Fiorentina 1 - 2 West Ham United

Fiorentina scorers: Giacomo Bonaventura (67')
West Ham scorers: Saïd Benrahma (62' pen.), Jarrod Bowen (90')
Venue: Fortuna Arena, Prague, Czech Republic
Referee: Carlos Del Cerro Grande (Spain)
Fiorentina:

Starting XI	Notes	Subs	Notes
Pietro Terracciano		Michele Cerofolini
Cristiano Biraghi		Lucas Martínez Quarta
Luca Ranieri	84'	Igor Julio	84'
Nikola Milenković	76'	Aleksa Terzić
Dodô		Lorenzo Venuti
Rolando Mandragora	66' 90+2'	Jonathan Ikoné
Sofyan Amrabat	85'	Antonín Barák	90+2'
Giacomo Bonaventura	67'	Alfred Duncan
Christian Kouamé	61'	Alessandro Bianco
Luka Jović	46'	Josip Brekalo
Nicolás González		Riccardo Saponara	61'
		Arthur Cabral	46'

Manager: Vincenzo Italiano (Italy)
West Ham United:

Starting XI	Notes	Subs	Notes
Alphonse Aréola		Łukasz Fabiański
Emerson		Angelo Ogbonna	90+4'
Nayef Aguerd	52'	Ben Johnson
Kurt Zouma	61'	Thilo Kehrer	61'
Vladimír Coufal		Aaron Cresswell
Lucas Paquetá		Pablo Fornals	76'
Declan Rice		Flynn Downes
Tomáš Souček		Manuel Lanzini
Saïd Benrahma	31' 62' 76'	Freddie Potts
Michail Antonio	90+4'	Danny Ings
Jarrod Bowen	90' 90+8'	Divin Mubama
		Maxwel Cornet

Manager: David Moyes (Scotland)
MATCH EVENTS
1': We're off!
1': Antonio gets an early shot off but it's weak and easily saved.
9': Mandragora puts his shot wide from distance
13': Rice fires just wide.
26': Fiorentina wins a corner, Milenković's header goes high into the air.
31': Saïd Benrahma goes down like a fish right outside the box, gets carded for the dive
34': Biraghi goes to take a corner kick, gets pelted with cups and starts bleeding out of the back of his head. He doesn't seem overly concerned, mostly just annoyed, but that's a lot of blood. He's getting taped up.
45+4': Kouamé hits the woodwork!! The header bounces right off the post! Jović tries to put it in the rebound! Areola puts his body in front of it but it bounces off of him and trickles over the line!! But the flag is up!! We're checking with VAR, Jović is still down...
HT Fiorentina 0-0 West Ham United Nasty half of football!
46': Fiorentina substitution: Arthur Cabral on for Luka Jović
46': We're back!
52': Nayef Aguerd carded for a rough midair collision with Nico González's ribs.
57': Kouamé fires from outside the box, it's right at the keeper for an easy save.
58': West Ham appealing for a penalty, Bowen claiming there was a handball! No indication from the ref but what will VAR say?
60': PENALTY FOR WEST HAM!! VAR confirms, Bowen was chesting the ball down and then Biraghi poked it away!
61': Fiorentina substitution: Riccardo Saponara on for Christian Kouamé
61': West Ham substitution: Thilo Kehrer on for Kurt Zouma
62': GOAL WEST HAM!! Saïd Benrahma takes it perfectly with no sweat into the right side!
66': Rolando Mandragora thought there was a handball and when the call didn't go his way he yelled at the ref and got booked for dissent
67': GOAL FIORENTINA!! Giacomo Bonaventura puts it from wide into the far side between two defenders! A beautiful touch to take it away from Rice and a perfect shot!
71': SAVE! Antonio is behind the backline and fires but Terracciano keeps it out! Offside anyway.
72': Big chance for Mandragora! But he puts the cutback wide.
76': Nikola Milenković tangles his legs up with the West Ham offense
76': Coufal fires way over the net from way out.
76': West Ham substitution: Pablo Fornals on for Saïd Benrahma
77': Biraghi's shot fired on target but saved by Aréola.
80': Great save by Terracciano on the deflected shot! Probably wouldn't have counted anyway, as Antonio was whistled for a backheel into Milenković's face
81': Souček's header tipped away from the far post by Terracciano!
84': Fiorentina substitution: Igor Julio on for Luca Ranieri
85': Sofyan Amrabat slides through Emerson, gives up a free kick in dangerous position
89': Amrabat fires hard but Aréola gets behind it and makes the catch
90': GOAL WEST HAM!! It's Jarrod Bowen past the backline!! He gets a great pass from Lucas, rushes forward, Terracciano is rushing off his line to smother him, Bowen fires, it deflects off the keeper's leg and into the net!
90+2': Fiorentina substitution: Antonín Barák on for Rolando Mandragora
90+4': West Ham substitution: Angelo Ogbonna on for Michail Antonio
90+8': Jarrod Bowen booked for something
FT Fiorentina 1-2 West Ham United West Ham has some silverware!

