So how is it that a matriarchal society that is basically trained about Hylian males and sexuality starting at a very young age unable to clock Link as a twink wearing women's clothes? How about that mystery guy on the roof who goes there all the time and somehow never gets caught? 99% of Gerudo women seem to be unable to see beyond their disguises when you interact with them.

Or are they?

I'm of the mind that the immense majority of Gerudo Women (even the guards) aren't naïve enough to fail to see through their "disguises", but that either they pretend to not know Link (and all the other men who cross-dress as a means to infiltrate the mysterious town of Amazon warrior women) is wearing women's clothing because they love the idea of Hyrule's "Manly Men" literally walking a mile in their shoes sandals and seeing life from their perspective (and helping their values expand beyond their borders) or that they simply have ideas of gender that align with our world's current progressive schools of thought that gender isn't necessarily tied to one's sex (so when they talk about Link's life as a woman, they are being sincere; they don't see a young man in a dress, but a woman who doesn't identify with the gender she was assigned at birth).

They seem to accept the genderless Gorons as visitors as well.

Honestly I could write entire dissertations about Zelda creators' inclusion of queer characters and tropes in almost every mainline entry, but this specifically is something that has been poking at the corners of my mind for a while.

dont ask why

Edit: removed all the individual links and replaced it with this here folder.

https://preview.redd.it/t26j9liytz821.png?width=1073&format=png&auto=webp&s=54354e9da094d706c32e3436d3b4f17ec8084d4e

The brainwashing was SO powerful. It's still do hard to understand.

Why zen doesn’t have anything to do with sitting meditation.

Although this tired old subject has been now been talked to death many times over on r/zen, and is no longer interesting, we still get trolls spreading religious misinformation on an almost daily basis.

As such, I’ve decided to collate all the crucial evidence in the “big debate” into one OP to make it easier to give people everything they need to know in one simple link, as opposed to repeating myself all the time.

Thus, welcome. This is a huge and tedious OP, but I think it’s necessary.

---------

INTRODUCTION

Zen has nothing to do with seated mediation. On the contrary, Zen masters warned people against trying to engage in seated meditation for zen purposes.

The reason so many people believe there is a link between zen and meditation, for that “zen” means “meditation” (it doesn’t) is that there are churches out there that have been actively spreading these lies and co-opting the zen name for their own weird nonsense doctrines for the last 1000 years.

Unfortunately for them, despite much being lost and purposefully destroyed, we still have a few records left from the real Zen Masters.

WHAT IS ZEN, THEN, IF NOT MEDITATION?

Zen is the name for an enlightenment school/lineage which was started in China by someone now referred to as Bodhidharma in around AD500. Unlike the various religions, philosophies and cosmologies at the time, Zen was radically different.

Zen is not a religion or a philosophy or certain practices or knowledge. Zen is, in a nutshell, about seeing your true nature. It’s about recognising what “Buddha nature” means. The penny drops, the cat is out of the bag. This is something that occurs in an instant. You see your nature and become a Buddha. This happens when all beliefs, ideas, concepts and practices are seen through as mere fleeting elements of One Mind.

Zen dialogues are all attempts at demonstrations and explorations of the dharma, as it were.

Buddha means “enlightened one”. The zen masters saw their enlightenment as the only true enlightenment, and the exact same one the “O.G” Buddha/Siddarta/Gautama/Sakyamuni experienced under the Bodhi tree. They retained the essence of it in their teaching, but Buddhists misunderstood and made a complex and nonsensical set of religions out of it, deferring to practices and beliefs, morality and the casting of the Buddha as a supernaturally gifted messiah figure.

Zenlightenment isn’t like that though:

*Enli

It is a common fantasy trope for the vampires of a world to be sorted into different bloodlines.

Hwtossad Bloodline. The vampires of Hwtossad (hiw-toe-sad) are from the cold and windswept plains. Their origin is said to be a demonic pact, which is true. Frequently omitted is that the pact was made in the pain and desperation of a deep famine. The Hwtossad tribe avoided obliteration by hunger but gained a new craving beyond bread.

