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dannyphantomisameme · 3 years

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Happy New Year!

I’m your secret Santa @faebiie! I decided to write a fic that incorporated both themes you requested: angst and Danny and Clockwork bonding. I hope you like it!

Danny’s fingers fidgeted nervously as he stared blankly at the floor. He sat at the edge of his bed, having woke up from his blaring alarm thirty minutes ago. His hair was a knotted mess from all his anxious tugging, tufts of hair twisting and turning in awkward directions. Dark bags encircled his eyes, hinting that he hadn’t slept in the past week or so.

Today marked the fourth anniversary of Danny’s accident, but also the day he swore to tell his parents his secret. He’d been dreading this moment for so long. Danny knew his parents wouldn’t mind the fact that their child was half ghost, as they hadn’t in alternate timelines where he accidentally revealed himself, but he was still terrified at the mere notion of them knowing. There always existed that slight possibility that they might reject him. He hoped the chance was slim.

Jazz was fine with his secret. Within a few months after the accident, she stumbled upon Danny transforming and secretly aided him until it became imperative to tell him that she knew. Yet throughout, Jazz had always been supportive of him, so there was no reason for his parents not to, right? Wrong.

The Fentons parents were notorious for being the ultimate ghost hunting duo. Maddie, of course, was the brains of the operation, however, Jack did not fall short behind. Together, they made several breakthroughs in the realm of paranormal science, a field that had been regarded as pseudoscience till the Fentons came along. The duo firmly believed that ghosts were inherently sinful formations of post human consciousness. In essence, to Jack and Maddie, ghosts were abominations; objects that needed to be eradicated. Moreover, there was one ghost in particular that they absolutely despised, and that, by pure coincidence, had to be Danny.

Over the past four years, Phantom, Danny’s ghost persona, had become quite famous in the quaint town of Amity Park. By now, the majority of the town viewed Phantom as a hero since he stopped ghosts from attacking harmless humans on a daily basis. The Fenton’s, on the other hand, had convinced themselves that Phantom’s true intentions were to destroy the town once he’d gained their trust. And while initially, the Fenton’s had been working towards terminating all ghosts, over time the duo has gradually lessened their hatred and become more open to the notion of ghosts as they now constitute daily life.

It might seem like inappropriate timing for Danny to tell his parents, but he knew he’d feel guilty if he didn’t sooner or later. He spent his entire high school shielding his true self from his parents and now that he would be off to college soon, he felt it fitting for them to know the real him. Plus, he’d definitely get made fun off by Sam and Tucker if he didn’t go through with his plan. For the past week, his friends had been hyping him up, ensuring him that his parents would be supportive and that he needn’t worry. Tucker even calculated that the likelihood of his parent’s supporting him was 90%. All Danny could do was worry about that 10%.

Letting out a groan, he swiftly laid back into his bed, closing his eyes. He tried to steady his breathing. In two, three, four. Out, two three four. He might’ve sat there for eternity, hoping to be engulfed by his bed and taken anywhere but here, but he was so rudely interrupted by Jazz’s knocking.

“Good morning Danny!” she said from behind the door to his room. “Come downstairs for some breakfast. Mom made your favorite!”

Bacon and eggs sounds so good right now. The thought of a nice breakfast pulled him into a sitting position, yet he was still hesitant to walk. Getting breakfast meant seeing his parents. Seeing his parent’s meant talking. Was he ready to talk? Absolutely not, but he needed to for his own sake.

Finally mustering up a bit of courage, Danny stood up, and headed towards the bathroom. He began brushing his teeth and caught a glimpse of his reflection in the mirror. To put it briefly, he looked like shit. All this worrying had put him in a terrible physical state. He needed to get this done with and finally feel free.

As he finished up, Danny went back to his room, put on a shirt, and headed for the stairs. He reached the end of the hall and paused before going down, feeling a tight ball of anxiety forming in his chest. He stared at the carpet as if it were the source of all his worries. There was so much doubt in his decision, but he could also smell the sizzly aroma of bacon. And god, was he hungry.

He grabbed the railing beside him and slowly made his way down the stairs, one step at a time.

“Hey Danny!” called his mom’s voice from the kitchen after hearing his soft steps. “Come sit down, I’ve got your plate waiting for you.”

“Danno!” a bellowing voice belonging to his dad interrupted Maddie. “I knew you wouldn’t resist!”

Hesitantly, Danny walked towards the kitchen, not making eye contact with anyone. He sat in his usual seat at the dinner table, a plate stacked with his favorite food. He so badly wanted to snatch the plate and run to the safety of his room before anyone could speak. Around him, Maddie was in the kitchen making another batch of scrambled eggs. Jack and Jazz were seated at the table with Danny, eating away at their food. Although, Jack was simultaneously building some sort of ghost contraption.

“How’d you sleep sweetie?” Maddie asked.

Danny, having begun eating with a spoonful of eggs in his mouth, choked with wide eyes at the sudden question. He wasn’t ready to speak yet. Let me eat first!

“Good” he muffled in reply.

“Looks like you haven’t slept in days,” Jack remarked as he glanced away from his machine towards his son.

Jazz gave him a playful slap. “Dad, manners!”

“Whaaat? I’m just tellin’ the truth.” Jack gleefully smiled and returned to his food.

Danny brushed off the comment and continued to eat his food. Dad isn’t wrong, Danny thought. His heart was racing in his chest, anticipating an unfavorable conversation. He might’ve been eating too quickly as it garnered attention from his family.

“Woah slow down there Danny.” Maddie said as she brought the latest pan of cooked eggs from the kitchen to the dining table. Jack eagerly took a plateful. “You don’t want to choke.”

“‘’m good,” he repeated with food stuffed in his mouth.

“Anyway your dad and I are planning on spending the day in the lab if it’s alright with you kids. We’re so close to perfecting the Fenton Bazooka.” Maddie began washing the dishes.

Jazz stood up and left her finished plate next to the sink. “Sure mom. Danny and I will be fine.” Maddie smiled in reply as Jazz left for her room upstairs.

Once Jazz was gone, silence ensued as everyone carried on with their own tasks. Maddie washing the dishes, Jack tinkering and eating, and Danny finishing his breakfast. The mood was peaceful for everyone except Danny. His heart was pounding in his chest because sooner or later he had to say something. Shoving in the last bits of egg in his mouth, he could feel his heart quicken. It’s pace grew faster and faster, to a point where he felt his heart may as well explode out of his chest.

You have to do it. You’ll regret it if you don’t.

Just... SAY IT!

“Mom! Dad!” Danny said a bit too loudly, causing his parents to turn to his voice with odd looks “...I have something to tell you.” He kept his gaze focused on the empty plate before him. Was this really happening?

Maddie then suddenly lit up. “Oh Danny, I totally forgot! Would you like some more breakfast? We’ve still got some left.”

Danny shifted in his seat, not expecting that answer. He gripped the edge of his chair, feeling like he might fall over. Why are my palms so sweaty? “N-no it’s not that. It’s-”

“You sure? You never pass down your favorite breakfast!” Jack said with a side glance.

“Yea I’m s-sure.” Danny was tripping over his words. It was as if time was passing far quicker than how long it took him to formulate his thoughts. What was he supposed to say again?

“What I wanted to say was-” he paused. Danny felt weaker than ever. His grip on his chair tightened as he shut his eyes and attempted to center himself. He couldn’t. He did but didn’t want them to know. What if- what if-

JUST SAY IT ALREADY.

“I’m Danny Phantom.” the phrase came out like an exhale. Danny didn’t want to open his eyes.

No, that was a lie. He did want to open his eyes and see their reaction. He just wished he hadn’t.

Looking up from his plate, he first locked eyes with his dad. Jack’s face was as if he’d been hit with a blow. The normally boisterous man had been reduced to a mere shell of shock. Danny couldn’t discern what his dad was thinking.

Danny next glanced at Maddie. Whose brows were furrowed and eyes glued to the plate in her hand. The sink was still running. After a moment, she resumed her cleaning and turned to Danny with a smile.

“Heh, funny joke. It’s just an unfortunate coincidence that you share first names with a scum like him, Danny.”

Jack quickly looked at Maddie, confusion etched into his features. “Mads…”

Danny, at the same time, also confused, looked at his mom. “I- I’m not-”

“Mads think about it.” Jack interrupted in an unusually soft voice. His unfocused gaze hadn’t moved from Danny. He stopped tinkering and slowly sank back in his seat. “It… it would make perfect sense.” Maddie now turned off the sink and turned towards her husband, crossing her arms.

“Jack, there is no way in hell our son is also a ghost. It is scientifically impossible.”

“...mom.” Danny shrank in his seat when his mom looked at him. He couldn’t tell her now. There’s no way she’d react the way he hoped. But… he would never forgive himself if he didn’t tell them. It took every fiber in his being to not turn invisible and flee. His heart picked up pace again as he averted his gaze to his hands which were now fidgeting in his lap. “I’m not lying. Please don’t get mad but b-back when u guys were building the portal, I was snooping around the lab like an idiot and I-I accidentally turned it on while I was inside.” Danny explained with a barely audible voice.

“It would make so much sense.” Jack mumbled. “The portal activation… why our gadgets go off around Danny… why Phantom’s always got Fenton tech.” Danny hadn’t expected his dad to accept it so readily.

“Jack, you can’t be serious…” Maddie’s voice trailed off as if lost in deep thought.

“I- I can show you. I’m half ghost...” Danny couldn’t believe what was happening. This wasn’t what he expected. They were supposed to accept it and move on. No questions, no jokes. Then why were they so confused? There was no way this would end nicely. Danny could feel his anxiety crawling back and settling at the pit of his stomach. He wanted to curl up into a ball so badly.

It seemed Danny had been lost in thought for too long. He missed the moment his parents both locked eyes and came to an understanding.

In one swift move, Maddie pulled two ecto blasters from her jumpsuit while Jack followed suit. In a single second, the both were standing side by side with their weapons aimed at their only son.

Danny jumped back in his chair at the sudden change of attitude. It caused him to tip over and fall to the ground with his back now against the floor. His eyes were wider than ever shifting between his parents and their guns.

“I can’t believe you’ve tricked us thus far, spook.” Maddie spoke as if her words were laced with venom. “Where’s Danny?!” Maddie nudged her head to Jack who took off running down to the basement.

His heart raced even faster. Hands shaking. “M-mom. What do you mean? I’m Danny!”

Maddie spoke in an unnaturally calm tone. “As if we’d fall for that. How long have you been hiding our son?!”

“N-no no. Please. I’m telling the truth. I AM DANNY!” he shouted from the floor. “S-see look!” he gestured his hand along his frame. “It’s Danny! Please, I can show you Phantom.” He pulled his feet towards him, ready to stand up, but rather got interrupted.

Maddie took a step forward, cocking the guns in her hand. “NO! Stay where you are and don’t come any closer. Don’t you DARE claim you’re my son. You’re nothing but a bunch of of... ectoplasm!” Her emotions began to show through her calm facade.

At that moment, Jack came rushing up the stairs, large weapon in hand. “That’s right, spook. The bazooka may not be finished but that doesn’t mean it's not gonna hurt.” He aimed the gadget at Danny.

“Answer me. H-how long?!” Maddie’s voice quivered slightly.

Danny was horrified to speak. They really wouldn’t shoot him, would they? “I-I’ve been half ghost for four y-years now…” he barely managed to say. “I’ll show you…”

He found that cold feeling deep within his chest and let it surround him. Two blue rings encircled his waist and one traveled to his head while the other to his toes. As the ring passed, his raven locks were replaced with a silvery white sheen. His pajamas became the iconic black and white jumpsuit. His eyes, when opened, went from their baby blue to electrifying neon green. He’d become Phantom.

Maddie and Jack hadn’t said a word. Their goggles, which were now over their eyes, masked what they were truly thinking. Their weapons were still trained on their son, but their posture seemed to stiffen as if they were in shock. All this time, Phantom had hidden among them.

Danny dared to look up at his parents who still stood silent. He couldn’t take the silence. “S-see?... say something...”’

Instead of words, Jack chose to reply with the whine of an ectoblast.

Jazz chose the moment to make her appearance as she walked down the stairs. “Why are you guys so loud…” Her eyes swept the room and landed on her little brother's ghost form. He turned to look at her voice, raw fear seeping through every inch of his features and eyes brimming with tears. It took Jazz a moment to understand the situation, but she was too late.

“Danny!” Jazz sped towards her brother as a crackling green ray fired from Jack’s weapon, making its way towards Danny and hitting him squarely on the chest. Danny flung back into the wall, clutching his chest with one arm which burned so very badly. He could feel every nerve in his chest searing with pain. It was worse than any blast he’d received before.

His breath hitched in his throat. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t fight back. They were… they were his parents! Why would they hurt him? Why… why couldn’t they understand?

Jazz was now sitting next to her brother, shocked at the sight of the nasty, bubbling burn. “What did you do?!” she shrieked at her parents.

“Jazz get away from that- that thing! He’s brainwashed you!” Maddie cried as she rounded the table and grabbed Jazz by the arm.

“N-no STOP IT! You’re hurting Danny!” Jazz wrenched her arm under her mom's grip, but her attempt was poorly made as she was pulled towards Maddie right as Jack fired a second blast from the gun. Tears freely flowed from Jazz’s turquoise eyes. Danny had zero time to react before-

Before the blast had frozen in thin air a foot before him. No, that wasn’t true, everything froze. His parents and Jazz. They were all still. What?

Danny felt the coolness of a time medallion on his neck. Suddenly, a swirl of blue appeared before Danny and out came a familiar specter.

“I normally don’t interfere with the events of time, but you seemed like you needed it.”

Danny’s breath came out raspy “...Clockwork?”

The master of time nodded with a smile and outstretched his hand. “Come my boy. Before the Observants find out.”

With one hand still clutching his chest, Danny took Clockwork's hand and stood up shakily. The blue swirls encompassed the two as they were transported to the ghost zone. Specifically, to the living room within Clockwork’s lair.

Danny took a deep breath as he gradually took a seat on the couch behind him. His head was pulsing and the pain from the ecto ray hadn’t subsided. Around him, several clocks and gears lined the wall, all ticking or moving synchronously. Before him sat numerous screens displaying several different events surrounding him. What he was witnessing went beyond any imagination.

“I had to interfere for your own good.” the master of time said as he floated into the room with a first aid kit in hand. He pulled out a burn ointment and began catering to Danny’s wounds. Danny hadn’t noticed, but at some point, he had transformed back to his human self. Danny hissed at the feeling of the cream on his wound.

Clockwork looked up and followed the halfa’s gaze to the screens. “What you’re seeing is the various alternate timelines in which you reveal your secret to your parents at this point in time. In all scenarios, they don’t take it, uh, lightly.”

Danny couldn’t believe it. On one screen, his parents were chasing after him around the city. In another, they had him strapped to a table. Before he could watch some more, Clockwork shut them off.

“I’m going to be blunt, but unfortunately, no matter the circumstance, your parents never accepted you in this moment of time.”

Danny hadn’t averted his gaze from the screens yet. He was still in awe of it all. The alternate timelines, his parents, the blast. He managed to squeak out one word. “Why?”

“Their puny human minds can’t comprehend the duality of your being.” Clockwork said as he now took out a set of bandages from the kit and began wrapping it along the boy’s torso. “Thus they reject you.”

“Y-you can’t be serious.” My parents? Hating me? “...impossible.”

“You witnessed it for yourself. They hurt you. Was that not enough?”

“N-no. They're my parents! They’re supposed to love me no matter what!”

Clockwork got up, slightly angered, unlike his collected self. “You call that love?!”

“I-” Danny was at a loss of words. No matter what Clockwork told him, he couldn’t wrap his head around his parents not believing him. It all felt like one sick joke. He wanted to throw up. Despite the horror of the situation, there was still one question gnawing at him. “W-why are you helping me?”

Clockwork turned so his back was facing Danny and paused. “I cannot let you suffer. Especially after everything you’ve done for our realm... You didn’t deserve the destiny given to you. After all, you were only fourteen when you received your powers. My interference was merely nothing compared to what you’ve dealt with. Your kind is so rare as well. I cannot let you perish.”

It was odd of clockwork to act so carelessly. Risking his position as the master of time just to save a teenage boy with paranormal powers was, well, weird. But from what Danny had heard just now, it seemed that Clockwork was firm in his decision.

At this point, Danny didn’t want to think anymore. His brain felt like mush from all the events that had transpired. Mom. Dad. Jazz… what were they doing right now? What were they thinking of him? Did they really believe he was-

“Get some rest. I’ll bring you some food when you awaken.” Clockwork said.

Danny decided it was best to follow Clockwork's orders so he managed a mumble as he lowered himself into a sleeping position on the couch. “Mmm?”

Clockwork floated next to the boy and patted his raven matted hair. “Sleep well Daniel.”

Danny quickly dozed off on the blue sofa, unaware he had found his new family. <3

#Danny phantom #secret santa #my fic

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traumascumathena · 3 years

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hi, i just found your blog, i was hoping i could ask some questions. ofc, if youre not comfortable sharing your answer to a particular question you can just skip it lol

1. could you elaborate on what the fantasy model is and how its harmful? i know that the theory is false, but it would be helpful to have more details on what it specifically is.

2. i know that you werent the one to make the comment, but you didnt really combat it either which is why im asking. in that one post where you (and another person) were arguing against the op which mentioned the fantasy model, the other person mentioned repressed memories, which are largely regarded as pseudoscience. what are your opinions on it? they dont need to exist in order for did to also exist, seeing as traumatic memories arent really "repressed" or forgotten in did. rather, traumatic memories are just held in parts/alters instead (ie trauma holders).

3. you also mentioned carl jung at some other point seperately on your blog, which seemed to be a joke (partially bc your blog is themed after athena, who canonically studies jungian psychology/analytical psychology, but mostly bc the statement was literally like "carl jung is rolling in his grave" or smth like that lol), but seeing how repressed memories are explicitly tied to him (and freud), it prompts me to also ask; do you agree with his form of psychology?

4. very unrelated and also much less serious, but since youre a system, what are your thoughts on how did is portrayed in ace attorney 6 (or, i guess they say multiple personality disorder in game, but seeing as its an outdated term...)?

sorry if any of this comes across as accusatory or anything, i dont mean for that to be the tone. im just a singlet trying to educate myself on did/multiplicity and would appreciate input from actual systems. also if any of what i said in the second question was flawed, please feel free to point it out. thanks in advance!

I don’t mind questions at all. It gives me an excuse to ramble.

1. The fantasy model is the belief that DID is actually a delusion or hypnosis-induced. It’s harmful because it does not address the root cause of DID--childhood trauma--and thus inhibits recovery and integration. It’s also just generally associated with therapists who do not fully listen to their patients.

2. Repressed memories are a controversial subject in psychology, true, and I have a graphic demonstrating my current beliefs on the subject.

