Spooooky poll
Added 2022-10-01 14:52:27 +0000 UTCThe spooky season is upon us! I think a Halloween-y video might be fun. I have two options, but I'm having a little trouble deciding. This seems like a good time to poll my $10+ patrons.
First option is a video about presidential ghost stories. For example, the White House is said to be "haunted" by former presidents Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson and Abraham Lincoln. Winston Churchill even claimed to have seen the ghost of Lincoln. It might be a fun topic and give me the opportunity to discuss the deeds and misdeeds of politicians I've never touched on before, especially Andrew Jackson.
Second option is a video about Satanism. A 101 primer about the various forms of these beliefs and how modern Satanism is generally more popular in the United States than other western nations. Most Satanists are not really "devil worshippers" or anything like that. It may be a good time to do it because Halloween and the "Satanic Panic" are related.
Deadline for this poll is one week. It's October, and I need to get started on this soon. I will leave this in your hands. Thanks for your pledge and your continued support.
Comments
Looks like Satanism has won. I'll get started on it after I finish the video I'm editing right now.
Leon Thomas
2022-10-07 20:33:16 +0000 UTCHi, Amy! If Satanism ends up winning, I'll do my best to avoid those kinds of errors. Looks like the Satanism option was running away with it in the first hour (90/10), but it's getting a little more even. We'll see. In either case, I'll start putting together my notes soon.
Leon Thomas
2022-10-01 17:37:15 +0000 UTCI picked ghost stories because I think tons of people have covered CoS and TST, but I'm sure you'd bring your own flavor to it. Ghost stories might also give an added opportunity to remind people about the party switch if you cover Jackson. Dinesh had those books/movies that claim because Jackson was a Democratic party member and Hitler was inspired by the US's treatment of indigenous people therefore Democrats are the fascists, actually. My mum literally fired back that line when I gently expressed concern about their Republican party affiliation... It's so frustrating. And there are people all over Reddit after Meloni and her party won commenting, "why is supporting family and security fascist all of a sudden??" If Satanism wins, please don't do the thing a lot of people do and use Church of Satan interchangeably with The Satanic Temple (Lacy Greene made that mistake). :) I'm all over Reddit correcting people and pointing out the differences. They're very much not the same. Also Illuminaughtii had a video discussing some tensions that happened with TST leadership and queer chapter leaders (they left TST over it). She also covered growing skepticism about TST's lawsuits, especially one of their lawyers that has made me pull my contributions for the time being. I guess the reason I bring that up is to make sure you're aware of little nuances in the event you lean toward a supportive view of TST. I like the idea of TST, especially challenging Christian nationalism, I just hope they're really sincere in it. I decided to put my money into reproductive health access funds instead. I also spent some time listening to TST's podcast and had to stop because it was so... Organized religious feeling, which is a large part of my agnosticism in the first place. Even atheism feels too religious to me. But i think a lot of people want a like-minded community feeling, coming together over shared values, so if that's your thing, by all means. I just don't care if there's a deity and would rather spend my mental energy on anything else instead.
Amy Gleixner
2022-10-01 15:24:23 +0000 UTC
