One really important question I'm keeping in mind as I dig into specific organizations (witchcraft schools today, but in general also) is whether any misinformation or pseudohistory/science is a product of ignorance or a deliberate choice.
I find that most often, it's ignorance. Maybe taking a half-remembered piece of information and using it without realizing it's incomplete or incorrect. Or, equally frequently, it's just something accepted as true because so many other people in orbit are saying the same thing, and if this many people are saying it, it's probably true, right? It's regurgitating whatever the most popular factoid of the moment is to remain relevant without fact-checking first. Tons of otherwise honest folks are guilty of this for any number of reasons (myself included, sometimes -- I'm not infallible!).
But sometimes... sometimes, somebody makes a new iteration on misinformation. They know just a little too much a little too deeply and it raises a red flag to me. How could someone research a topic so deeply and yet come out the other side misinformed? The answer is, it's deliberate.
The primary warning sign of this is that the misinformation aligns a touch too well with the rest of their arguments (though it can be difficult to identify unless you're wading through literally dozens of examples, as I am). It's constructed in such a way as to perfectly support every aspect of what they're saying. For example: Witchcraft is the Original Old Religion, therefore all subsequent religions are actually iterations/descendants of witchcraft, therefore appropriation is acceptable because it's all derived/stolen from witchcraft. It's nonsense, and it's constructed specifically to shield the practitioner from an action they know is widely unacceptable. But now, they can throw their explanation in anyone's face and hide behind "it's just my practice, you can't tell me how to practice."
(Meanwhile, they're selling a product and actively teaching others this same misinformation for a nominal fee. Of course.)
Both of these situations suck, but one is fixable. One simply needs a nudge in the right direction and some quality resources. But the other... the other is the basis for so many grifts out there.
The grifter is not interested in adjusting their knowledge base. They aren't looking to change their outlook or admit they were wrong or learn literally anything. Their only desire is to hook as many people as possible to gain money, power, or both. A grifter doesn't need to be correct, they just have to sound correct. The way to do that is to craft a consistent story and stick to it, no matter what; and, ideally, make it bullet-proof in some way.
"You can't tell me how to be a witch," they'll proclaim -- to distract from the fact that the criticism isn't about their craft, it's about the spread of harmful information, true or otherwise, and the hungry hunt for their desires. And in an environment like Tumblr, where people really have been harassed just because they practice witchcraft in an "unusual" or non-mainstream way, this shield is a strong one.
It's incredibly important to recognize when someone is weaponizing misinformation and, in the backlash, when they're weaponizing a defense that would be valid and reasonable in another context. This is, I think, one of the more damning pieces of evidence in identifying and criticizing a grift or scam.
Ok real talk, for a fic idea... Where do you think Nice AU Ekko is, while our Ekko lives in his skin? Dead? In another dimension? Swapped out? Or trapped in his own body? Does he get to see down Ekko's life? What does he say to Jinx waking up missing entire days?
Anyway! Sam doesn’t feel a nebulous responsibility for hunting. He doesn’t feel that his knowledge means that he is obligated to hunt. He hunts with an end goal in mind. Figure out what’s going on. Save his brother. Cut the head off the snake. Fix the thing he broke. Save his brother. Clean up after someone he feels responsibility towards. Cut the head off the snake. Stop his brother from being an immortal problem. Fix the thing he broke. Etc, etc.
He’ll do smaller, incidental hunts between the bigger ones, but he is not hunting as an amorphous obligation. He recognizes the futility of haphazard vigilantism. He settles into it as a lifestyle, and enjoys aspects of it, but he doesn’t psychologically need to do it to feel like he has value.
