#like I recognize the Many faults of christianity

[ramshacklefey]

It's amazing to me just how good the Mormon church has been at hiding just how bad they really are from public view. Even the shit that gets spread around is the relatively harmless bullshit. They had a crazy prophet with magic glasses. They believe in god-mandated polygyny. They think everyone who is good enough will get their very own planet after the world ends. They wear magic underpants. Mormon men are all paladins.

Here's one of the ones you hear less often:

See, like many other Christian sects, the Mormons really do believe that the existence of Christ obviates the existence of Judaism. Judaism was just a placeholder until the "real" church could be established by Jesus.

And the Mormons in particular believe, dead ass, that the entire inheritance of Israel has been given to them, because the Jews failed to recognize the Messiah when he was on Earth. They really do. They have this whole system where people are given a "divine revelation" about which of the Tribes of Israel they're a member of (don't worry, they decided that most people belong to the two tribes that are willing to "adopt" people. Only the most specialest boys and girls are members of the original ten).

Let's sum up so far. The Mormons believe that they are the people of Israel, chosen and protected by God. If Jews want to get back in on that party, they can always repent and convert to Mormonism, the one true church to which God gave all the rights and blessings that were originally bestowed on Abraham's house.

But it doesn't stop there!

The Mormons also believe, in all seriousness, that all Indigenous peoples of the Americas are descended from a small group of Jewish people who left just before the fall of Jerusalem (~600 bc iirc). Their entire weird-ass extra bible is a chronicle of those people's history in [unspecific part of America]. At the very beginning of the book, two brothers in the original family turn away from god, so they and all their descendants are cursed with dark skin, so that the good Nephites (who remain "white and delightsome") will always be able to tell themselves apart from the wicked Lamanites.

So, you've got supposedly Jewish people running around the Americas. And the "good" ones are white, and the "bad" ones are brown. Then, ofc, Jesus comes to visit them (I guess supposedly that's part of what he was doing during his dirt nap? Or possibly after he left again, it's not clear), and they all convert to Christianity, which they think is clearly the natural evolution of Judaism. Well, at the end of the book, all of them become wicked, in a kind of weird pseudo-apocalyptic series of events. They are all cursed with dark skin, until such time as they repent for their ancestors sins and return to the gospel.

But of course, Mormons being the good and kind people they are, they want everyone to receive the blessings of God and be brought into the houses of Israel etc etc. And it isn't the fault of those poor little Indigenous children that their distant ancestors turned away from God and became wicked.

So what's the natural answer? Well, Mormons are real big on missionary work, as we all know. But apparently that wasn't enough in this case.

Because the Mormon church has been one of the big players in abducting as many Indigenous children as possible, in order to indoctrinate them into being good Mormons, so that they can turn white again and be blessed. My mother remembers hearing talks about this in the 70s and 80s. The church literally had a "Lamanite Adoption Program," where families in the church were encouraged to get as many Indigenous children as possible away from their families and not let them be reunited until they were fully assimilated and ready to go back and proselytize about how wonderful the church is.

The church leadership literally talked about how wonderful it was to see these children becoming whiter. Actually whiter. Like, saying that when they finally saw them with their families again, it was beautiful how much paler they were.

I'm pretty sure this program has been officially ended, but it doesn't take a genius to speculate about who might be behind the curtains on the movement in the western US to gut the ICWA....

So yeah. Next time someone tries to tell you that the Mormons are just harmless weirdos, please remember that they're an antisemitic cult that advocates for the forced assimilation of Indigenous children to help them escape the cursed brown skin of their ancestors.

#cw mormonism #mormons #exmo #and this is still barely scratching the surface of how fucked up that organization is

[rotzaprachim]

let’s talk genocide denial!!! I’ve been seeing a Lot of it and it’s very infuriating on all fronts, especially when we are facing situations with multiple genocides at play! For ref, I am not indigenous to turtle island, I am a Tagalog Jew! 1) people refusing to recognize the nakba and the state of Israel’s long-form treatment of Palestine as a form of genocide because “there are more of them now!!!” Genocide is not solely a matter of “numbers” of people alive but also the purposeful destruction of peoples and cultures, as has been enacted against Palestine. 2) this is a complex one but…. Importation of discourses of originalism and indigeneity to middle eastern and Eastern European cultural contexts where they don’t belong. While pretty straightforward on turtle island, the constant flow of people into and out of these regions has meant many groups of people have lived in the same places for hundreds or thousands of years. The claim of “certain” groups of people as being invaders or recent “imports” has been a central aspect of the justification of deportation and genocide across EE and SWANA regions. This includes Jews across Eastern Europe (middle eastern invaders!!!) Palestinians in Palestine (Arab or greek invaders!!!) Armenians everywhere (Christian invaders!!!!) Greeks in Turkey and Egypt, Bosnians in Bosnia-Herzegovina (Turkish invaders!!!) and so forth. Don’t adopt these discourses. 3) point blank labeling of antisemitism as something *fake* the Jews control. *antisemitism*

4) refusal to reckon with the extent of the Shoah and intergenerational traumas and realities of the Shoah (like other genocides.) a genocide affects not only the survivors but their descendants. I’m seeing a lot of people acting like Zionism is a particularly evil ideology the Jews cooked up and then brainwashed other Jews into believing and then everyone chose to move to Israel instead of continue living in their nice cosy Yiddish bund homeland, and that removes the goysiche agency from the story. The Shoah outright obliterated the Jewish homelands and cultural areas Jews had been living in across Europe, and any genuine antizionism or diasporism NEEDS TO LOOK that history right in the face rather than sweeping it under the rug. It NEEDS to reckon with why so many Jews came to believe that they could no longer live outside of their own state because the goyishe world told them with blood that they could no longer live outside of their own state. It also needs to deal with the fact mass numbers of Jews were pretty unceremoniously dumped from DP camps to the state of Israel after the war was over. Genocides affect the survivors for generations, including where they live. 4) refusal to recognize antisemitism in the Arab world or the contexts which forced middle eastern Jews from their homelands and into the state of Israel. Oh it must be /their fault./ see above, no effective antizionism without reckoning with these histories.

5) tankies. There’s just been a mass platforming of tankies recently and many of them engage in genocide apologism or outright denial, especially of the holodomor. Others whitewash the policies of forced cultural assimilation or land dislocation undertaken by the USSR as “necessary anti-conservative revolutionary action against reactionaries.” I don’t care what their *good stances* are, we should not platform outright genocide deniers even if they can *justify* mass killings by means of political ideologies. These ideas include the idea that any discussion of governmental violence or genocide by a non U.S.-aligned state is a western psyop invented by the U.S., and they include not only historic genocides (although as discussed, genocides are not solely “historic” in the sense they continue to affect survivors and their children for generations) but current and ongoing violence against Uighur, Kurdish, Ukrainian, and Tibetan people.

5) anti indigenous racism in turtle island. Also a complex one as I don’t want to engage in whataboutism, but a lotttt of the jokes about *just send the Israelis to New Jersey/New York/Florida* ignore the fact that New Jersey, New York, and Florida are also settler colonies and indigenous homelands. A lot of the discussion of IL by white settlers has revealed the extent that they do not view themselves as white settlers, nor do they really understand native peoples and First Nations continue to exist. “I’d let Native American Hamas kill me and it would be awesome!!!!” Well there is no Native American Hamas, but there might be a tribe in your area that needs money for new kindergarten chairs or support for landback, so you shouldn’t treat them as a vaguely existent hypothetical.

6) reimposition of the colonial notion of one land for one ethnic group with one language and only one language that can be applied to place names. Even if this is in a *decolonial* sense for one area it’s still very dangerous logic to play with, especially with the ethnic diversity of much of the world. The idea of inherent primacy of one ethnic group over another in the post colonial era has been at the root of many mass killings.

7) labeling a language as “evil” or “untrustworthy”

8) I shouldn’t have to tell you why the idea that “there are no civilians” is very bad in literally any case

#Tw genocide #Tw Shoah

[benevolentbirdgal]

just 18 FREE ways you can be an ally to the Jewish people

Something I’ve heard a lot of gentiles express as of late is that they’d like to be an ally to Jews, but they don’t know how. It’s not your fault for being born into a society with entrenched antisemitism and that many mainstream social justice spaces largely ignore, erase, and deprioritize Jews and antisemitism, nor is it your fault that resources on how to actually be an ally to the Jewish community are relatively sparse. 

That doesn’t mean, however, that there’s nothing to be done - here are a few ways you can get started on being an ally to Jews.

Usual disclaimers that I am only one Jew out of roughly fourteen million (and thus not claiming to represent all Jews everywhere) and that this list is not exhaustive. 

1. Care about Jews and antisemitism when it’s not about the Holocaust. Engage with the reality that other forms of antisemitism exist, and actually listen to us when we talk about antisemitism. Even if we say it comes from a person or entity you like or otherwise have sympathy for, or is in a form that you are not previously familiar with. [Note: in Judaism we believe that teshuvah is possible - someone saying or doing an antisemitism rarely means they’re irredeemable - just that they need to stop and make good and not do it again]. 

2. Don’t immediately ask, upon meeting someone Jewish or finding out they’re Jewish, their opinions on the Holocaust and Israel. 

