#Why is it for soldiers ignored or used to dehumanize victims until of the soldiers turns is gun away from them?

[bijoumikhawal]

a lot of the talk about Bushnell is reminding me of my "the "mentally ill" have their right to violence revoked" thing again

like. When you're deemed mentally ill, suddenly you must stress how you are more likely to be a victim of violence than a perpetrator to be deemed as human. Because any violence you commit, as a crazy person, is bad. It cannot carry rationale, because you are crazy. If I, as an autistic person, hit someone who was hurting me and got in legal trouble, I can be referred to as just "crazy" instead of as a victim responding to an aggressor. It's an underdiscussed area of dehumanization.

And that's before we talk about intersectionality, and before we talk about how this factors into the idea of ODD, and the "violent" responses patients have to doctors (including those who simply aren't white, and those forced on meds that hurt them, and those resisting sexual assault, and-).

But this is not just interpersonally political, it is political at scale. Black men were targeted by schizophrenia diagnoses during the Civil Rights era (and this is also around when schizophrenia became a "scary" illness). The crazy cannot have valid political criticisms, as a movement (remember that being "crazy" is a vector of oppression abd marginalization) or as individuals in other movements.

Ive seen both the sentiment of "oh Aaron is gonna be slandered as crazy" and exactly what the sentiment warns of- "we can't valorize suicide from the mentally ill". And the first isn't wrong, because society at large does view the "crazy" as lacking political agency, but it's lacking.

Bushnell had been trying very hard to get out of his military contract without being imprisoned at best, while witnessing genocide and knowing he was complicit. He may not have had clinical depression normally, but that would inspire a mental rational response of situational depression (and yes, mental health issues can be a rational response to horrible circumstances). Further, I know of instances of self immolation that WERE done by people who did have long standing mental health issues and were done to protest the treatment they'd experienced that caused them and that resulted from their existence. Mental illness and divergence from the norm is more complicated than just "these people are incapable of rationality, they are incapable of political thought, and they are incapable of agency".

#cipher talk #Aaron Bushnell #Ask to tag #Self immolation #Suicide tw #I'm thinking about how like. Chloe Sagal did what she did to protest how she was treated as a mentally ill trans woman and highlighted #Her mental illness and struggle with homelessness primarily. And it WAS a political protest #The only really. Sensible thing I've seen on this about how it was a suicide was 1) someone pointing out some people may relapse in #Response to this WITHOUT delegitimizing his actions and sharing helpline sources #And 2) another person pointing out it'd be absurd to accuse hunger strikers of promoting eating disorders #Like. You know what I think soldiers who are complicit in genocide probably DO develop mental health problems #And I see the idea that they do used in some pretty batshit ways recently! #But so- so fucking what #Resistance fighters and genocide victims have mental health issues too #Why is it for soldiers ignored or used to dehumanize victims until of the soldiers turns is gun away from them? #What's next am I gonna watch people delegitimize the actions of Palestinian resistance and the Bielskis and fucking #Unistʼotʼen as the actions of people who 'just have mental health issues' and therefore can't be political? #We also have the similar protests of Black people (two in the last 6 months) being swept aside

[desertdragon]

This shit got me heated and reminded me why I stay away from people who also play this game but it also made me think again about Why the Ga/lean section of E/W was just more tone deaf apologism for me (and as I've learned, many others)

Also I am seeing people in the quotes using having a lot of empathy as an excuse to frame themselves as superior to others and implying ableism against those that have low empathy so that's another thing where I'm like shut the fuck up you're literally fucking arrogant for making that equivalency anyway- empathy level does NOT equal a person's value or moral value/humanity and ironically thinking it does shows you dehumanize others on prejudice, which you claim not to be doing because you're empathetic-

Like I don't like this person actually I have them blocked on here and I forgot they were even on Twitter until I saw the people "dragging" this post but I agree with the essence of what op is saying- if you are ACTIVELY still being a piece of shit (And even if you're NOT because forgiveness is never OWED) No it is not an obligation on anyone to forgive you or suck your dick and not care how hurtful you're still being; it's dehumanizing, entitled, and victim blaming to tell someone they cannot be allowed to their feelings or defending themselves when met with prejudiced hate and violence

It's frustrating however seeing people turn how SE handled this into black and white self righteousness or obnoxious selfishness because I don't think anyone actually remembers how badly once again the ball was fumbled despite starting from a reasonable place, this is how I feel about it from what I remember explicitly because it made me angry to see a good thing ruined again by centrist ignorant nonsense:

It is legitimately a good thing to help the helpless! It is and that is a noble first instinct to have and not everyone has to agree with it as Lyse says if the helpless at that moment was once or still is your oppressor! But people who rush to suck SE's corporate cock stop it at that fact, at the Idea That Is Included and refuse to examine The Execution of That Idea. Any idea can be included in anything, it's been done forever, but how you describe and show that idea is what speaks. And the execution on this serious topic as with others was deeply flawed and one sided. You cannot insist that people motivated by dehumanizing fascist hatred, giving themselves wholely to the duty of extermination for national interest and personal pride, to commit countless atrocities they don't even reflect on when it's given back to Them, who see anyone not of the Perfect Chosen Civilization/Race as animals, are simply misguided and misunderstood. People coming to you purposefully in bad faith, still being entitled to absolute forgiveness and acceptance.

The few people who are welcoming to you in Ga/lemald and those who just want to move on and not hate after the dust clears, who are not actively hateful and who are repentant, should be taken care of imo. And I appreciate that they were included. And I do find it disturbing in the thought exercise it represents to insist on slaughtering destitute people who want to break the cycle. Because they come in good faith. But looking at the actual campaign and dialogue it cannot CANNOT be denied that this same lens of acceptance/pity/woobying is also extended to those who continue to only see themselves as true human beings worthy of life. It cannot be ignored how quickly the implications and weight of the evil function of a soldier for an imperialist fascist empire is ignored with zero self reflection for the military's conquered victims. Particularly represented by the character of Julius, which I have seen other people rightfully call out as well, even some of his sympathizers. Instead the story suggests you must be a doormat for everyone no matter how they treat you without any dignity for yourself and others who are targeted. That we don't need to hold those who commit evil as accountable for what they did without blaming it on something else, some outside influence having total control rather than the fact of them choosing to be an inhumane instrument. That ignorance literally happens everyday in real life, just look at how many people truly trust in the idea of authority figures or soldiers and glamorize it. Often times hateful people in real life don't move out of or detach from one of their hateful groups because of a true change of heart, but rather out of convenience for their image, or because the hate group targeted them for some different part of their identity. But it doesn't nessesarily change that they still mindlessly hate X Population for baseless reasons.

