#you just sound like a reddit atheist

[j-esbian]

wild fucking take i saw and like. i know it’s funny to make fun of catholics bc of historical oppression but i don’t think it’s unreasonable that, if you are an unbaptized person at a catholic religious ceremony, you’re expected to not take communion. you came into their house

[mattiebluebird]

siri keeton: hello, my job is to take the jargon spat out by hyperintelligent posthumans and translate it into something that the average person can understand. in order to do this, i must observe, and due to this (and other various traumas in my past) i've developed a set of algorithms to study and mimic human behavior.

everyone, for some reason: you unfeeling monster. you unsentient creature. get out of my fucking sight.

[strixhaven]

genuinely wild how right-wing so many people on this site are about atheism of all things

[area51-escapee]

One of my special interests is cults, has been since I was a young teenager, fascinated by them, have done a lot of reading about them, will try and recount facts when asked but my autism is sadly no match for my bad memory, but what makes me fucking feral, what drives me mad, what sends me into a fit where I want to claw out somebody’s eyes is the people who are like “ummm actually EVERY religion is a cult I’m very smart anybody who disagrees is a brainwashed cult member :)”

[hadenclairee]

Listen, i dont mean to sound like a reddit atheist, but... You ever think about how evangelical Chriatians very literally believe that there will be a genocide in which billions of humans, mostly just innocent everyday people, are condemned to suffer in hell?

And, like, that's the end. That's the finale. Of everything they believe. That's their solution for the world. A final one, if you will.

And they don't rebel. They don't say "hey, wait, that's a bit much" and appeal to their God to maybe reconsider. They don't even seem to really mind.

Instead, they worship. They conjure up an image of a genocidal maniac, and they worship it. The word "praise" is bandied about a lot. Praise. For a leader whose endgoal, very transparently, is genocide.

Suddenly a lot of history makes a little more sense.

[mindblownie2]

I think there's definitely something to Dankovsky not being entirely what you'd expect from a character like him, or not what he maybe would like to appear as - that is, him not really being that cold, calculating, purely "logic"-driven archetype at all; that he is actually so emotional and impulsive. I think it's also interesting how he can actually believe in the supernatural - there's the dialogue option in marble nest letting you say you believe in God, but especially in classic I think that's canonical, he talks about the soul, invokes concepts like providence or fate in ways that don't seem entirely just as figure of speech, he can very quickly turn on a dime and believe in Clara's healing powers or Artemy's traditional medicine or the Polyhedron's magical properties once he sees what he deems sufficient evidence, and he also has that line about "knowing there are things beyond our mundane perception". and you know what, I don't even think that's so contradictory. first of all, there are nowadays and there especially have been in the past, with less secular societies, plenty of scientists who also held some kind of religious beliefs. I think it's to a certain degree reconcilable when it's applied to different spheres of life - some things are relegated to spirituality, but where there are cold hard facts, you follow these; it doesn't inherently make you a hypocrite. also in the game, the thing he takes most umbrage with is not spirituality, but superstition - the kind of unreasonable and dogmatically held beliefs that lead people to, oh I dunno, say, burning innocent women for witchcraft instead of listening to experts? which you know I think is kinda fair actually? like I keep harping on about that but fellas I'd be mad too. anyway my point is, depicting him as a reddit atheist is in my opinion definitely a mischaracterisation.

however I was actually gonna talk about the whole "defeating death" thing because it's so interesting to me, people often point out how fantastical, almost mystical it sounds, and he sometimes strikes that tone - "could death be only a whim of the will that has shaped this world" is a fascinating line to me because it essentially implies that the way to attain immortality is to tell god to fuck off, but then at the same time. he is initially skeptical about Simon's immortality, though interested in the claims of his longevity and extraordinary immunity to disease; he says he wants to study tissue samples from Simon's body, which seems to me like looking for a material, physiological mechanism that could be potentially found in or applied to other people (and eventually, out of desperation or fascination or both, he can get into the Kains' whole soul transference/preservation thing, but it doesn't strike me as what he was really looking for before the game. as my friend always says, if immortality of the soul was all he wanted, he'd become a priest instead of a medical researcher). he says in haruspex route that his lab works on medicine against aging; he also notes iirc that death will never not be a thing completely because people will still be killing each other. there is that thing with the reanimated lady, which always struck me as a little off in some ways, but mainly - at the start of the game, he hasn't succeeded in his goal yet, so whatever happened there, he either was unable to reproduce it, or it wasn't what he was looking for either - I mean, the fact that you can resuscitate a person under certain conditions is a great achievement, but doesn't remove the fact that people die, same as, as he says, "doctors defeat death on singular occasions" - you can manage to rescue a person from injury or disease, but it's only postponing the inevitable, so what if it wasn't inevitable anymore? the goal, I think, is so that people don't just die of old age. and the thing about that is - is that really so irrational? I mean especially if you think about the setting, if you think about the incredible, sheer rapid change of the time period from the industrial revolution to mid-20th century, that pathologic sits somewhere in the middle of, is that not something that would appear to people as both fantastical but also within grasp, as taking the witnessed progress to its furthest conclusion? same as people imagined - and correctly so - that the next step from inventing the airplane was inventing a flying machine that will go to the moon, would they not also imagine, seeing the progresses of medicine and the extending average lifespan, that we will exponentially live longer and longer? like we know it's not that simple, and Daniil's goal is meant to be unrealistic, but I don't think it's "unscientific" in the sense that it's based on magical thinking. people don't really shoot for immortality anymore but longevity research is very much a thing and I think that's just essentially what he was doing.

on the other hand, it's funny to me to imagine that him sometimes framing his work in those less-than scientific terms might've been partly what made him unpopular; I think there's more to it, especially regarding his conflict with the authorities I think it's more about him representing "revolutionary" ideals, but with his peers? even what Isidor mentions in his letter, that Daniil's detractors claimed his theories were not scientifically viable - the accusation not being that he's a heretic or a necromancer or playing god, but that he's being unreasonable; and well, if the "groundbreaking theory of human mortality" that he claims to have formulated is in fact "people die because they just let it happen, don't let god or laws of nature dictate what happens to you", well. I can see that.

