling us about the Gems makes sense, she felt like she was given a duty, but she went so damn petty. WHY is that Ruby alone. Gross. This Amethyst is a trash dump. Wtf are you people.

17.) Full Disclosure

This episode really feels like a turning point for SU. Before, the show had its dark moments- but now we’re in the thick of it, and it’s not going away. Full Disclosure felt like an rebuff to the idea of returning to any normal we’d established in season 1. Gems are actually a giant species now. Gems tried to kill us now. There’s this Yellow Diamond bitch who got namedropped. Something about a Cluster. 

The song itself is BALLER, with its ingenious use of Steven’s ringtone and photos as he tries to decide whether to clue in Connie on all this nonsense. Meanwhile we, the audience, already know damn well Connie about to yeet some common sense into him.

18.) What’s the Use of Feeling Blue?

I’mma admit it- I’m a Yellow Diamond stan. I’ve always loved her- her anger, her poise, her hardworking nature. I actively argued against the “Yellow Shattered Pink” theories back in the day. But, man, when this arc leaked? I got so overexcited I was too jittery to watch it for like two days. It’s easily my favorite arc of the series. The sheer alien nature of the zoo, the Famethyst, and absolutely Patti Lupone’s beautiful ballad. Goddamn. Yellow singing to Blue to try and help her regain her old status, the warble in her voice as she reminds Blue she misses Pink too, the movement of the bubbles as she talks about attack. It gives me shivers to this day. FUCK.

19.) Tower of Mistakes

This is, fun fact, that only SU song I have completely memorized. The story itself is kinda funny! See, we lost internet at my house for a solid 5 to 6 months when these episodes aired, so I only got a very brief window to view them all. But this was the first Amethyst song in a long while, and I didn’t want to forget it! So I keep replaying it in my head for ages. And that’s still definitely a thing.

Anyway will never not be sad that this entire song was about making it up to Garnet for Amethyst’s perceived slights with Sugilite (which was a two-way road), only for Garnet to pressure her into fusion later when pissed and never discuss it again bc Garnet probably never thought twice about it and Amethyst has the emotional openness of a clam that’s just been told its ugly. Helluva way to make someone feel like shit, G. Helluva way to bottle that shit, Ames.

20.) On the Run

I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: Amethyst! Needed! More! Songs! 

The dichotomy between Steven’s play and Amethyst’s honest desire to run away from home is so well-done, especially when you consider a lot of Steven and Amethyst’s actions are playing together. The song is also near and dear to me simply bc it’s my favorite Amethyst episode to exist (well, maybe second to What’s Your Problem, but not by much). Moments like these are all the proof I need that they were right to fuse first.

21.) Be Wherever You Are

This tune really just feels like an ode to who Steven was as a kid. Trapped on an island with no way home, and he’s just happy to be with his friends. The stars are beautiful and not oppressive. Also that one animatic with Lars and the Off Colors playing in the Homeworld Kindergarten to this music was iconic and made this song get stuck in my head for a solid month.

22.) Familiar

I ADORE how the crew use bright neon colors to show how alien Homeworld can be. And Steven recognizing that the Diamonds treat him how the CGs used to, and how prepared he is to “fix” a broken family. It’s a soft, gentle tune about melancholy. Also the Pebbles are beautiful.

23.) Let Me Drive My Van Into Your Heart

Such a cute little love ballad, but every time I listen to it now I just imagine the heart attack Rose must’ve had at the line “And if we look out of place/Well, baby, that's okay/I'll drive us into outer space.” like there’s a Vietnam war flashback if I ever heard one

24.) What Can I Do?

I’m kind of neutral on this one? Rose and Greg both have great voices, but the song itself lacks many lyrics. I think it was definitely a good way to show Rose’s flaws in thinking.

Also, I’m shocked they managed cram that much vaguely sexual innuendo into two minutes, followed by how Not Hetereo that dance between Rose and Pearl was, and not get their asses chewed by it. You go guys.

25.) Cookie Cat

I love a lot of the vibes this song has. The lyrics are so damn prophetic, but they also sound like the kind of weird 90s commercials I grew up on. It’s been like two decades since I saw the Shirley Temple commercial but I’ll be damned if I don’t remember “Animals crackers in my soup! Monkey and rabbits loop-de-loop.”

