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Post by karlsie on Mar 16, 2013 18:13:26 GMT -5
Once again you've shot off on a variety of topics. It's pick and choose time. I see your Iranian society as similar, but not the same as Mexican society. To the American eye, Mexico seems chaotic. They suspect Mexicans are constantly trying to "get over" on them, and in fact, many will if they can. Quite often they can, because a) they are bargainers. If you don't know how to bargain, they'll take advantage of it. This does not mean shrilly demanding your own price, but talking it over until both sides are satisfied with the deal.
b) And this is a big one; every town, every state of Mexico has its own value system; even every barrio. I know an area of Mexico that even provincial Mexicans avoid as it is known to contain nothing but cut-throats, murderers and thieves. Thievery itself is not entirely dishonorable. They have a saying, "a thief who steals from a thief receives a thousand pardons". On the other hand, there are people who would never steal from anyone, but they will hunt down and kill the person who steals from them.
Another example of the differences in various areas is one city that raises their daughters for only one thing; to become the wives of successful Mexican businessmen. Many Mexican businessmen go to the city to find their wives, as these girls are taught diplomatic skills, how to organize dinners for social functions, and many of the aspects of business. Another saying in Mexico is, "behind every successful businessman is a smart woman".
On the other hand, there is a town in which the women control everything; the businesses, the schools, the politics... Baby girls are lavished with gifts. Boys are not taught to do much at all, unless they are homosexuals. Then, the family believes they are blessed for their heterosexual males will leave and start their own families, while the homosexual will always retain the family ties. Businesses believe that hiring a homosexual will bring them luck, so they feel very lucky if they secure one, even if the homosexual is not a good worker.
c) Mexico believes the only way to create a pure government is to constantly have revolution. Occasionally, they are happy with the way the central government is being run and there will be a period of peace that lasts until the next time the people begin to perceive a better way to run things. Then, the revolutionary process begins again; often with periods of violent bloodshed, until they are satisfied they are moving forward.
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Post by karlsie on Mar 16, 2013 18:42:23 GMT -5
My own society is radically different. It would be a mistake to compare it to American society, although it's influenced by American politics. The culture is a distinct blend of Western and Native American culture. The people are fiercely independent, but gravitate toward community support and sharing. Each time our politics veer away from the American mainstream, the federal government finds ways to send a new surge of Americans into the area; either through natural resource or military expansion; sometimes both. What happens then is that for awhile, we are pestered with laws and ordinances that suit the American agenda, but anyone who stays in Alaska for five years or more is eventually influenced by our life-styles.
We differentiate very little between men and women. Worth is entirely based on individual skills. Non-marriage is as common as marriage. While most people consider themselves Christians, their Christianity is generally loose based, with no real concern for chosen sect. Religion, in and of itself, is not considered an important aspect of our culture. Behavior is the primary concern. We are as tolerant and respectful toward others as they are to us.
Because of our independent attitudes, we are extremely rebellious against any laws or regulations that interfere with our life styles. We are a subsistence based culture and do not like anything that interferes with our subsistence rights. This is why you will not find Alaskans getting in an uproar over perceived threats from other nations, but will band together as one united force if the issue involves gun control or fishing. Since our climate is so harsh, we doubt very seriously any particular nation would want to invade us with mass population anyway. The only thing they would want is our natural resources and the federal government does a good job on stealing them, so we wouldn't be any better or worse off to any other country's claims to our sovereignty. This is to say, we are generally peaceful, community oriented and mind our own business.
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Mar 18, 2013 9:33:39 GMT -5
I think it's very interesting that a website that tries to elaborate on the events around us from an unbiased point of view, is dying, while countless websites that offer a bunch of garbage that no one in their right mind would give a fuck about, are thriving greatly. Interpreted in abstract terms, what does this say about our society?
The first thing that comes to my mind is the fact that in order to be "thriving" you need money, and the people who have large sums of money are the ones who can make you big (e.g. like TIME magazine, the New York Times, etc.) The "elite" of our society, as they are called, could turn subversify into a bigger deal than FOXNEWS overnight, but there's a catch. You can print whatever you want, as long as it conveys messages that are approved/ordered by your "investor." What does the abstract pattern here say about our society?
