The Gospel of Philip- [page 86, plate 132]
The Logos said: “If you know the Truth, the Truth shall make you Free.” Ignorance is slavery, knowledge [gnosis] is freedom. When we recognise the Truth we taste its fruits in ourselves. When we unite with Truth, it shares its fullness [pleroma] with us.The Gospel of Philip- [page 86, plate 132]
Hear me out. Ratiorine AU where Aventurine is a mer captured by a group of researchers and Ratio is the scientist brought on board to teach him how to speak and access his intelligence levels.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
-Evelyn Beatrice Hall, The Friends of Voltaire
The first amendment allows us to say what we want, whenever we want, without our government punishing us for our words. KOSA, therefore, is violating our first amendment rights. It's mass censorship of the internet, and our right to freedom of speech is being suppressed BY THE GOVERNMENT. Our founding fathers created this as THE FIRST AMENDMENT, and clearly thought this was important. Oh, wouldn't they be disappointed to see what their descendants are doing now. KOSA, a mass censorship bill that will contradict our constitution as we know it. KOSA, which instead of protecting the kids is in fact putting them in harms way. KOSA, which will put so so many people in danger. And we can stop it, but we have to fight. We MUST fight
To hear one voice clearly, we must have the freedom to hear them all
We know nothing of the ultimate realities of our existence, nor shall we ever know anything. Let that be agreed. But it does not follow that therefore we must accept some or other dogmatic theory... It only follows that man is free to change his conception of the universe as often as he changes his boots or his gloves, and that constancy of principle belongs only to one's relationships with other people, in order that they may know where and to what extent they may depend on us.
hm ok so for a while i was thinking that Wally, for the most part, only perceives reality as "Home", the neighborhood. that's his entire world, it's all he knows
but then i slapped myself and went wait. the Live Interview. Wally has been outside of Home, and has interacted with humans (presuming that the interview did actually happen, of course). and through Wally's interactions - or rather, attempt at interactions with Us, the QA, and the WHRP, it can be strongly assumed that he knows that there's an Elsewhere. there are places outside of Home. maybe he doesn't quite understand that there's another reality of sorts, but there's no way he's unaware that there's more than just the neighborhood out there
(and then of course there's the fact that Clown has said that humans are deeply involved (not a direct quote, im paraphrasing) in Welcome Home. maybe Wally interacted with them / regularly interacted with them. there could have been an adjustment period after he gained consciousness where humans helped him learn how to walk/talk/fine motor skills - this could be why he has such a seemingly inherent / desperate trust in Us & the WHRP & the QA... humans made him and cared for him. it's possible he could view them as a sort of higher power to trust & have faith in
& maybe he's been off-set or could go off-set. i mean, the houses' rooms were all different sets - the buildings themselves were empty husks, right? who's to say Wally wouldn't physically walk to the individual set pieces whenever he went over to someone's house (but then that leads me into speculation on how the puppets' consciousness works and how multiple copies of them could co-exist and wondering which is the - im getting off track. but there's all of that and then the two part "you're okay!" art pieces of Wally & Eddie, which are technically canon - dont quote me on that - and that's Another ramble/theory post i could go on about & have strong feelings on. Anyway!)
"but wait," i hear someone protest, "what about Barnaby? he was in the Live Interview too"
but was he? was he really? was that Barnaby, or was that a person in a suit playing the character Barnaby B. Beagle? i mean, if it was Barnaby, there had to be some memory fuckery going on that prevented him from either fully comprehending/realizing the situation, or just made him forget as soon as it was over.
and actually wait, Wally has to be aware of the reality discrepancy. because it was certainly him in the Interview as himself. He had to have understood on some level that either that wasn't really Barnaby, or that Barnaby wouldn't remember the interview.
(there's a connection in my head between all of this & how he would view an apple pie. "it isn't the same anymore. something's different". but i can't pin it down for the life of me.)
and with the Talking Telephone calls, Wally explicitly tells Us that he's not going to tell anyone who was behind the calls. i remember listening to the "original" prank call audio tests, which while were very similar to the canon in-website ones, have a few changes. one of which was Wally - in the tests - saying that the others weren't ready to meet Us yet. now in canon that tidbit has been swapped out for "You have to go too. You have work to do" but i think it's still implied through Wally's purposeful withholding-of-information that he doesn't think the others are ready to know. or he straight up doesn't want them to know
i mean, one little theory i previously had is that Wally wants them all to catch on to the nature of their reality and situation, but he doesn't want to - or Can't - tell them outright. they have to figure it out. and that can't was either something keeping him quiet, or because if they learned too soon / inorganically, their little puppet heads would pop into confetti like Red Guy's in dhmis 4
However my views have Changed and i'm pretty sure Wally is purposefully not telling anyone to maintain the illusion that everything is fine and can continue on as it always has. maybe it comes from a place of protectiveness, of love? whatever the motive i think he wants them all to keep being unaware and dare i say, Complacent while he "fixes" their situation.
which is delusional, but we all know Wally is digging his metaphorical claws into a desperate bid to keep everything the same / return it to its original state, leaving bloody scratches in something already rotted. or something like that!
all this to say i think it's interesting how it seems that he's the only one aware of humans / an outside/other world, yet he's so determined to stay in his lane. he wants connection & communication yet he doesn't want to leave or change. he wants help in keeping things the same (some could say in keeping Our reality & his separated) but in the process he's dooming everyone/everything and tearing down those walls himself
(Wally: i'm going to stay where i am, and you're gonna stay where you are, and we're gonna help each other keep me and my friends where we're meant to be. anyway i wonder what this sledgehammer does)
What you do is what the whole universe is doing at the place you call "here and now," and you are something the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is something that the whole ocean is doing.
You are a function of what the whole universe is doing in the same way that a wave is a function of what the whole ocean is doing.
You didn't come into this world; you came out of it. Like a wave from the ocean.
We do not "come into" this world; we come out of it, as leaves from a tree. As the ocean "waves," the universe "peoples."
Every individual is an expression of the whole realm of nature, a unique action of the total universe.
You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.
Through our eyes, the universe is perceiving itself. Through our ears, the universe is listening to its harmonies.
We are the witnesses through which the universe becomes conscious of its glory, of its magnificence.
You, yourself, are the eternal energy which appears as this Universe.
The real you is not a puppet which life pushes around. The real deep-down you is the whole universe.
Basically, there is simply nothing to worry about, because you yourself are the eternal energy of the universe.
Zach Foster's historical knowledge about Palestine, and his accurately relevant way of exposing simple actual historical facts especially about Hamas as a political party and also as a resistance movement, is always enlightening. The fact that he is a former zionist jew makes his erudition about Palestine even more outstanding. Here is how Owen Jones presents him:
Zach Foster is a fascinating guest: he hails from a strongly Zionist background, but it was through his scholarly research of Palestine that his perspective changed. We discuss the long history of Palestinians being dehumanised, why he thinks Israel makes Jewish people less safe, the history of Gaza and Hamas that's airbrushed, Israel's history of using hunger as a weapon of war, genocidal sentiments in Israel - and so much more.
“The emotional appeal of a conspiracy theory is in its simplicity. It explains away complex phenomena, accounts for chance and accidents, offers the believer the satisfying sense of having special, privileged access to the truth. For those who become the one-party state’s gatekeepers, the repetition of these conspiracy theories also brings another reward: power.”
― Anne Applebaum, Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism.