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Total funding amounts to $125.3M.

idolomantises · 4 months

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I’ve said this before, but I always found stories that frame heaven as “evil” and hell as “good” (or less bad) to be genuinely boring. I like more nuanced approaches to each realm.

I understand that for a lot of people, Christianity is a religion they like to criticize and mock, but I feel like if you don’t even understand the fundamentals of the religion, why even attempt to critique it?

#txt #an Angel wouldn’t be happy with mass genocide or abuse unless they convinced themselves there was a righteous reason for it #and more importantly. forgiveness and redemption is a huge part of Christianity #like as a queer person myself I get annoyed when queer writers pull the ‘well Christian’s oppressed us so we can do what we want’ card like #alright man. if you want to criticize the religion I am completely behind you #but if you’re going to heavily mischaracterized christianity to make it a black and white ‘evil’ religion. you look dumb

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la-femme-au-collier-vert · 17 days

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So you want to learn about Louisiana Voodoo…

door in New Orleans by Jean-Marcel St. Jacques

For better or worse (almost always downright wrong) Louisiana Voodoo and Hoodoo are likely to come up in any depiction of the state of Louisiana. I’ve created a list of works on contemporary and historical Voodoo/Hoodoo for anyone who’d like to learn more about what this tradition is and is not (hint: it developed separately from Haitian Vodou which is its own thing) or would like to depict it in a non-stereotypical way. I’ve listed them in chronological order. Please keep a few things in mind. Almost all sources presented unfortunately have their biases. As ethnographies Hurston’s work no longer represent best practices in Anthropology and has been suspected of embellishment and sensationalism on this topic. Additionally the portrayal is of the religion as it was nearly 100 years ago- all traditions change over time. Likewise Teish is extremely valuable for providing an inside view into the practice but certain views, as on Ancient Egypt, may be offensive now. I have chosen to include the non-academic works by Alvarado and Filan for the research on historical Voodoo they did with regards to the Federal Writer’s Project that is not readily accessible, HOWEVER, this is NOT a guide to teach you to practice this closed tradition, and again some of the opinions are suspect- DO NOT use sage, which is part of Native practice and destroys local environments. I do not support every view expressed but think even when wrong these sources present something to be learned about the way we treat culture

*Start with Osbey, the shortest of the works. To compare Louisiana Voodoo with other traditions see the chapter on Haitian Vodou in Creole Religions of the Caribbean by Olmos and Paravinsi-Gebert. Additionally many songs and chants were originally in Louisiana Creole (different from the Louisiana French dialect), which is now severely endangered. You can study the language in Ti Liv Kreyol by Guillery-Chatman et. Al.

Le Petit Albert by Albertus Parvus Lucius (1706) grimoire widely circulated in France in the 18th century, brought to the colony & significantly impacted Hoodoo

Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston (1935)

Spirit World-Photographs & Journal: Pattern in the Expressive Folk Culture of Afro-American New Orleans by Michael P. Smith (1984)

Jambalaya: The Natural Woman's Book of Personal Charms and Practical Rituals by Luisah Teish (1985)

Eve’s Bayou (1997), film

Spiritual Merchants: Religion, Magic, and Commerce by Carolyn Morrow Long (2001)

A New Orleans Voodoo Priestess: The Legend and Reality of Marie Laveau by Carolyn Morrow Long (2006)

“Yoruba Influences on Haitian Vodou and New Orleans Voodoo” by Ina J. Fandrich (2007)

The New Orleans Voodoo Handbook by Kenaz Filan (2011)

“Why We Can’t Talk To You About Voodoo” by Brenda Marie Osbey (2011)

Mojo Workin': The Old African American Hoodoo System by Katrina Hazzard-Donald (2013)

The Tomb of Marie Laveau In St. Louis Cemetery No. 1 by Carolyn Morrow Long (2016)

Lemonade, visual album by Beyonce (2016)

How to Make Lemonade, book by Beyonce (2016)

“Work the Root: Black Feminism, Hoodoo Love Rituals, and Practices of Freedom” by Lyndsey Stewart (2017)

