full time sjm anti

Anti SJM with a sprinkle of RV and Soshi

[river-to-sea]

it's funny when my sister shows me videos of a few pro-Palestinian protesters calling for the death of all Jews and saying that they love death. I've seen hundreds of videos of pro-Palestinian protesters being peaceful and actually treating people with kindness. All videos of Palestinian activists have no trace of antisemitism.

yet, whenever I see a video of a pro-Israeli activist or someone protesting for Israel, there's always hate. I have seen videos of nine and ten-year-old children saying that they wanted to kill the arab child they met and how they want to make all Arabs their slaves.

every single video I have seen of an Israeli official speaking about the genocide has nothing but hateful and disgusting things to say.

the double standard is real. it is real and it is very much still present in today's world.

one video, just one video, of a pro-Palestinian person who says they wish all Jews were dead can outweigh the millions of other activists who know that Judaism and Zionism are fundamentally different and cannot be correlated.

yt no matter how many videos of Israelis and Zionists being hateful come up, people will never say anything.

it disgusts me that this is the standard our world has adopted.

[la7ma-mafrooma-deactivated20251]

"B-but Palestinians can get their freedom with peace not violence 🥺🥺" no. Screw your feelings. The armed resistance against colonizers and murderers is what will give Palestinians their freedom and what will eventually achieve real peace.

An enemy that bombs and uses white phosphorus against civilians doesn't know nor practice what your broken moral compass describes as "peace". Freedom was proven throughout history not to be achieved through kneeling and asking the oppressor to kindly stop. Freedom needs to be taken by force. Your little Utopian way of thinking doesn't work in the real world. Your feelings don't matter because you're not the one living under occupation. Your feelings don't matter because you're not one of the thousands of children who lost their limbs. You're not one of the children who became orphans due to this genocide. You're not the mother who lost her child to the carpet bombing. You're not the father carrying the remains of your child in plastic bags. You're not the newlywed woman who lost her husband. You're not the one at risk of either getting killed any second or losing your loved ones in the blink of an eye!

"Peace" is not really a thing you see during a live ethnic cleansing!

[good-old-gossip]

PEACE is a WHITE MAN's WORD. LIBERATION is OURS.

[la7ma-mafrooma-deactivated20251]

Reblogging this as a fuck you to the previous person who opposed the resistance.

[heyftinally]

Peace will never liberate oppression. It just won't, and if you think it will, you're too ignorant of history to be involved in this conversation.

Not once has "please stop oppressing us" made an oppressor go "aw, shit, my bad, sorry bro". Oppressors want power. They don't want equality. If someone is willing to murder in order to prevent you from having equality, they won't care if you ask from that equality "peacefully". They'll take it as an opportunity to murder you and make an example of you to make everyone else fear the same fate, thus allowing the oppressor to keep their power.

Equal rights are taken, not given. Peace was never an option, and that was decided the day Israel first began displacing, oppressing, and terrorizing Palestine when they took over and colonized the country for their own Zionist views.

[fordtato]

Confession of a grieving Palestinian, forever away from home.

(For the record, hopelessness does not mean giving up. When you feel like you can do so little, just do what you can. Donate. Protest. Scream the truth.)

[worldsnotsaid]

I don’t know if you’ve already done this, but thoughts on Emerie? I feel like the story could’ve benefitted if SJM made her more angry at Rhysand, and even Cassian for what’s happening in Illyria. Like, having her fawn over Rhysand when his negligence towards wing clipping is what chained her to the fucking ground was definitely an ick. Could’ve FINALLY been a point in the story where Rhysand could be RIGHTFULLY criticized but I feel SJM is too inept as an author to be able to write it. Which sucks🫤👎🏼

Hi anon!

