The Lambent

Author: Aaron

  • To Provoke Your State

    To Provoke Your State

    This staircase, it leads only to
    Some old pictures of you
    Through an a thousand mile long tube

    Black Country, New Road – Concorde

    The orator no longer need stand, huddled by masses for declaration.
    The author, free from the printing press’s oppression.
    The artist, no longer bound by the material limitations of space.

    How incredibly horrifying / wondrous!

    I can provoke your emotional state using agreed upon symbols running “through an a thousand mile long tube.” What responsibility! Either laugh at Charlie Kirk’s death / Or calmly explain the implications of political violence and practical harms of right-wing politics1. Either / Or2, it doesn’t really matter. You’ll tell me I deserve death regardless while either reciting jumbled talking points from a YouTube grifter3 / Or a Twitch streamer who read half of The Communist Manifesto before ADHD forced their return to TikTok.

    I can provoke your rational state using vocal utterances bouncing hollowly between the cave walls within your echo chamber. Either tell you Jewish space lasers caused a series of wildfires4, sourced from my personal opinion of how wildfires spread and an antisemitic worldview / Or that heating our planet with fossil fuels is bad, sourced from peer-reviewed academic papers5. Either / Or, it doesn’t really matter. We’re all lunatics lighting ourselves on fire with torches cast in midday sun6. It’s not like we even notice though. Either you’re unhealthily obsessed with one random guy exploiting a welfare program to notice Peter Thiel pouring gasoline onto your already enlightened head / Or burning yourself alive is in fashion now, it can’t be harmful if we’re all doing it.

    To expound upon that sickening amalgamation festering between our neurons would in all likelihood provoke the few brain cells left within my skull’s containment to disappear in shame for who we are. The potential of our connected globe, yet we stumble continually through a revolving door of either Andrew Tate / Or Vaush. Insisting that there exist only two choices for building a fantasy world balanced on delusion. Repetition of the declarative statement, “humanity cannot think for itself.” Therefore, we must happily sip idiocy, rather than provoke our own mindful state. Either laughing with glee at suffering / Or bored out of our mind at the brain rot we’re ingesting. Either way, it doesn’t matter because we’re all collectively chanting with a deranged gleam in our eye, “Let those whose bile we consume, consume us.”

    There sits endless space – Our obligation to take voice, pen, and brush to it. The only means by which to defy slop is to confound it with art. There is a possibility that truth continually lies, obscured under this stupor of idiocy. But if there exists only idiocy, then one might rightfully conclude that only idiots exist and surrender to becoming an idiot themself, for we are social creatures. To idle among the void-sized hole AI’s bile has formed is to surrender humanity to a tech billionaire. To an oligarch proclaiming before your face through action that he doesn’t believe in your right to existence.

    In some sense, “Boredom is the root of all evil.”7 Not because boredom provokes oneself to engage with irrational activity, but rather because its passivity allows boredom’s default production of uninspired product to be assimilated into the bile by those with goals less than humanity’s enrichment through art and reason.

    References:

    1. Three Arrows. “The Myth of Charlie Kirk,” October 12, 2025. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kh0el8phS_o. ↩︎
    2. Søren Kierkegaard, The Essential Kierkegaard, Princeton University Press, 2000, p. 43-46. (Either / Or An Ecstatic Discourse) ↩︎
    3. Shoe0nHead, “These People Are Sick,” September 18, 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJENP0Rr8p0. ↩︎
    4. Justin Gray, “MTG Says the Deadly California Wildfires May Have Been Caused by Lasers From Space,” X, January 28, 2021, accessed December 21, 2025, https://x.com/JustinGrayWSB/status/1354870334655262724. ↩︎
    5. hbomberguy, “Climate Denial: A Measured Response,” May 31, 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLqXkYrdmjY. ↩︎
    6. Friedrich Nietzsche, Nietzsche: The Gay Science, Cambridge University Press, 2001, 125. ↩︎
    7. Kierkegaard, Søren. The Essential Kierkegaard, 2000, p. 51. ↩︎

  • Humanity Itself

    Humanity Itself

    Body, soul, mind: To the body belongs sensations, to the soul impulses, to the mind principles.1

    Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

    Remember,

    You can not expect all humanity to see reason as apparent. We are so shortly removed from our enlightenment that we must still gather together these principles which govern our reason.

    We desire activity.
    We desire leisure.
    We desire food.
    We desire sex.
    We desire procreation.
    We desire companionship.
    We desire community.
    We desire domination.
    We desire compassion.

    All these desires – impulses, not gathered carefully in reason’s care, rather evolved through selection pressures fitted to survival. Therefore, to give into this desire without first committing to reason is to deny humanity’s Enlightenment through reason.

    This is not to say that impulse acted on through desire for bodily sensation is of itself uniquely evil. Repression is to deny your humanity – to betray your own soul. For humanity is not segregated to reason, we are still who we are. Casting away 4 billion years of life’s evolution2 would be rather deranged. Impulse has driven us to new frontiers, to the craters and mountains upon our lone satellite. Desire will drive us farther still to new expanses beyond our current comprehension. Impulse blessed us with art, with love, with sacrifice, with glory. Without impulse, we would utterly lack that which makes us so strangely and uniquely human. One should not allow the chemicals in their brain to govern their actions. For we observe the natural consequence wrought through blind impulse, the horrors consuming as a fire unfought our so pragmatically constructed institutions. But reason tooled as a conqueror shall utterly repress the impulsive drive of desire and stamp out our dying light, casting us into the eternal night.

    Let others complain that the times are evil. I complain that they are wretched, for they are without passion.3

    Søren Kierkegaard, Either/Or

    I see in the light a transcendent humanity.
    One –
    Glorious collective, jointed together in our individuality.
    To transcend – stabbing into what we feared was eternal night,

    A NEW DAWN

    One –
    By which we cast off the pettiness etching such violent dispersions through our minds. To see clearly in each other’s eye the clarity of this opportunity before us. My own small part brought into focus through the endless reflection from your collective eye,

    A NEW RENAISSANCE ENLIGHTENED –

    By impulsive-reason.
    Though abandoned by our every God, thrown without mercy into the chaotic void. Or perhaps more terrifyingly by means of our ignorance,

    …we have killed him! How can we console ourselves, the murderers of all murderers! The holiest and the mightiest thing the world has ever possessed has bled to death under our knives: who will wipe this blood from us? With what water could we clean ourselves? What festivals of atonement, what holy games will we have to invent for ourselves? Is the magnitude of this deed not too great for us? Do we not ourselves have to become gods merely to appear worthy of it?4

    Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science

    Let us then gather our bearings so that we may find ourselves worthy. For the swords shall be beaten still to plowshares!5 Preach this gospel of true hope! Is it not the conditions which regard our swords as worthless, not God directly?6 This now our great responsibility! There is no God nor cosmic force willing to bend our weapons for us, to redeem us from needless annihilation. We must bear the responsibility – equipping the hammer, lighting the flame, and standing before the anvil. Not to contort our swords, rather by the labor of our souls upon the anvil of progress forging the obvious choice for our next generation.

    Humanity, the closest force to God we now know. Therefore, our duty must be that which necessitates the burdens of our universe and nature itself. The terrifying and yet joyous truth, we are so pitifully far from deity – wonderfully and fearfully Humanity!7 A humanity which birthed God in the clarity of impulse and through deluded reason murdered him! A Humanity which must embrace this universal chaos through transcendence. Transcendence, not to ascend our Humanity, rather to faithfully clasp to it in the light of impulsive-reason. That we might with accuracy interpret our bodily senses amidst these chaotic seas. Before us the task assigned to the Gods, We are to face Leviathan – utterly alone. Just as our ancestors, only now not deceived into believing We are aided in this endeavor. Our only force, what We muster for battle from our globe of priceless treasures, not of gold, rather the pearl of Enlightened flesh and blood8 – Humanity itself Renaissanced.

