#and i had to censor the other with nonsensical letter space

[meduise]

my own hibari headcanons

[reposting because of adult terminology crimes, lol]

been meaning to write down my list of hcs for a while anyway, and now i have the occasion to get to it! among the others im gonna add what i decided to avoid putting under this post and give more details about what i already wrote there

content/trigger warnings: death, assassination, mental illness, eating disorders

the list will be under the cut! it excludes my strictly shippy hcs and i may update it over time

first things first. like my own blog title suggests, i hc hibari as a trans guy.  i’m trans myself, so this is arguably the hc of mine im the most attached to for personal comfort reasons LOL. it all started when i read a fic about trans hibari a few years ago and later on i got more and more fond of this transcanon, becoming 100% personal. i also hc that he doesnt feel dysphoric. as for his sexuality i hc him as gay

we know that hibari and fon are relatives. my idea is that they’re step-brothers (different mother), and long lost to that. NOW. i realize that with the assumption of fon’s age, them being siblings is unlikely, but it shouldn’t be impossible. their father could be old enough. he got married to a chinese woman who gave birth to fon, then divorced, then got married again to a japanese woman, kyouya’s mom. (i kinda based this on my irls situation, where because of the parents’ second marriage there is at least a good 20 years of gap between the oldest and youngest sibling)

the hibari family was part of the yakuza. to answer a question that was made to me: i agree that hibari “just liking fighting” isnt funny at all. i heavily believe that there’s a psychological reason to his behavior but im going to talk about this in another point below. i also think that hibari was probably the heir to the clan, but here in my head hibari is still too young for it, like 5-6 years old.

when hibari was a child his parents got killed in the hibari household. how could they get killed in their own house, didn’t they have enough protection? they did. but the guard was low considering who turned out to be their murderers were old, trusted allies. kyouya only survived because he managed to hide properly and long enough. he didnt witness the assassination but he did see his parents in a pool of blood after everything ended. before dying, his mom left a last message to him: be stronger than anyone else. because of the trauma, even in the present hibari avoids going back to that house as much as he can and especially he never reopens the door of the crime scene. hibari also still grows into a delinquent, but he dislikes the mafia world and wishes he didnt have to be involved with it

for a while, hibari is in fon’s mother’s custody. here is when he meets fon for the first time, over time they get very attached to one another, but because of the arcobaleno matters, fon goes disappearing, and hibari ends up assuming fon has died and left him behind just like this parents did. fon reappears and goes to meet hibari in occasion of the arcobaleno representative battles and of course wit trauma resurface and about 10 years of beliefs and assumptions hibari really, really struggles with this reunion, but eventually they bond again. (for this one i dont take into account the events in the anime only arcobaleno trial events, as well as the fact that we see all the arcobalenos revived at the end of the future arc)

hibari has an antisocial personality disorder (which implies he already had conduct disorders before the age of 15). it explains his violent and criminal behavior, as well as the fact that he doesn’t feel guilty for anything he does. he also suffers from ptsd and has eating disorders (i thought about the avoidant food intake, where, among the other symptoms, a person avoids to extreme levels some types of food because of characteristics such as their pattern or their color and generally lacks appetite/interest in food)

(wears my enneagram nerd hat) HIBARI IS A TYPE EIGHT. 8w7 precisely, aka the maverick. all about type eight is basically a call out to hibari lmfao but here’s the most relevant characteristics: eights are the real stand-alones of the enneagram. eights’ basic fear is to be harmed and controlled by others, and they steel up to prevent their basic fear from happening (or happening again). below the tough facade there is a vulnerability that cant be shown to anyone. their virtue is innocence, an innocence that they once and forever lost, and hibari basically lost it when his family was assassinated. eights are also associated to the deadly sin of lu st. for hibari its not necessarily the ns fw kinda lu st, rather bloodlu st. and its one big paradox because eights want to be in control of their surroundings, but being consumed by lu st means being under something/someone else’s control (and so we’re back to the basic fear). unhealthy eights are violent, despotic, reckless. all things we see in hibari. very unhealthy eights are also those who typically may develop the antisocial disorder, reason why i listed it above

since he wants to dominate his environment, hibari controls over the namimori and especially the school to feel “security”. he managed it through illegal means and pretty much lives in the school, namichuu is also one of the few places where usually he can sleep without having nightmares

yes, hibari loves sleeping but also he gets nightmares about his past more often than not

but i also love imagining hibari gradually healing and recovering from his trauma, so i do hc that in adulthood he’s mentally doing better. he can be a leader without being tyrannical. he can be strong while also acknowledging his own vulnerability. he is able to love again, too

the reason why he has a soft spot for little animals and children, like we see for ipin, is that he (unconsciously?) sees in them the innocence he himself lost. plus tiny and cute things help him cope when he is having episodes

he also treats ipin well because she is fon’s pupil. and i love to think of them as a little family

if hibari has a ring he really likes or is emotionally attached to he makes sure to never wear it on his fingers so he doesnt risk breaking it with his flames

hibari is pretty much a nerd, in his own twisted way. i mean. he’s seen reading in a bunch of official arts and we know that he’s very fond of the wonders of the world, he started up the foundation for his box researches and he knows well how illusions work - which means he studied them. since he was moved by his hatred towards mukuro, his illusion studies must have reached an unhealthy level, becoming an obsession

fon trained hibari on how to fight against illusions as well

for hibari, finding out he has mist flames too was very much of a shock, but he eventually accepts it. he only uses those flames if really needed (like the foundation entry camouflage)

i will get back to this post when i’ll have established:

why hibari picks tonfas as his weapons (i already have an idea but i havent gone into details myself enough to write about it here)

hibari’s parents and fon’s mother’s name

anything relevant that i forgot or come up with

#khr #katekyo hitman reborn #hibari kyoya #kyoya hibari #khr headcanon #headcanon #trans headcanon #tw: death #tw: murder #tw: eating disorder #cw: mental illness #i wont tag the two people i tagged in my first post again so that i dont bother them again shdjz #also made the answer to one of them more vague so i didnt have to write the username there! why didnt i think about it the first time me du #i cant believe i had to repost this because of ONE word that went against the policy #and i had to censor the other with nonsensical letter space #like man this is so much

[belovedgamers]

hello hello!! can I have ✏️ and 👖 and 💋 for the ask game, with my free question being: what do you do for your writing warmups?? I know I'm *supposed* to do them, but I always end up either jumping into a fic if I have inspiration, or not writing at all if I don't, and I really want to be more consistent!!! thanks so much!! love you!! have a wonderful day!! ~doozer #1197

✏️ Do you write every day?

Almost every day yeah! I try to at least write something! Sometimes I only do warm ups or some free verse poetry or some nonsense dialogue... the goal is to write at least something every day. I don’t have a word count goal in mind or anything, I just try to make sure that I’m writing and drawing every day! It’s a good habit to keep up! 

👖 Are you a planner, plantser, or pantser? Is it consistent?

I guess it depends? I usually have a goal in mind. “I want to write Eret after the Banquet.” “I want to write a myth au.” “I want to reach this specific line.” “I want to protest Lucifer.” “I want to write urban fantasy.”

But I don’t really do outlines. Exceptions are bigger fics, for example, it’s you has an “outline” but it’s less a series of points and more like the barebones of key scenes one after the other. light at the end of the hall had an outline because I needed to make sure the transitions would be smooth.

💋 [Freeform -  what do you do for your writing warmups?]

A variety of things! Most notably I do automatic writing! Sit down and write whatever. Do not pause. Do not censor yourself. Write and write and let it go. This is really how I perfected stream of consciousness. I have started writing letters that turned into poetry that turned into fic that circled back to my thoughts and so on and so forth!

Object personification! Write about an object as if it were a character. I like to write letters from one to another. There’s also describing an object based on senses, this is good for description.

One location, two person scenes! Put two characters in a place and make them talk. This can give you a ton of insight into your characters and can also just be dialogue and banter practice. My favorite thing is either an enclosed space or a kitchen. 

There’s a ton of other exercises and you can find some other options by googling “warm up writing exercises” and seeing what fits you the best! What works for you may not be what works for me. For example, some people recommend deleting warm ups but I keep mine.

 Fanfic ask game!

#catrina answers #ask meme #doozer 1197 #hello doozer! hope you're well! hup 2 3 4!

[azulblue9]

How Prince became Prince, told by Prince. 

Deia, Bizkaia News.

"The Beautiful Ones" arrives Thursday at the bookstores in its Spanish version

JAVIER HERRERO - Wednesday, November 13, 2019 - Updated at 6:52 p.m.

"The Beautiful Ones", a first-person account of "how Prince became Prince", in his way of seeing life and art, arrives Thursday at the bookstores in its Spanish version when three and a half years have passed death of one of the most relevant and influential music figures.

MADRID. "Several people he loved and admired were beginning to fall ill, which had made him aware of his own mortality. Now more than ever he understood the value of telling his own story," explains Dan Piepenbring, chosen by the star to help you in the narration of this work.

Among unpublished photos, diaries and intimate notes, the book starts with an introduction prepared by this writer and editor who became responsible for completing it after the unexpected death of the musical star by an overdose of fentanyl. He talks about this reconstruction process long and hard.

"I spoke with Prince for the last time on a Sunday, April 17, 2016, four days before his death," he recalls after becoming an orphan of the essential vertex of the project and after three months of sporadic calls and just 30 pages of hand notes that are reproduced in the book.

From the annotations and documents found in the residence of Paisley Park, in Minnesota (USA), it took years to conclude "The Beautiful Ones" (Reservoir Books), in an attempt to fulfill the original will to serve as a manual on the creative process and the music industry and even as a speaker against racism.

"The enormity of his archive gave us hope. There was a way of giving nature's letter to his ambitions without compromising the integrity of the project ... If we only included objects that had been his, we would know that we had something authentic in our hands. Only the things he had saved transmitted something to us. The voice of the book could be his, "Piepenbring says.

Divided into four parts, the first contains the autobiographical testimony he left. "Every new school year, the children and the teachers made fun of my name, but it never bothered me because it was unique. No one had the first name Prince. Except me," he says in his ramblings about the singularity.

"Many artists fall through the rabbit hole of their fantasies and never return. There have been many who have censored this as a form of self-destruction, but I prefer the term free will. Life is better lived. The path one takes us. away from the rest. Those we considered different were the ones that interested us most, "he says in this first part.

In the second, newspapers and scrapbooks discover their formative years, just before their first album. The ascent to the top is the matter on which the story of the third part is built, while the fourth has been expressly consigned to shelling "Purple Rain", taken here as "the conclusion of the process of creating oneself" .

A good part of the exploration lies in finding a formula to define "funk", a musical genre capable of messing up the body of those who recognized themselves as a lover of order in the rest of the spheres of their lives. "The space between the notes, that's the good part," he used to say.

"Somehow, funk music was also the ideal vehicle for expressing his dilemma. Prince was the vivid image of contradiction, the synthesis of his mother and father. Funk worked the same way, fusing momentum and structure." , considers Piepenbring in his personal reflections on Prince.

Some of the keys to his compositional process and musical philosophy are here discovered by the genius of Minneapolis, as when he says that "a good ballad should always encourage you to make love" or that "the best songs are in a vibrant imagination, in fantasy characters who wear fantasy clothes creating memories together and calling that life ".

For all these reasons, "The Beautiful Ones" is not a catalog of vital nonsense like other autobiographies, but a tool for personal growth, as he himself defined: "I want to tell people to be creative. Simply, start creating your day And then create your own life. "

The ONE & ONLY__________________ Prince 4ever! O(+> 💜🎵💜

De cómo Prince se convirtió en Prince, contado por Prince

"The Beautiful Ones" llega este jueves a las librerías en su versión en español

JAVIER HERRERO - Miércoles, 13 de Noviembre de 2019 - Actualizado a las 18:52h

"The Beautiful Ones", relato en primera persona de "cómo Prince se convirtió en Prince", de su manera de ver la vida y el arte, llega este jueves a las librerías en su versión en español cuando se cumplen tres años y medio del fallecimiento de una de las figuras más relevantes e influyentes de la música.