Emerie's character could have shown SJM flexing her writing muscles. Here we have a character who is directly affected by the actions -- or rather inaction -- of Rhysand and his inner circle. Her position in the story could have been so exciting and pivotal to exploring Illyria more closely. We know the negative, outward view of Illyria, primarily from the characters who rule from above, but we do not know the smaller, intricate structures that run their society. We don't know how it feels to be an Illyrian woman -- one whose freedom is limited and who is a first-hand survivor of mutilation. And not just any mutilation, but a practice that is the backbone of this societal's social structure. Here we have this very unambiguous woman of color who is pretty much a reflection of what Rhysand and Cassian don't do. That's...inherently interesting. And Inherently troublesome for the main cast of characters.

It's a natural way to introduce healthy criticism of your main characters. The story has a problem with not wanting to attribute the bad we see in the Night Court to its rulers. Despite running the court for nearly 300-400 years, the story places the blame on the people, not the lack of infrastructure, not the lack of leadership. The story won't even criticize Rhysand's decision to remove the leadership from Hewn City and Illyria for fifty years. Even if you're arguing Rhysand 'didn't have a choice,' it's still a decision that fundamentally affected the woman and people of those places -- and any place in the Night Court -- negatively. And those people in those places would inherently have a right to dislike Rhysand (and not be considered villains of the story).

Emerie is a conduit for a lot of those problems in the story, and because of that, she is constantly sidelined. I think Emerie is another representative of SJM's need to sideline her POC -- specifically Women of Color in the story. Because SJM always feels comfortable inserting the women of color in these dual oppressed roles (i.e. they operate in these marginalized roles, to begin with, and they also happen to be women of color) they will always be sidelined in the story, as the story isn't interested in actually delving into the complicated issues more than surface level (if even that). Rhysand can be extremely rich to the point he can pay his inner court enough money that they are incredibly rich. And he can still have enough money to buy an entire palace....yet the source of that money, while insinuated, is never said, nor are there consequences. (spoiler: its slavery). With Tamlin, a lot of those issues are explored, and in a way that I believe gives Tamlin a smidge more humility. And funnily enough, the only reason these issues are explored is that the story ultimately wants to vilify Tamlin. Tamlin is aware of the past of his forefathers, and before MAF, he consistently trying to rectify this. It's why he feels guilty for taking Feyre way, and why he doesn't have an ornate throne room, etc, etc., and while these tenets aren't necessarily redeeming, they're a much better alternative than pretending the problem doesn't exist. Like, one of the reasons I even remotely liked Tamlin when I first read this series was because he was explicitly anti-slavery to the point he openly denounced and acknowledged the problems of his court. And as a black reader, I was like...those are kudos points.

Yet...with Rhysand, the blood money his court runs on, the structural problems, the casual racism...those tenets are never explored. Instead of being explicitly anti-slavery...Rhysand and Feyre literally pull an 'all lives matter' and say that....both sides were at fault. Mind you, one side was literally enslaved. Be serious, SJM.

Instead of even attempting to understand Emerie as a developed medium for exploring Illyria in tandem with Cassian's own relationship with his homeland, the story has her become extremely passive to the issues around her. Emerie casually mentions Velaris, not even questioning or expressing any emotion that it exists. That it's the place Rhysand protects instead of Illyria. Despite having a good chunk of the book take place in Illyria -- we really don't know anything about them. Nor do we learn much more about Emerie's backstory and life than we already read in FAS.

She's young (I assume, as we don't even get her age, either), yet she doesn't seem angry about her wing-clipping to the extent she should. If she's as young as Nesta and Gwyn, that means her clipping is probably pretty new. But, we don't even get that much information about her. Because the story knows it would always cast a bad look on Rhys and co. It's purposely ambiguous and in a vacuum, as is Emerie's entire character. She doesn't really express any concerns about Illyria despite constantly having an audience with Cassian and Azriel, and even Rhysand. These are problems that stunt Emerie because they encapsulate a lot of her story. We can't have a story critiquing a certain structural/governing problem...and then shy away from said problem because the main cast of characters is the problem.

[normal-horoscopes]

Starseeds. Thoughts?