3. Read about Jewish history, beliefs, and culture from Jewish sources. (Sefaria, myjewishlearning, jewfaq, books written by Jews). 

4. Don’t project your ideas about one religion (usually Christianity) onto all religions, including not doing this to Judaism. Judaism does not equal Christianity minus Jesus, we don’t believe in original sin, blind obedience to Gd is not our thing, the views of [particular brands] of Christianity do not represent Jewish ideas about LGBTQ rights or women, we don’t evangelize, etc. 

5. Learn about antisemitism from your own country’s and culture’s history. Don’t assume it’s not there - it takes 30 seconds to google “the history of the Jews in x” or “y [religion/culture/subculture] and antisemitism.” Recognize a Jewish person calling out antisemitism from a country or culture is NOT an indictment of that whole community, but an ask to address a harmful aspect within it. 

6. Learn about the Jewish calendar, back up Jewish classmates or coworkers if they need time off for the holidays. Stop calling the Gregorian calendar the “secular calendar.” 

7. If you are a creator, include Jewish characters in your works (and get Jewish sensitivity readers). 

8. Don’t police the language of Jews when we talk about our community. Goyim is NOT a slur (literally means “nations”), Jews is an appropriate ethnic demonym (you can use Jewish community if you prefer, but DO NOT police Jews who say “Jew”), the word antisemitism was literally created to describe the hatred of Jews, etc. 

9. Learn about kosher, how it works, and common heckshers [kosher marks for processed foods]. 

10.  Learn about antisemitic stereotypes and canards. Call people out when they perpetuate antisemitism. 

11. Don’t appropriate Jewish practices. If you want to go to a seder, find an invite to a seder. Ask a local synagogue (or if you’re a student, a campus organization) if you can go to theirs if you don’t have a friend who will invite you. Hop on zoom to a live stream. Don’t just declare Jewish practices your own to do with as you please.

12. Include Jews in your activism and antisemitism in the lists of hatreds you disavow. I mean this in the bigger picture too, but also literally when it comes to lists on posts and bios of safe spaces for x groups and y forms of hatred are not tolerated. 

13. Learn about the Shoah/Holocaust from Jewish sources, preferably those curated by survivors and their families. If seeing/hearing a survivor in person isn’t an option (as time passes, this is increasingly the case), watching videos of and read books written by survivors. 

14. Divorce the assumption that everyone knows about the holocaust and extent of its horrors. Holocaust education is not mandatory in most states or countries and frequently downplays how much it was about Jews specifically. Holocaust denial, minimalization, and insentience that it wasn’t really about the Jews runs rampant. Call out lies about the Holocaust when you hear them.  

15.  Be mindful when making comparisons to the Shoah [holocaust]. Is the thing you are comparing legitimately comparable to the physical, cultural, linguistic, and spiritual genocide of millions of people? I posit (and some Jews disagree) that there are things that absolutely are, but the vast majority of comparisons are clumsy at best, actively antisemitic at worst, and most often simply inaccurate and insensitive.

16.  Accept that Jews have generational trauma and the Holocaust was not a one-off.

17. Acknowledge and understand the prevalence of antisemitism today. When you hear statistics and stories about antisemitism, don’t assume they’re being exaggerated, immediately pivot to making it about all hate in general (or all anti-religious-bias hate in general), or assert that other forms of anti-religious hate are a bigger concern. Don’t speak over Jews and claim that oh-this-other-thing-is-the-real-problem when we cite that anti-Jewish hate crimes have been more than half of anti-religion-bias hate crimes in the U.S. since at least 1996 and that antisemitism continues to rise globally.

18. Remember that the Jewish community is diverse both demographically and philosophically diverse - Jews and Jewish communities are not a monolith. 

#jumblr #jewish allyship #jewblr #allyship #shoah #holocaust #tw shoah #tw holocaust #tw antisemitism #antisemitism

[shadowkoo]

Every Child Matters

I try to share a similar post each year with the purpose of educating those who may not know about Canadian & American indigenous peoples and the struggles we have gone through generationally. But honestly, this year I am pissed off so my tone in some areas may read as such. I will not apologize for that.

I am angry that so many people don't know (not your fault, it's the media's fault and their lack of coverage up until recent years). I am angry at both countries' leaders for doing the bare minimum for many years. And I am angry that so much of my ancestor's history was removed and altered from the truth for centuries.

However, I am glad that with each passing year, more people are learning, and I truly appreciate those who care enough to show their support.

With that said, please mark your calendars and wear orange on September 30th! This is your official reminder! Please continue reading and consider sharing this post so more people are aware 🧡

September 30th is known as Orange Shirt Day, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, across Canada and North America in remembrance of those who suffered in US/Canadian Indian Residential Schools. We recognize the harm done to generations of children by the Indian Residential Schools and share our collective histories as an affirmation of our commitment to ensure that Every Child Matters! 

Remembering the 150,000+ Indigenous children who endured physical, mental, and sexual abuse at these residential schools; trauma that continues to be felt to this very day by survivors and their families.

Children were stolen around this time of year to attend these ‘schools’. Parents who fought to keep their kids would often be arrested and/or beaten, it was nearly impossible for them to keep their children once the police and school officials showed up to take them. And even once the school season was over, they were not returned to their families.

We knew many children had likely suffered and died from the abuse, but could have never guessed the atrocious number of remains that we are now finding.

As of May 2022, The remains of over 6,000 children have been recovered from unmarked graves at the locations of these former residential schools within Canada, and 500 have been discovered at 19 schools in the US. However, the Interior Department said that number could climb to the thousands or even tens of thousands.

For reference to help you digest how large the numbers will become when all schools have been properly investigated, there were approximately 139 schools in Canada and so far only (as of May 2022) 36 investigations have been completed in Canada. The US has identified more than 400 schools that were highly supported by the U.S. government during their operations, and more than 50 associated burial sites, a figure that could grow exponentially as research continues.

This wasn’t as long ago as you might think. The last residential school in Canada closed in 1998, only twenty-five years ago. As of 2020, 7 off-reservation boarding schools continue to be federally funded.

“Kill the Indian, Save the man” was a common phrase in these schools. Being Indians was savage, but we were ‘savable’ in the eyes of their Christian / Catholic God if we were stripped of the things that made us indigenous.

I am lucky enough to know survivors. I am alive because of survivors.

Survivors taught us younger generations about the horrors they dealt with in residential schools. Beaten, tortured, murdered. Watching other children die from diseases grown in their unclean living situations. ‘Forgetting’ what tribe a child is from and giving them to another reservation to care for until the following year when they’d be taken away again. Raped girls who survived traumatic births at a young age only for their babies to be thrown in the furnace. Sterilizing boys and girls so that if they were released they couldn’t create any more ‘indians’.

These children were ripped from their homes, watched their parents die if they fought to keep their children, were forced to cut their hair (our hair is as sacred as our traditional clothing), and beaten if caught speaking in their native languages. As a 'reward' for good behavior in school, certain children were sent away to live with white families as slaves to 'learn the white way' during long breaks between school periods. 

Keep the families of those who lost loved ones who never returned and the survivors who lived through unimaginable trauma in your hearts. On September 30th wear orange. Join a protest. Support indigenous peoples every day, but especially on September 30th (National Day for Truth and Reconciliation), June 21st (Canadian National Indigenous Peoples Day), and October 8th (American Indigenous Peoples Day). Share our stories. Educate yourself on our history, not the false history written in books by white men, churches, and governments that supported and endorsed these institutions.

Because Every Child Matters.

Resources where you can learn more:

Orange Shirt Society

CBC News - scroll to find the map

NPR

CBS News

CNN News

The Indigenous Foundation

#every child matters #🧡🧡🧡 #orange shirt day #september 30th #national day for truth and reconciliation #support indigenous peoples #support first nations #support native americans #bring them home #protect native rights #protect native land #important #boost #native americans #indigenous

[marvelstars]

Padmé, Luke and Anakin: compassion as unlimited love

Disclaimer: this is an answer that got too long for @husborth great points about the fandom mistreatment towards Padmé and her role in Star wars and wanted to add my two cents. You can read Husborth´s great take here:

You made many good points about Padmé character mistreatment by the fandom, I just personally disagree that this perjuice agaisnt women is a Christian/Catholic cultural staple, the belief that women are weak is part of many cultures unfortunately but in the old and new testament from the Bible is common to see figures of women taking leadership roles that lead towards the salvation of their people not by being violent or men like but by being wiser, patient, understanding and brave stories like Ruth or Esther show this. Lucas got inspired by some of these stories to develop Padmé and Leia and it´s also why he wanted to add a daughter for Anakin and the reason why Luke originally was going to be a woman.

But getting back to Padmé, this is why I personally get mad at Obi-Wan for using Padmé´s worry for Anakin to get in her ship without her knowledge so she would lead him to Vader and the fact he didn´t do anything to try to convince Anakin that Padmé didn´t know he was there and he didn´t particulary care to use her or thought about her well being given he knew Anakin was completely out of control.

I don´t think the fandom talks enough about this fact. Obi-Wan USED Padmé to get to Mustafar so he would be able to kill Anakin by an order from Yoda. This is pretty clear in ROTS and it´s also why while they had a pretty cute friendship and familiar relationship, I don´t see Obi-Wan as a character who understood what happened with Anakin and also don´t see post destruction of the Jedi temple, for very understanding reasons why he would have compassion for Anakin, this is also why the Obi-Wan series kind of get away from canon imo, Obi-Wan wasn´t raised that way and his plan of using Luke to kill Vader and the Emperor in the original trilogy by raising up Luke´s idea of his father while Vader was his killer when he knew they were the same person supports this imo.

But I disgress the fact is that out of most characters in Star Wars, Padmé is the one character who recognized a psycotic break when she saw one. It isn´t Padmé´s fault the only way Obi-Wan saw to stop Anakin was to cut him into pieces and let him dying burning alive.

I agree with you in that the narrative ultimately gives Padmé the reason and that compassion would have gone a longer way and ultimately saved the galaxy, that Luke´s story reflects this, that punishment only served to add fire to the darkside and even killing Anakin would have zero effect on Palpatine´s Empire and given Anakin was the one who ultimately killed the Emperor when Yoda was defeated, then Anakin´s death would only mean a longer time for the Empire if not the 10,OOO years Palpatine planned for the Sith Empire but Obi-Wan didn´t know the details of Anakin´s fall, he didn´t know about his nightmares or how much Palpatine grooming got into Anakin´s mind and how to treat a person in the middle of losing his mind and given his formation, killing was what he was teached to do with a Sith.

So Obi-Wan saw a Sith who just destroyed his family, Padmé saw Anakin, the sweet slave kid who risked his life to help a Queen and her planet, the joking husband who loved her with his life, who was happy to leave everything behind, his work, his role as Jedi Knight to help her raise their kid on Naboo, she saw Anakin completely out of his senses, paranoid, hurting and alone and decided what was needed was her giving him some breathing room so he would get back to his own senses, Padmé here knows about the darkside but isn´t sure how this affects a person this was why she backed away from Anakin when he started talking about taking over the Empire and become Emperors because this wasn´t her husband talking anymore and still she tried to convince him to get away from it all in an intent to help him get back to himself.

At this point Padmé knows he´s not been sleeping or eating, that he had nightmares of her dying which awoke what happened with his mother, that Palpatine has become a tyrant who has keep a close realtionship with Anakin since he was a little kid and that Palpatine used her and the crisis on Naboo to become Chancellor, it isn´t hard for Padmé to put two and two together to understand Anakin´s mental unstability has a lot to do with Palpatine and that this happening just after Palpatine became Emperor isn´t a coincidence.

I personally liked a part of the alternative story in which Padmé tried to kill Anakin using a dagger because this is also in character for Padmé, at least her amidala persona would have thought about this in a pragmatic way but I also believe she ultimately would have taken the path of compassion,in a way also reflecting back towards Luke own decision.

This is also why Vader keep beating himself over Padmé and their child death for years, because he knew he could have used this oportunity to be with Padmé and raise their kid but this guilt also pushed him deeper into the darkside for many years while also keeping him connected to the light side which Palpatine noticed, instead of feeling satisfaction for power Vader just fell into a state of constant mourning for Padmé, their kid, the younglings and everything he did that day while trying to make it count for something working on the Empire because he knew there was no fixing what he did and that he was completely consumed by the dakrside.

Now this is also why I give Luke so many points for getting to her mothers conclusion with not much or at all information Padmé and Obi-Wan had about Anakin. He just goes out of his way to save Vader because he doesn´t want to become a patricide but also because he felt this yearning from Vader for a Son which reflected his own yearning for a father. Luke is showing compassion that reflects his mothers but his reasons for going ahead with it had a lot to do with how he was raised, family is important on Tatooine, he grew up with her grandmothers family, he knew how the darkside worked because he also felt that strong temptation himself and also almost fell in the throne room, which also served him to understand how easy it´s to fall under such pressure and that his father had a similar pressure and he knew Vader had tried to protect him in his own twisted way which meant Luke was Vader´s weakness and he´s Vader´s weakness because he loves him.

I agree with Husborth Padmé and Luke correlation in their compassion towards Vader should be talked more as well in the fandom imo all these nuances are what make of star wars such a good story and it´s a shame we often forget in the fandom to talk about it in a nuanced way.

#padmé amidala #anakin skywalker #luke skywalker #obi-wan kenobi #yoda #jedi order #Empire #Palpatine #compassion is unlimited love #The role of women in star wars #anti-women prejuice #anidala

[creature-wizard]

I figure the next Satanic Panic literature I'll look at will be Wicca: Satan's Little White Lie. It was written by William "Bill" Schnoebelen, a guy who claimed to have been involved not only in Wicca, but also Freemasonry and Mormonism, and discovered that each one of them was Satanic. The dude claims he was involved with the Illuminati, which was of course Satanic.

Now of course, if you're active in witchcraft and neopagan discourse, you'll know that Wicca has been subjected to lot of criticism - particularly regarding its members being culturally appropriative and overstepping boundaries by claiming that all gods and goddesses are aspects of Wicca's Lord and Lady. But I think you'd also agree that it's not Satanic, and that claiming that it's part of a giant Satanic conspiracy is just... silly.

The book was published by Chick Publications, as in Jack Chick, as in Chick tracts. Jack Chick, for the unaware, spent his life creating small comics meant to lead others to Jesus. They were full of conspiracy theories and general hatred toward anyone who wasn't an Evangelical. Though it seems that as of late, Chick Publications (no longer run by Jack Chick, who is deceased) has cut ties with him, because Schnoebelen has been getting into flat earth and defending Christian use of Kabbalah.

So. Yeah.

On the first page, Schnoebelen describes Wicca as "one of the more seductive deceptions that Satan has come up with." Now Bill, I know Gerald Gardner was... not great, but I don't think he was Satan.

He claims:

It claims to be a “back to nature” religion which worships the sky and earth, and thus has attracted many adherents among those sympathetic to environmental and ecology issues. Yet, for all its charm and nostalgic fantasy, Wicca drew me into the deepest quagmire of satanic evil imaginable.

Dude... if you decided to jump ship from Wicca to Satanism (or at least, Satanism According To Evangelical Conspiracy Theorists), that's on you. If you were so greedy for power that you went as far as you claim, that's your fault.

Um. What:

The actual spiritual difference between Wicca and satanism might best be illustrated this way: Practicing Wicca is like having a hand-grenade blow up in your face, in terms of the spiritual impact. Practicing satanism is like having an neutron bomb detonate in your face. The difference is there and discernable, but it is still an utter disaster for you, either way.

Schnoebelen points out that Wicca was created in the mid-20th century, which I mean, fair enough. But then he tries to assert that Wicca Is Bad because Etymology and also the Dictionary and also there's arguments over what a witch is among neopagans, and like. It's just absurd because it's not like Christianity is free of questionable historical claims or infighting.

And then he claims:

In my own personal development as a witch, and the development of almost all our colleagues, I found that after about five or six years it was necessary to begin pursuing the study of the “Higher Wisdom” of Satan in order to keep growing. Magick is like a drug. You keep needing more in order to stay at a level at which you feel fulfilled. There is no end to it! If you’ve stayed a Wiccan or “white” witch for a long time, it’s only because you don’t have enough of the Promethean itch to grow. OR it may be that you have many Christian friends or loved ones praying for you.

Did you ever think of that?

Bill. My dude. The problem is that you are a power-hungry fuck, who apparently lacks any ability to recognize when a spiritual claim or worldview is just kinda ridiculous or fucked up, and drop it like the crap it is. I'm guessing that's why you're getting into Flat Earth these days. You just don't know where to quit, and you're projecting this onto everybody else.

#satanic panic #bill schnoebelen #william schnoebelen #wicca satan's little white lie

[anonymoushouseplantfan]

"He said on Colbert that the evil British press spun his words"

How could they spin his words when they printed his comments verbatim? This is the English language version via Yahoo (aka Omid):

archive . fo/x9Q9V

Most soldiers can't tell you precisely how much death is on their ledger. In battle conditions, there's often a great deal of indiscriminate firing. But in the age of Apaches and laptops, everything I did in the course of two combat tours was recorded, time-stamped. I could always say precisely how many enemy combatants I'd killed. And I felt it vital never to shy away from that number. Among the many things I learned in the Army, accountability was near the top of the list.

So, my number: Twenty-five. It wasn't a number that gave me any satisfaction. But neither was it a number that made me feel ashamed. Naturallv, I'd have preferred not to have that number on my military CV, on my mind, but by the same token I'd have preferred to live in a world in which there was no Taliban, a world without war. Even for an occasional practitioner of magical thinking like me, however, some realities just can't be changed.

While in the heat and fog of combat, I didn't think of those twenty-five as people. You can't kill people if you think of them as people. You can't really harm people if you think of them as people. They were chess pieces removed from the board, Bads taken away before they could kill Goods. I'd been trained to "other-ize" them, trained well. On some level I recognized this learned detachment as problematic. But I also saw it as an unavoidable part of soldiering.

And this is also from the English language version of Harry's book, not translated from the Spanish, here used in a tweet from Ghanem Nuseibeh, the Chair of Muslims Against Anti Semitism in the UK:

This is a terrible line from Harry’s book. It can be used to incite against the army particularly amongst Muslim communities. Extremists will use it. “We’d been given a meta narrative, which we now recalled: We were a Christian army, fighting a militia sympathetic to Muslims.”

twitter . com/gnuseibeh/status/1612892823166062612?s=20&t=X1Ac6C5WEDSPyQRWv2nsRg

It’s never his fault! It’s always someone else’s fault!!