26.) Giant Woman

I am. NOT the biggest fan of Steven’s original singing voice. I feel bad saying that, since it was just Zach Callison as a kid, but he never jived well with me for some reason. So I wouldn’t listen to this on the fly. 

The song itself is still really good though, with all sorts of fun animation of Amethyst and Pearl being bitchy to each other. It’s a bit sad in hindsight to see tiny Steven trying to get his moms to get along. Ahh, season 1.

27.) Strong in the Real Way

This song has SUCH a strong start. Pearl reflecting on Sugilite’s problems, but the show making sure to show us that Pearl’s lack of enthusiasm towards her also lends itself to jealousy as well as just general malaise. How much she cares about Steven, and wants him to grow up strong. 

And then Steven just kinda. Ruins it? I appreciate his enthusiasm for tryna bulk up but to take what was starting as such a rich, personal song and broadcasting it to random strangers just makes me a bit sad. Almost a bit angry on her behalf?

28.) That Distant Shore

I KNOW this is gonna create some discourse, but I’m just not the biggest Lapis stan. I love her voice. I love the visuals of the song. And I get why she felt afraid and needed to flee.

But Lapis never got to take responsibility for her own actions. And, in the end, the song feels hollow to me- because we all know she’ll never talk to anyone about it, know she’ll burst back in and destroy the barn, and no one will ever question it. I like Lapis a lot, but I feel like her arc never was fully finished. She never got help. She never learned to feel safe.

29.) Dear Old Dad

I’ve yet to meet a single human being who likes this episode tbh. There’s some great discussion about what kind of parent Greg is from it, and what kind of dynamic he has with the Gems that he felt he had to fake an injury to hang out with his son. Honestly the first half was fine and dandy. It’s just that then they Greg just went out of his way to drag Steven away from missions and such. It never jived well with his character before or after.

Also, is it just me, or does Zach himself sound like he hates the song as he sings it? There’s no passion or heart in his voice. It sounds like they told him to read off cue cards and he did. Tom Scharpling’s best attempts didn’t save this one for being a skipper. But the episode, unfortunately, isn’t, so it gets a spot on here.

[grison-in-space]

yes and: the social dominance subtext thing is something that we, coming out of a culture that likes to think it is egalitarian, tend to try to shove out of conscious awareness. that's why people will sometimes be offended at the idea they're not treating you like an equal, particularly if you're interacting because you're in an organization where at least in theory you have the same "rank": they shouldn't be treating you like an inferior [in theory] and probably don't consciously realize that they're doing so, especially if they have internally labeled you with an inferior social role based on anything related to a marginalizing status (including: gender, age, race, ethnicity, orientation, etc). Consciously drawing attention to behaviors that indicate that they are treating you like a lower-ranked person, again especially if any marginalizing factor is involved, is likely to trigger a state called "moral dissonance" where you're effectively forcing them to notice that their actions are not in line with their consciously held values.

this is a thing that sucks hard ass to experience, and most people really hate it and will immediately cast around to find a reason that no actually they're not doing that thing at ALL. This is where the defensive offended behavior comes from: it's an activated attempt to justify to both you and, importantly, themself that they definitely haven't been acting outside their conscious moral values. Because most people's internal assessment of social hierarchies is internal and implicit, they might or might not be aware of how they're thinking about you, and they might exclaim in frustration that they're not treating you like an inferior at all.

and: here's the kicker--they might be right. Social hierarchical posturing in humans is extremely contextual and usually cloaked in enough plausible deniability to not read as a direct insult, especially in a social context that values egalitarianism. It is also pretty much always present, whether or not the people in the group want it to be. There is no such thing as a human culture devoid of social hierarchical maneuvering. Nor is there any such thing as a human person who does not sometimes participate in this kind of interaction. It's not always antagonistic or bad, either: sometimes people will do things like posture in order to be reassured that they are still valued and respected by the group, and it is very possible and common for humans to make ploys for high status using affiliative tactics like: complimenting others, facilitating connections between other people, offering to teach other people, doing favors, etc. Most of our language for talking about this stuff is couched in a really antagonistic context, where interactions and hierarchies are framed as zero-sum conflicts, but that's not necessarily true.