Hwtossad vampires feed like vampire bats, punching holes in the skin with sharp (but not over-long) teeth and lapping the flowing blood. Their saliva is totally normal chemically, but because of their magic curse it acts like an anticoagulant, preventing the blood-flow from stopping. They must drink blood to live, though they can get by on about one wholly exsanguinated victim a year. Again, their digestion is totally mundane, but due to their curse they can survive on humanoid blood alone.

Hwtossad vampires can enter dwellings but not places of sanctity like temples, graveyards and holy groves. They cannot swim and can drown, are blinded by sunlight, and can be paralyzed by being staked through the heart with a wooden stake.

The Hwtossad bloodline is ruled by an Ancient Council, which is comprised of the seven survivors of the original Hwtossad tribe. They are all silver-haired, hunched and wizened. Their vote on issues presented by senior members of the clan is the final say, and none dare challenge them,

• Etaz is an obligate grouch and refuses to hear good news of anything.
• Oweban longs for his pre-cursed life as a warrior and rover, seeing the past in rosy hues.
• Katacc tires of ruling and thinks of her obligations as so much red tape and rubber stamps.
• Xatiweh (Xati for short) always thinks of conquest and glory, crowns and empires.
• Zaccah is withdrawn but always votes on what he feels secures the clan's future best.
• Hetoh numbs himself with revelry and indulgence and is seen as immature by the others.
• Yudu wants to be a bold innovator but is too scared of real change.

A Hwtossad vampire must be full-gorged with blood to spread the curse to another mortal. Therefore, they need two victims to make one vampire- one to drain and one to bite. The Hwtossad ancients, closest to the source of the demonic curse, can even without full-gorge of blood turn a bite victim into a Hwtossad thrall, which is a Ghoul whose creature type is Fiend.

Right now, the Hwtossad bloodline is embroiled in a sort of civil war

The purpose of this is to inform. Nothing else.

Beginning and Birthright is here.

I already did a Masterpost for this on my Tumblr, so go there if you don't wanna scroll here. I'll be using she/her for Corrin in this.

Here’s a link to a post I made where I list my sources for this stuff.

Conquest

Chapter 7

-Welcome to Round 1 of “Xander Never Said That”!

So, I’ve already argued many times before that Xander as he’s written originally was never the type to go against Garon, be it through not fulfilling his orders or even talking badly about him; all of this is because of his entrenched way of thinking as a result of being afraid of his father.

Treehouse however, did change many of his lines to have him openly defy Garon, even when it doesn’t make any sense. (Though they didn’t do that to all of his lines, cuz that would require reworking the entire story, so Xander just ends up looking like a wishy-washy mess)

In localization, when ordered to kill Corrin upon her return to Nohr, Xander says “I won’t do it! I’m sorry, father.” In the JP version, he doesn’t say anything, he only expresses a non-verbal hesitation.

This may seem petty and trivial to point out, but it’s the start of a much bigger issue.

-In the localization, when Xander starts expressing to Garon how asking Corrin to suppress the Ice Tribe rebellion by herself is impossible, Garon responds by saying “If that is so, then kill her now. I will not tolerate insolence.” In the JP version, as Xander is talking, Garon interrupts him and says “I won’t have you talking back to me.”

This is one of many instances where I think Treehouse made Garon too harsh/unambiguously evil. From his tone and the line changes, he just reads as a much worse person, whereas in the JP version, you can at least make somewhat of an argument that he’s just being cold-blooded and exceedingly strict to his children. Still not a good person, but not a total monster yet either. However, I will say this is actually mostly a problem in Birthright as opposed to Conquest, since Garon acting like a cartoonish villain

Copying and pasting here so that we don't give People more clicks. Thank you to u/t1aru for posting the link originally; I wanted to copy and paste it to avoid giving service to People and for a more descriptive title to distinguish from the earlier articles.

I'm bolding things that I think are new/interesting. But you are free to google the full article without my bolding if you'd like.