[drbased]

i am highly spiritual, and yet we have almost identical beliefs about humanity, religion and its organization, etc. save for the conclusions it brings us to. just found this really interesting, honeslty.

In the nicest possible way: no, I don't think we have almost identical beliefs. Or rather, I think we have one primary difference in perception that changes the entire nature of our beliefs.

One of the accidental problems with language is that it can make connections and associations between concepts that aren't really real. For example, we have tras claiming that aspects of your personality, mannerisms, hairstyle etc. are all an expression of an internal sense of gender, which is retroactively justified as real through the existence of those characteristics. It's a tautology, but it's a potent one, because those characteristics can add up to something deeply personal and individual, which isn't communicated easily. One person's 'qu**r identity' can be entirely different from another person's 'qu**r identity', but due to the simple existence of the term they can find a percieved similarity of experience that wouldn't exist without it.

This relates to spirituality because I think what's happening here is that the word 'spiritual' is being used like the word 'gender'; that is, an extra layer of meaning is added to the human experience that is retroactively justified by the existence of those human experiences. In this case, the nature of spirituality seemingly being discussed is a sense of profundity and awe.

The primary dispute is one of perspective: as an atheist, I say that actually, the concept of 'profound' is an entirely human construction. Things aren't built with a natural sense of 'awe-inspiringness' that we as humans simply tap into - but rather, the emotion is generated inside us in response to the neutral things that are already there. It's a seemingly minor shift in approach, and many would feel is a nitpick, but I think it's accidentally become the crux of this whole argument.

This is why many spiritual people think that atheists 'hate humanity' and 'are cold and unfeeling' - they percieve the world to be inherently spiritual; that is, consisting of an inexorable quality that humans should be able to experience, so anyone not claiming to recognise this quality is simply denying their own humanity, their own senses, as well as denying the profundity of being: the two are inexorably interlinked. I can see where this argument comes from - we, as humans, tend to naturally feel 'cleaner' after a wash, we tend to fell happier after having laughed etc. etc. and if we don't feel these things, either there's something supposedly 'wrong' with us, or we're denying those feelings so we get to feel superior in some way. And don't get me wrong, the classic 'reddit atheist' is like this - the kind of guy who says that your pet cat don't feel love when they nuzzle you in the morning. There are definitely people (men especially) who want to feel above any and all sensory-based human emotional response.

But.

My primary argument is that things external to us (and some internal) do not have any inherent emotional quality; any emotions I generate in response to them are my own personal, fallible and fragile appreciation for them, generated within my brain in response to stimuli. This may sound less magical, and that's the point: laughter generates happiness because it's an evolutionarily important pro-social tool. Washing makes you feel 'cleaner' because it's evolutionarily important to avoid disease. There's no intrinsic nature to these things that we tap into; the emotions and subsequent meaning are generated by us. If someone managed to figure out what 'love' is in humans and found out that animals don't show 'love' as we know it - well, regardless of how much of an asshole he is, that atheist above would be right. But it shouldn't be earth-shattering because 'love' does not need to be some quality inherent to nature to have meaning and value - our version of 'love' is purely human, and whatever our pets do may not be 'love' by our standards, but something speciifc to them.

This argument is ultimately immaterial unless we can demonstrate for faith-based thinking can result in harm. And unfortunately, this is how people end up getting manipulated by churches and cults. The sense of awe you feel in a crowd of thousands of people listening to music and services doesn't exist in the ether - it's deliberately manufactured explicitly to generate that feeling inside you. So this isn't just an argument about correctness; this is an argument about harm.

Why do you think churches are built that way; it's easy to think of them as just inherently magnificent, but that is just the limitation of the way our language constructs adjectives - 'magnificent' is given the same linguistic weight as, say, 'squishy' or 'spiky'. But 'magnificent' is a value qualifier, not a neutral adjective; it's something that requires an internal sense of judgement - but due to the power of emotions it can feel real, perhaps more real than pricking your finger on a spiky thing. Religion has a tendency to place reality into a secondary level of importance; god/the universe is what's more 'real' than us. This is a hierachy; it places our subjective experiences and values as merely a conduit for something more real and meaningful than we could ever be, than we could ever imagine (and, if you think my argument is cold and male and misogynistic, then I like to remind you which of the sexes loves hierarchy). And this is hierarchy that is absolutely ripe for exploitation.

No, I do not think that spiritual/religious belief is a guarantee of exploitation, nor is it the only source of exploitation - but a tendency to see your emotions as merely a conduit for some universal truth means you will be much more easily persuaded to into believing things based on your emotional perception, and the kinds of people who want to persuade you are typical doing so to gain something; not always something sinister, but it certainly can be.

Too many spiritual people want to have their cake and eat it too: they want to skirt over arguments of correctness and harm and jump straight to accusing us of denying our senses - when what they actually mean is that by denying our senses we're denying reality. But when we claim that actually we're perfectly capable of listening to our senses, we just call these things 'awe' and 'profundity', they turn around and say 'that's just what spirituality is! you're just like us, just in denial!' When we say that our emotional experiences are not spiritual we mean it; this isn't 'agreeing on most things' - this is an entire shift in perception. My senses are mine, and the meaning I generate from them is mine. Those sense are a fallible product of evolution, and the meaning I generate from them is also a fallible product of evolution. But that also means that the profundity has a new origin, and this is ultimately less safe and comfortable than from some external source I can rely on; the profundity comes from the terrifying realisation that these things just are, with no invisible connective tissue outside the bare reality of cause-and-effect. That isn't inherently profound, but I make it so through my own human ability to generate meaning. And as that meaning is mine, therefore the responsibility for it is mine.

