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justinspoliticalcorner · 2 months ago

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Radley Balko at The Watch:

Since the election, a number of readers have asked how worried we should be, and what we should be looking for in the weeks and months ahead. My general answer: pretty worried! At this point, I see little reason to think that Trump won’t at least attempt his most authoritarian and destructive campaign promises. Whether he succeeds will depend on how much resistance he gets from the courts, Congress, the federal bureaucracy, and the rest of us.

Trump’s nominations to cabinet positions so far are a clear indication that he’s dragging his party further into a nihilist cult of personality. It isn’t just that so many of them are unqualified, corrupt, or destructive (though it’s also all of those things). It’s that they’re uniquely unfit for the specific positions he has appointed them to hold. He’s daring someone to stop him, and learning from what follows.

The Matt Gaetz pick for attorney general was bad, but it wasn’t even his most dangerous. Appointing crank conspiracy theorist and Trump/Assad apologist Tulsi Gabbard to the most sensitive national security position in government is a direct threat to national security and a reflection of Trump’s own fondness for authoritarians. Department of Defense pick Pete Hegseth has never led more than a dozen or so people (the one small nonprofit he did lead, he ran into the ground). As a National Guardsman, he was barred from working security for Joe Biden’s inauguration because he has a tattoo common to white supremacists. He lobbied Trump to pardon war criminals who had been reported by their own platoons, and believes the U.S. military should ignore the Geneva Conventions.

Then there’s the fact that the leader of the QAnon party, a man himself found responsible for rape and credibly accused of sexual assault or misconduct by dozens of women, appointed four — four — cabinet level officials accused of engaging in or covering up sexual misconduct. There’s Gaetz, of course. RFK Jr. has also been accused of sexual assault (he didn’t exactly deny the accusation). The sexual assault allegation against DOD nominee Hegseth are particularly credible. And Linda McMahon, Trump’s pick for Department of Education, was accused in a lawsuit of covering up a ringside announcer’s sex abuse of a boy while she and her husband ran World Wrestling Entertainment.

None of this is all that surprising, given that Trump’s party keeps nominating and electing sex creeps up and down the ballot. Nor does it seem to bother Trump’s congressional supporters. Instead, they’ve decided to single out and bully the first trans woman elected to Congress, barring her from using the women’s bathrooms on Capitol Hill . . . because she’s a “threat” to women. (We’re still waiting to hear which bathrooms male Republicans neutered by Donald Trump will be permitted to use.) Trump is also refusing to subject his nominations to FBI background checks, and his campaign says he won’t release the names of donors to his transition. Both are clear signs that he has no intention of making himself accountable or transparent to anyone. Nearly everything he’s done since the election points to a president who not only intends to buck every norm, convention, and check, he won’t even pretend to try. It’s just open defiance.

In the coming days, I’ll look at the free press and the First Amendment, immigration, and crime and criminal justice. But today, I’ll focus on Trump’s openly-stated plans to weaponize the government against his critics and enemies. I fully expect to see Trump follow through on his promises to seek retribution against people like Jack Smith, Liz Cheney, Adam Schiff, Alexander Vindman, Anthony Fauci, and countless others. Whether he’ll do it by ordering the DOJ to make sensationalist arrests and criminal charges or use subtler though still pernicious tools like IRS audits, subpoenas, or parading people before Congress for public ridicule, is hard to say. But investigations alone can ruin lives and careers.

Let’s start with the DOJ. I’m not sure that the Gaetz debacle provides much instruction on whether Senate Republicans have the backbone to provide any real oversight. (It did show us, however, that House Republicans were willing to remove their spines, gift-wrap them, and hand-deliver them to Trump.) I suspect Gaetz’s tendency to anger and insult members of his own party hurt his nomination more than his extremism, sex pestery, and utter lack of qualifications.

Trump’s new AG nominee, Pam Bondi, is less abrasive than Gaetz, but every bit the devout MAGA loyalist. As Florida Attorney General, Bondi was at one point set to join other states in suing Trump University (Florida has more “alumni” than any other state). Shen then mysteriously pulled out of the class action after Trump made a $25,000 donation to her PAC — a donation that came from Trump’s “charity,” by the way — and then held a fundraiser for her at Mar-a-Lago. (Bondi has a long history of that sort of pay-to-play.) Bondi quickly became a full-throated supporter. She’s not only a 2020 election denier, she was part of Trump’s legal team in his bid to overturn the election. She actually stood next to Rudy Giuliani at Four Seasons Total Landscaping.

Bondi has also already made clear that she fully supports Trump’s plan to weaponize the agency he has nominated her to lead.

[...] We’ll see an important test of Trump’s power shortly after he takes office. He plans to fire FBI director Christopher Wray and replace him with Kash Patel, a vengeful loyalist wholly unqualified for that position. The FBI director is supposed to serve outside the political influence of individual presidents. It’s why the position comes with a 10-year term, and why an FBI director can only be fired for cause. Remember that when Trump fired James Comey, Jeff Sessions considered it a serious enough abuse of power to appoint a special counsel. We’ve become so accustomed to Trump’s power grabs that it’s now just widely expected that he’ll fire Wray for pretextual reasons and install an unqualified lickspittle like Patel — a guy who has vowed to imprison journalists and critics. If the Senate allows that to happen, I fear dark days lie ahead. (Trump is also reportedly considering appointing Patel to a position that doesn’t require Senate approval, but which could still give him the power to act as Trump’s retributive hammer.)

[...] Trump is also already planning to devote DOJ resources to “uncovering” evidence that he won the 2020 election, and to prosecuting state officials who resisted his attempts to coerce them. Expect to see a full-throttle effort to rewrite history about that election, only this time Trump will have more power to force federal agencies to provide faux credibility to his bullshit fraud conspiracies. Watch to see which agencies fall in line.

[...] The Post and other outlets have since reported that one of the key architects of Trump’s plan to purge federal agencies of institutionalists is Russ Vought, Trump’s former head of the Office of Management and Budget — one of the most powerful under-the-radar positions in government. Vought was also a key architect of Project 2025, the Heritage Foundation-led blueprint for a Trump II administration so deeply unpopular that Trump repeatedly claimed during the campaign that he had nothing to do with it. That of course was a lie: last week, Trump nominated Vought back to his old position.

[...] Finally, one particularly pernicious pattern we’ve seen from Trump officials and MAGA pundits is the targeting of not just politicians and public officials, but everyday people they see as representative of their enemies — at which point the MAGA faithful swarm with threats and harassment. We saw Trump-loyal publications repeatedly try to dox whistleblowers who exposed corruption and abuse. We saw them upend the lives of people like Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, along with countless other 2020 election workers who signed up for the sort of nonpartisan positions necessary in a functional democracy.

They did it to doctors and nurses during COVID, healthcare workers who treat trans people, and of course to the Haitian immigrants in Springfield — along with any local residents who dared to defend them. The Libs of TikTok account on X run by Chaya Raichik basically exists solely for this purpose — to sic an army of online followers to heap hate and invective on people she has deemed to be on the wrong side of the culture war. Trump’s “co-president” Elon Musk has been particularly eager to weaponize the social media platform he bought for this sort of targeting. Shortly after purchasing Twitter, he selectively released emails, internal documents, and other private correspondence to a few hand-picked “journalists” to create a dubious narrative about public-private censorship. While there were certainly some examples of improper government pressure on Twitter, most of the claims were wildly overblown. More worrying, the whole project — along with the complicity of Republicans in Congress — led to harassment and death threats against former Twitter employees, whistleblowers, misinformation researchers, and others caught in the crossfire.

Radley Balko wrote a great piece on how the incoming Trump Misadministration seeks to weaponize government agencies to be sharp tools to help his authoritarian masturbatory revenge fantasies.

#Trump Administration II #Radley Balko #Donald Trump #Pam Bondi #Matt Gaetz #Robert F. Kennedy Jr.#Linda McMahon #Pete Hegseth #Tulsi Gabbard #Kash Patel #Russ Vought #Elon Musk #Trump Regime #US Department of Justice

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anarchistettin · 2 years ago

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kinda sucks how the cult of the Warrens just keeeeeeeps coming back and coming back again. can't kill that fucker.

whom do you think is going to get hit with the blame? christian child abusing mind controllers? usa's numerous military themed ones?

banks?

dems? repubs?

or your polycule.

I just thought I'd post a reminder because there is a very good post about cults going around but I just wanted to say that not every NRM (new religious movement) is a Peoples' Temple or Branch Davidian-esque cult. It's literally a term for any religion that popped up post WWII.