These nuances are lost, the conversation in the game refuses to engage with the detail work and instead paints using a wide brush. Because it needs to appeal to making money. And also I saw someone in the Twitter thread saying "Well the girls who run away from you because you're a dirty savage to them (which they explicitly stated) were just scared, so you can't not feel bad when they die by their own actions." This is rhetoric I have seen white people use to defend the killing or harm of people of color in real cases. You don't call someone a slur, tell them they're subhuman, that you'd rather die than get help from an animal- and then brush it off as you being scared (how many cops/bigot gun owners shoot for no fucking reason at ALL and then say Well I had to take the shot they were threatening me, I was scared, they were endangering Me when they tried to get away or ask I stop or they were scared; how many times have Whites or other hateful strangers ever called you a slur or treated you unfairly because you're not White too or not part of their group and that makes them feel threatened, because you did nothing but exist, how many times do you experience discrimination and it gets turned around/used to gaslight you with Well you were scaring me so abusing you was justified etc). You see how the jump between this prejudiced rhetoric being justified in fictional thought experiments can mirror the same logic as a takeaway real already prejudiced people have viewing the story.

So no, under no circumstances do I find calling the Ga/lemald section of EW amazingly written something I can agree with, in fact I find it incredibly ignorant and then turning it into a soapbox to target dissenters as if they're inhuman for not getting it and using ableist language as well to help do so is appalling; nor do I agree with its most extremist of detractors, who deny it any positives simply for suggesting people want to help those who suffer even if they once wronged you. This is yet another case of the SE writer's room having no fucking idea how to write anything more complex than a toddler book about shapes or focused character stories with an actual nuanced sense of perspective. How every time they have a great or decent starting point on a broad heavy topic they can't find where to address the lines within it. And the rare times they do succeed at it it still amounts to clean corns in a big picture that's a pile of diarrhea shit. And they keep getting away with it because nobody wants to lift their head instead of indulging the rat race that is fighting each other.

#the way I have seen people collectively forget shit that happened in cutscenes so they can feel superior & don't bother fact checking LMAOO #GOD I HATE Y'ALL SO MUCH! Consider silence! #and you can tell which poc defending this type of shit so they can attack people don't give a fuck about punching down other poc who're mad #'oh i live in the most powerful imperial core country- America & i can afford expensive smoothies and other shit-' #'let me tell you how I'm suffering under imperialism too unlike my ancestors and those who lived it in my family so i can excuse' #'the fantasy racism and imperialism those other dirtier poc complain about because it was poorly handled' BITCH SHUT UP!! #i expect that shit from white people you fucking stop that right now! you and me live in an imperial core country we're safe from it!! #we're not safe from racism and prejudice and other bad things but we're fucking safe from that; we DO the imperialism you privileged fuck #i do not like Sun'ra i think he's a fucking asshole BUT i also think people are jumping for his throat so hard bc his character is dark ski #*dark skinned #he bothers me cuz of shit he's said about fiction not affecting reality proship nonsense and believing trigger warnings makes you a pussy #but here he's right this is the one thing we agree on lol #anytime the evil things get misrepresented badly and it generates anger from irl ppl affected by those same issues the ballfondlers come ou

[nowisthewinter]

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier: The treatment of our soldiers

There has been much discussion about the running theme of racism in The Falcon and The Winter Soldier but not much in the other big running theme.

 And that theme is the treatment of our military by our government. How both Walker and Bradley’s story lines parallel each others’ in that in the eyes of the government they were seen as “disposable soldiers.” 

I don’t think it was a coincidence that when we were introduced to Walker, the news blurb talked about how the government studied his body. Not quite unlike how Bradley was treated. (And how both scenes revealing this were in the same episode.) Both were put under the microscope. (Yes, Bradley was put under the microscope against his will but, again, Walker was treated like a lab rat too and studied as well. To figure out his physiology in order to make a better soldier just like how Bradley was done as well.)

Walker should have never been made Captain America. I am not saying he was a bad soldier. The chest full of ribbons and medals would say otherwise. I am saying that he was and is clearly suffering from PTSD as well as an underlining case of Imposter Syndrome. So much so of Imposter Syndrome that he seems to be doing the whole, “Fake it until you make it” with the Captain America title. He wants to be Captain America. He wants to be seen as Captain America. Why? Because Captain America is good. He’s noble. He’s sinless. But deep down, he doesn’t feel like Captain America. He feels like himself, John Walker. The soldier who was given Medals of Honor for going through God knows what Hell on Earth in the name of duty. Or as he put it, “Three badges of excellence to make sure I don’t forget the worst day of my life.”  

So, why was Walker given the title and shield? Because he looks good in front of the cameras. Blonde hair, blue eyes, fair skinned. He is a walking, talking stereotype of what the world thinks of as, “All American.” 

The government didn’t want Walker. They wanted a prop. A product to sell to the world. Just like they couldn’t care less about Bradley, as a person. They wanted a product. In Bradley’s case, a future product. Bradley’s blood to make future super soldiers. One product for in front of the cameras, that is, Walker. And one product for behind the cameras, that is, Bradley. Yes, this is very racist. Unfortunately, it is an easier sell to put out Walker as Captain America than someone like Sam. And, again, it is not just America who would have a hard time buying this but the rest of the world as well. If you go to other countries and have them describe a “typical American” they would more likely than not describe someone who looks like Walker than someone who looks like Sam.

The new Captain America could have been anyone as long as he was (1.) young, (2.) blonde, (3.) blue eyed, (4.) male and (5.) white. It didn’t have to be Walker. It just so happened to be Walker that was picked because he was an easy sell.

And being seen only as a product to sell, what does the government do once that product is useless? It throws it away. In Walker’s case, he was supposed to look good for the cameras as Captain America. The moment he stopped looking good, he was thrown out. Completely out. Never mind that this was not the first time he killed anyone while on duty. He didn’t get all those ribbons and medals by helping little old ladies cross streets. He even told Lemar, “We both know that the things that we had to do in Afghanistan, be awarded, felt a long way from being right.” But still, with no cameras around, Walker was allowed to do what needed to be done in order to fulfill his orders. It didn’t matter if it cost him his sanity. It didn’t matter if it gave him PTSD. Walker, as a product before him being Captain America, was a soldier, a government issued weapon. As long as he worked well as said product, he was allowed to remain.

Bradley was allowed to be a soldier. That weaponized product. Once he out grew that usefulness in that aspect, he was turned into a lab rat. Because that’s what our government does to our soldiers. It dehumanizes them. Turns them into products. Reminds you time and time again that you are not your own person, you are theirs. They even told Sam that his own wings were not his own. They belonged to the government. (I think that’s why the writers had Walker destroy them. Because as long as Sam had those wings, he was tied to the government.)

