#though I am also allowed to state my opinions and how I think a lot of y’all just want to blame one character for the actions of another

[scuorge10]

Y’all can like Eurylochus without dragging Polites down by the way, in case y’all need a reminder.

I genuinely don’t understand why a lot of y’all are dead set on dragging Polites through the mud just to try and make Eurylochus look like a better character. Just say that you like Eurylochus’ character better and that you wish he was appreciated more by the fandom as a whole.

[naneun-no]

1. You get what you seek. And it shows that you have made it so that on your side that is all you see because you purposely seek it out. You do realize that on SM when you see post and go into comments sections, it’s different for everyone. You know this right?! You built your algorithm to be what you wanted it to be. I never see these things you guys speak of. On my side none of these things pop up. I didn’t build my algorithm with purposeful hate. That was all your own doing. Maybe it’s time to start over and build it with actual positivity because you and the rest sound like you’ve gone off the deep end.

2. Let me preface this with I am 🏳️‍🌈 and what you and the lot are doing is literally one of the most disrespectful and scary things you could do to someone who may be 🏳️‍🌈. “But we do it to show love and support!” Nope! You are doing damage and it’s scary. You literally scare us! Never actually taking the time to think of what this could do to them. You just want your “Ha Ha I was right!” point made. You can see it in all of your guys posts. They are just token to you and you have definitely proven that. You guys are the ones giving ammo to the people who hate us (and risking our lives, how do you not get that!?!! Especially the two grown men you are speaking about!

3. I say this sincerely but you (and the rest of you) need help. I highly recommend therapy because you have gone waaay past parasocial…… Others people opinions (which they are allowed to have, just like you have, and you’re stating they aren’t) should never matter to you this much. You are spending too much time in a world where you don’t even exist to them instead of living in the real world. You put more time and effort into their lives and those who hate them, than on your life. Do you deep dive your life this much? Do you deep dive current events this much? People are literally being slaughtered and dying all over the world right now. I understand the need to escape because of how bad the world is right now (trust me I get it) but you guys aren’t even diving into a good thing. If their lives make you happy then sure enjoy it and be happy but you and the lot seem to focus more on the hate and fighting than just staying in the happy bubble that has been created. Stay within the content and leave out all the rest. You are doing yourself and those guys a disservice doing all that. If you truly care about them, love them (like you claim), and care you wouldn’t be behaving this way. Report and block buttons exist for a reason!

4. This was probably a waste of time because you will all remain the same, but I tried. I wish people thought more of the consequences of their actions and especially what that does to those you are “fighting” for.

Hi, so, I’m gonna attempt to answer this in good faith, even though I don’t necessarily think it was asked in good faith (especially since you did it anonymously, but that’s cool. I turned on anons for the first time in years because I felt open to being challenged and discussing, and that’s what you brought). I am a fan of self-reflection, even though you (without knowing me at all) suggested that I’m not — so let’s give it a go.

1. Sorry… gotta ask. How did you come across this post exactly? You know, given the positivity and purity of your own algorithm?

Ah, I had to, sorry. But you see how it works?

I don’t “build my algorithm with purposeful hate” either. That was, in my opinion, an unnecessarily spiteful and self-congratulatory thing to say. I also wasn’t referring in my last post to hate — I was referring to the way that a lot of this fandom refuses to acknowledge Jimin and Jungkook’s particular closeness. Idk what kind of algorithm you want me to have, but given that I am responding to what “normal” army — presumably people like you — are saying, I don’t really get your point.

2. Okay, you’re 🏳️‍🌈. I’m going to give you a spoiler alert and let you know that a lot of “this lot” is 🏳️‍🌈. You might be aware that gay people are not a monolith.

For some people, the bond that they’ve seen between Jungkook and Jimin and the people that celebrate it has helped them find solace and encouragement and empowered them in their sexuality. I have had discussions about that with gay people on this very site. So while you evidently find this kind of shipping discourse a wholly bad thing, not every gay person does.

I think for a lot of gay people, when they witness and react to Jungkook and Jimin’s content, they have raised eyebrows and wonder if they are closeted. I’m bisexual myself, and I wondered about Jimin a long time ago, but idk. I could be wrong. I don’t think he’s particularly scared of being seen as bisexual, but maybe I am projecting.

I’m genuinely sorry that you felt scared or threatened by my post or my words. I did not intend what I said to be a scary thing, but if it felt that way to you regardless, I apologize. I have no desire to use any gay people (or any people period) as a token or a chess piece. To be honest, sometimes it can get kind of competitive on here when talking about different fandom takes, and you’re right about that. I don’t really see my most recent post as a “ha ha I win” post, I more just was sort of frustrated by the way people tend to refuse to talk about jikook in a normal way, in the way they would talk about any other celebrity duo — but in doing so, I suppose I end up not talking about them in a normal way myself. And that’s fair to call out!

When you say “what I’m doing is dangerous for them” I think I need to better understand what you mean. Genuinely. I’m not sure how saying “hm, I see something here but maybe I’m wrong” is dangerous. I have not spread or reposted any photos people took without their consent. I have not followed them (ever) or gone to where they are to take photos or share their location without their consent. I have not called for anyone to do them harm. In fact, maybe it will cheer you to hear that almost my entire algorithm is people shaming and discouraging others from sharing the intrusive photos and videos. And I agree.

If you’re suggesting that more people seeing content that points out that they may be gay will make more people think they’re gay, which would then make them more visible to people who may wish to harm them — okay. Maybe. I doubt that hateful, homophobic people are trolling the ship tags on tumblr, of all places, but maybe. I removed their names from the tags of the post so that only the ship names are tagged (so that people who are okay with encountering that kind of content will be the ones to see it. Hopefully. And the good people with good algorithms won’t).

Listen. I do not want to put them in danger. I am reacting to their public behavior and the language I see surrounding it. I posted this on a blog site that is generally a pretty safe space for the 🏳️‍🌈 intentionally. I do not post very much about them on X and I do not post at all about them elsewhere.

Still, I’m sorry to hear that you find my post exploitative or scary. If I may make an intrusive suggestion similar to the ones you made — maybe you should avoid this kind of discourse if it causes you distress. Then again, you wouldn’t get the ego boost of telling me all the ways I’m a yucky, bad, not as good as you person. So maybe keep it in the rotation.

3. Point number 3. It’s a big one. Most of it is absolutely none of your business, but I’m going to address it anyways. I’m also choosing to believe you meant this with the best of intentions and that the preachy, holier-than-thou tone was unintentional and just a product of how much better than me you think you are.

Which is fine, and I mean this genuinely: maybe you are healthier than me! Maybe whatever impulse drove you into a stranger’s inbox to anonymously recommend that they seek therapy is healthier than the impulse I had to rant on my own blog about a trend I’ve noticed in a fandom I’m a part of. If you are mentally healthier than me, please accept my congratulations. I wish you many warm cups of herbal tea while your feet touch grass and the sun shines on your cheeks. I wish that for everyone, really.

But anonymous hall monitor, hear me when I say this: You don’t know me at all.

I don’t know the two grown men I wrote about either — you’re right! I yap, and I rant, and I tap up silly essays with very little editing, but it actually is a lot less deep to me than it probably seems like it is. Know why? Because you happened to come to a place where this is the only thing I do. The title of the blog is “ranting & writing & shipping” or something to that effect. I have reserved this space specifically for silly fandom thoughts about two celebrities. In the same way that some people have blogs for Tom and Zendaya, and some have blogs about certain reality shows. I have never written about them in a way that suggests I know them in any way other than a fan “knows” an idol. I only ever make comments on the content they have shared with us through official channels. I may seem as though all I am is a brain dead, zombified shipper, but I am other things too. I just am not those things here, because I have reserved this little space for that.

Is it the healthiest of my hobbies? Probably not. You’re right about that. But rest assured, random stranger who does not know or care about me in any way, other than the moral high ground you awarded yourself at my expense — I do have other hobbies.

I actually do, believe it or not, “dive this deep” in my personal life. I do in fact stay informed on current events and I do in fact have hot takes on things other than this one topic. It’s just that this blog, which you somehow came across and then trolled for evidence to back up your anonymous takedown of me, is pretty much only about this one topic.

I get that you think you know me because you’ve read a few of my posts, but they are typically typed up in a whirlwind of random half-baked thoughts formed during an hour or so spent online and then never really thought of again. I’m a good writer, so maybe that makes you think I spend more time on these posts than I actually do. In actuality, I have spent far longer trying to fairly and without too much defensiveness respond to this ask. Believe me, if anything has inspired me to log off for the day, it’s you. So. Well done.

You so magnanimously suggested that “my lot” should choose to only see the positive and not engage with the negative. Setting aside the fact that PLENTY of my posts are positive, and about the music, and fashion, and hyping them up, you just haven’t seen those ones (darn it! Why didn’t your perfect algorithm show you my nice, happy posts? I promise they exist): If you’re taking issue with the overall tone of my last post — which was a bit sarcastic, a bit argumentative, I’ll give you that — then maybe my style just isn’t for you? I promise I am not having a bad day because people don’t see Jungkook and Jimin the exact same way I do. I promise I’m allowing people to have their opinions, even if my phrasing made you think I’m not. In fact, I’d argue that I might be more tolerant of different opinions than you are. Sure, I made a rant post on my own blog space about how I’m annoyed with a certain trend. But you’re the one who sought out my inbox and told me to seek help. So which one of us is less tolerant of an online stranger’s opinion?

