Hi everyone, I am a research librarian at Northeastern and I want to advertise three co-ops at the library which are still looking for the right candidates. All three are full-time fall co-ops (July to December) which have a different mix of communication skills and technology skills required.
ID 110579 - mostly communications, learn about geospatial data
This is a co-op position supporting geospatial research at NU, for which the most important qualifications are outstanding outreach and writing skills, as this co-op will play a pivotal role in coordinating future events, including GIS Day, and conducting outreach for our planned centralized GIS system. No prior experience with geospatial data is required, as there will be opportunities for training as part of the position.
I think the right folks for this position have been overlooking the ad because they assume they'd need data and GIS skills for it, but in fact you don't even need to know what GIS stands for. (It's "Geographic Information System" -- basically, digital mapping.) As an example project for the kind of work this program does, take a look at The Fugitive Barbados Mapping Project: that was done by a history student with no prior background in GIS, taught by my colleague. So please don't be scared off by the job title, and give it a look! You can also reach out to Bahare Sanaie-Movahed at [b.sanaiemovahed@northeastern.edu](mailto:b.sanaiemovahed@northeastern.edu) if you have any questions.
ID 110593 - mix of communications and digital research tools
Works at the intersection of the library’s Boston Research Center and University Archives and Special Collections to develop public histories and programming using data and archival research.
Projects may include support for the 115th anniversary of co-operative education at Northeastern, digital exhibit curation, physical exhibit curation, support for resource center and student group programming on campus, and social media campaigns. This co-op offers an opportunity to refine and improve their research and communication skills while learning how to use information organization platforms and digital scholarship tools. Work will also include day-to-day collections research, reference, and instruction support.
ID 110512 - for someone who can already code
The Digital Scholarship Group in the Northeastern University Library (https://dsg.northeastern.edu) invites applications for a coop position as DSG Lab Developer. This position will work closely with the DSG Data Engineer and other DSG staff on the development of an initial version of the DSG Data Lab. The Data Lab is planned as an online platform to showcase complex data generated by DSG’s projects and collaborations, through a variety of different visualizations. The DSG works with a wide range of faculty and staff on research and teaching projects focused on using digital tools and methods in humanities research, so these projects generate complex data that poses innovative challenges for visualization. This position will run from July through December, 2024.
Responsibilities and tasks will include developing the interface and user experience for the Lab, assisting with data transformation and data pipelines, and developing prototype visualizations based on DSG data sets. Our initial focus is on a data set based on archival records from the Massachusetts Historical Society, but time permitting we may also work with data from other DSG projects. Essential skills include:

• Front-end development skills and experience (Javascript, HTML, CSS, React)
• Experience with data analysis and visualization
• Experience with interface and user experience design
• Experience working with version control and collaborative development tools such as GitHub

To learn more about any of these jobs or to apply, please look them up in NUWorks with their job IDs! I can also try to answer questions here if you have any.

Right...there's work being done in my house right now to fix the basement ceiling, and since I don't think I'm getting much else done, I figured I'd share some thoughts on Napoleon.
I've noticed something of an anti-Napoleon bias in World War I scholarship - the argument tends to run something like, "the technology since the Napoleonic wars has advanced so far that studying him is living in the past and ignoring the realities of modern warfare." (EDIT: I should specify that much of this is coming from the "Lions led by donkeys" school.) Having now read several books on Napoleon and his campaigns to research the fiction book that I'll be writing in earnest once my basement ceiling is fixed, I'm inclined to disagree. Studying Napoleon is absolutely worthwhile when it comes to modern warfare, and here's why:

• He fought dozens of battles, and he won most of them. A number of these battles were ones he should not have been able to win. That's better than most ever accomplish, and it means that he was doing something very right. The technology may have advanced, but the nature of the tactical decisions (concentration of firepower, use of combined arms, etc.) are still much the same - and Napoleon had an ability to understand a battlefield in an instinctive way beyond the ability of most. Understanding why he made the decisions he made at the time that he made them in the battles he won can be very useful, particularly if you can figure out what he had picked up on before changing a tactical design.
  
• He was very good at streamlining his process. As F.N. Maude points out in his study of the Jena campaign, by removing inefficiencies in communications he made his army more responsive and agile than his opponents. The problem of inefficiency still dogs armies today - looking at how Napoleon cut the cruft out of his own military apparatus can help us figure out how to do the same in ours.
  
• He managed to inspire the loyalty of his men and get them to do the impossible. Napoleon's men were willing to, and did, follow him into hell. Even when they had reservations about his conduct and concerns that he was going off the rails with his policy, most of them still followed him. In 1813, 14, and 15 he took fresh conscripts, put them up against veteran armies, and got them to win more often than not. Figuring out what he was doing in regards to how he related to his men has a lot of lessons in how to inspire and maintain morale.
  
• His mistakes can teach us volumes. This was a man who brought the whole of Europe under his power, and then lost it. The Napoleon of 1812-1814 may the best example of winning battles but losing the war. Why he lost, and the lessons one can gain, is important.
  

So, as I've discovered, we have a lot to learn from Napoleon. If all you focus on is the muskets and the formations, you miss the forest for the trees.

In this blog, we delve into the complexities of military relocation, concentrating on DND personnel and studying strategies to simplify the procedure and ensure a successful transition.
Military relocation is crucial to military life, especially for those in the Department of National Defense (DND). It is either a new job assignment, a job transfer, or a deployment, which makes moving complicated and scary. Nevertheless, the transition can be smoother and less stressful for military members and their families if they carefully plan, coordinate, and use the support system they use.

Understanding Military Relocation

Moving military personnel and their households from one assignment station to another is considered military relocation. It is an essential component of military life and is inspired by operational needs, career advancement, and organizational requirements. For DND staff, relocation can be within the country or overseas, creating difficulties and opportunities.

Challenges Faced by DND Personnel

Moving as a Department of National Defense member is also a challenge that should be considered. These may include:
Frequent Moves: Military personnel usually have to deal with the problem of moving frequently during their time in the armed forces, which disrupts their personal and family lives.
Administrative Burden: The administrative tasks associated with relocation, such as accommodation arrangements, paperwork, and logistics, are overwhelming, especially when added to the already torturous circumstances of military service.
Family Adjustment: Moving can be challenging for households, including the partners and kids, as they must get used to the new conditions, the school, and the support they will receive.
Emotional Stress: The burden of relinquishing the home environment, friends, and support networks can affect the health status of military members and their families.

Streamlining the Relocation Process

Efforts to cut down the DND Relocation process for DND officers are necessary to lessen the problems and to make the transition easier. Key strategies include:
Comprehensive Support Services: Army members and their families can easily cope with relocation if they have guidance from comprehensive support services, such as programs to help people move, counseling services, and access to housing, education, and employment resources.
Advance Planning: Good teamwork and organization are the keys to a successful relocation. The military should give the troops plenty of advice regarding their imminent move so that they can be ready and solve any problems or logistics issues that may arise early on.
Tailored Solutions: Because DND personnel have different individual needs, the relocation processes should suit their specifics. This can be done by supporting people relocating internationally, deployed, or posted to the outposts.
Technology Integration: Merging technology with the relocation process can make many things go through the process with less hassle, from the electronic paperwork and the digital communication channels to the online resources for housing search and the information exchange.
Community Engagement: For military families going through relocation, forming a community and feeling attached to a group is essential. Promoting involvement with local support networks and those outside the military community and the civilian population can be the best way to create the connection, and the transition will be easier.
Financial Assistance: Scholarships for relocation will remove the financial complexities of the move for military members and their families. The organization can either cover for them or provide for them. For example, they may involve payment for the moving expenses, temporary accommodation charges, and help with the sale or rental of the home.
Education and Training: The education and instruction programs given to military members and their families to help them improve their skills and qualifications can increase their chances of getting a good job, especially in places without jobs.
Healthcare Support: The main goal of relocating the healthcare services is to maintain the continuity of the services in case of relocation. Explaining the process of getting healthcare facilities, moving medical records, and joining new healthcare programs is one of the ways to keep the health and well-being of military families.

The Role of the Department of National Defense

As the primary association is accountable for the nation's defense, the Department of National Defense plays a vital part in fostering the relocation of military personnel. It contains:
Policy Development: Formulating restrictive and extensive policies for military relocation, such as regulating eligibility, entitlements, and support services.
Resource Allocation: Resourcing relocation initiatives, such as allocating money to support programs, infrastructure improvement, and personnel training, is a great way to facilitate people's relocation.
Coordination and Collaboration: Working with other government agencies, military forces, and community groups to guarantee a unified approach to the relocation aid.
Advocacy and Representation: Promoting the voices and priorities of the DND personnel and their families at the top levels of government, including advocating for legislative reforms and the allocation of resources.
Final Words
Military Relocation is a part of military life, which means that they have to face the same difficulties and chances as people working for DND and also their families. Through the execution of the procedures to make the relocation process more accessible, such as the providing of services for help, the planning of the transition to the new place, the solutions that are suitable for the individual, the use of technology, and the involvement of the community, the Department of National Defense can make the relocation process for the military members and their families more effective. Thus, they can perform their duties at the new location.

Basically the title. My friend has been procrastinating on her art final essay and her final project for genuinely such a long time. We started this project in September 2022 and its due tomorrow, and she has hella gaps in her work because she procrastinates quite a bit. I understand the struggle of procrastination, honestly, I do it a lot myself, so I offered to help and she was happy.
I helped her out by pulling out the main features of each painting that she chose and suggesting some links to her theme/topic/arguement, whatever you want to call it. I wrote a couple paragraphs on one out of the 3 paintings that she needs to describe, but she didn't really like what I wrote since I'm not really well educated on her topic, and my statements were very general and vague in relation to her theme. I told her this before I started to work with her yet she still criticized my writing which I found strange since I'm helping her with what are essentially just suggestions. I also proofread the paragraphs that she's written so far and corrected her grammar in places where it needed correcting, as english isn't her first language. She can speak well but her writing has some minor mistakes. I also have my own art project and essay that I sent her as an example since I've completed it all, though I know that doesn't really count as work.
But the thing is, I have to work on the yearbook for my school, and I also don't have much time left. I'm really struggling to put this yearbook together as the people in my school aren't sending me the pictures that they have, and I'm working on it alone since nobody else wants the added pressure of working on a yearbook along with exams and deadlines (understandable).
She isn't happy that I'm not spending more time helping her as "It's the final and it's due tomorrow!", but she did the same thing with her second art project that we worked on from Feb 1 to May 2. I feel like she needs to learn how to deal with her deadlines herself and understand that there are consequences to not finishing her work on time and leaving it to the very last minute. I've been working on my essay since Oct 2023 since I had way more free time back then, as I didn't have any exams, and back then I suggested that she does the same. Now we have exams and she's really stressed, and I feel bad but really I have my own work to do and I did help her out a little. I'm also going to proofread her work right before she submits it since it's light and quick work, and basically the least I can do.
The only reason I'm asking here is because I can't tell if I should really be helping her more since this whole project and essay is what will amount to 60% of our grade and the other project that she didn't end up finishing was worth 40%, and she needs an A in art for a scholarship to her preferred uni. AITAH?

[2.2 Main story spoilers, please only read if you have finished the story]

I've read many posts in this subreddit objecting to Sunday's philosophy on the basis that Sunday's ideals deprive other inhabitants of Penacony of their free will. I think that this does not strike at the heart of why one should object to Sunday's principles. I happen to have some formal training on the subject, so I will try my best to explain why Sunday's beliefs are objectionable. It is important to not simply get the direction of our opinions correct, but also the reason for believing the way we do correct as well.
In this post, I will address Sunday's philosophy and steel-man his arguments (i.e. addressing his arguments for their strongest possible position). I think that many people have felt that there is something right about Sunday's arguments -- we can look at this post for example. Using concepts from real-world political science scholarship, we can find that Sunday's arguments are not morally wrong. I will proceed to provide actual criticisms of Sunday's arguments after addressing our intuitive feelings to agree with Sunday.
A key assumption I make here is that we agree with Sunday/Robin/MC that freedom is good, and we want to maximize freedom under any regime or philosophy we adopt. From this angle, both Sunday and Robin + MC are correct, albeit that Sunday makes a critical misstep in execution that undermines the legitimacy of his entire plan. I'll explain it in the following sections.

Decomposing Sunday's Philosophy: Two principles

Sunday's philosophy can be broken down into two main principles: (1) people should not have to suffer because of their bodily constitution/environment/wealth; and (2) people should have the freedom to use their free time however they like, to achieve their own goals. I'll refer to (1) as the "Firefly principle", and (2) as the "Weekend principle".
Intuitively, we may find that there is nothing wrong with these two principles I've mentioned. This is why we might feel like we should agree with Sunday's ideals. How do we justify our feelings using robust academic concepts?
We can look at this through the idea of "negative" and "positive" liberty by scholar Isiah Berlin. This is the idea that freedom can be defined in two forms: (1) freedom from interference by others (including the environment); and (2) freedom to do things by being empowered with the means to do a given thing.

