#so if anyone is indigenous and wants to speak on this matter feel free!

[floralovebot]

Hi, I want to ask your opinion on something. You made a post that said changing the Winx's races is bad. I agree that it's not okay but I have a question about Helia. I thought he was Native American when I was a child but you've said he's Asian. Is it wrong to think he's Native American?

I had to think about how to answer this for a while tbh! Sorry for the late reply

Anyway, I probably could answer this with a simple yes or no but I really feel like I should explain my answer.

I'm pretty sure you're referencing this post! Anyway, the biggest issue with race changing the canon characters of color is that when you do it, you're participating in erasure. Again, it's not more representation to, for example, make Flora asian - it's erasure because you're intentionally erasing her being latina. Now like I said, I don't have an issue with like,, children not noticing their canon races or ethnicities. It's perfectly fine if a little kid sees characters as something else! The problem is grown adults ignoring and erasing their canon races.

When it comes to Helia specifically, he is very much coded as asian, specifically east asian. I want to clarify that it's not explicitly canon. Rainbow has never stated what race he's supposed to represent and they've never said if he was based on a real person. We don't even know what planet he's actually from! So his race is all coding. However, that coding is still,,, fairly obvious. And I specifically want to touch on how Rainbow depicts their east asian characters versus their indigenous characters.

Most of their east asian characters have either dark blue, black, or brown hair and more narrow eyes. Like,, that's their go-to when trying to make a character Noticeably asian. They're also fond of putting their asian characters in traditional clothing (like qi pao or hanfu) rather than casual clothing. I added Helia at the very bottom so you can see how he compares to other, canonically asian characters.

While Rainbow has absolutely depicted asian characters in offensive ways (espero...), it's usually pretty respectful. Meanwhile,,, their depiction of indigenous characters is... anything but.

Like before, I put a picture of Helia so you can compare him to the canonically indigenous characters. As you can see here, their depiction of indigenous characters is,, extremely racist! It follows a lot of racist stereotypes like red skin, face paint, headdress, feathers, etc. Just,,, all around Not Good. And you'll notice that Helia doesn't really "fit in" visually. That's not to say that he has to look like that to be indigenous but remember that this is an animated show with intentional designs made by white people. If he was meant to be seen as indigenous, he would likely share more characteristics with these characters (like having darker, red-toned skin). Again, their depiction of indigenous characters is extremely racist. I don't think there's a single indigenous character in winx that doesn't look like a walking stereotype out of an old cowboy film. Unfortunately, Helia would absolutely look different and more like those racist designs if he was meant to be indigenous.

Now, to actually answer your question. Is it okay to see Helia as indigenous, and specifically indigenous to the americas? Well... as Helia's racial coding is still just coding and not explicit, it's not a crime if you don't see him as asian. Like,, while I do absolutely think he was meant to be seen as asian, it's still technically ambiguous enough that it's not a Bad thing if you don't see him as such.

That said, you need to be extremely careful with how you think of and portray Helia as indigenous. I've talked before about Rainbow including quite a few stereotypes about east asian men with Helia, and unfortunately, most if not all of them, can also apply to indigenous men. For example, Helia is calmer and wise (often shown to give advice in poetic ways), connected to nature (ie, birds, plants, Flora), frequently meditates, etc. These are all common stereotypes for indigenous men. I'd actually recommend reading this wikipedia article!

Anyway, seeing him as indigenous isn't inherently wrong, but there's absolutely a chance that you're picking up on indigenous stereotyping rather than coding or a headcanon. Like the long hair, connection to nature, the pacifist comment, the weird and kind of cryptic one-liners he occasionally has... Unfortunately, a lot of the indigenous!Helia headcanons/redesigns I've seen have been really racist. And the common reasoning for why they think he's indigenous often comes down to these common stereotypes.

So like,,, god I know this is long but honestly the answer is complicated. It's not a simple yes or no. It really, really depends on why you think he's indigenous. Like. Just ask yourself yknow? Why do you think this? Think of an actual reason that isn't just "vibes". And if you're creating any kind of content, even if it's just daydreaming tbh, how are you depicting him? Is there even the slightest hint of a stereotypical depiction? (And again, please research stereotypical depictions because there are a lot and quite a few contradict each other)

If you're confident that you're not stereotyping him, then honestly, it's not that bad to see him as indigenous. I do ask that you try to see and understand him being asian coded, as I do think that's important, regardless of whether or not it's in your face explicit. However, it's not like. a crime if you don't see him as asian. Just be very, very, Very careful with how you think of and portray indigenous!Helia.

Also,,, I didn't know quite how to fit this into the rest of the post but,, while it's not Bad for you to not see Helia as asian, you should think about why that is. For example, there are still a lot of people in the fandom who don't see Nabu as asian, despite his coding being extremely in your face and honestly canon at this point. But because he has darker skin, he's from Andros, and he was with Aisha, a lot of people assumed he was black. That's not inherently a bad thing, but some of those people get really mad when others point out that he's very much south asian which,,, is a bad thing. I understand the feeling of losing rep and wanting to protect that, but you shouldn't bulldoze other groups to do it.

I'm not sure what your opinion of asian Helia is, but if you're like,, against him being asian or refuse to see that very intentional coding just because you really like the idea of him being indigenous,, you should think about that and reassess things.

#long post #sorry but i feel like its important enough to not put under a read more #winx helia #answered #if anyone here is indigenous or asian and you want to chime in please do so! #like im asian so i can only speak on this from that point of view #so if anyone is indigenous and wants to speak on this matter feel free! #standard if youre white dont add on disclaimer #this is not your discussion #but id love to hear thoughts on this from someone who is indigenous #like. if you watched winx as a kid did you think he was indigenous? or do you think that now? #i feel like its pretty standard to think of characters we like as part of our groups #like i always thought riven and tecna were asian because of that #honestly if winx had more indigenous characters that didnt have racist designs id be a lot more on board #but literally all of their indigenous characters are extremely racist stereotypes #:( #besides the fact that helia does have actual asian coding. i think thats a big reason why i could never fully get behind- #him being indigenous because like... have you SEEN their indigenous characters??? #goddamn #also unrelated but the people who say helia cant be asian just because his name is greek like do you think musa is a chinese name adhg

[big-coyote]

hi!! this may be a weird thing to ask about but ive decided to make one of my longtime ocs a coyote therian (they were connected to coyotes since the beginning) and i wanted to ask if theres stuff i should avoid when talking abt them or doing character design?

ive done some research on my own looking thru tumblr blogs ran by therians mostly, but i mightve missed some stuff!

for now they show their theriantophy as either wearing a coyote looking onesie (which is the first outfit they ever had) or when wearing other clothes they have a tail keychain on their trousers, so i also wanted to ask if you know of any other things they could have to connect with their theriotype?

again im sorry if this is a weird question! <3

(1/2) Hello! Not a weird question at all, I’m actually very honored and happy you’ve asked! I have quite a number of OCs myself that are also therians or otherkin adjacent lol. Also if anyone else has any ideas they’d like to add/advice feel free to comment or reblog!

As for things you should ovoid I’d recommend straying away from the idea of therianthropy being inherently because of mental illness. While it’s totally okay for your Oc to struggle with mental health problems or other serious topics. I often see the stigma online where people assume being nonhuman or having a alterhuman identity means the person in question must have Schizophrenia, Dissociative Identity Disorder, psychosis, a delusional disorder, etc. And again while I know plenty of nonhumans who have those disorders (I have some of them) and that may effect their identities as a whole, it shouldn’t be the end all be all of their identity you know? Ovoid adding more stigma to both.

Another thing I’d stray away from is the idea of a character being a therian because of spirit animals or any mythology related to closed practices/groups. I’ve seen many indigenous people online speak about their discomfort with the word ‘spirit animal’ and how it’s been adopted into pop culture. Being alterhuman is much more then “I feel connected to this thing/this thing is just like me”, it runs much deeper then that and it is as much as a real identity as something like gender, sexuality, religion, etc. It should be taken with as much care and seriousness as those other identities because it is huge and important part to a lot of our lives.

Lastly I’d recommend avoiding making the character the butt end of the jokes. While the Oc themselves can be funny, have funny things happen to them or have funny experiences as a coyote Therian I’d ovoid making them the punching bag to other OCs. Online it’s not uncommon to see many people misunderstanding and mischaracterizing being nonhuman for a quick laugh. It be very disheartening if an OCs entire existence in a story is just “haha they think they’re a dog, that’s stupid”. Again it’s important to take any identity like being a Therian seriously instead of just being the punch line for a joke or gag.

As for the clothing I think the onesie would be incredibly cute and good to wear as well as the tail! Many therians wear tails, both real and faux fur ones, to feel connected to their identity and feel more comfortable. I’ve also known many therians who were things like jewelry with their theriotype on it, fake animal ears, t-shirts, rings, fur coats, earrings, pins/buttons, etc. Some also like collecting plushies or posters with their theriotype as well, or having stickers on their books or drawing them. Or if you’d prefer a more casual character design you could have a character who doesn’t wear any outward Therian gear and prefers to keep it low key. Both options are very valid and would be interesting to see!

But no matter what I’m sure your Oc is going to be amazing and I can’t wait to see them! Please tag me if you make any art or stories about them, or if you have any other questions feel free to ask again or DM me!

#otherkin #alterhuman #wolf therian #otherhearted #otherkith #therian community #therian help #coyote therian #nonhuman #wolfkin #avian therian #therianthrope #therianthropy #alterhuman community #nonhumen

[jazeejae]

My Opinion Not your Opinion

I am going to say what I need to say today.  Hearing that so-called fans are talking about BTSArmy in a negative way.   How we are pretending to say that Jimin’s new release “Set Me Free” is great to make him feel good.  WTF???  These people don’t speak for me. They don’t know what love and support mean in a fandom.   This is the best song that I am hearing from Jimin.  Do you know why???  Because I would have written a song similar to these telling some of you to Shut UP and Fuck OFF of how disrespectful some of you are.   I would be the type of person that would say Fuck all you opps… Opps is the word for opposition like HATERS or those you protest against!  Do you know what that means in my world? Jimin just entered my world with this song.   Listen UP, because I’m going to tell you anyway.   Have you ever been stalked, chased, or threatened with death threats, and has anyone ever called you a rapist?  Have you ever been bullied almost every single day for like 8 years?  Have you ever had to hire bodyguards around your children or had to hire them for yourself to keep you safe?  Have you ever had to be afraid to walk anywhere by yourself and have to turn your head around to see if anyone is following you?  Have you ever been kidnapped, raped, or violently beaten?   Have you ever been to a Black Lives Matter Protest, Asian Lives Matter Protest, or American Native Indigenous Lives Matter protest? Or Brown Lives Matter Protest?  Do you know why these protests happen?   Do you know why we protest for Human Rights?   You don’t know do you?   You don’t have any idea how Jimin and or his parents feel about all the hate and threats he has been getting the last few years.   Jimin is an entertainer in the first place. 