4. I suspect this might have been a waste of my time, too. It’s why I closed anonymous asks years ago; because I got tired of hearing vitriol from strangers. But I like to imagine that we’re all real people, behind the screens, so here’s my good faith summary:

You’re right, I probably am too invested in a relationship that doesn’t involve me. I should have learned my lesson from Channing and Jenna (and Tia and Cory 😭) to stop getting invested in celeb relationships 😅. I actually have a long, unpublished draft about the obsessive culture of shipping in fandom, of which I am guilty! and how and why we become so hooked on this particular stimulus, and all the healthy and unhealthy results it can have, and blah blah blah.

But I don’t think you care about that. Because you don’t care about me. You don’t know me. You’re not a friend. You’re not someone who can provide tough love and tell me what I need to hear, because there is no love to begin with. Your ask reeked of judgement, and shaming, and accusatory finger-pointing, not of genuine concern. Your ask was to make you feel better, it was an outlet for the emotions my post brought up for you — nothing more.

You could have posted about the concerning trend of shipping in fandom on your own blog (and maybe you have, I don’t know). But instead you chose to come to the space I have for myself where I talk about BTS fandom and how it relates to two of the members and tell me I need to seek help. All because I pointed out that people don’t call Jimin and Jungkook best friends, when they clearly are.

You’re too invested too, babe. And that’s the beautiful hypocrisy of it all. “Don’t engage with the negative!!” While sending me a hateful ask. “Other people’s opinions shouldn’t matter to you this much!” How much? Enough to write a silly rant post, or enough to crawl into someone’s asks and accuse them of “not living in the real world”?

Maybe I am an embarrassing person for poring over shit that doesn’t concern me, for finding joy in a relationship I observe from afar. Maybe I’m a loser and I need to step back (I’ve stepped back before, I do it often. You wouldn’t know that, because you don’t know me). But I made a non-direct, untargeted rant post that you could have scrolled past. I was primarily just preaching to the choir. But you took it a step further by sending me a targeted, personal, insulting message designed to make me feel bad. Do you see the difference, in our two posts?

I think while I’m self-reflecting, maybe you should too.

[sodachalice]

thank you so so so so much for making that post abt the scary acceptance of pedophilia and incest as kinks/fetishes/whatever, I've been feeling crazy for thinking this is all so messed up and backwards (and everyone yelling how "it's just fiction so it doesn't matter!" as if propaganda isn't a thing lmao), I'm genuinely experiencing such a huge feeling of relief to see an artist i really enjoy the work of speak about this 🫶 (also thank you for sharing your art here, I'm really glad to have found your art a few months ago during a tag scroll)

i am so very glad that you feeel a lot of relief with me saying that. there needs to be more people saying it because it is creating a space and a dichotomy on this website where you either get to be a catholic antisex puritan or super proparaphilia to the point that you never criticize it. its kept me from exploring my own sexuality so much as a "weird furry" because truthfully i am into a lot of weird stuff that IS taboo but the idea is if you are into that shit, you ALSO have to be ok with proud paraphilias in your community. and this mindset also KEEPS people stuff in their paraphilias. this is why i bring up that pedophilia and incest isn't a taboo kink, because no, it isn't taboo. you go on pornhub and can find teen and family and rape shit literally everywhere. but you know what you cant find on pornhub? hypno. you're not allowed to look that up. not to make this about homestuck but did you know they deleted and scrapped the beekeeper trolls old design and stuff because they were outed for drawing giantess fetish stuff, but then also included a character thats canonically proshipping, made by a proshipper, whos actively into incest on their blog right now? this is exactly what i fucking mean. the whole "incest/pedophilia is taboo" idea only works in the same way that a comedian saying theyve been "silenced/canceled" works. like boy, i sure do hear a lot of you all the fucking time constantly on every website for something thats supposed to be "Silenced" i wonder why! i wonder what those two things have in common? could it perhaps be that its a fascist tool to silence people who push back against their beliefs? hmmmmmm.

it makes me very angry, and very sick. and i hope that more people are willing to speak up about it because i feel like this mindset also purposefully keeps survivors stuck in traumatized states so that there can continue to be the idea of a biological predator because people LOVE to make categories of people they can kill and torture without guilt. the idea that pedophilia starts nowhere and is just some weird misfiring of the brain implies that anything we do or any kink we have is completely independent of the society we live in, which is literally just not reality at all. like you said, somehow they can keep saying that fiction doesn't effect reality, even though propaganda is real and literally works, advertising is real and literally works, misconceptions are caused by fiction to the point they change reality, and then they also can't seem to figure out that OTHER PEOPLE could be using their art to groom literal actual children. its just so irresponsible, selfish and childish in my opinion. and then you could make the arguement that yeah of course its childish theyre so traumatized that they don't have the emotional capacity to understand the reach theyre causing and im like okay. this is the same logic we apply to autistic men sexually assaulting women. "ohh theyre too unwell and have the mind of a child" ok well get their ass in therapy if they're that incapable as an adult and seriously talk to them and tell them the truth. this is WHY its such a common thing for autistic men to become sexual abusers in the first place because everyone and their fucking mother goes "well he has the mind of a baby so he cant control himself" do fucking something about it then.

im rambling about something thats not even really connected, sorry. i just have a lot of very strong opinions of this that i think need to be said.

[thesagesjournal]

[Log-in story] 5.5 Half anniversary ➁

Appearing characters: Arthur, Faust, Heathcliff, Rustica, Owen

Arthur: Once again, happy half-anniversary, Master Sage.

Arthur: It goes without saying that you’re the reason we’re all gathered here today under the same roof.

Faust: While I still have a lot to learn myself, as someone entrusted with the task of teaching others, I’d like to congratulate you on how far you’ve come.

Faust: You’ve truly grown with each passing day, and while this might be presumptuous of me to say, I can’t help but feel proud to have been by your side.

Heathcliff: I am deeply honoured to be in your esteemed presence on this auspicious day. 

Heathcliff: You’ve been there for us since the moment we met, and for that, I am truly grateful. Thank you, Master Sage.

Rustica: Happy half-anniversary, Master Sage.

Rustica: Every day since making your acquaintance has felt like a vivacious song unfolding into the lush greens of early summer.

Rustica: May your days continue to be ever vibrant and bright.

Owen: I pity you, Master Sage. You must be at your wits' end, being forced to deal with our antics for so long. 

Owen: Heh… Unfortunately for you, so long as you remain in this world, you’ll never be able to escape from our dastardly clutches.

Arthur: I can’t wait to see what else the future has in store with you. I hope you’ll continue to support us from here on out.

Arthur: Now then, Master Sage.

Arthur: As previously stated, we’ve divided ourselves based on which flavours of ramen we liked the best.

Arthur: Are you ready for the results? I’ll start, and everyone else will follow up with the flavour they chose.

Heathcliff: That sounds easy enough.

Rustica: It’s an honour to be here.

Faust: Don’t you think this is all a bit much?

Owen: I’ve already said this, but I’d rather have something sweet over this so-called ramen.

Heathcliff: I’m not sure if putting whipped cream on the noodles is a good idea…

Owen: Of course it is. They’re basically made of the same stuff as pancakes, aren’t they? What’s the problem?

Arthur: You… do have a point.

Faust: Wouldn’t that make it difficult to eat?

Heathcliff: They’d be all slippery and slimy…

Arthur: In that case, perhaps the abura soba would work best with it?

Owen: If you can make it sweet, then that’s my pick.

Rustica: How lovely. Even though we’ve already chosen our favourite flavours, our opinions can change at any time.

Faust: Are you switching teams now?

Heathcliff: Perhaps we should just proceed according to the chef’s plan…

Arthur: Understood. Then, allow me to go first.

Arthur: My favourite flavour of ramen was…

Arthur: The shoyu.

Rustica: I liked the shio.

Owen: Shoyu.

Heathcliff: The shio was my favourite.

Faust: Shio was good. 

Arthur: Wow! Owen and I are on the same team! What made you like the shoyu best?

Owen: Huh? Don’t ask me. It just happened to be the best one.

Owen: It’s all thanks to the sweet egg on top.

Arthur: I completely understand!

Arthur: I thought the shoyu ramen had the best flavour balance of them all.

Arthur: It felt like, how do you say this…

Arthur: A timeless classic.

Owen: What he said.

Faust: Hmph… Who would’ve thought discussing ramen could bring back the bitter taste of my youth…

Heathcliff: What was that, Master Faust…?

Rustica: And that leaves the three of us on one team.

Rustica: I must say, I feel a bit closer to the two of you now, knowing we share the same opinion.

Faust: I agree.

Heathcliff: Same here. It’s reassuring to know we all have similar tastes…

Heathcliff: I feel like that makes it easier to invite you out to eat. What did you like about the shio ramen?

Rustica: Let me think…

Rustica: Every soup had its charm, but I found the distinct saltiness of the shio made it feel as refreshing as an ocean breeze.