Ok so, you say fuck them. It's a free society, I'll just have to make it big on my own! I'm gonna work real hard, be an honest citizen, and build my own corporate empire, brick by brick, just like the myths say of the original corporate "founding fathers." Thus, you give it your best shot, you enter the playing field of the money-gods; their arena. You work your way up through the system, and if you're really smart and lucky, in Iran for example, you will make $100,000 USD a year by the time you're 40. Two hundred pounds of the finest quality marijuana, goes for around $125,000 USD "wholesale." That's for a year's worth of "work" (lmao) with a relatively tiny yield. Again, there's an abstract pattern here IMO. What does it say about our society?
Our society is slavery. And this slavery is destroying us; it is degrading and degenerating us. Our condition is horrendous, regardless of where on earth we happen to live.
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Post by The Late Mitchell Warren on Mar 18, 2013 13:24:31 GMT -5
That's awful. This is probably while I'll never travel. I would have to carry a gun with me so I can blow the rapist(s) head off and then skull fuck it if you mess with me on my vacation.
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Post by The Late Mitchell Warren on Mar 18, 2013 13:28:13 GMT -5
lol no worries ADP, you could never offend me. You're much too funny to hold a grudge towards.
I'm glad to see you're still alive and well, and still sharing your wisdom. I love reading your articles for Subversify, you're a deep thinker like us.
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Mar 18, 2013 14:37:34 GMT -5
I'm glad I'm alive and well, too. Thanks.
My circumstances have deteriorated unbelievably tonight. I think it's safe to say that I won't be going back to the orchards. The thing is, every clan/family in the town where I live has at least a dozen guys working in law enforcement agencies, from intelligence to traffic cops. This is because after the revolution the elders of each clan encouraged a few of their young men to become cops, so that they'd have someone to work the system to their benefit. Pretty much all the big clans have many of their young men strategically placed in government offices. Just to give you an example, there's this guy named Rahim Mazaheri, he's about 70 years old, and he's a very wealthy landowner and the elder of his family, the Mazaheris. He has four sons, and two of them are lawyers; one works in the courthouse in the nearest city, and the other works in a government entity called "Natural Resources." Rahim encouraged his sons to become lawyers, so he could use the law to his benefit. Mr. Mazaheris enemies always end up in jail. In one instance, he had three of the oldest sons of one of his rivals sent to prison; his rival couldn't manage his land without his sons, and ended up selling them to Rahim.
Anyway, my sources tell me that pretty much all the clans have united in an effort to set me up for some jail time. They're gathering (read creating) evidence and building a case against me with the help of their policemen and lawyers. Some of the cops have been asking everyone in town if they know of anything incriminating against me...and well, my reputation is really bad, to put it mildly. Just the mere fact that I'm an outsider, let alone an American, is enough to put me in a bad light with rural Iranians. And then there's the drugs, the violence, corrupting and misleading the youth, anti-religious sentiment, anti-social behavior, provoking unrest, etc. is just some of the charges they're getting ready to file against me, if I show up there again this year that is.
P.S. My wisdom? lol I think you might have suffered some kind of brain-damage, Mitch.
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Mar 20, 2013 1:21:44 GMT -5
Starting over is a thing I'm just too familiar with. I've never lived in one place for more than a few years, and not because I didn't want to. It seems like whenever I start to establish roots, and to make friends and contacts, some force decides it's time to move on. I'm not even barely old, but I've lived in so many places I can hardly remember them all. I went to school in a new city/country pretty much every year.
This is probably why I'm so fucked up. I suppose this implies freedom...if so, freedom is the anti-thesis of stability and security; it's the opposite of having regular routines, the opposite of feeling like you know what you're supposed to do. A chaotic existence where you struggle to extend roots, so to speak, to make yourself stand firm, only to be blown away by some hurricane that seems to strike every few years no matter where you are.
