Ghetto fight sayings

Okay, so before I begin this is not intended to be racist at all even though it may come off this way. I love black American culture and I support a lot of black owned businesses. But I am having an issue with black customers. So I work in telecommunications and I also work in a fast food restaurant (for fun). Idk what it is but the rudest customers I’ve dealt with or the neediest ones are black customers. They also seem to have this sense of entitlement that really gets me bent. Like when I talk to them over the phone, when they aren’t getting what they want they’ll hang up in your face, they talk with a snarky attitude as if I did something to offend them. Basically what I’m saying is they don’t seem to have the ability to have a professional dialogue. They will talk to other people while im trying to help them. They will quit literally treat you like shit. Again I know every race has their disadvantages too. But by far black Americans are the rudest customers to experience. In the food industry it’s even worse, when they pull to the drive through window they have their seat all the way back and park far from the window and will extend their hand and I still can’t reach. This happen much more often. They constantly say “I want my food fresh” or “my shit better be fresh” which I totally understand, I want my food fresh too but there’s way better ways of saying that than to bluntly say it in a rude or condescending way. It’s like they aren’t taught how to talk to people. But again i know every race and ethnicity has their bad apples but by far they have been the rudest people to deal with. One time we were out of strawberry Fanta and orange Fanta because the vendor, and that day and I’m so serious we were called “bitch ass n****” or “yall ghetto” or just all kinds of names and attitude. Like one said “damn yall jus outta errthang?” Like no ma’am we are just out of the Fanta drinks but we have everything else. So I started basically getting attitudes back and I grew up in an inner city school so u can’t go to them and not know how to fight, so since I know how to fight I started catching attitudes back with them, and when u match their energy they be so ready to get to jumping. None of it makes sense to me and it makes me so upset because my friend group 8 of the the 10 of us are black and it took a couple years to get them out of the habit of treating customer service folks bad and now they treat them good. And the thing is black people are the funniest people on the planet can’t change my mind on that, when we get the non rude ones, they are so chill and nice. Had one guy who was listening to a song most of us in the back fuck with. And since there’s a speaker in the back so everyone can hear the orders as they are being said they could hear the music, so that night we were super busy and short staffed and bro was cooo and asked us if we had any song request. He had subs so it was fun. Bro was saying “yes sir” and “thank you” and even said “if yall are able too can yall make my fries fresh, if you can make some without salt” like fuck yeah imma make sure everything fresh cause the way u fucked with us. But anywho hope this isn’t taken bad, just wanted to rant about it and maybe have someone kinda give their experience or even an explanation why they are this way?

AITA for cutting my brother off after he chose the mother of his child over his family? A little back story. I, 30F, have been taking care of my brother, 31M, off and on for the past 7 years. I have let him live with me and my husband every time we have gotten a new place and paid him to babysit my child. We have never asked him to help pay bills or pay rent. About 4 years ago we moved into a new house and after 2 years of living in the new house my brother got a new girlfriend while he was living with us and ended up getting her pregnant. He ended up moving out and living with his GF and his GFs brother. They had a falling out with his GFs family. My brother had multiple cars and an RV on our property. We offered them to stay on the property in the RV and have them pay rent. From the moment they had moved into the RV his GF would just talking bad about her brother and his wife saying that they kept her stuff and wouldn't return it and called her sister in law a bad mother. I had called her out and told her that I would take her over to her brothers house to get the rest of her stuff because I was friends with her brother and his wife. She would automatically come up with excuses as to why she can't go over there or that they won't let her and they are never home. I noticed that my brothers GF loved to play the victim and blow everything out of proportion. Everything was always everyone else's fault and never her fault. She twisted every story she had in her favor and made the other person look bad. I even recorded her conversation one time and sent it to her sister in law cause it was the last straw for me I take full accountability for everything I did and the messages relayed back and forth but do not apologize for it. I tried to be nice to her and like her. I even let her move onto my property and made dinner for her and her kids every night while my husband and brother worked night shifts. She never did the dishes or helped clean up. After she had her baby her and my brother moved into my parents house. After a couple of months they got their own place. I took in her dog because she wasn't a service animal and we agreed that I would be the one to keep her. They had left a lot of their belongings on my property. Her and her sister in law ended up talking and sorting their issues out but in the process I'm the one who got blamed for all the shit that my brothers GF had said about her sister in law. I told her sister in law that she could tell her I told her things but she went as far as telling her everything that was said. I was not the only person that told her what was said or what was going around I'm just the only person that was blamed for all of it. My brothers GF ended up yelling at me for it and saying that everything was my fault and the reason everyone, including her mom, was mad at her was because of me. I never once lied about anything I told the truth when I was asked what she was saying. My brothers GF ended up cutting me off and I did the same because I was over all the drama that she brought everywhere she went. I still had contact with my brother. One night I had gotten a call from my brother that him and his GF had a huge fight and he needed helping getting all of his stuff out of the apartment. I packed up my kids and took them with me to help him pack up all of his stuff from her house. When I arrived my mom was there talking to the GF on the couch trying to calm her down cause she was crying and freaking out. At the time she was babysitting someone else's kid and that kid was crying. She was just ignoring him and having a little self pitty party on the couch with my mom. I ended up picking up that baby and comforting him and then handing him to the GF to help my brother finish packing. My brother had asked me to get garbage bags under the sink to pack his stuff in. As we were packing I had to get more bags but when I went to get more there was none. The Gf had taken them and hidden them. When we finally finished the Gf started freaking out and yelling at my brother and then yelled at me. I flipped out and tried to fight her but was pulled out by my brothers friend, not my best move but she was just yelling at me and getting closer to me. The GF ended up posting on Facebook about what happened accusing me of stealing her makeup and clothes, I have my own makeup and gave her half the stuff she has and we aren't the same size in clothes, and leaving the door wide open for her kids to freeze. Her kids were upstairs in their room no where near the door that we kept closed unless we were taking stuff out of the house. Fast forward and she is claiming I'm keeping all her stuff from her including the items she left on my property from when they moved in and keeping her dog from her. I told him that she isn't getting the dog back cause she surrendered the dog to us and she is more than welcome to come and get her stuff of my property and we don't want her stuff on our property, it's been a year and it's still on my property. She even called the cops on my parents for because they wouldn't give her her stuff out of their storage container right before the cops showed up she was screaming and yelling at my parents and as soon as a cop showed up she just started crying and saying they won't let her get her stuff. My parents told her that she could have her stuff back when they get back the phone that my parents gave her cause she broke hers. They were still paying on the phone and asked that she return it so that they wouldn't get charged she never did and ran the phone bill up to 1500. My brother decided to fix things with her and asked us to give the dog back again. At first we refused but in the end we decided to give her back to be the bigger person my husband ASKED in return, we never forced her to do it and we were already planning on giving the dog back. that his GF publicly apologize to my family about what she said about us. She ended up posting on Facebook again apologizing. That is when we told my brother we want nothing to do with them. We were over all the drama and the blame game. She tried to tarnish our reputation and lie about the kind of people we were. Now my brother is saying that we screwed him over and we owe his GF an apology for "making" her publicly apologize on Facebook just to get her dog back. We still have her stuff on our property and the RV and one of my brothers cars. My brother chose her over everyone in his life who has tried to help him. He only ever contacts my parents when he wants or need something. So AITA for cutting him off after all the drama and his GF trying to make us out to be bad people? Sorry for the long post. I can clarify or answer questions if needed. It's kind of all over the place.

i have a genuine question for men who say they’re too busy to text. are you a brain surgeon? are you actively fighting house fires? no? you’re an accountant? ok. well then what other excuse do you have other than you’re not interested? people need to start being truthful with others about intent and interest. i work 12 hour days with no lunch break. SOMEhow, through miracles and magic, i find a way to reply to messages within a few hours.
please just be honest with others and say you’re not interested. saying you’re busy is slimey and manipulative.

Long post ahead so bear with me.
I’m 24F dating my 24M boyfriend for 4 years. Overall I’d say our relationship has been pretty good - no serious issues until now, all of our fights have been over his tendency to be moody or passive aggressive.
Some background information: I’m on the neurodivergent spectrum and suffer from depressive episodes, but I’m high functioning because I don’t want it to affect my professional life or anyone else but me. A side effect of that has been my tendency to isolate myself from everyone, which I’ve done for the majority of our relationship - sometimes I didn’t interact with anyone at all except for my family and my bf. I haven’t gone a single day in the last 6 years without any contact with him.
I realized that this wasn’t healthy so this year I decided to try and come out of my shell and build more friendships. It’s a bit hard but I’ve been working on it slowly, and one of my newfound friends was one of my bf’s friends, J (23M), as well - they had been friends for about a year at this point. We hit it off pretty well and as someone who’s really bad at friendships I enjoyed talking to J, but it was strictly platonic - nothing out of the ordinary, exactly like every friendship I have/have ever had. Please keep in mind I did not prioritize interactions I had with J or anyone else over ones I had with my bf.
While my bf initially really liked J, around the time we started becoming friends he started to sour on J until he eventually just started icing him because he didn’t like anything about him all of a sudden, and the only reason he could come up with was “J was annoying.” He also told me he found it “weird” that he chose to be friends with his friend’s gf (confused about that one because I met some of my closest friends through him/his circles). I reassure him that there’s nothing weird going on and my friendship with J is, once again, platonic. In all honesty, I also didn’t really think much of it because I didn’t find J to be annoying and my bf has had a pattern of disliking some of my friends for no apparent reason, even if he’d never talked to them. (My friends are all just goofy nerds so I never really got why.)
3 weeks ago my bf tells me he thinks J is trying to sleep with me but he has no evidence or thoughts to support this. I’m obviously shocked and once again reassure him that I’ve never picked up sleazy vibes from J and he’s never been inappropriate with me. I’ve had really creepy encounters before so I’m always hyperalert about these kinds of things and if I do get those vibes I shut them down immediately.
Onto the main clown show: last week my bf texts me angry that I’ve been lying to him and that I’ve been repeatedly gaslighting him into thinking my friendship with J was normal, but after a conversation with one of his other friends he’s convinced that he’s right and it’s inappropriate for J to be friends with me. Then he goes ahead and texts J to stop texting me and accuses him, amongst other things, of being a creep. To the surprise of absolutely no one, turns out this scenario that my bf created of J secretly trying to steal me away from him was completely false and J is both hurt and pissed about it. He tells him that he’s only ever thought of him as a good friend and he never had ill intentions towards me but he cannot in good conscience be ok with this and subsequently cuts both of us off.
For obvious reasons, I’m extremely pissed about this and we have a blowout fight over it, because turns out I don’t like anyone messing with my friendships like that and falsely accusing someone who’s done nothing wrong to you of being a creep is a shitty thing to do. He genuinely didn’t see anything wrong about what he did and “he did what he had to because he was desperate to get J out of my life and I left him no other choice.” He also told me that if he woke up to find out I did something to cause his friends to cut him off, he’d assume I had a good reason to do so and everything that happened with J was for the best. He screamed at me, accused me of being disrespectful and thinking of him as an insecure loser, called me a whole slew of hurtful things, that I’m disgusting and make him feel worthless and that he fucking hates me repeatedly. It overall just turned into a really ugly mess.
The next morning he was calmer and apologized for the hurtful things he said and that he didn’t mean any of it. He also admitted what he did was wrong, that he overreacted out of paranoia, and that he’s sorry he hurt J and ruined my friendship with him. He admitted that I was right, there wasn’t anything weird going on like he thought and he apologized for messing with my personal life.
The issue is I’m having a hard time processing all of this. First of all this couldn’t have happened at a worse time because I have a lot of personal issues going on that I’m incredibly stressed out about and he’s well aware of that. He’s also aware that I’ve always struggled with making friends, and now any urge I’ve had to do that is gone. I can’t get over him saying I make him feel worthless because I’ve dedicated so much and sacrificed so much to be with him and make him happy every way I could. I’ve never and still don’t prioritize anyone else over him. Having your boyfriend of nearly 5 years tell you he doesn’t trust you and despises you is also pretty fucking shitty because I’ve never done anything distrustful or been anywhere near as hurtful as he has been to me. His apologies sound hollow and lukewarm to me because at the end of the day, he got exactly what he wanted. And I’m left to suck it up and deal with it.
I don’t know what to do and I feel like I’m alone backed into a corner and I’m about to break with all the other things going on in my life. I’m sorry if this post isn’t very coherent but I’m a little tipsy right now. I just feel so violated and I’ve never felt more horrible or alone in my life than I do now and I’ve never not felt like that my entire life. I don’t know and can’t tell if I’m the one who messed up here and what I should do. Any advice, harsh or gentle is appreciated.
TLDR: bf incorrectly assumed mutual friend was trying to sleep with me and subsequently went nuclear on both me and friend. Am hurt and don’t know how or if I should resolve this.