Faust: I understand what you mean. It had a delicate and rich, yet simple profile that appealed to me. What about you, Heath?

Heathcliff: I agree that its simplicity was its best point. The light herbal seasoning also gave it a clean flavour.

Arthur: There’s truly something out there for everyone. We accept each other’s differences and celebrate our similarities…

Arthur: Perhaps these were the feelings our chef wanted to imbue into his soup, warming us up like a curl of steam…

Faust: So that’s what the chef was thinking, hm…

Owen: Well, the chef should work on making a whipped cream variant next.

Arthur: The kinds of food we like reveal things about us. Whenever we talk about our favourite foods, we’re really talking about ourselves or someone we love.

Arthur: We hope you look forward to hearing more from the next group. Until then…

Sage’s Wizards: Please continue supporting us, Master Sage.

[psychopomp-namine]

https://www.tumblr.com/psychopomp-namine/770464414021337088/i-am-sooo-excited-for-yingdu-arc-specifically?source=share

sorry if it seems like i'm ghosting but I've been seeking for discussion on this specific scene from s1. i've never fully delved into it, but i kind of just left it as a "CXS was having a panic attack" moment until I could personally reconsider it again.

yingdu did not explain anything about this to me. i am still befuddled, perhaps even more so. cuz these s1 basketball flashbacks seem more irreversibly connected to LG's version of events to me??? CXS still remembers they met and bonded fast at a basketball court -- but also this CXS is meant to be the same one in yingdu, and his meeting with LG was not like s1e5's flashbacks. what if LG and CXS being connected during dives allows the slightest bit of connective memory merging? considering that the first flashback to their basketball meeting was triggered by "what does basketball mean to you" and we transition from that flashback to LG's pov afterwards. [i think it's appropriate theming in that scene to assume that both CXS and LG had thought about their first meeting instead of just LG]

what if CXS indirectly shares LG's version of history when they're both indulging in the same memories during dives? and since CXS was in an especially nostalgic state during the basketball game, the moment he felt that he directly endangered an important node -- he felt a visualised sixth sense that LG perhaps feels every time he knowingly diverges from a node.

LG already diverged from the basketball meeting, so that flashback he and CXS might've shared led to a distortion in CXS's brain while he's panicking over changing events. The LG distortion image might be CXS feeling the effects of a memory that never was, in relation to panicking that he's rewritten the timeline.

Cuz that memory is a rewritten node, incompatible with CXS's actual memory.

link for reference. and the mentioned distorted image:

also, no worries, nobody cares about people going through old posts on tumblr lol

I agree that the distorted image is definitely a reference to lu guang changing the timelines by going back to the basketball game in yingdu. he is, himself, the changed element

sidenote: I think I will politely disagree with your statement though that S1 cheng xiaoshi is meant to be the same one from yingdu. what yingdu established is that some events of S1 happened at least twice, but it's not made clear (afaik) if all S1 episodes specifically are post-yingdu or pre-yingdu. my personal interpretation is that it's a mix of both, just because there are some inconsistencies, the biggest one being that cheng xiaoshi in S1 was not aware of what would happen if he clapped by himself (without lu guang) into a picture, which is something he should've known already from the start given that's how he discovered his ability in yingdu. S1E9 is supposedly his first time trying it, and we even get a flashback of cheng xiaoshi asking lu guang what would happen if he ever clapped by himself. which, again, he should've already known. it's like the one thing about photo diving that he should know firsthand without asking lu guang. there's a lot of little flashbacks in S1 that puts into question of whether or not the scene we're watching is from the yingdu timeline. but we do know though that S2 events occurred after yingdu, so the last few episodes of S1 that lead to S2 should also be post-yingdu.

the S1 basketball scene flashback might be closer to their pre-yingdu meeting than the yingdu one. in my opinion, yingdu!lg would not say, so nonchalantly, "it's just a game; why take it so seriously?" (paraphrasing), even if he was trying to go for the "unaffected, cool kid" look. he could be "sticking to the script" but given his intense reaction after diving, idk,,, he seems too shaken up at that point. I think the distorted image is more for the audience and less about cheng xiaoshi actually experiencing a glitch in his flashback

but time and by consequence memory does seem to be already fucked up in link click, so it would be cool and I wouldn't be surprised if lu guang's memories of past timelines can bleed into cheng xiaoshi's somehow. that would be fun. I would love to see this happen more in canon

bonus: glad that the distorted image from the basketball scene makes more sense now. still don't know what the weird glitch sound was from the S2 finale though. it could be nothing, but I sure hope it's something lol (if you're region blocked from the video, the sound happens around just before 6 minutes into the S2 finale)

[dipperdesperado]

Radicalism 100: Get Started from 0 or, How the Hell Do I Get into Organizing as a Newbie?

I spend a lot of time talking about social change stuff. I feel like a lot of it might not be accessible unless you’re already one who sees yourself as a changemaker. Let’s change that. Let’s talk about how to prefigure the world you want to see, even if you don’t have any experience.

Before I do that though, I want to do some quick framing. I am coming from the place of someone who has some relatively specific foundational values that I prioritize and act from. I believe in horizontalism, mutual aid, solidarity, autonomy, joy, love, and transformative justice. I don’t brandish human nature as a weapon against better futures. If you have a view of people and or society that is purely of negation, then we probably won’t see eye-to-eye. If you think that domination and bootlicking is also necessary, then we definitely won’t see eye-to-eye. Hopefully, you’re curious or open to working towards egalitarian goals through egalitarian means. If you are, this might be useful to you.

How Social Change Happens

There is a lot of talk about social change and a lot of different opinions on how that change occurs. A useful framework to work from is one that imma remix from Joanna Macy.

Harm Reduction and Stalling → This is where giving, charity, and advocacy work live. Think of the survival programs that the Black Panthers did. These are good things, and they provide immediate benefits to folks. However, it’s not radical, as far as the meaning of the word goes. So, it’s great (and necessary!) to organize a mutual aid group that does food distro. What that doesn’t do is address why your group has to do that in the first place. This is something that ideally allows you to survive as you prepare to make bigger changes.

Systems change and Social Revolution → This is where the good shit happens. It is understanding the terrain you fight upon, what you’re fighting against, and finding the weak points to create and widen spaces of autonomy and liberation. This is where we decide how we act within the systems, how we change those systems through collective action, and how we build counter-systems to delegitimize the oppressive ones.

Rebuilding Mental Models → To create a new world, we have to become different people. I don’t mean that in an inactive way—through the practice of harm reduction and fighting the system, we realize our own power and become more capable of creating the world that we want. As we reconnect with reality, and illegitimate the current hegemony, we become more able to see the path ahead. The great and terrible thing is that we have to walk that path.

These are the three buckets that encompass our work ahead. Maybe a better way to think of them would not be as distinct buckets, but as spaces or zones of activity with permeable edges, where specific actions are occupying multiple buckets at a time, and where we travel from zone to zone, bringing information from previous legs of the journey. Stated differently, doing harm reduction might lead you to changing your mental models which might lead you to working towards systems change which might change your mental models which might improve your harm reduction efforts and so on and so on.

With that (admittedly open-ended) theory of change established, let’s get into some practical things you can do to get started. Again, this is built for if you’re not sure of where to begin. This will, hopefully, allow you to get started from 0 (which in my mind is you saying something to the effect of “damn, I know the world is cooked. What the hell do I do?”). Maybe you’ve heard people answer that inquiry with “Organize!”, which isn’t very useful. So let’s talk about that: how to start organizing and be successful when you don’t have the background or confidence yet.

Step 0: Read!

I am a big proponent of praxis (practice informed by theory) over theory or practice alone. Just reading doesn’t change the world, and just doing stuff may lead to some happy accidents. If you have to pick one, do stuff, I guess? But, we don’t have to do that. We can read, do stuff, review the successes and failures, and repeat. In order to not trap you in one mode or another, I’ve recommended a couple of things that should give you a good foundation for more readings and more actions.

Why We Should Democratize Everything

Radical Municipalism | The Anarchist Library

Modules - Economics for Emancipation (economics4emancipation.net)

Once you read these, you’ll be able to know that the world can look different than it does right now, and that there are tangible things that you can do to make that happen.

Step 1: Figure out Your Interest(s)

The next move is to understand what you’re interested in. It can be easy to feel like you have to participate in a certain kind of fight… but the reality is that if you pick an area that you already have an affinity for, you’ll be able to engage with it more sustainably. And hopefully, if you get some wins, you’ll be able to engage and support other important sites of struggle. For me, broadly speaking, my goal is to create solarpunk autonomous zones IRL, in the heart of the empire (the so-called United States). For my interests, the main areas of affinity + need within the solarpunk umbrella are:

Building Intentional Communities (like communes and ecovillages and shit)

Radical Urbanism (Tactical Urbanist projects, Tenants organizing, occupations)

Creative Care and Joy (Mutual aid, herbalism, medicine, etc)

Community Resiliency Training (CERT, Self-defense, Wildtending, Urban Foraging)

If that seems broad, blame it on the ADHD. I put time into each of these areas to try and build towards my solarpunk goals at the local level. You don’t have to be as eclectic as I am, but think about the things that get you excited, and go after those things.