Either I'm doing something wrong, like I have some deep psychological issues I'm unaware of, or fate just likes screwing with me.
But shit, I'm so sick of screwing around. This time, I'm gonna fuckin grab life by the neck, with my teeth. And I'm gonna bite so hard, I'll take a whole god damned chunk off. Hell, I'm gonna take the whole thing hostage. This time, the world is gonna be my prisoner!
No more mr. nice guy.
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Mar 20, 2013 5:29:04 GMT -5
One of the serious problems facing Iran is, IMO, the issue of young people moving abroad. You see, there's only two types of young people in Iran who are capable/have the possibility of immigrating to the west. The first category are people with money. (They're always the first, no matter what the issue.) The second group, whose numbers probably outrank the first group, are young people who are intelligent, talented, gifted, etc.
Iranian citizens can only visit like 3 countries without a visa. And all the rest will turn down visa applications, unless the applicant meets certain strict criteria. For example, most of the people I know got their degree from one of Tehran's top universities, then applied for scholarships to schools in Europe/America. There's also a minority, who might have job offers from respectable institutions/firms in the west. (Although, if you have a criminal record, no country in the world will accept you.)
IMO, this system is perfectly set up to select the best and brightest in Iran for transfer to the west, where they apply their skill and wit for the benefit of western countries.
I wouldn't be exaggerating in the least if I told you that the smartest and the most talented Iranians have all left Iran, or are trying to leave. That leaves us with all the morons, criminals, dirtbags, shitheads, etc. It would surprise you guys to know the magnitude of this modern exodus out of Iran...
Everyone I knew in Tehran, that I called friend, has already left or is in the process of leaving.
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Post by karlsie on Mar 20, 2013 5:31:20 GMT -5
ADP, I found your sentence, "I think it's very interesting that a website that tries to elaborate on the events around us from an unbiased point of view, is dying, while countless websites that offer a bunch of garbage that no one in their right mind would give a fuck about, are thriving greatly. Interpreted in abstract terms, what does this say about our society?" very poignant.
I noticed that even the most astute writers generally worked by a focused point of view. They had a set agenda of particular favorite subjects; whether its politics, religion, economics, cultural presentation; but they don't set any realistic goals of integrated thought processes. This is very fine for journalists working with a social media that has a particular social/media slant, but for some of us, this also provokes a closed ended view.
We worked with frustration with several writers who demanded the work or comments of one person or another be censored, than quit when we refused. We had made an agreement with one another, that with the exception of personal attacks, we would not censor.
We've also had to change some policies in order to conform to Google changes. A few years ago, Google told us if we ran our headline as a news article, they would sponsor us. We tried to explain the elements of a news article versus an opinion piece, but this was where we ran into the political agenda. Google simply would not sponsor political opinions that were unsupported by documentary research.
Recently, we have also had to stop highlighting stories that are reprints. Many of the writers put their work up first at their blogs, and Google will no longer sponsor sites that are featuring reprints.
I would not say we're dying at all, just going through a phase. We had to shift a lot of policies to stay in compliance with Google news, but we are also starting to attract the attention of the Dept. of Education, we have an affiliate partner with MicMag, which is located in Spain, and the new changes actually mean that those who have worked for the mag have credible references for online writing, because Google wants fresh, original work on all the websites or they will not be sponsored.
Putting all that aside, in the end, we who have the vision of Subversify, don't really see ourselves as journalists. We are writers. I don't feel that true writers can afford to present a one-track perspective. They deal with multiple characters, multiple environments, multiple cultures. They must make their characters come alive and breathe. The reader must believe in them. You can not do that until you've opened up enough to others to understand them. Once you do, it cannot help but change your perceptions. You've put yourself in their shoes. They may be comfortable or feel strange; in which case, you need to walk awhile in them to break them in.
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Post by grainnerhuad on Mar 20, 2013 15:23:55 GMT -5
Karla hits the nail on the head with her explanation. Also, as writers we understand that we do this because we want to. Not to get comments, accolades or money. Most writers never see real money from their writing. We need other jobs. So when we are in a phase we are also all doing other work which includes many different things and different types of time allowances.