Structural dissociation. My current belief, summed up, is that traumatic memories are held in EPs, emotional parts, that may be dormant, so they appear repressed. Following the theory of structural dissociation of the personality, EPs exist in all trauma disorders--although, they are far less defined than what DID/OSDD-1 have, hence the distinction and lack of being dubbed a system. EPs in other disorders may present themselves as emotional states, such as in BPD (which also would explain memory loss due to mood swings), or as just big enough to hold reactions to a trigger, such in PTSD.

BPD and DID/OSDD-1 are what I like to call sister syndromes, because of this similarity--and its why people believe BPD systems exist. However, EPs in BPD systems are not fully defined/separated, and are still seen as the self, which is why BPD itself does not produce a system.

3. My views on Carl Jung and Freud are quite all over the place. I respect both as fathers of psychoanalytic theory, and I am a firm believer in Jung’s persona theory (which is why I made that remark, because persona theory deals with acting differently in different situations). They both have their faults, however, and I still have much more research to put into the both of them.

4. Despite it being called MPD, I quite liked its portrayal. It was nice to see them take the stereotype of “murderer with DID” and establish a person with DID as innocent. And no evil alter! The bar is also pretty low, given Split/Glass and Total Drama’s subpar depictions of DID.

And that’s all I have to say, I think. If I think of more later I’ll just reblog this.

#Cykes Answers #gif warning #long post

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umbraja · 4 years

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Body Hair Positivity: Good or Gross?

It’s been a trend lately to embrace a more diverse image of beauty. Freckles and muffin tops, dark skin and curly hair, scars, tattoos, unusual proportions, crooked teeth, pretty much anything is supposed to be accepted under the banner of Body Positivity.

But what about body hair?

And I’m not just talking about armpits or legs. I also mean unusual body hair. The kind people don’t talk about. The kind women aren’t “supposed” to have: chest hair, happy trails, beards, back hair. The kind that doctors call hirsutism and is often associated with hormonal imbalances from things like Polycystic Ovary Syndrome, Cushing Syndrome, medication side effects, menopause, or even just genetics. It affects somewhere between 5%-10% of women depending on the region surveyed but may be higher as it can often go undiagnosed.

It’s not like we’re taught how healthy body hair should look.

Humans have been removing body hair since before recorded history. Archaeologists have found evidence of early humans using clam shells and shark teeth to remove body hair. Ancient Egyptians are well known for their full body waxes. Ancient Greeks considered it “uncivilized” for a woman to have pubic hair. Roman boys celebrated their entry into manhood with a mandatory first shave. And medieval European Ladies plucked daily to remove all hair from their brows, temples, and neck - some even plucked their eyelashes. The “New World” was no stranger to body hair removal either. Thomas Jefferson, and many others, wrote of some Native Americans’ depilatory obsession.

“With [Native Americans] it is disgraceful to be hairy on the body. They say it likens them to hogs. They therefore pluck the hair as fast as it appears.” - Thomas Jefferson, Notes on the State of Virginia

In the non-native US, body hair removal wasn’t really a big thing until the 20th century when we did a complete 180 on the subject. Before that Puritan values made sure that most body hair was covered by clothing so few bothered to remove it since no one was gonna see what was under all that cloth. Now recent studies say that 93 to 99 percent of American women regularly remove their body hair, making it one of our most widely practiced beauty norms. Girls as young as 10 are pressured into shaving, waxing, plucking, threading, anything to remove errant hairs as soon as they start to sprout. Refusal to do so leaves us open to bullying, both on the playground and in the office. Visible body hair can cost a woman jobs, promotions, and relationships so most of us remove it, no matter the cost. Which one study worked out to be more than $10,000 over the course of her life for the average American woman who shaves. If she waxes instead the bill goes over $23,000.

So what happened?

“Where eighteenth-century naturalists and explorers considered hair-free skin to be the strange obsession of indigenous peoples, Cold War-era commentators blithely described visible body hair on women as evidence of a filthy, ‘foreign’ lack of hygiene.” - Rebecca Herzig, Plucked, a History of Hair Removal

The driving forces behind hair removal in America are the same three that cause most of the nation’s problems: greed, sexism, and racism. Let’s go in chronological order.

As the “Age of Enlightenment” began to secularize European politics, Imperialists needed a new excuse to justify their expansion into non-European territory. Naturalists like the still famous Charles Darwin handed them pseudoscience. It’s debatable whether or not these naturalists intended their work to be used as the foundation for white supremacist ideology that still plagues us today but there’s no question about how racists interpreted it. They saw evolution as a line that went from ape through colored people and ends at Aryan. Real science tells us that’s not at all correct and if anyone is closer to cave man it’s white people who often have Neanderthal in their DNA. But they didn’t have genetic sequencers back then so they used physical traits to “prove” it instead. Part of this was a gross mischaracterization that body hair could be used to determine a person’s place within the line of human evolution. They claimed people with coarse, dark hair were closer to apes and those with thin, light hair were more evolved. Guess who picked up on that concept in the 20th century.

Darwin further complicated matters in his attempt to explain why some white people were hairier than some indigenous populations by associating hairiness with evolutionary backsliding and mental illness.

“[Hairiness in Europeans] is due to partial reversion; for characters which have been at some former period long inherited are always apt to return. We have seen that idiots are often very hairy, and they are apt to revert in other characters to a lower animal type.” - Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man

Other scientists and even medical experts of the time ran with this idea and before long the educated elite considered hairiness (along with other non-Aryan traits) to be a symptom of disease, insanity, and criminal violence. The uneducated masses were more familiar with freak show displays of unusually hairy people as “missing links” to our primate ancestors. Both cases considered having body hair to be a very bad thing. They’re also very bad science and not at all true.

Despite these very strong, racist feelings about body hair, it still wasn’t common for American women to remove it beyond the upper lip, neck, jaw, or between the eyebrows. Most women don’t have much hair there and those that did rarely had time or money to invest in removing it. Also they wouldn’t be caught dead admitting they had to so historical records might not be accurate about how many women actually plucked. For the first half of American history peach fuzz and other light hair was seen as normal and clothes covered the rest. But the 20th century not only saw women wearing less cloth and showing more skin it also saw them calling for gender equality. Critics of women’s liberation often accused suffragettes of sexual inversion - aka acting too much like men, which they saw as an abhorrent threat. To really drive this point home they often depicted women’s rights activists as being hairy, thus politicizing our pits. Pair this with the “hygiene” movement’s embrace of already mentioned racist views on body hair and you have a recipe for weaponized shame.

“Self-consciousness brings timidity, restrained action and awkwardness. The use of Del-a-tone relieves the mind from anxious watchfulness of movement.” - 1919 Del-a-tone depilatory advertisement

Enter Capitalism. Producers of hair removal products wanted to up sales so they did the exact same thing that was done with every other beauty product on the market - shame women into buying their stuff. It’s debatable if this was motivated purely by greed, in an attempt to reach an untapped market, or if the resulting gender oppression was intentional but men were spared of this aggressive shaming (until recently at least). Women, on the other hand, were flooded with advertisements for body hair removal products. From the first “razor for women” in 1915 to 21st century laser hair removal ads, women are constantly being reminded of our body hair. It doesn’t take a genius seeing ads that call smooth skin “attractive” or “sanitary” to extrapolate the opposite - that body hair is ugly, and dirty. A series of ads for Del-a-tone depilatory products even called it “necessary” for sleeveless fashion and suggests that not using their product will lead to social anxiety. Pair that with only ever using shaved models in all of fashion advertising and you send a pretty clear message: female body hair is something to be ashamed of. Advertising works. Now most American women actually feel gross if they’ve missed a shave, despite body hair being perfectly natural and not at all dirty. This disgust is so strong it has even bled over into an aversion toward male body hair which has seen a sharp decline in popularity since the shaggy chested disco days. Now men are being inundated with “manscaping” advertisements and expectations of manicured if not completely removed body hair.

So that’s the background but where’s this going?

While female body hair removal is firmly ingrained in western beauty standards, a new generation of women are rebelling against those ideals - body hair included. Recent studies have shown a shift in body hair trends among young women. Only 77% percent of women 16 to 24 reported regularly shaving their pits in 2016 and 85% shaved their legs, down from 95% and 92% respectively just two years prior. Since then we’ve started to see models, celebrities, and everyday women with unshaven pits and hairy legs. Body positivity campaigns have even gotten a few advertisers to include body hair in their ads. Now you can see razors actually shaving hair from women’s bodies instead of inexplicably running over baby smooth skin.

Women have always told ourselves that hair removal is a choice but we’ve never before been encouraged to choose not doing it. Instead we’ve been brainwashed to think it’s dirty and disgusting and that no one will accept us for being hairy. Today’s young woman is actually presented with a choice, “to shave or not to shave” and a lot of them are choosing not to. Which is great news for people like me who have hirsutism and are sick of being shamed for how nature made us.

But we’ve still got a very long way to go before I can be confident that my neck beard won’t hold me back both socially and professionally. A lot of the women who have publicly displayed body hair in recent years have come under attack by people calling them various shades of “gross” and some have even been sent death threats. It’s one thing for a rich and famous Hollywood movie star to take that kind of risk but for an autistic office worker living in a conservative backwater that’s a whole different game.

Whatever your thoughts and feelings on body hair, America still hasn’t escaped the shame of the last hundred years. Women are still very much judged for being hairy. A lot of people still think it’s gross. I’m not one of them but I’m full of unpopular opinions.

#body hair #body posititivity #history

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escapingpost · 5 years

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Five Things Everyone Knows (Final)

Part 1: Five Things I Know About Cho Seungyoun

Sequel: Five Things Cho Seungyoun Knows About You

Suggestive and language warning.

The kiss in the alleyway would have been the cherry on top for this mess of romantic comedy. It would be the turning point of the plot where the next few scenes were merely a fast-forwarded, shortened down versions of what would be to come with your perfect “friends to lovers” relationship.

But, you were hit with the reminder that this was not an actual romantic comedy and reality is much harsher.

The next day, you woke up from a text from yours truly telling you that the girl he was texting ages ago finally got back to him. They were going on a date this weekend.

Your mind went through different thoughts in a span of one minute:

Were the two of you that drunk yesterday? If that was the case, you would have a hangover. And Seungyoun? You were sure he was too busy making Hangyul drunk to drink himself.

Were you just dreaming? No, your hair definitely smelled of rain water and you could still almost feel Seungyoun’s strong arms around your waist.

Then, what the hell was this?

As if answering your thoughts, Seungyoun sends another text message.

younie: I smell like sewage right now. What even happened last night.

And with that one text message, you were brought back to the reality of romantic relationships in your twenties.

Romance was dead and so were your feelings.

NOT my best friend: Dumbass, how am I suppose to know.

“I can’t believe you did that.” Woohyun was currently hovering over Seungyoun on the couch as Seungyoun holds his phone out of his reach. Woohyun gets up and dusts himself off. “Have fun being lonely. I’m rooting for Hangyul.”

“Wait, Woohyun.” Seungyoun also gets up from his couch. “I’m sorry. I just, I can’t do it.”

“Seungyoun, what do you mean, you can’t?” Woohyun says trying to keep calm. Him and the guys did the most to get Seungyoun to realize his feelings, but when he actually does, it backfires.

“I don’t want to mess us up.” Seungyoun says, avoiding Woohyun’s gaze.

“You know the feeling is mutual, so why?” Woohyun asks.

Seungyoun takes out a few crinkled pieces of paper from the small trash in his studio. He takes the first crumple piece of paper and hands it to Woohyun.

Woohyun looks at Seungyoun weirdly before unfolding it and reading his chicken scratch writing.

I wish you happiness

It's okay if it's not me

I don't think I'm good enough for you

We're so different

Woohyun takes the rest of the crinkled papers and unfolds them.

Tell me you're tired of me

Tell me you're seeing someone else

For me, even just a little bit

To hate you, just lie to me

Woohyun stops reading and crumples the paper into its original state, “This is different from the last time. You know it.”

“We’ve been best friends for years. I just can’t risk that.” Seungyoun looks down, his fringe hiding his eyes.

And Woohyun could not think of a comeback with Seungyoun looking like he already lost the most precious thing in his life.

“You know, its true what they say about musicians. You are all creative, crazy messes.” Woohyun says with a huge sigh.

Which brings us to the first thing everyone now knows: 1) Seungyoun, for a fact, has slight commitment issues.

A week passes by after the night with Seungyoun. You try your best to avoid him, but he stuck to you like nothing had happened. Sure, it was only the alcohol that made him do it and the reason why he could not remember. But, he should take some sort of responsibility, right?

The day of his date with the girl, you went to a library to study for your classes, but the silence was worse. It only made your sad thoughts louder. Letting out a deep sigh, you run your fingers through your hair and leave the quiet room.

“Hey!” Before you could start walking down the staircase to the lobby, a familiar voice calls your name.

You close your eyes. You knew exactly who it was and he was probably the second person you did not want to run into. Quickly changing your expression into a neutral one, you turn around to him, “Hey, Hangyul.”

Long story, short: You and Hangyul did go on a date. You actually had more fun than you thought and he said he would call you back, but never did. When he did end up calling you for a second date, the two of you still had unfinished business. Seungyoun crashed your second date before the two of you could talk about it.

Hangyul scratches the back of his neck, a habit of his whenever he felt uneasy. Your fake expression was apparent to his eyes, “Do you want to go to a cafe? I hated the silence in that library.”

You said yes and maybe it was the fact you wanted to show up Seungyoun for being on a date. Or, it might have been that you believed Hangyul was a nice, decent guy so he deserved some sort of explanation.

“I just wanted to say sorry for everything.” Hangyul says with a soft smile.

“Sorry about what?” The warm tea hits your throat and it calms your nerves.

“Sorry about not calling you when I said I would.”

You let out a petty laugh, “So you did know.”

Hangyul moves in closer, “Of course, I did. I was just confused and needed time to think.”

You purse your lips, “Well, I’m sorry for taking Seungyoun along on our second date.” You look down at your cup of tea.

Hangyul plays with the straw of his smoothie, unsure of what to say.

“It was a dumb decision.” You add.

“Did something happen?” Hangyul carefully asks.

You shrug, not wanting to think about it, still looking down.

Hangyul takes a deep breath and lowers his head so he was in your peripheral view, “Hey, to be honest, I wasn’t sure if you were actually available.”

You are forced to return his gaze, his face a little closer than a few minutes ago, “What do you mean?”

“I know you don’t have a boyfriend.” Hangyul was now staring at you intently with a soft expression, “But, on our first date, it didn’t seem like you were emotionally available.”

And that’s exactly what everyone thought: 2) No one else was really good enough for you, but him.

The guy with cute dimples? You preferred adorable rabbit teeth. The talented vocalist? A high-toned voice with the duality of IU’s ballads and Flowsik’s rapping was more your genre. The possible future president of the country? How about the person who you trust all your secrets, dreams, and inside jokes with?

As exaggerated as it was, Seungyoun just started to infiltrate your mind with no invitation.

You gulp and slowly nod your head, “Sorry, Hangyul.”

Hangyul feels a heavy weight lifted from his shoulders and he gives you an assuring smile, “We’re good.” He pats the side of your head.

You return his smile, feeling ten times better.

"I’m not sure what happened with you and Seungyoun, but if you want, I’m meeting with him later with the guys. Maybe you want to come?”

Your ears perk up at hearing his name, “Wait, Seungyoun is hanging out with you later?”

“Yeah, Seungyoun and some other people from the Taekwondo club.”

‘What about his date?’ You think. ‘Did that brat lie to me?’ You add. Did you not just have a small monologue on how great he was?

Hangyul calls out your name.

You snap back to reality, “Oh sorry, why don’t you text me the address and I’ll meet you there?”

The night was a little colder when it was predicted to be a warm summer night. Mercury was in retrograde or something along the lines of a pseudoscience explanation. 3) Everyone just knew it was going to be an interesting night.

“You like to hurt your own feelings?” Dohyun scratches his head.

“Masochism. Its called masochism.”

“Yohan, shut it. Don’t teach him that.” Hangyul rubbed his temples.

“Well, at least you’re better off than Seungyoun. He didn’t even give closure. He completely made his whole friendship awkward as hell.”

Hangyul blows out air from his nostrils. He wanted to keep it a secret and was not planning on inviting you to see Seungyoun. It was his chance to ask you out for a third date. But, taking advantage of your vulnerable state was the last thing he wanted to do.

Yohan hands Hangyul his black jacket, “Here, buddy. At least look cool while setting up the two idiots.”

Hangyul turns to Dohyon, “Don’t you dare learn from Yohan.” Hangyul moves closer to whisper in Yohan’s ear, “Yohan thinks he’s some sex god.”

Yohan has an appalled and disgusted look on his face, “A dude grinds on the floor one time and automatically becomes the icon of greasiness.”

Hangyul receives a text message alert and stops their conversation.

soju girl: Hey, I’m already here. My phone’s on vibrate so just text me when you get here! Too loud to take a call :(

“Lets go, idiot three.” Yohan puts his arms around Hangyul.

hangyul: see you soon

You bite down on your bottom lip and pull down on the short black dress that you wished did not sacrifice to cover either your chest or thighs. It was one or the other. You furiously shake your head to get some sense in you, “I need a drink.” Or not.

One drink turned into two, then three, then four and it all went downhill from there. The last sober thought you had was the fact that you could change your social media addiction and put your energy in making a blog about the wonders of alcohol.

“Close her tab.” you hear a voice and the person has reached over the counter. That was weird because you only conditioned yourself to listen to one specific voice through a loud bass of music.

“Oh? Its my best friend, Cho Seungyoun.” your voice slurs and you see he is confused because he can’t hear anything through the music and you made no effort to talk over them music. Seungyoun quickly scans your state and has you wear his oversized bomber jacket. You do not put up a fight while he quickly zips up the jacket. “Am I your date for tonight?” You say with no energy or volume.

Seungyoun gets to eye level with you and smiles, “Lets go.” He mouths.

The unapologetic smile, his eyes that assured you that your were safe, and his eyebrows that drooped in worry made you furious. The alcohol spoke and made the decision for you, “Fuck that.” You push him away and stagger through the dance floor.

And Seungyoun never felt so awkward trying to keep you away from other people on the dance floor while still remaining a sinful centimeter away from you and that miniature piece of fabric people called a dress.

His eyes darted around to catch the glimpses of other people on the dance floor to make sure they knew you were with him. Just when he thought people were getting the hint, a stranger attaches himself behind you.

He quickly snakes his hand around your waist and pulls you into a secure hold, turning your whole body like a tango move.

You continue to shamelessly dance, not giving a two coins because all you could see are the blurry lights, your mind was still buzzed, and whose ever arm was around you felt too good.

No matter how much he tried, there was only one answer to your shenanigans.