Josh Duggar Admitted He First Molested Girls at Age 12, Family Friend Says in Emotional Testimony

Monday's three-hour hearing turned on what may be a key matter: whether or not the judge should admit evidence that Josh Duggar previously committed child molestation

By Adam Carlson November 29, 2021 08:35 PM

It was March 30, 2003, and Josh Duggar — not for the first time — had something to confess.

This was just a few weeks past his 15th birthday and a few years before his family found reality TV fame. Behind closed doors, however, he had fondled four younger girls since the age of 12.

That startling admission — which he first made in 2002 and again in a 2003 meeting with parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and two of their best friends, Jim and Bobye Holt, and then again in a 2005 conversation with the Holts — was publicly detailed for the first time on Monday, in emotional testimony at a hearing ahead of Josh's trial on federal charges he received and possessed child pornography two years ago.

Josh, 33, has pleaded not guilty and vowed to "fight back in the courtroom."

In court papers, Josh's attorneys have suggested several other people also had access to the computer at his work where the material was found but that police didn't sufficiently investigate.

Monday's three-hour hearing, in court in Arkansas, turned on what may be a key matter at his trial later this week: whether or not the judge should admit evidence that Josh previously committed child molestation. While his defense maintains that Monday's testimony about his actions two decades ago was not definitive

Who is Zhuan? Well, let us journey together awhile.

You see, once upon a time, a man came from the West, which is Southeast of where many of you live, unless you are on the other side, in which case, it would be the opposite. Rest assured, he did travel laterally from one position to another that is different. From there he came, speaking with great dignitaries, men of cloth and great mind, deciding promptly to reject that in favour of a pet rock. I don't believe plastic googly-eyes were available at the time, so we have had to make do with our own imagination. In either case, they were glued together for 59 dog years.

Then a guy threw his arm at him, and the one-armed man told a poet about the rock guy before he was beat to death for pre-apostasy. The poet met a fourteen year old, and this is what they said:

>"Would that I might beg the Master's mercy, to grant unto me the method, by which I might free myself."

>"Who has bound you?"

>"None bind me."

>"Then why seek further for liberation?"

This was super radical for the overly astute teenager, who hung out with the old dude for nine years. After, the poet gave the young man some clothes and utensils, and a poem:

>>Seeds of blossoms, though reliant on earth,

>>By support of earth, seed blossoms to life—

>>If it be, that there are none to sow the seeds,

>>Then the earth is used, with no blossom produced.

來禮師曰。願和尚慈悲乞與解脫法門。師曰。誰縛汝。曰無人縛。師曰。何更求解脫乎。... 華種雖因地。從地種華生。若無人下種。華地盡無生。

(CBETA.T51n2076_003.0221c14-25)

The young man became an old man, before giving the knick knacks to a robe carrier named "Nature"—not the nature we normally think of, but one which is "not born." At least, that's what the kid said, and the old man was very much impressed.

Nature had a bunch of students, including an especially intelligent nobleman. Instead, Nature gave the rock guy's stuff to a kid who couldn't read, but who was really good at poem making, as well as cutting wood and hulling rice.

Rice boy threw rock guy's stuff in the garbage, and taught a bunch people, putting an end to the rule of two. These included some dude who tried to polish a tile into a mirror.

This so confused one of his bum-sore students that they ended up shouting 163 people into becoming official robe carriers themselves. One of them hung out alone on Hero's Peak, went deaf for three days one time, and also maybe wrote a bunch of rules for his massive congregation.

One member in particular, who a loc

I don't want to step on anybody's toes here, but the amount of non-dad jokes here in this subreddit really annoys me. First of all, dad jokes CAN be NSFW, it clearly says so in the sub rules. Secondly, it doesn't automatically make it a dad joke if it's from a conversation between you and your child. Most importantly, the jokes that your CHILDREN tell YOU are not dad jokes. The point of a dad joke is that it's so cheesy only a dad who's trying to be funny would make such a joke. That's it. They are stupid plays on words, lame puns and so on. There has to be a clever pun or wordplay for it to be considered a dad joke.

Again, to all the fellow dads, I apologise if I'm sounding too harsh. But I just needed to get it off my chest.

TLDR: Norskkk is a bunch of Thoraboos being Grifted by a French-Canadian claiming to be Norwegian with a bunch of stuff that will radicalize people to dangerously far-right ideologies.