Jimin has every right to write something he feels about and if he has something to say…  HE HAS THAT RIGHT TO WRITE, SING, and DANCE to what he wrote… WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT.    This was not a bad song… this was his best song because he gave his true feelings. He did NOT write something with YOUR feelings on it… or HE DIDN’T write something you may want to hear… He is doing his own solo WORK not your work!  If you want to hear songs like Serendipity, then go listen to it…  or write, produce, a song you want for yourself.   If you have NOT experienced all the above…  THEN SHUT UP AND FUCK OFF and let Jimin be himself.  Jimin is going to do that regardless. HE IS NOT YOUR PUPPET TO CONTROL. 

He is HUMAN!  Set Jimin FREE!

                BROUGHT TO YOU BY FREE SPEECH!

#Jimin #Jikook #Minkook #Kookmin

[metalheadsforblacklivesmatter]

Hello!! I'm so sorry if this isn't welcome, feel free to delete if so! I've seen you reblog a couple posts in relation to witchcraft and i have a genuine q. I thought white sage is okay to use/not closed practice if bought from native americans? If you have articles or anything countering my thought id love to read them to research this more!

(My final answer is that there's so many options that have zero chance of causing issues for the indigenous community. I feel the best course of action for me in my decolonization is to just use something else. Continue reading for further explanation as to how I got there.)

If an indigenous person wants to correct me. Please do. I'm putting my full explanation under a Read More tag that way if I need to edit my post, the edits will show up in the reblogs.

-fae

It varies from tribe to tribe and even person to person. No. One indigenous person can speak for all indigenous people in this matter. And I'm not indigenous so I can't speak for any indigenous people. So I'm just going to say what I've heard from indigenous people and how it influences me and my practice.

The use of white sage has led to a huge issue with illegally harvesting and poaching (is that the right word?) white sage in an unsustainable manner. And usually if the people doing this are caught the poached white sage is given to the local indigenous communities to use.

And indigenous communities I've seen talking about it are saying that the amount of poached white sage is more than they can use or even need. (But it's obvious they have more of a right to it than anyone).

I also think anyone that has a following shouldn't use it in a public manner as this will only further encourage the over harvesting of it. I've seen white people on Tiktok in Europe say that they had smudge sticks sent as a gift when they bought online from witchy stores. Like how can a European ethically buy from Indigenous people?

Some indigenous people have said if you buy it from an indigenous person or its gifted to you from an indigenous person, you can use it. I'm a believer in path of least harm. So if there is any chance that the use of white sage could be harming indigenous people (which it clearly has) then I don't want to partake.

Also I've heard some indigenous people say burning white sage isn't for cleansing but instead to welcome their ancestors into an area? And it's pretty obvious why I would say indigenous ancestor don't want to see my white face.

There's so many methods of cleansing that have zero percent chance of causing issue for indigenous people and zero percent chance of bothering indigenous ancestors. Unless you have an indigenous person giving it to you saying "I want you to use it". I say don't use it. Even if an indigenous person gives it to use. Use it in private.

If a shop owned by white people is selling it. Don't shop there.

If you REALLY want to smoke cleanse. Lavender. Rosemary. And if you REALLY want to use sage. There's like hundreds of variety of sage that isn't white sage that you can use and works remarkably well.

[whitepassingpocs]

ok, so, my family (dad, more specifically grandpas side, I dont like dicing it up like that but it’s necessary for this story) is louisiana kreyol. We have been in america since at least the early 1700s and I know our ethnic background is french, italian, native, and west african. We are culturally kreyol-ish despite living in the pnw because my grandpa brought it with him when he moved up here. He does not speak the language.

My grandpa was interested in his culture, but the rest of my dads side…isn’t, and largely identifies as white. (despite not really looking white?. their skin is very much olive/brown and my dad looks more asian if anything.)

due to the way the world works, I obviously have very little information on the native side. Even the tribe itself only has about half a page of information on google. Same thing with the west african.

I look ethnically ambiguous, and identify heavily as native (and mediterranean, i dont identify as african as much but i do want to connect to that side a bit more) but reconnecting is so hard when theres no information.

my grandpa is dead, he died in 2018 which was before i even thought much about my heritage. my grandma does have native heritage but shes not connected and she doesnt know a whole lot about my grandpas side, i tried asking her the other day but she said that our family cant be kreyol because they “dont know how to speak the language” which just,, hurt.

I just don’t know what to do, I feel like im lying if i identify as poc, but i also feel like im lying if i identify as white.

I just feel very lost, i dunno :(

hello there. my condolences for the loss of your grandpa. its really hard to lose the family member you feel is most connected to your culture. the important thing to remember is that connection is also in you because you are connected to him, regardless of how you look or what you know. you come from your grandpa. i am not kreyol (if anyone who follows is, please feel free to comment on this ask), but some general advice on feeling connected is:

do your research - honestly just use everything at your disposal to research the history and culture you’re a part of whether that’s family records, books, internet, public records -  research! research! research!

interact with other ppl of your culture - be careful with this if you’re a minor, but interacting with other ppl from your culture in real life/online can be helpful but do so safely

follow activists/influencers from your culture - this will also involve research, but the best way to learn about the issues facing your people is from the people fighting them/advocating for them

learn language and recipes - again, this will take research, but there are loads of language learning apps for learning ancestor tounges. same with recipes for indigenous foods

engage with media from your culture - watch films, tv shows, and read books about and created by your people. its the easiest way to learn about your culture. even just finding clips on youtube

follow blogs/social media about ur culture - another great way to both learn and connect with ppl is following positivity/history pages about ur culture. it’s also a great way to decolonise ur feed

be patient with yourself - reconnecting is a process that is different for everyone. it’s a never-ending process and you have to respect there will be times you’re frustrated and even wrong about certain things - that’s okay. take a deep breath and keep going

labels are not as important as your actions - a label is a word you give yourself. it does not necessarily give you culture, allyship, community, history or knowledge. that has to come from you and your actions which is why its important to keep what you do in focus over what you call yourself. at the end of the day, that’s what matters. that’s how people will see you as who you are.

listen!! - there are gonna be times you get things wrong, there are going to be times where you’ll be called out. these are moments of learning. they’re not easy, but they’re necessary. listen and learn.

remember, blood quantum is colonial - unlearning to think of your heritage as something quantifiable is a big step and one of the most important steps you’ll take. no matter how much milk you add to coffee its still coffee

otherwise, check out our reconnecting tag for asks relating to advice on reconnecting and feeling connected to your culture. wishing you the best of luck 💛

#kreyol #louisiana kreyol #native #west african #mediterranean

[badhockeymom]

For the anon asking about moving to Finland:

You could. Whether you should is up to you. As long as you're aware of the possible obstacles, mainly language and thinly veiled xenophobia. (I'm sort of sorry for bringing these discussions forward and badhockeymom: feel free to not publish this if it is too much - but people need to talk honestly, if this was a serious question)

Language first. If you want to try and learn our other official language, Swedish, I'd say it's possible (any and all official settings such as doctors etc. are legally required to serve you in Swedish, but whether or not that's easy to arrange depends on where you live). Finnish, not so much. It takes a ton of work for anyone whose native language isn't a part of the Finno-Ugric language family (so, most of the world) and the written and spoken Finnish differ a lot. Speaking Finnish the way it's written makes you sound either like a pretentious ass or a foreigner.

Which takes us to the second point. Finland is a country of 5,5 million - most big cities around the world have at least that much residents; our greater capital area has about 1 million. Most of the people here are Finnish or a part of the Swedish-speaking minority (who are despised and it's actually ridiculous). We've come a long way with acceptance of different people, true, but we're definitely not a good country for people who are not white, cis, and Finnish-speaking. Hell, we still force trans people to be sterilized during the gender affirming surgery! A lot of the discussion surrounding any crime happening anywhere is about whether the culprit was "actually Finnish" (read: were they white or not - it doesn't matter how many generations your family has lived here, if you're not white, you're not Finnish, to some people).

It's true that Finland is a relatively safe, clean, well-off country. Living here is surely much better than in a lot of other countries. But there are massive problems, and I personally am tired of people sugarcoating things and painting pictures of a socialist-paradise-slash-winter-wonderland (especially since the climate crisis has fucked up that too, at least here in Southern Finland). It's not. We have problems. Bad ones. And everyone disagrees about them - loudly. If you can work through and/or around these (and other) obstacles, by all means. It shouldn't be difficult, especially if you're a part of the EU, but even if you're not.

Just make sure, if you actually want to do it, that you know what you're getting into. Research. Ask questions (my box is always open and I'm up at weird hours). If this didn't scare you off: there are a lot of people who will welcome you, me included, even though it might not sound like it.

Thank you for saying all these things that I was too tired to put down in my half-assed tongue-in-the-tired-cheek kind of answer.

My two (three) cents:

Thinly veiled racism is really a thing. Not even that thinly veiled. It's sometimes baffling how socially acceptable it is to crack jokes about ethnic minorities that have lived in our country for centuries, romani and sámi (who are indigenous btw), even among people who you'd think would act better.

Finland will absolutely have to tolerate people who don't speak finnish or swedish well or speak it with an accent. Our language demands are a deep-running problem and a form of xenophobia.

However, I have mostly heard of success stories about people who choose Finland, move here and settle here, they seem to love the country and the mostly safe, chill and quiet way of life, the society. May be a form of survivor bias: the ones who didn't, didn't stay and the ones who did, did it because they liked it here.

#asks #answered #finland #suomi #kiitos ihana!