Step 2: Get a Lay of the Land (find folks and people who are doing the cool stuff)

Once you’ve searched your soul and excavated some insight, you can begin your fun. Try and find people in your area who are into the stuff you’re into. If you like the idea of mutual aid, find a local food not bombs chapter (and encourage them to work towards system change!). If you like environmental stuff, look for groups that you feel like embodying the values you're developing. Some good ways to do this are:

Finding social medias. I like to find the most popular version for the thing I’m trying to do and excavate other groups from that. For example, I do some organizing work with an Indigenous education group here, and since it’s a tight-knit organizing community, I can use their IG to find other orgs. This also works well for in-person stuff.

Pull up to events. Try to show up to marches, protests (if you’re ready), and popular education events and look for folks representing the ideas you’re interested in. Folks tend to have flags, pins, and outfits at those sorts of things that let you know where they stand. I’d specifically look for Libertarian Socialist groups, Anarchist groups, and communalist groups. I’d also look into solidarity networks.

Step 3: Start working with folks!

Once you find some folks, start working with them if you like the vibe! You’d be surprised at how much you can learn. I moved about a year ago, and I learned so much by diving into the organizing community. Imma be moving again, and now I can carry those learnings forward into my new communities. Ideally, you’re getting involved in actions, doing study groups, and growing your confidence.

Step 4: Do an analysis of your place!

As you get more comfortable and you start to understand where you’re at, you can start working more intentionally toward system change. This is something that folks don’t do nearly enough, but if you can pull it off well, it’ll be well worth the time. The goal is to understand the challenges and opportunities present in your place. This is very much a whole area to explore, but you can start by looking into Asset-based community development and Community-based participatory research to create a guide of sorts for your community to follow. This is an area that I’m currently working on, and it helps contextualize your actions.

Step 5: Dive deep!

At this point, you might be ready for bigger actions or more capacity building. You might even be ready to steward a campaign. Just know, this is work that doesn’t really have an end; we can always strive for more. If you take nothing else away, know these two things:

Everyone has the capability to steward in a new future.

Surround yourself with genuine community to keep you going.

If you can approach this work with confidence and community, you’ll be able to weather any storm.

[radicalcoffeeclub]

Hi! I don’t mean for this to come off the wrong way - because I am just generally curious. I’ve been on the trans spectrum (they/them) for the past seven years or so, so whenever I saw someone use the term TERF I just always assumed it was bad and would immediately disregard anyone who was considered a “terf.” But after scrolling your account, I’ve realized I actually share a lot of opinions with you!! I’m not actually sure what it means to be a terf at this point, because “terfs” and trans people seem to have different definitions, so if you wouldn’t mind explaining that would be great. Just whatever you think is important to share, or ideas that you have! I’ve been a radically feminist in my own way for years, so I just wanted to ask you about it! You seem to be the only terf I’ve found so far who doesn’t completely hate trans people, which is why I’m asking you. Although I’m not interacting with them that much, so hopefully I find others!

Sorry for the long and messy ask, I’m very scared to ask, but you seem very nice and cool! You don’t have to respond of course, but if you wouldn’t mind that would be great!! :)

I can't help but find it funny that you say you've thought terfs are bad but you find yourself agreeing with me and calling me "the only terf who doesn't completely hate trans people". I wouldn't call myself a terf and have never stated that I am a terf. (If I've cracked a joke about terfery in the tags once or twice, that doesn't count.) What makes you so confident that I'm a terf? I hope you can realise that it's a completely arbitrary label placed on people for wildly different reasons. It's no wonder you don't feel sure what terf even means, because it doesn't really mean anything. Well, I feel like it means "person who doesn't 100% fall in line with the eco chamber". I consider myself a feminist materialist and lukewarm at that.

My most unhinged terf belief is that at the end of the day biological sex is real and it matters both on the individual and the collective levels. This doesn't mean anyone should follow any stereotypes about their sex and I'm not opposed to adults transitioning or people expressing themselves through various gender identities. (Yes I personally don't even like the concept of gender and think we would be better off without thinking of people in terms of gender at all, but other people are free to do what they want.) But I do think sex matters. I think women and lesbians need to be able to meet without males when we want to. I think trans people should also be allowed to have meetings or clubs without cis people if they want. Biological sex is also relevant to any medical treatment trans people need. I think discussion on wether or not biological sex is real or dimorphic in humans is equivalent to debating whether or not gravity is real. It's a fact of life and I think people who debate against that do so only because they've unnecessarily ascribed certain qualities and assumptions to the sexes, or they're simply misguided. Again, me thinking this doesn't mean I want anyone to live or act a certain way. I think if people want to express themselves through their gender identity they absolutely should be free to do so. Flip the coin and I should also be free to say that I don't really have a gender identity and I consider myself a woman simply because of this body I was born with and that's how I define myself - without people jumping to conclusions that I'm a conservative biological essentialist.

Considering the significance of biological sex doesn't mean I want to impose anything on anyone or eradicate trans people like some people seem to think. It just means I think it's important to be practical and sometimes that means recognising the existence of biological sex. I believe that being reasonable about that would benefit everyone. Does that make me a terf? Well, I certainly don't "completely hate trans people." I don't hate trans people at all. It is hard, though, to like people who jump to assume the worst about women who have genuine concerns about their own interests, just like trans people do. And if I'm a terf because I think that legislation needs to be able to consider multiple overlapping interests and be based on our shared reality, I guess people are free to call me a terf. I wish, though, that more people could approach this discussion like you do: honestly and with genuine questions. If we were all a little more like that, I think we'd find out we are less opposed to each other than many people would think.

Having been on radblr almost 10 years (goddamn lol), I think the majority of "terfs" don't think too differently. What most of us want is that women's specific needs and rights (many based on us living in a female body) are recognised and that we, too, are allowed to name and define womanhood and ourselves and to carve out a safe space or two for us, by us.

If you have any follow up thoughts or questions, feel free to send them my way. This turned out very rambly but here's pretty much my core belief that makes me a terf to some people.

[trainsinanime]

One thing I don't think we discuss enough when it comes to urbanity and transport discussions is this:

The Netherlands is a very good place for driving cars.

When you hear people talk about the Netherlands and its urbanity and transport infrastructure, people tend to talk about bikes and Not Just Bikes, about the way cars were banned from many places or got fewer lanes and so on. And I have seen at least some people say "okay but then how do disabled people get anywhere" or similar things. Fears that car-based freedom is gone, and that this harms vulnerable people.

Obviously I've also seen lots of replies to that, about different options that do exist e.g. for disabled people. But crucially, for better or worse worse, the Netherlands aren't actually bad for car drivers.

Like, sure, there are some details that are weird. The speed limits seem comically low by German standards, and their enforcement is incredibly strict. But then, it's a small country, who cares whether you arrive five minutes earlier in Amsterdam? The complex double-lane spiral roundabouts, now those are terrifying, but efficient if you know how to use them.

(By the way, what is the dutch rule for use of turn signals in roundabouts? I try to follow the guidance of the cars with the yellow license plates, but they're all over the place. Personally I follow the German rules, indicate only when leaving the roundabout at the next exit, which seems to be what like a third of dutch people are doing as well.)

Yes, it's true that you can't just drive through a 17th century city centre at full speed and park wherever you want. This is actually true for basically all of Europe, though. The streets of inner e.g. Utrecht for the most part don't have significantly fewer cars parked in them than similarly narrow streets would in Germany.

But other than that, it's generous infrastructure, all in exceptionally good state. The motorways are wide and exceptionally well maintained, and the one hill in the country (A76, between the intersection with the A79 and the German border) has lights and an extra lane to overtake slow trucks.

You're probably familiar with before/after pictures of dutch cities, which show e.g. the 1970s, full of wide roads and cars, and how it is today, with parks, bike lanes and few cars, and the change is truly impressive. But for the most part, these cars didn't go away. They're now on bypasses or internal highways just outside the city centre. In a few cases (Maastricht is a good example), they're literally still there, just underground in new giant expensive tunnels.

There are arguably cases where the car infrastructure is a bit ridiculous and overbuilt. The city of Heerlen has a motorway that passes by it (A 76) and then a second local motorway a couple hundred meters north-east that runs parallel to the first one (N 281).

Dutch urban design encourages using bikes and public transit for local trips. But notably, it still allows car use for most of these trips as well, and when it comes to longer trips, it absolutely assumes that cars are the default and main way to do them. It probably does so too much, in my opinion, there are plenty of rail lines that could do with better service and plenty of trams that should be built rather urgently.

I am not saying all this because I think it's great that the Netherlands are great for drivers. I am rather ambivalent about it, leaning towards "is this really necessary", especially when it comes to their complicated roundabouts. I just want to make sure people have the right expectations. If you don't like cars, well, sorry, the Netherlands still has a lot of them. If you are dependent on your car (or if you just think you are), the Netherlands actually does have you covered, for better and worse. There are definitely places where car use is de-emphasised, but it is not as car hostile as internet urbanism content keeps implying.

