#dissenters

[flowers-of-io]

Why is nobody talking about how TFS is a story of redemption. I realised it yesterday; how we "destroy" the Witness not by feeding it enough bullets, but by giving the Dissenters the opportunity at penance and redemption. We don't even "redeem" them by our hand! It's their own choice, and we merely help them achieve this goal. We topple the Witness by beaming Light at it; by literally letting the Light in. TFS is a story about how there is never too late to turn back; how the door is always open, the option to change your mind is always on the table, there for you to take it; you can always, always, return to the Light. There is always forgiveness there for you. TWQ was revolutionary by presenting this idea with regards to the Hive (and Savathûn in particular), you know, the worst murderous race in the cosmos--but the Witness is so much worse. It is as close as it gets to the devil. It's THE evil-maker of the universe. And yet there was a part of it that wanted to change, that made the choice to repent, and *this* is what allowed us to finally triumph over it. I'm so insane about this. There is always always always always hope for you, no matter how far gone you think you are.

[thefirstknife]

Any thoughts on the fact that prior to The Final Shape all the veiled Darkness statues that we encountered were, um, female coded? Well endowed. Busty. Look they had tits is what I'm saying.

Previous to TFS my thought was either that The Darkness was presented as a female aspect - that old yin/yang thing (though The Light was never connected with the masculine to my recollection) or the Darkness was picking this form just to mess with us.

Now that we've been told they're exiled components of The Witness group mind I just have more questions. Were there simply more female Dissenters? Did the Witness send them specifically to us? (Mind you if they're veiled aliens and not human at all maybe those aren't breasts in the first place.)

Also, are they potentially still alive?

Yeah, there's been a lot of talk about this prior! Now that we know... Honestly? I definitely think this might just be what they look like. We may be projecting onto them (aka labelling them female because of their shape), but they're aliens; it's very possible that this is just a part of their biology that all of them share. Because all seem to have that silhouette even in cutscenes (though a little less exaggerated which is normal for statues; statues often emphasise things beyond what these things would normally look like):

The next one is particularly interesting because it's not just showing dissenters; it's showing all of them when they made the Witness. You can also tell that they're not all exact copies; they differ in height and weight, or at least it looks that way to me:

Some also appear to be... bustier? I genuinely think that this is just what they all look like. Alternatively, if we want to assume their biology is closer to ours, it's also possible they're made this way to imply they're a single-sex species. Common in scifi! This one is also cool:

The veils are a little translucent so they almost show a bit of the shape beneath? There's something uncanny about it in a way. Alien designs compel me.

We genuinely have not really seen what the Witness' species really looked like besides the upper portion of the head. And in this case we can see that the hand is humanoid (when it holds the shard). But what's beneath the veils? No clue. I think the inspiration for them definitely came from the veiled female statues we have, but we don't know what's going on beneath it all for a really ancient alien species. Really cool to think about though!

Not sure if it's possible that some of them might be alive. To destroy the Witness, they were fairly clear that they all have to be destroyed with it. However, there is at least one of them that never joined the creation of the Witness and has presumably survived, though it's unclear if they would still be alive today. Mentioned in the TFS CE and also in one of the pages of the raid lore book which is linked to the story from the TFS CE!

[hale-my-nathan]

Trump Weird News - Roadkill's "The Stinker" Who "SAT In IRE"

[historyfiles]

Churches of Dover: Sandwich United Reformed Church building was purchased in 1705, and was converted into a dedicated chapel to be opened in 1706, known as the Dissenter's Meeting House.

Gallery: Churches of Kent

A picture gallery showcasing several churches in the Dover district of Kent, in this series which is designed to be part of an all-inclusive

[palatinewolfsblog]

"Remember: For centuries people lived in fear of witches, magicians, dissenters, "infidels". Instead of fearing and fighting those who sow such fear to maintain and increase their power." U.N. Owen.

[tomorrowusa]

China sees resurgence in psychiatric care for ‘trouble-makers’

Student among dozens who challenged China’s authorities to have been sent to psychiatric units, BBC finds.

In the old Soviet Union, if you disagreed with the government, you could get put into a psychiatric hospital. The government thinking was: If you don't like communism then you must be crazy.

Something similar has been going on in Communist China.

When Zhang Junjie was 17 he decided to protest outside his university about rules made by China's government. Within days he had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital and treated for schizophrenia. Junjie is one of dozens of people identified by the BBC who were hospitalised after protesting or complaining to the authorities. Many people we spoke to were given anti-psychotic drugs, and in some cases electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), without their consent. While there have been reports for decades that hospitalisation is used in China as a way of detaining dissenting citizens without involving the courts, a leading Chinese lawyer has told the BBC that the issue - which legislation sought to resolve - has recently seen a resurgence. Junjie says he was restrained and beaten by hospital staff before being forced to take medication. His ordeal began in 2022, after he protested against China's harsh lockdown policies. He says his professors spotted him after just five minutes and contacted his father, who took him back to the family home. He says his father called the police, and the next day - on his 18th birthday - two men drove him to what they claimed was a Covid test centre, but was actually a hospital. "The doctors told me I had a very serious mental disease… Then they tied me to a bed. The nurses and doctors repeatedly told me, because of my views on the party and the government, then I must be mentally ill. It was terrifying," he told the BBC World Service. He was there for 12 days. Junjie believes his father felt forced to hand him over to the authorities because he worked for the local government.

Junjie is just one of the people the BBC spoke with. His is not an isolated instance.

You can watch the entire documentary about China's misuse of psychiatric facilities to punish dissenters here.

Because they make so many of our consumer goods, people in the West forget that China is a brutal totalitarian state. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is the country's only legal political entity. In effect, the CCP is the government.

Under dictator Xi Jinping, the government is committing genocide against the Uighurs, repressing free speech in Hong Kong, and is helping Russia with its war of aggression in Ukraine. Add to this Xi's military provocations against the Philippines and threatening rhetoric aimed at Taiwan and we see an out of control autocrat with imperialistic ambitions.

[purgamos]

Merry Madness 2021 has officially concluded! See you all next year!

[radicalurbanista]

fighting for Palestine from within the empire

Many of the companies that profit from genocide, war, and ecocide sit within U.S. cities, including Boeing, which made over $26,250,000,000 in weapon sales just last year.

It is the responsibility of the citizens of the U.S. empire to disrupt and redirect the flows of capital within their cities, away from the production of war, capital, and the domination of people and other governments. No single day or action can accomplish this, but the message here is clear: Chicagoans will not be willing hosts to the warlords of capitalism. Before a single bomb decimates a school or hospital, demons in suits calculate its profitability. War begins in a corporate office.