Basically, human social maneuvering is often unconscious and usually hidden, especially in groups that value egalitarian interactions. Because it's all stuff that is happening under the surface, and because people are also often distracted and not paying attention, it's also totally possible for people to perceive shit as social posturing that isn't intended that way at all. Happens all the time. Humans are messy! Perception is messy! People aren't straightforward to interpret and sometimes there are a lot of mistakes!

but this is why "mansplaining" is a thing: men are much more likely to internally assume that they are higher on a social hierarchy than women, which means that they get more talking time. Sometimes an excited autistic infodumping reads to other people as fitting this pattern, even if the behavior has a different root cause. Figuring out how to navigate this as a human being is always going to be hard, and you're never going to pull it off with success 100% of the time because, well, no one does that either.

Btw I was talking to Kiddo about social rules because we're both autistic and it doesn't come naturally to either of us but I have 25 years experience on them so I have some useful tips

And as proof of that: in that conversation I realised what neurotypicals mean when they say we "make everything about us"

When they're talking and we interject "fun facts" or start talking about something related to what they're saying we mean:

"I am showing interest in you and your interests by engaging with them and showing I'm listening by adding information"

From their perspective we are stomping over their turn to talk and making it our turn and therefore making it about us

Conversation example:

NT: my favourite animal is sharks

Autistic person: with some sharks species the shark pup that hatches first hunts the others and eats them while being incubated inside the mother

Autistic person perspective: I have shown interest in you by giving you information about a topic you have shown interest in

NT person's perspective: wow they made my favourite animal a time for them to show off instead of letting me talk when it was my turn

It's doesn't matter if it's "on topic" or "relevant to the person" if it's when it's their turn to be the focus of the conversation

Like I know there is a bit more to it but this is the first time in 39 years I have understood the accusation "you're making this all about yourself"

[journey-to-the-attic]

since tomorrow is Christmas I wanted to ask, how would the JTTA cast celebrate the holidays?? :D

anyway happy christmas dear author <3 I really hope you are having an amazing day :DD

ahhh sorry i started writing a response and then saved it to my drafts and totally forgot about it

but anyway! thank you and merry (late) christmas to you too, and a happy new year!!! i'll put a couple of notes about a post-jtta christmas under the cut ^^

there's no lead up, ik just looks at her d.d.d. one day and goes 'oh hey it's christmas!'

and (in the jtta version of the devildom), none of the demons have a goddamn clue what christmas is, so ik has to explain it to them

and they are not very enthusiastic about the concept

i mean, xmas traditionally celebrates the birth of GOD'S son, and we all know those demons do not like god

at some point diavolo gets his hands on like this old-fashioned vhs video telling the nativity story - the sort of thing teachers would show to five year olds to 'teach them the meaning of christmas''

satan is intrigued by the history aspect of it and the logistics of a virgin getting pregnant, and asmo seems to have a crush on the guy playing joseph, but other than that everyone else hates the experience

but then ik's like: "the xmas story is weird but it'd be kind of nice to celebrate it, but if you guys don't— beel where are you doing"

beel, sprinting out of the house of lamentation: "I'M GOING TO FIND A CHRISTMAS TREE"

he ends up bringing back this eleven foot tall tree with leaves sort of resembling a pine, with the right sort of spread out branches for decorating

the purgatory hall folk come over to help decorate it and it takes literally two hours

diavolo enlists the help of the little ds and brings over like three full crates of various christmassy decorations they found in the castle, for some reason

(the theory is that a previous ruler of the devildom left them there)

luke and ik are sitting around the base while diavolo, beel and lucifer are in charge of the top levels, and everyone else just kind of has to find room in between

mephisto somehow hears about this decorating business and arrives at the house of lamentation to suggest hanging a giant ornament shaped like his face on the tree

ik agrees before anyone can stop her, with the further suggestion that bauble-mephisto should be hung above the dining table

mephisto LOVES this and goes to do this immediately

everyone else? not so much. but this is the hardest they've seen ik laugh at anything in a while, so in the end they just let it slide

so now bauble-mephisto is staring down at everyone as they tuck into the sort-of christmas dinner that luke, barbatos, ik and simeon have all hurriedly slapped together

it's not really a traditional christmas dinner - it's a mixture of celestial realm and devildom-style dishes, a range of signature sweets from barbatos and simeon, this GIANT chocolate cake that's taller than both of the beings that made it (ik and luke), and a mixture of human world cuisine that ik's just picked out at random

nearly nothing from a traditional western christmas dinner is here - apart from, inexplicably, a bowl of brussels sprouts

mephisto eats them all because no one else will touch them and he enjoys the 'respectfully, what the fuck' looks he gets from everyone else

