#stop forcing others to adhere to your personal beliefs

[inniave]

if you're anti-sex work, anti-porn, anti-kink, any of that- unfollow me.

swerfs are not welcome here.

those who would decide for others what they can do with their bodies are not welcome here.

this account will always be a safe place for sex workers, for people on the fringe, for those you deem "freaks"

i am them and they are me and we are all together

#rights not rescue #i'm so sick of this shit #stop forcing others to adhere to your personal beliefs #fuck you

[viviennelamb]

I would like to ask where you get your belief system from? Or do you just create it based on your own beliefs and views of the world and come to the conclusion? I used to be Christian when I was a child and then along the way I questioned my faith but now I feel confused. I want to believe in God but I cannot bring myself to follow any religion. And honestly, the believers play a part in it for me. After all the preaching, what it boils down to is getting men and women to fuck and have kids. Even in their Holy books. Perhaps I am ignorant. Maybe I am mentally weak, but what my ‘fellow’ believers think affects me.

I am just curious as to where you find your beliefs and what you follow😇

I've always believed in what I'm talking about now, but people would get upset about the truth that ever since they started engaging in lust, their mind went downhill. People who hate purity have lost their intuition.

I grew up Catholic, but I was primarily interested in Saints because I thought they're cool. I didn't practice anything or believe in anything besides that.

I've been interested in studying evil since I was 8 years old and picked up on the pattern that lust/sex is the root cause of our worldly troubles. I'd repeatedly observed sex being used to destroy women and children in particular and picked up that something is very wrong with males. I've also observed women justifying certain sexual circumstances being okay and others aren't like sex vs rape when there's no difference to the body.

The body is traumatized in the same way, and that is reflected throughout the world. The more people love sex, the more rape happens. This will become politically evident in the upcoming years. The more people masturbate and have sex, the more they send a message throughout time and space that they want more of that, and it will be delivered. There isn't a single group, plan, or protest that will stop this except the individual's personal thoughts and actions to engage in absolute purity.

You're correct about the interpretations of so-called holy books. These books have also been altered by protestants who wanted their religion of sex to grow and men have added their opinions on “what God really meant” so they could fuck to their heart's death.

There's no religion to “follow,” but Cause and Effect. We either adhere to Karmic Law and live peacefully, or transgress Karmic Law and experience mortal misery.

God nor Karma needs anybody to believe in them, this is the scientific reality of the universe I'm referring to. Everything you do sends a message through every atom existing, and that returns to you with the same force. Every pleasure returns pain. Everything you are on the inside reflects in your reality, unless you live in pure reality, then you are liberated from ignorance.

Anything that doesn't address reality or laments about “how things should be” is an opinion.

In other words, if you don't like something that others do, don't engage in it yourself. That's Religion. This religion required applies discipline. Since most people are anti-religion, they think that the world should change for them, and they shouldn't have to change themselves, which is an opinion as well.

Individuals who just talk send the message that they like the world the way it is now, but they create more angry people who don't engage in action as well.

Somebody who is genuinely suffering will not engage in the same thing every other sufferer is engaging in. I personally don't feel bad for people who refuse to change, they're just venting. I listen, nod and say “That sucks.” and return to living in reality. It literally just is what it is. You either change or you don't.

#ask

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

Do you think Islam should be made illegal in Britain? I'm not against people believing in gods, or religious concepts like reincarnation or the afterlife-it's an interesting thing to speculate on, but the things the Quran urges its adherents to do, it's evil, there's no other word for it. Any religion that preaches that homosexuality is immoral and apostates should be killed should not be tolerated at all in Britain. That's what I think, anyway.

I don't think Islam can or should be made "illegal." You can't stop people thinking or believing a thing, no matter how distasteful you might find it. They have the freedom of thought and belief and we must allow them that, so that we can have our own. Since many of these people want to force us to think or believe their thing. You can't even - and shouldn't - practically stop them practicing a thing, at least in the privacy of their own homes. Doing so would be illiberal.

However, it's not illiberal to prevent people acting on those beliefs when doing so undermines the rights and/or safety of individuals or the society at large. Being hung upside down in a garage to be beaten for not reciting the quran, for example.

The root of the problem is Islam, but the problem in practice is jihadism. ISIS are jihadis. So are Boko Haram. Ditto Hamas. They're terrorist organizations that seek global Islamic supremacy through terrorism and war.

https://islamqa.info/en/answers/43087

Question: Was Islam spread by the sword?

[..] If Islam was only spread by peaceful means, what would the kuffaar have to be afraid of? Of mere words spoken on the tongue? In al-Saheehayn it is narrated that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) said: “I have been supported with fear as far as a month’s journey.” Would the kuffaar be afraid of being told, “become Muslim, but if you do not then you are free to believe and do whatever you want”? or were they afraid of jihad and the imposition of the jizyah and being humiliated? That may make them enter Islam so that they may be spared this humiliation. 

They want to do that by dying as martyrs for their god, murdering Jews for starters, but everyone else is also in the firing line.

"Israel is only the first target. The entire planet will be under our law." -- Mahmoud al-Zahar, Hamas commander.

Which means that anyone invoking their mottos and rhetoric is overtly making an incitement to jihad. We should take them at their word. When Australian school children are shouting "Allahu Akbar!" ("God is great," and specifically the Islamic god), we should believe them.

Two things that I think need to happen:

-

First - and this is probably an unpopular opinion, but I don't care - countries like the UK, the rest of Europe, the US, Canada, Australia, etc, need to deal with their immigration crisis. And in some of those countries, it is already past crisis point.

Legal immigration is good. Welcoming people who want to participate in our liberal societies, especially if they're fleeing illiberal ones, is good. There are many immigrants who have made lots of wonderful contributions to our countries, who uprooted their lives to participate in the freedom and opportunities these societies have to offer.

“I read Alexis de Tocqueville, and I read about democracy, and I lived in countries that have no democracy, that have no founding fathers… so I don’t find myself in the same luxury as you. You grew up in freedom, and you can spit on freedom because you don’t know what it is not to have freedom.” – Ayaan Hirsi Ali

Legal immigration includes filtering out those who have ill intentions towards our societies. Cap and extensively vet legal immigration. Get illegal immigration under control and deport illegal immigrants. It may be cute to term it "undocumented immigrants," but that's like calling the person hiding in your attic an "undocumented resident." You have no idea who they are, where they're coming from, what their background is, and importantly, what their intentions are. You have no idea. And the notion that we should let the person living in your attic remain there by default until they do something awful to prove otherwise is moronic.

Keep numbers to a sustainable level and be more selective. Including deporting immigrants who violate the values of the country, or simply shouldn't be there. There are ideologies that want to undermine liberal secular democracy. Islam is not the only one on that list, but it's certainly number one.

Multiculturalism doesn't work. Let me clarify what I mean. This is where cultures are just thrown together in the same country or region, without a dominant culture setting the tone and the values. That doesn't work. The only thing that actually does work is pluralism. In this model, there's a dominant culture, and everybody also brings their cultures and traditions with them. "I am British and Somali." "I am Canadian and Chinese." A good example of this is one of Australia's (many) unofficial anthems, "I Am Australian." Give it a listen. That is, if you want to join our country, then you also have to accept and adhere to the country's overall values. Otherwise, you're not welcome. If you violate them, you're not welcome. If you're looking to tear it down or replace it, you're not welcome. That's not exclusively Islam either. Again, deport.

People who are eager to miss the point like to cast this being intolerable, or even bigoted, that people should actually have to adapt to the culture of the country they're moving to. These people are idiots. Smoothbrained idiots. They live in first world countries that they hate, yet they won't move somewhere else and give up the luxury and freedoms they pretend they don't have, the things immigrants aspire to. They're morons and their mentality is what got countries like the UK into this. It's a "bigotry of low expectations" thing. That immigrants can't be expected to not rape, for example.

If you're moving to a country, particularly if you're escaping some place filled with war and violence, of course you should embrace the alternative that your adopted country offers. And you should be expected to. Why are you going there if not to be a part of what that country is about and has to offer? If you're just transplanting your strife into another country, you can fuck off.

And in particular, this needs to focus on jihadism. Note that I said jihadism. Not Islam, not Muslim. Just as we should not accept those who espouse Nazi ideology, we should not accept those who adhere to Islamic supremacism. You're free to have your beliefs and your religion, as long as you don't intrude on the rights of others to have their own, and as long as you don't incite or target others for violence or harassment, nor plan, advocate or work towards overthrowing or replacing resident political and social philosophy. Not without a fight. You don't get to arrive on the shores of these liberal countries and start setting up communism or Sharia or fascism. Fuck off.

Jihadism needs to be regarded as incitement. Because it is. People chanting "gas the Jews" out the front of the Sydney Opera House isn't a freedom of speech matter, it's incitement to violence. You arrest them, you revoke visas, and you deport them. They're bringing their war to your shores. You nip that in the bud. Dishonest actors will accuse you of being racist or being some other istaphobe, but you can ignore them if you're being consistent. If you would do the same thing to white immigrants inciting violence through Nazi ideology. You stop apologising for it or being cowed by fanatics calling you "racists," who fundamentally hate their own country but won't move to the kind of shithole they want to turn their own country into. Again, you tell them to fuck off.

To quote Douglas Murray, "this is the thing we give up: extending tolerance to people who do not extend it back to us." We have tolerated intolerance long enough.

And yes, there absolutely needs to be a refugee policy and process to help people legitimately fleeing persecution. Given anyone can claim to be a refugee, including jihadis, these need to be carefully vetted. I would argue that the burden of proof resides with the person making the refugee claim, and the default conclusion should be not-a-refugee until proven otherwise. Keep in mind that Canada offered Yasmine Mohammed's Islamically arranged husband, al-Qaeda terrorist operative Essam Marzouk, refugee status.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/hamas-chief-lives-london-council-house-uk-phnpsssx5

A Hamas fugitive who “ran the group’s terrorist operations in the West Bank” and served on its ruling body lives in London in a council property he recently bought with a £112,000 discount.

Muhammad Qassem Sawalha evaded Israel’s security services using a relative’s passport and fled to the UK in the 1990s, later obtaining British citizenship.

Revoke his citizenship and throw him out.

-

And secondly, people need to start pushing back harder on Islam, and stop tolerating its intolerance. Of course, that's complicated by the special legal treatment afforded to Islam in some countries, such as Sweden considering laws to ban quran burning and Denmark actually re-instituting blasphemy laws. But people have to stop flinching whenever they're accused of some spurious claim of bigotry or "Islamophobia."

It's a worn-out, fake charge. They're only using it because it used to work. It doesn't and shouldn't.

The idea that you're not allowed to burn the quran is a fiction. It's a rule from somewhere else, strife that has been imported by people seeking to spread that strife to other shores. Of course you have a right to burn a quran, just as they have a right to burn the bible or "The God Delusion" if they want. Being upset or offended cannot be legitimized as an offence. The correct way to proceed is investigate those doing the complaining. They're espousing authoritarian tendencies.

-

Like I said, probably an unpopular opinion, but I don't see how this is unreasonable. It was common sense five minutes ago, when pretty much every administration, left or right, in any western country understood the importance of border and immigration security.

It's not necessary to target Islam or Muslims if you just target authoritarian ideologies consistently, and let things fall where they may.

-

P.S. Turns out that Douglas Murray's "The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam" was quite prophetic.

#ask #islam #jihad #jihadism #immigration #illegal immigration #border security #border crisis #religion is a mental illness

[princessprettyprivilege]

Do You Really Feel Guilty For Being Feminine?

If you’re overly empathetic, you should go cold turkey from masculine women drama and delete any app or site that encourages masculine behavior from women. Unless you love the feeling of having life siphoned out of you, absolutely turn your back on those who gain entertainment for depriving you of your femininity. Cheap entertainment is temporary and you’re too expensive for that.

Who cares what other people think that aren’t living through your eyes? When you feel bad, that’s when you need to be extreme.

Our opposites hold beliefs that are surface level such as you're a mooch for wanting to marry successfully, you're a beggar for preferring men with properties and only dumb, desperate guys pay for women.