    For he who values his own intelligence and the divinity within him and the worship of his excellence before all else, plays no tragic part, does not groan, does not need either solitude or much company.9

    Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
    References
    1. Marcus Aurelius, Justin Martyr, Walter Pater, and Irwin Edman, Marcus Aurelius and His Times : The Transition From Paganism to Christianity, print (Walter J. Black, INC, 1945), 32. ↩︎
    2. Bell, Elizabeth A., Patrick Boehnke, T. Mark Harrison, and Wendy L. Mao. “Potentially Biogenic Carbon Preserved in a 4.1 Billion-year-old Zircon.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112, no. 47 (October 19, 2015): 14518–21. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1517557112. ↩︎
    3. Søren Kierkegaard, The Essential Kierkegaard (Princeton University Press, 2000), 40. ↩︎
    4. Friedrich Nietzsche, Josefine Nauckhoff, and Adrian Del Caro, Friedrich Nietzsche: The Gay Science, pdf (Cambridge University Press, 2001), 120. ↩︎
    5. Isaiah 2:4 (NRSVUE) ↩︎
    6. Isaiah 2:3 ↩︎
    7. Psalm 139:14 ↩︎
    8. Matthew 13:45,46 ↩︎
    9. Aurelius, Martyr, Pater, and Edman, Marcus Aurelius and His Times : The Transition From Paganism to Christianity, 29. ↩︎

  • Make Art

    Make Art

    Sometimes I feel like maybe I go easy on art (film, music, etc) and I like a lot of stuff that’s maybe not as respected
    Anyone relate?
    Most recent example is I’ve been really vibin with the new Lil Tecca album and I was surprised to learn this thing isn’t liked.

    A friend of mine brought up this question in a Discord server. It prompted some initial thoughts which I added to the discussion, but it brought me to farther contemplate the question. The ramblings in this essay are a result of those thoughts.

    I often find myself enjoying art that technically isn’t masterful, maybe it could even be classed as objectively bad. That fact often battles with my desire for harsh critique, it makes me feel like I don’t respect the arts properly. How do I enjoy art if critics I respect say it’s bad while giving sound reasoning for it being a poor quality work? If I’m being objective I often find plenty to critique with these pieces myself, but I still enjoy them. Does that make my tastes bad? Perhaps. Why do I care so much though? What’s the worst that could happen? I get judged for not understanding the arts, for having bad taste? So what! Don’t we despise the critics anyway? Society gets a vast array of issues wrong that should be objective with basic reasoning yet we assume it to be correct when entertaining matters of taste.

    That is not to say critique should be cast away. Quality critique accepted by an artist properly empowers one to more effectively express themselves. But critique can also make us question our own tastes rather than just letting them develop through natural experience.
    I’ve been trying hard to shift my perspective because of this side effect critique has upon individuals and society as a whole. It’s left me with a goal to bring my mentality to:

    If I like art, I should like it.
    If you like art, like it.

    Yes, we should respect the technical aspects of “good” art made through a clear understanding of technique and the history of the medium(s) being explored. That should not however stop us from enjoying abstract art that had no thought go into it (at first glance at least) or using our time on movies with a poor understanding of filmmaking. Those works are also art and we can still take away from them as humans even if just our most primal response of “I enjoy that” or the use of critical thinking to understand why we don’t like an idea that an artist presented to us.

    Treasure the masterful works of a Beethoven but don’t let that stop you from saving room for ice cream with Lil Tecca. Good taste doesn’t come from enjoying a book you’re reading to then abandon it because a critic you respect didn’t like it. Good taste that is true to yourself comes from a meaningful exploration of the arts. There’s a reason your tastes have changed from your childhood to your teenage years through to being an adult. What you enjoy will continue to change by means of experiencing life. Living is the most genuine way to refine our tastes. To suffer our most violent pain and to take in a breath of fresh air during our most serene moment. Living leads us to understand in greater depths ourselves, thereby the human experience and in turn humanity’s creations.

    Critique culture also makes us fearful (at least it does for me) of making art, especially if one considers themselves a “hobbyist”. The trap we fall into is the assumption that if art isn’t “good” through the lens of those analyzing, it holds no value. Whether that audience be a friend, yourself, or thousands viewing it through a series of tubes that audience can be crippling.

    I’ve been slowly realizing how flawed that perspective of fear is since I started my journey in photography. Some of that intimidation comes from the commodification and as a result the commercialization of art. Money has warped and mangled our brains so morbidly that everything including art has a value that finds its definition in what someone is willing to pay for it to be their property. Social media has twisted the wiring within our brains into an even more disfigured abomination. Money can at least buy us things, a like on Instagram gives us a cheap dopamine hit. This problem is made even worse with money now being tied to social media, we can now monetize views and likes directly and indirectly. Don’t get me wrong there’s a lot of positives to artists being able to make a living just by sharing their work, but we are often unable to separate success from the worthiness and actual value of art. Artists who are producing valuable art can feel their work is valueless when in actuality that feeling comes from not obtaining engagement through a biased algorithm.