(ik invited mephisto to stay for the celebration and he agreed immediately, because of course he did)

(several of the others disagreed with this decision but, since they're mainly doing this whole christmas for ik, they opt to let him stay. ik wouldn't invite him in the first place if she didn't enjoy his company, after all)

this whole mini christmas thing happened too short notice for anyone to get gifts ready, which solomon seems a little worried about

he hasn't been in close enough quarters to human society for so long that he hasn't really celebrated a modern christmas before, but what he does know is that there are meant to be presents

he brings this up, and the little exchange that ensues is so cliche but also so so so earnestly sweet (and heartbreaking) that several of the others straight up start crying

ik: "it's fine, you don't need to get anything for me."

solomon: "are you sure? i could run out and get something, it's a special occasion—"

ik: "i'm sure! i think everyone being here to celebrate is a good enough present already :)"

(the :) isn't just her expression, it's part of the WAY she says it)

anyway diavolo, luke, simeon and mammon are now in tears

but you know these jtta pals!!! can't be emotional for too long before devolving into crack

for example: satan and ik spend like forty minutes sitting by the fireplace and cackling furiously with each other, and at first everyone thinks they're planning some kind of trick, but then it turns out that they're just taking it in turns to compose the lines of a stupid christmas poem

here's the first verse:

'tis the night before christmas, and all through the house ten bombardier beetles are hunting a mouse hear the patter of his feet, but then a harsh SNAP oh no! his leg is caught in a mouse trap!

it only gets more ridiculous from there

at one point mephisto pulls this giant christmas cracker out of nowhere and gets diavolo and lucifer to pull it together

it comes apart with a caterwauling wooooooOOOOAOAOAOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA, accompanied by a large cloud of purple smoke

then everyone realises that mephisto's the one going wooooooOOOOAOAOAOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA and making the smoke with magic

(the 'christmas cracker' is just a bunch of tinsel and colourful paper that mephisto stole and tied together)

okay i think there was something else i was going to mention but i've forgotten what it was

so i guess that's all ^^;

[derangedhyena-delphinidae]

numerous issues with “The Aftermath of Seaworld”

When I get time to do so (aka when I’m done with the documentary), I’m likely going to make a video version of this going into the details. 

But for right now, I’ve made this. Both as a guideline for me and so everyone can begin to get an idea of the severity of issues involved.

Researching things is time-consuming and can be very difficult - believe me, I know. But I’m of the mind that if you’re making content with the intent of educating people, you have a responsibility to perform a certain level of due diligence. It IS okay to express uncertainty or doubt if you have it. It is NOT okay to confidently assert things that you do not know with certainty.

The video has an anticap slant, and I’m obviously not disagreeing on that front. But again: if you’re gonna go through the trouble of teaching people something. Bare minimum... please make sure it’s actually correct. *** 1) x ‘founded in 1964 and based out of Florida’ -  ???? Seaworld definitively began on the west coast, in San Diego, CA. And given that the first park opened in early 1964… things came together before that. Uh? 2) x ‘four people founded Seaworld [...]’ For one… it wasn’t originally conceived as a restaurant, it was originally conceived as an underwater bar/lounge. Two… calling the four guys involved in founding the place “frat brothers” is fucking ridiculous and completely overlooks a) how each was actually involved and b) the overall significance of their contributions to the field as individuals. Hint: like it or not, they were important and did a lot! 

3) x If one is going to bring up SWBGCF/rescues while talking about the literal founding of SW, it gives the impression that it’s been around for that duration. It hasn’t.  It’s actually a bit unclear when SW started an organized rescue program, but the Fund itself and all that it did came about much later. The rescue information and how it’s presented is actually INCREDIBLY complex, nuanced, and has a fascinating history (from a “bad company behaving badly” perspective). Oversimplifying this, to this degree and in this misinformative way, does the facts of the situation an INCREDIBLE disservice.  

4) x [assertive statement about what the name Shamu means]  ….Uh actually there’s several explanations for the name Shamu, and the most likely one IMO seems to be the “she-namu” one, not the “friend of Namu” one(? What is this even based on.) 4b) It’s not quite clear if she’s saying “Namu was the first ever orca to be displayed and perform shows” or or Namu was the first to be displayed and, like Shamu, performed shows. Either way, Moby Doll was the first to truly be displayed to the public, not Namu.

