Trouble Incarnate

The name's Silver the Shifting One. I'm a demon, I'm a witch, I'm agender, asexual, and aromantic, and if you don't like me then block me. I'm stuck here on earth with my roommate Luci Crowley (lumen-lapsis.tumblr.com) and my best friend Cindy (exasperated-angel.tumblr.com). Pronouns: Xe/Xir, She/Her, and They/Them (He/Him is also fine). I'm an autistic adult with ADHD and some sort of personality disorder involving dissociation.

[geniexo]

yo if you’re a cis girl or afab and femme presenting and you’d be comfortable with having a trans girl roommate, please reblog this. i just need reinforcement that there are girls out there who wouldn’t be disgusted by a girl like me.

[demonic-chimera]

While I agree with the point of this post, I don't like how the framing lumps afab femmes in as "girls". I don't think this was malicious, just bad wording, but I still think it's worth commenting on before reblogging. I'm not a girl thanks.

[studentlifeproblems]

[realsocialskills]

The rules about responding to call outs aren’t working

Privileged people rarely take the voices of marginalized people seriously. Social justices spaces attempt to fix this with rules about how to respond to when marginalized people tell you that you’ve done something wrong. Like most formal descriptions of social skills, the rules don’t quite match reality. This is causing some problems that I think we could fix with a more honest conversation about how to respond to criticism.

The formal social justice rules say something like this:

You should listen to marginalized people.

When a marginalized person calls you out, don’t argue.

Believe them, apologize, and don’t do it again.

When you see others doing what you were called out for doing, call them out.

Those rules are a good approximation of some things, but they don’t actually work. It is impossible to follow them literally, in part because:

Marginalized people are not a monolith. 

Marginalized people have the same range of opinions as privileged people.

When two marginalized people tell you logically incompatible things, it is impossible to act on both sets of instructions.

For instance, some women believe that abortion is a human right foundational human right for women. Some women believe that abortion is murder and an attack on women and girls.

“Listen to women” doesn’t tell you who to believe, what policy to support, or how to talk about abortion. 

For instance, some women believe that religious rules about clothing liberate women from sexual objectification, other women believe that religious rules about clothing sexually objectify women. 

“Listen to women” doesn’t tell you what to believe about modesty rules. 

Narrowing it to “listen to women of minority faiths” doesn’t help, because women disagree about this within every faith.

When “listen to marginalized people” means “adopt a particular position”, marginalized people are treated as rhetorical props rather than real people.

Objectifying marginalized people does not create justice.

Since the rule is literally impossible to follow, no one is actually succeeding at following it. What usually ends up happening when people try is that:

One opinion gets lifted up as “the position of marginalized people” 

Agreeing with that opinion is called “listen to marginalized people”

Disagreeing with that opinion is called “talking over marginalized people”

Marginalized people who disagree with that opinion are called out by privileged people for “talking over marginalized people”.

This results in a lot of fights over who is the true voice of the marginalized people.

We need an approach that is more conducive to real listening and learning.

This version of the rule also leaves us open to sabotage:

There are a lot of people who don’t want us to be able to talk to each other and build effective coalitions.

Some of them are using the language of call-outs to undermine everyone who emerges as an effective progressive leader. 

They say that they are marginalized people, and make up lies about leaders.

Or they say things that are technically true, but taken out of context in deliberately misleading ways.

The rules about shutting up and listening to marginalized people make it very difficult to contradict these lies and distortions. 

(Sometimes they really are members of the marginalized groups they claim to speak for. Sometimes they’re outright lying about who they are).

(For instance, Russian intelligence agents have used social media to pretend to be marginalized Americans and spread lies about Hillary Clinton.)

The formal rule is also easily exploited by abusive people, along these lines:

An abusive person convinces their victim that they are the voice of marginalized people.

The abuser uses the rules about “when people tell you that you’re being oppressive, don’t argue” to control the victim.

Whenever the victim tries to stand up for themself, the abuser tells the victim that they’re being oppressive.

That can be a powerfully effective way to make victims in our communities feel that they have no right to resist abuse. 

This can also prevent victims from getting support in basic ways.

Abusers can send victims into depression spirals by convincing them that everything that brings them pleasure is oppressive and immoral. 

The abuser may also isolate the victim by telling them that it would be oppressive for them to spend time with their friends and family, try to access victim services, or call the police. 

The abuser may also separate the victim from their community and natural allies by spreading baseless rumors about their supposed oppressive behavior. (Or threatening to do so).

When there are rules against questioning call outs, there are also implicit rules against taking the side of a victim when the abuser uses the language of calling out.