1973:
Alec Guinness as Charles XavieProfessor X
Harrison Ford as James "Logan" Howlett/Wolverine
Michael Douglas as Scott Summers/Cyclops
Diahann Carroll as Ororo Monroe/Storm
Sissy Spacek as Anna Marie D'Ancanto/Rogue
Julie Newmar as Jean Grey
Vincent Price as Erik LehnsherMagneto
Ann-Margret as Raven Darkhölme/Mystique
Orson Welles as Colonel William Stryker
Michael Caine as Kurt WagneNightcrawler
Jeff Bridges as Bobby Drake/Iceman
Gary Busey as St. John Allerdyce/Pyro
Kieu Chinh as Yuriko Oyama/Lady Deathstrike
Kirk Douglas as Senator Robert Kelly
Director: Franklin J. Schaffner
​
​
1983:
Donald Pleasence as Charles XavieProfessor X
Kurt Russell as James "Logan" Howlett/Wolverine
Patrick Swayze as Scott Summers/Cyclops
Pam Grier as Ororo Monroe/Storm
Jamie Lee Curtis as Anna Marie D'Ancanto/Rogue
Susan Sarandon as Jean Grey
Christopher Lee as Erik LehnsherMagneto
Karen Allen as Raven Darkhölme/Mystique
Joss Ackland as Colonel William Stryker
Timothy Dalton as Kurt WagneNightcrawler
Judd Nelson as Bobby Drake/Iceman
Alan Ruck as St. John Allerdyce/Pyro
Angela Mao as Yuriko Oyama/Lady Deathstrike
Fred Gwynne as Senator Robert Kelly
Director: Ridley Scott
​
​
1993:
Michael Caine as Charles XavieProfessor X
Mel Gibson as James "Logan" Howlett/Wolverine
Tom Cruise as Scott Summers/Cyclops
Angela Bassett as Ororo Monroe/Storm
Winona Ryder as Anna Marie D'Ancanto/Rogue
Geena Davis as Jean Grey
Max Von Sydow as Erik LehnsherMagneto
Daryl Hannah as Raven Darkhölme/Mystique
Dennis Hopper as Colonel William Stryker
Daniel Day-Lewis as Kurt WagneNightcrawler
Ethan Hawke as Bobby Drake/Iceman
Sean Patrick Flanery as St. John Allerdyce/Pyro
Michelle Yeoh as Yuriko Oyama/Lady Deathstrike
Donald Sutherland as Senator Robert Kelly
Director: James Cameron
​
​
2003:
Ben Kingsley as Charles XavieProfessor X
Kiefer Sutherland as James "Logan" Howlett/Wolverine
Matt Damon as Scott Summers/Cyclops
Vanessa L. Williams as Ororo Monroe/Storm
Christina Ricci as Anna Marie D'Ancanto/Rogue
Nicole Kidman as Jean Grey
Terence Stamp as Erik LehnsherMagneto
Milla Jovovich as Raven Darkhölme/Mystique
Tommy Lee Jones as Colonel William Stryker
Anthony Heald as Senator Robert Kelly
Rhys Ifans as Kurt WagneNightcrawler
Aaron Paul as Bobby Drake/Iceman
Sam Worthington as St. John Allerdyce/Pyro
Lucy Liu as Yuriko Oyama/Lady Deathstrike
Anthony Heald as Senator Robert Kelly
Director: Bryan Singer
​
​
2013:
Pierce Brosnan as Charles XavieProfessor X
Tom Hardy as James "Logan" Howlett/Wolverine
Chris Pine as Scott Summers/Cyclops
Naomie Harris as Ororo Monroe/Storm
Shailene Woodley as Anna Marie D'Ancanto/Rogue
Charlize Theron as Jean Grey
Jeremy Irons as Erik LehnsherMagneto
Adrianne Palicki as Raven Darkhölme/Mystique
Christoph Waltz as Colonel William Stryker
Scott Adkins as Kurt WagneNightcrawler
Taron Egerton as Bobby Drake/Iceman
Jai Courtney as St. John Allerdyce/Pyro
Kristin Kreuk as Yuriko Oyama/Lady Deathstrike
Bryan Cranston as Senator Robert Kelly
Director: Denis Villeneuve
​
​
2023:
Jude Law as Charles XavieProfessor X
Scott Eastwood as James "Logan" Howlett/Wolverine
Austin Butler as Scott Summers/Cyclops
Jurnee Smollett as Ororo Monroe/Storm
Mackenzie Foy as Anna Marie D'Ancanto/Rogue
Rebecca Ferguson as Jean Grey
Daniel Craig as Erik LehnsherMagneto
Cara Delevingne as Raven Darkhölme/Mystique
Russell Crowe as Colonel William Stryker
Eddie Redmayne as Kurt WagneNightcrawler
Chandler Riggs as Bobby Drake/Iceman
Dacre Montgomery as St. John Allerdyce/Pyro
Karen Fukuhara as Yuriko Oyama/Lady Deathstrike
Patrick Dempsey as Senator Robert Kelly
Director: Anthony and Joel Russo
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All constructive criticism is welcome and the more specific, the better.

Pitchforks to an Android Fight: How A.I. destroys the class power balance

The history of class conflict is as old as civilization itself. The few - who are rich and powerful - have always contested for the preservation of their wealth and privileges against the many.
Peasants vs kings. Plebeians vs patricians. Serfs vs landlords. Labor vs Industrialists. Proletariat vs bourgeoisie. And now the 99% vs the 1%. The names are legion but the inherent structure of the conflict remains the same: A privileged, consumption-driven few vs a productive, subservient many.
Outwardly, the contest appears extremely one-sided. Yet, the repetitive history of small elites cornering the majority of society’s resources and power to the detriment of the majority of society is almost metronome in nature.
Counterbalanced only by the sheer mass of the ruled, ruling elites have employed a series of strategies that negate numerical advantage.

Framework of Control

The ruling elites follow a standard framework of control when establishing minority dominance. While the names and actors occasionally change (after all the point is to freeze society in an advantageous configuration), the overall framework exhibits 4 universal strategies:

1. Institutional control
2. Monopolies of violence
3. Divide-and-conquer strategies
4. and a rare accommodation in times of extremis.

This framework has been endlessly replicated and persists to the present. Whether the patrician class of Rome, the upper echelons of the Chinese Communist Party or the 1% in the modern US, the framework is designed to achieve restricted class membership and enforce edicts while preventing aggregation of dissent.

Institutional control

In complex societies, energy (in the form of food, labor, currency or even literal energy like fossil fuels) is distributed throughout a society by its institutions. The energy enables work that powers the economic, political and security objectives of a social group.
Control of any society requires control of these institutions that distribute energy and represents the primary goal of any ruling elite or aspiring ruling elite.
Turning on and off the energy flow represents the crudest type of control where out-groups can be fully excluded from membership in and access to institutions. Burakumin, dalits, Roma and other outcast groups within their respective societies are examples of this type of exclusion.
However, this type of extreme control only works on small minority groups. The vast majority of the populace wouldn’t willingly accept complete exclusion to the energy and their numerical superiority ensures that the aspiring ruling elite must maintain adequate outflows to preserve the structure of society.
Any distribution of energy will naturally generate disputes or dissatisfaction with distributions and subsequent demands for representation in the relevant decision-making process.
Ruling elites subvert these demands and any need for change through the invention of institutions of legitimacy )that allow the co-option of more ambitious or intelligent dissenters. This can be a system of mana) or spiritual superiority that justifies privilege and control or even intellectual compliance with an ideology as in the former Soviet Union.
Institutional control has many faces including:

• The caste systems of India
• The Imperial Chinese Confucian examination system
• The religio-political partnerships of Medieval Europe and the Islamic world (including modern Saudi Arabia)
• Hereditary nobility and its privileges
• Communist party membership in the Soviet Union, Vietnam, and China.

In the modern US, this type of control is maintained through:

• Restrictive professional licensing
• Eminent domain
• Imbalanced copyright and patent law
• Carefully culled admission (legacy preferences and affirmative action) to selective universities and
• The interlocking partnership of the financial industry and politically captured political parties.

This coalesces into a class-based collaboration that remains surprisingly hereditary with the children of the privileged given a smooth path to the universities that are disproportionately represented in the upper echelons of government, finance and professional fields.
The newly minted leaders then direct political and economic institutions in preservation of their class with little to no internal institutional dissent - sometimes to disastrous results such as the Great Financial Collapse.

Monopoly on violence

Violence is the strategy of regimes with weak institutional control. Faced with disbelief in the institutions of legitimacy or failures of policy or control in the distribution of energy, coercion becomes the only option to maintain control.
Coercion is problematic though when numbers parity doesn’t exist between the ruling elite and the ruled. To address the numbers imbalance, ruling elites’ always attempt to establish a monopoly on violence by becoming either the sole capable source of coercive violence or through co-option of out-group members into the in-group to coerce other out-group members.
Monopolies on violence have materialized and continued as:

• Restrictions on membership in a warrior class such as the Spartan-helot, samurai-peasant and knight-serf distinctions
• Restriction of weapons ownership like Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s confiscation of peasant weapons and modern gun ownership restrictions.
• The creation of professional armies and the end of the citizen-soldier

Through control of who can receive weapons training and own weapons, ruling classes through history have neutralized the much larger numbers of the ruled through military and firepower superiority. History is replete with stories of superior-armed and armored warriors crushing under-armed peasant uprisings like Wat Tyler's Rebellion .