[sylvielauffeydottir]

Hello, it is I, your friendly neighborhood historian. I am ready to lose followers for this post, but I have two masters degrees in history and one of my focuses has been middle eastern area studies. Furthermore, I’ve been tired of watching the world be reduced to pithy little infographics, and I believe there is no point to my education if I don’t put it to good use. Finally, I am ethnically Asheknazi Jewish. This does not color my opinion in this post — I am in support of either a one or two state solution for Israel and Palestine, depending on the factors determined by the Palestinian Authority, and the Israeli Government does not speak for me. I hate Netanyahu. A lot. With that said, my family was slaughtered at Auschwitz-Birkenau. I have stood in front of that memorial wall at the Holocaust memorial in DC for my great uncle Simon and my great uncle Louis and cried as I lit a candle. Louis was a rabbi, and he preached mitzvot and tolerance. He died anyway. 

There’s a great many things I want to say about what is happening in the Middle East right now, but let’s start with some facts. 

In early May, there were talks of a coalition government that might have put together (among other parties, the Knesset is absolutely gigantic and usually has about 11-13 political parties at once) the Yesh Atid, a center-left party, and the United Arab List, a Palestinian party. For the first time, Palestinians would have been members of the Israeli government in their own right. And what happened, all of the sudden? A war broke out. A war that, amazingly, seemed to shield Benjamin Netanyahu from criminal prosecution, despite the fact that he has been under investigation for corruption for some time now and the only thing that is stopping a real investigation is the fact that he is Prime Minister.

Funny how that happened. 

There’s a second thing people ought to know, and it is about Hamas. I’ve found it really disturbing to see people defending Hamas on a world stage because, whether or not people want to believe it, Hamas is a terrorist organization. I’m sorry, but it is. Those are the facts. I’m not being a right wing extremist or even a Republican or whatever else or want to lob at me here. I’m a liberal historian with some facts. They are a terrorist organization, and they don’t care if their people die. 

Here’s what you need to know: 

There are two governments for the occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank and Gaza. In April 2021, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas postponed planned elections. He said it was because of a dispute amid Israeli-annexed East Jerusalum. He is 85 years old, and his Fatah Party is losing power to Hamas. Everyone knows that. Palestinians know that. 

Here’s the thing about Hamas: they might be terrorists, but aren’t idiots. They understand that they have a frustrated population filled with people who have been brutalized by their neighbors. And they also understand that Israel has something called the iron dome defense system, which means that if you throw a rocket at it, it probably won’t kill anyone (though there have been people in Israel who died, including Holocaust survivors). Israel will, however, retaliate, and when they do, they will kill Palestinian civilians. On a world stage, this looks horrible. The death toll, because Palestinians don’t have the same defense system, is always skewed. Should the Israeli government do that? No. It’s morally repugnant. It’s wrong. It’s unfair. It’s hurting people without the capability to defend themselves. But is Hamas counting on them to for the propaganda? Yeah. Absolutely. They’re literally willing to kill their other people for it.

You know why this works for Hamas? They know that Israel will respond anyway, despite the moral concerns. And if you’re curious why, you can read some books on the matter (Six Days of War by Michael Oren; The Yom Kippur War by Abraham Rabinovich; Rise and Kill First by Ronen Bergmen; Antisemitism by Deborah Lipstadt; and Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn by Daniel Gordis). The TL;DR, if you aren’t interested in homework, is that Israel believes they have no choice but to defend themselves against what they consider ‘hostile powers.’ And it’s almost entirely to do with the Holocaust. It’s a little David v Goliath. It is, dare I say, complicated.

I’m barely scratching the surface here. 

(We won’t get into this in this post, though if you want to DM me for details, it might be worth knowing that Iran funds Hamas and basically supplies them with all of their weapons, and part of the reason the United States has been so reluctant to engage with this conflict is that Iran is currently in Vienna trying to restore its nuclear deal with western powers. The USA cannot afford to piss off Iran right now, and therefore cannot afford to aggravative Hamas and also needs to rely on Israel to destroy Irani nuclear facilities if the deal goes south. So, you know, there is that).

There are some people who will tell you that criticism of the Israel government is antisemitic. They are almost entirely members of the right wing, evangelical community, and they don’t speak for the Jewish community. The majority of Jewish people and Jewish Americans in particular are criticizing the Israeli government right now. The majority of Jewish people in the diaspora and in Israel support Palestinian rights and are speaking out about it. And actually, when they talk about it, they are putting themselves in great danger to do so. Because it really isn’t safe to be visibly Jewish right now. People may not want to listen to Jews when they speak about antisemitism or may want to believe that antisemitism ‘isn’t real’ because ‘the Holocaust is over’ but that is absolutely untrue. In 2019, antisemitic hate crimes in the United States reached a high we have never seen before. I remember that, because I was living in London, and I was super scared for my family at the time. Since then, that number has increased by nearly 400% in the last ten days. If you don’t believe me, have some articles about it (one, two, three, four, and five, to name a few). 

I live in New York City, where a man was beaten in Time Square while attending a Free Palestine rally and wearing a kippah. I’m sorry, but being visibly Jewish near a pro-Palestine rally? That was enough to have a bunch of people just start beating on him? I made a previous post detailing how there are Jews being attacked all over the world, and there is a very good timeline of recent hate crimes against Jews that you can find right here. These are Jews, by the way, who have nothing to do with Israel or Palestine. They are Americans or Europeans or Canadians who are living their lives. In some cases, they are at pro-Palestine rallies and they are trying to help, but they just look visibly Jewish.  God Forbid we are the wrong ethnicity for your rally, even if we agree.

This is really serious. There are people calling for the death of all Jews. There are people calling for another Holocaust. 

There are 14 million Jews in the world. 14 million. Of 7.6 billion. And you think it isn’t a problem the way people treat us?

Anyway (aside from, you know, compassion), why does this matter? This matters because stuff like this deters Jews who want to be part of the pro-Palestine movement because they are literally scared for their safety. I said this before, and I will say it again: Zionism was, historically speaking, a very unpopular opinion. It was only widespread antisemitic violence (you know, the Holocaust) that made Jews believe there was a necessity for a Jewish state. Honestly, it wasn’t until the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting that I supported it the abstract idea too.

I grew up in New York City, I am a liberal Jew, and I believe in the rights of marginalized and oppressed people to self-determine worldwide. Growing up, I also fit the profile of what many scholars describe as the self hating Jew, because I believed that, in order to justify myself in American liberal society, I had to hate Israel, and I had to be anti-Zionist by default, even if I didn’t always understand what ‘Zionism’ meant in abstract. Well, I am 27 years old now with two masters degrees in history, and here is what Zionism means to me: I hate the Israeli government. They do not speak for me. But I am not anti-Zionist. I believe in the necessity for a Jewish state — a state where all Jews are welcome, regardless of their background, regardless of their nationality. 

There needs to be a place where Jews, an ethnic minority who are unwelcome in nearly every state in the world, have a place where they are free from persecution — a place where they feel protected. And I don’t think there is anything wrong with that place being the place where Jews are ethnically indigenous to. Because believe it or not, whether it is inconvenient, Jews are indigenous to the land of Israel. I’ve addressed this in this post.

With that said, that doesn’t mean you can kick the Palestinian people out. They are also indigenous to that land, which is addressed in the same post, if you don’t trust me. 

What is incredible to me is that Zionism is defined, by the Oxford English Dixtionary, as “A movement [that called originally for] the reestablishment of a Jewish nationhood in Palestine, and [since 1948] the development of the State of Israel.” Whether we agree with this or not, there were early disagreements about the location of a ‘Jewish state,’ and some, like Maurice de Hirsch, believed it ought to be located in South America, for example. Others believed it should be located in Africa. The point is that the original plans for the Jewish state were about safety. The plan changed because Jews wanted to return to their homeland, the largest project of decolonization and indigenous reclamation ever to be undertaken by an indigenous group. Whether you want to hear that or not, it is true. Read a book or two. Then you might know what I mean.

When people say this is a complicated issue, they aren’t being facetious. They aren’t trying to obfuscate the point. They often aren’t even trying to defend the Israeli government, because I certainly am not — I think they are abhorrent. But there is no future in the Middle East if the Israelis and Palestinians don’t form a state that has an equal right of return and recognizes both of their indigenousness, and that will never happen if people can’t stop throwing vitriolic rhetoric around.  Is the Israeli Government bad? Yes. Are Israeli citizens bad? Largely, no. They want to defend their families, and they want to defend their people. This is basically the same as the fact that Palestinian people aren’t bad, though Hamas often is. And for the love of god, stop defending terrorist organizations. Just stop. They kill their own people for their own power and for their own benefit. 

And yes, one more time, the Israeli government is so, so, so wrong. But god, think about your words, and think about how you are enabling Nazis. The rhetoric the left is using is hurting Jews. I am afraid to leave my house. I’m afraid to identify as Jewish on tumblr. I’m afraid for my family, afraid for my friends. People I know are afraid for me. 

It’s 2021. I am not my great uncle. I cried for him, but I shouldn’t have to die like him. 

Words have consequences. Language has consequences. And genuinely, I do not think everyone is a bad person, so think about what you are putting into the world, because you’d be surprised how often you are doing a Nazi a favor or two. 

Is that really what you want? To do a Nazi a favor or two? I don’t think that you do. I hope you don’t, at least.

That’s all. You know, five thousand words later. But uh, think a little. Please. 

#jumblr #free palestine #zionism #gaza #signal boost #antisemitism #jew tag

[shinebrightlikeanarwhal]

Pls, I’m deleting Twitter.

I just experienced some high class racism in fandom twt and they have the nerve to say “it’s okay because a black man started this”.

They didn’t even give it a week after October 31st to be racist.

This will NOT be “Keep Reading” because everyone should read this.

I don’t think hitler hooligans understand that THERE IS NO GREENLIGHT FOR RACISM. If you don’t like black ppl in your fandom then you’re a blatant racist. If you don’t like character portrayals changing to fit more diversity other than conventional ⚪️ beauty standards; you’re racist. If you have any qualms with POC specifically BLACK PEOPLE (because these bastards never speak up about any other race) you are RACIST.

It was so blatantly racist that someone straight up drew Nessa from Pokémon drinking bleach. What is commonly referred to cleaning black skin so it can be white? BLEACH!

There’s no creativity either. THEY ALL CHANGE IT TO FIGHT THEIR GROSS HITLER IDEATION OF BLONDE HAIRED BLUE EYED BUFFOONS!! Then have the nerve to blame the black characters taking ginger characters (even referring to creators rearranging the word finger to the racist slur against black people).