Rules that say some people should unconditionally defer to others are always dangerous.

The rule also lacks intersectionality:

No one experiences every form of oppression or every form of privilege.

Call-outs often involve people who are marginalized in different ways. 

Often, both sides in the conflict have a point.

For instance, black men have male privilege and white women have white privilege.

If a white woman calls a black man out for sexism and he responds by calling her out for racism (or vice versa), “listened to marginalized people” isn’t a very helpful rule because they’re both marginalized.

These conversations tend to degenerate into an argument about which form of marginalization is most significant.

This prevents people involved from actually listening to each other.

In conflicts like this, it’s often the case that both sides have a legitimate point. (In ways that are often not immediately obvious.)

We need to be able to work through these conflicts without expecting simplistic rules to resolve them in advance.

This rule also tends to prevent groups centered around one form of marginalized from coming to engage with other forms of marginalization:

For instance, in some spaces, racism and sexism are known to be issues, but ableism is not.

(This can occur in any combination. Eg: There are also spaces that get ableism and sexism but not racism, and spaces that get economic justice and racism but not antisemitism, or any number of other things.)

When disabled people raise the issue of ableism in any context (social justice or otherwise), they’re likely to be shouted down and told that it’s not important.

In social justice spaces, this shouting down is often done in the name of “listening to marginalized people”.

For instance, disabled people may be told ‘you need to listen to marginalized people and de-center your issues’, carrying the implication that ableism is less important than other forms of oppression.

(This happens to *every* marginalized group in some context or other.)

If we want real intersectional solidarity, we need to have space for ongoing conflicts that are not simple to resolve.

Tl;dr “Shut up and listen to marginalized people” isn’t quite the right rule, because it objectifies marginalized people, leaves us open to sabotage, enables abuse, and prevents us from working through conflicts in a substantive way. We need to do better by each other, and start listening for real.

[demonic-chimera]

Please don't get sidetracked arguing about the examples used, this is very important

[snitchanon]

As much as I hate leaning on the ‘but muh autisms’ button, the Internet Justice status quo of “You must follow, to the letter, a bunch of social rules that are never codified, periodically changed with no indication and contradictory. Any deviation from these (completely hidden) rules - along with any requests to explain or other questioning - will get you at best dismissed and mocked as ignorant and at worst harassed perpetually with intent to make you commit suicide” is shockingly ableist and strongly echoes the kinds of bullying autistic kids face in school and other social situations.

And like many examples of Guess Culture (where the rules are unspoken and have to be inferred), it’s terrible for neurotypicals too.

[demonic-chimera]

This is what fucked up my mental health on this site so badly. And I never even got that involved. The fear alone did the damage. So, basically, if you support this social atmosphere, even for what you think is a justified reason... Fuck you, go die in a fire. I don't care anymore, see you in Hell.

[demonic-chimera]

Fuck Tumblr

I hate this site. I hate the attitude here, I hate the drama, I hate the toxicity, and I absolutely LOATHE the discourse. Working through my issues I was astounded to know just how much of my awful mental state was caused by the social environment of this fucking site. Fuck Tumblr, yeet it into the abyss for the good of everyone on here.

[w33d-witch]

🕯Weed in Witchcraft🔮

***PLEASE be smart and do extensive, thorough research or consult a healthcare professional before smoking or ingesting herbs of any kind! Some plants may have negative side effects or become straight up poisonous when smoked, may interfere with certain prescription medications, or may be harmful to pregnant women!***

The cannabis plant is extremely versatile when used in witchcraft. It serves many purposes based on your intent and works as a magickal amplifier to boost spells. So even if you don’t smoke, you can use the dried flowers and leaves in things like incense blends or herbal sachets to amplify your intent and help manifest your goals. Regular users already know that cannabis has the ability to put you a very relaxed state physically and/or mentally, so it’s ideal for meditation and divination!

Magickal correspondences: Meditation, manifestation, healing, clearing negative energy, love, sex, money, abundance, protection, sleep, communication with spirits, cursing, and death.

Indica strains are best used for: Self love, healing, meditation, protection, and psychic work.

Sativa strains are best used for: Love, lust, luck, money, creativity, and curses/hexes.