If you can’t beat them, join ‘em.

Seungyoun brings you into his chest as close as humanely possible and lays his hands on your hips as you two dance. He can only catch glimpses of your face, but when he did see you through the club lights, the look on your face got to him.

Your eyes were no longer the awake eyes that he could see from a distance away. Your eyes were half-lidded and seductive. Your baby hairs stuck to the side of your face and your cheeks flushed pink.

Then, Seungyoun’s ears were blocked as if he had water stuck in them. Your mouth was moving, but he could not understand what was happening anymore. The loud bass drowns out any reasonable thoughts.

Seungyoun did not drink any alcohol that night.

But, he got the same sweet alcohol on the tip of your tongue and caught the same alcohol buzz.

When Hangyul left the club that night and did not get to see you or Seungyoun, it was already a given: 4) The literal climax of the story that everyone would know of.

By the time you were all partied out and the two of you got to his apartment, the alcohol high wore off, but neither of Seungyoun’s or your hormones did.

The conversation was said through messy kisses, but it went something along the lines of Seungyoun apologizing for being a coward and a liar. Then, you try to say something back, but whatever he was doing down there did not help you form a coherent thought.

It was the climax that happened in Seungyoun’s small studio, both emotionally and physically.

Finally, it was the scene before everything fell into place. At least, as much as reality allowed you to.

“That dress wasn’t going to cover anything.” It was the morning after and you did not wake up glamorously. It was a good thing Seungyoun always saw you like that and nothing about his feelings changed. He laid on the couch and watched you find your stuff that was lost in the hurricane.

“Yeah, but your sweater will.” You quickly slip into it a sweater that he left hanging on his chair and Seungyoun curses in his mind for being weak to the cold.

“Wanna get breakfast?” Seungyoun sits up and also looks around for his lost t-shirt.

“Not like this.”

“I can pick something up from the convenience store.” Seungyoun finally finds his clothing piled up on the side of the couch.

You two only had to be apart for ten minutes, but Seungyoun was running back from the store like he left a stove on.

Also, you had no idea what you were getting yourself into until Seungyoun drops the food on his small desk and starts to make his way towards you. Alert, you hold him back with one finger, which stops him for a grueling second until he picks you up like a bride and lays you down on the couch.

You always thought Seungyoun looked like a rabbit with his two front teeth. Now, he looks like a tiger creeping up on his pray (read: you). You were quickly reminded Seungyoun was actually a bear because he pulls you into a warm hug as the two of you lay on his couch.

“There’s not enough space, so we have to stick as close a possible.” Seungyoun is breathing down your neck and you were not sure if it was on purpose.

You stir in his arms and he looks at you.

The images of you two playing tongue hockey in the middle of the dance floor flashes through your mind and you wanted to dig a tunnel into the couch because this time, he was there to remember it.

Seungyoun bit back a silly smile.

“Shut up.”

“I didn’t say anything?” He says with a smirk.

“Hey, we can’t tell anyone.” You are talking to his chest because you could not bear to look at him without being reminded of last night.

“Why not?” Seungyoun, on the other hand, had no shame and kept his eyes on you. “I swear, I was going to post this on my story.”

“Seungyoun!”

He gives you his cheeky, smiling eyes and presses his forehead on yours, “I’m sure every already knows.”

“That’s a little bit T.M.I, no?” You ask him.

“Not with them. They know everything.”

The two of you look at each other both thinking that everyone was weirdly invested in the two of you getting together. You and Seungyoun laugh knowing the same thought went through your head.

“I like you so much.” Seungyoun unconsciously says.

“I like you too.” You say making random shapes with your fingers on his chest. “Hey, um.” You finally muster up the courage to look at him.

“Yeah?” Seungyoun gives you his full attention.

You gather your arms and push him off the couch, “I’m hungry.”

Even if you were not hungry, Seungyoun’s scent was getting to your head and all the red flags went off.

He didn’t have to know that, though.

Months pass and you two are still together and annoying.

“Can you not?” You step on Seungyoun’s foot under the table.

“What?” Seungyoun moves his hand closer to your inner thigh, but you swat his hand off.

“Can you two just stay in Seungyoun’s studio? Forever.” Wooseok pretends to barf.

“We would, but the AC is broken.” Seungyoun shrugs.

You smack him on the side of his head.

“I don’t even want to sit on that damn couch now.” Seungwoo slowly shakes his head.

“Maybe it was better for you two to stay single.” Yohan taps on the table.

“Hey, I’m all for that.” Hangyul chuckles as he opens a bag of chips.

Seungyoun’s neck almost breaks turning to Hangyul, “If you eat chips like that, your fingers are going to stain.”

“Well, I’m gonna eat it with chopsticks.” Hangyul retorts.

“Where are the chopsticks, genius?” Seungyoun mocks Hangyul’s matter-of-fact tone.

Hangyul’s eye darts back and forth, until he sees you slipping him the chopsticks. “Here.”

Seungyoun makes a face at you, “Whose side are you on?”

You give him a chaste kiss and the self-proclaimed all rounder turns into one thing and it was the fifth and last thing everyone knew.

5) “Whipped.”

#cho seungyoun #seungyoun #seungyoun scenarios #seungyoun imagines #x1 scenarios #x1 imagines #x1 #Hangyul #lee hangyul #hangyul scenarios #hangyul imagines

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nomoney · 3 years

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"May I trade you for that?"

Use Facebook Marketplace

As news of the US Dollar collapse reaches more and more people, here’s your always free - survival guide for you to use as you navigate freedom.

This guide is inspired by the YouTube video of Kyle MacDonald "Trading a paper clip for a house"

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1) Goods—Physical goods (Watch, Computer, Clothing)

2) Services—Human Labor (Construction, Consulting, Web Design, Cooking)

3) Renting—Renting out resources (1 Week of shelter, 2 Hours with the lawn mower)

4) Lending—Lending out a good, service, or rental with the expectation that your end of the bargain will be met.

Then we broke down the entire bartering process into distinct micro-processes.

The approach: “Hi, may I trade you for that (toaster)?”

The Negotiation: “Sure, What are you offering?”

“How do you like this (microwave)?”

Advertising online: Create advertiment with (Adobe Spark)

“(Golf Clubs) for trade”

Or "I'm looking for a (small boat). Message me if you have a (boat) for trade”

Or "I have this (home) for trade"

Sometimes, you will be in situations where the common sense approach is to simply ask for things. Keep your relationships positive.

Asking for things: “Hi, I was wondering if you happen to have (water) I can drink?

Transaction: The exchange of items in real-time after final agreement.

"May I trade you for that?"

Tips & Tricks

Hungry? You can negotiate doing chores for someone for food.

Need shelter? You can negotiate shelter by offering to do work around the persons home.

Need someone to drive you? You can offer a piece of clothing or shoes for a ride.

Hair cuts will be in high demand always. Learn to cut hair for an easy way to trade for the small things.

People are stressed and don't have money to buy self-care treatments. A good massage goes a long way. Offer massages for food, weed, or clothing. This is probably something you can take advantage of with family members.

Lonely men who learn to blow dry hair will have an unfair advantage in the dating scene.

If you are the kind of person who was always hungry for wealth, you can still acquire big resources but they would be in the form of physical things and no longer in currency. Think cars, homes, boats, luxury clothing. etc...

You can also negotiate lifestyle, working conditions, shelter, etc...

We are negotiating the future of humanity for our clinical services.

You can lend out expensive equipment for something you need done. Example: Lending out the lawn mower to the neighbors in exchange for the neighbors watching your children for 3 hours.

Don’t forget that you can provide labor for things. House cleaning, construction, hair removal. But don’t provide labor for money.

When you swap or barter for things, it’s important that you are capable of measuring TRUE VALUE

Garage sale technique for bartering

Take group photo of all your stuff you wanna get rid of

Take inventory of things you wanna get rid of

Type names and it will be keywords

Broom.

TV.

Car.

Other users who are looking for these things will see your garage sale photo and if they like what you have, they begin the approach & barter process (negotiation)

Here’s an Example

An in-depth analysis into measuring TRUE VALUE

Sports Cards

Very little true value. Why? Low material cost/paper material

Low labor cost/ bulk creation by factory machines. Sports cards are manufactured in bulk just like cash money is. It has sentimental value when it is signed by the athlete. When it comes to sentimental value, you can request whatever you want depending on the emotional connection someone has to the sports card. But it has no real true value. Only sentimental when it is signed and there is proof of authenticity

It’s all subjective- meaning it’s all about personal feelings and emotions.

Software

True value cannot be measured in dollars or cents because it is digital. Material costs to produce software? Subjective.

Labor costs to produce software? Subjective again.

Software is in the high sentimental value category. This is where the software creator can request whatever they want based on the demand for the use. Sentimental value is measured in behavior and if there is a demand for use of the software, asking for money is the worst value proposition. Because digital currency has no true value. Software creators could be asking for homes or cars or food. But instead they are asking for something digital with no true value

It’s all subjective- meaning it’s all about personal feelings and emotions.

Copyrights

No true value. But great sentimental value..

..so great that the copyright owner will lose resources in their pursuit of violators. The time & labor associated with copyright enforcement make copyrighting the worst business to involve yourself in. When copyright owner request payment in money, they are again asking for something with absolute zero true value.

It’s all subjective- meaning it’s all about personal feelings and emotions.

Money

Very High sentimental value. Absolute zero true value. Abuse & slavery tool.

Characteristic of intentionally Weakened mind conditioned to worship a resource with no true value. The emotional attachment people had to money was so dangerous because of its non-existent true value. When someone could make unlimited resource with no true value and extremely high sentimental value, room for abuse is high & likely.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Universal.Initiative (@the.universal.university)

It’s all subjective- meaning it’s all about personal feelings and emotions

Labor value

Can only be measured in pre-collapse dollars & cents

You can only measure it in sentimental value. And sentimental value really depends on who you ask.And how much that person personally values a form of labor

Like I don’t personally value the employees of a fast food restaurant. But perhaps the owners of that fast food restaurant deeply value their employees.

That value I’m referring to is sentimental value. Because to me, they aren’t worth any money. To the owners they are worth the collective pay arrangements.

It’s all subjective- meaning it’s all about personal feelings and emotions. Slavery is stolen labor.

Gold- All Jewelry

True value cannot be measured because these are natural resources: you can find it in the earth. (At least that’s what we were led to believe)

Gold may be a bogus resource. Does it have any real medicinal or anything value? I have a theory that someone was bargaining with a farmer for 5 cows, so the person found a pebble,called it gold and tricked the farmer into believing the gold pebble had some sort of magical powers. Trading with gold fooled so many people, that there was genuine belief in its powers and that might be the reason the field of Alchemy was born. An alchemist is an actor. It’s pseudoscience: fake science. However, it’s all subjective. You can discuss this at roundtables

If it’s not your mothers wedding ring, you shouldn’t trade anything for jewelry. It’s only a fashion statement.

It’s costume jewelry.

It’s all subjective- meaning it’s all about personal feelings and emotions. Slavery is stolen labor.

"May I trade you for that?"

No money no problems because freedom is free.

#bartering #car financing #finance #poverty universaluniversity #nature #youtube #history

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yurtletheturtlehenderson · 5 years

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S.T REWRITE - S1:E6; Chapter Six, The Monster - [Pt. 3 - FINAL PART]

A Will Byers x Reader Series

With Eleven gone, Y/n struggles to keep the party together. Elsewhere, Hopper and Joyce uncover the truth about the lab’s many experiments.