‘Professional violence’ and the end of the citizen-soldier

The creation of professional armies has ensured a dependent class whose sole living is the imposition of force as directed by the ruling class. Recruitment not only diminishes the possible members of any uprising but serves as an active deterrent to uprisings.
From the Spartan Crypteia to the Tianammen massacre to the US military’s misdirected destruction of Iraq post 9-11, professional armies have wreaked havoc in the name of the ruling class with the havoc largely directed at members of their own class and sometimes, families.
Since disaffected members of the populace as a whole are no longer required to serve, violent action becomes discreet and distant with minimal interference from the ruled.
The monopoly on violence is lessened in the United States due to the 2nd Amendment of the US Constitution and globally, The Cold War proliferated weaponry in the hands of non-state actors.
But the trend to centralize violence remains strong with armed interventions by multi-regime organizations such as the UN in the DRC, NATO in the former Yugoslavia, and ECOMOG in Guinea-Bissau and Liberia to prop up corrupt minority regimes in the face of non-approved armed groups.
Additionally, modern western governments have enacted large scale gun restrictions and at times, confiscation to ensure that the larger populace remains at a tactical advantage to the ruling elites’ armed forces. In the US, increased militarization of law enforcement has been accompanied by increasing restrictions on automatic weapons, body armor and ammunition.

Divide-and-conquer strategies

When institutional control loosens or the monopoly of violence weakens, the traditional response has been to divide the opposition into more manageable-sized groups. Mass social action has trumped the power of the ruling elite in the past and should be deterred at all costs.
The Divide-and-Conquer strategy ensures that the ruled can never coalesce enough disaffected members that their numbers outweigh the powerful’s control of institutions and violence.
The invidious strategy is monotonous in its lack of originality over human history and simplicity. While there have existed numerous small variations of this strategy at a high level, the strategy universally employs the following three methods:

1. Scapegoating and Dehumanization
2. Establishment of a group identity in opposition to the scapegoat
3. Invocation of ‘resistance’, ‘fighting’ or ‘revolution’ against the scapegoat to justify and mask policies that benefit the ruling elite or failures of the ruling elite

Scapegoating and Dehumanization

All of society’s problems become one group’s fault. It doesn’t matter that the group that is being victimized is powerless and can’t affect the outcome of policy or economy. Somehow it’s Their Fault!
Jews in Nazi Germany, LGBT people in Uganda, Poles in the UK, Roma throughout Europe, poor urban blacks in modern GOP rhetoric or poor rural whites in modern Democratic rhetoric are all examples of scapegoat groups. Caricatures, insults and propaganda all serve to demonize this group as secret subversives bent on destroying ‘progress’ or ‘family values’.

Establishment of a group identity in opposition to the scapegoat

Group identity is now paramount and group membership a sign of superiority in the name of whatever value du jour. Dissent becomes heretical. Virtue signaling becomes a necessity to ensure compliance and language becomes strictly policed. Compromise is mocked as ‘both-side-ism’ or secret allegiance to the ‘Them’.
Even dress reflects this division much like the construct of Red and Blue America in contemporary times. Outward displays of membership ensure that no random encounter with another side and their opinions becomes likely. People are literally physically repulsed from each other.

Invocation of ‘resistance’ or ‘revolution’ against the scapegoat to justify and mask policies that benefit the ruling elite or failures of the ruling elite

With groups isolated in their intellectual and media silos and identity locked into the conflict with the ‘Them’, any policy can be promulgated by the ruling elite under this guise. Any failure of the policy is redirected at the ‘Them’.
The Great Leap Forward and The Cultural Revolution in Communist China are excellent examples of this malevolent process in action.
The Great Leap Forward was a spectacular failure constituting the largest man-made disaster with 15-55 million estimated deaths. This type of disaster would normally be followed by widespread civil unrest and revolution.
However, by blaming crypto-bourgeoisie and other subversive elements within China itself, a possible overthrow of the CCP was channeled into The Cultural Revolution.
Dissent and dissatisfaction with poor governance by the ruling elite was metamorphosed instead into an exhaustive pursuit of the crypto-bourgeoisie and Western elements that were ‘truly responsible’ for the failure. The ruling CCP not only defused dissent but used the re-channeled energy to successfully cow the entire populace into submission.

Accommodation: The Last Resort

Sometimes - rarely - mass movements arise that bridge multiple tribal or manufactured identities and force accommodation from the ruling elite. There are multiple examples of these movements through history, including:

• Secessio Plebis or general commoner strikes in classical Rome
• The Social War (91–87 BC)) and subsequent admission of Italians to Roman citizenship
• The multi-racial abolitionist coalition that ended Western chattel slavery in the 19th century
• The rise of US organized labor in the 19th century and the adoption of work reforms
• Gandhi’s Salt March and the start of the end of British colonialism in India
• Martin Luther King’s multi-racial coalition of the 1950s and 1960s and the passage of The Civil Rights Act of 1964
• Lech Walesa and Solidarity) in Poland and the end of Communism in Poland

While the actors and times may differ, the end results are the same. A movement is able to leverage the inherent numerical advantage of the ruled by pursuing shared, pragmatic goals that bridge multiple identities. Unified by pragmatism that exceeds identity, the ruled are able to nullify or overwhelm the ruling elites’ normal advantages.
Or simply put - Numbers count. Ask the guards at the Bastille circa 1789 or the Rajapaksa brothers of Sri Lanka. Faced with either total dispossession or in the case of The French and Russian Revolutions - execution - the ruling elite will concede limited to large accommodations to the ruled.
Universal citizenship, self-ownership, labor regulations, social welfare programs, universal suffrage and the end of European colonialism all resulted from these forced accommodations. The improvement of the average human’s quality of life can be charted through these milestone movements and givebacks.