If I refuse help from every person and carry more than I can handle, I'm doing what's right in the representation of my race??? I don't think so!

Be motivated, not angry!

Hearing the opposite of what you believe can motivate you to stay within your beliefs.

Although you don't need to enter their spaces to strengthen your beliefs, being aware of their beliefs can entice you to stay within yours.

Stop taking advice from those who bash you and don't provide a plausible solution except for their rude message. There's a difference between a delivery being rude to get a point across and a message meant to be divisive & rude.

Don't force yourself to adhere to trends for others sake. We usually follow trends to impress each other!

We’re too pretty to subscribe to drama that's pushed to the masses. We’re definitely too pretty to listen to slander from boring people who do nothing all day except sift through women's advice and think of dumb, empty-headed comments that'll have no effect on the same women they have posters of.

Don't pay attention to people who constantly feud. It’s counterproductive to your journey of growth and self discovery.

Make your own standards of beauty. Becoming too pretty for anyone's beliefs of you means your representation is easily conducive to change.

Be Luxury, Live Luxury.

#femininity #high maintenance #pretty privilege tips #pretty privilege #princesskhalyiah #high standards #expensive taste #🥭 #level up

[beingmyself1991]

THE HIEROPHANT REVERSED = GO WITHIN AND COME UP WITH YOUR OWN BELIEFS. STOP ASKING THE MULTIVERSE FOR TRUTH. TELL THE MULTIVERSE YOUR TRUTH AND IT SHALL BE. YOUR OWN TRUTH IS THE ONLY TRUTH THAT MATTERS. BE A CREATOR. BE GOD.

In its most empowering manifestation, The Hierophant Reversed urges you to recognize yourself as your own guiding force. The wisdom you seek resides within, rather than relying on external sources or authority figures. You're prompted to forge your unique spiritual path, establishing your belief systems instead of conforming to others' doctrines. While this independent journey may initially feel unfamiliar, embracing self-trust and tapping into your inner wisdom will be transformative over time. Despite potential resistance from those adhering to tradition, you sense that now is the opportune moment.

With The Hierophant Reversed, seeking external validation becomes obsolete. You're prepared to venture solo, carving out your path, even if it means diverging from conventional norms. Grant yourself the freedom to rely on your internal guidance system as you shape your distinctive forward trajectory.

This reversed card also signifies a willingness to challenge established norms. You envision alternative perspectives on the world, ready to question ideas once deemed absolute truths. Rejecting rigid structures, traditions, and dogmas, you actively seek opportunities to rebel and reclaim your personal agency. If you've felt confined, restricted, or lost a sense of flexibility and freedom, now is the moment to redefine your rules.

The Hierophant Reversed invites you to scrutinize prevailing norms, encouraging an evaluation of whether they align with your values. If you've been on autopilot, conforming to societal expectations, this card prompts a realization that changes are imperative. Extending this perspective, The Hierophant Reversed can embody a rebellious spirit akin to a teenager challenging societal norms and engaging in anti-institutional activities. Potential conflicts with authorities or authoritative figures may arise as you question and redefine the established order.

#HierophantReversed #CreateYourOwnReligion

[alienidentities-f22a]

Revised Textual Analysis Post: Military

Across the varying representations of military officials in Roswell, New Mexico, the dual depiction of officers as either maniacally corrupt or morally dignified accurately illustrates the wide spectrum of personalities in the military, which comments on the overall corruption in America’s law enforcement agencies.

Widely respected in the town, the Manes family spans a long generational line of highly-ranked Air Force officers. Within the Manes family, there is a wide spectrum of personalities and identities, covering different sexualities, disabilities, and military rankings.

From Alex and Gregory to Master Sergeant Jesse and Flint, the Manes family remains polarized as time progresses because they are advocating for and leading the two conflicting sides of the alien investigation, creating a rift in their family dynamic. In season two, especially, the depiction of Jesse and Flint Manes as immorally deceitful and Alex and Gregory as honorably righteous is fortified through the development of Project Shepherd.

To begin, Master Sergeant Jesse Manes—as the father in the family—cultivates an acute aversion to and hatred for aliens at a very young age. For years, Jesse Manes advances Project Shepherd in conjunction with the federal government and the Valenti family to investigate the presence of aliens in Roswell.

When discussing the components of Project Shepherd with Kyle Valenti, Jesse Manes claims that “for the past 70 years, your ancestors and mine have led an operation to protect this town, this entire planet” (“Pilot”). Here, Jesse Manes clarifies the importance of Project Shepherd by inspecting and, perhaps, eradicating the existence of alien species on Earth. Since this project was founded by his ancestors, Jesse Manes feels the generational and familial pressures to expand upon their work and continue their legacy even after the government stops funding it. 

As for the younger generations in the bloodline, Flint Manes likewise connects with the fundamental causes of Project Shepherd and shares his father’s principles of traditionalism and intolerance. After orchestrating an entire scheme to frame aliens as murderers, Flint Manes—like his father—views other people as collateral damage and views them as a means to accomplish his goals.

Even kidnapping his own brother, Flint is confronted by the absurdity and recklessness of his actions when Alex attempts to reason with him, proclaiming that “this has everything to do with history. Aliens are a foreign threat. They’re invaders” (“Crash Into Me”). As a close-minded, intolerant man, Flint dehumanizes the aliens in Roswell and immediately strives to attack them in hopes of fulfilling his family’s purpose and, in turn, obtaining notoriety.

These generational and familial pressures cloud Flint’s judgment to the point where he exploits his family for his personal gain and accomplishment. In a way, it is almost ironic, considering that he manipulates and harms members of his family for the primary purpose of protecting the family name.

Because he adheres to the notion that aliens “are a violent race,” Jesse Manes has a fixed mindset that prevents him from accepting the opinions of others and rationally thinking about the effects of actions (“Pilot”). His innate inability to accept other people with an open mind also extends to his blatant homophobia towards his own son, Alex. According to the National Library of Medicine, studies have reported that closed-mindedness and unwavering intolerance are commonly found in “individuals high in need for structure or need for closure” (Kemmelmeier). With unabashed intolerance, Jesse and Flint Manes disregard and invalidate the emotions of others, judging Alex simply due to his romantic, homosexual relationships.

Actively antagonizing his son and his boyfriend, Michael Guerin, Sergeant Manes is very traditional in terms of his beliefs and closes his mind off to other perspectives and identities. Ultimately, his susceptibility to generational pressures, closed-mindedness, and traditionalism are key attributes of Jesse Manes that often lead to questionable decision-making skills and inconsiderate actions. In context, these attributes serve as a characterization of the corruption within law enforcement and the typical personalities and beliefs they hold in varying branches of the military.

In contrast, Alex Manes is a much more progressive character, who represents numerous minority groups and advocates for the rights that his father condemns. On the other half of Project Shepherd, Alex protects the alien race in Roswell because he listens to their stories and opens his mind to them. Over time, Sergeant Manes’ intolerance of Alex’s sexuality and his subsequent disapproval of his lifestyle has strained their relationship, leading Alex to claim that “the dad I got was a monster, is a monster” (“Don’t Speak”). The direct conflict between his father’s traditional values versus Alex’s progressive ones complicates their dynamic greatly.

To illustrate, when describing their family dynamic to Flint in hopes of being freed from the handcuffs, Alex eloquently explains, “we are all Dad’s victims. Sure, he beat me up, but what he put the rest of you through was abuse, too” (“Crash Into Me”). Sadly, Jesse Manes physically beat him as a kid, inflicting severe mental and physical distress on an innocent, impressionable child. Indeed, Jesse Manes thought that Alex's homosexuality was a disgrace to the Manes family, so when his father discovered that he was gay, he intended to impart conventional discipline. Later, Sergeant Manes transformed traditional military discipline into physical and verbal punishment. Considering his past filled with abuse and intolerance, Alex Manes demonstrates another attribute that characterizes the military: astounding resilience.

As a victim of relentless abuse, Alex Manes defies the standards of intolerance that are deeply rooted in his family’s history; instead, he protects the alien race due to his rationality and progressive viewpoint on society. For instance, Alex Manes musters the courage to defy the lifestyle of the Manes family because it was inauthentic and destructive. In doing so, Alex describes his reasoning behind and process of liberation by claiming that “I wanted to be the kind of person who won battles. It felt good. But now I-I look in the mirror, and I-I don't even see myself sometimes. I see my father. I'm still fighting his battles. Not mine” (“Recovering the Satellites”). Here, it is evident that Alex Manes does not succumb to generational and familial pressures, forging his own path rather than following the life of hatred and anger created by his father.

Instead of being a faithful family soldier, Alex supports Michael and his family throughout their process of discovering their origins and protecting their hidden identity. With countless opportunities to report them to the authorities, Alex demonstrates his relentless loyalty to Michael, Max, and Isobel because he empathizes with their struggles and relates to their ostracism from a support system due to his homosexuality. As a result, his unwavering loyalty characterizes a faithful soldier on the field in relation to the aliens, actively fighting for them in the battle against his father and Flint.

Overall, these varying depictions of military officials serve to emphasize the latent corruption within law enforcement agencies and the military. In positions of power, especially, Sergeant Manes presents himself as a duplicitous character with an overtly ulterior motive, constantly antagonizing other people. In such dark light, this depiction of a prominent military leader elucidates how leaders can abuse their authority and power to cause harm to other people. Therefore, this commentary on the conniving nature of military officials extends to high-ranking officials and leaders, exposing the corruption within many federal agencies.

#yanniaknine #textual analysis reblog

[fallingoverharrypotter]

Last right off Diagon

Inspired by prompt Curiosity for @drarrymicrofic , and written for a laugh.

It's an ugly little hole in the wall, Draco thinks. Peeling paint, done the muggle way, and dirty windows that probably wouldn't let in the mere amounts of light that this area of Diagon is privy to. Especially with the amount of crap blocking Dracos view inside.

So he can't see the proprietor. He can't see whether theres anyone else inside. Shit. He wants to turn back, give up. Take the bag hanging at his side and toss it into the Thames right fucking now.

He's hyperventilating. He can't believe he's actually standing in front of this stupid store with a bag filled with. Curios. And he's actually hyperventilating.

"Um-"

And Draco jerks, hard, right into the window.

His nose stings, and he can feel the beginnings of blood dripping atop his cupid's bow and down his chin. He's not hyperventilating now: thank Merlin for small mercy's. He turns to direct his swearing at the person who startled a man in the middle of a panic attack, blood flooding down his face, and sees a wand directed right at his nose.

Draco, ex-convict, is unfortunately used to this reaction to his presence. He doesn't waste his precious sanity on worrying about it anymore, but at this point he's feeling a little fragile all in all. So when his panic attack picks right up from where it started, and his head starts to get a little woozy from the lack of oxygen and the continued expelling of blood from his nostrils, he doesn't blame himself much.

"Fuck- fuck, Sir I'm really sorry. Let me. Can I just fix- oh. Wait," and then there's a hand on Dracos shoulder, and the picture in front of his face clears a little now that theres an anchoring to his woozy drifting: he sees a young man, bright pink hair, yellow amber eyes, and looking scared to shit. Alarm bells ring momentarily, before the kid says: "... Mr. Malfoy?"

And of course that's the Black nose. Draco's nose. And this is Aunt Andromeda's ward - grandkid - the metamorph. And that's still 12 inches of Cherry directed right at his bleeding nose, and Draco has a split second out of body experience where he remembers that time he broke this kid's godfathers' nose when he was about the same age.

"I'm Teddy... Lupin. Um. Andromeda Tonks' grandson? Can I episky your nose? It looks pretty bad."

Draco must shrug in acceptance, because the next second the kid applies what seems like quite an expert episky charm right at the break, plugging the flow of blood. A modified scourgify collects all the blood from Dracos face and his clothes too, and now he looks just as he'd intended. Patrician and handsome, collected and unbothered. No blood. No panic attack in sight any longer, like it was siphoned away too.