Dean, on the other hand, feels a nonspecific sense of duty and responsibility towards hunting. He’s the thin flannel line between suburbia and chaos. He doesn’t really wrestle with whether or not he’s making a difference in the large scale, gaining solace from making a difference on an individual level. He loves hunting and he hates hunting, but mostly hunting is a duty and a pillar of his self-perception. He wants to stop, yearns for something different, but he can’t stop while he is himself, because to abandon his duty is to abandon everything he values about himself.
time to ante up to the promised essay in your shinra post on which characters in drrr are autistic. NOW
short answer they all are. long answer with receipts under the cut
(sources: my autistic ass)
mikado- has trouble navigating social situations and responding "appropriately" to them, and his vocal inflection that doesn't necessarily "match" feelings,. his special interest is the dollars and watching the interactions between them and studying what impact his actions have on them. hes just like izaya fr. i feel like the paralels between them dont get talked abt enough. mikado is izaya if he got scared straight at the end of his middle school homoromantic friendship that resulted in him being stabbed instead of going hm. this will have long term consequences on me actually
masaomi- has trouble understanding the motivations and feelings of others. he masks strongly with his confident "ladies man" persona.
anri- she has a lack of vocal inflection, doesnt make eye contact, has trouble navigating social situations, her vocal inflection doesnt necessarily "match" her feelings. she has sensory issues (wears her her hoodie dress because she likes the sensory input, not to little and not too much.) relies on a routine (nothing ever happens nothing ever changes).
celty- uses strong body language yet struggles to read the body language of others. mirrors extensively. she mirrors everyone to a degree but especially shinra and shizuo. this should not be news to anyone just LOOK at them. i love them.
her dramatic body language is 100% mirrored from shinra. since she spends a lot of time with him and he emotes so strongly she's memorized his body language in association with certain emotions and performs them when shes feeling that emotion. (in SH she's even depicted as rolling around on the floor when shes upset, which is something shinra does 18436 times.) is shown to occaisonally wear regular clothes (mostly pajamas) when shes capable of making anything with her shadow which to ME implies she's seeking the sensory input from the soft fabric. she also tends to think in extremes, everything is very black and white for her.
shinra- has trouble regulating his emotions and helps himself regulate by stimming (dancing/wiggling when hes happy, rolling on the ground when hes upset, getting very still when hes concentrating or anxious.) over emotes to match the intensity of his emotions regardless of the situation. his neutral expression and tone of voice are hyper and excitable. has trouble understanding social cues and social norms. wears the lab coat ALL the time to the point that other characters comment on it. not something a neurotypical man does. his special interests are surgery and human anatomy. he genuinely loves his job in part because even though there's an anatomy "standard" no human body ever actually looks like the illustrations. he loves to study the variances he notices in his work and loves to perfect surgical techniques.
shizuo- has trouble regulating his emotions. his neutral expression and tone is said to be flat and without affect. struggles with overstimulation (wears the blue lens sunglasses to avoid the bright sunlight, wears his vest fitted at the chest for the slight compression) (because hes TRANSGENDER and really liked how his binder felt. brought to u by me who had a phase where i was binding unsafely purely for the stim of it. dont do that btw i can no longer bind at all 🤪) he has meltdowns when he gets too overstimulated. he enjoys uneventfullness and routine but from a combination of powers that be and his tendency to escalate situations when hes upset, he doesnt get much of that. escalates situations due to losing his emotional regulation. he also has trouble reading situations as well as trauma that leads him to constantly feel on edge and anxious.
izaya- somehow the only canonically autistic character. he has a strong mask in his usual calm vaugely smug demeanor that slips when he feels strongly about something. (stomping on the cell phone, laughing when he's delighted by human behavior, punching the telephone pole.) he has very black and white thinking that often gets interpreted as being morally grey. (he is btw. literally everyone in drrr is. its the morally grey fucked up characters media idk what you want) he would describe his special interest as humanity (and does, in canon) but its more sociology and human behavior. just like shinra, hes always in that damn coat. autism behavior.
walker and erika- they are autistic in the same font. twins. besties. wear comfortable clothes for sensory reasons (although erika's interest in fashion is enough incentive for her to sometimes dress up despite the sensory issues it causes. me too tho.) both have a special interest their light novels. both dont understand social norms and theyre both aware of that and neither of them care. legends.
saburo- struggles with social interactions. special interests in his van (possibly cars in general) and ruri hijiribe. had no idea he was autistic until he met walker and erika who assumed he already knew. looked at one (1) website and suddenly his whole life made sense.