Like Bradley, Walker is a victim of a government that never saw him as a human being but as a product at their disposal. 

(I could go on how the real Big Bad of this season is really the government. How they are hated by the Flagsmashers for ignoring their pleas for help, how they keep Carter on the run, how they locked up and experimented Bradley, how they threw out Walker despite him doing what they set him up to do and how they keep both Sam and Bucky on a short leash but that’s another post.)

#the falcon and the winter soldier #john walker #captain america #Walker was a ticking time bomb but again he looked good on a poster

[yellowbluemoonshine]

Deku's Thoughts Process for Shigaraki

Yeah, anon, though actually the way of Deku think changed over time.

At the start of series, Deku is just fanboy, despite being the victim, he still idolizes heroes and the ways society is.

He was scared of villains, like to him, villains are monsters, horrible, inhuman.

But despite seeing them as monsters, Deku didnt treat them like that at first.

After Deku entered UE (famous hero school), y’know he met Shigaraki,

(IRONICALLY, Deku met main victim in story at his first saving training. Thanks to @shiroi-no-kumo-blog​ for making good point.)

He meets Shigaraki’s most inhuman side but at that time, even though Shigaraki hurted people;

1- 

When Deku used his power on Shigaraki, he hold himself unconsiously.

Later, it was mentioned;

the reason Deku hold back was he saw Shigaraki as human. Yes, Shigaraki was murederer and hurts his friends, teacher etc but Deku unconciously remind himself that the person in front pof him is still human, no matter what he does.

At start, Deku was afraid of villains but to him, they were still people.

2- He even quietly listened what Shigaraki said.

He tried to understand what this villain trying to say.

And time passed. They met again. Not many things changed.

Shigaraki decided to talk Deku cause he saw his past self in Deku. They both actually listened and tried to understand each others.

Shigaraki talked about how Allmight can not save everyone.

Deku listened what Shigaraki said but at this point, he still doesnt really understand his actions and that Shigaraki is victim.

Deku listened him but he didnt know what to say.

Deku saw things but he did not know how to make sense of this situation.

And again, a lot of time passed.

But the more Deku stayed in UE, the more he become strict and the more he dehumanize villains.

You know, UE is school that supposed to raise heroes but actually, tehy dont raise heroes, they raise soldiers. This is probably why hero side’s characters didnt get much character development for a long time. Cause in there, they are not grown as an inviduals. They are becoming tools for society.

This is why even though Deku is more confident about himself and he is not scared of villains anymore but he still cant control his anger and he is still sef destructive.

And i think especially after overhaul arc, Deku started to dehumanize villains more, after seeing what overhaul did to Eri.

For long time, Deku didnt meet Shigaraki, he just heard what he did from far away.

Then, war arc came.

Again, he didnt even know what was happenning to Shigaraki, only thing he knows was he is supposed to stop Shigaraki.

At this point;

To Deku, Shigaraki isnt human anymore.

Even though, he listened what he said, he is still looking at the picture with blind-eye, like unlike before, he half listening.

Even though, he saw his pain, he ignores it.

(In this scene, Shigaraki is controlled by AFO, shows his pain with smile and Deku doesnt seem to mind. The reason is probably like many people, Deku thinks people who are in pain dont smile. Same for Uraraka who couldnt notice Toga’s pain, until she saw her crying.)

Anyway, unlike the start, unlike UE incident; to Deku, Shigaraki isnt human anymore. He actually tries to kill him.

You know, after being in UE, he should become more like hero but actually, we see opposite. Its true that Deku learnt things too but he also cut his empathy for villains.

The one who made Deku angry isnt even Shigaraki, it was All For One who controlled Shigaraki and hurted Bakugou and Endeavour but since Deku didnt learn to deal with anger, he couldnt see whats happenning in front of him.

Anyway, gladly, they enter to Ofa-Afo world.

Finally, Deku saw that Shigaraki is having a hard time with Afo. He still doesnt know Shigaraki’s past, he still doesnt undertsand him but now, after seeing personally, he understood that Shigaraki is somehow victim too.

They still have a lot of way to go. Deku still dehumanize villains, just like proheroes.

But now, something changed.

Until now, Deku always separated as people who needs to be saved (innocent looking victims) and people who needs to be stopped (villains). Yes, there is gentleman and some other villains etc but they werent really dangerous criminals/murderers so.

But now, at least, he realized that ‘the guy who hurts everyone, the guy who needs to be stopped, the guy who cause many trouble for everyone’ is also someone who needs to be saved.

Not only author wrote with with big bold letters, its also how this arc ended. Deku finally getting more perspective and realizing things. Its small but important step. Also its like this scene symbolise the hurted feelings of someone who wasnt saved. Like how everything is decaying, destroyed, this is how people who werent saved feels. It was really good. Cant wait to see their growth, interactions and more development between them.

#bnha analysis #anon #midoriya izuku #shigaraki tomura #bnha 295 #bnha 296

[linkspooky]

This Thing

de·hu·man·i·za·tion 

noun

the process of depriving a person or group of positive human qualities.

This thing A meta on the dehumanization of villains done by the heroes in the manga My Hero Academia, if you’re interested read more underneath the cut.

Before saying anything else, yes crimminals are a group of people who can be dehumanized. People who break the law are still in fact people, and while this is mainly talking about a fictional work it’s worth remembering that dehumanization is a tactic used to justify violence and the taking away of human rights from crimminals and incarcerated people. 

People are still people. No matter what bad things they do they’re still people. And victims are victims even if they don’t present their victimhood in easy to digest ways. The conflict in My Hero Academia is one much more complicated than hero vs. villain because it exists within a society that generates its own villains through intentional neglect. I say neglect, because most heroes seem to be of the perspective that villains are either born evil, or choose to do evil entirely of their own free will and are never victims of circumstances or forced into the livelihood. 

Villain isn’t just what costumed crimminals are called in MHA, it’s a literal legal definition that are given to certain crimminal offenders. We don’t know what exactly the legal ramifications are, but the fact that you can literally be called a villain just for being a repeat offender shows the way hero society views it’s crimminals. 

Villain has different connotations, it means an inhuman evil, not just a person who has done bad things. Police also have much more power in comparison to our society as well, in the manga vigilantes when his sister Makoto brings up the fact that technically her friend who has been accused of villainry is innocent until proven guilty and formally charged. 

Tsukauchi gets physically angry with her. 

What’s important in this situation is the girl they’re arguing about pop step is an innocent victim. She was kidnapped by a man, had a parasite inserted into her brain and is being physically controlled. What she needs to be is saved not put down, but the law is so inflexible it’s only capable of seeing her as a villain not as a person caught in a bad situation who needs to be saved from that situation. 