To begin, an obligatory “Fuck Norskk” (hereafter to be referred to as Norskkk for connotative reasons)

For reference I will be using their term “Viking” to describe the wider Norse culture as they use it interchangeably and it makes it easiest should anyone wish to search their several sites for the articles I will be discussing.

It is also ESSENTIAL that you understand this is not a matter of theology. I don't think Norskkk is "worshipping wrong", I don't think they are worshipping at all. Nowhere in any of their sites does it mention reciprocity, the gifting cycle, the Tree and Well, or even basic concepts such as Frith and Wyrd. Instead they simply use the imagery, the the verbage, use the aesthetic, while projecting their own warped worldview.

Norskkk is a male-centric Norse-pagan grifting network run by Christopher Fragassi (sometimes known by the moniker Bjornsen). I first came across them years ago when I was looking more deeply into Norse and Germanic Paganism. I have taken the dive many times to point out specific flaws in their rhetoric, history, ideology, and general nonsense, today I am giving a short (yes, this is the condensed version) exploration of them so that you can understand some of the problems and be aware of them moving forward. This partial deconstruction, like a night of passion, comes in several parts.

Part 1 – The (a)Historicity

While many of us consider ourselves knowledgeable and well-read, and many more seek to become such themselves, Norskkk claims to be a teacher despite being foolishly ignorant. Unfortunately I will not get a chance to be a grammatical nitpicker of their information as there are just too many poorly translated terms and words to be able to speak on anything else, nor will I get a chance to delve into their hideously twisted and warped projections of Norse Myth.

On their various websites (not linked, because I believe their content to be genuinely less than worthless, though you are more than capable of finding them) you will find a variety of articles covering a range of ancient and modern topics including (but not limited to) Valhol, Vaccines, Horned Helmets, hair and beards, the roles of Disabled peoples, Cheese (I’m not kidding), drugs, shamanism, circumcision, ethnopurity, dietary constraints, marriage, Loki,

> Those who claim to be Zennists must trust in what people who know say before they will attain it.

> If you do not believe, you make all talk useless. If you just listen without believing to the talks of people who know, how can you be called Zennists?

> Real Zennists understand it all when the grass bends in the breeze, when dust rises in the wind; they discern immediately before any signals have occurred, before falling into trains of thought, before anything stirs. Only then can one be called a Zennist.

> Why? This thing is used against birth and death, so you have to be someone who's not far off in order to get it.

> Haven't you read how YunYan studied with BaiZhang for twenty years without clarifying this matter?

> His [younger] brother DaoWu bit his finger to the quick out of concern for him.

> See how that man of old still did not worry even though he hadn't clarified this matter, saying he did not understand?

> His will never gave out, and he didn't go chasing after verbal expressions either.

> ~ FoYan

 

I've been down quite a few rabbit holes in the past several days ... and it's been interesting.

It started with a desire to look into YunYan's personal history and make a brief OP, but soon I had over a dozen tabs open and it was midnight, so I shelved it for the time being and went to bed. I tried again the next day and ended up with two dozen tabs. So ultimately I had to surrender and just start drafting a long-form OP (multiple windows of innumerable tabs).

What can you do? Sucks to suck.

Anyway, in listening to the audio book for Instant Zen, the above quote always stood out to me as an enticing invitation ... Who were YunYan and DaoWu? Why was DaoWu concerned? Why did he bite his finger until it bled?

Well, as it turns out, the story goes something like this:

DaoWu and YunYan were "dharma brothers". It seems that DaoWu was younger and so is sometimes called "younger brother" by YunYan (and vice versa).

However, DaoWu seems to have been a talented and adept Zen student, while YunYan ... not so much.

YunYan had spent a whopping 20 years at BaiZhang's without getting enlightened, and DaoWu was growing worried about him. DaoWu had been studying with YaoShan and, out of concern, invited YunYan to come to YaoShan's place to study.