Anyone that participates in Whitevember can go expeditiously to hell. In fact, I hope you get your platform removed for your blatant racism. Because for many of them you’re white washing the original character. AND DONT SAY BLACKWASHING IS A THING.

Blacktober is for black creators to share their art and their edits of their favorite characters in a form that closely relates to them and their struggles. It was a healthy and positive event for black ppl to feel comfortable in their fandoms with other POC. And many times it wasn’t even just black ppl taking part! There are even edits for Hispanic, other Asian representation aside from EA, literally just something to show REPRESENTATION. No one was actively doing this as erasure.

Whitevember is actively erasing all pigmentation and race from them because white people HATE being excluded from anything. They DESPISE when specifically black people are enjoying something. It is literally washing away the character to live a pasty blonde husk for yt fragility and comfort. No personalization, no actual character change aside from blonde and blue eyed. The only reason this is even an argument is because they racist salty spatoons refuse to take accountability for their actions. The sheer fact that most yt centered events are rebuttals to black enjoyment should speak volumes.

BLM- racist yts rebuttal with ALM

Stop Asian Hate- no rebuttal from yts

Blacktober- Whitevember immediately after because a black man wanted to make a poor joke that racists took and ran with.

My platform is small but I will not stop arguing that this kind of blatant racism is UNACCEPTABLE. It’s actively erasing all forms of non white representations. Not even just black peoples. Indigenous and Asian, Hispanic, even religious!! It’s so BLATANTLY disrespectful to everyone because THEY feel entitled to something.

Representation matters. That’s why blacktober even became such a popular thing. These more recent black characters replacing the original Caucasian is WHY we even have blacktober. They would rather replace a character than give us a proper new character that isn’t saddled with stereotypes! We, in turn, are creating either fan ideals of themselves as the character or the character that can relate to them! There is no erasure because the original character is still good and beloved to the creator! If you like at the color free conquistadors rebuttal they ran out of black characters because we have so few that are publicly acknowledged or even given screen time. They have branched on to other POC because they’re so hellbent on whitewashing! There is no connection to the character they just want ant to see a white character.

A hitler wet dream!

If anyone thinks I’m in the wrong I would love to see exactly why. Don’t try to privately share it either, speak up. Be loud and proud.

The people that privately share something they disagree with are very avidly in the wrong and the know it. You can’t even lie and say that you are “avoiding conflict” because there would be no conflict if you could calmly talk to someone about your disagreements. You just want to akekek with someone that shares the same sentiment as you.

And if you’re non POC, refrain from any foul language. I will 100% out you and report you for any blatant racism. ❤️

#fandom #racism #whitevember #blacktober #fandom discourse #blatant racism

[krystal-prisms]

READ THIS BEFORE FOLLOWING ME :)

Just to be perfectly clear, THIS BLOG IS:

Pro choice

Pro vaccine

Pro BLM

Pro POC

Pro indigenous

Pro LGBT+

Pro polyamory

Pro Judaism

Pro Islam

Pro most other religions/ beliefs

Pro autism / pro ADHD

Pro all pronouns

Pro intersex rights

Pro sex work (but very anti sex trafficking, so pro CONSENSUAL sex work)

Pro union

Pro body positivity

Pro furry

Pro mask

Pro feminism

Pro neurodivergence

Pro science

Pro human rights

Anti climate change deniers, as in you don't believe in it

Anti cop/ anti blue lives matter

Anti all lives matter

Anti fascist

Anti Zionist

Anti billionaire

Anti NFT

Anti cryptocurrency

Anti pedophile/ anti map

Anti TERF

Anti homophobe/anti transphobe/ anti aphobe/ anti biphobe/ anti panphobe

Anti super straight

Anti body shaming / anti fatphobia

Anti exclusionist/ anti gatekeeping

Anti racism

Anti Nazi

Anti capitalism

Anti corporation

Anti colonialism

Anti bullying/ anti hate / anti abuse

Anti rape/ anti assault / anti harassment

Anti unsolicited nude senders

Anti incest

Anti flat earth

Anti Autism Speaks

Anti animal abuse

Anti Trump

Anti ableist

This blog is a safe space for: LGBT+, POC, ALL RELIGIONS/ BELIEFS, MINORS, PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES, AND GENERALLY PEOPLE WHO AREN'T ASSHOLES

If you disagree with any of these view points, feel free to block, unfollow, and get the hell off my blog.

My ask box and DMS are always open, so if you want to chat about anything, need help with something, or just want to be friends, don't hesitate to drop in

Please also tag me in any one note/day posts you see or make, I will always reblog and spam the notes with the alphabet to add some days

If I ever reblog something by a blog that is one of the things I have stated that I am against, please for the love of everything, tell me so I can block and delete

If you need anything added to my list of view points, or need clarification on how I worded some things, please feel free to reblog or drop into my ask box.

Also, if anyone ever needs any trigger tagged at all, please please tell me

#me #my view points #my bs #:) #this is an unpolite reminder to unfollow me if you disagree with any of this

[obeymeluv]

Signs they Love You

Back for my 1 post a week to prove school hasn’t totally killed me! When I get a semester break, I’ll post more often. In the mean time, feel free to leave me chats or PMs for stuff you want to see! :) Something nice and sappy for an okay Saturday

These turned out really long so I only did Lucifer, Mammon, Levi, and Satan. I have to get back to studying :/. Maybe I’ll have part 2 next week?

Lucifer

You wouldn’t be able to notice it because his pride wouldn’t allow you to. One of the brothers (or, to Lucifer’s extreme mortification, Lord Diavolo) would have to tell you

He’s not sure if it’s just the appreciation of you not being as totally chaotic as his brothers or genuine human naivete that has somehow worn off on him, but he loves you

Will be outed by sappy, soft stares that last 2 seconds too long.

Asmo and Satan are the first to notice and he LOATHES that

If he’s tasked with waking you up that morning, his knock will be firm but his voice will be gentle. Almost persuasive or commiserating

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by school workload, he may have a private conference with the teacher and grant you a minor extension. Will you know it was him? No. Is he happy to see you brighten up and refill with hope just a bit? Definitely. Is it worth the teasing from Lord Diavolo? ...Sure.

If he responds to texts in the wee hours of the morning when he’s still pouring over paperwork, he likes you.

Anyone who knows him can see how his eyes soften when someone else talks about you. There’s a fond slowness to his actions, how he glides his hand imperceptibly over his chest as if to feel where that emotion is coming from. Boy is whipped.

Should Lord Diavolo invite him out for a meeting, he will bring you back something small. Something he thought you’d like. Beel is upset. Levi yells “SIMP!” from the second floor and prepares for Armageddon.

Actually reminds you about assignments if you’re not already up on it yourself. Your success is his joy.

Is very keen on if/when you burn the candle too long and has a sixth sense for bad sleeping habits. Will put you on a stricter schedule for your own health

It may take almost all of the brothers to do it (or just help from Diavolo) but if he gets drunk on Demonus you’re getting a whole BOOK about why he likes you. He almost charms your memory away but everyone practically dog-piles on him not to because he needs to deal with his feelings.

You’re the only one he won’t chase out of his study when he’s doing paperwork. He’ll even set up a little fire if you like the fireplace.

How he confesses: tries to take you on a fancy date to Ristorante Six. Does not know that Lord Diavolo and Barbatos know about this (damn time-travelling butler!) and basically crash the date just to encourage him. Just long enough to encourage him.

Kind of an, “So you chose this idea, Lucifer? Admirable! I’m sure your date will be amazing! Enjoy your evening!” as Diavolo walks back to his table.

Does Lucifer deny it? Look and see how red his face is. If you’re really not sure, ask Diavolo. He will gladly yell, “I cannot lie!” across the restaurant.

Mammon

For all his talk, when he really, really decides he likes you, he doesn’t know what to say.

He can console himself with how obvious it is and how you made the best choice, but he has to show it! What to do?

Mammon’s kind of confused about it because he doesn’t really change how he behaves. You didn’t catch on already?! C’mon, human!

What, does he have to spell it out for you? Do an interview with Majolish?

His first tactic is to just be around you. Be subtle, and maybe cuddle a bit more than usual. Things to show he’s kittenish and at your mercy. Comfortable with you.

You don’t seem to be getting the hint so he throws the net a little wider by trying to find things you like or that you’ve been talking about. They mysteriously show up at your door.

It sends the others on a gossip train about who your admire could be and when they list off everyone BUT him, he wants to slam his head on the table.

Feeling tired? Coffee! Backpack heavy? Silly human, the BEST man can help you with that, OBVIOUSLY! Mammon jumps at the chance to do any little thing for you because he cares. His actions always speak louder than words.

Feeling kind of defeated and embarrassed, Mammon will go talk to the flock of crows that meander around the House of Lamentation’s yard when he really needs them.

For the next few days you’re accosted in the nicest way, birds chirping at you and dropping off various shiny things

You collect them, finally showing them to Mammon and he’s embarrassed that his representative animal has taken to courting you on his behalf.

He calls them to him, embarrassed and ready to rant or fall into the ground never to be seen again, when they start talking. Repeating all the things he’s practiced saying.

“Hey baby,”, “Hey human,” “Love you!”, “Silly! Silly!”, “Dummy, no, dummy!”, “My human.”

It’s broken and confusing, six or seven bird children cawing in your face and bobbing, but you get it.  

Levi

Levi’s not the best at expressing himself but it counts, right? As much as he hates to admit he’s some kind of shy tsundere, you know what that is, right? He doesn’t have to say it?

Yes. Yes he does. His brothers are getting too chummy with you and you don’t understand his signals. Time for Plan B.

If you get invited to stand in line for a midnight release, he hopes you take it. Then it’s just you two hanging out in line? What’s this? He brought snacks? Totally not for the two of you BUT you an have some if you’re hungry. It’s whatever

When he’s not doing boss raids and playing with online friends, he’ll ask if you want to play something with him. A Player 1 needs a Player 2, you know?

I headcanon that Levi knows how to play some unusual instruments like the kalimba or a real ocarina. I could see him making you a song on one of those. Or just playing it because you inspire him. He’s very good with a harp and will play it when he’s in the mood.

Boy also likes to draw and paint. Especially loves watercolors. Would it be weird if he gave you a painting of you as a mermaid? Just you and the ocean. Beautiful.

Was there a really cute plush or knickknack you liked? Levi has his ways, regardless of how rare or limited edition it is. It will be yours. 