MADRID. "Varias personas a las que amaba y admiraba estaban empezando a caer enfermas, lo que le había hecho consciente de su propia mortalidad. Ahora más que nunca comprendía el valor de contar su propia historia", explica en esas páginas Dan Piepenbring, elegido por la estrella para ayudarle en la narración de esta obra. Entre fotos inéditas, dietarios y apuntes íntimos, el libro arranca con una introducción elaborada por este escritor y editor que se convirtió en el responsable de completarlo tras el inesperado fallecimiento del astro musical por una sobredosis de fentanilo. De ese proceso de reconstrucción habla largo y tendido. "Hablé con Prince por última vez un domingo, el 17 de abril de 2016, cuatro días antes de su muerte", rememora tras quedarse huérfano del vértice imprescindible del proyecto y después de tres meses de llamadas esporádicas y apenas 30 páginas de apuntes a mano que se reproducen en el libro. A partir de las anotaciones y de documentos hallados en la residencia de Paisley Park, en Minnesota (EEUU), llevó años concluir "The Beautiful Ones" (Reservoir Books), en un intento por cumplir la voluntad original de que sirviera como manual sobre el proceso creativo y la industria musical e incluso como altavoz contra el racismo. "La enormidad de su archivo nos dio esperanzas. Había una manera de dar carta de naturaleza a sus ambiciones sin comprometer la integridad del proyecto (...). Si incluíamos únicamente objetos que habían sido suyos, sabríamos que teníamos algo auténtico entre manos. Solo las cosas que había guardado nos transmitían algo. La voz del libro podría ser la suya", sentencia Piepenbring. Dividido en cuatro partes, la primera contiene el testimonio autobiográfico que dejó. "Cada nuevo curso escolar los niños y los maestros se burlaban de mi nombre, pero nunca me molestó porque era único. Nadie tenía como nombre de pila Prince. Excepto yo", señala en sus divagaciones sobre la singularidad. "Muchos artistas caen por la madriguera de conejo de sus fantasías y no regresan nunca. Ha habido muchos que han censurado esto como una forma de autodestrucción, pero yo prefiero el término libre albedrío. La vida es mejor vivida. El camino que uno toma nos aleja del resto. Aquellos a los que consideraban diferentes eran los que más nos interesaban", destaca en esta primera parte. En la segunda, diarios y libretas de recortes descubren sus años de formación, justo antes de su primer disco. El ascenso hasta lo más alto es la materia sobre la que se construye el relato de la tercera parte, mientras que la cuarta se ha consignado expresamente a desgranar "Purple Rain", tomada aquí como "la conclusión del proceso de crearse a sí mismo". Buena parte de la exploración radica en encontrar una fórmula para definir el "funk", género musical capaz de desordenarle el cuerpo a quien se reconocía como un amante del orden en el resto de esferas de su vida. "El espacio que hay entre las notas, esa es la parte buena", solía decir. "De algún modo, la música funk era también el vehículo ideal para expresas su dilema. Prince era la viva imagen de la contradicción, la síntesis de su madre y de su padre. El funk funcionaba de la misma manera, fusionando impulso y estructura", considera Piepenbring en sus reflexiones personales sobre Prince. Algunas de las claves de su proceso compositivo y de su filosofía musical quedan aquí al descubierto por el propio genio de Minneapolis, como cuando afirma que "una buena balada siempre debería animarte a hacer el amor" o que "las mejores canciones se encuentran en una imaginación vibrante, en personajes de fantasía que visten ropas de fantasía creando recuerdos juntos y llamando a eso vida". Por todo ello, "The Beautiful Ones" no es un catálogo de despropósitos vitales como otras autobiografías, sino una herramienta de crecimiento personal, tal y como él mismo definió: "Quiero decirle a la gente que sea creativa. Simplemente, empieza creándote el día. Y luego crea tu propia vida".

Prince 4ever! O(+> 💜🎵💜

[glittergummicandypeach]

‘Cancel Culture’ Is as Old as Religion, And It’s Only a Thing Because of Who’s Doing the Cancelling | Religion Dispatches

I don’t understand “cancel culture.” I mean, I understand what people mean, but I don’t quite understand why those decrying it claim that it’s something new. 

I’ve often thought the term itself is born from social media which portends to inaugurate the democratization of knowledge but really functions to introduce the democratization of opinion. In some way, of course, opinion was always democratized; free speech enables me to say whatever I want (given certain caveats) but it doesn’t, nor did it ever, give me the right to say it wherever I want. 

In some way, cancel culture has always existed, mostly in the hands of editors of opinion pages and letters to the editor; university committees who decide who’s invited to speak and who isn’t; people who evaluate material for publication, etc. That is, there was always a process of vetting, and that vetting was not always pure and without ulterior motives. 

The lines of communication between what I happen to think and your ear have never been unmediated unless you happened to pass by my front lawn as I stood there and expounded on the ills of the world. Before this present moment, for example, would anyone think of accusing a newspaper of “cancel culture” because they rejected one’s letter to the editor (if so, I would have been the victim of cancel culture many times over).

But something has changed. Let me cite a few examples. When I was a young assistant professor at The Jewish Theological Seminary I received many invitations from Conservative synagogues to speak about my research, or on topical matters. I enjoyed such opportunities. Once I began publishing essays criticizing Israel’s occupation, the invitations stopped. Pretty abruptly. As I told a friend at the time, I could close my eyes and envision my name being summarily plucked from the Rolodexes in synagogue offices. Did that disturb me? Not really. While I certainly missed the extra income, I knew that was the price I paid for making my views public on a contentious matter. At no point did I think I was being cancelled. In fact, I was happy that at least they were reading my essays. 

A second example happened more recently. I read an essay in an online journal on a topic I know something about that I felt was very problematic, not because I disagreed with the views expressed therein (although I did), but because the essay contained errors, inaccuracies, leaps of logic, and was poorly argued. I wrote to the editors of the journal to express my dissatisfaction. In response I received a very mean-spirited response from one editor accusing me of “bullying a young writer” (the editor called him “a kid”) and claiming he was just “living his truth” (he was an American who had immigrated to Israel). 

First, I had assumed he was closer to my age. But if readers were meant to account for the writer’s age shouldn’t his work have been presented in a way that reflected this? Second, I had no idea, nor did I care, where he lived. And third, I didn’t quite understand being accused of “bullying” since I never wrote to the author and never made my views of the essay public. To this day, the unnamed author still has no idea how I felt about his essay. I simply wrote privately to the editors. While I wasn’t quite accused of “cancel culture,” that seemed to be the underlying message of the editor’s remarks. In this editor’s view I was, in some way, questioning, by privately discrediting, the right for this author to state his views.

Finally, when someone crosses a line on my Facebook thread I often block them. Before doing so, I write to them to tell them I’m blocking them, and that they have the right to say whatever they want in this world, but they don’t have the right to say whatever they want on my Facebook page. While my page is public, it’s still mine and I have the right to curate it as I see fit. I offer them the opportunity to apologize or retract their remarks and if they choose not to, I block them. I’ve been accused in this instance of “cancel culture”; that is, of preventing him or her from expressing their views and censoring them. The elision of whatever and wherever seems to have grown roots in our psyche.

So in these three moments—one where I’m not invited to speak at venues because of my views (perfectly legitimate), one where an editor accuses me of preventing someone from “living their truth” by privately criticizing their essay (illegitimate), and one where I am accused of ‘cancelling’ someone for saying whatever racist or misogynist nonsense on my Facebook page (necessary, in my view)—we find ourselves in a state of confusion where the right to say whatever we want has morphed into the right to say it wherever we want. Where public space and the democratization of opinion now enables us to confuse whatever and wherever. 

People can be, and continue to be, excluded (cancelled) for all kinds of reasons; race, religion, creed, sexual orientation. We now have legal structures in place to try to alleviate or minimize that kind of illegitimate discrimination. We’ve decided that those criteria for exclusion are unacceptable in our society. 

What it seems “cancel culture” is introducing is another layer; political or ideological discrimination. And in doing that, weaponizing something that’s existed for a long time: exclusion for other reasons. Kind of like how white people who oppose affirmative action do so because suddenly they are disadvantaged, though they had no problem for centuries when it was reversed. But is political discrimination valid? If I edit a journal and reject an essay because I find its political or ideological foundations unacceptable, is that discriminatory? Should it be? The expansion of discriminatory practice to include political or ideological differences in regard to who gets to say what, where, is perhaps the place to get a deeper sense of what’s going on.

Yes, even the Talmud

Recently, Will Berkovitz, a rabbi and CEO of Jewish Family Service in Washington State published an opinion piece arguing that, as the headline states, “The Talmud has a lesson for our cancel-culture world.” In it, he argues that the Talmud, a product of a small cadre of Jewish sages in Babylonia from the third to sixth centuries CE, can be a model for the tolerance and diversity of opinions that our present moment needs. That it can teach us a lesson about cancel culture. 