Draco still hasnt said a word since he stopped muttering foul language at the sight of the wand. This 17 year old seems too quietly confident to be even the requisite amount of mad required for a Black. As Draco thought though, the nose is right, and the chin. It makes him... kind of fond for the kid he hasn't seen since he was 5. Especially when Teddy is looking up at him like hes worried beyond belief for a silent man in the middle of Diagon who's a bit too fragile for his own good.

"Ted?" Comes a call in a hauntingly familiar voice, then. Teddy turns towards it, the figure walking out of the door of the dirty old antiques shop, and Draco can't do anything but twitch a little when the bag on his shoulder looses whatever traction it kept, and goes clattering to the cobbles beneath his feet. The clang of burnished silver goblets, Lucius Malfoys old wizarding table clock, and whatever else Draco was able to scrounge up from the Manor to justify this trip to seeing Harry after 10 years away - after 10 years of running from the inevitable - that clang echoes like it's heralding Draco's imminent demise.

When Harry's eyes meet Dracos, all 3 meters of space and a 17 year old kid between them, Draco feels like hes 24 again. When Harry's eyes go wide with shock, that must be 20. When his eyes narrow, then that's 18 (post trial). And then when Harry pulls his wand and points it at Draco, well, that's years 11 all the way through to 17.

A levitation charm, and Dracos bag settles back on his shoulder. Teddy mumbles something about getting back to the till, and goes rushing back through the door his godfather is still kind of blocking. Harry has to walk forward - towards Draco - to let the kid around him, and then they're only 2 and a half meters away from each other.

Which shortens to 1 meter when Harry crosses the distance. "What you got there?"

Draco's a little stumped. Has been for far too long now, so he has to fake some courage. "Curios."

"Right," says Harry, eyebrows pushed under his fringe. "Ten years, inconsistent letters, and you turn up at my shop to bring me-" incredulousness "-curios?"

"You've named the shop Curiosity's Curios, Harry. You can't blame me for trying to adhere to tradition."

Harry scoffs. "Leave off. No smoke screens, please. From what I've heard you're out of Level 9 - don't bring it here."

Draco deflates. He has a moment to think about whether this is going to help matters or make them worse. But he does know that it'll make Harry laugh.

He drops the bag on purpose this time, clanging echoing once again. And then his knees follow, until hes folded up in front of Harry on the cobbles at the far end of Diagon Alley.

"Harry James Potter."

"Good god, Draco."

"I hereby apologize for that time when I stomped on your nose on the Train that one time and covered you with your stupid invisibility cloak, and then wished you dead when you still turned back up at dinner later that night."

"Come on, get up. Just because theres no one here now doesnt mean someone wont turn up and see you debasing yourself on the street."

"Dont interrupt, or I'll sonorous myself."

"Merlins sake, then hurry it up."

"Harry, honestly, you're an idiot if you think people are wandering all the way down here to buy dirty old antiques at lunch time on a Monday. We are well and truly alone."

"This is the weirdest grovelling I've ever heard."

"I've seen the error of my ways. Truly. Your godson all but pushed my head into your dirty glass windows and broke my nose. It's almost poetic, really."

And that got it, because Harry laughs. Loud and booming, echoing across the cobbles and the stone walls. "And you think he has no Black madness!"

"He doesn't," Draco counters, rising up on his knees. "What he does have is the strange Potter-nurtured ability to turn up when is most inconvenient!"

"Well," and Harry leans over so that his face is closer to Draco's. "Someone should have thought about the severe consequences of letting the last Black stew amongst the riffraff when he went off undercover for 10 years, shouldn't they have."

Draco sighs mournfully. "And I see you've protested my absence admirably by refusing to clean your shop windows for a decade. Truly, Harry, I admire your dedication to the cause."

"Oh!" Exclaims Harry, reaching out a hand to touch Draco's nose. "That's why theres this grime all over your face-"

"Oh god stop!" And Draco flicks his wrist with a quick scourgify of his own to get at- "Don't mess with me like that, Harry."

Draco is pouting and Harry is laughing again.

Draco gets up eventually, with Harry's hand in his own helping him. They walk into Harry's shop, and they settle down so that Draco can write a few letters of greeting to his loved ones. Hes sure that within the hour the stacks of cups and saucers and clocks and trinkets and curios that Harry has been collecting for years will be shuddering at the force of the howlers that'll just force their way through the wards Draco could put up, so he doesnt bother with them. Will let them come. His feet are resting in Harry's lap, and Harry has a firm grip around an ankle. Teddy is looking back at them from the till in confusion and boredom, annoyed that his sly questioning glances haven't brought forth any answers.

Harry and Draco are both 34 year old men who have been very content for the last 10 years to just accept whatever is happening. The last owl flies off announcing Draco's return to the surface, and then Harry is pushing off from his chair and announcing that if Draco really is going to be sticking around, he better make himself useful. Draco counters by saying that his nose has only just been broken, and he can feel the remnants of his panic attack in the depths of his bones. Harry laughs loudly, and Teddy seems to snort - without remorse - but all the same Draco hops up and makes three cups of tea. Makes himself useful.

#drarry #harry potter #harry potter fanfic #tone consistency? i dont know her #drarrymicrofic #kind of #prompt: curiosity #fic #definitely not 50 words #my fic

[wisdomrays]

The Qur'an Proves Muhammad's (pbuh) Prophethood: Part 1

When we study the Qur'an's words, styles, and meanings even superficially, we notice immediately that it is unique. So, in rank and worth it is either below—even Satan cannot claim this, nor does he conceive of it—or abov all other books. Since it is above, it must be the Word of God.

• The Qur'an declares: You (O Muhammad) were not a reader of any Scripture before it, nor did you write (such a Scripture) with your right hand, for then those who follow falsehood might (have a right) to doubt it (29:48). Moreover, it is undeniable that Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, was unlettered, and that the Qur'an has presented an open-ended and eternal challenge to humanity: If you are in doubt concerning that which We have sent down onto Our servant (Muhammad), produce a chapter of the like thereof, and call your witnesses, supporters, who are apart from God, if you are truthful (2:23). No one has ever met this challenge successfully.

• The Revelation spanned 23 years. How is it that such a book, which deals with Divine truth, metaphysics, religious beliefs and worship, prayer, law and morality, the afterlife, psychology, sociology, epistemology, history, scientific facts, and the principles of a happy life, never contradicts itself? In fact, it openly declares that it contains no contradictions and is therefore a Divine Book: Will they not then ponder on the Qur'an? If it had been from other than God they would have found therein much contradiction and incongruity (4:82).

• The Qur'an is a literary masterpiece that cannot be duplicated. Its styles and eloquence, even its actual sentences, words, and letters, form a miraculous harmony. With respect to rhythm, music, and even geometric proportions, mathematical measures, and repetition, each is in its exact place and then perfectly interwoven and interrelated with others.

• Eloquence, poetry, and oratory enjoyed great prestige in pre-Islamic Arabia. Poetry competitions were held regularly, and winning poems were written in gold and hung on the Ka'ba's walls. The unlettered Prophet, upon him be peace and blessings, had never been heard to say even a couple lines of poetry. However, the Qur'an he brought eventually forced all known experts to surrender.

Even the unbelievers were captivated by it. Nevertheless, to stop Islam from spreading, they said it was magical and should not be listened to. But when poets such as Hansa and Lebid converted and then abandoned poetry out of respect for and awe of the Qur'an's styles and eloquence, the unbelievers had to confess: "If we call it a piece of poetry, it is not. If we designate it a piece of rhymed prose, it is not. If we describe it as the word of a soothsayer, it is not." At times, they could not help listening to the Prophet's recitation secretly at night, but they could not overcome their arrogance long enough to believe in its Divine origin.

• Despite the high level of poetry, Arabic's vocabulary was too primitive to express metaphysical ideas or scientific, religious, and philosophical concepts adequately. Islam, using the words and expressions of a simple desert people, made Arabic so rich and complex that it became the language of the most magnificent civilization, one that made many entirely original contributions in scientific, religious, metaphysical, literary, economic, juridical, social, and political areas. How could an unlettered person launch a philological revolution that has no parallel in human history?

• Despite its apparent simplicity, the Qur'an has many levels of meaning. It illuminates the way for poets, musicians, and orators, as well as for sociologists, psychologists, scientists, economists, and jurists. Founders of true spiritual orders and schools of law and conduct found in it all the principles needed to guide their adherents. The Qur'an shows everyone how to solve their problems and fulfill their spiritual quests. Can any other book do this?

• However beautiful and interesting a book is, we read it at most two or three times and then put it aside forever. Billions of Muslims, on the other hand, have recited portions of the Qur'an during their five daily prayers for the last fourteen centuries. Many have recited it completely once a year, and sometimes even once or twice a month. The more we recite it, the more we benefit from it and the more desire we feel to recite it. People never tire of its wording, meaning, and content, and it never loses any of its originality and freshness. As time passes, it breathes new truths and meanings into minds and souls, thereby increasing their activity and liveliness.

• The Qur'an describes all our physical and spiritual aspects, and contains principles to solve all social, economic, juridical, political, and administrative problems regardless of time or place. Furthermore, it satisfies the mind and spirit simultaneously, and guarantees happiness in both worlds.

No one, regardless of intelligence, can establish rules to solve all potential problems. Even the best system must be revised at least every 50 years. More importantly, no system can promise eternal happiness, for their principles are restricted to this transient human life, which is infinitely short when compared to the afterlife.

In contrast, no Qur'anic principle has become obsolete or needs revision. For example, it states that wealth should not circulate only among the rich (59:7); that government offices should be entrusted to competent, qualified persons, and that absolute justice should be the rule in public administration and all disputes (4:58); that people can have only what they strive for (53:39); and that whoever kills a person unjustly is the same as one who would kill all humanity (5:32). These and many other principles (e.g., prohibiting usury, gambling, alcohol, and extramarital sexual relations; enjoining prayer, fasting, alms-giving, and good conduct), are strengthened through love and awareness of God, the promise of an eternal happy life, and the fear of punishment in Hell.

The Qur'an also unveils the mystery of humanity, creation, and the universe. The Qur'an, humanity, and the universe are the three "books" that make the Creator known to us, and are three expressions of the same truth. Therefore, the One Who created humanity and the universe also revealed the Qur'an.

• You cannot find people who do exactly what they ask others to do, or whose deeds reflect them exactly. However, the Qur'an is identical with Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, and is the embodiment of him in words, just as he is the embodiment of the Qur'an in belief and conduct. They are two expressions of the same truth. When asked about her husband's conduct, 'A'isha replied: "Don't you read the Qur'an? His conduct was the Qur'an." This clearly shows that the Qur'an and Muhammad, upon him be peace and blessings, are the works of God Almighty.

• Authors are usually so influenced by their surroundings that it is almost impossible for them to become detached. By contrast, even though revealed in parts on certain occasions, the Qur'an is as equally universal and objective when dealing with particular issues as it is exact and precise when dealing with universal matters. It uses precise expressions even while describing the beginning of creation and the end of time, and humanity's creation and life in the other world. Just as it sometimes draws universal conclusions from particular events, it sometimes goes from universal principles to particular events. This typical Qur'anic style cannot be found in any human work and is, therefore, another sign of its Divine origin.

• No author has ever written a book in his or her field that is as accurate as the Qur'an is in such varied fields as religion and law, sociology and psychology, eschatology and morality, history and literature, and so on. The Qur'an also contains at least the principles of all branches of knowledge, either in summary or in detail, and not even one piece of this knowledge has ever been contradicted. What more is needed to prove its Divine origin?

