Titleless Void

i saw somebody say “what if you’re gone and i haven’t become anything yet” and basically that broke me on a random thursday evening

Video: it starts with the ideas of the Christian philosopher --

Me: DON'T SAY IT DON'T FUCKING SAY IT

Video: -- John Calvin

Me:

In short: John Calvin was a French theologian during the Protestant Reformation. He was a philosopher in the same way that ebola is a living thing, or the same way that C4 on a bridge revitalizes a riverfront. If you're familiar with the way that many people say that Reagan is to blame for everything shitty about modern American politics, well, they're half right.

Anglicanism's major tenets were formed largely by Thomas Cranmer attempting to negotiate a "middle way" between Lutheranism & Calvinism. Many aspects of Calvinism were adopted into the Reformed traditions central to Anglican theology & the via media, or middle way, is unfortunately basically just two shitty people playing tug-of-war over the exact way in which Anglicanism would be terrible. This is so foundational to the Church of England that it is addressed in the 3rd paragraph of the opening section of the Wikipedia page on Anglicanism.

Free will isn't real. God makes literally everything happen, and if you complain about it you're complaining about God.

Why does God let bad things happen to good people? Fuck you, that's why. Are you questioning God?

God already decided if you're going to Heaven or Hell, probably before you were born. There's nothing you can do about it. It doesn't matter if you try to be a good person, or if you accept Jesus, or if you go to confession, or if you saved five thousand orphans from a burning building. If God ~mysteriously~ decides "fuck you, burn forever", that's your fate.

However, God likes to show little signs of who he likes. Say, having lots of money, or being hot, or not having horrible illnesses. Good things happen to "the elect", who are people God likes. Bad things happen to everyone else.

Rich people are probably going to Heaven, and they're just better than you, because that's God's secret sign that he likes them more than you. Why? Because fuck you.

If bad things happen to you, it's probably because you deserve it and you're going to Hell. Likewise, if you're poor, ugly, or disabled, you're probably going to Hell.

All of this bullshit has of course had a heavy influence on:

Capitalism, because having money isn't a sign that you're exploiting people, it's a sign that God mysteriously wants you to have nice things. Nothing you can do about it, free will isn't real!

Imperialism, because if you succeed in taking over a place and stealing all their stuff, that's a sign that God likes you. If God liked them, it wouldn't have happened, so you're really following God's plan. And torturing people who are already going to Hell barely even counts, they probably deserve it!

American exceptionalism specifically. Consider the above, and mysteriously, all the native people start dying, leaving vast tracts of land for your people to settle. Well, gosh! God genocided a continent to show that it was secretly always ours! He must really like us!

Witch trials, debtors prisons, insane asylums, &c. They aren't hot or rich, so by definition, they're probably evil and deserve for bad things to happen to them!

... and half of the other shitty things that happen in our society, basically. Calvinism is horrific and it underlies a lot - especially in the US and UK, because the Puritans and Roundheads were mostly Calvinists.

There's a line of a song about a calvinistic childhood that goes:

When I was a child, pedophile used to mean someone who was sexually attracted to specifically pre-pubescent children. My uncle is and was a pedophile who hurt a lot of kids, not just me. 

I didn't remember my abuse because I was too young, but a lot of my cousins remember theirs. Talking about that abuse with people has always been hard for us, because it often triggers other people just to hear about the experiences that we went through. People, from doctors to anyone who has known a child, understand that surviving that sort of thing at ten or younger is very different than surviving that sort of thing at sixteen, which is why the term pedophilia is important. It's an ugly thing, yes, but it's necessary for survivors to be able to talk about what happened to us. 

"Pedophilia" describes a very specific type of abuse.

Or it used to. 

At some point it started to slowly mean "anyone who has sex with someone under 18"--that was the first change. It was so slow and gradual even I could not even tell you when it happened.

But now? The last ten years or so? Oh, buddy. Forget pedophilia having a certain meaning, it can now be levied even at two adults in a relationship with as little as a five-year age gap. Or, worse (for me), the idea of minor-coding. 

Y'all do realize that adult-coding is the transverse of that, right? Minor-coding cannot be allowed to exist for this reason; men already talk about adult-coding with even 11 year olds girls looking 'old enough' once their body develops and children of color are already being treated older just because of the color of their skin.

There are real consequences to the idea of someone being minor-coded, so far beyond the harm being done to them by being infantilized. "Minor-coding" exists by propping up ideas that are exclusively and explicitly harmful.

So maybe... maybe we need to let pedophilia actually be about kids again?

