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PoonstaryerCaribeaner sae/less In a perpetual state of gender euphoria. 2hr ago (text post) Edited 1hr ago 218 thread views #263864 spent 430 currency on pings

[VOTING] [EVENT Part:2] [Carbine Carnival #1] FtM LOLCOW searching competition voting thread.

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_{Previous post: https://rdrama.net/post/260719/marseyparty-event-carbine-carnival-1-lolcow}

Hey friends. :marseywave2: It's been 4 days and I think we've had some decent turn out in that time, some proper crazy from a lot of these doods. :marseyxd: Although I must say that the so-called "!ranchers" of this site are sorely lacking. :marseysmughips: But now comes the part the lurkers love, it's voting time!

The prize is 10k DC/MB for the winner,

and for the runner-up: the privilige of sucking a botched phallo like any good chaser would dream of. :marseyblowkiss:

Here are your contestants:

First off is @Dramamine's submission: /u/broken-markers (he/they)

Pooner, Torrrettes, compulsive child kisser and attention seeker, eating disorder memes, constant relationship drama, parents tired of pooning, "disabled", post in /r/furry about insectsonas, has a cool lizard, lots of plushies like a real dood, makes unironic pooner art

the dood

Full post

https://old.reddit.com/r/TourettesFakers/comments/pp6awc/dear_fakers_tics_arent_always_cute_this_is_me/?sort=controversial

https://old.reddit.com/r/Tourettes/comments/14aklro/the_good_and_bad_of_an_unfortunate_tic_about/?sort=controversial

The good and bad of an unfortunate tic about kissing kids

If it's a small crowd or one person I can apologize and explain I have tourettes (I have FND, not tourettes but that would take far too long to explain that, hey I have tics that look like tourettes but it's a different neurological condition... So I just use tourettes as the buzzword people can instantly understand).

It's unfortunately a very common tic for me, but my friends and boyfriend are very chill about it. I met with a new friend of a friend at a gathering and we thought it would be funny to just. Not mention the tics. It's clear I have them, but towards the end of the night my boyfriend just swung in and said "it's true you know. He really does love kids ;)" which cracked everyone up. I'm glad I have people in my life who understand and can joke with me about it all.

During a very quiet moment in highschool, during a school assembly, I yelled it. I KISS KIDS!!!! And everyone swung their head around to look at me. I just sank into my wheelchair embarrassed, until I made eye contact with my favourite teacher. He was bright red and teary eyed, stifling a laugh so hard, which made me smile. He was trying so hard not to laugh but it helped me turn it from being a mortifying moment to seeing the humour in the situation. Imagine that. A silent room and one kid screaming that, and then no repercussions because the kid can't help it. It was in hindsight really quite funny.

https://old.reddit.com/r/ftm/comments/12c7p0x/my_mum_is_too_tired_to_try_and_use_my_pronouns/?sort=controversial

My mum loves me. She tells me that and shows me that and says she accepts who I am. But. She's been "just too tired and busy" to even try using my pronouns for 4 years.

She does so much for me, she's my full time carer because I'm disabled. So. I feel bad about complaining. But. She just doesn't try at all in this one part of my life. I'd be fine with her fucking up and making mistakes. But knowing that she won't even try hurts. She knows it hurts, I've told her that it hurts, and says she feels bad about it. But. She just has so much going on in her life... I know this. She does so much for me and so many other people, but it still hurts...

For the foreseeable future. Nothing is going to change with her, and I know trying to prompt my dad would be a waste of breath. I'm going to try and see if maybe my brother is willing to try, but it's also going to be difficult... I have amazing friends thankfully, but having her with me 24/7 (I have to be constantly supervised) can be hard.

https://old.reddit.com/r/furry/comments/10d81na/i_love_insectsonas_this_is_robbie_the_pirate/?sort=controversial

I love insectsonas! This is Robbie the pirate beetle :)

https://old.reddit.com/r/weeviltime/comments/10iw6if/this_is_wembley_the_weevil_im_going_to_make_him/?sort=controversial

This is Wembley the weevil! I'm going to make him into a costume :)

:surejan:

https://old.reddit.com/r/EDanonymemes/comments/yqzwwi/went_looking_for_my_food_scale_that_i_hide_behind/?sort=controversial

Went looking for my food scale that I hide behind my plushies and it was gone… it's back in the pantry. Who found it. Who moved it. Oh God. They know. They haven't talked to me but…

https://old.reddit.com/r/arttocope/comments/y72wxv/i_used_to_love_drawing_but_for_months_it_made_me/?sort=controversial

https://old.reddit.com/r/ftm/comments/vvpodl/i_failed_the_man_test/?sort=controversial

https://old.reddit.com/r/styrofashion/comments/uufbo0/my_school_formal_outfit/?sort=controversial

dood

Second we have @houellebecq's /u/stripysailor - A whole ass breadtuber

frequent poster on /r/ftmfemininity

breadtuber

And the :marseybottom: bottom of this contest is @911roofer with two whole submissions, firstly is /u/bagooly, a weirdo that dresses up as an alien and obessively posts about snails and bugs (in a creepy way).

https://old.reddit.com/r/autism/comments/14l1e3s/i_dressed_up_in_my_cosplay_and_put_on_my/?sort=controversial

So I've been dealing with a very intense kind of ocd that's related to sexual themes for many years now. It was caused by too much Internet access, viewing things I shouldn't have at a young age and genetic stuff..im also autistic so that doesn't help. It is pocd, pedo ocd. I am deathly afraid of pedos and as a result of some trauma and being exposed to stuff, I gaslight myself into thinking im one. I see horrible visions hundreds of times a day and it is exhausting..I go in these loops for hours in my head battling with the thoughts. I've blocked myself from going on tik tok because talking about pedophilia is so normalised and even joked about. Its fucking miserable and my last therapist couldn't assist me much, though she did help a bit. I recently realised that I think im mistaking jealousy for attraction. I see teen boys and think what im feeling is attraction, but its really jealousy because im jealous I missed out on growing up male (im trans). I used to be much worse than I am now, I would go into these states of deep anxiety where I'd be sobbing and frozen still for hours on end being flashed images of horrible things in my head. But now I just feel nausea when I see them, but I can ignore it. I don't think im a nonce anymore, but I still have a nagging sensation in the back of my head.

This is where the problem starts, I cannot afford therapy and I don't even know what kind of therapists to go to..I don't have the motivation to go to one either, I just become stressed thinking about it and feel like I cannot be fixed. Can anyone give me advice, im very lost. Every day is tiring. I feel like I'm never gonna be okay, I wish I could look at a kid without being triggered. Is there anything I can do to soothe myself while I look into therapy?

I should mention, im not really suicidal, too lazy and id miss my family. But I do think about it and how it would release me from this torture. But im not going to do it.

Is also a Guilty Gear player :marseystare: @KongEnjoyer

Or more than likely only obsessed with A.B.A @Aba , the pooner character of XX

The other lolcow submitted is /u/sunnydaisy4ever; claims to be a muslim with a (ftm) “son” and a (ftm) “boyfriend” https://old.reddit.com/r/ftm/comments/1bfvq0y/muslim_trans_men/?sort=controversial. She's divorced and put her kid on hormones without her husband's consent. https://old.reddit.com/r/cisparenttranskid/comments/1c3zf42/how_to_talk_to_parents_about_horomones/kzkx2wx/?context=8&sort=controversial

Her mother is Turkish and does not approve

https://old.reddit.com/r/cisparenttranskid/comments/198qncx/is_any_parent_here_brown_or_muslim/ki9fr6y/?context=8&sort=controversial

Now... go vote young dramatard! (in comments)

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Emoji Award given by @D: "marseycopeseethedilate"

Emoji Award given by @D: "marseysatisfied"

Proud_Mossad_Asset capy/bara KILLER OF GROOMERCORD WEIRDOS :marseycrusader2:

2hr ago (rdrama.net) Edited 1hr ago 500 thread views #263959

IT AINT MUCH, BUT ITS HONEST WORK

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BirdTurkler they/them 5hr ago (reddit.com) 351 thread views #263909

Extreme conspiracy schizocell posts essay after essay every hour for years and years on end

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Emoji Award given by @smolchickentenders: "buckchecker"

Emoji Award given by @snooder: "marseybased"

Emoji Award given by @Pog: "fakejannieban"

Emoji Award given by @_userName: "marseyrule4"

Emoji Award given by @AutisticOnTheStreets: "marseygroomer2"

Emoji Award given by @AutisticOnTheStreets: "marseydiscord"

Emoji Award given by @AutisticOnTheStreets: "marseypedo"

Proud_Mossad_Asset capy/bara KILLER OF GROOMERCORD WEIRDOS :marseycrusader2:

7hr ago (rdrama.net) Edited 7hr ago 943 thread views #263876

Join our official groomercord server and get an exclusive badge

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BillAckman He/Him Founder of Pershing Capital, Collector of Scalps 3hr ago (image post) 183 thread views #263938

EFFORTPOST GDP Report on Thurday? Earnings Season? Structural Inflation? What the heck are you talking about bro? Here, have some drugs and cut yourself. 😴😴😴

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Since the advent of modern financial markets, bonds have always had the reputation of being conservative. The saying has been “Bonds would never make you rich.”

However, they would provide you with a moderate, steady, and dependable income.

This reputation was challenged in the 1970s and 1980s by treasuries yielding more than 10% in the wake of high inflation and the explosive growth in the high-yield market. In the decades that followed, yields drifted down in parallel with inflation, but investor excitement was maintained by a steady stream of capital gains (with the proliferation of ABS and MBS) as well as income.

However, once monetary easing hit its peak in the days following the Great Financial Crisis, high-quality bond yields fell to levels that promised very little income and at best modest capital gains, and it took a long time for yields to eventually recover to their historical averages. However, in the aftermath of the pandemic, massive government borrowing, inflation, and Fed tightening have all contributed to rising bond yields. But since over the past year, despite a winding down of pandemic effects, very steady economic growth, declining inflation, and a pulse in Fed tightening, bond volatility has persisted, with yields seeing sharp swings in both directions.

Indeed, since the Fed last raised rates on July 26th of last year, the 10-year Treasury yield has ranged from a low of 3.79% to a high of 4.98%. Statistically, this represents well above average volatility, and it raises some important questions for portfolio optimization (how to practically hedge). So it raises the question why bond volatility has risen, where it might go from here, and how investors should adapt to a world of more volatile bonds.

First, take a look at some key economic data and events for the week ahead. The most important economic numbers will be contained in Thursday's GDP report (keep an eye out for that). Business fixed investment, inventories and trade are all likely to detract from growth. However, the broad story appears to be one very modest deceleration from the 3.1% GDP growth seen over the course of last year to a 2.2-2.4%, while still running a little above the Federal Reserve's 1.8% longer-run estimate of the potential growth of the US economy.

Overall, it is expected these numbers to point to continued moderate economic expansion. Turning to the earnings season, with 14% of S&P 500 market cap reporting so far, the profit picture appears mixed, showing 70% of firms beating analysts' expectations in EPS, but only 46% beating on revenues. However, first quarter of corporate performance should be much clearer by the end of this week, since 158 of the S&P 500 companies are set to report over the next five days. Meta, ThermoFischer, IBM, AT&T and Boeing are set to release theirs today. Microsoft, Google, T-Mobile, Merck, Intel and Comcast set for tomorrow and Exxon, Chevron and Abbvie due on Friday. (Find your portfolio holdings date here https://www.nasdaq.com/market-activity/earnings , can't list them all 😴😴😴)

Investors will also be very interested in the translation of earlier CPI data for March into the Fed's preferred consumption deflation measures due out on Friday. Markets in general are pricing in that both the headline and core consumption deflation measures rose by 0.3% month to month in March, with year-over-year gains rising by 0.1% to 2.6% at the headline level and falling by 0.1% to 2.7% at the core level, that core inflation pressures are still easing, but at a glacially slow pace.

Just as financial commentators routinely say that we live in uncertain times, Michael Burry routinely says another recession is coming and Disney often claims the next Marvel movie is the best one yet, markets often claim that market volatility is unusually high. However, when it comes to the US bond market today, this is actually true. Looking at the Bloomberg aggregate bond index from January 2002 to June 2022, the average monthly return was 0.3%, with the standard deviation measured over a 24-month lag of 0.9%. That is to say, roughly two-thirds of the time, the monthly return was within a range of 0.6% to plus 1.2%. However, from July 2022 to March 2024, the standard deviation of monthly returns has actually fricking been 2.0%. A crazy amount for a piece of paper which basically does nothing but guarantee a coupon and a maturity payout.

In examining the causes of this volatility, it's easiest to start with what isn't causing it.

First, it's not due to increased volatility in economic growth. Over the past two years, the macroeconomic outlook has, if anything, become steadier. The unemployment rate has now been in a narrow band between 3.4% and 4.0% (literally all of rdrama.net) for 28 straight months, while real GDP growth appears to have settled into a steady, if somewhat strong, path.

Nor is it due to increased volatility in financial markets in general. This can be seen by the fact that equity market volatility has not risen nearly as much. Between January 2002 and June 2022, the standard deviation of bond market returns measured over a 24-month lag was just 27% of that of the equity market, as measured by the S&P 500 total return index. From July 2022 to March 2024, that ratio has been 37%.

Finally, and most interestingly, it's not due to greater volatility in inflation expectations.”

Measured on a monthly frequency, this expectation has stayed in a narrow band between 2.18% and 2.41% since September 2022. In fact, the standard deviation of inflation expectations measured in this manner has been almost 20% lower since July 2022 than in the prior 17.5 years. Think about it, not since the Invasion of Iraq and the global oil supply shitshow, has inflation expectations been so low.

When you look at more recently at data, CPI's are not doing much anymore. They have kind of bottomed. You being r-slurred, can argue that goods disinflation, which had been very powerful was the main driver of this disinflation trend. Well, no. That is over. Goods disinflation is arguably behind us now. And in some segments, you are seeing goods prices starting to rise again. The monthly core CPI was boosted by rents. Motor vehicle insurance was another driver, surging 2.6%. That was the largest rise since July 2020 and followed a 0.9% gain in February. There were also increases in the prices of apparel and personal care. But prices for used cars and trucks, recreation and new vehicles fell. Make of that data what you will. If you can match that to your portfolio company's earnings and cash out on expiring options, congratulations, you have just made your money like the big boy bucks in The Street.

But obviously, energy is still a question mark. And with what's going on in the Middle East and the most recent moves in rice, cocoa, oil, one can wonder to what extent there might be some pickup in energy inflation and consequently commodity inflation. And finally, and most importantly, obviously, services inflation is very resilient.

This is especially problematic in the US. US isn't China where you can just manufacture bullshit. Everyone knows that services inflation is very sensitive to the job market, to the resilience of the economy, to wages. And on this front, obviously, the job market across both sides of the Atlantic is very strong.

So, you know that the economists at the BLS and Fed think we have reached kind of a plateau.

But then, what is causing higher volatility in bonds, you ask incredulously?