The Lemonade Reader edited by Kinitra D. Brooks and Kameelah L. Martin (2019)

The Magic of Marie Laveau by Denise Alvarado (2020)

In Our Mother’s Gardens (2021), documentary on Netflix, around 1 hour mark traditional offering to the ancestors by Dr. Zauditu-Selassie

Voodoo and Power: The Politics of Religion in New Orleans 1880-1940 by Kodi A. Roberts (2023)

The Marie Laveau Grimoire by Denise Alvarado (2024)

Voodoo: An African American Religion by Jeffrey E. Anderson (2024)

#I’ll continue to update as I find more sources #Please be respectful of other people’s religion #Louisiana Voodoo #Louisiana Hoodoo #In the case of authors behind a paywall or whom you do not wish to support I highly recommend your local library #I do not support every view but think even when wrong they present something to be learned about the way we treat culture #Voodoo #Hoodoo #conjure #rootwork #Books

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sketching-shark · 8 months

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Fully aware that Journey to the West is a classical story of redemption, complex motivations, atonement, selfishness, spiritual cultivation, and the struggle to Enlightenment, but for even all my own personal posts going over multiple character's underlying reasons for being what they are it's good to remember this too.

#xiyouji #journey to the west #jttw #when I tell you that to this day I'm floored by how casual not just sun wukong #but the jade emperor and emperor taizong were about killing countless individuals...#journey of brutal honesty about the violence commonly behind power fr #yeah you can see how a religion that promoted peace would be very attractive under these circumstances

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besttropeveershowdown · 1 month

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The Worst Trope Ever Showdown: Round 1, Side C

Hiding Behind Religion

A character pretends to be religious to hide their true nature.

Propaganda:

“Because God demands it!” Usually the people who say this stuff are bigots who just want control.

Found Family Breakup

When you have the found family, but then at the end of the story they all just leave and go start nuclear families with random love interests and live in different places and rarely talk to each other, or otherwise seem to completely lose the found family closeness they had during the story

Propaganda:

It’s literally getting rid of the found family, taking away the best trope ever

#the worst trope ever showdown #wtes polls #anti tropeaganda #hiding behind religion #found family breakup #tw religion

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constantvariations · 4 months

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For a show that's supposedly about female empowerment, it's odd how every major female character is heavily influenced by men

Women whose fighting styles are based on men: Ruby (Qrow), Yang (Tai), Cinder (Rhodes)

Women whose ideologies are based on men: Weiss (opposition to Jacques), Blake (same as Ghira)

Women whose stories are almost completely intertwined with men: Nora (personal arc was figuring out who she was without Ren), Pyrrha (almost every scene with her prior to V3 was with Jaune), Emerald (almost every scene prior to v8 was shared with Mercury), Salem (motivated by Ozma's death, cursed by idiot brothers)

If the writing cast reflected the character cast, we probably wouldn't have this problem

#rwde #dont give me any drivel abt qrow basing his style on maria. she didnt exist until v6 and it shows #meanwhile in the v first episode ruby states qrow as the one who trained her #if maria had existed prior ruby wouldve gushed abt having a similar style as THE GRIMM REAPER #this problem tends to escalate w side characters. most groups outside our main protags/antags have a 1:3 woman to man ratio #and ofc every major person in power is a man bc why not #real tired of shows that have a majority x cast being handled by majority y people #this goes for race. sexuality. religion. any demographics w a clear hierarchy #if you wanna have a diverse show it has to be behind the screen too or else you are going to fuck up immeasurably #like writing that you should roll over for your oppressors and hope that theyll just give you your basic rights #ugh #also clarifying major characters as ones that span most the show not ones that center in specific seasons #but p sure even those stories wouldnt function wo men taking some center stage