#if you complain about a lack of culture but you hate cults…… you might have been bamboozled hard #one of the most pernicious lingering right winger joys - hating the small family that doesn't go to Church #odd how everything bad attributed to cults is a mainstay of USA heritage and identity

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loony-lupus · 3 days ago

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It is worth telling a couple of important things about the Father.

TW: Cult stuff.

1. When someone brings Him sacrifices, they are rewarded with the "Blessing" of the Father. But the Father does not do this of His own free will. This is because the act of sacrifice involves intense feelings and emotions - an important component of the entire being of the Father and His kind, the emotions and feelings of these creatures have a strong physical manifestation. Therefore, when a person brings Him a sacrifice, a "Bond" is formed between Him and this person - a kind of tunnel through which some part of the Father's power and might flows to the person. And this supernatural power - the "Blessing" - is always different. It differs from person to person.

2. The more sacrifices a person brings, the more blessings they receive. But there is a limit to the power. When the "tunnel" of the Bond between a person and the Father becomes as short as possible and both parties become close enough to each other in this "tunnel", the person can make the "Final Sacrifice", and the Father can make a choice - to let the person close to Him or leave them where they are. If the Father does not accept the person, their power will not be able to grow anymore. If He accepts the person, then the person can become his Avatar and the key to his freedom (or death). That is why all this time the cultists never made the "Final Sacrifice", even when the Father tortured them and tried to take control over them.

3. No one knows why the sacrifices do not allow Him to wake up. Some suggest that it is similar to the sleepiness that occurs after eating, someone believes that human sacrifices affect this creature like a drug or sleeping pill, but this is not known for certain.

4. It seems that the Father has several stages of sleep, similar to a human. But in deep sleep He does not see dreams and is not aware of Himself. At a more superficial stage, He sees "lucid dreams" and can even communicate with some people through hallucinations.

5. His cultists consider Him to be the God of Madness and Chaos. Annie assumes that He is a mentally ill creature - being created from His blood, she remembers His sickly physical state. She may also be wrong, since she is not sure that her memories are not an invention of the newfound mind.

6. His "Chaos" is also more likely associated with the fact that He is a very whimsical creature than with the fact that He somehow embodies the sphere of chaos. It is difficult to blame Him. Humans, for selfish reasons, do not let Him wake up, and if before He loved them and was flattered by how they perceive Him, He admired mankind creativity, now He periodically wants humanity to perish in flames, so that He can finally wake up and stretch His numb body. His mood and attitude to everything periodically changes.

6. He once told Annie that He was the God of Love, but then He got twisted. He also could have lied.

7. The hallucinations of His image that He projects into people's minds are a bit like a beginner artist's awkward attempts to depict anatomy (I definitely not projecting). Most often, He projects eyes. He loves eyes.

8. By forming a "Bond" with Him, a person begins to hear extraordinary music, which has a very positive effect on a person's mood, like a drug. Therefore, the cultists are stubbornly trying to protect the secret of the Father and do not let Him wake up - so that they can always hear this music. Annie suggests that this music, similar to a cat's purr in a way that is what the Father produces to heal and soothe Himself.

9. The secret little Temple of the Father is located under Gotham and several secret paths lead there. It is difficult to find not only because of the protection of the cultists, but also because there is a lot more under Gotham - caves and burials. There is a door in the temple that no one goes through, except for some former cult leaders, because the closer a person is to the Father, the stronger His pernicious influence on a person. Former leaders do not return from there.

10. In addition to various "blessings," cultists receive a couple more "awards" upon joining, which are common to all: prolonged youth, strength and endurance above human, an extended lifespan, and beauty. However, the beauty is a little uncanny because the Father smooths out skin imperfections a little and makes one look almost like they are frozen in time. If they wanted, the cultists could take over all of Gotham because there are many of them, and even the most insignificant of them have the above qualities.

11. "No one is truly happy in Gotham. Not even a God." (c)

12. I may change things, I need to think about it more.

#dc loonyverse #dc fanverse #oc: the father #cosmic horror #oc lore #dc oc #dcu #dc universe

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mask131 · 1 year ago

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The myth of Dionysos (8)

And to conclude this long overview of the mythical figure of Dionysos, here is the remaining parts of Félix Guirand's analysis/recap of the deity.

III/ Birth and childhood of Dionysos

After the earth was fertilized by the benevolent water of the sky, it needs to suffer the dry burning of the sun. Only then will theplants reach maturity, only then fruits grow – and only then will the grapes appear on the vine. This seems to be the deeper meaning of the myth of Semele, usually said to be the mother of Dionysos. Daughter of Cadmos, the king of Thebes, Semele attracted the attention of Zeus, who seduced her and made love to her – the god frequently visited her within her father’s palace. One day however, Semele followed a pernicious advice given by Hera disguised as the princess’ nurse: she begged Zeus to appear before her in his full Olympian glory. However she could not stand the intense and burning light of the divine form of her lover, and the fires that surrounded Zeus’ true shape burned her alive. The child within her belly only survived thanks to a miraculous thick ivy that had wrapped itself around the palace’s columns, and that shielded with its green leaves the unborn baby from the divine flames. Zeus took the baby, that was not yet fully formed, and placed it in his own thigh so he could finish growing. When the birth was due, Zeus (with the help of Eileithyia) removed the young Dionysos from his thigh – and this is why ever since he was called “Dithyrambos”. Zeus then gave his son to Ino, Semele’s sister, who lived in Orchomenos with her husband Athamas.

This was the most common tradition, but other tales recall how, when Cadmos learned of his daughter’s pregnancy, he locked her in a wooden chest that was thrown into the sea. The floating chest want to the seashore of Brasies, in the Peloponnese: when it was opened, Semele was dead, but the child was alive, and it was taken by Ino. Still filled with jealousy, Hera continued her vengeance by turning Ino and Athamas mad. Zeus saved his son once again by turning him into a young goat, and he gave the order to Hermes to carry Dionysos to the nymphs of Nysa. Where was Nysa? Was it a mountain of Thrace? It is impossible to pinpoint the exact location of Nysa, because every region of Greece where the cult of Dionysos settled claimed to have their own Nysa.

Dionysos spent his childhood on the legendary mountain of Nysa, taken care of by nymphs whose efforts were rewarded later on, as they became the constellations known as the Hyades. The Muses were also said to have helped with Dionysos’ education – and so did the Satyrs, the Silenes (Seleinoi) and the Maenads. Finally, in Euboea, it was said that Hermes had entrusted Dionysos to Macris, a daughter of Aristaeus that fed the young child with honey. Crowned with laurel and ivy, the oung god spent his time exploring the mountains and the forests surrounded by nymphs that laughed and screamed happily. The old Silenus also taught Dionysos how to be virtuous person, and gave him a great love for the concept of glory. When he became an adult, Dionysos discovered the fruit of the vine, and how from these grapes he could make wine. He visibly first used it without any kind of moderation, as the legend says he was struck with madness by Hera – but it was only a temporary derangement. In order to be cursed from his insanity, Dionysos went to the oracle of Dodona – on his way there he had to cross a swamp on the back of a donkey. To reward this animal, he gave him the power to speak. Once his mind was healed, Dionysos started travelling throughout the world to teach mortals the art of winemaking. Numerous fabulous adventures happened to him as he went from country to country.

V/ The travels of Dionysos

Coming down from the mountains of Thrace, he crossed Boeotia and entered the Attic land. There he was welcomed by king Icarios, to whom he offered his grapevine. Icarios carelessly offered wine to his shepherds who, upon feeling the effects of drunkenness, believed they had been poisoned, and killed Icarios in revenge. Her daughter, Erigone, searched for her father and thanks to her dog Maira discovered his grave. Despaired, she hanged herself on a nearby tree. Dionysos, to punish this tragedy, cursed all the women of the Attic region with a furious madness – meanwhile Icarios was brought to heaven with his daughter and the faithful she-dog, where they became constellations. Received in Aetolia by the king of Calydon, Oeneus, Dionysos had sex with his host’s wife, Althaea. To reward Oeneus for pretending this never happened, the dog offered him the very first grapevine, and from the one-night union of Dionysos and Althaea was born Deianira. In Laconia, Dionysos was received by king Dion, who had three daughters. Dionysos was in love with the youngest, Carya, but the oldest two tried to prevent their romance by warning their father about it. Dionysos punished them first by making them mad, then by turning them into rocks. As for Carya, she was turned into a walnut-tree.