The Strategic Balance Tilts

Rational ruling elites have long realized their dependency on the ruled as the producers of energy as well as the purveyors of coercion vs competitive elites and other members of the ruled.
Fear of the ‘Leviathan’) or mob is prevalent among the ruling elites. Destructive or revolutionary uprisings are most feared by those with something to destroy especially when the potential revolutionaries outnumber the propertied 99-to-1.
Civilization - specialization’s evolution into stratification - has been a repetitive cycle of balance-disruption-counterbalance between the ruled and the ruling elites. A balance of superior capital, technology, and class cohesion held by the ruling minority vs the raw numbers and productivity of the many.
Since the Industrial Revolution, this strategic balance has suffered numerous shocks generated by technological innovations that have lessened the dependence of the ruling elite on the productivity of the ruled.
For millennia, the traditional replacement for the ruled was coerced labor in the form of some type of serfdom or chattel slavery. However, replacing one human with another human simply multiplied the problems of control. Skilled laborers may not be replaceable at all especially with unskilled coerced labor. And now there existed two disaffected humans - the coerced laborer and the replaced laborer. The history of Haiti and post-Civil War race relations in America are a testament to the human problems created with coerced labor.
The advent of widespread mechanization and fossil fuel usage allowed the harnessing of non-human energy for production. The value of brute force labor began a long decline as the number of humans needed for a job decreased precipitously. Steam engines, internal combustion engines and growing electricity availability powered harvesters, cotton gins, excavators and other tools that could do the work of many people without complaint or rest and for less cost. There remained a need for skilled labor that could operate or maintain the machinery and this need served to generate the modern organized labor movements and the work reforms they were able to obtain.
Starting in the 1970s and skyrocketing after China’s admission to the WTO in 2001, the ruling elites began to reduce their dependence on the unionized skilled laborers by offshoring manufacturing to lower cost locales with skilled labor but cheaper operating costs, fewer labor protections and looser environmental regulation. The remaining skilled and trade laborers began to be constantly pressured by threats of offshoring and the constant inflow of illegal immigrants to accept flat wage and benefit growth or risk replacement.
The advent of more user-friendly computers and operating systems - developed by companies like Apple and Microsoft - began the erosion of semi-skilled white collar job security. To paraphrase: Software began eating the people. Clerical, retail and assistant roles were replaced by office productivity suites, automated inventory systems and calendaring applications. The process accelerated in the late 1990s with the boom of Internet usage by consumers and businesses. This started the process that saw the value of semi-skilled and personal services labor degraded to commodity levels where laborers became interchangeable and temporarily leased by apps like Uber, Taskrabbit, etc.
This erosion of the ruling elite’s dependence on the ruled’s labor and productivity has had severe economic implications for society. Wealth inequality has accelerated to where in the United States the top 1% owns as much wealth as the bottom 90%. Wages have remained stagnant since the 1970s even as productivity has soared. Labor’s value is so low that the Democratic Party - famously commemorated by Kyrsten Sinema’s physical thumbs-down vote - rejected the first minimum wage increase in over a decade during a time of high inflation.
This is the effective end of one of the strategic deterrents the ruled had vs the depredations of the ruling elite. Mechanization and computing have globalized and commoditized labor while avoiding the control issues or capital costs of the past. The threat of withholding labor no longer carries the implications of the past, especially in light of regulatory capture that legally impairs critical industry workers from striking.

Fiorentina 1 - 2 West Ham United

Fiorentina scorers: Giacomo Bonaventura (67')
West Ham scorers: Saïd Benrahma (62' pen.), Jarrod Bowen (90')
Venue: Fortuna Arena, Prague, Czech Republic
Referee: Carlos Del Cerro Grande (Spain)
Fiorentina:

Starting XI	Notes	Subs	Notes
Pietro Terracciano		Michele Cerofolini
Cristiano Biraghi		Lucas Martínez Quarta
Luca Ranieri	84'	Igor Julio	84'
Nikola Milenković	76'	Aleksa Terzić
Dodô		Lorenzo Venuti
Rolando Mandragora	66' 90+2'	Jonathan Ikoné
Sofyan Amrabat	85'	Antonín Barák	90+2'
Giacomo Bonaventura	67'	Alfred Duncan
Christian Kouamé	61'	Alessandro Bianco
Luka Jović	46'	Josip Brekalo
Nicolás González		Riccardo Saponara	61'
		Arthur Cabral	46'

Manager: Vincenzo Italiano (Italy)
West Ham United:

Starting XI	Notes	Subs	Notes
Alphonse Aréola		Łukasz Fabiański
Emerson		Angelo Ogbonna	90+4'
Nayef Aguerd	52'	Ben Johnson
Kurt Zouma	61'	Thilo Kehrer	61'
Vladimír Coufal		Aaron Cresswell
Lucas Paquetá		Pablo Fornals	76'
Declan Rice		Flynn Downes
Tomáš Souček		Manuel Lanzini
Saïd Benrahma	31' 62' 76'	Freddie Potts
Michail Antonio	90+4'	Danny Ings
Jarrod Bowen	90' 90+8'	Divin Mubama
		Maxwel Cornet

Manager: David Moyes (Scotland)
MATCH EVENTS
1': We're off!
1': Antonio gets an early shot off but it's weak and easily saved.
9': Mandragora puts his shot wide from distance
13': Rice fires just wide.
26': Fiorentina wins a corner, Milenković's header goes high into the air.
31': Saïd Benrahma goes down like a fish right outside the box, gets carded for the dive
34': Biraghi goes to take a corner kick, gets pelted with cups and starts bleeding out of the back of his head. He doesn't seem overly concerned, mostly just annoyed, but that's a lot of blood. He's getting taped up.
45+4': Kouamé hits the woodwork!! The header bounces right off the post! Jović tries to put it in the rebound! Areola puts his body in front of it but it bounces off of him and trickles over the line!! But the flag is up!! We're checking with VAR, Jović is still down...
HT Fiorentina 0-0 West Ham United Nasty half of football!
46': Fiorentina substitution: Arthur Cabral on for Luka Jović
46': We're back!
52': Nayef Aguerd carded for a rough midair collision with Nico González's ribs.
57': Kouamé fires from outside the box, it's right at the keeper for an easy save.
58': West Ham appealing for a penalty, Bowen claiming there was a handball! No indication from the ref but what will VAR say?
60': PENALTY FOR WEST HAM!! VAR confirms, Bowen was chesting the ball down and then Biraghi poked it away!
61': Fiorentina substitution: Riccardo Saponara on for Christian Kouamé
61': West Ham substitution: Thilo Kehrer on for Kurt Zouma
62': GOAL WEST HAM!! Saïd Benrahma takes it perfectly with no sweat into the right side!
66': Rolando Mandragora thought there was a handball and when the call didn't go his way he yelled at the ref and got booked for dissent
67': GOAL FIORENTINA!! Giacomo Bonaventura puts it from wide into the far side between two defenders! A beautiful touch to take it away from Rice and a perfect shot!
71': SAVE! Antonio is behind the backline and fires but Terracciano keeps it out! Offside anyway.
72': Big chance for Mandragora! But he puts the cutback wide.
76': Nikola Milenković tangles his legs up with the West Ham offense
76': Coufal fires way over the net from way out.
76': West Ham substitution: Pablo Fornals on for Saïd Benrahma
77': Biraghi's shot fired on target but saved by Aréola.
80': Great save by Terracciano on the deflected shot! Probably wouldn't have counted anyway, as Antonio was whistled for a backheel into Milenković's face
81': Souček's header tipped away from the far post by Terracciano!
84': Fiorentina substitution: Igor Julio on for Luca Ranieri
85': Sofyan Amrabat slides through Emerson, gives up a free kick in dangerous position
89': Amrabat fires hard but Aréola gets behind it and makes the catch
90': GOAL WEST HAM!! It's Jarrod Bowen past the backline!! He gets a great pass from Lucas, rushes forward, Terracciano is rushing off his line to smother him, Bowen fires, it deflects off the keeper's leg and into the net!
90+2': Fiorentina substitution: Antonín Barák on for Rolando Mandragora
90+4': West Ham substitution: Angelo Ogbonna on for Michail Antonio
90+8': Jarrod Bowen booked for something
FT Fiorentina 1-2 West Ham United West Ham has some silverware!