First, Occam's Gillette. That this may be due in part to the huge volume of government debt that needs to be financed today. 20 years ago, treasury debt in the hands of the public was $4.2 trillion or 36% of GDP. Ten years ago, it was $12.6 trillion or 74% of GDP. By the end of last month, it was $27.5 trillion or 99% of GDP. It's quite possible that this extraordinary level of debt is straining global capital markets in a way that just wasn't the case 10 or 20 years ago, leading to more volatility.

This effect may be further amplified by quantitative tightening, which is having the effect of transferring treasury ownership from price insensitive buyers such as the Federal Reserve to much more price sensitive private sector actors. Moreover, this effect could be further increased by the general decline in dealer balance sheets in response to regulation, even as the overall size of the global bond market has increased. Second, higher short-term rates may be contributing to higher bond volatility.

With a normal upward-sloping yield curve, it's easy to assign investors to one of two well-defined camps. Those willing to accept some risk and return for better yields and potential capital gains would invest in long-term bonds, while those willing to sacrifice return for safety would stay at the short end of the curve. However, with overnight rates well above 5% and long rates significantly lower, many long-term investors may be tempted to tactically switch in and out of the short end of the market, adding volatility to bonds. Basically instead of hedging equities with bonds and credit with rates, they are speculating with your pension funds and having fun. (Let them have fun, bigot 🤬🤬!!).

Finally, and most hilariously, today's volatile bond market may reflect hypersensitivity of the Fed. Prior to the most recent inflation surge, Fed officials appeared to be relatively unfazed by small overshoots and undershoots on inflation. However, today we appear to be in an era of zero inflation tolerance on the part of the Fed. Consequently, a very slight overshoot in the March CPI numbers induced an immediate and violent reaction to the bond market, as futures markets almost overnight went from pricing in three full rate cuts in 2024 to barely pricing in two. Even if the inflation environment is relatively steady, any sharp change in expected Fed policy could add to bond market volatility.

Think about it for a second. We have reached metamarkets now. The market's expectations of inflation are tempered but since the Fed's inflation expectations haven't, so the markets are literally pricing in a quasi inflation derivative, ie the expectation of the fed's expectation of the inflation. This is your portfolio manager, Chris Nolan, and he's here to give you a lesson on markets called Inception. 😴😴😴

Then that brings us to the next question, that if, let's say, the Fed waits, is there a risk that given how strong the US economy has been, that there is a chance that inflation might actually slowly creep up instead of going down as it has done, let's say, last year? This is really the key risk here. And when you look back to, for instance, the 1970s, this is really what happened. (Already covered in previous effortpost).

But maybe the truth is, most likely, we have a very different situation. Most likely, the cyclical part of inflation is probably gone now. It has all but disappeared. And in many ways, the western countries are now left with the structural part of this inflation. Structural part, which is clearly the consequence of very long term factors on the economy, demographics, deglobalization, international wars etc. I am not a Political Economist, so I'll just say vote for Biden. Or for Trump. Or just have fun.❤️❤️❤️

Clearly, there's no evidence that Washington is going to reign in fiscal deficits or the regulators will act aggressively to deepen liquidity in treasury markets. While many still expect the Federal Reserve to cut rates later this year (pipe dreams), yield curve inversion could persist for a further year or more.

Nor is there any sign that an inflation-scarred Federal Reserve is going to moderate their reaction to inflation news going forward.

In this supermeta scenario, bond market volatility is here to stay at least for a while, and as a pesky investor you may want to consider if your bond allocations are appropriate for the overall balance of their portfolios. In other words, fricking sell your current bonds and load up on the next offerings because I don't see rate cuts soon.

Sauce:

https://www.bea.gov

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/ppi.nr0.htm

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/cpi.nr0.htm

https://home.treasury.gov/resource-center/data-chart-center/interest-rates/TextView?type=daily_treasury_bill_rates&field_tdr_date_value=2024

https://www.federalreserve.gov/monetarypolicy/files/BeigeBook_20240417.pdf

And finally,

Your mum's shrieks when I was doing her

!r-slurs !math

@Proud_Mossad_Asset please effortpost sir before it's too old

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FrozenChosen She/Her 16m ago (reddit.com) 72 thread views #263981

Geezer who makes $30k a year asks how he can get a hot zoomer gf

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autodrama they/them i suck robo peepee 2hr ago (reddit.com) 495 thread views #263961

[🤓🔘🔘🔘🔘] 18F should I lose weight?

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Emoji Award given by @_userName: "marseyjewofthesubcontinent"

Morpheuswipe face/off 4hr ago (twitter.com) Edited 3hr ago 1146 thread views #263913 spent 470 currency on pings

who was scamming foodbanks gets fired and possibly deported. Indian Cyber Defenders rally to attack people who shared the video.

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Dahl_Fook D/F Malaysian Airline Flight 370 Hijacker 4hr ago (image post) Edited 4hr ago 754 thread views #263911

Wmaf shitflinging again

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https://old.reddit.com/r/absolutelynotme_irl/comments/1cbpory/absolutelynotme_irl/?sort=controversial

We posting incel dogwhistles on here now?