My husband and I have been together for 12 years, married for 6 years. We dated very young - I was 18 and he was 23 y.o. We had a lot of fights during our first 2 years of relationships, but eventually got better at communication and we don't argue anymore.
He's a homebody and I am too, but I enjoy going out sometimes. He's a bigger introvert than I am so he doesn't connect with people easily. In a relationship, I crave affections, touches, excitement, words of affirmation, etc. He likes spending time together. He's a settler, likes being comfortable in things.
Since the beginning of our relationship, I have verbally shared that I need more affection, I still say it to this day. I had to make him give me kisses before he leaves for work and finally it became a habit. I had to ask for hugs all the time. I had to ask for a deeper kiss than just a quick peck. When we see new restaurants, I'll say, "Oh we should go" or "you can take me on a date there!" and he never does. Its like those words are insignificant and doesn't stick to his mind. Sex is vanilla. We don't have much to talk about. We are very routine in our lives and it feels like our relationship has plateaued.
I feel dull in this relationship. When he shares something, I'm not as interested. He doesn't think things are wrong but we both feel bored in our relationship, but he's fine with it and I'm not. I often think about the "what ifs" with other people or what if I'm not with him, how'd that be?
I can't force him to give thrilling sex or be more affectionate or excite our marriage cause IDK how. It's just a feel that I think we're lacking. So how do you know if your marriage is going to be this way forever or if there's a possibility to fix it?
FYI: He's an amazingly nice, thoughtful, loving man. He cares for me and my family. But I'm just not sure if we're in love. I want to stay married cause we're in love, not just cause we have love for each other. To make it even MORE confusing - we were planning for a kid. Now idk im feeling unsure.
Anybody felt this way before?

Alright, so… I (18F) kinda made this reddit account just to get some feedback about this situation, since I’m too ashamed to ask my parents. The girl in question is 16, and is probably one of the most annoying people I’ve ever met…
(TLDR: This girl I was pretending to be friends with in High School obsessively fantasized about murdering someone for an entire semester, is overbearing as a person, interrogates people on a daily basis and is nosy, injects herself into drama that isn’t her own, throws temper tantrums when she doesn’t get her way, constantly touches people and makes unwarranted comments about girl’s bodies, asked me to draw CP for her, and MADE FUN OF HER SUICIDAL BROTHER. And I wrote a hate-letter telling her that all of this stuff is a problem, but now I feel bad about it because I think she might actually have mental issues. It’s a really wild ride and a long story, so if you choose to read it, you should expect to be here for a while. And it’s High School drama, so I’ll try to discard the boring details.)
At the beginning of this year, I ended up in a small Sports Medicine class with literally 8 students total in it. That made things quiet, which gave us some room to start talking and getting to know each other after the teacher was done with the lesson and we had our small hands-on tests and assignments out of the way. (The classes took about 20 minutes every day. Really quick and easy. Laid back. It met curriculum requirements actually, because there wasn’t constant bullshit from other students making the lesson longer.). There’s this girl, who… I’ll call her Storm. You’ll find out why. Storm quickly became the most annoying person in the class. Any time she talked, she didn’t have anything interesting to say, but just kept going on and on and on endlessly. It was annoying, but we just kinda played along to be nice. Well… Around a month into school, Storme started opening up and became comfortable talking about personal topics. She told us this story about how one of her other friends (I’ll call her Katie) “betrayed” her the previous year, and then went on to talk about how much she hated Katie and didn’t care if she lived or died. (Honestly, Katie’s offense was miniscule. At most, she replaced Storm with someone else as her best friend. You know… Regular High School drama that wasn’t that deep. I honestly forgot all of what Katie did because it was just so miniscule.) Then Storme started saying ludicrous stuff like “I hope she falls into a volcano”, or “I hope she gets eaten by sharks falling from the sky. Like Sharknado.”. But like… She kept saying it constantly, out loud in class. She ranted about how she wanted Katie to get kidnapped by the Mafia, be flown up to the moon, and be dropped into a black hole to become “Katie-spaghetti”. It was honestly really funny at first, so me and a few other people in the class joined in a little bit and added our own stupid, childlike scenarios. (Katie has a reputation for being… A slut. That’s why it was funny at first.) But then after this schtick got old, Storm just kept going and going and going… She ranted about Katie until it physically hurt to hear her talk anymore. She was back to being annoying and boring again, but it was worse this time because it was obvious that she was trying to re-kindle our intrigue without realizing that she should move on to something else. Instead of assessing herself, she just kept yapping until everyone rolled their eyes every time she opened her mouth, because we knew she would just keep going on and on about all of the stupid ways she wanted Katie to de. Even the damn teacher told her to stop doing that, but she never listened and the teacher eventually just gave up telling her off (And honestly, I think the teacher started zoning her out.). Katie then gradually started to get more morbid with the things she was saying, to the point where I genuinely considered calling the cops and getting this girl some grippy socks. She talked until she became red-faced, started tweaking, and laughed in a neurotic, nervous angry way while she started wringing out her trembling hands. She genuinely looked and sounded unhinged, and what didn’t help was that she started saying stuff like “There aren’t metal detectors in this school, right?”, and “I wish I wasn’t such a good person, because if I wasn’t, I’d be acting on my impulse to cave her skull in the next time I see her. One of these days I’m going to snap and then just do it..” …Yeah, so I was genuinely considering getting the police involved in this because of those two sentences. Thankfully Katie is safe and sound to this day and Storm never acted on these “impulses”. I’m so glad it worked out that I didn’t have to call the cops, but I was seriously worried for a minute… One of my other friends in that class, (I’ll call him Mark), eventually kinda snapped and called her out for being the annoying piece of crap she is. Quickly, Storm and Mark started getting into arguments just about every day and started throwing things like wads of wrapping-tape at each other, and I was becoming worried that they were going to start actually full-on fighting. It doesn’t sound logical in hindsight, but I ended up taking it upon myself to step in and start acting friendly toward her and listening to her (or pretending to listen to her) just to draw her attention away from him. Pretty soon she started talking mostly to me, and this was intentionally done on my part so that the other people in the class could relax a little bit and start doing whatever on their phones and zone her out instead of having to pretend to listen in agony. Ultimately, it was an exchange that benefited everyone, because after Storme got that angry energy out of her, she shut up for the day. She continued to talk about Katie, but mostly to me. She talked about this topic endlessly, her words getting increasingly violent until Christmas break. Yeah… 5 months. She ranted about the ways she wanted Katie to die for 5 whole months. Months. But then when she was done ranting, she finally shut up. …Oh God, the silence sounded like angels singing. I didn’t even really retain any of the information she spewed onto me, but holy crap, when it was over it was like heaven on Earth. So that’s what I did – I acted like the “lightning rod” for this Storm of a person until it passed (kinda). She wrote a note to Katie explaining “You hurt me really badly, but I’m a Christian so I forgive you and I hope you the best”... As if she didn’t rant about her for 5 months straight. Make it make sense. But enough about that. Here’s where my fck ups began. I gave Storm my number and we quickly started saying that we were friends, though I didn’t actually like her at all and just wanted to keep the peace. We had a few things in common, but I still didn’t like her whatsoever. She continued to rant to me nonstop about Katie, even over text, and I was burnt out listening after a while. So… To dampen the impact of this girl’s obsessive ramblings, I started sending her pictures of my drawings. (I’m an artist). I had characters that I liked to draw that are ocs of an anime fandom (all of which are underage), and she seemed to calm down a bit and hyper-focus on them. She even has a folder in her phone’s gallery completely dedicated to storing my artwork. That’s great and all, but… One day, the topic of Wattpad came up in one of our conversations. I, myself, was one of those cringy Wattpad 12 year olds who made the most illiterate fanfictions ever to be conceived by a human being (They’ve long since been deleted. Thank God, those were awful.) Then… The topic of “Wattpad smut” came up, because I admitted that I used to read those because of the awful grammar and I thought it was funny. I still do sometimes, actually. The way people on Wattpad can’t write to save their lives is just hilarious. Like the stupid “Shrek x Donald Trump” ones are the ones that make me wheeze. I don’t take them seriously, and I love it when the author doesn’t take it seriously either. It’s hilarious. …But then this asshole said: “I don’t like to read bad grammar, it makes me mad. But I do like to read that type of content… For a different reason”. So uhh… That’s… Weird. But then she asked: “Have you found any… Good ones? Do you have any recommendations? Asking for a friend.” …FCK NO. No thank you. Nope, I’m done. No jerkoff material for you, ma’am. Nope. You’re done. Seriously, I put down my phone for a little bit and went outside to go stare at some birds at the bird feeder until my sickness went away. I fell nauseous because of that (though in hindsight, that seems like an overreaction). When I came back, I didn’t answer that question and kinda skated past it, and that seemed to be the end of it. …But there is NEVER an end with Storm. She DID forget about the resolution to that conversation, but since we talked about smut to begin with, she started asking me some questions about my art. She asked if I had ever drawn p0rn in my life. Of course, I didn’t really admit to anything. I skated past it too, but then she said: “I think (character 1) and (character 2) are really cute together… Like… Really, really cute together.”. That’s great, she likes my characters… Cool, cool. And then my worst nightmare: “Have you ever drawn p0rn of them?” …Of course I didn’t, because that would be CP… Plus I’ve never thought of those characters as being “sxual”... They’re literally 14 and 15 years old. Then basically, she made an indirect “suggestion” for me to draw them together. I said fck no. Hell fcking no. She tried to convince me to draw them “aged up”, but again I refused. She eventually dropped it, but since then, she passively talked about things of that nature… Like if she saw a guy she thought was cute, she’d tell me she thought he’s cute or hot or gorgeous or whatever and allude to -other- awkward desires that I didn’t want to know about. She put me off from drawing those characters ever again. I haven’t drawn them since and I don’t take my sketchbook to school anymore because I don’t want her to see my drawings and be reminded of that BS.
But enough about that… Storm is a church-going girl, and so she has a few church-going friends. (This also makes everything I’ve said before all the more ironic.). One day when I was transitioning from my 5th to 6th period, I saw her talking angrily to one of her church friends (I’ll call her Isabelle) outside the school building. Storm was accusing Isabelle of lying about smoking weed/vaping and drinking, and she seemed to be so interested in it that you’d think it had an impact on her personally. Isabelle denied doing that, and they eventually parted ways to go to class. I walked with Storm to 6th period (the Sports Medicine period), and I asked her why she was so damn interested in Isabelle’s habits. Know what she said? Storm said “I just don’t like liars.”... So let me get this straight: She thought she had the right to interrogate someone half to death because she just “doesn’t like liars”? Make that make sense. I’ve heard many stories about how Storm interrogates other people, too. If she sees a guy/girl’s name pop up on the screen of someone she knows, she’ll pester them until they give her one of two answers: either “I’ll tell you later”, or the actual answer. She’s done that to me too, in front of everyone in class. The thing that upsets me about this is that she claims to be “nosy”, but thinks it’s a positive attribute rather than an annoying one. She brags about being “nosy” sometimes.
And the sxual assault… Since we were in a sports medicine class, our projects involved a lot of hands-on things. That didn’t bother me by itself, but with Storm, it was a nightmare. This girl, in the process of strapping an ice bag to my thigh, called my thighs “small”, and said that I have a “beautiful body”. We also did shoulder stretching stuff the next week, and I happened to fall under her care while she stared into my eyes and made weird faces at me, all the while she made sound effects and made the process much more uncomfortable than it needed to be. One week, we ended up as partners again and she ended up wrapping my shoulder. This shoulder-wrap wasn’t an issue for me, but having her as a partner made it an issue. As expected, she made sound effects, but this time she stated the obvious as if it was new information that nobody would have ever suspected: “Wow, this is squishing your boobies huh?”... Emphasis on the word “boobies”. Jesus Fcking Christ, it was already awkward as hell before she even brought that up, why would she say something like that?? I didn’t even realize that until she brought it up. In fear of being subjected to her uncomfortable BS again and feeling violated, I texted her and told her that she’s been making me feel uncomfortable, and to please stop being so…. Weird. I get it’s an awkward thing to wrap up your classmate’s thigh, but that’s a moment to keep comments to yourself. Her response? “I’M SORRY I’M SORRY I’M SORRY I’M SORRY I’M SORRY I’M SORRY I’M SORRY I’M SORRY I’M SORRY-” Just… Stop it. I didn’t introduce the topic as a big deal and told her not to worry about it, but she kept apologizing for it nonstop. Just endlessly, like everything else. Even when I tried to change the subject to something else, she just kept apologizing for it practically until she went to bed. (She has a bedtime at 9:30… At 16 years old.) All of this stuff contributed to my overall hatred toward her. I don’t like her at all, and it’s a wonder I didn’t explode and insult her entire personality and deplorable behavior to her face (Meg Griffin style). Things are just so awkward and awful whenever she opens her mouth, and it just doesn't ever stop. But because of all of this, when it came time for my Senior prom, I decided to secretly invite one of my friends from that class as a plus one, and NOT Storm. I was worried that if I told her that to her face, I would all of a sudden be the new “Katie” in her conversations, because the infraction Katie did was so miniscule that it seemed to be less like a “betrayal” than what I did. (In hindsight, it was probably the other way around.) So… I just kept the whole thing to myself and so did the friend I took to prom (I’ll call her Beyonce. Because… She loves Beyonce.).