All of this make us as a staff more well-rounded, but because we aren't willing to bend on principles it does make sponsorship difficult.
The difficulty with other writers we have worked with in the past is they want everything to fall into place immediately. They want comments to show their "brilliance", they want agreement from their readers (not to mention from us) which is not always forthcoming. Anyone can get that on a blog because you are playing to a selected audience. You have to be okay with tomatoes and a lot of time even crickets at this level.
Also, very often we have not censored personal attacks. We have had to grow comfortable with that too, although we do try to understand and protect our more sensitive writers. However I myself have had to work through my own feelings about being attacked. It's something that is easy in theory and a bit harder. Having good partners who communicate well makes it work. It's good to have this backstage area to work it out.
Subversify, like many other underground publications throughout history may or may not ever make money. But it is something that is good and we love doing so we all stay committed to it.
The policy changes to meet Google standards in my opinion suck. But they are what keeps us relevant. And we still find ways to revamp in order to still highlight good articles and entries so they can be seen by a wider audience.
I am also very proud that we have made it a point to contact and make new connections with photographers in order to use their photos legally. The photo in your article I had to track down the guy for and he was really nice about it, and excited that you/we were running a piece about a subject that he too had fallen in love with.
The long and short of all of this is, if you or anyone loves anything at Subversify, tell a friend. Tell everyone. I am a big believer in crowd sourcing and word of mouth. It will and is becoming bigger and more reliable than relying on normal systems. If you (or anyone) tells just 10 people about Subversify, one of those people will know somebody who has written something at some time or take a picture or been a graphic design student and wants to have "published" on their resume. This is what keeps us alive.
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Mar 24, 2013 3:39:14 GMT -5
I walked out of my house. It was around noon, the summer was pretty much over, and the walnts were just a couple of weeks away from harvest time. In front of my house, sitting under the shade of a giant walnut tree next to the pond, two young men were smoking heroin out of tinfoil. I knew both of them, they had a reputation for stealing, and they were both unemployed. Their names are Mojtaba Nourbakhsh and Moslem Izadi.
I wanted to tell them to take a hike, to get their asses off my property before I called the cops, or better yet before I beat the shit out of both of 'em. But living there alone without the protection of a large family, I knew they would just retaliate and hold a grudge against me for god knows how long. So, with my shovel in hand, I just nodded at them and went down the valley to check on the orchards that were being irrigated. About half a kilometer south of my house, my land ends and a handful of rural people hold some 10 hectares, but further south it's all mine for another half a kilometer. So, as I was passing through the village people's stretch of land, I noticed Moslem's older brother, Ahmad, also an unemployed heroin addict, picking walnuts off of the lower branches of the trees trying to fill a large sack. The walnuts belonged to a guy named Alidad Rahimi, a man who has professed to wanting me dead on more than a few occasions.
I thought if I left the guy alone, he'd just come back tomorrow and steal my walnuts, so I approached him with a relaxed gait and said "You've got some nerve stealing from me in broad daylight, man." Without getting embarrassed in the least, he replied "Oh, are these yours? I didn't know." I told him "Well, you know now. So please leave." He said "You want your walnuts back?" With an impatient tone I told him to take his sack and leave immediately. And he started to head up the valley, north towards my house, towards his brother and Mojtaba. I took a detour, I headed west for a bit and then turned north to avoid bumping into any of them again, when at some point I came across an old man, Alahverdi Zamani. This guy wanted to hire a bulldozer to run over my house, but Alidad's mother wanted to blow it up with dynamite. He is definitely one of those involved in the recent arson attack on my house. Anyway, I told him that if we hurried, we could catch a thief right then and there. As we rushed to get to the pond before Ahmad, Alahverdi got on his cellphone and called his half-brother Almas Zamani (the rich guy who I mentioned before) who showed up in his expensive car promptly. By the time we arrived at my house, Alidad and his wife and kids had been informed and were there waiting on the scene. They were holding Moslem and Mojtaba hostage, the sack of walnuts was on the ground, and Ahmad was already half-way up the hill catching his breath under some almond trees.