And it’s much later revealed that there is technically a way to save her life, but because it requires breaking of the laws the police and heroes won’t ever do it. Beating her up won’t save her, it’ll just kill her as an innocent victim of circumstance, and stop her from doing any more damage to the people around her. Even if the police knew the way to save her life they won’t attempt it because it breaks the law. 

Being a by the book cop is all well and good, but when the law that exists doesn’t protect people there’s something wrong with the law. This isn’t an isolated incident either, we’re shown over and over again in the main manga as well this is always how villains are responded to, violent suppression. 

At the start of the manga Shigaraki says this, that heroes and villains are both violent but because heroes are categorized as such their violence suddenly becomes heroic. All Might just dismisses what he says as him being a madman.  

Not only that but in the aftermath of the break in the heroes all attempt to dissect Shigaraki’s character. They all make him out to be some kind of insane person that could have no possible rationale or reason behind his actions. 

They dismiss Shigaraki’s attack as him simply being a man-child who thinks he can do whatever he wants. There’s no possible way that he could have any kind of sympathetic reason or human rationale, because he’s a villain, right? Except we learn later that’s not the case. 

The words that Shigaraki is saying to All Might echo the words of his abuser. Shigaraki is like this not out of his own choice, but because he was deliberately shapped and moulded by someone. The reason why Shigaraki is impuslively violent is because as a literal five year old he was exposed to violence over and over again, and told this is who he was, this is what he was for. 

All Might later discovers that Shigaraki is not only the son of Nana Shimura’s son, a child he was personally responsible for when his mother died but decided to go along with his mother’s plan to abandon him (for his protection) and then also that All for One had specifically raised Shimura Tenko as a weapon against him. All Might knowing completely the manipulative kind of man that All for One is, and that Shimura must have been young when All for One took him in. Is still able only to see Shigaraki as a crimminal. 

He is literally told that he can’t see him as anything other than a villain otherwise his judgement would be affected. At this point it’s not even ignorance, it’s intentional neglect. All Might SHOULD know that something is up with Shimura Tenko and that he didn’t choose to become a villain and was most likely influenced by All for One and yet the heroes all choose to ignore that fact and instead put him down like any other crimminal. 

The problem with dehumanizing crimminals is that cops are not omniscient. Cops make mistakes. Cops are wrong, like... a lot. When you give people the power of law, there are people who are victims who were just trying to survive who are going to get caught up and treated exactly the same as people who are genuinely dangerous and out to hurt others like AFO. There are people who are perfectly innocent sometimes who will get caught up in it too.

People like Tsukauchi and Gran Torino may be good cops, they may be by the book cops, but that’s it. They’re the type that gets angry at the fact that due process exists because they believe that cops always suspect the right people, and that their hunches are never wrong or they could never possibly arrest someone who doesn’t deserve it. Neither of them acknowledge that the system is flawed and often makes mistakes, and because of that they end up believing that the police are always in the right, that the police could never prosecute someone wrongly, and those are dangerous beliefs to have for literally any law system, especially one with guys that shoot lasers out of their eyes.. The reason due process exists is not to slow the hand of justice, it’s because the legal system is really flawed. 

The problem with giving too much power to police is that we don’t exist in a perfect world where the police will obey even their own laws. Why don’t we just put cameras in everybody’s houses? People who aren’t doing anything illegal won’t have anything to worry about. Unless suddenly things like speaking out against the government become illegal because the police now have the power to enforce it. What I’m saying is the rule of law does not necessarily = good or evil. Rules are not always good, and they’re also not absolutes they change all the time, and they also don’t always exist to protect people they need to protect. We see this literally happen in My Hero Acadmia, the government uses it’s power to kidnap a child and erase his name literally the exact same way All for One did so he could be raised as a child soldier. 

The conflict in My Hero Academia is not good guys vs bad guys, especially when the good guys don’t even act as good guys, and a step beyond that rigid laws and adherence to social order is not ever going to solve the problems associated with villains like Shigaraki because those laws are fundamentally unjust. They don’t exist to protect the people who most need protecting, they exist to oppress a minority in order to maintain social order. 

Yes, violent crimminals are still a group of people. They are still human beings with rights. If they’re not guaranteed those rights they will be abused. We’ve literally seen this play out in action. 

Hawks corners Twice, and then says he’ll go out of his way to Save Twice because he personally likes him. The only one of the villains Hawks treats as a human and not just an enemy to put down is Twice, and only because he personally likes him. 

Twice brings up the fact that all of his friends deserve to be saved the same way he is. In fact, he even goes out of his way to say that he would die to save these people, and Hawks just ignores them because he sees no humanity in them only the one he personally likes. 

Then Hawks goes out of his way to mention that if Twice doesn’t stop fighting back, it’s his fault if they die. Twice is trying to argue with Hawks that the people he sees as a danger to society, and that need to be taken down are humans capable of being kind just as much as they are a threat. 

Twice murders him. He goes out of his way to murder him and stab him in the back. Hawks acting in a capacity as a hero, goes out of his way to dehumanize Twice again and again, completely ignore his own feelings and words, and then that conflict eventually escalates to murder. The point is not that Hawks had no choice but to kill him, but rather Hawks convinced himself he had no choice but to kill Twice. 

The problem with applying this extremely harsh and punitive, even war-like view of law and order is that innocent people like Twice who literally only wanted to keep his friends happy will get caught up in it. Hawks literally thought that Twice had a chance for rehabilitation, that of the league he was the one most likely to rehabilitate and he still murdered him.

Heroes aren’t interested in rehabilitation. They are there to beat up villains. For several of them, it’s not even that far of a jump to get to the point where they start justifying killing villains. Miruko is almost excited to murder the Nomu who are, you know, innocent victims of mad science. 

They want to take down Ujiko, but they don’t care at all about his creations which are all former people, and the heroes know this by this point. Finally, I want to discuss one of the most empathic characters in the manga. 

Aiawa is the current guardian of Eri. He participated in the mission to rescue her from Chisaki. He is someone who views Eri as a victim, and never gets upset with her or blames her for her out of control quirk the same way Chisaki once did. 

Not only that but Aizawa himself has had a friend kidnapped and stolen away by All for One. He knows personally what All for One can do to a person, by changing Shirakumo to Kurogiri he completely warped his personality and controlled him to the point where the person he once was was almost gone. 

He knows All for One is capable of having that affect on people, not only that but Kurogiri himself says that Shigaraki is like a lost kitten that he can’t throw away because he feels responsible. 

Aizawa has rescued a victim who is in similiar circumstances to Shigaraki. Aizawa has literally seen his best friend warped and changed by All for One’s hand. It should be obvious what Shigaraki has been through by now, and yet Aizawa doesn’t seem to care about Shigaraki’s circumstances at all.