#allah #god #islam #muslim #muslimah #help #hijab #quran #ayat #revert #convert #religion #reminder #hadith #sunnah #prophet #muhammad #pray #prayer #salah #dua #convert help #revert help #islam help #muslim help #welcome to islam #how to convert to islam #new convert #new muslim #new revert

[foreheadtouch]

Were you raised Catholic? Sorry, I’m really interested in spirituality and particularly Catholicism right now and I’d love to hear a little bit about your experience if you’re willing to share. 💓

thank you for asking… yes i was. overall i am so grateful that i grew up surrounded by the faith… that’s not to say i haven’t had struggles and doubts or even periods where i entirely pulled away.

oh wow i have been ramblingggg in the notes app and there’s so much more i could say but i’m going to put it all under the cut... anyways idk if this is helpful at all but it’s sort of where i’m at... i’m definitely still in a grappling and questioning process (which i think will be lifelong) but i’m glad i’ve reconnected with my faith over the past 2 years. please please feel free to ask any other catholicism or spirituality questions! sending you love 🤍

i grew up going to church every sunday and taking religion classes in grade school and completing all of my sacraments. i always thought there was something beautiful about faith but when i was young it was more of a naive, childlike wonder than actual belief or anything. i basically grew up learning bible stories, god loves you, and treat others the way you want to be treated. as i got older, things became more complicated as they naturally do. i became aware of the systemic problems of organized religion, i wanted to understand what catholicism meant at a deeper level, i began questioning parts of my own identity, and my ocd that had been a problem when i was younger got way worse as my life became more stressful and it began to intertwine with my faith. i stopped praying because i enjoyed it and started repeating prayers until they “felt right” otherwise i thought something bad would happen and it would even cause me such bad panic attacks that i would become paralyzed (that’s a simplified version, but it was painful and distressing). by the time i was 15 or 16 faith became something super mechanical for me. i went through the motions because that’s how i was raised and that’s what i knew. i was afraid to ask questions because i was afraid of the answers. i didn’t want to find something out that would make me stop believing and i didn’t want my beliefs challenged. i started just blindly adhering even though i didn’t understand things fully.

in college, i started taking a bunch of philosophy courses for a program i was in and it forced me to confront the questions that i was afraid of. i began to completely pull away. belief in god and jesus seemed absurd and way too attenuated to true. i basically became agnostic for my freshman and sophomore year. i still appreciated catholicism but in a purely aesthetic way as a lot of people do… i was yeah sure they have beautiful churches and make great art but it’s probably not all real all those clichés… over the next year i experienced a lot of personal tragedies and mental health problems… when i went back to school i signed up for a theology class on a whim… honestly it was because i thought the professor was hot and the course was about love and the human condition… that class reminded me of what i loved about catholicism mainly through reading different books and essays... st. augustine’s confessions and essays about divine love... dostoevsky… and one book i’ll recommend over and over to anyone wanting to discover or rediscover faith in any form is etty hillesum’s an interrupted life. it’s a collection of journal entries by a dutch jewish woman during world war ii… and i don’t even mean to be this corny but it was genuinely a spiritual experience reading that book… every line felt like she was taking a thought out of my own head and putting it on paper… i called my mom sobbing when i read it… and that inspired me to actually learn about catholicism at a more intellectual level… i had all these extremely intelligent professors who had degrees in astrophysics from harvard and studied under famous 20th century philosophers and writers... and even people like donna tartt writing about her faith... i was inspired by them and i craved belief in something. i started asking questions and reading and watching youtube videos and debates between people of all faiths and atheists and going back to mass just to see how it felt. the reading obviously helped but honestly just going to a traditional mass and listening to the music and just having that experience really does work.

[rametarin]

Glad at the recent developments in the discourse.

When non-binaries and “gender-nonconformists” appeared, they made it about them being themselves. That they had the right to not be seen as part of the binary, which they argued, incorrectly, exists purely as a social construct and refused to adhere to it as anything but a culture or a religion. Which makes about as much sense as disregarding the shape of the earth because your religion says it isn’t a sphere, but whatever.

Well more recently they’ve argued that A.) It’s incorrect and illegal to contradict them based on how they define themselves. You cannot force them to be cisheteronormic, that’s oppression. B.) How they define themselves also applies to everybody else; IE, YOU aren’t male or female because of your biology, you’re only a boy or girl because of your self-imposed identity that exists purely and squarely in the social sphere of things. And you don’t get a say in this. Your gender does not come from your biology because they refuse to acknowledge biology plays any part in it whatsoever, and is entirely 100% a social construct C.) You cannot define yourself based on your biology, period, because to do so threatens their identity and existence and safety by your, “bigotry.”

Ergo, cisheteros are seen as inherently “hate groups” for not defining their genders on a purely social basis and even arguing biology plays a part at all is bigoted against those that define themesleves boy or girl based on social construct defined gender. They are, effectively, arguing that you cannot be cishetero and not an ideological opponent, and not just an enemy combatant, but “scientifically wrong.”

They’re arguing for nothing less than the abolition of the objective, empirical sex/gender model and to replace it with one of postmodernist philosophy where gender is merely an identity and your sex and reproductive role matters as much as your blood type- universally- for everybody.

The problem with this is that cisgendered people do not feel that way. Your biology is your gender, to a cis person. Because to be cis is not a choice, and to be trans or non-binary is not, “just an option.” It’s the result of an irregularity. Meaning, it’s abnormal. It’s an exception to the norm. And this is not just a case of, “well that’s your opinion.” This is objectively true. Doing mental gymnastics to argue for the abolition of objective biological science and mixing social oughts and idealism with knowledge and facts, smoothing and greasing them to interpret them based on ideals, is no different from demanding society still teach about evolution and such, but only in the context of whatever religious authority is in charge, at the time.

But the bottom line is they’ve stopped just arguing, “you don’t get to impose YOUR values on ME,” and are instead proactively going, “NOT using how WE see things to apply to EVERYBODY by default, is bigotry against us.” In effect, an argument to abolish male/female from the vernacular and replace recognizable boy/girl stuff with a narrative that the only thing that exists is a fabricated imaginary social role.

That’s not, “I can do what I want,” anymore. That’s, “I will define us for you, and you will live how I say you live and define yourself how I define you. Anything else is a threat to me.” Social constructionist values based on ideals and beliefs, as opposed to empirical, observable reality, WILL NOT be the basis upon which we define ourselves as a species, or sexes.

The other way around is not imposing anything on them, however. It’s recognizing that the earth is round, the statistical norm for someone with XY chromosomes is male and a man, someone with XX chromosomes is female and a woman, and that only honorary exceptions to this exist, largely on the social level. The social does not eclipse the biological reality in a secular, science and reason driven society.

[orihara-infobroker]

Bushido, Honour and Ghost of Tsushima

Now that I’m done crying over a horse (I WILL NEVER BE OVER THIS), let’s talk about Shimura and Sakai and the definition of honour to a samurai.

Because the story tells us that Jin has no honour and is a bad samurai but that is from the perspective of Shimura and the samurai like him. There is no good ending for Jin, not because he doesn’t have honour, but because he defied the authority structure. Basically, it’s politics.

I believe Jin is actually the one with more honour and that Shimura forsakes his own honour on the beach when he pursues a course of action that leaves Tsushima (and the mainland) open to invasion. Because without Jin’s willingness to adapt, Tsushima would have been lost, no question. 

The principles of the samurai “code” - bushido - weren’t truly codified until Miyamoto Musashi wrote about the samurai class in his later years. This was in the 1600s. Ghost of Tsushima takes place in the 1200s, well before Musashi’s writings. Which is not to say that the samurai didn’t follow a code of honour but that code could vary from clan to clan, region to region. What was functionally the singular unifying factor was that the samurai were warriors and they were nobility. 

Now, as we all know, the role of nobility has historically been a very divided one. There are the ruling class who believe that their job is to take care of the people and there are the selfish pricks who are rich and entitled and abuse their privilege. Now, I’m not saying that Shimura is abusing the peasants but it is made very clear that they are not his priority. His personal honour (or perception of what honour is) is more important to him than the lives of the peasants. Even the lives of his own soldiers are less important than their perceived “honour”. And Shimura makes it clear that the will of the Shogun (yaaay politics) is more important than the lives of the people. Even his own “son”.

Jin exemplifies the noble who understands that his role is to protect all of his people. He is the people’s hero because he cares about them. He earns their respect and loyalty in a way Shimura cannot because Shimura sees them only as subjects to rule over, not people to care about. 

Further, in the game, Jin does some very “ninja” things. Using poison, assassinating, attacking from behind etcetera. Well. The shinobi as a class didn’t really come into being until the Sengoku era (around the late 1400s, early 1500s). So the criticism levied on Jin for his dishonourable behaviour is somewhat amusing because while samurai did have a general belief that assassination was dishonourable and that you should meet your foes on the field of battle face-to-face, they weren’t opposed to using non-conventional tactics to win battles. They just didn’t get their own hands dirty with it.

Now, if we were to talk about the principles of bushido as they have been interpreted through Musashi, there are nine principles by which a samurai should live his life:

1. Do not think dishonestly. 2. The Way is in training. 3. Become acquainted with every art. 4. Know the Ways of all professions 5. Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters. 6. Develop an intuitive judgement and understanding for everything. 7. Perceive those things which cannot be seen. 8. Pay attention even to trifles. 9. Do nothing which is of no use.

These are the principles that were later further reimagined as the eight virtues of bushido by Nitobe Inazo in the 1800s and are what most people see in reference to bushido today:

Righteousness (義, gi) Be acutely honest throughout your dealings with all people. Believe in justice, not from other people, but from yourself. To the true warrior, all points of view are deeply considered regarding honesty, justice and integrity. Warriors make a full commitment to their decisions.

Heroic Courage (勇, yū) Hiding like a turtle in a shell is not living at all. A true warrior must have heroic courage. It is absolutely risky. It is living life completely, fully and wonderfully. Heroic courage is not blind. It is intelligent and strong.

Benevolence, Compassion (仁, jin) Through intense training and hard work the true warrior becomes quick and strong. They are not as most people. They develop a power that must be used for good. They have compassion. They help their fellow men at every opportunity. If an opportunity does not arise, they go out of their way to find one.

Respect (礼, rei) True warriors have no reason to be cruel. They do not need to prove their strength. Warriors are not only respected for their strength in battle, but also by their dealings with others. The true strength of a warrior becomes apparent during difficult times.

Honesty (誠, makoto) When warriors say that they will perform an action, it is as good as done. Nothing will stop them from completing what they say they will do. They do not have to 'give their word'. They do not have to 'promise'. Speaking and doing are the same action.

Honour (名誉, meiyo) Warriors have only one judge of honor and character, and this is themselves. Decisions they make and how these decisions are carried out are a reflection of who they truly are. You cannot hide from yourself.

Duty and Loyalty (忠義, chūgi) Warriors are responsible for everything that they have done and everything that they have said and all of the consequences that follow. They are immensely loyal to all of those in their care. To everyone that they are responsible for, they remain fiercely true.

Self-Control (自制, jisei)

Now if we look at either of these lists, we can see that Jin does not lack in honour. He does not stray from the path of the samurai. Quite the opposite, Jin exhibits exemplary personal responsibility. Shimura, on the other hand, while not without honour and generally consistent with Musashi’s guidelines, does stray far afield of the virtues. In fact, I would argue that his strict adherence to the “rules” as he perceived them is actually what makes him less honourable than Jin. He cannot perceive things in any way other than the one he was raised with and that is his downfall - and nearly the downfall of Tsushima. 

Which, historically is not inaccurate. (Not that you should be looking to Ghost of Tsushima for historical accuracy. In fact, please don’t... XD) During the actual mongol invasion of Japan, the mongols sailed from Korea and took Tsushima as well as Iki Island then proceeded to land at Hakata Bay. These islands simply did not have the number of troops sufficient to defend them against an entire fleet.

What actually defeated the mongols was not samurai honour (or Jin’s sneaky shinobi tactics). It was weather. During the battle at Hakata Bay, the mongols decided to retreat to their ships at night to avoid being ambushed by the Japanese. And because the troops were on their ships and out to sea when the tsunami hit, the mongols lost nearly half their fighting force. They retreated and, much later, planned a second invasion, following a similar path as the first. They attacked Tsushima and Iki again, routing the samurai and murdering many of the islanders. They moved against Nagato and Hakata Bay but this time the Japanese were better prepared for them and they were forced to return to Iki and other small islands. The Japanese counter attacked by launching raids on the mongol ships. As the Japanese continued to push them back, keeping them off the mainland, the mongol fleet was once again defeated, not by samurai, but by weather. A great typhoon struck the fleet and devastated it. The mongol commander fled, leaving many of his troops stranded on Taka Island where they were rounded up and killed by the Japanese. (Note this is a condensed summary of the invasions. There is obviously more detail to the actual events.)

