When I was younger I was very right-wing. I mean…very right-wing. I won’t go into detail, because I’m very deeply ashamed of it, but whatever you’re imagining, it’s probably at least that bad. I’ve taken out a lot of pain on others; I’ve acted in ignorance and waved hate like a flag; I’ve said and did things that hurt a lot of people.
There are artefacts of my past selves online – some of which I’ve locked down and keep around to remind me of my past sins, some of which I’ve scrubbed out, some of which are out of my grasp. If I were ever to become famous, people could find shit on me that would turn your stomach.
But that’s not me anymore. I’ve learned so much in the last ten years. I’ve become more open to seeing things through others’ eyes, and reforged my anger to turn on those who harm others rather than on those who simply want to exist. I’ve learned patience and compassion. I’ve learned how to recognise my privileges and listen to others’ perspectives. I’ve learned to stand up for others, how to hear, how to help, how to correct myself. And I learned some startling shit about myself along the way – with all due irony, some of the things I used to lash out at others for are intrinsic parts of myself.
You wouldn’t know what I am now from what I was then. You wouldn’t know what I was then from what I am now.
It distresses me deeply to think of someone dredging up my dark, awful past and treating me as though that furiously hateful person is still me. It distresses me to see others dredging up the past for anyone who has made efforts to become a better person, out of some sick obsession with proving they’re “problematic.”
Purity culture tells you that once someone says or does something, they can never go back on it. That’s a goddamn lie. While it’s true that some remain unrepentant and never change their ways and continue to harm others, it’s important to allow everyone the chance to learn from their mistakes. Saying something ignorant isn’t murder. Please stop treating it that way. Let people grow.
Still call it out and question it ….
Bruh. No. Listen. Call out what people do now, absolutely. If they haven’t changed, call them out on their record. This post is explicitly not about people who HAVEN’T changed. What this post IS saying is, if someone is making an effort to be a good person, don’t go digging around in their past for evidence that they were once for what they’re now against, or once against what they’re now for, as “proof” of what they “really think,” because people’s opinions and beliefs can change.
The obsession with finding shit in someone’s past and then claiming that a questionable or even sordid past negates all possibility of a good present needs to become extinct. Gold-star activism and purity culture are bullshit and we need to collectively reject the fuck out of them.
If someone has changed for the better, don’t harass them about what they were like before they fuckin’ changed. That’s shitty and it needs to stop.
Legally Blonde: I went to college, for the whole time. Holy shit, right?
Dear Evan Hansen: ’Cause you know how you lie to your parents?
Phantom of the Opera: ‘And what brought you to this experiment?’ ‘Oh, well thank you for asking. Well, you know how I’m filled with rage? I’m so horny and angry all the time and I have no outlet for it.’
Les Miserables: FUCK DA POLICE!
Catch Me If You Can: When I was a kid I used to watch America’s Most Wanted, you know how kids do.
RENT: Give us some money!
Singing in the Rain: One feels like a duck splashing about in all this wet!
Bonnie and Clyde: ‘And if anyone asks, you tell ‘em it was Golden Joe and the Suggins Gang!’
Cabaret: I don’t care for these new Nazis and you may quote me on that.
Next to Normal: Well, here goes nothing. ‘You ever seen a ghost?‘” And my mom said, “Yes.”
King Kong: Monkey, monkey, monkey man…
Hamilton: I know I’m definitely never gonna be president. Not unless everyone gets real cool about a bunch of stuff really quickly.
so, is it canon, heavily inferred from canon, or fanon that Aziraphale is so bad at filing reports back to heaven? either way it sure seems in character but I can’t stop thinking about it in contrast to the fact that Aziraphale is also uncannily precise about his taxes. To the point where he’s doing them too well.
Which would seem to imply at least one of several things:
-Aziraphale does all paperwork to roughly the same standard, which is shoddy in heaven but exceptional on Earth -Aziraphale has no trouble doing paperwork but he’s a stubborn asshole and has decided to be as inconvenient to Heaven as possible (while maintaining the facade of purest innocence, even to himself, of course) -Aziraphale tried doing incredibly precise reports back to Heaven, but (like on Earth), that only made them suspicious that he was up to something, and since he actually is up to something from their perspective the Arrangement he stopped that right away -Aziraphale cares more about being seen as a good human than a good angel
@ineffableplan thank you! that’s what I thought, but then I wasn’t sure cause I’ve seen it so often.
I’ll bet he does have fun filing taxes, and askdlj those are exactly the sort of reports he’d file
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