If this wasn’t bad enough, strap in because not even three weeks ago, Beyonce was doing her usual schtick of making fun of random things. She once made fun of cool whip and the entire state of Texas at the same time and somehow made it make perfect sense. She should really have a comedy show, I swear. But this time, Beyonce was making fun of the name “Gage”, saying “Why would anyone name their kid after a 12-gage shotgun?” and “People named Gage seem untrustworthy. I wouldn’t want to be near one in a zombie apocalypse, because he’d just feed me to those f*ckers.”. Funny stuff. Storm then said “My brother’s name is Gage”, and in order to preserve the flow of the conversation (and also to tick her off a little, I’m ngl), Beyonce asked her: “Is your brother untrustworthy?” And then without a single millisecond wasted, she said, in a Disney Channel comedy fashion: “Welll… We can’t trust him with his own life, sooo…”.. And then she laughed as if it was funny. Like.. Rib-stitches type of laughing. ….So then the others (understandably) went quiet, which left only me and her talking for a moment after her laughter quieted down. She complained about how confused she is that nobody finds her joke funny, and said that her joke had the “perfect timing and everything”... So then my idiot ass decided to say what I was thinking at that moment: “You don’t seem to be taking it seriously. That’s your brother, but you don’t sound sympathetic at all.” She tried to “defend” herself, but Mark interjected into the conversation and changed the course of it entirely, which just left her to sit there in silence, pouting. I felt bad for that statement, so I apologized for it over text when I got home from school. Quickly, we erupted into an argument, (with me holding back), and she ended up saying “What does it matter to you? He’s not your brother. If Beyonce said that about her brother, you’d laugh. But when I do, it’s bad.”. Beyonce’s brother is 8 years old…. So no, that would be even worse. …So then I had to explain to her how human decency works, and how making fun of your s*icidal siblings isn’t funny whatsoever and how that joke could be considered to be in very poor taste, even for people who like dark humor. When me, Beyonce or Mark made “s*icide” jokes, it was about OURSELVES and it was usually in a statement like “I don’t want to take a test next period, I’m gonna kms.”... …Storm ended up getting so mad that we weren’t having a conversation anymore; we were just throwing sh*t around. I told her that if she was being livestreamed at that moment, she’d be bashed on the whole internet for a week or so and be called “evil” for that joke. In hindsight I shouldn’t have said that, but my goal was just to tell her how insensitive others might perceive her comment to be. She said that it wasn’t my business to tell her how to feel about her own brother, but I wasn’t doing that at all, that wasn’t my angle whatsoever – I was just explaining what people find funny. I even said repeatedly that I wasn’t trying to tell her how to feel, and that I know comedy can help lighten situations, but somehow she forgot about that part. And then she went on this whole thing about ending every massive text block with “Not that it’s YOUR business, or anything” to snap at me, despite me being in the room at the time of the joke... So I ended the conversation right then and there because it was pointless to keep going and I really didn’t want to spend any more energy on her. The next day, I apologized to her again. I retracted my statements and told her that I was sorry for talking out of line. She accepted the apology, and things went back to “normal”. She forgot about it, but I didn’t. …So here are the reasons why I feel bad, before I delve into the contents of the “hate letter” I wrote to her. Here’s a list of my crimes: 

I pretended to be her friend for an entire school year. I hid the fact that I was going to prom with Beyonce from her, and then lied to her face repeatedly whenever she asked if I went to prom or not. I got into business that wasn’t my own and criticized her. I wrote a hate-letter to her that I directed her to read at home on the last day of school.
…Here’s why I feel bad: Storm doesn’t seem to be emotionally intelligent and is unable to control her mouth whenever she feels strong emotions. She talks nonstop about her second cousin’s friend’s pet hamster’s wife’s sister’s drama, hoping we’ll find something funny or interesting or impressive, while seeming unable to understand that she needs to change her tune. All she wants is to be listened to and understood, but nobody can and nobody truly wants to. She feigns confidence and goes overboard with compliments in the hopes of catching the attention of people who want to be friends with her. She’s not used to change and is very naive, to the point where (just yesterday) she quit her job at a fast food restaurant after only the first day of working there. For the longest time she didn’t have access to the internet, so she doesn’t really have a means to connect with other people through sharing videos or memes or whatever. …I feel like a bad person because I knowingly, intentionally played into all of this just for the pathetic reason of making her shut up in class. It’s despicable what I did, and I’m beating myself up for it every day. I was just originally going to leave the school, block her and never talk to her ever again in my life, but when she made that joke about her brother, I decided (stupidly) to take it upon myself to be the bearer of bad news. I gave her a letter. Within the “hate letter”, it isn’t actually hate, per se. It’s more like… A report on the behavior she needs to fix, as well as an admission to my lies over the course of this whole year. I told her the awful truth. I told her about everything I mentioned in this post and tried to keep it “professional”, though I did end up going as far as to say “you have all of the attributes of an obnoxious piece of stale bread”........... And what’s worse is… I told her to read it on the last day of school, and my reasoning is pathetic at best. I told her to read it on the last day of school because I didn’t want her to burden the class with her nonstop ranting about me, since she, Mark and Beyonce are sophomores and I’m the only senior in the “friend group”, which means that I left the school an entire week earlier than them. I’ve been intentionally delaying her pain and still talking to her over text acting like things are “normal” so that she doesn’t read it early, knowing damn well that on that last day of school, my words are going to hurt her so badly that she might not be able to recover for a while. In the letter, I told her that by the time she reads it, I would have already blocked her because I don’t want any more conversation with her due to me feeling so bad and having nothing more to say. If the plan goes right, she’ll read it on May 23rd, and on that day I will block her.

I feel awful for all of this. I feel like a monster for this. It’s painful knowing that I’m going to cause her pain and that I planned when it’s going to happen, but at the same time I feel like she deserves it. But at the same time, I know damn well that it wasn’t my place to do that. I should have left everything alone. Nobody I can talk to irl would even hear me out; they’d just stop at the words “hate letter”, which means my only option is to seek advice from people on Reddit. Do my motives for doing things make sense? Am I actually a bad person for this? Am I the asshole? Does she deserve what she’s getting? 