[edennill]

If Tolkien characters had Tumblr blogs part 2:

part 1

Finduilas:

url: waitingtothewind

pfp: drawing of a fictional crush in pastel colours (babygirl fulfills her royal duty to exercise patronage over artists by comissioning reams of fanart lol)

bio: ✧˖･* princess finduilas of nargothrond :) ✧˖･* 47 ✧˖･* poetry appreciator ✧˖･* romantic at heart ✧˖･* girl of many fandoms ✧˖･* favourite animal: doggos ✧˖･* favourite food: strawberry juice ✧˖･* and if I had a voice that could make mountains melt I would walk over stars just to see how it felt ✧˖･*

title: ₓ˚. ୭ ˚○◦˚.˚◦○˚ ୧ .˚ₓ

has a very pink custom theme with a fancy font. runs a fandom/aesthetic blog and stays clear of discourse. writes really good meta that is quite popular and poems that get notes in the single digits. doesn't really know how to deal with anon hate. participates in every tag game she comes across.

Maeglin:

url: keeps changing it between @molelol and @twilitdark because he likes small animals, but wants to sound edgy.

pfp: keeps changing it between a baby mole and the kind of very dark photo where you can't really see what it's supposed to be.

bio: M / not a minor

title: the dark under the trees

guards his personal info incredibly closely (a good practice, but how much of it is due to his father having been so controlling that he learned secrecy early on is up for discussion). rarely posts, mostly reblogs photos and shitposts. vaguely vents about his idril/tuor/gondolin/treason problems. when he gets into discussions with people he can be uncomfortably fierce, has sent anon hate on occasion.

Celebrimbor:

url: craftingsilver

pfp: red eight pointed star (default variation, not technically fëanorian) on yellow background

bio: older/younger than you think | look I've seen the Trees that's enough | Noldorin jewelsmith | male

title: time and soul, wrought and tempered

mostly posts and reblogs crafting tiktoks and tips, sometimes adds a dash of science, philosophy or something personal. has made a resolution to filter out any posts pertaining to his family on his dashboard and keeps to it almost till the end. shows a strong sense of humour and has gathered quite a following.

Idril:

url: celebrin-does-things

pfp: blurred photo of her with her back to the camera

bio: 500s - architect, wife and mother - everyone is welcome

title: "ammë, there's winter in my boots"

started off as a miscellaneous blog, but shifted to being mostly about Eärendil's shenanigans. she vaguely vents about maeglin/gondolin/cousin's treason sometimes, but still comes off as way more laid back than irl. hardly used her tumblr before her son was born and still treats it mostly as a place to document things he has said + a way to talk with like three treasured mutuals. the architect part in bio is mostly a ruse because she has only ever completed one or two projects but can hardly reveal she's a princess, can she? (before the fall of nargothrond if she got on tumblr it was to nag Finduilas to remove her personal info from bio hah)

@eri-pl, this is in part because you asked (a while ago, sorry), though I'm afraid I don't have much to say about all your suggestions. I prefer not to get into Sauron's headspace actually, but the idea of him having access to social media is horrifying lol. And Pharazon has all the worst characteristics of Reddit atheists, non-ironic modern white supremacists and racist trolls rolled into one with the added horror of the new unsavoury state cult. Míriel is not allowed a sim card🙁😬

also I'm just now realising I tagged a compatriot in something I wrote at 3 am so if you have time stamps on you now know my messed up sleep schedule and if you don't I've just told you lol but never mind.

[duchessofostergotlands]

Religious neighbour?

How is the hot cult follower?!

You both guessed correctly! He's good. Still hot lol. Buckle up for the story:

Basically I got a parcel delivered to my house which was for his address. So he came to pick it up. Turns out it's the wrong name for his address so we talked about the puzzle of who it was for a little and then just about how we are as I haven't actually seen him since September. And he got kind of embarrassed about telling me this but I convinced him, basically he saw this post on reddit and thought it might be me because it's a young woman who has moved to the same small town we live in and is struggling to make friends and apparently she listed her interests as some kind of film related thing so he thought it sounded like me, but didn't want to bring it up in case it was me and I thought he was snooping! It wasn't me (although need to find her, sounds like we'd be friends!). And then he said he doesn't have a lot of friends and I said I was surprised because he's religious and in my experience when people go to church they have more of an instant community to access. So then we got into a conversation about religion and how he came to be in the church - he was quite wild as a young guy and he's found it mellows him out and helps him be more thoughtful about his actions - but something interesting he said was "I don't feel like I'm a different person to who I was before." He still drinks and goes out with his atheist mates, he just doesn't get absolutely smashed. And he said he hasn't been in a few months so clearly he's not like my neighbour who pickets abortion clinics lol.

So yeah. I don't really know what to do with this information but I thought you'd like an update!

[beautifulpersonpeach]

I like the sound and vibe of On the Street, and I respect and can appreciate J Cole’s writing, but I’m confused about why that was the message chosen for this collab. Army is bombarding comment sections by repeating that it’s a ‘see you later’ song because Hobi is enlisting, but other than the chorus, what about these lyrics conveys that message? Their verses feel like they belong to separate songs to me. I’m not trying to be disrespectful, facetious, condescending, or sarcastic here, I really am confused and would like to understand, and I would appreciate any insights you might be willing to share.

I did see one comment on YouTube that said: “I heard someone say they wanted a second verse from J Hope but then they realized he did give us a second verse… in his first language, dance. And he did it beautifully” and I think this is my favorite take so far. Thank you for your time (sorry if this ask is dumb).

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Ask 2: Can you pls review On The Street BPP?

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Ask 3: Oh Hobi T T... OH JUNG HOSEOK T T... Oh this song T T...,,, Ugh my heart! Our sunshine, thank you for this wonderful music, experience, and feelings. You got me to the finals. I hope you can watch after me today, too. lol I LOVE YOU JUNK HOSEOK. I hope you are happy. I hope your toughest struggle is something you can overcome. I hope your sweetest memories have people who truly love you to share with if you so wish. Hope the world to you J-HOPE!!!!

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Ask 4: I don't want to be rude but "as the moon jumps over the cow"??? Wut?? Isn't J Cole supposed to be some good lyricist? I saw khh and kpop fans questioning this collab and this lyric in particular and I think they're right. BTS should stop giving khh a bad name because now people will hate kpop.