Shirakumo has done bad things in AFO’s name as well. However, Aizawa decides to see Shirakumo as a victim. Even though Shirakumo is also complicit in the grooming and raising of Shigaraki for what he is, and almost certainly had a hand in manipulating him. 

Aizawa empathizes with Kurogiri because he knows him personally, because he wants Shirakumo back. He doens’t bother to care about Shigaraki, because he doesn’t know Shigaraki personally. It’s not only hypocritical, it’s also just plain ignorance. 

Aizawa is literally given every story reason to care. Shirakumo literally tells Aizawa that Shigaraki is a person he wants to protect and that he’s fond of. Aizawa believes that despite the terrible things he’s done, there’s still the boy who wanted to become a hero somewhere in Kurogiri, and he’s literally proven right. 

Shirakumo still has a chance and is given a chance to become a hero, because Aizawa cares about him because they were friends but that’s about it. It’s not like Aizawa is driven by a very rigorous and strict sense of justice. He’s clearly willing to make exceptions, even for people who have put his students at risk, or even personally attacked him. He’s willing to reach out and understand Shirakumo’s circumstances, so clearly he doesn’t have a completely black and white view of good and evil. However, Aizawa’s reasons for sympathizing with Kurogiri and only Kurogiri are ultimately pretty selfish. It’s because he wants Shirakumo back. He doesn’t care about the circumstances, or even who Kurogiri cares about now he just wants his old friend back. Therefore he has no reason to care about Shigaraki who was victimized in a similiar way to Kurogiri, just because he doesn’t know him. I guess you’re not obligated to care about anybody, but it’s the exact opposite of empathy, especially in a character like Aizawa who has always shown to be especially protective of children. Nobody tries to understand Shigaraki, nobody tries to empathize with him, even though he also once had the exact same dream as both Shirakumo, and even Deku. 

But Shigaraki’s just a monster that needs to be put down and stopped, there’s not a fragment of good in him like there was for Kurogiri, like there was for Twice. 

Aizawa even gets angry at Ujiko for the callous way he treats human lives. For the way they were tossed aside. He’s righteously angry for Ujiko’s victims, especially Kurogiri. But he doesn’t stop to think for a second that Shigaraki is possibly another victim manipulated by the likes of Ujiko. Once again because Aizawa doesn’t personally know Shigaraki, or because Shigaraki is a bad person, who cares if he gets hurt and manipulated by Ujiko. 

So we see by the heroes, Shigaraki referred to as a thing, Shigaraki referred to as an it. He’s just a monster to be stopped. It’s like he’s a boss in a video game the heroes need to kill. 

Even though they literally see him being experimented on by Ujiko, an actual abuser who has used his money and connections to commit inhuman experiments his whole life that too must be Shigaraki’s fault somehow. The heroes are repeating the exact same lines that Shigaraki’s abuser All for One did on him. 

By treating him as a monster. By treating him as a thing that needs to be killed, rather than a person who needs to be saved. They are doing All for One’s work for him by creating a symbol of fear and robbing a lifelong victim of abuse of his humanity. It’s like they want villains like Shigaraki to exist so they can remain heroes. 

#mha meta #league of villains meta #lov meta #my hero academia meta #shigaraki tomura #aizawa shota #kurogiri #shirakumo oboro

[sir-phineas-lost]

Yes, Ezran is a hypocrite

You ever browse through the TDP-tag and come across something that you take issue with, only to find out it is from someone who already blocked you and you think: “Great, this guy is back on his BS”. Well, situations like that are what the screendump is for.

So yeah, this post is going to be about Ezran and his decisions, and how some segments of the fandom defends said decisions.

Yeah, this much is accurate. Ezran does indeed remain consistent in his desire for peace with Xadia, but as we will see his idea of peace and what is required for it remains decidedly biased in Xadia’s favor.

So here we have the first spectacular example of hypocrisy. Acts of violence in self-defense should indeed be considered acceptable, but what this person neglects to bring up here is that this is something the show, and Ezran in particular, has outright condemned in the past.

Remember Pyrrha? That red dragon from season 2? What was she doing in Katollis in the first place? That's right, terrorizing a town and scouting for Xadia. Soren fires a bolt at her, but it misses and until this point, no actual violence has occurred. Then Pyrrha decides that she has all the excuse she needs to not only attack the watchtower but the entire town full of civilians. Claudia uses dark magic to shoot her down and if we go by this person’s logic, this must surely be an acceptable act of self-defense.

The show really doesn't see it that way though. Ezran doesn’t see it that way. At no point while watching this play out does he ever voice any concern for the people who were attacked or any condemnation of Pyrrha’s actions. And when it is over he does not run into town to make sure everyone there is all right, he runs to Pyrrha to make sure she is ok.

I will probably hear someone argue that at that point Pyrrha was the one who was down and needed the most immediate help in order to stop more death on both sides, but that just highlights my point. His desire to stop the violence on “both” sides conveniently only appears when one side needs it the most. It’s like watching a bully beat up a weaker kid for 5 minutes and then when the victim gets 1 good hit in you suddenly decide that it is time to call for a time-out. The show also goes the extra mile to lay all the blame for this horrible war-crime at Soren’s feet because he “made” Pyrrha attack.

The show clearly didn’t think acts of self-defense were all that different from other acts of violence before so why are we supposed to think it is different when Ezran immolates his own people for the sake of saving Xadia?

No, you don’t have to oppose violence in every circumstance to love peace, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a clear pattern in which situations Ezran decides it is finally time to “stand his ground”.

You can indeed make a great point about the need to fight a battle now and show your resolve in order to avoid greater suffering later, but this is once again a philosophy that both the show and this person has decided to twist in Xadia’s favor. See, this very same idea is at the core of Viren’s plan as well. That humanity must fight and take back their rights now in order to not fall back into a status-quo that leaves them suffering and dying in the long-term.

You cannot argue for this position and need to “fight for peace” without also examining the current relationship between the nations and what that “peace” will actually look like.

Yes, Ezran is very noble for accepting this deal for the sake of the soldiers, but it is once again something that only lasts until it affects someone he actually cares about, namely Zym and Rayla. And all that humanizing of the otherwise nameless and faceless soldiers will go straight out the window.

And here is where this person tries to make all of these contradictions into some kind of cohesive arc for Ezran. That his willingness to kill humans is somethng he has learned as part of his “positive” character growth, but it doesn’t work for one very simple reason. It is completely made up of wishful thinking. I see how someone could hear Soren say this and come to the conclusion that they have acted poorly in the past, but Ezran never has that moment of realization. There is never a scene where he admits fault or that he was naive to think he could stop the slaughter by burying his head in the sand. His decision to abdicate is never treated as anything other than a noble sacrifice and it ultimately turns out to save the day as the soldiers he negotiated to be let go come back as reinforcements along with Duren to kill off the soldiers who followed Viren.