Negative freedom and the Firefly principle

We'll start with negative freedom and how it is promoted by the "Firefly principle". Basically, Sunday's argument is that people will be more free if they are removed from constraints of health, social status and wealth. Intuition suggests that this is correct, and we are right to follow that intuition. No one should have suffer more than others because they're born into worse circumstances. The famous social justice philosopher John Rawls would say that this suffering due to circumstances not of our own making is arbitrary and unfair.
People affected by their circumstances enjoy less freedom than others because they need to work hardework longecope with more challenges in order to simply live. This extra strain, from factors they cannot control, can be considered interference on a given person. They are forced to suffer the reductions in resources (time, money, etc.) in order to deal with the interference. I call this the Firefly principle because Firefly is the example Sunday uses when talking about this. Firefly is forced to deal with Entropy Loss Syndrome inherent to her circumstances of birth against her will, and has stated that she'd lead a far different life if she weren't bound to her circumstances. The way these circumstances of health, social status and wealth affect a person, against their will, directly contradicts the idea of negative liberty and being free from interference.
On the other hand, Sunday's proposal of removing this factors is convincing because we can see that it really increases the negative freedom of all people. They can reclaim resources that would otherwise be lost to the effects of interference from their circumstances of (lacking) health, social status and wealth. Assuming that we all believe that a greater freedom is preferable to a more limited one, it is clear that Sunday's philosophy, or at least the Firefly principle, is desirable.
In sum, the injustice of this arbitrariness makes us feel that the constraints of health, social status and wealth are morally bad; it is why we feel repulsed by it and in turn attracted to Sunday's ideas.

Positive Freedom and the Weekend principle

We move on to the idea of positive freedom and how we get more of it by following the Weekend principle. The one line that is most striking to most players is Sunday's example of an eternal succession of weekends to replace the working week. This is actually an extreme example which has overshadowed the underlying political position that Sunday holds, which led him to say such a thing. Sunday just wants to give people more resources -- in terms of time -- so that they may be free to pursue their life goals/ambitions. In political science, we call this the "life plan": it refers to what people want to do with their lives, given the resources that they have.
The relationship between the Weekend principle and positive freedom is a simple one. Being given time empowers one (i.e. increases one's positive freedom) because one has access to more resources to accomplish more of what they want. Again, intuitively, we see this as a good thing. We want people to be able to better pursue their dreams, to do what they want to do. To do things requires resources, and Sunday's proposal frees up more resources for people to use on their life goals.

Sunday's problem -- Unilateralism

There is, in fact, nothing wrong with Sunday's philosophy insofar as we consider these two principles. It is the reason that March and Himeko mention that it is difficult to refute Sunday's philosophy in the scene right before the first time you fight Dominicus. If we appreciate freedom and believe it to be desirable for all, Sunday's proposal is morally consistent with our want and appreciation of widespread freedoms.
We set aside the question of whether something done in a dream is as real as something done in reality. It is my belief that the dream/reality thing muddles the scholarly debate regarding Sunday's philosophy, since it is conventionally difficult for one to believe that something done in a dream is more significant that something done in reality. That sort of discussion is probably better left to students of philosophy, who can better argue about the significance of dreams and reality, rather than students of political science. I will deal strictly with the political implications of Sunday's philosophy.
The main problem with Sunday's philosophy is unilateralism. People have been right to point out that Sunday "did not ask for consent". In scholarly terms, we call this despotic/undemocratic behavior. Sunday has not consulted with anyone; he has not engaged in public deliberation; he is using power to enforce the system of government he wants.
Lack of consent is a big issue of course, but a greater concern is dictatorship. Sunday claims that he will be the only person awake, or something along those lines, but it is really a fancy way of saying that he will be sole dictator to dreamland, albeit a utopian one. Ancient philosophers like Plato and Aristotle might actually agree with Sunday's ideas: they had a deep distrust of the follies of the masses, and would rather a capable hand steer the ship of state. This is likely the role Sunday envisions himself in. That is, Sunday sees himself as the enlightened person who will manage paradise in its inhabitants' stead.
The problem arises from the fact that there is no democratic consultation. Classic arguments against dictatorships will apply to Sunday: what happens if he makes an error in judgment? What if he is unable to adequately respond to peoples' needs, even with the power and networking of The Family and its members combined? These are very pragmatic issues that any ruling organization will face, which I imagine will be an even greater problem for Sunday's lonesome.
To tie this back to our objective of promoting freedom, we observe that under Sunday's arrangement, no-one is guaranteed their freedom under Sunday's dictatorship. One may consider themselves free when Sunday's management aligns with their own interests and objectives, but we cannot guarantee the continuity of this alignment into the future. Those who have their goals misaligned with Sunday's vision of utopia will find themselves necessarily unfree, and with no recourse to alter, replace or escape Sunday's government. The prospect of becoming this group of people who are not adequately represented by Sunday undermines Sunday's entire project of increasing the freedom of the weak.

Conclusion (or TL;DR I guess)

Not only does Sunday face significant problems in running Penacony as its sole manager, he also runs the risk of being unrepresentative due to his unilateralism. Inhabitants of Penacony cannot be assured that Sunday will remain a benevolent ruler.
We know that he would likely be one because we have glimpses into his mind through the omniscient viewpoint of the player. However, no-one else in the story can be sure that Sunday will remain a responsive governor of Penacony. Further, there are no accountability mechanisms to depose Sunday and replace him with another leader should he turn out to be tyrannical or incompetent down the road.
In the field of Political Science, this is the problem of centralizing governmental powers. Generally, we want a government that can respond to the needs of its people. Many systems of government will try to avoid putting too much power in a single person, such that there may be checks and balances that will provide some way for people to hold government accountable for their actions and competence. Being able to choose one's government and its policies is a very important freedom. Sunday's benevolent dictatorship fails this requirement.
So how do we fix this? I highlighted the Firefly principle and the Weekend principle because they cohere very closely to real life ideas of socialism. The idea that people should be free from their circumstances, and should be free to apply themselves to whatever life plans they wish to pursue are key tenets of socialism. The only difference is that under socialism, people will decide societal priorities and use of social resources together in democratic fashion. It's entirely fine when people decide, out of their own volition, that they should use resources in a certain way that enhances their freedom. It is, however, problematic when this decision is done unilaterally, such as in Sunday's philosophy.
Outside of his dictatorial tendencies, Sunday really promotes some classic socialist ideas that are intended to address the moral badness of society's failure in addressing social inequalities and peoples' needs for self-fulfillment. He just needs more time to think over his philosophy and execute on it in a manner that is more democratic.
As a final word and to provide some further reading for those that have become interested in political science analysis, I recommend reading "Why not socialism" by scholar G.A. Cohen for a political-philosophical justification of Sunday's philosophy. It's a pretty short read (~20 pages?) and will help us better understand our intuitive agreement with Sunday's philosophy.

I'm going to apply for bachelors courses in Computer Science with AI, ML or DS. I'm applying as a mature student and really really need this and scholarship as well. I am able to write an average statement but since now my whole future depends on this, it can't be a mediocre one.
I've read through a lot of templates and material available online that tells what it should have. I need some real examples of statements that got people admitted and awarded scholarships. If you could please share your personal statements that you've already used, I'd greatly appreciate it. Feel free to DM me.
If you work at a uni and can give some advice, I'd greatly apprecaite that too. Thanks.

i just finished my first year at USF and did not really like my time there. late into the 2024 spring semester, i decided to apply as a transfer student to UF with a general business major. however, i did not meet the prerequisite requirements for the fall semester and would only be eligible for the spring semester. (i didn’t take financial accounting- but i plan to take financial accounting in the summer and managerial in the fall).
one of my biggest goals out of college is to study abroad. my options are super limited at usf especially for business and wanted to ask some questions for if i got accepted to be a spring transfer.

1. would I be eligible to apply for summer 2025 or are there certain requirements I must meet? For example, do I have to have a certain amount of credits at UF before being considered for study abroad.

2) if I was able to apply, would my status as a transfer student limit my chances of being apart of the study abroad program?
3) If I was eligible, would I still be able to apply for various financial aid scholarships offered by UF that help cover the costs for studying abroad?
4) would I be able to be considered for an internship abroad as well?
maybe someone has similar experience and could offer some advice, im feeling pretty hopeless about this though 🙁 thank you so much 🫶

are you telling me that no matter how hard it is or how long it takes realistically in the 3-D world, it will come to fruition if I keep persisting using the law of assumption?
Like for example I want to go to a school with lets say 5% acceptance rate and it will take me 5 years to get to there realistically even tho I want to go this year and there is no way that someone like me with bad grades and not a great income to go there and get a full scholarship. How would the law of assumption play out in this example (too specific of an example😭)

Edit: If you are going to comment on the length of this post, please don't. This is not a simple snark but rather an actual critical think piece about feminism and Taylor Swift.

Introduction

Pertaining to Taylor Swift, "Female Rage" has deviated from its intended meaning after Swift debuted a new performance of The Tortured Poets Department during the Eras Tour. Now, according to Swift's use of the phrase, female rage is interpreted as public backlash against Swift's dating choices rather than as a response to the broader injustices against women and women's rights. This post examines Taylor Swift's flawed feminism, philanthropy, branding, and the controversial trademark petition for the phrase "Female Rage: The Musical". Swift's background as an entertainer, indeterminate politics, and alignment with capitalism over feminism pervades her legacy, again threatening her public tolerance as not just an individual but as a brand.

Once Upon a Female Rage...

If you were cognizant in the early 2010's, you've heard countless jabs at Taylor Swift in the media. Magazines, radio, or online. Music critics did not take her seriously as a songwriter; parents put a woman on an unrealistic pedestal as the ideal role model for their children; she dated too much and used men as lyrical fodder. No matter the story, it inevitably spread, conjoined with everyone's respective opinions, and you'd be left to wonder, "Why does everyone hate this girl so much?"
Taylor's target demographic has always been young or adolescent girls, more so when Swift herself was one. She made music that spoke to the awkward misfit, cultivating a para-social relationship with fans on MySpace, then later twitter, Instagram, and YouTube, where Taylor posted relatable vlogs showcasing the life of a homegrown American girl. Taylor had a delayed public "growing up" and, compared to her female pop contemporaries, Swift never "gratuitously sexualized her image and seems pathologically averse to controversy" (and, apparently, never even had a sip of alcohol until she turned 21). She was more than happy to spin this narrative to allude to an inherent moral superiority above other women in the industry (Better Than Revenge, heard of it?), engaging in the very slut-shaming that she herself endured (the Madonna and Whore archetypes). The victim complex arose with the need to prove Taylor as a different type of pop girl. Based upon her holy and clean image, Swift had been dubbed "a feminist's nightmare", and that "[To Swift] other girls are obstacles; undeserving enemies who steal Taylor’s soulmates with their bewitching good looks and sexual availability." Feminism and Tennessee-Christian country values don't exactly mix, it seems.
Years later, Swift befriended Lena Dunham and thus experienced white feminism osmosis, where Dunham taught Swift that real feminists defend rapists, makes insensitive jokes about rape and abortion, and prioritize all-white casts. Swift then declared herself a feminist in 2014, saying,

"Becoming friends with Lena – without her preaching to me, but just seeing why she believes what she believes, why she says what she says, why she stands for what she stands for – has made me realize that I’ve been taking a feminist stance without actually saying so."

I suppose the male-centric songwriting subject that permeates Swift's discography contained covert feminism and that we just didn't see that. Perhaps, the "Bad Blood" song and music video were written only in jest and not about poor Katy Perry, for Swift, as a feminist, would "never make it a girl fight" or tear other women down (though all Katy did was date your terrible ex-boyfriend and allegedly steal three backup dancers from your tour). In 2013, Swift said, in response to Tina Fey and Amy Poehler's joke towards her serial dating, "There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women."
There was that time in 2015 Taylor said that Nicki Minaj was "invited to any stage [she is] on" (as if Taylor expects to have access to every stage, award, and platform that Nicki might not otherwise have as a black female artist...yikes!) in response to Nicki's criticism of the white + thin VMA nominations. Later, Nicki responded with confusion, as Swift continued, "It’s unlike you to pit women against each other. Maybe one of the men took your slot..". Of course, this 'beef' was 'squashed' when Nicki performed with Taylor at the VMAs, with Nicki quite literally only having 38 seconds of stage time without Taylor. Maybe all that parading around with a legion of famous white women - similar to the way Taylor might've done with her numerous 1989-era handbags - was in fact a stance against gender inequality, and that this display of "girl power" should be enough to constitute Swift as a feminist icon.
Even while Swift says that Dunham informed her feminist outlook, she dances around the exact contents of those beliefs: "what she believes, what she says, what she stands for" is not exactly insightful towards what beliefs Swift might have inherited. Taylor never broaches women's rights topics such femicide, FGM, forced pregnancy & marriage, sex trafficking, women in slavery, women's financial and political oppression, women's educational rights, women's health, or women's autonomy, so we can assume she only gives a fuck about "girls supporting girls" (whatever that fucking means).
Despite some questionable (and sometimes vindictive) behavior, Taylor as a young woman did not deserve every media lashing that she received. We cannot deny that most headlines and criticisms perpetuated a misogynistic rhetoric which has plagued Swift for a majority of her career. Acknowledging events such as the development of her ED, her sexual assault trial, "Famous" lyric and MV depiction of Taylor, and the explicit Twitter deepfakes, for example, as both disgusting and unfortunate things that happened to a young woman in Hollywood does not negate the fact that Taylor is mostly a performative feminist.