5) x ‘Namu died after one year in captivity and you’d think that this might deter Seaworld from doing the same thing again…’ Seaworld truly had nothing to do with Namu. And they leased/took possession of Shamu before Namu died. ‘Again’? What?

6) x “Now, PETA paints a pretty disturbing picture…” [while showing Okura’s artwork] This video segment is, and this is putting it nicely, a pile of poorly-researched BULLSHIT.  -Yes, PETA talks about Shamu’s capture, re: the harpooning of her mother. This Youtuber cannot apparently be arsed to look more than 1 Google search into this, as she proceeds to dismiss the information as potentially fabricated. There are two detailed accounts of Shamu’s capture that I’m aware of - in books - and though they have some slight conflicts, it’s absolutely NOT in doubt that the female who was very likely Shamu’s mother was 1) harpooned, 2) died from her injuries and 3) this had been done to make her easier to catch/locate because there was a fucking buoy attached to the harpoon. Which she dragged around for at least 24 hours prior dying.  So maybe don’t dismiss that as PETA hysteria, maybe TRY to determine the truth of the matter, which would inform one that it is both true and completely horrifying.  -In addition, Okura is an awesome individual who has worked very hard to create a variety of informative artwork for our cause. Okura is NOT associated with PETA and it’s borderline libel in my eyes to use their artwork in this dismissive manner when the primary sources of it can be easily identified online, with full explanations and everything. Do I take special offense to this because of the misuse of artwork? Absolutely. Artists get disrespected enough online. I’m tired of it. This kind of laziness IS NOT acceptable.

7) x ‘timeline is fuzzy about when Shamu died’ …………… it’s…. It’s really not … newspapers are pretty clear about it…..

8) x [complete and utter oversimplification of the lifespan issue, which is not acceptable for anything published in 2020. It just isn’t. If you’re going to bring it up like this, either do the legwork and get into the weeds or stay out.] 8b) [same for reproductive ages. sigh]

9) x if we’re going to talk about when Cornell was involved with Seaworld it’s very important to specify when Cornell was involved with Seaworld and not make it seem like it’s present tense.

10) x “both were rescued by Seaworld” - uh? no. Zero orcas have been rescued by Seaworld. Literally none. The infected-jaw orca was Sandy, whose story is complex and certainly does not involve Seaworld until much later. And many of the orcas in that time period had bullet wounds, often only identified post-mortem because they didn’t seem to hurt the animals much. Also, unflinchingly blending 70s captivity ethics with modern ones is also complete nonsense? 

11) x [tilikum coming from sealand] inhales I am going to make an entire video centered on this fucking subject because it’s one of the single most profound arguments for Seaworld being garbage as assessed by US government agencies in the 90s yet everyone utterly fails to mention this. Why?!

12) x what on earth is this nonsense re: quoting a quote from Zimmerman’s article - which has already been removed from its original context, so the original context is not available - and then penalizing the quote for existing as if Zimmerman’s article were the context? That is offensively disingenuous. I honestly don’t know what the original context is, either - but it’s wildly inappropriate to act as if the Zimmerman article is.

13) x this is relatively minor but ‘Paul Sprong’? You literally have his name on the screen. And then mis-reading his age too? While asserting it from a static article published years ago? Effort? Where is it?

14) x ‘another trainer, Peter’ ….. Ken Peters…. 

15) [weirdly glossing over the widely-available list of orca-trainer injuries/aggressions, despite it being central to the point.] 16) x This pilot whale outrage certainly happened but it was pretty clearly Blackfish that started the cascade of woes for Seaworld. Who has ever asserted this?

17) if you’re gonna just rehash blackfish, tell people to go watch blackfish.

18) x I’ve already gone over the context issue with Seaworld calling out Howard’s statement in Blackfish here (point 23). Which is to say, IN CONTEXT in Blackfish it’s clear what Mr. Garrett is talking about but, divorced from that, it sounds incorrect. But this Youtuber AMPLIFIES the issue by doubling down on the assertion with “no record of a killer whale doing any harm to anyone in the wild.” The surfer event should always be mentioned. Yes, there’s absolutely room for doubt. But there’s also a clear demarcation between an accidental attack (eg mistaken identity, as was likely for the surfer) and intentional one (eg the incidents at marine parks.) Why do people kneecap themselves on this point 18b) please stop acting like Luna represents orcas in general.