Managed to pause it at the right time

||3rd Person POV|| "She was part of some study in college." Becky, who had now properly introduced herself to the duo, was sitting at the kitchen table with Joyce and Hopper with her sister Terry still in the adjoining room. "MK Ultra?" Hopper had remembered the name popping up several times on the many newspaper clippings and articles they had at their disposal. "Yeah, that's the one." Becky said bleakly, taking a puff of her cigarette and then quickly exhaled. "Was, uh, started in the '50s. By the time Terry got involved, it was supposed to be ramping down, but the drugs just got crazier. Messed her up good." Hopper remained leaning back in his chair, a concentrated frown stuck in his features. "This was the CIA that ran this?" Becky smiled and softly chucked, motion to the man slightly. "You and Terry would've gotten along. 'The Man,' with a big capital 'M'. They'd pay... you know, a couple hundred bucks to people like my sister, give 'em drugs, psychedelics. LSD, mostly." As Becky spoke, Hopper and Joyce shared an equally concerned look. "And then they'd strip her naked and put her in these isolation tanks." Joyce frowned. "Isolation tanks?" "Yeah. These big bathtubs, basically, filled with salt water, so you can float around in there." She made subtle swaying motions with her hand as she spoke. "You lose any sense of, uh... sense and feel nothing, see nothing. They wanted to expand the boundaries of the mind. Real hippie crap." Joyce was still hanging onto every word with a genuine look of concern. "I... I mean, it's not like they were forcing her to do any of this stuff. The thing is, though, is that she didn't know she was pregnant at the time." "Jane." Joyce said in immediate understanding. Becky nodded and took another puff of her cigarette. Joyce sighed in amazement, before asking. "Do you have any pictures of her?" Becky gave the two an odd look. "I don't think you guys understand. Terry miscarried in the third trimester." +++ "She keeps all of this up. Been doing it for 12 years." Becky had just led the two into the untouched baby room at the end of the hallway. She took a seat on the arm of the chair in the corner of the room as Joyce and Hopper came in and examined the room in curiosity. "Terry, uh, pretends like Jane is real," Hopper approaches the hanging mobile and gives it a light touch sending it spinning slowly and triggering the mechanics so now it plays a haunting lullaby. "like she's gonna come home someday." The mobile continues playing the lullaby as Becky speaks, giving the atmosphere a chilling tone. "Says she special. Born with 'abilities'" 《•••》 Eleven stood to her feet and before they could close the steel door, she threw the door open along with one of the men straight into the tile wall. He fell to the floor, leaving a large hole in the tile 《•••》 "Abilities?" Joyce contorted her face in confusion and surprise. Becky looked to Joyce as she exhaled the smoke that previously resided in her lungs. 《•••》 The second man spared a second to look before turning to her to try and restrain her. Before he could even step foot in the room, he was dead on floor, his neck snapped. All with the flick of her head. 《•••》 "You read any Stephen King?" Becky quipped. 《•••》 The cat began snarling, and it quickly turned to whimpers of pain. Eleven was freely crying now as she looked between the frightened cat and Papa. She gave one final look at the cat before yanking the wires off her head in defeat. 《•••》 Hopper shifted uncomfortably and looked to Joyce who looked equally unsettled. Becky chuckles. "You guys look scared, actually." She laughed once more before shaking her head slightly. "I mean, it's all make-believe" Joyce clears her throat uncomfortably, trying to regain her composure. "What... what kind of abilities?" Becky stares off into space as she recalls the claims made by her sister and begins listing them off casually. "Telepathy, telekinesis..." 《•••》 A shrill shriek erupts from Eleven's throat and Lucas Sinclair is thrown back several feet in the air. His body slides a few feet on the ground until it crashes into a nearby piece scrap metal knocking him unconscious. 《•••》 "You know, shit you can do with your mind. That's why the big, bad Man stole Jane away." 《•••》 "Papa!" She screamed her throat raw as the men dragged her away, yet as always Papa did nothing. 《•••》 "Her baby's a weapon, off fighting the commies. You know, the doctor's all day it's a coping mechanism. You know, to deal with the guilt. Hell, she even believes that she still could have done something. Shortly before she got, you know pretty bad, she started muttering about, uh, something about how there was more she could have done." Becky frowned as she recalled the memory and seeing her sister so frantic. Hopper frowned at this, silently encouraging her to continue. Becky shrugged. "According to Terry, there was another woman like her. You know, who was pregnant during all the experiments. I don't know what happened, or if it was even true, but she seemed pretty convinced. Said this woman had her baby and even got her out somehow." Hopper perked up at this, recalling the many mentions of the "missing experiment" and wondered if there was any connection. "Are you saying there was another kid?" "According to Terry. You couldn't convince her otherwise if you had tried." A sympathetic smile crossed Becky's face as she recalled the memory. "She would go on about all the whispers she'd claimed to have heard. Apparently, the woman had her baby but got away before they could take 'em, and only the child supposedly survived. This baby by the way, who was supposed to have some sorta" Becky's face scrunched up in distaste as she told the made up stories of her sister, clearly uncomfortable with the idea and she made big gestures with her hands. "'untapped potential for the greater good'. Some real messed up pseudoscience shit and when she supposedly 'got away' the big, bad Man did not like it and killed the woman and they were comin' for Jane next. And the rest, well" she shrugged her shoulders. "Well, do you think there is any chance she could have been telling the truth?" Becky only gave her a look. "About having had Jane, at least. Or even the other woman?" Joyce stammered. "Well, as for the possibility of another woman being pregnant during all that isn't exactly impossible given it happened to Terry so I never really ruled that possibility out I guess, but as far as Jane? There is no birth certificate, nothing from the hospital. Doctors and nurses all confirm that she miscarried." Hopper who had very seriously been contemplating all this finely spoke up. "Yeah, but that could've been covered up. Right?" Becky smiled and shook her head. "Like I said, you and Terry would've gotten along." ||Reader's POV|| "El!" "Eleven!" "Eleven!" "El!" "El!" The boys and I had been wandering around the woods by Mirkwood for almost a half an hour now. My fingers were beginning to hurt from the brisk icy air. I was clutching the handles of my bike as I walked it through the woods. "El?" I called desperately. No answer, of course. I stiffen when I hear a twig snap in the distance. Thankfully, I wasn't the only one who heard it. "Hey, stop. Do you hear that?" Mike said lowering his voice. "What?" Dustin asked quietly. We were all standing still until Mike began turning around, attempting to protect his voice as far as he could. "El!" Nothing. "El?" "Shit." I began backing away on instinct when I see the all too familiar pair of bullies quickly approaching us. They looked mad. Troy, specifically. He had his hood over his head as he charged up the small hill into view. "Hey, there, Frogface. Toothless. And who could forget little miss bitch." Troy hissed, whipping out his pocket knife. "Shit! Run, guys, run!" Dustin shouted, throwing his bike to the ground. "Run! Come on!" I quickly followed suit and the three of us dashed off into the woods. I was going as fast as my legs could possibly carry me. Never stopping, I spared a glance behind me only to lock eyes with Troy. The look in his eyes terrified me. "You're dead Henderson!" I whipped my head forward and I put everything I had into going faster. "Run, [Y/N], come on!" Dustin yelled. Soon enough, I felt my legs turn to led and my lungs were bone dry. Mike was now in lead. We made it to the quarry when Dustin began slowing down and let out a gasp of pain. "Cramp!" He exclaimed, clutching his side. "Just keep going!" Mike called over his shoulder. He continued running but he let out a groan. "Keep going!" Troy was right on our heels, just when we thought we might lose him we saw his goon around the corner in front us. This is it. We're trapped. We all shared the same thought and picked up the closest thing to ourselves and held them up as weapons. Dustin grabbed a rather sharp stick and Mike grabbed a large stone. With little to no options left I decided to take a page out of Dustin's book. Only there were no more sticks so I grabbed a nearby tree branch. It was thin and relatively small for a tree branch but it would have to work none the less. Instinctively, I grab it by both hands and snap it half using my leg. Casting aside the weaker piece, left me with a now very sharp make shift spear. I grasped the "spear" with both hands and held it out in front of myself protectively, blowing a few strands of loose hair from my face. "Stay back." Troy didn't listen and stepped closer. "I SAID STAY BACK!" I roar. I saw him flinch. I smiled very slightly to myself, proud that I had intimated him for once. They began circling us like vultures. "Don't come any closer!" Mike yelled. I had an eye on Troy who was just as focused on me. I didn't trust him enough to look away. Yet, upon hearing a grunt and the clatter of the stone, I was worried Mike or Dustin got hurt and out of instinct I looked. "Nice throw, numbnuts." Mike had thrown the stone but mis- I felt a sharp pain in the back of my head and I collapsed to the ground. "[Y/N]!?" I groaned and I tried sitting up but my vision was blurry and moving seemed like an impossible feat. I groan in pained and I seemed to drift in and out of consciousness, unable to do anything. I thought I heard my name called a few times and I could have sworn that I felt a pair of hands trying to shake me awake. I only groaned and put all my energy into opening my eyes but then I saw it. The rock that hit me. It was slightly larger than my fist and it was it had a few splatters of blood. The sight weakened me and I groaned and rolled over on my side. My left arm became a pillow for my bleeding head. The next thing I heard was yelling. I could tell it was from Dustin. "YOU SON OF BITCH!" He then let out and a fierce scream and then I heard the sound of scuffling. I wanted to do something, but I was still too dizzy. "Get off! Get off me! Don't hurt her!" I gathered all the strength I could muster and look up to my brother. That bastard. He had my brother. He was holding my brother hostage with his knife to my brother. "G-Get away from-!" I began to stand up only for my knees to buckle and I tripped over my own two feet and stumbled to the ground once more. This time I could feel the sting of the gravel digging into my palms and all the blood rush to my head. It was too much for me and I couldn't stop myself from slipping into unconsciousness. +++ "Dentist's office opens in five!" 'What?' My limbs felt like they were made of less once more, even my eyelids were heavy, they felt impossible to open. I made out distorted shouts. "Four!" 'Whatever is happening I know it's bad.' "Three!" 'Come on, wake up!' "Two!" My eyes began to go flutter open. "Mike!" I made out Mike's figuring standing on a ledge. Why was he looking like he was gonna- Shit. 'What the hell? No! No, you idiot, no!' Putting everything I had I sat up, my vision slowly but surely returning as well as my strength. "Mike-" I said weakly. "One!" But it was too late. In one swift motion he stepped off the ledge and disappeared. "Mike!" I cried out. Three boys looked shocked and ran to the ledge. 'No. No! No, he- No! What the hell happened?! How did everything go so wrong so quickly?' I choked on a sob, which made my head throb. But I didn't care. Now I really felt nauseous. I placed both my hands over my mouth and silent tears fell down my cheeks. "Holy shit." Dustin said. I sniffled and looked to the boys. Why weren't they freaking out more? That's when I heard it. It was Mike. It was distant, but it was Mike. I wanted to say something but I was still in shock. I didn't know where to begin. 'Is it Mike? Is he okay? Why did he jump? Why aren't you guys freaking out?' I wanted to say all those things but nothing came out. My heart leaped when I heard him shriek and for a second I thought he might be falling again but then... "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" I couldn't believe what happened next. But sure enough there he was. Floating upside down, up over the cliff and landed safely on the ground behind me. I stared in shock. We all did. "Am I still unconscious?" Thought out loud. Naturally, Mike was just as confused as we were, he wore the same expression as I did when he made eye contact with me. But then all my questions were answered when Mike's gaze shifting behind me. There she was in all her glory. El. She had abandoned the wig but remained in the same old dress and jacket Mike had given her. Only now they were covered in dirt, as was her face. Her head was tilted down and she stormed up the group. A huge grin found it's a way onto my face and an excited and relieved laugh left my mouth as she approached us. James and Troy began stomping towards her when suddenly, without warning James was knocked back with incredible force. I looked to El knowing it was her doing, then suddenly she flicked her head to the side and I heard a rather disgusting snap followed by Troy crying out in pain. He clutched his right arm and dropped his knife in the process. I felt an arm extend itself to me, it was Dustin, who was helping me stand up. I gladly took his arm and wobbled to my feet. "She broke my arm! My arm!" "Serves you right asshole." I spit. Quite literally in fact. I spit in his direction making sure he caught the gesture. He was too busy being afraid to retaliate and he looked to El, cowering. "Go." She stated threateningly. "Let's get out of here! Let's go!" Troy screamed. James was quick to follow. "Go!" Dustin left my side and chased after them, taking the opportunity to taunt them which I rather enjoyed seeing. "Yeah, that's right! You better run!" Me and Mike look gleefully at one another. "She's our friend and she's crazy! You come back here and she'll kill you! You hear me? She'll kill you, you sons of bitches! She'll kill you, you hear me?" I looked to El happily when I noticed she looked rather pale. Suddenly she collapsed. We all surrounded her, worriedly. "El, you alright?" I asked. "El?" She made eye contact with Mike and began sobbing. "Mike... I'm sorry." "Sorry? What are you sorry for?" She choked back another sob. I frowned and hissed in pain slightly. My hand went to the back of my head, silently inspecting the wound as I listening to El. "The gate... I opened it. I'm the monster." My hand left my wound, and I felt another wave of dizziness wash over me and I knelt down on the ground. Not wanting to interrupt her but also avoiding the possibility of falling over. "No. No, El, you're not the monster. You saved me. Do you understand? You saved me." Mike pulled her up and into a hug. I smiled at the sight and leaned in joining hug. Normally I would let them have their moment but given that Mike was almost just killed and things could have been a lot worse, I didn't care and went in for it. Dustin apparently had the same idea and I felt his arms wrap around me and Mike and El. And we stayed like that for as long as we could. At that moment we were just four friends who were lucky enough to have found each other. And thank God we did. +++ Eventually, of course, we got up and decided to grab our bikes and to the gate. Hopefully, find Lucas and convince him to help. I feel awful for letting him go alone. Once again, Dustin helped me to my feet to which I thanked him for. I gave a reassuring smile to my brother. But his face contorted in shock and worry as he looked at me. "What?" "[Y/N], your face. You've got... you're- Dude your face is covered in- veins? What the hell? [Y/N], are you sure you're okay? You got hit pretty hard and you were pretty out of it." I frowned, tracing my fingers around my cheeks in confusion. "I'll be fine. I'll have to be, finding Will and getting Lucas back is more important. Which is why we need to get moving. Come on, we better hurry if we want to get s head start. We still have to get our bikes back." I said, leading the way back from where we were chased. I didn't want to show them how uncomfortable I was. I didn't want to show weakness so I trek on. Despite the tingling sensation I felt throughout my entire body and the sense of dizziness that had made its return once more. 'I'm not and an idiot. I know that weird, unexplainable things have been happening to me but I honestly have no idea how to process all this so for now, all I can afford to worry about is Will.’ That's all that matters now. +++ We eventually found out bikes and were currently returning from the woods through one of the park fences. We were all walking our bikes across the patch of grass, save for El of course, when I the familiar sense of being watched returned for the second time today. Only this time, it put me on edge and left me paranoid. At the risk of worrying the group, I kept this to myself. Oh, what a mistake that was.

+++

Tag List: @fuckwaad @aimee-lucass

DM me if you want to be added!

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handeaux · 6 years

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More Than Bumps On Your Head: Cincinnati’s Famed Phrenologist

For most of two decades in the 1880s and 1890s, Cincinnati had our own resident phrenologist and it turns out he was somewhat famous. Among the heads whose bumps he analyzed were Sarah Bernhardt, Mark Twain, Lilly Langtry, Henry Ward Beecher and other celebrities of the era.

Today, we think of phrenology as a classic pseudoscience, concerned with reading personality through the contours of the head. But Beall was a true believer, and had his own definition, which he outlined in an advertisement in the Cincinnati Post [30 July 1886]:

“Phrenology means mental science, and includes all systematized knowledge pertaining to character and intelligence. As an art, it enables us to read the mind by the diameter of the head, or the distance upward, forward and backward from the ear, taking into account the temperament, quality of the organization, &c., &c. It is not, as many suppose, a science of cranial ‘hills and hollows,’ but a subject of infinite dignity and practical value.”

Born just outside Cincinnati in Lockland, Beall invested years in the study of phrenology, but he was a lifelong seeker of essential truths in many fields. He achieved certification from the American Institute of Phrenology in New York, then moved back to the Cincinnati area and enrolled at the Medical College of Ohio, while simultaneously studying theology on the side. His investigations resulted in an explosively controversial critique of religion. The Cincinnati Enquirer predicted a stormy reception:

“Edgar C. Beall, the well-known phrenologist of this city, has written a book called ‘The Brain and the Bible,’ which is the latest addition to the infidel literature of the day and at the same time is an exposition of the principles and philosophy of phrenology applied to religion. The book is written in good, terse, clear English, and will, doubtless, be the cause of much comment and controversy.”

Beall summarizes his controversial “infidel” thesis in the book’s final chapter:

“In opposing Christianity, therefore, as a religious system, we denounce simply its pernicious doctrines and absurd dogmas which are contradicted by science and plainly inimical to the highest happiness of mankind. Among these are chiefly the existence of a personal God and a personal Devil, the fall of man, the scheme of salvation by faith, and endless torment to those who reject Christ as a divine savior.”

Despite his controversial writings and association with known agnostics, Beall remained popular in Cincinnati. He regularly lectured on phrenology to packed auditoriums and the newspapers hired him to provide character studies of people in the news, locally and nationally.

These newspaper analyses indicate the fundamental weakness of phrenology – it is a classic example of the fallacy known as “post hoc, ergo propter hoc.” In other words, because some factor existed before a particular result, that factor must be the cause of the result. Beall knew quite a bit about the people he analyzed – Admiral George Dewey, George B. “Boss” Cox, Rabbi Isaac M. Wise – and so his “phrenographs” essentially reinforced popular opinion.

In addition to phrenology, Beall was a lifelong advocate of hygiene. Today, we think of hygiene as basic cleanliness. Back in the day, hygiene covered a lot of behaviors including diet, exercise, clothing and even mental and moral habits.

Beall took his commitment to “moral fiber” literally, devising his own recipe for whole wheat bread and persuading the Cincinnati Women’s Exchange to make and sell loaves using his recipe. The Cincinnati Post [6 October 1898] was a fan:

“All the mineral richness is in this bread. The brand gives mechanical aid to the chemical process of digestion. It gives the teeth a purpose in life and excites the stomach to action. This bread is designed to prevent the use of the tons of purgative pills used by Cincinnatians.”

This interest in hygiene led Beall to write another controversial book. For once, Cincinnati’s prudery had nothing to do with it. By 1900, Beall had moved to New York City to assume editorship of The Phrenological Journal, official publication of the Phrenological Institute. In 1905, he published a volume titled “The Life Sexual: A Study of the Philosophy, Physiology, Science, Art, and Hygiene of Love.” In other words, Beall published a sex manual, although a sex manual of its time, with lots of advice about good habits and very few revelations about the actual mechanics involved. Still, it was salacious enough to get banned by the Post Office. Theodore Schroeder, in a 1911 book supporting freedom of the press, specifically highlights the censorship of Beall’s book as an ill-considered act:

“I have read much of this book and can not for the life of me conceive why it should be deemed offensive, because the book is written in a refined style and is instructive. The opening chapter is devoted to a strong criticism of ‘The Ban upon Sexual Science,’ and maybe therein lies the cause of complaint.”

Interestingly, Beall never married, although his “Life Sexual” book was emphatic in support of marriage:

“Considered from the most practical point of view, for the majority of men, marriage is by all means to be preferred. Men who remain unmarried, but who are unable to resist the fascinations of the opposite sex, are almost certain to suffer at least from irregularity in their associations with women.”

Perhaps it was to offer some researcher an opportunity to solve this conundrum that Beall made his final and greatest contribution to phrenology – his own brain. A few years before he died, Beall telephoned the medical school of Cornell University and informed the doctors there that he had willed his body to be dissected and studied for scientific research. “When you get it,” he told the faculty, “pay particular attention to a study of my brain.”

The body arrived at Cornell’s medical campus in New York City after Beall’s death in 1930. According to the Omaha World Herald [29 January 1930], “His is said to have been a very abnormal brain.”

#Edgar C. Beall #phrenology #medical college of ohio #boss cox

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ellaenchanting · 6 years

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Psych student here. I keep hearing a lot about hypnotists using Neuro Linguistic Programming and how it can be used in trancey situations but... From everything I've heard, it's basically pseudoscience. Tumblr doesn't let me link to things in an ask, but there's scholarly articles dating back to the 1980's saying that. (Journal of Counseling Psychology , Vol 32(4), Oct, 1985. pp. 589-596.) (The Wikipedia page also includes a lot of sources debunking claims made by NLP's creators.) [part 1/2]

Is the hypnokink version of NLP somehow different from that? Or is it more a fantasy/role play? Thanks for everything! [part 2/2]

WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH NLP?

Hi! Thank you for your question!

First of all- here is a mandatory psych major announcementfor you: If you are a sophomore orabove, I heavily encourage you to get in some research experience if youhaven’t already. Even if you don’t decide to get a graduate degree inpsychology, this will really help you if you decide to continue in the field inany way.

Also- good for you, psychology major, for caring if psychologyideas from hypnokink are evidence-based!* A psychology major who is not askeptic is a poorly-trained psychology major. You are doing exactly what you’re supposed todo- questioning “common sense” and ideas that are presented to you. In a way,it’s kind of the job of the field to find the holes in “common sense” that noone else is looking for. Good job!

When people in hypnokink talk about neurolinguisticprogramming, they are talking about using a verbal technique (almost a “cheatcode” if you will) as a way of influencing people. This is how salesmen andpick up artists and trainers tend to understand nlp. But nlp actually startedout and was intended to be used as a therapy- often in conjunction withhypnosis. There is no secret,super-effective type of nlp** posted on fetlife somewhere- the nlp we all useis derived from the therapeutic modality.

So- how good is the therapy itself?

If we’re looking to see if a therapy is evidence based, thebest place to look for what is evidence based is the Division 12 website of theAmerican Psychological Association (https://www.div12.org/).(Bookmark this, psychology major!) Under their “psychological treatments” tab,you can search for what are considered the best treatments available forpsychological disorders. You’ll note that nlp is not listed as an evidencebased treatment. (To be fair, nor is hypnotherapy). That’s usually a bad sign.

Let’s move on to litreviews!

If you look further at the few related literature reviews,you’ll see more bad signs. There seems to be very limited evidence basis at allwith more negative than positive results- and the positive results generallyare coming from the lower quality research. I like the one you pointed to anon! Also- This lit review is enjoyably snarky in the discussion section. This one is more modern and seems more robust. Either way, the evidence of effectiveness in any of these is pretty scant. (The officialnlp page on Wikipedia, which you mentioned, is also pretty shady with those damning quotes in the referencesection.) These lit reviews areprimarily based on nlp as a counseling practice, but there’s also negative information heretoo about individual specialized nlp techniques- like eye accessing and using submodalities.

So- if you want to learn an effective therapeutic intervention,you should probably not put too much time or money into nlp training.

However!

Can knowing nlp can be useful for your casual sexyhypnofetishy hypnotists?

Potentially!

Here are some ways:

1. It’s a cultural signifier. Since we (and hypnotistsas a community) have decided that nlp is A Useful Thing, knowing about nlpbecomes valuable. Showing that you know nlp (even a little bit) shows that you’vecracked a book/attended a class and you have sought culturally-valuableknowledge. It gives you authority. For example- I usually ask subjects abouttheir modalities (kinesthetic/auditory/visual/some people throw in others). There’ssome mixed evidence on modalities existing but the most and best evidence saysthat the concept and the theories behind it are inaccurate. But! The communitybelieves in modalities. My subject likely believes in modalities- or at least itis a useful thing to have them believe. If I use their preferred modality, itboth shows that I’m listening to them/respecting them and it shows that I knowenough about hypnosis to be trusted. So- I’ll generally still ask about modalities and use them as though they were real.

2. Theplacebo effect. A lot of what we do as hypnotists is exploit the hell out ofthe placebo effect and people’s pre-existing beliefsabout hypnosis. A spiral, a pocket watch, someone’s eyes- none of these thingshave any power on their own. A bunch of people see my eyes every day andthey’re not hypnotized by them. But they can be very hypnotic when me and mysubject agree that they are! Tricksy language patterns, in my opinion, often worksimilarly to pocket watches or a spirals. Since I am a hypnotist and I am doinga tricksy language thing, the language thing works- in the same way that myeyes work in the correct circumstances. ***

3. NLP isn’t entirely ineffective! NLP was designedby Some Bros watching a bunch of good trained counselors and deciding toreplicate their techniques. Thus, thereis a lot of gently borrowed good counseling technique in nlp! I’ve noticed bothSFBT and ACT tend to teach some ideas that I first saw in nlp- although Isuspect that those may come from a similar parent therapy and not nlp itself.**** Utilizingsomeone’s own language, metaphors, and world concepts (their meta-model, if youwill) when working with them is a good basic therapeutic technique and is utilizedby most evidence- based practices. Outsideof therapy, there’s very strong scientific basis for ideas like subliminal cuesand priming (although some variations- like subliminal messages- have been debunked).Those ideas are somewhat nlp-connected.

4. Feeling like you know a powerful thing is a confidenceboost. Sleezy pick up artists (aka all PUAs) use nlp techniques all the time-some of them successfully. The technique itself may be flimsy, but theconfidence boost of knowing a technique probably boosts their success rate. *****

5. Increase your punning and hypnotist!joke makingability.

So in conclusion:

NLP is a big mix of proven counselingtechniques, wild speculation, great marketing, and somewhat outdated linguistictheories all thrown together and pureed in a blender. (It’s kind of like hypnosisin that way- a big mix of scientifically-based phenomenon, artistry, and bullshit blended together so seamlesslythat it’s hard if not impossible to sort out the active ingredients). There’s afamous book by a therapy skeptic that derides therapy as “the exchange of myths”. In a similar way, there’s a lot of what we do that could be considered exchanging myths in a similar vein. Brainwashing is amyth. The subsconscious (at least the way a lot of people view it) is a myth.NLP is a myth******. That doesn’t mean that these things aren’t fun or sexy or eveneffective in cases. After all, myths are powerful!