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Ask 5: Hi BPP, a lot of people are offended over J.Cole’s verse on atheists being stupid for not believing in a higher people, which further proves to me that they take everything a person says to be something to be Personally offended over, not an honest expression of ones thoughts. And why I think a reason why so many arent listening to true hiphop, true rap, the same ones that the rap line no doubt listened to… It just symbolises to me that these same people are so used to the sanitized version of music that a lot of kpop produces too because jcole’s verse wasnt even that bad honestly… i don’t know, it just came across to me as the same reaction religious people will have when you tell them god doesn’t exist, and a lot of people wont take issue with that too. I know I don’t as someone who belives in a god same way I don’t care that jcole thinks atheists are stupid lool I don’t know im just seeing the hypocrisy and them being unable to let art be art, let music be music.

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Ask 6: heyya bbp~!

first of all, congrats to our hobi for another great track!!! haven’t been able to stop looping it bcuz it’s that good!! not only is army loving it, i’ve also seen jcole fans saying good things too and some really checked out hobi’s discography and were impressed,,which is what i’d call a successful collab! out of curiosity i checked the khiphop reddit to read what theyre reactions are but no surprise they only praised jcole and wanted other khiphop artists to have done it instead of hobi hah! i’m surprised that they’re still as snooty towards k-idols turned rappers,,but at the same time snooty ppl be snooty lol. but i’m curious if korean khiphop fans are still turning away the rapline’s work? esp hobi since he’s really made an effort to flex his skills in jitb,,i only ever seen ifans’ opinions and they’re hardly the representative when it comes to khiphop hah!

ofc whatever they’re opinions are it doesn’t impact hobi and suga and rm’s work in the long run,,especially since they’ve earned enough respect from their idols to be able to work with them,,i’m just curious! thankss bpp!

***

These six asks more or less cover the range of questions I've been getting, so I've collated selected asks here to answer all at once. :)

Hi Anon(s),

I'll try to keep this short.

Overall and Abridged Review: On The Street for me is a solid 10/10.

The Lyrics (as I understand them)

Anon in Ask 1, first I’d like to refer you to Hobi’s interview in Variety where he talks about the song (linked here) and I’ve posted an excerpt screenshot below.

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Personally, rather than On The Street having a ���see you later” message (probably inferred from Hobi waving goodbye to a kid in the opening scene), I see it more as a song marking a pivotal moment in both Hobi and Cole’s careers, as Hobi reflects on the paths he has walked to this point even as he continues on this street called life, and J. Cole wonders out loud if it’s time for a change, to grow beyond his identity as a rapper. It only feels like a “see you later” song in the sense that it will be a companion song, for me personally, while Hobi serves and until he returns from enlistment. I agree with the interpretation in the YouTube comment that Hobi is also storytelling/writing his second verse through dance while J. Cole is rapping, and that this is a beautiful way to see it too - but I’ll expound more on this below in Dance and the Message.

Anon in Ask 4, J. Cole is a brilliant lyricist and it’s funny you mentioned that line in particular because when I first heard it I nearly burst out laughing at how witty and brilliant it is. That line is an example of a classic Jermaine pun. I’ll explain: A lot of people grew up learning nursery rhymes, and one of the more popular ones I recall is Hey Diddle Diddle, which has the rhyme “the cow jumped over the moon”. This nursery rhyme is also the source of the English expression to be “over the moon” I.e. excited, elated, happy. J. Cole took that children’s rhyme and flipped it on it’s head to then mean the passage of time, “as the moon jumps over the cow”. He uses it to express time passing merrily for him as he contemplates his next career move. It’s also an absolutely brilliant way to rhyme with the previous bar that ends in “Golden Corral” (which is easily one of the sickest burns in his verse).

Anon in Ask 5, I agree with you almost fully. Outrage is the name of the game and has been the zeitgeist for at least 5 years now. Like what are you doing on the internet in 2023 if you’re not here annoyed, mocking something, being critical, and raging about something else? Even if that something is another autonomous human being expressing their opinion on God on their own song… Personally, when I come across HCP personalities online, I ignore them. If they interact with me I tell them they’ll somehow find a way to manage and cope, and we’ll all be alright in the end. In the case of this song, ignore them. They'll deal.

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Dance and the Message (as I understand it)

Hobi's verse in this song is only 8 bars. J-hope practically gifts this song to J. Cole who spits 32 solid bars on this track. We all know J. Cole - a veteran in the rap game who has earned respect from everyone from Hov, Ye, Kendrick, down to avantgarde heavyweights like Jay Electronica - is one of Hobi's idols and so it's heartwarming to see the way Hobi expresses his respect for J. Cole, dancing underground while J. Cole raps on top of a building with nothing but the sky above him.

J-Hope dances the entirety of J. Cole's verse, just feeling himself, losing himself to the music while his idol spits fire. It's so fucking decadent. At the end of J. Cole's verse, Hobi walks out of the subway and climbs to the top to meet J. Cole as equals.

Hobi begins the song in an NYC alley that opens up into a main street where Hobi performs the song's main choreography on. This is the same location in J. Cole's Simba - the song that starts the Simba trilogy in J. Cole's discography, which was the first main track on J. Cole's debut mixtape The Come Up that established him as a force to be reckoned with on the American rap scene at only 22 years old. The setting alone is a callback and homage to J. Cole's beginnings, on which Hobi raps about his own path, wanting to repay those who have helped formed him into what he is, and the hope he has going forward.

Hobi has done something like this before, calling his first mixtape Hope World reminiscent of J. Cole's debut studio album called Cole World.