19) x “Howard, for all of his research…” … while referring to David Duffus’ b-roll and statements. Uh. 20) x Apparently this Youtuber has single-handedly resolved the dorsal fin issue. You know, the thing that hasn’t been properly researched ever, that has been subject to a ton of debate, that isn’t 100% settled for a variety of reasons, and almost everyone talks about in terms of theories and likely possibilities.  21) x Alexis Martinez wasn’t “torn to shreds.” In a space where even moderate exaggerations are often penalized harshly by the opposition, this kind of blatant nonsense is not welcome. Plus, the reality’s bad enough… you don’t have to make anything up!

22) x *sighs. points at own webpage*

23) Talking about the shows stopping without acknowledging how that’s a bit of a farce is something else. In addition to apparently just flipping to buying what Seaworld’s selling re: its ‘improved image.’ 

*** Tl;dr video is so unrelentingly full of errors ranging from small to egregious it makes me seriously concerned for the veracity of the rest of this person’s content. The maker of the video provided a list of their sources in their video description, which I will have time to look through in detail later. The above is solely a response to the information they present IN THE VIDEO - which, is very important because let’s be real: a lot of people are not going to look at the list of sources. People don’t even do it when citing papers (no really, you’d be surprised, fml.) For anyone who wants to whinge that I haven’t linked or asserted any sources of my own for my claims… well, remember what I said about time-consuming and ‘I’m busy’? Yhea. Getting all of that together will be part of making a video. So if you want to shrug loudly at my list here… you can, that’s your prerogative, I’m happy to say I DGAF if that’s your takeaway. 

What I hope, is that if there’s anything I’ve made clear over the While of running this blog, it’s that I don’t fuck around when it comes to sources and information and do my best to provide what information exists, all of it, not just cherrypicked bits and bobs. Anyways. Here’s step 0 at least. Please don’t share that video. Pretty please.

[mitigatedchaos]

On Having “Whiteness”

(~2,200 words, 11 minutes)

Summary: A metaphysics of “Whiteness” has overtaken actual sociology in the Democrats’ popular consciousness - blinding them to racial interventions that might actually work and taking them off the table of political discussion.

-★★★-

Donald Moss - On Having Whiteness, Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association (emphasis mine)

Whiteness is a condition one first acquires and then one has—a malignant, parasitic-like condition to which “white” people have a particular susceptibility. The condition is foundational, generating characteristic ways of being in one’s body, in one’s mind, and in one’s world. Parasitic Whiteness renders its hosts’ appetites voracious, insatiable, and perverse. These deformed appetites particularly target nonwhite peoples. Once established, these appetites are nearly impossible to eliminate. Effective treatment consists of a combination of psychic and social-historical interventions. Such interventions can reasonably aim only to reshape Whiteness’s infiltrated appetites—to reduce their intensity, redistribute their aims, and occasionally turn those aims toward the work of reparation. When remembered and represented, the ravages wreaked by the chronic condition can function either as warning (“never again”) or as temptation (“great again”). Memorialization alone, therefore, is no guarantee against regression. There is not yet a permanent cure.

So both @arcticdementor [here] and @samueldays have linked me to this allegedly “peer-reviewed” article.  The Federalist has a bit more context, but it doesn’t really make the situation better.

Race Theory Problems

Obviously, this is a work of sloppy thinking.  The categorization of “white supremacy culture” or “whiteness” used by people like this is vague handwaving that describes being bad at management as “white supremacy culture,” and which in general labels universal human problems, like organizations being resource-constrained, or people being impatient, as somehow uniquely “white.” 

But this sort of article is really what I mean when I say that social justice’s approach to “whiteness” is about “spiritual contamination.” 

Samueldays called it “the ‘I’m not touching you’ of inciting race war,” and I may cover more of his response to it later.  Suffice it to say, it has the same general kind of problems as “stolen land” arguments (where an entire present population’s living area becomes undefined), unbounded “reparations” arguments where no amount of transfers by the designated oppressor are considered to clear the debt, and so on.

This is exactly the sort of material that conservatives are seeking to remove government funding for and prohibit from use in employment training.  This is the kind of material that the Trump Anti-CRT executive order prohibiting racial scapegoating was meant to cover.

Race Theory Definitions

This kind of stuff is, of course, not really defensible, so usually at this point people will argue that 1), “that’s not real critical race theory,” and then 2), “it’s just a few weirdos.”  For those, I would say...