Others have made similar arguments that the Talmud is a lesson in pluralism as its pages contain legal discussions that include minority and rejected opinions. In fact, one of its tractates called Ediyot (‘Testimonies’) even discusses why minority opinions remain inside as opposed to being relegated to the dustbin of history. This of course, is not unique. U.S. Supreme Court decisions contain dissenting views that are continually analyzed by legal scholars. 

On the Talmud, Berkovitz concludes: 

“As our ancient rabbis understood, debate—and the people who engage in it—is vital to advancing society; it doesn’t degrade it. We gain nothing by turning debates on ideas into attacks on people. Both are part of the arc of the human story, but only one will elevate our community.” 

How can one argue with that?! 

And yet, the example of the Talmud fails to support Berkovitz’s claim. Jews, Christians, and Muslims may have entertained a variety of opinions on matters of great urgency. But not all. In fact, maybe not even most. They had their own “cancel culture.” It’s called heresy. Heresy constructed the limits of legitimate debate. In a sense heresy constructed Orthodoxy. 

So who formulated heresy? That’s a complex historical question beyond the scope of this essay. But typically it was ecclesiastical authorities, or sometimes regional leadership. And what constituted heresy? Also beyond the limits here, but suffice it to say that these were largely theological or ideological determinations that extended beyond simple “errors” of belief, but required pertinacity, which is a willful or deliberate act of deviance, even after being warned. 

In Christianity it often applied to the rejection of Church doctrine or dogma, while in Judaism it often consisted of either a rejection of rabbinic authority, or its construction of monotheism or claims of the divine origin of the Torah. One guilty of any of those “fallacies” was excluded from the debate; that is, they were canceled.

While the Talmud indeed includes multiple voices, it’s the product of a fairly small and exclusive fraternity of sages, each of whom passed the requisite initiation to be included. Of course, Babylonian Jewry was much more diverse than the included views would suggest. The Talmud doesn’t include those other voices, not necessarily because they thought they were heretics, but because they weren’t part of the club and thus their views had little if any authority. If all we had was the Babylonian Talmud we’d know very little about Babylonian Jewry in this period. All we’d have is the record of a thin slice of the society in a small number of academies. 

Today, Talmudic scholars are exploring the wider vistas of the context of the Talmud, not only to show how it may have been influenced by its surroundings, but also in some cases to examine those the Talmud “cancelled”; those who engaged in magic bowl incantations, perhaps Zoroastrian fire worship, and other manner of religious practices that didn’t find favor in the sages of the Talmud. Were the sages being discriminatory by excluding these people and ejecting heretics from their midst?

One could say, and many have, that heresy is an old idea that’s no longer relevant. That modernity has thankfully moved us beyond heresy toward a more pluralistic world. French sociologist Emil Durkheim didn’t think so. Author of many works, including the influential The Elementary Forms of Religious Life (1912), Durkheim held that categories like heresy do translate into secular societies. In an essay “Concerning the Definition of Religious Phenomena,” Durkheim writes:

It is a fact that there are general beliefs of all kinds which appear to be relevant to secular objects, things like the flag, one’s country, some form of political organization, some hero, some historical event or other…They are obligatory in a certain sense, because of the very fact of their being in common…they are to some extent indistinguishable from religious beliefs proper.

Durkeim is talking about things common in a society but the same would apply if we diversify it to apply to venues, universities, churches, synagogues, and mosques, social communities, even Facebook threads. To take an example straight from Durkheim, a 2017 poll found that 60% of Americans believe that professional athletes should be required to stand during the playing of the national anthem. Groups are able to hold deep-seated convictions like this one, the rejection of which is a kind of secular heresy meaning they are excluded from their discourse. Protesting that norm is an act of “heresy” to counter a norm. If successful it can change the norm. But it can do so only by acting outside it. 

This doesn’t deny that a group can hold a diversity of views on a particular issue, just as the Talmud records some of the views it ultimately rejects, but the Talmud in its diversity is also exercising cancellation (those outside the academy or those deemed to hold heretical views). Free speech enables us to say anything we want, but it doesn’t give us the right to say it anywhere we want. The Jewish heretic in late antique Babylonia could espouse any theological view he or she wanted, but if it didn’t find favor with the rabbis it wasn’t recorded in the Talmud. And thus, for all intents and purposes, it was cancelled.

Anything, but not anywhere

In light of the Harper’s Magazine letter, I find it curious that many now decrying cancel culture are the very beneficiaries of precisely that culture before it was named. That is, beneficiaries of all kinds of other people being excluded from the public sphere because of their religion, race, sexual orientation, or political views (communists, for example). 

Thankfully our society is slowly rectifying those sins. But now to raise the issue of ideological discrimination as if to say, you cannot prevent me from saying that I want to say in your newspaper, or at your university, in your church, or even on your Facebook page, seems like protesting too much. That kind of freedom was never given, nor should it be foisted on, any community, publication, or platform. 

In addition, the “cancel culture” police seem to be playing both sides of the wager. That is, they decry being “cancelled” but maintain their state of privilege and thus use their “cancellation” as proof they’re saying something important. 

That’s because, ironically, the mere fact that they can say they’re being cancelled means, in part, that they’re not. They just take the position of privileged opposition and wear it as a badge of honor. If they were really cancelled, we wouldn’t hear their voices at all. 

If you want to see real “cancel culture,” look at the myriad women, Black, gay, and other writers who lived their life in obscurity because they couldn’t get published and thus had no voice. For every Langston Hughes, James Baldwin, or Toni Morrison there are hundreds, maybe thousands, whose names we will never know.

In a free society, I may have to tolerate your views, but I’m under no obligation to publicize them, nor to let them pass without criticism. My right to criticize you publicly is no less important than your right to pontificate publicly. As Durkheim said, secular societies and subgroups, like religious ones, get to choose what is sacred and what is heretical. The former is included, the latter excluded. There may be no better example of that very limited diversity, and equally strong exercise of exclusion, than the Talmud.

Shaul Magid is a Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College, Kogod Senior Research Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute of North America, and Contributing Editor to Tablet magazine. His forthcoming book Meir Kahane: An American Jewish Radical will be published by Princeton University Press.

This content was originally published here.

[something-very-special]

Ask Response-stravaganza!

So I got a buuuunch of Asks in the last couple of days and a lot of them are spoiler-y by nature. Rather than hiding them all until I feel more comfortable addressing them (which won’t be for a couple of months, honestly), they’re all going under a big ol’ SPOILERS AHOY! read more break.

So here we go.

SPOILERS AHOY!

Anonymous: I agree that 2B and 9S's bond is mainly that of a broken family but there also seem to be a few hints at attraction there (e.g. the comments about 9S's heart rate increasing at the beginning of route B). Also, even though Adam's line certainly referred to "kill", the wording itself does carry some ambiguity and connotations that seem intentional - considering the hatred and love aspects of 9S's (admittedly complex) feelings, Adam may be referring to several things here, possibly all at once.

I absolutely believe the context was meant to be ambiguous. This is also why it’s really funny seeing how people reacted to it, and how they kind of project onto it. (And I certainly had the same reaction the first time I saw it, hah hah.)

I like to think that the censored word is actually a number of verbs all at once -- ‘fuck’ and ‘kill’ certainly aren’t the only two four-letter verbs out there -- which is why it’s censored the way it is; it’s an accusation of multiple natures, potentially meaning multiple things, open to a bevy of equally valid interpretation.

But.

In context of the story, whatever is hidden behind that line of asterisks is something that 9S doesn’t want to acknowledge. If it were something related to love or even lust, 9S has already proven that he gets flustered in such a context-- the aforementioned ‘heart rate’ response, and his conversation with the Little Sister. However, in conversation with Adam, his response is violent. It’s violent denial. I don’t think he’d be so aggressive if Adam’s main point had not been trying to stir up his more negative feelings.

So, in context of everything Adam may have said, and in context of what we as the audience could take away from it? I do believe ‘you want to **** 2B’ can (and was intended to) mean a broad range of things. But in context of what 9S heard? Not so nice.

Anonymous: thank you for your in depth thoughts about 9S. I found him to be really unlikeable at first and then somewhat tolerable by the end. but my final lasting impression of him was that he just unsettled me for some reason i could not pin point. With your thoughts, I was able to understand him a bit more. though he will still be my least liked character, i can't deny his whole arc is really thought provoking (also you mentioned that A2 was very underutilized, a sentiment I concur with whole heartedly)             

Oh, I’m glad. I know 9S can come across as being a brat (which I think is more of a knee-jerk reaction to his youthful design), and a racist jerk (which is definitely intended in-game, by his dismissal of the very concept of the robots having their own egos), but he’s definitely got a lot more going on. I had the fortune of accidentally tripping the Mother and Son quest early, so other than 9S being kind of a jerk toward Pascal the first interaction I saw between him and the machines was trying to comfort the little child machine, which was adorable and probably instrumental in my own opinion of him. (Made watching him go from “Shh, shh, don’t cry” to “I WILL MURDER EVERYTHING” pretty disturbing, and heart-wrenching.)

Yeah, A2 needed more love. I think I understand why she was kind of incidental, but still...

kantan-kt:                                                      Do you think that 9S died in route C? If you continue to route E, the pods tell the player that all yoRHa black boxes are offline. Doesn't that mean that A2's sacrifice was in vain? ;~;  But then again, he did stop his data upload to the yoRHa server so maybe there's a chance that he's alive?            

When you enter Ending E from the Chapter Select, it continued directly from Ending C, implying heavily that his black box was offlined. However, A2′s work seemed to be less about keeping him alive (which wouldn’t really be accomplished by hacking into him, since the damage kind of came from repeatedly stabbing him in the final fight) and more about retaining his memories and eliminating the logic virus the clone-arm imparted into him-- saving his soul, if you will, even if the body still died. Kind of ties in to the considerations of something greater than themselves, and the direct contemplation in a few of the sidequests about heaven, and whether they, as artificial life, would qualify for such a thing if it exists.

So even if you ignore Ending E and its possibility of restoring the three characters -- which obviously A2 would not have had any knowledge of, herself -- no. Even though 9S is also confirmed dead at the end of it, her work was not in vain.

Anonymous: On the BBE's Artbook, Commander talks about Jackass making an android combined from two other androids...Do you guess who they are talking about? 

I haven’t taken a chance to really look through the art book yet (didn’t want to spoil myself), but I’ve seen this mentioned and I have to say I don’t actually have a guess. I can’t think of anybody in the game, including sidequests, that would match this description. The only thing I can think of is her lamenting the death of ‘White’ on the bunker, but I can’t think of anything solid.

I look forward to somebody figuring it out, though. That’s pretty awesome, in a legitimately terrifying kind of way.

Anonymous: I thought about something and would like to hear your two cents on it. I personally find that 2B lacks character development, she barely says anything about her throughout the entire game, however, once you learn what her true purpose is, you have to look at the core of most sidequests in the game to (indirectly) learn about her since said sidequests are more or less related to 2B (and 9S to some extent). The "YoRHa Betrayers" and "Amnesia" are the most obvious that come to mind. Any thoughts?  

This is a two-parter, but the Asks split themselves quite neatly.

Regarding this, this is one of the things I really like about both this game and the original (and I remember hints of this in Drakengard, too). There’s plenty of clear development between the characters, but there’s also a lot of unspoken, subtle stuff. I’ve recently mentioned the relationship between Nier and the members of his party, and what’s really brilliant about it is that most of the interpersonal bonding is done without dialogue, or else entirely through subtext. The entire chunk of game from the fight against No. 6 to the post-fight against Kaine in the Lost Shrine is brimming with gorgeous body language and perfectly constructed dialogue that never feels the need to speak too much about what it’s trying to say. It requires-- I don’t want to say thought because it sounds pretentious, but it does require paying attention, especially for the relationship between Emil and Kaine (which turns out to be incredibly powerful even, what, 8000 years later, and I’m completely sold on it for this one hour-long stretch of game).

The same occurs with 2B. We’re introduced to her in a very mechanical context, and she comes across as being stoic, flat, no-nonsense. It serves a pretty good foil to 9S being the most emotional and ‘human’ of the main characters, but 2B herself isn’t emotionless. I marked this even back in the demo; she says ‘emotions are prohibited’ but becomes extremely worked up over 9S being hurt. Seems like a clear contradiction, especially when they ‘just met’, and given how generally well-written and strong the narrative is seems too contradictory to have been unintentional, especially for being right at the start of the game.

There are definitely hints and intrigue throughout, and these little bits from the sidequests and from her more errant dialogue and reactions paint a very interesting and complex picture, especially in conjunction with the “Amnesia” sidequest, which not only reveals the existence of the E-series YoRHa (which 2B dismisses, incidentally) but that they are highly psychologically unstable due to the rather grisly task presented to them. (That was all one sentence and I’m sorry.)

I quite like how her characterization was ultimately treated. It’s not overt, but there are enough indications of what lay beneath to make her at least interesting, and once you’re given full context about her nature it retroactively makes her more unusual decisions and reactions quite a bit more fascinating, and telling.

I was running out of space with my sidequest ask earlier, I thought about another obvious one that might be related to 9S? It's the "Confidential Intel" which ends up pretty badly, where some resistance member wants to build an S android since he always wanted a family, which can be associated with 9S wishes in a way? Maybe this is too far fetched but it all feels too coincidental that most sidequests share the same themes as the main characters' struggle, if that makes any sense?

Oh! Yes, actually, I completely follow. I admit I didn’t make that connection (although I did that quest with 2B so I wasn’t yet in the realm of familial pining), but it does make sense. I imagine something could also be read into the Resistance member’s desire to have somebody to protect.

