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nexyra · 3 years

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Okay so This is just a way to let out some frustration so I can put it out there and stop mulling on it bc I'm bad at this sort of stuff - Feel free to ignore it

I'm putting this under Read More; if your fav past-time is to call anyone who likes Ironwood's character or was disappointed by his V8 turn to villainy a stupid bootlicker who "should have seen the signs he was always a tyrant !!" please don't interact with this post. You're ultimately free to think what you want but honestly I see enough of that in the main tag when left alone, I don't need it on my blog it doesn't make me feel good.

Anyone else... well you can read if you're interested but you don't have to either. Feel free to respectfully disagree though, I'm not that bullheaded that I can't partake in a friendly argument =) I'll just be listing some things about Ironwood's reading by the FNDM who get old or draining as someone who doesn't like the V8-characterization they went with

Can people please stop just... copy/pasting real world issues on a world/characters that have nothing to do with them or a completely different context ?

Like,, I genuinely try to educate myself on real-world issues. I know I'm rather privileged so I try to listen and hear out people who speak out about the issues they live through day by day. I know why the "ACAB" moniker exists. I understand the problem that lies within the american police system (and likely other countries as well). I see why the army, on our blue planet, is criticized & its many failings. Etc, the list can go on...

But I'm sorry to say, Remnant isn't OUR Earth. Their Army's primary job is to fight actual evil soulless monsters, not people. The Ace Opps or Huntsmen are not an organization directly inherited from slave-hunting groups. James Ironwood isn't the US army general bombing Middle East. Clover Ebi isn't the racist cop you want in prison. So WHY are they treated as such by so many people ? Stories are not a 1-1 where you can take everything you know and just apply it to a completely different world.

Has Atlas been presented as a country that suffers from racism & classism ? Certainly. Has it be shown this way ? That's already more debatable since the only racist arguments we got were in Mantle (which is the city we're supposed to be rooting for so that's a weird choice but eh it's whatever). Are the characters, as persons, shown to evoke these issues in a way that deserve our scorn ? Not really.

Is Ironwood depicted as particularly racist for example ? I wouldn't say so seeing as one (or more considering Tortuga) of his Ace-Opps are Faunus & it seems perfectly accepted; and he hates Jacques Schnee's guts. So why does he get to shoulder all of our real-world issues as if he was responsible for them, in a context where (pre V8) his army had most likely never killed anything else than Grimm and was shown to elicit very positive reactions from most of the population (V3) ? (In direct contrast to the polarization that the US army might evoke for example.)

You can totally hate Ironwood because of the feelings he evoke, the trope he stems from or the parallels to be made. That doesn't mean however, that he IS truly guilty of every one of OUR world issues (pre-V8)

Just because classism is prevalent in Atlas society does not make Ironwood the figurehead & leader of this issue.

Is classism an issue in Atlas ? Yes. That's been made clear because of Mantle's state as well as Jacques Schnee entire existence & even Cinder's backstory. Does that mean every single one of Ironwood's decisions reeks of classism ? NO

Trust me, as someone who found Ironwood's V8 characterization not... well-executed & too much; there's nothing more annoying than being assaulted by posts about his fall going "it was so obvious !! look at -" only for them to then list reasons in a really biased way or even headcannons based on (again) irl problems. An exemple...

Reasons his turn was good that I see thrown around : "Ironwood left Mantle behind because he only wanted to save the rich. He's a selfish coward & an asshole !"

What we were actually given : "Ironwood suffers from PTSD, and faced with Salem's imminent arrival, he tried to save what he was CERTAIN to be able to protect aka the flying city and all the people on it including Mantle evacuees. There is absolutely no text backing the idea that he wanted to leave with Atlas because it's rich. We could even suppose that he would have left with the 'poor' Mantle if it was the flying city and rich people were hanging safely on the ground. There is indeed an issue with Atlas & Mantle disparity, but Ironwood isn't directly responsible for it."

Does that make his decision to leave Mantle behind a morally right one ? That's of course NOT what I'm saying. The situation is still very ambiguous. But the classism theme has NO place here.

"Ironwood leads Atlas & Mantle. As such, he inherently holds responsability for the issues plaguing it." THIS is an acceptable reading according to me. I would probably argue that even if Ironwood's the only Atlas leader we're shown; he actually only oversees the military & academy (where we haven't ever seen classism issues), so putting Atlas' classism issues on him still doesn't sound fair to me. However the idea & argument is sound.

Acknowledging only how his actions look/the tyrannical surface reading and not the reasonnable justifications or glimpses we were given (pre-V7) of Ironwood being more than his trope

I'll probably stop after this one, but the last thing that is both tiring & annoying after too much of it; is seeing people boil down all of Ironwood's character to the most basic summary, inherently written to paint him in a bad line. And then saying that everything led up to his downfall by using these watered-down versions of the show's events to justify it. Or worse (imo), saying that people who are not satisfied with his V8 characterization that THEY don't understand how good a character he is and don't really appreciate him.... All the while only ever highlighting his characters flaws. Please stop this.

"Ironwood brought an army to the peace Olympics why are you surprised he turned out this way ?" ==> Ironwood brought an army to a country where the civilians visibly have no issue with said-army, to protect a peaceful event that he KNOWS to be targeted by foes. It's definitely overzealous & his conviction that threats should be dealt with by blunt force IS one of his flaws; but pretending that he did it for fun or because he's a tyran is just as misplaced.

"Ironwood said he'd shoot Qrow if he were one of his men why are you surprised he shot Oscar ?" ==> Do I really need to flip through every joke in this show and consider it as absolute truth & proof that the character would enact these words if given the occasion; even when we're shown with certainty that they actually don't mean it ? (IW hugging Qrow to welcome him, refusing to attack Qrow when he's certain Qrow IS attacking him...)