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mychlapci · 3 months

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i think rung is completely oblivious to sexual attraction. i think that man has zero interest in fucking but he has somehow managed to have an aura that makes everyone want his pussy so bad. he cannot go to a bar without getting hit and he genuinely thinks that people are being nice to him. not in a "oh i've never heard of sex haha, i'm so pure and innocent" but in a "i don't have any interest in fucking anyone myself so clearly no one must be interested in fucking me" kind of way

guy who has so much fucking game and he doesn't even know

-burnt ice anon

i am in favour of sex god (ha!) rung with billions of years of experience fucking hard and kinky, but this is so funny. Rung being the no.1 object of desire for everyone he meets but he’s completely oblivious. if someone pulled their spike on him he’d be like oh dear and teach them how to manually close it. they’d be so shocked they follow his advice and even thank him afterwards. huh.

rung could pull any bitch he wants but he won’t because he doesn’t want to fuck and everyone is falling at his feet because he’s a good friend :)

#valveplug #listen as someone who doesn’t wanna fuck i can get behind this #something something religion and abstinence?

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goldenglitzer · 2 years

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Still can’t get over the fact that, while everyone thought that the 250-280 year gap between Philip being active as a Philip and his rise to power as Belos was because of some dramatic disappearance or banishment into the In-Between Realm, when the real answer was that he was doing crime. ALL THE CRIME.

Mans was commiting several acts of:

-Terrorism

-Bomb manufacturing

-Probably a decent amount of theft so that he could get the resources for the bombs

-The goofiest attempts at religion building (if anyone had seen his very-obvious use of bombs his whole plan would’ve failed)

-Unethical Science Experiments

-More Terrorism

-Genocide

-Fratricide (which was also technically Filicide)

-More Unetical Science Experiments

All of this while operating out of a cave, with his only conspirators being clones of a dead guy who he keeps killing and ressurecting the moment they question him, and a childlike genocidal god with a dinner plate as a physical body.

#toh #the owl house #belos #philip wittebane #toh hunter #wittebro #caleb wittebane #the collector #toh the collector #internim belos is imultaneously the most terrifying and goofiest character in the show #his shenanigans are borderline cartoonish #but they're played entirely straight and have canonically dire consequences #he has 97 mental illnesses and is banned from most public spaces #who'd've expected that a guy names phil could be so menacing #tho i do think that the way he grows support for his covens is kinda dumb #irl religions and cults DO prey on scared and disenfanchised people after disasters #but they usually aren't the ones behind said disasters #cuz it's very easy for them to get caught in the act #which then erases all of their credibility

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pratchettquotes · 1 year

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"You don't believe in the Duchess, do you? I mean the real Duchess, not your inn."

Polly looked into the small, pinched, intense face.

"Well, I mean, they say she's dead, and I prayed to her when I was small, but, since you ask, I don't exactly, um, believe as--" she gabbled.

"She is standing just behind you. Just behind your right shoulder."

In the silence of the woods, Polly turned.

"I can't see her," she said.

"I am happy for you," said Wazzer, handing her the empty mug.

"But I didn't see anything," said Polly.

"No," said Wazzer. "But you turned around..."

Terry Pratchett, Monstrous Regiment

#polly perks #wazzer #the duchess #monstrous regiment #discworld #terry pratchett #religion #faith #belief #prayer #atheist #agnostic #seeing is believing #she's right behind you #happy for you

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lord-squiggletits · 1 month

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Salty Ask List: 1, 5, 14, 22 ?

1.What OTPs in your fandom(s) do you just not get?

Dr/atc/het 100000%... I just don't understand what their chemistry is supposed to be together. It's partially ruined for me by Drift in MTMTE being an absolute mess of a character who got most of his planned plotlines cut or changed, and partially ruined by the fact Drift spends most of MTMTE straight up absent from the story, and then he and Ratchet meet up in Empire of Stone and come back during Dying of the Light and are just...together romantically now? I don't understand how they have any chemistry at all much less romantic lskdjflkds