Lotta people don't know about the conspiratorial white supremacist origins of the term.

[helianthus-hellion]

what is a starseed and what are its terrible origins

[normal-horoscopes]

Starseeds, also called star people, were introduced by a guy named Brad Steiger in his 1976 book Gods of Aquarius. It argues that certain people, mainly neurodivergent children, are alien-human hybrids who are partially possessed by the spirit of a psychic alien.

The term has a myriad of modern uses, with myriad definitions, but the original context is a stock standard new-age eugenicist narrative.

[bixiewillow]

Doesnt "indigo children" have a similar backstory?

[normal-horoscopes]

Nancy Ann Tappe's original description of Indigo Children wasn't as explicitly dehumanizing as Steiger's work, but it was still dehumanizing. Over time, the terms have sorts converged and are often used interchangeably.

[brightlotusmoon]

Oh yes, I was called Indigo and Crystal Child in the 80s.

[glowingz]

I was also called a crystal child by an elder witch. I hardcore believed in that for a while.

[normal-horoscopes]

Luckily it's less common than it was back in the 70s and 80s but you for sure still see people using it in the original context. Most anti-medical sentiments from the New Age have largely migrated from neo-paganism and into the "alternative medicine"/antivax community. It's one of the biggest avenues for right-wing radicalization of women specifically.

[kingkilling-and-stormlight]

@thebibliosphere iirc you have some insight on this

[thebibliosphere]

I'm still on hiatus but was made aware of this tag, and I felt it necessary enough to respond to.

The term indigo child was used to abuse me growing up and there’s a reason I’m so vehemently pro-science, pro-medical advocacy and anti-bullshit in my chronic illness work and why seeing new age definitions bleed into mental health topics and subjects of neurodivergence is extremely triggering for me.

Being labeled an indigo child was used to convince me I didn’t need medical care, both physical and mental. The premise of the thinking was that I wasn't chronically ill; I was special. I have vivid memories of being told I was put on this earth to be a healer; that's why I was always in chronic pain; I was absorbing the pain of others to make the world a better place.

I cannot begin to tell you the amount of psychological damage and trauma that occurred from being exposed to these sort of ideologies as a child/teen, but I can tell you at the age of 34 I’m still working in therapy to untangle it.

We know now I have multiple genetic disorders and disabilities, including Ehlers Danlos Syndrome a condition which causes a great deal of physical pain. Yet there are days when I wake up in agony and the thought still filters through my head: at least someone else is suffering less. It’s a work in progress.

Same with my neurodivergence. I wasn't mentally ill/struggling with school because of a learning disability (ADHD). I was struggling because I was a Pisces (yes, really) and academia wasnt ~spiritual~ enough for me, and I should be focusing my energy more on becoming a healer. I wasn’t struggling with emotional dysregulation, or executive dysfunction, I was just an empath and highly sensitive to the world around me. The person who set me on this path? A teacher who decided to take me under their wing and nurture my vulnerability. I wasn’t failing basic high school classes because I needed help. I was failing because I was meant to be “more than normal.”

I was an indigo child. A starseed. More than human. And thus, dehumanized, denied agency and gaslit into believing my suffering was what the world needed to be a better place.

(My parents were going through their own horrific stuff before anyone asks. My whole childhood is 13 types of trauma in a trench coat pretending to be normal.)

I was 16 years old. By the time I was 17 I was practicing holistic therapies on adults. Reiki, crystal therapy, energy work, angel therapy… and the thing is… I enjoyed it. It was new and stimulating and I enjoyed learning and having people to talk to who valued my presence. And it felt nice to be special and appreciated. I wasn’t just weird or awkward. I was special—that’s why I got on so much better with adults than my own peers. I was just too Spiritual to ever be a child.

