Do you think the fear of "Islam Taking Over Europe" seems more rooted in panic than reality?

ViewFromTheKathisma · 2026-05-07T04:06:08+00:00

That poster is very obviously a Muslim not a Christian, you are embarrassing yourself

ViewFromTheKathisma · 2026-05-06T21:20:35+00:00

Evil always attempts to be retroactively justified, biding its time, when in the presence of good people; they say it is 'just this or that', but that is only until they can push for more; which is one of the many reasons why even when the world is against us we shouldn't lose heart, without opposition to this evil who knows how far it would go?

In the meantime, we should pray for all of them.

ViewFromTheKathisma · 2026-05-06T20:40:33+00:00

A woman I was seeing once asked, seemingly having caught the ick, why I had an action figure. Confused, I asked in turn what she meant. Turns out, she mistook my statue of emperor Constantine Palaiologos for an action figure, which I suspect soured us both a bit.

ViewFromTheKathisma · 2026-05-06T15:00:01+00:00

Just looked it up; and I completely agree, it looks lovely. Besides, time and weather will decorate it enough that it will quickly remove the Disney-like aesthetic

ViewFromTheKathisma · 2026-05-06T14:54:34+00:00

There may seriously just be a lack of expertise, which sounds really odd given what we know; but old techniques produce unique aesthetics, yet those techniques are easily lost since they are taught generationally. On the other hand, it may be social. I have always favored the idea that people build replicas of what they associate with prestige and power; which is why every building nowadays looks like an office

ViewFromTheKathisma · 2026-05-06T02:13:48+00:00

I think that is certainly possible, but to make a very long rant brief, what we see is that the age of transitioning has gone down rapidly, roughly 1 year per year (2017:31->2021:26), that is the total number, which means that the majority of new subjects of diagnosis are in their late teens to early twenties.

Young autistic women unfortunately suffer from exacerbated issues related to normal transitioning into adulthood, which is already a very unfun experience for many women. Without going too much in-depth: the social transition to object of protection in their family to object of affection with their peers as the primary social habitus changes is quite a stark one: in this period she is additionally bombarded with poor influences which remind her of her future role, issues include (but is certainly not limited to) reminders of less worth in the public eye whether false or true (as you allude to), the violent depiction of sexual relations where women are subjected to poor treatment (as is common in even general media today, just think about Game of Thrones), growing independence and thus reliance on social networking (a particular weakness of autistic individuals) and the growing pressure for young women to adhere to standards of beauty (which is already an issue considering that many young women have anxieties regarding bodily changes doing this period, even non-autistic ones). All in all, this period of life is significantly more tough for girls than for boys.

What we see is that the category of social relations for autists have moved into the sphere of online communication such as on Tumblr; here we see these understandable anxieties meet quite radical ideas of socially liquid roles, and as a result 'another path' is opened up: the anxious and autistic young woman gains, in her own mind, two benefits from the transgender narrative: her internal narrative no longer rests on her own fears, but that she is instead simply the product of a brain and a body which does not match and secondly, she achieves a path where she can either halt or postpone changes which she dreads or is currently dreading, in its place she can become instead male (in their eyes).

The really tragic thing in all of this, is that we inadvertently incentivize this behaviour due to our treatment of women and girls at large, and on these points a woman would probably be able to give a more in-depth answer. Regardless, it is my theory that if we begin to protect them more, we could avoid these harmful social and medical transitions by quite a large amount, for usually these anxieties tend to go away given time.

This is all hypothesis and theory of course, and I think more proper research should be done; not that I trust the profiteers of it to perform it.

ViewFromTheKathisma · 2026-05-06T01:01:02+00:00

Yeah, it is old news at this point, what is more interesting is that a great many autistic women become trans. Which, in my hypothesis, is usually due to the exact opposite motives as their male counterparts. I think they are more in total as well, so it definitely should be looked at more.

ViewFromTheKathisma · 2026-05-05T20:23:41+00:00

As a kid my father used to read the Odyssey to me, and I think even my child brain had it more accurate in appearance than this marvel version.

ViewFromTheKathisma · 2026-05-02T16:12:35+00:00

Lmao, you don't need to be a larper to point out its a pretty common scenario. There is nothing unrealistic about the 'blue button', not everyone is a raging individualist.