[thelonely-shepherd]

can i ask your opinion on the conflation of all the major male figures in natalie’s life. her father and his friend and arthur langdon and how they are all one and the same (to the point part of me wonders if the friend actually is her father and the young woman under his arm who natalie sees post assault is actually her own self and she is just experiencing a disassociative episode as she is wont to) and with all the themes of mirroring and echoing throughout the book,,,,, anyway. your thoughts please.

oh this is such a great discussion topic GRINNNNN before we begin just issuing a warning im the worlds most unstructured and tangenty writer unless i edit so . be ready. and also i have no credentials besides liking books im like 12 years old

ok SO. the two central male figures in the story are mr. waite and arthur langdon. who along with their wives are very obvious parallels to each other. (regarding your idea that mr waite's friend is actually also her father and nat is in a dissociative state, i think thats a great theory and also one i had, but i ended up not sticking with that interpretation for a few reasons. im not going to consider him a central male character bc he isnt really a CHARACTER as much as a.. means to an end? the end being. well. probably the most central scene to the entire book)

from the very beginning of the book mr waite establishes himself as god . it's in his opening monologue. god. i AM god.

and you could say in effect that he IS a sort of god - in the beginning of the novel he DOES hold a lot of power over his household and especially over natalie. i think he is in effect the only "god" figure natalie has ever had (though even from the beginning she does doubt him at least a little) which makes him the central figure of power in her life. even with her doubts , even unconsciously (a good example of this, i think, is when she "combs her hair so it falls carelessly" before seeing him. inherently the act of combing your hair shows that you DO care), everything she does is to please him.

during the assault scene natalie thinks "oh my dear God sweet christ" which i took as. calling out to her father. and of course he doesnt help (if anything the circumstances are directly HIS fault - it's his party, he's allowing his 17 year old daughter to drink with adults, AND i think its been implied that he,. gets around. and these parties are possibly a place where that happens, especially seeing as he has his arm around the waist of a young woman when he's mentioned). this mr waite fault/passiveness happens a lot (think also the scene when natalie returns home and they have that weird talk involving suicide)

when natalie goes to college another male figure enters her life . arthur langdon!! everyones favorite creepyyy fucking english teacher. and what do you know ,.,. not only is he is a DIRECT parallel to mr waite, but these two characters are made aware of each other and become (imo) kind of obsessed with each other. theyre basically communicating through natalie despite never actually meeting, subtly putting down each other's work and inquiring about each other constantly. and i think its mostly in context of their control over natalie - they both kinda strive to be that driving force in Nat's life.

during her time at college, nat begins straying more and more to arthur langdon and away from her father (and he notices.. his letters get more and more (albeit subtly) desperate) . they both occupy effectively the same space in her mind - like you said, theyre almost a conglomerate. but they still exist as extremely lame pathetic JEALOUS individuals within the universe of the story and so they continue to rage this snarky never-actually-meeting power war.

arthur, i think, is the character who causes the downfall of this male conglomerate as a whole. through his faults (natalie is all but done with him after.. i think the elizabeth drunk bed scene(yk the one) ? ) natalie's doubts about her father really begin to come through. she's avoiding going home (does she really have a paper to write lbr...) and when she does go home she forgets about her and her father's office writing review thing (THOUGH what i think is fascinating here is that she tells him that THIS is what she's been waiting for. i think he has been such a massive figure in her life that even though she is becoming disillusioned with him she cant bear to humiliate him . like to see his own illusion of power crumble would also hurt her).

natalie begins leaning a LOT more towards her mother but never enough to actually replace her father with her mother .ACTUALLY scratch that at the end of that scene when nat is leaving she hears her father say somehting and she mistakes him for her mother. i think it was something about not leaving? which is a more emotional statement and one that would usually come from her mother i suppose . so theyre switching up in her head. im not making sense but i may come back to that. BUT when nat has her like.. cry for help moment it's with her father. and her mother has shown that she DOES desperately want to help (not that she would be able to but still). nevertheless nat seeks help from her father who has over and over again shown that he . will not. cannot? is not able to as a person? give help .

and i think its important to note that the final most mentally ill most all overthe place section of the book comes right after nat's opinion of these two men just crashes. which isnt to say that they were providing ANY sort of GOOD structure to her life but i think the collapse of arthur (which affected her view of her father) and then her father was one of the final blows to nats VERY fragile worldview/sense of reality. (important disclaimer my opinion on the events in this book change constantly i think whats so wonderful about hangsaman is that its a book you can interpret in so many different ways it actually drives me insane but its loads of fun and what im TRYING to say in this parenthetical is that this isnt like.. a solid or the only interpretation i have but in the context of this discussion i find it beneficial and or interesting. hurrah!)

ANYWAYS to try and tie this mess together . hangsaman is a book of parallels and mirrors and repetition (two ways to look at a card) and the arthur langdon/ mr waite parallel specifically is one of the most fascinating and central to the story . male figures and god and power and such

[clutching-our-plurals]

wow, you're soooooo mature for thinking kids are stupid and unable to make proper decisions and understand themselves . you do realize stating that people under 13 can't know they're systems is incredibly similar to transphobic reasonings for why kids shouldn't be allowed to even socially transition. and hey do you have a source that proves that people who identify as systems under the age of 13 often tend to stop identifying that way? you clearly look down on kids as lesser and it'd be great if you fixed that.

Wow. If you were in the Olympics, I think they'd give you a gold metal for those mental gymnastics. Stunning form.

Anon is referring to this previous post about my stance on endogenic systems.

Okay, to the people that aren't this anon, yes, I was momentarily fooled. This almost sounds like a reasonable argument. Uuuunntil you realize they're comparing gender identity to mental illness. Which is... completely ridiculous. Children under the age of 13 exploring their gender identity is not comparable, nor can it be equated to children under the age of 13 having a dissociative disorder causing plurality.

Also, chat... a reminder, real quick, I'M TRANS. Agender/nonby, and completely socially transitioned. I've known i was genderqueer since I was about 7, and out to my family since I was about 13. I didn't realize I was plural until I was about late 15 or early 16. For reference.

Anyway, I guess what they think I was saying when I said "yeah so people under about 13 don't have developed personalities so it is difficult to accurately diagnose... until after that age marker has passed, for the exact same reason that someone can't develop DID or OSDD after about the age of 13," (feel free to correct me if I'm even slightly wrong there) is that kids can't be mentally ill. Which is obviously not true and yes would be very stupid to say. But i didn't say that, anon just lacks the literacy to understand what i did say. All this ask says to me is that this person knows little about plurality.

And when I said, "children under the age of 16 are not of forming and processing complex opinions on the same level as adults," they must've equated that to me saying that kids are not intelligent. (Intellegence being the capability to take in information and learn and grow) That's obviously not true.

So. To adress that, I don't look down on kids or see them as lesser.

But it's a good conversation. One that is also complex, and nuanced, and that I enjoy having. So, detailed answer and a screenshot of the section of my post anon is talking about below the cut, so this post doesn't take up too much space ⬇️⬇️⬇️

The screenshot of the section they're talking about:

Continuing your regularly scheduled discussion:

I see them as saplings, wonderful as they are now, and with a great potential to grow strong, to put down roots and branch out.

I am the eldest sibling of five. Part of what made me a system was the responsibility put upon me to raise my younger siblings. Though it was an undue responsibility on my shoulders, I did cherish watching them grow and teaching them, and helping them to learn, and keeping them safe. I loved getting to teach the things I learned in a harder way. Because that's how it should be. Life should be easier for our kids than it was for us.

So I speak from experience when I say that Children are a gift, and they are also naive, and lack the experience that allows them to form nuanced opinions, and they have underdeveloped brains that cannot properly control their impulses. Two things can be true at once. That lacking experience and their underdeveloped brains are why they have adults in their lives, who should love them and take care of them... though I know a lot of people in our community didn't. Neither did I. But a child should never be responsible for their own safety and wellbeing, let alone another's. (Again that's a whole other complex and nuanced opinion)

I can have a great respect and love for children while also knowing and acknowledging that they aren't done growing and that it is my responsibility as an elder to help them learn and keep them safe while they do, whenever given that opprotunity. Not to punish them, or deny their experiences or emotions, or whatever else, but to uplift them, and listen to them, and treat them with mutual respect. I know that's a tough thing for a lot of us to assume, though. I understand.

The most important lesson I've learned growing up, is that you never stop growing. Which sounds simple, but the real lesson is this: That means, that every person has something to teach you. People that are younger than me, yes, I often teach them more, but I've learned a lot, and will no doubt continue to learn a lot, from them, too. I always keep my mind and heart open to that. There's nothing that makes me prouder than the children in my life helping me to learn something new. Because I'm teaching them how to teach, when they do that. One day they'll be where I am, doing what I am doing, and there is an obscene amount of wonder in that.

I'm no sage of infinite wisdom either. I have a lot to learn and I'm sure a lot of my opinions will change as I attain even more experience, but like I just said, just because older people exist, doesn't mean younger folks don't have something to teach. Every age comes with a unique perspective that can never quite be recreated, even in memory. Which is. Again, another incredibly complex and nuanced topic. If i went over them all in one post, no one would be able to read it all, even with my incredible charm and witty remarks. 😉

But back to anon, judging off your defensiveness and willingness to jump the gun with this ask, I'm going to guess that you're on the younger side, so Anon, look after yourself, be smart, and don't jump to conclusions. That's what you can learn from me.