Get Your Fucking Ass Up and Be a Philanthropist, It Seems Like Nobody Wants to Be a Philanthropist These Days

In 2013, Taylor Swift cut the ribbon at the grand opening of the Taylor Swift Education Center at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee. The donation amount - $4 million - was the largest individual artist gift ever donated to the Country Music Hall of Fame, which is, of course, mentioned on Swift's website. The two-story facility features three classrooms, an instrument room, and an interactive children's exhibit gallery. Swift also performed at "All for the Hall" charity shows and has donated numerous artifacts from her career (such as notable guitars, tour costumes, etc) to the museum.
This was over 11 years ago, and it is still the only notable philanthropic contribution Taylor Swift has made.
For a woman of her net worth and stature, and a woman who recognizes the difficulties for women in film and music, you would think that Taylor Swift might establish a scholarship program for women to study the arts or something. Perhaps Swift might even consider becoming a member of organizations that support female artists, or one that supports LGBTQ+ causes (since she is now proudly an ally), yet she remains superficial with her graces. Broader philanthropy, such as donating relief aid to Palestinian women or women impacted by violence and discrimination will probably never receive any financial support from Miss Swift because then she'd be using her money towards philanthropies involving anyone but white entertainers.
She even says herself in Miss Americana, "My entire moral code as a kid and now is a need to be thought of as 'good'." Well, she's certainly thought of as good, though her actions say otherwise. She's more than happy to do a vaguely altruistic song and dance for a clip-worthy interview quote and mass appeasement, then fuck off to one of her mansions on a 20 minute private jet flight, rather than actually contribute to anything pertaining to the causes she has endorsed. Yet, far too many people continue to give a woman such as her their money, time, and energy, and she hoards these resources to herself.

I Like Some of the Taylor's Songs, But What the Fuck Does She Know About Feminism?

Swift continued with her self-proclaimed feminist campaign, positioning herself as a political activist and LGBTQ+ ally in the Miss Americana documentary. The primary focus of the documentary consists of the sexual assault trial, Andrea Swift's cancer diagnosis, Taylor's ED and body dysmorphia, media scrutiny, and, largely, finally speaking up about her politics publicly, mostly her opposition to the 2018 Tennessee Republican senate candidate, Marsha Blackburn, and Blackburn's beliefs. Swift says, following a scene discussing her experience during the trial,

"I just couldn't really stop thinking about it. And I just thought to myself, next time there is any opportunity to change anything, you had better know what you stand for and what you want to say."

We must ask ourselves, though: when has Swift ever spoken up to change anything? Okay, pulling her entire catalogue from Spotify because they didn't pay their artists enough and similarly pulling her catalogue from Apple Music are changes that she leveraged due to her revenue potential and power, but they are not pertinent to the average woman's rights. Moreover, these are issues that directly impacted Taylor's income, which was enough reason for her to protest in the first place. Swift has sold the most units for a female artist in first week sales, is the first female artist with 100k monthly Spotify listeners, is the first female artist to win the Album of the Year Grammy 4 times, and is the first female artist to do X, Y, and Z, all while being inoffensive and family-friendly to boot. The actual Taylor Swift seems unwilling to compromise the brand of Taylor Swift by contributing in meaningful ways to feminist causes, especially if it is for women outside of America and Hollywood.
The reason political anthems such as "The Man" and "Only the Young" of the Lover era feel disingenuous and corporate is because, well, it is. Taylor has taken every opportunity to advance her career or public image at the expense of other women. What is truly genuine to Taylor's outlook on other women is vying for male attention, taking down female competition, and vocalizing feminist injustices only if they directly impact her and her money. Some will argue that it's satisfactory for a woman with such a huge platform to even TALK about feminism, but that just isn't enough. It's even less impressive when you candidly look at the scope of her feminist lens: "If I was the man, then I'd be THE MAN", or "I really resent the ‘Be careful, buddy, she’s going to write a song about you’ angle, because it trivialises what I do", and, of course, "We all got crowns". Feminism, but only when it happens to me. It gets worse when you look at Taylor's track record of copying other famous women and removing other female artists as potential threats to her pop prowess.
It's good for PR to align yourself with certain blanket feminist and political beliefs, therefore good for branding, therefore good for ticketing and merchandise sales, therefore good for business. And Taylor Swift is a business.
She's not a feminist. Taylor Swift is a capitalist.

I Can't Pay Those Sweatshop Workers a Livable Wage or Benefits! How Else Would I Make My Billions?

Recently, Taylor's team filed to trademark the phrase "Female Rage: The Musical" after Taylor said during Paris N1 of the Eras Tour,

"So you were the first ones to see The Tortured Poets at the Eras Tour...or as I like to call it, 'Female Rage: The Musical'."

This trademark petition was filed last week on Saturday, and news comes about just as numerous unofficial fan-made merch designs have cropped up with this phrase plastered on Fruit of the Loom basics. I'm of the opinion Swift's team motioned for a trademark so that they can send out cease & desists to all those that make knockoff merch, which disrupts potential sales for Bravado, UMG's choice merchandising company; however, since it was filed earlier, perhaps Swift has bigger plans with the bizarre use of the gendered phrase. One Swiftie referred to the phrase "female rage" as "a funny Eras Tour joke". Could it be a possible fourth version of the Eras Tour Movie? Whatever the reason, the motion to capitalize off of such a concept is disgusting, but not unsurprising, for a woman that profits on her vain feminism.
Swift, through her company, TAS Rights Managements, has also trademarked over 200 phrases, including "1989", where she owns the property rights to this calendar year on keychains, phone cases, sunglasses, stationary, bags, beverage ware, clothing, entertainment services, your subconscious, and, of course, Christmas ornaments.
The vapid consumerism in Swiftie culture is, frankly, disgusting. Bravado's sustainability statement is non-existent, the quality control is abysmal, and the materials they use are horrible. The materials, such as acrylic and polyester, are made from petrochemicals. This means they are non-renewable, shed microplastics, and are quite toxic in production. The manufacturing process to make all of those lazy-rushed Eras Tour logo graphic tees is a huge blow to environmental well-being. Apparently, though, Swifties don't give a fuck. They sell out products in seconds and either have to face the manufactured scarcity or buy from a scalper that resells for 200% of the already ridiculous retail price. This doesn't include the environmental impact of vinyl records, CD, and cassette production, of which Taylor produces many variants that sell unsustainable amounts.
If we're talking about women's rights violations, why is no one acknowledging the women that work in the inhumane sweatshop conditions that have to pump out fugly t-shirts and hats? The millions of plastic microfiber dander they are inhaling, or the toxic dyes that touch their bare skin? Are they being compensated fairly for their skilled labour and are they in safe working environments? Do these women have minimal bargaining power, and do they have authority over their worker's rights? Is Taylor Swift female raging at their injustices? Does Taylor Swift ever feels bad that her wealth was built on the backs of women of color, disadvantaged by the demands of the global economy and garment industry? Do you think she ever says a little white feminist prayer for them before she goes to sleep at night?
What's even crazier is not that Taylor herself doesn't care, it's that Swifties don't care. There CANNOT BE ethical billionaires. You only make a billion dollars if you are exploiting other human beings for capital gain. Based on public perception of the possible "Female Rage: The Musical" trademark, it seems like Swifties are already asking for merch with this phrase. "If Taylor made it, I'd buy it." Oh, cool. So not only do you champion Miss Swift's avarice and billionaire status, but you also are unashamed to admit to your blind consumption of her music and merchandise, no matter where they might originate in production or sincerity. Just as Swift takes and takes and takes, Swifties' consumerism of Taylor Swift cannot be quelled.
The tortured artist's most vulnerable and sincere poetry...available now in 21 different versions!

I Am Tortured Poet, Hear Me Whinge

Look - even if Taylor's intention is to characterize TTPD as more "tortured" and "angry", the main thread of the album is "I was ghosted by my decade-long situationship with a controversial indie boy and my fucking stupid fans wrote a 'Speak Up Now' open letter prompting me to drop him" anger, which is adequately expressed in the lyrics and performances. The extent of Taylor's "female rage" on TTPD is on tracks such as "Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?", which contends with relentless media scrutiny; "But Daddy I Love Him", where Swift firmly states she'll date whoever she likes no matter how "Sarahs and Hannahs" may react; and "The Albatross", a track mythologizing her reputation and the consequences of dating her. Of course, these coincide with deep psychological wounds that formed during Swift's early years in the media, and so, from her feminist perspective, these subjects tackle the misogyny and double standards that she faced.
Yet Taylor Swift still has no grounds to be claiming that TTPD best exemplifies female rage and therefore she, in the context of this album, is female rage incarnate. As the daughter of a stock broker and mutual fund marketing executive, Taylor was born into wealth and allowed privileges like trips and subsequent relocation to Nashville all so that she might get a record deal. Her father even invested at least $120,000 into the then-fledgling label, Big Machine Records, which ensured Taylor's place with Borchetta after leaving her dead-end development deal with Sony. The fact that her parents were able to buy her a fucking brand new guitar for Christmas and pay for music lessons says so much about the financial security and safety of her childhood.
Money is privilege and protection, and despite Swift's experiences with misogyny and loser boyfriends, she does not know what female rage is.
Her rage is derived from her frustrations with her obsessive fans pulling the moral superiority card on Taylor in response to her rebound with Matty Healy. That's literally it. She's just pissed that the monster she created is no longer obediant, it's become a feral, sovereign entity that depletes the world of its natural resources and thinks it is more intelligent than it actually is because it's mommy has started to talk to it with big words. Apparently, 'illicit', 'elegy', 'nonchalant', and 'precocious' are considerably big words for the oafish monster, and I find it strange that this level of literacy is present in a group of fans that allegedly have GPAs of 3.5 or higher, but I digress.
Taylor Swift has never been one paycheck away from destitution. Taylor Swift has never experienced racial discrimination. She may have instances of gender discrimination, but she possesses the ideal white, blonde American beauty standard and therefore reaps the benefits of being a conventionally attractive woman. Taylor Swift has sufficient social capital. Taylor Swift is a billionaire woman prolonging her victimhood though she, as a woman, has mostly had control over her image and music (unlike her contemporaries). Taylor Swift is NOT entitled to be championed for her "female rage", nor should she be. Taylor Swift has never even been the struggling artist, for fuck's sake. I don't give a fuck if she's trying to fill the empty lunch tables of her past. Taylor Swift purporting herself, her unpolished album, and her lukewarm feminism as a musical bleeding with female rage is asinine.

Sigh Try and Come For My Job, Poors

Out there in the world right now is a 23-year-old woman, a recent college grad, who works as a barista. She has to wake up and get ready to go into a minimum wage job because she cannot get a job in her field. She doesn't have healthcare benefits or sick time, so she has to go into work no matter how she's feeling. All day long she is berated by vicious customers and creepy men, and, exhausted from being on her feet, she knows she has to go home to her shitty roommate that never does the dishes and her roommate's shitty dog. To comfort herself, she considers getting a treat, but thinks against it when she remembers that matcha lattes cost $15 and they taste like milky dirt. She knows that she needs to buy groceries this week, and so the woman resolves to go home, but notices that her gas tank is low. She goes to put gas in the car, but the pump stops at $27.86 because that's all that she has in her checking account. The woman, bereft and reeling, sinks into the driver's seat. "Well," she thinks, her head in her hands, "at least I don't have Taylor Swift's job. I just couldn't imagine."
Fame is somewhat of a choice. If at any moment Taylor feels that she is misunderstood, misconstrued, or overwhelmed by public opinion, she can LEAVE the public eye - Lord knows she has the retirement fund and residuals to do so. In "I Can Do It With a Broken Heart", the TTPD song about meeting the demands of your career-zenith mega-tour while in the relationship trenches, Taylor ends the song by rambling,

"You know you're good when you can even do it with a broken heart...you know you're good...and I'm good, cause I'm miserable, and no one even knows!...try and come for my job."