Amusingly, what did come out of this war was a growing respect and fear for the Japanese from the Korean, Chinese and Mongol nations. The mongols, in particular were quite concerned by the Japanese swords. The Japanese, however, found that these earlier katana that they were using were inconvenient to use when fighting in close quarters against large numbers and responded by refining them.

Anyway, the history lesson aside, Jin’s story is a tragedy but it’s also an absolutely wonderful samurai story because it shows the lengths a truly honourable samurai will go to, to fulfill his duty to his principles and to his people. 

#we stan jin #jin is best samurai boy #jin for Shogun 2020 #give this boy a hug #and buy him some sake #I only have one regret #and that is that I didn't kill Shimura #because that's how you get the white ghost armour #and I wanted the white ghost armour #but if you let Shimura live #you get red ghost armour #which is also cool #but not as cool as white #ghost of tsushima #thoughts and feelings #bushido is fascinating #the world could use more bushido

[atths--twice]

Five Times Mulder and Scully Stopped for Gas

During a group rewatch of Dreamland, a comment was made: “From Scully's confused expressions in this gas station scene, I like to infer that M&S have an established routine at gas stations, and obviously Morris Fletcher isn't complying.”

Well... how could I not answer the call? 

So here is a glimpse into five different times Mulder and Scully stopped for gas, and where we find them as they do. 

They pulled into a gas station and up to the pump, their first case together just beginning, and the rental car low on gas. Scully unbuckled her seatbelt, opened her door, and started to get out of the car.

“Oh,” Mulder said, causing her to pause, and look back at him. “No, I got it.” He took his seatbelt off and started to get out of the car.

“I’m quite capable of pumping gas, Agent Mulder,” she said hotly, the conversation she had with Ethan recently, fresh in her mind. That ideas such as taking out the trash or pumping gas was a “man’s job” and how that belittled women. “I can and have done so on my own, I don’t need—”

“Agent Scully,” he cut across her, his brow furrowed. “In no way am I insinuating that you are not capable of doing something as mundane as pumping gas into a vehicle. I was merely defaulting to the arrangement I have had with other partners, in which the driver is in charge of filling the tank. I don’t know how you did it before, but that’s how I’ve always done it.” He stared at her innocently, and she felt her anger abating, nodding at him once before she closed her door, leaned back in her seat, and buckled her seat belt.

He smiled and nodded, getting out of the car and heading inside the station. Coming back out a few minutes later, he laid the items he purchased on his seat - sunflower seeds, two bottles of water, and a chocolate bar - which he handed to her. She looked at him in surprise and took it before he started to pump the gas. Looking down at the chocolate bar, she smiled at the small peace like offering, and put it into her bag to enjoy later.

Leaving Comity, determined to never come back, Scully angrily drove them out of town, blowing through a stop sign. Mulder sighed and then sighed again, before she told him to shut up once more. Silence hung heavy in the car and her anger was palpable. Seeing the gas gauge on empty, it was her turn to sigh, and then shake her head.

A station appeared a few miles down the road and she pulled in and up to the pump. Mulder took off his seat belt as she put the car in park. While they usually did adhere to the long standing whoever drives pumps the gas, more often than not, Mulder would take the role upon himself, regardless of his position in the car. Even if she tried to stop him, he would simply grin and shrug, continuing with the job at hand.

Sometimes she did not mind being the one who paid and collected snacks, but some days, she would blow up at him that this was once again a hunter/gatherer type situation. At his confused look, she would shake her head and explain, again, how for some reason pumping gas was seen as manly, so of course he would jump to do his duty. To which he would then shake his head, and explain to her, again, how that was ridiculous and he never saw them that way.

Well, tonight she definitely did not want his help, not in any way. “I got it, Mulder. Please, don’t trouble yourself.” Taking off her seat belt angrily, she opened the door and slammed it as stepped out.

“What the hell?” She heard and turned around to look at him, standing outside the car.

“What, Mulder? I’m the driver, I get the gas. That was one of our agreements, right?” she asked, seething inside as she crossed her arms and stared at him. She had half a mind to drive away and leave him in that crazy little town, never looking back.

“Jesus Christ, Scully,” he said, shaking his head. “Are you seriously still angry? Everything has gone back to how it’s meant to be and yet you’re still upset. So yeah, what the hell?” He opened his arms, moving around the trunk of the car, walking closer to her.

“Are you kidding me?” she said, raising her voice and stepping closer to him. “You … you degraded me in front of Detective White, repeatedly. You made me feel less than, numerous times and you’re just going to what, blame it on the alignment of the planets? The planets made you act like a jackass? Made you treat me as … your tagalong, the person whom you ditched to hang out with some tall perky “blonde.” None of that was you?” She raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms tighter.

“I did not ditch you,” he scoffed and she answered with a scoff of her own. “I didn’t. I … you were checking on Jay’s body and we had been … at odds with each other -”

“Because you kept cutting me down in front of Detective White!” she interrupted, throwing her hands up and staring at him. “Not only was that rude to do to me personally, but professionally … Jesus, Mulder. Do you have any idea how that made me look? I don’t care who else is around, male or female, I am your partner and you treated me like some afterthought who was called upon when needed, but left once something, or someone, better came along. The ‘alignment of the planets’ is a shitty excuse for your behavior.”

“You think I would have behaved that way if it hadn’t been the case? That I really feel that way, like you’re a tagalong?”

“It started the minute we walked into that funeral home, Mulder,” she said, shaking her head “If you detect a hint of skepticism or incredulity in Agent Scully’s voice …” Why? Because I chose to want to look further than the ‘satan is to blame’ fear mongering? The belief that satanic rituals were the culprit was enough, simply because someone said so? Well, then, look at me! I’m the Queen of England! It’s true, I said so!” Throwing her hands up again, she stared at him and he shook his head.

“The eyewitnesses to the kids murder said it was as much, and yes I now know it was a lie, but their stories corroborated each other, why would they not have been believed?” Mulder asked, and Scully walked a couple of steps away, shaking her head in disbelief.

“Mulder,” she said, turning to him with an incredulous look. “Is it so much easier for you to believe in satanic rituals, than two pretty, popular girls deciding one night to kill someone? It’s not as though it hasn’t happened before.” He stared at her and she scoffed again. “Well, I can’t look at evidence that points to a satanic cult ritual story and not try to find a plausible explanation. I can’t accept at face value, something that others believe without question. That is not me … and you should know that by now.” She deflated like a balloon, no longer angry, just hurt by his actions. “I deserved to be treated better than I was by you, in front of others, alone, planets aligned or not.” He looked down at the ground and nodded, before looking up and nodding at her once again.

She sighed and walked into the station to pay for their gas. Watching him from inside, she saw him get back into the car and she sighed. “You okay, ma’am?” the young clerk asked, and she nodded with a forced smile. Taking her receipt, she took a deep breath, and stepped outside and over to the already opened gas cap.

Choosing to let it be a peace offering, even if it slightly enraged her, she pumped the gas. Watching the back of his head as she did, she tried to let go of the past few days, and the argument they had just engaged in, in public no less. Closing her eyes, she stood until the gas shut off and she replaced the nozzle, closed the tank, and got back in the car. The silence a little thinner, they headed out of town, relieved to put it behind them.

________________________

Another chemo treatment with an unscheduled stop along the way, as she was unable to keep her stomach from throwing up what little was inside it. The effort it took left her weak and sweaty, but she tried her hardest not to let it show. She took deep breaths and tried to swallow down the returning bile that threatened to gag her every few seconds. Her eyes closed, she felt the car slowing down, causing her to open them.

“Uh, I’m sorry, I need to stop for gas. I was in a rush this morning and I didn’t have time. I’ll be quick,” Mulder said quietly, and she hummed in response, knowing he must see how weak she was feeling, and she hated it.

As the car stopped, she was determined to not let the cancer or the exhausting rounds of chemo take so much from her. She unbuckled her seat belt and pushed herself up into a better sitting position. Reaching for the door handle, she was easily stopped by Mulder’s hand.

“What are you doing, Scully?” he asked so incredibly softly, it was as if no words were spoken at all.  

“Snacks,” was all she could breathe out, before she broke out in a sweat, falling back into the seat, her eyes closing.

“I’ve got it, Scully. I’ve got it,” he said, softer than before, if that was possible. His hand moved gently from hers, his door opening and shutting softly.

She remembered the sound of the gas cap being removed, the nozzle being placed inside, but nothing after, until he was unbuckling her seat belt and helping her out of the car.

“Come on, Scully, I got you,” he said quietly, bringing her carefully to her feet, letting her try to stand on her own, before putting his arm around her waist and walking her slowly to her apartment.

She was sweaty again and nearly there, when she almost collapsed. He caught her and lifted her into his arms, walking the few remaining steps down the hall to her door. He opened it, carried her to her room, and set her on her bed. He took off her shoes and helped her to lay down, before disappearing.

She heard the front door open and shut once, then again, as she kept her eyes closed, focusing on her breathing. It was quiet for a few minutes, and then his voice spoke softly close to her ear.

“Scully, drink this, but just a sip.” A straw was placed in her mouth and the sweet, cold, bubbly taste of 7-Up filled her mouth. “That’s it, just a little bit. It should help settle your stomach.”

She took slow sips for nearly an hour, before he was satisfied she would be okay, and could hold more down. He gingerly helped her remove and change her sweat soaked shirt, before she laid back down. A soft moist cloth, gently stroked across her face and her forearms, cooling her down. She kept her eyes closed throughout, thanking God for gas stations with little convenience stores and a man like Mulder who was there to catch her when she stumbled and needed him most.

_______________________

“You seriously expect to drive?” Mulder asked, as they walked toward her car on their way to her Lamaze class.

“I do expect to drive. I drove home from the bureau today. I’m not an invalid, I’m just pregnant,” she said, giving him a look.

“Yeah,” he laughed. “You are very pregnant.”

“Excuse me?” she asked, turning to him and placing a hand up to stop him from walking.

“I meant … that’s very true … you’re pregnant." He cleared his throat as he hugged the pillow he had grabbed from inside, a poor item choice to protect his body. She narrowed her eyes at him and he winked at her. “I thought we were in a hurry?” Staring at him a second longer, she moved her hand and continued on to the car.

As she drove away, after exhaling loudly when she sat down, while Mulder wisely kept his mouth shut, she saw the gas tank was empty. Sighing, she headed to the gas station, and pulled up to the pump. Turning off the car, she looked over at him.

“Well, I can’t pump the gas, I’m pregnant,” she said, trying not to smile. He stared at her and shook his head, smiling himself as he opened the door and got out of the car. She smiled as the door shut and she rubbed her belly.

A knock sounded on her window and she jumped. Looking at him, she rolled it down and raised her eyebrows. “Do you want anything from inside?”

“Surprise me,” she smiled and he leaned in to kiss her. Pulling back, she grinned and he shook his head before turning around and walking inside. She laughed as she continued to rub her ‘very pregnant’ belly, and waited for him to come back.

He walked out, his hands behind his back, heading for her door. “Pick a hand,” he said and she smiled. Pointing to the left, he handed her a bag of sunflower seeds and she stuck out her lip. Smiling, he held out his right hand and the package of peanut butter cups. She gasped and grinned as she grabbed it.

Stepping back, he smiled and walked around the car to pump the gas, as she opened the wrapper on her candy. Taking a bite, she closed her eyes, smiling as the delicious combination of peanut butter and chocolate hit her tongue.

A couple of minutes later, he opened the door and got inside, smiling as he did. She wordlessly handed over the other half of her candy and he grinned as he took it and shoved it all in his mouth, chewing it up as she started the car.

“I’m driving on the way back,” he mumbled, nearly incoherent around his mouth full of chocolate and peanut butter. She laughed as she rolled up her window and they drove away.

