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the-bjd-community-confess · 3 years

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Big TW: mental health, si/sh, suicide mentions/discussion

Mod: Compiling all the anon responses to one post from last week into this one, so anyone who is sensitive to this topic can scroll happily by.

This might be particularly intense reading for the Anon it’s in reply to, so only open the post if you feel like it Anon. They replied/updated on the original confession also (I think it’s the same Anon), and imo they were just venting in their original post and it was not made with bad intentions.

Thank you Anons for submitting your varied perspectives and insight on this topic. ❤️

are you fucking kidding me? if your cope is a bjd that's fine, but here's the thing, buy a cheap legit!!! Or buy your fucking recast and enjoy it in silence instead of trying to legitimize it! Having a mental illness does NOT give you a free pass to be a asshole nor absolve you of the consequences of your own actions. Signed, someone who actually acted out on their suicidal ideation but thankfully didn't succeed.

~Anonymous

Mod: I’m glad you’re ok now Anon ❤️

"Don't be mean to anti artists because they might unalive themselves?" Ok. Now make the post saying "don't spit in the face of the artists who make this hobby possible and support the theft of their work because crushing their spirit and breaking their heart might make them unalive themselves." Or maybe you're just playing favorites in your suicide narrative?

~Anonymous

https://true-bjd-confessions.tumblr.com/post/649109294780907520/tw-suicidal-ideation-before-you-bash-someone-or I hope you realize that you are committing actual gaslighting with that. And just to be sure that people don’t think I’m just claiming this to deflect. In this specific case, I’d say it’s the: Gasligthing of someone spreading information, in an attempt to make someone doubt their own judgement (of a situation, or their own morals). There are other additions to the definition, like, over time gaslighting, or questioning ones own sanity, and memories, but I was just going to point out this one, or one part of gaslighting. Since it really sounds like it wants the reader to doubt their own morale judgement, about a situation, by inserting a very emotional, and serious topic, and pushing the idea of the persons opinion is going to cause someone’s death. Basically: What you are doing is gaslighting people into questioning their own judgments, and deliberately pushing them into the idea they might cause someone’s self harm, and subsequent death, if they dare, openly, hold a bad opinion, about recasters, and recast buyers. I would also like to just openly say that I find it incredibly gross to use topics of suicide, to guilt trip people, and it really sounds like a way to play the oppression game. You could just have mentioned how bullying people is wrong for owning recasts, something that is known of, and even frowned on by many, but instead, you used suicide as a tool, and even clearly use it, with no actual situation backing it, just to guilt trip, and make sure to try and make the person into being a bad person, just for holding an anti-recast stance, just because someone owning a recast might be suicidal. With this point: “ Your words might be that one drop that… ” you are literally shifting the blame to the anti-recaster, or a much larger issue a person suffer. Which isn’t only ridiculous, but also incredibly damaging to people who might suffer this mental state. Honestly, I’ll just say it again, using serious stuff, ranging from abuse, verbal-physical-sexual, to self harm, and in this case: suicide, just to make people feel bad, because they disapprove of your fake doll, is incredibly manipulative, and disgusting, because you’re using the specific topic of suicide, to just further a personal agenda. I’m not really sure what else to say. Using suicide to push this agenda, is incredibly disgusting, and even if you suffer from thoughts of self harm, it’s not the way to go, to pull strangers into this, and basically blame them for these actions. You also clearly didn’t seem to think, what implying blame to another person, or group of people, might do to their mental state. If you suffer from thoughts of self-harm, please call the suicide hotline, or try contacting, or receiving help. This links has a FEW numbers for suicide hotlines, and if you ever think you might need it, one call can help you find help. https://ibpf.org/resource/list-of-international-suicide-hotlines/

~Anonymous

I want to rebound on the confession with a suicide ideation. As others pointed out, it's not because you are unwell (as in clinically depressed) that you cannot be called out for your bad behavior. However, bullying is never acceptable in my book. Never. Being called out isn't harassment. Cyber bullying and threats, however, are harassment and are more illegal as, let's say, owning a counterfeit. Two wrongs doesn't make a right and some people must remember this. I've seen it too much.

~Anonymous

It's SO nice to see that Shit-posts and Vic3mage are pro-suicide. Yes recasts are theft but that should NEVER be an excuse to verbally abuse someone to the point of wanting to commit suicide or self-harm. "That's on YOU." So what you're saying it that this type of behavior is okay? It's disgusting.

~Anonymous

Ok, so, I’ll just say it straight, or gay for those who need that. If you use suicide to guilt trip people about disliking recasts, you’re an asshole, like, goatse levels of asshole size. What is it with people, and using the most extreme examples, to try and make others the villains? It sounds really fucky, to put recasts, and the dislike of them, in the same situation suicide blaming. If someone said that for the opposite side of things, would you, or other recasters agree with the sentiment of: “You as recasters, and pro recasters, are to blame, for sculptors, and artists not being able to feed themselves, and considering suicide. Your actions, might be the last drop for them to do it.” This is just an example to show how fucked up it is to say that by the way, if it was the other way around as well. Would you agree with this? Would you think it’s fair? Would you accept the blame if that happened? Would you say that recasters, and pro recasters, are the reason someone is “at the brink”? Oh you do mention that people should get help, sure, but it in no ways justifies the absolutely 1 guy, 1 jar level of butthurt you show, when pushing the idea that anti recast people might cause someone to end it, just because they’re vocally against recasts.

~Anonymous

Anon from the depressed recast confession from earlier. Thanks to the mod for the kind words and support. And thank you for the comments. I understand your point. But you don't seem to understand mine. I've owned this recast for a few years. I bought it second hand from a friend that got me into the hobby and didn't really understand the whole recast legit thing back then. I just really loved her collection and wanted to be part of her hobby, so I was more than happy when she offered me one of her dolls. I have changed her face-up and built a story around the doll. I put a lot of own effort in.

It wasn't like "Oops, I feel depressed. Guess I'm gonna buy a recast on the internet to piss people off and harm artists. My depression justifies this action", no. I just think telling someone they ain't worth shit, telling them "kys" and witch hunting them aren't the right way to go. You don't know anything about that person except "they own recast. bad person". For exactly that reason I think it might be good to just block them, or explain to them without any hard feelings if they don't know anything about recasts. They're still human beings worth of life. Maybe talk to them on a respectful level to understand each other better. Sorry for the long confession or if it upsets anyone, that's not my intention.

~Anonymous

#BJD #ABJD #BJD Confessions #TrueBJDCounterfeits #Health #Mental Health

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leta-the-strange · 5 years

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Spoiler-free COG feelings/essay/thoughts before I see the movie. Spoiler-free because the movie isn’t out here til the end of the week but obviously, I’ve picked up info from trailers and interviews and things like that so sort of common knowledge stuff but I guess if you’ve avoided all the promos for the year I wouldn’t want to ruin it for you now so don’t read until after you’ve seen it if that’s the case (again, I only know basic info).

I have a lot of feelings that I’ve been sitting on for a while because frankly, large parts of the Fantastic Beasts and Harry Potter fandom terrify me. It’s why in my nineteen years (okay, thirteen years – I had to learn how to read) I’ve distanced myself from engaging in the fandom too much and when I do, I try and stick to as safe, neutral content as possible.

But I’m going to write a little bit a lot (my anxiety’s poppin off the charts right now) not to antagonise anyone or personally offend people just to get this pent up crap off my chest before I see the movie.

I have Māori and Pākehā parentage. Although I am proud to be a Māori girl and I’m definitely not white-passing, I do acknowledge that out of my family, I was born with the lightest skin and being a lighter-skinned/mixed poc among my family and friends has made me recognise my privilege. That isn’t to say I haven’t experienced lifelong struggles with racism, bullying and discrimination but I will never experience the same micro-aggressions and experiences that they have. Although, I do have light-skinned privileges and I don’t ever want to take away the struggles of my family that I won’t experience on the same level, growing up looking a little different opened me up a lot of feelings of invalidation within my own culture. When I experienced racism as a child, I was also met with disdain for being upset about it when I wanted to talk about it. This was when I was a child and I didn’t understand lighter skinned privilege or the animosity from some of my own people. I am far more educated now, but during that confusing time I, like most children, turned to literature (which in turn is what helped me make sense of the world).