"Ironwood has his military all over Mantle, there's a curfew, all of this is tyrannical why are you surprised he's also down for genocide" ==> Damn, it sure is criminal to have Mantle defended from the litteral monsters roaming inside & out, and to make sure with a curfew that the people are not at risk during the night. I wonder if any recent events could make us reconsider our stance on how evil a enforced curfew is. Mhmmm maybe a pandemic ? Nah I must be imagining things. For real though, at what point did Tyrian's framing/lies (IW has his soldiers all over Mantle because of politics/he's a tyran who refuses opposition) became the truth of the situation for the FDNM too ? Again Mantle's situations SUCK, and that's a problem in itself. Making up problematic reasoning for the situation is dishonest though.

To end this, I'll just make clear. I do not condone any of Ironwood's actions post-V7. I don't think he had to be the big hero of the Atlas arc. Nor that he was without faults. I merely think that he'd have been a better antagonist than villain. And that it'd have been nice to keep the ambiguity/morally greyness that surrounds him; the knowledge that he's TRYING hard to do what's best for everyone; that he has good intentions. That he cares about individuals too to a lesser degree, and that he had people who cared about him as a person.

For short... Ironwood as an antagonist with understandable issues, flaws & failures; making questionable choices but with good intentions ? Hell yeah. Ironwood as a villain, more irredeemable than Hazel, willing to kill people for NO reason or even wipe out a city ? I'm not convinced.

#rwby #rwde #rwby thoughts #rant #fndm discourse #james ironwood #pro ironwood #canoncrit ironwood

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diamondsableye · 3 years

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“Depressed? Just be happy!!

ADHD? Just pay attention!!

Autism? Socializing isn’t that hard!!

Gender dysphoria? Just be happy in your body!!

Y’all do realize like... that’s not how things work right?”

Hi. You left the above comment on some anti-gender post and I just want to let you know that you’re fucking stupid and you have no clue what “TERFs” think if this is what you have to say. We’re not saying “be happy in ur body uwu self love” we’re telling you that a woman’s only criteria for being a woman is her femaleness. Mental illness sucks. Depression sucks. Anxiety sucks. OCD sucks. Gender dysphoria sucks. None of these are things guaranteed to be cured by just sheer force of will and 99.99% of (real) feminists agree. There’s no magic cure for any of these, not even altering genitals or taking HRT will cure gender dysphoria. The best we have is therapy and meds to help. But even if you’re taking ADHD meds, you’re still a person with ADHD. Even if you have gender dysphoria, you’re not magically the opposite sex, and gender is a sexist social construct. Maybe you should stick your head out the window every once and a while and see how not black and white the world is.

Listen I just found out that my cat has cancer so I really don’t want to have to deal with you more than I have to. I came back onto this app to quickly chat with a friend and I’ve got work to do so this response is gonna be very short.

First of all, stop treating medical transitioning with such disregard. Of course they don’t “cure” gender dysphoria but these procedures are a huge advancement in medical technology and they’re extremely effective at reducing gender dysphoria in a myriad of ways. So don’t phrase it as some nilly whilly thing.

Secondly, you do do realize that sex is measured through the observation of 5 different traits correct? Chromosomes, gonads, hormones, and internal and external reproductive anatomy/the primary and secondary sex characteristics. You can change your hormonal sex through HRT and you can get surgeries to alter your primary and secondary sex characteristics as well as modify or remove your internal reproductive organs. Really the only thing that can’t truly be changed in some way shape or form are your chromosomes. So like... unless you’re gonna argue metaphysics here along the lines of “once your birth sex always your birth sex”.... you’re kindof... incorrect here? Sure you can never be cis, but biological sex is modifiable to various degrees. Again, if you’re gonna challenge this you’re arguing metaphysics when we’re discussing biology.

Also you do realize that currently it’s impossible to determine accurately how intrinsic gender is to the human condition right? You’re kindof making an assertion here without any evidence. We live in an incredibly gendered society and unless we’d be willing to subjugate humans to little or no contact to the outside world or other people starting from birth, we’re unable to truly determine how much of gender is purely socially constructed, how much of it is internally produced, or how immutable it may be. Are gender roles sexist and should be done away with? Of course. Is gender identity completely created through society or is it more innate? We don’t know and we can’t tell for sure.

Anyhow all that aside, even if I was wrong on every single point here, my initial argument is still valid. If you recognize that gender dysphoria is harmful and can severely damper a person’s ability to pursue a meaningful existence in certain cases, but the only words of sympathy are “yeah well it sucks but you’ll never be a real woman/man” then...???? You’re just... leaving people to themselves and expecting them to get over it. Many if not all trans people have an irrepressible need to be the gender they identify with and internally are, that need demands that they be seen as their gender within social contexts, and causes great harm when that need is not met. It would be like if you told me, an autistic person, that “sure it sucks that you’re an aspie, but you’ll never be a neurotypical” and I’m saying yes! I know! And that fact does distress me because people on the spectrum often face great negative stigma in society, and that’s maybe 1/100th of what trans people go through! You’d still be doing absolutely nothing to actually help and if anything you’d be making me worse if you kept insisting that no matter what I’d never be mentally healthy! It might be true but it’s totally uncalled for and ignores a fuckload of broader needs!

If you’re doing absolutely nothing to help, and if the most prominent leaders of your movement are doing their best to revoke the rights of health and safety that trans people need, while also denying them their identity, a key component to their health and happiness, then how is that any different than telling them to “get over yourself, just be fine as your agab”??? Like I’m very baffled that you don’t see the demonstrable harm you guys are doing to trans people, either that or you just don’t care?? Either way, you’re not helping, you’re hurting people, and EVEN IF my analogy was flawed, maybe stop perpetuating ideology and supporting movements that demonstrably hurt trans people instead of focusing on a fucking reply I left on a goddamn post.

@terf-tips @reptile-lesbian

If you all would like to add anything feel free, I need to finish some last minute college assignments.