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The Media and the Message (as I understand it)

One thing I absolutely adore about BTS's songs and music videos, is that they infuse them with the sort of depth that only comes from intimately knowing and respecting the subject matter, and they do so in such a subtle way that it's obvious they expect whoever is watching to actually know both the artist and the subject. They don't spoon-feed anything to the viewer, just present the art as is and if you've done your homework, that means you're their target audience and you're right in the middle of it with them. In the Variety interview I linked above, J-hope references his documentary (Anon who sent me the ask to review it, I've only seen clips and I'm yet to watch the full thing. When I do, I'll write about it 💜), where it shows Hobi meeting J. Cole and how he struggles but ultimately communicates his adoration and respect to Jermaine, and how Jermaine graciously receives it.

Take for instance how Hobi approached Chicken Noodle Soup originally by Bianca a.k.a. Young B who at the time she made that song and its iconic choreo, was only 16 years old. The song went viral but most of the royalties went to her uncle and she received almost nothing, she never got signed to a label, and was so badly burned by the industry that she only attempted making music again nearly 10 years after Chicken Noodle Soup. Hobi credits that song as one of the catalysts that sparked his love for hip hop and street dance. He reached out to Bianca and paid full rights (not just for a sample), to her (not her uncle), to use the song, and the music video is peppered with references to Harlem, NYC, where the song and dance originated. Showing that level of courtesy to smaller Black artists is rare in the US and virtually unheard of in Korea where the Korean hiphop (KHH) community is more notorious for wearing Black drag and appropriating a history of violence and a wealth of culture that they know absolutely nothing about, except that it looks cool.

When k-pop stans wax lyrical about how BTS is racist or does a Blaccent (this personally makes me chuckle because the people you often see saying this are white people who couldn't tell you the difference between an affected accent by a non-native speaker and a Blaccent if each slapped them on either side of their face), or that BTS doesn't have the respect of the Korean (or American) hip hop scene, et cetera, I chuckle and move on. Because as I've said, none of these people actually know what they're talking about.

The OGs of the KHH scene recognized the talent of BTS's rapline since debut, and have only expressed more respect for BTS as the years have gone by. I'm talking Tablo, the rest of Epik High, Tiger JK, etc. The Jay Parks of the world took some time to catch up, and if 'studio picture-gate' is any indication, they too have quickly come around to recognizing where they fit in the landscape relative to BTS. Rappers are generally egotistical people. They usually spend their time rapping about how they're the shit. What earns you respect is if you can actually back that shit up. And once you have that respect, you don't feel threatened by another rapper because you know anyone who gets to the top has had to earn it. It's what informs the mindset of "real recognize real". Namjoon, Yoongi, and Hoseok passed that hurdle, in my opinion, way back in 2016 with the release of Cypher Pt 4. Everything they've done since then is just jarra. And those at the very top, the Black rappers who imbibe the culture and history of rap music, have long recognized the rapline of BTS for what they are.

Personally, I love the song. The music, the whistling, the chord progression, the jazz and acoustic guitar instrumentation. Everything about it is perfect.

On The Street is an excellent example of what sets BTS apart from other idols and artists in Korea for me. This is a song conceived 100% in the mind of Jung Hoseok, and the seamlessness in execution, the maturity inherent in the respect paid to those whose music and culture they use as a medium, is present at every single point in the song. It's tastefully done, and 100% driven by the artist, and all I can do in the face of art like this, is respect it.

[sailorsenshishitposter]

MGR office au part 8

Thanks to mymakuu for drawing what gave me the inspiration for this

Link to previous parts

Office AU 

1 https://www.tumblr.com/sailorsenshishitposter/738256876029018112/mgr-office-au-part-1?source=share

2 https://www.tumblr.com/sailorsenshishitposter/738256879968468992/mgr-office-au-part-2-electric-boogaloo?source=share

3 https://www.tumblr.com/sailorsenshishitposter/738256883048169472/mgr-office-au-part-3-a-day-in-the-life-of?source=share

4 https://www.tumblr.com/sailorsenshishitposter/738256886292463616/mgr-office-au-part-4-a-day-in-the-life-on?source=share

5 https://www.tumblr.com/sailorsenshishitposter/738256889652084736/mgr-office-au-part-5-a-day-in-the-life-of?source=share

6 https://www.tumblr.com/sailorsenshishitposter/738256893000220672/mgr-office-au-part-6-a-day-in-the-life-of?source=share

7 https://www.tumblr.com/sailorsenshishitposter/738256896263389184/mgr-office-au-part-7-a-day-in-the-life-of-steven?source=share

Everyone is at the arcade. They are about to witness the fight of their lives. But first off, how did it come to this?

Zoom backwards to a week ago. Raiden is hanging out at Desperado with his new friend Sam. The Brazilian man was like an affectionate cat and would just not leave him alone until he gave in. They met for coffee and it turns out that they had more in common than he thought. Raiden agreeded to starting a friendship with Sam as long as the man managed to keep his horniness contained. Sam didn't know how he was going to pull this one off but he desperately needed to be with said twink so he would play along if he had to.

One day Raiden was sitting next to Sam at the office. Armstrong hasn't arrived yet so they have some free time. Monsoon looked over only to notice that his colleague was applying smokey eye shadow to the cyborg that he had been constantly drooling over. "Disgusting..." he muttered. Raiden stood up causing Sam to almost poke his eye out with the brush. He walked over to Monsoon. "You got a problem with me!?"

Raiden could never tell what the cyborg was thinking due to his face being covered by some sort of gigantic headset. "Yes I do. The both of you make me sick! Love is a disease that I refuse to partake in. If the two of you want to make out then happily do it somewhere else!" Raiden was stunned. "Sam, I thought I told you that you can't say we're dating or I'll have to hang your ass over my mantle as written in our agreement!" He got ready to use Zandatsu.

The Brazilian huffed. "No I didn't say anything of the sort blondie. As much as I would love to screw your brains out, I need my money maker. How am I supposed to make money on my second job if you take that away from me?" The rest of the group turned to look at Sam. "What is it that you do again?" asked Sundowner. "Onlyfans." Mistral laughed. "Of course he does."

"This is serious you guys!" proclaimed Raiden. "Why the hell do you think I'd date him of all people?" (The sound of a heart being broken like shattered glass could be heard). Now it was Monsoon's turn to retort. "War is a cruel parent but an effective tea-" Everyone groaned. "Just cut to the chase already!"