I’ve gotten a little off track – this isn’t overly important to what I’m writing about, but it is introducing my opinion as coming from a woman of colour who has experienced racism and horrible bullying, but I always feel the need to clarify my position as a lighter skinned poc before giving my opinion based on those experiences.

Obviously from my content, I love Leta Lestrange. Perhaps it started out as a matter of representation, but I feel like over the past year, I have become intrigued with her for a number of reasons. She’s striking me as a Sirius, Regulus and Andromeda Black type character. Different to her family and caught in a struggle of light and dark (magic, not skin colour). Loves magical creatures. I haven’t seen it yet but it seems like she is one of the centre point characters of the film. She seems to be connected to many of the main characters in one way or another and has always striked me as the most intriguing.

I really do hope I am wrong but the ‘other’ love interest’s in the Harry Potter universe are usually treated terribly. They experience character assassination to further the development of the canon/new interest.

I really hope this film doesn’t do the whole blow out a woc character to make the white, self-insert, classically beautiful, ‘im not like other girls’ character shine brighter.

Before everyone comes for me, I wouldn’t say I’m a Tina ‘anti’ whatever that is. There’s no like extreme hatred at all! I would say I don’t like Tina as a character, or Queenie for that matter. Not yet anyway. The new trailer gives me hope that this movie might win me over finally. It doesn’t need to be upsetting or offensive to anyone. There are lots of people out there with favourite and not-so-favourite characters. A lot of people dislike Ron, Dumbledore, Snape, even Harry…and there are people who have those characters as their favourite.

There are a lot of reasons I don’t like Tina and Queenie. I may address them in a different post if being vague upsets people more than going in-depth but at this point, I am trying to stay as unconfrontational as possible but I have seen people get extremely furious when they don’t deem your reason for disliking them to be ‘good enough’ so if not saying exactly what I find uncomfortable about them is not as preferable as telling people then I can write it up as respectfully as possible if I’m treated the same way. All I’ll say is that I think Tina is a good person, but, in my opinion, not a great character. Queenie is the opposite. I would not like Queenie as a person but I have to admit, she’s a good character. But I’ll hold the rest of my opinions until after the second film.

Honestly, the film adaptions leave some of my favourite book characters to be desired. Maybe if FB was a novel, I’d like Tina but I really dislike her in the movies. I have seen people blow up when this is said. I try to understand the outrage. I think one of the reasons I dislike Tina is one of the reasons why people love her. She is, at this point and in my opinion (which is ONLY an opinion), a self-insert character. Any Newt x Reader fanfiction can easily read as a Newtina fanfiction and vice versa. I know. Because I’m a FB fanfiction writer myself and tried to write her. Sometimes when you attach yourself to a character so much, it can feel personally offensive when someone says something as harmless such as they don’t like then. I don’t experience this as often. Every Reader/OC fanfiction is, perhaps unintentionally, but nearly always aimed at a white person in description. In actuality, nearly every character in literature is, intentionally or not, described with textbook white features or assumed white by the fandom/readers/watchers.

I know people are going to hate this opinion because I’ve seen people jump down other people’s throats when this gets brought up. I do believe, whether it is conscious or not, Leta not being white COULD, subconsciously, be a factor as to why she is so inherently hated. I’ve seen more hate for Leta than any other character – even the antagonist! I hate what they did to Lavender Brown, book and movie wise, but even she, being as over exaggeratedly unlikable as a romantic plot device, received and still receives far less fandom hate than Cho Chang (who was also eventually written to be ‘jealous, hysterical, unlikeable’, etc, etc – I don’t agree btw I love, understand and appreciate Cho and Lavender) who was smart, talented, kind, traumatised, and until it was no longer convenient to the main characters romance for her to be ‘likeable’ anymore.

I wish I could enjoy going through the Leta tag but often, her and Newt can’t even be in a scene or photo together and people lose their minds with anger and hate. Literally, the comments on any scene/photo they are in are all along the lines of ‘stay away from newt!/poor tina/urgh, don’t flirt leta/leta WHAT ARE YOU DOING?’. Sorry, to break it to you guys but it isn’t a love triangle. It’s a love conga line. The only person getting in the way of ‘Newtina’ is Newt. Instagram is even worse. By worse, I mean horrible beyond belief. The better comments are the ones are the ones merely (though still grossly) comparing her to Tina and how much they dislike her, the other ones are wishes that she’ll get killed or join Grindelwald. It’s literally not even hidden the fact they wish either of these things happen so Newtina can happen faster. I’m not a Newtina shipper at all (Yet. Again, this might change if the films improve) but this would be one of the worst ways to further your ship. That is literally not going to change the fact that Newt’s still in love with her (you can have feelings for two people at the same time. The filmmakers confirmed - in fact, one of the first things about the new movie that they confirmed - that Newt is ‘absolutely still in love with her’), it just makes her conveniently unattainable. I do have a feeling that Leta might die and if it happens, it better not be because she’s unwillingly in the way of a ‘love triangle’ that people have forced these three characters into. If Newtina is going to happen in a way that isn’t awful, rushed and horrible, it will be slow-burn and it’s in own time AFTER Newt has healed and properly fixed things with Leta. You can’t be best friends and in love with someone for 15+ years and fall out of love with them immediately after they die, turn bad and settle for a woman you met for like two days and collectively spent maybe ten hours with. It might be a Ron/Hermione situation where it’s slow and eventual. That’s the only way I could possibly get on board and I think it could be done tastefully if they don’t resort to lazy writing. I do have my fingers crossed I’ll start to like the Goldsteins before this happens and I can enjoy it as much as everyone else does.

To be honest, after seeing the trailers, I see only two endings for Leta (and I hate them BOTH):

She joins Grindelwald: If this is the plot twist, it’s the shittiest plot twist ever. Pretty much 90% of the fans since seeing the first film have assumed/liked to believe she’s pure evil. Probably the characters themselves all assume she’s evil from her last name. I was worried the whole ‘haha, I was on Grindelwald’s side all along!’ situation was going to happen. We know JK hates Slytherins. My ‘Leta joins Grindelwald’ theory would be that she has always been on the good side – or trying to be – and after YEARS of oppression and discrimination and being distrusted by maybe the central characters in this film no matter how hard she tries AND maybe finally realising that Newt isn’t going to ever forgive her she just snaps and goes all ‘f*ck you guys then’ (I wouldn’t blame her tbh). HOWEVER, I doubt this. In a trailer, you literally see Leta THROW a fucking spell STANDING BY HERSELF (what u doin bby?) at Grindelwald. Trust me, if this was Tina it would have been all everyone was talking about but of course the fandom was all ‘yeah, see, she’s in the same frame as Grindelwald SHE’S EVIL’. One of the trailers is literally titled Leta vs. Grindelwald. Everything in the trailers/promos points to Queenie joining Grindelwald but *shrugs, I guess*.

Leta dies: I get this may seem the preferable way to appease the Leta haters and the Leta lovers especially if she dies after redeeming herself or heroically or whatever but urgh, no. I know everyone’s like ‘DoNt MAKe ThIS AbOUT RaCe’ when the woc character inevitably is killed but I’m sorry. To have been able to sit in a theatre as a little girl and see Leta Lestrange in the wizarding world would have blown my tiny mind. Honestly, as an older teen seeing Zoe Kravitz in that little photo frame in Newt’s case in the first film was iconic enough for me. After growing up being made to believe I was ‘unattractive’ because of how I looked, seeing total dreamboats like Callum Turner and Eddie Redmayne’s characters being all heart-eyes over Leta is, like...wow! And I do have an uncomfortable truth for people who want Leta to die. That would possibly be the WORST thing to happen for the Newtina thing (would pretty much be the last nail in the coffin for me ever coming around to it). I’ve seen it happen in my family when someone you love dies. Your feelings for them essentially FREEZE. You can’t fall out of love with someone who is dead. That’s of course not to say that you don’t love again and just as much as the first time. But it takes time (LOTS of it) and there’s a little part of your heart that’s like…permanently sealed off. I don’t even like Newtina yet and I’m hoping for the sake of the Newtina fans that Leta doesn’t die because freakin’ yikes. Just let them heal and connect and be besties again goddammit, its POSSIBLE (and bet your ass I’ll write it my god damn self to prove it if they don’t).

I know these are highly unpopular opinions and I HOPE that I am wrong, and they do her character justice and don’t discard her via death or the dark side.