    None of this should be surprising, we know what happens when we tie money and fame to art, the horrors are right before our eyes. Art becomes a means to money rather than a way to engage with our soul or maybe just simply be an end itself. Even if the artist(s) are still passionate about what they’re creating the work will always be tainted by the underlying plague of capitalism. The value of art is no longer its commentary, the raw emotion it pulls from our inner being, the change it affects on society, its challenge to our worldview, expansion of our narrow mind, or ability to understand our thoughts. No, it’s the amount of money the movie made at the box office, the number of awards an artist’s discography has for sales numbers, the YouTube placard hanging in the background of your favorite content creator, or amount of likes art gets on the internet. Money and notoriety shouldn’t even be a factor when judging art’s value, but it has become the greatest factor. How could it not? Society revolves around money. I’m not even trying to make artists feel guilty. Everyone has to make a living and just staying alive is immorally expensive right now. Why do we act so shocked then when artists completely sell out for money? When they reduce themselves to doing commercials for the corporations they know are actively murdering us? Many of them started like every American not born with a silver spoon in their mouth, just trying to survive. As it turns out, often the only practical way to survive is to capitulate one’s morality, what else can someone do? The problem is that this participation normalizes and validates our current social structure and the money one is given farther numbs one’s moral compass. What we viewed as so destructive is now normal, it’s the way things are and they aren’t going to change so might as well make some money while I have the chance.

    This leads us to a farther haunting conclusion. If art, and really anything we produce is defined through its monetary success and popularity, how do we as a society define you? Is your worth really that of your income? Is it how productive you are at your job? Of course we know that’s ridiculous, but that’s the way society functions. That’s how capitalism defines your value. Why do we conform to this? We allow billionaires to disparage us with their actions and words. They don’t even take the conservative approach of telling us the hours of work at a job we hate isn’t “working hard enough.” Work doesn’t even define you to the billionaire, rather it’s the amount of money that work makes. Because enough of us fall for their lies they get away with claiming they don’t oppress us with their wealth hoarding and make laws that actively murder the lower class through lobbyists. They should all be in jail just from the damage they’ve done by claiming you’re worthless. That you’re lazy scum they have the right to wipe off the bottom of their corporate shoes after you’ve served your purpose to them.

    You have value and that value is not defined by the money you make, your social media likes, or even your productivity. If you are not in the process of murdering, oppressing, and exploiting millions of Americans and billions more around the world then you already have more value than any billionaire. The fact you’re not purposely harming others is plenty to validate your existence. Don’t let anyone disparage you from your attempts to improve your life and the lives of others. You’re capable of expressing your value to greater extents than the narrow box society places you in.

    I would like to finalize this essay by affirming one medium of expressing your value, the one this essay is really about. Your art has value because it meant something for you to create it, that’s all the value and validation it needs as an excuse to exist. If someone else likes it, that’s a cherry on top. Make art and share it, it doesn’t matter if people don’t like it. It’s good because you had an experience making it as a human with intrinsic value. And who knows, the critique and praise resulting from your own effort could be far more revolutionary to your life and our world than you ever thought possible. You are valuable, therefore what you create must contain some of that value intrinsic to you. Making art is to defy the very value system they inflict upon you, to clearly display their lies for everyone to see, to acknowledge for yourself that you’re not worthless!

  • Hegseth Clarifies for the Doubters

    Hegseth Clarifies for the Doubters

  • Trump Admits Capitalism Sucks

    Trump Admits Capitalism Sucks

    After rubbing off brand Cheetos dust mixed with the blood of innocent children across his face Trump took to his cult message board Truth Social to rail against Walmart stating Trump’s tariffs will require them to raise prices declaring, “Walmart should STOP trying to blame Tariffs as the reason for raising prices throughout the chain. Walmart made BILLIONS OF DOLLARS last year, far more than expected.”

    In typical MAGA fashion Trump doesn’t care about the destruction of people’s lives until it has practical effects on himself. In this case the leopards have come to farther consume his approval rating and god-king image before his MAGA cult.