[khaire-traveler]

please go off about the Zeus hate in the wider community some time because I would love to have this conversation

Oh gods, I'm not sure if you know what you're asking for lol. I could go on for a long time about it, for a variety of reasons.

(I can't add a cut because this is so far down in my drafts that I don't think I'll be able to find it again, even if I tried, so for those uninterested, I just recommend scrolling past this. I'm sorry. 💀)

***TW: MENTIONS OF SA, R*PE, AB*SE, AND OTHER SENSITIVE TOPICS***

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Where to even begin? There are so many faults and flaws within the argument that Zeus is just generally a "bad person". That's the argument I see most often, anyway.

I guess to start, I'll just get right into the controversial stuff: Zeus and sexual assault/rape. I'll start with me personal experience, as an assault and sexual abuse survivor. I can guarantee you that if I felt Zeus was a r*pist or an assaulter, I would not be worshipping him, personally. It would make me wildly uncomfortable, and I feel like it would seriously taint my view of him. So, when people claim that Zeus is a r*pist, or otherwise, I think it's important to acknowledge that you are talking about mythology. Just as the Christian Bible has been heavily influenced by the opinions and thoughts of its writers, Greek mythology works similarly. The surviving stories that was have were written by people who lived in a VERY different society than our modern one. Not only is mythos not meant to be taken literally (unlike Christianity, which is very mythos literal, most of the time), but Greek myths were often very metaphorical or served the main purpose of explaining an natural phenomena. It was also heavily influenced by the culture, at the time, so to understand why so many Greek myths discuss sexual assault, r*pe, and the like, you really need to take a hardcore look at the culture behind the myths. In not doing so, you make yourself look like an uneducated fool, honestly.

And I don't know how many times this had to be fucking said, but the gods are not their myths. Instead of making all these assumptions about them, maybe just, I don't know, talk to them yourself? Maybe do your own research into the behind the scenes of the stories they were featured in? Maybe stop taking mythos so damn literally? Like, even at the time, there has been some talk of historians believing that the ancient Greeks themselves didn't take mythos literally and interpreted the stories more as lessons to be learned. It's kind of obvious that many of these very impossible stories are most likely not what literally happened and are more metaphorical or sometimes even entertaining. The idea of mythic literalism feels like something that is very Christian - although I could be wrong, so do not take my opinion at face value - and frankly, Hellenic religion is not Christianity, it came before Christianity. Taking these myths of Zeus and interpreting them so literally does nothing but harm you as a worshipper and hinder your growth as a Polytheist, in my opinion. Plus, it makes you look bad. Why shit on an entire pantheon of gods? It's just dumb and disrespectful, even outside of mythic literalism stuff.

Another thing: cancel culture is heavily influencing this Zeus debate, in my opinion. People feel the need to "cancel" thousand year old deities who stem from cultures that were vastly different from ours - like, do they not realize how they sound? First of all, that shit was from thousands of years ago; do you not think that the gods have changed since then? Do you not think that they adapt to human culture as it grows and changes? Like, what? Second of all, cancelling gods from a literal ancient civilization is just plain ridiculous and very ahistorical, in my opinion. For real, I cannot stress enough that ancient Greece has a vastly different culture from our own. Shit was genuinely VERY different back then, and topics we now recognize as fucked up we're not recognized as such, back then. And there is nothing you, or anyone else can do, to go back in time and magically change the ancient Greek culture as a whole, so what's even the point of "calling out" this supposed behavior of Zeus? What's the point if he is very different now and interacts very differently with humans? What's the point if you are pulling your "evidence" from stories meant to be largely fictional? Like??? What exactly do you hope to accomplish by shitting on the King of the Gods in modern times with a very different cultural viewpoint? Tell me what you're hoping to achieve. Tell me why you're projecting all of this hatred towards Zeus, a literal fucking GOD, about fictional stories. Go ahead, I'm curious.

Along with all that, it's SO important to consider how Zeus was viewed in ancient times. It's not as though people saw him as a playboy and were like, "Ew, don't worship that god, he's doing all these bad things, blah blah blah." No, Zeus was actually HIGHLY respected. He was considered the King of the Gods, King of Olympus. He was worshipped for SO many different aspects of his and was extremely popular. He represented all kings, in a way, and was on top of everyone, in regards to hierarchical status. He was literally even considered to be the most powerful of all the gods, even instilling fear into the other gods with how strong he was! Like, Zeus wasn't someone to fuck around with or to criticize. I cannot emphasize enough how wildly disrespectful it is to call him shit like a r*pist (again, based on fucking fictional stories, y'all) - this literal King of Kings and God of All. He is ZEUS. He's not some celebrity that got into a scandal and deserves to be called out for their shitty actions. He is fucking ZEUS, people.

Honestly, my anger is very muted, on this topic. I have a lot of just "I'm so done with this debate" energy. Like, personally, I don't know how Zeus can be so patient with these people, especially after such a long time of them bashing him publicly for no good reason, treating him as though he's some celebrity or something that needs to learn his lesson. Human morality cannot be applied to non-human gods. It just can't. That's simply not how it works. They are not human, and I feel like it's very easy for people to forget that, especially when it comes to debates like these. Zeus - not a human, Apollo - not a human, Hermes - not a human. They are gods. Literal gods. Maybe instead of shitting on gods due to their mythical stories people should be focusing on the humans in today's world that are chasing actual harm - current harm, even. Because frankly, there are more important things to focus on.

I literally love Zeus. He is a fantastic god who literally helped me escape from a wildly abusive person. He is the reason I got out of that situation unharmed spiritually. Zeus is not some cruel god who doesn't give a shit about how other people feel. He is a kind, considerate, and thoughtful leader who holds much wisdom and knowledge from his thousands upon thousands of years reigning as King of the Gods and Olympus. He is not indifferent or disrespectful. He is not cocky or rude. And even with the flaws he may have (since everyone makes mistakes), he is still a god who deserves worship, praise, and acknowledgement for his great deeds. There is SO much Zeus does for humanity, outside of just lightning bolts and weather, and I'm just so exhausted from people who refuse to acknowledge that. Zeus is a damn blessing. He is a fucking King. He deserves respect.

That's all I've got to say for now. I'm not much of an angry person, so it takes a lot of energy for me to be mad about something. Thank you for letting me rant. May Zeus be with you, if you so wish. 💜⚡

#asks #answered asks #zeus haters dni

[starcastlesinthesky]

Libraries are for EVERYONE

One of my favorite quotes of all time is from librarian Jo Godwin:

"A truly great library contains something in it to offend everyone.”

Insane that someone would just go ahead and keep on with the fake narrative that libraries are only bastions of liberal ideas only. I beg people to come here and look at our library, and the books that we have. There are so many that I roll my eyes at. But hey, that means that those books are not for me.

I had a woman who called the library today when I was working the phones. She was immediately irate about the fact that she had to wait since December to read a book on Libby. She started reading it last month, but only got 43% of the way through it in 21 days. (That's definitely not a fault at all.) She has to turn it in tomorrow because there is someone on hold for it, and she is incensed that she has to wait to finish reading it again.

I explained to her how the holds process worked, especially regarding rechecking a book, and how it has to go to the next person in line. I let her know that she can get back on the hold list again, so that when the next person is done, she can get it back.

This woman, who I've never spoken to before nor did I recognize her name as a regular patron, proceeded to yell at me that "this library has such a liberal bias, because there's only one copy for this book, but 14 copies of Michelle Obama's book!" and "They knew this book was going to be popular, so they should have asked for as many as they got of Michelle Obama's book!"

The book she was reading is The Great Disappearance: 31 Ways to be Rapture Ready by David Jeremiah. She was comparing this book to The Light We Carry by Michelle Obama.

I kind of let her rant for a little bit, but as I tried to suggest things to her, she raised her voice at me, yet again. If you know me, that's one of the worst things you can do. I used to cower, but I've learned how to deal with people like that.

I told her the following when she finally took a breath:

"I am sorry for how frustrating this is for you. I would like to offer you what assistance I can, but I will only do that if you can calm down. If you are still this upset, I will disconnect the call."

I reiterate her about going back on hold for the book, how long at most she can expect to wait for it, then suggested to come to one of our library Board meetings. They are open to the public, and she can sign up to make a public comment to the Board.

The call ended with her crying because she was so frustrated that there "weren't as many religious books as there are liberal books" and "it's such a liberal agenda." I again apologized for her frustration, and directed her to attend a Board meeting, followed up with:

"If you have felt this way for a long time, it's best to actually say something rather than not saying anything at all."

She stated that nothing will change, but that I was right. I told her it helps to have others that feel the same way involved in a Board meeting. That's the best way for them to be heard.

*Now, time for my personal thoughts on the incident*

You cannot seriously tell me that you think that a pastor, who goes by Dr. but has only an honorary doctorate, is going to sell more books than a former First Lady. According to her, we should have as many books by this man as the former First Lady.

Also, if it was that important to her that she read it, why not buy it? Looks like a book that, as a good Christian, you would want to have. Then again, evangelical Christians are something else. A lot that I have met have been lovely, but more than that have been stupendously judgmental and racist. Some of them have learned, and many have not.