Story time! A few weeks ago, I was going to an event. It took me 2 hours to get ready and I looked AMAZING! Short, plaid skirt, matching bra covered by a sheer, black crop top. I looked and felt HOT! I was so excited for the event and to see my peoples! But, the universe had other plans for me.
The event was an almost 2 hour drive from me. Which is fine. I've done that drive many times! It's all good, right?? 20 minutes into the drive, my stomach starts cramping. Usually, when thos happens, I have about 10 minutes to find a bathroom. But, the cramping only lasted a couple minutes and then stopped. So, I thought I was ok and continued my drive. An hour later, my stomach starts cramping again. So, I start looking for a gas station or something. But, I was SOL. I was on a stretch of highway with NOTHING for MILES! The cramping is very quickly getting worse and I start panicking! I see on my GPS that the closest gas station is 6 minutes away, so I click it and head towards that station. 1 minute later, I'm getting off on an exit and at this point I KNOW I'm not gonna make it 5 more minutes. I'm gripping the steering wheel for dear life and I'm already sweating. I drive for 2 more minutes, only seeing factories and warehouses. No where that would have a bathroom I could use. I FINALLY see a dollar store. I quickly start to pull into the parking lot, but.... it was too late. As I was turning into the lot, that overwhelming sick feeling hit me and I was about to throw up. At the same time, the stuff inside that I was trying so hard to keep in, started pushing out and I couldn't stop it. Let me repeat... I was wearing a short skirt (with very little under). It was already coming out by the time I parked. There was NO WAY I could walk inside and all the way to the back where the restrooms were. So, I did the only thing I could think to do. I grabbed the small, paper McDonald's bag, opened my door, set the bag on the ledge of the door and aimed. I was facing the entry to the parking lot, so I was PRAYING to any God who would listen, that no one pulled up while I was doing this. Well, that small, paper McDonald's bag folded in on itself. Next thing I know, there's shit EVERYWHERE. On the ledge of my car, on the ground of the parking lot, running down my legs, and into my favorite shoes. And there was SO MUCH. When I was finished, I looked at the mess and wanted to just die. I grabbed the 2 blankets I had brought with me. I used 1 to pick up as much of the crap that I could, and used the other to cover my seat. I got in the car and used baby wipes to clean myself as best as I could, called my friend while crying and told her I wouldn't be making it to the event. I had to drive and hour and 20 minutes home, smelling the awful smell. When I got home, I immediately showered and put my clothes in the wash. I cleaned my car, which took over an hour. The nasty stuff got under my seat and under the rail that the seat slides on. I eneded up just throwing away the 2 blankets and my favorite shoes. I also threw away the bath towel, 2 hand towels, and 3 wash cloths I had used to clean the car. I later did a Google Street view of that dollar store, to see if there were cameras outside. Luckily, there weren't.
In all my 38 years of living, I don't think I've ever had a more humiliating and demoralizing experience. That day, I hated my body more than I ever had.
So, lesson learned. I now have a 5 gallon bucket in my trunk, with emergency supplies. The bucket serves as a toilet in case of emergency.

1. First, right before Miles is bitten, the spider swinging down glitches several times, which is now an obvious sign that this spider is not from Miles' Earth.
2. And you can clearly see a "42" written on the back of the spider that bites Miles. Of course, in Across the Spider-Verse, we learn that the spider that bit Miles was from Earth-42.
3. When Miles swings and falls from a building in Into the Spider-Verse, you'll see he lands between the numbers 4 and 2. A reference to Miles being bit by a spider from Earth-42.
4. In Into the Spider-Verse, the number 42 also pops up on the price tag for the Spider-Man costume Miles buys from Stan. Again, another nod to Earth-42, which is explored more in Across the Spider-Verse.
5. Also, the lottery ball number that is seen in the beginning of Into the Spider-Verse reads "42," another nod to Earth-42 and its connection to our Miles Morales.
6. When Miles captures Peter B., he ties him to a punching bag, which is exactly how Earth-42 Miles, aka Prowler-Miles, and Uncle Aaron capture our Miles at the end of Across the Spider-Verse.
7. Also, Peter B. escapes Miles' little trap and gives him his first lesson: "Don't watch the mouth, watch the hands." I'm only assuming Miles will use this trick to escape, as we see him using his shock powers on the chains he's tied up with, but Prowler-Miles is too distracted talking to Miles to notice in Across the Spider-Verse.
8. In Across the Spider-Verse, when The Spot is telling Miles about how he became The Spot, he mentions how Miles hit him with a bagel. You can see this exact moment in Into the Spider-Verse when Miles and Peter B. are trying to escape Dr. Olivia Octavius.
9. At one point in Into the Spider-Verse, we see Miles' spidey-senses tingle when he meets his Earth's Peter Parker, but they are purple and green before they shift to blue and red. The Prowler's signature colors are purple and green, so this foreshadows the twist of Prowler-Miles from Earth-42.
10. When Peter Parker is introducing himself in the beginning of Into the Spider-Verse, he says how he has a "so-so popsicle." In Across the Spider-Verse, when Miles is being chased by all of the Spider-People, the popsicle is one of the Spider-Man variants chasing him.
11. When Miles visits Uncle Aaron, you can see Community Season 2, Episode 1 is playing on the TV. In the episode, Donald Glover can be seen dressed as Spider-Man, and it started a fan campaign of people wanting Donald to play Spider-Man. In Across the Spider-Verse, Donald makes a cameo as an alternate version of Aaron/Prowler.
12. When Gwen tells her story in Into the Spider-Verse, she mentions how her best friend, Peter Parker, died. Of course, in Across the Spider-Verse, we watch this whole moment play out as the opening of the movie.
13. You can also see Peter shift from Lizard to Peter in Into the Spider-Verse, which again, is explained in more detail when we follow Gwen's life and what led to her joining Miguel and Jessica in Across the Spider-Verse.
14. In Into the Spider-Verse, when we meet Peter B., he mentions how he and MJ broke up because she wanted kids and he wasn't ready. Then, in Across the Spider-Verse, he has a daughter and tells Miles he finally felt ready because of him.
15. When Fisk's super-collider goes off in the beginning of the movie, the black spots are much more obvious now that we know about The Spot and his connection to everything. Even when the other Spider-People come to Miles' Earth, the spots on the portals are so obvious now.
16. While I'm not sure this is on purpose, when Miles paints his mural with Uncle Aaron in Into the Spider-Verse, his silhouette looks a lot like The Spot, with black and white being the main colors. Again, might be reaching here, but it's something I paused at while rewatching.
17. And finally, in the Into the Spider-Verse post-credits scene, we see Miguel make his first multiverse jump to Earth-67, where he clearly is trying to recruit that Earth's Spider-Man to join his Spider-Society. Of course, they instead get into an argument about pointing.