In summary, I suppose my biggest struggle with Leta’s character is definitely the overwhelming fandom hate which I still can’t quite comprehend. I really want to believe it isn’t a race thing. Though, I have seen horrible posts about Leta, mean comments on nearly every Leta promo, Zoe Kravitz literally being called a c*nt in the comments of a Leta post on tumblr, a lot of fanfictions having her be primarily evil, selfish, manipulative, in some a rapist even, ugly, cruel, etc. But honestly, she’s literally not interfering in Newt having a relationship with anyone at all??? She’s literally been villainised because her friend can’t get over her (getting Snily nostalgia). But buggered if I’ve been able to find next to anything of that calibre about Jacob’s fiancée (literally a Queenie doppelganger) who left him, like, the day he met Queenie. I get that it was a deleted scene for those non-hardcore fans, but Leta-hate was literally kicked off by a picture in a photo frame and a comment made by a, in my opinion, kind of not-nearly-as-infallible-as-people-think character that barely knows Newt breaking into his head non-consensually (after being repeatedly told not to) who had an agenda to hook him up with her sister. Sooo…*shrugs*.

Even I personally have tried to keep out of the fandom debates, but I wrote a Leta and Newt story (still ongoing) that I stopped for a while because the kind of disgusting comments I was receiving about people hating the pairing. Which, I get. You don’t like a pairing, that’s cool? Why are you going and seeking out a piece about them and then taking the time to leave a comment? Whenever I start to read a story about Leta being this horrific monster of a person and being torn apart and compared and occasionally borderline racist, I just…click out? I know it’s only a small patch of weeds in what is likely a garden of roses, but I have never come across such an insecure fandom for a literal canon ship. If the relationship was that pure and strong, you wouldn’t feel the need to kill or villainise the (non-existent) ‘threat’. I just hope the writers feel the same way. You can write healthy closures and strong women of colour characters without casting them aside for plot development/man pain/stereotypical Caucasian romance/plot device, etc... I’m going to go into the theatre at the end of the week slightly optimistic to be fair but I’m also fully expecting to be disappointed but honestly, Leta could avada kedavra every character and she’s still going to be my favourite, I don’t make the rules.

#fantastic beasts and where to find them #fantastic beasts #fantastic beasts the crimes of grindelwald #leta lestrange #not going to put this in any other character tags bc my anxiety is poppin #ive also been avoiding the leta tags because im trying to keep focused on not spoiling anything but its hard as hell #pls dont spoil it for me in the comments if you decide to comment

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michele-with-one-ele-blog · 3 years

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An Open Letter to and for Whoever May Need It

To whomever it may concern:

It has come to my attention that many people seem to share in the misguided belief that I am responsible for their feelings about me. And, the fact is: I am not. I am happy with the person I am trying to grow into, and the foundation from which I am becoming that person. You don’t like me? You view my compassion as a weakness? That attitude reflects your values, not mine. I am not being sensitive when I express frustration at a “joke” which masks an unsolicited judgement of my character. Especially when that reaction is then dismissed by a comment like, “lighten up, it was just a joke, you’re so oversensitive.” I only point out the shock and pain I felt about your microaggressive gesture to express a displeasure in how you are speaking with me and to establish a boundary. In my mind, this is a response of someone who respects you enough to try and maintain the relationship. If you think I am oversensitive for doing this, then that seems to be your problem, right? If you are noticing tensions, then maybe I am not the one who must change. In fact, I am inviting you to take a step back and listen to the permissions I am granting you in regard speaking with me (in a manner I deem appropriate). From there we can continue having a wholesome time while knowing that our communications and mutual respect have strengthened, instead of furthering the dissolution of the relationship.

Let us also agree to stop masking judgements that are made on someone’s character or what are deemed to be character flaws, in what you perceive as jokes. Furthermore, let’s stop blaming the target of the joke for being upset. If you are pointing something out that can be easily identified as a problem you seem to have, those feelings are not mine to hold on to, nor are they my feelings to take into consideration. Not to say that I do not value the opinions of people with whom I share deeply intimate friendships, or from those whom I would seek advice from… when I inquire about such opinions.

And, I’m very over being reminded about how I am perceived as “too sensitive” because of this [through your tones, your actions, straight dismissing me, blatantly saying so, etc.]. I get it, I'm sensitive. However just because you think I am “too” sensitive, does not mean I am. Also, I did not ask what you think of my reaction, I asked that you adjust the way in which you speak to me. I do not have to crawl into the metaphorical box you think I need to in order to accommodate the level of “sensitive” you, or anyone else, deems appropriate.

If you are aware, and that is how you feel, then that really is your problem. You can make some adjustments or walk away. Because, it will not be me who compensates for your affect. I will not compromise my self-esteem or self-respect for the comfort of anyone else because they feel that they have the right to dismiss my needs. And so, since we are all so aware of how I am, then I think it is fair to assume that you can stand to speak with me and joke with me in the ways I have clearly tried to express that I would like and find suitable. You could actually listen when I stand up for myself instead of going, "oh my god, I was just kidding, it was just a joke".

Firstly, we tend to lose the moments that strengthen our connection to make those jokes come across as playful and in-jest, instead of as direct jabs. If you do not tell me how valuable you think I am, what do I have to use as a reference to compare to when you make a "joke" which is almost always pointedly at my expense. And secondly, how am I supposed to know that it was a joke? What cues have you offered me other than laughing at what you said? Have you ever considered the significance of adding, "haha, gotcha! Sorry for the interruption, continue.." or, “Just kidding, I think (insert a neutralizing statement)” like, “Well, it’s not like you ever have time to catch a breath, with how much you talk! Haha, just kidding, you always have something interesting to add”. How hard is that if you want to preserve the relationship?

Because, otherwise, if there were no friendly tones or gestures to make me feel included in the joke, how am I supposed to pick up on the fact that it was not just someone picking on me, or having a laugh at my expense? If you want to make certain that others understand that you are joking, here are some things to consider: tone, smiles, shoulder nudges, inclusive language/gestures or language which expresses the fact that you do not believe “the jokes” to be true.

You and you alone are responsible for how you treat others. Personally, my relationship with myself is much more important to me than my relationship with anyone else, so I express myself as a means of preserving our relationship and to strengthen “us”. I react to defend myself and my boundaries, sure, but your reaction to that tells me everything I need to know about your perception of me.

I, for one, am tired of being expected to conform to the expectations and judgements of others as if being louder or being brash and quick enough to think so and say it out loud means that the opinion is right. Holding the attitude that being that “brutally honest friend,” without having a modicum of self-reflection as just your coolest dominant personality trait, doesn’t actually make you honest… sometimes it just means that you are unfiltered or feel no shame in being callous or sharing your uninhibited opinions. Sometimes, your friends laugh because what you say based of off knee-jerk reaction is just so ridiculous, that they would never dream of responding in such a way. I know this because I used to be the unfiltered “I can’t believe the shit you say,” friend. And, I liked the attention… until I realized that I hurt people, very genuinely, because I said things that I didn’t really mean, but felt in the moment.

Now, I am constantly being told, as if it is anyone’s place to say so without being asked, that I am too nice. Just because you think I am too nice, and you say so with confidence and a matter-of-fact tone, does not make your assessment any more valuable or true. Because, nice is something about my personality that I adore. If I have ever been too nice, and I were confronted about it, I will never be sorry for how many times I turned someone’s day around or made things better for others. I have had classmates from my past hug/message me and thank me for showing them compassion despite how much they bullied me. I showed them kindness in the face of adversity and showed them another path in the wake of their pain. If I gave up on helping others or being kind regardless of how I was treated, then cruelty and “hurt people, hurt people” would take me over. So, I refuse to let being jaded win. I take breaks, and try my best to maintain balance, sometimes, but I refuse to let being rude back in the name of faux-assertiveness, win. My strength comes from my willingness to show people how they deserve to be treated, because that is how I deserve to be treated. I stand up when it matters most to myself, but I am not a slave to reaction. I ponder, I consider, and I meticulously cultivate my interpersonal relationships, even if they only last for a moment. See, I know how it feels to be the victim of genuine cruelty, and it really sucks. No matter how often I tell myself that, logically, their actions were reflections of them, not me, it does not change the hurt I felt/feel for being the target of senseless bullying. All I think is that I am sorry that you struggle to pull kindness out of yourself when you do not like something. It is beautiful, you really should try it, you will feel so much less angry in time.