But I'll tell you this:

It's so important, as a public library, to have things for EVERYONE. And we really do. But if it's a matter of how many much media we have available for a certain item, that's determined by how much the author is checked out. If not many people are checking out this author's books, it's obvious that we're not going to order as many copies that we did a book by Michelle Obama. I guarantee the numbers are very different. It has absolutely NOTHING to do with subject, and all to do with popularity. If the community isn't interested, we won't have it.

#public libraries #public library #fake book embargo

[sassybitch4tea]

God I'm so disappointed about Taylor Swift, Margot Robbie and Anya Taylor-joy for working with David O. Russell in the new movie Amsterdam

I feel awful I'm masive swiftie but i can't stan for Taylor in this one, i didn't put much attention in the details of the movie she was going to do when it was announced cause i was really excited to watch her on cinema but now that i've seen the trailer and David's name on it, i just couldn't help but felt complete upset with her like come on you wrote The man and you've been one hell of a witness of misogyny and abuse in this industry, you've had fight and make activism for things to get better for all the abuse victims and then you throw it all to the window. I - i just can't even express my disappointment.

And what about Margot, she produced Promising young woman a movie condemning the complicity of which we are part when we relate to abusers, to do exactly the same thing. Nice :/

I'm just really upset with all the people who is involved with this man cause some of them know and are aware of this asshole weird behavior like Christian Bale who fought him for mistreating Amy Adams and yet here we are.

For the people who doesn't know O. Russell sexually abused his trans niece when she was 19, which was confirmed by Russell himself to have happened and also for years committed labor abuse with many actors.

For all the swifties and this movie "Amsterdam" actors fans please don't go to watch it, let's stop the support for this abusers in Hollywood. It seems like the only way Hollywood do the right thing is when they don't get the pay check they expected. So if you so badly wants to see you're favorite actor/actress watch it online or something but don't give one penny to this hell of a monster and also let's reflect about all this fake wokeness celebs hand us and be a little bit more self aware and use common sense without waiting for them to "make us see it", they're just trying to be relatable.

Btw I'm not saying the fault is the actress or actors for the abuse because its all the David's but it's disappointing to see he got the support of such masive celebs to go on with another project when he should be in jail and also we see the hypocrisy in the industry like you make activism all until money gets in between and then well they said maybe it wasn't that bad

I love Taylor with all my life, but when our favorite artists screw it, we have to recognize it and not act as if nothing had happened just because they are our idols and blind ourselves by the admiration we have for them. Recognizing they made something wrong doesn't make you less of a fan, it just make you a critical thinking person

#taylor swift #hollywood #anya taylor joy #anya taylor-joy #margot robbie #christian bale #david o russell #amsterdam #amy adams #zoe saldana #woke activism #feminism #abusers

[lizzypotter14]

The Places in Which You Find Love

Conversations that you have with your friends, especially those at night, can provide you with so many ideas for a fic.  This is one of them.  Thank you @swimmingismywholelife for the inspiration, and to @chelseagirl98 for let me bounce my ideas,  Puligirls this one if for you.

warning: fluff

It is great to be back home, and do ordinary things without being mobbed, asked for autographs, or slipping a piece of paper with ‘call me’  and a phone number on it, in your hands or car.  I love the fans but sometimes I just need to decompress after a game, especially a tough one.

Tonight, is just  another gorgeous summer night in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Most of the  day,  I had been hanging out with friends, catching up with our lives, and making plans for my time after nations league camp and games.  The only discomfort of the night was the constant questions of ‘what’s next’ or ‘do you know what your next move will be’ coming from people that suddenly remember me from high school, but never really gave me the time of the day back then.  My real friends, the ones that had been with me from the start, know how uncomfortable that made me and were not surprised when I excused myself and took my leave from them.

Leaving the get together to head home, I made an impulsive decision, and took a quick stop to the McDonald’s drive thru.  The one closest to home has just been recently remodeled and now has two drive-through lanes. As it was Friday night, and one of the few places open after eleven pm, both lanes were quite busy.  I found myself in the right lane ,placing a simple order of large fries and a Coke, which I think I can indulge on before getting back to a strict diet and watching what I am eating. As I started moving forward, the car on my left side moved, cutting me off completely.  The funny thing about the entire situation was that I got cut and still got the horn blared at me.  Shaking  my head, I can just stare at the car approaching the pay window, a slender set of fingers passing a credit card to the attendant and heading afterwards to the next window to receive their meal.

To make matters even more crazy, not only I was cut off by the mysterious driver, but also my order went to them.  The teenager at the window recognized me when I pulled in and, after asking me for an autograph, politely requested me to park in one of the number spots, so they could trade my order with the previous car.

“Don’t worry about it.  I see that they have parked too so I just going to exchange things myself”

“Are you sure, Mr. Pulisic?  It is not a problem for us to do it”.

“No worries.  Don’t want to cause any hold ups during a busy night.  Thanks”.

As I parked next to the other vehicle, I exited the car while the other driver did the same.  A heavy but sweet accent follows the female figure approaching me.

“I apologized as I seemed to have taken your order.  Also, I cut you off and I know it was my fault but I’m just starving and got off from work and…”

“Whoa! Slow down.  You seemed stressed”.

“I…” and that was when she finally lifted her face to properly look at me.  I can see the moment that she realizes who she has been talking to.

“You are Christian Pulisic”.

“Yes, I am.  But we seem to be at a disadvantage.  You know my name, but I don’t know yours”.

Extending her hand towards me, she just said “hi, I am y/n y/l.  Nice to meet you.  And again, so sorry for taking your order, and cutting you off”.

Chuckling, I just stared at her.  She was easy to look at.  Medium length brown hair, caramel eyes, and a ready and shy smile.  This situation was refreshing to be completely honest.

“Nice to meet you too, and please stop apologizing and don’t worry about it”.

“Here’s your order.  I think I stole some fries before realizing that the order wasn’t mine”.

“And here is yours.  If you don’t mind me asking, would you like to go somewhere nearby and eat our food together?” I really don’t know where this bravado to ask came from, but it was out before I had the time to process it.

She just stared at me for a long time, and when I was giving up about receiving an answer, and ready to take it all back, she simply said “lead the way”, and turned around to get back in her car.

I don’t know what is going on with me, as this is as far from character as I am, but I got into my car, and after making sure that she was following me drove towards a park close by.  I waited for her to park next to me before leaving my car and heading to a picnic table.

“Do you do things like this with every girl that you just meet?”

“No.  If I’m honest, this is my first time”.

“Do you expect me to believe you?”

Getting extremely closer to her, I whispered “I do”.

I can feel her staring straight into my soul looking for an answer.  I guessed I passed when she finally sat down, opened her bag, and said, “you sound and look sincere enough”.

“Glad you approved” I said, finally sitting opposite her.

At first, we ate quietly, and slowly we started talking. It was refreshing and unique.  I opened more to this stranger than I had done with my family and friends, and I had the feeling that she felt the same way.  I learned that she was in her last year of college and that this summer she was working, remote, with a sports agency, and when we bumped into each other, she had just come back home from a trip to see a prospect at a Triple A team nearby.

We lost track of time, and before we knew it,  I checked my phone just to see that it was 3:30 am. I couldn’t believe how much we covered in the short amount of time; I feel like I have known her my entire life and we were just catching up.  Do not want the night, or morning, to be over.

“Christian…”

“Just Chris”.

“Chris, we should leave, not that I want to do it. This is the best time I had in a very long time, but I bet this was not in your radar, and you have things to do later”, she said picking our trash and dropping everything in the trash can. 

 “You are right, but can I asked you something before we go?”

“Sure”.

“I would love to have your number and continue hanging out with you and exploring this”.

“I-I will love that too”.

We exchanged numbers and agreed to meet later in the day.

The next couple of weeks passed too quickly for my licking and before I knew it, it was time to head for camp.  Normally, I enjoyed this time, as I get to hangout with some of my favorite people but for some reason, this time felt different.

I found myself hanging out with y/n, the day before leaving and she looks so sad.

“Are you okay? You seemed upset”.

“Not upset.  Sad is the right word.  I had spent so much time with you and your friends, that I find myself dreading the next couple of weeks when you will be away”.

“I feel the same.  I know this is early but, would you… can we…

”Spelled it out, Chris”.

“Would you like to take this, us, a little more seriously?”

“Like…”

“You are going to make me say it”.

“Yes”.

“Cruel but here it goes.  I know this is way too early, and maybe cliché, but I do  not want us to stop seeing each other or stop talking. We can take it as slow as we want, but I would love to give this, us a try”

“Are you sure?’

“Never surer of anything in my life.  Would you go, with me, in this adventure?”

Approaching me slowly, she put her arms on my neck and pulling me closer, she kissed me slowly and deeply.  Can’t believe that an unexpected detour brought into my life one of the best things so far.

@swimmingismywholelife @chelseagirl98 @lovelynikol16 @thoseboysinblue @bracedes @mortirolo @neverinadream @notsoattractivearenti @pulisicsgirl @masonsrem @masonspulisic

#christian pulisic fic rec christian imagines

[tumbleweedtech]

Forgiveness

There's something that's been bothering me, for a long while. Well over a year. I'll put it under a cut because it's quite long.