Can we say red flags? 🚩🚩🚩

Fortunately there were adults in that social circle who realized I was being abused and stepped in to stop me being radicalized and act as a buffer. By the time I was in my 20s I had a healthier understanding of what holistic and alternative health therapies meant, and how they can be used in conjunction with medicine to help people cope with the trauma of illness. Some of which I implement in a healthy and safe way in my own care today. I also did a complete 180 and started reading proper medical journals and began trying to unravel my own health issues because unfortunately, the doctors I had access to then were as ableist as the people trying to indoctrinate me. Which is also why so many people fall prey to these types of predators*.

People who use these terms are not only perpetuating ideals founded in new age eugenics; they’re often hiding abuse, sometimes without even knowing it because that’s how they were abused too. They frame neglect or exploitation as enabling spiritual growth and it’s Terrifying to see their ideologies about reality and individual uniqueness and exceptionalism being perpetuated on social media. Especially in a lot of pagan and spiritual wellness circles. I can’t even go on certain apps without feeling bombarded by it and I’m truly concerned for the emotional and mental well-being of those being exposed to it.

I know some people still use the terms as self identifiers. And I don’t blame them. There’s usually a lot of trauma behind things like this, and not everyone has the means to break free from cult-like environments. I got lucky. But please, if anyone is coming across these terms for the first time and thinks it’s a good way to describe themselves, please know it’s rooted in ableism and new age eugenics made palatable by a sprinkling of fairy dust and wonder.

I’m going back on hiatus. Stay safe out there.

- - -

*Being desperate to feel in control of your life or to get help can drive you into the arms of the first kind person willing to listen. Multilevel marketing companies thrive off that shit. Poverty, medical instability and ideas of individual exceptionalism all play a factor in the rise of unethical companies like d*terra and y*ung living becoming as prevalent and insidious as they are. When I refer to them as cults, I am not being hyperbolic.

[inthemidstofbuddie]

im kinda afraid to ask, but what was bad abt blonde?

glaring historical inaccuracies aside, it's horrible to Marilyn Monroe (there's maybe like two scenes where she isn't crying, being abused, depressed, or all of the above), it treats her like she was treated back when she was alive (Ana de Armas probably spends 75% of the movie naked to some extent, and maybe three of those scenes aren't used to sexualize Marilyn/Ana-as-Marilyn; even the scenes when she's dressed serve to sexualize her, to the point that the camera focuses on her butt while also having some male character openly lust after her), and is also just plain fucking bizarre (the talking fetus, as i mentioned in that other post; the shots of abortions from the POV of the vagina--not to mention the horrible accompanying suction sound in one of them that made me skip the rest from the word GO--a threesome sex scene shot like someone is tripping out on anesthesia inside Willy Wonka's tunnel of terror so it's hard to understand what's even happening; JFK being fucking JFK but the phone call in the background of his scene making it even worse; the father discourse in general bc it's really not handled well imo; EDITING TO ADD bc somehow i forgot the scene with the fucking animated sperm looking for the egg to tell us Marilyn is pregnant; also the horrifically bad CGI fetus).

there's also the fact that like one (1) man in the entire movie is a good person (her makeup artist Whitey, though Arthur Miller is fairly decent in the movie), and even the (many nameless) women who help Marilyn a little don't seem to care about her as either 1) a person or 2) a woman in serious need of some support. she had countless friends irl who cared about her, but the movie doesn't include them and thus makes it seem like she lived in constant isolation, even from this one delivery boy (nothing gross there, he's just delivering a package, but the scene is written to demean Marilyn/show just how deep of a spiral she was in at the time).

idk what the people behind the movie were hoping to achieve in the making of it, but if their goal was to make a movie about Marilyn that treats her posthumously and fictionally as terribly as she was treated irl while blatantly ignoring the many good things about her--including just how great of an actor she was in spite of her stage fright, to the point she sought out acting classes of many kinds to better her craft and fought tooth and nail to do away with the pay disparity she was forced to live with, and how she used her platform to help people of color--they certainly achieved it.

all in all, just don't watch it, even to experience the horrors yourself (and this isn't at you specifically, anon, but anyone who happens across this post/hears of the movie), bc netflix does not deserve the views to this nightmare.