___________________

The sun was beginning to rise as she pulled into the gas station, Mulder asleep beside her. She shook her head and turned off the car. Grabbing some money from the bag in the back, she looked at Mulder once more before going inside to pay for the gas and some essentials.

There was a doughnut shop next door and she stepped in to buy a few for the road, two coffees, and two bottles of orange juice. Walking back to their car with a tray holder and the bags of items, she carefully opened the back door and set the drinks on the floorboard and the bags on the seat. Shutting the door softly, she pumped the gas, filling their car with the necessary fuel to keep them moving.

Pulling away slowly, she entered a parking spot away from the pumps, as she looked out onto the wide expanse of the desert. Mulder was still asleep beside her and she glanced over at him, before getting out of the car, to grab the food in the backseat.

Sitting back down in the driver’s seat, she took out her doughnut and watched the sun rise. A week on the run and it was already exhausting. The constant moving from place to place was a necessity she knew, but it was hard. A moment of peace in this little corner of the world, was everything to her right now. Taking a sip of coffee, she looked over as Mulder began to stir. Opening his eyes, he blinked at the early light around him.

“Hey,” she said with a smile and he yawned, stretching and sitting up straighter. He shivered and looked around with a deep breath. “There’s coffee and orange juice, plus some doughnuts.” He nodded as he yawned once again.

“I need to pee,” he said, getting out of the car, and heading into the gas station. Scully drank some more coffee and waited for him to come back, the sun slowly brightening the sky.

He was back quickly, shivering in the cool morning air and sat down in his seat, reaching for the coffee she offered. They were quiet as they drank, him just waking up, and her with thousands of worries burning inside her mind.

“You sure this is what you want?” he whispered in the quiet of the car, and she looked at him, staring at his profile, before he turned to look at her. He shook his head and she smiled softly.

“My answer hasn’t changed since the last ten times you’ve asked me that question,” she answered quietly. “This is where I want to be, need to be. Sitting here in some gas station, just like countless other times, together. Mulder, I can’t be away from you anymore, so yes, this is what I want. Is it what you want?”

He frowned at her and shook his head. “Running, always looking over our shoulder, no that isn’t what I want. Especially not for you,” he sighed and looked out the window. “But I can’t imagine being here alone, not again. I ached for you, Scully. Physically ached for you.” He turned to look at her again and she reached to touch his face.

“I know. I did for you too,” she whispered. “So yes, this is what I want. I’m right where I’ve always been meant to be.” He touched her hand that was resting on his face. They stared at one another, the sun casting them both in the early light. He kissed her palm before she moved her hand.

Setting her coffee in the cup holder, she started the car, backed up, and left the gas station. Reaching for his hand, she squeezed when he laced his fingers with hers.

“Did you happen to get any sunflower seeds?” he asked, after a few minutes of silence.

“Mmm-hmm and a couple of iced teas too,” she said with a smile, causing him to grin.

“My little gatherer,” he teased, squeezing her hand, causing her to narrow her eyes. Lifting her fingers to his lips, he looked at her. “Could be love.”

“Oh, it definitely is,” she affirmed, squeezing his hand lightly.

He kissed her hand once again as she turned her eyes back to the road, heading wherever it would take them.

#The X Files #XF Fanfic #Five Times #Stopping for Gas #Caring for each other #Sharing #Hunter and Gatherer #Driving #Car rides

[qqueenofhades]

“This is because poor white people have been systematically conditioned to support white supremacy at the direct expense of their own economic and social interests; it’s terrible, but that’s how it functions.” Do you think the rich white overlords have also been conditioned to support the system?

“while disdaining the government as tyrannical the rest of the time, unless it’s Trump’s actively tyrannical lot, but hey, we don’t have time to unpack all that)” Can you unpack some of that? I don’t understand. Thanks. Love your political posts. 

Sure!

(If anyone’s wondering, this is carrying on from/in reference to this ask from yesterday on how to dismantle arguments about “I’m white and my life has been hard therefore racism isn’t real.”)

The third part of the white supremacist equation in America, aside from racism and capitalism, is religion, especially fundamentalist and evangelical Christianity. We didn’t get to that in the last ask, but it’s an equally important factor in the social and cultural landscape of this particular demographic -- especially because the GOP has essentially become its political manifestation, and religious conservatism has become tied so deeply to a set of hot-button social issues (immigration, the gays, abortion, etc). As a lot of social scientists and lay observers have noted, religious belief in America remains staggeringly high relative to the rest of the industrialized Western world. Ever since the rise of religious conservatives as a mobilised political force in the 1980s, we have had to deal with their influence and the GOP’s willingness to function as an eager and uncritical vehicle for their social agenda. Fundamentalist/evangelical Christianity in America has also served as a powerful tool of promoting white supremacy. In fundamentalist religions, it’s a sin to question anything you’re told and you have to trust that a “higher authority” has your best interests at heart. This lends itself easily to personality cults: think the charismatic mega-preachers and other high-profile figures that exist in mainstream and fringe American evangelicalism alike, as well as the cult of Trump that now exists around the Orange Fuhrer.

Some books on this:

The Sin of White Supremacy: Christianity, Racism, and Religious Diversity in America, by Jeannine Hill Fletcher

White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity by Robert P. Jones (you can also read a Washington Post interview with him here, and his piece in The Atlantic here.)

The Cult of Trump by Steven Hassan

When you intertwine the moral imperatives of fundamentalist religion (if you don’t believe the right things, you’ll go to hell), with the centuries-old American system of prizing whiteness at the expense of everything else, with the belief that your rich white overlords are more “your people” than your differently-colored working-class peers, you get an incredibly powerful and coercive system of mental conditioning that works on multiple levels, constantly reinforces itself, and is very difficult to break away from. And frankly, it’s difficult to tell if the most high-profile mouthpieces of these views actually believe it (maybe to some degree) or if they just use it to obtain a comfortable life at the expense of vulnerable people. Honestly, I’m not sure if it matters whether or not the overlords believe everything they themselves teach (and I’m pretty certain that they don’t). They know that it ends up as a good deal for them, and so it’s in their interests to maintain the system as vigorously as possible.

You may have heard of “prosperity gospel” evangelists, who claim to their poor followers that if they give them, the evangelists, all their money as a demonstration of faith, God will automatically reward them/provide for their economic needs, and it’s a sign of too little faith if you don’t believe this, therefore you will stay poor. You may have also heard of the recent sex scandal involving Jerry Falwell Jr., son of the famous Jerry Falwell and current president (though he was forced to resign) of the ultra-fundamentalist Liberty University in Virginia. This, of course, goes up there with all the other hard-right politicians who preached family values and Moral Purity and then turned out to be hypocrites who were failing to live up to these ideas in private. American evangelicalism is a deeply weird and self-reinforcing universe that provides adherents with everything they need to live in a parallel version of reality and feel holier-than-thou about not interacting with “infidels,” and yes, a huge part of that, especially white Protestant evangelicalism, involves preaching the gospel of white supremacy, implicitly or explicitly.

So at the end of this, we have a system which orchestrates and indeed insists upon complete obedience to the overlords (be they economic, racial, or religious) by the underclass at every turn. As I noted above, the rich white overlords themselves know that they benefit immensely from this setup, so the question of whether or not they actually believe it is less important. As also noted, they sure don’t make any attempt to live up to it in private, or at least trust that they won’t be found out if they don’t. That’s because (at least in my opinion) they know perfectly well that it sucks. They don’t want to be poor either, but it’s useful for them if there are poor people. Fundamentalism is also deeply predicated on suffering: it’s holy to suffer, poverty is a virtue, you shouldn’t worry about this world so much as what you will get after you die, thinking about material things is Sinful, God will magically provide everything that you need, so on and so forth. So even if they’re voting against their own self-interests, white working class religious people have been assured that is a virtue anyway and they should keep doing it. Only heathens like socialism.

That also makes it harder to get any dialogue of social justice going in (white) churches. Black churches have obviously been at the forefront of social justice struggles in America for their entire history, but that’s because white and black American Christianity are often very different. There are overlaps in places, but the black church was founded in the slave tradition, rather than the slaveholder tradition, as the establishment church in the 19th century was often a zealous supporter of slavery for the “moral good” of the slaves -- hey, they might be in terrible bondage, but at least they had the chance to be saved by becoming Christians! White Americans tend to go to church to be reassured that what they’re doing is good and doesn’t need to change, or if it does need to be changed, it’s to outlaw abortion or gay marriage or whatever social issue is the order of the day. It’s founded on repression rather than liberation. This isn’t true of every church everywhere, of course, but the overall trend is one toward social and religious hyper-conservatism.

This ties into the “civic faith” of America, i.e. the sphere of cultural Christianity that everyone participates in whether they’re actively religious or not, and which has also been the subject of political studies as to how it has been twisted into an organ of feel-good jingoistic American nationalism with very little reference to what Jesus Christ is recorded as having actually taught. The point again is that this entire belief system prizes absolute obedience and adherence to a (white and male) Supreme Leader, which is really easy for a fascist to exploit with populist rhetoric draped in the shabbiest veneer of religious language. The enthusiastic evangelical support for Trump, and the way the religious right has bent over backward from trying to impeach Bill Clinton for a blowjob in the Oval Office to defending serial rapist Trump is... both enlightening and terribly depressing. (Not to say that Clinton isn’t gross, because he is, but that’s beside the point; the GOP went on a frothing-mouth moral crusade over his behavior and it’s absolute crickets over Trump.)

In the end, we have this entire subset of people who have argued that they need their guns and their paramilitary organizations to defend against a theoretical “tyrannical” (read: non-white, non-Christian) body politic or American government. That’s why we had constant claims that Obama was going to throw people into concentration camps or send federal agents to arrest people off the streets or turn America into a military dictatorship; these proud AR-15-waving nutcases were happy to inform us that they would rise up and prevent that from happening. Of course, Obama didn’t actually do any of that, but you know who did? Trump. And his supporters, of course, didn’t make any attempt to stop it from happening. Instead they actively went out to help it happen more. (Side note: a little racist shitstain literally named RITTENHOUSE being the face of armed and murderous white supremacy in the Kenosha protests is like... ridiculously on the nose, PAGING GARCIA FLYNN.)

So when I say they’re protesting “government tyranny,” we’ve already gotten a good look at what they imagine tyranny to be: i.e. anything except the actual tyranny we’re already enduring, because it’s coming from their orange messiah and it is the culmination of everything that their religious, political, social, and cultural values have taught them. They mean “tyranny” of anything that is not their extreme right-wing, white-supremacist, religious-fundamentalist fascist version of things, which means respect or tolerance or room for anyone who isn’t exactly like them, which they can’t abide. Totalitarianism never can.

Anyway, I hope that was helpful. Thanks for the question!

#politics for ts #history of racism #history of religion #american history #long post #anonymous #ask

[dreamingofscully]

7x02. “The Sixth Extinction II: Amor Fati” (part 3 of 3) - X-Files Rewatch

“Scully, I was like you once-- I didn't know who to trust. Then I... I chose another path... another life, another fate, where I found my sister. The end of my world was unrecognizable and upside down. There was one thing that remained the same. You... were my friend, and you told me the truth. Even when the world was falling apart, you were my constant... my touchstone.” - Mulder “And you are mine.” - Scully

Pretty long analysis. Let me know what you think of my interpretation of Mulder’s vision!

Mulder’s vision on the beach is the future in a vision/dream that doesn’t quite make sense to him yet. The couple represents him and Scully and William.

The future he wants, subverted by the vision given to him by CSM. It’s purpose: to make Mulder give up and abandon Scully.

Scully is THE ONLY THING separating Mulder from his destruction; whether that is the desertion of his quest through his complacency or his death. CSM wishes to make Mulder into his copy, not caring about anything except himself, but if he can’t have that he’ll settle for killing him.

Diana doesn’t care if Mulder chooses her of his own free will, just as long as she possesses him. She is unaware that CSM doesn’t care if Mulder dies until he tells her so, which makes her change her mind and give the tools to Scully to help him.