He has a hard time understanding a passing comment of interest versus a genuine want because he genuinely wants everything he’s interested in, so if you hear a whisper about him almost securing something, stop and look it up. Make sure it’s not super expensive!!

Probably outed by Belphegor, who feels like Levi’s broadcasting all of his stress, frustration, and hope through his dreams. (”His dreams are weird. Just different ways of asking them out, and if he messes up it restarts like a simulation. My brain hurts.” he says to Beel)

 You’re allowed to come into his super-restricted bedroom haven when everything’s too much. It’s very exclusive since the Mammon incident. Be happy.

Might go swimming in his big tank and pick a seashell or rock to make a necklace out of. He hopes you like it.

If he’s not outed by Belphie, some of his online friends made a game demo they wanted him to try. They specified it was two player so he asked you to join in. While he’s in the middle of bragging about how he knows people, knows developers, he totally misses the dating-sim like dialogue and the big reveal.

Doesn’t really kick in until he realize the characters look like you two. You’re busy saying ‘Yes’ to “Do you like me?” as Levi absolutely threatens to rip them apart six ways to Sunday. Almost in full demon mode, too.

Everything falls out of his brain and quiets in his throat when he realizes the characters are kissing and ‘THEY SAID YES!’ flashes on the screen.

“Y-You like me?”

“Yep.”

It was that easy all along. Levi thinks he’s going to faint.  

Satan

Becomes aware of it pretty quick but ignores it for a looong time

Is it rude or foolish of him to assume you would also like him back?

Run away into books. A solid plan. If you don’t think about it, it’s not an issue

Oh, but it is an issue when you fall asleep after a mutual day of reading, forced in by bad weather. He finds his heart fluttering in a painful squeeze as he quietly whispers all the things he dare not say when you’re awake

It’s nervous poetry, and it’s beautiful

Satan tries to get himself back on track, to focus on reading, and he gets frustrated when he’s stuck on the same page almost an hour later

When you’re on the brain he just can’t do anything else

How does one show their affection? He’s swimming in books for a new reason now, as voracious as ever

He brews you a pot of Melancholy Coffee and is a bit disappointed you don’t know the meaning behind the bitterness. Wants to break the pot when Lucifer jokes about how it tastes exceptionally bitter to him as well.

Okay, so coffee didn’t work. What else do people do when they show their affections?

Asmo suggests a ‘not a date’ date and Satan sighs inside. Sounds like a lot of work and effort. It’s not that you’re not worth it, but he has a feeling that everyone will know and look at him the whole time.

Tries anyways. You guys go to a beautiful nature conservatory and take a tour of the plants and some indigenous animals

You’re starting to realize it now, he can tell. Satan tries to answer your question without saying it while you’re at school. You walk together, he offers to carry some of your books, and always requests that he be your project partner

Nearly there. If there was a single defining moment for him, he’d want it to be classic. He shows up at your door with a rose and asks you to go on a moonlit walk.

Mammon’s poking fun about how cheesy and cliche it is, Asmo’s gearing up to shut Mammon’s stupid mouth, and Satan just whisks you out the door with an aggravated sigh.

No matter what side of the house you’re on, Asmo throws up the biggest, gaudiest handmade sign that’s like ‘CUTEST COUPLE! 10/10!’

#Obey me! #Obey me x reader #Lucifer x Reader #Mammon x Reader #Levi x Reader #Leviathan x Reader #Satan x Reader

[rabbitprayer]

Witchy/New-Age/Earth-Centered Stuff and Christianity

[These are the random thoughts coming from someone trying to figure stuff out, basically just me trying to organize my own thoughts, so please don't come at me with any kind of anger, this is just me contemplating the instructions of my holy book, thanks.]

Okay, so I'm continuing to reconcile beliefs and practices from my new age/earth-centered era to my return to Christianity. Basically holding up each thing one by one and going "Does it stay, does it go, or do I need to alter the way I use it?" I'm very inspired by the many examples in history and modern day of Christianity enveloping, adopting, or coexisting with indigenous or folk practices and beliefs, especially in cases where it's received a thumbs-up from the Church.

Astrology and Divination

I made a post earlier musing on astrology and tarot cards. Basically, there are places in the bible that say not to trust mediums or use divination, but other times where divination is used with Godly approval. I wondered if this was a matter of intention. Basically, are you doing this in a way that trusts and honors God, or are you trying to work around Him or use something else as an idol? I also read a Jewish Orthodox article about astrology that I found insightful, basically saying that using astrology to predict life trends isn't inherently evil, but you must always remember that we have free will, the future is not set in stone, and we are all in God's hands. Seeing signs in the stars isn't bad, but worshipping them is.

Spells and the Law of Attraction

Now I'm also thinking about Jesus in the desert and the crucifixion, both times where he was taunted and tempted to use miracles to benefit himself (turn stones into bread, save himself) and how that might serve as an important guide. Generally speaking, why are miracles okay sometimes, but not other times? I don't want to compare divine miracles to new-age/pagan practices, but if you choose to believe (idk if I do) that you somehow have an inherent power to alter the world around you (law of attraction, spells, etc) when, if ever, is it okay to do so? Jesus performed plenty of miracles with bread, but he didn't do so in the desert because that went contrary to his divine purpose on earth. He was here to be a human and to suffer as a human. Other people in the bible perform miracles great and small, but this is all God working through them, not because they themselves are almighty. I think anyone who believes they have any ability to alter their reality (who is a christian) should contemplate what God's plan for them is. Use your abilities (if you believe you have them) to glorify God and help others, and realize that anything you can do is because of God working through you, not because you yourself are divine.

I can't say that without adding that I loathe the prosperity gospel and similarly loathe the loa people who spend most of their time talking about attracting wealth and beauty and whatever else. I feel confident that THAT'S wrong. Jesus really hated greed, you guys. He spent his time talking about giving material possessions away, not hoarding wealth or power. He could have been born into any situation, but he chose to live and die as a poor man in an occupied country who would at one point be a refugee and another be a convicted criminal. To constantly try to be as rich and powerful as possible is to walk away from God. However, it's not wrong to seek protection, grace, food, and healing. Especially if you're seeking these things for other people.

In conclusion, affirmations and spells and such might be okay if you go into it with a "only through God and only if it aligns with His will" mentality and only if you're really spending a lot of time considering if what you're so desperate for is actually good. (If what you're trying to make happen could easily be categorized as a deadly sin, you should probably knock that shit off)

Using Objects, Talismans, Charms, etc

I'm talking about your bottles full of herbs, your special crystals and feathers, the silver bell you like to ring, the tea you like to drink, the candles you like to burn, the special water or oil you use to anoint things with, etc. Plenty of these things can already be found in various christian practices. So when is it okay and when is it idolatry? It helps to look at what the Catholic church teaches about sacramentals.

Sacramentals are used to ask for protection and grace. (Holy water, rosary beads, medals, blessings, etc) A lot of protestants see them as superstitions or idolatry, but from what I understand, sacramentals are okay in a similar way that a crucifix is. The objects themselves aren't magical or worthy of being worshipped, but they are a way to focus our prayers and ask for something with the use of a physical object. When that object is also blessed by someone important to us or used by thousands of people, doesn't that help strengthen our faith and sense of community?

Candles seem equally popular in practically every religion. Did you know that Orthodox, Lutherans, Anglicans, Methodists, and Catholics have a festival where everyone can take all their candles to church and get them blessed for the year? Now imagine how powerful that is to burn those candles during prayer or just around the house. It's not because the candles are magic now, it's because they connect you to your faith and remind you of God and prepare you to receive His grace. Mary gardens aren't "magic" either, but tending to them and planting flowers with special meanings brings us closer to her, and through her, to her son.

You can bless any item, and any item that reminds you of God or the saints is a good and worthy thing. Does selenite make you think of angels? That's great! Why not bless it and hold it and pray? Why not put it somewhere and think when you look at it how God has designated an angel to your protection? Why not burn incense? It can be used in blessings and the smell reminds us of the presence of God. The traditional church insence is made of Frankincense and Myrrh, two of the gifts Jesus received from the Magi, so of course it's natural for us to associate those smells with Him now. And if another smell reminds you of the presence of God, go ahead and light that up too!

Non-Christian Holidays

I'm pretty sure almost all christians celebrate non-christian holidays. Like Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the United States or Bastille Day in France. There's nothing wrong about recognizing the importance of these days or participating in traditions with your community to recognize them. So what about "pagan" holidays? The common neo-pagan wheel of the year includes Yule, Imbolc, Beltaine, and more. Some are connected to gods and others to the change of seasons, a harvest, whatever. Every year we get the tiresome "Christians stole christmas trees/easter eggs/halloween/whatever from the pagans!" discourse. I think it's much better to look at it as people adopting a new religion, but still honoring the worth of their traditions and communities. They let go of the worship of things other than God, but held onto images and talismans and rituals that honored their community, history, family, and the natural world.

If you take the time to look, you will find christians all over the world who have special holidays to celebrate the return of the sun or to thank the Earth for all she does for us. As long as we continue to worship God and nothing else, I don't think this is a problem. It's even better if you can bring God into it, or bring your earth centered traditions to God.

Conclusion

I'm still not confident about anything I've said, but this is where my understanding currently is. Like, maybe it's okay to use oracle cards, read your horoscope, do a little ritual, or honor the earth. The thing is, all of it must be done with the understanding that you aren't worshiping these things, and equally if not more important, you aren't worshiping yourself. If you succeed, then these things go from "definitely not okay" to a gray area. Similarly, if you can take these things from the gray area, wrap them in prayer, and offer them up to God, they can go from the gray area to perfectly fine, even great.

Disclaimer One: Once again, this us my general current impression as a newbie, not a guide from a theologian or wise spirtual master.

Disclaimer Two: I'm not saying that people who do stuff I'm calling "bad" are bad people, I'm just saying that these things are "bad" from a christian/biblical perspective AS I UNDERSTAND IT.

Bad: I'm all powerful and I'm going to use these cards/crystals/bones/whatever to change reality, get what I want, and see the future. These objects hold power and I worship them. I worship other Gods besides my Father in Heaven. I'm constantly checking astrology and believe that the messages I see there are ironclad and all-important to the point where I am worshiping stars and signs as well. I believe in my own power to the point that I worship myself. I'm going to use my power to be a beautiful powerful divine millionaire with my holy money.