But yeah- your scientific skepticism here isvery warranted, anon.

Thank you for asking!

———————————————————————————————————-

*Spoiler: No, they are not!*******

**Except the kind I’m selling!

***And yeah- I admit I’m being pretty simplistic here. I think hypnosis is too complicated to just be a large placebo effect (although I definitely used to believe that)- but the placebo effect is a big component. A lot of what we do is really, really cultural.

****One of the criticisms I read of nlp stated that it’sbasically a grab bag of techniques from a bunch of more evidence-basedtherapies. This may be true. However, that’s also how many licensedprofessionals tend to practice counseling.

*****Although, to be fair, there is evidence that some nlp techniques actually harm rapport- such as over-mirroring/matching words.

******For added discussion- I think a lot of what we do in/with hypnosis is not even something that hypnosis researchers would consider to be actual hypnosis. But- they have no better, more specific and clear descriptions of what hypnosis is and neither do we. It’s a relative experience: If you say that you’re in love, I can’t scientifically validate if you are or are not.

*******OK I kid. But only partially!

#at some point you will probably also become skeptical about therapy and evidence-based practice itself #as well as psychological research #and I'm here to tell you that's normal too #welcome to the paradox!#also- you know why there aren't a lot of psychologists hanging around hypnokink?#stuff like this may be why #but also- I promise you can be a skeptic and still have lots of fun #also- learn some cold reading!#it's more fun and you'll pick up less wrong information #ymmv of course

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iambecome · 3 years

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#3: Self doubt and constitutional psychology

The scientific theory I am most personally afraid of is, without a doubt, William Herbert Sheldon’s theory of constitutional psychology.

This is a theory that states that all human bodies have a certain mix of characteristics from the three main somatotypes (also developed by Sheldon): ectomorphic, mesophorphic, and endomorphic. These are concepts that are familiar to many people already, but what is lesser known is how Sheldon had originally hoped to expand on the application of this typology.

In this theory of constitutional psychology, Sheldon believed that a person’s personality, intelligence, and potential for achievement could also determined by the prevalence of characteristics from each body type. Sort of like a fucked up form of astrology, Sheldon believed that your genetics determined your potential, and that these high or low potential traits would be reflected in your physical form.

In other words: my nightmare.

I grew up with a passionate interest in biology, as well as a family that I hated. This has left me absolutely terrified of the former camp of the nature vs. nurture debate for many, many years. In short, while I would strongly prefer to take the side of nurture, I feel far more strongly that it is nature that determines our ultimate outcome in life. I believe this pathologically—even if I were to be presented with sufficient evidence to prove one’s temperament and success is 100% based on nurture I think I may still struggle to believe it. As you will read below, my pathologic belief in nature as the ultimate determinant extends so far that the dark parts of my brain are happy to consider long de-bunked pseudoscience if it will affirm my beliefs: that I am destined to end up just like my genetic make-up determines, and that my genetic make-up determines I must be unsuccessful, fat, and worthless.

And, in my defense, it should be said that the trajectory of my life has done very little to paint a different picture, despite my best efforts. Despite being fervently against weight gain and terrified of it since the age of 7, I am now sitting at a BMI of 32. Despite being terrified of becoming an alcoholic and an addict like my father’s line, I am now on day 3 of a thus-far unsuccessful re-attempt at sobriety. Despite being obsessed with the idea of having a successful career, I am—as I most feared—a middle grade graduate of a low-tier state school with absolutely zero accolades or even a significant CV.

Because, it would seem, that simply thinking something does not make it true. My mind was nurtured to fear weight gain, but my body craved food and made me ate. My mind was nurtured to fear alcohol addiction, but my body latched onto it as soon as it touched my lips. My mind craved a successful career, but my body—the whole of it, its entirety and complexity in time and space—maneuvered according to his genetic make-up, pulling me out of range of opportunities, confusing my efforts, and dissolving my discipline in the moments I needed it most.

Were this a true debate about nature vs. nurture, one may point out rightly that it is only natural that I end up like my parents regardless, since they are the source of both my nature and my nurture. But this is incorrect.

It should be said, I have two parents. I hated both of them, but they were very different from one another.

My mother was a disciplinarian and a bit narcissistic. She had a strong “go getter” attitude, working her way up from a secretary position to director of her department over the course of about 15 years, while working in her spare time to fix up our house and flip others. She was aggressive and highly critical, both of herself and of those around her. My mother was a “winner” by all accounts—she certainly did not win friends or admirers, but she got what she wanted: power, influence, and money. She didn’t need friends or family, she just needed a nice material life, and she got one.

My father, on the other hand, desperately wanted to be a “free spirit”—he loved art and music and had long standing dreams of wanting to be an artist himself. However, he never quite had the creative drive for it. My father was fun to be around, a great story teller, very full of love for everyone around him. He was also horribly addicted to pills, extremely overweight, and very sick. He could be cruel and had a horrible temper, throwing things or screaming at my mother in public when she said something that hurt his pride. He was obsessed with the image of himself, and he hated the image of himself at the same time, making him miserable. He was depressed, he was lazy. He would not shower for days. He died of a drug overdose, during a brief period where neither my mother nor I were speaking with him. My bright, optimistic, sociable father who loved art and culture more than anything and wanted nothing more in the world than to be loved and admired by others died alone in a bed watching cable TV and being hated by his own family. Less than 10 people attended his funeral.

And I look just like him.

I have my father’s eyes, and also my father’s talent for foreign language, storytelling ability, and creative capacity without creative inspiration.

I have my father’s cheek bones, and also my father’s habit of midnight snacking and secret smoking.

I have my father’s short legs, and also my father’s pathologic inability to take care of himself, brush his teeth, shower, or otherwise even do any of the basic things one is required to do.

I have my father’s hair, and also my father’s fear of mediocrity, delusions of grandeur, and notable lack of discipline in actual pursuits of achievement.

I have my father’s hands; do I also share my father’s destiny because of it?

Sheldon’s theory of constitutional physiology was as one would expect. Those with an endomorphic body—i.e. fat or flabby—were said to have characteristics of “viscerotonia”. Viscerotonia was characterized by a deep love of comfort and food, laziness, slow reaction times. They were also believed to be affectionate and even-tempered.

The mesomorphs—i.e. muscular and stout—were said to have characteristics of “somatotonia”; love of physical adventure, frequent risk taking, aggressiveness and courageousness were all associated. Famously Sheldon believed that the majority of criminal types were of the mesomorph body type.

And finally, the ectomorphs-- naturally tall, thin, and delicate. According to Sheldon, they were characterized by “cerebrotonia”—intellectual, introverted, and sensitive, and prone to a more graceful and dignified nature.

A part of me does not want to give any of this even the slightest thought. Sheldon and his cohort were famous for their racism, particularly in the related field of phrenology. These theories have been disproven hundreds of times in a hundred different ways. There is no debate.

Yet somehow, when I search down to my bones, I cannot help but fear there is some truth to it.

Or, at the very least, even if there weren’t any truth to it, our society has certainly made it so.

Even on a platform like this the stereotype is rampant. I find even myself guilty of it more often than not, especially in the realm of fandom. Muscular characters are aggressive, fat characters are kind and understanding, thin characters are aloof and intellectual. I repeat these stereotypes to myself over and over and over again. I consciously want to combat them but, when it comes to enjoying media, I find anything other than the stereotype to lack a certain verisimilitude.

That upsets me, that I do that.

To others and to myself.

For most of my undergraduate education I was not taken seriously as a scientist, despite my significantly above average performance and passion for the subject. I was denied letters of recommendation because I did not “seem the type”. And I am still not taken seriously by friends, relatives, or colleagues in my post graduate pursuits I wonder sometimes—if I had been thinner, if I had been more of the ectomorph variety, if I had looked more like a Sherlock than a Watson, would I be more successful?

The upsetting answer is probably.

But how much does that reflect on my actual talent and capability? Even if society would be more likely to view me a certain way if I looked a certain way, what does that say for my actual potential?

Though, really, what is the difference?

Is potential still potential if it does not have the potential to be used?

#journal

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michelles-garden-of-evil · 4 years

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Episode 15 Review: Diegesis in a Strange Paradise

{ YouTube: 1 | 2 }

{ Synopses: Debby Graham | Bryan Gruszka }

{ Screencaps }

Introducing Vangie’s father, the Conjure Man.

We open to the sound of some funky drums as a mysterious old man in a toga-like garment conducts a religious ritual, swaying his stiff limbs as strange lamps burn on an altar in the background. He lays down exhausted on a straw mat as Vangie enters.

“Good,“ says the old man, “you’re just in time.” In the background, the drums continue beating, which makes me wonder: can he hear the drums and, if so, where is the music coming from? If you’ve read my reviews of previous episodes, you’ll know that I like to analyze which elements on this show are diegetic and which are not--which, most of the time, is surprisingly hard to determine.

For those who don’t already know or who want a more in-depth explanation than I’ve previously given, diegesis is a mode of storytelling that shows the actions of a story from the characters’ point of view (the diegetic or intradiegetic level), as opposed to that of an outside narrator (the extradiegetic level). The narrator writes about what the character sees, hears, thinks, and feels, without stylizing it or filtering it through an outside perspective. In literature, this kind of narrative is easy to spot and usually takes either a first-person or third-person limited perspective--or, more rarely, a second-person perspective. A third-person omniscient narrative can be purely diegetic, but only if the narrator doesn’t add their personal opinions or interpretations of the characters to the story.

In theater, film, and TV, determining what elements of a narrative are diegetic is more difficult, because the dramatic arts all rely on extradiegetic storytelling to some degree. The writer(s) and director(s) take on the role of narrator and have to communicate the characters’ experience to the audience in a way that they will understand, often relying on theatrical conventions that aren’t realistic but help them communicate the characters’ thoughts and feelings better.* One example relevant to soap operas like this one is backacting**, which “is to stage a scene so both actors are facing the camera...The idea is that it has the benefit of getting both character’s [sic] faces full on in the shot, so you get the full impact of their acting and/or emoting.” Obviously, most people don’t turn away from the people they’re talking to in real life, and most soap characters probably wouldn’t, either, if they were real people. This makes backacting non-diegetic.

My favorite example of backacting on this show, from Episode 5.

So far under my diegesis tag, I’ve examined Jacques Eloi des Mondes’ vanishing portrait and his ring to determine whether or not those were diegetic. The portrait vanishing is diegetic in the Paperback Library novels based on the show, and we know this because multiple characters reference it. Take, for example, this scene from the first book:

They started to leave the room, but Diana stopped short to stare at the frame where the portrait of Jacques Eloi des Mondes was plainly revealed when she entered the hall. "That's strange," she said, frowning. "I'd have sworn there was a portrait in that frame." A hand took her elbow gently and words were spoken so close to her ear that warm breath touched her earlobe. "But no. It was taken out to be cleaned and will be restored shortly. How attractive you are when you look perplexed, my dear." ***

On the show, however, it’s non-diegetic. No one ever mentions the portrait disappearing and as early as Episode 6, the crew stop removing it when Jacques possesses Jean Paul. Less than two weeks later, his handsome face stays smirking inside the frame whether or not his spirit is inside Jean Paul’s body. When he possesses him, the camera still cuts to the shot of the blank portrait, but the portrait itself is still visible on the set and to the characters. In Episode 12 where Jacques controls Jean Paul for the entire episode, Holly has a short scene where she discusses how much he resembles his descendant, and the portrait is visible--and that’s just one example of many.

The ring, in contrast, is diegetic, which we know because Elizabeth mentions it in Episode 13. It later appears in Episode 68 where Raxl tries to sacrifice it to the Great Serpent. But it also appears for a short time on another character’s hand in Episode 59 before disappearing again, and I’m not sure if that part was intended to be diegetic or merely symbolic of Jacques’ alliance with said character. (I think that, in that instance, it’s supposed to be the latter.)

And now we return to the Conjure Man and the unseen drums in the background of his introduction scene. We know from Episode 12 that Raxl and Quito have tried contacting him through voodoo rituals, which involved (among other things) Quito beating a drum. While I doubt that a hypothetical ordinary human would hear the drums if they were to spy on him, it is possible that he can hear them (either literally or telepathically) thanks to his supernatural powers. If this is true, then the music is diegetic whether or not any other characters could hear it, because at least one character does.

Alternatively, the Conjure Man could have the power to make drums beat on his own, or create music out of thin air like the ghosts in this fun Dark Shadows episode. Kind of a stretch, but it is a fantasy show, and I’m willing to suspend my disbelief in any fantasy elements as long as I think they’re cool. I don’t understand why some other fantasy fans need a pseudo-scientific explanation for fantastic elements in stories; just tell me “this man, who is over 300 years old, has the power to summon drum noises at will” and I’ll gladly accept it, no questions asked. It’s a fantasy story; we don’t need to know the pseudo-physics involved.

Or maybe the music is just regular, incidental, non-diegetic music and I’m just overanalyzing again (which is probably the truth). Whatever. I’d rather spend my free time writing about Strange Paradise than have a social life. ;)

Vangie and the Conjure Man.

Anyway, the Conjure Man tells Vangie that he foresees that he will die soon and therefore she, his sole heir, must become the Conjure Woman. Vangie doesn’t want to, saying “I don’t believe.” However, her father insists that she is best because she “know[s] this modern world” and is “trained for the future when man will wake up to the network of his own mysticism.” (A possible reference to the idea of the Age of Aquarius or the New Age movement in general?) Vangie replies that, although she believes in telepathy and ESP, she does not believe in witchcraft because “its roots are in the past.”

“Where could you find roots, but in the past?” asks the Conjure Man, chewing the scenery. “How can a tree grow without roots? How can you deny your own destiny? Yours is a gift of giving, Vangie. Don’t deny that.”

“I don’t want it!”

“You can’t escape it!” He tries to stand up, but can’t, and tells Vangie the messages or “truths” that he has received. “On Maljardin, the Devil is loose again.” The drums intensify. “Your minister will be sent for. The forces of evil have drawn a battle line between God and the Devil!”

I like this screencap. Taken out of context, it looks like Alison is doing a Raxl impression.

On the cursed isle of Maljardin, Jean Paul and Alison meet in the Great Hall for some recap. Alison repeats her intention to stay, but insists that Jean Paul promise her some things. This pisses off THE DEVIL JACQUES ELOI DES MONDES, who decides to take over and listen to the conditions instead, making Jean Paul look like a fool in the process:

Condition #1: Jean Paul informs Erica’s and her father of Erica’s death.

Jacques’ response:

Trolling Alison by suggesting her father might help with his insane cryonics scheme.

Alison objects, saying that her father knows that cryonics is a pseudoscience. “There’s always a beginning,” Jacques replies, mocking her. “Aren’t you proud that your sister is one of its pioneers?”

This pisses her off, understandably. “I was a fool to stay here,” she remarks. But he just keeps talking, first about how no word of the cryonics experiment must leak out (again) and then about transplants (also again). They discuss a brain transplant experiment involving bird embryos by a Yugoslavian scientist named Pavlovic, which actually happened, but with a low survival rate. Clearly Ian Martin did some research on organ transplants, and one has to wonder if he knew of the failures and deliberately used them to foreshadow problems with Erica’s resurrection.

Condition #2: That he bring a minister to Maljardin to conduct a funeral service for Erica.

Jacques’ response: More denial that Erica is dead, plus this argument:

Insane troll logic: “If a man landed on the moon, that means we have achieved the impossible, which in turn means that nothing is impossible. If nothing is impossible, then Erica can come back to life.”

Alison accuses him of denying God, to which he responds that “He and I aren’t exactly on speaking terms.” (Gotta love Jacques dropping hints about his identity.) Cut back to the Conjure Man:

Any idea what any of this means?

The Conjure Man is busy serving Vangie a nice nutritious plate of word salad as he slowly passes over to the spirit world and YouTube’s automatic captions gleefully obscure the meaning of his words even more. The actual line doesn’t make much more sense than this, speaking of a “conqueror of mist” and other mystical-sounding stuff that is most likely nonsense. And he doesn’t deliver it well, because...well...he’s just not a very good actor.

Jacques: “We are not amused. No...wait...” *snickers* “...Actually, we are.” (Note: He doesn’t actually say this, but he should have.)

Jean Paul recovers and promises to bring Matt to the island, while the Conjure Man continues giving Vangie instructions. He tells her to bring the Knight of Pentacles--which Vangie identifies with Dan Forrest--to Maljardin. I need to remember to write a post analyzing all the Tarot symbolism used sometime in the near future, which I keep putting off doing, but I will say that the description of the card at the randomly-selected Tarot website I linked to does indeed sound like a description of Dan.

At the French Leave Café--otherwise completely deserted save for Quito and the bartender--Jean Paul meets up with Matt. He orders a gin and tonic, which suggests that he was already a heavy drinker before Jacques started quaffing brandy all the time while in his body. (Speaking of which, why do the characters on this show and Dark Shadows just leave decanters of brandy sitting out where anyone can slip poison, drugs, or magical potions in them? I can understand why Roger Collins on DS does it because he doesn’t have a brain, but Jean Paul allegedly has an IQ of 187, so he has no excuse.) During their otherwise rather dull conversation, Jean Paul explains that he retreated to Maljardin six months earlier because he had been stalked by the news media his entire life and wanted some privacy.

He asks Matt to come to Maljardin, which he assumes has to do with Holly and probably gets a little too excited (if you know what I mean) before Jean Paul disappoints him by refusing to tell until he promises to keep the real reason a secret. But Matt insists on knowing beforehand and is shocked when Jean Paul reveals that he wants him to hold a funeral for Erica “until the day she rises again and returns to me.” The Reverend decides to humor him, most likely because sailing to the island means seeing Holly again, and he leaves to pack.

Jean Paul is reminded once again that Jacques is slowly ruining his life. He may sit on the big, fancy wicker throne now, but soon enough, the handsome devil is bound to kick the throne out from under him.

After he’s gone, Vangie shows up and so does Dan, which pisses off Jean Paul. Dan confronts his boss about the signature that he left on those business documents back in Episode 4, and Jean Paul lies and claims that he signed Jacques’ name because he “didn’t like the deal.” Dan expresses his worries about both Alison (his fiancée, in case you have forgotten) and the warnings that Vangie gave him about Jacques’ return, which I think is when Jean Paul must realize that Jacques did something with the letter that Alison wrote to Dan that made Vangie concerned (although I doubt he knows what).

We cut to the Conjure Man chanting a spell about a “mild zephyr [that] shall conquer the mist” and a “cooling breeze.” But the spell is not effective, because look who just arrived at the party:

Jacques: “You’ve overstepped yourself, Dan. Go home; you’re not needed here.” *sips gin and tonic with affectedly bored expression*

Dan demands information about what is happening to Alison. Jacques refuses, saying, “That’s none of your business.”