Yeah, obviously we wouldn't know, you recently passed the billionaire threshold and are the most famous and in-demand performer in the world right now. Taylor Swift makes an estimated $10 to $13 million dollars A NIGHT on the Eras Tour. Furthermore, the Eras Tour movie grossed $261.6 million globally, (which, as the producer, Taylor takes home 57% of the ticket sales) not counting the streaming revenue from Amazon Prime Video and the estimated $75 million deal that Disney paid to have it on Disney+. We're not even considering the income from cheap plastic popcorn buckets and drink cups plastered with colored squares in her Era-specific likeness.
It's funny. Taylor Swift often said that being famous wasn't hard, that she "isn't complaining". I'm sure it is difficult to always have to present in a good mood, else you'll end up misrepresented in the media, and I'm sure it's invasive to virtually have no privacy or semblance of anonymity. Still, Taylor Swift shows up each night of tour and performs. For a majority of her career, she has penned her sad songs while on the road. Most of "Red", her breakup album, was written in the thick of the Speak Now World tour. Now, some Swifties say they almost "feel bad" for attending the Eras Tour with Swift's revelations in this song, that they have had a 'dimmed experience' upon hearing Taylor's misery whilst performing. Despite the fact that Taylor said that "this was the happiest she's ever been" at Gilette Stadium in May, the lyrics "boohoo, woe is me, smile for the cameras and make the fans happy!!!" are jarring for Eras attendees.
While Taylor Swift was making double-digit millions a night in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and feeling miserable, Ana Clara Benevides Machado passed away due to heat exposure. The concert promoters, Time For Fun, are now the subject of a criminal investigation due to their lack of adequate hydration and safety. Taylor Swift cancelled the Sunday show that was to follow and offered VIP tent tickets to Benevides Marchado's family, which was a kind gesture, but perhaps incongruous to the incident of which they were offered as consolation. Everyone grieves differently, of course, but I'm not sure attending the very show at the very same venue that my daughter or sister passed away in two days prior, where the singer CONTINUED the show despite her death, would be healthy for closure.
There was no female rage at the show as Swift never saw Benevides Machado pass out. There was no female rage towards the disregard for fans as humans while Swift elected to proceed with her Brazil tour dates despite the country being in historic heatwaves (at risk of overheatting herself). If Taylor Swift was so shaken by touring with a broken heart or a fan's passing, she wouldn't have added an additional North American leg of Eras just two months after the Matty breakup. She's brokenhearted but willing to mend the cracks with your money and move onward with her worldwide female rage induced pillaging.
No matter what happens, even if you die at a Taylor Swift concert, Taylor collects a big fat check and flies away. She doesn't know you as anything other than a conversion rate or earning potential despite what her nearly 20-year long parasocial relationship with fans might otherwise indicate. She knows that, while some Swifties are without disposable income, they feel obligated to spend on a "48 Hours Only!" exclusive vinyl variant instead of necessities because they are so entrenched in Taylor Swift's intoxicating celebrity, they'll prioritize materialistic fandom before their needs. This is good enough for her because this means she can expand her real estate portfolio and finance her cat's lavish lifestyles. They're worth an estimated $100 million dollars. Her three cats could pool their net worth and solve world hunger.
While you and I might be denied bereavement leave and barely surviving the current political and economic climate, Taylor Swift has to, instead of gets to, perform for stadiums at full attendance for three nights in a row across the globe. You and I might be replaced by AI at our longtime jobs, but Taylor Swift is threatened with losing more and more money each time you listen to a "Stolen Version" of her songs. If we don't buy every variant of all of her albums, then who is going to pay for the fucking cats?
It is tone deaf to spend as she spends and lives as she lives in this economy, but this is her reality. She was able to donate $100,000 to all of her tour truck drivers, and that's wonderful, but it leads me to wonder about the ethos of the 2020s where one woman can hoard such life-changing amounts of money. Remember in 2014 when she gave a fan $90 ($120 in today's money) to get Chipotle because she had no fucking clue how much it cost? This is a 34-year-old woman who is increasingly out of touch with the reality for working class people and women in general. Normal everyday adults must wake up and go to their thankless jobs, and yet Taylor Swift, despite all her riches, incessantly references the lows of her life and career as a public figure and entertainer to farm sympathy and drive sales. And still, the corporate women have latched onto "I cry a lot, but I am so productive! It's an art!" as their cubicle battle cry.
Do you think that, from up in her private jet, Taylor Swift gazes at the world through her poetic, tortured eyes, and thinks, "All the little people, in their cars, walking, going about their lives...all those girls that don't support girls...do they know that I've made an album about female rage?"

Conclusion/TLDR

Thank you for reading. I would love to hear your critical insights towards this entire ordeal: TTPD, the trademark, the implications of it all.
TLDR: Taylor Swift is a bad feminist and is delusional to think that the TTPD eras set exemplifies female rage at women's injustice.

So I remember I recently read about how in UAE now if an Emirati woman decides to marry an expat, their children can finally have all the same benefits, scholarships and citizenship, if they want.
I know the UAE government is strict with preserving Emirati culture and identity. That’s why expats, for example, can’t get a citizenship.
So the question is, will their kids have a surname based on the origin of the expat dad??? Or will they have arab-like surname at all? Like idk for example he is American and his surname is Jordan, will his kids have Jordan as a surname or something like al-Amriki? Will Dad have to change his name, or is it just kids? If you are staying as Jordan can you make your kids al-Amriki?
One of the reasons I ask these questions is because I hear stories from my Emirati friends about how their aunt, for example, married a German revert, and I also have a friend who is ethnically Somalian but is Saudi national because his ancestors moved to Saudi 100 years ago, and he has al-Somali as his surname.

So I’m filling out parts of the application I can at the moment. I am currently putting in my scholarships. It has an entry called “Name of Presenting Organization”. Would anyone know what should be put into that, or give an example for me? I have one scholarship given by the university and one given by a Dentist here in my town. Thank you in advance!

Welcome to the /ursulakleguin "What Le Guin or related work are you currently reading?" discussion thread! This thread will be reposted every two weeks.
Please use this thread to share any relevant works you're reading, including but not limited to:

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• Works by other authors that were heavily influenced by, or directly in conversation with, Le Guin's work. An example of this would be N.K. Jemisin's short story "The Ones Who Stay and Fight," which was written as a direct response to Le Guin's short story "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas."
  

This post is not intended to discourage people from making their own posts. You are still welcome to make your own self-post about anything Le Guin related that you are reading, even if you post about it in this thread as well. In-depth thoughts, detailed reviews, and discussion-provoking questions are especially good fits for their own posts.
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This is going to be a long one. Firstly, the Confession of Dositheus, a confession ratified by the Pan-Orthodox Council of Jerusalem in 1672 and signed by all Patriarchs since the Council of Crete in 2016, says the following in its second decree (you can read it here https://www.crivoice.org/creeddositheus.html ):
"but the Catholic Church, as never having spoken, or speaking from herself, but from the Spirit of God – who being her teacher, she is ever unfailingly rich – it is impossible for her to in any wise err, or to at all deceive, or be deceived; but like the Divine Scriptures, is infallible, and hath perpetual authority." (Confession of Dositheus, Decree 2)
However, it appears as if the Orthodox Church has erred in at least two places in its councils. Firstly, the Council of Jassy in 1642 ratified the Confession of Peter Moghila, which states the following in its 104th decree (https://maksimologija.org/mogila-orthodox-confession ):
"The ointment of chrism is the second mystery; and this had its beginning at the time when the Holy Spirit came down from heaven and rested upon the Apostles, and sealed them with his divine grace, that they might preach the faith of Christ steadfastly and without ceasing. Of this blessing and divine assistance hath every one need who becometh a Christian; and as then the Holy Spirit came down in the visible form of fire and bestowed his grace, or gifts, upon the Apostles, so now, when the priest anointeth the newly baptised person with the holy oil, he becomes endued from above with the gifts of the Holy Spirit: As appears from the words which the priest (as appointed) useth in the celebration of this Mystery; namely, the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit, Amen. As if he should say, By the anointing of this holy ointment thou art sealed and confirmed into the gifts of the Holy Spirit, which thou dost receive for a confirmation of thy Christian faith. Agreeable hereto are the words of the Apostle (2 Cor. 1.21), He which establisheth us with you in Christ, and hath anointed us, is God: Who hath also sealed us, and given the Earnest of the Spirit in our hearts. This Anointing, or rather the bestowing the Efficacy of this Unction, was done in the times of the Apostles by laying on of hands; according to the Scripture (Acts 8.17), Then laid they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost. This was afterwards performed by anointing with ointment, as we learn from St Dionysius the Areopagite, who was the Disciple of St Paul (Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, chs. 2 and 4)."
^ The text above clearly attributes the work of Pseudo-Dionysius to Dionysius the Areopagite as mentioned in the book of acts. By citing Ecclesiastical Hierarchy here, it is saying that this text was written by a disciple of the historical Paul. The problem is that scholarship is unanimous that the works of Pseudo-Dionysius are dependant on Proclus, who wrote in the late 5th century. Even if this is not true, we do not have any unambiguous mentions of the work of Dionysius before the sixth century, which would be odd if he was a prominent apostle, who, according to Church tradition, later became the Bishop of Athens. Furthermore, this work, Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, contains references to ecclesiastical structures that were not present in the first century. Furthermore, Pseudo-Dionysius contains references to theurgy, yet this term first appears in the Chaldean Oracles, the earliest of which were written in the third century. There are no references to theurgy from the first century.
A= 'we learn [that it was performed by anointing with oitment] from St Dionysius the Areopagite, who was the Disciple of St Paul'
B= St Dionysius the Areopagite was the Disciple of St Paul
A ⊨ B
B = false
∴ A is false
Below I have attached some resources on Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite:
https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05013a.htm
https://www.jstor.org/stable/20717171?searchText=pseudo-dionysius&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dpseudo-dionysius%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A989329de8aa08b25bc69195915261da6
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5325/jmedirelicult.43.1.0001?searchText=pseudo-dionysius&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dpseudo-dionysius%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A0cf11a64bb46b55bdcccfcdfc0cf3e38
https://www.jstor.org/stable/20474890?searchText=pseudo-dionysius&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dpseudo-dionysius%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A17c51552dad6f7378aaae7441274950f
It is considered completely untenable that he was a disciple of St. Paul by modern scholarship. Regarding earlier texts that seem to mention him, modern scholarship has shown that instead, Pseudo-Dionysius was dependant on these: "Until more recently more credit was given to other lines of evidence on which Franz Hipler endeavoured to support his entirely new thesis, to the effect that the author of the writings lived about the year 375 in Egypt, as Abbot of Rhinokorura. Hipler's attempts, however, at removing the textual difficulties, ekleipsis, adelphotheos, soma, proved to be unsuccessful. In fact, those very passages in which Hipler thought that the Fathers had made use of the Areopagite (e.g., in Gregory of Nazianzus and Jerome) do not tell in favor of this hypothesis; on the contrary, they are much better explained if the converse be assumed, namely, that Pseudo-Dionysius drew from them. Hipler himself, convinced by the results of recent research, has abandoned his opinion." (Catholic Encyclopedia)
Note that the letter describing the reception of the Confession of Peter Moghila describes it as such:
"…vested with the most full and plenary power of the whole sacred Synod; he went into Moldavia, as we have said, together with Porphyrius; whither also, sent from the Russians, came Isaias Trophinus, and Conovicius, and Xenovicius; men truly excellent, adorned with all kind of learning and liberal knowledge. These three taking God only for their guide and master, who is the giver of all knowledge, and of all true holiness and understanding, brought the book to this excellent conclusion; having by much mutual disquisition and disputation thoroughly purged it from all foreign doctrines and defilements of novelty, and then forthwith he sent it to the most holy four orthodox patriarchs, the successors in the seats of the Apostles, to be reviewed and considered of. They also confirmed it with their approbation, as containing the true and genuine doctrines, and in nothing departing from the sincere and catholic faith of the Greeks, and declared it to be pure and uncorrupt; by the universal judgement, determination and consent of all, and furthermore by their own proper subscription, and of their clergy as appears hereunto annexed, they decreed and confirmed it; and entitled it, not only of the Russians, but by a more universal Appellation, The orthodox Confession of all the Greeks. Yet however, this book as it was but lately to be had in print among the Russians, so among the Greeks it was only to be had in manuscripts, and that but very rarely. Whereupon, the Lord Panagiota, Interpreter to his imperial Majesty of the East and West, a person of wisdom and piety, and entirely devoted to true religion; as he is most regardful and affectionate of our Greek nation, and zealous contender for the orthodox faith; among his many other magnificent works and public employments, wherein he is daily and hourly engaged, he willingly undertook the care and patronage of this also; and caused this book to be printed at his own expense in our and the latin languages, that every one, who was desirous to increase in piety, might without any expense (for he caused the copies to be distributed to all gratis) be provided with a book, from when as from a source of pure and living water, and out of the genuine fountain of salvation draw the sacred doctrine of our Church, unpolluted with the muddy and foreign opinions of sectaries. And now, let no one marvel, that this book is expressed in a plain style, and unadorned with eloquence; seeing that thereby, it is not only fitted for the learned, but the unlearned multitude also. For the wise and prudent reader ought not to regard the unfinished manner of expression, but the truth of the words and thoughts." (Prefatory Letter of Patriarch Nectarius of Jerusalem)
The above quote can once again be found here: https://maksimologija.org/mogila-orthodox-confession/
This letter describes the way in which the Confession was declared as ‘containing the true and genuine doctrines, and in nothing departing from the sincere and catholic faith of the Greeks, and declared it to be pure and uncorrupt; by the universal judgement, determination and consent of all’ by the patriarchs who signed off on it. As such, it seems that it was viewed as infallible.
The Pan-Orthodox Synod of Jerusalem, in ratifying the Confession of Peter Moghila, says this: "And only some six or seven years ago at the most there was published a book intituled The Orthodox Confession of the Eastern Church, which the IVTost Holy Metropolitan, Peter of Kieff, compiled ; and which was revised* and corrected, where revision and correction were needed, at the instance of the Synod of Jassy, by the Protosyncellus and Preacher of the Great Church at Constantinople, Meletius Syrigus, from Crete. And this the Eastern Church hath entirely received, and doth receive ; and the same was published" (Dositheus et al. 2011: pp. 15)
You can find this text on internet archive: https://archive.org/details/actsanddecreess00lucagoog/page/n26/mode/2up?q=Kieff
Dositheos, Robertson James Nathaniel William Beauchamp, and Cyril Lucaris. The acts and decrees of the synod of jerusalem: Sometimes called the Council of Bethlehem, Holden under Dositheus, patriarch of jerusalem in 1672. Charleston, SC: BiblioLife, 2011.
The Holy Spirit didn't lead the Synod of Jassy to correct the authorship of the Dionysian corpus? This part implies that correction and revision were not needed in decree 104 of the Confession of Peter Moghila, and, furthermore, that the Church entirely receives the confession as dogmatic.
Secondly, the Horos of the Photian Council of 879, considered the eighth ecumenical council by Orthodox Christians, says this (read it here https://www.oodegr.com/english/dogma/synodoi/8th_Synod_Dragas.htm ):
"Jointly sanctifying and preserving intact the venerable and divine teaching of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, which has been established in the bosom of our mind, with unhesitating resolve and purity of faith, as well as the sacred ordinances and canonical stipulations of his holy disciples and Apostles with an unwavering judgment, and indeed, those Seven holy and ecumenical Synods which were directed by the inspiration of the one and the same Holy Spirit and effected the [Christian] preaching, and jointly guarding with a most honest and unshakeable resolve the canonical institutions invulnerable and unfalsified, we expel those who removed themselves from the Church, and embrace and regard worthy of receiving those of the same faith or teachers of orthodoxy to whom honor and sacred respect is due as they themselves ordered."
In this statement, there is an entailment that the disciples have sacred ordinances and canonical stipulations.
The entailment is as follows:
We expel those… → ([we are] Jointly sanctifying and preserving intact… the sacred ordinances and canonical stipulations of his holy disciples and Apostles with an unwavering judgment (based on sentence structure) → The Apostles have canonical stipulations)
Here, the structure of the sentence shows that "we expel those who removed themselves from the Church, and embrace and regard worthy of receiving those of the same faith or teachers of orthodoxy to whom honor and sacred respect is due as they themselves ordered" is dependent upon 'jointly sanctifying and preserving in tact...the sacred ordinances and canonical stipulations of his holy disciples and Apostles'
A = 'we expel those who removed themselves from the Church, and embrace and regard worthy of receiving those of the same faith or teachers of orthodoxy to whom honor and sacred respect is due as they themselves ordered.'
The sentence structure indicates that this entails (⊨) B:
B = [we are] Jointly sanctifying and preserving intact… the sacred ordinances and canonical stipulations of his holy disciples and Apostles with an unwavering judgment
C= The Apostles have canonical stipulations
A ⊨ (B ⊨ C) = (A ˄ B) ⊨ C
For example, if I say 'keeping in mind the letter that Obama wrote me, I will do x', this entails that Obama wrote me a letter. If my statement entails something false, the statement is false: If p is false and q is true or p is true and q is false, the statement is still false.
P. Q. P + Q
TRUE. TRUE. TRUE FALSE. TRUE. FALSE
TRUE. FALSE. FALSE
FALSE FALSE. FALSE
So lets say that p + q is '(we are) Jointly sanctifying and preserving intact...the sacred ordinances and canonical stipulations of his holy disciples and Apostles with an unwavering judgment'
p = (we are) Jointly sanctifying and preserving intact...the sacred ordinances...of his holy disciples and Apostles with an unwavering judgment
q= (we are) Jointly sanctifying and preserving intact...canonical stipulations of his holy disciples and Apostles with an unwavering judgment'
Even if the Disciples have ordinances, if p+q =B above (based on the text) and q entails C then if C is false q is false and p + q is also false.
B = p+q
B ⊨ C
p+q ⊨ C
p ⊭ C
q ⊨ C
C= false
∴ q = false
∴ p + q = false
A ⊨ B and B = p + q
A ⊨ (p + q)
∴ A = false
The problem is, it is considered completely untenable that the canons of the apostles actually go back to the apostles, as they quote canons from the Council of Antioch in 341 and reference a type of Church hierarchy not present in authentic writings from the first century written by presumed successors of the apostles. They are also not mentioned before the 4th century, which is very suspect for a canonical collection supposedly left by the apostles to help govern the Church. If the council of Antioch is instead dependent on the canons, why does it not cite them? If there are other canons that go back to the Apostles, where are they, and what is the evidence that they do? Certainly no other canonical collection states that it has a directly apostolic origin. Thus, it can be said that the Horos of the Eighth Ecumenical Council entails something false, which means in no ambiguous terms that it has erred.
Note that the statement from the Confession of Dositheus reads: "it is impossible for her to in any wise err, or to at all deceive, or be deceived; but like the Divine Scriptures, is infallible, and hath perpetual authority" (Decree 2) and again "In like manner the Church is taught indeed by the Life-giving Spirit, but through the medium of the holy Fathers and Doctors (whose rule is acknowledged to be the Holy and Ecumenical Synods; for we shall not cease to say this ten thousand times); and, therefore, not only are we persuaded, but do profess as true and undoubtedly certain, that it is impossible for the Catholic Church to err, or at all be deceived, or ever to choose falsehood instead of truth. For the All-holy Spirit continually operating through the holy Fathers and Leaders faithfully ministering, delivers the Church from error of every kind." (Decree 12)
If we call the second quote above x, it seems that x entails the truth of all other binding statements the church has made. Statement A from further above is binding because of its presence in a Horos (definition) from an ecumenical council.
Horoi from Ecumenical Councils are binding and infallible
A is a Horos
∴ A is binding and infallible
x from decree 12 ⊨ A
A is false
∴ x is false
You can read the following sources on the Canons of the 'Apostles' and why scholarship is unanimous as to their status as a forgery or fraud: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23947920?searchText=apostolic+canons&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dapostolic%2Bcanons%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3Afb0f4deadf16b447c63b049972f4248e
https://www.jstor.org/stable/23948013?searchText=apostolic+canons+authorship&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dapostolic%2Bcanons%2Bauthorship%26so%3Drel&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3Aef8cb9e3774f5026b5fccc1979d79eb1&seq=8
https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03279a.htm
https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/encyc01/encyc01.html?term=Apostolic%20Constitutions%20and%20Canons
etc.
Note that 'canonical stipulations of his holy disciples and Apostles' is not the name of a document, and, if the statement should be analyzed [canonical] [stipulations] rather than [canonical stipulations], why would there be stipulations of the Apostles that wouldn't be canonical if they are the guardians of Church tradition received from Christ?
From these two arguments, it is clear that the Orthodox Church has erred and been deceived into thinking that forgeries are legitimate and actually originate from their pseudonymous attributions. Error and deception are just what the Holy Spirit was supposed to prevent according to the Pan-Orthodox and binding Confession of Dositheus. If a pan-Orthodox council signed by all Patriarchs with the same authority as other ecumenical councils as per i.e. the acts of the seventh ecumenical council (https://ubipetrusibiecclesia.com/2020/07/03/what-makes-a-council-ecumenical/#nicaea2 ) can be wrong, how can anything in Orthodox tradition be trusted? Keep in mind these are not disciplinary canons either, the texts cited are meant to be a binding confession of faith (for the Confession of Peter Moghila), and the definition (Horos) of an ecumenical council (the Horos of the Photian Council of 879). On the ecumenical status of the latter in the east, see https://www.oodegr.com/english/dogma/synodoi/8th_Synod_Dragas.htm and https://orthodoxwiki.org/Eighth_Ecumenical_Council
On the ecumenical status of the Council of Jassy see https://orthodoxchristiantheology.com/2022/12/21/the-delayed-synodical-receptions-of-the-councils-of-jasy-1642-and-jerusalem-1672/
The Photian Council was also ecumenical in Rome for a while before they opted to go with the earlier robber council as the legitimate one, so this post may also falsify Roman Catholicism.