Okay: This crystal helps me feel a certain way so I keep it in my pocket, I'm going to celebrate the changing season with harmless old traditions, I'm going to do a little "spell" for my loved one's health and safety. I know my astrological sign and think it influences my personality BUT all these things were created by God, are only possible through God, and the only one I worship is God.

Good: These crystals/flowers/scents/whatever make me think about God or certain saints, so I'm going to use them as a focal point during my prayer to help me focus or to carry around as a reminder of them. I'm going to pray before and after I use these oracle cards, then I'll meditate on how these messages relate to me and the path God wants me to be on. I use them as a source of insight and inspiration to center myself and look inward, not as a magical window into the future. I pray to God during my traditional celebration of the changing seasons because God made the world and it is good. I'll participate in traditions that connect me to the earth and my ancestors, both of which God loves.

#thoughts #txt #astrology #tarot #earth centered #earth centered christianity

[fallout-lou-begas]

A lot of people have accused yjj of being racist, particarily in regards to one of their comics involving Joshua graham, and in general saying that they glorify colonization. I mainly understand the other things they’ve done, but the racism seems inexusable. A lot of people have also been saying that yjj and their followers have harassed people. I want to get both sides of the story on this, so basically I’m asking what the deal with all this is?

Hi, anon. I'll provide my thoughts since you asked politely.

This post is quite long and can be considered an extension of my previous post on the matter.

Besides the infamous and self-admittedly ill-informed chancla comic, for which they've apologized, essentially all of the claims that Yesjejunus is racist stem from their depiction of the Dead Horses and Sorrows relative to their depiction of Joshua Graham and their original character Joan in their fanfic No Light (and to a lesser extent Learnin’ the Blues), which is heavily grounded in the setting of Honest Hearts. I think it's unambiguous that the depiction of vaguely defined "tribals" in Honest Hearts, assembled through a mishmash of disparate signifiers and recycled stereotypes and named like Warrior Cats and completely helpless without Joshua Graham's guidance, is indeed thoroughly racist, even if it was intended to be more nuanced and came from a place of self-admitted ignorance on the part of the developers. What I struggle to understand is that the developers and writers of Honest Hearts—and of Fallout: New Vegas as a whole since the entire game is rife with such mishandled, insufficient depictions of "tribals" with no explicit inclusion at all of any specific Indigenous people or presence—are given miles and miles more sympathy and leeway for their poor handling of these characters in the source material than a fanfic writer is for using the tools and setting that they were given by that source material, including the "lore" and naming conventions of the Dead Horses and Sorrows, to tell a story that means a lot to them personally, inspired by their own deepest fears and experiences with abuse, and ignited by their charismatic yet deeply and blatantly monstrous interpretation of Joshua Graham. Given that it uses the setting of Honest Hearts as a backdrop, there aren't any living characters in Honest Hearts who aren't "tribals" besides Joshua Graham and Daniel, and post-canon, Daniel wouldn’t be there. When Yesjejunus is accused of sidelining the Native characters or relegating them to the background, it's because they're just not writing a fanfic about Follows-Chalk or Waking Cloud as main characters: they're writing a specifically intentioned story about the Courier and Joshua Graham, a story that for better or worse remains faithful to the source material’s depiction of Joshua Graham’s unilateral authority over the tribes in Zion, a baked-in element of Honest Hearts and a critical narrative component of No Light. To accuse Yesjejunus of being racist on this principle in and of itself would be like accusing me of being lesbophobic if I wrote a Dead Money-set fanfic with Father Elijah as the main character instead of Christine. If you want something that centers these other characters then you'd just have to read a different story, or write it yourself.

As a final note, I do think that Yesjejunus is a skilled writer. This thought exists simultaneously with the acknowledgement that like everyone else in fandom, they're writing as a hobby and do not have the oversight of an editor on the work that they produce personally and for free. It's not lost on them that there's things about their story that they could have handled differently or more sensitively, such as the oft-cited example of the death of the pregnant Dead Horse character in No Light, with more forethought or planning at the time—even if they were bound by the constraints of Honest Heart's own setting (such as the dearth of non-tribal characters who could have possibly been in the scene instead) while writing the story. Everyone is free to critique this aspect of the story as much as they are to critique any other aspect, or to be discomforted by the whole thing (given it's a very intentionally uncomfortable story throughout), but the suggestion of so many of these "callouts" that Yesjejunus must have been cackling maniacally about the plight of poor access to medical care among real Indigenous people is a suggestion made entirely in bad faith, and one that I simply don't care to entertain.

As for the point about harassing people: if anyone's only evidence of being "harassed" by a single, specific person is anonymous messages on tumblr dot com, then I don't believe the evidence. If people are accusing Yesjejunus' "supporters" or "associates" of harassing people, then if the accusation is that this harassment is occurring either on Yesjejunus’ behalf or otherwise with their approval, then it is also going to require more evidence than the mere existence of the mean anonymous messages themselves. This goes for the rumor that they have "spies" in fandom Discord servers or whatever, too, which is a rumor that I think has only manifested among its spreaders by either self-appointed individuals speaking on no one's behalf but their own, and by the metaphorical snake eating its own tail in paranoia. Yesjejunus, and I, and all of our mutual friends have been nothing but annoyed at best and horrified at worst by the efforts of some self-appointed individuals to "defend" them with such excess vitriol. Speaking plainly, we generally avoid literally any kind of anonymous or public interaction with anyone who's vocally opposed to us as a rule, specifically to avoid this kind of debacle, and when I say "we" and "us" I'm not referring to some sort of shadowy cabal of conspirators scheming to advance the nefarious YJJ agenda, but to a group of friends. I don't know how to explain to some people who question why we praise their work or share their art sometimes how normal friendships work online.

I also take severe umbrage with the validity of the breadth of these anonymous harassment accusations because of how patently fraudulent several other claims are. Yesjejunus has recently been accused of "grooming,” for example, an accusation only even worth considering if one temporarily forgets what grooming actually is and pretends that grooming is when someone older interacts in literally any capacity with someone younger. Some will say that they’re not accusing them of grooming per se, or not of grooming by that name, but in any case, the meaning is that Yesjejunus has interacted with minors and this on its own is intended to scare and upset you. I have seen only two users actually named as "victims" of these “interactions,’ however, sas-afras and comrade-shrimp, but both users have publicly refuted this accusation because neither of them were minors when they first interacted with Yesjejunus. Frustratingly, though, these literal refutations from the literal so-called "victims" are either dismissed out of hand or muddied by hand-wringing mutterings of "well, I could have sworn they were actually minors, though" and "well they claim that they weren't actually groomed, but who really knows." The spreading and trust in completely anonymous accusations, combined with the total rejection of statements from the only people named in these accusations when their statements contradict the accusations, suggests to me that the existence of these actual interactions (and assuming these interactions occurred both intentionally and with Yesjejunus’ being fully aware of the other person being a minor) is not nearly as important as pushing the narrative that "Yesjejunus is a groomer" or “preying on minors” onto the fandom, and ensuring that anyone who doesn't take this claim completely at face value appears complicit in something horrible. As for anyone who still feels "uncomfortable" at how sas-afras or comrade-shrimp or me or anyone who is very much an adult but just so happens to be younger than Yesjejunus could ever become endeared to them, I reiterate that sometimes I don't know how to explain to people how normal friendships work online.

I want to conclude by saying something that I've said many times before: you don't have to like Yesjejunus (or me, or everybody, or literally anyone else) and no one is holding a gun to your head to befriend them or read their work or look at their art. The block and filter and unfollow buttons are very conveniently located on your dashboard and are totally free to use. Everything I've written here is not intended as some argument as to why everyone on the planet needs to be following their blog and leaving kudos on Learnin' the Blues. Still, while I think everybody has the right to curate their own dashboard and remove the content that they don't want to see, I also think it's reasonable for me to not want my friend to get their name dragged through the mud by the exaggerated and misinformed claims of petty, grudge-bearing brigadiers and self-aggrandizing fandom security guards when they'd like to just dump funny shitposts about the Burned Man's chode in peace.

#asks #anon #yesjejunus #discourse

[anarchist-soupkitchen]

ooop its a really long essay

A brief list of why the Tories is pretty rubbish

 Before we start, I have a few things to say. As this is intended for UK audiences it might be a little difficult for people outside of the UK to understand the wording of certain topics, I will include somethings that need more explanation up here but if I do not include it here, please feel free to ask down in the comments.

Tory: someone who is a part of the conservative right

Anglicanism: the English church’s version of Christianity

This essay is a PERSUASIVE ESSAY this means its BIASED I hope you could tell from the title. This essay is from the view of someone who is white I am not trying to speak over people of colour on issue like race and I encourage you to look at non-white creators within the UK to get views on this matter.

I am pretty armature when it comes to my writing so do not expect something ground-breaking. And with that out of the way, let us begin.

1.       The tory party we know today was founded in 1834, you would think that would be plenty of time for its members to grow and shape the party into the best organization it can be. But with the tory party still stuck on the same ideas that Anglicanism is the only true religion, and that queer people should not have rights you would think that the party is straight out of the early 20th century, or still stuck on the same ideas the party was founded upon. It does not matter what side you are on and how your choice to view the tory party, people can agree on the prominent figures inside the tory party from old to recent. An example of a prominent tory of old was Winston Churchill a well know racist who also, coincidentally got us through WW2 when he was appointed by Chamberlin. He fostered such views that white people should govern over the “primitive” black and indigenous people of Africa and that Indian people “bred like rabbits”. To anyone who knows their UK history, 1983 was a very eventually year for politics and the UK as a whole. You now have to wear seatbelts in the front seats of cars, the dismembered victims of serial killer Dennis Nielsen are found in his London flat, unemployment was on a record heigh since the 1930’s and a general election found that Margaret Thacher was to be the next prime minister after a landslide win in the polls. Over the course of her 11-year reign of terror she periodised free-market capitalism and privatised public sectors including transport, railways and mines. Then because she did not like the Scottish government, she through a hissy fit and closed all mines in Scotland. Just like that she fucked up the economy, where in the big mining areas of the past are still experiencing the aftershocks today. I remember my granny telling me how she made up food packages for the miners around town and how it was so devastating to the town’s economy. Everyone was unemployed and starving, even my grandad. These examples really show that the Tories will support people who are the worst in British society if they have the parties’ interests at heart. You would think the tory party cannot get any worse but with modern polices such as pledging to get 50,000 nurses for the NHS while only giving them a 1% pay rise, which is only £7.78 for a low band nurse, by 2023. Or being “tough on crime” even though 96.4 crime were recorded by every 1000 people in 2019. You can see how tough they are about carrying out their polices. Let me tell you my favourite of the lot, Boris Johnston, our current PM, wants to limit immigration by 100,000 people. They want to only let in “the brightest and the best,” what a load of shite. Our immigrants are the backbone of our society doing everything people like the Tories would not even dream of doing. Imagen seeing Boris working in a McDonalds or in your local call centre. That fucker probably has not worked a day in his life. According to the migration observatory, migrants make up 50% of the low pay workforce. Either way you look at it, its abysmal. The government should do more for these people that letting them rot in a McDonalds or in a low paying job. If you have taken time to be a model citizen, train and get your qualifications, possibly learn a new langue to mover over to a shitty wet rock I do not see any problem with the government providing necessities to get you started in your new life. We have got the money.