[sugarmint-dreams]

happy earth day!  -

my shop | mobile wallpapers

[sugarmint-dreams]

♚ fairytale princesses! ♚

-

my shop

[fozmeadows]

Watching my toddler figure out how to language is fascinating. Yesterday we were stumped when he kept insisting there was a “Lego winner” behind his bookshelf - it turned out to be a little Lego trophy cup. Not knowing the word for “trophy”, he’d extrapolated a word for “thing you can win”. And then, just now, he held up his empty milk container and said, “Mummy? It’s not rubbish. It’s allowed to be a bottle.” - meaning, effectively, “I want this. Don’t throw it away.” But to an adult ear, there’s something quite lovely about “it’s allowed to be a bottle,” as if we’re acknowledging that the object is entitled to keep its title even in the absence of the original function.

[legit-writing-tips]

Another good post to read for those writing small human characters. 

[jennytrout]

My son was about three when he came to me in the middle of the day and said, “Mommy, there’s a knight behind the bush.” I thought he meant a toy knight or something. So I follow him outside and he goes, “Listen. Do you hear it? It’s night behind the bush.” It was a cricket. A cricket was standing in the little patch of shade under the bush, chirping. So, my son saw this dark area with accompanying nighttime sounds and decided, okay, well, that is a night right there. Their brains are incredible.

[deleted20211121]

My little bean knows she’s two, constantly saying proudly ‘I’m two!’ And the other day she saw this very frail old lady who looked one foot in the grave, pulled a face and said ‘oh shiiiit. She’s three.’ I almost screamed.

[cantnotknope]

I live in Korea and have a lot of international friends, and the same is true with language barriers in adults. 

*Looking at a bowl of pears* “Can you please pass me the… apple’s friend?” 

[silly-jellyghoty]

Every now and then i stumble upon this post anf each time there are new additions in comments and reblogs and each time my heart melts a bit as i read through them. Faith in humanity restored. At least for now

[chaumas-deactivated20240115]

me forgetting the word for “egg” in Arabic over dinner and complimenting the chef on the way she prepared “the son of the chicken”

[loxxscreens]

watching kikis delivery tonight xD

✺

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i should honestly do a pt.2 with studio ghibli wallpapers, they’re so pretty 😍

✺

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disclaimer - I don’t make most of my lockscreens; they come from Pinterest! if one of them happens to be yours, just message me and i will give you credit :)

[brink182-deactivated20120906]

Say hello to mechanically separated chicken. It’s what all fast-food chicken is made from—things like chicken nuggets and patties. Also, the processed frozen chicken in the stores is made from it. Basically, the entire chicken is smashed and pressed through a sieve—bones, eyes, guts, and all. it comes out looking like this. There’s more: because it’s crawling with bacteria, it will be washed with ammonia, soaked in it, actually. Then, because it tastes gross, it will be reflavored artificially. Then, because it is weirdly pink, it will be dyed with artificial color. But, hey, at least it tastes good, right? High five, America!

[sensorydeprivationprincess]

oh my god

[lord-smaug-the-impenetrable-dea]

bitch that’s the tubby custard machine

[heritageposts]

date of origin: 2012

[breathdeepseekpeace]

A classic

[caldraws]

this just makes me wanna get some nuggets from mcdonalds for some reason

[mannequia]

the fact op thought they could even get away with that blatant misinformation in the first place when the graphic they used was the fucking Tubby Custard machine amuses me like.

Even if you didn’t know what Teletubbies was that thing does not at all look like something you’d find in a factory, it’s colorful and colors cost extra.

[xsix8990-deactivated20260423]

that’s because OP’s post is a joke

I feel weird that I’m been here long enough to remember the original context–OP is mocking this post:

the picture clearly looks like some sort of strawberry ice cream, so OP did a copypasta of the original text and replaced with picture with something even funnier.