After continental Greece, Dionysos visited the islands. It was during these travels that, as he walked by the seashore, he was kidnapped by Tyrrhenian pirates who imprisoned him on their ship. Mistaking him for the son of a king, they hoped to get a ransom from him. But in vain they tried to tie him up with ropes: they kept falling to the ground, and the knots unmade themselves. One man, feeling Dionysos’ divinity, became scared and encouraged his companions to set their prisoner free, only for his crewmates to refuse. Then a series of miracles happened: a strong wine started pouring from the ship, vine grew onto the sail, and a dark ivy surrounded the mast. The god himself became a terrifying lion, and the terrified sailors threw themselves into the sea, where they were turned into dolphins. Only the man that had tried to set him free was spared by Dionysos. Finding himself on the island of Naxos, Dionysos saw a young woman asleep. It was Ariadne, the daughter of king Minos, that Theseus had brought back with him from Crete but had just abandoned. When she woke up, noticing Theseus’ absence, Ariadne fell into a violent despair – but Dionysos comforted her, and soon after, he married her officially. All the gods were guests to the wedding, and they covered the couple with gifts: Ariadne gave Dionysos three sons, Oenopion, Evanthes and Staphylos. The Homeric tradition, however, gave a different record of this tale: in the Homeric texts, Ariadne was killed by Artemis as a young woman, and Dionysos only married her after her death. A grave of Ariadne could be found in Naxos, where the Homeric tale was commemorated through dual celebrations: one was a sad celebration about crying for Ariadne’s death, another was joyful and centered around her wedding to Dionysos.

The travels and adventures of Dionysos did not limit themselves to the Greek world. Followed by satyrs and maenads, he went to Phrygia where he saw Cybele, and the goddess initiated him to her mysteris. He then went to Cappadocia, where he banished the Amazons from Ephesus, and to Syria, where he fought against Damascos – for having destroyed the grapevines planted by the god, Damascos was flayed alive. Dionysos then went to Liba, where he met Aphrodite and Adonis (even making love to Adonis’ daughter Beroe). After ruling for some times over the Caucasian Iberia, Dionysos followed his journey to the East, crossed the Tiger river on an actual tiger sent by Zeus, he united the two shores of the Euphrates by a rope made of vine and ivy branches, and he went as far as India where he brought civilization. He was also seen in Egypt as a guest of king Proteus ; and in Libya, as the one who helped Ammon regain his throne, usurped by Kronos and the Titans.

After those glorious expeditions Dionysos returned to Greece – but he wasn’t the rough god that came from the mountains of Boeotia. No, after having lived in Asia, Dionysos became an effeminate figure: he was now a graceful teenager wearing a long dress in a Lydian style. His cult had now orgiastic rites borrowed from Phrygia. And so, when he returned to Greece he was met with mistrust and doubt, sometimes with outright hostility. Most noticeably, when he returned to Thrace, its king, Lycurgus, declared himself the enemy of Dionysos. Forced to flee, the god found shelter with Thetis in the depths of the sea. However Lycurgus had imprisoned the Bacchants, the followers of the god. Dionysos cursed the land with sterility in retaliation, and removed Lycurgus’ sanity: the king ended up killing his own son by believing he was cutting a grapevine. Peace only returned to Thrace when Lycurgus, by order of an oracle, was trampled to death by horses on the Pangion mountain. Dionysos was not received better by Pentheus, the king of Thebes, who imprisoned the god in his jail. Dionysos easily set himself free, and he cursed with insanity Pentheus’ mother, Agave, as well as all the other women of Thebes. Transformed in Maenads, they went to the Citheron mountain to perform Dionysian orgies. Pentheus, who had followed them, was ripped to pieces by his own mother. This terrible tragedy became the subject of Euripides’ play “The Bacchants”. A similar adventure happened to the inhabitants of Argos, who had also refused to recognize Dionysos’ divinity: their women, possessed by an insane fury, ripped to shreds and then devoured their own children. Among the many punishments inflicted by the gods, the most famous is the one of the daughters of Minyas, king of Orchomenos. They were three sisters: Alcithoe, Leucippe and Arsppe. Since they refused to participate in Dionysos’ celebrations, the god appeared before them under the shape of a maiden, and he tried to convince them in a sweet and soft way. Failing, the god turned successively into a bull, a lion and a panther. Terrified, the Minyads were literaly scared out of their wits, becoming insane with fear – one of them, Leucippe, even killed with her bare hands her own son. The three sisters ended up transformed in nocturnals animals.

Now, no one would dare challenge or refute Dionysos’ divinity, and no one would dare prevent his worship from spreading. The god completed his glorious career by going into the Underworld to rescue his mother Semele. He then renamed her Thyone, and brought her with him to Olympus among the Immortals. The place through which Dionysos returned from the Underworld was supposedly located in Troezen, within the temple of Artemis Soteira. According to the tradition of Agos, Dionysos has rather learned the road to the Underworld thanks to the help of a man of Argos called Polymnos, and returned to the world of the living through the Alcyon sea. Within Olympus, Dionysos also took part in the war of the gods against the giants: the braying of the donkey he was riding terrified the Giants, and the god killed with his thyrsus a Giant either named Eurytos or Rhatos.

#greek mythology #the myth of dionysos #dionysos #dionysus #greek gods #greek myths

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sillygooseun · 2 years ago

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tw-destiel confession meme (i’m sorry you have to see this on your dash again)

someone probably already did this but thought i oughta contribute to the destiel meme :)

(more about the news under the cut cuz it’s actually super interesting and it’s all i can talk about because i’ve been reading articles on it since tuesday)

basically, if you don’t know, Van Houten, who is now like 70 something, was 19 when she met Manson and joined the cult which ended up being called the “Manson family.” before she was released on tuesday she was serving sentences of 7 years to life after being convicted in 1971 for the murder of a husband and wife.

“More than 50 years after the Manson cult committed these brutal offenses, the victims’ families still feel the impact, as do all Californians. Governor Newsom reversed Ms. Van Houten’s parole grant three times since taking office and defended against her challenges of those decisions in court,” Erin Mellon, a spokesperson for the governor, said Friday (directly quoted). A family member of the hair stylist Jay Sebring, who was killed by the Manson cult in 1969, said he doesnt agree with the decision to not challenge Van Houten’s parole. he pretty much said (and this isn’t a direct quote like the other one, im paraphrasing it) that he has respect for the governor and such but the families think it’s a bad decision not to file an appeal.

DiMaria called Van Houten a “cold-blooded killer in one of the most notorious murder rampages in United States history,” and said her release sets a “dangerous, pernicious precedent.” (thats a direct quote from CNN)

after 50 something years in prison, she’s gonna take classes to learn how to get a job, support herself, etc. i mean she’s never used an atm, a cellphone, so she needs to be adjusted similarly to how captain america was adjusted after he was in the ice (COMPLETELY DIFFERENT SITUATIONS THOUGH, I AM NOT COMPARING HER TO CAP.) anyway, she was originally sentenced to death, but the death penalty was overturned after California abolished capital punishment, so she was just sentenced to life. she was eligible for parole back in 1977 and the parole board thingy recommended release in 2016 after 22 appearances for the board. in 1994 this is how she described her part in the killings; “I went in and Mrs. LaBianca was laying on the floor and I stabbed her,” said Van Houten, who was 19 at the time of the murders. “In the lower back, around 16 times.”

so anyway yeah this is a pretty cool story that i’ve been reading up on and i thought i would share it (via the best news source there is, of course)

#my post #destiel meme #tumblr news #leslie van houten freed on parole after fifty three (?) years in prison #cool news story!!! read it i wrote an essay about it under the cut!!!#i want to be a journalist so someone tell me how i did okay thanks

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so-true-overdue · 1 month ago

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In the grand theater of human folly, where the zeitgeist pirouettes with the grace of a drunken ballerina, the seduction of misinformation is the siren’s song to which we all, at some point, find ourselves unwittingly swaying. It is a spectacle as old as time itself, where the confluence of ignorance and credulity forms a perfect storm, sweeping even the most discerning minds into its turbulent embrace.

The contemporary epoch, with its relentless deluge of information, has become a veritable breeding ground for the pernicious tendrils of misinformation. Like a cunning illusionist, it masquerades as truth, beguiling the masses with its insidious charm. The digital age, ostensibly a beacon of enlightenment, paradoxically facilitates the proliferation of these fallacies, rendering the distinction between fact and fiction as nebulous as a fog-shrouded horizon.