As recently as the late 90s, many low support-needs autistics would have had even more severe social challenges and suffered even more isolation than they currently do.¹ The internet provided tons of informational resources that are very useful to autistic people, and made joining in discussions much easier because of the somewhat removed, text-based format we all know and love. But the internet also did something else that was very important: it broke down barriers that prevented the formation of autistic communities.
The internet fixed the geographical density issue that had long made the formation of autistic communities difficult or impossible, and of course online communities have significant accessibility advantages as well.
And as a result all of this new interaction between autistics, websites like wrongplanet.com, groups like Aspies for Freedom and the ASAN were founded, and the Neurodiversity Paradigm became the prominent understanding of autism among these autistics. In the early 2000s, the neurodiversity movement really took form in the heart of those online forums and communities made for autistics.
However, there is a problem with all of this.
Lately I’ve been reading some of the foundational texts of the neurodiversity movement, such as essays by Nick Walker, because I was curious to see how some of the ideas of the neurodiversity paradigm formed in their early stages. Although I agree with what they have to say, largely, one key issue stands out to me: the way they talk about autism almost completely seems to neglect level 2s/3s who are more severely disabled (for example, intellectually, or otherwise) because of autism.²
The social model does NOT completely explain autism, as some may claim. Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder, and sometimes that creates some really big problems with development during childhood in a way that means you don’t really ever start developing at all, or only extremely slowly. As they grow up, that is not something that will go away. Some autistics struggle even with things like using the bathroom as fully grown adults. Some cannot form full sentences. My boyfriend’s brother is one such person. Texts on neurodiversity, while very helpful to me, often seem to have completely forgotten people like him.
Lower support needs autistics also often speak over and invalidate those with higher support needs.³ I came across a perfect example of this in a comment a couple of weeks ago, from a non-autism related subreddit:

As someone who has been diagnosed as autistic, nothing frustrates me more than seeing anyone, autistic or no, try to use their mental health condition as an excuse instead of, at best, an explanation.
Sure, it's a lot harder to learn social behaviors, but it can be done.

300+ upvotes. Sad.
Now, I’m sure I don’t need to break down what’s wrong here.⁴ You guys know. But what I’d like to discuss is the why. While they may seem unrelated, I think these two things, the lack of inclusion of severely disabled autistics in writings about neurodiversity, and the tendency of some level 1s to say bullshit like that, have the same underlying cause:
I think there is a survivorship bias problem in the autism community.
While the inernet allows us to meet so many other autistic people, it’s only a limited subset of autistics. Those with very high support needs, or whose presentation of autism makes them wholly uninterested in joining online communities/discussing autism online, never make it into such communities.
It’s very easy to see the broad neurodiversity of these online spaces and think that it must be most of the autism spectrum. But it isn’t, it’s only autistics that would be in such places in the first place! And so, it is very easy to walk away with a view of autism disproportionately skewed towards those with lower support needs, with many autistics completely missing from this vantage point.
I hope that one of the best solutions to this is simply awareness. So, here is that for you. Consider yourself aware.

1. If you’re curious to see what life was like, I recommend the book, Aquamarine Blue 5. It’s a short little collection of autistic autobiographies published in 2001, each one describing their experience in college. I’ve only read some of it so far, but I’ve found it illuminating and extremely interesting to compare and contrast my own life.
   
2. Frankly, the only online group that consistently seems to remember that such people exist is the “Autism Moms”. Granted, they also sometimes think it’s the ONLY kind of autism that exists.
   
3. Shoutout to SpicyAutism for first calling attention to this for me. If you visit, please make sure to respect that it’s a space for those with moderate to high support needs — dont go posting here regularly if you are not. I only ever comment, personally, when I decide that a particular discussion is probably also open to me.
   
4. Please comment and ask for a breakdown if you need it :)
   

Barrios Virgüez promised $2,500 in financial support to a Hispanic student with exceptional leadership ability.
Aranza Sanchez's story highlights the importance of supporting young leaders from diverse backgrounds in pursuing their education and career goals. The scholarship not only provides financial aid but also recognizes Sanchez's advocacy efforts, setting an example for others to follow. Barrios Virgüez's commitment to empowering students like Sanchez demonstrates the positive impact of investing in the next generation of leaders.
Read More https://newsramp.com/curated-news/barrios-virguez-awards-2500-scholarship-to-hispanic-student-aranza-sanchez/6449ecb1e92568f3fab5165db1fde26b

As recently as the late 90s, many low support-needs autistics would have had even more severe social challenges and suffered even more isolation than they currently do.¹ The internet provided tons of informational resources that are very useful to autistic people, and made joining in discussions much easier because of the somewhat removed, text-based format we all know and love. But the internet also did something else that was very important: it broke down barriers that prevented the formation of autistic communities.
The internet fixed the geographical density issue that had long made the formation of autistic communities difficult or impossible, and of course online communities have significant accessibility advantages as well.
And as a result all of this new interaction between autistics, websites like wrongplanet.com, groups like Aspies for Freedom and the ASAN were founded, and the Neurodiversity Paradigm became the prominent understanding of autism among these autistics. In the early 2000s, the neurodiversity movement really took form in the heart of those online forums and communities made for autistics.
However, there is a problem with all of this.
Lately I’ve been reading some of the foundational texts of the neurodiversity movement, such as essays by Nick Walker, because I was curious to see how some of the ideas of the neurodiversity paradigm formed in their early stages. Although I agree with what they have to say, largely, one key issue stands out to me: the way they talk about autism almost completely seems to neglect level 2s/3s who are more severely disabled (for example, intellectually, or otherwise) because of autism.²
The social model does NOT completely explain autism, as some may claim. Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder, and sometimes that creates some really big problems with development during childhood in a way that means you don’t really ever start developing at all, or only extremely slowly. As they grow up, that is not something that will go away. Some autistics struggle even with things like using the bathroom as fully grown adults. Some cannot form full sentences. My boyfriend’s brother is one such person. Texts on neurodiversity, while very helpful to me, often seem to have completely forgotten people like him.
Lower support needs autistics also often speak over and invalidate those with higher support needs.³ I came across a perfect example of this in a comment a couple of weeks ago, from a non-autism related subreddit:

As someone who has been diagnosed as autistic, nothing frustrates me more than seeing anyone, autistic or no, try to use their mental health condition as an excuse instead of, at best, an explanation.
Sure, it's a lot harder to learn social behaviors, but it can be done.