[jazeswhbhaven]

From what I've been seeing it feels like PB is focusing on quantity over quality. Things like Obey Me, TWST, and Nu-Carnival has a sizeable group of characters, but they're not too huge so it allows them to flesh each one out to a certain extent, but then they can introduce a diverse set of cards on each of them so you're not starving too much.

WHB has not only has 6 Kings and one more on the way, but they also keep introducing more nobles and angels. In a way it's not bad, but this is why I seriously feel it is a case of quantity and not enough quality. From what I've seen in this community, characters that have been in the game since Day 1 are being super neglected. Then we a have every new L card released being paywalled, nightmare passes that also have the top rewards paywalled, are more frequent, even this time around the S+ card requires more gold keys and it doesn't have anything remotely special about it whereas the last S+ did which was extremely exclusive only. Honestly it's...really sad. Now you don't NEED these cards and I'm not asking for freebies, but in the end they are asking for your life savings for even just the decent stuff, and then you still have to deal with the gacha to do that.

I personally need a decent amount of characterization to really appreciate a character so I do appreciate the world building but no character has stuck with me yet. So everytime a new one is released I go: "Okay but what about like...the existing ones?" Our last one was Leraye, which I'm sorry, it's just a reskinned of his OG card and I found that really scummy which was probably why he was locked through achievements which...was the saving grace still it was the only time it happened. The story was nice though.

I don't want to come off as ungrateful and I probably am, but I just don't understand PB's decisions on what they're doing anymore. We can't use the "they're a small company" card, I'm sure they're not the only small company, but I don't have any sources, but so far this is the first time I seen company really just throw their community into a blender like this...then again I only played like 3 other gachas which isn't a lot.

💭

hey there 💭 anon!

This observation came right in time with how I'd like to pretty much introduce the game to new players that are flocking in.

PB's decisions as of late to change how we get currencies, paid banners, and the progression of the main story and character building has been a damn journey.

I don't think you're ungrateful, I wouldn't call anyone that honestly because as the consumer YOU are the the one, p2p or f2p, in the end that has be entertained by this nsfw game. The only one in existence that is catered to both women and men audiences. With that in mind, you'd expect to see something worth buying/taking up nearly 8gb of space on your phone for.

When the game was first teased, me and my friend were talking about it and she was overwhelmed by the amount of characters they kept showing, I met her through the Obey Me fandom, so that was our bread and butter for the majority of conversations. When I moved on to WHB, she didn't come with, she stayed for like maybe a week or two and dropped it. I forget mostly why which I could ask her again on her opinion.

But I'll let you in on something I saw the other day, the community over in LaDS has been having some issues with their banners/other gacha related things as well stating that this recent banner is driving players away. I don't play LaDS but PB isn't the only company it seems starting to switch things up when it comes to decisions.

The S+ cards confuse me because what they introduced was hey here's beach Rara (Raphael) and he has an adore mode, a story with mild spice, and you chats/more lore about this bitey boi. I had so much fun reading through that. Amy and Sitri's all we get are the likability things and well from the previous expectation? That made me shake my head. (also for the extra gold keys thing, apparently it's only that high if you want to get it early, the card is going into the banner immediately after the event so in theory we all literally could have waited to pull them so we wouldn't have to spend that amount of gold keys)

As far as content goes, I think ultimately there's too many characters to work with. If anyone on the staff has a brain like me, it would be very easy to neglect characters here and there. I also do not like that Gehenna has yet ANOTHER noble (sorry Amy) but other countries are lackin'.

Also unrelated...WHERE IS GEHENNA'S GROUP PHOTO U G H.

Niflheim needs one too.

All in all I hear you. Chapter 6 and Mammons/Amy's events though have me believing that the best has yet to come, these banners though....we will see... Maybe things will pop off when Asmodeus debuts..

[zionistgirlie]

Hi! I'm the person that asked if I could ask about your politics (mainly because I didn't want to like ask a bunch of questions if you're not in the mood to answer). Also, just for some context of where I'm coming from, I'm a progressive American Jew. That describes both my politics and my religion, though I don't really identify with a specific movement. That being said, my understanding of the world is very America-centered. I know that, and I'm trying to fix it, but it's definitely still the case. Although also the US and Israel have a close relationship, so I feel like you can't really understand one without the other. Also, I apologize in advance for anything offensive I may accidentally say. I am not trying to offend or start an argument, but I don't know if I'm wording things right.

So now that I've got that long preamble out of the way, I want your opinion on some things. Feel free to take your time answering.

Do you think Israel is at all responsible for what's happening in Gaza, or is it entirely the fault of Hamas?

Do you think Israel can ever be at peace with its neighbors? Will said neighbors allow it?

How do you feel about US president Donald Trump? I've seen some people on jumblr say he's using Jews as a pawn, and I think I agree with that statement. I think pretty much every US president has been antisemitic (yes, including Democrats) but the Trump administration seems even worse. Nearly everyone I know from shul was very upset when he was reelected, and a lot of us are really scared. I know several people planning on how to leave the country, either making aliyah or fleeing to Canada. We think it's only a matter of time before the US government starts directly targeting Jews. Do you think that is the case, or do you disagree? Or if you have not been paying much attention to US politics I get that too, you don't have to this.

Do you think political support for the state of Israel is inherent to Jewish identity? I think the Jewish people are definitely deeply connected to eretz yisrael- after all, it is our homeland- but I don't think the connection to the land necessarily has to mean anything about whether or not you support the government. What do you think?

How do you feel about non-zionist Jews? Is that just another opinion, another way of being Jewish, or is it completely wrong? Do you think it comes from internalized antisemitism? Do you have any friends that aren't zionist? (I guess probably not given that you live in Israel)

If you personally had complete control, you could just snap your fingers and make it happen, what does your ideal Israel look like?

What would you say to a young anti-zionist Jew, assuming they would listen?

Can you recommend any books, videos, or podcasts (in English) to learn more about this?

I know this is a really long ask, and you don't have to answer all of it right now, I'm just trying to figure things out and hear more than one perspective and you seem 1) very smart and 2) very different perspective than mine. I think it's important to have conversations with people I don't agree with (actually that's how I met a great friend of mine, we were arguing about Torah and exchanged phone numbers so we could continue that conversation). Also, I'm going to leave you with my name because I think I'll probably want to send more asks

-Eli

Allow me to nitpick before I start and say that whilst it is stupid to apply American-specific theories on non-American countries and conflicts (re: CRT), still, as an American, of course you would see the world through American lenses, just like as an Israeli, I see the world through Israeli lenses, and I don't necessarily think it's something you need to "fix." (Also, how are you going to fix it? You have an American upbringing)

Also, is "the US and Israel have a close relationship, so I feel like you can't really understand one without the other" a common sentiment in America? I don't feel the same way. I don't need to understand Israel to understand America, and certainly not vice-versa (you could claim that in order to understand the modern Israel one has to know about Western values like democracy, self-determination and nationality, but still those are more a European thing than American). Anyways, I'm rambling.

Do you think Israel is at all responsible for what's happening in Gaza, or is it entirely the fault of Hamas?

Deffo. It's Israel's fault that there are still hostages there, and the vast majority of Gazans' deaths are males of combat age (so combatants). Israel allowed Hamas to steal foreign aid since day one. Israel did everything in its power to target militants only, and now a war that was supposed to end a month, tops, after it starts has been allowed to go about for a year and a half. The gates of hell should've opened on October 8th, 2023, and not a day later.

Do you think Israel can ever be at peace with its neighbors? Will said neighbors allow it?

That would depend on which neighbours you're talking about. Syria and Lebanon? sure. The so-called Palestinians? I don't think so. You have to understand that "Palestinian" is not a nationality or an etnicity, but rather a made-up invention to fight zionism. And it's not me who says that, it's the very Palestinians themselves.

The only thing separating Palestinians from Jordanians is their hatred of Jews and their struggle to eradicate every last Jew living between the river and the sea, and they say it themselves. This is not just one political party's crazy idea, but the very foundation on which the Palestinian identity is built. So, no, I don't think peace is possible with people whose entire identity is eradicating you. Do I wish, for our sake, but also for theirs, that they reject this genocidal, Jihadi ideology? Indeed. Sadly, they do not. And it doesn't matter if we talk Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamic Jihad, the PLO, the DFLP, the PFLP, fatah... across all Palestinian political spectrum, the one thing in common is the genocidal urge to kill Israelis and Jews.

So, shortly, no. There will be no true peace with the Palestinians.

How do you feel about US president Donald Trump?

Love him. He's very smart and cunning. I think he does what's good for the Jews and what's good for America. I agree with a lot of his policies. Yeah, just love him. He's Hashem's gift for us, and a lot of Israeli frum Jews agree with me. Baruch Hashem he's been reelected. I actually wrote a post about him a while back. I really should categorise my posts, shouldn't I, heh.

I am aware of the sentiment of some American Jews about Trump, I am aware of Jumblr's sentiment about him. I am Israeli and must admit that the things Trump does within your own country do not affect my life that much. In terms of what has to do with Israel or American Jews, I think he is doing an excellent job. 70% of American Jews are Democrats, so I am not surprised by the hysteria. Nu shoyn.

Do you think political support for the state of Israel is inherent to Jewish identity?