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Before starting this post I do want to specify that I will be talking about eating disorders in here so please skip if it is hard to read, and I hope you find healing and love yourself.
So I’m thinking back to my childhood, and how my ndad and emom made me fat on purpose. My parents came from a very poor eastern European country where food was scarce and bread was basically everything. My whole entire life my dad has been able to eat mountains of food everyday without gaining weight, even to this day. If I had to guess his caloric intake it’s probably 4-6k calories a day, so my dad would always order food for me at McDonalds or any other fast food restaurant and get me 2 sandwiches, a large drink and fry and trained me to eat a lot because he didn’t want me “to starve”. I ate adult portions as a child even at home, my mom would give me ridiculously large portions of processed foods and soda. For example: I’d get lunch at school and it’d be like a side of green beans, 4 chicken nuggets and a milk, then my mom would ask me what I ate at school and then would say in a condescending tone “they only give you 4 chicken nuggets???” Then proceed to give me like 12-15 chicken nuggets with like 4-6tbsp of sour cream. My dad also worked in pizza so he’d always bring home free food and I’d be pigging out on whatever he brought home. This is only an example but over time I got fat and that got me bullied. So, he put me in taekwondo “to stay active” even though I was always sheltered and my mom would call the cops if I rode my bike on any street other than up and down ours. I struggled a lot being active because I had trouble breathing.
As a 12 year old who was like 5’3 I already weighed over 200lbs. I remember my dad screaming at my mom because I was fat and he wanted her to put me on a diet. I don’t know what it is with my parents culture that is so obsessed with sour cream but my mom fed me a slice of bread with sour cream on it and salt because that’s apparently how her friend got her daughter to lose weight. It was disgusting. It didn’t work because it wasn’t sustainable and I was never taught about nutrition, calories and balance.
Before I knew it I had developed binge eating disorder into my teenage life, then I got a huge wake up call when I was over 300 when my doctor basically told me I was going to die from my health problems. Then my dad told me I ate like a pig and all of this could have been prevented. I wasn’t allowed to talk back to him but this made me spiral into anorexia and orthorexia, where I basically became very afraid of anything unhealthy/with preservatives but still did not eat enough. I did finally learn about nutrition but I didn’t apply it to my life and I just thought that skinny = good, fat = bad. When I lost half my body weight I had teachers at school and my counselor expressing concern and my dad would just tell me how good I looked and how I looked like a model because by the time I was almost done with high school I was 6 feet tall. Apparently I found out that he tried to make me fat so no boys would want me in school and I wouldn’t lose my virginity. Yeah, seriously.
When I look at old photos from that time I looked so pale, miserable and lifeless. I finally have a healthy relationship with food, my body, self esteem and have seeked a lot of counseling and therapy but that time of my life was so miserable. Has anybody else dealt with a similar situation?

Target User: u/MiserableAd4687
URL: /Twittecomments/1421bx6/donald_trump_truth_social_advertisement/
Title: Donald Trump Truth Social Advertisement
Body:
Something odd has started to happen to me on twitter. I tried clicking on a video and instead of playing the video, I was taken to a link to Donald Trump’s truth social account. This has happened many times already, and I don’t know what to do about it. I would like to report this as an issue but don’t know how. Help. Please ty

Hello ladies, this week my fictional story will leave you feeling cautious the next time you eat at a Chinese restaurant :)
The Fortune Cookie
Samuel was exhausted, it was nearly 10 p.m. and he was leaving his office. He was starving, he just wanted to eat and hit the bed. ‘What a terrible day!’ he was muttering to himself as he got into his old beat-up Renault Kwid. He had seen a Chinese restaurant nearby that opened recently and he decided trying it now would be the best option.
It was a small inexpensive-looking restaurant for quick meals. It had simple decor with traditional Chinese paintings and some random symbols of dragons splattered here and there. One bored receptionist cum cashier and only 1 waiter. It was not a place you would come to on a date.
He gave his order and started scrolling through his phone. He saw some updates of his friend travelling to Dubai for work, one of them getting married in a fancy resort in Rajasthan and one of them was working at Google and felt the need to constantly put #googleknowsbest in all his posts.
The real estate business in India was hard, there isn’t any strategy or marketing that can make you successful, it was entirely dependent on your network and getting lucky with the right client at the right time. The respect for agents was abysmal since it was not considered an elite profession and the commissions were shared between multiple parties.
You could hire a celebrity for the promotion of a project to bring in the masses but when it came down to the client writing a cheque for that booking amount, it had nothing to do with the celebrity. Those gimmicks were just enough to get them off their laptops and visit the property.
He had to constantly ensure he was at networking events or getting in touch with the businessmen of the city to source the right inventory to sell. His company was working on a budget villa project which was taking time to sell because of the location being close to a graveyard. Not many families wanted to stay close to a burial ground despite the villa’s appeal.
It was such a beautiful villa, the amenities, the location and the price, every aspect was attractive. ‘Maybe someday when I can afford it’ he thought to himself. He finished his meal and waited for the bill. He was served a fortune cookie with the bill, “Oh it’s been a long time since I have gone to a restaurant that still serves these” he said to the waiter. He opened the cookie and the message read ‘Don’t underestimate your ideas’. ‘That’s funny, I just had an argument with my manager about an idea I had which he didn’t like’ Samuel thought, he shrugged it off and paid the bill.
The next day at work, Samuel was in the cab with his Marketing Head going to a meeting regarding a residential project in the city. They were in the middle of random banter when he decided to casually mention his idea that his boss had rejected. “That’s not a bad idea at all, I think we should bring this up at today’s meeting and ask the client for their opinion,” the Marketing Head said to him. By the end of the day, Samuel was a happy man, the marketing guys for the residential project approved it and his Marketing Head gave Samuel all the credit for it in front of his boss.
A month later, it was a late night again for Samuel, he decided to hit the Chinese restaurant for dinner again. This time he was conversing with his old college friend Meera, he had recently reconnected with her over Instagram. He was about to pay the bill when he realised he had never eaten the cookie. He opened it and it read ‘Confess your love, it’s worth it’, ” Maybe I will” Samuel said aloud.
Later that night, he asked Meera out for a movie half expecting her to say that it was too soon to go on a date. The stars were aligned and she said yes. Their date turned into many dates.
One weekend, he told his best friend about the fortune cookies and that they were lucky for him. “Are you trying to say these cookies can predict your future?” “No, I’m just saying the messages have been right twice and I don’t want to lose out”. Just to humour Samuel, his best friend agreed to dine at the restaurant.