I know a big one people talk about is "Ratchet saved Drift's life and then told him he believed in him" but... the way their meeting was written didn't come off as particularly romantic to me? Ratchet saved Drift the same way he's saved countless other addicts in the Dead End and then his parting words to Drift were to tell him to go to the Functionists so they could get him a job. Very "pull yourself up by the bootstraps" kind of advice that clearly didn't work since Drift stayed impoverished, his friend got killed by police brutality, he went into the underworld to be a hitman, etc etc. Like yeah in theory it's very romantic for an OTP's first meeting to be one of them saving the other's life and treating the impoverished person kindly for possibly the first time in their life. It's just that that moment in canon doesn't have romantic vibes to me at all, it's just a doctor-patient encounter in which Ratchet is nice to Drift like he's nice to everyone, except it's also kind of condescending/ignorant bc Ratchet basically tells Drift "oh just get a job and get clean and you'll be fine" as if it's that easy to stop being a homeless/jobless drug addict?? If an ER doctor did that shit to me I'd be more likely to see him as an asshole than to admire or like him at all sdklfjsd.

Then Drift was a Decepticon for millions of years, then he joined the Autobots on Earth and like... he and Ratchet sure existed on the same team together dlkfjldsjlkds there were zero interactions of worth b/t them in phase 1, their ship dynamic came entirely from JRO's writing and even then I feel like it's an informed romance more than an organic and believable one.

5. Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?

I actually used to like O/Pli/ta when I first came here, but as I stayed longer it became evident that the overwhelming majority of the fan content of it reeks of "we are very sorry for having a heterosexual ship, let us compensate for it by making the woman a Girlboss Xtreme and the man a weak simp so that you can be sure the woman isn't being Oppressed and Stereotyped by being in a heterosexual romantic relationship" which is one of my most detested types of fan content, so now I have the ship tag blocked sldkfjlsdkdskl. Literally it's just the same "the woman is a TOTALLY COMPETENT AND COOL ACTION HERO and her man is a TOTAL SIMP FOR HER" that's interchangeable with most het ships in other fandoms, where there's no actual personality or chemistry for them and instead it's just the same Fandom Approved Heterosexual Relationship Dynamic.

That and a significant amount of content I see for it is just like blatantly ripped off from Me/go/p dslkfjsdfsjl or like, taking the main MOP dynamic and just swapping OP and Elita's places so now Elita is the cool action hero who's rival to Megatron and OP just Exists as an emotional support husband I guess. Or like Elita is made into a daring action hero while Optimus is reduced to a meek little wallflower who's no one of any real importance and just follows in her wake. It reeks of insecurity and unoriginality, as if the fanbase is cripplingly aware that Elita was made to be the Token Girlfriend and instead of just making her a better character and making the romance she's a part of more equal and compelling for both characters, they have to violently overcompensate by having Elita steal OP's role and everything interesting about him. 😂Like I'm begging people to just be normal about hetero ships. You can ship a man and a woman together without having to diminish the man and girlbossify the woman to prove you're a Real Feminist.

14. Unpopular opinion about your fandom?

Continuity soup is boring and for the most parts creates purely fanon plots/ideas/characterizations that have tenuous relationships to actual canon. It's nice that people have the creativity to make their own AUs, but I also want to read about the actual continuity in question and not someone's mishmash of it.

Like UGH when I read a fic tagged IDW1 I want to see cop Orion not archivist or dockworker Orion. When I read a fic tagged IDW1 I want to read about the Senate led by Proteus and the reigns of Nova/Nominus/Sentinel/Zeta, not about the Council from TFP. When I read a fic tagged IDW1 MegOP I want Orion being a simp for Megatron after reading his stuff/meeting him one (1) time sdkflsdkf not yet another iteration of the tired "one day an archivist and a gladiator became great friends! then they broke up."

It's not hate for other continuities, I'm just tired of the fact that continuity soup is so prevalent that even when I'm specifically filtering for content of the one continuity I want to read about, the fics I find keep having random shit from other continuities interjected into it. I think each continuity has really interesting takes on lore that have potential to be wholly unique for each one, so it's really frustrating when the average fic I can find is just a random mishmash of continuity elements, or more often than not just an IDW knockoff taking place in a separate continuity. Like guys, I'm an IDW stan myself, but wouldn't it be cool if we got more fics that explored ideas that only happen in G1, or only happen in Animated, or Aligned, etc?