...now that I think about it, I wonder if an E-unit was sent after them? The Scanner has confidential intelligence, after all, something that could be catastrophic if leaked, and while I interpreted his ‘p-please...’ at the end of the quest being a misfiring need to get away from his ‘family’, it might have been linked to their request: “Don’t tell anybody about us”, “Please”, because if somebody learns where they are the Scanner has to be eliminated, and his protector will go with him.

Got a bit away from the point. But yes, I think that’s entirely possible. Thank you for bringing it to my attention!

#NieR: Automata #Meta #Talkin' 'bout vidya games #Seriously though you guys give me really good discussion. I love this.

[likeabulletyoucanhurtme]

This be another horror-ish film Stir of Echoes

I decide I want to watch films from listicles and stupid articles posted from facebook. I decide to do reviews/re-action blogs/liveblog posts, not because of the film but just if I have time/effort to put in. The only thing I know about this one is that it's a supernatural horror and has Kevin Bacon in it. Creepy child humming and it's not even loaded in the screen yet; I'm betting it's all her fault. Sorry little one you must be possessed or something. Under 10yr old is in a bath, but talking to the camera and not Kevin Bacon (who's playing an acoustic guitar, because reasons). I don't think it's breaking the fourth wall, he be talking to a ghost or something. Yeah he just asked if it hurts to be dead, and the camera turns to reveal there's no-one there.... thought it'd’ve taken longer for that reveal tbh Kevin Bacon goes downstairs to find pyjamas and gets told he's going to have another child, just kinda leaving the kid upstairs talking to ghosts; no biggie Sister-in-law seems more worried about the star sign of the baby, but the only two people she can think of is Einstein and Shirley Manson...oh the days before Wikipedia could fill peoples heads with useless nonsense Little boy's in bed and Kevin Bacon goes in to turn off his lamp, like whoever put the kid in bed should've done that no? And the kids like 7ish why does he need a baby monitor Ah, because all three responsible adults are actually leaving the boy in bed alone to go to a party across the street. No locked doors or nothing... istheirlastnameMcCann?? I hope the wife's not going to be drinking at this party, and wonder how she's gonna keep her new pregnancy a secret while abstaining? There's missing kid posters on a lamppost, I wonder if that's relevant to the plot or just something there when they filmed? Hope the monitor's not 2-way, they're now talking about operating on people under hypnosis... Now Kevin's gonna get hypnotised by the sister-in-law, maybe it's not the kid that's gonna get possessed after all? The hypnosis dream world is cool, the way it responded to the script and everything turning black is simple but effective Now he's going to sleep at 1.11, aren't you supposed to be making wishes at that time? An hour and 15 minutes later his wife's horny and wakes up to have sex, like you might as well she's not gonna get more pregnant now is she. The wife was wearing a blue housecoat in bed and one of her boobs keeps falling out, but always the same one? Like they cant show two because censors so only make her right breast visible guys, hide the left one! Kevin's lying back having visions of blood and a fingernail being ripped off like sorry but you're obviously not that good hen He has to tell her to stop three times before she actually gives up trying to keep him in the mood like that's sexual assault my dear, spousal rape is a thing you know He just pulled a tooth out but was apparently just imagining it so no tooth fairy money for him :( Being possessed or seeing visions is apparently very dehydrating Ghost girl sits beside him when he turns the TV on and says "You can hear me can't you?" but I only know that because of the subtitles because no we can't really hear you. But I suppose people would be too freaked by the jump scare to notice what she's saying He's going back upstairs but he's left the TV on which is very irresponsible and only gonna increase his electricity bills. Jake (the son) is awake and just standing at the top of the stairs like the creepy little shit that he is Kevin's calling the sister in law from a phone halfway up a pole where he's fixing the wires but I'm betting they're probably not allowed to use that for personal calls Sister in law apparently told him to be more open-minded. So not posession but more sixth sense so far. Except he's no Bruce Willis, wonder which one came out first ((nb, this was second by like a month so not really ripping off but I bet that stole a lot of the thunder)) Jake tells his mum about a babysitter saying "Samantha told me" and points to an empty chair...come on, if you were listening to him you'd figure this one out already! No explanation of how long-dead Samantha knows the names of current babysitters that might be free though. Maybe her afterlife is spent keeping current with the neighbourhood goss? Babysitter knocks on the door and screen turns red, this does not look good for you dear. Screen turned red another twice, yeah that's a definite signal you're gonna be screaming soon. Kevin keeps hearing the warning sound every time he sees a red light though, like on cars and not connected to the babysitter so maybe she'll be fine and he's the one that's getting it? Kids at the high school football game trying to sneak beers in by tying them to a rope and having someone else drag it up over the wall....like the crowd and the nearby police car don't know whats going on? Kevin just drank some of his friends vodka which is ok because they're of legal age to drink, but not ok because he is now publicly intoxicated  Babysitter's reading The Shrinking Man which is not about possession or ghosts but a sci-fi horror... Jake's been caught talking to himself on the baby monitor, like surely if you were a ghost you'd get him to turn his set down or off no? Babysitter seems to know who Samantha is and that Jake can't be talking to her, maybe Samantha doesn't know about babysitters but was her friend irl? Apparently the appropriate response to this is to kidnap Jake... Kevin knows he's being kidnapped somehow and is close enough to run all the way home but not close enough to stop her. She gets stopped at the police station and an unreasonably shouty policeman somehow sorts things out Samantha is babysitters missing/kidnapped/well-now-we-know-shes-dead sister and she took Jake to see her mum who works at a train station Jake's mum finally twigs that Jake mentioned a Samantha so maybe she was actually listening to him, if not noticing that he was pointing at an empty space Kevin Bacon and his wife are now questioning their child back home, but he's now playing with dinosaurs and humming like he's finally decided to stop talking about his ghost friend just out of spite Jake gets possessed long enough for Samantha to tell them to talk to her instead...but then Samantha doesn't respond or show up so that was a bit of pointless direction. Now he's sitting on the couch turning the TV off and on as if trying to recreate the first time he saw Samantha but she's suddenly all shy There's a street party and the guy that no-one likes keeps calling Samantha a retard and gets called out for it :) Fight starts and a randomer just spills half his beer onto the street like not planning to join the fight just a bit clumsy lol Kevin's friend is in his house the next day, tells him "they" are gonna kill him and his wife and just leaves to sit on his porch like...could you be more vague? And how did you get in the house? Kevin goes to the friends house, friend's son has a gun, points it at Kevin but shoots himself...because reasons? Ah, dream, ok. But now as ever things are gonna happen in the same way so more of a vision. Kevin's picked up on it as soon as he only has one work shoe...like I'm sure that’s kinda common but well done for realising it normally takes people a lot longer Friend isn't in the house this day, maybe it was a warning and he's a ghost too? He's now went to the friends house but the door was locked this time and friend's son just shot himself. The dad is still alive though... Jake hears bagpipes when walking by a cemetery and thinks its beautiful? Like I'm Scottish mate and I don't think it's a particularly beautiful instrument tbh, its not really meant to be Jake says the graveyard is cool, I don't know if its cause he's been talking to a ghost or if he's just naturally creepy Policeman from the bagpiped funeral knows Jakes different and gives the mum his card, and he and Jake call each other by their first names as if seeing ghosts also lets you see peoples real names?? Kevin's finding it hard to write a song on his guitar but like if you're not gonna get inspiration whilst being haunted you should give up lol Mum goes to see policeman instead of Kevin which is extremely stupid because she can't see ghosts so he probably wont be able to help her much Jakes trying to watch The Mummy (the 50s one not the Brendan Fraser one) and gets told no, not because hes too young but hes seen it before and had nightmares lol Mum's trying to talk to Kevin and getting annoyed when he doesn't answer, ignoring the fact he has large headphones in and volume up so loud she can hear it from the doorway, typical woman thing Their kitchen has a trapdoor down to a basement wheir their boiler is and there's not even a lock on it, with a young child that seems very unsafe Samantha's turned Jake's TV over to Night Of The Living Dead...like his mum shouldve just kept it on the Mummy Kevin with headphones is suddenly in a freezing cold empty house with Samantha and she's freezing him to death, which is not gonna get her what she wants so seems counter productive Babysitters putting up posters for Samantha so yes the posters seen earlier are related-knew it! Kevin's trying to get the sister in law to hypnotise him again but interrupts an obvious lesbian one night stand she's trying to have Mum goes crazy and asks Kevin what he's doing when quite clearly he's digging...kinda obvious... Says she's going to call the police and Kevin says tell them what, like I get you cant see ghosts and probably don't think she's buried in your garden, but you can't call the police and say your husbands digging arrest him please? There's a letter from mum's brother about their granny and Kevin knows she's already dead, like his ESP isn't just connected to Samantha but he can also know other things somehow? Ok he's not going to grannys funeral because he's busy digging, yeah now he is being an asshole but it was her being unreasonable earlier Kevin kicked a bucket and broke a window, I'm not sure if he was meant to but it was funny Now he's digging upthe basement instead of his garden because the concrete floor is actually a better place to hide a body-less chance of being found I've decided the friends son is involved else why would he kill himself? Kevin tells his wife everythings fine when in actuality he's now tore up the floorboards, which I don't see how that helps him with the basement but hey why not? Jake tells his mum he doesn't wanna go home because of feathers like thats very unspecific and helpful but cheers And now after ripping up his garden, hall floorboards and concrete basement floor, turns out the body was in the basement chimney...see if she'd just been a bit more specific with her directions instead of just telling him to dig Now he's uncovered the body and is touching it like you should really be calling the police and get CSI into this shit Touching the body's giving him the flashback of her last moments and how she died which, yeah was due to the friend's son Friend's son and another teenager were getting drunk in the house when it was empty, tried to take advantage of the heavier, slower girl and when she said no turned into assault and rape She fell and broke her tooth and scraped her fingernail trying to get away which explains the earlier minging parts Then they suffocated her to Paint It Black...which is kinda appropriate song for the occasion Two teenage twats like that though would not have known how to build a chimney around the body so I'm betting the landlord knew Kevin's going to warn his friend before calling the police and they walk back to Kevin's house in the rain, his friend has a jacket but doesn't put it on which is kinda stupid... The friend knows! And was holding a gun under the jacket!!  But has now shot himself instead of Kevin. Landlords turned up and his son was the other person that killed Samantha and he definitely knows. This father-son doesn't look like they're gonna commit suicide though Landlord tells his son to have a drink and then they attack Kevin, not sure why he had to have a drink first though? Wife's turned up honking the horn of the car like bitch if there's ever at any point in this film you need to be an impatient bitch its now - go save your husband!! Still not sure of the feathers that Jake warned her about though.... Friend isn't dead! Comes up from the basement to shoot landlord and son! Dunno what the shot earlier when he was in the basement alone was about then? Landlords gun lets off a stray shot which goes through the floorboards, through Jake's bed and pillow....and there's feathers flying around Jakes room. Ok then maybe thats what he meant? Now the friend stands in the living room and says the line about they were gonna kill Kevin and his wife, it was a premonition too. Ghost Samantha's now putting her jacket on and walking away, finally put to rest :) Now they're moving house which seems like an unnecessary expense for a family expecting a second child, and put it this way at least they now know there's no dead bodies in the floorboard of that house at least. They might have to do this all again at another house... Jake can still hear ghosts as the car goes by, not sure if Kevin's still open though? And all the dreams/premonitions/visions make sense and were related to Samantha in some way...apart from knowing about his wife's gran. Howd he know that?