Most importantly, I think I am awesome. And, it is absolutely because I'm sensitive. It is because my brain works strangely. It's because I am too nice, and hobby hop and plant vegetables that I don't know how to harvest, and I do things for people who don't always appreciate it. It is because I have themed fish tanks, and name my animals after foods and characters that I like. It is because I am nice to servers and strangers while in a neck brace and in immense pain with a scarred face, despite the weird looks.

I know that there is so much left for me to learn. I bring people flowers and fruit from my garden, even if they have hurt me in the past. I listen to the strife of marginalized and oppressed people, because I care, and I get it to at least enough of a degree to offer allyship. So, yes, I do feel offended when you say something racist. I will not budge on. I am selfless. I am funny. I am smart. I matter; my "too many feelings" matter. And, to clarify, I am good at taking a joke, when: it's appropriate, it isn't the only way in which I am spoken to and it's not said with a slight tone of "I'm genuinely criticizing something I deem is a character flaw" with a “haha” meant to serve as lighthearted punctuation. The language of others does not dictate who I am or my worth.

Make fun of the fact that I simply must stand on the rug in my living room before I pass it while wearing just socks; poke fun at my ridiculous stack of books that I have yet to read because I'm so busy trying to save the world and myself in my own way; make fun of how I turned broccoli into a flower and literally put it in a vase for my father to give to my mother. There are so many silly things that could be made hilarious if only you focused on them, instead. I am comedic in so many ways that are not linked to your judgements. Again, we need stop pretending that judgements of others are "jokes”. For myself, your dismissal of my reaction is not going to change me, especially if it is by pointing out the fact that you feel like it is my fault it was not funny since I'm just a weenie. This theme is similar to comedians making jokes about outdated stereotypes. Get better material, and be more creative, dude; it is old and times have changed. I am working on me and doing a fine job. I do not need any more help identifying my flaws. Trust me, I know, and I got this.

To those who do not seem to understand the “big deal”. I know it, whatever ‘it’ was, did not seem like a something worth giving a second thought… to you. But, to me and others, it was significant. I interpreted that action as a representation of what I mean to you. (And, if there was an audience, others feel it, too; through realizing the attitudes or adopting them.) I deserve to be spoken to and heard. Not silenced. Not disregarded. Not undervalued. I matter. No matter how much my brain tries to tell me otherwise, no matter how other people's actions reflect negative attitudes towards me and no matter how ‘annoying’ you might find me or how much my values do not measure up to the expectation of others.

So, I am hereby denouncing, publicly, my responsibility for anyone’s feelings about me. I am too tired, and they, honestly, are not my feelings to live with. I try my best to be nice, and I try my best to be kind and caring and whatever else I believe I need and want to be for other people. And, myself. I do not need to fit myself in a box for the sake of your satisfaction or to protect your projected feelings/values. I am by no means a lesser person because I care, or I’m compassionate, or I talk too much, or I am annoying, or whatever else that you think is not valuable. I find it valuable, that is why it is a part of my personality. If not, it is something I am already aware of, and I’m probably already working on. My brain does not need any more ammunition.

To those who may be realizing that you have spoken with someone in this manner, absolutely, an apology is necessary. But, know that an “it’s okay,” response does not always mean that they think you were in the right, sometimes it is a means of preservation or fitting into your prescribed box. This is an invitation to do better.

If you are often in the same position that I am, then I suggest responding to an “I’m sorry,” with some variation of this: “I appreciate your apology, and though your actions were not okay, I do forgive you. And now that I have gotten it all out, I think I can start to feel better. But, please keep my boundaries in mind regarding how you go about treating me. I appreciate the fact that you put in the work. So, thanks for listening.” It has worked for me so far. In summation, this is a reminder: I live with me at the end of the day. I will not be living with your thoughts, opinions, and assessments of me. You, and you alone, must live with those.

Kind regards and assertively signed,

Michele Austin

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rfschatten · 5 years

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The Moral Degeneracy of America’s “Good Fine People”

Goodness is about character…integrity, honesty, kindness, generosity, moral courage, and the like. More than anything else, it is about how we treat other people” ~~ Dennis Prager

America is losing its “Goodness” …its moral compass, the character that made this Country #1 in the World. It’s why everyone who just wants a chance to become self-sufficient, to improve their lives and that of their children in any way possible, would immigrate to America…the “Land of Opportunity”! And why the oppressed, why refugees all want to come to America…it’s the “Land of the Free”!

True, we do have an extremely evil Draconian US Administration, criminally corrupt from the President on down, and committed to systematic cruelty and dehumanization. All willing to destroy Democracy to further their own ambitions of greed and install their own form of government. But, all this really didn’t start with Donald Trump, as much as everyone wants to blame the Trumpster for creating this whole mess …all, this non-too stable genius did was exacerbate all the ills of all our social issues to the forefront. Of what’s been happening in America pretty much since 1980, when Ronald Reagan & the GOP…and the conservative “right-wing” Moral Majority…consummated their wickedly sinister vows. Ever since then, the Christian Coalition which was formed in 1989, has been gruelingly working as a very active partner with the Grand Old Party in their own joint venture to create ‘their’ America.

In Donald Trump, Evangelical Christians in America and Right-Wing Nationalists found their “Messenger”. A man, who like them, without scruples & without a single strand of moral fiber whatsoever…for money and votes, he’ll do all their bidding and anything else they want. Trying to turn the integrity, the moral courage, and the altruistic values of our Country into ethical nihilism….like his attempts to make right-wing degeneracy and the hate, the bigotry, the bullying, and the death threats that go along with them, the norm in our society.

Evangelical Christians call themselves People of God, yet reject all of God’s values of Altruism…the unselfish concern for the welfare of others. The Republican Party was always known as the “Party of Family Values” …so? what happened? Today, they still hypocritically and shamelessly spew their Family Values …and as far as they’re concerned, they still believe they’re “Good Fine People”!

These good fine people blindly follow a psychopathic nihilist demagogue, obsessed with cruelty and abuse. Since the President of the United States usually sets the moral tone for the Nation, this immoral President…with a wink and a nod…set his moral tone. Anyone with any shred of decency would be outraged the way our so-called civilized society has evolved. Plato said; “Good People do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while Bad People will find a way around the laws” Today, finding their ways around the laws is a standard operating procedure for the good people of the GOP, and of the US Administration. Finding their way around creating more inhumane cruelty is their primary mission …from Birth to the September of their lives!

The U.S. Administration has gone out of their way to promote systematic Dehumanization, with the wholehearted approval of all the Good Evangelical Christians in America, led by Vice President Mike Pence, who considers himself and his wife, “Mother” …extremely religious “Children of God”.

What a time to be alive! Witnessing History first hand…in living color. Historians will write and describe these Dark Times in America. Not just about a criminally corrupt immoral President, but the greedy ignorance and the loss of moral values that has spread throughout the GOP. The hardcore base of Bigots & Hatemongers? They were already ignorant …way before they even knew or heard of a man called Trump.

So, what attracted these faux Christians to have such a hot passionate love affair with a faux President, later, renamed the Chosen One?

Just look at the way our good people in Govt treats Children: Good People don’t take away Children’s Healthcare. Good People don’t take away School Lunches from a Child cause of the family’s lack of finances, or the Color of their Skin, or the Religion they profess. Good People don’t allow other people…especially children…to die, cause the color of their skin, or their country of origin. Or if Medical Lifesaving Treatments are not available in other countries…good people don’t do things like that! Good People don’t rip babies away from their mother’s arms and separate them. Good People don’t put Women & Children in Cages!

And kids are not just the only ones maltreated by the US Govt. The way they treat Women, tells you a lot about their character and their cowardice: Good People don’t take away a Woman’s personal right over her own body. Good People don't. take away a Woman’s basic Equal Rights! Good People don’t allow women who are violated to suffer cause the good people of the GOP are changing the laws everywhere, taking away the rights of the woman violated and making the Rapist, most of the time…the victim! If they had it their way, these good fine “Christian” people would plant a “Scarlet Letter” on the little “hussy”.