More importantly, if the point was actually that Ezran has learned a valuable lesson about maybe having to do a horribly tragic thing now (like fighting a bloody battle) to prevent a larger tragedy later as this person suggests, then the narrative should still treat this choice to slaughter humans as a tragedy, and it just doesn’t. Instead of treating it as a somber affair they treat it as a clear battle of good vs evil and they make sure to literally dehumanize the soldiers as much as possible to make sure that we don’t feel bad for them. All that “empathy” Ezran felt for these same men and women before can conveniently be ignored in this case. They have once again been reduced to faceless puppets on a board.

But that’s just it, he doesn’t break the cycle, he perpetuates it. This is no longer a conflict that only his ancestors have killed in. There are people who would be alive today if not for decisions he made. Aanya killed Kasef, a boy of 19 with an injured dad and (supposedly) a younger sibling left at home. Should they take the murder of their family without complaint? Does anyone think they will not have a genuine grievance with the child queen who took his life? The same queen who swore to King Ahling that she would not send her troops to die in someone else’s war? Sounds to me like Ezran’s way of breaking the cycle is to kill when it is convenient for his friends and then expect the people he hurt to just let it go. No doubt the show will make Ahling out to be the bad guy for not being the bigger man and forcing Ezran to kill him too. It will always be “necessary” to break with pacifism when Ezran needs it to protect his magical friends.

Ezran will fight for his peace alright, but it is an uneven peace if ever there was one. He will not “stand up” to bullies, he will coddle them and shelter them from the consequences of their actions in the name of this “peace”. The next time Rayla says something bigoted about humans he will let it slide, or laugh at how funny it is. When Zubeia decides to get rid of some humans who practice dark magic in the name of “peace” he will certainly not fight for them half as hard as he fought for the dragon who committed a war-crime right in front of him. Not once has Ezran ever confronted the imbalance of power that started this war in the first place and he has given me no reason to think he will do so now that his “peace” is finally within reach. His new status quo will kill just as many humans as the previous one did, but things will be better for Xadia so why should he care?

That’s funny because it also mirrors every pretentious asshat who thinks they are deep because they can quote something in Latin.

Edit: I bolded the text because it was botheing me how it sometimes blended into the text from the other post.

#the dragon prince #tdp #tdp meta #tdp critical #meta

[raisingsupergirl]

You Don't Know What You Don't Know

In today's information age, everyone's an expert. Broken dishwasher? Just YouTube it. Wondering who that actor is? IMDB it. Want a DIY chicken coop? Google it. Trying to find an unending stream of #fakenews and fear mongering? Log into Facebook. The problem is, well… we don't always know what the actual problem is. We see the symptoms. We know what we want—the end result—but we're not always sure how to get there. And a quick Google search is all we have the patience for before we jump to conclusions and then blame someone or something else for our failure. Take my recent plunge into fishkeeping, for example.

I've always been an animal lover. I think it's innate in all of us, but not everyone has the right disposition or upbringing to appreciate animal/plant husbandry. As for me, I grew up in the Missouri wilderness surrounded by ponds, cliffs, streams, fields, and forests. Sure, I spent my fair share of time on the Super Nintendo System, but being in the great outdoors was engrained in me from a young age. And more than that, I learned to appreciate the other things out there. I kept just about every animal you could imagine at one time or another (dogs, cats, birds, fish, lizards, frogs, newts, rodents of all varieties, snakes, chickens, geese, goats, a squirrel, a ferret, a raccoon, and even a short-tailed opossum, off the top of my head), and though I was pretty irresponsible with most of them (ignoring for a second that I should have just left them where I found them in nature), I loved nurturing them, and I kept most of them alive. So when my city-girl daughter said she wanted a fish for her fourth birthday, a little piece of my past reignited, and I… may have gone a little overboard.

First, my mom still had the 35-gallon aquarium she bought me for my birthday a couple of decades ago. Back then I just winged it. I didn't have Google. I didn't come from a long line of aquarists. I just filled the thing up with well water, a cheap bag of gravel, a log I found floating in my pond, and the cheapest fish I could find at my local Walmart (yes, Walmart sold fish back then). Of course the tank was full of algae and dead fish in no time, but I kept at it, and eventually I had a few fish that didn't eat each other, but ultimately it wasn't what I knew it could be, so I set the fish "free" in my pond and put a snake in the tank instead.

I used the tank again in college with similar results, only this time I had a filter, did occasional water changes, and had just a few friendly fish, so it was much more successful, though still very "low tech," as they say in the hobby. Since then, I've matured (please hold all sarcasm until the end), and I've learned the value of researching something before attempting it. The change started in physical therapy school when I spent countless hours dissecting and writing scientific papers. It was the literal worst, but it taught me so much about the world. Rather, it taught me how to learn about any particular aspect of the world. You see, in these classes, we weren't allowed to just read the abstract and regurgitate the experimenters' assumptions. We had to read every line, go back and read every line of the sources they cited, and then, once we understood every word, we could start forming our own opinions on the subject. And believe it or not, I rarely found a paper that wasn't skewed toward the writer's desired result in some small way.

So now we get to the heart of things—you don't know what you don't know until you know it. And you won't know it unless you put in the time. We're living in an age of instant gratification. Because there's so much information out there, we only have time to skim. Otherwise we wouldn't have any time to actually live. I recently ran across an inspiration quote by science fiction author Robert Heinlein's character, Lazarus Long:

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."

Sure. Easy for Lazarus to say. As his name suggests, he was over 200 years old and counting at the time of his above quotation (and that's to say nothing of Heinlein's, uh, colorful political and philosophical views). But even still, his words are a nice sentiment, and they resonate with our current zeitgeist. We all want to be experts at everything, but we just don't have the time to do it. So we become Jacks-of-all-trades, and masters of none. And thus, with the dehumanizing help of social media, we get into a lot of stupid fights.

But I digress. Back to my aquarium example. Giving in to my excitement and desire for my daughter to experience thy "joys" of fishkeeping, I reverted to the impulsiveness of my youth. And of the twelve fish I bought those first few months, I killed half of them. Why? Because I didn't take the time to learn about taking a new tank through the nitrogen cycle. I knew nothing of ammonium, nitrite, or nitrate. I didn't know how to promote bacterial colonies in the filter media. And when I decided to add a few live plants to the mix, I didn't know the difference between submersed and submerged, or that PetCo didn't care about selling you "aquatic" plants that would die 100% of the time if completely under water. And that's saying nothing about water pH, alkalinity, fertilizers (NPK, micronutrients, root tabs versus liquid fertilizers, etc), carbon (CO2) availability, substrate differences, etc., etc. I just thought, "these are pretty" with dozens of plants and fish from completely different, delicately balanced ecosystems around the world, and then expected them to flourish when crammed together in the petri dish that was my, er, my daughter's aquarium.