    When it comes to housing MAGA ignores the unfathomably rich hoarding an essential resource by calling it an “investment.” Causing a crisis so dire the middle class can now barely afford housing. They aren’t silent as many moderates are on this issue, they instead send out their puppet JD Vance to blame migrants despite the fact migrants are a large contributor (NAHB, NIF) to the construction of housing while presenting nothing to support his claim that rejects the evidence and consensus by economists. It is clear factors like supply shortage, large firms viewing housing as an investment, and colluding landlords raising prices through schemes/artificial demand are the main causes of the ludicrous cost of housing, not migrants. But the reality doesn’t matter as long as the ones responsible aren’t held accountable.

    In view of healthcare, MAGA is silent as mob boss middle men like United Health murder thousands of Americans by trying to delay procedures hoping they die before the scammers have to “fix” their little oopsy or just straight up deny them life saving healthcare. In addition to all this they have now been caught paying nursing homes to reduce hospital transfers. Where are the cries about United Health’s 14.4 BILLION in profit despite having to spend large sums of money recovering from all the consequences of their immoral behavior?

    Even when it comes to groceries the only thing MAGA ever did was cry about Biden somehow waving the magical presidential wand of Increase Grocery Prices and claiming Trump would wave the magic wand of Decrease Grocery Prices. Never mind the fact presidents are incredibly limited to executive actions without a majority in congress even if they wanted to affect the cost of groceries.

    In contrast, those on the left who are actually serious about solutions have talked for decades about issues with groceries such as food deserts caused largely by small profit incentives for stores in low income areas. The right has mocked the very reality of this since Michelle Obama passionately talked about the issue. Now they run hit pieces mocking cities like Chicago for looking at the evidence that spooky-scary socialist grocery stores actually serve the community better than privately owned ones.

    In all of these cases the right and by extension MAGA ignore the fact that capitalism often does not best serve the community even when it comes to common commodities such as groceries. Late stage capitalism and the greed systemic to it is the root cause of unnecessary suffering of millions of Americans and billions more around the world. These are real people who are not only having their dreams and freedoms crushed by greed, but are having their very existence challenged by the denial of fundamental needs just because a CEO needs another billion dollars.

    If suffering is going to be alleviated MAGA populism and its right wing economic brain rot worshiping a fundamentally flawed economic philosophy needs to be relentlessly mocked for its stupidity and torn apart for its insistence in upholding a completely broken system that only benefits the incomprehensibly wealthy. I truly believe America is capable of being an incredible bastion of freedom amidst the turmoil of the world, it’s just going to take a lot of suffering and ambition if we’re ever going to get there.

  • Fishing for Fishies

    Fishing for Fishies

  • We Are All the Same People

    Editorial Note: I no longer hold to the religious beliefs I did at the time of writing this, but I think there is value in this article remaining published. Especially in the haze of Christian nationalism we find ourselves in during the year of 2025.

    We are all the same people
    With sinning hearts that make us equal.

    These are some of the closing lines to Emery’s song entitled “Listening to Freddie Mercury” that was released as part of their album The Question in 2005. This song has always stuck with me from when I first heard it as a young teenager. Society has changed a lot in just 15 years, but at the time it seemed Christendom had a very, let’s just say unbiblical view towards people with same sex attraction. And many still do, one of shunning and malice, even hate in some cases. So the very song title is a clever rebuke towards those individuals. Especially coming from a Christian background these lyrics, among other things always aided my belief that Christ’s and the apostle’s teachings could in no way be used as justification for such mistreatment of other human beings. In fact quite the opposite. The song also seems to go farther though, condemning holding disdain for others in general. As right before the declaration of equality there is a list of sins that the religious world would find much fault with,

    Gary’s getting drunk to forget Sarah
    Sarah’s stealing money from her parents
    Aaron’s lying straight to John
    About Megan and the things that went on
    Jessica’s a gossip, Laura’s a slut
    Derrick hits Bridget and Ben deals drugs
    Seth spends all his money gambling

    But then we are left with these lines,

    Joey stopped praying
    It’s all the same

    The equalization of a Christian’s failure to fulfill their duty of prayer with that of abuse, dishonesty, and deceit.

    It rings a bell with Martin Luther’s 95 Theses after seeing the church prop themselves above the people and hold that they could forgive sins in return for money (among other wrongs). Somehow they were of greater purity than the ‘common folk’. Luther could not read though Paul’s sweeping declaration “For all of sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23 KJV). And before that his elegant legal argument and conclusion, “What then? Are we better than they? No, in no wise; for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin” (Romans 3:9 KJV). While coming to any other conclusion than the equality of every person. The pope is equal to the peasant because they have the same heart. There was and is no religious leader, pastor, priest, or person that could forgive sins, because every human is equal.