Doesn't help that when I AM looking specifically for IDW stuff, most of the content I look at (MOP) does continuity soup for the sake of replacing IDW OP with some sort of aligned/g1 lite OP which makes me salty as hell

22. Popular character you hate?

Drift for sure sdklfsdlk. I mean when I first read about him in the comics (the Drift miniseries) I was like, he's fine I guess he's an action hero whatever. But then literally the more of the comics I read the more his personality and story were just incredibly corny, stereotypical, or boring as hell no matter what writer was controlling him. And he got bounced around between writers a lot, and then even the "main author" people know Drift from (JRO) kept changing his plans for what Drift was supposed to be (and cutting plots related to him) so any hints towards a storyline went nowhere. And then Drift spent basically all of MTMTE gone elsewhere on some exile-adventure, and then during LL he just kind of. Is there, existing.

So like, honestly Drift is a victim of getting bounced back and forth and having his writing changed so often he doesn't reach his full potential, which isn't really "his fault" as a character. It just so happens that I also think the bits of his character that exist are either boring or overhyped or in one case (portrayal of his religion/religious worldbuilding in general) outright offensive. He's basically written like some hippie stereotype with vaguely Asian/Japanese flavoring (the extent of which is basically his name + fighting style) and then he barely like... does anything in the plot? I think he's supposed to be like, ~mysterious and shifty~ but then all of the plotlines that involved him being a secret traitor got cut, so Drift basically just became Weirdly Suspicious For No Reason and his genuine personality/motivations felt indistinguishable from what he was faking and what plots got cut from him. Absolute mess of a character that got almost no payoff for any of the things planned for him, and all that's left is some kooky hippie personality of "hee hoo I believe in auras and mystical vibes and magical colors, also I'm dating an atheist who's openly dismissive of most of my religious beliefs (that I do or don't actually believe in depending on what part of the story I'm in) and this somehow doesn't get in the way of our personal/romantic chemistry

But then the fanbase are basically making him some kind of Gary Stue, obsessed with making headcanons like "Deadlock wrote/edited Megatron's speeches for him too!" and "Drift defected from the Decepticons to try and make a point to Megatron!" and generally trying to make him the Decepticons' Specialest Boy Ever and it's just. Ugh I get that he was under-written in canon, but every bit of fanon I've encountered doesn't make him interesting either. They just kind of make Drift the center of the world where he's actually the coolest, most talented and interesting person ever where other characters owe their accomplishments partially to his influence and I'm just. I don't get it, I don't understand the appeal of fanon and I don't even understand the appeal of canon either. I think part of it is for representation reasons (e.g. Asian, lower class, former drug addict) and it's nice that people can pull something meaningful out of the mess that is canon. It's just for me, canon Drift is so mediocre I don't get why anyone would even WANT him as representation sdlkfjsdlkf. I guess fixing what the writers failed to explore the potential of is an understandable motivation though.

#squiggle answers #long post #as far as asian coded tf characters go cyc and WB have mountains more character and meaningful plot imo #plus their depictions of religiousness are way less offensive and actually play more importantly into their characters #like idk am i the only one who thinks most of JRO's worldbuilding re: religion is an absolute joke #it's a combination of multiple antagonists who are religious zealots (not offensive on its own though)#plus very shallowly explored religious beliefs that mainly come up for plot reasons #plus a lot of the religious beliefs that DO come up are like incredibly unimaginative and boring and stereotypical #plus the plot basically being a deconstruction of the entire religion like. sike all of the ppl you worshipped and myths you believed in #were lies. they're all assholes and also cyberutopia doesn't exist #it's just one of those things where in isolation/in theory none of these religion related things are offensive in and of themselves #but when they're all stacked together it comes off as a kind of Reddit Atheist view of religion #where the more religious a character is the more likely they are to be evil or literally insane/mentally ill #and what religion IS represented is portrayed as nothing more than like. paint colors and a few holidays #as if religion is nothing more than an aesthetic as opposed to a whole philosophy/way of life w a lot of htought behind it

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