#ask #answered #reply #terf tw #fuck terfs #terfs dni #transphobia #trans discourse #tw trans discourse #text #anon

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dreamydrarry · 7 years

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the hilltop scene in Snape’s Pensieve memories in DH really pisses me off. now, i couldn’t care less if you’re pro-Snape or pro-Dumbledore in this situation, because it still sucks either way. let me explain:

so Snape is telling Dumbledore that he told Voldemort about everything he heard of Trelawney’s prophecy/prediction and how Voldemort comes to the conclusion that it must be Lily’s son, which means he will hunt all of the Potters down. now, i get it, it’s Snape’s fault for telling him, blah blah blah... but regardless, in this moment of weakness, Snape goes to Dumbledore and begs for help.

to which Dumbledore is basically like “well, damn, Sev, if she means so much to you, ask him to spare her and just kill her son.”

and Snape says, “i tried!”

and then Dumbledore is all shocked like, “wowwwwwwww!!! you disgust me. i cant believe you actually did what i suggested...”

then Snape replies, “hide them all, then! keep all of them safe! please!”

but fuckin Dumbledouche can’t just do a nice and super important favor. even if Album Dumbledork didn’t like Several Snake, he’d still be doing the world a favor by saving the Potters and their newborn baby, who Dumbledore knows from the prophecy is a big fuckin deal

no. instead, he says, “and what will you give me in return, Severus?”

bitch... excuse you? we aren’t trading our favorite chocolate frog cards here, we’re talking about saving a family that includes the boy who will one day save the wizarding world from the monster of a man that YOU are having ME risk MY life by secretly being a spy on the other side so that you twats can have the inside scoop on what they’re up to.

that fact that Severus loved Lily is the whole reason this whole thing is brought up in the first place, and i totally get that, but once Dumbledore hears that Harry of all people is in danger, the whole Severus/Lily thing should have been completely irrelevant. at that point, it shouldn’t have been viewed as a favor for Snape. it should have been a task that Dumbledore instinctively decided to help with on his own.

there should have never been a factor of, “and what do i get out of this?”

#i dont want any comments like YEAH WELL SNAPE WAS A GROWN MAN WHO BULLIED KIDS because that is NOT relevant here ok #feel free to completely take this post out of context and argue stupid arguments because im sure there will always be one of THOSE #harry potter #albus dumbledore #severus snape #mine

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tellywoodtrash · 6 years

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status update:

So, I got a few friendly, good-natured asks on how I was doing, and what’s up with my life (work, Chandler, etc.), so I suppose this is as good a time to tell everyone: I quit my job earlier this week.

Early followers of the blog may be aware that this blog started as an attempt to find some kinda peace during some very trying times in my life. Since then, I’ve been burning the candle at both ends (I guess, in some kinda misguided attempt to move on with life) and... it’s finally caught up with me. I’m fucking exhausted and at a breaking point. Physically. Mentally. Emotionally. ('Spiritually. Ecumenically. Grammatically.' Name that movie!) And so, I'm giving myself a break and am going to be taking some time off to focus on my mental health.

However, this hasn’t been an easy decision to make, as it means bye-bye financial independence and my ~~riproaring Sex And The City life (snort, NOT) and that I will now have to pack up my entire life and leave the country I (and Chandler!) call home. So the next few days will be even rougher; full of transition and second-guessing myself. But in the long run, I think I need to do this now before things get much worse.

Poor Chandler has no idea what’s coming up; that he’s about to be unceremoniously stuffed into a box and flown many thousand miles to a whole new country, with strange new smells and creatures (including my relatives who will want to come around every now and then and friendly-ly harass our socially anxious butts.) I just hope we both survive this move!

As for what it means for the blog, it’ll mostly be business as usual, I suppose. I will have more free time, but it’s going to be invested in moving, and settling in, and recovery (first I have to recover from the moving and settling in, and only then can I focus on *actual* recovery) so... I’ll do as much as I can. Yes, there's lots of new shows, most of them better than IB, and I might wanna watch them too, but.... idk, I don't seem to have it in me right now to get invested in a whole... new.... thing. We'll see once I'm properly settled into a restful routine where I don't feel so battered in the brain. On the plus side, moving to India means proper access to Hotstar and Sony Liv and alllllllll the platforms; I won’t have to jump through hoops and diddle around with VPNs to access what I wanna watch! Yaaaaaaay!

There are a few things blog-wise that I just have to address though, because they’re srsly stressing me out a lot lately:

Messages asking me to explain WHY stakeholders in the industry (actors, makers, the channel) make the decisions they do. Bhai main kahan un sab ke ghar ya boardroom mein ghussi baithi hoon, ki mujhe pakka pata hoga???? All I can do is speculate like the rest of you. Which is what I do. I look at the facts that I do have (social media posts, TRP reports, etc.) and put out MY theory. But it’s all it is. A theory. I do not have any kind of information that you also do not have access to. Asking me to explain the inner workings of complete strangers' minds is just nonsensical. I do not have the complete information based on which I can give you an accurate answer. So please just stop asking me these. At this point, idek why *I* do half the things I do, let alone have any surety of anyone else’s decisions.

Complaints. Look, all of us have complaints about the shitshow that is IB, and the Tellywood industry at large, and its affairs both off-screen and on-screen. But just think of my plight when news breaks/an episode airs and I get like 10 anons in an hour, most of which are filled with cribbing. OVER SOMETHING I DON’T HAVE ANY CONTROL. You have all the right to complain, sure, but not IN MY INBOX. I only publish about 30 - 40% of the asks that I actually do receive, and because of that you may think that you’re the only person sending in this to me; but trust that more often that not, you’re not. I most probably have already received least 5 messages about it, in varying degrees of negative, and it’s exhaaaaaausting for me to wade through it all.

"Asks” that are just STATEMENTS, with no real question to them. I get these and whether I agree with your statement or not, my only reaction is “.... haan, toh???” What really is the point of these? I have nothing to contribute to them. It’s just YOU deciding that your opinion is sooooooo important that you must come tell ME it. In my inbox. On anon. Which is not just stupid, but also RUDE af. What you're doing is the equivalent of going and ringing the doorbell of a stranger's house and monologuing in their face about a random topic when they open the door. Like, I literally did not ask?????? Especially since you’re on anon and I have absolutely no personal equation with you. By having an open inbox, I didn't consent to being the receptacle of every opinion wrt Tellywood under the sun. Like, the whole point of this blog is so I can shout MY dumbass opinions into the void that is the internet without bothering anyone else about things they might not care about/agree with. Anyone who follows/engages with me is here by THEIR choice. Why don’t you do the same? Go make your own blog, instead of using mine. There’s only place for one person here on this blog, and that’s me. Please read your messages before sending them and ask yourselves: Does my tone/content leave anything open for discussion? (FYI: Just putting a question mark at the end of a sentence does not make an engaging question that opens up a discussion.) What contribution am I inviting from the recipient with this message? If the answer is “no”/"nothing", then please don't send it.