I think the Jewish people are definitely deeply connected to eretz yisrael- after all, it is our homeland- but I don't think the connection to the land necessarily has to mean anything about whether or not you support the government. What do you think?

So, I don't think political support for the state of Israel (which is basically Zionism, like supporting that there should politically be a Jewish state? That's just Zionism) and supporting the current Israeli government are the same thing. The majority of Israelis support the state of Israel, and I would say ~49%-50% do not support the government. Also, we're a democracy, so the government slightly (or not so slightly) changes every 4 years. I would not say supporting the current Israeli government is inherent to one's Jewish identity, particularly if they're not Israeli. Supporting the existence of a Jewish state isn't inherent to one's Jewish identity, either. However, things that are very much inherent to one's Jewish identity, so much so, that they are mitzvot l'halacha, are:

Ahavat Israel: loving and helping every other Jew.

Pidyon Shvuyim: Redemption of hostages. Getting Jewish hostages held by non-jews back.

Aniye Ircha Kodmim: first, give charity to the poor people in your town (before giving charity to poor people from other towns) and by metaphor: when your Jewish brothers and sisters are in an existential war, support their right to live peacefully, condemn terrorism, don't make excuses for goyim attacking your people, don't apply double-standard, and only then dedicate yourself to other causes.

Kol Israel Arevim Ze L'ze: All Jews are mutually responsible for one another.

Lo ta’amod al dam re’echa: Do not stand by your brother’s blood. A Jew must help other Jews, particularly when they're in life danger.

Yishuv Eretz Yisrael: Settling the Land of Israel. Living in Eretz Israel is a mitzvah.

Moser: Jews aren't allowed to hand over a Jew to the Goyim. In this sense, speaking slander and spewing incorrect blood libels about Jews to hostile Goyim is mesirah. And it is forbidden, dangerous, and deeply harmful to Jewish solidarity and Arvut.

Speaking Slander about Eretz Israel: That's "the sin of the spies" and the reason the Israelites had to wander in the desert for 40 years.

In our many sins, it seems as though Antizionist Jews— or those who identify as Jews— violate multitudes of mitzvot. CRITICISING ISRAEL'S POLICIES is allowed when it's done in a factual, cautious way, but how many of those antizionist Jews actually bother to do that?

How do you feel about non-zionist Jews? Is that just another opinion, another way of being Jewish, or is it completely wrong? Do you think it comes from internalized antisemitism? Do you have any friends that aren't zionist?

How would you feel if your sibling spat on your parents? That's what I feel about many antizionist Jews. I feel sorry, and ashamed, and disappointed, and angry. I don't know what "another way of being Jewish" means. If you have a Jewish mother or have converted l'halacha, you're a Jew, regadless of your opinions. I can't say non-zionist Jews are not Jewish. I just think they're very wrong and often put us Israeli Jews in severe danger.

I can't say it's always internalised antisemitism across the board, I think it often stems from being far away from the Torah and its values.

And I do, actually :) My best friend is an antizionist, Israeli Jew. I used to be an antizionist Jew. I know a bunch. There are quite a bit of antizionist Jews in Israel, and as far, radical-left you think American antizionist Jews are? Israelis are 10x worse.

If you personally had complete control, you could just snap your fingers and make it happen, what does your ideal Israel look like?

The hostages are home. The war ends with a destroyed Hamas and MaGaza. We annexe Judea and Samaria. The state laws become more religious. We do not let Palestinazis ever work inside Israel again, nor do we provide them with medical help in our hospitals. They can go to Jordanian hospitals. The Jews are back in Aza. Aliyah is slightly easier for diaspora Jews. The Hasbara ministry gets better. The services in the periphery of Israel (healthcare, public transportation, welfare, education) become a lot better. Every school would have a sexual assult inspector so that no child is victimised in schools. Houses become cheaper. Groceries become cheaper.

What would you say to a young anti-zionist Jew, assuming they would listen?

Hashem loves you.

Then I would probably ask where the antizionism comes from and try to educate them. I don't think being antizionist is anti-Jewish per se, I just think they're uneducated on a lot of this stuff. And lack nuance. But sometimes people are educated on the topic and are still anti-Zionists, and I think that's legitimate. That doesn't change the fact Hashem loves them.

Can you recommend any books, videos, or podcasts (in English) to learn more about this?

Douglas Murray just published a new book on the topic. I didn't get to read it yet, so I can't recommend it 100%, but knowing Douglas, I think it'll be worthwhile. It's called On Democracies and Death Cults: Israel and the Future of Civilization. Likewise, I recommend listening to interviews with him, like this one and that one and also this one.

Everything Natasha Hausdorff does is brilliant.

If you care for some funny, educational content, here's Ben Shapiro reacting to pro-hamas tiktoks. He's got proper Hasbara content as well, as well as this iconic debate.

Also this youtube channel is great. Also that.

Also Tal!

Regarding books, @mossadspypigeon keeps mentioning The Oslo Syndrome. I couldn't find this book or its Hebrew translation, but I trust her.

I know this is a really long ask, and you don't have to answer all of it right now, I'm just trying to figure things out and hear more than one perspective and you seem 1) very smart and 2) very different perspective than mine. I think it's important to have conversations with people I don't agree with (actually that's how I met a great friend of mine, we were arguing about Torah and exchanged phone numbers so we could continue that conversation). Also, I'm going to leave you with my name because I think I'll probably want to send more asks -Eli

I really like long asks, so don't apologise. It's fun.

I 10000% agree with you. It's mega important to hear other perspectives. I really want to have a polite discussion/debate with an antizionist Jew. Unfortunately, polite or civil aren't adjectives that get used much, on both sides, I'll admit.

Thank you for calling me smart omg 🥺

And I like your name a lot! My Australian sister uses that name because Australians can't properly pronounce her Israeli name. I'm Lior, Eli. Nice to meet you!

[formulatrash]

All this discussion around the most recent fia statement (RE: booing) is making me think about some stuff, so I'd like to know your opinion:

Do you think there's an ~ethical~ way of sympathizing with Verstappen? Even though I don't root for him I've allowed myself to like him quite a lot as of late, but the current state of the world is making me reconsider more harshly his (unaddressed?) past actions regarding racism, which I've always thought of as another case of White indiference rather than active racism. I'm POC myself but I live in a mostly POC country and I worry that that might make me more "forgiving" when it comes to cases that might require certain nuance, especially in the West (I'm certain it does).

It's not like I expect the drivers to be role models, obviously, but I don't know... What do you think?

at the end of the day, it comes down to how you engage with it I think? like idk, I am old and I do think this is some sort of relatively recent polarising thing where anything you can like must be unconditionally good and anything where there's a reason to dislike must be irredeemably bad and that's just not how things work.

everything is nuanced and it's just deciding what the nuance you want to have about it is. sometimes that's "this car man is funny in the Red Bull podcasts with Alex and I don't want to know anything more than that."

sometimes it's that everyone is a complicated, real person and that someone's public persona may not be a reflection of who they actually are - although is a choice that they make to project. or like, idk, people are really into the idea of him shagging Charles, which he presumably isn't but if that's what people enjoy then fair enough - it's just another fictionalised version of someone none of us actually know.

blorbos aren't really praxis. if you want to go out and make a difference in the world it won't be by picking a favourite F1 driver. and sometimes enjoying the annoying white man despite the fact you suspect he might not want you to or especially in your particular fandom ways is an important act of subversion. rpf was, historically, used as a tool of revolution against god-kings.

like, there probably is an engaged and aware way to be a fan of serial killers. I don't know what it is and I'm not particularly keen to use my three braincells on trying to work it out but it's probably out there.

my own thoughts about Verstappen is that he is a complex figure in the broader context of F1; there is a story not particularly about who he is but the way that the sport is still bloodthirsty for suffering and pats itself on the back for cruelty. it shows in the history of what has happened to him, especially when he was still a teenager and in the way that he is praised as a particular type of ruthless in the present day.

does that say anything particular about Max himself? no not really, he's simply the object in all of that. if you can put him in a different narrative then he means whatever you want him to.

which isn't saying like, it's all relative and there's no reason objecting to stuff. I think it's really fucking important to object to stuff and to call them out when they're wrong. but I also don't think there's any need to call yourself out for thinking Max is funny sometimes because other white men are problematic about him.

[justkidneying]

Why some crossbreeds work and some don't

We can breed two types of dogs together (same species), or a donkey and horse together (same genus), but you can't breed a cat and dog together (fucking obviously). But why? And why do we even want to crossbreed things in the first place?

As for the why, that's simple: hybrid vigor. Also known as heterosis, hybrid vigor is the idea that crossbreeds have better fitness (ability to survive and reproduce) than their pure bred parents. Mostly, this term is used in agriculture and animal husbandry, but I think it leads the way for an interesting discussion (and we're definitely going to get weird in this one ;)). Sometimes though, crossbreeds are shittier at certain things. Think about a camel x llama mix. They wanted it to have the six of a camel but the hair of a llama. As far as I am aware, this program was not very successful.