I'll be the first to say that I suck at chemistry. It was the only "C" I received in college. Too many dry facts and things I couldn't visualize. Too much like math. But over the past few months, I've forced myself to dig into the periodic table and the chemical processes of dozens of elements and compounds in order to BEGIN understanding the aquatic world. I'm still so far away from having a solid grasp on the process, but at least I now know what I don't know. And that's a start. And it's a valuable reminder of the ignorance of mankind.

As a physical therapist, it often baffles me when my highly intelligent friends and family don't understand their own bodies. These people are experts in their fields. They're fluent in areas that I'll never even begin to understand. And yet, they can't figure out the simplest causes of their own various aches and pains. And thus, they become easy prey for fad diets, snake oils, and cure-alls. In health and fitness, especially, our connected, opinion-fueled society is playing the willing victim. Like politics and philosophy, we all know there are problems, and we see "experts" offering their solutions constantly, and social media algorithms are feeding into this problem by inundating our news feeds with like-minded (no matter how wrong) individuals. We think, "Hey, everything I see reinforces my ideas, so the must be right!" But really, we're still living in the same high-walled isolation we've always lived in. We just have weapons that can shoot farther now.

So remember, if you haven't spent hundreds of hours researching and forming your opinion, you're probably not right. Maybe you have an idea. It may even be a good idea. But life is complex. It spans millennia of philosophers, scientists, and soldiers. Even if WebMD says you have terminal cancer, you should still probably see an actual MD before you throw in the towel. Because, contrary to Lazarus Long's inspiring sentiment, humanity can still find value in specialization. Life is rich and deep, so take the time to dig.

#fish tank #fish keeping #aquarium #aquarist #plantedtank #planted aquarium #chemistry #diversity #education #informed opinion #research #social media #ignorance #momblr #dadblr #mumblr #physical therapy #specialization #robert heinlein

[ineveragreedtothealbatross]

So This is How Liberty Dies- With Thunderous Applause

A little over a year ago my family and I visited Washington DC. While we were there we visited the Holocaust museum. I am deeply ashamed to say that until that point in my life the Holocaust had been something, that, while a tragedy, happened a long time ago, and could be safely tucked away in the vaults of history where it would remain; a vague memory and something for us to point at and whisper ‘Never Again’.

The instant I walked into the building that changed. You are separated into groups and given a small paper booklet, each one detailing the life of a holocaust victim. In your hands you hold all that remains of a real live person. Some have photographs and dates and a short biography. Others have only names. None of the booklets are the same.

Your group waits an undetermined amount of time before they are loaded onto an elevator. It is dark and crowded and the walls are made to look like the inside of train cars and gas chambers. The doors close and you hear a soldier describing the horrors that he saw in the camps. The elevator moves in jerks and bumps. The doors open eventually and you step out into a scene so horrific that I lack the words to describe it. All you can see are the bodies.

So many bodies.

There are no maps, no exit signs, no obvious way out. The exhibits twist and turn and dead end. On every wall there are horrors worse than I could’ve ever imagined. Every cell in my body felt Wrong.

There is a room of glass walls covered in the names of over 5,000 villages, towns, and shtetls that were destroyed by the nazis.

There is a three story room filled top to bottom with photographs of Ejszyszki, a shtetl that was home to over 4,000 Jews, of which only 29 survived.

There is a room filled only with shoes, taken from Majdanek inmates before they were sent to the gas chambers, set aside to be given to German citizens. There is still ash on the soles and the smell slaps you in the face as you walk in, even 70 years later.

There are diagrams and charts to calculate how Aryan someone was. There are records of the medical experiments preformed on prisoners so disturbing that there are barriers in place to prevent children from seeing them.

As you leave you are confronted with one final quote.

“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—�Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out— �Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— �Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”

-Martin Niemöller

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve wondered how Hitler came into power. I didn’t understand how such a despicable human being could possibly garner enough support to be allowed to murder 9 million innocent people.

Now, 9 days into a Trump presidency, I understand how it happened. Hitler didn’t start out saying “Kill all the Jews.” He said “Lets make this country great again.” He promised change. He promised to put the country first.

Little by little he dehumanized groups of people, he made it acceptable to hate others because of their skin color or their religion or their sexuality. The country wanted a scapegoat and Hitler gave them one. He fostered hatred and division and it grew into genocide.

Not with a bang but a whimper.

Trump is doing the same thing. It has been 9 days and he has already banned Muslims from entering the country, even those who have legal citizenship. He has banned refugees from seeking asylum. He is repealing Obamacare and defunding Planned Parenthood, leaving millions without healthcare and insurance. He approved the Dakota Access Pipeline and the Keystone Pipeline. He is decriminalizing domestic violence. And that isn’t even half of it.

Reading all of this today, trying to keep updated on the status of the immigrants who have been illegally detained at the airports, seeing and hearing all the disgusting hatred spewing out of people’s mouths, it makes me sick.

I keep hearing people saying that it won’t be that bad. I’ve had people tell me to just give him a chance. I’ve had people say that the people who are scared are just being dramatic.

All of these people have been straight, white, cisgender, Christian, able bodied men. And they are right. For them it won’t be that bad. The worst thing that will happen to them is unfulfilled expectations and raised taxes.

At the end of the night they can turn off their phones and put it out of their mind and go to sleep unafraid.

But what about the women who are afraid to walk alone because Trump has told the nation that it is ok to ‘grab her by the pussy’ ?

What about the 1 in 6 women who have been sexually assaulted and will be ridiculed because sexual assault is being normalized?

What about the men, women, and children who no longer have access to basic healthcare like cancer screenings because Trump has defunded planned parenthood?

What about the people who can no longer press charges against an abusive partner?

What about the trans women, trans men, nonbinary, and genderfluid people who are harassed or assaulted because they are forced to use the wrong bathroom?

What about the LGBTQIA+ people who have to wonder if today will be the day they lose their right to love who they love?

What about the people who have to wonder if today will be the day that someone kills them because of their skin color?

What about the immigrants who wonder if they will ever be able to see their families outside the US again?

What about the people who will be harassed for practicing their religion, just because it’s not Christianity?

What about the people who are called terrorists and worry that their hijab or niqab or taqiyahs will make them a target for violence?

What about the LGBTQIA+ refugees who live in other countries where their orientation is punishable by death?

What about the children and teenagers who are afraid to come out to their families because they could be forced to participate in conversion therapy?

What about the children who witness racism and hatred and don’t understand why someone wants them dead just because of their skin?