It's in the way people apologize, and what they expect to come from it. If you harm someone, either deliberately or by accident, you owe them an apology. I'm aware that within courts of law this has consequences. I'm not talking about that level of harm or responsibility. The social contract is, when you harm someone you apologize, and attempt to right the wrong done. I was raised in a heavily catholic family, in a christian-centered community. I am not religious anymore, but I'm aware this informs my experiences, so please note I'm leaving the floor open to anyone else who has experienced a culture who treats apologies differently. In a very christian viewpoint - apologies aren't the important part. The forgiveness is. They insist it makes you christ-like, to forgive those who have harmed you. It's what Christ did on the cross, right? They know not what they do. Your god will forgive you if you apologize (confess) and attempt to right your wrongs (repent). This, I feel, has seriously tainted how people raised in a christian culture view apologizes to each other. I was abused as a child. I have been told, many, many times to forgive. Forgive my abuser. Because that forgiveness makes you christ-like, right? My forgiveness matters. Not that my abusers ever apologized or even recognized the wrongs they did. But that doesn't matter. They even try to twist it. "Doesn't living with that anger twist your heart? Forgiveness is freeing! You don't have to carry it around!" Actually, no. It protects me. I have not and will not forgive them, even if they were sorry. It reminds me that I must never, ever go back. That I must treat people better than I was treated. But where am I going with this? In a Christian-centric perspective, an apology is assumed an absolution. You have apologized, therefore the other person not only forgives you, but your faults, your sins, your crime? Are wiped clean. As if you confessed to your god, apologizing to your friend for hurting their feelings, the harm you have caused has been erased. Christ has risen again, your friendship has been repaired. In a christian perspective, there is no harm that is irreparable or irredeemable. Christians Parents have forgiven their children's murderers. This is a perspective entirely alien and unfathomable to me. But in the eyes of their god, in their religion, they have done what is right and holy. Their relationship with their god is safe

But relationships with other people does not work that way. Your relationships with other people are not your relationship with your god. When you harm someone, and you apologize, you do not automatically get forgiveness. It's not assumed. Especially if it's a shitty fucking apology. I've seen some incredibly shitty apologies. Refusal to take any sort of responsibility, blaming their mental health, their variety of diagnosis, even blaming the person they've harmed for reacting to shitty behaviour.

It's entirely possible to apologize for only your part in a situation in which you have both done wrong. "I'm sorry for accusing you of X. I should not have assumed Y of you, and when I said Z I was out of line." The other person may have responded with hurtful or harmful things. Hell, they may have even started it. But your feelings, your reactions, your words, are all your own responsibility. I have friends with plenty of diagnosis. Bipolar disorder. RSD. ADHD. Autism. Depression. Anxiety. None of this has stopped them from being kind, thoughtful, caring people. It hasn't stopped them from checking in, from apologizing when accidentally causing harm. I also know people who use their diagnosis as a weapon. They have X, Y, Z diagnosis, that's why they behave like an asshole. They make being a selfish, self serving, and thoughtless asshole a part of their personality and insist that because of that you should just understand and accept that. And if, in the rare instance that type of person attempts to apologize, it's never a good one. It's always "Well, you made me mad." or "You upset/triggered/annoyed me". Don't get me wrong - triggers are big and valid and a whole other discussion - but it's a word that's thrown around sometimes as a shield to explain why someone is not responsible for being nasty to someone. I'm off in the weeds. The point I'm coming around to is that these people surround themselves with reasons why you cannot criticize their behaviour (to a reasonable degree, ofc) and then they apologize.

Which in a christian-centric society, they not only feel like should solve any interpersonal issues that came of the disagreement/argument/harm, but should absolve them. I've said absolution quite a few times. But what does it mean? It means that they believe that it removes any consideration from this in the past, or in the future. As far as they're concerned, it no longer ever happened, because they have been forgiven and it will not be brought up again, nor will it impact the relationship they have with the person they are apologizing to. This is not how relationships with people work. If you harm them, an apology will be considered a step towards repair. Changing your behaviour to not harm again is a big step in repairing the relationship and trust. If the person forgives you, it does not mean your behaviour will be forgotten. It means you're being given a chance to prove that you will be better. It does not mean that your behaviour will be forgotten and everything will time jump back to before you made a bad choice. And it does not mean you get to harm them again. Because if you keep behaving that way? Keep harming people in the same way over and over again? You're not actually apologizing. And if you keep the same behaviour repeatedly, you do not deserve forgiveness (or absolution), because it's proven that you don't mean it. You will just keep on going, over and over. And when that's the case? Well. People need to stay angry at you, to remind themselves that you do not mean your apologies. You just want the chance to harm them again.

#Long post #I was thinking about forgiveness today #and what people expect from it #and why people get so angry when they've apologized and people are still hurt

[nonstandardrepertoire]

Ki Tisa

you don't have to be realistic to make portraits that people recognize. stick a stovepipe hat and a bushy beard on a teddy bear, and people will get that you mean it to be Abraham Lincoln. the right hat and pipe alone can suggest Sherlock Holmes. learning to identify these kinds of symbols can be very helpful in coming to grips with artistic traditions that make heavy use of them

if you spend a lot of time with Medieval Christian art, for example, you'll pretty quickly start to run across a figure of a guy with horns on his head. you might think that this is supposed to be Satan, but in many cases, you'd be wrong: that guy is supposed to be Mosheh

in this week's Torah portion, you see, Mosheh is said to have a face that is קָרַן/qaran after spending so much time conversing with G-d. contemporary translations will say that that means Mosheh's face "glowed", but it's a very rare word, and it looks a lot like the word קֶֽרֶן/qéren, which means "horn", and so the most influential Medieval Latin translation said that Mosheh's face had "horns" instead. (the idea underlying the Hebrew seems to be that rays of light emerge from glowing things in much the same way that horns emerge from the head of a ram or an ox)

seeing this prophet with horns tacked on can be a little unsettling, and the Biblical Israelites were certainly unsettled by Mosheh's glowing face, so much so that they were afraid to even come near Mosheh at first, and Mosheh starts wearing a veil around the camp

the Israelites' fear here has many echoes down thru the ages. in 1867, in the wake of the US Civil War and the California Gold Rush, the city of San Francisco was full of poor people and disabled veterans that the rich of the city found unappealing to look at. like the Biblical Israelites, they accepted their gut emotional reaction to those around them as fact, and came to the conclusion that their neighbors were at fault for causing these untidy emotions

rather than helping their neighbors access housing, medical care, and the necessities of dignified living, the rich of San Francisco passed the first of the so-called "ugly laws", bills that essentially made it a crime to be disabled in public, with predictable disparities in treatment along class and racial lines, de facto if not de jure. in the years that followed, similar laws were passed all around the country by cities that would rather arrest people than see to their needs. the last known arrest under one of these laws would ultimately occur in Oklahoma in 1974. today, many of them are still on the books, even if they are no longer enforced

and enforced or not, the spirit that animated these laws is still very much alive. in the US, we still very much live in a society that judges people based on how they look, a society where the powerful would rather remove some people from view than build community with them, a society where some people are given the very clear message that their presence is emphatically unwanted. those on the receiving end of this message often internalize it and start to pull away — "i won't speak up in that meeting because i don't want to take up space.", "maybe i shouldn't go to that gathering; i don't want to make people uncomfortable.", "i feel like even just quietly existing i am already taking up too much space"

even G-d isn't immune from these feelings. after the business with the golden calf, G-d says, "i'm not going to go with you, in the middle of your camp. maybe i'll be in a little tent off to the side here, but i can't be at the heart of your community anymore.". this might sound like a punishment, but G-d doesn't frame it that way in Shəmot. instead, G-d says "פֶּן אֲכֶלְךָ בַּדָּֽרֶךְ/pen akhelkha badárekh/lest i end you on the way". G-d is afraid of hurting the Israelites, and so tries to withdraw. it's a protective measure, not a punishment

it's also not a solution. haSheim cannot be the Israelites' G-d without actually being there, right there, in the thick of them. the Israelites cannot learn from Mosheh how they are to live without going up and being near him, glowing face and all. we cannot build a society together if we all pull away from one another, afraid of causing messy feelings or harm, or having messy feelings of our own in reaction to each other. we have to reach out. we have to connect

this doesn't mean we will never hurt each other. we will. the relationship between G-d, Mosheh, and the Israelites, too, continues to be full of strife, tumult, and harm. in building the world we want to live in, we will step on each other's toes, we'll butt heads forcefully, we'll commit a thousand sins small and grave. but there is no other way. there is no way to build a community without community, and there is no community without tension, friction, and discomfort, because communities are made of people, and people are too rich and varied and messy and complex to snap together perfectly and seamlessly like frictionless uniform bricks in a physics exercise

we will never be perfect. we will always be fraught. coming together to run a community, shape a society, build a better world will always require compromise and generate bruised feelings. but these efforts only fail entirely if we pull away permanently, if we fully disengage

when Mosheh's face begins to glow, he does put on a veil, but, crucially, not when he is talking to G-d or to the Israelites. to be in community with others, he has to be there as his whole, disquieting self, not a covered, tamed version modulated for others' comfort. we don't read that the Israelites ever really adjusted to this — for all we know, every time the light of Mosheh's face fell on them, they felt the same tremor they felt the first time around — but they come near all the same. we have to do so too

to build a world where we all can live and flourish, we have to show up as our full selves, and be ready for others to show up as their full selves too. this work is hard, it is messy, it is uncomfortable, but it is infinitely, irreplaceably worth doing. it is the work that is before us all

shavu'a tov

#ki tisa #dəvar hashavu'a #i want to do more of these i think once the siddur is out #project cranbery #and that's it

[slmwife]

I now see how my untreated childhood issues brought extreme toxic behavior into my adult relationship... w/ my kids, wife...