Cults, those bastions of collective delusion, epitomize the zenith of this phenomenon. They are the masterful puppeteers, orchestrating a symphony of deception that ensnares the unsuspecting with promises of esoteric knowledge and transcendental enlightenment. The indoctrinated, ensconced within the comforting cocoon of their newfound “truth,” remain blissfully oblivious to the strings that bind them. The cognitive dissonance that ensues is a testament to the formidable power of belief, a force capable of rendering the most glaring contradictions invisible to the eye of the beholder.

Recognizing one’s entanglement in this web of deceit is an endeavor fraught with difficulty. It requires a Herculean effort to extricate oneself from the seductive embrace of confirmation bias and the intoxicating allure of belonging. The realization, when it finally dawns, is often accompanied by a profound sense of betrayal, as the edifice of illusion crumbles to reveal the stark reality beneath.

In this age of information, where the zeitgeist is as capricious as it is omnipresent, the onus lies upon us to cultivate a discerning intellect, one that is impervious to the siren call of misinformation. It is an arduous task, to be sure, but one that is imperative if we are to navigate the labyrinthine corridors of truth and emerge unscathed from the clutches of deception. For in this grand theater, the only certainty is that the curtain will eventually fall, and the truth, however elusive, will have its final act.

#zeitgeist #bacteria #climate change #disease #evidence #facts #honesty #immunity #knowledge #pathogens #reality #research #science #scientific-method #study #truth #vaccine #virus #wisdom

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collymore · 6 months ago

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Paedophilia! Nothing wrong with it until you're caught out and general hypocrisy prevails!

By Stanley Collymore

Rampant paedophilia, clearly as it obviously has been the case for multiple centuries, is as very rampant and commonplace across Britain, several other Western countries and crucially those non-European ones they've vilely tainted with their noxious presence as is quite naturally the case of breathing air. Those really in charge and who actually run, or are otherwise irrefutably influential in the process of obviously formulating these countries policies know this and effectively only literally fall foul, and bleatingly critical about such vile, behavioural activities, when either they, normally quite close family members, or their undoubtedly likeminded friends, are clearly caught out; then, the distinctive reign of their rather stinking hypocrisy begins until that episode is obviously buried, and another such situation, erupts again!

These odious paedophiles: males as well as females, walk amongst us obviously, clearly throughout all sections of our respective societies! so, it's not a problem that is really uniquely or significantly so to organizations like the BBC. Quite far from it! As basically self-evidently, paedophilia is distinctly obviously, simply discernibly rampant and specifically crucially infectuously effectively undeniably across several multiple, and clearly distinctive areas of British society, with itself basically encouragingly and generally, actively enabled by social media, the actually fawned over obviously very elevated upper and characteristically crucially untouchable echelons, of our simply discernibly, hypocritical monarchical shady hereditary and Establishment systems! Simply progenitors, who're themselves literally well-shielded by evidently likeminded scum, who are generally quite happily protected by the basically similar in mindset, evil scum who unquestionably own, run and undoubtedly work for the MSM!

Author's Remarks: There's an old Barbadian saying that those who're unquestionably the most vociferous and vitriolic, while most keen to effectively and readily, obviously jump on any created bandwagon to brazenly and quite blatantly also demonize those that irrefutably plead guilty or are found to be so of any actually pernicious wrongdoing are quite invariably the ones who should likewise be distinctly and thoroughly investigated. Since, clearly what they're basically doing is absolutely a simply odious mechanism to really deflect attention away from themselves, and also what they're undoubtedly quite sickeningly doing!

Asininely trying to persuade the evidently intelligent elements of the world that very obviously all those directly connected with the Daily Mail officially, and undoubtedly in whatever capacity they actually literally do so, rather compounded by their plethora of also likeminded scum commenters rather avariciously making a meal out of the Huw Edward's debacle, on their holier than thou bandwagon as they try to make out rather relative to themselves, when in discernibly obvious reality nothing distinctly could be further from the truth, and I'll offer you an all-expenses paid ski trip to be exclusively spent on a distinctly Barbadian ski resort!

Fucking hypocrites the lot of them! And I'm no apologist for Huw Edward's behaviour! That said, nepotism and the old-school tie does play a considerable part in protecting these sickeningly and very reprehensible creatures masquerading as decent human beings; as does the old cult of freemasonry.

#Debauchery.

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olderthannetfic · 4 years ago

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Hi! I know you're one of the older fans on Tumblr & I wanted to ask you about the anti movement. I'm 19 & when I see people talking about the ages of anti fans, they're often within the 14-25 age range & I have no idea why. I also feel it's a little unfair to say that younger fans tend to be antis, though it is understandable since I've also made mistakes when I didn't know things. Why do you think most antis are younger fans? What should younger fans who aren't antis do to be more involved?

Hee! I’m 40, which, tbh, actually isn’t that old for Tumblr (though it’s certainly old compared to the common perception of tumblr), so sure, I can probably answer this. I guess there are two questions here: 1. Is it true and 2. why, if so?

1. Experience suggests that antis do tend to be young... but it does not follow that young people tend to be antis. (You’d have to know the proportion of antis relative to the overall population of fandom, which we don’t. I think the majority of people of any age tend to want to read fic in peace and not be roped into endless wank.) I definitely see some ringleaders who are older and good at manipulating fandom trends for their own ends too.

2. Why would this be the case?

When I was in college, we used to joke about all the freshman year Marxists. It’s an eternal phenomenon: people who don’t have much experience learn a new thing and are on fire to change the world using the one tool in their toolbox. (To a man with a hammer, yadda yadda.) There’s no passion like the passion of the newly converted, and young people tend to have a lot more energy and often a lot more free time to yell on social media. Antis may be one expression of this among people currently in that age bracket. It’s not like people my age didn’t do other annoying-ass things when we were that age. You just don’t see it because it was 20 years ago, a lot of it was never online, and all the websites/platforms from then have been systematically destroyed. (Often by yahoo. Fuck yahoo.)

The other half of the reason, in my opinion, is that there have been concerted efforts to sway lefty/socially liberal people in specific--often TERFy--ways. It’s somewhat reminiscent of the right wing radicalization of gamer guys.

People are susceptible to it because their lives suck and because they don’t know enough history or have enough confidence to form their own opinions and stand up for them. Sure, some people are going to go hardcore for anti views no matter how much they know, but a lot of people are just being swept along with the tide because something sounds superficially pro-gay or pro-protecting kids or whatever.

I cannot emphasize enough that the things that make someone ripe for the alt right are the same things that make them ripe for cults and for various kinds of toxic fandom shit: it’s usually the smart, sensitive overthinkers who don’t have enough close actual friends and who aren’t in a good place in their lives.

---

So what can you do?

You can try to make fewer more significant friendships and make sure your support system isn’t people you only know because you currently share a fandom. Most of my offline friends are people I found through fandom meetups, don’t get me wrong. I’m all for making fandom your life and only hanging out with fandom people, but we’re just regular friends who have dinner parties and shit (well, when it’s not the plaguetimes). Most of the time, we don’t share specific ships or fandoms. It’s vitally important to have a real support network that can’t be ripped away by social media wank.

The next thing we can all do is publicly stand up for what we believe in and not cave to pressure just because someone yelled “think of the children”. It’s important to be clear about the real history and logic behind these things, whether it’s the history of censorship that inspires people to support AO3′s extremely permissive policies or the fact that ‘queer’ was a fully reclaimed umbrella term in the 90s.

It’s okay if we don’t all agree. What’s not okay is appeals to emotion and ignoring science. A lot of anti bullshit is like “Rape fantasies are an abnormal red flag”, and this goes against every damn thing we know about human sexuality.

Part of this is examining our own stances for illogic and hypocrisy. If thought crimes aren’t real, then all of them aren’t real. I see way too many “Okay, but that one gross kink though!” comments from people who claim to be on my side, and this is very silly.

Possibly the biggest thing, though, is that we as a planet need to start being savvier about shitty social media and how it’s destroying our mental health. I don’t have a good overall solution, and obviously, I’m still on tumblr, but we all really need to cut down the amount of time we’re on sites like Facebook and Twitter and probably tumblr too. The more it has an algorithm and the less it has moderation, the more it’s a problem. Individual discords and spaces that can have moderation are better. It’s fine if some of them are 100% antis. The point is to have multiple spaces with rules that suit different groups.

A thing you can do is make your own spaces: be the owner of a discord for your ship, not just a passive participant at the mercy of shitty mods in an existing one. Run a fic exchange with rules you think are sensible and be firm when people try to scream about problematique things you don’t agree are a problem. One of the most pernicious anti problems is mods breaking the rules of their own spaces (usually a “no kinkshaming” one) to cave to social pressure from the loudest, most assholish set of people in the server. They don’t know how many people quietly disapprove and quietly leave their fandoms because they only fear the loud harassers, not the silent toll of caving to them.