The cyborg chuckled. I have a proposition for you. Maybe we can settle our differences, man to man." Raiden was curious. "And how do you suppose we do that?" Monsoon grinned with his massive rabbit teeth. "Dance Dance Revolution!" Everyone started to gasp like a enthusiastic crowd. "Okay. Let's say I play your stupid little dance game. What do I win?"

He stroked his chin. "I suppose the winner shall choose." The rest of the group yelled immediately for his internet privellges to be revoked. Something about their data plan costing them a fortune and how no one wants to hear atheist memes that Monsoon stole from reddit. "Fine. I guess I'll take you up on your offer. Now what do you chose?"

Monsoon was going to be a little shit and ruin Raiden's day. "If you really don't feel the same way for Sam then go out on a date with him. That shouldn't be a problem right?" He grinned. Raiden wasn't expecting that. "What is wrong with you!? May I remind everyone that I'm married?" Sam immediately interjected. "IT'S TOO LATE PRETY BOY, YOU ALREADY AGREED TO THIS!"! Raiden sighed.

"Alright then, see you at the arcade tomorrow evening. I think I'll help Sam pick out your dress for date night." Monsoon walked away cackling. It was back to project diva for him. Raiden looked like he wanted to slaughter the rest of the group. Sam then came behind him and gave a small poke. "I know this isn't the best time for this but here's my card. For you, it's free."

Alright, now you're caught up.

Raiden and Sam walked towards the arcade Monsoon had picked. This weird place called the Crown Game Center. "Whatever" Raiden huffed. "Let's just get this over with." Sam had changed out of his exoskeleton suit and now donned a cheer leader uniform. It seemed like he was going to be the only one interested in tonight's outcome. They walked up to the rest of the gang. Monsoon was beaming while Mistral and Sundowner seemed as if they had been dragged here against their will (they had) and like they wanted to go home.

"Well, we'll if it isn't Jack. Here to give up before being beat?" Raiden grumbled. "Hardly. I'm here to put an end to this." Monsoon laughed. "We'll see about that." As the others were distracted, Sundowner grabbed Mistral and shook her. "Hey lady, we can leave now, they ain't gonna notice that we're gone." He was just about to head towards the exit when he noticed the prize selection.

"Well I'll be damned. They got themselves a real poo-chi!" Mistral turned towards her coworker. "What are you talking about?" Sundowner then explained to her about the trend of robotic dog toys of the 2000's. "You know we have Bladewolf at home right?" The grown man pouted. "But it can communicate through its beady lil' eyes and you can starve it!" Mistral sighed. "First off, you can't starve something that doesn't have the ability to eat. Secondly, you sound like a horrible pet owner and third, you're lucky that I happen to be fond of dogs."

"I'll see how much the little son of a bitch costs. Damn. 30,000 tickets. How are we gonna get it?" Mistral looked over to the mini game section. "I have an idea. Follow me." Raiden was looking through the song selection. "So who picks first?" The cyborg snickered. "I think I'll let the loser choose first." Raiden was so irritated that his claws started to graze the screen. He then proceeded to pick Butterfly by Smile.dk. Monsoon turned to face him. "A wise choise but I'm still going to win this."

The song began to play and it seemed as if they were evenly matched. Sam couldn't help but notice the lyrics being about a samurai and desperately hoped that Raiden had dedicated it to him (he hadn't. Raiden was just a weeb who liked katanas). Eventually Raiden was gaining the upper hand. "WAY TO GO BLONDIE!" Sam then remembered what would happen should the cyborg win. "I mean c'mon Monsoon! I know you can beat that twink!"

Raiden was caught by surprise. "Fuck you Sam!" He hadn't noticed how hard he began to stomp in his clawed high heels. "So you want to be on top eh?" the man said suggestively. Raiden was close to losing it. Suddenly there was a loud metallic crunch. "Shit!" The game immediately turned off. "Anyone know what we should do in this kind of situation?" Sam then interjected. "Let's just move to a different machine and if anyone asks, we blame it on someone else." There was no way he was letting the match end with no winner. "Hey, what happened to the others?"

Mistral had taken Sundowner to one of those basket ball games. "Watch this." Mistral then took a ball and got a perfect shot with one of her dwarf gekko arms. She then tossed a ball towards Sundowner. 'Now you try." You would think that being so tall that he would have an easy time but no. He somehow managed to miss every time. "You're useless! Go find another way to make tickets!" She pushed him away and then filled all her arms with basket balls, perfectly aiming every shot. Tickets were soon piling up.

"Damn basketball. I know they say it's American but I know it really comes from those commie fruit cakes in Canada!" Sundowner then bumped into an arcade machine. "Wouldja look at that! They even got themselves house of the dead! Say what you will about the Japanese, their killin' games make up for pearl harbour!" He then inserted a coin and got ready to start blasting.

Now it was Monsoon's turn to pick a song. He passed through each track, seeming like he was deeply lost in his thoughts. Then he picked kimono princess by JUN. "Get ready to lose!" Sam groaned. He was a samurai but he could only take so much of seeing Japanese culture viewed through an anime lens. "What is with these weebs? Oh well. At least one of them is cute." he thought to himself.

Soon loud music began blairing. "This is way too fast!" Raiden yelped. "I don't think this song is possible for a human to beat!" He just hoped that it would leave Monsoon as winded as he was. He looked over and saw the cyborg had split his body apart so he had more limbs to hit the notes on time. Raiden then decided that if Monsoon would cheat, then so would he. He took out an EMP grenade and tossed it.

"What? What's happening to me!?" Everything soon clicked in his head. "THIS ISN'T FAIR JACK!" Raiden laughed while he continued to dance as Monsoon was completely still. "I don't think we ever established any rules. Also weren't you the one using your weird Magneto powers?" Monsoon grit his teeth. "IT'S CALLED LORENTZ FORCE AND YOU WILL RESPECT IT!"Suddenly the cops showed up. It turns out that someone had seen them damage the machine on the security moniter and called for backup.

Police then took Monsoon out piece by piece while Raiden let himself be escorted out. "Please just take me to jail so I can get away from him!" The van drove off and soon Sam was all alone. "Damn it! I'll just have to try harder next time!" Meanwhile Mistral and Sundowner pooled their tickets together. "Alright what can I do for the two of you this evening?" asked the employee.

Sundowner then placed the tickets on the table, causing it to shake from being 50 pounds worth of paper. "As a matter o' fact, I'd like one poo-chi please." The employee knew it was going to be "one of those" situations. "I'm sorry sir but we're all out. You can trade it in for an idog if you'd like." Sundowner looked like he was about to commit mass murder. "The fuck? Who the hell wants some shitty idog? Nobody uses iPods anymore! And I just saw that fucker on the shelf twenty minutes ago!"

The employee sighed. "Sorry sir, it was already purchased by the boy over ther-" Sundowner turned to the child's direction. It was some kid speaking some language that he couldn't understand so he automatically assumed it was "Mexican speak". "Listen here you little shit! If you value that body o' yours you'll know what's good for yeh and gimmie that dog!"

Mistral and Sundowner were now leaving the arcade. I can't believe that's the 5th child you've killed this week." His coworker sighed. She wasn't going to take responsability for this. "I just can't believe it didn't come with batteries. What a waste." Sundowner then threw the toy. His arm was so strong that it managed to find Sam's left butt cheek and bounce off of it, hitting a building, causing it to collapse. The man sighed. "Aye, not again..."

[dogesterone]

laying and bed kicking my feet dreamily cause i love my boyfriend and im gonna infodump about how much i love him

weve been dating nonstop for 8.5 years. he was my first partner ever. he asked me out via tumblr fan mail back when that was still a thing. i genuinely sometimes question if id have ever realized i was trans if i didnt have him in my life. he likes idol rhythm games and kidcore aesthetics and one piece and queer theory and midwest emo music and theatre and poetry and mixed media art and plushies and his moustache that he worked so hard to grow out and his weird haircuts that im always hesitant about but they always grow on me cause i love him and they make him happy. ive recently done a lot of introspection since we started doing a lot of ENM/polyamory stuff and i think ive realized that im honestly just a lesbian with how intensely im attracted to other trans girls but that doesnt matter in regards to my boyfriend because he was, is, and always will be such an important part of my life and makes me so happy that i can't imagine my life without him in it. his body feels so comfortable and familiar pressed up against mine in bed and even if his snoring is really loud i never go sleep in the living room. i am attracted to him in a way that transcends romance and sexuality. he calls me a dyke and a faggot and a tranny in exactly the right way to genuinely make me laugh. we have a cat together. he gave himself a christian name specifically to piss off his reddit atheist dad. i let him complain to me about his shitty coworker and his family and whatever internet discourse is bouncing around his head. his fursona's a cat. his middle name is named after a grateful dead song. he has so many keychains and charms on his car keys that you could beat someone to death with them. he likes littlebigplanet and pokemon mystery dungeon and i think he's just about the only person in the entire world who could explain the onceler fandom in a way that actually makes it sound cool. he is my prince and i am his knightess. his stepdad is japanese so he likes japanese food a lot. his favorite color is yellow.

i love him so so so so so much.

[qweerhet]

frequently, it's Exhausting being at an intersection where i have experienced both "sanist and racist Reddit Atheism lateral violence" and "anti-atheistic and racist Liberated Religion lateral violence" because of the simple fact that both camps are deathly committed to arguing that the other camp does not, in fact, exist in any meaningful way and only exists as singular rude people in individual leftist spaces.

like i truly do not enjoy how this makes me sound like an Enlightened Centrist, but quite frankly i have been in a variety of left-leaning spaces over the course of my life, and there are left-leaning spaces which are run by members of one particular religion (or even, occasionally, have power systems that privilege two, possibly three religions working in conjunction) who use systemic power within that space and use it to oppress atheists and agnostics within that space. and there are also left-leaning spaces which are run by atheists that use systemic power within that space to oppress minority religions, primarily along the axes of sanism and racism, and therefore all non-consensus-reality experiences regardless of religious status.

and like, in both cases, i've experienced institutions being utilized to enforce that oppression--the institution of the church + equivalents in the case of the religious oppression, obvs, and in the case of weaponized atheism, the mental institution and the carceral system (which are so interrelated it feels rather redundant to refer to them separately in this context tbh).

and i think it's extremely unwise to build your entire comprehension of religion + privilege + systems of power from your leftist bubbles, tbh, because that's how you get shit like "christianity is the only religion that has any problems" on the Liberated Religious side, and "anyone who has an experience outside of consensus reality is an agent of oppression" on the other side. like, hyperfocusing on your experience within left-leaning bubbles is to exclude yourself from a more holistic understanding of how religious institutions + systems of power operate worldwide, and how those systems of power are reproduced on smaller scales and within interpersonal relationships.

like, that's all awfully broad, i acknowledge, but it's difficult to get into specifics without missing the forest for the trees once again. when you're tweeting like "and where are these evil anti-atheist members of minority religions who oppress you? are they in the room with us now? you're just mad about being called antisemitic" you're Missing The Forest For The Trees in that, like, "religion" doesn't mean one specific thing and "atheism" doesn't mean one specific thing (they're both extremely general terms for extremely broad concepts that have varying relationships with the concepts of culture + consensus reality + history depending on the context they're being used in!) and maybe atheist jews are also mad at you for erasing the negative experiences atheist jews have in religious jewish spaces when you say that. and sure maybe your social context is primarily made up of dealing with antisemitic shit from white supremacist atheist leftists who utilize power structures to paint targets on the jewish members of your social bubble when religion comes up at all, but also, like, there is absolutely a social context where pretty much every discussion of religion is centered around an institutionally powerful theocracy attacking atheists and leftists utilizing that power structure to oppress atheist leftists within their social bubble.