Most of my adult life, I thought self help books...religion, marriage counseling , ADHD treatment would help make me a better man. I had people cheering me on but as I grew older I think I was in denial of my capacity for attachment in a relationship and so I romanticized and fantasized change... I wasn't putting in the work that really made a lasting behavioral difference! Unfortunately, no one knew the level of untreated trauma I carried into my adulthood. How could they, that's not something I felt needed to be discussed, I buried it. I was unaware of the consequences. I had no capacity to know!

I only learned about it years after loosing a 28 yr relationship!

I spent 4 years searching for answers after the separation. It wasn't until year 5 when I found childhood trauma therapy.

It took several months to develop a "foundation" for this new concept of therapy... developing a nurturing, protective, and spiritual "Resource" before actually addressing my past traumas and flashbacks.

As time progressed, I became more self aware of how I was feeling emotionally and paying attention to my bodies reactions... then checking in with parts and resources.

All my life I studied concepts, proverbs, behavioral maps to understand myself, relationships via... the Bible, christian counseling, using I statements, Love Languages, Love and Respect, Love and Logic.

Nothing seemed to stick in the moment of what I now know as trauma triggers.

When I started working on my triggers, I began to shift my behavioral awareness from emotionally reactive to logically focused-questioning the trigger and dialoguing with the part.

Naturally, a part of me is questioning... skeptical... when someone says they changed, "have they really?"... my dad modeled inconsistency psychologically during my formidable years. Also, it appears I have modeled inconsistency most of my adult life.

But, it seems for the past year I have shifted my consistency towards self care. I have learned with trauma work that my triggers are parts of me... they have gone years unseen, unloved, un nurtured, unprotected. When I started paying attention to my parts, I started to develop a healthy awareness of my surroundings (no longer aloof- removed, distant from emotions...) and I started to have agency (the ability to take action or to choose what action to take instead of being a slave... and randomly reacting to emotions) for me and my parts! If I have parts than other people must have them too! It makes sense that I and other people react certain ways to unresolved triggers!

A foundational consistent change that has happened for a year now is SELF AWARENESS!

This has consistently brought me time. Time to create "space". By doing EMDR work it appears that many triggers are getting resolved...I rarely fly off the handle in nanoseconds!

EMDR unfreezes the memory of childhood trauma. When someone with CPTSD encounters a trigger, they feel as if they are back in the traumatic event and can have physical and psychological symptoms as if they were experiencing the trauma all over again.

This triggered behavior was often unpredictable, intimidating, selfish (childish!)... rampantly trampling the feelings and sensibilities of loved ones! No capacity to be emotionally present engaging of their time and energy. Unfortunately, my family was rarely able to be authentic as they were dealing with someone so fragile! Over time they lost their voice. Just like I had lost mine in my childhood.

In 2016, I realized something was deeply wrong. I lost my family and it wasn't their fault! I had a moment of clarity... I recognized that I put them on stage to perform-feel, act a certain way! How did this happen??? Where can I figure me out? I hit a wall and needed to find the answer.

I found inner child reparenting at my lowest darkest time... in 2021 after my marriage ended in divorce. Struggling with deep depression and starting to have thoughts of suicide, I was fortunate to have heard a message on reparenting the inner child -God provided another moment of clarity!

I had years of unresolved trauma that I received by my father. My new "purpose" is to reparent my inner child(ren). It was at that point I also learned about CPTSD therapy using EMDR, DNMS, IFS, Flash and started looking for a therapist.

I started trauma therapy in January 2022.

Over the course of a year I have followed other trauma survivors on social media that have become professional therapist on the subject whom share their experiences.

I've included a few below...

...The major role in good psychology is uncovering our unconscious. Accepting we have difficult behaviors and difficult thoughts. The hard part might be due to shame and putting on a good image of ourselves to the world (persona) a mask for survival... it creates resistance to having a dark side or resistance to know about our flaws and admitting our flaws being people pleasers.

Looking down in an advanced way is looking at why we people please and at the beginning of our recovery we are usually very disconnected from all those reasons about why we took that persona.

Until we do the healing work... The inner child will continue to interpret a lot of communication with others as shame rooted trauma!!!

3:30 we might walk away from someone confronting us and think " you don't know what it's like to be me!"

My response to the confrontation subconsciously might be to try harder for perfection.

3:44 But! There is no learning in that... it's just more of the same trying to hide it and put it away. Those are more strategies of making it not true to ourselves.

28:16 so what does it all mean diving into Shadow Work ...accepting our stuff and ourselves and diving into these issues will gradually result in the following:

1. We take ourselves much less seriously. We've done enough trauma work to realize that I am just not interested or I don't need to go to those intense places anymore.

2. I'm less bothered or triggered or offended by people, places and things. It feels less personal.

3. I see the humanity in others because I have accepted the humanity more in myself. I am less self- consumed.

4. I don't have to hide negative emotions or issues so much. They are more normalized for me because I've embraced humanity.

5. I've grown into a more mature and balanced place.

6. I appreciated that growth and even feel grateful that I've not acted out from those old places anymore.

7. I'm disinterested in a really good way about faults and issues and what people do and what people don't do.

13:40- the good news...we (CPTSD/adult children) can heal.

We can find space in the moment of trigger/flashback being conscious.... we don't have to react in dysregulation. We now have agency to buy time and process. We can solve it now because we have done the work to deal with our past while we are regulated. We don't have to stuff our feelings and explode. We h have agency over our nervous system now!

23:12- snapshot of what takes place in healthy transitioning to get brain and nervous system on line.

39:40- signs we are healing our CPTSD.

1:37 what is IFS

21:41 it's not about healing yourself... thru healing self you heal your interactions with...

28:51 How parts are formed

35:46 Couples fighting

39:05 Self Awareness

41:30 Triggers

2:30 About NPD narcissistic personality disorder and CPTSD

7:00 Overlapping factors of NPD and CPTSD

14:47 Non-overlapping factors

2:56 EMDR doesn't erase the memory. It reduces the emotional charge... or the trigger attached to the memory. The memory becomes neutral and it happened in the past.

3:57 is EMDR Hypnosis?

5:16 is it traumatizing

18:20 what EMDR looks like

6:03 DNMS- Developing Needs Meeting Strategy

7:04 DNMS and attachment wounding

ADULT CHILDREN OF ALCOHOLICS

1:55 Intimacy

3:00 Potential vs Reality

14:18 Trust and Vulnerability

So, to sum this up...

The purpose of me sharing is to not crowd your space or demand anything but to share my journey of the last 7yrs.

I certainly wish I had learned this earlier in 2016 so I had the ability to be present for the kids and not be a concern...burden. I was told by a few folks in 2017 to "fake it before you make it" and to "be ready for anything" your family needs. I tried but I realize now I had limited emotional capacity, maturity ...still getting triggered... dissociating, dysregulated.

I can't imagine how hard it was on you and the kids to not know why I couldn't be trusted, depended on, predictable all those years, and figure myself out! I am very sad you all had to experience it along with other stress that might ensue during the separation.

Shattered trust and betrayal isn't anything I would want our kids to experience. I hope they find friends, lovers, soul mates with the capacity to be vulnerable and hold space emotionally for them to thrive and they would reciprocate the same. 🙏😊☺️

Finally, I want to say I'll always cherish your friendship! You always believed in me... I'm so very sorry you never had that same consistent feedback from me! I always knew something in me seemed broken... unable to attach in a vulnerable way... afraid to share everything I was thinking with you because if I did you would leave me! Deeper than that ... I didn't understand my triggers and I was unpredictable with the fight , flight , freeze, fawn. As I write this I'm flashing back to how I might have been feeling... the same feelings of uncertainty in 1989 when we first met. 😔😔😔

In a way I feel very fortunate to be writing this insight. I hope maybe my story can inspire someone to find a purpose again if they have lost hope in themselves! I hope my future journey will make my kids proud and somehow help you (Susan) heal from my past mistakes. ❤️‍🩹☀️

#Youtube

[massesriseup]

Alright I'm back for now. Kids keep getting shot and that shit is absolutely unacceptable. I'm not someone who is at the forefront of breaking news so, yes, this is a few days late.

So what the fuck with the gun usage? I thought the whole argument about gun rights included comprehensive training on how to use them and appropriate uses for self defense. Does that often include shooting teenage girls turning around in your driveway? Or teenage girls who mix up their car with yours? And to follow them to their own car so you can get a good shot? Or a teenage boy who politely knocks on your door because he's at the wrong address? I don't own a gun, and I don't support gun ownership, so I haven't gone through much of a gun safety training but something tells me that these scenarios are unacceptable based on the charges facing these horrible people and the fact that anyone with an ounce of ethics would never just start shooting the first chance they get.