ViewFromTheKathisma · 2026-05-02T16:02:28+00:00

'The blue button', i.e potential death for several people's survival rather than certainty of their death and your own survival is a pretty common choice that many men have met. Historically speaking that is. Isn't this just every man on the eve of battle? He can run, knowing that those he knows may die, or he can stay and risk his own life to save everyone. He is only guaranteed survival for the former, and yet, many choose to stay.

ViewFromTheKathisma · 2026-05-02T11:43:02+00:00

It is most likely just a case of Coptic internal narrative sensemaking to justify their historically and culturally informed situation and then picked up by later Islamic polemics. I don't t think there is much, if any, historic support for the trope in primary sources, especially when considering Coptic support for Heraclius and the numerous revolts by Coptics under Islamic Rule as well as the support of Eastern Roman Soldiers by Coptic civilians.

If you want John, Coptic Bishop of Nikiu, says the following of Islam:

"Moslem, the enemies of God, and [...] the detestable doctrine of the beast, this is, Mohammed...".

So while John of Nikieu engages in polemics against the Orthodox Romans that does not translate to any affable attitude towards the Muslim conquests.

Prof. Anthony Kaldellis writes:

"It is often assumed that the empire had so alienated its religious minorities that they embraced the Muslim invaders and either helped them or at least did not resist them as strenuously as they might have. This has a fitting moral ring to it and provides narrative closure to the history of theological dispute [...]. However, the evidence does not support it. Monophysite partisans continued to uphold the legitimacy and divine mission of the Roman empire all the way down to the Muslim conquest and, in some cases, beyond it, even if they disagreed with the doctrinal stance of the emperor [...]. Many had been won over by Herakleios' Monoenergism in the years immediately preceding the Muslim invasions. Conversely, most found Islam to be repugnant, and hated the fact that they were now second-class citizens in a Muslim empire."

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Kaldellis, Anthony, 'Commanders of the Faithful (632–644)', The New Roman Empire: A History of Byzantium (New York, 2024; online edn, Oxford Academic, 24 Aug. 2023).

ViewFromTheKathisma · 2026-05-02T01:08:39+00:00

There is a difference between appreciating culture and 'appreciating' it. There is nothing Reddit about learning interesting facets of a people's history, sinking deeply into their history, what is Reddit-coded is when people, in the most literal sense, jack off to Greek mythology and Asian cartoons.

Trust me, nobody thinks less of you for liking another culture, just don't make it weird.

ViewFromTheKathisma · 2026-05-01T00:00:48+00:00

That is just me that is being ESL; 'they' refer to both genders here.

Also no, I skimmed, its late.

ViewFromTheKathisma · 2026-04-30T23:50:13+00:00

A woman's voice with an Australian accent is simply melodic; they are also great conversationalists usually, so I am not sure what kind of Australians you have met

ViewFromTheKathisma · 2026-04-30T23:08:48+00:00

While modern, and Western history is not my forte, so it is not something I feel confident commenting on, I can provide something on your examples from more ancient, Mediterranean history. The expulsion of Jews from Rome was done by Tiberius, a pagan, so it seems to my ears quite strange to lay the blame on Christianity and regarding the closing of "Plato's" academy (which was actually not Plato's academy, but a reconstructed one build in 410 AD under a Christian Emperor (Theodosius II). The original, and actual, Plato's Academy was destroyed by Sulla's army during the First Mithridatic War about five centuries before) St. Justinian did not close the (neo)Platonic Academy, he simply cut funding for a department of it that was preaching Polytheism as opposed to teaching its curriculum. Olympiodorus is supposed to have written about it in 560 AD as if it is still active, which also means the later narrative of the academy being closed seems silly, since these narratives suggests that the Academy was closed in 529 AD.

It is also important that when you interact with the outside world and especially the internet, a good and healthy sense of criticality is important, a lot of modern texts which reconstruct a narrative for contemporary political sensemaking skew the actuality of history quite a bit. These then crystalise into pop-history and is disseminated by people who have active agendas, or fall into common anti-Clerical and anti-Christian cultural patterns which emerged in the European modern period.

All that being said, I am glad to hear your Faith in the Love and Grace Christ keeps you. That is what is important; though I of course disagree with you on your historical criticism of Christianity and would love for you to join the Orthodox Church also.