Do they care about the Elderly? Here’s how the Gov’t cares and treats Mom & Pop: Good People don’t allow the Elderly to go hungry, pair off with another elderly, get married to unite their monthly checks, and eat a little better than the alternative…becoming a gourmet in Cat Food. Ask the retirees who lived in South Beach, Fl…before the influx & the business redevelopment of that area…ask them how tasty those cans of Cat Food were?!?! Good People don’t take away Food Stamps from old people or anyone who needs them, especially the Poor! Regardless of Race, Color, or Creed. Good People don’t take away Meals on Wheels from the elderly, which is design to address the need for help with Senior Hunger & Isolation of the infirmed! Good People don’t take away Heating for the elderly, or the poor, or anyone else for that matter. No human being should freeze to death cause lack of heating or a lack of housing. Good People don’t take away Social Security checks from those whose only income to be able to live comes directly from Social Security, itself. Good People don’t take Healthcare away from the Elderly…cause of their age, the most susceptible people to sickness.

How we treat our planet will determine how much longer we’ll be able to stay alive. Does the Gov’t care? We’re the only Country on Earth that opposes Environmental Regulations: Good People don’t purposely pollute our rivers and streams, systematically destroy every aspect of our environment, and eradicate all endangered species. All for the smell of money and absolute power! Good People don’t roll-back (as of Sept. 2019) 85 Environmental Regulations intended to keep our Nation and our planet clean & safe to live. Good People don’t gamble the future of our children and that of their children to live in the past …the past is dead! Good people don’t regress into time, they progress into the future!

We can’t forget the Trumpian cream of the crop …the loyal minions who will follow their leader and march right off a cliff! The Hate, the Bigotry, the immorality & the ignorance …but mainly the Blind-loyalty to a fascist Psychopathic Racist and White Nationalist. Too much reality in this show? Good People don’t blindly follow Criminals & Despots …and Good People don’t take away a person’s basic human rights!

And what about the character of the good men & women employed or elected to lead and protect this Nation? Good People are not Perverts! They are not Pedophiles, Misogynist Bullies, Wife Beaters, Rapists, Homophobes…or Xenophobes. They are not Criminals or Traitors, either…and Good People don’t lack respect for the rule of law.

It really doesn’t matter who started all of this now, or how it all started hundreds of years ago…it’s our destiny. America has never experienced this type of Reality!. Ahhyup! it was meant to happen, a shock to our system, to our very way of life! It’s a test of the American will.

It’s our responsibility as human beings to make whatever corrections need to be made and establish a society and a way of life we want for the future of our children!…and all other future generations!

It’s also our choice to make! …it’s what we’re looking for out of life. Also, in what direction would we want this country to go ….whether or not we’re satisfied with our Nation’s current state of affairs, or whether we want some type of change. The reality of this Reality Show is that you only have 2 choices; Give up & give in to hate, develop a fondness for greed, and join the Trumpian future, or be resilient, vote, & try to make America truly great, again! Always remember the thrill of victory, but especially the agony of defeat. A loss??? Think about what could happen after 2020. Reality is knowing 2020 might be the one last chance to save America…choose wisely!

#2020 elections #goodness #Donald Trump #Right Wing Nationalism #Evangelical Christianity #immorality #hate #bigotry #us government #democracy

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fapangel · 7 years

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You've been screeching bitch tears about antifa as though you're part of an opressed people, yet you never once showed anywjere near the same condemnation when a white supremacists shot up a black church.

This showed up in my inbox alongside this:

Note the focus on non-whites getting shot. I haven’t condemned any recent mass-shootings by other spree-killers either, but all he cares about is the one where white people shot black people. Hmm.

The same applies to police shootings. Gun owners - like me - are keenly aware of how often cops kill law-abiding gun owners of any color for no reason - such as Daniel Shaver, who was gunned down in a hallway as he was belly-crawling towards police on their orders. Why? Because someone saw him, through his hotel window, holding one of the air rifles he used in his pest-control job and called the cops. And the cops - upon being told that a private citizen was seen holding a longarm in the privacy of his own hotel room, decided to come down on the place with a fucking SWAT team like he’d been seen strapping on a baby-lined suicide vest or something. The cops shouldn’t have been there at all, much LESS fucking magdumped on him as he was crawling towards them face-down, on their orders.

Or how about the recent killing of a white woman from Australia, who was shot dead by the very police officers she herself called for help? Better yet, the fuckup who shot her fired because he heard a “loud noise” - and he shot across the squad car, past his own goddamn partner in the driver’s seat.

But who gives a fuck? They’re all just “a white male”, right? But when people of color are murdered for no fucking reason by incompetent cops, then it’s a big fucking deal. Then it’s problematic, and systemic racism. As someone who has a concealed carry permit, I’m intimately familiar with how many cops persecute permit holders - the guy dating my sister for a while was pulled over by the cops in a nearby town, and they split them up and started questioning my sister and a friend that was with them about why her boyfriend had a gun. He has his permit on him, and they knew it was valid, since they can look that up in their car’s computer. But they still treated him like a criminal waiting to happen.

But of course the left-wing fucks who’ve fought gun rights in general, and concealed-carry in particular, every step of the way, don’t give a flying fuck - until a black man with a concealed license was shot, and then they’re racing to make up lies about how the NRA didn’t denounce it “enough.” All because the NRA didn’t immediately take to social media to denounce the cop as evil racist murdering scum. Failure to automatically assume the cop was 100% at fault was unacceptable, nay, counter-revolutionary. Never-you-fucking-mind that Colin Noir, a black man, gun supporter, and chief champion of the Black Guns Matter movement, pointed out that “the NRA doesn’t need to make a statement about Philando, because they gave him his own show. I’ve been fighting for gun rights under the NRA brand for years.” Yeah, this young black man has his own damn show on “NRATV;” and as the Guardian story notes, this NRA-sponsored, endorsed and supported commentator, using the NRA’s own platform, was scathingly harsh on the police for the Philando Castile shooting. But who fucking cares about that, right? Failure to reflexively and immediately blame whitey for being the evil one is unacceptable.

This is symptomatic of the racist narratives that underpin the entire left-wing’s movement - it’s clearly visible in the anarcho-communist Antifa’s obsession with “defending minority communities by any means necessary.” It’s the way collectivists think - not of individuals, but of communities. Ergo, the Black Community, the Asian-American community, etc., is the smallest unit of concern they have. To conceive of people as individual citizens, equal before the law, is alien to their way of thinking. Witness this shithead lambasting me for talking like I’m an “oppressed people-” to him, that’s the only unit of legitimacy there is. Only oppressed people get to bitch - and if they are oppressed than any murder, violence and mayhem is justified in the name of revolution.

This is why Black Lives Matter supporters are ambushing cops across the country, and why anyone who disagrees with leftists on immigration policies - including Trump and all his supporters - are labeled fascist Nazis who deserve to have their heads smashed. The left is just as racist and race-obsessed as the white supremacists they claim to be saving us from. They’re just another team playing the same horrific game - and naturally, if you dare disagree with them at all, you’re labeled as one of them, as this fuckface here’s trying to do with me. And as we’ve seen with the spate of craven cowardice from various GOP politicians and CEOs, being called a Nazi or white supremacist is a slander with terrible power in our society. It’s how the left bullies dissidents into silence so they don’t point out that violent, radical leftists are the exact same kind of scum. Fortunately, there’s still people with the courage to call them out.

As for this violence not being “new,” that’s a blatant fucking lie. “Neonazi” groups in the past could be broken down into two rough groups; skinheads, who are violent chav fucksticks in general who get Nazi tattoos because they’re edgy and mean, and Illinois Nazis, goose-stepping attention-whore clowns that’ve been the butt of jokes since the 1980s, as the linked clip demonstrates. You’ll also recall that when Antifa staged mass riots to disrupt Trump’s inauguration and torched a Muslim-American immigrant’s limousine in the process, or when they showed up with shields and weapons to violently assault people at Milo’s University of Washington speech, or when they smashed windows and brutally beat bystanders before Milo’s planned speech at Berkeley, there was no organized resistance to them by anyone at all. The first time someone actually came prepared to fight back, he was so alone in that regard that he became his own meme, the “Alt-Knight.” It wasn’t until the April 15th event that the “alt-right” showed up at all; that event was when about 50 Oath Keepers showed up and a white supremacist with a characteristically retarded haircut socked some skanky antifa pornstar. (This is also the event where Eric Clanton went around smashing skulls with a u-lock for Antifa.) Since the media is useless and real reporting is dead, Mr. Retardo Haircut is the only White Supremacist's presence I can verify, but at the time I saw discussion on /pol/ naming white supremacists that’d flown in from Europe, which should give you some idea of how miniscule their numbers are - Antifa mobilized 1,500 or so rioters - not “protesters,” but actual masked hooligans with weapons smashing shit - to shut down Milo’s speech. Hell, the Ku Klux Klan themselves had a fucking rally in Charlottesville back in July, and they mustered... 50 total dudes. The “white supremacists” have had better turnout during various clashes in Portland, but as the Willamette Week notes, said supremacists are almost always skinheads and biker gangs, demographics more defined by being criminal, anti-social fuckbags in general, with “white supremacy” being an excuse to put cool viking patches on their jackets. Not surprising, considering Portland’s been called “skinhead city” in the past.