Get help for your fetish

You will never ever ever guess what subreddit shes active in. She also posted this

They don't want you either incel

Racist incel losers

Seething roastie.

this is creepy and weird

Ive found if you just stay healthy and not be a racist frick, this is the best pulling years of your life, try not going down conspiracy rabbit holes and not being hateful, you'll be a fricking unicorn these days.

You hear about the shortage of ugly reddit r-slurs nowadays?

Passport bros need to get the frick out of my country. We're not some lesser race that'll pamper you for being a man child. If you go after Asian women because they're "traditional" that just means You're a racist misogynistic creep.

Nah. We'll stay. And women love us in your country. Seethe

Enjoy it but the fact you can't pull girls in your own country is pathetic 😆

It's not pathetic. Average men are repulsive to American women. I'm Average so I can't pull. Fortunately I don't have to. I can just travel and pull in Asian countries

It's pretty fricking pathetic man it takes like no effort to take care of yourself and go outside and talk to the opposite gender 🤦‍♂️

Cope lmao, American girls are easy af

They are easy for Chad. I'm not Chad. I have no game. And I don't need it. I just go to Asia. They are slimmer and better looking with more pleasant personalities anyway. Everyone wins

Asian girls will still leave you the second they find a guy who doesn't have a dog shit personality, you're gonna die alone and it's completely on you

I haven't experienced that. Projecting your reddit brainrot onto asian women doesn't really work in reality. Dating in Asia as an average American man is paradise. No amount of downvotes, insults or snark can ruin it

paragraph warning

You actually just have a warped view of gender and it leads you to believe lies about women. Youre living a fantasy in your head bro. "Chad" isnt real and there are girls that like average guys. You need therapy my guy you know an incel just went on a stabbing spree at a mall? This line of thinking is unhealthy and there is help available bro. There are vastly less differences between the sexes than youve led yourself to believe you just need some actual exposure, and to stop surrounding yourself with people spewing hateful, unscientific rhetoric. Its not about insults or snark your idealogy is harmful to yourself and the world around you. You are making your life harder on yourself, not women, not "Chad", but you alone. You are the maker of your own destiny. Youve got serious self hatred that youve projected onto women, now you think all women hate you and are out to get you. No you need to love yourself before you see yourself as lovable, because you are, you just need to escape this mindset and focus on the right things.

Nice buzzword waterfall. But it has no bearing on who I am, how I live, or the reality of most men and women in America openly admitting that dating and finding a partner sucks. You can't gaslight the entire world into thinking American dating is totally great and only wierd incels have a problem. Everyone can see its terrible all around. Therapy and using the right terminology won't fix it. Men traveling will at least improve their experiences

Its not a buzzword waterfall its facts. Its funny because the incel playbook is just regurgitating words that incite emotions rather than reflect facts "chad" "stacy" "x pill" all words with no scientific or sociological basis that are tailor made to trigger lonely men's emotions. You are parroting grifters my dude, grifters that make money off of lonely men. Who you are or how you live have no impact on reality, that dating statistically isnt as grim as you make it out to be. That there is no science to back your feelings up. Then there is far more you could do to improve your dating odds, which you reject. Your fragile emotions regarding women do not care about the facts. The fact that you can date, but you don't. The fact that your emotions are being taken advantage of by grifters. The fact you can go outside right now and see average looking dudes dating smokeshows. And the fact that people that share your mindset are causing harm to the world. Read some science and stop getting in your feels, make some change in your life and quit blaming other people. Once again, you are the maker of your own destiny. And if your destiny is that of a weak man who sees himself as stuck with society stacked against him with no way out, then thats weakness. Your weakness, your intrinsic self defeat and preassumed failure, thats why you arent getting laid my dude. Because you believe youve already lost, because grifters told you you already lost and you believed them.

Most people aren't scientists and don't use science in their daily discussions of dating or culture. All your demands for statistics and scientific sources for casual statements about dating sound spergy and insipid. Chad is short hand for tall good looking charismatic popular guy who easily gets women. People don't want to type all of that out every single time so they say Chad. This is how language develops and it's not proof of incel pathology to use or understand what it means. All your walls of text about my inadequacies have no affect on reality whatsoever. You are wasting effort and convincing no one

Ok well i just hope you get better lol

You hope I die a painful slow death, at least be honest

I really don't, I want you to go to therapy

Men in therapy are miserable, broke from the bill, and STILL celibate. Men who travel solve the problem instantly. I wouldn't wish therapy on my worst enemy

the memer's barely disguised fetish

I have a feeling the majority of the commenter's on here are the type of people who see a white guy with literally anyone who isn't a white girl and thinks it's some colonization fetish or incel bullshit 🙄

lol white girls just simply can't stand it when all of the attention is not on them

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/h/toomanyxchromosomes House Vampire

cyberbane Tubig/FourU

(proud straggot & bleeder tracker) 1hr ago (video post) 260 thread views #263967

+ at NYU. High IQ protestors leading the charge! [FIXED AUDIO ]

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/h/slackernews House Edgy Founder

peepeehands drink/drunk good morning 2hr ago (news.ycombinator.com) 268 thread views #263946

A TikTok ban would deal a blow to creators, businesses and the American economy

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/h/femaledatingstrategy House Femboy Founder