300+ upvotes. Sad.
Now, I’m sure I don’t need to break down what’s wrong here.⁴ You guys know. But what I’d like to discuss is the why. While they may seem unrelated, I think these two things, the lack of inclusion of severely disabled autistics in writings about neurodiversity, and the tendency of some level 1s to say bullshit like that, have the same underlying cause:
I think there is a survivorship bias problem in the autism community.
While the inernet allows us to meet so many other autistic people, it’s only a limited subset of autistics. Those with very high support needs, or whose presentation of autism makes them wholly uninterested in joining online communities/discussing autism online, never make it into such communities.
It’s very easy to see the broad neurodiversity of these online spaces and think that it must be most of the autism spectrum. But it isn’t, it’s only autistics that would be in such places in the first place! And so, it is very easy to walk away with a view of autism disproportionately skewed towards those with lower support needs, with many autistics completely missing from this vantage point.
I hope that one of the best solutions to this is simply awareness. So, here is that for you. Consider yourself aware.

1. If you’re curious to see what life was like, I recommend the book, Aquamarine Blue 5. It’s a short little collection of autistic autobiographies published in 2001, each one describing their experience in college. I’ve only read some of it so far, but I’ve found it illuminating and extremely interesting to compare and contrast my own life.
   
2. Frankly, the only online group that consistently seems to remember that such people exist is the “Autism Moms”. Granted, they also sometimes think it’s the ONLY kind of autism that exists.
   
3. Shoutout to SpicyAutism for first calling attention to this for me. If you visit, please make sure to respect that it’s a space for those with moderate to high support needs — dont go posting here regularly if you are not. I only ever comment, personally, when I decide that a particular discussion is probably also open to me.
   
4. Please comment and ask for a breakdown if you need it :)
   

I am not The OOP, OOP is u/lolfuckno.
This post was originally posted to weddingshaming.
There was already a BoRU post by u/autochthonouschimera, which didn't include the last update yet.
TRIGGER WARNING: cheating, child neglect, extreme entitledness, talk of abortion
MOOD SPOILERS: infuriating, confusing, frustrating
The new update at the bottom of this post has been marked with --- ---
Original story was posted on December 7, 2021
Okay, so this girl I know from high school is getting married. We're both 22, for reference. In our senior year of high school she got pregnant, with baby daddy A who will be referred to as Adam. Her super conservative parents kicked her out and she ended up moving in with a friend's family. She barely graduated high school. The only reason she did were because of the generosity and support of our teachers and students who volunteered to help her, which is how we met. We were in the same law class in the morning and she had the worst morning sickness that really affected her ability to be in class. So, I took extra notes for her, tutored her, and brought her her stuff if she hadn't come back by the bell. I wasn't the only one who did stuff like this for her and I know she really appreciates all the assistance we gave her. She had the baby a month after we graduated.
She'd signed up for a 911 dispatcher course for after high school because where we live it's a good steady job, with opportunity for certificates and promotions. But she didn't realize how intensive the course would be and had to drop out. She started working at a grocery store bakery, just until she had a better plan. Adam started an apprenticeship while working part time at a hockey rink, and proposed to her literally the day of her eighteenth birthday, and brought up marriage because "it's the right thing to do" (I don't really agree with that but this isn't about me) and she was always refusing.
She started cheating on him after a while (we're all 19 now), and eventually leaves him for another guy because... She's pregnant again and it is far more likely that this guy, baby daddy B who will be referred to as Brad, is the father of the child. Neither of them can afford lawyers so getting any kind of custody agreement is a mess, and then their parents got involved and they did 50/50 split (still not made official). She has the baby, that does turn out to be Brad's, and everything is okay for about nine months, when she finds out Brad has been cheating on her with his TA. Brad decides to pay child support but doesn't really want contact with the kid, only around holidays and one weekend a month for his parents' sake.
She moves back in with her parents (we're all 20 now) who only accept her back because there's grandchildren around. On the plus side, (when she's 21) she gets to take that year long dispatcher course, and passes with flying colours!
After working as a dispatcher for a year (we're all 22 now) she meets a police officer we'll call Chad, who's 26 and married... And Adam's second (?) cousin (I can't remember how they're related, just that Adam and Chad are related somewhat distantly). She has an affair with him (infidelity is super common among cops apparently). She gets knocked up, his wife divorces him, Chad proposes because "it's the right thing to do", she accepts, and her parents kick her out again for being a [insert expletive here], she moves in with Chad with her two kids. They've started planning the wedding, which... Given the background is something akin to a dumpster fire. Adam is LIVID. He was desperately in love with this girl and hasn't really recovered from what she did to him, and while she rejected his proposals years ago, she's accepted one FROM HIS COUSIN WHO PROPSED FOR THE SAME REASON HE DID.
Adam has basically made a call for loyalty in the family, dividing everyone one who should go, who should give money, etc plus they're having trouble planning anything because of COVID. Her parents have outright said that they're not going, along with half of her family, and her younger sister has been going around and sabotaging what plans they can make.
She has asked me to be a bridesmaid, I said that I couldn't because I live in a different province now, but the truth is, I do not want to be wrapped up in that clusterfuck in any way . I'm just watching the arguments and events unfold on social media because this is quite honestly the most entertaining thing I've seen all year. It's weird to me that she even asked because we're not friends, we never have been. We were friendly strangers in high school, I just helped her out for one class because she needed help and I could give it to her. I was just being nice. But based on how she turned out I'm just sad for her. Three kids in four years, and she's alienated so much of her friends and family because if her actions, and I'm torn between feeling sorry for her and putting my head in my hands.
EDIT 1:
First off, all of your comments are hilarious. Second, I'm going to answer some of the common questions.
We're from a city with over 400,000 thousand people, she just comes from the neighbourhood that is made of either bible thumpers or white trash, with no in between. But the high school we went to was in a completely different neighbourhood than that.
Our school had a pretty good sex Ed course, and they gave out free condoms and had resources to help girls get birth control, and they had programs in place for if students ever got pregnant/were going to be teen parents (they also had one of those classes with the dolls for girls who were high risk at teen pregnancy but she wasn't high risk so she wasn't in that class) I don't if BC just didn't work for her, or if she never tried it.
She started alienating her friends after the affair with Chad came out, because people weren't exactly jumping for joy that she'd broken up a marriage (Chad and his ex didn't have any kids, thankfully, so there were less obstacles). When people weren't immediately ecstatic for her she started getting very snippy, rude, and was "calling the bitches out" on social media for not supporting her new relationship or pregnancy. (Tbh I'm really worried about her health because having this many babies so close together is just not good for her health, mental or physical.) People are also worried that Chad will cheat on her "if he'll cheat with you, he'll cheat on you" and think she should avoid marrying him so that she can just leave him if it happens.
I'll give you updates as they come out, but so far it's just a lot of yelling on social media (mostly from her), some relatives slut shaming her, and people who are just really worried about her because, as funny as this is, this doesn't seem like healthy behaviour.
EDIT 2:
First off, I realized I never gave this girl a name. For the sake of clarity we'll call her Beth. I realize that I didn't mention this before, but all of these are fake names.
Second, to everyone commenting that Chad is at fault for his marriage breaking up, believe me I'm well aware of that. It is his ex wife and her family/friends who solely blame Beth. Chad is also older than her and has more life experience, so I do believe that he could potentially be taking advantage of her naivete. However, she is also an adult who is capable of making her own decisions and has chosen to make poor ones in the past.
Third, people who are upset that I'm posting this story here, claiming I'm humiliating her. She has been posting about this mess on every social media platform she has since they got engaged in July. She put this out there long before I did except she did so in front of friends, family, employers, and coworkers, as well as internet randos.
Fourth, despite getting engaged in July and attempting to start planning then, I was only asked to be a bridesmaid three days ago. I knew that there was a mess going on but I didn't really pay attention to it until she asked me to be a bridesmaid. I tried to ask what was going on, I said that she should talk to someone, but when she completely brushed me off I checked her FB and Instagram and found out about all of... This.
Fifth, I realized that I didn't really talk about how disastrous the wedding planning has been going, see here you go:

• they've had to rebook three times because venues and vendors kept cancelling when infection numbers got worse even thought their wedding was months away
• Beth has been flipping between having the wedding while she's pregnant saying she's proud of her bump, and wanting to wait until they're born because she feels fat, which is unfortunate because she's been breaking down due her insecurity on a public platform
• Beth is currently seven months pregnant
• Beth's great aunt was going to give her her wedding dress to wear (after she gives birth) but Beth's mom freaked and stole the dress from said aunt before Beth could get it and is now keeping it, the great aunt says she's too old to get in a fight and has shrugged it off
• Chad's immediate family is paying for the wedding and has been cut off by the rest of their extended family for 'choosing Chad'
• Beth's wedding colours are pink and green, which is usually a nice combo but the specific shades don't go great together, they're her and Chad's favourite colours, which is fine but she literally made a video talking about these colours for 14 minutes on her insta and both of her kids are just full on bawling in the background and she's ignoring them and she's gotten some flack for that
• Adam is finally settled into his trade and has now hired a lawyer and is trying to get primary custody and not allow his daughter to go to the wedding
• she's planning a zoom baby showebachelorette party and has sent out a registry and she's asking for crazy expensive things
• she's also set up a go fund me to help pay for a honeymoon and is making a lot of posts about how no one loves her cause the fund only has $1267 of the $20k she wanted