Alidad's teenaged sons were taking cheap shots at the two prisoners, they smashed their bikes and took the keys so they couldn't escape. Moslem and Mojtaba were so buzzed out that they were almost nodding off, but somehow Mojtaba had the presence of mind to call his uncle, Hossein Nourbakhsh to come get them.
The year before that, Hossein, in his late thirties, was sitting alone in the shade next to the pond smoking tobacco in a water-pipe. It was a friday (weekend,) and as per usual a couple of families from Isfahan were having a picnic on my land, enjoying the cool clean air which is hard to come by in Isfahan during the summer. I sat down next to Hossein and we talked about random stuff for a couple of minutes, when a little girl maybe 6-7 years old, who had obviously wandered off from her family comes walking by headed towards the water. I could hear her family talking and laughing, but they were completely out of sight. So, Hossein says something like "Oh man, I'm getting hard just looking at that ass." I looked all around for "ass," finding none in sight I said "huh?" At that point, he had his hand on his dick and his eyes fixed on the little girl. He says "Hey dude, lets take her inside your house! She can barely talk, who's gonna know?"
Hossein is married, he's got a ~10 year old daughter of his own. He was separated from his wife for over a year because he took a prostitute to his father in-laws house one time, when he thought the place would be empty. But as he's fucking her in the living room, all of his in-laws walk in out of nowhere. His wife eventually had to come back home, because no one in a rural community is going to marry a divorced woman with a child, except old men, _maybe._
After that incident with Hossein, I made sure to tell everyone I came across about what he'd said, if for no other reason than to make sure they never leave their kids alone with him. It didn't take long for Hossein to become aligned with my enemies, whose numbers were growing at a steady rate from the moment I set foot in that town.
So, that day we're all gathered at the pond, everyone is harrassing and abusing Moslem and Mojtaba mainly because Ahmad got away. The two of them are pleading with everyone "But we didn't do anything. We were sitting here minding our own business. etc" as Alidad's kids punch and kick them and curse their mothers and sisters out loud. Finally, Hossein arrives. He starts to make a loud scene. "It's this goddamn city-kid. He's the one _selling_ heroin to our kids. Moslem and Mojtaba were here smoking junk with him. They were his guests." I expected that since I'd helpled save a sackful of Alidad's walnuts, and since I'd identified the thief, everyone would side with me. But I was a naive dumbshit in those days. They called up a few other people, and all of 'em sat down to discuss how I'd jeopardised the safety of their orchards by bringing my heroin-addict friend/customers there.
Somehow, everyone forgot about Moslem, Mojtaba and even Ahmad who had been caught red-handed for all practical purposes. All the blame was laid on me, and from then on I got a reputation as a heroin dealer.
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Mar 24, 2013 4:57:40 GMT -5
Another thing about these people is that they're all heavily inbred. For them, marrying ones cousin is the most natural thing in the world. The idea that these people have sex with their cousins is just beyond me. And I'm not judging, but excuse me while I throw up.
One day around dusk I was at the southernmost edge of my land, where my vineyard is located. It was early autumn and I was picking grapes to take back to my house, enjoying the silence, when Majid Maghsoudi, a guy in his late twenties, comes riding up the road on his bike, heading up the valley in a hurry. I'd smoked weed with him on a few occasions. He had a reputation for molesting little boys, which is quite normal in this town. The fact that girls are simply not available for sex, coupled with the recent influx of porn, cellphones and computers has resulted in a very sexually frustrated young-male population.
That evening, Majid passed by without noticing me. Ten seconds behind him, Alidad's sons aged 13 and 15 came riding by with another kid sitting on the motorcycle between the two of them. They didn't see me and I payed no attention to them, as their father has some land a little ways up the valley. I filled my basket with grapes and started walking up the road towards my house. At the exact spot where Ahmad had been stealing walnuts in the previous story, I came across Majid getting ready to fuck the little kid, whose pants were already down, as Alidad's boys watched.