This is another reason I believe we SHOULD take away most guns. Obviously we, the American people, don't deserve to own any weapons stronger than a bow and arrow, and even then I'm not sure most people should have that either.

How sick must you be to have been waiting for a chance to take a life? It reminds me of the sickos from my high school that had open conversations about joining the military so they could kill lots of people and to think that that could be living next door makes me sick. And anyone who thinks that way should feel ashamed if you can feel at all.

And to think, too, that so many gun owners claim to be Christian and can't wait to break the commandment "thou shall not kill." I find it really brings into question a lot of those "Christians" beliefs. Those kinds of people are surely only faking their faith. (Which isn't to say all Christians are faking it, just these people waiting to hate and kill in direct contrast to the spiritual laws they claim to follow and against the literal figure they claim to try to emulate who said love one another unconditionally.)

And let's talk about the school shootings happening lately. Those guns seem to keep being purchased legally. Maybe they shouldn't be legal. Anything more advanced or powerful than a simple shotgun should be banned and those shotguns should have STRICT laws and regulations around their purchases. They should know every single thing about the purchaser and have frequent psychological check-ins with past purchasers. The children and future of this country should never have to fear for their lives when they go to school. They should never have to fear for their lives anyway but especially when they're forced by truancy laws to go to a building that has minimal security at best. A couple of metal detectors and having a front office lady buzz in visitors isn't actually all that secure.

But of course, we don't want to fund those death traps to make them less deadly. ThEy'Re iNdOcTrInAtInG OuR ChIlDrEn. Fuck you and your dumbass opinion. If trying to make these kids good people in the midst of their trauma is fucking indoctrination, then good, they should be. They should be better than you. They should get into a position where when they're in power, they recognize old faults from previous generations and work to fix it and work to heal what has been historically broken. If you can't recognize that as a good thing, then you are once again a bad person and you should feel ashamed at your selfishness and ignorance. This country has been made a global laughing stock because of people like you.

#revolution #revolt #vote #gen z #rebellion #ai art generator #atheism #muslim #culture #millenials #gun control #childhood #children deserve to live #you dont deserve to kill #children should be safe #trauma #tragedy

[yourtoradorasextendedwarranty]

Not fun topic

So I don't want to talk about this out of risk of sounding like an old school "Red Pill" guy from 2015 youtube. But This video annoys the shit out of me. Mostly due to the lack of realization. So before you finish reading this, Please watch the video attached to this:

As a person that's not religious, however who grew up that way, I can pretty much pinpoint the issue here.

The issue isn't that "Men are trash" or "American Men are Trash". The issue is that your "Dream Man" doesn't exist. Between Hallmark, Romantic Comedies, and Modern Feminism. It is pretty much the bog standard that men are "Trash" if you compare them to false norms.

What do I mean? Well let's go OLD SCHOOL for a second. Before the 1950's Marriage was between a man and a woman who actually loved each other. Not whatever the hell it is now MOST of the time. And it was not a vow under the state. It was a vow under GOD. And since most of the west was Christian, they VALUED that binding vow. And contrary to popular belief it's not that people could not get divorced. They could. It was just that there needed to be a valid reason.

That reason could not be, "Oh I thought they were different", or, "They just aren't for me", or any petty bullshit reason. If there was abuse YES you could have the marriage annulled. There were other reasons too but basically you had to TRY to make things work. A judge would order marriage counseling because men and women don't think the same and SOMETIMES they need help to make things work. This was also the reason we had functional homes.

However, after the passing of no fault divorce, the erosion of religion, and the sexual liberation movement, a marriage now a days, (In most cases at least in the west) is nothing more than a civil union only recognized under the state, and is nothing more than glorified dating. And it might be messy to get a divorce but today it's still a super easy process. It's basically meaningless.

Now onto the root of the issue. Contrary to what most liberals will tell you, pair bonding is extremely important to relationships. Sex is extremely important to pair bonding. However, the more you sleep around, the harder and harder it becomes for a person to pair bond at all. You can believe this is a lie but psychology has more or less proven this. So I might hear you say, "Well what about men. They sleep around and they don't get shamed". Actually they do. Most men will tell their friends to stop fooling around and settle down. Because they know it's not a healthy lifestyle to have if you DO plan to ever settle.

And most people contrary to popular belief WILL at some point, want to get married. And WILL want to have kids. That urge might take years but eventually (96% chance) those things will end up on your mind.

The second issue is women's standards for me. And before I get called "Andrew Tate" let me say now that I think the man is a moron that gets a few things right from time to time but doesn't live the life he preaches. I don't like him. However, a point he and MANY people have is that women have stupidly high standards for men. Be honest, but don't be "actually" honest. Communicate openly with me, but don't actually tell me anything that would hurt my feelings. Be vulnerable with me, but also never show any form of anything I can perceive as weakness because I WILL lose any and all respect for you as a "Man". Let me do what I want when I want but also you are only allowed to do what I'M ok with you doing. I can go out with my guy friends, you can't go out with your girl friends. Be charming but also funny, and also serious but not too serious, also be 6ft tall, and I don't want to fool around but actually I do you just have to be hot enough.

Functionally? It's a no win for most men. And what's worse is that these impossible standards are applied at every level at every age. So when there are good men who aren't sleeping around, and are looking for love, you are far to busy trying to "See the world" and "Find yourself" to notice that you and many other women are isolating a lot of these boys. Well guess what? Do you think these boys don't want sex? You think they don't want to see the world? You think they don't want to find themselves?

They do. But how they do it is very different. What's worse, when you tell them "Sorry bitch maybe next time when I'm 40 and looking to settle". They will either be taken because they resolved to stay good. OR they will have become what they've seen you go for. And to be blunt? Most women go for absolute shit heads. I've seen girls I've liked date guys who treat them like utter shit. And they have the nerve to tell me, "Oh well he's nice to me in private". I don't believe that. Because anyone that can disrespect you like that in public probably does worse in private.

Am I saying men are just these cuddly little kittens and puppies just looking for love and there are not bad or stupid men? No. I'm not saying that in the slightest. What I am saying is that a lot of guys forego being actual men, to be fuckbois because they feel like that's their only path to any kind of affection. Combine that with hormones and you have a larger issue at play. Incidentally we've convinced everyone that dating is basically whoever you are sleeping with at the time and that the grass is always greener on the other side. It's not. You just need the resolve to keep your pants on. That goes for guys and girls. Because if you make a person wait for it, and they leave, they never gave a damn in the first place.

I say this as a person that's a lonely f*ck, but have dated a lot. My generation is screwed. Women have their pick of men just in general. As one comedian put it, "The power of the pussy". If you give a man who's even remotely into you a chance 95 times out of 100 he'll take it (Unless he's the emotional/social equivalent to a brick wall).

And look. This is not a rant shitting on women. But a lot of the women in the west pissed off about "Shitty men" need to consider 3 things.

You and people similar to you are likely the cause of the creation of a lot of those bad men.

Men are not these magical mind reading beings that can be that man in your sex novels. Or The Notebook. Or every single Hallmark Movie. And will not meet ALL of your criteria all the time.

Sex isn't love. And if you want to find love sometimes you have to forego sex.

Stop passing up good men. They exist. And they aren't just failsafes for when you've burned through 100's of "much hotter" men and are "ready to settle".

(Lastly. Stop shaming men for having feelings. If you are going to tell a man to show emotion, then stop respecting him, or stop viewing him as masculine for having feelings maybe you need help)

By the same metric. Men. If you want a good woman, be a good man. And honestly? Stop sleeping around. If you have expectations of women you should at least live up to a number of those yourself. If you don't want a woman with a "High body count" maybe you need to keep yours low too. And realize that hopping into bed with a woman won't make her love you. It's the little things. Pay attention and do your best to communicate. Also, do your best to find a girl that isn't obsessed with her phone. I know that's hard today, but you have to try. And don't pass up on a good woman. Meaning don't be afraid to commit. Because if you don't commit, and dump her, that also sets a shit example.

Is all of this a concrete science? Absolutely not. But people are not universal. Everyone is different. Everyone will ALWAYS be different in some ways. And again. Men have their issues too. That's not the point of this post. As I'm speaking more to the video itself. Clearly the woman in it is a man hating feminist. But I've seen people who are not as bad as her make similar points. And I've seen good guys be treated like doormats until they said "Fuck it" and decided to become emotions off completely asshole players. Because they decided. Well if this is what women like, getting laid is probably better than being ignored. I've certainly seen it enough.

So all in all. We are all f*cked. And honestly? We need marriage to mean something again. Dating apps need to f off, and we need to stop being afraid to meet people, hang out, NOT netflix and chill, and go out and do shit. Go on actual dates. Maybe go see a shit movie. Go to the park. Hell bring a laptop and watch a MOVIE in the park. I'm personally going to probably die alone but save yourselves. Don't end up like me. And for sure don't end up like this lady.

Also please understand some things before you decide to reply to this. I'm not a sexist. I'm not a misogynist. Men have their own issues with shit and they are just as messed up sometimes as women. And just like not all women are bad neither are all men. So for the most part, I'm specifically speaking directly towards women like the one in this post. Who WILL still call me names mind you. But this overarching issue is larger than just Men vs Women.