The only person who knows that Mulder and Scully are involved? Krycek. He has his hands everywhere, and keeps most of his knowledge to himself so he can take advantage of it in the future. Remember: CSM tried to kill Krycek. He’s working with him now only out of necessity, just waiting for an opportunity to get the upper hand. It’s not as simple as killing CSM, he wants him to suffer and he wants power. 

How can CSM read Mulder’s mind? Because he can’t. He’s giving this vision to Mulder as soon as he enters the room. The same way they make him sicker (Diana at Mulder’s apartment), they have some sort of technology to force a vision on him (I don’t know the exact mechanism, but I also can’t explain how they impart Mulder’s specialness to CSM through a brain operation, so...). When Diana says to Mulder in the last episode “Now we can be together” it indicates to me that there is a purpose to putting Mulder through the dream he is experiencing.

CSM as Mulder’s father. This would throw Mulder off. He wants to trust people and is susceptible to being manipulated because of it. Perhaps there is a small part of Mulder that believes CSM might have good intentions because he thinks he is his father.

Scully sleeping at Mulder’s desk, awakened by Kritschgau. She has her notes on the computer, so I’ll assume she also has the diary she was writing. Kritschgau threatens Scully, like that’s going to stop her from doing everything to help Mulder.

Mulder’s true vision comes back again, and it’s the first time we see the boy. IT’S WILLIAM. The future, again. Interrupted by CSM.

CSM gets Mulder to think he’s dying, that there’s little to be gained by returning. His first thought is to contact Scully, but CSM claims she’ll be in danger. Why doesn’t he return? He doesn’t return because of the chance that what CSM is telling him is correct, and because he wants to see what the purpose of all of this is. Mulder’s guilt plays heavily in this decision as well: he’s always felt responsible for the things that happened to Scully and that he doesn’t deserve Scully, now he has a chance to do something that will, perhaps, make her safer. It’s easy for him to give up what makes him happy when he feels like he’s doing what’s right. Also, if Mulder is anything, he’s curious. He wants to explore what it is that CSM is showing him before abandoning it. By this exploration, however, he tacitly accepts this dream and it unfolds before him.

Scully has another vision. She is the spiritual tether, the only thing that keeps Mulder from completely abandoning himself for the vision. Hosteen was the one responsible for bringing Mulder back from the brink of death in “The Blessing Way”, so now he confers that responsibility to Scully. The importance of bringing him back “for the sake of us all”. More allusions to the tragedy that will befall humanity if Mulder were to abandon his quest. 

Mulder’s mother seems to be involved. It COULD be a shapeshifter alien, but I think if she thought that this was the only way to keep him alive she would go along with CSM’s plans.

“I felt responsible for your death.” - Mulder “You can let that go.” - Deep Throat

Lulling Mulder with absolution. He doesn’t have to be the martyr. He doesn’t have to FEEL. Letting go of his guilt means giving EVERYTHING up, the good along with the bad.

Mulder's forced vision keeps getting interrupted by his true dreams, by his connection to Scully (in the form of William). The message is to keep trying, to persist, to FIGHT AND NOT GIVE UP.

His vision with Diana and the handcuff symbolism. She releases him which implies that now he is ‘free’ but in reality he is only shackled by his choice to forget and give up. A sense of freedom exists in forgetting all the tragedy that came before this, in living another life instead, starting over. He can have everything (his sister, perceived happiness), but in order to do so he receives nothing, he must live a lie. Perfection only in a complete lack of feeling, numbness. If you can’t be hurt, you cannot feel joy either.  

Scully confronting Diana. FUCK YES. Diana’s argument is incredibly stupid. “Oh yeah? Well I may have betrayed him but at least I didn’t not prevent it!!” What? (Remember, she doesn’t have any idea about the nature of Mulder & Scully’s relationship yet.)

“I just want you to think. Think of Mulder when you met him. Think of the promise and the life in front of him. Think of him now. And then try and stand there in front of me, look me in the eye and tell me Mulder wouldn't bust his ass trying to save you.” - Scully

Love Scully’s counter-argument (even though it’s like she’s debating a two-year-old, she could say anything and fucking win). Making it about Mulder. Reminding Diana the reasons WHY she wants to possess him so badly, that she is turning him into something else, and the point of it all will be lost. The fucking spine it takes for her to acknowledge that Diana did love him at one point. Again, she’s not jealous anymore, she knows where she stands with him.

Mulder’s final vision of the boy. He finished his project but is now destroying it. Mulder is destroying all the work, and the progress he’s made over the years. For nothing (LITERALLY nothing - emptiness, hollowness and superficiality).

Following, and directly linked to, Scully’s vision. Part 2 of Albert Hosteen. Again, emphasizing her spiritual connection to Mulder. Needing to look for him through her heart. “There are more worlds than the one you can hold in your hand.” This links the spiritual with the unexplainable things she can hardly stand to believe in, not yet anyway. This is one of her first steps towards belief, to acknowledging the fantastical as truth. She’s not ready to believe fully, but she does have faith.

When Scully prays, we see Mulder on his deathbed. Hearing about all the deaths of those around him, but the only one that affects him is Scully’s. The only one who matters. The symbol of all he’s given up. Not only did he walk away from his guilt, but he walked away from his love and from the truth.

Scully comes to him as she is in reality, representing the truth instead of a fantasy. Mulder isn’t really dying, this vision is fake. She wakes him from his comfortable dream, always tells him the truth even if it’s uncomfortable. ALWAYS.

Scully at the DOD. She told Mulder in his vision that he’d been lulled to sleep, he’d been living a lie, living a shallow existence. She wakes him with her tears and her kiss, her emotional pleas. A return to reality and all the beauty and ugliness that living in this world means. 

Mulder’s “You... help... me.” Finally. The help he’s needed, she gives. Through her spiritual journey (visions through Albert Hosteen) and through her strict adherence to finding the truth and standing up for what’s right (confronting Diana).

One Week Later…

Scully’s been caring for Mulder while he’s been recovering, staying at his place. She’s been filling him in on everything she saw, going over the notes she gathered, but until this moment she hasn’t let herself consider the implications. She’s been on auto-pilot, happy to have him back and worried about his health. She returns to him the morning before her first day back at work. 

Mulder knows how much this confirmation of his beliefs leaves her shaken and confused. He also knows her and what she’s afraid of. He saw into her mind for a brief period, knows the shining truth of her intentions. He can wait for her, just happy she’s there with him. KNOWING that this is the right path, guilt and all.

Mulder’s words are just… so him. No simple “I love you”’s for this fellow. They are each others’ anchor, the most important and guiding force in their lives. Mulder has been dealing with his guilt for so long, and while he still has it and will always carry that with him, he realizes that he can’t just move on. The guilt serves as a reminder, and to forget it would mean forgetting all the good as well.

And... the gazing, the lingering kiss and her fingers grazing tenderly over his lips. So plAToniC. 

She leaves because she’s going to work. I’m envisioning Mulder calling out before she gets onto the elevator, asking her to come back later. Scully’s like “haven’t I always?”

The last vision Mulder has, of him and the boy working together, finishing their project. He’s on the right path. Their connection is stronger than ever, now. ❤️

#xfiles #x-files #x-files rewatch #x files rewatch #msr #msrheadcanon #mulder and scully #fox mulder #dana scully #season 7

[bitch-for-a-rainbow]

Lex Luthor: I actually really like him and Supergirl made me mad

     So, Lex Luthor is a very interesting, sometimes thought provoking, but most of all very enjoyable character.

     Lex is many things, a classic egomaniacal villain, an example of what lies can do to a relationship, a walking, talking red flag, a warning of how hubris and jealously can destroy you, and much, much more. He is not the typical strain of insane— if crazy at all, highly competent, and best of all knows every one of Superman’s buttons and exactly how to press them.

     I love watching Lex in every media I’ve ever seen him in going back to the original Christopher Reeve Superman. Every media, that is, except Supergirl. Why?

     Because she isn’t fucking Superman.

      Obviously, I love Supergirl— I run a blog with her in my icon— but there are certain things she is not and was never meant to be. Nemesis to Lex Luthor is right up there with a mass-murdering nazi (which is why the multiverse exists-- so that you can make her the first super on earth, Lex Luthor’s ex-friend, and not completely ignore the foundation of who they are as characters)

     Lex is fun because he’s so smart, but also because of the personal stake he has with Superman. Lex felt jealous. In many cases, he felt betrayed. He let that fester into mania and then he built an evil radioactive robo-suit and committed mass murder. You know, like reasonable people do.

     Lex was Superman’s friend and that gives his hatred of Kryptonians not only purpose, but emotional weight. Their relationship has that itching tension of painful history. In addition, Lex is extremely prideful. To him, Supergirl would be second class, she’s backup. And there is a story there: a story when Lex has a breakdown when backup knocks him into the sun, or the (in my opinion, less entertaining) version where Superman shows up to save her, reaffirming Lex’s worldview that he’s everything and defeating Superman means that Lex is the greatest and smartest, and even more stories beyond those that still adhere to its core principles— Kara and Lex as characters.

     But Supergirl chose neither. Instead they chose another recycle Superman plot. And then another. And another.    

     I should make time to say that I like Jon Cryer; I think he’s doing a great job with what he’s been given. He’s got the charisma. He’s got the smarmy self-congratulating swagger down perfectly. The scenes where the real Lex pokes its ugly head through his facade are just great. I think in anything else he would have made an excellent Lex Luthor, but not here.

     I was… disappointed with season 4. I liked 4x20– Kara and Lena investigating was fun at worst and at best had some really good edge of my seat moments. I thought that 4x16 “The House of L” was one of the best episodes of supergirl in a very long time and it still holds its place at least in my top 10, probably my top 5. But you will notice Lex wasn’t even in 4x20 and his places in 4x16 I actually enjoyed could easily have been occupied by any other intelligent villainous character. From a very basic point of view Col. Haley would have fit the mold of the manipulator training the compassionate but confused alien to kill— Wouldn’t have been her first time.

     The later usages of Lex in Supergirl are also attempting a common Superman plot. Lex “redeems” himself, tricks the public into trusting him again by framing Superman for something, and eventually is once again revealed to be evil. It sounds like a repetitive, boring plot that would lose the audience suspension if belief after a few tries— “Seriously, this again. How are they not expecting this by now?” And that complaint works for Supergirl. Because Supergirl isn’t Superman.

     Clark Kent was Lex Luthor’s best friend. Clark Kent ignored every warning sign and red flag waved in his face because Lex Luthor was his best friend. Clark Kent harbors a deep, abiding hurt and resentment from Lex’s betrayal. He has no trust for Lex, just like any hero would, but he also has the built up anger from repeated clashes with Lex and the initial betrayal. So when Lex returns, once again proclaiming he’s changed his ways, Superman’s response is a very public, very obviously bitter “yeah, right.” When Lex lays one of his traps for Superman, Clark is a little too rash. Lex Luthor knows how to push all of Clark’s buttons, even if he doesn’t know that they’re Clark’s. Lex can play him like a fiddle, and as for the general populace— would you be so steadfast in your trust of the invulnerable alien that could laser you in half in the blink of an eye and seems to be getting a little too comfortable in his role as peacekeeper? Would you, when even the slightest chance could slaughter your entire planet and you would have nothing and no one would could stop him— except, of course, Lex Luthor?

     We’ve been shown through many media that when Lex can’t manipulate his opponent, when villain comes that is simply too big for him to work on, he is at incredible risk. There are several stories I can think of of the top of my head where Lex becomes a temporary ally of the heroes simply because he realizes he can’t manipulate this new, powerful player and that therefore they are a risk to him (I actually really like those stories because the dynamics between him and the heroes are incredibly fun and interesting— you start to get an idea of who Lex is underneath all of the wit and ego).

     This is Supergirl’s great failure with Lex. The show understands that he is a genius— makes a great fuss about it. They understand that he is a manipulator— it’s his entire plot line with Lena. But they fail to understand that Lex’s ploys don’t work because he’s just so smart like the smartest ever. They work because he knows Superman and he knows that people are afraid of him— even the ones who trust and love him live with the knowledge that if he gets mind controlled or goes crazy, he could kill them all with ease, and that it’s happened before.