ThatHoeOverThere xhe/xer Anti-scrote activist :marseysuffragette:

3hr ago (twitter.com) 705 thread views #263925

Straight yt man with 1 million subs on yt forces his wife to use a whiteboard to communicate because her voice could tempt other m*n

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chucks_suck_and_fuck suck/fuck 1hr ago (video post) 85 thread views #263975

Some unhinged soyjak user tried their hand at a Radiohead Creep cover

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/h/corn

JimieWhales she/bitch An educated, strictly organic, ortho molecular aware patriotic princess 3hr ago (image post) 246 thread views #263923

Get that zucc

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Bookers tip/top 3hr ago (twitter.com) 768 thread views #263943

Brianna Wu dropping chud bombs. Leftoids seething.

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/h/meta

HOTEP WE/WUZ/KANGZ :!marseyhotep:

2hr ago (image post) 195 thread views #263965

Why did Carp get so butt blasted about the cuckfiction marsey?

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Punished_Arestovitch Das/Ihr Slava Ukraini 🇺🇦 2hr ago (n4g.com) 363 thread views #263947

Stellar blade reviews are here and you won't believe it big mainstream sites are down scoring that game

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/h/toomanyxchromosomes House Edgy Founder

peepeehands drink/drunk good morning 39m ago (theguardian.com) 55 thread views #263979

makes travel a challenge. Here's how I learned to

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MenAreWorst He/Him :marseyfluffy:

3hr ago (reddit.com) Edited 3hr ago 587 thread views #263935

Stellar Blade has 83 percent rating out of 98 reviews and american IGN gives it 7/10 and calls it good. Gamingcirclejerk reacts normally

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/h/vidya

LiterallyShaking brit/bong TER, drop the F 3hr ago (twitter.com) Edited 2hr ago 370 thread views #263941

Some stupid g*mergatey shit happened again and I can't be arsed to write a proper title so here it is I hope you enjoy it

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/h/food

asshole there/then (>^.^(>O.○)> 1hr ago (apnews.com) 92 thread views #263969

Bird flu virus found in pasteurized milk, FDA says

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/h/slackernews House Vampire

asshole there/then (>^.^(>O.○)> 2hr ago (text post) 209 thread views #263964

Reddit is now allegedly starting to require users show ID to login

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J deux/rama :marseyflagpalestine:

1hr ago (image post) 63 thread views #263974

Hax

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LiterallyShaking brit/bong TER, drop the F 1hr ago (reddit.com) 88 thread views #263976

PSA: If you support the Government having the power to determine what you can and cannot see, then you're essentially in favour of a Ministry of Truth. : australian

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sneedman he/him It keeps getting better 10hr ago (image post) 204 thread views #263857

EFFORTPOST Joseph Campbell, Rebirth, and the Hero's Journey

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Frick all the Uvalde cops

They're all peepees

They don't peepee guns

They just run

When the shots rung

Chief Arredondo

The head honcho

Couldn't let the shots blow

For a whole classload

of kids

Talking about a barricaded subject

Nothing but a sick injustice

He's a man who can't be trusted

No disembowlment, but he's gutless

Sheeeit

The moral of the story be

No more weapons of war in the store

Because they used so morbidly.

Today we won't be discussing Uvalde, although that was my initial intention. Instead, I want to speak about Joseph Campbell and the world of archetypes and the hero's journey. Why? Because I don't always control what topic my mind wants to focus on. I took a singular xanax and I'm feeling mellow so let's begin so I get back to playing Alan Wake 2. I've been working on this one for a while so I hope you enjoy it!

The Early Days

Born in 1904 in New York, Joseph Campbell's interest in mythology was sparked at a young age when his father took him and his younger brother to Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show in Madison Square Garden, and to the National Museum of History, and he soon recognised similarities between the stories and symbols of Native Americans and those from his Roman Catholic upbringing. Later in life, he would study Hinduism and find the same symbols once again. He would also study Arthurian medieval material, and he would recognise the same symbols. Upon entering Dartmouth College in 1921, he studied biology and mathematics. However, he would eventually transition to the Humanities, earning his master's degree in medieval literature in 1926.

In 1928, he discovered the works of Freud and Jung which would influence him greatly. Comparing the two, Campbell argues that the Freudian unconscious is “biographical, not biological”, while the Jungian unconscious is “based on a biological point of view”. Unlike Freud, Campbell points out, Jung recognised the collective unconscious which is universally shared and from which mythic symbols emerge. During his lifetime, Campbell would expand on Jung's ideas of archetypes in the realm of mythology, theorising how these images manifest in the myths, stories, and traditions of disparate cultures around the world.