Considerations on Sexual Immorality, Gender Identity, and my friends Non-Denominational Church.
A good friend of mine from a fairly conservative evangelical background is considering becoming a pastor at his non-denominational church. As part of the evaluation process, they asked him to write a paper on these topics that he is not an expert on.
He asked for my opinion and I offered to share it online to solicit constructive criticism, notes of encouragement, and or reading recommendations on these topics.
I believe his goal is to be faithful to the scriptures, loving to those outside the church, and challenging to those inside the church, as most of us could do better.
What he wrote is in the quotation marks below.
“1: Scope of the Issue
Sexual immorality has become a besetting and ubiquitous issue in our culture and in our churches. While many aspects of it are not novel or unique to this time and have clear scriptural input, there are others that bring challenges to our church for which we don’t have obvious precedent. The main point of these comments is to try and answer three questions with some degree of specificity: (1) how do we make ourselves a place where people who do not know Christ will feel welcome to come and learn of Him regardless of where they come from, (2) how do we pastorally care for people who have come in to the church with pre-existing circumstances related to sexual immorality, and (3) how do we equip our members to represent Christ to those in their lives that are dealing with these issues. We want to do this in a way that does not “walk a tight rope” or compromise to appease, but honors Scripture in its commands to both show compassion and exhort and correct. We must recognize that every individual circumstance is unique, and many will require careful and prayerful consideration, but this is meant to give a framework for that consideration.
2: Scriptural Basis for Corporate Response
There are many references we can point to that discuss and define sexual immorality throughout Scripture and many of these will be used below as we consider specific examples and situations. Let us start, however, by looking at passages that deal with corporate response rather than individual sin. It is clear that the Corinthian church had significant issues in this area, and much of Paul’s first letter was devoted to it. In chapter 5, Paul states that when sexual immorality is discovered in the church we should “mourn” over it and “not to associate with immoral people.” Importantly, he also makes clear in vv. 9-13 that these comments only apply to those “who bears the name of brother.” He explicitly writes, “not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world…for what have I to do with judging outsiders?” This is key in informing our response to those who are not members of the church. If it is our desire to see sinners come through our doors and come to know our Savior through our ministry, then we must be welcoming, accepting them where they are. This is not to say we hide or compromise the biblical position, but it is not an issue on which we want to filter people at the door. There are three categories of people in sexual sin that we need to form a response for. First, those just coming to the church who have not committed to it – these should be treated the same as any we are reaching out to with Christ’s love. They need Jesus, not behavioral change. Next, those who have recently joined the church but have pre-existing sexual sin patterns. This can and should be addressed with patience, dignity, and love. There are often many sin areas in the life of a new believer, and it is prudent to discern how and when to address each of them. Lastly, those who have been members in the church for some amount of time and fall into sexual sin. This is the group that Paul is primarily addressing in 1 Corinthians. While sex within marriage is a private issue, sexual sin cannot be a taboo topic. It needs to be addressed regularly and clearly. We need close enough relationships within the church that such problems do not fester in the dark. We must avoid the typical church pattern to vilify the first group, never see the second group, and pretend the third group doesn’t exist until it all blows up in scandal. May it never be.
3: Consistency Issue
There is a tendency in our Christian culture to treat some sexual sins as worse than others. Like the Corinthians, some things we seem to have accepted as just ubiquitous parts of our culture. Knowing the prevalence of promiscuity and fornication among teens and single adults and usage of pornography even within the church, we tend to address these as issues of indwelling sin, similar to anger or fear of man, with offers of accountability and understanding when someone falls. By contrast, when it comes to homosexuality or adultery, it is often a church discipline issue. We view homosexual marriage as a major problem, but remarriage after a non-biblical divorce is rarely addressed. These inconsistencies lead to stigmatization and polarization and should have no place in the church. The criterion for escalation should be unrepentance, not the nature of the sexual sin. It is clear from 1 Corinthians that all should be taken seriously, but none should be vilified above others.
4: Culture and Identity
The major underlying problem with many of the sexual sin and gender issues is that they have come to be culturally bound up with people’s identities. This is not a new phenomenon and is not unique to this issue. As far back as Acts 19, you see people becoming “enraged” because Paul had threatened the Ephesians’ cultural identity as worshipers of Artemis. People continue to find their primary identities in their employment, hobbies, sports teams, or families rather than Christ. None of these should be accepted, but none should be reviled either. If a person does not know Jesus, they are dead. How they identify themselves is of no concern. Once they have been made alive, they can be taught that “whose” they are is more important than “who” they are. All identity outside of Christ is not sinful, but if it takes paramount importance, it may become so. A person who recognizes a tendency toward same sex attraction may label themselves as gay or lesbian. This should not be considered a sin issue unless it becomes, for them, their defining characteristic or leads to sinful actions. We should recognize the difficulty of this struggle and support such a person rather than get hung up on labels. There must be clear distinction between identifying same sex attraction and engaging in homosexual behavior. These should be the guiding principles underlying everything that follows are regards individual cases.
5: Public Facing Information, Guests, and New Attendees
Considering what we have discussed, and Paul’s assertion in 1 Corinthians 5 that we ought to reserve judgment on sexual immorality to those we call brother, I would submit that public facing information regarding the church (i.e. website, app, etc) should not publish a position on sexual immorality, marriage, and gender identity. Doing so effectively places the filter at the door so that people who do not know Christ may be turned away from it. This is not tantamount to tacit approval. In appropriate contexts within the church, these topics should still be discussed and addressed, but I do not believe it is consistent with a biblical treatment of unbelievers to place it in a public facing forum. If we have guests or new regular attendees who appear to be engaged in a cohabitating or fornicating relationship, a homosexual relationship, or other sexual sin, this should not be a priority to address unless we have discerned that they are believers and join the church. Even then, it is important to draw a distinction between someone who deals with same-sex attraction and someone who engages in homosexual behavior. The next seven points are meant to discuss, in broad terms, how we should address those who join the church with pre-existing relationships or identity issues:
6: Promiscuity, Cohabitation – Hebrews 13:4, 1 Cor 7:1-2, Ex 22:16
Much of the biblical discussion on promiscuity is by inference. Clearly, sex was meant to be inseparably linked to marriage and outside of that context should be considered immoral. For those who join the church already in a sexual relationship who are unmarried we should apply Exodus 22:16 and encourage them to marry as soon as possible. If they do not wish to marry, they should be encouraged to separate. Paul acknowledges in 1 Cor 7:2 that marriage is the best remedy for “temptation to sexual immorality.”
7: Adultery, Divorce and Remarriage – Matt 5:32, Matt 19:9, 1 Cor 7:10-11
This issue is given much more explicit biblical instruction but is often glossed over in our Christian culture due to the messy landscape of divorces and remarriages. In cases where non-biblical divorce has occurred, if reconciliation is possible, this should be pursued. If reconciliation is impossible because one or more parties have remarried, it would not be sensible to divorce again in order to achieve reconciliation. The principle to apply here, I believe, is from 1 Cor 7:17-24 summarized in verse 20: “Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called.” This is not an ideal circumstance, but it is the best way forward in an imperfect world. Of note, polygamy was common in the culture of the early church, and while not ideal, was accepted by the church, as evidenced by the qualifications for elder to be “a husband of but one wife.” We have polygamous cultures even within our local community and if they came to Christ, we should not counsel them to divorce all but one wife and thus disrupt their social structure. It is not ideal and would disqualify them from eldership, but they should remain as they are. Whether marriage after unbiblical divorce in the past disqualifies a man from eldership is a case-by case question for the eldership.
8: Pornography, Sensuality, and Lust – Lev 18:6-18, Matt 5:28
As mentioned above, use of pornography has reached a high saturation point within our culture and within our church. While once thought of as simply a male issue, there is a growing trend toward gender parity in pornography usage. It is an issue that should be discussed with some frequency within our church. For those that join the church and view pornography regularly, it needs to be made clear that while the world has largely destigmatized it, it is still sexual immorality. Furthermore, this isn’t just limited to nudity and pornography, but any sensuality that leads to looking at someone “with lustful intent” is the heart equivalent of adultery according to Matt 5:28. In our culture, it is not possible to avoid such things by just turning away. We need to address the heart issues of idolatry, selfishness, and satisfaction in Christ. Practically, how should we deal with those who have on-going struggles with pornography, sensuality and lust? Should this preclude them from eldership? From deaconship? Taken strictly, this would preclude nearly all men from eldership. These require individual evaluation from the elders, but a guiding principle should be, if the person is repentant and there is evidence of growth in their life, we should consider more responsibility and continued discipleship.
9: Homosexuality – Lev 18:22, Lev 20:13, 1 Cor 6:9, 1 Tim 1:8-11
From the above references and others, it is evident that homosexual behavior is sexual sin. We cannot equivocate on that point. As we have discussed above, if a person who is already a believer and in the church and struggles with same sex attraction, we should approach them as we would handle anyone who is sexually attracted to someone to whom they are not married. If such a person decides that homosexuality is not sinful and begins sexually immoral activity, we should deal with them in the same way as any member who falls into unrepentant sin and go through the processes of correction and, if necessary, of church discipline. It is important that we draw a distinction between same sex attraction and homosexual behavior. We can do tremendous harm by demonizing same sex attraction and creating a taboo around it. A person who is struggling to abstain from homosexual behavior should be supported and encouraged. I believe Paul’s strong statements about not associating with sexually immoral people applies to those who remain unrepentant. Much more nuanced is the issue of how we address those that join the church already in a homosexual relationship. What about the married homosexual couple who join the church with their adopted child? Should we break up their family? I believe, in this case, the same principle should apply as to those who have gone through an unbiblical divorce in the past. We should apply 1 Cor 7:20: “Each one should remain in the condition in which he was called.” We can recognize that this is not ideal, but it is the best we can do in a fallen world just as we do with someone who is married after unbiblical divorce. Whether should apply to a homosexual couple in a long term committed relationship who are not legally married would be an individual discussion with the elders. Again, these are nuanced cases that will need individual prayer, discussion, and discernment. I believe a great deal more patience is called for when a new believer joins the church that has a history or present reality of homosexuality, even if they are unrepentant at first, believing that homosexuality is not sinful, than we would demonstrate to a person who has been in the church for a period of time and then decides to pursue a homosexual relationship.
10: Bisexuality – Heb 13:4
Bisexual attraction is no more or less of an issue than anyone who finds that they are sexually attracted to someone other than their spouse. This is not a rare or unique circumstance, even within the church. Someone who is practicing bisexuality is, by definition, not confining sex to the marriage bed, and this, therefore, qualifies as sexual immorality. The issue, here again, is one of identity and cultural acceptance. If a person “identifies as bisexual,” the real issue is not the bisexuality, but the fact that they identify themselves primarily by their sexual desires, and not by Christ. It would be equally a problem if they “identified as heterosexual” and that was seen as their defining characteristic. If such a person were to join the church, our priority should be in helping them see their identity in Christ rather than focusing on renouncing their sexual preference.
11: Transgenderism/Non-binarism – Psalm 139: 13-15
It should be noted that the next two points should not be considered in the category of sexual immorality, but as they are connected to the same cultural moment will be discussed here. It should further be remarked that transgenderism is a modern issue with no direct reference in Scripture. It is a challenging issue that often falls prey to oversimplification and scapegoating. It is not sufficient to simply state that a person should identify with their born gender. There are those born with ambiguous genitalia and those born with sex chromosome abnormalities such that “born gender” is not necessarily accurate. These occur with a frequency of 1 in 448 births on average which is not particularly rare. The majority of people who consider themselves to be transgender do not fall into these categories, but the fact remains that these categories exist. Unless we plan to embark on genetic testing, we must be careful how we assert someone’s gender assignment. Furthermore, we must acknowledge that much of the gender confusion in our culture is due to a distortion of biblically accurate masculinity and femininity in our culture of which the church has been widely supportive for generations. Many transgender and non-binary individuals consider themselves so because they do not fit into the traditional boxes our culture has created for the genders. The church can start by recognizing that these boxes are incorrect. We can also acknowledge that gender differences and roles are far less important than most human cultures perceive. Christ himself challenged many gender norms in his ministry and Paul maintains “…there is no male or female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal 3:28b) It is much more difficult to recognize this issue as a sin issue than many of the above concerns. If someone wishes to be addressed by different pronouns than they once did or dress differently than they once did, this does not amount to immorality. Once again, this can be an idolatrous identity issue if the person sees it as the central characteristic of their lives. There is often an inherent pride in asserting that such a person does not feel they fit in the body created for them, but if they come to love Jesus and understand and believe that they are “fearfully and wonderfully made” then this issue may become moot. Whether or not they revert to dressing differently or using pronouns they did when they were younger is largely immaterial. This also addresses the issue of people who may have undergone permanent physical changes. While we should not endorse such modification if it is being considered, there is no reason to reverse such a thing in order to return to a base state. We must recognize that this is a group that has a high propensity toward mental health concerns, instability, and suicidality. They need love, support and prayer, not scapegoating and extra-biblical expectations of conforming to a cultural norm. We must further note that this group as well as the homosexual group have often experienced psychological and even physical harm from others in our culture, sometimes in the name of Christ. We must foster an environment of champions physical and psychological safety for these people.
12: Asexuality – 1 Cor 7:25-38
Asexuality also should not be considered sexual immorality. There is, in fact, wide support in Paul’s letters such as in 1 Cor 7 for people, if they are able, to remain unmarried and be “anxious about the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord.” We tend to champion the model of the nuclear family in our Christian culture, but Paul sees chaste singleness as a better way. There should be no pressure from the church to make sure that single people pair off and get married because it is expected of them. As this state has been culturally identified with the LGBTQIA movement, it is seen on the same spectrum as the sexual immorality and gender issues discussed above, but it is not. It can still fall prey to the same issue of an idolatrous identity as some of the above issues, but it need not be so.
13: Glass Ceiling
In the event that God sees fit to bring people from these subgroups into our church, there would inevitably be a glass ceiling. The question is at what point. The four logical points are: regular attender, member, deacon, and elder. Regardless of their background or position, all should be welcome to be a regular attender. It is also clear, from the biblical requirements for eldership, that on-going problems or engagement in any of the sexual sins would disqualify them from that post. The middle two are less clear. I would submit that the bar for membership should be very low. This step, in my opinion, is when they would “bear the name of brother” and not before. Even if they disagree about the sinful nature of homosexuality, this should not disallow them from becoming members as long as they agree to submit to the churches position and not cause division. Allowing them to become members gives us the pastoral authority to speak into their lives, and we would hope that over time the Spirit would work in their hearts to convince them of the truth. Putting such a person in a deacon role would probably not be wise but would need to be evaluated prayerfully on a case-by-case basis. The difficulty here is that, while a position on homosexuality is not a salvific issue and should not be considered a core doctrine in the same way as the deity of Christ, for example, it is a sin issue. There is a limit to how far we can “agree to disagree” and still uphold our duty to root out sin in our midst. Once again, we should also distinguish between a struggle with same sex attraction and engagement in homosexual behavior when we consider our response. There is also a glass ceiling when it comes to marriage. While I believe we should not break up existing homosexual marriages, we should not participate in creating them. The marriage covenant between a man and woman was created, in part, to reflect the relationship between Christ and the church (Eph 5). This should not be co-opted to excuse or normalize immorality.
14: Nuance and Edge Cases
The above outline is by no means meant to be exhaustive or definitive. It is meant to provide a lens, supported by scripture, through which we can view these issues and consider corporate and pastoral responses. It should inform how we view the people that walk through the door from a wide range of backgrounds and how we equip those in our church to be Christ’s ambassadors to those in our community. Every person and circumstance, history and baggage will be different, and any non-nuanced position would be inherently evil. I pray we have many opportunities to talk, think and pray through specific situations that God would bless us with the chance to be a part of. What an honor it would be to be used to reach into broken lives like these with the Gospel of Grace.
15: Action Steps
As we consider practical and philosophical ways of responding to the above, I believe we should start from a position of corporate repentance. If we wish to truly reach out and touch the lives of broken people in need of a Savior who live a life of same sex attraction or gender dysphoria, we need to begin by recognizing that a great deal of harm, emotional and physical, has been inflicted on this group by the Church for generations. There are homeless people living in our area who were kicked out of their homes by parents holding a Bible. There are those who have been subjected to horrific methods that amount to torture under the guise of “Conversion Therapy” from Christian organizations. The only “conversion” we should concern ourselves with is to a regenerate heart. Attempting to change someone’s sexual attraction is very much beside the point. We cannot hope to be a place where such people can hear about Jesus unless they feel safe to enter our doors. We must also fight the tendency to consider sin in this area as something worse than others, even in non-Christians. James 2 says “…For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it….So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.” As we consider corporate and pastoral responses to the argument above, we must start by removing our own planks and repenting for the historical actions of the Church.
Practical steps that we could consider taking would include: removing the statements from the website about marriage and sexuality, especially directly under our Core Beliefs. Again, this is not meant to hide or equivocate on the truth, but not to set such a barrier before someone even walks through our door. Secondly, we should consider how to address these topics within the church. A Sunday morning sermon is not ideal as it is time limited and a unidirectional conversation. A small group course format would be a consideration. We need to equip parents and family members of adolescents, teens, and adults with language to talk about these things in loving, humble, God-honoring ways. In the longer term, we need to consider how we can make our church a place where people would feel comfortable inviting friends and family who look, think and act differently than we do. We need to find a way of projecting safety and inclusion even in our public facing information. This isn’t a balancing act where we must make it clear early and often that we “love the sinner but hate the sin” as the saying goes. We just need to love the sinner. Dealing with the sin can come later God-willing. A third application point is to be mindful of what we say and what we allow to be said without being checked. Certainly, joking at the expense of those who are dealing with these issues is unacceptable, but we also need to work to avoid getting dragged in to pseudo-political discussions on bathroom issues, sports issues or other divisive concerns that have no bearing on the church.
I recognize that these proposals have the potential to divide the church. There are some who may leave the body over these sorts of changes. I would argue that it is our responsibility to them as well as to the unreached in our community to have those discussions and risk some of them leaving over it. These are not all things we should change overnight but after ample opportunities for discussions and prayer.
16: Conclusion – Mark 2:15-17
At its core, these are not issues of who someone loves, sexual attraction, or even specific sex acts. The core is idolatry and identity. When acceptance by others, self-determination, or physical pleasure become the central force driving our lives then we have become idolators. Though our idols take on different shapes, the struggles in this space are shared by all. Whether you are identified by your profession, your family, or your gender identity, you are not being identified by your Master. Building fences around or within the church because someone sins in a different way than us cannot be allowed. Making the excuse that we are somehow “protecting our children” by shielding them from people in our community who desperately need a Savior will not show our children who Jesus is. Within the church, we cannot be afraid to “speak the truth in love.” We need not and cannot shy away from sin in the church, but we must recognize that the Spirit works in each of our lives. Often this happens over a period of time. We should be prepared to walk alongside our brothers and sisters in this journey for as long as they need.
There is a significant correlation between this community and their relationship with religious groups, and the “tax collectors and sinners” that Jesus sought out in His ministry and their relationship with the religious leaders of the day. Our heart should reflect His. Jesus responded: “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Mark 2:17) If our church was filled with transgender people and gay families that loved Jesus, God would be glorified.”
Thank you in advance for any constructive criticism, notes of encouragement to and or reading recommendations on these topics that I can pass along.

I (f19) and my ex boyfriend (m19) dated for about 2 years. Throughout our whole relationship there was always some issues, like all relationships have, but as time went on there would be times when everything was amazing, and then there would be periods on time when it seemed like everything I did upset him and I was always doing something wrong. He always had a lot of trust issues with me, even though I never gave him any reason to not trust me, he just was never able to fully trust that I wasn’t cheating on him, wasn’t looking for another guy, wasn’t thinking about how much hotter other men were, things like that. Anytime I went to work he asked about every conversation I had with another male and what every little thing we talked about was. He basically could be the only male in my life or he thought something fishy was going on. He would always get mad at me for the smallest things especially near the end. What lead me to break up with him was that I felt like I never made him happy, every day, multiple times a day there was always something that I did that would make him upset. I just felt like I was always making the wrong decisions. He also didn’t let me fully be who I was because he wasn’t accepting of the things I like and wanted to do. It was hard being myself when he didn’t like who I was so much. I was also made guilty for everything that happened. I started hanging out with a group a friends and he made me feel guilty that I liked spending time with them, and that I liked having friends. If there were times I wasn’t in THE MOOD to do something he would get sad and turn away and make me feel guilty that I didn’t want to. Whenever I would try to voice my concerns about our relationship he would turn it on me and make me feel like the bad guy, or would get defensive and get mad at me that I felt a certain way. I was sick of feeling like a terrible person all the time for reasons I should not have, so I broke it off and he started realizing that things he was doing weren’t that good. For a bit it seemed like he could change and get better.
A little bit before I broke up with him, I met this guy from the group of friends I would hangout with, he kind of popped up out of no where and was treating me better than my own boyfriend, he liked me for who I was, he showed me what being accepted felt like, what not getting upset for silly things felt like, it was just a whole new world and it was a little relieving to have around. After we broke up I made some decisions that weren’t my best decisions. My ex boyfriend and I were saying that we could work on us again after we have been alone for a bit and he works on himself. I ended up cuddling with this guy and kissed him once. My ex would ask me if I had done anything with said friend and I was so scared that I lied and I said no. I ended up lying a lot and I regret every single one. I’m not perfect and I’m going to make mistakes and I am certainly not proud of how I handled that situation. Recently my ex went through my phone without me knowing and saw that some things were going on with my friend and he got very upset with me. Which I totally understand I lied and said nothing was happening. He hates me so much he keeps telling me how terrible of a person I am and “fuck you” and just keeps rubbing it in that I hurt him. I know I did he doesn’t need to keep putting salt in the wound. I e apologized which I know isn’t going to make it better, but I’m learning from all of this and I really am going to be alone and work on myself for a while. I’ve never felt worse about myself, I’ve gotten low points in my life but I have never been this low. It doesn’t make it easier when I keep getting told how awful I am and all the shitty things I did.
My ex is telling me that in order for him to not block me I have to cut this friend out of my life for good. It was weird feeling so accepted and loved by someone, it was weird not fighting and getting “in trouble” over small things. It was weird feeling like I actually made someone happy to be around me. I was just getting all confused when a guy came in and was being better than my own boyfriend was. I feel so stuck because with this friend it feels so much more freeing and he’s said he will always cheer me on no matter what, and that he likes me for me and he doesn’t expect me to change for anyone. He’s always going to stay by my side and always makes me feel good about myself. But then there’s my first love, I love him so much and I would love to see things work out between us but the cycle of things I was put in with him were not healthy for me. It was a very manipulative relationship and I would have to cut my friend out which might result in me losing all of my friends.