The rise of combative and contrary asks; ones that don't come out of a genuine curiosity, but with the intent to mindlessly argue, talk in circles without a point and overall, and just belittle the opinions I’ve expressed by engaging in whataboutery. There's a point at which "healthy discussion" ends, and "debating" starts, and I’m not here to engage in Debate Hour. The open askbox (or replies function) is NOT an invitation to pick at ONE sentence of some post (often missing the context; those other sentences are there for a reason y'know) and demand explanations from me, for which I have to then bend over backwards to clarify to some random faceless person on the internet. Not only does it take tremendous amounts of time and energy (for what is largely a pointless endevour: these people aren't really here to have an exchange of ideas or even try to see my point of view, they're just trying to force THEIR contrary opinion ON me), it really sucks the joy out of the blog for me. Look, I am not an idiot. I can correlate writing patterns and associate them with previously seen comments/opinions and make educated guesses on who these may be coming from. I've been holding off on blocking anyone yet, but these comments and asks have me seriously considering it. (And FYI: blocking an anon blocks you via IP address. So don't think ki 'oh ho ho, I can just hide under the anon function, coz that has no consequences.' All you'd be doing is proving my guesses right, as to who is whom.) I don't WANT TO go to such extents, and want this still to be a place where people can approach me, but this gross disrespect of my time and boundaries is beginning to wear on me now. Before coming at me, please think to yourself if what you're saying is actually necessary. If it's just a passive-aggressive counter-argument to my opinion that's all conjecture/opinion (i. e. things without factual basis and based on feelings) then please; you're very welcome to whatever you believe, but I don't care. If I wanted your opinion, I’d ask for it. If I care for your opinion, I will engage with your posts (by liking or commenting or reblogging or sending you my love in your inbox.) I just really really don’t care what anyone's opinion ON MY OPINION is. Please stop being contrary just the sake of it and ruining my day and mood. Go chronicle your opinions on your blog/twitter/whatever, instead of using MY blog as a platform and arm-twisting me into participating in this unpleasant exchange. I just don't have have the energy or interest to engage in this fuckery anymore.

Look you guys, I love getting stuff in the askbox. I do. If I didn’t, I’d just have closed the askbox and called it a day. I’m just asking that you be a little THOUGHTFUL about the recipient, me, AS AN ACTUAL LIVING PERSON WITH FEELINGS AND A LIMITED AMOUNT OF ENERGY AND TIME, instead of some kinda faceless robot who just processes your messages in binary and spits out an answer. Before engaging, please re-read your message to consider your tone and content and the impact on the person on the other end. Despite this request, if you just decide to engage in the above mentioned ways, I’m sorry in advance if you end up getting blocked; but things have reached a point where I have to look out for myself, and my comfort, and what I want from this space. I would like this blog to be source of joy in my (and others’!) life, not something that I feel resentful about, or as a source of draining what little energy I have left.

Sooooooo, that’s how it is! Things should be the same around here barring some periods of inactivity occasionally due to moving/spotty internet (but the queue should be running anyway.) A lot less negativity and gloom, hopefully! Wish me (and Chandler!!!!!) luck and please send us all your good, restful, soft and fluffy vibes!

(The restful slumber of a poor fluffy bastard who has NOOOOOOOOO idea of what the next few weeks have in store for him.)

#status update

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jaywill7497 · 5 years

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Did You See It? QAnon and Pizzagate Made Debut On NCIS: New Orleans Last Night - What Are They Trying To Tell Us? (Video)