I'll update when I can but I'm still in school and while I do want to help her, she's refused help offered in the past and there's only so much of this I can take mentally right now.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
UPDATE:
Hey everyone, so some stuff has gone down, and it doesn't look like it's over yet. Sorry, I didn't update sooner, but Rona came back with a vengeance and totally messed up plans with uni and family. Anyway, onto the update.
From the last update - 16th - Lots of ranting and chaotic wedding planning on social media, she found a dress and has decided she will get married while pregnant, they found a local wedding venue that is very lovely, but I'm shocked she's still trying to book stuff with all of their previous venue cancellations.
December 16th - Her little sister unblocked her to call her a s*ut and tell her that all her wedding plans were stupid. This resulted in a petty and entertaining facebook war until the little sis blocked her again on the 17th.
December 18th - Beth went nuts on social media because Adam had "kidnapped" their daughter, what really happened is that because courts are moving at a snail's pace due to COVID and Adam had reason to believe that their daughter was not safe living with Beth he decided to just... Not give her back. They don't have a custody agreement, and when Beth tried to call the cops they couldn't do anything because he was kinda right. There were dozens of videos on her various social media accounts of her ignoring their daughter, yelling at her daughter for crying or doing other things that toddlers do, it turns out that everything she needed was bought by Adam, food, diapers, clothes, toys, daycare (while it was open) etc. on top of the unofficial child support he was paying every month (which turned out to be $500 a month, a number I find ridiculous because Adam was already paying for literally everything) because she refused to buy anything for her daughter and insisted it was Adam's responsibility. Additionally, after the immediate post-birth appointments, Beth never took baby A to a doctor's appointment, she always deferred that to Adam. Baby A's pediatrician has NEVER met Beth. Beth even tried to get Chad to push back or intimidate him or something, but the local police where we live are under one hell of a microscope after a bunch of dirty cops got busted a couple of years ago. Basically, the cops, and the social worker they ended up calling, ended up saying there was nothing she could do until they get to court. The social worker tried to get her to go to therapy and parenting classes, but Beth refused and went on a fifteen paragraph long rant on Facebook about how she doesn't need parenting classes or therapy (she really, really does though) and called the social worker some choice words.
December 19-24 - Just a bunch of ranting on social media, calling everyone who doesn't enable or justify her behaviour cuss words, slurs, and a whole bunch of other horribly creative things. Also, both she and Chad are under investigation at work now, but she has no idea why. I'm gonna take this time to remind everyone that 99% of this info is coming from her public social media pages where her coworkers are friends and place of employment is listed.
December 25 - I am officially embarrassed to know this woman. I didn't go on her FB page until the evening cause I didn't want to deal with drama, first thing in the morning, on Xmas. In the morning she put on a very beautiful blue maternity dress, got Chad in his police blues, and baby B in a purple romper, and then live-streamed her and her family going to the courthouse to get married on Christmas day. (According to her Twitter, part of this was because their newest venue cancelled on them after COVID numbers spiked) Overall, a pretty tacky thing in my opinion because she stated plain as day, several times, that she intended her wedding anniversary to eclipse Christmas for her children because it's just "so much more special, you know?" (I am so glad that Baby B's grandparents are filing for guardianship) But here's the thing... The courthouse isn't open. Because of COVID for one thing, but also because it's Xmas and Canada has a predominantly Christian history. She proceeded to have a full meltdown, and when Baby B cried because, y'know, the kid's mom was screaming up a storm and scaring her, Beth called her a c*nt. Yup. So done with this bitch.
December 28 - I ran into her at a vaccine clinic cause we were both getting our booster shots. She didn't recognize me at first but one of my old bosses (cause I used to work at the hospital the vaccine clinic was in) called my name and said hi, so she came up to me after my old boss had left. We talked a bit while we sat down for the mandatory waiting period after getting the shot. She asked how I was but didn't even wait for me to respond before she started ranting and complaining about her life. I was just going to sit there until the time was up and then just politely make my exit, but when she started talking shit about her kids something inside me snapped. I just said "Do you even like your kids? Do you like being a mom?" She got pretty quiet for a second and then said "no". Idk, her voice and demeanour completely changed and we just sat in silence until our time was up. I said goodbye but it was really awkward.
December 31st (today) - I just looked at her feed and, this is such a shocking what-the-actual-f*** moment. She's thinking about giving up her kids. She went on about how recently she was asked if she liked her kids or being a mom, and how she realized that she didn't. She hates her children and blames them for ruining her life, and how she doesn't want to be a mom. I mean, nothing is official yet, but what the hell?!
I'll update as stuff happens now that I have the time, but this whole thing has been a big giant mess. Also, sorry for any formatting or grammatical errors, I'm not used to using Reddit on my PC.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
UPDATE
Okay, so, some stuff has happened and most of it's good? Also, the TL:DR for this update will be at the bottom
Jan 4th - Beth (and Chad) stopped posting on all social media. I was actually a little worried she died, I mean this woman posts everything short of her trips to the bathroom on IG.
Oddly enough, this got people messaging or interacting with her social media pages because she was usually the one to start contact, and that contact was usually yelling. No one heard from them and some people started to be like "should we call the cops for a wellness check?" Until Chad posted a status saying that they're fine but are "busy, please stop trying to contact us right now". Everyone listened but it was weird.
Jan 11 - I got a notification that Beth and Chad are active on social media again, but I didn't feel like drama so I didn't check out any of their posts.
Jan 12 (today) - she messaged me on FB asking me to be her MOH. She also kept going on about the resort in Cancun that she and Chad were looking to have their wedding at... This coming February. Omnicrom is really bad where we are, so no one should be travelling anywhere. I've actually had to delay my trip back to the province where I go to university. No one should be travelling anywhere.
Beth also found out that Chad was cheating on her with one of her co-workers and called the woman a "homewrecker" on FB tagged her, and posted the texts she found on Chad's phone. But Chad is the "love of her life" so she's forgiven him, but not the other woman. Which I find very hypocritical, considering how she and Chad got together.
She also sent pics of possible bridesmaid dresses and they are the most hideous dresses I've ever seen. I know that some brides do that thing where they want to look a million times better by comparison but this was just ridiculous. One of them looked like a partially deflated balloon with feathers strapped to it. She also openly admitted that she expected everyone attending to pay 3k, 2k would go towards that guest's stay at the resort and 1k would go to her and Chad and they will expected wedding gifts, so that they could get their room for free. Apparently, she talked to someone at the resort and if she got enough people to book their rooms she and Chad would get theirs for free. She also wanted the money to be given to her instead of directly to the hotel so that people wouldn't realize that she was taking 1k of their money. Beth sent me a pic of the wedding dress she wanted, and it's definitely a clubbing dress. If that's what she wants that's fine (and for the record I do think she would look great in it, Beth's (current) dream wedding dress ) but she wants all the guests to be dressed black tie. And she's already sent a list of unreasonable requests. Such as;

• all women must wear heels (for a wedding in the beach???)
• no one is allowed to have a baby or be pregnant (really?)
• girls must have longer than shoulder length hair, boys must have very short hair, only and inch or two long
• no one is allowed to be skinnier than her
• she will be providing diets for everyone attending based on how she wants us to look
• she and Chad must get bachelor and bachelorette parties both in Canada and in Mexico that need to be "fit for a king and queen" and both must be paid for but anyone but the bride and groom "cause that's just tacky"
• no unnatural hair
• no tattoos (you have five tattoos, Beth, and in the dress you want all will be on full display)
• no one is allowed to talk to her directly, they must speak through the MOH and BM

Honestly there's a lot more but I didn't feel like typing all that out. She's posted the list on FB and IG and people are already calling her a bridezilla.
I was also just kinda weirded out because aside from the previous convo at the hospital and when she originally asked me to be a bridesmaid, we haven't spoken since high school. So I respectfully declined, stating that the virus and school were my top concerns right now. Then, I decided to check her socials to see if she'd posted anything. She had and everything was basically how it was before the hiatus... Except her kids are nowhere to be found. No "look at my cute baby" pics are kids crying in the background of her videos. Nothing. Though, based on her new pics of herself, she's given birth to baby C. I mean, she's definitely still recovering, but she also definitely had a baby and that baby is not on any of her socials, so when she responded to my decline with an attempt at guilting me to be her MOH, I asked her where her kids were. This was her response.
"Oh, I left them at the side of the road in our way home from the hospital those moochers could walk home lol"
I was like, please tell me you're not being serious (especially cause it looks like she had the baby days ago). And she replied "I was just joking you shouldn't be so serious all the time". Honey, you made a joke about child abandonment/abuse, you're not being serious enough. And then I finally got the update on the kids.

• Baby A is still with Adam, Beth signed away her rights
• Baby B and Baby C have been given to a mutual cousin of Adam and Chad who is infertile (tbh I didn't need that last tidbit of info or the three paragraph long rant about how God hates infertile women, I didn't even read all of it, I couldn't, and I didn't think that Beth could be so cruel to even think those things). I checked out the FB page of Baby B's grandparents and they're happy with their grandchild's new parents, it looks like the cousin and her husband and welcoming them to the family as another set of grandparents and will let them have access to B. So yay!
• One thing I do need to stress though is that because of COVID the courts in our areas are either moving at a snail's pace or closed, so none of this is "official" but Beth (and Chad) has signed paperwork and all that needs to happen now is presenting that to a judge.

And when I rejoined our convo she said the doc she had for baby C gave her brith control, and she was surprised cause after her first pregnancy she asked her doctor for it but he refused to give her any. She mentioned that her old doctor was also her mom's and sister's doctor, she ended up asking the doc who delivered baby C to be her new doctor, so I hope that works out.
After learning all this my convo with Beth started to go down hill...
Beth: wait, did you actually think I would just leave my kids at the side of the road! I just didn't want to be a mom, but I wasn't a bad one
Me: Beth, I think that you've been through a lot of trauma in the past few years, and that it's gotten to you mentally and that you should speak to a professional.
(Of course, Beth has been a bad mom, but she does need mental health help and I wasn't going to convince her to get it, or to not tell at me, if I said that )
Beth: what? You think I'm crazy?!
Me: no. I think that getting kicked out as a teen because of a pregnancy and having your family actively reject you and try to sabotage you must have been very painful. Plus, pregnancy puts a lot of mental stress on women and you've had three in such a short time span, I just want you to take care of yourself and get what you want in life, and I think that will start with you taking care of your mental health.
Beth: what I want... IS FOR YOU TO GO STRAIGHT TO HELL! Beth then calls me every cuss word, expletive, and derogatory word she can think of one of the words she called me was a derogatory word about people from my ethnicity and my blood is boiling that she thought it was okay to say that to me.
So, I'm now on her hit list. She's been blowing up my social media all day, on her last FB post where she called me a slur she said that she still expects a good wedding gift from me. Yeah, no. So I've blocked her on everything, and I've decided to completely cut off contact. This will be my last update.
TL:DR - Beth went on a social media blackout for a bit, had baby C. Gave up all her kids, baby A is still with Adam, Baby B and Baby C are with a mutual cousin of Adam and Chad and baby B's grandparents have access. Chad cheated on her and she forgave him, but she probably shouldn't have. She's decided to have her wedding in a little over a month in Cancun and is expecting unreasonable things of everyone already. She asked me to be MOH I respectfully declined. I also suggested that she talk to a mental health professional because she's been through a lot in the last few years and she cussed me out, she also called me a derogatory name directed at people of my ethnicity and that was the final nail in the coffin. I'm now on her hit list. But her kids are safe and I have no interest in going to wedding so I'm cutting contact completely and have already blocked her on all my socials. I'm refusing to be involved with her anymore and will not be updating on the situation.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
--- EDIT - NEW UPDATE --- - JANUARY 25, 2023 - TL:DR AT THE BOTTOM
Hi, everyone, I didn't think I would be making another update, but here I am. I don't know if anyone will even care but whatever. I saw a YouTuber, Charlotte Dobre, do an entire video about this post on Facebook (which was funny, she did it well), [editor's note: here's the video in question and also: check out Charlotte Dobre's subreddit !] and got so nervous that Beth was gonna see it. Turned out, she's seen it and does not give a single damn, because as I pointed out, the majority of the info in this post came from her public social media. She also doesn't know who posted it (more on that in the update). I am still no contact with Beth and have no plans to change that anytime soon, but we have mutual friends who have told and shown me what's happened.
First things first, she and Chad did get married, but they eloped. According to all sources they are completely and utterly miserable though. Chad has proven to be and overall lazy and unfaithful husband, and Beth has really gotten into feminism (with a focus on reproductive issues) after she started using birth control, and Roe v Wade getting overturned (even though we're in Canada) really caused tension in their marriage. As it turns out, Chad thinks that abortion is murder and God created women for the purpose of making babies.
Beth tried to argue that not all women want or should be mothers using herself as an example, and then Chad went ahead and used her as an example of why women should be forced to have kids, because in the end she gave kids to an infertile couple. She didn't take that well and said that her entire life and future was ripped away from her and destroyed the second she got pregnant with baby A. Adam was never slut shamed or demeaned like she was, both at home and at school (which is a fair point, myself and many others were helpful and supportive but there were a lot of people who judged the hell out of her and said really nasty stuff) and that if she hadn't gotten pregnant she would've gone to college or university because she lost the general and financial support of her family with that positive pregnancy test. Chad has made a Tinder account. Beth was informed but it doesn't seem like she gave a damn.
So basically you could cut the tension with a knife.
And with her family, her sister came out as gay and cut off/has been cut off from their parents. But she's got a partial scholarship so she's doing okay. She and Beth are NOT on good terms but have met up and acknowledged that their parents messed them up by being religious nuts and their parents encouraged them to be competitive with each other and sabotage each other. Apparently their dad's motto is "competition brings out the best in everyone" (ugh). But they've talked and that's good enough for now.
Neither Beth nor Chad have custody or visitation of their children, which Chad is starting to regret because he's suddenly getting more and more into the church and religion. Chad talked to Beth about getting baby C back but Beth shut that down hard and warned the cousin who adopted baby C (officially and legally btw).
Beth started going to therapy after she and Chad got married, which makes me very happy and excited for her.
There was a rumour going around that Chad has a mistress and it took me a while to confirm, but it's true. He's cheating on her with a paramedic and she knows. Beth is fully aware. Idk if she plans to do anything about it or just continue to ignore it, but I hope she leaves his ass. I'm still not gonna talk to her, she crossed so many lines, but she's grown and improved a lot and her life would be a lot better without that sac of scum in her life.
Now, I have given a few details in my post that should've revealed my identity to her, namely her asking me to be her MOH. I have found out that she actually asked around 15 girls (including myself) to be her MOH, without telling any of us about the others because she was trying to get money from all of us and because her mental health has just been very bad and she needed help. And of those 15, 8 have been going to school out of province and of those eight we all had basically the same classes in high school. And apparently doesn't remember our discussion at the vaccination clinic and had major blow up with everyone she asked to be MOH. So she knows it's one of 8 people and reportedly has no interest in trying to narrow that number down. (Chad did the same thing with his groomsmen, but idk any of the numbers)
TL:DR Beth and Chad got married (eloped), are miserable, have zero custody or visitation with any of their children, Chad's cheating and Beth doesn't appear to care, Chad is super sexist, Beth is a feminist now, Beth's sister is gay and they've talked but not reconciled, Beth asked too many girls to be MOH for money and doesn't know the ID of who made this post.
Dear "Beth", if this post gets forwarded to you or somehow graces your phone screen, leave Chad. He's trash and you'll be much better without him in your life. And though I'm not willing to talk to you again because of your words and actions, I do wish for you to have a wonderful and happy life.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Please remember the NO BRIGADING RULE: do not comment on the original posts linked in BoRUs, see Rule 7. Doing so can result into a permanent ban from this sub and the other linked sub(s).
I'm not the OOP!