2.       Can I ask you, what side do you think Boris Johnson is on? I will let you think for a moment. The Working class makes up more than half of our population according to the BBC’s class calculator. They say that a government is reflective of the people’s views and I think that is bullshit. Out of the working-class eligible to vote, who do vote, only three in ten vote conservatives. Do you want to know why people in the working class do not vote tory? Because under tory leadership since 2010, 6000,000 more children and their families were forced into poverty. The need for foodbanks skyrocketed 12.3% in the last five years and that is no even accounting for the pandemic. It is clear by now; I have given you enough time to think. “we know whose side Boris Johnson is on- the billionaires, the bankers and the big business.”- labour shadow chancellor, John McDonell. We know the conservatives are very busy committing acts of voter suppression and giving money to their friends instead of caring about you. They are buzzy introducing laws that make it mandatory to have voter ID in order to vote. If you do not make it free people will stop coming. The electoral commissions think 3.5 million voters just will not come back. this is all a part of, “takle[ing] every aspect of electoral fraud”- tory manifesto. It is well known that many rich people have been investing in the party for quite a while. Here is just a few: Anthony Bamford head of machinery in JCB, he gave £12.1 million since 2005. Charles Cayzer owns a shipping tycoon, he gave £480,00. Did you also know, Boris is known to be very generous when it comes to giving back. You’ve probably herd in the news about the conservatives handing out £3mil in contracts to tory owned covid PPE companies over the course of the pandemic. Some of that went to a MP, Nadim Zahawi who is a shareholder in SThree. SThree was given £1mil in contracts over the course of the pandemic. With all the evidence I have given above you’d think the government its rolling in it, I suspect they are but I doesn’t look like it from the outside. They have cut funding to courses drastically, as well as benefit schemes. Like cutting access for eighteen- to twenty-year-olds to the housing benefits. Yet with all the money they been cutting away from services and councils who desperately need it they still have enough money to cough up a commission for a royal yacht named after the duke of Edinburgh, costing over £200 million. Seems sweet does it, name a yacht after the ghoul of Edinburgh, right? You probably know the just of it now, your wrong. Not only is the yacht being paid for by taxpayers, but they are also naming it in honour after a racist. Or how the BBC would phrase his words as “memorable one-liners”. Here is a selection I find quite fitting: “The Philippines must be half empty if you’re all here running the NHS”- while meeting with a Filipino nurse. “If you stay here much longer, you’ll be all slitty-eyed”- he said to a group of British students while on a royal visit to China. My favourite must be “It looks like it was put in by an Indian.”- referring to and old-fashioned fuse box in Edinburgh. He is supposed to be the duke of the bloody place! I really like how one article what I read put it “[Prince Philip] screams out loud what other racists like him have learned how to conceal and camouflage in what they think and project as civilised demeanour.”- Hamid Dabashi.

3.       What I find absolutely astounding, is the Tories inability to show compassion to the people who have nothing. If you did not know the vagrancy act among other things crimeless the homeless and rough sleepers, which is by far a very bad mixture with the recent homelessness statistics, homelessness has risen 28% since labour was last in office and if the Tories continue down the path they are now, it is only going to keep rising. What you would find is most shocking is that there’s solutions for the homeless crisis right in front of us, what the Tories must to not be able to see. Layla Moran of the liberal democrats thinks they “must take a more compassionate and holistic approach, starting by scrapping the vagrancy act”. I think that would be a step forward and away from the old ways of prosecuting people for not being as fortunate as the rest of us, but there is something even more simple than that. Repossessing the 200,000 buildings that have been vacant in the UK for more than six months. Not only would that put a sizeable dent in the houses we need, but it also saves space. The UK is small collection of islands and I do not think the Tories can see that. We do not have the land available to just start building everywhere while leaving all those homes empty and unfilled. Its not a way to solve the housing crisis and its certainly not a way to save the money we supposedly need. Even the homes the Tories are building are left dormant because they are too expensive for the area, they are located in. With the way things are going the Tories will have to build more houses than they ever built before, because by 2041 homelessness is expected to doble. That is 400,000 more households if things do not change -a study by heriot-wat university. The evidence suggests that whatever the Tories are doing to end homelessness it is not working. Everything is not as bleak as I just told you though, the conservative has ended homelessness before. In the hight of the pandemic the conservatives got 90% of all rough sleepers off the streets and put them in hotels or hostels. This helped people apply for benefits, find jobs and get some more permanent assistance. People was helped during the pandemic, but when the funding ran out last July, homeless and the rough sleepers in the hotels and hostels where back out in the streets again. Alone and forgotten by the government that promised to end the very crisis they are apart of years ago. Theis shows that the Tories have the money to help the unfortune but they would rather sit on their arses chatting about what colour they should paint the walls of their house. More recently the Torie introduced a law what will fine people for sleeping in doorways. It really shows what the Tories care about, getting linings for their pockets. The Tories have the money to stop homelessness and when it was a danger to them, they stopped the issue what has been so recuing in our politics for decades. They helped the people who so desperately needed it only to chuck them back into the cold when covid-19 was no longer a danger to them.

4.       The conservatives fail to keep minorities safe in the society that they created. It is not surprise that the Tories are the most incompetent as ever. A study by BBC radio 5 found that hate crimes have doubled since 2013. An optimist would assume that is great, that there must mean that people have been reporting it more, right? Partly so. Although we have seen a rise in reports of hate crimes, the rate of prosecution has dropped down from 20% to just 8%. And that is just the tip of the iceberg, in a survey of faith-based organizations; the home office found that seven in ten of the employees surveyed has never reported a hate crime to the police where one happened. For a country where we are supposed to be the most tolerable it is no surprise that a big portion of the hate crimes committed are ones where the religion the victim followed played a big part. Our population, like many others, is influenced by our politicians. After Boris described Muslim women in burkas as “letterboxes” in an interview; citizen UK found that there where a surge in hate crime directed to Muslim women where the word “letterbox” was used. Again, continuing with the theme of hate crime against religions, Muslims made up half of the statistics in 2018 – 2019. The biggest spike we have seen in the last few years has been to Jewish people, where hate crimes against them have more since doubled. It is not a surprise since people seem to relate being a ‘good’ Jew to being a Zionist. Other minorities like trans youth under sixteen in England and whales now must go through everything that goes with puberty on top of not wanting to have the body you cuntly have all because TERF’s and conservatives do not think puberty blockers should be available to them.  At this point I genuinely think they want trans kids dead, how could you not see that the benefits of puberty blockers far out way the potential consequences. If puberty blockers really where the target they would have taken them of the shelfs completely, but they did not do that did they? They just restricted the rights of an already marginalised group more. Its not just trans kids but the fight for a third gender to finally get recognised is still waging on despite it being a battle since 2018. The government petition has been signed 136,000 times demanding non-binary finally be recognised as a valid gender in the eyes of the law. I hope I can get recognised as well as everyone else. It may not seem a big deal to some of you reading this but it is to thousands. Especially the people who want to go on hormones and medically transition. Because right now I and many other people are restricted and not allowed to get that service. If you are in the UK and you are of age, I urge you to signs the government petition. In other news the conservatives are just now getting to outlawing conversion therapy three years after they announced they would do so. It just shows how the party is not on target. On the topic of not on target let us talk about the increasing number of racial minorities becoming homeless because of lack of funding to their communities. Since the conservatives got into power in the 2010 racial minorities now make up 40% of all homeless despite being only 15% of the current population. It really shows how much they care about anyone who is not white. Yet people like my gran will continue to say they are doing enough for these underfunded communities.

the tory party really has nothing going for them, they are certainly not for the working class, they cannot solve homelessness and they do not give two fucks about minorities. To think anyone would vote form them is just amazing. Its fucking stupid to believe that they are anything but a bunch of rich shites dawdling around and thinking up ways to get more money into their pockets. To end this really all over the place essay, if you vote tory you are a massive twat.

Sources in comments:

#essay #uk #uk politics #uk politics essay #persuasive essay #tory government #tory #left wing politics #conservatism #conservtive #if any reads this well done #im sorry #its long #heehee hastags go burrr

[snow-rain]

2022 update

I want to try to speak up more here and be active, so I thought that making a statement would be important and a good start.

First, whenever I talk about what I defend or what I'm against, I'll use the tag #snowthinking (and TW's if needed) so you can filter if you want, feel free to unfollow or block me too if needed.

Now I'm Mexican, born and living here, I am white (as far as I know or mestizo since my mom is indigenous descendant and has brown skin, but my father was white) and have to recognize that for a while I didn't understand the difference between race and ethnicity, I'm still learning but I did my research for it to recognize myself and be a good ally and an anti-racist person, still do, we are always learning.

I am a non binary AFAB person, use they/them pronouns and I'm bisexual.

I'm pro LGBTQ+, pro Black lives matter and this includes all Black lives, but also all people of Color that have been oppressed for centuries; pro choice, pro science, I advocate for mental health (I myself am getting therapy and medication) and I'm a Catholic person, to me every religion should be respected, never imposed, I don't go out other than for necessities and for the job but always with a mask, face shield and sanitizing items, and of course keeping distance, we're still in a pandemic and we have to keep taking care of ourselves along with the rest of the people, if you don't want to put a mask on don't leave your house, is that simple.

And finally I'm anti Trump and anti AMLO (Mx's president), yes they are opposite parties but they are both disgusting, I'm anti pedophilia and anti sexism, also if you are into NFT's block me, I DESPISE those, support artists by PAYING THEM, that scam is not even helpful for anyone, is also harmful in most ways.