    One of the most stunning Biblical contrasts in my opinion is seen when comparing John chapter 3 and 4. In chapter 3 Nicodemus, a religious leader comes to Jesus at night because he did not want to draw attention from the other leaders that despised and rejected Jesus as the Messiah. Nicodemus would have been one regarded highly and esteemed by the Jewish people. Someone seen to be in great standing with God. In chapter 4 Jesus comes to a well where a woman draws water alone (something that would have been done in groups normally), a complete outcast. Outcast by the Jews because she was a Samaritan and outcast by her community because of her life choices.

    Jesus saw into both individual’s hearts, all their sins, failures, accomplishments, and motives. Yet he treated them both with the same care and respect. Addressing them still as distinct individuals that were very different but of equal value. Nicodemus needed to realize he was in the same standing and value as the Samaritan woman. He must have been shocked when Jesus told him he must be born again (John 3:3). And the woman already knew her failures. She must of thought of herself in such low esteem. So Christ elevates her, because she needed to see she had the same standing and value as Nicodemus. He invites her to enjoy living water and to become a true worshiper (John 4:13-24). Worship was not limited to those attending stunning temples or those with great wealth to tithe. Rather the grandest and most precious worship to God would be from the lips of true worshipers, such as this woman.

    Also in these chapters not only is observed one of the greatest contrasts, but one of the most beautiful statements in the gospels. Toward the beginning of chapter 4, John remarks that Jesus “had to pass through Samaria” (John 4:4 ESV) when traveling from Judea to Galilee. Now Samaria was in between Judea and Galilee, so obviously he’s going to travel through Samaria. Well it wasn’t so obvious, the Jews wanted nothing to do with the Samaritans. In fact they shunned them to the point that they would rather travel around Samaria, taking much longer. All this just to avoid them. So this remark holds much greater significance. As a Jew himself it would have been a shock that Christ would travel through Samaria. But not only that, he must travel through Samaria for one woman that everyone else despised. Not only was she despised by the Jews, but she was despised by the Samaritans, her own community. Even Jesus’ own disciples marveled that he would even speak to a woman (John 4:27). It can be easy to forget how little power and respect women had at this time in history because of how far we have come, but this was the awful situation. All of this though did not stop Christ from talking to her. She was an outcast to everyone but Jesus, who would go through Samaria just for her. This woman would not be an outcast to him.

    It has never set well with me even before I had a logical argument against it when professing followers of Christ would make a habit of mistreating, derailing, or even speaking very rudely in private of individuals or groups for their sin. Clearly there’s not only no moral basis for it, but as laid out there is also no logical basis for it either. That is not to say wrongs should go without criticism or even rebuke. The heart that allowed that person to commit such a sin that apparently required such a reaction is same heart that is in the one pointing out the sin. So what should be repulsing is not that individual, but rather the awful potential of the human heart and condition to commit such acts. Acts that would apparently offend that person so much that they would have such ill will toward another human being. I am as well guilty of speaking ill of others and being quick to pass judgement. So do not feel as this is just an attack on others, but an examination of my own heart as well. It is wrong. And it becomes a very serious problem when those occasions become a habit and that habit when festered in groups will have nation wide effects. We have seen it firsthand.

    So let us extend beyond the religious world and look at the nation. It is very disheartening to see a country where individuals and groups can hold such malice against their fellow countrymen. You’ve seen the political discussions where it starts reasonable but then one person assumes the other is in the vocal minority camp of a hate group, hate America, hate a certain group of people, and so on. Everyone, including myself seem so quick to pass judgement. Understanding the completely different worldviews and circumstances each individual comes from that makes them see the world the way they do seems like something very distant.

    And of course everything that is happening does not need to be repeated, it is known. No matter where one stands politically it is evident the amount of division and disdain for one another is wrong. It is not a good feeling to be part of it or to observe it. This lack of compassion and inability for rational discussion is not sustainable in a nation that desires liberty and equality. The government can be blamed, Trump can be blamed, the far sides of the political spectra can be blamed, Covid-19 can be blamed, along with much more. But what good does blame do when we — ourselves have fed into the division that has been created? The plan of those that despise liberty and equality has already been completed. It is up to us if that completed plan will be allowed to stay intact and destroy the house divided against itself.