1) If it’s not real “Critical Race Theory,” then what is it?

We can’t measure or disprove Moss’s proposed “Whiteness,” and this malevolent psychic entity said to “deform” white people obviously isn’t based on a comparison with other human populations or historical periods.  When it comes to “insatiable” appetites, one study argued that the Mongol invasions killed so many people that it showed up in the carbon record.

At best, it’s sloppy race science as practiced by an amateur, like twitter users idly speculating whether whites have ‘oppressor epigenetics’ - but with the veneer of official status.  And it has similar risks to proposing that there is such a thing as biologically-inherited class enemy status, and other collective intergenerational justice logic.

Presumably, the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association is intended as a journal of science, or at least serious scholarship, and not of bad racist poetry with no rhyme or meter.

Moss provides a relatively pure example of whatever-this-is. I need to know what it’s called, so we can get rid of it.

Race Theory Prohibitions

2) If it’s just the product of a few race-obssessed weirdos, then it won’t hurt to get rid of it.  So get rid of it.

The actual text [PDF] of the Trump Anti-CRT order does not ban teaching about the Trail of Tears, or Jim Crow, and so on, and both of those topics were taught in school before this recent wave of whatever-this-is was popularized.

Trump’s order banned teaching that any race is inherently guilty or evil due to the actions of their ancestors, and the level of resistance to this has been bizarre.

These teachings don’t seem to provide gains in relatively objective metrics like underrepresented minority test scores (or at least that’s not something I’ve seen - and the continued opposition to standardized tests suggests proponents do not expect it to), so it’s unclear just what of value is going to be lost here. 

Collateral Damage

Samueldays wrote,

Because right now the conservatives talking about "critical race theory" as they fire in the direction of Moss et al. are very important in preventing another race war and you have a moral duty to help them aim, not throw smoke for Moss.

Right now Conservatives are assessing just how much stuff they’re going to have to rip out to make “standardized tests are racist” and “it’s impossible to be racist to white people” stop.  While this may not be the message that Liberals are intending to send, it is the message that many people are receiving.  (I discuss problems with both, and some alternatives to handle them better, in another post.)

Liberals need to get out in front of this.  Sooner is better.

If Conservatives think that they have to gut hostile work environment law in order to avoid their children being taught that they’re permanently morally contaminated by their race, and Liberals have no means to actually close race gaps within a 4-8 year period (and right now it’s slim pickings on that front), Conservatives are just going to gut hostile work environment law.

Aether

From their perspective, why not? 

Everything in the world is only six degrees of separation from something racist.  Anything in the world can be tied to something racist.  (So can anyone.)

But nowhere in this pervasive atmosphere of tying things to racism are there solutions.  There are guesses based on correlations.  Proposals.  But usually when you reach out to grab them, to really get a grip on whether it’s correlation or causation, they dissolve in your hands.  The few that do have any solidity to them are moderate in their success (such as Heckman’s involvement in the Reach Up & Learn study in Jamaica) - and don’t appear to be based on the same style of thinking as shown by Moss and others.

It isn’t just that trying to turn combating an invisible, non-measurable, unfalsifiable, parasitic psychic force into an actual political program would inevitably be oppressive and totalitarian.  It isn’t just that articles like Moss’s are an in-kind donation to the 2024 DeSantis Presidential campaign for that very reason.

It isn’t just that unfalsifiable Metaphysics of Whiteness content like White Privilege Theory has been found to lower sympathy for the poor, and that present diversity training doesn’t work...

Race Content Crowding

This stuff is crowding out legitimate scholarship.  I don’t just mean in terms of funding, tenure track positions, or high-flying magazine coverage - all limited by their nature.  I mean among the base.  I have been interrogating Democrats on Twitter for months, and not a single one has been able to cite a strongly-demonstrated intervention that’s being held back, or even a past one that was conclusively demonstrated to be effective.  They can often recite a list of racial grievances on cue.

Tucker Carlson could run boomer_update.exe on a list of every educational failure since the 1970s, and they would be reduced to sputtering accusations of racism against people who increasingly don’t care.  He could do this tomorrow.  The only thing that prevents this is Tucker Carlson’s conscience.

I discovered the Reach Up & Learn program through Glenn Loury - described as a ‘conservative.’ Scott Alexander, attacked by the New York Times crew, brought some success with multivitamins to my attention.  When I first heard about the Perry Preschool program, I believe it was from someone well to the right of him.