The meal was over and they were ready to open the cookies. Samuel read ‘Something dangerous lies in your path, stay cautious’ and his best friend read ‘Avoid the upcoming journey’. “What’s that supposed to mean?!” his best friend asked him looking annoyed. “I don’t know, maybe there’s some journey you are going to go on and you shouldn’t go?” Samuel responded. “I have journeys every weekend so this doesn’t make any sense!” his best friend exclaimed. His best friend’s parents lived 3 hours from the city and he used to visit them every other weekend. His best friend declared that this was a stupid activity and they agreed to disagree ultimately.
Samuel checked his entire house for any loose wiring, fire hazards, toxic chemicals, gas leaks, etc he couldn’t find anything. He even checked his car and his desk at the office, but nothing! Maybe this was a coincidence and he was taking this too seriously. It was a fortune cookie for God’s sake! It’s supposed to be for fun. He let the incident go and forgot all about it in the next few weeks.
A month later, his Goa trip planning was in full swing. Any Indian would know how the Goa plan works. You plan for months with your friends and right before the trip, the dominoes start to fall. Samuel’s manager declined his request for the leaves due to a promo event that was happening at the same time where they had roped in a huge celebrity to pretend like he loved the villa. “It’s Pratap Kapoor we’re talking about Samuel, this is no small guy,” his boss said. “Pratap has a 20,000 sq ft villa with a bonsai garden imported from Japan, he’s not relatable when it comes to endorsing a budget home” Samuel protested. “That may be true but he has a huge social media following and the fact that he may potentially own one of the villas will give customers the message that the graveyard is not an important factor” his boss stated ending the discussion. Samuel had lost the argument and the Goa trip.
He loaned his friends his car to carry on with their trip. They offered to cancel it but he insisted that they go, he didn’t want to ruin it. Besides, it was a good time to take Meera to one of those Korean restaurants she had been obsessing about.
It was when he was in the middle of eating his Bibimbap that he received the call. His friends had been in an accident on the way back home. A drunk driver rammed into them, fortunately they were not seriously injured but the car took most of the damage. “We were really lucky that the drunk guy had an equally beat-up car as yours” his best friend explained to him, Samuel’s thoughts drifted towards the message his cookie had revealed to him. This is what it was warning him from.
Over the next 5 years, it became a ritual for Samuel. He would eat at the restaurant before any big decision he had to make or if there was any big event coming up. Samuel moved to a different real estate agency which offered him a senior position, with time his commissions became better, he bought a better car, married Meera and he bought the villa near the graveyard.
“I already told you, I am not coming on that trip with your parents Meera,” he told his wife. “Just because the cookie said so?!” she asked. “Yes, the message said to exercise caution on your next endeavour and I went there just after we discussed the trip, I’m sorry but I cannot go, this is my process and you know it,” he said firmly. “You are letting these cryptic messages get the better of your logical self, it was fun in the beginning but it’s been 5 years now and you can start making your own decisions,” Meera told him, unable to believe her husband relied on luck from a cookie. “No, I trust the process and I would like to stick to it,” he said. Their fight escalated and it resulted in him staying home alone.
When Meera was away, he received a call from an unlikely source. The secretary to a local politician, politician wanted to sell his massive farmhouse on the outskirts of the city to settle some debts that occurred from his political rally. The politician had a bad reputation for solving everything with cash or brute force. But, this was a big deal, if he said no to the politician then another agent would do it and profit off it since word travelled fast in his circle.
“You can inform his assistant that we cannot take this up”. “He lost the election and his boys got into a fight as well that the media picked up so I think he’s bad news. Our agency has a certain reputation so we cannot be involved with certain types of individuals” Samuel’s CEO told him. Despite Samuel persuading him with the value of the property, the CEO refused and the matter was dropped.
Samuel decided that it was time to start doing things independently. He took on the sale of the property independently and asked the secretary to keep it discreet. He stood to make a huge commission on this, this could mean quitting his job and starting on his own so why give up the opportunity? Destiny had come knocking on his door, he couldn’t just ask her to leave.
He went to the restaurant to get a feel of his decision. While waiting for the food he called his wife to find out if she reached home safe, “So nothing weird happened during the trip?” he asked. “Nope, your fortune cookie was wrong this time. Everything went smoothly, you should have come. My parents didn’t believe you were sick, they think something’s going on with us” she told him. “Yeah, maybe I should have come,” he said relieved that the message didn’t come true. “Don’t forget to get the Kung Pao chicken and no cookie for me please?” she said ending the call. Samuel mulled over what had happened. Was it that the magic was over? For 5 years the messages had been right but not this time. Meera was back and safe.
At home, when he opened the cookie, it read ‘It’s not too late to back out’. Samuel was annoyed, this was a big deal where he stood a chance to grow his network and quit his stressful job. He went to bed and let the thought stir in his mind.
The commission he was offered was the highest he had ever been offered. Several agencies and agents were working on this property but he had the network of people who would need such a massive area, he could crack it. The decision had been made.
Over the next few months, Samuel intentionally lost a few deals so that he could dedicate extra time to the farmhouse. Fortunately, nobody suspected anything at his firm and he getting close. Finally, after 6 months of effort and negotiation, it was sold to a construction company, they were going to build a resort.
Later that year, Samuel was a richer, happier man. He was out in the world trying to be an entrepreneur when he received a call that ruined everything. The construction firm had filed a case against everyone in the land dealing stating that it was a fraudulent deal. They discovered a body in the premises hidden underground and it just happened that the exact spot was being dug up for a swimming pool. This was bad marketing for the resort. Who would bring their families to a place with a reputation for murder? The construction was stopped when the police intervened to do a complete investigation and the legal proceedings began.
Samuel started losing hair and sleep over the drastic change of events in his life. His entrepreneurship journey was falling apart and Meera and his relationship was on a steady decline. He didn’t know how to control it, he was trying to make things work both professionally and personally. Over the next few months, he tried yoga, went to church more often and travelled but, it was not enough to solve his problems. He realised the cookie had been right all along but he had gone against it. That was when he decided it was time to go back to the restaurant to get some advice. He was desperate.
He finished his meal when the waiter told him the news. “Sir, we’re shutting down this week, they sold the place to a McDonald’s franchise,” the waiter said looking ready to move on. “Sold it?! Why do you need a McDonald’s here when there’s a burger place 2 streets away?!” Samuel questioned reeling from the shock. “Sir, I don't know these things, I’m going to apply for a job when it becomes McDonald's. You have been coming here for a long time so I thought you should know that we’re closing” the waiter said clearing the table.
That was it, his final cookie in this place. He was mentally asking for it to give him some good advice on what to do next. The cookie read ‘Darkness awaits’