Genetic Basics

For every gene, you have two copies. Each of these alleles is a bit different. Some are dominant and are expressed in the phenotype (the observable characteristics of an organism), while others are recessive (but they can still be passed on). There are other types of gene expression, but I won't go into them here. One hypothesis on why hybridizing an organism gives it better fitness is due to these dominant alleles. The theory states that as a population becomes more related, more of the recessive traits are allowed to be expressed. When you introduce a new genome with dominant alleles, you can overcome the shitty recessive ones.

Crossbreeding corn and shit is really cool and interesting, but I'm not a plant scientist so I'm not going to talk about it. We're going to talk about animals instead. So crossbreeding is mostly between things that are the same species, so think of Goldendoodles and Texas Heelers. There isn't a lot of research actually showing that mutts are inherently more fit than their parents. The main thing you can overcome is inbreeding depression (like how bulldogs don't live that long). Most traits associated with inbreeding are from recessive alleles. But sometimes you actually want to inbreed if you're looking for a specific trait (like a bloodhound's nose).

Crossbreeds that Work

Now onto some more fun stuff (in my opinion). The number of chromosomes and the relation of two species will let us know if they can crossbreed. I'll give some animals and their number will be their number of chromosomes.

Dog (78) + Wolf (78) = Wolfdog (78)

Bos tarus [cow] (60) + American Bison (60) = Beefalo (60)

Horse (64) + Donkey (62) = Mule (63)

Alright, so the first example would create a wolf dog that can reproduce with another canine. They come from the same genus. Same thing with the bovines. Next, we get to the mule. Horses and donkeys are from the same genus, but they have different chromosome numbers. This means that the donkey contributes 31 chromosomes and the horse contributes 32 to the offspring (which is actually either a mule or hinny depending on who tops). The offspring will be sterile due to its shitty code. Mules are way better (imo) than horses or donkeys, and that's why a lot of people prefer them for doing work. However, you cannot say they are more biologically fit, as they cannot reproduce.

So mostly you can see that the crossbreeds are happening in animals that are of the same genus (though you can't always breed two genus members together). You can go less related than that, but I'm not a biologist, so I don't know many examples off the top of my head. One famous one is the marine iguana/land iguana hybrid from two members of the same family (family is a step above genus).

Crossbreeding in Humans

Now, onto humans. We have 46 chromosomes (22 pairs plus two sex chromosomes [X/Y]). We also happen to have our own genus (Homo), and the closest relationship we have is to chimps and bonobos. They both have 48 chromosomes. We share about 96-99% of our genetic code with chimpanzees. The difference here his chromosome number two. This is the chromosome that gives us the difference. Our #2 has the same info as two chromosomes in chimps. Therefore, it's thought that this is due to chromosomal fusion in our evolutionary history.

In saying this, I want you to know that we also share like 85% of DNA with dogs as well, because a lot of DNA is just being alive, having a spine, and being on land. Shit like that. There's not as much difference in animals as people like to believe.

We're gonna get weird now. So, there have been attempts to crossbreed chimps and humans, and they were unsuccessful (they were in the USSR). But if it is entirely out of the realm of possibility? No idea. I argued with some of my classmates about this for a while. There have been bigger jumps in crossbreeding, and I think we won't ever really get an answer to this anyway. I feel gross and I'm going to move on now.

One animal has successfully been hybridized with humans: mice. Transgenic mice have either human DNA inserted in their entire genome, or they may have it only in some cells of the body (chimerism). This is mostly to test disease and stuff, it's not as cool as it sounds, they're mostly just getting them to express things like interleukins. This has sparked debate however, about whether or not this is against nature or whatever. I think it's a dumb argument cause fuck it do whatever you want, but I believe that a lot of this sentiment will stagnate research and advancement in this field, so...

Where is the line between one species and another?

A weird note to end on: HeLa cells. These are a cell line from a woman's cervix (who died in the 1950s) that now have about 76-80 chromosomes. While they can't crossbreed in the normal way, they can fuck up other cell cultures. If another line is contaminated with them, HeLa cells will dominate and their genetic markers will be found in that of the resulting cell line. This made me circle back to the point about transgenic mice. The controversy from politicians was about where you draw the line about what is human and what is not. You can say a mouse with 1% human DNA is not human. But what about a 50% match? What about HeLa cells? Are they no longer human cells, and when would a line have been crossed? Anyways, just some food for thought. Thanks for reading my ramblings.

[skyfallscotland]

Hi!

I am so so sorry people have been so crappy to you. Reading is subjective and you’re allowed to not like the book or have things you don’t like about it. Loving something doesn’t been ignoring it’s flaws. And there’s absolutely room for critique and differing opinions in a fandom while still loving the series.

Haters tend to be very loud but please know there’s lots of us out here who love you and your work and want to hear your voice!! What you have to say is important even if people agree with it

Take the time you need to process everything. 🤍🤍🤍

Thank you 🖤

I think perhaps it's just what my mind is geared to, it's just unfortunate that fandom no longer seems to be a place for that in a lot of cases. I've blocked an ungodly amount of words to try and get no Empyrean content anywhere else, and I'll probably have to do some creative restructuring here too for my own sake, but a lot slips through the cracks.

My therapist did reiterate that for the most part people who are not on either extreme end of the spectrum or who share more realistic ideas about certain texts and how we view them like me, are likely to just be silent.

It makes me feel some kind of way though about the evolution (or degradation) of fandom over the last ten years. There's a post floating around out there that I won't quote word for word (because that would be rude, like them) where people are essentially saying people that view fiction through a critical lens have invaded fandom and ruined it.

I would argue that we were here first, actually. Fandom is built on the backs of people who enjoy a piece of media but want more. People who like it, but would also have liked to see x. People who look at a text and read between the lines to see the possibilities. Fanfiction was never just about regurgitating what was explicitly stated in the text from another person's perspective (not that there's anything wrong with that) or writing missing scenes or romance from other canon pairings. It's always been about the possibilities.

A lot of people have congratulated me in the last few days after reading hold me tight, or don't for seeing Sloane/Dain coming. I did not see Sloane/Dain coming. I wanted it, so I wrote about it. I never thought Rebecca would actually do it (though I'm glad she did).

This is long and rambling, and definitely not what you reached out for. I guess I just find it interesting and a little sad that a lot of people come to fandom for more of 'as close to canon as possible' and refuse to consider what's not explicitly stated. I could name drop another fandom here, but I'm scared of them, so I won't 😂

[carladuquette]

personally, i found valerio’s ending in elite very dissatisfying (definitely not the worst ending a character got but still kinda meh). what are your thoughts? do you think his ending was fitting or do you wish the writers went in a different direction?

lu definitely got one of the best endings in the show, but do you think it was deserved given her mistakes throughout the show? was there anything about her individual character arc you’d have change? i know you’re an avid lu and valerio fan (me too!) so i’m curious to hear your thoughts :)

This is a fantastic ask for this Valu girlie, and I am beyond sorry it took me more than a month to get to it!

So, Valerio… sigh. He dealt drugs, so I’m not saying he shouldn’t be punished. But I did feel bad for him, getting caught like this on the last day of school. And he was the only one of those last-day-suspendees who didn’t get to come back to finish his education. (Yes, I know there were behind the scenes reasons for this, but let’s stay in show.) This was already his second attempt at his final year of school, so maybe he was just sick of it. But also – Val had no one to fight for him and that makes me sad. Lu normally would have advocated for him to be allowed to return, but she was clearly in no state to do so after graduation. So with things being as they were, good for him to get that job with Carla, I guess. I’m just still mad that we never saw him again, because he still was in Madrid and I feel like he and Rebeka would maybe sometimes still hang out. But again, Jorge was done with the show, I get it.

As for Lu… Ok. Ok. I will be honest and say that it’s hard for me to be objective here. She was responsible for someone’s death, so should she have gone to prison? Maybe? But then that goes for a lot of other characters in the show. And you asked for my personal opinion 😈 so yes, I think she deserved her somewhat happy ending of going to New York with Nadia. She worked hard to excel in school the entire time we’ve seen her and she wasn’t ready to take the scholarship when it meant taking it from Nadia. She said she always protects the ones she loves, and I do think we have seen that from her throughout. Lu has shown enormous growth and I was very, very happy to see this ending for her, that doesn’t rely on some romantic relationship, but brings her fulfillment because it’s something she has worked hard for and wanted for herself. And let’s not pretend she gets off without any consequences – I wrote a 190k-word fanfic about the trauma I firmly believe Lu has to deal with for a long time after killing Polo.

There was one thing I wish we would’ve seen in Lu’s storyline: her apologizing to Nadia for posting that video of her and Guzman online. To me, this was the worst thing Lu did period, and yes, that includes her actually killing someone. The scene midway through season three where Nadia apologizes to Lu in the library for breaking her heart when she slept with Guzman while he was still with Lu is one of my favorite Elite moments, and I think it’s a shame that we didn’t get a mirror scene with Lu apologizing for humiliating Nadia like this, and for what she must have known could have even endangered Nadia‘s life.

In total though, given how many other characters got off, I am more or less happy with how Lu and Val got to leave the show. Before season four, I was sad that Danna and Jorge wouldn’t come back, even separately if they couldn’t work together anymore. But I am so grateful now that they stuck to their guns. Who knows what the writers of the later seasons would have had in store for them 😅

Thanks again for your ask. I love talking about Elite, and I’m especially excited to hear from other Lu and Valerio fans ❤️