That is, if kids are people you care about and want to be safe. Because right now? It's not about survivors. Right now the omnipresence and watering down of pedophile is making it harder for survivors because the thing in the spotlight is the fears of people who've haven't suffered this particular harm.

you need to know that these tags are all kinds of fucked up:

i support proshippers and proshipping because that shit is FICTIONAL. it ain't real, plain and simple.

y'all need to learn the difference between fiction, which harms no one and helps people process intense feelings in a healthy way, and reality, where real harm can be done and never taken back.

shipping is telling ourselves stories. it's not real.

saying it causes harm is equating fiction to my actual real life trauma that happened.... and that's really really really really REALLY fucked up!!

don't do it! if you are doing it, stop doing it right the fuck now! it always leads to censorship of survivors. that's right, if nobody gets to ever discuss anything to do with pedophilia, the ability to discuss our actual experiences fucking disappears. and for who? the people most affected.

there are real consequences to anti-proshippers' crusade against fiction and i am the person who will be impacted by those consequences first.

this is why i always speak out in support of people being able to write fiction about whatever the fuck they want. not only is it the right thing to do, because fiction helps everyone process big complex scary shit, but it also affects me directly.

I'm going to use this as a place to catalog responses that aren't getting reblogged as much but are just as important as this thread:

My experience is atypical + "What do we call them if not pedos?"

Age of consent has nothing to do with this + "I am not a soapbox for you to stand on."

Education about what sexual child abuse looks like online + "we're reading fiction for escapism, thank you very much, and we are so, so very tired of all you pedophilia-obsessed folks reminding us of the real thing"

Thank you so much to everyone who has been supportive in the tags or in replies, especially @prismatic-bell, whose replies have been delightfully concise and are representative of my personal point of view.

If you want to help survivors, openly write and read fucked up fiction as often as you feel the urge.

It doesn't matter what you read/write, or why. The act of doing it openly provides a level of plausible deniability for people whose relationship to the fucked up things is more complicated.

Other people letting their freak flag fly and writing the most weird and/or traumatic shit they can think of? That is supporting me and every other survivor out there because it gives us a place to start in trauma that isn't ours. You know--the reason why it's easy to clean your friend's house but hard to clean your own.

Ephebephilic ships, yes. Child sexual abuse, described as a terrible thing, not as a romantic ship, yes. But I have never seen a sexual relationship between an adult and a pre-pubescent described in romantic terms. That's abuse and people who write about it know it's abuse and treat it as abuse.

I'm sure that somewhere, someone has done it; rule 34, after all. But the vast, vast majority of the ships that the antis went after were adults with older teens, or very young adults with younger teens. Neither of these are pedophilia. Are they good? No. Are they abusive? If there's an age gap bigger than a Romeo and Juliet clause and one of them's underage, then yes, in real life they would be. But the antis did enormous damage -- which this post is pushing back against -- by trying to claim that a 17 year old and an 18 year old is pedophilia, or that a 25 year old and a 72 year old is pedophilia, or a short adult woman with a tall adult man is pedophilia. None of these things are even wrong! Adults over the age of consent can do what they want and it'd be ridiculous if two 17 year olds suddenly couldn't date anymore because one hit their birthday and the other one's birthday is half a year away.

The fact that someone came on this post to say, "and yeah, pro shippers are causing this problem" is the problem. I know of no pro shippers whatsoever who actually want to see pedophilic ships. Which, again, as the OP reminds us, are ships between a pre-pubescent child and an adult. This grosses out almost everyone. (Again. It's gotta exist somewhere, and maybe it even exists written or drawn by someone who thinks it's romantic and not an edgelord trying to trigger people because they think it's funny. But I've never seen it and I've been in fandom for 30 years.) Pro-shippers believe that if people want to write that, they can, because fiction does not harm people the way that antis think it does, but I don't know anyone who actually does write that or wants to see it.

Antis have been watering down the term by claiming that ships are pedophilic when they aren't even ephebephilic. If both parties are over the age of consent, no one would have the right to stop them from being involved with each other in real life (though we may side-eye the 40 year old dating a 25 year old, but as long as the 25 year old consents, that's legal and allowed.) If both parties are within 4 years of each other, most jurisdictions consider it legal even if one's under the age of consent. These ships aren't even considered illegal or morally wrong in real life. They aren't pedophilia. (Nor is a 16 year old with a 40 year old; that's illegal in a lot of places and I definitely consider it morally wrong, but that's typically the closest to "pedophilia" I see ships ever get, and that's ephebephilia. Which is still bad, but a different thing from pedophilia.)

people with no common sense: je11yf1sh, je11¥fi5h, j*llyf*sh, je//ÿf!sh, j3ï||yf¡sh, gel lee fisk

result: cannot account for the sheer amount of possible ways to alter the word jellyfish

conclusion: i have to see jellyfish now.

"Japanese researchers have found a possible explanation for Long COVID. They discovered that small fragments of the coronavirus's genetic material can remain deep behind the nose, in an area called the epipharynx, for at least six months after infection.

These viral remnants irritate the immune system and may cause fatigue, coughing, dizziness, and "brain fog."

The researchers used an old Japanese treatment called epipharyngeal abrasive therapy (EAT), where the area is swabbed once a week with a cotton swab dipped in 1% zinc chloride soution. After three months, the patients showed:

- significantly fewer viral remnants

- lower levels of inflammatory substances

- noticeably reduced symptoms

The treatment appears to both remove the lingering virus and calm the inflammation. A larger clinical trial is now underway in Japan to confirm the results.