like--again, i fucking hate how much this makes me sound like an Enlightened Centrist, and on a personal note, i do feel like there is a moral pressure to pick a side, but i really don't think there's "sides" to pick at the end of the day. i think atheist social bubbles, particularly in america, are incredibly vulnerable to hegemonic ideals of sanism and racism, and i think lefty religious social bubbles are incredibly vulnerable to hegemonic ideals of "subtle" conservatism engrained in religious institutions and racism, and i think all of these things are really fucking easy for groups to begin enforcing violently when the groups in question are both violently oppressed and under constant attack from the institutions in power in their particular areas of the world. like, it's so easy to fall back on hegemonic failsafes to protect one's own, and i think the core of this perceived divide is that these groups have high rates of people defensively and publicly participating in oppressive hegemonies to attempt to garner some form of protection from the constant oppression they face, and forming high-control social groupings based around this phenomenon.

[syscourse-confessions]

hey what's up guys welcome to my extremely intelligent syscourse now we're going to talk about tulpa terminology and why this person who is openly pro-endo and has repeated that they have nothing against endogenic or created systems is actually an evil icky 100% malicious sysmed. also i'm never going to say who the person is and just refer to them as "sysmeds" because if i did then you could verify that they are doing this in good-faith and that would invalidate half my argument.

see they, as a buddhist, said tulpa terminology harms them, but they didn't tell me their specific ethnicity and branch of buddhism so their voice does not matter at all and my white american probably atheist opinion matters more and is super correct. also these people who did tell me their specific ethnicity and branch of buddhism don't count because i have a singular guy who made a reddit AMA.

but oh, don't accuse US of moving the goalpost, obviously it's them because a completely unrelated group of people talked about the harm the word "endogenous" has caused to people with DID in the past and i don't like the strawman version i made up in my head.

you see, all of this is verifiable by the sources i happen to never link in my posts and only vaguely gesture towards existing, and/or the way i type it in a tone that makes me sound reasonable while portraying actual people of colour as super mean and stupid non-tibetans who are taking advantage of the poor baby minorities. oh and i could never take advantage of minorities guys, ignore the old religious leader on the other side of the planet who doesn't know what i'm talking about that i bring up every 3 business days.

that's it for today, come back next time for me using explicitly racist rhetoric and tone policing people of colour when they get upset about it!

💛

💛 - Satire

[lemonhemlock]

Thoughts on Maegor i and Aenys i ?

not a ton of super developed thoughts, but i did ponder a bit on targaryen foundational myths here with the choice of these two very, very different personalities as brothers. i also have a maegor tag for some fun back-and-forth with the ole anons

generally-speaking i enjoy maegor as a character bc he is SO over-the-top and his actions are so tremendously villainous it goes into moustache-twirling territory for me & i can't take him seriously. nearly every paragraph in his story legit makes me want to make the sign of the holy cross on myself. i, a reddit atheist. (jk jk) his stans are very, very strange though. i'm wary of targnation people who say they like maegor; they manage to come up with the most headache-inducing takes.

that being said!!! i feel like there should be more maegor content?? like, there are so many interesting - and dark! - avenues fans could explore via headcanons and fics. for example, i kind of think maegor/rhaena has a lot of potential as the fandom's next problematic ship that could start wars and get people cancelled? off the page she does feel a little like the one who got away in that visenya's marriage proposal between maegor and rhaena gets rejected, but he still ends up marrying her. you could even say he goes out of his way to do it?? by killing her brother-husband and defying the Faith's dogma (yet again!!) to marry her?? he even names her daughter aerea as his heir??

i mean, he was relentless in trying to get a son of his own, so there wasn't really any need for him to do that. he went so long without a named heir and took three (!) additional wives for this very purpose, so why would he suddenly feel the need to name a little girl? i wonder if he didn't do it out of some sentiment, since that little girl was rhaena's specifically. if he were to die without children, why would he even care who succeeded him anyway? jaehaerys and alysanne were also alive, yet he chose aerea specifically.

also rhaena is said to have tried to kill him during their wedding night, so that sounds pretty spicy! yet maegor with the terrible temper tantrums is not mad at her and names her daughter his heir the next day? while disinheriting jaehaerys? crazy! but! when rhaena flees!! he orders the hightowers to behead rhaella as punishment! what a silly goofy guy hhhehe! idk, i just find it interesting.

maegor also seems to have a bit of a power struggle with alyssa velaryon as well, i'm surprised he didn't try to marry her too. there is something to this idea of maegor ridding himself of his male relatives so as to rule over / control the female members of his family. maegor as the most unlikely (and awful) president of the targaryen ladies fanclub - there's a concept to ruminate over

another one of maegor's marriages which i find under-discussed is his first one, with ceryse hightower. the high septon's niece. not the most well-matched couple, though? she's 23, he's 13. so why? an attempt at assimilation mayhaps? the hightowers trying to integrate the targaryens further into westerosi society? (the faith was opposed to his marriage to rhaena) in any case, they were married for 14 years before maegor got a second wife, yet we have no information on how they got along. ceryse always maintained she was maegor's rightful and only wife. the dynamic with alys and tyanna must have been insane.

to come back a little to aenys. the idea that this weakling king managed to have such a fruitful marriage and sire so many children (and was popular with the ladies too!) whereas maegor was an abject failure in that regard.... lends itself to some narrative irony. :))

[queen-esther]

The more I learn about Christianity the more I become slowly worried that maybe the reddit atheists and feminists are right and that the Church doesn't like you

I know the Church does like you... I just get.. concerned.. sometimes

I'm not saying the feminists are right about how society should be either

But it sounds like women will always get garbage no matter what

At best you will get slightly better garbage than other garbage

Then again, I guess the same goes for all groups of people

Until the Lord comes back we all live in garbage, at best slightly better garbage than the other garbage

Christ knew this world would never be perfect

Sorry for getting existential and philosophical...

Idk, I’m happy with my role in the Church as a woman. 🤷🏼‍♀️