"I am your business!” Dan shouts. “I thought you were mine."

"You presumed wrong!"

"Then let us end this business relationship.” (I see what you did there, Mr. Martin.) “What about Alison?"

“Alison is also no longer any of your business, either.”

“What do you mean?”

Jacques stands up, as though trying to intimidate him. “Get out of my life. And hers.” And he turns and begins to walk out.

“Take your job,” Dan shouts, “and I’ll take Alison!” Good luck taking her back while she’s Jacques’ prisoner detained guest.

“Don’t be a fool, Dan! You’ve worn out your welcome on Maljardin.” I didn’t know you could wear out your welcome before you even arrived.

“You won’t get rid of me that easily. I’m coming, too!” Quito stops him by holding stiff zombie fingers in his face.

Jacques grinning smugly while Quito keeps Dan from following them.

“It could be your last trip, Dan,” Jacques sneers and leaves Alison’s estranged and far less attractive fiancé behind to rant to Vangie about how he intends to find out WTF Jean Paul is hiding “even if [he has] to blow up his lousy island.” Meanwhile, Vangie reads her Tarot cards and reveals that the King of Coins is endangering Alison’s life.

“But who is he?”

What does this have to do with diegesis, you ask? Well, not much at this point, save that, if Dan could only hear Jacques’ minor-key leitmotif playing in the background right at this moment--that is to say, if the non-diegetic music were only diegetic--he would know exactly whom Vangie means.

Jacques cheerfully tearing up a letter after slicing it open with the world’s biggest letter opener.

Join us again on Friday for the funniest of this week’s bad subtitles, and then again next week for my review of Episode 16.

Coming up: Reverend Matt Dawson’s arrival on Maljardin makes shock-waves and Raxl receives an important message.

Notes

* For more information about diegesis (and where I first learned of the concept), see also Joel Schumacher’s Phantom of the Opera: A Video Essay by Lindsay Ellis. The video deals in part with diegetic vs. non-diegetic songs in musicals and why this doesn’t always translate well to live-action film. The segment on diegesis starts at 5:55.

** The author of the blog post I linked to cites Danny Horn of Dark Shadows Every Day (the direct inspiration for this blog) as their source for the origin of the term “backacting.” I can’t verify that Danny invented the term, but most of the few relevant results I was able to find on Google were from his blog, so it’s likely he did. On a random note, when you search “backacting ‘soap operas,’” one of the suggested searches is “dark shadows cat,” which I absolutely adore.

*** Dorothy Daniels, Strange Paradise (New York: Paperback Library, 1969), 66.

{ <-- Previous: Episode 14 || Next: Episode 16 --> }

#strange paradise #gothic soap opera #maljardin arc #week 3 #episode 15 #review #analysis #ian martin #dark shadows #diegesis #insane troll logic #iq of 187 #paperback library #soap opera tropes #tarot

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prolapsarian · 7 years

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A note on transphobic feminisms

Last week I found myself embroiled in all sorts of arguments around transphobic and transmisogynist feminisms. I find it so depressing that this stuff is still around. I'm also depressed by how discussions around the Gender Recognition Act are being used by cynically by certain feminists in these milieux, whose main politics over the last decades has been to whip up hatred against trans* people, to try to gather a crowd behind them. I know that quite a few people who are currently lining up behind the likes of Julia Long (or who at the very least refuse to recognise the deeply divisive positions and gestures that people like her are taking and making) read my wall. My hope is that some of the stuff below will make you see this differently.

1. There has been a small but vocal scene of feminists around London - people like Sheila Jeffreys, Gail Chester, Julia Long - whose politics over the last couple of decades has centred on making the argument that trans* women aren't women. A good proportion of these people's opinions go further though: they claim that gender reassignment surgery is nothing other than self-mutilation; that trans people demanding protection from oppression are "male rights activists" (that is, aligned with certain far-right movements); and that the main aim of trans* people's lives is to undermine the gains of the women's movement. But what has been peculiar to this politics - and I only know about London here, but I hear the same from other places - is that its mode of expression has been to attack trans* people themselves. Far from making theoretical interventions or arguments, far from entering into conversations, this group of feminists have gone about instituting their politics by publicly outing, doxxing, and monstering trans people. They do this in a context (and take full advantage of this context) in which transphobia predominates in the mainstream press and many other institutions of civil society. In more immediate social interactions their politics consistently and deliberately misgender all trans people they come into contact with. Ultimately their politics amounts to the idea that trans*-women, in their very being, undermine feminist movements, and they wish to undermine them in every way possible, playing opportunistically on wider social transphobias.

2. It is significant that this pattern has been known to feminism in the context of debates over sex work. On that question certain feminists have attacked women sex workers (most prominently on Reclaim the Night marches.) They do this instead of negotiating the dialectical tensions of labour, commodity, libido, possession, and exchange under patriarchal capitalism. Instead the sex worker herself becomes the scapegoat and centre of gravity of the entire system. If only she can be done away with (and with no particular care for how she came to be selling sex), the whole system will apparently simplify itself. The whole thing is slightly bizarre - akin to blaming proletarians in a munitions factory for a society founded on perpetual war, rather than blaming the society based on perpetual war for the fact that certain proletarians find themselves having to produce munitions. This isn't to say there aren't important and nuanced debates to be had about sex work, safety of workers, the consequence of sex being sold on the most anarchic open market for all women, and so on. Although there is an irony that feminists whose political movement arose from hatred of the "it can wait until after the revolution" now take precisely the same attitude to sex workers merely defending their physical safety. This is all slightly by the by. But the same brutality of attitude, which leads to certain feminists putting the blame of sexual exploitation at the feet of sex workers, which leads them to attack their very existence as scapegoat, has been transferred wholesale to how some feminists are treating trans* people. This has now been going on for very many years.

3. In the discussions that have surrounded the Gender Recognition Act, those women who have for many years been aggressively transphobic have been trying to reposition themselves to win support from other women and feminists who might not really agree with the extremity and violence of their positions. They have started to talk about defending civil society institutions, and about having debates. To many trans* people in London it is clear that these aims are not true. Indeed last week's shitshow of a "debate" mainly involved slinging insults and platforming people whose only point ever is to say that trans* women are men (indeed people who have somehow made careers out of this!) There are questions about civil society, and about womanhood, raised by the act. The trouble is that these particular feminists are not interested in them beyond a very specific, outmoded and divisive line.

4. There are genuinely some people who (mainly on the internet) take an "against nature" position in the trans* community, and who respond to anyone questioning trans* discourse - or even the primacy of discourse in trans* scenes - as an existential threat that can only be met with violence. There are certain individuals who send death threats, punch people, shout "kill all TERFs" etc. Apart from these people are the enormous majority of trans* people who are consistently in conversations, discussions, social movements, reflections with all sorts of people (and alone) about questions of sex, gender, sexuality, nature, history. The transmisogynist and transphobic feminists consistently attempt to play up the extent of this violent, silencing culture, because they know that ultimately plays out in their favour. This behaviour is analogous to Zionists who play up the anti-Semitism of small elements of the Arab population to justify the violence meted out by Israel against all Palestinians. They know that it is ultimately beneficial to their position to claim that they are being silenced and attacked, that all discussion is made impossible. Often their aim has been to provoke this situation (for example by holding meetings where the only speakers are those who routinely claim that all trans* women are men.) The events this week in London, when divisions were cynically sown in this way - people like Julia Long know that their position is ultimately stronger, that their hatred of trans* people and violence against them appears more legitimate and more reasonable when people are most divided. It is for this reason that these people have for so long practiced such a highly antagonistic politics. But none of this really helps women, trans* or otherwise. At the same time it is really a terrible shame for most trans* people that the time they need to defend themselves has collided with what can only be described as a crisis in the politics of oppression, where (turbo-charged by the internet) significant numbers of people advocate nihilist violence against their oppressors to shore up the community of the oppressed. But this trend seems thankfully to be waning. It is a strange irony too that an all-out-war has broken out only where these internet cultures have come into contact with those feminists who first tried to drag the movement into communitarianism.

5. One frequent line of argument that is common is the "gender" is all post-modern nonsense. But to think that the transformations in social relations that have taken place in the last 30 years can be done away with through the power of a demystifying gaze, which does away with the ideology of discourses only to rediscover nature, is to miss the point. We are without a doubt living through a sexual revolution - one as great as those that preceded it, that of the 20 years following the French Revolution, that of Weimar Germany (and Austria) in the wake of psychoanalysis, and that of the 1970s. And indeed it is the revolution of gender itself. Perhaps it is better to think by analogy. When I try to think about the early decades of psychoanalysis it is impossible to think about the great advances it offered people in thinking about their sexuality, about understanding the sexual lives of children, without at the same time thinking of its victims: of Dora, of the children subject to the prevalent paedophilia of Western Culture over whom psychoanalysis had thrown the darkest cloak (until Ferenczi's late interventions). But to take up the position that just refuted it as pseudoscience - the position of someone like Karl Kraus - is to sort of miss the point. The great historical movement of psychoanalysis (which remains unfinished) was already transforming people's lives, people's self-understandings and self-misunderstandings, people's relations and relationships. So too is the case with something like Butler's view of gender, which has now entered the everyday. And whether you agree with it or not is no longer the issue, because questions of humanity are not staked either for or against it but within it and through it. When I was teaching classes of 18 year old humanities students a lot of them had read Butler while at school. Most of those who hadn't were at least aware of the discourse, and were familiar with replicated or bowdlerised forms of it online. It was just part of their sexual growing up. And sometimes I think of the old arguments against the psychoanalytic revolution: that it left the continent of Europe deep in anxiety, packed full of people narcissistically introspecting, discovering uneasily, and obsessing over, their own neuroses. And perhaps if psychoanalysis left in its wake a generation of neurotics, then theories of gender leave a generation of gender disphorics. But it is unclear to me that they are any less well as a result. All of this isn't to say that something like a fiendish Krausian rejection isn't interesting, but it is nonetheless brutal, polarising, as Benjamin would say: destructive. But the Karl Krauses of today's sexual revolution have none of his style; they are experts in the brutishness of brutality alone. They refuse even to accept the divisive effects of their own polemical skepticism, and refuse to notice the bodies trodden underfoot.

6. Perhaps one of the arguments used by transphobic feminists that I find myself most sympathetic to is the idea that we need to return to a conversation of nature. The claim stands against the idea that questions of gender and sexual identity are entirely matters of society and consciousness, in a world that has apparently (at least in these spheres) overcome the forces of natural necessity, the expressions of nature, and natural divisions. But where I absolutely disagree is with the sort of nature that is invoked by these people: it is nature viewed with the taxonomic gaze of Linnaeus. The point of this thinking is to show, just as Linnaeus tried to do with animal species, that sexual divisions are eternal and unchangeable, and thus can be given names. It is to invoke precisely those figures like Goethe's "eternal feminine" that feminism initially set out to undermine. Absolutely no regard is given to questions of sexual development, transformations in sexuality in childhood, puberty, maturity or old age. No discussion of how socialisation and historical catastrophe might affect this. Instead all of this is ignored in favour of the sovereignty of the persistence of the genital, in its purely fleshly form. After the arguments I had this week I went back and read Firestone's Dialectic of Sex and Mitchell's Feminism and Psychoanalysis - two of the brightest stars in the constellations of the second wave. What I love about these books is their views of nature (and in Firestone's case, where she is most indebted to late Engels, quite polemically) as something utterly dynamic, as a world of constant change, modification, and dialectical force, utterly unrecognisable to Linnaean fixation. This thinking shows up the will to fixate nature - the brutal domination of nature - as that which bourgeois thinking has mistaken for the mastery of nature by an enlightened nature that would lead it to reconciliation. This fixated and fixating view of sexual difference ultimately disregards all questions of sexual development (and decline), and in questions of consciousness it willingly swaps out the sensitivity and nuances of developmental psychology for the stark fruitlessness of evolutionary biology.

7. Amongst responses to the Gender Recognition Act are a set of arguments that have been virally circulating on the internet about how it is set to roll back the victories of the second wave. Most of these arguments are patent nonsense, relying on convincing readers (with no evidence) that legal gender reassignment isn't already possible (the Act would just streamline these processes, and would not require the sign-off of doctors.) But more than this, these arguments often rely on a total revisionism about the gains of the feminist movement. Reading them one might quickly believe that women in the 1970s spent their time arguing for single sex toilets and women's prisons. Meanwhile these arguments have a habit of eliding the work done by many trans* people continuing the best of the struggles of the second wave, in organisations like Sisters Uncut, fighting for better domestic violence services. Similarly on questions of sexual violence these viral internet ventures seem to take a step back. Far from the perspective of the second wave that so often saw press sensationalism around street rapists and unknown attackers as often used as a mask for not dealing with the prevalence of sexual violence in the home and amongst known men, the sensationalist figures have been reinvented as the spectre of a sexually violent man who becomes trans* only to gain access to women. This is not to say that street rapists and the like are not real consequences of patriarchal society that need a feminist response. But it is to say that the rolling back of the perspective that finally after decades won out against the marital exemption for rape into a sort of tabloid sensationalism is a step backwards. And more than this, it is terrifying that this sort of sensationalism is used to justify punishing all trans* people, not least when there is absolutely no evidence that this behaviour is any more prominent in the trans* community.

8. Perhaps what has been most grotesque in the last week is the willingness of people to talk explicitly and aggressively about trans* people's bodies - about bodies they don't know in any sense other than seeing a clothed photograph, and about which they have no real right to speak. This is matched with the cruelty that wants to point to every moment when those bodies might be most uncomfortable, when they might not "pass", when they betray a difficult history or an unfulfilled wish, when they express a neurosis that they try to compensate against or disguise. I have been so upset by how friends' bodies have been spoken about - and all just to try to elicit an angry reaction from them at best and to destroy them at worst.

All of this isn't to say that no conversation should be had. Nor is it to say that that gender is some easy solution (and I challenge you to find a single trans* person who thinks it is.) The point, however, is that at their best theories of gender - in their natural-historical, dialectical elaboration - are capable of saying "well sex isn't that easy or simple either." But the point is really to give some background and hopefully some understanding about what is going on. I know lots of people feel uneasy too and want to have conversations, and that they feel silenced. The best suggestion I have - other than joining in existing discussions, forming reading groups, or getting involved in struggles together - is not to line up behind people like Julia Long, Sheila Jeffreys, Miranda Yardley, Jen Izaakson, and the rest. Strangely their politics of hate wants you to be silenced too - they want to leave the field divided so that their hatred can win out (as it did in London this week.) Similarly, quite a few people in the last week have responded to me by simply denying the violence and effects of transphobic feminisms. I would encourage everyone who says this to go and talk to some trans* people about their effects it has on their lives. Why not just ask them about it? And find out how a discussion with them can happen humanely without all of this shit. This is quite the opposite of organising meetings where the one thing the platform speakers have in common are repeated press claims that trans* women are men - never mind acting all naive afterwards when it causes shit to kick off. It will require some savviness to work out who is involved in what position and why - but what is needed now is to be savvy, and to not think that Julia Long presents the only option for "opening debate" while she in fact closes it down. It is also true that the Gender Rights Act has the potential to affect more people than just trans* people. This really ought not be responded to by publishing outright lies, provocations, and viral content, only to conclude "let's have a comradely debate," by which point the "debate" is already utterly uncomradely.

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greatawakeningreport · 5 years

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WEEKLY REPORT: Great Awakening Rally /// Global Meditations /// Synchronicity