Good Evening, Dashers and customers! This is a question for you. Dashers, and customers, whats your craziest doordash story? I’ll start.
I ordered McDonalds one night at 3:00 AM, because.. well. I was hungry. Anyway, the driver dropped it off at the wrong house, so I called him and told him to come back and deliver it to the right address. The driver came back, and noticed that the food was stolen. They chased and body slammed the guy that stole it and gave him a concussion. Since I was a witness to this crime, I lied to the police about the person that stole the food, so that he would not do something like that again. From what I know, he’s currently in a coma. Meh. Best. McDonald’s. EVER. Oh… also, I updated his tip from 75 cents to $1.50 for his service in protecting my food.
Your turn, fellow redditors.

I have been in Japan for one week and will be here for another two weeks. I am currently 5 weeks and 4 days pregnant. With nausea and food aversions, I have been pretty miserable trying to find foods my body will tolerate (I’m Japanese so I’m familiar with the food already). Today I found out that food is McDonald’s 😭 their double cheeseburger is the only thing I’ve eaten where I could finish the whole thing and now I’m going to go out and buy another. Cheers everyone!

I just had the most insane fucking nightmare that I woke up from with the most intense dread and fear with my heart pounding. The worst part about it was how real it felt while still feeling incredibly absurd and alien. It was also super quick. I think all those factors culminated in one of the freakiest dreams I've ever had.
Anyway, I was either working at, or just finishing a shift at my old McDonalds when my sister came to either pick me up or hang out or something, and we were just sitting at a table shooting the shit. Eventually the conversation shifts to a memory she had of seeing something in the old house we used to live in the night before we moved out for good. Even just typing that sent shivers down my legs. I mentioned how her bringing it up reminded me of the memory and how fucking scary it was and she was like, "yeah, and if I told this to anyone else they would think I was insane" and I was like no, I understand what you mean, it was fucked up.
As we discussed the memory, I was transported back to the scene. It was the last house we ever lived in (our parents live in a condo now), and because all our beds were packed up, we were sleeping on an air mattress in the basement. It was pitch black down there, and we were both woken up by the sounds of bumping in the little sump pump room. My "night vision" had kicked in by the time we went to go open the door, because we thought our dog might have somehow trapped himself in there. But before we could fully open it, this fucking creature burst out. It didn't even hit the door, just slinked out through the small crack that had been made by the barely opened door.
It was about child-sized, standing upright on two stubby yet lanky legs missing feet, with a body that was less a human's and more a centipede's, but with only two segments. It had two more pairs of the same stubby legs going up the sides of its body, and didn't have a head, but yet another pair on top of its body, so that if it flipped over it would look identical. It charged at us once out of the door, and it was blurry yet very visible in the dark if that makes sense; I think its skin colour was a pale yellow. I said it charged because it moved fast but really it moved super awkwardly, the best way I can describe it is how a centipede might move if it stood on only two legs. Anyway we fucking ran out of the house and into the driveway. Our parents weren't home.
We were back in the McDonalds and talking about how scary that was, and somehow both concluded that it was called "Yellow Hands".
Now the scariest part for me now that I'm awake and recording this nightmare, is the fact we only saw one, yet dubbed it "Yellow Hands" plural. It also had no hands. So my imagination is now taking over and wondering if this wasn't just one giant hand of an even more fucked up, enormous creature that was emerging from the closet. I genuinely don't know what is scarier, the concept of it just being an absurd creature or a giant monster, but fuck, that dream was scary and I'm having to write it out right now so I can remind myself it wasn't real.
The creature kind of reminds me of something from Gemini Home Entertainment, and the "memory" scene felt like something out of Skinamarink if that makes any sense. Just one of the most abstract, fucking scariest dreams I've ever had. The fact I'm still reeling from it while typing this out, Jesus Christ. I keep getting shivers from typing it out and rereading it.
I'm going to draw it, and then will probably have to watch an episode of Seinfeld or something to get back to sleep. My poor wife, I had to turn my lamp on after I woke up because I was convinced there was one of those things in the dark bedroom, despite this being a completely different house in a different city. I'm gonna be tired AF in the morning from the sleep lost from this event, and might even have a laugh about how silly I was being, but Holy shit, that was scary and I'm still feeling it like 30 minutes after waking up.
Trying a new website to share my drawings, because Imgur doesn't work well on mobile for me, so hope it works:
https://ibb.co/thP5KrM
https://ibb.co/ZmrTk0Y
I hope whoever reads this gets either a kick out of it or some of the same shivers I can't seem to shake at the moment.

I’m 28, have my own apartment. I work at McDonald’s, I can make it. I have a BF who works with me as well and I’ve known him for 10 years. My family knows I’m bi but my dad doesn’t yet know or at least doesn’t bring it up if he does know. I love my bf but he bitches too much idk. He doesn’t allow me to have my own say so and if I speak up he talks over me. I have lumps on my left side of my body. It doesn’t hurt or anything but idk what it is. I have a lump on my leg that scrapes against my ball sack and hurts when I walk and idk what it is. I’m on the verge of breaking. I’ve been drinking alcohol every other 2 days now. I’m breaking down. I feel like crying but I’m at my BF’s apartment and I don’t want to add stress to him or try to change the situation to me and make me feel week or that I’m doing it for attention but fuck. I need to cry. I don’t know what to do in life anymore.

I like to explain things online -- especially on heated issues. And I get people who commonly ask me why I'm wasting my breath. The answer is simple.
The fools have all the power. The people whom everyone else overlooks are the ones where all the power has settled. It's why churches that believe Pokemon are the manifestation of Satan still have sway in public opinion. It's why Donald Trump won. In both instances, you have people who see the potential in the group of people everyone else is saying to ignore.

GOODNESS True goodness is like water; it nurtures everything and harms nothing. Like water, it ever seeks the lowest place, the place that all others avoid.
~ Tao Te Ching

You wanna change the world?
Start teaching. Start accepting that people who aren't within your level of education aren't going to see the world as you do. And stop allowing idiots in academia to tell you that you don't have the power to change minds.
Differing minds require different social proofs. It's not that the person isn't listening to you. It's that you're babbling a different language when you cite studies and statistics -- something that person was NEVER trained to read. You might as well be speaking Russian. That person reads human beings. That person reads interpersonal communication. Try using real-life examples.
I have had so many assholes online tell me to stop wasting my breath explaining things. The thing is, I've seen the results of my explanations firsthand. I've had people literally thank me for breaking down a topic, and complain that the science wasn't more readily available to the general public. I've left comments in Ben Shapiro's videos, that contradict what he's stated, and then the next week, I notice that he changes his thinking.
The power to make real change isn't up top; it's on the bottom. 1% of the population sits up top. If you want to see change, you've gotta make it on the streets. Not only through rallies, but through real education. And that means you really have to understand an issue. You cannot just parrot lines you've heard.
I've seen so many TV programs try and confront social issues. They put someone from their respective community onstage. And that person sits there, parroting slogans. Viewers aren't going to respect you that way. They're literally taking their time to listen, and instead of educating them, you're tossing slogans out like a Christmas parade float.
Humans are comprised of 2 parts, emotion, and logic. And you have to satisfy both to convince someone.
Emotion?
"I don't think children should be able to transition."
Concern for children is very admirable. 98% of kids who go on puberty blockers continue transitioning into their adult lives.
Logic?
"There are only 2 genders" (presumably because there are only 2 sexes).
Almost every organ in the human body is coded male or female. There are hundreds of switches throughout the body which receive this signaling. Nearly everyone in the population has a portion of those switches that've been mixed. You have men whose brains favor estrogen -- they're usually more amicable, and less hostile. And women whose brains favor testosterone -- they're usually better with mathematics and science concepts. You have women with broad shoulders, and men with tiny figures. You have people with XX chromosomes who have penises, and people with XY chromosomes who have vaginas. And this is in everyone -- not just a small subset of the population.
Because of this science cannot define man or woman. Science uses deductive logic (where you take things away) or inductive logic (where you group things together). There isn't a single thing which all men share. Nor is there a single trait which all women share. Science cannot define men or women. Which means the concept is completely socially constructed.
Anthropologists often have trouble identifying sex from skeletal remains. So much so that they've developed computer programs to do it, and those programs fail at an alarmingly high rate.
Finally, an appeal to God/Nature?
Do you honestly thing the Creator of the universe would paint everything else on a spectrum, but make human beings binary. I mean, you see examples of this in your every day life. It's everywhere. Not all boys are football players, and not all girls play with dolls.
---EDIT---
Here's another:
"I don't think kids should be exposed to sex."
Do you know what kids do in school? Every high school has kids having sex behind the bleachers, in the art room, and library -- whenever there isn't a teacher around. Hell, there are even dudes masturbating under their desks while their teachers are in the room.
And all this shit starts in middle school.
Do you want them reading about it, or do you want them out doing it with people twice their age behind a dumpster?
-------------
But instead of explaining this shit, and winning people over -- who will win other people over -- we're stuck with bullshit slogans that mean nothing.
If you actually want to win this "war" then you have to stop trying to go up top, and start educating people on facts at the bottom. College education isn't available to most of them -- especially in the United States. And public school is a joke.
And just because someone says, "no," to you right now, doesn't mean they won't go home and think about it. I took a course in hypnotherapy in college, and one of the main concepts in hypnotherapy is delayed action. A person may not be ready to process new information, but when they sit with it a bit, it may actually make better sense to them.
Trans issues are only one of several social which need to be tackled, but the reason this craziness is winning right now, is because people actually believe that sitting around and teaching others accomplishes nothing. It doesn't when you bombard them with statistics and numbers. But when you give them real-world examples, and make it personal for them, they start actually seeing the truth.

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