     Supergirl wasn’t around for Lex’s turn. This Supergirl wasn’t even in that steady of contact with Clark. She has no stinging betrayal, no anger and bitter history to make her rash and predictable. Certainly by now, two seasons into Lex’s placement in the show, she is angry— but by all the evidence we’ve been given, Kara’s anger just makes her more volatile, unpredictable and sometimes genuinely down for murder, which is definitely not something Lex needs. We have seen her both let Lex “fall to his death” (when she wasn’t all that angry— she just accepted his suicide without trying to force him into prison) and nearly shoot him with laser vision (this time she was angry and emotionally unstable after the death of Argo and the more Lex centered anger that he revealed her identity and destroyed her relationship with Lena. There is no question that she would have killed-- or at the very least maimed-- him if The Monitor hadn’t intervened). If Superman just murdered Lex when he got angry, he would have died a dozen times over.

     Lex doesn’t even have a basic understanding of Kara’s mindset. He can’t. Superman was raised by American humans in Kansas— he has a worldview that Lex could easily pick up on because it is at least based on watching most of the same events unfold as they grew up— and that’s if they had never met before they started fighting. Sure, he could assume Superman had some quirks from being an alien, but the base Americanized cultural standpoint was already affecting Lex’s machinations because he was an American. He’s familiar with the culture and values Superman follows— not so with Kara. I don’t even know if it was possible for him to obtain information on her religion, let alone the cultural views on justice. His research on her past fights would have been choppy at best, given that there are so many things that only Kara or the other Superfriends were there for. He can’t have the information about that fight on Mars where Kara literally disintegrated at least 3 white martians. He can’t know what happened with Reign beyond “she’s not going to be a problem anymore”. He might have more information about the Daxamite invasion through government records and his mother but the information is still limited. As for Non and Myriad, we don’t even know what happened to Non, and did they report to the DEO that J’onn literally tore Indigo in half (very graphically I might add). Or did they just say “They won’t be a problem anymore.” Lex may have been spying on Kara since Season 2, but how much is watching her civilian life going to help him understand her, when Kara’s civilian life was constructed to hide? Kara Danvers doesn’t say a lot of what she thinks to avoid notice, and even Supergirl keeps her mouth shut a lot of the time to try and maintain human-alien relations. The episodes where she squabbles with the Col. Haley and President Baker are full of her smiling and gritting her teeth through statements that clearly make her very angry.

     Lex “falling to his death” and then getting shot at the end of season 4 was a great moment— it fit with the characters motivations, but it also unfortunately illustrated the problem with Supergirl characters interacting with Lex. J’onn was a soldier who kills people. Kara has killed people. Alex has killed people. This scene was not the first time we watched Lena try to murder someone with that gun. They are not restricted by the moral code Superman uses, which makes it both more difficult and more dangerous for Lex to try manipulating them— so he doesn’t and instead they skip the intermediary and rely wholly on him being able to manipulate the public. This works to an extent with Red Daughter, but only because anti-alien sentiment was at an all time high with the Children of Liberty, and because Lex lucked into an amnesiac supergirl clone. So little of the heavy lifting was actually done by Lex it feels less like his accomplishment and more like he cheated off of 3 different people and then bragged about his math skills. I said it before and I’ll say it again. The season 4 villain could have been anyone with moderate intelligence and resources. After crisis, the excuses just get weaker and weaker. I mean come on, he confessed to trying to mind control the whole world in front of the jury while screaming vile things at his sister who’s sitting there visibly flinching at his words and they unanimously voted not-guilty? Are you kidding? (Also after watching all the courtroom scenes in Supergirl... do they know how courtrooms work? I mean, I laughed as hard as anyone at the “I plead the 5th” line, but seriously. Do they?)

    And Crisis was… a choice. I personally hated that they brought Lex back to life— more so because the in-universe reasoning was so weak. Lex Luthor does not face a whole lot of consequences, it’s true, but that’s because he has the genius, guile, and money to avoid them. To give him such an unearned out— especially after all the damage he’d done by dying— really hurt the both the stakes and the character. Lex is a human, and he fights Superman by taking advantage of very human things: corruption, anger, and fear as well as ingenuity and resourcefulness. He loads the deck in his favor— he doesn’t win on luck. And Lex in the CW Supergirl, seems to only win on luck. First he finds Red Daughter right when anti-alien sentiment is blowing up, then he is resurrected, then he finds out the crisis world loves him. He has had exactly 1 major victory based on his own work— manipulating Brainy. A manipulation which was really hard to believe when Brainy was, in canon, much, much smarter than Lex, familiar with his tactics, lying to the superfriends for no reason, and had no emotional reaction to cloud his judgement. 

      And even so, this one plot line was one of the more interesting ones in season 5 and the most Lex Luthor-like plot line the show has had. Even when I felt my suspension of disbelief slipping, it wasn’t entirely in tatters. Lex’s win felt somewhat earned. 

     He has been in the show for 2 1/2 seasons and he has had 1 major victory that felt at all earned. 2 and 1/2 seasons. That’s currently around 45% of the show’s run time.

     All in all, we have 4 deeply related problems that plague the CW Supergirl Lex Luthor:

Lex Luthor’s plans rely as much on effective manipulation of Superman as they do on his own genius. Without that manipulation, his victories rely much more on happenstance and luck, making them feel less earned.

Lex Luthor cannot effectively manipulate Supergirl— at the very least, not in the beginning of their relationship, which CW Supergirl focuses on— nor does he try to manipulate her or much of the cast beyond Lena and once with Brainy.

Supergirl kills people. Supergirl has killed Lex. Superman doesn’t kill people.

Lex fighting Supergirl does not have the kind of inherent emotional weight that Lex fighting Superman does.

     There are some other issues I have with the CW supergirl version of Lex, but I think if it was a Superman show I wouldn’t have minded. The large amount of screen time dedicated to him would make sense there, and the fact that he’s a cockroach seemingly impervious to any plot consequences would also fit more in line with Superman’s increasing frustration and make his manipulations more effective.

     The only problem I have that wouldn’t been solved purely by making it about Superman is the crowding problem. In season 1, Non and the DEO were highly connected and fed each other as villains. Season 2 also fit that same block of alien vs. anti alien. Both of those secondary villains (the army/DEO in s1 and Cadmus in s2) were very much not as big a villain as the main. Season 3 sort of had a secondary villain with Morgan Edge, but he was mostly just a Lena problem. All of these seasons had a good balance between the villains screen time and also between the villains and heroes. It got a little more complicated with the extra world killers in s3, but still functioned fairly smoothly with focus on Reign. This is one of the main reasons that seasons 1 and 3 are my favorites. S4, however, got more cluttered. A lot more cluttered. Manchester Black, the Children of Liberty, Lex Luthor, Red Daughter, and Eve Tessmacher were all villains with multi-episode arcs handled directly by Supergirl herself. There was too much to cover, not enough connection, and not enough time— plus 2 new main cast members (Look, I love Nia and Brainy but that season had way too much going on). Season 5 had Leviathan, Lena Luthor, Lex Luthor and 2 new mains. Each of those villain arcs had their own distinct plot from one another and screen time started to become more choppy and spread out. Season 6 now has so far Lex Luthor, the phantom zone, and Nyxly, as well as the Zor-El mini-arc, and while I’ll give them some leeway for Melissa Beniost’s maternity leave, there is again too much in too little time. Villains are underdeveloped or not given weighty closures, each main gets less and less personal screentime, and every shot that doesn’t serve a good or entertaining purpose feels like pouring out water from a canteen in the desert, especially now in the last season. Lex has greatly suffered for this both in the rage at how much screen time he gets compared to other characters, Kara in particular, and because of how his arcs are still hobbled by the lack of it.

    I just find myself wishing they’d restricted Lex to a 3 or 4 episode mini-arc, or just season 4 and saved him for the Superman and Lois show. They could have played the crisis resurrection as just an unfortunate coincidence of fate and had it be Superman’s problem from there on. 

    To Jon Cryer, may you never see this. It’s so very not your fault.

If anyone actually reads this whole thing and I got something wrong let me know. I’d love to discuss it. Today, I’m just trying to isolate the main issues I have with Lex in Supergirl. 

#i spent way too long on this #And I'm pretty sure I still have typos and fragmented sentences #but im not spending another minute editing #so here you go #Supergirl #Lex Luthor

[alienidentities-f22a]

Textual Analysis Blog: Representations of the Military

Across the varying representations of military officials in Roswell, New Mexico, the dual depiction of officers as either maniacally corrupt or morally dignified accurately illustrates the wide spectrum of personalities in the military, which comments on the overall corruption in America’s law enforcement agencies.

Widely respected in the town, the Manes family spans a long generational line of highly-ranked Air Force officers. Within the Manes family, there is a wide spectrum of personalities and identities, covering different sexualities, disabilities, and military rankings. From Alex to Master Sergeant Jesse, the Manes family remains polarized as time progresses because they are advocating for and leading the two conflicting sides of the alien investigation, creating a rift in their family dynamic. In season two, especially, the depiction of Jesse and Flint Manes as immorally deceitful and Alex and Gregory as honorably righteous is fortified through the development of Project Shepherd.

To begin, Master Sergeant Jesse Manes—as the father in the family—cultivates an acute aversion to and hatred for aliens at a very young age. For years, Jesse Manes advances Project Shepherd in conjunction with the federal government and the Valenti family to investigate the presence of aliens in Roswell. When discussing the components of Project Shepherd with Kyle Valenti, Jesse Manes claims that “for the past 70 years, your ancestors and mine have led an operation to protect this town, this entire planet” (“Pilot”). Here, Jesse Manes clarifies the importance of Project Shepherd by inspecting and, perhaps, eradicating the existence of alien species on Earth. Since this project was founded by his ancestors, Jesse Manes feels the generational pressures to expand upon their work and continue their legacy even after the government stops funding it.

Because he adheres to the notions that aliens “are a violent race,” Jesse Manes has a fixed mindset that prevents him from accepting the opinions of others and rationally thinking about the effects of actions (“Pilot”). This inability to accept other people with an open mind also extends to his blatant homophobia towards his own son, Alex. Actively antagonizing his son and his boyfriend, Michael Guerin, Sergeant Manes is very traditional in terms of his beliefs and closes his mind off to other perspectives and identities. Ultimately, his susceptibility to generational pressures and traditionalism are key attributes of Jesse Manes that often lead to questionable decision-making skills and inconsiderate actions.

Sergeant Manes, Alex's father, physically beats him as a kid, inflicting severe mental distress. Indeed, Jesse Manes thought that Alex's homosexuality was a disgrace to the Manes family, so when his father discovered that he was gay, he intended to impart conventional discipline. Later, Sergeant Manes transformed traditional military order into physical and verbal punishment. Eventually, Alex joined the military when his father got physically angry with Michael, despite the negative associations that were shaped around it because of his father's abusive nature.

In contrast, Alex Manes is a much more progressive character, who represents numerous minority groups and advocates for the rights that his father condemns. On the other half of Project Shepherd, Alex protects the alien race in Roswell because he listens to their stories and opens his mind to them. Over time, Sergeant Manes’ intolerance of Alex’s sexuality and his subsequent disapproval of his lifestyle has strained their relationship, leading Alex to claim that “the dad I got was a monster, is a monster” (“Don’t Speak”). The direct conflict between his father’s traditional values versus Alex’s progressive ones complicates their dynamic greatly.

Overall, these varying depictions of military officials serve to emphasize the latent corruption within law enforcement agencies and the military. In positions of power, especially, Sergeant Manes presents himself as a duplicitous character with an overtly ulterior motive, constantly antagonizing other people. In such dark light, this depiction of a prominent military leader elucidates how leaders can abuse their authority and power to cause harm to other people. Therefore, this commentary on the conniving nature of military officials extends to the government as well to expose corruption within many federal agencies.

#yanniaknine #textualanalysis