A few days ago I broke up with my fiancé after we came back from a trip we were on for a couple days for his birthday. We have been fighting more and more these last few months and every single time we get into an argument, he turns into what I can only describe as a teenager, he becomes incredibly immature and screams at me and gets mad over the most ridiculous things.
I am 5'3 and he towers over me at 6'4 and it honestly scares me when he screams at me. I have told him numerous times to stop reacting like that whenever we have an argument and he always apologizes later but the next time he gets angry, its the exact same blow up pattern where he screams again and behaves like he's 14 years old screaming at his mama.
His mother was living with him before and she had the same problem with him, he would scream at her too. I made a joke to her one day after they had a big fight, saying, "Am I next in line for this treatment?" and she said yes. I should have taken the warning then.
We just moved in together and we've been living together for a month. I'm honestly not happy. He does gross things like takes pictures of his big poops and shows it to me on his phone, he picks his pimples and smells them in front of me saying "smells like cheese", he picks off his nail clippings and throws them on the passenger car side floor so when I go into his car, I see 6 nail clippings regularly. He sticks his hand in his giant dogs mouth when they're playing and lets him lick all over his face after I've just seen her cleaning her behind for 30 mins prior and then he tries to kiss me.
All of this has completely turned me off and ruined the romance for me. We haven't been intimate in 2 weeks because of the amount of fighting and the gross hygiene issues I mentioned. He expects me to cook, clean up after him, do the dishes, do the laundry, make the bed every day, watch his dog when he's at work. He throws his clothes everywhere he takes them off at and I had to tell him numerous times to please put them in the hamper for me to wash.
I work from home and he works 4 hours outside the home then comes home and works remotely for another 2-3 hours then he goes into the garage and smokes for hours. When we broke up after a big fight a few days ago, he said I ruined his life and that now he has to go live in a hotel because I kicked him out. I said I won't live with someone who talks to me so disrespectfully and makes me feel unsafe to be around because of his major anger issues.
His road rage is ridiculous too, he flips people off quite a few times and honks at them and I tell him all the time he's gonna end up getting into a dangerous situation because of it. It just tells me he has a lot of growing up to do. The thought of having kids with this man sounds like a nightmare.
He bought me a diamond ruby necklace and during the break up, he said "I want that ruby necklace back so I can pawn it." he took other gifts he had gotten me over the course of our relationship and pawned those too since leaving my house. He says he wants to work on his anger and stay with me and still loves me but then in the same breath he will say its all my fault that he's in this situation now. Takes no responsibility for how he treats people and somehow always manages to be the victim.
I'm tired but I dont know if I'll regret losing him in a few months when everything is said and done. He said he can take me to court because of "Squatter laws" because I asked him to leave overnight. I own my house, he doesn't and we never signed anything. He has been incredibly rude about money too, he only contributed $750 a month in total (For rent, groceries and all the bills combined) and I paid for everything else. We had a fight about that too because he said that was "way too much". I said good luck finding anything that cheap today out there by yourself.
When we talk about getting married, he says we need to sign a prenup because he never wants to pay alimony and he buries his gold coins in the backyard and would never tell me where they are even if we were to get married. These things are so unromantic to say and makes me not even want to marry him in the first place if he's going to be so selfish about his money already.
He says sorry after the arguments but I dont see any actual change because the next time we fight, he will act the same way again. I dont think he can change because the way he acted with his mother when he lived with her was very much the same way, even cops were called. This seems like its just part of his personality.
TLDR; Fiance has an incredibly immature reaction to arguments, gets easily angered, has road rage issues and screams at his mother too. The fighting has gotten more frequent. Doesnt take responsibility during arguments and only after the fact, apologizes and claims he wants to change and become better but this has happened numerous times and I dont see any change. Seems like something very ingrained in his personality.

I(18M), dated a girl(20F), who is now my ex. We both study in the same college and are in the same batch. We met through Instagram and were friends for a while. At first she seemed nice and well mannered. All my other friends warned me that she wasn’t what she was pretending to be infront of me. I didn’t pay them much attention as I thought they just didn’t understand her properly.
After a couple of months, we really got to know each other and then one day, I proposed. She accepted and we both were officially in a relationship. We decided to keep it a secret as my friends still didn’t like her. One day, we both went out and had our first kiss. That escalated into a little more. But we never actually had intercourse. We only went as far as touching each other but nothing else.
Couple of months after that, my parents get hints about me being in a relationship with her. They warn me saying that she isn’t a good person and I shouldn’t talk to her. At this point, she wasn’t completely being the same person she once was. So after a long night of crying, I finally decided to call things off.
When I break this news to her, she flips n accuses me of only being with her for intercourse and that I was using for my satisfaction. I calmly told her that that wasn’t true and that I do I fact love her.
After a few days, we meet up again and she convinces me that we can fight against our parents and stay together. I believe her and we have the touchy stuff again.
But I wasn’t entirely convinced nor am I brave enough to fight against my own family. I was too scared to tell her this. So one day, I decided to to ghost her. I know that it wasn’t the right thing to do but my mind was caught up in everything and I couldn’t handle it.
And then she keeps texting me once every month trying to talk to me but I just ignore her. Then, I meet another girl. This person was an old friend of mine. She tells me that she likes me and at first, I was scared to accept as I wasn’t sure about it. But she was actually a caring person and she was very intelligent and I liked her. So after a few days, I said yes. We made this relationship public and all our friends knew about it and they were happy for us.
As the relation is public, most of our class knows about and my ex also got to know about it. One night she messages my friend asking about my new partner and if the rumours of us dating were true. My friend, not knowing my relation with her, immediately calls me and tells me this. I message her and ask her what she thinks she is doing and she again accuses me of ruining her life by getting physical with her. She says she’s gonna write a note and commit suicide and that I was only using her for intercourse even though we never had it(the reason I said no every time she suggested we have it was because of the accusations before). Then she tells me that she is gonna tell this matter to her parents and ask them to talk to mine. I tell her I’m sorry that I left that way but we can’t be a thing anymore. She then says that I only date to use them for intercourse and she pities herself for ever loving me.
She then tells me that it doesn’t matter because I’m going to leave my current partner too as soon as I use them. She accuses me of wanting a new girl only for intercourse. I then tell her not to message me ever again and that I’m done with her. She then asks me to not to tell anyone about this relationship. I say fine as I just wanted to get out of her life.
And then today she messages me again saying that “I can’t see you being with someone else. Don’t take it wrong if I file a case against you. A lawyer has told me that it would be ten years of prison. I only want you for myself. I’ll do everything to keep you from seeing any other girl again.” I’ve not yet replied to this as I’m genuinely scared that she might do it. So I’m asking Reddit to know if I’m the a-hole for not parting with her properly.
English isn’t my best strength so any spelling or grammatical mistakes that u may find, feel free to correct them.
I just wanna know if I’m the person in wrong here.

I was in a long distance relationship with a woman from Norway. We talked on the phone and Webcam all the time.
She was the first girl to show me what real love felt like. She acted like she truly loved me. She showed me things only true love shows. Not to mention I was the only guy she'd let see her naked on cam.
We even took vows on the Webcam. She wore a white dress. We called each other husband and wife even though it wasn't legal. And what made it better for me was later she was diagnosed with autism. Just like me. So I wasn't alone anymore with my disability, we'd fight it together.
Then last year in August, out of nowhere, she broke up with me in the most terrible way a person can break up with their partner. She blocked me on all social medias and told a friend of ours to tell me she was ending it with me. That friend turned on me and they both are good friends talking bad about me to others. Causing me to lose friends.
And despite that, I'm still not over her. I still love her. We were together for three years. So much love. Not to mention everything I gave her and she does this. 😢😢
Everyone, since she left me, I have never once felt whole. I feel an empty space inside me. I've been in and out of emergency rooms. I've been in physical and emotional pain.
I tried moving on with two other girls (one at a time), I Just never felt the sake with them as I did with her. They both hurt me in similar ways as she did. (One ended it with me after a month, saying she was an A-sexual. The other broke up with me after a week, even though she told me her mom and dad treated her badly, I tried standing up to her mom when she tried to come between us, so she broke up with me for standing up to her mom, and she told the cops if I tried to contact her again she'd file harassment charges. The Sheriff told me all this).
I've been hurt, crying, broken, etc ever since last August. I can't get her off my mind.
We've spoken 3 times since the breakup. But she played me, saying "give me space, give me time, give me til this month and then we'll talk. Don't try to contact me til then." Then shortly before that time she said, she'd block me all over again. This time she's practically not budging. No Matter how many emails I send her. Unlike the first three times where she'd talk to me after a while. Her name is Martine Andersskog, in Norway. 😢😢
Idk how to let it all go. She hurt me so bad. Refusing to Just-- :'(
Now she's trying to say I was the abusive one. Not true. I treated her with love. Kindness. I gave her things no one had ever given her. She did the same for me. Including smutting. 😢

So I 26f and my bf 28m had a fight about somebody he’s following on ig. It’s a girl from his college sports that he bearly knows. Yesterday he told me how she was there and acted like a pick me and he judged her behavior. This girl is 20. So i confronted him about why he follows her on ig when shes such a pick me and why he talks about this to me. I have a past with being very judgy and talking shit about people. I hate this site of me and I worked hard to change this as much as I could before we even met. He unfollowed her since he thought I said this out of jealousy but then I said well you can just follow her again and say it was a mistake. He then proceeded to say that he might get himself in an awkward situation. But in the end he still followed her again on ig. I feel stupid about all of this. He claims to him it’s important to do whatever he feels like on his socials. I feel like an idiot having to argue with an almost 30 year old man why the fuck its so important to him to follow his 20y/o colleague that he bearly knows and talks to.
I would talk about this to my friends but tbh it feels very embarrassing that this is even an issue.
Am I missing something? Shit feels wrong af. I feel like I am too old for this ?!

There'll be days like this, matches like this, when you look back at them four or five years down the line, you'll barely remember what happened in them. This is why you should bookmark this post in case you're a masochist.
🔆 Everything that could have gone wrong did go wrong! Actually, no, it didn't. I did revisionism again. It went pretty right for us. We won the most important toss of the season. We chose to do the thing we are best at. We subjected the opposition to RRR pressure in a knockout game. So, what happened? Everything went wrong after that. Head forgot to bring his bat down and cover his off-stump line. Abhi didn't move his feet as usual and halfheartedly played a drive without reaching the pitch of the ball. NKR got done by Starc more than anything else. And Shahbaz... Oh, Shahbaz... what do you even say about that! Sanvir got done by the pitch and probably didn't expect the first ball to be this good. In this entire innings, two KKR bowlers were on hat-tricks at two different phases of the innings, and that fact alone explains everything wrong with this performance, doesn't it? Before one of you asks me why I'm not talking about Samad, you need to visit one of my earlier PMAs.
🔆 You'll feel for Tripathi, as this looked like an innings where he was in control for once after all these years and it just had to be taken away from him. The interesting thing about Tripathi has been how he has been timing the ball so well since the last game. He no longer gets beaten trying to fetch a shot out of nowhere, nor does he try that stupid ramp shot as his pressure-relieving shot. He's just going at it as only he can. Still, Head's lovely extension of the arms, maybe a twerk or two, and he's off. The man continues to put forward a strong case for an opening spot, and right on time as well. Surely, the teams would take notice. Klaasen's hot-and-cold temperament will never fail to frustrate me. On the very first ball he faces, he plays a flashy drive on the up when the team was already four wickets down. This man needs some counseling on match awareness and how not to fall victim to his own ego. The pattern has been there for far too long to just be brushed aside. The team uses him as their trump card in the middle order, and when he doesn't put a value on his wicket, it shows a serious lack of commitment.
🔆 159 was not enough... Never enough... especially when you have sacrificed the prospect of having your fifth bowler in favor of an extra batting option (an event that fails). And the body language showed it. I sensed a loss the moment Shahbaz got out, but I felt the loss looking at the body language of our guys from ball one in the second innings. More than the runs themselves, it's the collective shoulder drop that should worry the coaching staff. Now, those complaining about Bhuvi not getting early wickets like Starc will need to understand that it had more to do with Starc's mentality and determination than anything else. The pitch didn't have demons(maybe I'm exaggerating again). Starc decided to show up on a big stage, and it does happen with bowlers in particular spells, when every ball is pitched nice and every length is the perfect counter to the batsmen. You hope to escape out of such spells and we were just unfortunate enough to be the collateral damage.
🔆 And that brings me to my final point. It's going to be a short write-up because we really had nothing to do in this game, did we? Outbatted, outbowled, and horribly outfielded. With every ball, our players acted like they didn't want to be there and would rather hide somewhere else. There wasn't a single sense of belief in that group whatsoever. Having seen this team defend even the lowest of totals (in all fairness, with a better bowling unit), I feel baffled by this massive fall from grace. The dew did come and made it difficult for us. But how do you justify dropping these dollies? How do you justify the seamers spraying it on the pads when every ball was worth its weight in gold? Normally, I'd say we live to fight another day. But losses like this take you back significantly on a psychological level. I'm forced to relive the PTSD from Q1 in 2018. And let me tell you, it's not a good place to be...