Safe to say, I interrupted them before anything could happen. The kids got on the bike and left quickly. Majid wasn't embarrassed at all. He was just pissed that I'd messed up his plan. The thing is, Majid's reputation makes it impossible for him to "pick up" little boys, because none of them will go anywhere with him willfully. So, he has to get other young boys to deliver the kids to him.
Alidad's kids, on the other hand, are IMO, the most seriously fucked up kids in the world. They're pimping little kids at this age, they smoke opium, (which always leads to heroin nowadays, as the quality of opium is decreasing every year while its price rises.) and it should interest you to know that they smoke opium in order to prolong sexual activity, which is always of the queer kind in these parts.
In this town, if a young person gets hooked on opium, it automatically makes him a thief 9 out of 10 times. There's plenty of orchards to steal from, and it's a lot easier than working when you're facing withdrawals. The highest quality opium, which was simply awesome IMO, cost 600 tomans per gram five years ago. Today, all the opium in the market is crap, I mean really worthless shit that no one with an ounce of self-respect would put in their body, and it costs 5000 tomans per gram.
A mini mart owner in town decided to take advantage of this situation. He buys methadone wholesale from some corrupt pharmacist in the city at dirt cheap prices, and sells it to people in the village under the pretense that it's for quitting opium. As of last year when I was there, everyone was gravitating toward methadone, not for kicking the habit or anything like that, but to get high. So, this guy, Reza Nourbakhsh, who has the biggest grocery store in town, is selling a watered-down bottle of piss and making enormous profit, because the Iranian government has been forced to export ALL the high quality opium they control, which is essentially the entire Afghan supply.
What's that? Did someone say "fucked up?"
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Mar 24, 2013 12:35:41 GMT -5
I'm very curious to know what western intelligence analysts think the chances are of the Iranian regime's collapse in the near future, and whether this is possible at all without a traditional war.
Personally, I think all the modern non-violent warfare tactics that the west has been pursuing are meaningless. Their psychological, cultural and financial war against the Iranian regime has failed, IMO. The majority of the Iranian population at this time would opt for stability in order to prosper, they would not see their country fall to chaos IMO. And while there are certainly many who, wittingly and unwittingly, may want the regime to crumble, they simply don't have the power to bring about any real change, as far as I'm concerned.
I could really benefit from a year or two of relatively chaotic conditions, but not war, out here. So, if the CIA is reading this, please go fuck yourselves, you're worthless.
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Post by grainnerhuad on Mar 25, 2013 15:47:20 GMT -5
I'm not by any means an analyst but it seems to me that Iran and indeed everyone would be better off left to their own devices. Without an "enemy" to point their finger at, a country has to either deal with its shit, so to speak or wither and die slowly. Either way, all the embargoes and threats, etc, only help give these very different people a sense of nationalism and helps hold together factions that would normally work themselves out.
Some of the things you post about the underbelly of humanity so to speak are so very similar to what we see here. And yet, some exceed even what we have a tolerance for. For example we certainly have our fair share of pedophiles and miscreants but, I don't think I've ever heard of anyone speaking so freely with others they don't know well about actually committing such crimes against children. It's usually not so open.
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Post by asiaticdarkperson on Mar 26, 2013 0:06:14 GMT -5
Previous to that occasion, I'd seen Hossein just a handful of times. He'd usually come hang out around the pond with one or two of his friends, with their water pipe always on hand. A couple of times as I was walking out of my house, he'd ask me to join them and I'd oblige just to be polite so as to not offend any more people than I had to.
After the thing with the little girl, he just kept showing up time and time again. Sometimes he'd come hang out in front of my house with 6-7 other guys, they'd sit for hours drinking, playing cards, etc. I used to get the feeling that he was there on purpose, taunting me, trying to provoke me. And man, he was on my nerves so much that it was all I could do to leave them alone. Every time I saw him sitting there with his dirtbag friends, I'd get this urge to get bloody. But in those days, I couldn't afford to even look at anyone the wrong way.
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