This discovery could lead to more targeted treatments that address the root cause of long COVID symptoms instead of merely managing them."

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Joker: It's over Batman! I have the amulet and it's power will be—

*put on the amulet*

Joker: You know what? Kill me.

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WanderingSims Fave CC - Makeup List

1 - Pixelore - Lips N1

2 - ddarkstonee - Lips N1

3 - IN3S - Dry Lips

4-5 - Golyhawhaw - Lipstick Movix & Lipstick Invert

6 - PleasePutNameHere - Dry Lips

7, 15 - nightosphere - 4t3 PralineSims Lucid Dream Lips & 4t3 PralineSims Alcohol Free Blush

8-12 - Sour Lemon Simblr - Lips 19, Lips 22, Lips 31, Lipstick 10, & Lipstick 3

13 - mochi029 - Lipline 01

14 - teekapoa - SPECXIEL Uglytownie Lip Corners

16-17 - Sour Lemon Simblr - Highlighter 2 & 3

18-19 - Pandelabs - Eyeliner 1 & 2

20-23 - SEHD - Basic Eyeliner, Violent Kisses Eyeliner, Jakett Eyeliner, Sycko Eyeliner

24 - Sour Lemon Simblr - Wet Eyes Eyeliner

25, 32 - Smallsimmer - Eyeshadow 29 & Eyeliner 35

WanderingSims Fave CC - Contemporary Asian CC List

1, 5-6 - mykpopsimsworld - Ateez Set (Posters, Albums, Lightstick Up)

2 - Epiphanysims34 - 4t3 CherryOnKpop SKZOO Plushies

3, 58 - HydrangeaChainsaw - Konpeito Candy & Anime Rugs

4 - HydrangeaChainsaw - Japanese School Bag Deco

7-8, 18 - mykpopsimsworld - TXT Set (Albums, Lightstick, Posters)

9-10 - mykpopsimsworld - Stray Kids Albums & Lightstick Up

11 - Martassimsbook - 4t3 Aira Pinkie Set Dumpling Light

12, 19-21 - HydrangeaChainsaw - Cinnamoroll Set (Rug, Plush, Pouf, Armchair)

13 - Ameriko-Steelie - 4t3 Kirika Sanrio Kawaii Notebook Clutter

14, 23 - HydrangeaChainsaw - Plush Separate & Bean Bag Onigiri Plush

15 - HydrangeaChainsaw - Luna Lamp

16-17, 25-29, 56-57, 59 - Martassimsbook - 4t3 Flirtyghoul Otaku Set (Figure Toga, Figure Makoto, Billy Bookcase, Mangas, Figure Yuji, Figure Todoroki, Figure Shoyo, Posters C, Posters A, Posters B)

22 - HydrangeaChainsaw - Maneki Neko Stickers

24, 52-53 - johziii - Studio Ghibli Rugs (Soot Rug, Totoro Rug, Jiji Rug)

30 - HydrangeaChainsaw - Totoros

31-37, 40-41, 44-49 - Martassimsbook - 4t3 Aira Ghibli Set (Calcifer Light, Ghibli Clay 1, Ghibli Clay 2, Ghibli Painting, Ghibli Cross Stich 1, Totoro Holder, Ghibli Cross Stich 2, Susuwatari Plate, Ghibli Pencil Holder, Susuwatari Bowl, Susuwatarai Cake Pops, Totoro Candle, No Face Incense, No Face Cups, Ponyo Bucket)

38 - SweetPoyzinCreations - Studio Ghibli Posters

39 - Martassimsbook - 4t3 Neriney Kawaii Totoro Lamp

42 - Metisse - Studio Ghibli Paintings

43 - Epiphanysims34 - 4t3 channel4sims Ghibli Movie DVDs Laying V Japanese

50 - WanderingSims - 4t3 yu Studio Ghibli & OTGW Posters

51 - HydrangeaChainsaw - Totoro Inflatable Chair

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63-66 - WanderingSims - Grunge Wall Stickers 1, 2, 3, 4

67-69 - WanderingSims - Black Wall Stickers 1, 2, 5

70, 73 - WanderingSims - Korea Maps & Japan Maps

71 - LiaSims - 8 B&W Wall Art

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🧡💛🤍🩷💜✨🫧⭐️

I know you guys wanted Atla fan art from me, and I promise I have some more in the works but… masters on a string..? 

so everyone saying that protests have to be more polite or follow accepted rules is missing the entire point. the point of a protest is not to say “we disagree with you”, they already know that. the point of a protest is to make it clear that if they continue to do things you disagree with, you will burn down their house.

She told me this:

“Understand - to many white people in the US, seeing that many Black people gathered together in one place would have been shocking. It’s easy to bully a family in a town. A bit harder, but bullying a community is still possible. But over a million Black people marching upon the Capital would have had the same effect on every single White person watching. They would know what Black people were REALLY saying behind the hymns and the march.

‘Imagine what would happen if we were angry.’