Both posts went around a lot, but it’s funny that the second, mocking post is now being reposted like OP is some kind of idiot instead of a comedic genius

[xsix8990-deactivated20260423]

the original post is actually still here: https://early-onset-of-night-blog.tumblr.com/post/1206666159/say-hello-to-mechanically-separated-chicken-its and apparently the original OP is a satire blog, anyway. So nobody was serious in the whole exchange

Early Onset of Night

Say hello to mechanically separated chicken. It’s what all fast-food chicken is made from—things like chicken nuggets and patties. Also, the

[raven-reconciling]

Getting new context for this ancient meme in the year of our lord 2021 is giving me whiplash.

[sugarmint-dreams]

my favorite drawings from 2021! 

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my shop

[thecollectibles]

Art by YIN ZHE

[secondhandsentiment]

tumblr user @that-house may I ask you a few questions

[that-house]

What’s not clicking

[inthemidstofbuddie]

on that note, it’s really, really, really emotionally draining to read from the conquerors’ POVs and really, really, really disturbing to have sj///m try to convince us that humans fighting to free themselves from slavery is worse than Hunt killing bc Micah tells him to

and if i’m being honest, Hunt’s cause is the most disgusting, since he didn’t fight for freedom the way humans are doing so. he did bc he loved Shahar and Shahar wanted to fight back against Sandriel, who killed their parents. there is nothing equal between the 18th’s rebellion and the human’s rebellion

but seriously, reading about how evil the humans are and how good the conquerors are? it fucking drains me of energy. i need to figure out a way to separate myself from it bc i don’t think i can survive reading this nightmare

[inthemidstofbuddie]

it’s especially awful bc during the scene Bruce is convincing Hunt he’s not as bad as Briggs bc he didn’t “willingly and gleefully risk innocent lives to further [his] rebellion”, never mind that Hunt kills innocents all the time, there’s this “romantic” and “playful” undertone. Hunt is wearing a hat and Bruce teases him over it and Hunt plunks the hat on her head while laughing over whatever she said and it’s clearly some pivotal shift in their relationship but for it to follow a scene where we witness what the conquerors do to the conquered…? 

i’m singing the fucking anti anthem at this point: tone-fucking-deaf

[missmentelle]

My sibling is alt-right and extremely hateful about his beliefs. He goes on tirades about liberal agendas and screams and insults me and our other family members when we attempt to debate with him. I live with him and being around him negatively impacts my mental health, especially with me being part of some of the groups he hates so much. I don’t know what to do. I feel so much hatred for him, but he’s my brother and we used to be close.

Members of the so-called “alt right” or “manosphere” actually bear very strong similarities to cult members - they become increasingly rigid in their beliefs, they have decreasing tolerance for ambiguity (everything starts to become either right or wrong, with no room for grey areas), they become increasingly preoccupied with “purity” of thought, their beliefs start to become the core of their personal identity, they accept the word of thought leaders without question or critical thinking, their relationships with family and friends deteriorate, and they often experience negative consequences at work or school as a direct result of their beliefs. 

Dealing with a friend or family member who has joined the alt-right is very different from dealing with a family member who is dabbling with the idea of voting Conservative for economic reasons, or dealing with a family member who erroneously believes that Game of Thrones isn’t very good. Reasoned discussion and laying out your point of view will not work here. The tactics that you need to use with him are actually the tactics used to deprogram cult members, which includes things like:

Do not debate him. Never debate a cult member under any circumstances. It’s a complete waste of time for everybody involved, and it only serves to further entrench him in his toxic beliefs. Cult members do not approach debates in good faith - they are not open to having their minds changed, and they have no intention of ever listening to the other side. Cult members use debate as a tool to recruit people with possibly like-minded beliefs, or as a tool to gather evidence that the “other side” is delusional. The more you debate, the harder he will fight to come up with justifications for his beliefs, and the more satisfaction he will get from feeling like he is defending his “side” from attack. Shut down all debate with him. If he tries to start a debate, redirect immediately. If he makes an inflammatory statement at the dinner table, respond with something non-committal ( “hmmmmm”, “is that so?”, “okay” ) and immediately change the subject. Don’t get sucked in. No matter how hard he tries to open up a debate, deflect, shut him down, or walk away. 