While there, DaoWu continued to excel whil

Alrighty then! Let’s kick-start the new year of 2022 >!(2021 can go to hell for all I care)!< with a very delayed return to Lefty Stuff 101. Before we start, I’ll put up some trigger and content warnings.

TW and CW: Both male and female infertility and sterility, mentions of trauma stemming from this, androcentrism (and anything that could stem from this meaning misogyny, sexism and so on), and abusive relationships.

You’ve seen the title. I’m sure you’re already thinking about what it means and if you have a vague idea of this concept, you’d have some assumptions. Tell you what, let’s take all of that… ALL of that and set it aside. Just take everything and toss it aside. Focus on these two questions for me and try to answer them honestly, yeah?

1. Do you think women have the same kind of vivid and rich internal life that you lead?
2. Do you think women have the same agency that you have?

Take a minute, they’re just yes-or-no questions.

Take an hour even… Take however long it takes to understand the questions and write your answer down. Go on. Write it, say it aloud; do something to actualise the answer.

You done?

Consider the answers. Are you going to be surprised when I’m going to say that the answers don’t matter that much? If you are, well, you’re new around these here parts. Give this a read, you’ll need it.

So, what was the point of that little exercise? Well, if the questions are pertinent and the answers not wholly relevant, the possible relevance of the exercise would come from the train of thought you took to answer the questions and that reveals the worldview you have. Why is that important? Let me explain.

We human beings are unique amongst living creatures. We possess consciousness, a theory of mind, and most importantly, we have a high degree of self-awareness, something I’ve mentioned previously. Add to this, agency, and you begin to see how different we are compared to a lot of our planet-mates.

It’s easy to see that everyone has this, be it the drunken man you see trying to hail a cab in the middle of the night, that annoying man on the subway who’s playing music very fucking loudly, that other annoying man on the subway who’s yelling into his phone, and the person you see when you look into a mirror, all of y’all have rich, vivid, and wild internal lives that you can’t fully share with someone else.

And so, it PAINS me to have to sa

If this post sounds familiar to you, you may remember that this was a topic previously on /r/HobbyDrama in the sweet Summers of 2020. I specifically remember reading this while on vacation. However, the original author seems to have either deleted their account or taken the post down, so I decided to revive the post. Back when Removeedit worked for Reddit posts I could link to the text itself but that unfortunately seems to have shut down.

Anyway, let's get into this:

> What's Critical Role?

Beginning in early 2015, Critical Role is a live-streamed game of Dungeons and Dragons helmed by several popular voice actors such as Matthew Mercer (Jotaro Kujo, Leon Kennedy, Maximus from Leo the Lion), Travis Willingham (Thor, Roy Mustang, this store owner in Nip/Tuck) and Laura Bailey (Rise from Persona 4, the Female Boss in Saints Row 3/4, Kaine in Nier). If you were an anime fan watching dubs from the mid 2000s to the mid 2010s or you just played a video game, I guarantee you heard at least one of these actors in something. It's a veritable who's-who of big name voice actors.

While recording for Resident Evil 6, Mercer decided to give a birthday present to Liam O'Brien, specifically a one-shot D&D game. This was run in the... controversial... 4th edition version of the game, and presumably after Mercer took a visit to his local exorcist, realized the error of his ways. When O'Brien expressed interest in continuing the game, Mercer agreed and they shifted to Pathfinder. The crew share some stories as they go, with it becoming a frequent thing that gets brought up during convention panels as a fun aside. Back before Vine died it was very common to see the actors making Vines of tabletop moments, and some of the original campaign was preserved through Youtube. The team go by the name Vox Machina- latin for Voice Machine, but initially they operated under the name Super High Intensity Team, or... The SHITS.

I will actually be shocked if they refernece that old name in the cartoon. The party for Campaign 1 consisted of:

• Matt Mercer as DM.

• Marisha Ray as Keyleth, Half-Elf Dru

So I had the opportunity to discuss the Duluth model with someone. Here are some claims they made and the rebuttals I came up with.

Short explanation if you don't know about the Duluth model: It's a gendered model for domestic violence that is rooted in feminist patriarchy theory. I.e., it assumes that domestic abuse is rooted in patriarchal control of women by men and views only women as victims and only men as perpetrator. See this picture for a visual explanation (Wheel of Power and Control):

Duluth model — Wheel of Power and Control

Claim 1.