seiji- his usual speaking voice is very monotone and his facial expressions are typically pretty reserved. like izaya and celty he thinks a lot in black and white.
mairu- her speaking voice is very monotone and she doesnt tend to express her emotions outwardly. she's selectively verbal also. likes her gym clothes for sensory reasons.
kururi- autism/adhd combo platter legend and we love that for her. special interest in martial arts. she doesnt quite get social norms nor does she care.
manami- i dont have solid evidence for this one i just know that is the hairstyle of an autism hero.
kasuka- speaks in a monotone, has one facial expression, doesnt outwardly show his emotions (altho ppl close to him can still read them). doesnt comprehend neurotypical socialization but gets along really really well with other autistic people.
ruri- she is just like kasuka fr. walker and erika moment with these two.
saki- masks really heavily but is bad at it. me too girl. when shes comfortable and not masking she somehow seems less stiff.
akane- really struggles with figures of speech. hates eye contact. special interest in art and drawing and i hope she starts making art again. i love akane thats my child and the entire awakusus child and shizuos child also.
vorona- she speaks in a monotone and HATES eye contact. she gets away with not making any by always looking at her book instead. reading as a special interest. she has an amazing memory.
slon- struggles with figures of speech and emotional regulation.
kasane- also speaks in a monotone. takes everything very literally. another strong black and white thinker. special interest in cats and cat behavior. cats LOVE her. cats always love autistic legends. also the yellow pantsuit? a slay. no nt person would ever pick that up.
dokusonmaru- got it genetically from his father kasuka. also all cats are autistic inherently.
characters that arent autistic but definitely have adhd: KADOTA. aoba. mika. tom. chikage.
Okay I keep going back to this but the concept of not managing your relationship with your parents the way I do with my mom is really strange to me?
People keep saying things like “you shouldn’t need to manage her to get your needs met,” but that’s not really what I’m doing? It’s not like she doesn’t let me eat or some bullshit. I’m a scrappy resourceful scrounger who doesn’t feel like getting chewed out for being irresponsible (I still don’t understand where my money was spent), and I don’t remember when she last gave me money so I am just delaying as much as possible, but the end result of things would still be me having money to eat. I’ve been skimming off her credit card by throwing a few food items into my trips to cvs (which have been often recently, I’ve seen a lot of doctors and been in pain for a while), and while she could totally call me on it, I got ahead of that by mentioning I’m just shopping by unit price and everything ran out at about the same time.
I dunno it’s like for a solid week I’ve been speaking my normal language during an awkward period that always happens but is going on a bit longer because I really don’t fucking know where the money went, I do not spend a lot of money, my grocery trips are like $50, and everyone around me is acting weirdly.
talk of names on my dash is making me wanna talk about the dream i had last night/the thing it’s left me musing on
I slept really badly (fuck shifts that make me get up at 5am) but somewhere in the tiny bits i got, i had an incredibly vivid, tiny dream where i was making out with a guy. which is weird, because i usually don’t dream about physical intimacy of any kind, and this was just. really pleasant and chill. (the guy was also a character, but i’m not mentioning which one because it’s... odd and not really the point of the dream.) and in the middle of making out, he called me ‘Morris’.
and i had this weird little moment of ‘that’s not right’, and he just nodded in a very understanding way and said ‘Sebastian’. and i was like ‘oh right! that’s my name, Sebastian, cool, don’t know why i forgot it’
which... thinking about it, Sebastian (or possibly ‘Bastian’ for short, for a Neverending Story shoutout) was one of the names i considered while picking one. and... oh boy, I like it. A lot. And the feeling I got, of ‘this is my name’ was so strong, and stuck with me through the entire day so hard, that i kept on getting extra weirded out when people used my deadname.
ofc i’m having the backlash as well of ‘no, you can’t consider another name, you already went to the trouble of changing it online a bunch of places and asking people to call you Morris and it’s a fine name that you like, and you shouldn’t be thinking about a different one’