Honestly, the climate of fear is the big issue more than a bit of yelling: I routinely meet 20-somethings who live in fear of being canceled and shunned. You can help this by... not being like that with your friends. If they’re friends with a canceled person, don’t ask them to drop the canceled person or face the same fate. If you disagree about some fandom hot take, talk about it calmly and don’t act like the friendship will be over in 5 seconds and you’ll use all your knowledge of them against them in a public callout because they didn’t instantly agree.

Basically, have some self confidence and don’t be fucking terrified all the time... which can be a tall order and probably explains the age thing also.

#fandom meta #loganelfreeces

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genuineformality · 2 years ago

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I posted 1,210 times in 2022

That's 1,178 more posts than 2021!

115 posts created (10%)

1,095 posts reblogged (90%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@taralkariel

@marycontraire

@totchipanda

@elle-rosewater

@saritasoyyo

I tagged 1,036 of my posts in 2022

Only 14% of my posts had no tags

#fanfic - 142 posts

#six of crows - 142 posts

#kaz brekker - 90 posts

#vitally important bird content - 72 posts

#please keep bird tags coming - 61 posts

#inej ghafa - 59 posts

#about the author - 54 posts

#writing - 39 posts

#febuwhump - 33 posts

#kanej - 31 posts

Longest Tag: 107 characters

#no shit i spent my first decade of bird watching with a pair of $40 binoculars and an inherited field guide

My Top Posts in 2022:

I posted my second SOC fanfic yesterday and I have been gauging the response of this one vs the last. Acknowledging that I have a sample size of two and making some assumptions based on time and date of launch, word count, and changes in POV, I have come to the following conclusion:

The Six of Crows fandom greatly prefers stories involving the main character performing a grisly murder and does not prefer noodling about the realities of launching an anti-human trafficking nonprofit in a modern day Ketterdam.

Which, okay. I can see that.

I’m still 100% going to keep writing about Inej’s anti-human trafficking NPO progress, but maybe I’ll try to work a few more grisly murders into the plots. Goodness knows, as an NPO professional myself, I’ve certainly fantasized about being able to solve problems with murder, so maybe this will be cathartic for everyone involved.

28 notes - Posted January 7, 2022

Old Gods of Appalachia continues to do a fascinating piece of storytelling, where the listener is introduced to something bone chillingly terrifying as the preamble and then introduces something that is significantly worse and scares the bejeezus out of the haint whom we have just gotten to know. It is both a brilliant way to introduce multiple types of creatures and also show the relative hierarchy of the things that go bump in the night.

38 notes - Posted July 4, 2022

Me, working on my SOC Modern AU: “What would a city created by nearly unfettered capitalism with an actual prosperity cult look like in the modern day?”

Also me, someone living in USA: “OH.”

44 notes - Posted January 9, 2022

There is nothing that makes me feel as connected to my ancestors as being on my weekly Shabbat call and forgetting which prayer I’m doing in the middle of it.

“…Asher kidshanu b’mitzvotav-“ look down at the bread in front of me, “-FUCK.”

49 notes - Posted January 7, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I have finished Season 2 of @thesiltverses and I am deep in my feels about the nature of faith and how we incorporate it (or not) in our daily lives; the pervasive perniciousness of capitalist propaganda; how the only good cops aren’t cops anymore; the incredible storytelling at work to showcase a world that is both incredibly alien and yet entirely familiar; and how to write people who are Not Good in such a way as to make them extremely sympathetic and relatable. (There’s a longer maunder about the nature and relativity of good and evil in the context of worlds that have significantly different cosmologies, which I’m likely going to have a lot of feelings about later.)

Absolutely incredible work. If you are into horror radio dramas (and don’t mind a *lot* of body horror - like *a lot*), I 100% recommend. Please join me in this absolute obsession. Just cannot get over how good it is.

86 notes - Posted October 22, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #I've been on tumblr for ages #but this is the first year in many that I've actually been active #these tags tho #real birds #fake crows

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qupritsuvwix · 4 years ago

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Lies that people spend millions of dollars to advertise and enforce are the most pernicious. The problems with the US voting systems were put in place to begin with by lobbying and jerrymandering and legislation. All of that took time and deliberation. For the republicons to suddenly decide that their previous victories under the usual systems were not enough, that they deserved more, is a falsehood. For them to suddenly believe that the demobots were collectively more competent at voter suppression and fraud than they were and were actively stealing every vote that they could not invalidate is a falsehood. The republicons have swallowed the koolaid and are spending millions of dollars in legal fees and lobbying money and advertisements that could have been spent on something useful.

The ability to ignore reality and engage in an orgy of mental fornication is not politics, it is a cult of stupidity.

It is one thing to lie. It is another thing to throw money at the lie and hoping to make it true.

#lies lies and more lies #trumpster fire #republicons #voter fraud #voter suppression #voter shaming

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skvaderarts · 4 years ago

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Apocrypha Chapter Twenty Five: Labyrinth

Masterlist can be found Here! Thanks!

Chapter Twenty Five: Labrinth

Note: The response I got for the last chapter was amazing! Thank you all so much for the awesome feedback! And now, back to our regularly scheduled angsty program! On today's episode of "look how they massacred my boy"...

(-~-)

As the cave snaked further and further into the bowels of the earth, what little natural light that remained disappeared from view. Gone were any traces of the sky that had been vaguely visible above them and now all that was left were the dregs of extinguished lanterns that hung from the ceiling above. Any illusion that the place they currently occupied wasn’t tied to some part of the underworld shattered like glass, taking any semblance of comfort with it.

In a way, the caves seemed to almost be alive. While an average person wouldn’t probably be able to detect anything in such an extreme environment, that wasn’t the story at all for Sparda’s descendants. As much as he didn’t want to acknowledge it, Nero could almost swear that the place they were in was breathing. It was as if they were inside of some sort of massage artery. Air flowed in and out of the tunnel in opposing directions, coming from behind and then from in front of them in a slow but constant cadence. Perhaps not an artery then, but maybe a throat of some sort? Regardless of what it resembled, it was deeply uncomfortable. One could only hope that they would not come to regret taking the route that they had. There was no time to lose.

“Why is it so fucking dark in here?” Nero asked as he followed closely behind Vergil. Dante was somewhere close behind him, but he couldn’t see anything past his hands in the inky blackness.” That overgrown houseplant wasn’t like this on the inside. How are we supposed to do anything if we can’t see?”

The older demon slayer in blue mentally registered his youngest son’s inquiry, but his mind was elsewhere. Yes, Nero did make a valid point. But his mind was on the task at hand at the moment. For every moment that this expedition dragged on and on, Vergil mentally chastised himself for being insane enough to go along with V’s plan. They had basically handed him to the very people who had tried to kill them less than a month ago, and they had no way of knowing how capable they were or what they wanted with him.

And that was to say nothing of the conversation that the Darkslayer had just had with the young cultist. Who was this “Master” they served, and who was his patron? Vergil needed to get to the route of the problem and extinguish it as quickly as possible before the inferno had a chance to grow and consume them all. But as far as he knew, none of his detractors knew anything about either of his sons, and that was primarily because they were all dead. Vergil had personally seen to that during his time in the underworld. Vergil possessed practically no tolerance for interruptions to his plans, and during his ascension to the throne, having no one alive to contest his plans was undeniably beneficial.

While the devil in blue was more than certain that his existing enemies were deceased and hopefully rotting in the bowels of hell, he couldn’t discount the possibility of having unknown enemies. That was practically a guarantee. As far as he was concerned, you couldn’t spend the amount of time that he’d spent in the underworld without at least half of the sentient population developing a profound and deep seeded hatred of you. That was just one of the perks that came with the trip. But if that was the case, then things had just gone from bleak to pernicious.

“What, you still need to see things to kill em’? Come on, that’s day one stuff!” Dante said casually as he closed the distance between himself and Nero. He didn’t need to see his nephew’s face to tell that he was shooting him a dirty look. If there was one thing that the young devil hunter had inherited from his father, it was his inability to let go of slights issued against him, regardless of the severity. Dante could say something silly to him about something entirely insignificant, and Nero would probably still bring it up when his kids were old enough to move out. While Dante had to admit that that facet of his nephew’s personality could be problematic at times, he honestly found it hilarious most of the time and didn’t mind it. As long as Nero was safe, Dante was fine with it.