#Stir of Echoes #film #liveblog #me #personal #thoughts #Kevin Bacon #Ghost Samantha

[dwestfieldblog]

LIE BACK AND THINK OF...ENGLAND

Hello...Back once more from a jolly jaunt to the motherland, various weeks of mental and physical bad health interspersed with bursts of good humour and rabid hypo-mania. So nice to be trapped in my mind when alcohol free. So of course started smoking because I need some kind of pacifier. Back to Prague for blood tests again. Another temporary reprieve today, collapsing into coherence as all good systems should. Augmented chords are mysterious, the diminished are tension...unlike some sequences I could mention. Shame the owners of this site have used an algorithm to delete various pictures on my blog which involve nipples, regardless of whether they are actually from classical paintings. Art is being censored...Anyway...enjoying my middle aged adolescence, planning ahead for obsolescence...greetings to the readers from Canes Ventaci, why so Sirius? Smiling is healthy...

Who is the one who is living me now?   Da Free John

Religious news/olds...The pope says the church must never again hush up any abuse from its priests (in 2019, that's about (count them) one thousand, nine hundred and something days since the Church was founded with the help of a corrupt Emperor Constantine. Seems like a long time for a Christian group to get to show actual kindness, openness and morality huh? )Well Spotlight fans, it's a start eh? Compassion for your enemies and redemption for all. Or not.  

Only found out last month that the word Guru literally means heavy. As in serious. Hmm...or OM AH HUM if you prefer. Well Buddha looks quite hefty eh?

Asshat in Syria appears to have won and sees no shame in having started a war in which hundreds of thousands of his own people have been murdered and/or 'vanished', all for the sake of putting shopkeepers and students who protested for more freedom in their place. Chemical weapons, mass genocide and now a puppet state of Iran and Russia. Well, otherwise it would have been beholden to the USA and that is never a good thing either, ask Britain. Perhaps we can leave America after Europe and become the proud third world prison island to which we have been heading for the last few decades. Oh I am in a good mood this evening.

WOOL..a nice little village in England...received a letter from PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) politely suggesting/demanding that they change their name, as the way in which wool is sheared from sheep is aggressive and cruel. Etc. As if being under attack from the Far Left and Right is not enough, the vegans and snowflakes are rising fast to destroy the last vestigial tails of sanity. 1984 meets the Matrix and Kafka and Huxley have a love/hate-child. For the record, I despise tally ho 'good sport' fox hunting as much as I do animal liberation maniacs. (Yes, I do like animals,...wolves, hawks, black panthers, butterflies, intelligent dogs and dolphins. And Krtek.) Wool will keep their name. So far. Amen. Oh Man...