Treat him with detached politeness. I know that it is very difficult not to get visibly upset when someone is insulting the very core of who you are as a person and what you believe, but but you have to stay calm and detached here. Do not let him see that he is upsetting you. When he is going on rants about his beliefs, treat him like a child who is explaining the rules to a video game that you don’t particularly care about - have an air of detached boredom, and no matter how hostile he gets, respond only with politeness. Remember, part of the core beliefs he’s being fed is that people outside of the alt-right are “emotional”, and that his beliefs are “triggering” to those people. Give him no evidence to suggest that is true. Stonewall him. Give him nothing but bored stoicism in response to his outbursts. No matter how much he escalates or how horrifying his beliefs get, always act as though you are having a polite conversation about the weather with a stranger at Starbucks. If he tells you that women should should be property and gays should be killed, respond only with a polite “Well, I suppose that’s one perspective”, or “Yes, I believe you have mentioned this before”. Nothing takes the wind out of a cult member’s sails faster than being treated with calm politeness when they are expecting a fight.

Do not insult him or the people who share his beliefs. The glue that holds cults together is a persecution complex. Cults absolutely thrive on being persecuted for their beliefs, and they depend on it to keep members from leaving. “People outside this group hate you and they will treat you much worse than we will” is the message that keeps people from leaving hateful cults, all the way up until the Kool-Aid is served. He is being fed the message by his fellow cult members that he is hated for who he is - a, presumably, straight white man - and that “Liberals” hate him so much that they want to take away the things he is “owed” (money, power, security, etc) and give it away to undeserving minorities who haven’t really “earned” it. Give him no evidence to suggest that this is true. Refrain from insulting him, or insulting the people he views as thought leaders or role models. You can definitely express your political opinions and make it clear that you are not buying into your brother’s worldview, but keep things direct and refrain from personal attacks. If he is gloating about the president to intentionally get a rise out of you, a simple “I disagree with his policies” is all you have to say - launching into attacks about the president’s looks, family, mannerisms or intelligence is fuel for your brother’s hateful beliefs. Remember that when it comes to your brother, you are not acting in the role of a left-wing activist facing off against a dangerous right-wing activist with a platform. You are a concerned family member dealing with a family member who has gotten involved in a cult. 

Ask polite questions, but do not engage directly with his beliefs. Do not read any of the reading material he recommends, listen to any of the podcasts he puts forward or view any of the videos he asks you to watch; it might be tempting to do so just to prove that you are engaging with him in “good faith” and that you have given his views an “honest try”, but this is a mistake. There is no such thing as “good faith” or intellectual honesty when it comes to cults, and there is nothing to gain from engaging in their propaganda. Do not treat anything produced or recommended by a cult as if it has value, because it does not. When he provides you with something he wants to you read, behave as though a young child has just handed you a live earthworm - thank him for the gesture, but decline to accept. Engaging with propaganda just legitimizes it, and gives him more ammunition to hunker down in his beliefs. When you do ask questions of his beliefs, be detached and polite. If he is ranting that all women are whores, ask him what the basis is for that belief. You are not looking to debate him or get a rise out of him - don’t fire back with counter-points, but make a polite, disinterested noise of acknowledgement, or ask for further clarification. You are merely looking for holes in his reasoning, or gaps where he doesn’t have evidence to back up what he says. You don’t need to point these holes out to him - there will be many. When he is unable to be specific, once again, make a polite acknowledgement ( “Interesting.” ) and move on.