Published Date: September 9th, 2019

WEEKLY REPORT

TRUTH///AWAKENING///DISCLOSURE

GREAT AWAKENING RALLY, GLOBAL MASS MEDITATION, POWER OF LOVE & SYNCHRONICITY

Hurricane Dorian Death & Destruction, Bill Gates MIT Donations Via Epstein, Hong Kong Protest Escalate, DNC Sells Committee Seats, US Manufacturing Shrinks, Yellowstone Geyser Breaking Records, Anti-Aging Vitamin Found The Great Awakening Rally September 11, 2019, Washington Monument, Washington D.C. 8 AM to 8 PM The Great Awakening Rally is for anybody who is interested in Q and/or would like to get to know more about the movement. We hope to come together as unified humans across all races and religions across the political spectrum using our first amendment right to speak out in support of the President of the United States; Donald Trump, Qanon, and all things that keep America great. We will speak out against the Deep State/Cabal and their corruption and crimes against humanity. This is a family-friendly event & we encourage those interested in attending to bring signs, markers, food, chairs, or whatever they can do to help make sure this is an unforgettable experience. The permit has been approved, people are getting energized, & I just wanted to do my part in helping spread this important message/event that I also look forward to attending! This event is being put together so that Patriots who Trust The Plan have an opportunity to come together & network / show the world how many of us there truly are. The Great Awakening Rally is for anybody who is interested in Q and/or would like to get to know more about it. Not everyone who is coming will want their identities revealed due to work situations & intolerant liberals – and that is totally okay. We understand that & still look forward to seeing you there. Also, if you cannot make this event & would still like to help, you can do so by sharing it with those you know who may be interested. "The Power of Love" Neurologically, the brain only has two ways of seeing things, either with love or fear. This is, of course, an oversimplification, but the description holds true when we consider that love is a force of openness whereas fear is a force of rejection. You might learn to tolerate something, but that tolerance isn't love. You’re not completely and fully open and accepting of it. Can we really love things we don’t value? This is an interesting question. Surely we can recognize that we don’t value losing our job. But should the mere idea of it be something we resist, thereby causing us anxiety and discomfort? I would argue, based on various modes of research in attempting to understand the science behind various spiritual practices that assert suffering can be transcended through love, it is possible to love something we don’t value. You may not value breaking a bone. I sure don’t. But the idea of breaking a bone I do love. Why? Because it helps me have a healthier respect for my own body. It gives me the power to be more careful. And, more simply, rejecting it doesn’t do anything but cause me anxiety. Again, from the brain’s perspective, there are only two choices. In this sense, as was stated, the choice to employ resistance always comes with a heavy price of making the world appear darker. The choice to use love doesn’t mean we want that thing to happen, it means we accept the truth of it fully, without any resistance. And in this way, this rewires the brain for joy and happiness, it rewires our brain for bravery and empowerment. The following anecdote perfectly describes this power of using love as a technique of facing the things we don’t value. Again, it doesn’t mean we want these things to happen. It means we’re willing to accept them free of resistance, which naturally improves our mood and makes it easier to love life in general. Who doesn’t want that? Synchronicity Defined Synchronicities are events, places, or people that your soul attracts into your life to help you evolve to higher consciousness or to take emphasis on something that is going on in your life. It is when two or more events which are casually unrelated occur together in a meaningful manner, patterns that repeat in time. The idea of synchronicity is linked more to metaphysics which are emerging and showing their interconnection to how we manifest synchronicities in our lives. All that we experience in our lives is by design. There are no accidents or coincidences, just synchronistic wheels, the wheels of time or karma, wheels within wheels, sacred geometry, and the evolution of consciousness in the alchemy of time. Not all synchronicities are necessarily viewed as positive experiences. Many times they are designed to create a lesson or series of lessons in which we need to subconsciously and/or consciously work through. An example would be attracting a lover through synchronicity only to discover that the person is wrong for you. You may think that this person represents the road you should take at that given moment in time, which is not always the case. But with these negative synchronicities, there is always a positive learning experience to grow from. Your soul is always working to create new experiences for you. If you pay attention to how you move through life, you will understand how synchronicity works. The higher and clearer your vibration and intent, the faster you manifest synchronicities. Examples of Synchronicity: You are experiencing financial difficulties but money for basic expenses such as rent, utilities, food, etc., always manifest. You have come to trust this. You go to the bookstore, not looking for any book in particular, and one just pops out at you like it is screaming your name. You pick it up and open it right to a page that has an answer you were looking for. Your unemployment is running out and suddenly job offers are coming in. You feel a strong desire to move to another place and you don't understand why. Then you begin to see the synchronicities such as, the energies of the area hold something transformational for you, which is more than likely the reason your soul created the move in the first place. You drive to a place where the parking is always congested and suddenly someone pulls out of an ideal parking spot. Synchronicity is a word coined by the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung to describe the temporary coincidence of acausal events. Jung spoke of synchronicity as being a pattern of connection that is not explained by causality. Jung believed that many experiences perceived as coincidence were due not merely to chance, but instead potentially reflected the manifestation of coincidental events or circumstances consequent to the governing dynamic of the collective unconscious. Jung believed the traditional notions of causality were incapable of explaining some of the more improbable forms of coincidence. Jung felt that where it was plain, no causal connection can be demonstrated between two events, but where a meaningful relationship nevertheless exists between them, a wholly different type of principle is likely to be operating. Jung called this principle 'synchronicity.' Since the theory of synchronicity is not testable according to the classical scientific method, it is not widely regarded as scientific. Probability theory can attempt to explain events, however, the correct variables required for actually computing the probability cannot be found. This is not to say that synchronicity is not a good model for describing a certain kind of human experience. According to scientific methods, it is a reason for the refusal of the idea that synchronicity should be considered an actual existing principle of our universe. A synchronistic event can appear just like another meaningless 'random' event to anyone else without the unique prior history which correlates to the event. This reasoning claims that the principle of synchronicity raises the question of the subjectivity of significance and meaning in the sequence of natural events. Synchronicity has been proposed as a natural consequence phenomenon of the many-worlds or parallel universes theory of quantum physics. The subject is somehow 'navigating' to those particular alternate worlds that are correlated to their past history among the very diverse possible other worlds that do not have a relationship to their past history. Although this idea has made it into the popular press, it is considered pseudoscience by most scientists as the parallel universe theory states that all possible futures exist simultaneously; therefore the subject indeed lives out all possible futures in parallel. Jared Rand "Global Guided Meditation" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWtSyAkZiA4 This Week's Briefing At a Glance Hong Kong protests resume, bill’s formal withdrawal was too little, too late. Obama’s Deep State ties to Italians and their attempts to set up Trump are finally coming to light. Leprosy cases are emerging in Los Angeles County. The French aren’t giving up their protests against the Macron regime. Bezos is making $ 149,353 per minute (2017 and 2018 data). Mueller helped Saudis cover up involvement in 9/11 attacks. Jim Watkins: “Building my own version of Cloudflare.” Bitcoin’s blockchain has been hijacked by a new strain of the Glupteba malware. In Japan, it is called Typhoon No.15. Word Faxai is rarely used in Japanese news. Drone bubble implodes. Some of the top drone startups imploded last year. Wine vs. weed war on the rolling hills of northern Oregon. Seattle: thunderstorm lasted for more than 3 hours with 1,200 lightning strikes. Yale Professor: Darwin’s theory has too many “holes,” and is painfully outdated. The temperature of the Clouds of Jupiter: -145°C The temperature at which an Intel CPU will automatically shutdown: 125 °C Strongest EQ in Europe M4.2 Iceland Strongest EQ in US M4.5 Alaska Strongest EQ on the Planet M5.2 South Indian Ocean Indian woman achieves motherhood by giving birth to twins at 74. Nature: Frequent observations of identical onsets of large and small earthquakes. Swedish veteran jihadist demands compensation for missing welfare payments. Discovery of fake Zim Bonds. Nine US states launch probe into whether Facebook broke antitrust rules. The 100 largest private landowners in the U.S. own 40 million acres. Two entities just transferred 94,504 Bitcoin (1,018,147,922 USD) between two anonymous bitcoin wallets. CodeMonkeyZ is working on a NEW gig… Dorian causing a storm of fake news. Watkins: 8chan ‘has no intention of deleting constitutionally protected hate speech’. Q-Anon could return on 9/11 and drops the MOABs. Facebook: 419 million users’ phone numbers exposed on an unprotected server. American Airlines mechanic (Abdul-Majeed) in Miami charged with sabotaging the plane. Watkins on OANN Interview: ‘8Chan will be back up and running i a few days’. Macron may veto Brexit extension, ex-French Diplomat warns. Epstein buried in an unmarked grave next to his parents, all names removed. European gas prices plunge to a 10-year low. The prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine completed. Boeing suspends test of long-range 777x after ‘issue’ during final load checks. UK: Alarming number of seniors go an entire week without talking to anyone. Strongest EQ in Europe M2.8 (multiples). Strongest EQ in US M3.1 Alaska. Strongest EQ on the Planet M5.1 Japan. Thank you to our readers and subscribers for your continued support. 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Hidden Truths The Event Spirituality https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNYfLJNcsgY Path of Awakening https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XQG2rsvELfc WATCH LIST IG Report on James Comey will be posted during the 1st Week of May, Comey will be indicted for multiple criminal violations. This will begin the process of disclosing SpyGate and all its conspirators. New Earthquake predictions are increasing for the Cascadia Subduction Zone and New Madrid Fault Line. New Government Reports on the increase in midwest earthquakes and oil fracking effects. A Russian scientist has issued new predictions for the US to experience a 9.0 earthquake in 2019. Adam Schiff, a stone-cold traitor guilty of spearheading a highly organized conspiracy to commit treason and overthrow the POTUS, Schiff is also guilty of fomenting war with Russia based on a patently false pretext and bogus allegations. The Mueller Report exposes Adam Schiff who "Knowingly" reported false information to the press. Rod Rosenstein resignation/stepping down, indictments, prosecutions, treason FISA, obstruction and sedition. Mueller Report released by AG William Barr, insiders are reporting that Mueller's investigations will expose the key Democratic leadership in both houses, along with the Clintons and the Obama Administration of Sedition and Treason. A complete twist of events catching the Democrats completely off guard. Plus one of the MSM outlets and its reporters will be exposed for Sedition activities, forcing its closure. The Structure Change / Alliance Exposure Mass Corruption Now Ready to be Revealed to the General Public, starting with economy crisis looming, closing the Federal Reserve/Central Banking System, voter fraud in key Congressional & Senate seats, FBI & DOJ false Russian collusion, and the release of 300 pages of the Carter Page FISA redactions will lead to the much greater exposure of the Obama Administration's corruption, treason, and evil practices from the Deep State/Shadow Government. New hearing dates set for New Explosive Testimony from William Barr/John Huber/IG/Horowitz report on the Mueller Report, Clinton Foundation, and the Obama Administration. FISA Report Presidential Order to release 300 supplemental pages of redactions released but held up by Rod Rosenstein, exposing the UK, and Australian Governments involvement. Mass Arrests total 90,647 + Sealed Indictments, 35 US Judicial Districts (increases in indictments averaging 5,000 a month) Continued Mass Resignations/Early Retirement; Government Senators & Congressmen, Fortune 500 CEO's, and Banking Execs. Global Peace Initiatives: North Korea, Ukraine, Iran, Syria, and Israel/Saudia Arabia signs of the total collapse of ruling governments. Exposure & Defeat of The Deep State/Shadow Government/Cabal/Illuminati/Syndicate Global Deflationary Markets Crisis / Global Currency Reset/return to the Gold Backed Standard Currency / RV / Replacement of NESARA/GESARA for SWIFT Trading System / Global Debt Jubilee / Refund of 21 to 71 trillion in confiscated Deep State/Cabal funds Global Trade Agreements Naturalized tariffs with EU, Stalled Talks with China, Russian, Canada, and Mexico agree to neutralize all trade in a new agreement. Trade War with China exposing more than just Trade, Technology Theft, Political Tampering with US Elections and US Congressmen and Senator's payoffs. Congress Approves Legislation to release sealed 911 documents, exposing the Deep State inside job. Remaining Sealed CIA Kennedy Assassination Papers to be released, along with 911 Saudi Arabia collusion docs & Pearl Harbor papers from WWII Rouge Planetary System moving through our Solar System, bringing CME's, Meteorite Showers, EMP, Closings of Planetary Observatories, questions regarding New Mexico's Observatory Increasing Global Geophysical Volcanic & Earthquake Activity, Hawaii, Pacific Rim, Antarctica (Sun's activity) Global Geomagnetic Storms increase in larger magnitude CME's from Sun (The 1000x Galactic Flash in the nearest star system Alpha Centauri was recorded by NASA) Global Weather: Droughts, Hurricanes, Sahara Sand Storm, Heat Waves, Rising Oceans Levels, Flooding, Solar System Climate Change, Chemtrails / Terraforming, HAARP Weather Wars. Health & Wellness: Truth About Cancer, The Plant Paradox, Truth About Vaccines, Big Pharma Industrial Complex. 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kendrixtermina · 7 years

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Extra Typology Vol #1, Introduction

This first part of the series will concern itself with the Book “Human Types - Essence and the Enneagram” by Susan Zannos, on the system that is known as Essence Type, Planetary Body Type or 12Type Enneagram.

Basics/ Book Review

First off I am going to say that I’ll quite deliberately disregard the esoteric and pseudoscientific elements as I do not personally believe them nor am I interested in them -

Conversely, I will not be dissecting or refuting them in detail as this is not my aim here either. Going in, chosing to pick up & pay for this book, I knew that an esoteric perspective, some lowkey misantrophy, golden age fallacy (”Ancient Wisdom”), pseudoscience and anti-intellectual tirades would be part of the deal - I strongly believe that every book, fiction or nonfiction, is a kind of conversation, and that you should be able to converse with people you don’t agree with, especially if it is to reach a common objective or obtain raw information to draw your own conclusions from -

I have chosen to read this book because I find that this system has some useful distinctions & clearly recognizeable archetypes not found anywhere else, and whatever explanation you may or may not attach it, a heuristic that sorts by characteristics can still have its use - Besides, archetypical and metaphorical language is sometimes indeed the best tool or shorthand to talk about the human experience. (in the same way that “The shrooms told me to practice non-judgement” can still be the most natural, intuitive way to describe a drug trip even though you weren’t “talking” to anyone but yourself & simply failing to notice because you deliberately downregulated the neural networks that handle the distinction between “self” and “other” by ingesting disruptive chemicals)

While other “Popularized/Sanitized” Versions of the system are available (I’ve ordered this book, too), as well as other individuals who have expanded it more in line with the esoterics (x) (x) (I’m tempted to arbitrarily add my own because it infuriates me when something includes Pluto and not Eris), I quite deliberately choose to sample the system in it’s original form to form my own opinion in case the author of the other/above book “cut away” something I’d deem salvageable and substantial. (Indeed, I wasn’t sure wether I was Lunar or Saturn untill I read the more “in depht”/ “unsanitized” descriptions, the above author gets too hung up on the concept of “childlikeness” when there’s the whole “emo introvert” aspect to it that makes it very obvious which one I am and what the distinction is.)

As far as antintellectual tirades go, I was actually surprised to find at most three paragraphs, mostly framing it as “just ONE way of aquiring knowledge/intelligence” while still aiming for some sort of “fairness” - Despite the golden mean and a lack of reflection on what reason actually is, I’d say that the author legitimately tried and truly wrote this to the best of their understanding - There’s no consistent trash talk and the however out of context scientific funfacts were genuinely presented as exciting & interesting (Did you know the surface of the moon is covered in a layer of dust from rock that has been ground to powder by meteor impacts, including tiny ones that the lack of atmosphere lets pass when Earth’s atmosphere wouldn’t? Also, interesting biographical details about artists & musicians.) - I mean, the confirmation bias and lack of true mechanistic understanding are apparent and some of the info is sorely outdated (How many moons does Jupiter have again? (If you pardon my socionics, I smell 2D Thinking), but the author aims for a thought-through, comrehensive presentation and writing style drawing from all kinds of mythology & traditions - Reading this book did not hurt, and at the end, it’s more about the intuitive content than the logical one.

Where the author and I are in agreement, though, is that the purpose of typology - whatever typology one chooses to use - is not primarily the labeling of things, but increasing self-awareness and compassion for others, as well as finding out what really suits you & reframing one’s view of self & others in terms of non-judgement, simply seeing things as they are and she has some interesting musings on that concept.

Also, I’d also agree that the nature/nurture debate kind of overlooks both interactions and the factor of personal choice/self-awareness/attitude, though they would probably conceptualize this within their own, highly specific framework.

I have, however, a few dissagreements of the philosophical level that I think it is more fair to make here than anything borne out of my evidentialist worldview, as they would pertain to a sphere we can both inhabit under the same presupositions.

For one thing, I must protest the idea expressed here that negative emotions have no place in a healthy psyche and are merely a tacked-on product of malfunction (and that thinking otherwise is a great misconception of our time)

They accept “survival evolutionary reasons” for instincs so I’ve got to tell them that negative emotions like sadness, anger, envy and fear all serve important survival purposes - rather than expungned or be expected to dissapear with healing or “awakening”, they should be adequately handled, integrated, questioned-analyzed and expressed constructively as to serve the protective purpose for which they evolved - and if anything, restraint of them was LESSER in the past, where might often made right and people were killed in anger and entitlement quite easily.

In the right context, when justified & rightly guided/directly, they can even be beautiful and an important component of a full experience.

And since they are demostrably natural at the chemical and inborn level, they cannot be eradicated, merely repressed, which is more likely to be adverse.

Same can be said about much of the talk of “not noticing” things, like how the lack of memory of everyday events is an indication of not having paid conscious attention to them

In actuality, everyday memories that we don’t retain long-term are discarded in our sleep when our brain “filters” for which ones to keep. This is known & demonstrated, and not only is it a bit preposterous that you would remember everything if only you “paid attention” and we’rent “awake”/making conscious decisions if you don’t remember, the idea that we could it would not be useful & clutter our mind with repetitive things.

Same with not noticing environmental details.

“Tuning out” things, like negative emotions, is an useful natural function. Some of us are iNtuitives, in fact, I think the author is one, and would have to trade in some traits that I’d waver she strongly cares about if she wanted to be a Sensor - Her esoterics theories may not be that different from “pondering something in your head”, they’re sure not raw data.

I get how in some context you may want to alter your attention level, but in the interest of, as she’d put it “not bein anything other than yu are”, I’d aknowledge that it’s normal.

And last there’s the usual “spiritualist” assumption that we have to “raise above” and “disengage from” this world or our functionalities/ patterns in it to get to some vaguely-defining “beyond” that for all its claims of maturity and trancendency often consists of simple vague superlatives and contrasts based on very anthropogenic frameworks - It’s simply not-this, better-this, beyond-this, and if you don’t buy it you’re supposedly “trapped inside a material box”

Thing is no matter what size the actual box is, human beings can always imagine more, because such is imagination- and what’s a humbling” or “proud” answer is wholly subjective, an interpretation pretty indepent from whatever facts or unfacts you derive it from. It could just as easily be said to be “pride” to postulate that our reaction patterns and networks are simply what we are. We’re merely self-aware enouh to regongize shift our own patterns.

I have mixed feelings about what is in some ways a pretty good line/reasoning, in that there’s notable difference that can be made to you subjectively by changing your attitude, even if you can’t change the world (somewhat in line with stoic philosophy) or even your attitude, that you can kind of just accept it and that just that can be a significant difference.

For me, there’s a significant “it depends” here, like, it seems to stray into a sort of slave moral and surrender of just “swallowing”, a fixedness and a “okay-ness” in terms of behavior that IMHO is only there to an extent - and not even in a moral or judgy way, but, isn’t what you want and what you can live with just as inoxerably a part of yourself?

Now that this is out of the way, let’s get on to discussing the actual content.

Essence

So what is it we’re attempting to classify?

The author defines it as the basic “factory settings” of a person, the part of their nature that would be the same regardless of culture, societal impressions/expectations or ones’ particular experiences, here categorized as a basic recognizeable archetype. Probably what’s left of you if you have so much acid you temporarily forget who you are XD

However, it’s not strictly ‘nature’ as opposed to nurture, as the human brain continued to grow into toddlerhood & develop in response to language and socialization factors that can become an inoxerable part of the person’s wiring and how it’s expressed-

Where I would most certainly disagree with the author is their assertion that everything else about a person, all changes induced by experience or nurture, are somehow false or fake. It’s those things that make you distinct from another person with the same type, of whih there’s bajillions,but there’s only one you.

Besides, it’s ALL stored as changes in brain wiring, all memories, all trauma responses, to the point that even your job or hobby may change your activity patterns, so though you might come up with more or less sensible, useful definitions of which parts are “real”, there will always be a nature of subjective interpretation about it. Though a person may have predispositions and type, I do think there’ something to the thought that at least part of our essential being comes after we exist, though our formative experiences and the choices we make -

That is, I see developement less as a “return” to some vague idealized mystical precogndition, and more a reaching towards unseen heights to become “better than you are” - Nonetheless for that endeavour it’s still crucial to know the base material you’re working with & throw out deceptions - You want to become a better version of YOU, not of someone else: If you’re a cat, you’re not gonna beat the dogs at dogging, rather, learn how to cat properly.

An interesting thought is that people might particularly remember points where they acted outside of habit or with deliberate choice (& therefore uncharacteristically), therefore making it harder to catch onto characteristic vibes than for a neutral observer - As in, there can be a difficulty here because society tells people to bend themselves into pretzels, but the natural pattern still pervades when the person isn’t “trying”

Contrary to the claim here that you need years for typing (esoterics peeps making everything sound so ~enlightened~ and ~mystical~ imho) I’ve read other articles lauding this system precisely because it’s rather simple and working with pretty regonizeable basic universal archetypes, particularly when it comes to the basic 6, peeps can “pick one” rather fast even if they never thought about it before

intellectual emotional action-oriented

personal lunar venus mercury

non-personal saturn jupiter mars

and the other influences also being based on easily recognizeable archetypes.