I am sitting down on the sofa with my arms crossed and my eyes closed just humming.
“Hmmmm hhhmmhmm” I wordlessly sing.
As if someone is pricking open my heart suddenly leaves me with a foreign feeling.
I open my eyes in the quiet room And I start to salivate.
"Crystal" I seethe in hatred for no reason.
I look up outside the window and she is staring at me
I fling open the doors to outside.
“What are you doing to me crystall ”
She tilts her head and blankly stares.
That is when I notice blood on her chin.
“Wait what are you eating “
All she does is smile at me.
"Good heavens" gasp in horror
"Oh my god." I gasp. I nearly pass out. I fight the terror.
"Better up than down " a voice says in a sinister way.
My eyes open wide in shock as I turn around to look at a face
Aden.?
Is that you?

I am playing a full paladin oath of vengeance (since it is supposed to be a newbie table the gm banned multiclasses) I have the following stats (rolled) Str 18 Dex 14 Con 14 Int 10 Wis 14 Cha 16
My character is level 12, we had an extra feat so I have right now the following feats: Polearm master Sentinel Great Weapon Master
My fighting style is defence and I have a normal halberd, so my AC Is 20 since I'm wearing a defense cape and a full plate, I have 2 questions: (we are going to play till lvl 20, my party consists of a dual wielder fighter, an old one warlock, life cleric and an evocation wizard).
Should I max str using my next ASI? I was thinking of maybe increase charisma to 20. How should I fight using this character?
I normally cast bless (had very bad experiences with haste) and use chokepoints when fighting humanoids, and when fighting large or bigger monsters I just stand in their face hacking away.
(Aura of protection is nerfed in my table since English is not our main language, the RAW text says: when you OR another character, so they make me choose who I give this bonus to, so this evaluates charisma in my opinion)

Me and "M" had been friends for over 10 years. It wasn't always platonic, we had a phase where we were really infatuated, then heartbreak when things didn't work out, then just friends with benefits and that what's going on now. It was a on and off situationship for all these years, where it would get platonic once one of the two had a stable partner. Anyway, friendship is the only stable thing that we had over all these years and i can confidetly say he's a good friend to have. He's one of those people that are always there when you need help and is actually helpful. He's really smart and caring.
Lately he has been showing more interest in me, as in not just sexual stuff, but more intimate. I told him I was depressed and he came to have a date with me, we went to grab a beer and he listened to me while playing with my hand or locking it. He told me he wants me to open up more, he wants to know more about me and all of this. While there he asks me if seeing him that way did any good to me, to which i replied yes, but his response was "i don't know". I feel like i might be getting those infatuation feelings back again and it's scaring me since i don't know if he might feel the same, anyway i'm staying level headed at this point.
He then always wants my attention, gets kinda offended (in a playful way) when i say i'm busy so can't see him, he's jealous of me and is really present in my life.
The breaking point started when he accidetally matched a friend of mine, they stated texting a lot and he even invited her out on a sunday to have a motorbike ride. I asked him if he wanted to meet on the same sunday but he told me he's just really busy because he has to study for a test.
I meet my friend on saturday, she tells me she met a guy on tinder and shows me his picture. I was kinda heartbroken. It wasn't because i thinks its cheating, because it's not, but i thought i could trust him entirely but guess not.
I told him the very moment, maybe it was dumb, and he started saying a lot of excuses like "hey, i just was texting her up because we wanted to do the threesome thing", then he started saying that if i'm not comfortable he'll stop i just have to tell him so and so on. I told him that i didn't know what they were saying (which is true, i didn't go through their messagges since it felt like invading someones privacy). We ended up fighting and he told me he want to speak about it in person, i told him sure but i'm busy this week so i'll let him know, he then deleted all chats (ours too) and went silent for a few days.
Yesterday i texted him saying i'm free this week and he's response was "i thought you were busy so i made other plans" and "i can't next week because i'm going on a trip, i won't be back until next month".
So, the reason why i felt heartbroken is because of lies. It's not because he's texting other people. I might get jealous but I have no rights in this since we don't have an exclusive relatonship. I feel like i can't trust him anymore and that a lot of the things he did were just to keep me there while he was looking for something better, and if that's the case he was doing a little bit too much for it being just a friendship. It's also not the first time he avoided his responsability.
At this point i don't know what to do because i'm afraid of losing him but at the same time i feel it's time to let go because it's clearly ruined

I want to see if what I had in mind makes sense, so I want to hear what you guys would do.
The time is around fantasy midieval, you are the leader of a large and strong city with a respectable military, one secret weapon, and your city is famous for its adventurers. When it comes to magic your military is a bit lacking in it, but you make up for it hopefully with the Adventurers. You yourself are ignorant to magic and know very little about sword combat.
The situation is, an unknown amount of hostiles have gathered outside your city, they are requesting safe passage through your city. Your city is surrounded by mountains meaning if they want to get to the other side they have to go through your city. These people are claiming to be asheathians, the only problem is that asheathians have been extinct for 200, but are they?
You are in a town hall meeting right now hearing conflicting opinions, then a hero adventurer, who has saved the city a few times, known as Alexander the flame hero steps up and says this.
"The asheathians don't want to fight, but they will, all the asheathians want is to claim back their temples and home...the asheathians do not have a problem with Carter all we want is to return home"
After this you and your council go to another room to discuss your options. The majority of your people think you should have the military and the Adventurers hold off the hostiles while you get in touch with the nation of ethna, to send reinforcements. You recently signed a treaty with ethna, the only problem is that the large majority of ethnas military is on a different continent with with about 2 and half days away by ship. Meaning it would just be your military, adventurers, and the small ethnan force behind your city to back you up against these hostiles.
Now your secret weapon? A feral yet trained full blooded asheathian, who is also the pillar of Yggdrasil. A pillar is an Asheathian with the power to transform into a giant, a titan version of one of the asheathians gods, there's 11 asheathian gods, meaning 11 pillars. Your weapon is the pillar of Yggdrasil, the god of strength.
A little bit extra, Alexander the flame hero, you've met him before and his eyes were gray, but now in this meeting, his eyes are blue.
Feel free to ask any questions that can help, I might have missed some info or might not have explained something well enough.

GOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING SUPERSTONKERS! HAHA. It's me again. Yeah, i slipped past the defenses again to drop this off so you can all refresh yourselves on the state of FUD and disinformation in this protracted fight against the legal larcenists doing their best to try and get you to sell. Please spread this amongst the holders, the more people know the less power they have over us holders. We don't sell until we get a call from marge, and that's always been the play.
TLDR: This is a set of tactics used by the Alphabet Boys(CIA, FBI, DEA) to control and manipulate us into drama to collapse our communities and movements. And should be read in full by anyone willing and wanting to learn how these things work.
I've come to notice recently, people keep asking me to repost this for the sake of keeping the new people abreast on what needs to be done to protect the holders of GME. Beneath here will be a detailed account on what you need to be aware of in your online interactions, to avoid being taken for a fool!
_______________________________________________________________________

1. COINTELPRO Techniques for dilution, misdirection and control of a internet forum
2. Twenty-Five Rules of Disinformation
3. Eight Traits of the Disinformationalist
4. How to Spot a Spy (Cointelpro Agent)
5. Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression

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COINTELPRO Techniques for dilution, misdirection and control of a internet forum..
There are several techniques for the control and manipulation of a internet forum no matter what, or who is on it. We will go over each technique and demonstrate that only a minimal number of operatives can be used to eventually and effectively gain a control of a 'uncontrolled forum.'
Technique #1 - 'FORUM SLIDING'
If a very sensitive posting of a critical nature has been posted on a forum - it can be quickly removed from public view by 'forum sliding.' In this technique a number of unrelated posts are quietly prepositioned on the forum and allowed to 'age.' Each of these misdirectional forum postings can then be called upon at will to trigger a 'forum slide.' The second requirement is that several fake accounts exist, which can be called upon, to ensure that this technique is not exposed to the public. To trigger a 'forum slide' and 'flush' the critical post out of public view it is simply a matter of logging into each account both real and fake and then 'replying' to prepositioned postings with a simple 1 or 2 line comment. This brings the unrelated postings to the top of the forum list, and the critical posting 'slides' down the front page, and quickly out of public view. Although it is difficult or impossible to censor the posting it is now lost in a sea of unrelated and unuseful postings. By this means it becomes effective to keep the readers of the forum reading unrelated and non-issue items.
Technique #2 - 'CONSENSUS CRACKING'
A second highly effective technique (which you can see in operation all the time at www.abovetopsecret.com
) is 'consensus cracking.' To develop a consensus crack, the following technique is used. Under the guise of a fake account a posting is made which looks legitimate and is towards the truth is made - but the critical point is that it has a VERY WEAK PREMISE without substantive proof to back the posting. Once this is done then under alternative fake accounts a very strong position in your favor is slowly introduced over the life of the posting. It is IMPERATIVE that both sides are initially presented, so the uninformed reader cannot determine which side is the truth. As postings and replies are made the stronger 'evidence' or disinformation in your favor is slowly 'seeded in.' Thus the uninformed reader will most like develop the same position as you, and if their position is against you their opposition to your posting will be most likely dropped. However in some cases where the forum members are highly educated and can counter your disinformation with real facts and linked postings, you can then 'abort' the consensus cracking by initiating a 'forum slide.'
Technique #3 - 'TOPIC DILUTION'
Topic dilution is not only effective in forum sliding it is also very useful in keeping the forum readers on unrelated and non-productive issues. This is a critical and useful technique to cause a 'RESOURCE BURN.' By implementing continual and non-related postings that distract and disrupt (trolling ) the forum readers they are more effectively stopped from anything of any real productivity. If the intensity of gradual dilution is intense enough, the readers will effectively stop researching and simply slip into a 'gossip mode.' In this state they can be more easily misdirected away from facts towards uninformed conjecture and opinion. The less informed they are the more effective and easy it becomes to control the entire group in the direction that you would desire the group to go in. It must be stressed that a proper assessment of the psychological capabilities and levels of education is first determined of the group to determine at what level to 'drive in the wedge.' By being too far off topic too quickly it may trigger censorship by a forum moderator.
Technique #4 - 'INFORMATION COLLECTION'
Information collection is also a very effective method to determine the psychological level of the forum members, and to gather intelligence that can be used against them. In this technique in a light and positive environment a 'show you mine so me yours' posting is initiated. From the number of replies and the answers that are provided much statistical information can be gathered. An example is to post your 'favorite weapon' and then encourage other members of the forum to showcase what they have. In this matter it can be determined by reverse proration what percentage of the forum community owns a firearm, and or a illegal weapon. This same method can be used by posing as one of the form members and posting your favorite 'technique of operation.' From the replies various methods that the group utilizes can be studied and effective methods developed to stop them from their activities.
Technique #5 - 'ANGER TROLLING'
Statistically, there is always a percentage of the forum posters who are more inclined to violence. In order to determine who these individuals are, it is a requirement to present a image to the forum to deliberately incite a strong psychological reaction. From this the most violent in the group can be effectively singled out for reverse IP location and possibly local enforcement tracking. To accomplish this only requires posting a link to a video depicting a local police officer massively abusing his power against a very innocent individual. Statistically of the million or so police officers in America there is always one or two being caught abusing there powers and the taping of the activity can be then used for intelligence gathering purposes - without the requirement to 'stage' a fake abuse video. This method is extremely effective, and the more so the more abusive the video can be made to look. Sometimes it is useful to 'lead' the forum by replying to your own posting with your own statement of violent intent, and that you 'do not care what the authorities think!!' inflammation. By doing this and showing no fear it may be more effective in getting the more silent and self-disciplined violent intent members of the forum to slip and post their real intentions. This can be used later in a court of law during prosecution.
Technique #6 - 'GAINING FULL CONTROL'
It is important to also be harvesting and continually maneuvering for a forum moderator position. Once this position is obtained, the forum can then be effectively and quietly controlled by deleting unfavourable postings - and one can eventually steer the forum into complete failure and lack of interest by the general public. This is the 'ultimate victory' as the forum is no longer participated with by the general public and no longer useful in maintaining their freedoms. Depending on the level of control you can obtain, you can deliberately steer a forum into defeat by censoring postings, deleting memberships, flooding, and or accidentally taking the forum offline. By this method the forum can be quickly killed. However it is not always in the interest to kill a forum as it can be converted into a 'honey pot' gathering center to collect and misdirect newcomers and from this point be completely used for your control for your agenda purposes.
CONCLUSION
Remember these techniques are only effective if the forum participants DO NOT KNOW ABOUT THEM. Once they are aware of these techniques the operation can completely fail, and the forum can become uncontrolled. At this point other avenues must be considered such as initiating a false legal precidence to simply have the forum shut down and taken offline. This is not desirable as it then leaves the enforcement agencies unable to track the percentage of those in the population who always resist attempts for control against them. Many other techniques can be utilized and developed by the individual and as you develop further techniques of infiltration and control it is imperative to share then with HQ.
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Twenty-Five Rules of Disinformation
Note: The first rule and last five (or six, depending on situation) rules are generally not directly within the ability of the traditional disinfo artist to apply. These rules are generally used more directly by those at the leadership, key players, or planning level of the criminal conspiracy or conspiracy to cover up.
1. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. Regardless of what you know, don't discuss it -- especially if you are a public figure, news anchor, etc. If it's not reported, it didn't happen, and you never have to deal with the issues.
2. Become incredulous and indignant. Avoid discussing key issues and instead focus on side issues which can be used show the topic as being critical of some otherwise sacrosanct group or theme. This is also known as the 'How dare you!' gambit.
3. Create rumor mongers. Avoid discussing issues by describing all charges, regardless of venue or evidence, as mere rumors and wild accusations. Other derogatory terms mutually exclusive of truth may work as well. This method which works especially well with a silent press, because the only way the public can learn of the facts are through such 'arguable rumors'. If you can associate the material with the Internet, use this fact to certify it a 'wild rumor' from a 'bunch of kids on the Internet' which can have no basis in fact.
4. Use a straw man. Find or create a seeming element of your opponent's argument which you can easily knock down to make yourself look good and the opponent to look bad. Either make up an issue you may safely imply exists based on your interpretation of the opponent/opponent arguments/situation, or select the weakest aspect of the weakest charges. Amplify their significance and destroy them in a way which appears to debunk all the charges, real and fabricated alike, while actually avoiding discussion of the real issues.
5. Sidetrack opponents with name calling and ridicule. This is also known as the primary 'attack the messenger' ploy, though other methods qualify as variants of that approach. Associate opponents with unpopular titles such as 'kooks', 'right-wing', 'liberal', 'left-wing', 'terrorists', 'conspiracy buffs', 'radicals', 'militia', 'racists', 'religious fanatics', 'sexual deviates', and so forth. This makes others shrink from support out of fear of gaining the same label, and you avoid dealing with issues.
6. Hit and Run. In any public forum, make a brief attack of your opponent or the opponent position and then scamper off before an answer can be fielded, or simply ignore any answer. This works extremely well in Internet and letters-to-the-editor environments where a steady stream of new identities can be called upon without having to explain criticism, reasoning -- simply make an accusation or other attack, never discussing issues, and never answering any subsequent response, for that would dignify the opponent's viewpoint.
7. Question motives. Twist or amplify any fact which could be taken to imply that the opponent operates out of a hidden personal agenda or other bias. This avoids discussing issues and forces the accuser on the defensive.
8. Invoke authority. Claim for yourself or associate yourself with authority and present your argument with enough 'jargon' and 'minutia' to illustrate you are 'one who knows', and simply say it isn't so without discussing issues or demonstrating concretely why or citing sources.
9. Play Dumb. No matter what evidence or logical argument is offered, avoid discussing issues except with denials they have any credibility, make any sense, provide any proof, contain or make a point, have logic, or support a conclusion. Mix well for maximum effect.
10. Associate opponent charges with old news. A derivative of the straw man -- usually, in any large-scale matter of high visibility, someone will make charges early on which can be or were already easily dealt with - a kind of investment for the future should the matter not be so easily contained.) Where it can be foreseen, have your own side raise a straw man issue and have it dealt with early on as part of the initial contingency plans. Subsequent charges, regardless of validity or new ground uncovered, can usually then be associated with the original charge and dismissed as simply being a rehash without need to address current issues -- so much the better where the opponent is or was involved with the original source.
11. Establish and rely upon fall-back positions. Using a minor matter or element of the facts, take the 'high road' and 'confess' with candor that some innocent mistake, in hindsight, was made -- but that opponents have seized on the opportunity to blow it all out of proportion and imply greater criminalities which, 'just isn't so.' Others can reinforce this on your behalf, later, and even publicly 'call for an end to the nonsense' because you have already 'done the right thing.' Done properly, this can garner sympathy and respect for 'coming clean' and 'owning up' to your mistakes without addressing more serious issues.
12. Enigmas have no solution. Drawing upon the overall umbrella of events surrounding the crime and the multitude of players and events, paint the entire affair as too complex to solve. This causes those otherwise following the matter to begin to lose interest more quickly without having to address the actual issues.
13. Alice in Wonderland Logic. Avoid discussion of the issues by reasoning backwards or with an apparent deductive logic which forbears any actual material fact.
14. Demand complete solutions. Avoid the issues by requiring opponents to solve the crime at hand completely, a ploy which works best with issues qualifying for rule 10.
15. Fit the facts to alternate conclusions. This requires creative thinking unless the crime was planned with contingency conclusions in place.
16. Vanish evidence and witnesses. If it does not exist, it is not fact, and you won't have to address the issue.
17. Change the subject. Usually in connection with one of the other ploys listed here, find a way to side-track the discussion with abrasive or controversial comments in hopes of turning attention to a new, more manageable topic. This works especially well with companions who can 'argue' with you over the new topic and polarize the discussion arena in order to avoid discussing more key issues.
18. Emotionalize, Antagonize, and Goad Opponents. If you can't do anything else, chide and taunt your opponents and draw them into emotional responses which will tend to make them look foolish and overly motivated, and generally render their material somewhat less coherent. Not only will you avoid discussing the issues in the first instance, but even if their emotional response addresses the issue, you can further avoid the issues by then focusing on how 'sensitive they are to criticism.'
19. Ignore proof presented, demand impossible proofs. This is perhaps a variant of the 'play dumb' rule. Regardless of what material may be presented by an opponent in public forums, claim the material irrelevant and demand proof that is impossible for the opponent to come by (it may exist, but not be at his disposal, or it may be something which is known to be safely destroyed or withheld, such as a murder weapon.) In order to completely avoid discussing issues, it may be required that you to categorically deny and be critical of media or books as valid sources, deny that witnesses are acceptable, or even deny that statements made by government or other authorities have any meaning or relevance.
20. False evidence. Whenever possible, introduce new facts or clues designed and manufactured to conflict with opponent presentations -- as useful tools to neutralize sensitive issues or impede resolution. This works best when the crime was designed with contingencies for the purpose, and the facts cannot be easily separated from the fabrications.
21. Call a Grand Jury, Special Prosecutor, or other empowered investigative body. Subvert the (process) to your benefit and effectively neutralize all sensitive issues without open discussion. Once convened, the evidence and testimony are required to be secret when properly handled. For instance, if you own the prosecuting attorney, it can insure a Grand Jury hears no useful evidence and that the evidence is sealed and unavailable to subsequent investigators. Once a favorable verdict is achieved, the matter can be considered officially closed. Usually, this technique is applied to find the guilty innocent, but it can also be used to obtain charges when seeking to frame a victim.
22. Manufacture a new truth. Create your own expert(s), group(s), author(s), leader(s) or influence existing ones willing to forge new ground via scientific, investigative, or social research or testimony which concludes favorably. In this way, if you must actually address issues, you can do so authoritatively.
23. Create bigger distractions. If the above does not seem to be working to distract from sensitive issues, or to prevent unwanted media coverage of unstoppable events such as trials, create bigger news stories (or treat them as such) to distract the multitudes.
24. Silence critics. If the above methods do not prevail, consider removing opponents from circulation by some definitive solution so that the need to address issues is removed entirely. This can be by their death, arrest and detention, blackmail or destruction of their character by release of blackmail information, or merely by destroying them financially, emotionally, or severely damaging their health.
25. Vanish. If you are a key holder of secrets or otherwise overly illuminated and you think the heat is getting too hot, to avoid the issues, vacate the kitchen.
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Eight Traits of the Disinformationalist
1) Avoidance. They never actually discuss issues head-on or provide constructive input, generally avoiding citation of references or credentials. Rather, they merely imply this, that, and the other. Virtually everything about their presentation implies their authority and expert knowledge in the matter without any further justification for credibility.
2) Selectivity. They tend to pick and choose opponents carefully, either applying the hit-and-run approach against mere commentators supportive of opponents, or focusing heavier attacks on key opponents who are known to directly address issues. Should a commentator become argumentative with any success, the focus will shift to include the commentator as well.
3) Coincidental. They tend to surface suddenly and somewhat coincidentally with a new controversial topic with no clear prior record of participation in general discussions in the particular public arena involved. They likewise tend to vanish once the topic is no longer of general concern. They were likely directed or elected to be there for a reason, and vanish with the reason.
4) Teamwork. They tend to operate in self-congratulatory and complementary packs or teams. Of course, this can happen naturally in any public forum, but there will likely be an ongoing pattern of frequent exchanges of this sort where professionals are involved. Sometimes one of the players will infiltrate the opponent camp to become a source for straw man or other tactics designed to dilute opponent presentation strength.
5) Anti-conspiratorial. They almost always have disdain for 'conspiracy theorists' and, usually, for those who in any way believe JFK was not killed by LHO. Ask yourself why, if they hold such disdain for conspiracy theorists, do they focus on defending a single topic discussed in a NG focusing on conspiracies? One might think they would either be trying to make fools of everyone on every topic, or simply ignore the group they hold in such disdain. Or, one might more rightly conclude they have an ulterior motive for their actions in going out of their way to focus as they do.
6) Artificial Emotions. An odd kind of 'artificial' emotionalism and an unusually thick skin -- an ability to persevere and persist even in the face of overwhelming criticism and unacceptance. This likely stems from intelligence community training that, no matter how condemning the evidence, deny everything, and never become emotionally involved or reactive. The net result for a disinfo artist is that emotions can seem artificial.
Most people, if responding in anger, for instance, will express their animosity throughout their rebuttal. But disinfo types usually have trouble maintaining the 'image' and are hot and cold with respect to pretended emotions and their usually more calm or unemotional communications style. It's just a job, and they often seem unable to 'act their role in character' as well in a communications medium as they might be able in a real face-to-face conversation/confrontation. You might have outright rage and indignation one moment, ho-hum the next, and more anger later -- an emotional yo-yo.
With respect to being thick-skinned, no amount of criticism will deter them from doing their job, and they will generally continue their old disinfo patterns without any adjustments to criticisms of how obvious it is that they play that game -- where a more rational individual who truly cares what others think might seek to improve their communications style, substance, and so forth, or simply give up.
7) Inconsistent. There is also a tendency to make mistakes which betray their true self/motives. This may stem from not really knowing their topic, or it may be somewhat 'freudian', so to speak, in that perhaps they really root for the side of truth deep within.
I have noted that often, they will simply cite contradictory information which neutralizes itself and the author. For instance, one such player claimed to be a Navy pilot, but blamed his poor communicating skills (spelling, grammar, incoherent style) on having only a grade-school education. I'm not aware of too many Navy pilots who don't have a college degree. Another claimed no knowledge of a particular topic/situation but later claimed first-hand knowledge of it.
8) Time Constant. Recently discovered, with respect to News Groups, is the response time factor. There are three ways this can be seen to work, especially when the government or other empowered player is involved in a cover up operation:
a) ANY NG posting by a targeted proponent for truth can result in an IMMEDIATE response. The government and other empowered players can afford to pay people to sit there and watch for an opportunity to do some damage. SINCE DISINFO IN A NG ONLY WORKS IF THE READER SEES IT - FAST RESPONSE IS CALLED FOR, or the visitor may be swayed towards truth.
b) When dealing in more direct ways with a disinformationalist, such as email, DELAY IS CALLED FOR - there will usually be a minimum of a 48-72 hour delay. This allows a sit-down team discussion on response strategy for best effect, and even enough time to 'get permission' or instruction from a formal chain of command.
c) In the NG example 1) above, it will often ALSO be seen that bigger guns are drawn and fired after the same 48-72 hours delay - the team approach in play. This is especially true when the targeted truth seeker or their comments are considered more important with respect to potential to reveal truth. Thus, a serious truth sayer will be attacked twice for the same sin.
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How to Spot a Spy (Cointelpro Agent)
One way to neutralize a potential activist is to get them to be in a group that does all the wrong things. Why?
1) The message doesn't get out.
2) A lot of time is wasted
3) The activist is frustrated and discouraged
4) Nothing good is accomplished.
FBI and Police Informers and Infiltrators will infest any group and they have phoney activist organizations established.
Their purpose is to prevent any real movement for justice or eco-peace from developing in this country.
Agents come in small, medium or large. They can be of any ethnic background. They can be male or female.
The actual size of the group or movement being infiltrated is irrelevant. It is the potential the movement has for becoming large which brings on the spies and saboteurs.
This booklet lists tactics agents use to slow things down, foul things up, destroy the movement and keep tabs on activists.
It is the agent's job to keep the activist from quitting such a group, thus keeping him/her under control.
In some situations, to get control, the agent will tell the activist:

• "You're dividing the movement."

[Here, I have added the psychological reasons as to WHY this maneuver works to control people]
This invites guilty feelings. Many people can be controlled by guilt. The agents begin relationships with activists behind a well-developed mask of "dedication to the cause." Because of their often declared dedication, (and actions designed to prove this), when they criticize the activist, he or she - being truly dedicated to the movement - becomes convinced that somehow, any issues are THEIR fault. This is because a truly dedicated person tends to believe that everyone has a conscience and that nobody would dissimulate and lie like that "on purpose." It's amazing how far agents can go in manipulating an activist because the activist will constantly make excuses for the agent who regularly declares their dedication to the cause. Even if they do, occasionally, suspect the agent, they will pull the wool over their own eyes by rationalizing: "they did that unconsciously... they didn't really mean it... I can help them by being forgiving and accepting " and so on and so forth.
The agent will tell the activist:

• "You're a leader!"