    Let us not just repeat empty words of equality. Rather let us be guided by it. Don’t allow the pain and suffering of those in the past that fought for the declaration “all men are created equal” be insulted. For it was their desire that every hateful heart in the nation would be turned to hold this truth as self-evident. Self-evident not only in words, but also in deed. No matter what our worldview, religion (if any), political views, and past circumstances don’t let those that have sewn division succeed. Let us rather cling together to the truth of equality, laying aside malice.

    With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

    Abraham Lincoln, Second Inaugural Address

  • Leauge of Legends 9.23 Preseason Support Tier List

    S+

    Nautilus is still the king of supports, he’s just unfair. Aftershock and Titan’s Wrath shield allow him to trade without giving up any HP. His hook damage combo is just insane while being pretty easy to land. Out of lane he can provide pick potential and can single handedly win a teamfight with a good ultimate. Peeling is also easy with his passive, as it shuts down mobile champions.

    S

    Pantheon support was already really good, but with the addition of AD support items, Conqueror being broken, and Umbral Glaive being so gold efficient  he is even better. Kill pressure in lane outclasses Nautilus in a lot of match ups as very little out damages him bot lane right now. Ult allows for extremely strong roams and the ability to get back to the all important dragons after recalls. Aegis Assault is just a flat out broken ability giving utility to his team in fights and allowing him to run a damage rune rather than aftershock. There are too many reasons to list why this champion is so good support right now… oh and tower dives, ya…

    Zyra can 1v2 bot lane if the match up is good, legit her ADC can stand way behind the minion wave and it doesn’t matter. While her ult, root, and plants provide way more peel and utility (especially after Rylai’s) than other mage supports while still doing the same if not more damage. There’s no reason to pick another mage support if she’s not banned.

    If enough games are put into him he will still tilt everyone in the game just as much as a good Shaco jungle player. Personally, he’s still my go to ban because of how annoying he is and his ability to take over games is not something I want to deal with.

    A

    Leona is really good, her lockdown, tankiness, and damage really make her hard to play against as being out of position by even a bit can cause death. She just suffers from the fact that Nautilus and Pantheon provide a little more to the team in other areas and are better when behind.

    Pyke’s winrate isn’t good, but like Shaco he is a champion that needs a lot of games put into him. His gold income passive makes his snowball potential the best in the game, execute allows for teamfights to be cleaned up easily, unmatched support ganks, and his gap close is reached by few other champions.

    Morgana is broken in anything below plat especially with an ADC like Caitlyn who can compliment her root with a trap. This is because from my experience players can’t dodge skillshots until you start hitting plat. Once into plat she’s still a great situational pick as black shield can shut down a lot of meta supports such as Pyke. Binds are still useful, but low percentage binds can’t be thrown out in lane since better players will punish a Morgana hard for missing. Still has a strong place in the meta at all elos due to the fact that she has a really good ability corresponding to each side of mid-elo.

    B

    I haven’t played Senna as much as I’ve wanted to, but that’s because I haven’t had to. Nautilus, Pantheon, Zyra. These champions just feel so good that it really doesn’t warrant playing Senna, not to mention she seems to be a better ADC than support. I have observed two things about Senna though. She’s extremely fun to play and she feels either really broken or really bad in most matches. This makes me think she’s matchup and teamcomp dependent. The ceiling of this champ is extremely high no matter what the case, just have to figure out how low the floor is. Certainly a champion to watch as she has S tier potential and has the ability to be meta defining given her kit, not sure if support is really her place though.                             

    Vel’koz has the poke in lane as well as the base damage. The problem is he provides almost nothing else to his ADC or team besides damage. So he better hard carry the game. Should only be picked if AP is needed or the team needs/wants a strong solo lane vs the enemy bot lane. Zyra better be banned first though as there’s no reason to pick him over Zyra whatsoever.

    Nami has a very strong lane letting her get priority a lot. She just seems to really struggle against other supports in not only teamfights but key skirmishes around dragon as well. Really have to stomp lane for the pick to be worth it. That being said with how much lane matters setting the enemy bot lane behind can really impact how the game plays out.