Programming like Law & Order and NCIS and their numerous, countless redundancies are, thanks to their rapid turnaround time, precisely suited to commenting on the testimonies, crimes, and conspiracies catching the public’s interest. SVU, for instance, just did an episode about the violent “incel” community, and at this point NCIS: New Orleans is out here name-dropping conspiracy theories like QAnon and Pizzagate. Journalist Travis View, who addresses far-right extremity, spotted and tweeted out the context-free clip early today. QAnon was mentioned on last night's episode of NCIS: New Orleans. In a short scene an exasperated QAnon skeptic argues with with a guy who's semi-redpilled on QAnon. This argument then irritates a normie. I feel so SEEN. pic.twitter.com/h2zSq99hv9 — Travis View (@travis_view) February 20, 2019 For anybody feeling totally displaced: QAnon (deep breath) is a labyrinthian far-right conspiracy publishing that everybody is a pedophile and that Special Counsel Robert Mueller is looking at Democrats, not Trump, and that the Clintons will be imprisoned any moment now. Pizzagate operated likewise, and triggered a guy opening fire in a D.C. pizza restaurant. Consequently, it’s kind of scary how light and jokey the show treats this stuff. The "View" called it a “terrible move by the show’s producers who clearly have no idea what they’re doing.” Oh, yes. This was a terrible move by the show's producers who clearly have no idea what they're doing. But too late now so lol. — Travis View (@travis_view) February 20, 2019 The freelance writers were pretty obviously just riffing on some political slang, but we won’t be shocked when the QAnon tards read it as yet another indication that the Dems are absolutely, undoubtedly heading to Guantanamo Bay any moment now. QAnon social media has always been rich in demands that deep staters be hanged, put in the front of firing squads, etc. There’s been a obvious uptick in QAnon believers either campaigning for perceived adversaries to be taken out, or threatening to do it themselves. The largest QAnon discussion board on Reddit clone Voat is filled with anonymous users expressing that they are “locked and loaded” and prepared to battle, with believers fantasizing about Q unleashing the collapse of society, shooting and burying “looters,” going on a “million rifle march,” and “taking the situation into our own hands.” No attempt is made to police any of these posts, and with the users completely anonymous, it’s impossible to report them to applicable authorities. The majority of this rhetoric remains electronic. But it’s starting to leak into the real world, with a QAnon believer known as Buckey Wolfe purportedly murdering his brother with a sword, and yet another QAnon believer, who posts on Twitter as “TheLightReports,” arrested for trespassing on the property of the Virginia governor’s mansion. There is likewise the fire set at Comet Ping Pong Pizza, the ground zero of Pizzagate conspiracy theories. The arsonist has not been captured, but since QAnon and Pizzagate are so tightly associated, it won’t be shocking if whoever set the fire is likewise a Q believer. QAnon collective is fragmenting A deep dive into notable QAnon social media demonstrates a movement flailing for purpose and guidance. When Q posted consistently, he kept his followers occupied with a limitless stream of riddles, rhetorical questions, fragmented clues leading no place, and out-of-context photographs. in spite of the movement supporting Trump as some kind of divine emperor, there was significant anger at the president knuckling under on his demand for a border wall and ending the government shutdown. Should Trump eat crow again and fail to deliver the wall after the three-week continuing resolution expires, Q believers will very likely move even further away from their Trump worship, and toward typical conspiracy lunacy. QAnon believers are falling for more extravagant rumors While the movement is flailing for a purpose, numerous members are so anxious for Q’s long-promised “something big” to take place that they are biting on truly stupid hoaxes. One of the most notable was a rumor that QAnon enemy George Soros had been arrested in Switzerland after being snitched out by Barack Obama, who himself had been charged with treason by a shadowy “Alliance” of white hats. Of course, it was a hoax. There was also a spike of excitement amid QAnon followers about a cryptic post on 4Chan that utilized very much the same syntax and language to Trump’s speaking style- with countless believing Trump himself published the post as a way to let his followers know everything was OK. Trump is thought to post as component of the QAnon network of insiders, characterizing his posts by signing them“Q+.” And because QAnon began with anonymous posts on racist imageboard 4chan, eventually shifting to even more racist imageboard 8chan, the concept of Trump “returning” to 4chan for an update seemed attractive to believers. Except it wasn’t, because the post proved to be… wait for it….. a hoax. And there was the ever-growing conspiracy theory that Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s true wellness status is being hidden by the deep state, with the liberal persona either being kept alive through mystery drugs or already dead and “on ice.” Such a conspiracy has no proof to help support it and would involve the whole Supreme Court being in on a significant conspiracy to deceive the American public and the president alike-a president who could, theoretically, just grab the phone and contact the Supreme Court to inquire if RBG is still alive. Mainstream social media sites continue to have difficulty staying on track with with this movement, though Twitter has fairly recently banished numerous well known QAnon accounts for threats of violence. Like Our News? Please, please, Please! help support Independent Journalism. PayPal.Me/FusionLacedIllusions Got a tip or a rumor? Contact me here.

The Establishment continue to push forward in their attempt to shut down the alternative press that is rapidly growing and pushing out the faltering mainstream media. As the EU demands social media sites censor fake news and Reddit, Facebook and other sites begin blocking Fusion Laced Illusions and other alternative media it is now alarmingly evident that their truly is a war on free speech. Copyright Disclaimer: Citation of articles and authors in this report does not imply ownership. Works and images presented here fall under Fair Use Section 107 and are used for commentary on globally significant newsworthy events. Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for fair use for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Read Also: Deep State Coup D’état Against Trump Confirmed By Andrew McCabe -“If true, it is clearly an attempt at a coup d’état” (Video) QAnon Believers Are Turning Violent – Journalist Attacked At Trump’s El Paso Rally – NowThis? (Video) Military Tribunals 2019 – Congress To Be Arrested After Trump Announces Gold Backed U.S. Note? (Video) The Conspiracy Deepens: Analyst On Clinton, Apparent FBI ‘Quid Pro Quo’ Scandal And Trump Coup (Video) Update Military Tribunals 2019 – Did McCabe Consider Trump Assassination? (Video) Spread the word! LIKE and SHARE this article or leave a comment to help direct attention to the stories that matter. And SUBSCRIBE to stay connected with Fusion Laced Illusions content! REQUEST REPRINT OR SUBMIT CORRECTION to [email protected] Contact Fusion Laced Illusions by email. You can reach us at [email protected] Letters may be published. Read the full article

#QAnon Pizzagate popped

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somepoorsod · 7 years

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Akhilleus & Patroklos; or, this post won’t be very popular

One of those vague posts I make every so often where I know I have a reaction to something, and have clues as to why, but haven’t actually explored then. So I start typing and hopefully find out, my thoughts being forced to organise themselves by being written down and by me looking things up which I only recollect in the general sense. This is for catharsis and self-exploration, and is necessarily opinionated and subjective. It is directed at me, not anyone who happens to post about this topic, so please don’t feel called out. (That said, you are absolutely and entirely free to not enjoy it, to disagree, and to argue with me, and it may well be that you do so). I have no doubt that by the time I’m finished it will have raised the spectre of elitism thoroughly. I will promise no homophobia, though, at least consciously.

So, why does something twitch within me, causing the screeching sound of nails on a blackboard, when I see yet another ‘Akhilleus and Patroklos were the truest bestest love ever’ and ‘The Iliad is being CENSORED’ post go crawling across my dash?

A) The Song of Achilles. This was neatly described (by someone who has since deleted the post, so I shan’t name them) as turning a ‘morally complex war story into twee teen porno fanfic’ and, my word, does it grate on me when people mistake the story and characterisation of the second for what goes on in the first. I am a fervent admirer of the Iliad in all its depth, and while TSOA is perfectly good as twee teen porn and has at least some merits in the re-interpretation arena, it really isn’t reflective of the epic.