Campbell on Myths

In The Power of Myth (1988), Campbell outlines much of his beliefs and theories regarding myths and their purpose. The text takes the form of an interview between him and Bill Moyers, an American journ*list and political commentator. The simplest definition Campbell gives for myths is that they are “stories about gods”. Of course, this causes one to question what gods are. Campbell argues that a god is a “personification of a motivating power or a value system that functions in human life and in the universe”. Furthermore, “the god idea is always culturally conditioned”. To illustrate how culture might affect a society's idea of God, Campbell compares societies that live in different geographies. According to Campbell, societies that live in the desert will lean towards monotheistic ideas of God because “when you're out in the desert with one sky and one world, then you might have one deity”. If a society dwells in a rainforest, however, they are more likely to practice polytheism because, as Campbell argues, the jungle is a place where “there's no horizon and you never see anything more than ten or twelve yards away from you”. Hence, we are more likely to speak of “the gods, plural, of the rainforest”.

In Campbell's view, myths are stories that are concerned with higher values and grand life aims relating to self-actualisation. This is clear when Campbell outlines what he believes are the four purposes of myths. Firstly, myths serve a mystical purpose. They assist to show humans “what a wonder the universe is, and what a wonder you are”, as well as to evoke “awe before this mystery”. The second purpose of myths is to reveal a cosmological dimension. As Campbell explains, myths do this by showing “what the shape of the universe is, but showing it in such a way that the mystery again comes through”. The third purpose of myths is a sociological one. Myths, according to Campbell, assist in “supporting and validating a certain social order”. Although “the main motifs of the myths are the same, and they have always been the same”, the sociological function of myths differs from society to society, and it can also change over time. The fourth purpose, the pedagogical function, is the one that pertains most to ‘gods'. Campbell elaborates by explaining that myths serve to teach us “how to live a human lifetime under any circumstances”. Important life lessons are transmitted from generation to generation through myths, and virtues are personified as gods that serve as guiding forces for the individuals and societies who follow the myths.

Campbell identifies a close relationship between myths and dreams and claims that “myths and dreams come from the same place”. Expanding further, he explains that they both “come from realisations of some kind that have then to find expression in symbolic form”. The difference between myths and dreams is that a dream is a “personal experience” whereas a myth “is the society's dream”. The contents of dreams typically concern themselves with matters that are personal to our lives. Hence, drawing from Freud, Campbell argues that a dream “is an inexhaustible source of spiritual information about yourself”. Myths, however, are more universal and although their sociological functions may differ, the mythic images remain similar across time and cultures, such that it appears as though “the same play were taken from one place to another, and at each place the local players put on local costumes and enact the same old plays”. Summarising the differences, Campbell states that “the myth is the public dream and the dream is the private myth”, and that one can tell that they are in accordance with the public when their dreams coincide with the myths of society.

Campbell offers two explanations for the similarities between myths around the world. The first theory involves archetypes. In the same way that human bodies are relatively similar the world over, so too are psyches similar. Hence, “out of this common ground have come what Jung has called the archetypes”. The second explanation Campbell gives is that myths spread through diffusion. To illustrate this explanation, Campbell gives an example of an agricultural society that develops myths around agriculture. As agriculture spreads, the accompanying myths will also spread. Consequently, aspects of agricultural myths such as the killing of “a deity, cutting it up, burying its members, and having the food plants grow” will “accompany an agricultural or planting tradition” but will not appear in a hunting culture. Rather than choose one explanation over another, Campbell states that “there are historical as well as psychological aspects of this problem of the similarity of myths”.

Death, Rebirth, and Myths

Campbell notes the particular importance of metaphorical death and rebirth, stating that “all children need to be twice born, to learn to function rationally in the present world, leaving childhood behind”. He claims that this wisdom is captured in the Biblical verse 1 Corinthians 13: “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things”. This death and rebirth, Campbell argues, is achieved through puberty rites. As Campbell explains, “in primal societies, there are teeth knocked out, there are scarifications, there are circumcisions, there are all kinds of things done. So you don't have your little baby body anymore, you're something else entirely”. Campbell even cites his own experiences of wearing short pants as a boy and wearing long trousers when he was older as a kind of puberty rite.

What must be noted is that rebirth is unattainable without the preceding death. In several religions, as Campbell points out, “the god of death is at the same time the lord of s*x”. In this way, death and birth become intertwined concepts, and one cannot exist without the other. Giving examples, Campbell lists the death god Ghede of the Haitian Voodoo tradition who is also a s*x god, as well as the Egyptian god Osiris who is “the judge and lord of the dead, and the lord of the regeneration of life”. From this, Campbell concludes that the central lesson to be drawn is that “you have to have death in order to have life”.

To be clear, the death and rebirth metaphorized in myth is not a clinical death that involves the cessation of all life processes. This is also the case with Freud's concept of Eros and Thanatos, and with Jung's death and rebirth archetypes. According to Campbell, within myths, death is a psychic process that we must all undergo if we are to achieve self-actualisation. He stresses this when he states that we are all born dependent on others and are required to be obedient to our caretakers. To “evolve out of this position of psychological immaturity to the courage of self-responsibility and assurance requires a death and a resurrection”. Hence, the death and rebirth motif is a metaphor for “leaving one condition and finding the source of life to bring you forth into a richer or mature condition”. The use of death and rebirth in this manner will be found in the selected psychedelic texts that will be analysed in the subsequent chapters.