Below is a list of various plants you can smoke with cannabis! Please note that these will not get you high, they mostly just affect the taste and smell of the smoke:

🍃 Rose petals - love, beauty, confidence

🍃 Lavender - relaxation, healing, sleep

🍃 Mint - love, luck, money, protection, clearing negativity

🍃 Ground cloves - money, clearing negativity

🍃 White horehound - protection, mental clarity, creativity, balance

🍃 Blue lotus petals - divination, opening of the mind, connecting with deities

🍃 Mugwort - protection, psychic powers

🍃 Red raspberry leaves - protection, femininity, easing menstrual pain

🍃 Passionflower - attracting friendships, prosperity

🍃 Mullein - protection, communicating with spirits

🍃 Hyssop - healing, protection, breaking hexes/curses

🍃 Skullcap - love, fidelity, peace, meditation, healing from loss

🍃 Bergamot - protection, prosperity

🍃 Damiana - lust, love, relaxation

🍃 Catnip - bonding with your familiar, promoting happiness and kindness, easing menstrual pain

Have fun experimenting my fellow stoner witches, and above all, be safe! 🌱

[meshkwahkihaki]

idk what shit-eating truscum needs to hear this, but your rhetoric directly harms people with culturally-specific genders. i’m native and two-spirit, that label describes my gender and my attraction. i use they/them pronouns and your “nonbinaries and cringey stargender trenders aren’t valid” bullshit is getting old. our languages were demonized and erased, our gender and attraction labels along with them. my experiences with dysphoria exist because of colonialist ideas of gender. we have been forced into arbitrary ‘male’ and ‘female’ categories by colonizers for centuries and truscum rhetoric perpetuates racist colonialist violence against natives.

your experiences are not universal, you’re not forwarding justice for trans people, and you’re definitely not an ally to natives or other people of color. you’re just a fucking colonizer. 

[meshkwahkihaki]

non-natives, reblog this post

[shadow-of-wesker]

What Is Wrong With This Picture?

Okay. We are in an incredibly precarious position with the EU Article 13 and Article 11 vote. The EU has revised the wording back to the worst possible form. This means that all kinds of things could be negatively impacted by such a change.

Here is a list of all the things we could stand to lose:

YouTube content from European creators

European fanworks

European users on almost every single platform

The shutdown of news from all the major news sources save for TV which is horribly biased. (At least in the US it is)

This entire thing is a nightmare waiting to ensnare the globe. Remember that this is the entirety of Europe, not just one small place. This could be the global change in a few years time if something isn’t done now. Looking at these articles, it is plain to see that the EU Parliament does not care for it’s people or the freedoms we have had since the inception of the internet.

Should this come to pass, none of these sites will implement filters. It is too costly to go through every single thing that is uploaded with bots to see if it is copyright infringement. This means that the EU is going to be shut out of nearly every single social media and major internet platform that you can think of. Don’t get me wrong, people deserve pay for what work they do but killing everything online for an entire section of the world is not the way to go about it.

Do we want a future where all of the world governments get to decide what we view online? If this comes to pass, only negative things will come from it. Take heed people. Stand up for your freedom before it becomes commonplace not to have any at all.

For the record I am not from the EU but I am tired of watching the world burn under the rule of people who do not care.

[theconcealedweapon]

[bimbocracy]

This is a manipulation tactic that men use to make it such a pain in the ass to set a boundary with them that you don’t attempt it again

[themanicnami]

I’ve been told this before and my response was “Sounds great. Glad we agree.” they always look immediately shaken and surprised.

[demonic-chimera]

My brother has literally used this tactic on me when I call him out on his shitty jokes.

[demonic-chimera]

My hot take on smudging discourse

Been seeing this cross my dash lately, but I've gotta say I have a bit of an opinion on how we handle it.

Needing to cleanse a space is a pretty common problem for young witches, and unfortunately smudging is the most common method to find. It's sad but unfortunately true.

Most baby witches are working with Google, or Wicca books from the 90s, and it's not the fault of our youngsters that the only thing they can find is a stolen ritual. Don't pin systemic issues on individuals, that's not how it works.

We need to popularize an alternative, because white people still need to cleanse shit and just saying "you can't use this" doesn't solve that problem. If there's no other option, white people will still smudge because that's all they can find. We need something we can point to and say "use this instead", or we're never gonna get anywhere.