Emphasize how much you miss your former relationship with him. Tell your brother that you miss him. Be specific - talk about the things that you used to do together, and the ways that he used to be involved in your life. If he tries to deflect and start talking about his beliefs again, or how he can’t be involved with you anymore because of your own beliefs or identity, don’t engage. Go back to talking about how you miss the relationship you used to have with him. If he insults you, pretend you didn’t hear him and remind him of a happy memory or a fun thing that you used to do together. It can take a really long time to have success with this tactic, but your brother does remember the relationship he used to have with you, and it is possible to remind him of what he is missing out on by continuing with his hateful beliefs. The idea is to take his beliefs out of the equation as much as possible - make him miss the relationship that he used to have. Any attempt at mending the relationship on his end will necessarily require that he get less extreme in his beliefs - it’s difficult to pursue a close relationship with someone and still insult them. 

Remind him of normal life outside the cult. People in the alt-right - and other cults - tend to become hyper-focused only on issues that concern the cult, and begin to forget about normal life. Your brother is likely spending a lot of time and focus on things like the “sexual marketplace”, abortion rights, refugees, gay rights, female superhero movies etc. Bring him back to earth as often as you can with reminders of things that are outside the scope of the alt-right, and are minimally politically charged. Start a conversation about a new restaurant that is opening up in your town. Show him a funny cat video. Ask him if he’s seen a minimally controversial movie. Constant reminds of normalcy can gradually help him realize how hyper-focused he has become on a few small issues, and remind him that his worldview and priorities are incredibly skewed.

Protect your own mental health. Living with a cult member is exhausting. The combination of fending off the insults, being bombarded with hate rhetoric and missing the person they used to be is exhausting. Make sure you are protecting your own mental health. Take breaks. Leave the house and spend time with other people. Lean on friends and other family members for support. Take care of yourself. Getting someone out of a cult is a marathon, not a sprint, and it’s important to conserve your energy. It can take up to five years to get someone to fully leave cult beliefs behind. Be patient. 

One of the hard parts about dealing with alt-right family members is that people make the mistake of approaching them as a political movement, when it is more appropriate to address them as a cult. The way that they operate is much more similar to the dynamics of a cult than the dynamics of a mainstream political movement, and deprogramming techniques are your best bet for getting your family member back. I highly recommend that you and your family read up on cults and the tactics used to get people out of them. It is especially helpful to read testimony from people who have escaped cults or successfully been persuaded to leave them - if possible, look for materials from people who have left the alt-right, and try to present this material to your brother. This is an incredibly difficult thing for a family to go through, and I highly recommend that you seek out other families who are dealing with similar situations - you are far from alone here. 

Best of luck to all of you. 

[longsightmyth]

What’s all this to do with Feyres period ??

Oh my friend.

So. Once upon a time, there were these weirdly compelling but upon reflection deeply fucked up books called The Black Jewels series. In them, incredibly magically powerful women form courts of men and slightly less powerful women around themselves. The author clearly felt the need to compensate for these powers somehow, so she made the women basically incapacitated every time they menstruated, magic included.

That’s what’s happening here, only Feyre only menstruates twice a year. 

Look. Menstrual cramps are THE WORST. I have passed out from them. If yours are that bad, you should see a doctor. The book seems to think it’s hilarious that Feyre is in such pain that she doesn’t want anyone to touch her or fuss over her, and Rhys seems to think he is entitled to fuss over her anyway, and of course all of the males wait on her hand and foot in the little flashback description thingy. I don’t know how to explain how exactly this rubbed me the wrong way? I guess because Feyre was still functional enough to be hissing and clawing or whatever it seems like a trivial treatment of a legitimate issue that is used as an excuse to make Feyre accept being fawned over so we don’t think she’s a bad person for enjoying being fawned over.

[cinemagal]

Rachel Weisz & Brendan Fraser | The Mummy (1999) “Evelyn and Rick are basically Indiana Jones split down the middle — she’s the brains, he’s the brawn.” - Rachel Weisz