The Duluth model is only based on the scenario of female to male domestic violence, so naturally it doesn't apply to male to female domestic violence victims, just like it doesn't apply to male-to-male or female-to-female domestic violence.

• Rebuttal 1.1. This model is taught to law enforcement and motivates the creation of batterer programs for male perpetrators and domestic violence shelters for female victims only. Since it is the only model taught, it leaves law enforcement with a gendered framework in mind which they then operate with.
• Rebuttal 1.2. You cannot apply two models simultaneously. In practice, you have to decide which model to use. Deciding which model to apply in a given situation would itself require another model, and the aggregate of all these models would form a unifying model, making it a different model altogether.
• Rebuttal 1.3. As stated by the one who made this claim, the Duluth model was created with only female victims and male perpetrators in mind. But this is precisely the problem. Research suggests that motivations for domestic violence do effectively not differ between the sexes. The Duluth model is a result of patriarchy theory, exemplifying the harmful effects of feminist theories. Only compassion for female victims is part of the old gendered mindset that casts women as victims and men as perpetrators, and sees women as more worthy of protection. Imagine there was a domestic violence model that only considered white victims of black perpetrators of domestic violence. The solution is to stop using the Duluth model and use a gender-neutral alternative that explicitly stresses that both men and women can be perpetrators (as only implicitly being gender neutral is not enough because the old gendered mindset makes us cast men and

This is just going to be a huge rant/story, and I just joined this sub today after my "Christmas Gift" from my mom and an angry exchange of text messages. Sorry about the wall of text, I'm sure a lot of you may have similar stories.

Flash back 30 years ago to 1992. I was living in a suburb of Salt Lake City. My faith had been wavering since I was about 9 years old, but that's content for another post. I'd always been pretty inquisitive and read a lot in science, nature, and books and whatnot. My parents, for members of the LDS church, were pretty liberal, but still attended church every Sunday (they'd go to Wendover to gamble a bit, and R-rated movies weren't verboten in our household, and *gasp* are card carrying members of the Democratic Party). I had been rebelling a little, typical teenage stuff. I did run with a rougher crowd than most. They were more fun than the really religious kids, but I still maintained my religion, went to church on Sundays, and made sure to get good grades. I was in 9th grade, taking seminary at my junior high, we were reading the Old Testament start to finish. As I'm reading the bible, it just seems to be making less and less sense with the whole omnipotent/omnipresent/benevolent God thing we'd been hammered with our whole lives.

This created a major crisis of faith. I started reading more in the scriptures, I was praying a lot, but never getting any answers. I guess the holy ghost didn't like me enough to talk to me. I went to the temple and did BFtD and it just seemed weird and creepy. I was desperately wanting to believe. So I went to my bishop and got the recommend to have a Patriarchal Blessing. This was ultimately my last ditch effort. I wanted the revelation that came with it. It said I was leader in the war against Satan on the right hand of god, in fact I was general and then a bunch of other stuff. My parents were moved and filled with pride, but I felt nothing, emptiness. It felt contrived, fake, hollow, and frankly like a religious version of a newspaper horoscope. It made me sad because I couldn't accept it, it wasn't real and it still doesn't feel real. Nothing short of God or an Angel talking directly to me face to face would have changed my mind at that point. I left the church and never looked back. But my parents...ooh...they're still convinced I'm coming back into the fold.

So, it's Christmas time (Merry Christmas everyone). I'm a pretty solid atheist now. To me, anything supernatural can make a fun

Do your worst!

They were cooked in Greece.

For context I'm a Refuse Driver (Garbage man) & today I was on food waste. After I'd tipped I was checking the wagon for any defects when I spotted a lone pea balanced on the lifts.

I said "hey look, an escaPEA"

No one near me but it didn't half make me laugh for a good hour or so!

Edit: I can't believe how much this has blown up. Thank you everyone I've had a blast reading through the replies 😂

It really does, I swear!

I'm surprised it hasn't decade.