Compare that to Charlottesville. The media breathlessly predicted as many as “a thousand” white supremacists would show up - how many actually did, I haven’t seen any news agency put a fucking number to, aside from “hundreds,” referring to both sides - and considering that they were carpooling and flying in from as far away as Texas, I doubt there was that many - but it was still more than showed up at any prior event. If one presumes that the retards carrying tiki torches the night before were all white supremacists (as opposed to everyone who showed up for the actual event the day after,) counting torches visible in this video and this one with airborne drone shots, there were at least 150 or so - still pathetic turnout for an event scraping people from all over the country, but still three times the actual white supremacists verifiable present at any other event. Furthermore, this time, lots of them brought shields and clubs and helmets, ready to scrap - mirroring antifa’s own tactics.

This is new - and if you want to know where it comes from? What’s driving this? Look no further than this video that shows the white supremacists, in their own words, crediting the unceasing aggression and violence of the radical left as being the chief thing pushing new recruits into their arms. Fucking hell, Bannon went on-record crowing about how he wants Democrats to talk about racism every day not five days ago. And what’s more, THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT WE FUCKING TOLD YOU ASSHOLES WOULD HAPPEN. I, personally, said it on this very goddamned blog:

Some people do actually believe this shit and they are mostly Democrats - hell, here’s a Gallup poll with the numbers if you doubt my analysis. And to re-iterate, they’re inflaming extremists on both sides of the spectrum, because the more violence antifa commits, the more the Illinois Nazis will croon “see, we were right all along!”

The “Nazis” were a bunch of fucking retarded CHUDs seig heiling on dodgy message boards and defending the supreme might of das Reich’s wunderweapons on WWII forums - until you miserable fucks catapulted them into the national spotlight, and then legitimized them by using violence against people you claimed were them; making it seem like you couldn’t beat their arguments, so you had to resort to force, like knuckle-dragging thugs. You could never tell the difference, because you’re insane zealots who consider any disagreement with your sacred politics - such as immigration law - to be absolutely unforgivably fascist. You motherfuckers started this, because you refused, refused to accept the outcome of a democratic election. You vile bastards are pushing this country further and further towards civil unrest and even civil war, and you’ve got the fucking gall to tell me I’m pretending to be concerned about them becoming violent, when I was warning about this back in fucking May?

I’m not going to stop blogging, writing, or tweeting - because you fucks will never stop trying to destroy the foundations of our nation’s civil order to get your way. I’m not going to stand silent while you bastards do your utmost to plunge our peaceful and prosperous nation into a new era of civil strife, hatred and bloodshed.

So keep crying, you bastard, because I’m not going anywhere.

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inversionrp-blog · 7 years

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fifth year | gryffindor | pureblood | he/his

about:

after struggling for so long to conceive, euphemia and fleamont decided to adopt. they adopted you when you were about six months old, their miracle child, a perfect addition to the family. an energetic child with no boundaries, your mischievous nature ran wild. despite not having very much money, euphemia and fleamont struggled to gives you everything you ever wanted, every toy, every game - any sacrifice was worth it, anything for their little prince. letting you go to hogwarts was difficult for them, but you longed for the next adventure of their life. you arrived only to find that hogwarts was a school, not a playground brimming with monsters to slay and treasures to be uncovered. your need for thrills and boredom with the school has you pursuing darker and darker things in the name of fun - just how far will you go?

biography:

Is it possible to be loved too much?

It is one thing to be spoiled, to have everything you have ever wanted handed to you on a silver platter with the world at you heel asking, what are we doing next? It is another to think yourself a boy king, and to be treated as one too. At home he was told that he was perfect, that he had no flaws. Every time that James did something which would usually warrant a good-old-fashioned telling-off, his parents would wind up blaming themselves. He quickly learned how to make his parents forgive him, he knew just what to say to make them see him as nothing but their sweet boy. He learned to tug on their heart strings in just the right way, and he learned that even the slightest mention of wanting to meet his birth parents (he absolutely did not care to do so) could get him almost anything he wanted. They raised him in an unhealthy fashion, giving him everything and requiring nothing from him. It made him heavily expectant of the rest of the world to do the same.

The thing is, as easy as it made his life, he felt suffocated. They had strict rules and kept him isolated, but they never relly punished him. He could do no wrong. There was nothing on earth he could think of that would have a negative consequence, nothing that could possibly backfire. The atmosphere was so opressive to live in, they controlled him and didn’t let him have the experiences that he should have gained in his childhood. He felt trapped for years and therefore, he grew up craving something more than their nice home in Cambridge. He craved danger.

At the age of eleven is life so far has been sheltered, he was home-schooled, and his parents never really schooled him on life. The real world did not exist to him before Hogwarts, only the bubble which had been created by his parents, the bubble in which he was a boy king. He never learned about the prejudices of the world, pure bloods and half bloods. He only learned that if asked, he was their real son. He didn’t learn much about acceptance or love, because he’d never had to accept anyone or love anyone but his parents. Even at a young age, this sheltered world was not enough for him. At home he’d started to push boundaries, purposefully breaking his parents expensive fine china (they eventually said it was their fault for not paying more attention to him), refusing to eat anything that wasn’t chicken, stealing his parent’s money. He pushed and pushed, needing a reaction from them. He needed to be shouted at and given boundaries, but he simply never was.

All of this frustration, the feelings of being suffocated and oppressed, that had been building within him came out the night before he was due to leave for Hogwarts. That evening his parents insisted he go to bed early, and being an essentially good child, he obeyed, but he was restless and wild within his bed. Hours passed in which he couldn’t sleep for excitement and adrenaline coursing through his body, the prospect of getting out into the world thrilled him so much that at two am he was still wide awake and went to find something to do. When his parents woke up they found him asleep on a sofa, having thoroughly trashed the living room in his evenings play session. The TV had been broken in a sword fight, a few vases had been smashed and he’d managed to burn a hole in the carpet when he attempted to light candles to make the medieval scene more realistic. That was the first time they ever actually told him off, and it was refeshing to him.

He arrived at Hogwarts the next day, feeling like a tough guy who could take a telling off. He was sorted into Gryffindor, and he was ready to take on a magical experience, to fight dragons and save people and be a hero. Sadly, that is not what he got. He went from being an only child with the full attention of two adults to just one in a class. He began to push boundaries again, constantly vying for the attention of anyone at all who would look his way. Most of the time it worked, his clown behavior drew him a sizable group of admirers. He had no prejudice, as long as people paid him mind he repayed them with loyalty. He made a name for himself in school, not as a rebel but as James Potter, someone unlike any other. His experiments with magic got more and more outrageous as time went by, creeping over the border from pranks to bullying… And further. Nothing feels too far for him, and he always manages to get away without a scratch on his perfect record, and so he will continue to push at those boundaries until something snaps.

James Potter has had so much love that he is saturated, full to the brim with it. Somehow, instead of it spilling over to be shared as the laws of physics would dictate, being so full of love can make the world seem empty. He’s desperate to fill himself with anything and everything new.

plots:

[ HOOKED ] James has dabbled in drugs in the past, socially and just for a good time. His favorite is a magical herb, which gives a similar effect to muggle Acid. He’s also tried muggle drugs from his muggleborn friends and drinks a lot. I would like to explore the possible addiction / getting into trouble for this. He takes drugs for the rush that they give him with little thought of consequence and it would be interesting to play out how he would react to actual consequences in his life.