[iwriteaboutfeminism]

[spiritscraft-deactivated2025031]

Intent magic vs Animism magic

The underlying logic of most traditional witchcraft is animism. Animism in the sense that the physical components of witchcraft have spiritual agency and intention that the witch is able to cajole one way or another to their purpose. And furthermore, the power and agency of any target is taken to account as potentially having innate or obtained protections that could backfire should the spell be wrong somehow. Whereas much of modern witchcraft is not animist, and the only figure with agency are the humans involved: the witch and their target–a target whose will is assumed so weak that it must be protected by maxims. These stark differences dog much of the interwitch discourse. The opposite world views are chocked up as elitism by the modern witches against the traditional. And traditional witches dodge the insult that they are still in training wheels for using tools and components. The modern witches say my greatest witch tool is my mind whereas a traditional witch may say a tool is a useful constructed object (usually manmade but a few animals make tools too). Or the idea that magic does not work without taking major mundane actions to further them. That requirement coming from there being less effort taken in the spell itself and perhaps no assistance petitioned from the spirits of the materials employed so much the effort is taken non mystically. Most modern witches say spell components are mere props. Whereas traditional witches often befriend their spell components. I will never say modern witchcraft doesn’t work. It follows its own logic premised on inspiration. Verily inspiration is quite powerful and I won’t knock it. And the logic of inspiration carried out is acting in accord which is very effective combined with the tools of theatrics based off of personal correspondences. It may even be possible to reconcile the two. Many traditional witches in addition to their animistic approach also follow through with acting in accord which doesn’t have to hurt, but can limit the possibilities noticed for the result or can alternately pave the way to allow the animistic powers to flow more productively.

Additionally, traditional witches can find ways to work without tools and materials after learning to contact the spirits of those materials indirectly without the presences of the objects for immediate relating. Witches can use the animist power of words or strengthen their ability to harness fate to be able to do it with energy or psychic ability. But certainly it’s not only their own intent carried out, but a cooperation or dictation of the other powers that be to that end. So basically, there is more than one system. I use the terms modern and traditional merely as stand in identifiers. Of course there are those that identify with one or the other but have differing metaphysical practices than I used for demonstration purposes.

[demonic-chimera]

This sounds similar to a concept I have called "casting languages", which I need to get around to making a post about.

[black-to-the-bones-deactivated2]

Twitter goes crazy over unlawful arrest of the teen who tried to sell his MacBook

[fuzzydunlop07]

And so many white people were in her mentions saying “well he shouldn’t have a MacBook” as if this is a fucking Mac vs Windows joke

[angel-of-death-2015]

Fuck the police and fuck the white people who think this is a joke. We can literally be killed over ANYTHING

[sourcedumal]

Police need to be held accountable for their actions.

[biscuitsarenice]

Jamelia: Embrace Your Roots

[food-n-words]

I’m literally CRYING! Black women are so beautiful and wholesome? Nothing makes me happier than seeing us show each other how to care for ourselves and take care of each other??? @kimreesesdaughter this is so you lol And this is me but with skincare like I’m about to just start flying out to different cities renting out spaces and doing facials and tutorials on how to make skincare and haircare for our skin and hair types, fuck it. Next year this is what I’m doing.

[yayroos]

For everyone’s information:

The plan for the 17th, when the adult content ban comes in, is to protest.

To do that, we are making as much noise either side of the 17th as possible, and using the site as normal.

On the 17th, dead silence.

People are saying log off but what they really mean is don’t open the site or the app.

But, on the 17th make as much noise as possible on every other platform. Tweet about it and post on facebook and instagram and everywhere else.

What this does is causes a massive dip in ad revenue for one single day. That does not make staff think ‘oh everyone’s gone let’s shut down.’ What it actually makes them think is ‘oh shit people aren’t happy and if people don’t keep using our site we’re out of money and out of jobs.’

A boycott reminds a company that the users (consumers) have the power to make their site (business) worthless with one single coordinated decision.

If you want to join in, here’s what to do:

Do:

Close all open instances of the app and site on all your devices before the 17th

Make posts before and after the 17th on tumblr and other platforms, talking about why this ban is bad

Make posts on other sites during the 17th. Flood the official tumblr staff twitter and facebook with your anger and your opinion

Come back on the 18th and check in

Don’t:

Delete the app from your phone (this doesn’t affect their revenue and since it’s off the store at the moment it’ll be hard to get back)

Delete your account. I mean you can if you want to, but if you keep your account and don’t use it you’re saying to staff that there’s still time to save it. If you delete it’s hard work to come back.

Open the app or website (including specific blogs)

Make any posts (turn down/off your queue and make sure nothing is scheduled)

Go quiet elsewhere. Make it clear that this is just about tumblr, not a mass move away from all social media.

Remember: the execs don’t care about anything but money. Shutting down the site means there’s $0 further income from it. That’s their last possible course of action. If we make it clear we’re not happy, they’ll have to do something or we can do more and more until it becomes too expensive.

Protests take commitment. They’re a defiant action against a business that is doing something wrong. They will try to scare you into not participating, because they’re scared. We hold all the power here, sometimes the execs just need to be reminded of that.

[anxietyproblem]

[liberalsarecool]

Please spread the word that enrollment for health care ends Dec 15. #obamacare