    S tier with Kog’Maw and Twitch, but as long as she has an ADC that wants attack speed she’s still a really solid pick and seems to go under the radar. In my opinion she does a better job at enabling hyper carries than Janna outside of lane while Janna does a better job in lane. Just so much utility, Polymorph completely shuts down so many champions that want to access the backline. And if that isn’t needed, W can just be used to give the carry move and attack speed or to get the engage champions into fights. If Polymorph fails she has shields and an ultimate to save carries, just really strong if her kit is used correctly.

    Janna does fit with more ADCs than Lulu. And she certainly has a lot of upside when it comes to her abilities. A well placed tornado can by itself win so many teamfights as can a good ultimate. High skill floor, medium ceiling is probably the main reason she has consistently good winrates though.

    Don’t forget this guy, his kit is so good. He’s just being overshadowed by titans like Nautilus. He will have his place again once Nautilus is nerfed! Still probably S tier if a lovers duo that knows how to play both champs enters The Rift. Just takes so many games to understand his potential.

    C

    It really makes me sad seeing Thresh down here considering I think he has the most fun kit in the game. The truth is there’s just not much of a reason to pick him with the power of other engage and pick supports. Hopefully we’ll see him again soon once Nautilus, Pantheon, and Leona aren’t lower risk champions with the same or higher reward.

    Yes, Swain can absolutely ruin the enemy bot lane’s day if he hits his combo in lane. But he also dies from a gentle sea breeze before he has access to his ult. Not only that but there are supports higher up on this list that do what he does more consistently and with much less risk. Certainly not unplayable, but no real reason to pick him when you have so many other options. Kill lanes with Draven or Jhin really help him shine.


    Soraka is such a risky pick vs the top tier supports right now, one misclick and she dies. She also doesn’t bring too much upside with the easy access to healing reduction in the game. There is the possibility in this meta of just snowballing the game by turning early dragon dances around with her heals, provided the team plays correctly around her. So she’s not unplayable in this fast paced meta where games can be decided before the healing reduction even matters.


    If Bard uses his ultimate correctly it can carry games. If Bard lands a double stun it can be a free double kill. If Bard has a sick portal it can save his entire team from death. It’s always ‘if’ with Bard, he’s either completely useless or carrying games in way too many cases. He’s either sitting there helplessly as his ADC dies or he’s swinging lost fights and finding picks. Just the nature of his kit.

    D


    Braum deserves a mention since he’s so often a cornerstone of competitive play. But giving up so much lane pressure has never been that good in solo queue and is even worse this season. Dragons just matter way too much to not have a threatening lane bot. Get through all of that though and he has one of the best ults in the game. Oh and a basic ability that can shutdown entire team compositions.


    Strong poke lanes. If they fall behind though they provide less damage and utility than Zyra, Vel’koz, or even Swain.


    Again, there are champions that do what they do better.

    F


    Taric’s ult is really good! Just not really much of a reason to pick him besides that. He gives up too much lane priority just like with Braum. The difference though is that Braum shield allows him to get out of the terrifying bot lanes easier right now.


    One of the most poorly designed kits in the game. Provides little utility to his team while having the most coinflip ability in the game. Garbage champion and should be boycotted until he is reworked no matter how much fun it is to pub stomp on your smurf.

    What an abomination! Hoping this is a collaboration with Blizzard and she’s the final boss of Diablo IV, “Yuumi, The Pit’s Abomination”. Impossible to balance and is so unfun to play and to play against. At least it helps all the supports develop even less game fundamentals, because that’s what we need.

  • Choices Ring

     “To be, or not to be” –
    From Hamlet ring to thee –
    In Pilate’s hall was queued
    With Christ, “what shall I do” –

    “I have a dream” was cried –
    With passion from the heart –
    Off from script King leapt –
    Choice – to shake the earth –

    Ferdinand one turn of car –
    A turn that charged him death –
    As well sprung forth a world at war –
    And placed the earth in doom –

    As wind that blew by August sixth –
    Carried – careful clouds –
    From Kokura changed the flash –
    Forever lives were shook –

    One may not seem substantial –
    As Pilate judge of each –
    Or wise as King’s defining words –
    Nor powerful as nukes –

    But each “to be” or choice –
    Binary they may seem –
    As wind and turning car –
    Could be the world to all –