Black Sails and other Poetry Black Sails Fires burn while the rabbit sleeps Outcasts yearn and prophets preach The Truth dangles just out of reach Tribesman grin through gritted teeth Black fields, brash men overreach Black entrails, Not sure what we teach Black army, bolts into the breach Black banners, frail beyond belief

They don't need to control you if they control the ppl you're subscribed to and you're following a crowd that they already own.

Political tribalists are a single tally mark in a game that doesn't keep score.

Those who are tired of chaos seek order. Those who are tired of order seek chaos.

I guess this needs to be said: I do not advocate for pitbulls. The pfp is not my real dog any more than my name is my real name. It's a persona. I thought that was obvious with the name, the @ and the pfp, but I guess not. A persona is a public-facing mask. An online identity. It's not based on real life. Would you assume Mr Beast was a conservationist? Or that Ninja was a real ninja? Do you think Prince was a real prince or that he advocated for them? Would you assume the Rock is a geologist? Unbelievable the amount of times someone says something like "I hate pitbulls" "I wish all pitbulls were dead" as if that matters to me. Micheal Myers wore a captain Kirk mask. Maybe all Laurie Strode had to do was insult Star Trek, right? C'mon, man.

Talk about dedication 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

I think that the premise of Terminator could be humorously framed as 'Man fights Progress'. That's going to sound bad off the top for most ppl, but I would ask 'Does it sound bad bc it is bad or bc you have a preconceived notion about progress being good?' In the film, 2 men are hatched out of giant time eggs, naked and destined for each other bc they both want the same girl. (lol) The difference between them? One is a normal, vulnerable human fighting against the odds. The other is an unfeeling, uncaring machine concerned with consistency and fulfilling its mission. How long can man persist vs the machine? Can we go back and change things? So, you see, Kyle Reese and all future protagonists are from a future where humanity has been split into two tribes- Machine and human. New vs old. Technology vs the old ways. So in an almost literal sense, they are fighters from the future fighting in the past to change their present. Is man obsolete? (T1) Even with the tools of the machine? (T2). So, assuming the machine represents, among other things, progress, that makes ppl recoil bc that's a word with a positive connotation, but I would hesitate to say it's always positive. The Amish have based their life on the idea of fighting progress and it seems to work out for most of them. In order to know if the progress is good or bad, we have to understand what we're progressing towards. Saying 'at least we're making progress' is like saying 'we're changing', but into what? If a company is making progress towards bankruptcy or a class action lawsuit, that's not good progress. If a missile it making progress towards its target that might be good progress for whoever fired the missile and no-so-good for whoever is in the target area. So when Kyle Reese fights the Terminator, he is fighting progress, but he's doing it for the good of mankind bc at some point it's possible to progress so far we make ourselves obsolete. We create automated systems that are far better than we are at doing our jobs. But without our roles, what identity do we have? And if all we're going to do is hand everything over to machines and allow them to babysit us, take care of us like we're inmates in a prison or animals in a zoo, then what is the point of society in the first place? Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness? The betterment of mankind? I think at some point, we need to take serious stock of the direction we're traveling in and decide if progress towards that end is something we all want to see.

When ppl say 'stupid', someone is stupid, they don't always mean low intelligence. They often mean the person is silly, frivolous, childish and/or just doesn't take anything seriously and why would the ppl of today take anything seriously? Society over time has lowered the stakes for its citizens. There was a time when duties and responsibilities weren't just a chore, they were practical, hygienic exercises. When society was just beginning to form, for instance, education was an honor and a privilege granted to the very few. Over time we decided that this power should be extended to everyone and it became a civic duty and something of a litmus test for one's ability to perform in the real world. Fast forward to today, our society is in decline and standards across the board have declined along with it. Most students now see school as a hassle. Something that's forced on them. They don't take it seriously and why would they? There's no stakes. They don't believe that their education will have any use going forward and there is no real punishment for not taking it seriously and applying zero effort, in fact, the harder the students fail, the more quickly the schools lower their standards. So is school making ppl stupid? Yes and no. It's not making them less intelligent or less capable of success, it's not ruining their potential, but it is contributing to the lack of seriousness that is pervasive in our society, it's teaching them that consequences don't really matter and it's giving the students a safety net by which they don't need to try hard, which causes them to not grow as a person, not grow cognitively, and not to take anything seriously. The results of which, can make a person look pretty stupid on a regular basis compared to someone without those sorts of problems. Not stupid bc they're genuinely unintelligent or don't have the ability to overcome their own challenges, but stupid bc they're incapable and don't even consider trying to overcome them.