B) Fundamentally, in the Iliad, both Patroklos and Akhilleus sleep with women and don’t sleep with each other.1 They don’t kiss each other. Frankly, until he’s dead, Akhilleus barely manages to show any affection for Patroklos at all, platonic or otherwise. The last conversation they have begins as a shouting match in which Akhilleus calls Patroklos a cowering girl and is told he’s a psychopath in return,2 and then goes on to demand Patroklos not actually defeat the Trojans because Akhilleus is still waiting until the Greeks are even more screwed to intervene and to be hailed as the glorious saviour.3 It is absolutely true that other Greek writers and artists (re-)interpreted their relationship as romantic, but reading that into the Iliad itself gets my goat up. I won’t go so far as to say it’s indefensibly wrong, but I think it is indubitably subjective, and would even say you have to stretch for it. Therefore, absolute statements which specifically invoke the Iliad (clashing with my own subjective interpretation of the epic) irk me. Furthermore, we have the Iliad, in which the two characters are actually explored to this extent, and we don’t have Aiskhylos’ trilogy which actually made an explicit romantic relationship out of their bond, nor really any other full work of literature which took that tack. It bothers me when so much actual text is brushed aside in favour of what people just want to happen. It feels terribly ... lazy.

C) Briseis. Oh, you poor woman. Her role gets annihilated by almost any discussion which has the hots for the Akhilleus/Patroklos pair. She’s intrusive and threatening to the ship, and therefore has to be ignored or dismissed. And that sucks. Homer writes some great female characters in the Iliad - Helen probably above all, but also Andromakhe, Hera, Athene, and others. Briseis doesn’t match them, I think, but she deserves some bloody consideration, deserves a chance. I have no desire to co-operate with the longstanding patriarchal erasure of women from mythos and the simplification of epic to MANLY MEN FIGHT MANLYLYLY. Ovid did not write the Heroides for this. It also makes the emotional milieu for Akhilleus’ decisions in 1, 9, 16, 19, and 24 significantly less complex if you immediately deride the idea that he actually cares for Briseis. Working that out, and how much it dominates him - compared to e.g. his offended pride, or his dissatisfaction with the whole timē/geras culture - is a really interesting question, which deserves attention. Akhilleus gives a powerful little speech about how Briseis is his “heart’s beloved” 4 - in spite of all that conspires against it - like Helen is to Menelaus, which one should not just disregard because it fails to fit the headcanon.

D) The stupid, cursed arguments we’ve inherited from the ancients about the erastes and eromenos. Partly because it’s such a hideous projection of classical Athenian cultural mores and sterotypes onto a text that doesn’t fit it. Akhilleus may be younger5 (*cough*, TSOA) but he’s also old enough to have a shaggy chest.6 He doesn’t fit the eromenos role either, and jamming him into that pigeonhole is, I think, just another part of how Phaedros is portrayed as a bit of an idiot in the Symposion. Partly, because it’s also a hideous projection of modern cultural sterotypes on a text that doesn’t fit it - and far too often I feel like I’m seeing this from people who were introduced to gay men via the artificial, exaggerated idea of uke and seme in Japanese porn and continue to see things, even want to see things, through that particular lens.

E) Not unrelatedly - and this also goes back to the TSOA point - the fulfilling of the impulsive human categorisation demand. The manifestation here being one that always frustrates me in media: a requirement that people with a strong emotional bond must be romantically related if they’re of anything like a similar age and aren’t blood related. (Patroklos and Akhilleus are, of course, pretty close blood relations, being first cousins once removed, but this is swept under the rug most of the time). To me, this cheapens how strong bonds of actual friendship are, and diminishes the emotional range and depth available to be portrayed and found in a work. Do you know how bloody pleased I was that Mako and Raleigh didn’t kiss at the end of Pacific Rim when all my expectations were that it was coming with an absolute inevitability? (There is a similar syndrome afflicting Hektor and Akhilleus whereby, because they’re rivals, the Trojan hero must be the next best fighter on the battlefield - despite the fact that Homer is actually doing all sorts of interesting things with Telamonian Aias as an Akhilleus cipher that get completely rolled over by that wretchedly simplistic idea).7

F) English. In more depth, there are (unavoidable) problems with people working from translation. For example, Lattimore’s 18.81-2 renders ‘τὸν ἐγὼ περὶ πάντων τῖον ἑταίρων, ἶσον ἐμῇ κεφαλῇ’ as ‘whom I loved beyond all other companions, as well as my own life’. Which I think is reasonably fair in that emotional context, though there is perhaps needless ambiguity in making ‘ ἶσον’ ‘as well as’. Yet the number of people who jump on this as a declaration of confirmed romantic intent, when the Greek τίω is fundamentally ‘I value’ being translated in a powerful way, frustrates me deeply. τίω is so frequently mercantile in the Iliad,8 to the extent that I think it’s even fair for someone uncharitable to continue to read an unconscious self-centredness into Akhilleus here and take it as Patroklos being more beneficial for Akhilleus than anyone else was. And yet this act of sensitive translation has led people to assume we have steaming eros and nightly rogering sessions going on. It can’t be helped, but it’s still wrong.

1 αὐτὰρ Ἀχιλλεὺς εὗδε μυχῷ κλισίης εὐπήκτου: τῷ δ᾽ ἄρα παρκατέλεκτο γυνή, τὴν Λεσβόθεν ἦγε, Φόρβαντος θυγάτηρ Διομήδη καλλιπάρῃος. Πάτροκλος δ᾽ ἑτέρωθεν ἐλέξατο: πὰρ δ᾽ ἄρα καὶ τῷ Ἶφις ἐΰζωνος, τήν οἱ πόρε δῖος Ἀχιλλεὺς Σκῦρον ἑλὼν αἰπεῖαν Ἐνυῆος πτολίεθρον.