I've seen some old posts that mention a neighbor in need program. How is this done? Does anyone have an application they can share or how they generally operate theirs? I asked ChatGPT about how our HOA board could help the neighbors and got this interesting list:
Here’s a list of non-traditional ways an HOA board can assist its residents, promoting a supportive, engaged, and connected community:

1. Skill-Sharing Workshops: Organize events where residents can teach each other various skills, such as gardening, basic home repairs, cooking, or digital literacy. This not only helps residents but also fosters a sense of community and sharing.
2. Time Bank Program: Establish a time bank where residents can exchange services based on time instead of money. For example, one hour of tutoring could be exchanged for one hour of lawn care. This system promotes mutual assistance and builds interdependencies within the community.
3. Community Tool Library: Create a communal repository of tools and equipment that residents can borrow. This helps those who cannot afford or do not have space for certain tools while encouraging sharing and interaction among neighbors.
4. Neighbor Assistance Hotline: Set up a dedicated phone line or digital platform where residents can request help for everyday tasks such as grocery shopping, pet walking, or even tech support, which can be particularly useful for elderly or disabled members of the community.
5. Local Business Partnerships: Partner with local businesses to provide discounts or special offers to HOA members. This can include services like landscaping, house cleaning, or local dining, and supports local businesses while providing tangible benefits to residents.
6. Community Gardens: Develop a community garden that encourages residents to work together to grow vegetables and flowers. This initiative can help reduce grocery bills, promote healthy living, and enhance the local environment.
7. Fitness Groups or Clubs: Support or sponsor health and wellness activities by creating neighborhood fitness groups or clubs. Activities could include yoga classes in the park, walking groups, or cycling clubs, catering to various fitness levels and interests.
8. Educational Grants or Scholarships: If budget allows, the HOA could set up a small fund to support educational scholarships or grants for outstanding students or residents pursuing further education or training, especially in community service or improvement areas.
9. Carpool Coordination: Establish a carpool registry to help residents save on transportation costs and reduce their carbon footprint. This can be particularly useful in larger communities where many people may work in the same area or city.
10. Cultural Exchange Events: Organize events that allow residents to celebrate and learn about different cultures through food, music, dance, and art. This promotes diversity and inclusion within the community.
11. Emergency Preparedness Workshops: Conduct regular workshops on emergency preparedness that include first aid training, disaster response techniques, and basic survival skills to enhance community resilience in emergencies.
12. Pet Services: Create a community pet care program where neighbors can assist with pet sitting, walking, or feeding. This is especially useful for residents who travel frequently or have demanding schedules.

Implementing these initiatives can help the HOA board create a vibrant, supportive, and interconnected community, enhancing the quality of life for all residents and potentially increasing property values through an enhanced community spirit.

Certainly! Here's a detailed guide on how to access free education in Chicago, complete with examples and links to relevant resources:

1. Chicago Public Schools (CPS):

• Overview: Chicago residents under 20 who are not high school graduates can enroll in CPS for free education. CPS offers a variety of educational programs, including traditional high schools, charter schools, and alternative schools.
  
• Example: John, a Chicago resident, wants to continue his education after dropping out of high school. He learns about CPS's options and enrolls in a charter school that offers flexible schedules and personalized learning.
  
• Resource: [Chicago Public Schools](https://www.cps.edu/)
  

1. City Colleges of Chicago (CCC) - Chicago Star Scholarship:

• Overview: CCC offers tuition-free education to eligible Chicago residents through the Chicago Star Scholarship program. The scholarship covers tuition and fees for up to three years of college at CCC for students who meet certain eligibility criteria, including graduating from a Chicago Public School with a minimum GPA.
  
• Example: Maria, a recent high school graduate from Chicago, applies for the Chicago Star Scholarship and is awarded the scholarship to attend City Colleges of Chicago, where she plans to pursue an associate degree in nursing.
  
• Resource: [Chicago Star Scholarship](https://www.ccc.edu/students/pages/chicago-star-scholarship.aspx)
  

1. Federal Financial Aid (FAFSA)

• Overview: Completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) can help students access federal grants, loans, and work-study opportunities to help cover the cost of higher education, including community college and four-year institutions.
  
• Example: David, a Chicago resident, completes the FAFSA and qualifies for a Pell Grant, which he uses to pay for tuition and books at a local community college.
  
• Resource: [FAFSA](https://studentaid.gov/h/apply-for-aid/fafsa)
  

1. Scholarships and Grants:

• Overview: Numerous scholarships and grants are available to Chicago residents from various organizations, institutions, and foundations. These awards can help offset the cost of tuition, fees, and other educational expenses.
  
• Example: Sarah, a high school senior in Chicago, applies for scholarships from local organizations and receives awards that cover her tuition and living expenses at a four-year university.
  
• Resource: [Scholarships.com](https://www.scholarships.com/)
  

1. Workforce Development Programs:

• Overview: Chicago offers workforce development programs and initiatives that provide free or low-cost training and education in high-demand fields. These programs are often tailored to meet the needs of specific industries and may include partnerships with employers and educational institutions.
  
• Example: Jamal participates in a workforce development program in Chicago that offers free training in information technology. After completing the program, he lands a well-paying job in the tech industry.
  
• Resource: [Chicago Cook Workforce Partnership](https://chicookworks.org/)
  

1. Adult Education Programs:

• Overview: Chicago provides adult education programs through community organizations, libraries, and educational institutions. These programs offer free or low-cost classes in areas such as English as a Second Language (ESL), GED preparation, and vocational training.
  
• Example: Maria attends free ESL classes at her local library in Chicago to improve her English language skills and increase her employment opportunities.
  
• Resource [Chicago Public Library](https://www.chipublib.org/)
  

1. Community-Based Organizations:

• Overview: Community-based organizations in Chicago may offer educational programs and services to residents, including tutoring, mentoring, and college readiness assistance. These organizations often collaborate with schools, colleges, and other partners to support educational attainment in the community.
  
• Example: The Arab American Action Network in Chicago provides free college preparation workshops and resources to help students navigate the college application process and access financial aid.
  
• Resource: [Arab American Action Network](https://www.aaan.org/)
  

By utilizing these resources and opportunities, Chicago residents can access free or low-cost education to pursue their academic and career goals. It's essential to research eligibility criteria, application requirements, and deadlines for each program or initiative to make the most of available resources.

This is a weekly reminder post of this sub's stance on potential copyright infringement. This is a serious issue that needs to be kept in mind when creating and listing NFTs.
Original post by u/HurleyBird1
Quick disclaimer: I AM NOT A LAWYER. THIS IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE - THIS IS SIMPLY INFORMATION WITH WHICH TO EDUCATE YOURSELVES AND PREPARE YOURSELF FOR LEGAL ADVICE FROM A LICENSED SOURCE.
Now that that's out of the way. My credentials are: MBA, with a bit of business law classes under my belt.
I want to give a quick explanation of how copyright works - and I'll do so through quick blurbs n some myth/reality bullets.
Source: copyright.gov (US)

1. Subject matter of copyright: In general28(a) Copyright protection subsists, in accordance with this title, in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. Works of authorship include the following categories:(1) literary works;(2) musical works, including any accompanying words;(3) dramatic works, including any accompanying music;(4) pantomimes and choreographic works;(5) pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works;(6) motion pictures and other audiovisual works;(7) sound recordings; and(8) architectural works.(b) In no case does copyright protection for an original work of authorship extend to any idea, procedure, process, system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.

- Myth: I can use any image/song/video/writing I want.
- Reality: No. Not true at all.
- Myth: Well they never said it's copyrighted.
- Reality: Upon publication (and even while a work in progress) a work is automatically protected via copyright under US Law.
- Myth: Well they never sold it.
- Reality: It doesn't have to be commercialized to be protected.
- Myth: Well it was a long time ago
- Reality: Possibly true...as long as the creator is deceased (or if multiple creators, the last living one is deceased) and the required time has passed...although this gets tricky with "estates."
(d) Duration of Rights.—(1) With respect to works of visual art created on or after the effective date set forth in section 610(a) of the Visual Artists Rights Act of 1990, the rights conferred by subsection (a) shall endure for a term consisting of the life of the author.
So what's this thing I hear called "Fair Use?"
Straight from the source:

1. Limitations on exclusive rights: Fair use41Notwithstanding the provisions of sections 106 and 106A, the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright. In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include—(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.The fact that a work is unpublished shall not itself bar a finding of fair use if such finding is made upon consideration of all the above factors.

Uhh...help me translate that please... (here's a decent official translation: https://www.copyright.gov/fair-use/more-info.html)

1. above...if it's non-profit educational use, you're usually good to go...if it's for money or trade (commercial nature) then you're usually NOT...unless YOUR piece is "transformative"

Transformative uses are those that add something new, with a further purpose or different character, and do not substitute for the original use of the work.
- Myth: Well this is paid for in Algos, not USD so it's not "commercial"
- Reality: IT IS commercial. You could even barter for bacon and it'd be commercial. It's an exchange of one good/service for another good/service.
- Myth: My piece with Batman inside a card is "transformative"
- Reality: No, unfortunately, more-than-likely the courts would say it's not. A good litmus test is..."If Warner Bros Entertainment (owner of Batman) wanted to make an NFT/ASA "Batman card" would yours compete with it or be possibly mistaken (by a reasonable person - so in America think 8th grade education) for real merchandise? Probably...thus it's not transformative enough.
"nature" gets a little tougher. This looks at protecting the "creative process." Thus, using other works of art is less-likely to be protected than using factual sources - like historical photographs since it's easier to "create art" and thus "transform" factual pieces than other art pieces. This is also talking to things like "parody." Satire is NOT protected. "Parody" is. What's the difference? LegalZoomputs it well: While a parody targets and mimics the original work to make a point, a satire uses the original work to criticize something else entirely. Another way to look at it is that satire uses another work as a way to comment on something happening in the world that has nothing to do with the original work.
- Myth: I added a different border, extra planets, and some blur effect to MTZ's World of Light - it's a new piece of art.
- Reality: Not likely the courts will see it that way.
- Myth: This guy added a filter, some burn effects, and collaged a bunch of newspaper headlines together - isn't that a violation!
- Reality: Probably not...the courts would probably see this as a creation of art out of factual sources.
amount/substantiality in relation to the whole...this is where using clips of songs that are only like 5 seconds long works! But using more than that...runs into problems. This is tough to decipher too...as some songs are EASILY identifiable from just 5 seconds (Ice, ice, baby) - and thus NOT fair use. But some aren't. Usually you're safe using a very small clip of a song or video - especially if you're adding more to it. But this is a dangerous game to play - and there's places to get free audio (some sources below)
effect of the use - this is probably the biggest one. Courts will look at simply...does YOUR work affect the sales or potential for sales of the copyright owner. Of note...this is looked at at the time of the issue being brought to the court, not at the time of sale. For example, let's say my batman card sells for 10 Algos today, but Algorand BLOWS UP and soon every NFT is on Algorand. And now my OG Batman NFT is seen as one of the first Batman ones and official. Warner Bros gonna sue the shit outta whoever owns it at the time they sue to get the rights to all sales of that NFT. So that person is left holding an empty bag when Warner Bros wins in court.
- Myth: Well they're not commercializing it NOW so I'm safe.
- Reality: Technically, yea Warner Bros probably won't spend the money to go after the OG artist and the hands the asset passed through...HOWEVER, they may. That's their right. Who knows - the Napster days showed us the lengths companies will go to. EVEN BIGGER HOWEVER, the last person holding it when Warner Bros DOES decide to go after that Batman NFT...uh oh for them - they just lost their asset.
- Myth: Well it's been like a year, and no one has brought up copyright. So I'm good.
- Reality: If this was in a normal market...maybe this argument would work. If McDonald's let you sell a Ronald McDonald poster for like a year on Amazon with no issues, some court may say "bro, you took too long to bring this to us." HOWEVER, with cryptocurrency being so new (and Algorand being so little known/discussed), most courts would see it as "reasonable" that a copyright owner failed to exercise their rights within a year - possibly even a decade. (Updated because I realized last example dealt with trademark not copyright :o)
So what am I safe to use?
US Government works (mostly)...any deemed free to use by creator...and any a copyright lawyer says they have your backs on (cuz now they're liable).
Here's some great sources for free use items (please add to this list below if you know of some!!!):
Pictures: https://buffer.com/library/free-images/ (Unsplash is one of my faves)
Music: https://www.wix.com/blog/photography/2019/11/27/free-music-for-videos/
Video: https://blog.hootsuite.com/free-stock-videos-sites/
You'll notice there's a lot of "shoulds" "coulds" "probably" etc. This is because copyright cases are all unique and go to the courts. The best bet is to go with stuff you KNOW is free and fair-use. If not, I'd look up copyright law, consult supreme court cases concerning copyright, and ultimately, talk to a lawyer.
AGAIN: I AM NOT A LAWYER. I AM NOT PROVIDING LEGAL ADVICE. I AM SIMPLY PROVIDING INFORMATION. THERE MAY BE ERRORS ABOVE THAT COULD CAUSE SUBSTANTIAL DAMAGES - CONSULT A COPYRIGHT ATTORNEY IF YOU WISH TO RECEIVE LEGAL ADVICE.