Gender neutral EU parliament...most words with 'man' in them have all been replaced with less 'specific' terms. When I was a boy and I heard the term Mankind, I never thought of men, I thought of people all over the world. Shame so many adults cannot do this too...but wait, the EU...they have substituted mankind with Humanity. (Doesn't that have man in it too?) I would LOVE  to be present at one of these meetings where such semantically diseased people meet to waste life with such pointless new guidelines and turn a psychic death ray on them.  

At some point, one hopes that folk will swing back away from these extremes and find the middle path of balance. But I don't think it is likely. People will always have ideas because they have brains of varying types and according to nature or nurture and their egos, can make the most mind screwingly dumb thoughts into reality...but for this to happen in a widespread way, requires someone at the end of the process, who, when presented with such, has to approve of, validate, wave it on as a new legally accepted norm. These are some of the people with whom I would most like to have 'a word'. Know what I mean?

Meanwhile new buzz phrases abound...'I self identify as a'...fill in the blank. Choose your gender, you don't even have to have an operation or hormone replacement, just announce it to the universe and be free. However, an opinion is not a truth. (of course I include my own writings in this) If you KNOW you are in the wrong body, CHANGE your body. Hands up (in the air) all those who can remember a time when 'Gender fluid' just meant... fill in the blank again.  

Reminds me that Israel is still trying to push the fallacy (into a new globally accepted law) that criticising its government or latest in a line of corrupt leaders equates with racist anti Semitism. It isn't. No more than saying something critical of Angela Merkel for her immigration policy would mean the speaker is a sexist/misogynist. Or a hater of Germans. Same way that mentioning a self identifying sportswoman with a penis who has not yet had the op or hormone therapy is still a man until they commit fully to the sex they feel and know they are and is perhaps not ok to compete with other women while testosterone is in their blood...is not 'transphobic', just stating the obvious. And...

Lesbians who refuse to sleep with a self identifying woman with a penis are also not transphobic, they are making a choice about who and what they will sleep with. If one is not turned on by another human being, then they are not turned on by them. Of course, this is just an opinion and therefore quite possibly not a truth. But it seems reasonable and inoffensive eh? Unless you are a radical transpansexual. In which case my truthful opinion is that all radicals are mentally unstable dangerous lunatics to be avoided. Or try beetroot and carrot juice to eliminate the free radicals....

(That all said, I recall reading some years ago that one of the ultimate forms of humanity/was to be both sexes as one. So who knows? Not me, I never lost control, ha ha. Face to face with the womb man who sold the world. Would bring a whole new meaning to 'go f yourself'. Hermaphrodites come together in the end, alpha/ omega...)

'Nine months to get out, he said, and the rest of our fool lives trying to get back in'.

Perhaps this could be wonderful, with all identities blending into one understanding of life on this planet, were it not for the surplus of those types who will use every opportunity to mislead and manipulate for profit and power. At a school in Brighton (of course) in England, plans have been approved to teach children that all genders can menstruate. Yes, really. Why should 'girls' have all the fun eh? This is where we seem to be heading at greater and greater speed. Absolute bollocks/ovaries being taught as factual lessons. (Hmmm...a brief look with a third eye at history and stories accepted as fact and it can be seen that this is not all that new.)  

Putin's evil genius plan to continue being president after his term runs out (under current constitutional rules) is to absorb Belorusssia. Russia thus becoming a new federation which will need a new constitution and to hold an election which he will win. When that runs out, no doubt he will take over/invade/absorb Ukraine etc totally and go on until he is dead. Or everyone else is. Alpha males, huh?  

Speaking of which...More hours of CNN and their seemingly accurate reportage of all the utter, dreadful bullcrap from the useful idiot (for Moscow) Trump. Gleefully dissecting every nonsense statement from the blonde succubus's poison mouth. January 23rd, America remains in shutdown as he plays chicken with his entire country. Who will blink first? Reptiles can go for a long time without this. 'Waves of inquiries' look set to begin against the madman. 'Impeach the mother......' indeed. But after such a concentrated amount of watching and reading the news and the colossal amount of  negative light, ah do believe I have had enuff again.  

'I am He that was and is and shall be'. Apparently, Beethoven had this written down by his own hand on his desk from Egyptian Book of the Dead. 'Serenity is a problem when you've been this close to Heaven.'

('....thus, while the tangible has advantages, it is the intangible that makes it useful' Tao te Ching. Perhaps I will (or should) leave more blanks in this. Does every void need to be filled? China is now on the dark side of the moon, that just asks for a song to be written. Feel safe? Huawei, ha ha ha to everyone who bought their stuff.)

The Czech Republic (while still Czechoslovakia) had a Velvet Revolution, Russia has Pussy Riot and Britain has...? The old cliché true for the greater part was that in the First World War, the common soldiery were 'lions led by donkeys'. These days the majority of the 'common' folk seem like donkeys being led by the greedy into a knackers yard to be slaughtered for meat and glue. Here comes Brexit on a wave of misplaced expectation of regaining control over our destiny. Seems unlikely when the group mind of my country has sunk so deep into entropy, but that is just an opinion. Arf. 'Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way'.Roger Waters.

The young are still in favour of Corbybn and his highly dubious vision, regardless of the radical Momentum behind him who are very likely being supported financially by the Kremlin. Goddess bless our proud snowflake youth! Not going to be many 'safe spaces' available kids if he wins...Socialism with an inhuman face. Students in the West have yet to learn how evil this stuff is. For decades they have demonstrated against fascists real and imaginary, Conservative Thatcher policy, Republican reactionary hogwash etc. Perhaps they need to experience at first hand just what their student brethren in the East did from the end of the second world war to 1989. And beyond. The far Left sucks as hard as the far Right. Not all revolutionaries are as cool as Che Guevara. Kids, study China, Venezuela, Cuba, North Korea and other Socialist paradises, (if only for one hot hour) their governments kill a considerable amount more of their own people than do the democratic Western governments. There is a reason for this. All governments seek to control the narrative of what is taught in schools but not all of them kill you for questioning the story.  

Perhaps we deserve it, Britain has been coasting along, running on empty for a very long time now. The two faced 'civilised' Christian moral vacuum is being filled with many other equally unpleasant qualities. Optimism becomes a serious challenge when you are aware that some times various fires must run their course in order to burn out. Like Man. Just hope that the scorched earth policy of most of the global mode of thinking allows a spring to appear in the future. Or get the world leaders to an Alice in Wonderland party for mushroom tea. That might very well speed up the process of illumination before the Rubicon is crossed. Perhaps it has been.  

'Intelligence is the capacity to receive, decode and transmit information efficiently.' So how well are we all doing as a race? Call Pleaides 666 023 093...

True communication only possible between equals....all on different circuits...

Meow she said. Woof, he replied.  

Love from the dog star.