The Book

Interestingly, the Book doesn’t get to the actual type descriptions until halfway through, at first treating us to some basic theories on both the history of the system and this particular school of esoterics, the pseudoscientific “basis” as well as a model of a “soul anatomy” or composition of the human mind which, despite the card metaphors, is basically an effort in philosophy and could indeed serve as a typology system on its own (Queen of Diamonds person here, in case anyone cares)/ is later used to explain type characteristics and define a set of Attributes.

The Sailormoonian collection of components, which actually receives further subdivisions, consists of:

The Instinctual Center - Pain & Pleasure. Survival concerns, basic body functioning, homemaking - perhaps analogous to sp instinct. Ranges from basic necessities to physical pleasure to badass survival instincts/vigilance

The Movement Center - Rest & Movement, learned movements, sensorical-reactionary patterns. Perhaps analogous to the Sensing function and/or Spatial-Kinesthetic intelligence. Ranges from drudgework to love of traveling/adventure to, at its peaks, mechanics & inventors

The Intellectual Center - True or False, concern with abstract ideas, concepts and symbols, as such not strictly Jung’s thinking function or the ‘head center’ from the 9-gram. Ranges from recited knowledge to excitement/curiosity, to metacognition (”knowing that you don’t know”)

The Emotional Center - Like & Dislike. Feelings oriented toward people. Seems anologous to sx instinct. Ranges from social pleasantries to passion and wild out of control dramatics, to, at its peak, altrustic emotions. And yes, there were alice in Wonderland allusions. (”Queen of Hearts”)

The gist of the idea is that for each of the centers, the learning process involves first passionate captivation, then deliberate sustained attention and finally a transfer to a basically “mechanical” function that can be performed without attention, like when you learn to ride a bike and eventually become able to do it without thinking.

It further postulates that these are often operating in parallel, and that to become an actualize person you should “archieve unity” that is, become aware of and “synchronize” them.

Also, some romantic shmaltz about how only the highest part of the emotional center can see “higher” centers (I presume in line with certain shools of esoterics where three of those have a counterpart simply called “higher moving”, “higher emotional” etc. The distinction seems quite arbitrary to me personally. )

It has always been my opinion that the strict distinction between rationality/logic and creativity/emotion/lateral thinking is arbitrary 19th century romanticist bullshit.- though of course the brain has different, parallel “layers” which is probably what this refers to in a psychological sense. But the social processing we’d call “higher emotions” is up there in the cortex just there with cognitive skills, and there’s not really a separation from bare survival stuff, either - The brain is very much what we have instead of claws or wings, and each layer builds on the assumption that the previous one is there.

BTW: Another point I disagree on is that Donal Trump (Listed as Solar-Saturn-Mars) does not have a drop of Saturn in him. We could argue about Solar or Jovial admixture or consider him a pure Mars type - he’s certainly naive and vain, but more than anything else, he’s bull-headed.

(As with the ESTPs before you, here’s my condolences to you Martials.)

To be fair, the author couldn’t have known that he’d go from random frivolous celebrity to fascist proto-dictator, making any reference to him retroactively cringey and wanting of disclaimers.

#extraTypology #typology #Susan zannos #essence and the enneagram #essence type #planetary body type #12gram

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silentfcknhill · 7 years

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what is scorpio!sportacus ? i've heard of the others but not that one

Oh, it’s nothing huge, it’s just a headcanon some people have that Sportacus’ zodiac sign is Scorpio. I think it stems from the fact that Sportacus’ birthday is on the 10th, and so is Magnus Scheving’s, and since they never say what month is Sportacus’ birth month, people just use Magnus’ which is November 10th since Magnus and Sportacus do have many similarities, and Magnus is a Scorpio. Now let me explain a little of why I do not agree with this headcanon personally. I have spent a few years studying and taking courses in astrology, and I have a degree in it, although that’s not really worth too much in of itself, astrology is a pseudoscience, and can be both subjective and vague, I tend to view it more as an exercise in psychology and personalities, I do not believe in horoscopes or telling the future. Now I personally have nothing against Scorpios, and I have seen people accuse me of denying he is a Scorpio simply because he is a hero and people think I just can’t admit that a hero could be a Scorpio. This is completely wrong. In fact Scorpio is one of my top favorite signs. I am a Pisces and Scorpio is a water sign, just like me, so we get along very well usually. But I can’t imagine Sportacus as a Scorpio. He has the intensity and ambition of one, perhaps, but not much else. I could see it being his Moon sign perhaps (moon sign is the innermost emotional layer of a person, that other people don’t really get to see, the true self), or maybe his Mars sign (mars sign deals with passion, anger, aggression, sexuality etc), but not his Sun sign. I can’t see him as anything other than a Sagittarius Sun, especially since Sagittarius’ ruling planet is Jupiter, which deals with philosophy, optimism, tolerance, expansion, luck, exploration, spirituality, adventure, and most importantly SPORTS. The ruling planet of Scorpio is currently Pluto, the planet of the underworld (Pluto is the Roman equivalent of Hades), power, rebirth, transformation, sex, death, negativity, destruction, obsession, secrets, psychology and everything deep and hidden. It is a sign of the soul, as water is an element of emotion and soul. This does not sound to me anything like Sportacus. Not to say that all Scorpios are the same, and a lot of stereotypes persist, but this dark and serious, secretive, intense, grudging and deep personality in it’s core does not mix with the Sportacus I see, one who is very optimistic, carefree, open and whimsical. Other people may see him differently, but I am going based purely off of canon, not headcanons. There are some similarities. A Scorpio and a Sagittarius can both have hard time getting close to people, but for very different reasons. Scorpios have trouble trusting, they are cautious and probing, and would rather cut off their own limb than let themselves be perceived as weak and vulnerable, hence they guard their secrets and private selves fiercely, the reason being because they are secretly very sensitive, and once they commit to something, they give it their ALL. There is definitely a testing period that lasts a long time with Scorpio. A Sgattiarius is not guarded, in fact they are sometimes trusting and optimistic to a fault, but they simply do not have the same capacity for intense connection that a Scorpio does, they are easy to get along with, but usually their connections are more superficial, especially romantic ones. they can only commit when they find someone who can keep up with them and not be jealous and controlling. Many Sag’s tend to view things very light-heartedly in relationships, and therefore, they may cause people to feel as though they cannot commit or open up about personal issues. It isn’t that they don’t trust you enough, it’s that they don’t see the need to dwell on emotions and negativity, they hate kill-joys and will avoid clingy and manipulative people like the plague, and a lot of them can’t understand why someone would ‘choose’ to be pessimistic instead of just keeping busy and positive. They will occasionally attempt to indoctrinate you into their happy-go-lucky way of life, but they will not waste time on you if you are not willing to make an effort. They will still be cordial to you and helpful, but don’t expect them to get personally invested if you are stubborn or put out their fire and shit on their parade of beliefs, if you go to them they will still help you, but don’t expect pity if you are doing nothing to help yourself. Stagnation is against their philosophical nature. Sagittarius is a Fire sign, and everything is action-oriented, don’t hold them back, physically, emotionally, spiritually, whatever. If they feel trapped they will cut you off. This is completely unbiased for me, because I love Sportacus, but Sagittarius is…..a sign I’ve had a hard time getting along with, so I am not using my personal opinions on signs to label which characters I like and so on, which can be tempting for people ((my biggest peeve is when people use their own sign for their favorite characters with no justification other than it’s their sign, and when people use their least favorite sign for the characters they hate. Not everyone from each sign is the same, they each have positive and negative traits, it’s about balance, not all Scorpios are villains, not all Leos are heroes etc. I guess to sum it up, one could look at the symbols for each sign. Scorpio’s is the Scorpion, guarded in it’s shell and prone to sting when necessary. Sagittarius is the centaur, arrow pointing forward toward the future, not looking back and dwelling on the past. That is my interpretation, and obviously the personality isn’t just dependent on your Sun sign, but your whole birth chart. I am planning on doing birth chart inspired zodiac interpretations for each of the Lazytown characters, using my past knowledge, but this is my explanation for now, sorry for long reply but this has been bugging me for awhile.

#hope i don't sound too zealous or butthurt #one astrologer's opinion #astrology #zodiac #sportacus #scorpio #sagittarius #lazytown #anon #asks

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componentplanet · 4 years

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PubMed Leaps Into Pseudoscience, Links 5G, Coronavirus

PubMed is a free life science and biomedical database anyone can search to find papers published on various topics. It’s been free to the public since 1997, and it’s often referenced by people looking for recent medical studies on a given topic. Because it’s a search engine used by both the general public and medical professionals alike, the decisions PubMed makes about which content to surface in response to a query are incredibly important. Generally, the site has been viewed as a reliable way to find genuine medical information rather than pseudoscientific claptrap.

Unfortunately, that’s not as true as it used to be, as evidenced by the recent appearance of this gem: “5G Technology and Induction of Coronavirus in Skin Cells.” The paper is currently online in preprint and awaiting publication.

It makes pretty much exactly the argument you think it does.

It’s not this exact theory, but it’s exactly this stupid.

Rabbit, Meet Hole

We’re going to be talking about credentials a lot in this story, so let’s start with mine. I’m a 19-year veteran of technology reporting who graduated with a political science degree from DePauw University. Jessica Hall, who has written for ET before and has degrees in both biology and mathematics, was gracious enough to help me evaluate both this paper and several others by the various authors we’ll be discussing.

This raises the obvious question: Is an undergrad-level journalist capable of evaluating the deep and sophisticated science of a group of COVID-19 researchers? No. Fortunately, I’m not being asked to. All I have to do is illustrate how an organization that’s given up on safeguarding its own reputation can be used to carry water for conspiracy theorists and the lunatic fringe.

So let’s get started. Here’s the first sentence of the abstract: “In this research, we show that 5G millimeter waves could be absorbed by dermatologic cells acting like antennas, transferred to other cells and play the main role in producing Coronaviruses in biological cells.” (Emphasis added)

If 5G actually played the main role in producing coronavirus, you’d expect the countries with the highest 5G deployments to have the highest cases of COVID-19. The United States is the undisputed world leader in the latter category, yet our 5G mmWave coverage (and that’s the type these authors identify as harmful) is so bad, Verizon just got in trouble for claiming its 5G network is “nationwide” and was forced to change its advertising.

If 5G causes coronavirus, the worst outbreaks of coronavirus should directly correlate to the places where 5G networks exist. They don’t. They generally correlate to cities (with a few exceptions, such as rural Italy) because urban areas have always been at greater risk during pandemics due to population density and, historically speaking, the difficulties of dealing with sewage treatment, disease, and corpse disposal anywhere humans lived in large numbers.

For examples, see: The Antonine Plague, the Plague of Justinian, and the historical spread of the Black Death following its arrival in Constantinople.

Regarding 5G frequencies, the “scientists” claim: “Its[sic] frequencies are above 24 GHz, reaching up to 72 GHz, which is above the extremely high frequency band’s lower boundary.”

This is the kind of fearful wording intended to imply that the reader is in some sort of danger based on “extremely high frequency.” What it actually indicates is that scientists are really bad at naming things. Allow me to introduce you to the glories of the electromagnetic spectrum, as defined by science:

Low Frequency Medium Frequency High Frequency Very High Frequency Ultra High Frequency Super High Frequency Extremely High Frequency Visible Spectrum. Ultraviolet X-ray Gamma Ray

Remember that time you turned on an infrared lamp in your bathroom and it gave you cancer? No? Huh. Must be all the cell phones rotting your brain. The fact that all of the damaging energy known to harm humans is sitting above visible light while everything known not to be harmful is sitting below it, including 5G signals, is surely some mistake.

But this team of sciency folks isn’t just using scary language — they’re blatantly misrepresenting the actual bands that mmWave 5G deployments use. Here they are:

24GHz to 72GHz, you say? Mind pointing out where? Unless COVID-19 can literally travel through time and infect us from the era when 72GHz 5G exists, how can it possibly matter that 5G signals might one day use that frequency band?

This Is What Bad Scientists Think Science Looks Like

This article isn’t so much a scientific paper as a representation of what a moron thinks a scientific paper is. Allow me to quote directly from the authors and/or the semi-sentient Markov chain that stole their identities:

It has been shown that 5G mobile networking technology will affect not only the skin and eyes, but will have adverse systemic effects as well.

In another study, it was argued that 5G technologies cause great harm to human health. Cancer is only one of the many problems. 5G causes 720! (factorial) different diseases in human beings, and can kill everything that lives except some forms of microorganisms (12).

This last was so amazing, I had to check the citation. Here’s the opening sentence from that modest proposal:

The intent of this article is to show that wireless technology is, without remedy other than termination, one of the most devastating environmental and health threats and threats to personal liberty ever created.

Pro Tip: When a scientist declares that the intent of their article is to prove that the only way to safeguard all of humanity, as well as the very principle of liberty, is to destroy all mobile communications technology because there is literally no alternative, that person may have what is sometimes referred to as an “agenda.” (Or a disorder).

Back to the original trainwreck:

The question is whether millimeter waves in 5G technology could contribute in constructing some viruses like COVID-19 within a cell. To reply to this question, we should consider the electronic structure of a DNA and its emitted waves.

With respect — and this bit, I explicitly ran past Ms. Hall — that is not the question. The question is whether any radio wave or signal has been shown to help any type of virus colonize the human body. The answer, up until the torrent of stupidity that is the 5G-coronavirus conspiracy theory, was no. And since the 5G-coronavirus conspiracy theory is literally ascientific bullshit, the answer remains no. Viruses turn human cells into factories to replicate more of themselves. This is literally how viruses work. A virus that requires a radio signal as a vital intermediary (which is what the authors’ claim, given that they identify 5G as “play(ing) the main role”) is a shit virus.

Imagine a bacteria that could only kill you if you like Nickelback. There are not enough Nickelback fans for that to be an effective evolutionary strategy, yet there are somehow far more Nickelback fans in the United States than people living in range of effective 5G service.

It disgusts me, too, but there we are.

Let’s Talk About the Credentials of the Author… and the Publisher

Professor M. Fioranelli: Listed as lead author on the paper, Fioranelli is the EiC of the International Journal of Inflammation, Cancer and Integrative Therapy, which is owned by Omics. Omics has been heavily criticized and the validity of its publications challenged in the United States based on its poor peer review practices, its pay-to-publish fee structure, and its use of scientist’s names in marketing materials without their knowledge and consent. The US NIH demanded in 2013 that OMICS stop claiming to be affiliated with the US government or its employees.

The university he teaches at, Marconi University, has the dubious distinction of being accredited by the ACICS, a US accreditation agency so corrupt, its authority was revoked until Betsy DeVos reinstated it. Since that decision, a USA Today investigation has found that Reagan University, an ACICS-accredited school, has no students, no buildings, no faculty, and no alumni.

Other papers Professor Fioranelli has collaborated on include “A Mathematical Model for the Signal of Death and Emergence of Mind Out of Brain in Izhikevich Neuron Model,” which claims to present evidence that Cartesian duality — namely, that the mind and brain are entirely separate constructs — is scientifically valid. He’s also a credited author in the page-turner coming to a budget TV network near you: “Formation of Neural Circuits in an Expanded Version of Darwin’s Theory: Effects of DNAs in Extra Dimensions and within the Earth’s Core on Neural Networks.”

Sepehri A: Sepehri is also a co-author on the “We’ve proven minds exist after death” paper and the “Extradimensional DNA from the Earth’s Core is making AI want to kill us” paper. Mossimo and Sepehri also collaborated in a horror pitch: “Recovery of Brain in Chick Embryos by Growing Second Heart and Brain,” which is either up for an Ig Nobel or an option for Wes Craven.

Roccia MG: Surprise surprise. This individual also contributed to the “I stink, therefore I still am” deep dive into Descartian dementia.

M Jafferany: First, the good news. M. Jafferany isn’t mentioned on any of the papers above. Now the bad news:

“Awareness of Psychodermatology in Indian Dermatologist.” “Psychodermatology in Iran: A Survey on Knowledge…“

Clinics in Dermatology notes, of psychodermatology: “Although many data have been published, it appears that not enough good statistical evidence exists to support them.”

The idea that stress can contribute to skin problems is not controversial. But psychodermatology typically goes farther from painting stress as a factor and identifies it as something more akin to a primary agent. This latter idea is not well-supported in the scientific literature. (Have you noticed that most of these people seem to be dermatologists yet?)

O Y Olisova: Olisova was lead author on a paper claiming COVID-19 could be treated effectively with Apremilast, a psoriasis medication. Her proof for this? A single asymptomatic patient on Apremilast who didn’t display symptoms of COVID-19. Under this theory of medicine the fact that my grandfather lived to be 90 while smoking like a chimney means cigarettes are safe for everyone. Lung candy, basically. Tasty, tasty, lung candy.

Lomonosov KM: I can’t speak to Lomonsov’s general work with vitiligo patients, though my fiancée thought it sounded like ‘borderline pseudoscience’ and noted that he typically publishes exclusively in Russian and is self-evidently involved in authorial work with those we could charitably describe as on the fringes of the scientific community.

T Lotti: Lotti appears to have also done a reasonable amount of serious work, but she’s signed on to this 5G-coronavirus conspiracy merry-go-round nevertheless. Strangely, she’s also contributed to articles specifically addressing how COVID-19 would impact dermatological clinics and is part of a group of scientists advocating for safe practices and policies that safeguard patients.

None of these authors has the standing or authority to speak to the causes of COVID-19, and the fact that this paper has appeared in the PubMed database or been linked by the NIH is evidence of serious methodological flaws in the approval process. This isn’t science. It’s what people who don’t actually practice the scientific method appear to think it looks like.

Some of this can be excused by the overwhelming nature of the COVID-19 epidemic and the need for all scientific nooks and crannies to be explored, but even a cursory investigation into the history of the organizations and individuals publishing this work demonstrates how profoundly counter-factual it is. If you want serious scientific advice, don’t get it from people who speak and refer to grand, sweeping assumptions as though they were proven scientific fact. And if you run into any AIs near the Earth’s core, make sure to check that they remain in the usual four dimensions.

If you run into any dermatologists pretending they have the qualifications to moonlight as signal engineers and infectious disease experts outside the explicit realm of dermatology, kindly do us all a favor and tell them to shut the fuck up.

Now Read:

5G Conspiracy Theorists Are Now Targeting Engineers Directly

$350 ‘5G BioShield USB Key’ Packs 128MB Storage, Gallons of Snake Oil

Why Do 44% of Republicans Believe Bill Gates Will Use Coronavirus Vaccines to Inject Them With Microchips?

from ExtremeTechExtremeTech https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/313088-pubmed-pseudoscience-5g-coronavirus from Blogger http://componentplanet.blogspot.com/2020/07/pubmed-leaps-into-pseudoscience-links.html

#PubMed Leaps Into Pseudoscience #Links 5G #Coronavirus

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