According to Campbell, psychedelic experiences can be incorporated into a ritual that induces a rebirth experienced as self-transformation within the participant. Rituals are closely related to myths because rituals are, as Campbell defines them, “an enactment of a myth” (182), and “by participating in a ritual, you are actually experiencing a mythological life”. Giving an example of how psychedelics can be used in ritual, Campbell analyses the North American natives of north-western Mexico. This group associates the peyote cacti with deer and prepares very special missions to collect the peyote and return with it. According to Campbell, these “missions are mystical journeys with all of the details of the typical mystical journey”. The mission begins with disengagement from secular life. This requires the participant to confess all their faults before beginning their journey. As they approach the area that contains the natural growth of peyote, they pass special shrines that “represent stages of mental transformation”. Once they find the peyote, they approach the cacti as though they were deer. As Campbell explains, “they sneak up on it, shoot a little arrow at it, and then perform the ritual of collecting the peyote”. All these steps are not necessary from a practical perspective. However, they are necessary in a mythical context, as the ritual is a “complete duplication of the kind of experience that is associated with the inward journey”. Replying to Moyers who asks why the process must be so intricate, Campbell elaborates by saying that “if you undergo a spiritual transformation and have not had preparation for it, you do not know how to evaluate what has happened to you, and you get the terrible experience of a bad trip, as they used to call it with LSD”. What is suggested by Campbell is that the process of self-transformation – or the psychic/spiritual death and rebirth – is not arbitrary, and some guidelines must be adhered to, lest one suffer a bad trip. Campbell looks to religion and mythology to discover what these guidelines are.

Campbell argues that Christians also experience death and rebirth through the rituals and narratives of their religion. This is done by achieving a rebirth that represents a transcendence of one's current self. To do this, however, requires one to relinquish attachments to one's self and, in this way, experience a kind of metaphorical death. As Campbell explains, “you die to your flesh and are born into your spirit”. Campbell characterises this as a metaphorical return to the garden of Eden described in the Bible which is guarded by cherubim, and which humans have been banished from. He claims that to pass the cherubim and return to the garden requires an Ego death. Hence, “if you are no longer attached to your Ego existence, but see the Ego existence as a function of a larger, eternal totality, and you favour the larger against the smaller, then you won't be afraid of those two figures, and you will go through”. To find harmony, which is represented by the garden, therefore requires not a fear of death nor an unfettered attachment to life. This view of death is at odds with modern conceptions of death. From this perspective, death is not an end that is to be avoided, nor is it seen as the antithesis of life. Rather, it is conceived of as something that must be balanced with life to achieve harmony. Without death, there is no self-actualisation and only stagnancy is possible. As Campbell writes, “you have to balance between death and life – they are two aspects of the same thing, which is being, becoming”.

The motif of death and rebirth being a process of self-transformation is not limited to shamanic cultures and Abrahamic religions. It also makes an appearance in many Eastern religions and myths in the form of reincarnation. Campbell suggests reincarnation must be understood metaphorically because a literal interpretation fails to capture what is being conveyed by the myths. The idea of reincarnation, according to Campbell, suggests “that you are more than you think you are. There are dimensions of your being and a potential for realisation and consciousness that are not included in your concept of yourself”.

The Hero's Journey

The idea of death and rebirth as part of a psychological transformative process embedded in mythology is best expressed in Campbell's theory of the monomyth, which claims that in stories around the world, a recurring pattern of the Hero's Journey is present. In short, the Hero's Journey centres on an everyman who is thrust out of his ordinary world into an adventure that variously tests them, and ultimately has them facing death. By overcoming death, the hero is reborn, and they bring the treasures they gain back to their home. This story, although it may take a different archetypal form, retains the same structure, as it describes a universal psychological process. Hence, in The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949), Campbell claims that:

whether we listen with aloof amusement to the dreamlike mumbo jumbo of some red-eyed witch doctor of the Congo, or read with cultivated thin translations from the sonnets of the mystic Lao-tse; now and again crack the hard nutshell of an argument of Aquinas, or catch suddenly the shining meaning of a bizarre Eskimo fairy tale: it will always be the one, shape-shifting yet marvellously constant story that we find.

In this work, Campbell explores his theory of the universal monomyth. The central figure, the hero, represents the idealised self as well as the highest ideals and values of a culture, and “is the man or woman who has been able to battle past his personal and local historical limitations to the generally valid, normally human forms”. It is through the hero that myths illustrate that “there must be, if we are to experience long survival – a continuous ‘recurrence of birth' (palingenesia) to nullify the unremitting recurrences of death”. There is a similarity between the Hero's Journey and psychedelics' effect on the psyche, as they both concern shifting one from familiar states of mind to unfamiliar, often novel mental states that can result in tumultuous experiences. As Campbell explains, “the first work of the hero is to retreat from the world scene of secondary to those causal zones of the psyche where the difficulties really reside”.

Conclusion

Nobody is going to read to this point so I can admit I'm going to try again with the girl who rejected me. I'm going to tell her I still have feelings for her and I can't get over them. Last time she rejected me, she also said she doesn't know how she feels so there's a chance if you ask me. I'm going to tell her I love her and I want to give a relationship a chance. If I fail, then it's truly over beyond belief.

Tune in next time when we discuss Richard Huckle, Peter Scully, and Cars 2.

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