It's very important to reflect on what we do, what we believe and what we need to fight for, for me these topics are not "opinions" because many people is affected by it in one way or another, we need to be empathetic and keep educating ourselves.

#snowthinking #what I stand for #who I am

[bushybeardedbear]

So I've been considering writing and posting this little issue I've had with something. Sorry to anyone following me who doesn't care about MLB. And sorry to anyone who doesn't want discourse on their dash. I will tag accordingly...

So, all that said...

The Native American Miracle Box

Is it just me or is it a little problematic?

So, on the surface it's great to see it. It's using Native American symbolism and mythology. It's establishing that other cultures communed with and harnessed the Kwami. (Though, one could argue the Miraculous in general actually enslave these god-like beings but that's a whole other can of worms I don't want to open...) Jess being a Native American hero, wielding the Miraculous of Freedom. Its all superficially really encouraging, inclusive and nice.

But, this is a big but.

There's a huge period of Native American history where one would assume access to Super Heroes might have been a little useful.

I'm not going to pretend to be an expert on the historical events, because I'm not. I'm not going to pretend I speak on behalf of or in replacement of anyone anyone else, because I don't. If anything, my ancestors may well have been complicit in the acts I'm referring to. So if I'm wrong, call me out on it. If I'm misrepresenting anything, do the same. I'd much prefer other more relevant voices than my own be talking about this and to be listened to. I'm only saying this because to my knowledge, nobody else seems to be talking about this.

This isn't an easy topic, but America is founded upon genocidal colonialism. There's no two ways about it. Indigenous populations were murdered on a vast scale. The effects and marginalisation that resulted are still a part of people's everyday struggle. I'm fully aware that something like a cartoon talking about genocide and the lasting effects it has might be a little outside its remit, but there seems to be something inadequate about the way Miraculous Ladybug simply removes the Native American Miraculous from the equation and in a completely dismissive way.

So, based on what little information is out there, we are to believe that at some point in human history, some Native American people became aware of, communed with and created tools to harness the Kwami. In the centuries that followed, nothing was done with them. And then in around about the 16th century, these ancient powerful artifacts were just for no given reason or cause scattered around the world somehow. Then, it wasn't until the American war of independence that one of these artifacts were first used. By a white man.

Tell me its not just me that sees this as somewhat problematic?

Imagine if this was for example a hypothetical Jewish Miracle Box. Arranged in a box shaped like the Star of David and with Miraculous forged by Moses to free his enslaved people. And somehow, let's say around the 1920s, the box and its contents just conveniently go missing just before a major historical event involving Jewish people.

Wouldn't that be rightly seen as a bit messed up?

Even writing that hypothetical makes me feel a little uncomfortable.

So, isn't the Native American Miracle Box a very close parallel to the scenario I just laid out? Disappearing just before the colonisation of America happened? Or am I being somehow unfair and over-analytical? Please, if I'm talking nonsense, tell me so.

So, to my mind it feels a little like these new Miraculous have the trappings and essentially superficial decoration of Native American Culture. The most recent hero to weild them, also Native American. On the one hand that should obviously be applauded. But in the context of the Canon ignoring or marginalising the struggles of Native Americans and essentially using the peoples and cultures as decoration, isn't that a kind of clueless cultural appropriation? A kind of Colonialist attitude to the various Native American cultures as a kind of way to score points for appearing superficially inclusive?

Did Thomas Astruc or any of the Miraculous staff ask any indigenous peoples or groups for input before including this, for instance. I don't think for a moment it was actively malicious. Just, honestly a little thoughtless.

Though I suppose it's easy enough to argue that the integration of these super heroic power items into world history is in general not a great idea. Is this actually part of a larger trend of lazy world building written from the point of view of someone far removed from the historical horrors he's pushing his magic toys into?

It's one thing to argue maybe Sun Wukong, Robin Hood, the Pied Piper or other apocryphal and legendary figures held the Miraculous. Legends don't have a real world impact beyond the imaginations they spark, their place in the cultural zeitgeist. But when real world history is an issue, maybe you should have made an active choice to make your entire setting into its own historical reality based in mythology?

A similar issue to the historical problems of the Native American Miracle Box popped up in earlier episodes. Whilst not explicitly stated, it was strongly implied that during WW2, Master Fu guarded the Chinese Miracle Box from The Axis Forces. Preventing them from falling, he says, into the wrong hands.

So, why would Fu at no point consider that choosing heroes at this critical point in world history might not have been wise? Was it somehow morally wrong to intervene in defeating an ideology that threatened millions of people? Could any of the Miraculous in the hands of the Allied Nations have been considered the wrong hands given the enemy they were facing?

The issues are only compounded when you consider the Miraculous have existed in one form or another through all of human history. Yet its only now that they factor. We have to consider that either the Miraculous are always conveniently not available when certain conflicts happen or that they were indeed used but changed nothing meaningful.

If you're going to say these ancient relics have existed and been used for centuries, why not go the extra mile and examine how they've changed history? If you don't want to ever deal with the real world history, then perhaps only have the items show up in the modern day? It's the Half and Half response of "they only matter when it's easy to say they matter" that invites discussion of odd choices in the writing.

Maybe my willing suspension of disbelief for MLB is just shattered after season 3 was so... Unsatisfying?

Whatever the case, I'm just wanting to vent, put my thoughts out there and say that maybe attempting to insert new mythology into the existing world history and YET not having any impact on world history seems like its poorly thought out and best and deeply insensitive at worst.

#Discourse #miraculous ladybug #Miraculous Ladybug Discourse

[lesbianfeminists]

“Feminist problems.

As feminists we need to talk with each other about individual women and feminist organizations that align themselves with the woman-hating racist conservative right. Maybe sisters have that option to reach across the aisle because they are white, thin, able and willing to push aside matters of Indigenity, racism, borders, and poverty, just for now because the left has abandoned us and no one else will give us a platform. Sisters who are not white, not thin, and who cannot or refuse to push aside matters of Indigenity, racism, borders, and poverty, just for now, might have less hands waiting to hold theirs across the aisle. I understand how alone and abandoned we can feel by those we thought were our allies (they never were) but cooperating with the conservative right is not the answer, in part because they hate us just as much as the left does and their fight, like the left, imagines a very different world than we do when our struggle is won.

Another issue we need to discuss as feminists is the idea of free speech. Free speech is a lie. Free speech only applies to men because men are encouraged their entire lives to speak because they are consistently taught that what they have to say is important. Women, as Andrea Dworkin articulated, are discouraged from speaking — Constantly being told you’re worthless, useless unimportant, and wrong and lifetimes of male violence and the threat of male violence can make it incredibly difficult for women to trust ourselves and our own perceptions of reality enough to speak. I advocate for “feminist speech” and will write more about this later.

More feminist problems.

White feminism has excluded me, silenced me, called the police on me, kicked me out of conferences, and had me removed from their feminist table. I hear this a lot and I’ve said similar in the past too. Now I know that we, Indigenous, Black, and other sisters of colour, cannot be shut out, kicked out, silenced, discarded, or removed from every seat (except one if we behave) at this feminist table. They can call the cops on us but I hope not.

We can’t be ignored, discarded, or silenced because we’re already here at our own feminist table! Take a seat white sisters and join us in our fight for women’s liberation! And if you don’t want to, well then we’re just going to keep doing what we’ve been doing all along: putting women first, fighting for all women, and saying what we need to say, no matter the cost. Lack of support, agreement, and resources has not stopped us yet and will certainly not stop us now.

Feminism doesn’t need to include us and feminism can’t exclude us because we are already here at a feminist table with plenty of seats for plenty of sisters and we’re not going anywhere.

Women menstruate.

“‘People who menstruate.’ I’m sure there used to be a word for those people. Someone help me out. Wumben? Wimpund? Woomud? “

-J.K. Rowling

Today, lesbian women are pressured, shamed, threatened, and accused of committing transphobic violence by refusing to be penetrated by the girldicks of men who feel like lesbians. Lesbian sisters matter and they are particularly targeted and impacted by transgender ideology. The hateful, threatening, and violent responses by men to lesbian sisters who assert their boundaries as same-sex attracted women gives us a sense of how patriarchy and woman-hating is embedded in transgender ideology; that is, if we bother to listen, to believe women when they say they are being harmed, and if we bother to imagine that maybe, just maybe, women matter.

It matters that today, long-time dedicated feminist activists who have been working toward women’s liberation for decades are called bigots and written-off, ignored, and punished for organizing for women’s liberation without men and especially without men who feel they are women. The hateful, threatening and violent responses to these feminists gives us a sense of how patriarchy and woman-hating is embedded in transgender ideology; that is, if we bother to listen, to believe women when they say they are being harmed, and if we bother to imagine that maybe, just maybe, women matter.

It matters that today, a woman who says “women menstruate” is met with overwhelming public condemnation and an onslaught of threats to rape, beat, stab, murder, set that disgusting transphobic ugly hate-filled white privileged TERF on fire don’t you know transwomen are women and transmen are men and some men menstruate and die TERF but choke on my ladydick first.

Well, too bad everybody, we’ve heard it all before and we’re still here.

Issues of sex and gender and transgender ideology are important but only and always in the context of women’s liberation. They impact our ability to see each other, recognize each other, and organize with each other. To address these issues, as well as race or class, as single-issue is a mistake but only if you believe that women matter. I’m not “gender critical”. I am a feminist who is part of the women’s liberation movement and this is what I work toward with other women: our collective liberation. The abolishment (not reformation) of gender is not the end goal, this is part of the work of feminist revolution and there is a lot more very important work to do as well.

No woman owes anyone a justification as to why she dares to say, in public no less, that she and other women matter. No woman should ever be asked, expected, or feel pressured to reveal to anyone the hurt men have caused to her to justify her analysis of issues that impact her. If and when we decide to share accounts of the horrific male violence so many of us have lived through, we do it on our terms and for our purposes.

Sisters, we are accountable to each other as a community of women who organize together for women’s liberation. We don’t owe anyone an apology or an explanation or a justification for saying that we are not menstruators, we are women, and we matter. We will continue to describe our bodies and realities as we know them to be.

And as always thank you to the brave sisters who came before and stuck their necks out for all of us: for women they knew, didn’t know, women who agreed with them, women who didn’t agree with them at all, and for the women who were yet to enter into this world through their mother’s vagina, imagine that.”

#cherry smiley #go read the whole essay #radical feminism