Nero shook his head and pressed forward with the rest of the group. He didn’t have time to care about that. For the life of him, he couldn’t shake the persistent feeling of dread that had gripped him since they had interred the caverns. He trusted V’s judgement. After all, he was capable and smart. But not knowing what had happened to him admittedly put him a bit on edge, especially since that cultist had mentioned something about their “master” wanting him.

Yea, he was going to find this “master” and introduce him to the flaming edge of his blade.

“Do you think we went the wrong way back there? I can’t tell if we're getting any closer to the end of this cave.” Nero asked as they hurried along, thankful that the part of the cave they were in didn’t have branching paths. “I wonder how they get around in here when it’s this dark all the time.”

Vergil considered answering the question since he was somewhat certain that he had an idea how they did so, but the second that he took another step forward, he came to a sudden stop. Dante and Nero followed shortly after, utterly perplexed as to how they had arrived in the stop that they had. The inky blackness parted and gave way to a level of light more conducive to the environment they currently found themselves in.

Before them spanned a gargantuan chasm, it’s pitch black interior only parted by the rays of moonlight that pierced the roof of the cave in cascading rays. Where the light came from was anyone’s guess since the sound of thunder booming answered any questions that they could have possessed as to whether or not the storm was still raging outside. As the white starlight parted the darkness before them, they identified a staircase composed of several long stone slabs. It descended towards the open chasm below them, no form of railing between them and what had to be at least a five story drop. In the distance, they could make out a faint source of artificial light, seemingly produced by a litany of candles or lanterns. It seemed that nothing in this place was exactly rigged up to a power source, at least from what they could tell.

At least not a conventional one. In the very center of a large pond that sat towards the center of the cavity surrounded by tall but sparse foliage stood a monolith of sorts, easily over twenty feet in height. It was a rough structure composed of a strange luminescent blue and black stone that seemed to resemble skulls from where they currently stood. A thick black substance overflowed from the top of the structure, possessing the properties of both smoke and water simultaneously. The water surrounding it was pitch black and seemed to resemble ink or tar, the only indication of any motion from it being the occasional large bubble rising up from the depths and bursting at the surface, releasing more of the back substance. While Dante and Nero had no reason to recognize the substance, Vergil couldn’t help but feel his blood run cold as he took in the reality of what the presence of such a chemical meant.

They needed to find V and end this cult. Now.

Nero rubbed his strained eyes before taking a long, baffled look at their surroundings. The cave was vast. There could be any number of cultists in the place. One could only hope that they had just established their new stomping grounds recently and that they didn’t actually possess numbers great enough to merit a base like this.

The young devil hunter considered saying something for a moment before deciding otherwise. Nero was willing to bet that a place like this produced one hell of an echo, and he had no intention of being the one to sound the alarm. He stole a glance at the makeshift staircase and took a step towards it, ushering towards his two companions. Dante nodded in recognition and followed along behind him, the pair noticing immediately that Vergil seemed to still be taking in his surroundings. They both looked at one another before staring at the Darkslayer’s back, unsure of what to say or do. After a moment, Vergil turned to them, trying to hide the fact that things had just taken a dive headfirst into unmistakable peril.

“... As soon as we find him, you both need to take him and leave.” Vergil said in a hushed tone as he hurried past them, still maintaining the same level of calm that he had the moment before,” There is something I must do. Something that must be stopped now or our efforts will be in vain.”

Dante seemed slightly alarmed but kept his voice down, following closely after his older twin as they descended the stairs two or three at a time. Nero hurried after them, the trio making sure to keep things as quiet as possible. “I get the feeling something isn’t right about this place. Want to fill us in on the details?”

Vergil shot his twin brother a quick glance as he continued along. Explaining what this place was to his younger sibling would take entirely too long and probably attract unwanted attention. Not to mention that it would waste valuable time that they no longer possessed. The cult had access to something far beyond anything that he could have guessed, and he had an idea how that had come to pass. In that moment Vergil could only hope that he had simply lost his touch and was out of his mind.

Unfortunately, he was right.

(-~-)

For a moment, the concept of dark and light faded from his memory, his head nothing but a hazy mess of fragmented memories. As he attempted to blink away the heavy dose of lethargy that gripped him like an iron vice, the young summoner attempted to take in his surroundings for a second time. Or was it the third time? How long had he been in this place, drifting between a state of disorientation and dissonance? There were flashes of recognition, brief glimpses he’d managed to grasp onto as he’d been dragged there by the procession of cultists that had abducted him. These ones wore red robes and masks that lacked expressions, their voices difficult to discern as they swirled around him in a flurry of movement. They were planning something. From what he could tell, they were talking about him, at least in regards to something he was involved in. And from what he could tell, they understood more about who he was than they should.

“Master Agreus seems displeased…”

“Did it work? It doesn’t seem to be working as we intended.”

“What will we do now that it has started? What is our next task?”

“Quiet, all of you! He has returned. I trust he will seek an audience with…”

“Surely not. The last time it came to that we-”

“ENOUGH. Be silent. I will not tolerate interference.”

As the cacophony of voices that surrounded him began to separate into individual sources, V’s senses slowly flooded back to him. And the very moment that he regained some semblance of sensation in his body, he immediately regretted it down to the very core of his being. It was difficult to quantify the level of discomfort he felt in practically every segment of his body, every nerve ending burning like a fire that threatened to consume him from the inside out. It was a sort of dull throb akin to that of a toothache, but it covered his entire body all at once, and came in waves that seemed to grow in intensity each time they passed through him.

From what he could tell, they thought he was dead. Or at least close to it. And that would be their greatest mistake. Because the very moment that he succeeded in breaking free from the restraints that they had him in, he was going to make them pay for whatever dubious insanity they had subjected him to.

It took V a moment to equate his still bleeding head wound to his inability to see out of his left eye. While the wound he’d received from the scythe wielding grim reaper like demon hadn’t been worryingly deep, it had continued to bleed and his inability to put any kind of pressure on it to keep it from doing so meant that he was at quite an impasse.

Every time he tried to break free from the binds that kept him locked to the ground underneath him, the sensation of discomfort and throbbing heat returned in earnest. From what he could gather, the metal loop that held both of his wrists together behind his back served two functions. To keep him firmly against the floor with the assistance of the crane system that retracted the chain and tightened it’s hold against him, and to cause him intense discomfort if he made any effort to resist. Where they had procured such an arcane artifact from was beyond him, but he was sure to the very core of his being that he wanted them off of him as quickly as possible. Because the reason for his bondage was less than optimistic. To say that he hadn’t been treated as gently as he would have liked would’ve been a vast understatement.

The last time that he’d blacked out for a moment as a result of trying to break free from his confinement, he’d felt a surge of energy shoot through him that he was entirely unfamiliar with. A foreign power that he couldn’t place, but he somehow knew that it originated from within him. While it made sense that he might possess abilities beyond those that he currently understood, the amount of power only seemed to grow as he inched closer to blacking out fully as a result of his injuries at the hands of the cultists. V had lost a considerable amount of blood from the puncture wound on the back of his leg, and the ceaseless bleeding that he had since fallen victim to had rendered him practically delirious. He was practically helpless against his aggressors. They had inflicted the wound to help facilitate whatever dubious activities they were involved with, and there was no way that he was going to be able to just stand up and walk this one off. He’d lose far too much blood. Pain was an old acquaintance, especially when it came to his right leg. And from what he could tell, causing him to bleed onto the stone platform that he was currently chained to was their goal. It seemed to be some sort of altar from what he could tell.

That unsettled him.

V was positive that he could muster the strength to summon Shadow and unleash her upon his enemies, but he was hesitant to do so unless no other choice was available to him. Malphas had taught him that it was indeed possible to separate him from his familiars. He didn’t intend to let that happen ever again, and this most certainly wasn’t going to be the place or time. But his reserve of alternative options was running dry, along with his blood supply, so he was going to have to come up with something quickly.

A moment later, a familiar tall cultist in a white robe approached him. The black mask that they wore gave away nothing, but he could just feel the disdain that radiated off of the man. It seemed that whatever he’d planned for wasn’t coming to pass, and that was something that clearly pissed him off. The man’s own underlings seemed to allude to that with their ceaseless bickering, going back and forth over what to do next until he’d returned. Then the space fell silent at his command, be that a privilege procured from respect or fear he didn’t know. What he did know was that the last time the hooded man had approached him, he’d found a ceremonial blade of some sort embedded in his leg. And it had been extremely painful, to say the least. Unreasonably painful considering the size of the blade. It was as if it had been engineered to inflict that sort of extra damage. In fact, he could swear that for a moment it had started to glow as if reacting to his blood.