But Akhilleus slept in the farthest corner of the well-built hut; and a woman laid down there with him, one he had brought from Lesbos - Diomede with her beautiful cheeks, daughter of Phorbas. And on its opposite side, Patroklos laid down; and another slept with him - Iphis of the lovely girdle, one whom godlike Akhilleus provided him after he conquered steep Skyros, the citadel of Enyeus. (Il. 9.663-669) ↩

2 16.1-35, which I translated here. ↩

3 μὴ σύ γ᾽ ἄνευθεν ἐμεῖο λιλαίεσθαι πολεμίζειν Τρωσὶ φιλοπτολέμοισιν: ἀτιμότερον δέ με θήσεις:

Don't be eager to fight without me against the warloving Trojans: you will make me less honoured. (Il. 16.89-90) ↩

4 … τί δὲ λαὸν ἀνήγαγεν ἐνθάδ᾽ ἀγείρας Ἀτρεΐδης; ἦ οὐχ Ἑλένης ἕνεκ᾽ ἠϋκόμοιο; ἦ μοῦνοι φιλέουσ᾽ ἀλόχους μερόπων ἀνθρώπων Ἀτρεΐδαι; ἐπεὶ ὅς τις ἀνὴρ ἀγαθὸς καὶ ἐχέφρων τὴν αὐτοῦ φιλέει καὶ κήδεται, ὡς καὶ ἐγὼ τὴν ἐκ θυμοῦ φίλεον δουρικτητήν περ ἐοῦσαν.

… Why has he lead his summoned warhost here, that son of Atreus? Was it not for the sake of Helen and her fair hair? Or do they alone among mortal men love their wives, these sons of Atreus? Hardly: any good and sensible man loves his woman and cares for her, as I too did for her, my heart’s beloved, though she had been merely the slave won by my spear. (Il. 9.338-343) ↩

5 τέκνον ἐμὸν γενεῇ μὲν ὑπέρτερός ἐστιν Ἀχιλλεύς, πρεσβύτερος δὲ σύ ἐσσι

“My child, it may be that Akhilleus is your better, but you are the elder." (Il. 9.586-7) ↩

6 στήθεσσιν λασίοισι e.g. as in 1.189. ↩

7 Seriously, this is practically the entire point of Book 7. ↩

8 It most frequently appears in 23, to equate all the prizes Akhilleus is giving out with their equivalent in cattle. See, e.g., 23.702-5:

τῷ μὲν νικήσαντι μέγαν τρίποδ᾽ ἐμπυριβήτην, τὸν δὲ δυωδεκάβοιον ἐνὶ σφίσι τῖον Ἀχαιοί: ἀνδρὶ δὲ νικηθέντι γυναῖκ᾽ ἐς μέσσον ἔθηκε, πολλὰ δ᾽ ἐπίστατο ἔργα, τίον δέ ἑ τεσσαράβοιον.

For the victor, a great tripod made to put over the fire, which the Akhaians valued among themselves at twelve oxen; for the defeated man, he put up as a prize a woman, skilled in many kinds of work, whom they valued at four oxen. ↩

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ostensiblyexistential · 7 years

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This is an art blog. But this is not an art post. While I do use words artistically, this is not a piece of fiction or a work of poetry, but a personal post. While it may not be art, it’s certainly a catharsis, and in light of everything that’s been happening here in the US, this is a post I feel I need to make. I don’t have many followers, and many of the ones I do have I suspect are bots, so I doubt anyone will really see this, but still. This will be a long post. Please bear with me.

I dated a racist.

And I don’t mean just for, like, a few months and then when I found out he was so deplorable I left him. I mean for nearly 3 years.

“That’s disgusting.” Yes. You are correct. To write that sentence makes shudder. I want to vomit. I am disgusted with myself that this happened. But it happened, and I need to process that. I want people to know how someone could get herself caught up in something so awful. Why didn’t I leave? you ask. Ah, well, we’ll get to that. Sometimes it’s a bit more complicated, and not everyone can easily do the right thing by leaving…

First I want to talk about my background. Personally I think this is important, because context is, so I’d really like it if you read the next part, but if you are of the opinion that none of it matters, or, like, get bored half way through, please skip to the part where I tl;dr and read from there.

I am a white, cisgender, heterosexual woman, and as such, I have some privilege. I was born in Southfield, Michigan. I lived in Detroit, Michigan until I was 9. I attended a private school in Redford, Michigan for gifted children in the metro Detroit area. At least half of my classmates and friends, if not more, were black. At 9, my family moved to Dearborn, Michigan, which has a substantial Arab and Muslim population. I began public school in the 5th grade. In high school, I spent half of each day at a local community college campus taking advanced courses in math, science, and technology. This program pulled some of the best students from each of the three high schools in Dearborn. Again, at least half, if not more, of my classmates were Arabs. High school was post September 11th, just so you have an idea of the political climate of the nation during the entirety of my teens. At 18, after I’d graduated high school, I left Michigan and moved to Arizona, living and working in and around Phoenix, where I lived for the next 7 years. Many of my coworkers were Mexican immigrants or Mexican-Americans. I have absolutely no idea how anyone could think races other than white are less intelligent, or in any other way lower. I was surrounded by people of color my entire life; the concept that race makes someone less than is completely foreign to me, and so obviously and categorically false.

Tl;dr: I’m a white cis-het woman with all the privileges of the first three who’s been immersed in diversity her whole life.

So how did the topic of this post happen?

I didn’t know, not at first. In my experience, it’s kind of rare for someone to just straight up say, “Hey there, I’m a giant racist!” This is because I’m white. Racism is not directed at me, so I don’t know if someone’s racist or not until I actually see or hear it come from them. Our social circle was nearly non-existent and some topics just didn’t come up apparently, or when they did he stayed silent about them until one day when he decided not to be, but that wasn’t right away. Plus, in public, like many other racists, he hid this part of himself. When we went places, he wouldn’t make comments or disparage people. Not at first. That, to my horror, changed. But I’m getting ahead of myself; let’s go to when we met and go from there.

While in Phoenix, I worked as a server. At the last restaurant I worked at there, I ended up meeting someone who’d been sent to Phoenix for work. He was my last table for the day and somehow we ended up getting into a conversation that lasted beyond my work day. This… wasn’t normal for me. I really don’t like tables who are talkative, and would always try to find an excuse to get out of it without being impolite. But I couldn’t really find one, so I was kind of trapped. (In retrospect, the foreshadowing on that would be fantastic if it weren’t so personal and painful for me.) That was how it started out at first, but then topics ended up moving to things that I guess, you know, resonated with me, and I felt more comfortable.