[ EXPOSED ] James is cocky and thinks of himself as perfect but he is far from it. He’s selfish and conceited and can be incredibly cruel due to his lack of care for others. I would like to see James develop the type of relationship where someone just calls him on his bullshit. A relationship where they straight up tell him that he’s not all that would be interesting because he might hate them for it at first, but he might also listen.

suggested connections:

sirius black: while you were initially suspicious of the slytherin, you formed a fast friendship with sirius, and the pair have been inseparable ever since. only sirius understands the value of a good adventure. emma vanity: emma is fun enough to be around, and you enjoy showing off for them and dragging them along on various escapades. sometimes you gets the feeling emma isn’t being entirely honest with you, but you’re not concerned unless it affects her ability to accompany you in your mischeif. mary macdonald: mary is quite obviously unstable, and you find it fascinating. you love to watch mary work and are often tempted to join in. mary has a way of provoking your dark side, introducing them to pleasures that you previously thought forbidden.

james is portrayed by reece king and is closed.

#james potter #james #taken

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rebellionandresistance · 5 years

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Sabrina Spellman and the normalization of "feminist" authoritarianism.

This adaptation of the comic book published in 1962 and remake of the 1996 television series has been a great success for the Netflix platform. However, more observant people may find that it is more than just a good series with good characters. What could be those hidden meanings or subliminal references that this plot exposes us?

Attention! This article contains Spoilers.

I started watching the series out of curiosity and at the same time because of the frequent comments that social networks made me reach. I must admit that it is a series very well worked and developed in every detail it contains. However, a particular detail that occurred during the development of the argument caught my attention: The male figure was constantly treated as villainy, violence, authoritarian force and the origin of some of the misfortunes to which face Sabrina and her friends. Despite the fact that the protagonist has male allies, like her boyfriend Harvey or her cousin Ambrose, among others, the reality is that they are more scarce, with respect to female characters. Emphasis is placed on the woman as the intellectual character and the man as incapable of understanding, as ignorant, as retrograde or as the damsel in danger if he is not a villain.

Within the same series are also implemented elements to arouse curiosity and interest in people who do not understand the idea of feminism or a class struggle. There are in particular two moments in which you can see. The first moment is when the book "The Bluest Eye" by Toni Morrison is treated, about which the school of our mortal characters has established a censorship, cataloging it as a forbidden book. Another case is the mention of the popular feminist figure Virginia Woolf. You even get to establish the WICCA club, which is clearly feminist. The sentence with which this creation is given is the following:

- "This goes further, to the foundations of the school. And that is where we will fight it. We must create a club for young women where we can meet to discuss problems and find proactive solutions. "

- "Do you mean a club to end white patriarchy?"

But feminism is not the only topic discussed in this series. There are also references to gender ideology, which revolve around the character of Susie, who is considered "non-binary" and feels comfortable when treated as a boy and even looks like one, from his clothes to his short hair. (They call her "Girl-boy" in a couple of episodes and Rosalind's blind grandmother refers to her as "boy" because she can feel people inside her) Her character is constantly bullied by her appearance , which will initiate the first manifestations of Sabrina and Rosalind in school.

In the witches argument, these feminist references become much more evident if you are a retailer with each situation. In the first place are the spooky sisters, who could identify themselves as those women who defend the patriarchy and are willing to be servants, sacrifice and offering for the ends that this arranges, while tormenting other innocent witches who belong to the deviation or better calls " Outsiders ". It is also known the hatred they have for witch hunters, whom they consider blood that must be shed in revenge. And who do not guess who these witch hunters are? Nothing more and nothing less than men! (It should be noted that some feminist movements in the world call themselves "covens" or use a remarkable phrase that states that they are "The witches who could not burn")

There is even a scene in which Sabrina tells Sister Prudence (who is more open than the other two) that she wants to have freedom and power. She does not want to stop seeing her dead friends just to become a witch.

- "I want both, freedom and power." - "He will never give you that. The Dark Lord is terrified that you or any of us have both. " - "Why?" - "It's a man, is not it?"

We will analyze the main sides of the series:

Sabrina Spellman: The protagonist of our story. It is characterized by being a determined girl in its purposes, of which usually has the intention of helping those who are in a difficulty or go through a bad time that somehow prevents them from leading a full life. It is shown as the figure that comes to change the establishment of its environment and show that the times must be different, so some conservative ideas have to be replaced. In his inexperience and arrogance he assumes that everything he thinks and believes is absolute and correct and therefore makes decisions that often lead to serious consequences for his loved ones, in his haste to fix everything for others. It does not analyze at any time how it affects others and the more you screw it up, the worse it gets for everyone.

Among the mistakes made by Sabrina we can count the humiliation of her family in the dark community, because of the continuous violations of the basic rules that the girl continually infringes for acting without thinking. This causes the reputation of her aunts Hilda and Zelda to be negatively affected and consequently the trust that the High Priest places in them (even Hilda gets excommunicated from the church at night). On the other hand, there is the occasion where she tries to revive the brother of her boyfriend Harvey, who had died in a rockfall caused by the sisters and when Sabrina fails to resuscitate, Harvey himself must murder him so that the balance between The world of the living and the dead (The limbo) is not affected. This ends with the breakdown of their relationship and a wounded and confused Harvey. This makes think of Sabrina as an impulsive character who lets himself be carried away by empathy, to a point that he forgets the importance of thinking before acting.

The Coven (Followers of the Dark Lord):

They defend the traditional parameters of witches and the practices that have been fulfilled for thousands of years. They would be the villains of the series, where in a visible way they always show the female figure within their community as a symbol of offering or sacrifice towards the dark lord and the male figure that represents the "patriarchy" or ruling class. It is they who have all the high ranks within the coven, as would the High Priest, or the councils or the courts. The Dark Lord himself identifies himself as Man and villain of all history.

Sabrina condemns the fact that the high priest of his coven is male, especially when the majority of participants in the church at night are women, assuming that it has no place, participation, voice or vote. In addition, he puts to debate that he has to do all the orders that he indicates. By putting the heart above reason, it ends up taking its good intentions to selfish positions that become unnecessary and end up not helping anyone.

Having established the parameters of the series and the intentions that it has, we can then respond to the question that the title leaves us: Are we witnessing an attempt to normalize feminist authoritarianism?

I consider that this is the case. The series shows a distortion of the real facts, making the moldable minds can get the wrong idea of the supposed enemy that oppresses them. The problem of feminism is not its ideal in itself, but the way of acting, manipulating or threatening through hatred, violence, vandalism, fear and disinformation of the masses. Feminism lost its direction at the time it confused its struggle with the class struggle.

Today the basic rights of women are already established in modern Western society. Women can now access any job, study, social field or community if they want to. They can already be heads of state, deputies, representatives, leaders, activists, etc.

The machism that they mention so much now is only part of individuals who still do not know how to behave as civilized people and still live in the past. But that is not why we have to blame an entire society for the mistakes of a few. Modern feminism has become a heck and revanchist, which makes it difficult to try to understand and support it.

That leads to the specific question: What right do women lack? Exactly how does 100% of society violate it right now?

Currently they are much more free than before. At least their real needs as human beings are recognized. Fictitious needs as privileges (Among which we can find unjustified free abortion) must be given for reasonable reasons and not sentimental whims.

THE FACTS AND SERIOUS AFFAIRS DO NOT INTEREST YOUR FEELINGS.

#feminism #netflix #society #politics #social media #trending

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newssplashy · 6 years

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Banky W: 'Here's what I'll tell my kids about the Super Eagles'

Banky W in his own words justaposes his lessons from Super Eagles 1-2 loss to Argentina to the state of the world.

Many years from now when, by God’s grace, my children are old enough to understand, this is exactly what I plan on telling them about my experience while watching my very first World Cup game live: “On a bright Summer night in St Petersburg, our Super Eagles played with more heart than our leaders have shown in 50 years. And I was proud to see it.”

See, I’m kind of a faith-over-facts type of sports fan, and I suspect that to a certain measure, a lot of us are. We know the facts. We know that Argentina are by far the better team. We KNOW that Leo Messi is on almost every list of the top 5 greatest football players of all time. There’s a reason that their country is currently 5th in the FIFA world Ranking, and to find Nigeria, you’d have to scroll all the way down to 48th. On paper, we know we probably never stood a chance. Coming into that game, in every position on the pitch, the gulf in talent was, to put it mildly… significant. Case in point: we have never ever in our footballing history, EVER had a striker as lethal as Sergio Aguero. Argentina had the luxury of bringing him on as a substitute late in the second half. But I plan on teaching my kids that in this life, despite seemingly insurmountable odds, you should dare to dream anyway.