This is designed to enhance the activist's self-esteem. His or her narcissistic admiration of his/her own activist/altruistic intentions increase as he or she identifies with and consciously admires the altruistic declarations of the agent which are deliberately set up to mirror those of the activist.
This is "malignant pseudo identification." It is the process by which the agent consciously imitates or simulates a certain behavior to foster the activist's identification with him/her, thus increasing the activist's vulnerability to exploitation. The agent will simulate the more subtle self-concepts of the activist.
Activists and those who have altruistic self-concepts are most vulnerable to malignant pseudo identification especially during work with the agent when the interaction includes matter relating to their competency, autonomy, or knowledge.
The goal of the agent is to increase the activist's general empathy for the agent through pseudo-identification with the activist's self-concepts.
The most common example of this is the agent who will compliment the activist for his competency or knowledge or value to the movement. On a more subtle level, the agent will simulate affects and mannerisms of the activist which promotes identification via mirroring and feelings of "twinship". It is not unheard of for activists, enamored by the perceived helpfulness and competence of a good agent, to find themselves considering ethical violations and perhaps, even illegal behavior, in the service of their agent/handler.
The activist's "felt quality of perfection" [self-concept] is enhanced, and a strong empathic bond is developed with the agent through his/her imitation and simulation of the victim's own narcissistic investments. [self-concepts] That is, if the activist knows, deep inside, their own dedication to the cause, they will project that onto the agent who is "mirroring" them.
The activist will be deluded into thinking that the agent shares this feeling of identification and bonding. In an activist/social movement setting, the adversarial roles that activists naturally play vis a vis the establishment/government, fosters ongoing processes of intrapsychic splitting so that "twinship alliances" between activist and agent may render whole sectors or reality testing unavailable to the activist. They literally "lose touch with reality."
Activists who deny their own narcissistic investments [do not have a good idea of their own self-concepts and that they ARE concepts] and consciously perceive themselves (accurately, as it were) to be "helpers" endowed with a special amount of altruism are exceedingly vulnerable to the affective (emotional) simulation of the accomplished agent.
Empathy is fostered in the activist through the expression of quite visible affects. The presentation of tearfulness, sadness, longing, fear, remorse, and guilt, may induce in the helper-oriented activist a strong sense of compassion, while unconsciously enhancing the activist's narcissistic investment in self as the embodiment of goodness.
The agent's expresssion of such simulated affects may be quite compelling to the observer and difficult to distinguish from deep emotion.
It can usually be identified by two events, however:
First, the activist who has analyzed his/her own narcissistic roots and is aware of his/her own potential for being "emotionally hooked," will be able to remain cool and unaffected by such emotional outpourings by the agent.
As a result of this unaffected, cool, attitude, the Second event will occur: The agent will recompensate much too quickly following such an affective expression leaving the activist with the impression that "the play has ended, the curtain has fallen," and the imposture, for the moment, has finished. The agent will then move quickly to another activist/victim.
The fact is, the movement doesn't need leaders, it needs MOVERS. "Follow the leader" is a waste of time.
A good agent will want to meet as often as possible. He or she will talk a lot and say little. One can expect an onslaught of long, unresolved discussions.
Some agents take on a pushy, arrogant, or defensive manner:
1) To disrupt the agenda
2) To side-track the discussion
3) To interrupt repeatedly
4) To feign ignorance
5) To make an unfounded accusation against a person.
Calling someone a racist, for example. This tactic is used to discredit a person in the eyes of all other group members.
Saboteurs
Some saboteurs pretend to be activists. She or he will ....
1) Write encyclopedic flyers (in the present day, websites)
2) Print flyers in English only.
3) Have demonstrations in places where no one cares.
4) Solicit funding from rich people instead of grass roots support
5) Display banners with too many words that are confusing.
6) Confuse issues.
7) Make the wrong demands.
8) Compromise the goal.
9) Have endless discussions that waste everyone's time. The agent may accompany the endless discussions with drinking, pot smoking or other amusement to slow down the activist's work.
Provocateurs
1) Want to establish "leaders" to set them up for a fall in order to stop the movement.
2) Suggest doing foolish, illegal things to get the activists in trouble.
3) Encourage militancy.
4) Want to taunt the authorities.
5) Attempt to make the activist compromise their values.
6) Attempt to instigate violence. Activism ought to always be non-violent.
7) Attempt to provoke revolt among people who are ill-prepared to deal with the reaction of the authorities to such violence.
Informants
1) Want everyone to sign up and sing in and sign everything.
2) Ask a lot of questions (gathering data).
3) Want to know what events the activist is planning to attend.
4) Attempt to make the activist defend him or herself to identify his or her beliefs, goals, and level of commitment.
Recruiting
Legitimate activists do not subject people to hours of persuasive dialog. Their actions, beliefs, and goals speak for themselves.
Groups that DO recruit are missionaries, military, and fake political parties or movements set up by agents.
Surveillance
ALWAYS assume that you are under surveillance.
At this point, if you are NOT under surveillance, you are not a very good activist!
Scare Tactics
They use them.
Such tactics include slander, defamation, threats, getting close to disaffected or minimally committed fellow activists to persuade them (via psychological tactics described above) to turn against the movement and give false testimony against their former compatriots. They will plant illegal substances on the activist and set up an arrest; they will plant false information and set up "exposure," they will send incriminating letters [emails] in the name of the activist; and more; they will do whatever society will allow.
This booklet in no way covers all the ways agents use to sabotage the lives of sincere an dedicated activists.
If an agent is "exposed," he or she will be transferred or replaced.
COINTELPRO is still in operation today under a different code name. It is no longer placed on paper where it can be discovered through the freedom of information act.
The FBI counterintelligence program's stated purpose: To expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, and otherwise neutralize individuals who the FBI categorize as opposed to the National Interests. "National Security" means the FBI's security from the people ever finding out the vicious things it does in violation of people's civil liberties.
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Seventeen Techniques for Truth Suppression
Strong, credible allegations of high-level criminal activity can bring down a government. When the government lacks an effective, fact-based defense, other techniques must be employed. The success of these techniques depends heavily upon a cooperative, compliant press and a mere token opposition party.
1. Dummy up. If it's not reported, if it's not news, it didn't happen.
2. Wax indignant. This is also known as the "How dare you?" gambit.
3. Characterize the charges as "rumors" or, better yet, "wild rumors." If, in spite of the news blackout, the public is still able to learn about the suspicious facts, it can only be through "rumors." (If they tend to believe the "rumors" it must be because they are simply "paranoid" or "hysterical.")
4. Knock down straw men. Deal only with the weakest aspects of the weakest charges. Even better, create your own straw men. Make up wild rumors (or plant false stories) and give them lead play when you appear to debunk all the charges, real and fanciful alike.
5. Call the skeptics names like "conspiracy theorist," "nutcase," "ranter," "kook," "crackpot," and, of course, "rumor monger." Be sure, too, to use heavily loaded verbs and adjectives when characterizing their charges and defending the "more reasonable" government and its defenders. You must then carefully avoid fair and open debate with any of the people you have thus maligned. For insurance, set up your own "skeptics" to shoot down.
6. Impugn motives. Attempt to marginalize the critics by suggesting strongly that they are not really interested in the truth but are simply pursuing a partisan political agenda or are out to make money (compared to over-compensated adherents to the government line who, presumably, are not).
7. Invoke authority. Here the controlled press and the sham opposition can be very useful.
8. Dismiss the charges as "old news."
9. Come half-clean. This is also known as "confession and avoidance" or "taking the limited hangout route." This way, you create the impression of candor and honesty while you admit only to relatively harmless, less-than-criminal "mistakes." This stratagem often requires the embrace of a fall-back position quite different from the one originally taken. With effective damage control, the fall-back position need only be peddled by stooge skeptics to carefully limited markets.
10. Characterize the crimes as impossibly complex and the truth as ultimately unknowable.
11. Reason backward, using the deductive method with a vengeance. With thoroughly rigorous deduction, troublesome evidence is irrelevant. E.g. We have a completely free press. If evidence exists that the Vince Foster "suicide" note was forged, they would have reported it. They haven't reported it so there is no such evidence. Another variation on this theme involves the likelihood of a conspiracy leaker and a press who would report the leak.
12. Require the skeptics to solve the crime completely. E.g. If Foster was murdered, who did it and why?
13. Change the subject. This technique includes creating and/or publicizing distractions.
14. Lightly report incriminating facts, and then make nothing of them. This is sometimes referred to as "bump and run" reporting.
15. Baldly and brazenly lie. A favorite way of doing this is to attribute the "facts" furnished the public to a plausible-sounding, but anonymous, source.
16. Expanding further on numbers 4 and 5, have your own stooges "expose" scandals and champion popular causes. Their job is to pre-empt real opponents and to play 99-yard football. A variation is to pay rich people for the job who will pretend to spend their own money.
17. Flood the Internet with agents. This is the answer to the question, "What could possibly motivate a person to spend hour upon hour on Internet news groups defending the government and/or the press and harassing genuine critics?" Don t the authorities have defenders enough in all the newspapers, magazines, radio, and television? One would think refusing to print critical letters and screening out serious callers or dumping them from radio talk shows would be control enough, but, obviously, it is not.

Disclaimer: I don't claim to be an expert or that this build will be any good, or that there aren't better item options, etc. I'm sure others can come up with something more viable. I just thought it was fun to think of Yone in a different way due to recent changes.
Thanks for your time.
Electrocute Yone
According to his character profile on the LoL website, Yone is an Assassin. I was thinking of ways to lean into this role due to the recent changes.
This Yone isn't looking for 3v1s vs the beefy boys, but instead looking to use clever angles, vision, and his dash-heavy tools for successful roams, and wreaking havoc on the back line during intense team fights, similar to Zed. Goes without saying, but I'm thinking with mid lane in mind. Sadly this build is way more team dependent, as it requires them to engage and eat CD timers.
Let's talk about the Electrocute Keystone. It doesn't scale well, but as we know Yone does, so this rune might be the answer to make up for poor early game. It's easy to activate as Yone can confirm a 3 hit combo with little to no effort. Utilizing this might be what he needs to keep his enemy laner on their toes or god forbid snowball a lead.
For the 3 primary runes, I'm looking at Sudden Impact. Yone has a kit full of dashes and blinks, and bushes are a big part of the game plan too. I'm also looking at Taste of Blood, but unsure. Perhaps if your opponent is a beefier mid lane like Galio this might be worth a try, but for the sake of this concept, I'm sticking with SI, but I can't rule out ToB, I think both are worth exploring.
Eyeball collector is obvious.
The third row is also worth exploring, I think Bounty is nice to scale faster, but ultimate hunter seems like a go-to choice, and even relentless hunter might not be awful for roams, sidelaning, and positioning. For now we'll go with Ultimate, but I feel like all 3 could be an option depending on enemy comp and what you're trying to accomplish on a game to game basis.
For the second tree, I am looking at Legend: Alacrity and Coup De Grace. These are consistent choices you'd run with a Yellow Keystone, might as well have them.
For tiny runes, Attack Speed, Adaptive Force, and matchup dependent for the third row, with perhaps the base health being a go-to choice for healthier trading and farming early, but with so much CC in the game, and it being our worst enemy, I think it's tenacity in most cases.
For the first item, I'm not going to break the mold. I think Zerker Greaves are still the prime choice. We need AD in our next item, so a recurve bow item is probably the best bet, sadly. I was looking at Bork, but there's also Kraken Slayer. This can add more burst damage, so I think this is it, but Bork also makes a great case with sustain and a slow effect for combo confirms. I'm on the fence about which one to take, but definitely one of the two. At least there's some build variance, perhaps KS into favorable and Bork otherwise. I can't recommend Wits End due to lack of AD, but that tenacity sure does look nice.
Now we desperately need crit, and a way to E back to our body before being killed, so I'm looking at the Shieldbow. I think, if you are ahead (by some miracle) an IE is the pick, but let's assume this is real life and you're not ahead. Playing around your Shieldbow CD will be crucial, and I wouldn't engage skirmishes/team fights without it unless circumstances are favorable (big CDs down, squishy on opposite side of the map of entire team and pushed past river, etc).
Item 4 is IE for sicko mode burst and you'll be able to assist your team in fighting frontliners after getting squishy kills... if you don't need to run off bloody and beaten. I think times like that'll be few and far between, but with this item you should be able to easily dispatch the backline and run away with a good team engage followed by your jump scare ambush.
For a 5th item, I think the Bloodthirster looks solid. It adds a lot of AD, well needed sustain (especially if you're Borkless), and it's another shield on top of your other shields. However, and hear me out... if you are having trouble recalling E due to CC, take a look at the Mercurial Scimitar. It comes with AD, Lifesteal, MR, and a unique active that ensures you can recast E. I'd say it's a good "training wheels" item if you aren't great at focusing on enemy CDs and dodging abilities.
The final item, the variable slot! I'm not sure how viable GA is because when you're jumping the backline all the Frontline has to do is back pedal from the teamfight and take you out after coming out of stasis, with that being said, if you went BT, Merc Scimitar might be good, and vice versa. I'm also thinking a Collector might not be bad for easier secures, but probably overkill. If the team has heavy healing there's the Mortals Reminder, which comes with a lot of components we like anyway. Lord doms for heavy armor, or a Spirit Visage for heavy AP as well as complementing your lifesteal and shields. If you need armor I think Death Dance makes a case with AD as well as a useful passive that can get you out of a sticky on takedowns. I haven't thought this part out too hard if I'm being honest, I feel like there's a lot of good cases to be made for the variable slot, and I'm not great when it comes to itemizing and synergies.
Clearing vision is paramount for successful ambushes, so be sure to have a pink ward and scanner handy in most scenarios.
Thanks for your time, and let me know if you gave it a try. I play on the phone exclusively now, and thankfully we still have LT, but I'm considering trying this build concept for fun in norms....
And to be prepared for when the inevitable day of reckoning comes.