He intended to return the favor whenever he got the chance.

“My original plan involved less physical harm. Forgive me for that.” The man said as he kneeled down in front of him. They made something akin to eye contact, but the young summoner still couldn’t see his captor’s face. But he didn’t need to be able to. V could tell that they were making eye contact.“I trust your accommodations are to your liking?”

V had to fight the involuntary urge to smirk and glare at him. The younger man genuinely wasn’t sure if he was being kicked while he was down, or if the cultist was simply deranged enough to ask that question and seriously expect a favorable reply. Regardless, V broke eye contact with him and looked up at the roof of the cave, ignoring the temptation to say something snarky that ran the risk of earning him a second stabbing. That wretched curved blade seriously hurt. Possibly more than anything he’d ever been cut by. And that was a considerable number of things.

Realizing that he wasn’t getting an answer, the cultist gestured towards the round stone slab that V was bound to. The makings that adorned the edges were written in a vaguely familiar language to the white haired summoner, but he had no idea where he’d seen them before. That being said, he wasn’t nearly naive enough to miss the gravity of what was going on and why they had brought him to this place.

This was most definitely some sort of ritual.

But why did they need him?

“It seems that the tablet requires an additional offering.” The man said as he casually gestured between the stone writing and the book that he carried in his hand. It was ancient looking, bound in some sort of animal hide and blackened from age (or perhaps evil). From what V could tell, that was his source of information regarding whatever ritual he was trying to force him to undergo. “I do hope you're as excited to meet my master as I am to introduce you to him. He’s been eager to see you in person for some time now. I’d advise you against disappointing him. But before that, I’m going to need to ask you to make another contribution to our efforts.”

With that, the cultist kneeled down next to him and withdrew the blade again. Oh, so it was that sort of contribution. He figured as much. This wasn’t good.

V shook his head slightly, his damp hair sticking to his face. Any semblance of tolerance that he had once possessed vacated him instantaneously. No. That wasn’t going to be necessary. As far as he was concerned, the rest of his family had been given ample time to arrive and deal with any distraction. It was time to fix this himself, even if he had to do it the hard way. He had to admit that he hadn’t factored this part into his plan, although he hadn’t expected to get out of it totally unscathed. That was an eventuality he was always prepared for, at least mentally. But a second round with that blade. Absolutely not if he had anything to say about it. And he did.

“No. I think not. You’ve been very accommodating...” V said flatly, feeling another surge of the unknown energy well up from deep within himself. “... But I think I have a better idea.”

The cultist chuckled under his breath slightly, clearly amused.” Yes, well I suppose that makes two of us. Enough idle chit chat, hm? Let’s finish this.”

With a casual gesture of his hand, the masked man opened the book he’d been holding and muttered something in another language. As far as V could tell, it sounded vaguely Latin, but he could only make out a few of the words. That could’ve been a direct result of his condition, but he couldn’t be sure. A wave of nausea hit him as the man read his incantation, and he had a feeling that it wasn’t just nerves. The situation just got worse and worse ever passing moment.

As soon as he finished speaking, he placed the book down on the ground next to him and palmed the blade again, glancing slowly between it and V. The young summoner watched him as he did so and made a conscious effort to contain the borderline anxiety inducing level of fear that he felt rising up from the pit of his stomach. He had an idea what came next. And he didn’t want any part of it.

The cultist gripped the collar of V’s shirt tightly, keeping him close. V didn’t see what the point was other than sadistic pleasure. It wasn’t like he could run anyway. He’d probably would have done so already if he could. In his free hand, the cultist raised the blade again, only this a bit higher up than the last time. If it was possible for what little blood V had left in his body to turn ice cold, it did as he realized what the cultist intended to do.

“I’m going to need you to hold still. This part is a little complicated.” He said casually. And then he lowered the knife.

(-~-)

Shit. V is not having a good day, is he? If you thought the last two chapters were anxiety inducing, then you haven’t seen anything yet. These cultists are about to learn the hard way that you don’t mess with and of the members of the Sparda family. The question is, how is V going to get out of this one? I feel like it might not be part of that plan he cooked up lol! See you all next week on Wednesday! I hope you're enjoying everything so far! Take care and stay safe!

#Apocrypha #Devil May Cry #Devil May Cry 5 #Devil May Cry V #V #Vitale #Vergil #Nero #Dante #DMC #DMCV #DMC5 #V Post Devil May Cry 5

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theonyxpath · 5 years ago

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The Kickstarter Begins Here!

Cults of the Blood Gods is a new style of sourcebook for Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition that introduces the pernicious horror of twisted beliefs.Designed for players and Storytellers, this supplement will include:

An in-character breakdown of the rise of esoteric beliefs among the ranks of the undead and how faith drives many of the major aspects of vampire culture.

A host of religions — from historic theocracies and globe-spanning conspiracies to fringe cults and mortal beliefs arising in the modern nights — introduced for incorporation into your character backgrounds or as supporting casts and antagonist groups in your chronicles.

The history, structure, and ambitions of the Hecata, the vampire group known as the Clan of Death, as well as a chapter dedicated to playing a vampire among the Necromancers, and the ceremonies for their death-defying Discipline: Oblivion

Guidance on how to use ecclesiastical horror and construct cults in Vampire, making them a vivid backdrop for your own stories, including new coterie styles focused on cult play.

Faith-based story hooks and a full chronicle centered on the activities of the Hecata, involving walking corpses, ghosts, ready-made characters, and the secrets of the most twisted family in the World of Darkness.

New Loresheets, Backgrounds, and Predator Types for inclusion in your chronicles, encouraging player characters to engage fully with the material presented in this book.

We want to create an 8.5” x 11” hardcover with a beautifully designed, full-color cover image featuring some of the most shadow-covered parts of the World of Darkness. We estimate the book to be more than 240+ pages, with a full-color interior and endpapers on high-quality paper stock. Exceptional funding may allow us to add Stretch Goals that further develop the setting and provide additional materials for play, including new chronicles, characters, story hooks, and all further exploration relating to the most persecuted and secretive of Kindred faiths! We also want to get at least one print run into traditional distribution and available for sale at game and hobby stores.

Join the Cult of Kindred here!

#Onyx Path Publishing

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adrianalvas · 5 years ago

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Podcast 188: Figure Section [aufnahme + wiedergabe] [ +Interview]

Figure Section arose from the meeting of Austrian-French musician and actress Olivia Carrère - aka Olive - and Belgian artist and producer Yannick Franck (RAUM, Orphan Swords, Mt Gemini), who first crossed paths on a theatre stage in Brussels.

Although founded on an acknowledgement of these styles, their execution is experimental, idiosyncratic and entirely modern in spirit, guided by an intent to revise their influences and an approach shaped by romanticism and a surreal, Dadaistic sense of humour. The recurrent themes of the project address friendship, love, loss, existential angst, survival, irony, degeneration, queer culture, non-conformity and ‘the expiation of tensions through modern day rituals’.

The duo’s first single ‘Teutonic Knights’ was hailed by The Brvtalist as an illustration of ”infectious wave [music] with an eerie atmosphere and frigid vocals”, a track that subsequently generated widespread acclaim. In October their debut EP was released on the cult Berlin based label run by Phillip Strobel, aufnahme + wiedergabe.

TF: What motivates you to create Figure Section?

O: My collaboration with Yannick is an intersection between a strong friendship and similar interests and tastes in music. What’s more, the collaboration between us is really complementary in the creative process and allows us to explore new musical playgrounds which neither of us would probably reach if we were working separately.

Y: There are certain musical realms I wanted to explore for a long time whilst doing very different projects (Orphan Swords, RAUM, Y.E.R.M.O.), and since we met and started to experiment together, we dreamed of having a proper duo. It took time but here we are, I am very glad the project exists and I couldn’t dream of a better companion to do it with.

TF: Tell us something about you. What’s your background? Where did you studied and who influenced you to explore musical processes?

O: My background is rather diverse, and it took me a long time to discover how intimate I was with music as a listener, but also as a composer. I come from a theatrical background. I trained as an actress, though I started my studies with a degree in communication – specifically in socio-cultural animation - knowing that I would change path after obtaining it. It’s quite funny to see how tortuous life can be before finding your way through and beyond all these experiences. When I started as an actress ten years ago, something was missing in my professional contribution. I was desperately looking for some creative language that I could develop on my own. I was already familiar with singing since my childhood, so I started learning the basics of music theory online, and quickly I realized that I wanted to compose songs, and to find the easiest way of recording them without any external help. I got my hands on a keyboard and software and started composing, singing and producing at home. It was more a secret process for a few years, until I created a solo piece in the National Theatre of Belgium, which involved performing some of my compositions. This was a fundamental step where I learned that, with the music, I could be really free in the writing and performing process.