And that’s exactly what most of us want, isn’t it? The opportunity to just…dream. To dream that maybe you can punch above your weight and be successful at it. Most people aren’t lucky enough to be recipients of glory in this rat race called life, so we project that innate desire onto the teams we support. And so the Nigerian team dreamt that we could do it, and we worked our asses off to make that dream come true. What we lacked in footballing pedigree, skill, and training… we almost entirely made up for in HEART. There were over 66,000 people in that stadium; between the Argentineans in attendance, and Messi’s global fanbase of billions, it looked and felt like 99% of the people in the crowd were rooting for Argentina. You could hardly sport a green jersey, and that’s not because it’s sold out. It’s because there were only a couple hundred of us, versus tens of thousands of them. The Super Eagles were playing in an Elimination Game, against arguably the Greatest player of all time, his top 5 ranked team, and over 60,000 people screaming and heckling our every kick of the ball.

But we played and we defended, we clawed and we FOUGHT. Yes, we lost, but we went down swinging and played with all the heart we could muster. And honestly? So did Argentina. Messi and co weren’t just going to roll over and die, in what would have probably been their most embarrassing world cup outing of all time. They were going to fight. And as I said in one of my numerous social-media-crazed-fan-videos, Nigeria didn’t come just to mark the register. We came to PLAY. Both sides went at it for 90+ mins, and for 86 of them, we were even. In the end, the better team won – because at this level, the truly great ones are able to capitalize on the slimmest of moments to separate themselves and secure victory. But the losing team was equally gallant in defeat. Both sides gave it their all. One side won, but both sides played with heart.

These days, I’ve found that my wife and I spend just as much time praying for our future children, as we do worrying about the kind of world we’d be bringing them into.

There’s so much darkness, sadness, and pain in the world, you know? Here’s a laundry list of things that have happened in the past month alone: Two globally successful celebrities hung themselves. Then a woman in Lagos allegedly also committed suicide, by jumping into the lagoon. Yesterday, an undergraduate student from Lagos State University attempted to do the same. Plateau state in Nigeria has JUST been hit with two fresh sectarian attacks…over 200 people were slaughtered in cold blood – the latest in a very long line of mass murders over the years. Add the frequency of killings in Zamfara, Benue, Taraba and you’ll find that Nigeria has started turning into the Murder Capital of World, for a country that’s not at war. There is NO justification for the mass murder of innocent human beings, and yet, it just seems to keep happening, moving from state to state. It’s happened so frequently that we’ve become completely numb to it. We don’t care anymore. It’s now just another headline. And if that wasn’t bad enough, Nigeria has just overtaken India as the Poverty Capital of the World. And with all this, all we ever do is tweet #hashtags… #prayforPlateau, #prayforBenue, #prayforNigeria… etc. We say stuff like “our hearts go out to the families of the victims”, but we actually have very little heart left. Because we’ve gotten used to hearing about the brutality, so we just adapt, tweet or retweet a picture and a prayer, and we move on.

It’s not just Nigeria, either. Most Nigerians envy the quality of life in places like the USA – but let’s take stock of where America is at right now. I have a hard time reading the news because it seems like it’s almost always bad. School shootings in the good old US of A are as frequent as Boko Haram bombings in Northern Nigeria. Reports in the media have been awash with images of sweet, innocent children of immigrants, uncontrollably crying their eyes out, because the American Government has coldheartedly separated them from their families and kept them in cages like animals; one can’t help but wonder at the kind of emotional scars and resentment that has been deposited in their hearts. And speaking of humans-being-treated-like-animals, look no further than the recent #JusticeForJunior hashtag on twitter – read about this teenager from the Bronx, whose only crime was bearing a small resemblance to someone that some gang members had a problem with. So what did they do? Five of them dragged him out of a corner store, and beat and stabbed him to death in the street. An innocent 15-year-old, who just happened to look like the person they meant to harm. The store owners saw 5 guys dragging him out of their shop, and chose to look the other way. He came back bleeding his life away and pleading for help, and they pushed him back out, locking their doors and telling him to go to the hospital. The people passing by on the street also looked the other way; the ones watching from their apartment windows, saw him being beaten and stabbed to death, and figured that it was more important to record the entire episode on their cell phones than to intervene, or at least, use the same damn phones to call for help. He died in a pool of his own blood, trying to run to a hospital in time to save his life, because no-one in the community cared enough to lift a finger. And this is all before we recount the numerous horror stories of women being sexually assaulted in the #MeToo movement, the innocent minorities being assassinated by the same American Police Officers who have sworn to serve and protect them, or by the numerous young people on the streets of Nigeria who have been brutalized, extorted, maimed and killed by barbaric members of the SARS police force.

So you know what I plan to tell my kids? I’m going to teach them to be passionate – and to have a Big, Fun-Loving, Kind HEART. It’s fun to be passionate about sports… I mean, there’s already so much evidence online showing just how CRAZY I get about my sports teams. I’ll tell them that it’s okay to be that way, and to be a faith-over-facts kind of sports fan. It’s fun, and life is too short to not have fun. But it seems like some of us are almost subconsciously waiting for our teams to mess up, just so they can hurl insults at them, tell them what a disgrace they are, and project all the anger and pain from our real lives on them; forgetting just how hard it is to break out of the dire circumstances that come with being an underprivileged Nigerian to make it into the National team. Do you know the work, the sweat, the tears, the sacrifices, the sheer determination it takes? Do you know how hard it is to even be able to make a living as an average Nigerian? I’ve got news for you. If you were blessed enough to watch the game on a flat screen TV in the comfort of your home, or at a bar somewhere… you’re not the average Nigerian. The average Nigerian lives on less than $2 a day. Some aren’t actually sure where their next meal will come from.

Some Nigerians, however, thought it was okay to go online to Ighalo’s social media to leave insult after insult, ridiculing him and other players, simply because he had a bad game. Which one of us has never had a bad day at work? Or made a series of regrettable mistakes? Luckily for us, we don’t have our bad days in front of millions of people who are actively rooting against us. And even afterwards, we get to learn from our mistakes quietly, in solitude, and resolve to do or be better. Whereas, Ighalo and co have to hear about it from thousands of comments, some of which represent the very worst of human behavior on the internet. I heard that when he turned off his comments on social media, some Nigerians went and found his WIFE to harass, threaten and bully her as well, as if she’s ever kicked a ball for the team. In what amounts to the greatest misplaced anger I’ve ever seen… we have let thieving politicians and businessmen who have made away with billions, running our economy into ruins go blame free; we have turned a blind eye to all the killings, beatings, oppression and injustice in our countries, and instead poured all our bitterness, criticism and venom out on footballers, their wives, and referees.

So I plan to teach my future kids that in sports, and in life, it’s incredibly important to try and give your absolute best in trying to win. Unfortunately, sometimes, your best will just not be good enough. But even on your worst day, it’s not the end of the world if you don’t get it right… as long as you give your all, and you do it with HEART. I plan to teach my kids, that in this increasingly dark world, it’s so much harder to be an optimist, but it’s so much more fun. It’s better to actively choose to care about others. It’s better to choose happiness over hurt, and it’s better to be kind than to kill with criticism, or violence. It’s better to build up than tear down, and hard as it might be, it’s better to be a beacon of light, and to look for a silver lining on the darkest of days than to spread more darkness.

I’ll tell them that on a bright Summer night in St Petersburg, our Super Eagles gave so much more heart than our Government, Country, or World has displayed in years. And that to me, will ALWAYS be something to be proud of. Because if there’s anything this world desperately needs more of, at this time in our history, it’s human beings with a little more heart.

TheBankStatements

PS: I’d already finished writing this, and was editing the final draft of it, when the news hit about the tanker explosion in Lagos that has consumed 54 other vehicles. Total deaths are as yet unconfirmed. Sigh. May the souls of the dearly departed rest in Peace. May God grant their families strength to bear this loss. May God help us each play our role in changing this earth of ours for the better. May we learn that heaven helps those who help themselves.

source https://www.newssplashy.com/2018/07/banky-w-heres-what-ill-tell-my-kids.html

#News

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newssplashy · 6 years

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Banky W in his own words justaposes his lessons from Super Eagles 1-2 loss to Argentina to the state of the world.

These days, I’ve found that my wife and I spend just as much time praying for our future children, as we do worrying about the kind of world we’d be bringing them into.

TheBankStatements

via NewsSplashy - Latest Nigerian News Online,World Newspaper

#IFTTT #NewsSplashy - Latest Nigerian News Online #World Newspaper

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