What about children who hate themselves because they can’t understand how to love a god who they are told hates their very existence?

What about the disabled and chronically ill people who aren’t able to afford medication or healthcare because the affordable care act has been repealed?

What about the Native Americans who have been poisoned and who will be forced to drink contaminated water and live on dead land?

The office of president is held by a despicable man who sleeps next to a copy of Mein Kampf and who has admitted to sexually assaulting young girls. In only 9 days he has negated 100 years of struggle and progress.

So go ahead and tell yourself to give him a chance. Bury your head in the sand and do nothing if you like. But if you choose to do nothing, if you choose to remain silent, if you choose to ignore the suffering of millions, don’t you dare say 'Never Again’. Don’t you dare tell me 'Never Again’ while blood drips off of your hands and poison spews out of your mouth. Don’t you dare.

Are you ready to accept responsibility for World War 3?

Because I am not.

I want to make it completely clear, I do not support Trump. I will NEVER support Trump. I will not become complicit. I will not remain silent. I will not bite my tongue. I will not be calm. I will not be quiet and I will not apologize for being a decent human being.

It has been 9 days and I am horrified. I am heartbroken. I am distraught. I am disgusted. I am terrified.

I am furious.

#notmypresident #nevermypresident #hewillnotdivideus #equality #feminism #trump #lovetrumpshate #resist #standup #immigration #lgbtqia+ #holocaust #worldwar2 #world war #worldwar3

[riverdamien]

Book Review and Reflection on Persecution Complex

Journal of An Alien Street Priest:

Persecution Complex

Why American Christians Need to Stop Playing the Victim

by Jason Wiedel

Reflections and Book Review

"Wisdom has built her house

she has carved its seven columns,

mixed the wines and set the table.

She has sent her servants to invite everyone to come.

She calls out from the heights overlooking the city.

Come. eat my food,

and drink the wine I have mixed.

Leave your simple ways behind, and begin to live;

learn to use good judgment."

Proverbs 9:1-3, 5-6.

        The predominant narrative among many Christians in the United States today is one of persecution. A Church in Los Angles has sued the government and won, to be able to open up for in door services; Several Roman Catholic Churches in San Francisco are simply acting like junior high's in disregarding the pandemic lock down--"we are being 'persecuted.'" This false narrative of persecution is damaging our witness, and  our ministry of sharing the love of Christ with the world. It is placing needless lives in danger. I was once asked if I did not believe that God "protected me", and my response was that God gave me a good mind, and that mind informs me of the danger of the virus, we are to protect ourselves. Wear your masks, maintain social distance, wash your hands!

    As we enter the season of political conventions there will be a lot of attention placed on Christianity (our candidates will all carry Bibles in their brief cases), and we will see that the threat of religious persecution "lite" is one of the most powerful ways of motivating people to action.  And we are stirred up to believe the false narrative that our survival is at hand. And this particular  political persuasion is THE ANSWER.

    There are six damaging reasons of the persecution narrative: 1. We feel and act superior to others; We justify antagonism; We dehumanize others; We eliminate conversation and debate; We become immune to criticism; and We ignore the real problems of human suffering.

    When we  come to believe that our own problems, and the needs of America, are the most desperate, we lose sight of the needs of the world, and we fall into the persecution complex and than we persecute others.  We not only overlook the  real suffering of so many other people in the world but also  those literally under our feet, and we also become blinded to the kinds of suffering we create through our self-centered addiction to fear, which especially now is a real reality.

    In Matthew 25 we are given by Jesus a parable about the judgment of humanity. It has a surprise ending because Jesus explains that it is not lots of religious activity or adherence to particular doctrines, or  beliefs that pleases God--it is  feeding the poor, clothing the needy, and caring for the sick. Justice--spelled out.

    Jesus calls us to love our enemies, and to lay down our lives, "No one has greater love than this, but to lay down one's life for one's friends."  He is not meaning "white", "black", "red", "brown", "green" "purple" or Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, atheist, rich or poor, friends,  but that  all people are our friends-- like it or not.

    Jesus' example is that of non-violent self-sacrifice. His way of giving until his last breath ultimately exposes his enemies, who would oppose him with strength and violence, as impotent. When the soldier at the cross said, "Surely, this man was the son of God," he was seeing that the might of Rome, which crushed Jesus and ended his life, was actually empty. Jesus' way of peace and humility is what truly held power.

    Laying down our lives means  that we give ourselves wholly to the needs of those around us. We do not demand that they cater to us, be grateful, or subservient, we love them, we serve them. Let us asked not what our fellow humans can do for us, but ask what we can do for our neighbor.

    Each person be they  Democrat, Republican, Green, Independent or Polka Dot,  are equal in the eyes of God. We can disagree, we can not like each other's candidates, but when the arguments are cleared we stand holding the bag in our hands, and our responsibility is to work in love and respect  with one another. Easy, no!  Necessary yes!

    For you see each day I see people on respirators, sick, and terrified; each night I see young adults on the streets, who are hungry, ill, lonely, dirty, depressed, and in walking with them the political fighting falls away, "the persecution complex" is nil, and whatever you call yourself does not matter--what matters is do you feed, clothe, comfort, house and care and in so doing we hear the words of Paul:

  Philippians 2:1-11

Have the Attitude of Christ

2 Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? 2 Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose.

3 Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. 4 Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too.

5 You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had.

6 Though he was God,[a]     he did not think of equality with God     as something to cling to. 7 Instead, he gave up his divine privileges[b];     he took the humble position of a slave[c]     and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form,[d] 8     he humbled himself in obedience to God     and died a criminal’s death on a cross.

9 Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor     and gave him the name above all other names, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,     in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord,     to the glory of God the Father. Deo Gratias! Thanks be to God!

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Donations Needed:

    We are in desperate need of socks, food, masks, and so your gifts would be appreciated. But regardless, what we have learned through the years it is not that  the food,  clothing, socks  or masks that are remembered, but our presence, simply spending time, listening, and caring for each person individually. That we do in season and out of season. We do money or no money. We do virus or no violence. Thank you for your prayers, your gifts, your kind emails, and your snail mail.

    This book we have reviewed and commented upon  I encourage you to  read, especially during this season of political division and need.  You do not have to agree with it, but listen, meditate, and let its message speak to your heart. You certainly do not agree with me all the time, and I know I do not agree with you either, but what I do know  and I shout this from the roof tops  is that I care for you, and have your best interests at heart in and out of season, even if you support the Polka Dot Party. Ultimately all that matters is that we are children of the One God.!

Fr. River Damien Sims

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Temenos Catholic Worker

P.O. Box 642656

San Francisco, CA 94164

www.temenos.org (pay pal is located here)

[email protected]