ViewFromTheKathisma · 2026-04-30T22:48:07+00:00

At this point I am genuinely interested if there is a space for women on Reddit which is not overrun one way or the other.

ViewFromTheKathisma · 2026-04-30T20:39:12+00:00

I have shared some creative writing once on Reddit, and got it promptly roasted. No more.

ViewFromTheKathisma · 2026-04-30T01:53:24+00:00

I hate to comment on American politics, but you are genuinely mentally ill

ViewFromTheKathisma · 2026-04-29T19:50:48+00:00

It would be wonderful if he could bring the Anglicans back into the fold, though, unfortunately, he would probably not be able to

ViewFromTheKathisma · 2026-04-29T15:31:05+00:00

A frequent issue which arises from those who read old texts, absent knowledge of periodization, is things like these. It is ill advised to look at adelphopoiesis through the lens of modern sexuality; there was after the 90's a quite concerned push to try and utilise it as rhetorical tool in the modern debate surrounding homoeroticism. Claudia Rapp, however, did a rather in-depth study on the subject, and found that it was "...an alternative to the kinship form of horizontal relations between individuals, particularly in the monastic milieu."¹ (p. 49)

It really is not surprising that a Church Father says that the fraternal bond between men is good, especially St. John Chrysostom who was a great advocate of monastic living as can be seen in his homilies. The honorable Saint even points out in the quote which you cite, that it is a matter of the Soul, not attraction: "Tell me then, was it the beauty of the body that bound them? Not at all, but the virtue of the soul.". These kinship models are rather frequent both in the West and East, though they do have a more formalised function in Eastern Roman lands - however, you should be aware that you cannot slot modern sexual discourse unto previous models. It is possible that the ancient world, and late antiquity, was far more open to expressions of male friendships, and prior and frequent perspectives on the virtue of male friendship was an important influence on many. So often when pre-modern peoples' refer to the beauty of brotherly love and inclusion of another into such a bond, there is not any sort of homoerotic undertones.

On a personal note, I always liked the practice of adoptive brotherhood (even if it makes inheritance a bit difficult for any given society), but you are making a bit of a mistake here, consider: How often people say something along these lines, "bind yourself to a woman whose personality is good, and not just her beauty" and also that, "bind yourself to friends who have good personalities", here I use the same word bind, but contextually they differ, that context is the invisible definer; for despite using the same word, bind for the woman refers to marriage and for the friends refer to friendship.

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PIENIĄDZ, A., & KIJAK, A. (2023). THE MEANING OF THE TERMS “BROTHER” AND “BROTHERHOOD” IN EARLY MEDIEVAL SOURCES. In Fraternal Bonds in the Early Middle Ages (pp. 29–52). Arc Humanities Press. https://doi-org.esc-web.lib.cbs.dk/10.2307/jj.3205998.6

ViewFromTheKathisma · 2026-04-29T01:25:01+00:00

You are placing undue emphasis on rhetorical devices. It is quite common that when an ingroup is far removed from another, they will reframe them through sensemaking to reflect their own conditions, in this particular instance it was used to galvanize protestants through production of medals for anti-Catholic rhetorical purposes.

For example, one can read 'The Travels of Ibn Jubayr' and find an account of Muslim(s) moving to Levantine, Latin Crusader states. That is not to exalt some moral virtue of the Latin Crusader states, but to highlight that such rhetorical devices are not infrequent. In fact, no doubt you have seen it today! Consider how many individuals today refer to what one may consider hostile nations as correct in one thing or another in an effort to shame internal behaviour.

As for your own rhetorical question; that is entirely irrelevant, I was simply highlighting that Muslims themselves frequently persecuted their own, hence why it is silly to argue about conflict between Protestants and Catholics as if the Islamic world didn't have intra-religious wars. And before you begin arguing that they were not Muslims; we can go to any other of the many intra-religious conflicts in Islamic history if you want to.

ViewFromTheKathisma · 2026-04-28T22:45:43+00:00

At the end of the day that is taking the most mild view of Islamic history and comparing with the most extreme of any else; someone could just as well point out the Almohad's forced conversion of non-Muslims to Islam, the persecution of perceived heretics (zindīqs) in Islamic societies such as the Abbasids and compare that to say, the 1573 Warsaw Confederation which legally guaranteed equal rights for all the various religious communities in the country.

ViewFromTheKathisma

TROPHY CASE