We spent the next couple of days that he was in town together, getting to know each other. At the end of it, we decided to keep in contact. For the next year, we had a long distance relationship. We communicated every day. Once a month, we both took time off work and one of us would fly to see the other for a week. This was how I got to know him, and with hindsight, I believe that it was perhaps not the greatest way to really see someone, not the way we interacted. Our visits were isolated - we mostly spent the time together and didn’t go out very much.

After a year, we decided it was time to make things more permanent. Neither of us could sustain long distance, not financially, and it’s hard emotionally as well. It made more sense for me to move than him, so I did, across the country, and to a state where there’s snow, the exact thing I’d left Michigan to avoid. I’d spent a lot of my savings on these visits we’d been having, and used basically the rest of my savings to move. I took a year off work, so the meager amount of my own money I had when I first moved disappeared fast. Although he’d told me I wouldn’t have to work because he’d support me, that turned out not to be true, and I had to get a job.

He’d promised me a lot of things that didn’t come to fruition. He’d told me a lot of things about himself that simply weren’t true. Honestly, I don’t think he was lying on purpose, I think he just has really bad self-perception skills. The omissions, though, I’m not really sure about.

At around six months after I’d moved (so a year and a half into the relationship), I realized the huge mistake I’d made in involving myself with this man. I knew he wasn’t right for me, for more reason than one. He revealed his true self - an overt racist, an only slightly more subtle sexist, and an emotional abuser who wanted to control me rather than have an equal partner in the relationship. There were lots of small things that added up, and some bigger things that more than added up. I’d gotten myself into one of my own worst possible scenarios. I felt sick. I felt helpless.

He made his first racist statement somewhere around that time. It hit me hard. I was confused and upset. I did the only thing I could - I argued. I don’t mean screaming or crying, I mean I clearly and calmly corrected him. I thought maybe he was just misinformed and giving him real facts might change his perspective. He, on the other hand, argued back in a very aggressive manor. As a person who grew up in a home where anger and aggression meant violence, I cannot handle this type of thing. I went into panic mode, the situation escalated, and he wouldn’t hear me. I was devastated. For a while, I still tried educating him, still tried encouraging him to broaden his views. It never worked, and I think I knew it wouldn’t, but still, I felt I had to try. That was the right thing to do; it was the only thing I could do. At some point I stopped, because it always resulted in some kind of argument, and I couldn’t do it any more. This was a man who used racial slurs around me specifically because he knew how much they bothered me. He thought that was funny.

Although I knew this was wrong, both in a larger sense as well on a personal level for me, I felt I couldn’t leave.

First, I had no money. I didn’t get a job until after I’d come to the conclusion I would eventually need to get out of this, so I mean, I really had no money (spent it all to move, remember? Stupid stupid stupid.) The job I did eventually get pays poorly (minimum wage is not a living wage, but that’s another topic), and I only work part time. With things like groceries and car insurance to pay for, plus 3 cats to take care of, plus the fact that he dragged me out to do things frequently despite my not liking leaving the house and not being interested in the things we were going to but him insisting on me helping pay, I wasn’t capable of saving much. This was my biggest factor in not leaving. I wouldn’t have had anywhere to live, and I couldn’t have afforded to live on my own.

The other reason I didn’t leave was fear. He never physically abused me, and he never showed signs that he would. But he was constantly on edge, always agitated, and as a very empathetic person, I picked up on that. It made me uncomfortable. Anger and yelling, which he was prone to when upset, makes me physically afraid, even if it’s from a person I have no logical reason to physically fear. It’s a trigger and I can’t control that reaction. I had so much anxiety that if I confronted him about my problems and/or left him, he’d snap and I’d either be hurt or dead. Was that ever a real potential? I don’t know.

I lied to everyone around me and pretended my relationship was great, because I didn’t have a support system I felt I could rely on. What good would it have done? It just would have exaggerated my sense of failure without gaining any actual help.

We did, eventually, part ways, and I did have help, but it took me a year and a half after my first startling realization to get there. It was not an amicable break up. I don’t want to talk about the circumstances. They are personal, and it was a difficult time. But while I’m finally free of that disgusting person, I’m not free of my guilt. Perhaps my guilt is misplaced - I didn’t enter into it knowingly, and by the time I’d figured it out it was too late to do anything immediately - but it’s still there. I have a hard time coming to terms with being so close to something I find so abhorrent.

Although I’ve rarely taken part in political movements, my heart has always been, and will always be, the heart of a feminist and an ally. The best I’ve ever done is speak up when I felt I could, when people whose lives I care about were being attacked but who weren’t there to defend themselves. I know it’s not much, but it’s about all I have to offer.

I can’t attend the Women’s March on Washington. It’s just not a feasible journey for me. But I will be attending the sister march that’s taking place in Hartford, Connecticut. Donald Trump is a racist, a misogynist, every kind of -ist and -phobe, and unfit to be called a human being let alone President. Attending is not merely an act of contrition on my part for the relationship I was in with a racist. It’s more than that.

I will be attending for many more than myself and other white women like me. I will be attending for all the people of color he has disparaged, called liars and cheats and rapists. I will be attending for all the members of the LGBT+ community who fear for their right to love and marry who they want, to use what bathroom they want, to be called by the name that they want. I will be attending for every black and Arab and Muslim and Mexican and any other person of color I’ve ever known in my life, and for those I don’t know too. I will be attending for all the survivors of sexual assault. I will be attending for everyone who feels they are in danger or have been disrespected by Donald Trump and others like him. I will never speak over you or for you. But I want you to know that I’m right here beside you.

For anyone who’s actually reading this, even if it’s just the one person who I know will, thank you.

#not art #personal #racism #women's march #not my president #women's rights are human rights #Muslim rights are human rights #LGBT+ rights are human rights #black rights are human rights

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jaywill7497 · 5 years

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Did You See It? QAnon and Pizzagate Made Debut On NCIS: New Orleans Last Night - What Are They Trying To Tell Us? (Video)

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