About the only one brought to my attention by the Democratic establishment constellation proper was lead removal, and the gains on that are probably getting tapped out.  The frame it was proposed in was not Critical Race Theorist, as this was likely in 2012. 

As it stands, I’m more likely to find something that works from someone the New York Times would disapprove of than someone they wouldn’t.  Or, as Wesley Yang wrote,

Reality has been contrarian for a while.

Succeed Early

Even if we suppose that Conservatives are inherently racist, Liberals have a duty to support interventions that work.  In fact, the more that Conservatives are a seething, undifferentiated mass of uniform racial hatred, the more important it is that Liberals stick to racial interventions that work, because nobody else is going to fix the problem if Liberals get it wrong.

It isn’t just a matter of resources per year.  It’s also a matter of time.

From Heckman’s website,

Although Perry did not produce long-run gains in IQ, it did create lasting improvements in character skills [...] which consequently improved a number of labor market outcomes and health behaviors as well as reduced criminal activity.

Even if we propose an unlimited amount of funding (which is not the case), people and politicians only have a limited amount of time and attention each year.  Newspapers only publish so many issues with so many pages each week.  Television programs only cover so many hours for so many viewers each day.  Even the dedicated can only read so many books in a year.

Even though the Perry intervention was imperfect, and the sample size was not as large as desirable, every second Democrat I talked to should have been able to answer the question “can you name an effective intervention?” with “what about Perry Preschool?”

Every year that we have entire cottage industries working on and popularizing contentious, ineffective, and backlash-provoking Metaphysics of Whiteness content, based on oversimplified oppressor/oppressed binaries, or theories in which power is held collectively by races as monolithic blobs (rather than modelling power as a network of relations between individuals, in which an individual of any background might be destroyed by the racialized relations in their environment), is another year we haven’t spent that energy on finding or implementing something that actually works.

This isn’t just an individual failure by Democrat voters, who typically have day jobs to focus on - it is a failure by the institutions who are supposed to inform and guide them.  This institutional failure likely contributed to the popularization of Metaphysics of Whiteness content in the first place.

Okay, now what?

Donald Moss is a crackpot.  Metaphysics of Whiteness content is unfalsifiable.  The idea that there is a psychic parasite of “Whiteness” is not a legitimate field of study; it’s parasociology.  The idea that “a sense of urgency” is “white supremacy culture” isn’t much better. [1]

We already tried isolating this content to obscure corners of academia, where individuals with high racial attachment could write about it.  It leaked out. 

We need to get this stuff out of the popular consciousness to make room for stuff that might actually work.  The best way to do that may be to cut off the source.  Since Donald Moss is a crackpot, perhaps it’s time we started treating him, and everyone else like him, as what they are.

People involved in Metaphysics of Whiteness content, like Donald Moss, need to be (figuratively) grabbed by the shoulder, and firmly, but politely, told to stop.  Society has been recklessly handing out race-colored glasses to the general population since around 2014, resulting in a rise in amateur race science, of which both right-wing Twitter users memeing about Italians and Metaphysics of Whiteness participants like Moss are examples.  If they do not stop, they must be stripped of institutional authority.  Metaphysics of Whiteness content is unfalsifiable and we should not be certifying it.

If institutions refuse to reduce the authority of Metaphysics of Whiteness practitioners, those institutions must have their accreditation penalized, and their government funding reduced or eliminated, just as if they insisted on producing study after study on magic or ESP which failed to yield results.  If they do not comply, they must be replaced.

It’s possible that Metaphysics of Whiteness content might have had some obscure, niche function in terms of the exploration of the idea space. 

However, as it has displaced popular knowledge of interventions that might work, and the attention given to them in the political system, Liberals should seek to surgically remove it, at the very least until some more effective interventions see the political light of day.

If not, Conservatives will attempt to remove it with a bludgeon.  "They described an entire race as ‘voracious, insatiable, and perverse,’ and here’s the citation for the exact page where they did that,” is perfect material with which to abolish entire departments.

-★★★-

[1] If we go a bit farther out, scholars of “Decolonization” argue that the field is wholly unconcerned with “settler futurity,” a phrase not much less ominous than describing “whiteness” as “incurable.”  It seems that their entire job should be to answer the very difficult questions they have decided not to.