Can't Take it from Me Your Ivory Tower's not as tall as the valley's low It's hard to find honor when it lives down below Gonna be a goner if you ain't been here before Kiss your wife and daughter before its time to go They said abandon all hope Ye who enter here It's the end of the rope Where you will drown in fear Don't worry about tomorrow today is just fine, my dear You can walk the straight and narrow but there's no hope of getting out of here But they don't even know me I was born right here Ain't no one can control me pressure disappears Like lion vs coyote Never been one to give in to fear I put it all in the back of my mind Ain't nobody gonna take what's mine I came up with nothing, and you won't get shit from me See the truth in my eyes I ain't tellin no lies Trust me baby, I walk free (Uhhh-huuuh, Uhhhh huuuuh) I walk free

Down the Rabbit Hole I know where you're going back to that place you were before That place with Christmas lists Budding relationships and toys strewn across the floor You say you're not going But I've seen it all before You'll sit right there With that blank stare Lost in days of yore I know where you're going because I know where you've been I know what's on your mind How it'll all unwind Before you even start to begin But you can't hear me No one ever does I might know you best What's on your chest But I wasn't a part of what was I guess the truth is not mine to speak Even if you could get it just fine For now just pray to get through the day and we'll imagine it's all in my mind I know where you're going because I know where you've been I know what's on your mind How it'll all unwind Before you even start to begin But you can't hear me No one ever does I might know you best What's on your chest But I wasn't a part of what was I know where you're going because I know where you've been I know what's on your mind How it'll all unwind Before you even start to begin But you can't hear me No one ever does I might know you best What's on your chest But I wasn't a part of what was I guess the truth is not mine to speak Even if you could get it just fine For now just pray to get through the day and we'll imagine it's all in my mind

All I Can Be So twisted double-fisted I'm wicked can't miss it I'm gifted Heart's ticking Mind's drifting Mood's lifting Still insisting On this thing No quitting Keep forgetting I'm slipping Stop tripping Don't forget me Teeth gritted eyes slitted gonna get it can't forget it 'cause I lived it to the limit Always in it From the beginning Still winning There's no pretending Tired of being something I'm not Feeling like a thief that never got caught I can't take the hurt in your eyes I wish I could say this was all a surprise I can't be What I wanted to be Just didn't happen to me You get what you see I know that you wanted more but down to my core This is all I can be This is it for me

Don't Follow the Crowd You don't even know where they're going Or why they're there Don't follow the crowd Opinions are flexible Malleable Manageable Manipulable Agreement doesn't make you one of them Only submission does Don't follow the crowd It is easy to follow easy to walk behind You don't even have to think But you're not a lemming Stop walking into their trap Don't follow the crowd Opinions aren't an identity They are a persona They are cosplay Anyone can change their mind Don't base your life On an opinion that isn't really yours Don't follow the crowd You are not the crowd You will not find yourself among them Unless you put yourself there They're not going where you want to go They don't even know Where that is Only you can get there on your own if you go it alone You might find yourself there Don't follow the crowd

Can't Take it from Me Your Ivory Tower's not as tall as the valley's low It's hard to find honor when it lives down below Gonna be a goner if you ain't been here before Kiss your wife and daughter before its time to go They said abandon all hope Ye who enter here It's the end of the rope Where you will drown in fear Don't worry about tomorrow today is just fine, my dear You can walk the straight and narrow but there's no hope of getting out of here But they don't even know me I was born right here Ain't no one can control me pressure disappears Like a wolf among coyotes Never been one to give in to fear I put it all in the back of my mind Ain't nobody gonna take what's mine I came up with nothing, and you won't get shit from me See the truth in my eyes I ain't tellin no lies Trust me baby, I walk free (Uhhh-huuuh, Uhhhh huuuuh) I walk free

About Homelander: *spoiler alert* In the series finale of The Boys, they strip Homelander of his powers and he winds up a sobbing, begging bitch on his knees. A lot of people, including Eric Kripke, the show's writer, applauded that saying that this is how strong men behave when stripped of their power. I disagree and I don't think it's psychologically accurate. Homelander wasn't simply strong. He was delusional. He thought of himself as a God and believed whole-heartedly that no one was on his level. I don't believe that he would have accepted that he was in a position where regular humans could beat him. He would not give up or surrender, he would die in denial. The harder the playing field shifted against him, the more he would get angry, buckle down and try to physically level it himself, prove everyone wrong. Making him cry and beg doesn't fit his character at all and it would require that he believe himself incapable of overcoming the odds somehow, which is wrong. Homelander would never bet against himself no matter how bleak it was bc his superiority complex was God-tier delusion. I think it's another example of bad writing and I think the 'strong men would be weak people without their strength' idea, at least in Homelander's case, is cope from people who have envied and hated people like him their whole lives. They want to see him be humiliated and that's why they wrote the ending like that. Not because it's what the character would most likely do, but because it's what they felt like they wanted to see. It's what made them feel good. But that's not truth at all, it's self-serving and it's bad story-telling.