Y: I studied painting, but it quickly became clear that music was a territory worth exploring and one that I had to invest my time and energy into. Since I was pretty disgusted by the blatant materialism and the general mindset of the art world; the galleries, and a lot of the attitudes adopted by other artists (competitiveness, individualism, tendency to follow an art world, scale version of the Star System), I found there would be more freedom making music. People attend a concert to have an experience. Anyhow I love art, all sorts of art and my friends are usually creative people. Also, there have never been any boundaries for me, you can build sonic sculptures or paint rhythms, you can conceive a concert as a performance, you can do whatever you want. I recently moderated a panel at BOZAR about the underground art scene in New York in the 80’s, in East Village in particular. I had the pleasure of interviewing Dany Johnson (she was a resident DJ at Club 57 and later at Paradise Garage), Leonard Abrams (he ran the fabulous magazine The East Village Eye) and Gil Vasquez (DJ and president of the Keith Haring Foundation) and what struck me was the fact that at that particular moment in that scene you had zero boundaries between visual art, music, dance, performance… Klaus Nomi shared the bill with Ann Magnuson and John Sex and Haring curated shows and painted almost 24/7 while listening to music. It was all about energy. It’s academicism and speculation (art as a luxury product) that kills such energies (and eventually did in that case) Two different problems, both normative and alien to any creative essence. I stumbled upon a Serge Daney quote lately: ‘Academicism is the aesthetics of nihilism.’ And I agree with that, once you “do things because that’s the way they’re done”, reproduce them in blind fidelity and separate, classify, and annihilate boundary breaking forces, you start producing numb, meaningless objects. In this case a painting has to go from a gallery to a living room or a collection where it belongs. Is it a nice base material for speculation or a good way to seem educated and exhibit your taste as a buyer, to impress others? Hell no…a painting is rather an expression of life itself, a celebration, an exhibition of the worlds revolting features, its horrors, its injustice, its sadness, qualities and themes such as these…in every case it is an essential, vital gesture. Otherwise why even take a look at it? Music should be just the same.

TF: Do you spend all your time for your musical activity or do you have another job?

O: Yes, I do now. The musical activity has taken the vast majority of my time even though I’m still performing as a theatre actress, but that part of my professional activity is becoming more and more scarce. I’ve been recently offered to create music for theatre. So, my work today is divided between Figure Section, and other emerging projects for which I compose and produce for other artists, and my work as a music composer for the theatre. Maybe one day I will come back to the stage with a performance in which I’ll be the actress as well as the musician. I do keep an eye on that prospect even though it’s not the priority for the moment.

Y: I teach sound in cinema. We analyze movies and their soundtracks most of the time. It is a very interesting way to make a living next to music making.

TF: How is your live set up going to be? Any particular equipment? What’s your favourite track to play live and why?

O: We are working on the simplest and most efficient way of touring. So, our set is based on live keyboard playing, voice mixing, and equalizing the tracks live. So, there’s no particular equipment at the moment.

Spectral Dance, is one of my favourites to play live. It’s a more nostalgic synthpop song that offers a vast sense of space for the vocals and the keyboard parts. I just love its simplicity, almost naïveté, contrasted by lyrics about pernicious ghosts from the past that try to keep us from moving forward.

Y: There is a lot of different processes and ideas colliding and merging in Figure Section. It is always quite challenging for us to write a new song and perform it on stage. I think my favourite live song is currently Disfigured Section. We both sing on that one and I love that. Lyrics and vibe wise it’s sort of a Neo Dada track, maybe a tad surrealistic too, from apparent nonsense a lot of sense can emerge from the lyrics. Also, it is nervous, rough, noisy, kind of pissed off. At the same time desperate and full of energy. A union of opposites.

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TF: What new hardwares did you apply to make 'Spectre' LP? Do you have a particular method while working in the studio?

O: There’s no new hardware utilized, but we have a more precise choice of instruments these days as well as a particular approach in the production process. Yannick and I work just as well separately as together in the studio. It just helps us to be more efficient because of our very different schedules. We both share online a musical file filled with musical ideas, loops, drums and lyrics. We are both the composers and mixers of the songs, but Yannick is more the writer and the producer and I’m more the arranger and singer. I think that we have now reached the perfect balance in the creative process, which is almost symbiotic.

Y: Yes, it is super interesting because I never know where Olive is going to take a song to when she starts working on it with her great skills and sensibility. What I know is that great stuff will eventually happen, leading to things that will stimulate us and give us even more ideas.

TF: How do you compose this tracks? Do you treat them like musical narratives or more like sound sculptures or images?

O: It really depends on the material. Sometimes Yannick comes with a very complete composition and I add the keyboard and voice arrangements, sometimes I come with a proposition and he completes it. Our strongest asset as a duo is that we started music completely differently, Yannick as an electronic experimentalist and performer, and I as a pop songwriter and singer. So, what we do is bring these assets together in our songs. I think the first track of the Spectre release is the perfect example of that symbiosis. This is what we aim for.

Y: Yes, it is a creative adventure, we have no such thing as a clearly established routine, it’s more laboratory like. It is not “experimental music” but the way it is done is not conventional either.

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TF: Any movie, documentary, album (not electronic music) that you would like to share with our readers?

O: We are big fans of horror, thrillers and sci-fi. The last movie that left me fascinated as well as horrified is Midsommar by Ari Aster. I loved that movie because its director knows how to subtly inject weird elements of comedy that make you feel uncomfortable, as well as conveying an ice-cold intrigue about ancient pagan practices and rituals. Loved it.

Y: +1 for Midsommar. I loved that the movie never seems to bring any judgment about the neo-pagan community it depicts, it is just utterly different from what we know but it seems to make sense no matter how shocking it can be. It gives us a break from the ethnocentric attitude of many North Americans and from the extreme arrogance of modern western civilizations, which seem to be absolutely convinced of their superiority to any previous or different civilizations. Also, the visual effects are amazing. Der Goldener Handschuh (The Golden Glove) was quite a great movie too. Being utterly disgusted by this ugly, messy, desperate serial killer’s gruesome murders without being able to restrain myself from laughing was for sure a wild experience. And it really triggers thoughts afterwards. Moral thoughts especially. I found it pretty strong. A non-electronic album: Lux perpetua by Ensemble Organum, which is a very particular version of the Requiem by Anthonius de Divitis. It is such a beautiful requiem and such an incredible interpretation; it even features throat singing which is very unusual in the context of European polyphonic reinterpretations. 15th century art tends to focus a lot on death and mortality. And as Regis Debray said in his 1992 book The Life and Death of Images: “Where there is death there’s hope, aesthetically speaking.”

TF: What are the forthcoming projects?

O: Wrapping up our debut LP.

Y: We are also planning tours, confirmed dates are in Israel and the US so far but more will be announced later on. It would be fabulous to come play in Mexico too!

source https://www.tforgotten.org/single-post/Podcast-188-Figure-Section-aufnahme-wiedergabe-Interview

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doomedandstoned · 6 years ago

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What Weird Tales We Weave!

During a particularly long and vicious Pacific Northwest winter, I developed a strange affinity for a band called WEIRD TALES. The doom trio of Dima (guitars, vox), Kriss (bass, vox), and Kava (drums) emerged three or four years ago from a part of the world that gets cold, miserable weather ten times as worse as mine. I was never quite sure what to make of the Warsaw band's warped, sloggy sound, made all the more odd with its imposing Gothic vocals and pernicious earworms. All I knew was that Weird Tales had some bad, bad medicine to offer during a time in life when I'd grown pretty jaded and disillusioned. It was, as the well-worn saying goes, just what the doctor ordered.

Before us is the latest and most ambitious effort to date from Weird Tales and I must say it's showing me a brave new side to the band. As 'Hell Services Cost A Lot' (2019) opens, we hear an orchestral crescendo of screeching feedback. Dogs are barking in the background, perhaps to warn lurkers of dangers just beyond the shadows. The band responds with a vicious beating of guitar, bass, and drums. It's an attack we're not used to hearing on doom records and I find it refreshing to break away from the gloom for a chance to vent some good old fashioned aggression. This instrumental preamble eventually gives way to the first words of "Madness" and the record is off to take care of its mischief.